Unit 1.

2
Research Methods Notes

It actual is more interesting than

it sounds
Why do we have to learn this stuff?

Psychology is first and foremost a science.

Thus it is based in research.

Before we explain how to do research,
you should be aware of three hurdles that
tend to skew our logic.
 1. Hindsight Bias
• The tendency to
-The idea of telling yourself you
believe, after understand a mathematical
learning the concept while listening to the
teacher. But the moment you are
outcome, that you home from school you don’t know
knew it all along. it.

-After the final seconds tic down in

a big game, you tell your friends
that you knew the team was going
to win (even if the team was down
by 3 touchdowns)

-A friend of the family gets caught

embezzling money from his job and
you proclaim that you knew it was
happening.
 2. Overconfidence
• We tend to think we
know more than we
do.
• 80% of drivers, say they are
• better than 75% of the other
drivers on the road.
• 81% of new business owners
felt they had an excellent
chance of their businesses
succeeding. When asked
about the success of their
peers, the answer was only
39%. (Now that's
overconfidence!!!)
 3. The Barnum Effect
• It is the tendency
for people to
accept very
general or vague
characterizations
of themselves and
take them to be
accurate.
 Applied and Basic Research
• Basic Research
• Applied Research explores questions
has clear, practical that you may be
applications. curious about, but not
intended to be
• YOU CAN USE IT!!! immediately used.

● Gender
differences
● Sleep and
productivity
● Memory and
drug use
Research on therapies for addiction
has a clear purpose.
 Hypothesis
• Expresses a relationship
between two variables.
• A variable is anything that can
vary among participants in a
study.
• Example: If students
Participate in class,than it will
lead to better grades than not
participating.
 Independent Variable
• Whatever is being
manipulated in the
experiment. (It will
cause the change)

The “If”in the hypothesis

If there is a drug in an statement.
experiment, the drug If students eat breakfast before
is almost always the taking a test, then they will
independent variable. remember more information.
 Dependent Variable
• Whatever is being
measured in the
experiment.
• It is dependent on
the independent
variable.
The “Then” in the
hypothesis.
The dependent variable If students eat breakfast
would be the effect of before a test, Then they will
remember more information.
the drug.
 Operational Definitions
Let’s say your hypothesis
is that watching violence
• Defining general
causes violent behavior.
words in your
• What do you mean by
hypothesis to make
“watching violence”?
them measurable.
• What do you mean by
• How will the violent behavior?
variables be
measured in the
experiment so
someone could
repeat it.
Example of writing Operational Definitions
Hypothesis: If students eat breakfast before a test, then they
will remember more information about the test.

Words that would have to be defined in order to conduct a real

experiment:

Students, breakfast, before a test, will remember, more

information, the test

Some Definitions that you could use:

Students- A sample size of fifty 9th graders at GHS.

Breakfast- Eating one “named” protein bar and “named” fruit
cup.
Before the test- one hour before said test but after waking up
after a night of sleep that includes at least 5 hours of sleep.
 Sampling
• Identify the
population you
want to study.
• The sample must
be representative
of the population
you want to study.
• GET A RANDOM
SAMPLE.
Samples
• Sampling Bias (Selection Bias) is systematic error due to a
non-random sample of a population, causing some members of
the population to be less likely to be included than others,
resulting in a biased sample.
• Ensure samples accurately represent the population.
• Random Assignment & Sample
• individuals are selected by chance from the target population.
• Stratified Sample (most important)
• consists of subgroups in the population that are represented
proportionally.
• A large random sample is more likely to be accurately stratified
even if researchers take no steps to ensure that it is.
 Experimental Method
• Looking to prove
causal relationships.
• Cause = Effect
• Laboratory v. Field
Experiments

Smoking causes health issues.

 Survey Method

•Most common type of

study in psychology

•Measures correlation

•Cheap and fast

•Need a good random

sample
Likert Scale (5-7 choices)
•Low-response rate
 Naturalistic Observation
• Watch subjects in their
natural environment.
• Do not manipulate the
environment.
• The good is that it is
involves no bias.
• The bad is that we can
never really show cause
and effect.
 Case Studies
• A detailed picture of
one or a few subjects.
• Tells us a great
story…but is just
descriptive research.
• Does not even give us
correlation data.
• But can help with
criminal profiling and
tendencies, or
diagnosing other
problems in patients
Psychological Methods
Blind Studies
Single-Blind Studies
• Participants unaware of the treatment.
• Helps to avoid The Placebo Effect
– A placebo is a substance or treatment that has no effect apart from a
person’s belief in its effect.
– Feeling better simply because we expect to feel better—and for no
other reason—is an example of the placebo effect.

Double-Blind Studies
• Participants and researchers are unaware of who receives the treatment.
• Double-blind studies help researchers avoid the influence of expectations
and remain unbiased.
 Anything that could
Extraneous Variables- jeopardize the
outcome of an
experiment.

• Placebo Effect
• Experimenter Effect (Bias)
• Health issues with volunteers.
• Volunteer's previous life experience
• Observer Effect (Hawthorne Effect)
• Courtesy Bias

Bias defined as a predisposition to a certain point of

view
 Participatory Learning – Flawed
Experiment
Pick out the flaws in the following statement.
1. Hypothesis: “Smart” people tend to be more open-minded
and flexible.
2. Subjects: To test the hypothesis above, the experimenter asks
a wide variety of friends to complete a puzzle that requires
flexibility. Then he or she compares their scores.
3. Procedure: The experimenter tries to test the hypothesis
above on his friends, but they are too busy. Instead, he or
she uses strangers. The experimenter administers a brief
intelligence test, then gives subjects a test of flexibility. In the
morning he or she finds a group in the cafeteria and passes
out the tests to them. In the afternoon, the experimenter
finds people in the library who are studying by themselves.
Adderall Experiment Exercise

Which words would need to be Operationally defined to

conduct this experiment in a lab or in real life?

Hypothesis: If a person diagnosed with Attention Deficit

Disorder (ADD) is given 20mg of Adderall then his/her focus
time will increase.
Adderall Experiment Exercise
Vocabulary Application to the Experiment

Independent 20mg of Adderall

Variable
Dependent Ability to Focus
Variable
Control Group
Groups that receives the Placebo not the Adderall

Experimental Group that receives the Adderall

Group
Placebo False pill to make up for the power of suggestion

Single-Blind Study Researcher knows who took the Adderall/Subject Doesn’t

Double-Blind Study Neither Researcher or Subject knows who took Adderall

 Ethics!!! Human Research

• No Coercion- must be voluntary Informed consent

• Anonymity
• No significant risk
• Must debrief
 Ethics!!! Animal Research

• Clear purpose
• Treated in a humane
way
• Acquire animals
legally
Nim the famous • Least amount of
Chimpanzee of the 1970s. suffering possible.
Statistics
• Statistics: Branch of mathematics concerned with the
collection and interpretation of data from a sample.
• Descriptive Statistics: a way of organizing numbers and
summarizing them so that they can be understood.
• Two Main Types
• Measure of Central Tendency: Used to summarize the data
and give you one score that seems typical
• Measure of Variability: Used to indicate how spread out the
data are.
• Inferential Statistics: drawing conclusion by analyzing the data
to find differences and meaning in the data
Central Tendency
• Mean: “The Average” Most commonly used measure of
central tendency. Add up all the numbers in a set and then
divide by the total amount of numbers used.
• Median: Middle number in a set of data(Helps if there are a
few extreme scores)
• Mode: Most frequent score
• Bimodal: two very different yet very frequent scores. In this
case no measure of central tendency does you much good.
Measures of Variability
• Range: Difference between the highest and lowest score in a
set of scores.

• Is limited as a measure of variability when extreme scores are

involved
Frequency Distribution

Polygon Histogram (bar graph) Frequency Table

Frequency Distribution: A table or graph that shows how often

different numbers, or scores, appear in a particular set of scores.
 Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient (r)

The Pearson correlation measures the strength of the

linear relationship between two variables. It has a value
between -1 to 1, with a value of -1 meaning a total
negative linear correlation, 0 being no correlation, and +
1 meaning a total positive correlation.
 Scatterplot is always
positive when mean is
greater than the median.
Analyzing the Observations
One method psychologists use to analyze and interpret their
observations is correlation. Correlation is a measure of how closely
one thing is related to another. The stronger the correlation between
two things, the more closely the two things are related.

Positive and Negative Limits of Correlation

Correlation
• Correlation describes
• Positive correlation occurs relationships, but it does not
when an increase in one thing reveal cause and effect.
is accompanied by an increase • Just because two things are
in the other. related does not necessarily
• Negative correlation occurs mean that one causes the
when a increase in one thing is other.
accompanied by a decrease in
the other. (or vice versa) The increase of ice-cream sales
and violence in the city.
Normal Distribution 1st Standard Deviation:-1
to +1 = 68%

2nd Standard Deviation:-2

to +2

Percentages are
very important!! 3rd Standard Deviation: -3
to +3
Important!!!!

Correlation: Scatterplot
Helpful video if last slide confused you.
Standard Deviation: IQ
Curve
Correlation vs. Causation
• What do you think is meant by the statement , “Correlation
does not imply causation.”?
 Correlation Coefficient= r
• It represents the direction and strength of the
relationship.
• Ranges between +1.0 and -1.0.
• The closer r is to +1.0 and -1.0 the stronger the
relationship

Which one has a stronger correlation

value?

0.5 or 0.8
0.2 or 0.02
- 0.7 or - 0.4
0.652 or 0.451
Answers:
.8
.2
-0.7
.652

Remember: Strong correlation

can be either positive or
negative.
Measures of Variability
• Standard Deviation:
Unit 2
Social Psychology
 Attitudes
• A set of beliefs and feelings.
• Advertising is ALL based on attitude
formation.
• Mere Exposure Effect: people tend to
develop a preference for things merely
because they are familiar with them. Medicine ads are usually full of
facts and charts.
• Central Route v. Peripheral Route
Central Route Persuasion focuses on
facts of the produce.

Peripheral Route focuses on other things

or famous people in an ad or
commercial.
 Attitude and Behavior
• Do attitudes tell us about someone’s
behavior?

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• People want to have consistent
attitudes and behaviors….when they
are not they experience dissonance
(unpleasant tension). You have a The teacher was
• Usually they will change their belief that
cheating on
But you cheat
on a test!!!
really bad so in
that class it is
attitude. tests is bad. OK.
 Compliance Strategies
Getting people to agree
• Foot-in-the-door with you and then

phenomenon
ultimately they will
agree with something
more substantial

• Door-in-the-face Can I borrow a $100?

phenomenon
No
Can I just borrow $10?
ok

That we must always repay in kind

to others.
• Norms of reciprocity Example: “Come on Joe, I had to
go to the movies with you last
weekend. You OWE ME!”
 Attribution Theory
• Tries to explain how people determine the cause of the behavior
they observe in others.

It is either a….
• Situational Attribution- an excuse for behavior. Outside factors or
the situation that caused that behavior in him/her.
• Dispositional Attribution- behavior looked on by others as an
identifier to how the person is. Internal factors (someone’s character).
 Fundamental Attribution Error
The tendency for people to over False Consensus Effect
- Just because you are a sports
emphasis personal fan, you think the person you
characteristics and behavior are talking to knows about
over the situation a person is names of professional players.
experiencing.
Self-Serving Bias

If you do well on a test it is because you

When you believe a person you are awesome…if you don’t, it must have
just meet is disorganized because been the teacher.
they keep repeating their story to The opposite can happen when a person
you. (In reality, the person is is depressed? Everything is negative
nervous because they like you) (Debbie Downer)
Self-Efficacy: is a person's belief in his or
her ability to complete a future task or solve a
future problem.

Which
Psychological
Perspective does
this favor?
How groups affect our behavior?
 Social Facilitation Theory
• If you are really good at
something….or it is an easy
task…you will perform BETTER
in front of a group.
• If it is a difficult task or you
are not very good at it…you
will perform WORSE in front
of a group (social
impairment).
Social Loafing
• The tendency for people in
a group to exert less effort
when pooling efforts
toward a common goal
than if they were
individually accountable.

Example: Group Projects

in school
 Group Polarization
• Groups tend to make more
extreme decisions than the
individuals would privately.
Les
sp
reju
dic
e
 Deindividuation
• People get swept up in a
group and lose sense of
self.
• Feel anonymous and
aroused.
• Explains rioting behaviors.
Groupthink
• Group members suppress
their reservations about
the ideas supported by the
group.
• They are more concerned
with group harmony.
• Worse in highly cohesive
groups.

Examples: NASA Space

Challenger disaster, Bay
of Pigs, The 2nd war in
Iraq.
Spotlight Effect: the feeling
that you believe everyone is
always looking at you.
Bad Social Behavior
• Kitty Genovese case
in Kew Gardens NY.
Bystander Effect:
• Conditions in which people
are more or less likely to help
one another. In general…the
more people around…the less
chance of help….because of…
• Diffusion of Responsibility
Pluralistic Ignorance
• People decide what to do by
looking to others.
Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
Stereotype:
• Overgeneralized idea about a group of people.
Prejudice:
• Undeserved (usually negative) attitude towards a group of
people. Ethnocentrism is an example of a prejudice.
Discrimination:
• An action based on a prejudice.
 Prejudices can often lead to a….
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
(Expectations determine how you treat someone)

• A prediction that causes

itself to be true.
• Rosenthal and Jacobson’s
“Pygmalion in the
Classroom” experiment.
• Golem Effect is the
opposite- when expecting
less, people perform less.
 How does prejudice occur?
Just world Phenomenon
• In one popular study female and male subjects were told two
versions of a story about an interaction between a woman and a
man. Both variations were exactly the same, except at the very
end the man raped the woman in one and in the other he proposed
marriage.
• In both conditions, both female and male subjects viewed the
woman's (identical) actions as the reason for the results.

Blaming the Victim: believing that the cause of people’s problems are themselves.
Scapegoat Theory
 Combating Prejudice
Contact Theory
• Contact between hostile groups will reduce animosity if they are
made to work towards a superordinate goal.
 Psychology of Aggression
Two types of aggression
1. Instrumental
Aggression-to achieve a
goal
2. Hostile
Aggression-impulsive
Theories of Aggression:
Bandura’s Modeling:
Frustration-Aggression
Hypothesis-happens when you
can’t take it out on the problem
so you take it out on others.
5 Factors of Attraction
1. Proximity
• Geographic nearness
Mere exposure effect:
• Repeated exposure to
something breeds liking.
2. Reciprocal Liking
• You are more likely to like
someone who likes you.
• Why?

• Except in elementary
school!!!!
 People that grow up during the
3.3. Similarity
Similarity same era tend to get along and
like one another.

• Birds of the same feather

do flock together.
Fidget Spinners circa:
• Similarity breeds content.
2017
• Similar childhood values
are important.
4. Liking through Association
• Classical Conditioning can
play a part in attraction.
• Example: If you are part of
a certain activity or sport
in school and meet
someone from another
school who is also part of
the same activity or sport
you may begin to like
them through association.
5. Physical Attractiveness
Differences of Beauty in Culture

Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's

white Moor Arab population that the
young girls are sometimes force-fed to
obtain a weight the government has
described as "life-threatening".
Are these cultures and styles really that different?
 Finding the “ONE”
There are two things to remember about dating and
finding a life partner:

1. You are compatible with more than 100,000 people

on this earth - meaning you not only find them
attractive but they match your own personality,
have similar interests and so on.

2. Finding someone and staying together has more to

do with how you both see yourself and want you
really want - being completely honest with
yourself.
Why is it so difficult to keep a strong relationship with
someone for many years?
Answer: We are losing our “Selves” by trying to control the
relationship with our Egos.

1st- Humans have a hard time truly believing that

they are good enough, for someone. So they
make the other person “prove” their love to them
subconsciously or unconsciously. By doing so, the
other person alters their behavior and then
realizes they are not their “Selves” anymore.

2nd- If they do finally believe someone could love

them, they worry about losing it. So they change
their own behavior out of worry or threat. Thus,
now they have altered their “Selves”.
Solution: Focus on your real Self. You must first see yourself
as worthy before you can find another as worthy. Ask
yourself what does the best version of yourself look like.
What would you like it to be.

Don’t try to control someone else. You can make suggestions

but do not judge or label it something negative. For doing so
will cause insecurities and dissonance inside you. Things and
situations are just that. Allow them to be and stop naming
them something.

Life is not what happens to you but how you interpret each
situation.
AP Psychology
Unit 5
Part II: Thinking

Introduction to
Cognition
(How we think)
Cognition
■ The mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing, and remembering

■ Thinking: process in which the brain

uses information from the senses,
emotions, and memory to create and
manipulate mental representations.

■ Often used interchangeably

 Concepts

■ A mental grouping of similar objects,

events, ideas, or people.
■ Enables us to chunk large amounts of
information – don’t need to treat every
new piece of information as unique.
• Presidents
• Holidays
• Close friends
• Psychologists
 Concepts
■ Category Hierarchies – We
organize concepts into category
hierarchies
Development of Concepts

■ Schema- mental frameworks of

information pertaining to certain
situations or events that help us
interpret the nature of situations.
■ Prototypes
• Mental image or best example of a
category
Effects of Prototypes on
Memory
■ Once we place an item in a
category, our memory later shifts
towards the category prototype
Solving Problems
■ Algorithm
■ A methodical, logical rule or procedure that
guarantees solving a particular problem
(formulas to solve problems)
■ Heuristic
■ A rule-of-thumb or traditional strategy that
often allows us to make judgments and solve
problems efficiently (speedier but error-prone)
■ Insight
■ A sudden and novel realization of the solution
to a problem (an ah-ha moment)
Algorithm or Heuristic?

■ Chemistry equations
■ Trial and Error
■ Computers
■ The quadratic formula
■ Playing word games on your phone
Common Heuristic
Strategies
■ Getting through a maze

■ Should I wear a rain jacket?

■ Math problems from textbook

■ Term papers, large exams

■ Designing an airplane
 Divergent Thinking

● Thinking outside the box or creative thinking.

● Thinking without heuristic strategies
● Thinking by feeling (without labeling)

Metacognition
● Thinking about how you think.
● Awareness of one’s own thoughts
Obstacles…
■ In the Jones family there are 5
brothers, and each brother has one
sister. If you count Mrs. Jones, how
many females are there in the Jones
family?
■ Without lifting your pencil from the paper,
draw no more than 4 lines that will cross
through all 9 dots.
Obstacles to Problem
Solving
■ Confirmation Bias
■ A tendency to search for information
that confirms one’s perceptions
• Only use information that support your
ideas
■ Fixation
■ The inability to see a problem from a
new perspective
• Mental Set
• Functional Fixedness
Fixation
■ Mental Set
■ A tendency to approach a problem in a
particular way, especially a way that
has been successful in the past but may
not be helpful in solving a new problem
Fixation
■ Functional Fixedness
■ The tendency to think of things only in
terms of their usual functions.
■ (The function of an object becomes
fixed)

■ This is learned so children don’t fall

into this concept.
(thinking of a screwdriver as only a tool to tighten
screws and not a staple remover.)
Functional Fixedness
Two-String Problem
■ You must tie together 2 strings dangling
from the ceiling without pulling them
down. But when you grab the end of one
string and pull it toward the other one,
you find that you cannot quite reach the
other string. The only objects available to
you in the room are on the floor in the
corner: a ping-pong ball, five screws, a
screwdriver, a glass of water, and a paper
bag. How can you reach both strings at
once and tie them together?
Using and Misusing
Heuristics
■ Heuristics: Cognitive Rules of Thumb

■ Representative Heuristic
■ A rule of thumb for judging the
likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent, or match,
particular prototypes
Representative Heuristic
Using and Misusing
Heuristics
■ Availability Heuristic
■ Estimating the likelihood of events
based on their availability in memory
■ When we hear about events in the
news, we presume such events are
common
Deaths per 100 million
■ All accidents vs. Strokes
■ Asthma vs. Electrocution
■ Homicide vs. Diabetes
■ Appendicitis vs. Lightning
■ Car accidents vs. Cancer of digestive system
■ Drowning vs. Leukemia
Deaths per 100 million
■ All accidents vs. Strokes
■ (55,000) vs. (102,000)
■ Asthma vs. Electrocution
■ (920) vs. (500)
■ Homicide vs. Diabetes
■ (9,200) vs. (19,000)
■ Appendicitis vs. Lightning
■ (440) vs. (52)
■ Car accidents vs. Cancer of digestive system
■ (27,000) vs. (46,400)
■ Drowning vs. Leukemia
■ (3,600) vs. (7,100)
■ The FBI classifies crime in the U.S. into 2
categories – violent crimes, such as murder,
rape, robbery, and assault, and property
crimes, such as burglary, larceny, or car theft.
1. What percentage of crime would you estimate are
violent rather than property crimes?
2. What percentage of accused felons plead insanity?
3. What percentage of these are acquitted?
4. What percentage of convictions for felony crimes are
obtained through trial instead of plea bargaining?
Answers
In 2017, FBI reported that out of 100,000
inhabitants 2,362 commit property crime. Only
383 commit violent crime.

Less than 1% plead

insanity.
Of that, only a quarter are acquitted
because of insanity.

Only 10% of conventions for a felony go to

trial. Most (90%) are handled through pleading
guilty to a lesser charge or sentence.
Other forms of cognitive errors

■ Anchoring and Adjustment Heuristic

■ Starting with a suggested reference
point (the "anchor") and make
adjustments to it to reach their
estimate or decision.
■ Having a “number” in your head before
buying a car
■ Retail price framing
■ While shopping, how much do you
actually save with 50% off sales?
Studies by Tversky and Kahneman
Heuristics and Biases

One group had to multiply the

following numbers in 5 seconds
1x2x3x4x5x6x7x8

One group had to multiply the

following numbers in 5 seconds
8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1
Results:
Median score for Ascending numbers
was 512

Median score for descending was

2,250

Correct answer is 40,320

Learning
AP Psychology
Unit 4
 Definition
Learning is a relatively permanent change in an
organism’s behavior due to experience.
 Associative Learning
Learning to associate one stimulus
with another.
Associative Learning

Learning to
associate a response
with a consequence.

112
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

t a nt!!
Impor

Classical conditioning
forms associations
between stimuli.
(CS-conditioned
stimulus and US-
unconditioned
stimulus).
 Biological Predispositions or Innate
behaviors
Even humans can develop classically to the
following behaviors:
Salivate with food/gum
Nausea
Loud Noise
Pain
Chills when cold
Sweat when hot
Anxious with stressful events
All these things happen first unconditionally
and then we associate it with a CS.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Ideas of classical conditioning originate from old
philosophical theories. However, it was the
Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov who founded
classical conditioning. His work provided a basis
for later behaviorists like John Watson and Albert
Bandura.
Sovfoto

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Pavlov’s Experiments

Before conditioning, food (Unconditioned

Stimulus, US) produces salivation
(Unconditioned Response, UR). However, the
tone (neutral stimulus) does not.
 Pavlov’s Experiments
During conditioning, the neutral stimulus (tone)
and the US (food) are paired, resulting in
salivation (UR). After conditioning, the neutral
stimulus (now Conditioned Stimulus, CS) elicits
salivation (now Conditioned Response, CR)
 Acquisition
Acquisition is the initial learning stage in
classical conditioning in which an association
between a neutral stimulus and an
unconditioned stimulus takes place.

1. In most cases, for conditioning to occur, the

neutral stimulus needs to come before the
unconditioned stimulus.
2. The time in between the two stimuli should
be about half a second.
 Extinction

When the US (food) does not follow the CS (tone), CR

(salivation) begins to decrease and eventually causes
extinction.
 Spontaneous Recovery
After a rest period, an extinguished CR (salivation)
spontaneously recovers, but if the CS (tone) persists
alone, the CR becomes extinct again.
 Stimulus Discrimination
Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish
between a conditioned stimulus and other stimuli that
do not signal an unconditioned stimulus.
 Taste Aversion

Courtesy of John Garcia

Garcia showed that the duration
between the CS and the US may be
long (hours), but yet result in
conditioning. A biologically adaptive
John
CS (taste) led to conditioning but
Garcia
other stimuli (sight or sound) did
not.
John B. Watson and the Baby
Albert Experiment
 Generalization

The tendency to
respond in the same
way to different but
similar stimuli.

Example: Little Albert

began fearing anything
with fur. Even a Santa
Claus beard.
Applications of Classical Conditioning
Watson used classical
conditioning procedures to
develop advertising campaigns
for a number of organizations,
including Maxwell House,
making the “coffee break” an
American custom.

Brown Brothers
John B. Watson
Extending Pavlov’s Understanding
Pavlov and Watson considered consciousness, or mind,
unfit for the scientific study of psychology. However,
they underestimated the importance of the cognitive
processes.

DID NOT factor in humans as individual

thinking minds
OPERANT CONDITIONING

Classical conditioning involves respondent

behavior that occurs as an automatic
(natural) response to a certain stimulus.

Important!!

Operant conditioning involves

organisms associating their own
actions with consequences to either
reinforce or decrease (stop) that action.
Operant Conditioning
get

get

get
 Types of Reinforcers
Reinforcement: Any event that strengthens
the behavior it follows. A heat lamp
positively reinforces a meerkat’s behavior
in the cold.

Reuters/ Corbis
 Taking
something
away!

Adding
something
!
 Primary & Secondary Reinforcers

1. Primary Reinforcer: An innately reinforcing

stimulus like food or drink.

2. Conditioned (Secondary) Reinforcer: A

learned reinforcer that gets its reinforcing
power through association with the primary
reinforcer.
Examples: Money, good grades, a smile.
 Immediate & Delayed Reinforcers

1. Immediate Reinforcer: A reinforcer that

occurs instantly after a behavior. A rat gets
a food pellet for a bar press.

2. Delayed Reinforcer: A reinforcer that is

delayed in time for a certain behavior. A
paycheck that comes at the end of a week.

We may be inclined to engage in small immediate

reinforcers (our PHONES) rather than large delayed
reinforcers (getting an A in a course) which require
consistent study.
 Punishment
An aversive event that decreases the behavior it
follows.
Punishment
Although there may be some justification for
occasional punishment (Larzelere & Baumrind,
2002), it usually leads to negative effects.

1. Results in unwanted fears.

2. Conveys no information to the
organism.
3. Justifies pain to others.
4. Causes unwanted behaviors to
reappear in its absence.
5. Causes aggression towards the agent.
 Shaping
Shaping is the operant conditioning procedure
in which reinforcers guide behavior towards the
desired target behavior through successive
approximations.
Edward Thorndike Experiment
Puzzle box with cats- law of effect. This law
states that rewarded behavior is likely to occur
again.

Thorndike’s puzzle box results:

Yale University Library

136
 Thorndike’s Law of Effect
We are more apt to repeat a behavior if
the result is positive (in your mind)

137
 B.F. Skinner: Operant Chamber or
“Skinner Box” helped develop
schedules of reinforcement

Using Thorndike's law of effect as a starting point,

Skinner developed the Operant chamber, or the
Skinner Box, to study operant conditioning.
 Ratio Schedules
e x t p roject
ur n
on yo
Used

1. Fixed-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response

only after a specified number of responses
(like receiving tokens for a video game, or
getting paid for a certain number of “A’s” on
report card).
2. Variable-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response
after an unpredictable number of responses.
This is hard to extinguish because of the
unpredictability. (increases behaviors like
gambling, fishing.) The Addiction Schedule
 Interval Schedules
t
e x t p rojec
n your n
o
Used

1. Fixed-interval schedule: Reinforces a

response only after a specified time
has elapsed. (e.g., preparing for an
exam only when the exam draws
close.)

2. Variable-interval schedule: Reinforces

a response at unpredictable time
intervals, which produces slow,
steady responses. (e.g., pop quiz.)
141
 Skinner’s Legacy
Skinner argued that behaviors were shaped by
external influences instead of inner thoughts and
feelings. Critics argued that Skinner
dehumanized people by neglecting their free will.

.Falk/ Photo Researchers, Inc

Are we Addicted to our Phones?

Biologically effect:
1. Humans innate desire to be liked by others
2. Does produce Dopamine in the brain

THEN:
We are reinforced to keep using individual
apps with schedules of reinforcements and
positive and negative reinforcements.
143
Extending Skinner’s Understanding
Skinner believed that the results of actions over
free-will guided or predicted behavior. Because
of this, many people discounted his work.
Today, many schools, companies and
organizations use his work to promote positive
results in behavior.
 Cognition & Operant Conditioning
Evidence of cognitive processes during operant
learning comes from rats during a maze
exploration in which they navigate the maze
without an obvious reward. Rats seem to
develop cognitive maps, or mental
representations, of the layout of the maze
(environment).

Knowing your way

around your room or
house with the lights
off.
 Latent Learning
Such cognitive maps are based on
latent learning, “hidden or
dormant” learning until you need
it. (Tolman & Honzik, 1930).

Learn your way around town as

we drive, but don’t need it until
you must find the nearest
hospital.
Learning to cook spaghetti by
watching your mother, but never
making it until you live in your
own apartment. 146
Operant vs. Classical Conditioning
 Mirror Neurons
G
ESTIN
INTER

Neuroscientists discovered mirror neurons that

take place in observing pain or touch in
someone else through observational learning.

Reprinted with permission from the American

Association for the Advancement of Science,
Subiaul et al., Science 305: 407-410 (2004)
© 2004 AAAS.
 Mirror Neurons: You can
experience touch from watching
2 people shake hands.

People with prosthetic hands may actually

feel the handshake.
 14-month-old child

in pulling a toy apart.

begins early in life. This

imitates the adult on TV

Learning by observation
SOCIAL LEARNING

Meltzoff, A.N. (1998). Imitation of televised models by infants.

Child Development, 59 1221-1229. Photos Courtesy of A.N. Meltzoff and M. Hanuk.
 Bandura's Experiments

Bandura's Bobo doll

study (1961)
indicated that
individuals
(children) learn

Courtesy of Albert Bandura, Stanford University

through imitating
others who receive
rewards and
punishments.

Albert Bandura- Social learning

 Bobo Video
Bandura's Experiments

Courtesy of Albert Bandura, Stanford University

152
 Television and Observational
Learning

Gentile et al., (2004)

shows that children in
elementary school
who are exposed to
violent television,
videos, and video

Ron Chapple/ Taxi/ Getty Images

games express
increased aggression.
 Modeling Violence
Research shows that viewing media violence
leads to an increased expression of aggression.

Bob Daemmrich/ The Image Works

Glassman/ The Image Works

Children modeling after pro wrestlers
AP Psychology
Unit 3: Biological Psychology
 Neuron
• Nerve cell, smallest functional unit of the
nervous system
 Random Brain Facts

The adult brain

weighs
approximately 3 lbs
and is made up of
mostly water (75%)
It only takes 2% dehydration
to affect its memory and
cognitive abilities
 Kinds of Neurons
Sensory/Afferent Neurons carry incoming information
from the sense receptors to the CNS.
Motor/Efferent Neurons carry outgoing information
from the CNS to muscles and glands.
Interneurons connect the two neurons. Primarily located
in the spinal cord

Interneuron Neuron Sensory Neuron

(Unipolar)

Motor Neuron
 Dendrites

Receive stimulus from sensory organs and

other neurons
 Soma

The soma is the cell body and contains the nucleus

 Axon

The axon sends signal away from the cell body

 Terminal Branches

Contain terminal buttons, synaptic knobs

and form synapses with other cells
 Myelin
• Myelin- fatty covering that wraps
around the axons of Schwann cells
 Random Brain Facts

A piece of brain
tissue the size of a
grain of sand
contains 100,000
neurons and 1 billion
synapses, all
communicating with
each other.
 Sending messages-Action potentials

• Brief Electrical charge that travels down an axon

Neurotransmitters:
Chemicals that transmit messages between neurons
Synaptic Gap:
Before a neuron fires – Resting Potential
• Resting Potential
– Neuron is not transmitting information
– It is not firing, it is resting
– Negatively charged ions are in the axon.
– At this stage the neuron is said to be ‘polarized’
Before a neuron fires – Resting Potential
▪ Resting Potential
▪ Nothing is happening. The gates of the axon are
closed.
▪ Positive ions are on the outside with the
negative ions on the inside of the cell.
– “Negative Ions inside the Neuron is Natural”
 Random Brain Facts

Babies have big

heads to hold rapidly
growing brains. A
2-year-old’s brain is
80% of adult size.
Neural Firing!
▪ Action Potential
▪ a brief electrical charge that travels down
an axon
▪ Also called neural impulse or nerve firing or
depolarization
▪ generated by the movement of positively
charged ions into the axon.
▪ This process starts due to stimulation of the
receptor sites for the neuron that is firing
 Neural Firing!

Stimulation causes the gates to open and the positive

ions enter the cell. An electrical spark is produced by the process
call depolarization. The positive ions are then pumped out.

Cell body end

of axon This chain reaction
can occur up to 100 a second.

Direction of neural impulse: toward axon terminals

Neural Firing!
• Polarization
– When the inside of the Neuron is
negatively charged relative to the outside
– Resting potential

• Depolarization
– When the electrical charge of a cell
moves toward zero
– Action potential
400 ft per second
(Myelinated) to 3 ft per
second
 The Neural Impulse

• All-or-None Law
– A neuron either fires or it does not
– When it does fire, it will always produce
an impulse of the same strength
– Intensity of a stimulus is seen by the
frequency of action potentials
 What starts this whole
process?
• Graded Potentials
– A shift in the electrical charge in a tiny area of a
neuron.
– Many subthreshold depolarizations are added
together to produce an action potential (a
process known as summation)
▪ The stimulation must exceed the threshold of
excitation in order for the neuron to fire.

Summation= Action Potential

 Random Brain Facts
Information runs between neurons in your
brain for everything we see, think, or do.
These neurons move information at
different speeds. The fastest speed for
information to pass between neurons is
about 250 mph.
 When can it fire again?
• Refractory Period
– The time it takes for the positive ions to be pumped
out.
1. Absolute Refractory period - Period during an
action potential when another action potential
CANNOT occur. (1/1000th of a second)
2. Relative refractory period - Period following
absolute refractory period when a neuron will
only respond to a stronger than normal impulse
Neuron firing
moving positive
ions through the
axon
Neuron moves toward
negative ions and
resting period.

Can only fire if

stimulated at a
higher rate.
 8 Ways We Study the Brain

• Accidents
• Lesions
• Clinical Observations
• EEG
• CAT Scan
• PET Scan
• MRI
• Functional MRI
Accidents
Phineas Gage Story
• Personality changed after
the accident.
What this this tell us?
• That different part of the
brain control different
aspects of who we are.
Lesions
• Removal or destruction of
some part of the brain.
• Frontal Lobotomy
 Clinical Observation
Clinical observations have shed light on a number of brain
disorders. Alterations in brain morphology due to
neurological and psychiatric diseases are now being
catalogued.
Random Brain Facts

A brain freeze is really a

sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia.
It happens when something you
eat or drink something that’s
cold. It chills the blood vessels
and arteries in the very back of
the throat, including the ones
that take blood to your brain.
These constrict when they’re
cold and open back up with
they’re warm again, causing the
pain in your forehead.
 Electroencephalogram
• EEG
• Detects brain waves
through their
electrical output.
• Used mainly in sleep
research.
Computerized Axial Tomography or CAT
Scan (CT scan)

•3D X-Ray of the brain.

•Good for tumor
locating, but tells us
nothing about function.
•Less expensive than
MRI.
 MRI
MRI (magnetic resonance
imaging) uses magnetic fields
and radio waves to produce
computer-generated images that
distinguish among different types
of brain tissue (best for soft
tissue and organs).
Both photos from Daniel Weinberger, M.D., CBDB, NIMH

Top images show ventricular

enlargement in a schizophrenic
patient.

Bottom image shows brain

regions when a participants lies.
James Salzano/ Salzano Photo Lucy Reading/ Lucy Illustrations
 Positron Emission Tomography
• PET Scan
• Measures how much of a chemical the brain is using
(usually glucose consumption).
 Functional MRI
• Combination of PET and MRI
The Brain
 Random Brain Facts

As any parent can

attest, teenage brains
are not fully formed.
It isn’t until about the
age of 25 that the
human brain reaches
full maturity.
(Pruning process)
 Brain Structures
1. Hindbrain
2. Midbrain
3. Forebrain
4. Cerebral Cortex-
wrinkles are called
fissures
 Hindbrain
• Structures on top of our spinal cord.
• Controls basic biological structures.
(Medulla) Oblongata

Vital area that controls

breathing, heart rate,
and blood pressure
 Reticular Formation

● Responsible for
consciousness and
wakefulness (regulates sleep)
Pons
• Located just above the
medulla.
• Helps with sleep and
respiratory functions
• Involved in producing
facial expressions.
Cerebellum
• Bottom rear of the
brain.
• Means “little brain”
• Coordinates fine
muscle movements.
Cerebellum
 Random Brain Facts

Your brain generates

about 12-25 watts of
electricity. This is
enough to power a
low-wattage LED
light.
 Thalamus
• Switchboard of the brain.
• Receives sensory signals
from the spinal cord and
sends them to other parts
of the forebrain.
• Every sense except smell.
The Limbic System
Thalamus
 Hypothalamus
The Hypothalamus lies below
(hypo) the thalamus.
Hunger drives
Thirst
Sexual arousal
Body Temperature
Endocrine System
*Most powerful structure in
brain.
Ventromedial v. Lateral Hypothalamus:

Ventromedial Hypothalamus controls when you are full and stops

you from overeating. If lesioned then rat overeats

Lateral Hypothalamus makes us want to eat. If lesioned then it will

lead to anorexia.
Ventromedial
Hypothalamus cut
out!
Rats are willing to cross an electrified grid for self-stimulation
when electrodes are placed in the reward (hypothalamus)
center
 Hippocampus

• Involved in the
processing and
storage of
memories.

Stanford University
 Random Brain Facts

Your brain can

process an image that
your eyes have seen
for as little as 13
milliseconds — less
time than it takes for
you to blink.
Amygdala

• Involved in how we process

memory.
• More involved in volatile
emotions like anger.

Also responsible for Fear

and survival.
How Feelings can Change your Biological Systems

Emotions cause the release and (take-up) of all sorts

of information-carrying chemicals throughout the
body. These chemicals are ligands or (Peptides).
Biologists have just learned that these peptides
affect not only the brain but the nerves, the immune
system, endocrine and digestive systems.

Peptides have the ability to change the state of any

cell in the body- to make new protein, cell divide or
opening and closing axon channel for ions.

Historically, these systems were being treated as

totally distinctive areas. Now the state of a person is
just as important for healing.
Hemispheres
Divided into two hemispheres.
• Contralateral control:
right controls left and vice
versa.
In general,
Left Hemisphere: logic and
sequential tasks.
Right Hemisphere: spatial and
creative tasks.
The Cerebral Cortex is made
up of four Lobes.
 Frontal Lobe
• Abstract thought and emotional
control.
• Contains Motor Cortex: sends
signals to our body controlling
muscle movements.
• Contains Broca’s Area: responsible
for controlling muscles that produce
speech.
• Damage to Broca’s Area is called
Broca’s Aphasia: unable to make
movements to talk.
Motor and Sensory Cortexes
sensory
Somato
Cortex
 Parietal Lobe
• Contain Somatosensory
Cortex: receives
incoming touch
sensations from rest of
the body.
• Most of the Parietal
Lobes are made up of
Where would this person
Association Areas.
feel the most pain from her
cut?
*Most sensitive- lips
 Association Areas
• Any area not associated with receiving
sensory information or coordinating muscle
movements.
 Occipital Lobe
• Deals with vision.
• Contains Visual Cortex:
interprets messages from our
eyes into images we can
understand.
Temporal Lobe
• Process sound sensed by our
ears.
• Interpreted in Auditory Cortex.
• Contains Wernicke's Area:
interprets written and spoken
speech.
• Wernicke's Aphasia: unable to
understand language: the syntax
and grammar jumbled.
Specialization and Integration in Language

In Temporal Lobe in left

hemisphere of brain. How
we can tell what words
mean.
I
Brain Activity when Hearing, Seeing,
and Speaking Words
 Brain Plasticity
• The idea that the
brain, when damaged,
will attempt to find
news ways to reroute
messages.
• Children’s brains are
more plastic than
adults.
The Corpus Callosum
Divides the 2
hemispheres.
Split Brain Patients

Those who struggle with

seizures due to epilepsy,
have their corpus
callosum cut to separate
the left and right
hemispheres
Testing the Divided Brain
 T!!!
TAN
O R
IMP
 AP Psych
Unit 5 Part I: Memory
 AL
LF
AL
SE
!

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007

Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
The Nature of Memory
■ Memory: internal record or
representation of some prior
event or experience

■ Memory is also a constructive process, in

which we actively organize and shape
information as it is processed, stored, and
retrieved.
Where Are Memories Located?
■ Memory tends
to be localized
and distributed
throughout the
brain--not just
the cortex.
Serial Position Effect
(Like Primacy Effect):
remembering material at
the beginning and end
of the list better than
material in the middle

Primacy Effect-
remembering
things that are 1st
How Does Memory Work?
An Information-Processing Model
Here is a simplified description of how memory works:

Encoding ▪ Encoding: the information gets

into our brains in a way that allows
it to be stored
▪ Storage: the information is held in
storage a way that allows it to later be
retrieved
▪ Retrieval: reactivating and
recalling the information,
retrieval producing it in a form similar to
what was encoded
Memory Storage:
Capacity and Location
▪ The brain is NOT like a hard drive.
Memories are NOT in isolated files,
but are in overlapping neural
networks.
▪ The brain’s long-term memory
storage does not get full; it gets
more elaborately rewired and
interconnected. Karl Lashley (1890-1958)
▪ Parts of each memory can be showed that rats who had
distributed throughout the brain. learned a maze retained
→ Memory of a particular ‘kitchen parts of that memory,
table’ may be a linkage among even when various small
networks for ‘kitchen,’ ‘meal,’ parts of their brain were
‘wooden,’ ‘home,’ ‘legs,’ and ‘sit.’ removed.
Emotions, Stress Hormones,
the Amygdala, and Memory
How does intense emotion cause the
brain to form intense memories?
1. Emotions can trigger a rise in As a result, the memories are
stress hormones. stored with more sensory and
2. These hormones trigger activity emotional details.
in the amygdala, located next to • These details can trigger a
the memory-forming rapid, unintended recall of
hippocampus. the memory.
3. The amygdala increases • Traumatized people can
memory-forming activity and have intrusive recall that
engages the frontal lobes and
is so vivid that it feels like
basal ganglia to “tag” the
re-experiencing the event.
memories as important.
Explicit Memory Processing
Explicit/declarative memories include
facts, stories, and meanings of words
such as a birthday party you
remember or knowing how to write
an essay.
▪ Retrieval and use of explicit memories,
which is in part a working memory or
executive function, is directed by the frontal
lobes.
▪ Encoding and storage of explicit memories is
facilitated by the hippocampus. Events and
facts are held there for a couple of days
before consolidating, moving to other parts
of the brain for long-term storage. Much of
this consolidation occurs during sleep.
Types of Explicit Memory
There are two major types of explicit
memory:

1. Episodic memory: These are your

long-term memories of specific
events, such as your personal
experiences.
2. Semantic memory: These are facts,
concepts, names, and other general
knowledge.
The Brain Stores Reactions and Skills
Implicit Memory Processing
Implicit memories include
skills, procedures, and used
unconsciously- riding a bike.

▪ The cerebellum (“little brain”)

forms and stores our
conditioned responses. We
can store a phobic response
MUSCLE
even if we can’t recall how we MEMORY!
acquired the fear.
▪ The basal ganglia, next to the thalamus, controls movement,
and forms and stores procedural memory and motor skills.
We can learn to ride a bicycle even if we can’t recall having
the lesson. Singing along to a favorite song once you hear it.
 Dual-Track Processing:
Explicit and Implicit Memories
So far, we have been Some memories are formed
talking about explicit/ without going through all the
“declarative” memories. stages. These are implicit
These are facts and memories, the ones we are not
experiences that we can fully aware of and thus don’t
consciously know and “declare”/talk about.
recall.
Our minds acquire this These memories are typically
information through effortful formed through automatic
processing. Explicit memories are processing. Implicit memories are
formed through studying, formed without our awareness that
rehearsing, thinking, processing, we are building a memory, and
and then storing information in without rehearsal or other
long-term memory. processing in working memory.
 Atkinson and Shiffrin: Working Memory

n t!
r ta
po
Im
SENSORY MEMORY

■ Sensory Memory: briefly preserves a

relatively exact replica of sensory
information
❑ Sensory memory has a large capacity

but information only lasts a few seconds.

❑ Selected information is sent on to

short-term memory.
 SENSORY MEMORY
Iconic and Echoic memory
● Iconic deals with visual images
that show up in Sensory Memory.
Holding images for less than a
second.

● Echoic deals with sounds (audio)

that are held in Sensory Memory
for 1 to 2 seconds.
 SHORT-TERM
MEMORY
■ Short-Term Memory (STM): temporarily
stores sensory information and decides
whether to send it on to long-term memory
(LTM)
■ STM can hold 5-9 items for about 30
seconds before they are forgotten.
■ STM capacity can be increased with
chunking. STM duration improves with
maintenance rehearsal.
LONG-TERM MEMORY

● Stores memory throughout the

brain.
● Can hold unlimitless amounts of
information for a very long time.
 Working Memory example
of typical and ADHD child.
Cocktail Party
Effect- the ability to
ignore all other
stimulus when
speaking to
someone.
 Biological Bases of Memory

■ Biological changes in neurons facilitate

memory through long-term potentiation
(LTP), which happens in at least two
ways:
1. repeated stimulation of a synapse
strengthens the synapse, and
2. neuron’s ability to release its
neurotransmitters is increased or
decreased.
Messing with Long-Term Potentiation

▪ Chemicals and shocks that prevent

long-term potentiation (LTP) can prevent
learning and even erase recent learning.
–Beta-blocker heart medication and
benzodiazepine anti-anxiety medication- Xanax!
▪ Preventing LTP keeps new memories
from consolidating into long-term
memories. For example, mice forget
how to run a maze.
▪ Sleep and eating less fatty acids found in
food help boost LTP.
Biological Bases of Memory
(Continued)
■ Hormones
also affect memory
(e.g., flashbulb
memories--vivid and
lasting images are
associated with
surprising or strongly
emotional events).
Biology and Memory Loss:
Injury and Disease (Continued)

■ Alzheimer’s Disease (AD): progressive

mental deterioration characterized by
severe memory loss
Sperling’s Experiment with
Sensory Memory
■ When flashed an
arrangement of 12
letters for 1/20 of a
second, most people
can only recall 4 or 5.
Sperling proved all 12
letters were available
in sensory memory if
they can be attended
quickly.
Sperling’s Experiment: Sensory
Memory
 Types of Rehearsal

■ Maintenance vs.
Elaborative:
Is Repetition vs.
Meaningful
associations
 Applying what we’ve learned about memory
Improving Memory to Improve Grades
Learn the material in more than one way, not just by rote, but by
Ways to creating many retrieval cues.
save overall ▪ Think of examples and connections (meaningful depth or
studying Elaborative processing)
▪ Create mnemonics: songs, images, and lists.
time, and
build more Study right before sleep. Studies show that your brain will organize
reliable information for you while you sleep.
memory.
Have multiple study sessions, spaced further and further apart after
first learning the material.

Spend your study sessions activating your retrieval cues including

context (recalling where you were when learning the material).

Test yourself in study sessions: 1) practice doing retrieval as if taking the

test, and 2)overcome the overconfidence error: the material seems
familiar, but can you explain it in your own words?
 Reading new information better than
watching videos for retention and memory

MIT’s Integrated Learning Initiative in 2018:

two groups: one group is to take the learning session
by watching video the other is to take it by reading a
video transcript that has been spruced with some
explanatory diagrams.
Both groups were invited to take an assessment test
on the morning after the session. And on the
post-learning assessment score, students who had
read transcripts performed better than students who
watched the video.

LEARNING THROUGH YOUR OWN SCHEMAS RATHER THAN

SOMEONE ELSE’S

Reason why people like books over their movies.

Improving Long-Term Memory
(LTM)
■ LTM can be improved with:
❑ Organization

❑ Elaborative Rehearsal

❑ Retrieval Cues

■ Recognition

■ Recall

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007

Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
An Example of Using Hierarchies as an
Organizational Tool

©John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007

Huffman: Psychology in Action (8e)
 An Example of Recognition vs. Recall

■ Research shows people are better at recognizing

photos of previous high school classmates than
recalling their names.
Why Do We Forget? Five Key Theories

■ Decay
■ Interference
■ Motivated
Forgetting
■ Encoding Failure
■ Retrieval Failure
Five Theories of Forgetting
(Continued)
1. Decay Theory:
memory degrades with time
2. Interference Theory: one memory
competes (interferes) with another
❑ Retroactive Interference (new information
interferes with old memory)
❑ Proactive Interference (old information of
what you know interferes with new
memory)
Retroactive Interference:
Felix is currently learning Spanish and now
has forgotten his French he learned last year.

Proactive Interference:
Johnny’s old friend was called Joe, but when
he moves, he calls his new friend Joe even
though it is Jordan. (New Names??)
Hermann Ebbinghaus- Cramming is the result
of mass forgetfulness. Unless we take action to
keep it there.
Five Theories of Forgetting (Continued)

3. Motivated Forgetting: motivation to forget

unpleasant, painful, threatening, or
embarrassing memories
4. Encoding Failure: information in STM is
not encoded in LTM
5. Retrieval Failure: memories stored in
LTM are momentarily inaccessible
(tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon)
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

The “tip of the tongue” (TOT)

phenomenon is a state in which
one cannot quite recall a familiar
word but can recall words of similar
form and meaning.
A Test for Encoding: Can You Identify
the Actual Penny?
(a)
Overcoming Problems with Forgetting
(Continued)
■ Source Amnesia: forgetting the true source
of a memory

■ Infantile Amnesia: Memory begins usually at

age 3, because of the late development of
the brain.

■ Context Memory: remembering things

because you are in the same place.
 Biology and Memory Loss:
Injury and Disease
■ Amnesia: memory
loss from brain injury
or trauma
● Retrograde amnesia:
old memories lost
● Anterograde
amnesia: new
memories lost
Memory: Brain Structures
Memory and the Criminal Justice System
■ Two memory problems
with profound legal
implications:
● Eyewitness Testimony--
The misinformation effect- witnesses fill in
“holes” pertaining to the incident with
personal experiences.
● Repressed Memories—
considerable debate as to whether recovered
memories are accurate or repressed
Why is our memory full of errors?
▪ Memory not only gets forgotten, but
it gets constructed (imagined,
selected, changed, and rebuilt).
▪ Memories are altered every time we
“recall” (actually, reconstruct) them.
Then they are altered again when we
consolidate the memory (using
working memory to send them into
long term storage).
▪ Later information alters earlier
memories.
▪ No matter how accurate and
video-like our memory seems, it is full
of alterations.
The Misinformation Effect: Framing a question
Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory
of an event.
In 1974, Elizabeth Loftus and Those who were asked,
John Palmer asked people to “...when the cars smashed
watch a video of a minor car into each other?” reported
accident. The participants were higher speeds and
then asked, “How fast were cars remembered broken glass
going when they hit each that wasn’t there.
other?”

Actual accident Misremembered accident

Implanted Memories Imagination
In one study, students were told a false story that
Inflation
spoiled egg salad had made them ill in childhood. As a • Simply picturing an
result, many students became [even] less likely to eat event can make it
egg salad sandwiches in the future. seem like a real
memory.
• Once we have an
In a study by Elizabeth Loftus, people were asked to inaccurate memory,
provide details of a incident in childhood when they we tend to add
had been lost in a shopping mall. more imagined
Even though there actually had been no such incident, details, as perhaps
by trying to picture details, most people came to we do for all
believe that the incident had actually happened. memories.
• Why does this
happen? Visualizing
Lessons:
1. By trying to help someone recall a memory, you may
and actually seeing
implant a memory. an event activate
2. You can’t tell how real a memory is by how real it similar brain areas.
feels.
 Source Amnesia/Misattribution
Have you ever discussed If so, your memory
a childhood memory with for the event may
a family member only to have been accurate,
find that the memory but you experienced
source amnesia:
was: forgetting where the
• from a movie you saw, or book story came from,
you read?
and attributing the
• from a story someone told you
about your childhood, but they
source to your own
were kidding? experience.
• from a dream you used to
have?
• from a sibling’s experience?
 Déjà vu (“Already seen”)
▪ Déjà vu refers to the feeling that you’re in a situation that you’ve
seen or have been in before.
▪ However, we can feel very certain that we’ve seen a situation
before even when we have not. This can be seen as source
amnesia: a memory (from current sensory memory) that we
misattribute as being from long term memory.
▪ Déjà vu is suggested to be some sort of "mix-up" between sensory input and
memory-recalling output.
▪ Why does this happen? Sometimes our sense of familiarity and
recognition kicks in too soon, and our brain explains this as being
caused by prior experience.
Language
Part III of Unit 5
Language

Spoken, written or
signed words and the
ways we combine
them to communicate
meaning
Language Structure
▶ Phonemes
◦ The smallest distinctive sound unit

◦ The number of phonemes varies

⚫ 11 in Rotokas – Papua New Guinea
⚫ 141– Kalahari Desert
⚫ 40+ in the English Language (sounds)

◦ Consonant Sounds
⚫ 6 in Rotokas to 44 in English
◦ Vowels
⚫ 20 in English and only 7 vowel sounds in Italian
 Language Structure
▶ Morphemes
◦ The smallest unit of language that carries meaning

◦ A morpheme does not necessarily have to be a word.

⚫ Example: the word cats has two morphemes.
⚫ Cat is a morpheme, and s is a morpheme.
⚫ Every morpheme is either a base or an affix. An affix can be
either a prefix or a suffix.
⚫ Cat is the base morpheme, and s is a suffix.
How many morphemes are in each of
the following:

People ▶ Grandmother Waited

Redevelopment Education Unhappy
Swimming Remain
Orange Misspell
Literally Water
Erasable Higher
Radish Finger
Language
Grammar
A system of rules in a
given language that
enables us to
communicate with and
understand others
▶ Semantics
Grammar
◦ The set of rules we use to derive meaning from morphemes

▶ Syntax
◦ The rules for combining
words into grammatically
sensible sentences in a
given language
▶ Mechanics

◦ Rules that govern

how language is
written.

◦ Use of commas,
capitalization, and
end mark rules are
mechanics.
▶ Pragmatics

◦ Unwritten rules about

what language is
appropriate to use at
particular times.

◦ People use language

differently in a job
than when they are
hanging out with
friends.
Language Development
▶ Receptive Language
◦ Starts around 4 months of age
◦ The ability to comprehend speech

▶ Productive Language
◦ Starts around 1 year of age
◦ The ability to produce words
Language Center
 Language Development
Months (Approx) Stage
4 Babbles many speech sounds
10 Babbling resembles household language

12 One-Word Stage
24 Two-word, Telegraphic Speech
24+ Language develops rapidly into complete
sentences.
 Explaining Language Development
▶ Skinner ▶ Chomsky
▶ Imitation ▶ Language occurs naturally
◦ Words & Syntax
modeled by other ▶ Language Acquisition Device –
when we hear language the
▶ Reinforcement switch turns on for that
◦ Smiles & Hugs when the language
child says something
right.
▶ Universal Grammar
◦ Same Building Blocks
◦ Noun, Verbs, Questions
◦ We start speaking using nouns
How Language is taught in Schools
▶ Whole Language ▶ Phonics-Based

◦ Children are encouraged ◦ Children are taught how

to memorize words as to "sound out" new
whole units. words.

◦ More like how children ◦ Children must learn

originally learn how to letter sounds to an
talk automatic level
Critical Period
▶ Learning language before age 7 is best.
▶ When a young brain does not learn any language, its
language-learning capacity never fully develops.
Linguistic Competence
▶ The ability to produce
and understand
utterances we have
never heard before.
Linguistic Determinism
Benjamin Lee Whorf’s hypothesis that language
determines the way we think:

▶ Each language embodies a worldview, with quite

different languages embodying quite different views,
so that speakers of different languages think about the
world in quite different ways.
▶ YOUR WORLDVIEW IS BASED ON WHAT YOUR
LANGUAGE EMPHASIZES AND WHAT IT DOESN’T.
Influences
▶ Tenses – influences how we think about time
▶ Emotions – influences what we feel
▶ Categories – influences what we know
▶ Colors – influences how we classify and remember
colors – more words to identify colors the differently
you remember them
▶ Gender – influences how we see men/women
Motivation, Emotion
and Stress
Unit 6
Movie, Office Space (1999)
 Achievement Motivation
What motivates us to work?
(School, job, sports, video games, relationships etc..)

Intrinsic Motivators Extrinsic Motivators

• Rewards we get • Reward that we get for
internally, such as accomplishments from
enjoyment or outside ourselves (grades
satisfaction. or money or etc..)
• Work great in the short
run.
Overjustification Effect: Being
rewarded for doing something
actually diminishes your intrinsic
motivation.
 Motivation
• Instinct Theory: we
are motivated by our
inborn automated
behaviors.
• But humans are not
born with as many
innate behaviors as
animals. (rooting is
one)
Motivating Employees: Theory X or Theory Y
Drive Reduction Theory
• Our behavior is motivated
by BIOLOGICAL
NEEDS.
• Your body wants to
maintain homeostasis.
• When we are not, we
have a need that creates
a drive.
• Primary versus
Secondary drives
 Arousal Theory for Performance
• We are motivated to
seek an optimum
level of arousal.
• Yerkes-Dodson
Law
 Set Point Theory
The hypothalamus acts like a
thermostat.
● Wants to maintain a stable
weight.
● Maintains blood pressure
● Maintains heart rate

Everyone is born with a biological

set point for weight, heart rate,
blood pressure and hormone levels
 Biological Basis of Hunger
• Hunger does NOT
come from our
stomach.
It comes from our…
• Brain
What part of the brain?
• The Hypothalamus!
 Hypothalamus
Lateral Hypothalamus Ventromedial Hypothalamus
• When stimulated it makes • When stimulated you feel
you hungry. full.
• When lesioned • When lesioned you will
(destroyed) you will never never feel full again (a
be hungry again. constant state of hunger)
Why is it so difficult to lose weight for some people?

Metabolism rate and set point.

•Fat has a lower metabolism rate.

•Once we become bigger we require less food to maintain it.

What does this mean?

•If you starve yourself- your body will slow down your
metabolism rate to maintain more energy.

Conclusion: Hard to lose weight without exercise.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Important!!!

• Abraham Maslow
said we are
motivated by needs,
and all needs are
not created equal.
• We are driven to
satisfy the lower
level needs first.
 Obesity

• Severely overweight to the

point where it causes health
issues.
• Mostly eating habits but some
people are predisposed
towards obesity
- Obese parent= higher
chance of kids being Obese
as well. America’s Obesity
rate is at 35%
•1990- 30%
•1960- 13%
 Popular Diets
● Glycemic Index (low sugar foods)
● Meal replacements
● Atkins (No glucose)
● Weight Watchers

Glucose
•The hormone insulin converts glucose to fat.

Problem with this diet-

•When glucose levels drop- hunger increases.
Food Deserts:
Areas in places where there is a
lack of grocery stores preventing
them from going to a grocery
store and buying fresh,
nutritious foods like fruits and
vegetables.
Diabetes Type 2- The Enemy is SUGAR!!

e t the
G
C TS!
FA

● The number of people with diabetes rose from 108 million in 1980
to 422 million in 2014.
● Sleep loss is connected to obesity
● Today’s teens consume almost 5 times the amount of sugar and
caffeine in their drinks than in 1991.
● Diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart
attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.
● Type 2 diabetes used to be called adult-onset diabetes. But now it
is becoming more common in children and teens, due to more
obesity and poor diet.
● In 2019, diabetes was the ninth leading cause of death with an
estimated 1.5 million deaths directly caused by diabetes.
● Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed
with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and
treatment for complications.
 Eating Disorders
Bulimia Nervosa
• Characterized by
binging (eating large
amounts of food) and
purging (getting rid of
the food).
 Anorexia Nervosa
• Starve themselves to below 85% of their normal body weight.
• See themselves as fat.
• Vast majority are woman.
 How is Sexual Orientation
Determined
• There has been NO evidence
that sexuality is socially
determined.
• Kids raised by homosexual
parents are no more likely to
be homosexual than if they
were raised by hetero
parents.
• Biologically determined.
The Brain
• Simon LeVay discovered
that there is a cluster of
cells in the hypothalamus
that is larger in
heterosexual men than in
heterosexual women or
homosexual men.
More Genetic Facts:

Straight men and Lesbians have slightly larger right brain

hemispheres, where gay men and heterosexual women have
similar size hemispheres.
 Prenatal Environment
• Current research seems
to point to the
hormonal levels in the
prenatal environment.
• Scientists have created
homosexual male fruit flies
and lesbian sheep.
 Management Theory in terms of
Motivation
Management/Teaching styles relate closely to Intrinsic/Extrinsic
Motivators.

Theory X Theory Y
• Managers believes that • Managers believe that
employees will work only if
rewarded with benefits or employees are internally
threatened with motivated to do good work
punishment. and policies should
• Think employees are encourage this internal
Extrinsically Motivated. motive.
• Only interested in Maslow’s • Interested in Maslow’s
lower needs. higher needs.
Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology
•The application of psychology in the workplace.
•Hundreds of job titles

Interviewer Illusion
•Interviewers presume that people are what they seem
to be during the interview.
•Interviewers preconceptions and moods color how they
perceive interviewee’s responses.
Conflicts We Deal with Daily

Approach-Approach: a choice
between 2 good things
Avoidance-Avoidance: a
choice between 2 bad things
Approach-Avoidance: a good
choice that follows the
potential for something bad.
Approach-Approach

or

or
Avoidance-Avoidance

or

or
Approach-Avoidance

A date with an
attractive
person.

Or... maybe being

stood up and having
to dine on your own.
3 Theories of Emotion: a s been xam
on
H AP E f.
e v e r y o
a t I know
th

● James-Lange Theory
● Cannon-Bard Theory
● Schachter-Singer (2-Factor) Theory
JAMES LANGE THEORY for
Emotion
William James and Carl Lange
proposed an idea that was
diametrically opposed to the
common-sense view. The
James-Lange Theory
proposes that physiological
activity precedes the
emotional experience.
THEORIES OF EMOTION

◼ James-Lange theory
THEORIES OF EMOTION

◼ James-Lange theory
THEORIES OF EMOTION

◼ James-Lange theory
CANNON-BARD THEORY
Walter Cannon and Philip
Bard questioned the
James-Lange Theory and
proposed that an
emotion-triggering
stimulus and the body's
arousal take place
simultaneously.

At the same time!

THEORIES OF EMOTION

◼ Cannon-Bard theory
THEORIES OF EMOTION
G N ITIVE TION
CO PRET
A

◼ Two-factor theory T E R
IN

▪ Schachter-Singer
THEORIES OF EMOTION

◼ Two-factor theory
▪ Schachter-Singer
THEORIES OF EMOTION
 Affective Realism
Affective realism refers to the idea that affective feelings
help to construct your experience of the world (Anderson,
Siegel, White, & Barrett, 2012; Barrett & Bar, 2009). Feel-
ings do more than influence judgments of what you have
seen; they influence the actual content of perception.

Alert

Unpleasant Pleasant

Calm
 Stress
• Social readjustment
rating scale (SRRS)
• Life Changing Units
(LCUs)- marriage,
change job, etc…
• The more LCUs you have
the higher your score is
on the SRRS.
• Those who score higher
are more likely to have
stress related disease.

Stress test
 General Adaptation Syndrome
According to Selye, a stress response to any kind of
stimulation is similar. The stressed individual goes
through three phases- Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion
 General Adaptation Syndrome
Alarm
“Fight or Flight” reaction: body mobilizes resources to combat threat; activates the
sympathetic nervous system.

Resistance
Enhanced ability to fight stressor via moderate physiological arousal; ability to
withstand additional stressors (e.g., infection) is reduced.

Exhaustion
Depletion of resources brings on diseases and disorders (e.g., chronically high heart
rate and blood pressure increase chances of heart attack and stroke).
 Pessimism and Heart Disease
Pessimistic adult men (sample = 2000 Veterans)
are twice as likely to develop heart disease over a
10-year period.

Kubzansky et al. (2001). Psychosomatic Medicine, 63, 910-916.

Stress & Susceptibility to Disease
A psychophysiological illness is any stress-related
physical illness such as hypertension and some
headaches.

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is a developing

field in which the health effects of psychological,
neural, and endocrine processes on the immune
system are studied.
 Psychoneuroimmunology

B lymphocytes fight bacterial infections

T lymphocytes attack viruses and cancer cells
macrophages ingest foreign substances
During stress, energy is mobilized away from
the immune system making it vulnerable.
 Personality Types
Type A is a term used by Meyer Friedman for
competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally 1910-2001

aggressive, and anger-prone people.

Type B refers to easygoing, relaxed people.
Type A personalities are
more likely to die from
coronary heart disease.
Total (3154) CHD Death (50)
A 1589 (50.4%) 34 (68%)
B 1565 (49.6%) 16 (32%)
 Cortisol
Main Stress hormone

Your adrenal glands -- triangle-shaped organs at the top of your kidneys

-- make cortisol.

Cortisol plays an important role in a number of things your body does.

For example, it:

● Manages how your body uses carbohydrates, fats, and proteins

● Keeps inflammation down
● Regulates your blood pressure
● Increases your blood sugar (glucose)
● Controls your sleep/wake cycle
● Boosts energy so you can handle stress and restores balance afterward
 How Cortisol Affects Your Body
In short spurts, cortisol can boost your immunity by
limiting inflammation. However, if you have consistently
high levels of cortisol, your body can get used to having too
much cortisol in your blood, which can lead to
inflammation weight gain, headaches and a weakened
immune system.

Blood Sugar:
Cortisol raises blood sugar by releasing stored glucose,
while insulin lowers blood sugar

Sleep:
Under regular circumstances, you have lower cortisol levels
in the evening when you go to sleep and peak levels in the
morning right before you wake up.
Allostatic Overload
● Allostatic load and its more severe form, allostatic overload,
represent too much Cortisol and chronic physiological stress

● generated by internal processes (e.g., anxiety) and by external

factors such as chronic stressors (e.g., overeating, family,
work, devices, insufficient sleep)

● that also can change the mediators of Homeostasis or

ALLOSTASIS and may MOVE YOUR SET POINT OVER
TIME.

● SET POINT is the body at its natural state when it comes to

temperature, heart rate, body fat, mood, and levels of
hormones and sensitivity with regards to the Nervous System.
Results of Allostatic Overload
 Ways to Combat Stress

According to researchers at the University of

Sussex, “six minutes of reading can reduce
stress levels by up to 68%”

Comparing it with other methods for reducing

stress, reading leaves a respectable margin
when compared to drinking tea and coffee,
which comes in at 54% stress reduction, and
taking a walk, which comes in at 42%.

Watching videos actually only delay stress, and

as soon as your done watching the stress will
come back.
 Ways to Combat Stress
Sleeping Well-Using the 3-3-1:

1. First deep breathing: 4 seconds in, 4 seconds out.

Complete 5 of these.
2. Next remember 3 things you accomplished today.
3. Next think of 3 things you can accomplish tomorrow.
4. Lastly, remember a good memory. Can be something
that happened today, or months ago.
Meditate twice a day

1. Start with 2 minutes each, twice a day and

work up to 15 minutes each time.
2. There are many mediation segments you can
find on Google.
3. Anything that gets you to control your breathing
and focus on your true self (feelings)

Regular exercise and eating healthy

- Does not need to be intense crossfit training,
just needs to be consistent.
 Ways to Combat Stress

Journaling
1. Spending just two (2) minutes after each day writing down your
feelings
2. Make sure to include how it made you feel, whether it was
happy, funny, upsetting or made you angry
3. Then, take a moment to re-read these after a couple of days.
You might be surprised how you could get so upset over certain
details.

Be a Witness to your own Development and

Growth

1. Begin by writing the 10 most important things in

your life.
2. Keep it somewhere safe and easy to find, like on
your computer or phone.
3. Update as necessary and mark the date when
you do.
4. It won’t take long for you to see how you have
changed in just one year.
 Ways to Combat Stress

EFT Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique)

is an alternative acupressure
therapy treatment used to restore
balance to your disrupted energy

The main EFT tapping points: the side of the

hand, eyebrow, the side of and under the eye,
under the nose, chin, collarbone, underarm
and top of the head.
Unit 7: Development

Average Life Expectancy Ten Years ago 1950 1918

Males- 76 Males- 74 Males- 65 Males-36?
Females- 82 Females- 79 Females- 71 Females- 42?
 Prenatal Development and the
Newborn

How, over time, did we come to be who we are?

From zygote to birth, development progresses
in an orderly, though fragile, sequence.
 Conception
A single sperm cell (male) penetrates the outer
coating of the egg (female) and fuses to form
one fertilized cell, or zygote.
 Prenatal Development
A zygote is a fertilized egg with 100 cells that
become increasingly diverse. At about 14 days
the zygote turns into an embryo (a and b).
 Prenatal Development
At 9 weeks, an embryo turns into a fetus (c and d).
 Teratogens
▪ Teratogens are chemicals or viruses that can enter
the placenta and harm the developing fetus.
▪ Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
▪ HIV
▪ Drug Use
 The Innate abilities of Newborns
▪ Rooting Reflex: when
a newborn’s cheek is
touched they will turn
head toward touch and
begin sucking.
▪ Helps them locate
food.
▪ Disappears around
3-4 months.
Infants only 1 hour old, will stare at
the left image twice as long. What
does this tell us about their
behavior?
 Motor Development
First, infants begin to roll over. Next, they sit
unsupported, crawl, and finally walk.
Experience has little effect on this sequence.
Renee Altier for Worth Publishers

Phototake Inc./ Alamy Images

Profimedia.CZ s.r.o./ Alamy

Jim Craigmyle/ Corbis
 Genes: Our Codes for Life
Chromosomes containing DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid) are situated in the nucleus of a cell.
 Genes: Our Codes for Life
Segments within DNA consist of genes that
make proteins to determine our development.
 Genome

Genome is the set of complete instructions for

making an organism, containing all the genes in
that organism. Thus, the human genome makes
us human, and the genome for drosophila makes
it a fruit fly. (75 % of the genes that cause disease in humans
are also found in the fruit fly)

371
 372

How much of your DNA do you share with the person sitting next to you?
 What percentage of our DNA is
shared with other living things?

Chimpanzee- 96%
Chicken- 60%
Fruit fly- 60%
Banana- 60%

(Any other human being 99.9%)

 Twin Biology
Studying the effects of heredity and
environment on two sets of twins, identical and
fraternal, has come in handy.
 Twins and Procedures
Behavior geneticists’ effects of shared and unique
environments on total or partial genetic makeup.
 Twin Studies:
A number of studies compared identical twins
raised separately from birth, or close thereafter,
and found numerous similarities.

Separated Twins
Important
→ Personality, Intelligence

Abilities, Attitudes

Interests, Fears
Brain Waves, Heart Rate
 Eugenics: Emphasizing that everything stems from your
DNA and you cannot change. It aims to reduce human
suffering by “breeding out” disease, disabilities and so-called
undesirable characteristics from the human population.

Charles Davenport the leading eugenics

scientist that influenced Psychology in
the US to believe more in genetics that
environment.
The Iowa Soldiers Orphanage Home-
Moving Psychology from Eugenics
“thinking” to the importance of
environment and relationships.

The staff began testing the

children’s IQ using Alfred Binet’s
very first IQ test.
"The Annie Wittenmyer
They realized the IQ’s increased Home" 1865-1975
when they had been with an
adopted family and then returned.

Coach Allgood’s
Grandfather stayed
here in the 1930’s
 Gene-Environment Interaction
Genes can influence traits which affect responses,
and environment can affect gene activity.

Example: A genetic
predisposition that makes a
child restless and hyperactive
evokes an angry response from
his parents.
This stressful environment can
trigger genes in the child to
manufacture neurotransmitters
leading to depression.
Experience and Brain Development
Early postnatal experiences affect brain development.
Rosenzweig (1984) showed that rats raised in enriched
environments developed thicker cortices (Cerebral
Cortex) than those in impoverished environment.
 Culture and the Self
If a culture nurtures an
individual’s personal identity, it
is said to be individualist, but if a
group identity is favored then
the culture is described as
collectivist.

A collectivist support system can

benefit groups who experience disasters
such as the image of the earthquake in
Pakistan.

Kyodo News
381
Culture and the Self

382
 Jean Piaget
1896-1980

ON Exam
every year!
Piaget’s Stages of Development
Circular Reactions:

Behaviors that are repeated because the baby finds

it comforting or entertaining.
 Schemas
Piaget used the concept of schema,
assimilation and accommodation to
explain how we learn from our
environment.

Schemas are mental molds or examples

into which we pour our experiences.
 Assimilation and Accommodation
The process of
assimilation involves
incorporating new
experiences into our old
understanding (schema).
Accommodation:

Bill Anderson/ Photo Researchers, Inc.

Creating a new schema
all together.

Jean Piaget with a subject

Schema, Assimilation &
Accommodation
 Stranger Anxiety
Mary Ainsworth Study

• At about 8 months infants form schemas for

familiar faces and cannot assimilate new
faces.
• Last from about 8 to 24 months.
Konrad Lorenz: Imprinting
Certain birds and some
mammals form a bond with
their “mother” during the
critical period for
development. If the mother is
not around, a “surrogate”
mother relationship will be
formed by anyone who
accepts the role.
 Harlow’s Monkeys
Harry Harlow (1950s)
showed that infants
bond with surrogate

Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

mothers because of
bodily contact and not
because of
nourishment.
 Harry Harlow’s Monkey
Experiments

Insecure Attachment

Harlow Primate Laboratory, University of Wisconsin

Harlow’s studies showed that monkeys
experience great anxiety if their terry-cloth
mother is removed.
 Prolonged Deprivation
Consequences for children who are deprived love :
● Poor Relationships- 65% end in divorce
● 25% drop-out of school. Poor reading skills
● 80% chance for Psychological disorders
● Lower occupational jobs
● 60% chance of imprisonment for males
● 40% chance of becoming homeless (.17% of total
population in US is homeless.)
● 50% chance becoming a drug addict
 Parenting Styles: Diana Baumrind

Practice Description
Parents impose rules and expect
Authoritarian
obedience.
Parents submit to children’s
Permissive
demands.
Parents are demanding but
Authoritative
responsive to their children.
4th style: Neglectful parents provide neither warmth nor control.
They may meet basic physical needs but minimize the amount
of time they spend with their children and avoid becoming
emotionally attached with them.
 Characteristics of Adolescence…
In the United States, the period of adolescence is
characterized by 4 factors:
1. Adolescents tend
to be
age-segregated.
They interact
mostly with their
own age group,
rather than with
younger children
and older adults.
Jobs held by teens may give them an
opportunity to spend time with other age
groups: babysitting or working at a daycare
OR working in a retail store or fast-food
restaurant.
 Characteristics of Adolescence…
2. Adolescents in the United States often require a prolonged
period of economic dependency, due to the financial support
they need while extending their education in preparation for
higher-skilled jobs.

This economic dependency may An older child, still accepting

extend the period of adolescence financial support, will also have
for years… as long as age 24 or to accept the continuing control
even 30. of the parents.
 Characteristics of Adolescence…
3. Adolescents are deeply affected by, and develop strong
opinions about the events of the era and society in which
they live. They tend to support idealism, and participate in
movements toward social reform.

they support radical political

and religious movements; they
volunteer and support causes;
they participate in riots and
protests.
 Characteristics of Adolescence…
4. Adolescents are heavily targeted and influenced by social media.
With rapidly developing physical and cognitive capacities, they are
especially vulnerable to the reinforcements from social media
algorithms and captive to human responses that may leave them
feeling helpless, unattractive, or isolated. Constantly seeking
approval or stimulation through likes and videos, teenagers are a
large part of a trillion dollar advertisement market through choices of
their own.
 Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Thinking
1. Preconventional Morality: Before
age 9, children show morality to
avoid punishment or gain reward.
2. Conventional Morality: By early
adolescence, social rules and laws
are upheld for their own sake.
3. Postconventional Morality: Affirms
people’s agreed-upon rights or
follows personally perceived ethical
principles.
Erikson’s Social Development
 Old Age: Sensory Abilities
After age 70, hearing, distance perception, taste the sense of smell
diminish, as do muscle strength, reaction time, and stamina. After
80, neural processes slow down, especially for complex tasks.

Michael Newman/ PhotoEdit

 Aging and Intelligence

It is believed today that fluid intelligence (ability

to reason speedily) declines with age, but
crystalline intelligence (accumulated knowledge
and skills) does not. We gain vocabulary and
knowledge but lose recall memory and process
more slowly.
AP Psychology Unit 8
Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams,
Hypnosis, and Drugs
Consciousness
▶ A person’s awareness of everything that
is going on around him or her at any
given moment, which is used to organize
behavior
▶ Waking Consciousness: state in which
thoughts, feelings, and sensations are
clear, organized, and the person feels
alert
▶ Altered state of consciousness: the state
in which there is a shift in the quality of or
pattern of mental activity as compared
How much do you sleep?
Stages of sleep
▶ Non-REM Stage 1: light sleep
▶ Non-REM Stage 2: sleep spindles, your
body temperature drops, brief bursts of
activity lasting only a second or two
▶ Non-REM Stage 3 & 4: delta waves roll in
and the body is at its lowest level of
functioning
▶ Then person climbs back up to Stage 1
where they will begin dreaming (REM
stage)
Which stage is the toughest
to wake from?
Sleep Expert and founder of the Sleep
Research Center at Stanford University.

He is a leading authority on sleep, sleep

deprivation and the diagnosis and
treatment of sleep disorders such as sleep
apnea and narcolepsy.

For this pioneering work in a previously

uncharted field in the United States, he is
sometimes referred to as the American
Father of Sleep Medicine. Dr. William Dement
1928-2020
Why do we sleep?
Restorative theory
▶ Necessary to the
physical health of
the body and serves
to replenish
chemicals and
repair cell damage
 Problems that come from lack
of sleep
Shortens your long term memory:
In 2009, American and French researchers
determined that brain events called “sharp wave
ripples” are responsible for consolidating
memory. The ripples also transfer learned
information from the hippocampus to the
neocortex of the brain, where long-term
memories are stored. Sharp wave ripples occur
mostly during the deepest levels of sleep.
 Problems from a lack of
Sleep

Damages your Skin:

When you don’t get enough sleep,

your body releases more of the
stress hormone cortisol. In excess
amounts, cortisol can break down
skin collagen, the protein that keeps
skin smooth and elastic.
Problems from lack of Sleep

Bad for your Heart:

The results, published in 2007, showed

that those who had cut their sleep from
seven to five hours or fewer a night
nearly doubled their risk of death from all
causes. In particular, lack of sleep
doubled the risk of death from
cardiovascular disease
REM & Non-REM

▶ REM sleep is the stage of sleep in which

the eyes move rapidly under the eyelids
and the person is typically having a
dream. You don’t move much during this
stage of sleep. (paradoxical sleep)
▶ Non-REM sleep is much deeper, more
restful. You move around more (like
kicking or turning in bed)
Brain Waves!

▶ Beta waves: smaller and faster brain

waves, typically indicating mental activity
▶ Alpha waves: brain waves that indicate a
state of relaxation or light sleep
▶ Theta waves: brain waves indicating the
early stage of sleep
▶ Delta waves: long, slow waves that
indicate the deepest stage of sleep
Gamma Waves-
highly focused and
learning.

Beta Waves

Alpha Waves-
relaxed

Theta Waves- light sleep or

meditation, hypnosis. (kids
remain in this brainwave
much of the time)

Delta Waves
Sleep disorders
▶ Nightmares: bad dreams occurring in
REM sleep
▶ REM behavior disorder: a rare disorder in
which the mechanism that blocks the
movement of the voluntary muscle fails,
allowing the person to thrash around
and even get up and act out nightmares
▶ Sleepwalking: occurring during sleep, an
episode of moving or walking around
during ones sleep
▶ Night terrors: relatively rare disorder in
 Sleep disorders
▶ Insomnia: the inability to get
sleep, stay asleep, or have
good quality of sleep
▶ Sleep apnea: disorder in which
the person stops breathing for
nearly half a minute or more
throughout the night. Never
gets into long REM.
▶ Narcolepsy: sleep disorder in
which a person falls
immediately into REM sleep
during the day without warning
Dreams
▶ Why do people dream and what
do they dream about?
▶ Freud: dreams are wish
fulfillment. Freudian psychology
implies problems of patients
stem from conflicts and events
that have been buried in their
“unconscious” mind since
childhood.
▶ Manifest content: actual
content of the dream itself
▶ Latent content: the hidden
Hypnosis Thet
a
Wav
▶ The state of consciousness in which es
the person is especially susceptible
to suggestion
Steps in hypnotic
induction
1. The hypnotist tells the person to focus on
what is being said
2. The person is told to relax and feel tired
3. The hypnotist tells the person to “let go”
and accept suggestions easily
4. The person is told to use vivid imagination
• The key to hypnosis is a willing participant
• 80% of the population is able to be
hypnotized
• But only 40% of those are good candidates
 Help make white blood
cells
Natural
Circadian
Rhythm: most
important to
“good” sleep
and health.

White blood cells

helps your body with

stress and immunity
(hydrocortisone)
Psychoactive Drugs

▶ Psychoactive drugs: drugs that alter

thinking, perception, and memory
▶ Physical dependence: condition
occurring when a person’s body
becomes unable to function normally
without a particular drug
▶ Withdrawal: physical symptoms that can
include nausea, pain, tremors,
crankiness, and high blood pressure
resulting from a lack of an addictive drug
 Dependence
Physical dependence Psychological
dependence
▶ Physical symptoms ▶ Fulfills a feeling or
continued feeling
▶ Can cause medical
▶ Provided emotional relief
complications
from unpleasant feelings
▶ Drug therapy can be ▶ Seen as Positive
provided reinforcement
▶ May accompany
70,000 people die from physical dependence
drugs in the US every but will also need
year. psychotherapy to treat
▶ Often group therapy
Stimulants
DRUGS THAT INCREASE THE FUNCTIONING OF THE
NERVOUS SYSTEM
 Amphetamines
▶ Stimulants that are synthesized, made in
labs rather than being found in nature
▶ Prescribed: Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta
▶ Causing the CNS to go into overdrive
▶ Don’t provide extra energy but causes
the person to burn up whatever energy
they have left
▶ Typically a “crash” happens, tendency
to want more
▶ Quick to develop a tolerance, needing
more and more
▶ Amphetamine psychosis causes
 Cocaine
▶ Natural drug found in coca plant leaves
▶ Feelings of euphoria, energy, power, and
pleasure
▶ Convulsions can happen even at first use
▶ Crack cocaine is a cheaper version and is said
to be more addictive than cocaine
Three major signs of physical dependence
1. Compulsive: if it is available the addict will
have to use it
2. Loss of control: people cannot stop using until
its gone or they’ve exhausted themselves or their
resources
Cocaine does not
allow excess
dopamine to be
pulled back up,
resulting in
excess dopamine
in the brain.

Regular use of
drugs like Cocaine,
THC or Meth will
lower the production
 Antagonist and
Agonists
A receptor is the part of a nerve that receives and reads
chemical signals. It then transmits information to the
brain and nervous system using electrical signals.
Antagonists attach to the receptors in the brain and
block the effect of agonists (which are chemicals that
stimulate receptors and cause a response).
 Methamphetamine

▶ Meth is in the same class as cocaine

▶ Highly addictive, meth burns up the
body’s resources
▶ “I started using crystal meth when I was a
senior in high school. Before my first
semester of college was up, meth
became such a big problem that I had
to drop out. I looked like I had chicken
pox, from hours of staring at myself in the
 Nicotine through vaping,
smoking
▶ toxic stimulant contains over 7,000 different
chemicals.
▶ Slight rush, raises blood pressure and
accelerates the heart as well as providing a
rush of sugar into the bloodstream by
stimulating the release of adrenalin
▶ Difficult to quit (Highly addictive)
▶ Reduces acetylcholine and the number of
receptors in the brain for smokers or people
vaping. Acetylcholine causes muscles to
contract, activates pain responses and
regulates endocrine and REM sleep functions.
 Caffeine
▶ A mild stimulant found in coffee,
tea, and several other plant based
substances
▶ Found in 60 types of plants
▶ Maintain alertness
▶ Increases effectiveness of pain pills
▶ FDA says 400mg a day is the limit
▶ Caffeine has vasoconstrictive properties,
meaning it narrows blood vessels, restricting
blood flow.
▶ Let’s look at a chart!
Depressants
DRUGS THAT DECREASE THE FUNCTIONING OF THE
NERVOUS SYSTEM
Barbiturates or the Major
Tranquilizers
▶ Drugs that have a sedative (sleep-inducing
effect)
▶ Effects can range from mild sedation to
unconsciousness or coma
▶ Overdoses cause your breathing and heart to
stop
▶ Addicted easily and quickly
▶ Withdrawal can be life-threatening due to
convulsions or seizures
▶ Most dangerous use is with alcohol
▶ (Heath Ledger died of an overdose [ruled an
accidental drug interaction] with SIX different
Benzodiazepines

▶ Minor tranquilizers
▶ Used to lower anxiety and reduce stress
▶ Can be addictive and have physical
withdrawal symptoms
▶ Xanax, valium, Ativan, and rohypnol
(“the date rape drug”)
Effects of Alcohol and
Xanax
Aggression and irritability: Several early
studies have found that individuals who use
alcohol and benzodiazepines like Xanax
together are far more prone to become
aggressive, irritable, and angry than
individuals who use either substance alone.
Even though these drugs produce increased
feelings of relaxation and less vulnerability to
stress, they also inhibit an individual’s ability
to self-monitor their feelings and behaviors.
Cognitive issues: Individuals taking alcohol
and Xanax in combination will inevitably
suffer some cognitive issues including
 Rohypnol
Intoxication is generally associated with
impaired judgment and motor skills. The
drug has no taste or odor, so those given it
don't realize what is happening. About ten
minutes after ingesting the drug, a
woman may feel dizzy and disoriented,
simultaneously too hot and too cold,
and/or nauseated. She may experience
difficulty speaking and moving, and then
pass out. Effects peak within two hours
and can persist for up to eight hours. Such
Alcohol
Alcohol

▶ Most commonly used and

abused drug
▶ Estimated 10 to 20 MILLION
people in the U.S. are
alcoholics
 Alcoholism
Here are some of the more common
symptoms associated with the disease:

● Drinking alone and/or attempting to hide it

from others
● Not being able to place a limit on
consumption
● Missing family-based and/or
business-related events
● Feeling irritable when unable to have a
drink
● Relationship trouble stemming from
Narcoti
cs
PAIN KILLERS, SUPPRESS THE SENSATION OF PAIN BY
BINDING TO AND STIMULATING THE NERVOUS SYSTEMS
NATURAL RECEPTOR SITES FOR ENDORPHINS
Opium

▶ Substance derived from the

opium poppy from which all
narcotic drugs are derived
▶ Known drug for 2,000 years
▶ Basis of morphine and heroin
Lean is an Opioid
What is it? Cough syrup that contains codeine but
when taken with alcohol it can produce bad side
effects. Is physically addictive.
▶ Difficulty in sleeping * Memory loss
▶ Agitation * Blurred vision
▶ Sweating * Dizziness
▶ Diarrhea
▶ Anxiety
▶ Muscle aches
If a person begins to use more often it can produce:

▶ Nausea/Vomiting
▶ Seizures
▶ long term memory loss
Morphine

▶ Narcotic drug derived from

opium, used to treat severe pain
▶ Dissolved opium in acid and then
neutralized with ammonia
▶ Thought at one time to be a
“wonder drug”
▶ Used only in short periods of time
Heroi
n
▶ Narcotic drug derived from opium that is
extremely addicted
▶ Same feelings as morphine
▶ Incredibly addictive, often at first use
▶ Drug therapies used to treat physical
withdrawal such as methadone
 Prescribed Opioids mainly
Fentanyl!

▶ Prescribed as pain killers

▶ Extremely addictive

▶ 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times

stronger than morphine.

▶ will behave much like a heroin addict with 883 people in Texas
died from
fentanyl-related
similar withdrawals overdoses in 2020.
Provisional data
shows that number
climbed to 1,672
deaths in 2021 — an
 Hallucinogens
DRUGS THAT CAUSE FALSE SENSORY MESSAGES, ALTERING
THE PERCEPTION OF REALITY
LSD

▶ Lysergic acid diethylamide

▶ Synthesized from grains
▶ One of the most potent and
powerful hallucinogens
▶ People are known to have a
reoccuring trip years later,
because it does not leave your
body.
▶ Colors seem brighter and
sensations are much more intense
PCP
▶ Phencyclidine
▶ Used only In veterinary medicine
because it is so powerful
▶ Depending on the dosage it can be a
hallucinogen, stimulant, depressant, or
an analgesic (pain killing)
▶ Acts of violence
▶ Immense strength
▶ They feel no signal of pain so people
often hurt themselves
MDMA (Ecstasy or Molly)

▶ Synthetic drug
▶ Capable of producing hallucinogens
▶ It is now classified as a stimulatory
hallucinogenic which are drugs that
produce a psychomotor stimulant and
hallucinogenic effects
▶ Raise body temp, can cause
dehydration
▶ Very dangerous to mix with alcohol
 Marijuana
▶ Marijuana contains more than 400
known chemicals
▶ Effects the growth of frontal lobe
(disturbs pruning)
▶ Marijuana use disorders are often
10 times the
associated with dependence — in which dopamine levels
when using, effects
a person feels withdrawal symptoms your hypothalamus
when not taking the drug. Frequent users
report irritability, complain about being
bored, mood and sleep difficulties,
decreased appetite, cravings, and
physical discomfort that peak within the
first week after quitting and with
Addiction Center lastinformation
up to two on all drugs
weeks.
Mushroo
ms
Psilocybin is the substance in mushrooms that cause hallucinations.
The drug can trigger psychotic episodes.

Individuals with a family history of psychosis face an increased risk

of an adverse psychiatric reaction to psilocybin.

Psilocybin does not always cause active visual or auditory

hallucinations. Instead, it distorts how some people who use the
drug perceive objects and people already in their environment.

The quantity of the drug a person consumes, their past experiences,

and their expectations of how the experience will take shape can
all impact the effects of psilocybin.

According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug

Addiction (EMCDDA), the hallucinogenic effects of psilocybin
usually occur within 30 minutes after a person ingests it and last 4–6
Sugar
According to the American Heart
Association we should only
consume 6 to 9 teaspoons a day.
That’s 25 to 37 grams.
● The most common of diabetes is type 2.
According to the CDC, 90 to 95 percent
of people with diabetes in the United
States have type 2. Just 5 percent of
● people
Betweenhave type
1990 and1 (the one
2010, theyou're
numberborn
of
with)
people living with diabetes more than
tripled, and the number of new cases
doubled
● In every year.
1995, obesity affected 15.3 percent of Americans,
and in 2008, the figure was 25.6 percent. From
1998 to 2008, the incidence of diabetes increased
by 90 percent. Today 38% of Americans are
Sensation and Perception
AP Psychology
Unit 9
 Senses
● Seeing
● Smell
● Hearing
● Taste
● Touch
● We have an amazing ability to distinguish different
sensations. For example, a touch sensation does
not “feel” the same as a “hearing” sensation.
 Sensation and Perception
● Sensation: process that occurs when special receptors in the
sense organs are activated, allowing various forms of outside
stimuli to become neural signals in the brain.
● Perception: the method in which the sensations experienced at
any given moment are interpreted and organized in some
meaningful fashion.

● Signal detection theory: your ability to detect a stimuli based

on how intense it is and your own awareness.
Top Down Processing:
● Processing information from
previous experiences and
expectations.
● Using your background
knowledge to fill in gaps

ing
s o n
e Rea
uc tiv
Ded
heu
rist
ic
 e Re a so ning Bottom-up Processing
Inductiv

Processing information that

is driven by senses and
awareness alone.

Learning new words

for the first time.
Sensation Part
of Notes:
 Sensory Coding
● Our senses “boil down” floods of information into
a stream of useful data.
● After our senses analyze information, our senses
use sensory “coding.”
● Sensory coding: important features of the world
are converted into neural messages understood by
the brain. Also known as “ transduction.”
 TA NT!!
IMPOR
 Senses
● The minimum stimulation necessary to detect a
particular stimulus ( light, sound, pressure, taste,
odor ) is called its absolute threshold.
● Example: we can feel a bee’s wing falling on our cheek,
or smell a drop of perfume in a small apartment 50%
of the time.
● How loud does someone have to call out your name
before you can hear it.
 Absolute Thresholds
● We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the microscopic parasites
crawling on our skin. We don't sense all the odors around us or
taste every individual spice in our gourmet dinner. We only sense
those things we are able to sense. We don't have the sense of smell
like a bloodhound or the sense of sight like a hawk; our
thresholds are different from these animals and often even from
each other.
Must
Memorize!
 Absolute Thresholds
● Absolute thresholds define the sensory worlds of
humans and animals.
● Humans can hear sounds down to 20
Hertz ( vibrations ) per second and up to 20,000
hertz.
● This is a practical range because if your ears could
sense tones below 20 hertz, you would hear the
movements of your muscles rubbing together!
Absolute Thresholds
● Dogs, bats, and cats, and other animals can hear
sounds well above 20,000 hertz.
● Dog whistles ( 40,000 to 50,000) can be heard by dogs
but not by humans.
● For humans this sound is beyond our awareness.
 Sensory Adaptation v. Habituation

Sensory Adaptation/Neural Adaptation

● Tendency of sensory receptor cells to become less
responsive Naturally to a stimulus that is unchanging.
● Receptors are no longer sending signals to the brain
● Clothes would drive us crazy, ticking of the clock, and odors
from our home would not go away.
Habituation

Occurs when our behavioral response to a repeated stimulus

diminishes over time.
Habituation is a type of learning that occurs by choice while
adaptation is considered a natural, behavioral trait that benefits
an organism in its environment.
Example; You can find several examples of habituation just in nature. A
snail will quickly crawl into its shell the first time they are poked by a
stick. The second time, it will crawl back but will not remain in its shell
for as long. Eventually, after some time, the snail might not even crawl
to its shell after being poked because it has learned that the stick is not
a threat.
Signal Detection
Theory (cocktail
party effect)

This refers to
our attempt to
focus on one
particular
stimulus and
ignore the flood
of information
entering
our senses.
 The Amazing Eye
● Light is one form of electromagnetic waves which travel
around us.
● The transparent covering on the front surface of the eyeball
that bends light rays inward toward the pupil is called the
CORNEA.
● The cornea bends light inward and usher it into the pupil
which is the small dark opening in the color of the iris. (
the pupil is a hole in your eye ). The iris (colored part)
controls the contraction of this pupil. It is an involuntary
reflex.
 The EYE
● Your pupil responds to emotions as well as light!
● When a person looks at someone or something
highly desirable, the pupils dilate ( widen ) as if to
take in more of the pleasing view!
● It also dilates ( widens ) when a person is
frightened, telling a lie, or sexually aroused.
● Pupil size is also related to mental effort, the more
intense the mental activity, the larger the pupil
becomes.
 The EYE
● The lens is just
behind the iris and
the pupil. This
changes shape as it
focuses on the retina.
● The retina is at the
back of the eye.
Images are projected
from the lens.
 co
th llec
co at c tio
lo re n o
Blind spot r d at f
et e a ne
ail n rv
in e fi
te
ns ber
e s
Are You Color Blind?
The trichromatic theory states that
there are three types of cones in the
retina that can detect all colors you see.
 Why are People Color blind?
Color blindness often happens when someone cannot distinguish
between certain colors. This usually happens between greens and
reds, and occasionally blues.
In the retina, there are two types of cells that detect light. They are
called rods and cones. Rods detect only light and dark. Cone cells
detect color and are concentrated near the center of your vision.
There are three types of cones that see color: red, green and blue.
The brain uses input from these cone cells to determine our color
perception.
Color blindness can happen when one or more of the color cone
cells are absent, not working
Contributions of Hubel and Wiesel

Up to this point in research, the world of neurology just

understood cells in the retina [photoreceptors] that
respond to circular light. Each cell fires when you shine
light in a specific small circular area of the visual field,
with different cells responding to light in different
places. These neurons respond this way because they
get positive input from photoreceptors that are
clustered together in a specific area of the retina.

In an experiment done with a cat and its response to

cardboard images, they discovered “simple cells” that
actually detect lines.
Stare at this image for 20 seconds and then the whiteboard or blank
paper and blink. (Opponent-Process Theory)- Afterimages
The Opponent Process Theory of Color Vision
That means after image will be the pair what each partner
with:
These three receptor complexes are the red-green
complex, the blue-yellow complex, and the black-
white
Parallel Processing: The eyes ability to detect many colors and
shapes and then the mind combines them in a meaningful
way.
 Depth Perception
● Depth Perception: is the ability to see three
dimensional space and to accurately judge distances.
You wouldn’t be able to drive a car or ride a bicycle,
play sports, etc.
● The world would look like a flat surface!
● Images cast on the retina do not contain depth. They
are flat, just like a photograph. So how do we perceive
depth????
Binocular Depth Cues
● Binocular depth cues are depth cues that
depend on two eyes working together.
● Each eye is about 2 ½ inches apart, just
enough to give each eye a slightly different
view of the objects focused on, and
consequently a slightly different retinal
image.
● These slightly different views are called
binocular disparity.
 Class Exercise
● Hold a pencil/pen at arms length straight in front
of you. Then close your right eye and focus on the
pencil, then left, than right.
● The pencil will appear to be moving side by side.
This is BINOCULAR DISPARITY.
● Two different images on the retina which allow you
to perceive depth. Helps us see things in 3D. Each
eye gets a different view of the world, this provides
you with depth perception.
The Visual Cliff Experiment
● Researchers Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk wanted
to test depth perception in children
● Built a special table that had a big drop on one side.
They called it the “visual cliff.”
● Different size of the pattern was a clue for depth.
● Whole table was then covered by a clear glass top, so
that a baby could safely be placed on or crawl across
the “deep” side.
● Youtube.com Visual Cliff ( 1950s)
● Joseph Campos-Visual Cliff
 Visual Cliff Results
● Infants tested in this study ranged from 6 months to 14
months old.
● 81 percent refused to crawl over the deep side.
● They interpreted this as a very early sign of depth
perception.
 Hearing
● How do humans hear?
● By picking up sound waves in the air.
● Sound waves are invisible ripples of high and low air
pressure created by objects that vibrate or shake
rapidly to and fro.
● You can “feel” sound waves if you’ve ever put your hand
on a loud, booming speaker.
 Sounds Waves
● A little science!
● Sound waves have amplitude ( which is the height of
each wave and frequency which is the number of
waves per second).
● Low pitch sounds have low frequency, and low
amplitude
● High pitch sounds high amplitude and high frequency.
 How we hear!
● The ear converts this type of
energy-in this case- the energy of
sound waves, into tiny electrical
nerve signals. (Transduction)
● Sound waves are transmitted into the
cochlea, a snail shaped tube in the ear.
There are tiny hairs in this cochlea that
are stimulated. These vibrations are then
transmitted to the brain as sound.
● Exposure to loud noises can damage the
ear so be careful!
 Reasons for Hearing Loss

Conduction Hearing Loss

- Mechanical damage to tiny bones or
eardrum Diseases linked to deafness:
- Can be improved by use of hearing ● Meningitis
aid
● Chickenpox
Sensorineural Hearing Loss ● mumps
- Most common type deafness
- Nerve deafness due to damage in
cochlea or auditory nerve
- Sometimes can be fixed by cochlear
implant
 Vestibular Sense
The balance sense, allows us to move smoothly.
We are able to maintain our balance while engaged in
activities because of this sense. Balance is influenced
by the semicircular canals.
Smell
● Airborne molecules must reach receptors in the back of
the nose (olfactory bulb and olfactory nerve) in order to
smell. *Transduction
● Sniffing swirls the air up into these receptors.
● Messages from these receptors are sent to the brain
temporal lobe and to parts of the limbic system (where
hippocampus is located)
● That’s why certain smells conjure up memories!
 There are
Taste supertasters in our
population.

● Your tongue is covered with small bumps called the papillae.

Each papillae has 100-200 taste buds ( sensory receptors of
taste!)
● Basic taste sensations are sweet, salt, sour, bitter and umami
(savory, meaty)
● Smell and taste work together ( colds don’t help!)
● Taste signals travel slowly to the brain ( it may take a few
seconds to realize what the taste is ).
● humans are more sensitive to bitter and less sensitive to sweet
- innate behavior
“The tongue does not have different regions
specialized for different tastes,” says Brian
Lewandowski, a neuroscientist and taste expert
at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in
Philadelphia. “All regions of the tongue that
detect taste respond to all five taste qualities.
There are some mild regional differences in
sensitivity for different taste qualities, but these
differences are small enough that they do not
play a clear role in taste perception.”

-Brainfact.org
 Touch
Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
-Weber’s Law
The just noticeable difference (JND), also known as the
difference threshold, is the minimum level of stimulation
that a person can detect 50 percent of the time.

For example, if you were asked to hold two objects of

different weights, the just noticeable difference would be
the minimum weight difference between the two that you
could sense half of the time.
Weber’s Law
“Mars is discontinuing its King
● Computes the Just Noticeable Size Snickers bar, the chocolate
Difference bar is headed for the chopping
block, as the venerable candy
● The more intense the stimulus the company pares down its products
more change is needed to notice in the face of America's obesity
the difference. epidemic.”- CNN 2012

3.29 ounces
3.7 ounces
Perception Part of Notes
 Perceptual Set or Consistencies
-our schemas and prior experiences create
cognitive bias.

Color constancy

Size constancy
Subliminal Messages

Subliminal messages
are below one’s
absolute threshold.
Gestalt Theories of Perception
Gestalt
A German word that refers to the whole form, pattern, or configuration a person
perceives (The big picture)

5 different Theories
Figure-ground
Similarity
Proximity
Continuity
Closure
Figure Ground Images
(2 in one image)
What do you see in this picture?
Law of Similarity:
(We observe similar things in groups)
Law of Proximity:
(Based on grouping)
Law of Continuity: the eyes create
momentum as they move from one end to another.
Also “running lights” an example
Law of Closure: when enough of the object is
shown our brains fill in the gaps.
Perception Exercise
 Cultural Influence on Emotional Perceptions

● Two studies tested the hypothesis that in judging people’s emotions from their
facial expressions, Japanese, more than Westerners, incorporate information
from the social context or background. In Study 1, participants viewed
cartoons depicting a happy, sad, angry, or neutral person surrounded by other
people expressing the same emotion as the central person or a different one.
The surrounding people’s emotions influenced Japanese but not Westerners’
perceptions of the central person.

● Previous findings on East–West differences suggests that Westerners see

emotions as individual feelings, whereas Japanese see them as
inseparable from the feelings of the group.
Influences on Perception
Attention
❑ Process of sorting through sensations and selecting some for
further processing
❑ Some sensations are automatic requiring minimal mental
effort
❑ Inattentional blindness
❑ Changes in objects not receiving direct attention are not
noticed
❑ Cocktail party phenomenon
❑ When you hear your name, focus follows due to
assumption that other meaningful information will follow
❑ Focus
❑ Information that receives focus is remembered while other
stimulation received at same time is lost
Piano Stairs in Sweden
A Volkswagen initiative called The
Fun Theory is setting out to prove
that people’s behavior can be
changed for the better by making
mundane activities fun. In a recent
experiment, they set up musical
piano steps on the staircase of a
Stockholm, Sweden subway station.
That day, 66 percent more
people took the stairs than
usual, proving that fun is the
best way to get people to
change their ways.
© E.R. Degginger/Animals Animals
Can you find the human face here?
Phi Phenomenon: moving illusions
Optical Illusion

●
Curved lines or straight lines
●
Which one of the center circles is
larger?
How many prongs are there?
●
 Supermarket Psychology
[Industrial Psych]
● Consumers buying more than what they need
● Slow music
● Red and yellow are NOTICEABLE
● Green evokes feelings of health
● Blue means reliable and trusting
● Visual merchandising is key
● Fresh flowers in the front to appeal to your sense of smell!
● Cereal and coffee usually in the middle aisles!
“I am, somehow, less interested in
the weight and convolutions of
Einstein’s brain than in the near
certainty that people of equal
talent have lived and died in cotton
fields and sweatshops.”

-Steven Jay Gould

famous paleontologist
 = Intelligence Quotient
AP Psychology
Intelligence
Unit 10
Does Brain Size have anything to do with Intelligence?

Answer: No

But there have been recent studies done that show a

+.33 correlation between MRI scans of brain mass and
intelligence.

Do you remember what 1.0, -1.0, and 0 meant for

Correlation?

What is known is that brains that have been analyzed

after death show up to 17% more synapses in the
brains of people who had better than average IQs.
Intelligence is:
▪ Learn from Experience
▪ Solve Problems
▪ Use Knowledge to Adapt

The Dynamics of Intelligence

▪ Extremes of Intelligence
Twin and adoption studies indicate that 70%
of intelligence differences seems to come
from hereditary.
CORRELATION SCORES WITH INTELLIGENCE
where 1 is 100% the same.

Identical Twins reared together = .85

Identical Twins reared apart = .72

Fraternal Twins reared together = .60

Siblings reared together = .45

Unrelated individuals reared together = .32
 Charles Spearman 1863-1945
• Believed we have one (1) general intelligence or
g score that measures our intelligence.

• People have special abilities, but claimed that

these abilities help in other abilities as well.
(Those who excel in verbal intelligence, score
high in spatial or reasoning ability.)
 Extreme Intelligence:

• Others may score low on Intelligence Tests but are

exceptional in one area. (Savant Syndrome)

• Savants- do not have to be autistic. Four out of 5 are male.

Stephen Wiltshire- Savant who can sketch city horizons by memory.

Howard Gardner
(1980’s-2006)
Robert Sternberg felt there were only 3:
Sternberg indicated 5 Components of
Creativity?

1.Expertise

2.Imagination

3.Venturesome

4.Intrinsic motivation

5.Creative Environment
Edward Thorndike 1920’s- saw the
importance of social intelligence.

Emotional Intelligence:
•Perceive Emotions
•Understand Emotions
•Manage Emotions
•Use Emotions effectively
 1st IQ Test in
Alfred Binet
History

Alfred Binet and his

colleague Théodore Simon
practiced a more modern
form of intelligence testing
by developing questions
that would predict
children’s future progress in
the Paris school system.

1857-1911
Lewis Terman (1877-1956) professor at Stanford

Sometime after Binet’s death, Terman combined

Binet test to test for adults and called it the
Stanford-Binet Test

The IQ Test was born. Scores were formulated by

the following:

Terman died a leader in Eugenics!

 David Wechsler
Wechsler developed the:
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS):
1939, 16+

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

(WISC)
1949, 6-16
Measure verbal and performance
Wechsler Preschool & Primary School Scale
of Intelligence, 1967, Ages: 2.5 - 7

1896 – 1981
 WAIS
WAIS measures overall intelligence and 11 other
aspects related to intelligence that are designed to
assess clinical and educational problems.
 Principles of Test Construction

For a psychological test to be acceptable it must

fulfill the following three criteria:

1. Standardization
2. Reliability
3. Validity
 Standardization
Standardizing a test involves administering a test that
will be graded consistently in order to establish a
basis for meaningful comparison.

Finding Mean, Median and Mode

s
r i n g score
a
Comp others
with
 Reliability
A test is reliable when it yields consistent results. To
establish reliability researchers establish different
procedures:

1. Split-half Reliability: Dividing the test into two

equal halves and assessing how consistent the
scores are.
2. Test-Retest Reliability: Using the same test on two
occasions to measure consistency.
 Validity
Validity of a test refers to what the test is supposed
to measure or predict.

1. Content Validity: Refers to the extent a test

measures a particular behavior or trait.
2. Predictive Validity: Refers to the function of a test
in predicting a particular behavior or trait.
GRE & GPA
 Assessing Intelligence

Psychologists define intelligence testing as a

method for assessing an individual’s mental
aptitudes and comparing them with others using
numerical scores.

(Standardized)
 Normal Curve
Standardized tests establish a normal distribution
of scores on a tested population in a bell-shaped
pattern called the normal curve.
Achievement v. Aptitude Testing

Achievement: Find out how

much you know about
something you have studied.

Aptitude: Find out someone’s

capacity to learn something.
What skills are you good at?
 Flynn Effect

In the past 60 years, intelligence scores have risen

steadily by an average of 27 points. This
phenomenon is known as the Flynn effect.
 Extremes of Intelligence
A valid intelligence test divides two groups of people
into two extremes: the intellectually disabled (IQ 70)
and individuals with high intelligence (IQ 135). These
two groups are significantly different.

IQ A
100 verage
is
 High Intelligence
Contrary to popular belief, people with high
intelligence test scores tend to be healthy, well
adjusted, and unusually successful academically.
(Lewis Terman study)

Sho Yano aced

the SAT at age 8
and become a
doctor at 21.
 Neurodiversity
Having a brain that works differently from the average
or “neurotypical” person. This may be differences in
social preferences, ways of learning, ways of
communicating and/or ways of perceiving the
environment.
 Autism
• Neurodevelopmental
disorder
• Prevalence: 2.8%
• On a spectrum
• Symptoms
– Social
– Communication
– Self-stimulation
SUMMARY
Intelligence can be defined in many disciplines.
Men and Women are the same globally in IQ (100.6,
average)
Environment does play a role in two ways: Provides
one to practice their intelligence and most importantly
provides opportunity.
Remember:
-Romanian Orphans scored low on intelligence tests
because they were not loved and nurtured. (Harlow’s
Monkeys unit)
Jacob Barnett
My
ers
Br
Personality Theories
igg
sP
ers
Unit 11
on
ali
ty
Te
st
 Definitions
•Personality
Distinctive and relatively stable pattern of
behaviors, thoughts, motives, and emotions that
characterizes an individual

•Trait
A characteristic of an individual, describing a
habitual way of behaving, thinking, and feeling
◦ shy, outgoing, ambitious, lazy, easy-going, anal,
high-strung, confident, grumpy, happy, friendly, etc
Do You Remember: Fundamental Attribution
Error? (Unit 2- Social Psychology)

How could that be related to how we perceive

someone’s personality?
Theories of Personality
• Psychodynamic Theories
• Behaviorism and Social Cognitive
Theories
• Humanistic Theories
• Trait Theories (Biological)
 Psychodynamic Theories

Sigmund Freud – Psychoanalysis

Explains behavior and personality in
terms of unconscious dynamics within
the individual
● Emphasizes internal conflicts,
attachments, and motivations

Adult personalities are formed by

experiences in early childhood
 Freud’s Psychoanalysis:
The structure of personality

1. Id
- Unconscious
2. Ego
- unconscious, preconscious,
conscious
3. Superego
- unconscious, preconscious, conscious
Freud’s Psychoanalysis:
Inn
er C
Id hild

Operates according to the pleasure principle

● Present from birth
● Primitive
basic needs and wants
● 2 competing instincts:
Life (sexual) - libido
Death (aggressive)
● Unconscious
Freud’s Psychoanalysis: The
insi Adult
Super-Ego de y
ou
Moral Conscience
Develops around age 5
◦ At end of Phallic Stage
Stores and enforces rules
◦ Inner voice that tells you not
to do something or that what
you did was wrong
2 subsystems:
◦ Ego Ideal = parents
approve/value
◦ Conscience = parents
disapproval
 Freud’s Psychoanalysis:
Yo
ur
M ind
Operates according to the reality Ego
principle
◦ Arises in first 3 years of life

◦Mediates between ID and Superego

◦Rational part of mind

◦ you can’t always get what you
want
◦ Floats between all 3 levels of
consciousness
Id Super-ego
Not Freud’s Theory-
Then you have Your True Self
★ Your real self is that which remains in the present.
★ It is without thoughts of past or future, just feelings
★ People attempt to remain in their “Self” with breathing
techniques and meditation.
★ This is the part of you that can remove stress and
anxiety.
★ If you ever felt a calm come over your body during
certain feelings of happiness, joy or even sadness- this
is your true Self
 Freud came up with our 8 Types of
Defense Mechanisms

▪Defense Mechanisms
the ego’s protective methods of reducing
anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality
1. Denial
▪Consciously believing that
something is not real,
when it is.

2. Repression
Unconsciously, removing
hurtful memories
without knowing it.
3. Regression
▪defense mechanism in which an individual faced
with anxiety retreats to a more infantile
psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy
remains fixated

Arguing
for no g
reason ood
.
4. Reaction Formation
▪Defense mechanism by which the ego
unconsciously switches unacceptable
impulses into their opposites

● may react happy or giddy when

nervous or anxious.

Not b
eing t
rue to
your
belief
s

Someone bullying another person

he or she likes.
5. Projection
▪defense mechanism by which people
disguise their own threatening impulses by
attributing them to others

6. Rationalization
▪defense mechanism that offers
self-justifying explanations in place of the
real, more threatening, unconscious reasons
for one’s actions

“It’s just Xanax, which is prescribed by

doctors. I can handle it myself.”
7. Displacement

▪defense mechanism that shifts sexual or

aggressive impulses toward a more
acceptable or less threatening object or
person
8. Sublimation

socially unacceptable impulses or

idealizations are transformed into
socially acceptable actions or
behavior, possibly resulting in a
long-term conversion of the initial
impulse.

Example: After losing his father to suicide in 2018, 16-year-old Jacob Grosberg
decided to start The Conan Fund. The charity is a mental health advocacy agency
that aims to raise awareness and raise funds for mental health organizations that
provide resources to adults and children in urgent need of support.
 Your turn
Your math instructor caught you with the textbook
open during a test. Despite the fact that you know
she knows you were cheating, you protest your
innocence. This defense mechanism is:
1. Denial
2. Reaction formation
3. Regression
4. Displacement
 Personality development:
Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Fixation occurs when the conflicts at a given stage aren’t resolved successfully

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

1. Oral (birth – 18 months)

◦ Babies learn about the world with their mouths, oral pleasures

◦ Oral fixation – preoccupation with oral activities as an adult

2. Anal (18 months – 3 years)

◦ Control of eliminating and retaining feces, toilet training issues

◦ Anal retentive – obsession with cleanliness, perfection, control

◦ Anal expulsive – messy, disorganized

3. Phallic (Oedipal; 3 – 5 or 6 years)

◦ Pleasure zone is the genitals

◦ Oedipus complex – development of feelings for opposite sex parent and rivalry feelings towards same sex parent

◦ Boys – fear of castration; Girls – penis envy

4. Latency (6 – puberty)
◦ Sexual urges repressed, play with same sex peers

5. Genital (puberty on)

◦ Leads to adult sexuality
 1909

Sigmund Freud Stanley Hall Carl Jung

Posed at Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts

Jungian Theory

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Divided Unconscious into 2 parts:

● Personal unconscious- reservoir of personal information and

memories that was once conscious, but has been forgotten or
suppressed and is unique to the individual.
● Collective Unconsciousness: deepest level of human
psyche and thinking that connects everyone to each other.
- Contains universal memories, symbols and experiences.
- Common symbols in books and movies.
Jungian Theory
(aka analytical psychology)

Archetype: a generic, idealized model of a person,

personality or behavior, Stereotype

Commonly seen archetypes

◦ The Child
◦ The Hero
◦ The Great Mother
The following material shows the behavior of the Global Consciousness Project’s
network of 37 REG devices called eggs placed around the world as they responded
during the periods of time specified in formal predictions for the events of September
11 2001.
The beginning of Covid results from the “EGGS”:
Psychoanalytic Theory (cont.)

Some neo-Freudians eventually split with Freudian ideas

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)
• Disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on
unconscious, biological drives, and on the
importance of sexuality
• Main driving force in personality
resides in the ego, specifically striving
for superiority because of social drives
• Want to overcome imperfection –
we develop an inferiority complex
• When we can’t overcome some
things we try to compensate for
them in other areas
 Evaluating Psychodynamic
Theories
Two scientific failings: Mu
st k
now
!!!
1. Drawing universal principles from the
experiences of a few atypical patients

2. Basing theories of personality development on

retrospective accounts and the fallible
memories of patients

But Freud still very

important to the field of
Psychology.
Behavioral and Cognitive Personality
Theories
Behavioral:
Skinner along with others believed that our personality was
shaped by environment. That through positive and negative
reinforcement one would develop a set of consistent
behaviors or impressions.

Cognitive:
Much like the behaviorists. They believe that much of our
personality stems from how we interpret our environment
and response accordingly.
 Humanistic Approaches to
Personality
Humanistic psychology
An approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the
achievement of human potential

Humanist psychologists:
1. Abraham Maslow

2. Carl Rogers

3. Rollo May
Humanistic Psychology:
Abraham Maslow

Personality development is a gradual

progression to self-actualization 1908-1970
 Your turn
You are on your way to a restaurant to meet some
friends, and you are hungry. As you are walking from
your car to the restaurant, you are looking forward to
talking with your friends. Just then, you hear two cars
crashing closely behind you. According to Maslow, your
primary motivation would be determined by
1. Your hunger
2. Your desire to converse with your friends
3. Your desire for safety
Humanistic Psychology:
Carl Rogers
Interested in fully functioning individuals
To become fully functioning we need:
◦Unconditional positive regard
Insec
A situation in which the acceptance and love u
Attac re/Secur
hme e
one receives from significant others is nt
unqualified, no strings attached
Unfortunately many children and adults are treated
with:
◦Conditional positive regard
A situation in which the acceptance and love
one receives from significant others depends
on one’s behavior.
 Evaluating Humanist
approaches

The bad:
1.Assumptions are not testable

2.Hard to operationally define many of the concepts

The good:
3.Added balance to the study of personality

4.Encouraged others to focus on “positive psychology”

5.Fostered new appreciation for resilience

 50
50 % G
% e
Trait Theories (Biological) En neti
vir c
on
me
nt
Trait theory (also called dispositional theory) is an
approach to the study of human personality.

Trait theorists are primarily interested in the

measurement of traits, which can be defined as
habitual patterns of behavior, thought, and emotion.
 Personality Traits: The Big Five
Openness to experience
◦ Open = Curiosity, imaginative, creative
◦ Resistant = Conforming, predictable IMP
O
REM RTANT
!
Conscientiousness
“OC EMBER
◦ Conscientious = Responsible, persevering, self-disciplined EAN
”
◦ Impulsive = Quick to give up, fickle, careless

Extroversion
◦ Extroversion = Outgoing – talkative, sociable, adventurous
◦ Introversion = Shy – silent, reclusive, cautious

Agreeableness
◦ Agreeable = Good-natured, cooperative, secure
◦ Antagonistic = Irritable, abrasive, suspicious, jealous

Neuroticism
◦ Neurotic = anxious, impulsive, worrier, emotionally negative
◦ Emotionally stable = only has those feelings when the circumstances dictate
 Measuring Personality: Objective
Tests (inventories)
The responses help develop picture of you called a personality profile
4 common tests:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: “INFJ”
Neo Pi-R: Based on the Big 5 Personality Traits
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): Helps more
with diagnosing Psychological Disorders.
Rorschach Test: Ink Blots
Standardized questionnaires asking a series of questions where people rate themselves
◦ Typically include scales
◦ Assumes that you can accurately report
◦ No right or wrong answers
 Parental Influences
Parents do influence their children in a number of
ways:

◦ Religious beliefs and values

◦ Intellectual and occupational interests, skills
◦ Feelings of self-esteem or inadequacy
(Insecure/secure attachment)
◦ Degree of helpfulness

Influence on traits that are highly heritable:

◦ Aggressiveness
◦ Shyness
 Cultural Influence on Personality
Individualistic Cultures Collectivist Cultures
Define self as autonomous, independent Define self as an interdependent part of
of groups a group

Give priority to individual, personal goals Give priority to needs and goals of group

Value independence, leadership, Value group harmony, duty, obligation,

achievement security

Give more weight to individual’s attitudes Give more weight to group norms than
and preferences, than to group norms to individual attitudes to explain behavior
explain behavior

Attend to the benefits and costs of Attend to needs of group members; if

relationships; if costs exceed advantages, relationship is beneficial to group, but
a person is likely to drop a relationship costly to individual, the individual is likely
to stay in the relationship
 Locus of Control: Internal v. External

Internal locus of control: an individual attributes success to his or

her own efforts and abilities. A person who expects to succeed will
be more motivated and more likely to learn. (Growth Mindset)

External locus of control: an individual attributes his or her

success to luck or fate, will be less likely to make the effort needed
to learn. People with an external locus of control are also more
likely to experience anxiety since they believe that they are not in
control of their lives.
(Fixed Mindset)
 Abnormal Psychology
A.K.A. Psychological Disorders

Unit 12

Last Unit!! Jack Nicholson from The Shining 1980

Released 1960

A “harmful dysfunction” in which

behavior is judged to be atypical,
disturbing, inappropriate, or
unjustifiable.
2016
• Psychologist: studies patients, tests disorders, talks
and counsels

• Psychiatrist : works inside a branch of medicine

dealing with psychological disorders
• Provides medical (drug) treatment
2022
DSM V
• Diagnostic Statistical
Manual of Mental
Disorders: the big
book of disorders.
• DSM will classify
disorders and describe
the symptoms.
• DSM will NOT explain
the causes or possible
cures.
Two Major Classifications in the
Neurotic Disorders DSM Psychotic Disorders
• Distressing, but one can • Person loses contact with
still function in society reality, experiences
and act rationally. distorted perceptions.

John Wayne Gacy:

American serial killer and rapist
NEU
ROT
IC DISO
RDE
RS
 Anxiety Disorders
• A group of conditions
where the primary
symptoms are anxiety
or defenses against
anxiety.
• Patient fears
something awful will
happen to them.
• They are in a state of
intense apprehension,
uneasiness,
uncertainty, or fear.
 Phobias

• A person experiences
sudden episodes of
intense dread.
• Must be an irrational
fear.
• Phobias list
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
(GAD)
• An anxiety disorder in
which a person is
continually tense,
apprehensive and in a
state of autonomic
nervous system arousal.
• The patient is constantly
tense and worried, feels
inadequate, is
oversensitive, can’t
concentrate and suffers
from insomnia.
 Panic Disorder

• An anxiety disorder
• Marked by a
minutes-long episode of
intense dread
• Person experiences:
– terror and accompanying
chest pain, choking and
other frightening
sensations.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Persistent unwanted
thoughts
(obsessions) cause
someone to feel the
need (compulsion) to
engage in a
particular action.
• Obsession about
dirt and germs may
lead to compulsive
hand washing.
Howie Mandel

Years
before
Covid!!
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
a.k.a. PTSD

• Flashbacks or
nightmares following a
person’s involvement
in/or observation of
an extremely stressful
event.
• Memories of the
event cause anxiety.
Somatoform Disorders

• Occur when a person

manifests a psychological
problem through a
physical symptom.
• Two types……
 Hypochondriasis
• Has frequent physical
complaints for which
medical doctors are
unable to locate the
cause.
• They usually believe
that the minor issues
(headache, upset
stomach) are
indicative are more
severe illnesses.
 Conversion Disorder
• Report the existence of severe physical
problems with no biological reason.
• Like blindness or paralysis.

Pol Pot
 Example: Conversion Disorder
• Pol Pot of Cambodia • They brought them to the
• In one village his soldiers States; examined them and
entered and took all the could not find a cause for their
children out of their huts and blindness.
in front of their mothers
• Determined their blindness was
butchered them
as a result of what they saw
• Later on it was reported that and to avoid seeing it again
every mother in that village they all became blind.
became blind. • After several months of treatment
they all regained their sight.
PSY
CH
OTI
C DIS
OR
DER
S
 Dissociative Disorders
• These disorders
involve a disruption
in the conscious
process.
• Three types….
Psychogenic Amnesia

• A person cannot
remember things with
no physical basis for the
disruption in memory.
• Retrograde Amnesia
• NOT organic amnesia.
• Organic amnesia can be
retrograde or
anterograde.
 Dissociative Fugue

• People with
psychogenic
amnesia that
find
themselves in
an unfamiliar
environment.
Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Used to be known as
Multiple Personality
Disorder.
• A person has several
rather than one
integrated personality.
• People with DID
commonly have a
history of childhood
abuse or trauma.
 Mood Disorders
• Experience extreme or inappropriate emotion.
Major Depression

• A.K.A. unipolar depression

• Unhappy for at least two
weeks with no apparent cause.
• Depression is the common cold
of psychological disorders.
Bipolar Disorder
• Formally manic depression.
• Involves periods of depression
and manic episodes.
• Manic episodes involve
feelings of high energy (but
they tend to differ a
lot…some get confident and
some get irritable).
• Engage in risky behavior
during the manic episode.
 Seasonal Affective Disorder
• Experience
depression during
the winter months.
• Based not on
temperature, but on
amount of sunlight.
• Treated with light
therapy.
 Personality Disorders
• Well-established,
maladaptive ways of
behaving that
negatively affect
people’s ability to
function.
• Dominates their
personality.
 Psychopaths and Sociopaths
People who lack empathy are said to have
apathy tendencies. It effects 10-15% of the
population. You are usually born this way and
are more interested in your own goals or
thoughts than people’s feelings. Life example;
You feel completely useless when someone is
being very emotional talking about how they
lost their pet at the beach.
 Sociopath
Sociopaths tend to be nervous and
easily agitated. They are volatile and
prone to emotional outbursts,
including fits of rage. Extreme
sociopaths tend to be uneducated and
live on the fringes of society. They are
sometimes unable to hold down a
steady job or to stay in one place for
very long. It is often difficult, but not
entirely impossible, for sociopaths to
form attachments with others.
Antisocial Personality Disorder

• Lack of empathy.
• Little regard for others’ feelings.
• View the world as hostile and
look out for themselves.
 Psychopath
Unlike sociopaths, psychopaths are unable
to form emotional attachments or to feel real
empathy for others. Psychopaths tend to be
aggressive and predatory in nature. They
view others as objects for their amusement.
Although they lack empathy, psychopaths
often have disarming or even charming
personalities. They are manipulative and can
easily gain people’s trust. They learn to mimic
emotions, despite their inability to actually feel
them, and will appear normal to unsuspecting
people.
 Dependent Personality Disorder

• Rely too much on the

attention and help of
others.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
• Needs to be the
center of attention.
• Whether acting silly
or dressing
provocatively.
 Narcissistic Personality Disorder

• Having an
unwarranted sense
of self-importance.
• Thinking that you
are the center of
the universe.
 Borderline Personality Disorder
Symptoms often result in impulsive actions
and problems in relationships. People with
borderline personality disorder may
experience mood swings and display
uncertainty about how they see themselves
and their role in the world. As a result, their
interests and values can change quickly.
People with borderline personality disorder
also tend to view things in extremes, such as Often
co
all good or all bad. Bipol nfused w
ar Di i
sorde th
r
Obsessive–Compulsive Personality
Disorder
• Overly concerned
with certain
thoughts and
performing certain
behaviors.
• Not as extreme as
OCD anxiety.
 Can Beauty Filters Damage Your Self-Esteem?

Social comparison and beauty filters may cause users to strive for
unrealistic beauty standards. As a result, young people may experience
a disconnection between how they look and the edited images they
share with the world. This is a specific kind of self-objectification that may
even lead to serious mental health conditions like body dysmorphic
disorder- can’t stop thinking about one or more flaws.
 Schizophrenia
Mental disorder often
characterized by
abnormal social
behavior and failure to
recognize what is real
 Schizophrenic Disorders
• About 1 in every 100
people are diagnosed with
schizophrenia.
Symptoms of
Schizophrenia
1. Disorganized thinking.
2. Disturbed Perceptions
3. Inappropriate Emotions
and Actions
Famous people who had or have
schizophrenia:

1. John Nash- Movie, “A Beautiful Mind”

character
2. Peter Green- founder of Fleetwood
Mac guitarist
3. Syd Barrett- founder of Pink Floyd
4. Vincent Van Gogh
5. Darrell Hammond - Saturday Night
Live
John Nash 1994 Nobel Prize Winner played by Russell Crowe
from the movie “A Beautiful Mind” 2001
 Inappropriate
Emotions and Actions
• Laugh at inappropriate
times.
• Flat Affect
• Senseless, compulsive acts.
• Catatonia - motionless
Waxy Flexibility
Songwriter and musician who
co-founded the band, Pink
Floyd in 1965.
 Disturbed Perceptions

• hallucinations- sensory
experiences without
sensory stimulation.
 Positive v. Negative Symptoms
Positive Symptoms Negative Symptoms
•Presence of •Absence of
inappropriate symptoms appropriate ones.

Schizophrenia Normal

Enlargement of the lateral ventricles

5 Types of Schizophrenia
 Paranoid Schizophrenia
• Preoccupation with
delusions or
hallucinations.
• Somebody is out to get
me!!!!

Mary Todd
Lincoln
 Disorganized Schizophrenia
It is characterized by disorganized
behavior and speech and includes
disturbance in emotional expression.
Hallucinations and delusions are less
pronounced with disorganized
schizophrenia, though there is evidence
of these symptoms occurring.

EXAMPLE: Saying something off

characteristically during a happy or sad
event-- all the time.
 Catatonic Schizophrenia
• Flat affect
• Waxy Flexibility
• Parrot like repeating of
another’s speech and
movements
 Residual Schizophrenia
When someone who has had a schizophrenic episode within 12 months
has another mild occurrence of the symptoms of schizophrenia they are
said to have residual schizophrenia.

● The lack of full episodes with delusions, hallucinations,

disorganized speech and behavior may point to residual
schizophrenia.
● Mood swings are common with residual schizophrenia.
● Problems with antisocial behaviors are common with this type of
schizophrenia.
● Confusion and irritability are other signs of residual
schizophrenia.
Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
• Many and varied
Symptoms.
“Newly published research sheds light on how
COVID-19, like other respiratory infections (Flu), is likely
to affect fetal brain development and can cause harmful
results resulting in autism, ADD and Schizophrenia. The
focus is on a crucial developmental window occurring
around the beginning of the second trimester of
pregnancy.”
The Rosenhan Study
• Rosenhan a professor at Stanford
wanted to know how often
psychiatric hospitals may
misdiagnose their patients.
• They were ALL admitted for
schizophrenia.
• None were exposed as imposters.
• They all left diagnosed with
schizophrenia in remission.
• What are some of the questions
raised by this study?
 Perspectives and Disorders
Psychological School/Perspective Cause of the Disorder

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Internal, unconscious drives

Humanistic Failure to strive to one’s potential or

being out of touch with one’s feelings.
nt!!
orta
m p
I
Behavioral Reinforcement history, the
environment.

Cognitive Irrational, dysfunctional thoughts or

ways of thinking.

Socio-cultural Dysfunctional Society

Biomedical/Neuroscience Organic problems, biochemical

imbalances, genetic predispositions.
 Psychoanalysis Therapy:
● This approach focuses on changing problematic behaviors,
feelings, and thoughts by discovering their unconscious
meanings and motivations. Psychoanalytically oriented
therapies are characterized by a close working partnership
between therapist and patient. Patients learn about
themselves by exploring their interactions in the therapeutic
relationship. While psychoanalysis is closely identified with
Sigmund Freud, it has been extended and modified since his
early formulations.
 Behavioral Therapy
This approach focuses on learning's role in developing both normal and abnormal
behaviors.
a. Ivan Pavlov made important contributions to behavior therapy by discovering
classical conditioning, or associative learning. Pavlov's famous dogs, for
example, began drooling when they heard their dinner bell, because they
associated the sound with food.
b. "Desensitizing" is classical conditioning in action: A therapist might help a client
with a phobia through repeated exposure to whatever it is that causes anxiety.
c. Another important thinker was E.L. Thorndike, who discovered operant
conditioning (Token Economy) This type of learning relies on rewards and
punishments to shape people's behavior.
 Sim

Cognitive Therapy i
Psy lar to P
cho o
logy sitive

Cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy emphasizes what

people think rather than what they do.

-Cognitive therapists believe that it's dysfunctional

thinking that leads to dysfunctional emotions or
behaviors. By changing their thoughts, people can
change how they feel and what they do.
 Sim
i
Psy lar to P
Humanistic Therapy cho o
logy sitive

Humanistic therapy. This approach emphasizes people's capacity to make rational

choices and develop to their maximum potential. Concern and respect for others
are also important themes.

a. Three types of humanistic therapy are especially influential. Client-centered

therapy rejects the idea of therapists as authorities on their clients' inner
experiences. Instead, therapists help clients change by emphasizing their
concern, care and interest.
b. Gestalt therapy emphasizes what it calls "organismic holism," the importance
of being aware of the here and now and accepting responsibility for yourself.
c. Existential therapy focuses on free will, self-determination and the search for
meaning.
Howie Mandel