Unit 2

Research Methods
-psychology is a science
Hindsight Bias
-The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along
Overconfidence
- we tend to think we know more than we do
The Banum Effect
-the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterization a of themselves and take them to be aware

Applied v. Basic Research
Aplied- has clear, practical applications
Basic- explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended for immediate use

Hypothesis
- expresses a relationship b/t 2 variable
-variables- anything can vary among participants in a study

Independent Variable- what is being manipulated in the experiment
Dependent Variable- what is being measured in the experiment

Operational Definitions
-explain what you mean in your hypothesis
-how will the variables be measured in "real life" terms

Types of Research

• Descriptive- and research that observes and record
• Correlation
• Experiment

Descriptive Research 

• case study- a detailed picture of one of or a few subjects
• the survey- most common; measure correlation; use mail, internet, etc. 
• Naturalistic Observation- watch subjects in their natural environment

Random Sampling

• identify population you want to study
• the sample must be representative of the population you want to study
• false consensus effect- tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share out beliefs and behaviors

Hawthorne Effect

• Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change

Correlation Methods

• correlation expresses a relationship between two variables
• does not show causation
• correlation coefficient 
• a number that measures the strength of a relationship 
• the relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero
• Types of correlation
• positive: the variables go in the SAME direction
• negative: the variable go in the OPPOSITE direction

Experimental Research

• explores cause and effect relationships
• experimental group- exposes participants to the treatment
• control group- comparison for evaluating  the effect

Blind study- subjects are unaware of assigned to experimental or control group

Double-blind study- neither the subjects nor experimenters know which group is control or experiimental

Inferential Statistics- are used to make an inference or drow a conclusion beyond the raw data

Standard Deviation

• how must scores vary around the mean
• high- scores are spread out
• low- score are close

Unit 1

Philosophy

John Locke – minds is blank at birth

Plato - Greek philosopher who believed intelligence was inherited

Nature v Nurture

• ·         Men are born not made
• ·         Debate whether behavior through experience or born

Nurture

·         anything that we know, we have learned through experience

·         Minds are blank pages that the environment writes on

Wilhelm Wundt

·         1879 University of Leipeig

·         Psychology’s 1^st experiment, birth of a science

·         Est. the 1^st psychology lab

·         Introspection (looking inward)

Edward Titchener – flower of Wundt

Structuralism

• ·         Wundt, and others
• ·         Uses introspection to explore the structural elements of the mind
• ·         Break down the mental processes into most basic pants

Functionalism

• ·         Reaction to structuralism
• ·         Sought to explain how our mental and behavioral processes function

o   How do they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish

o   Focused on purpose of behavior

·         William Jones influenced by Charles Darwin

7 Perspectives

Biological

• ·         The interaction between anatomy and behavior

Behavioral

•    Behavior is determined by your environment and experience not genetics
•   Watson, Skinner, and Pavlov

Cognitive

•  Thinking
•  Jean Pioget

Evolutionary

• Behavior can be best explained in terms of how adaptive the behavior is to our survival
•  Charles Darwin

Humanistic

•  Free will, love and acceptance, view human nature as positive
•  Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
• Self-actualization- process of fulfilling your potential

Sociocultural

•  Most of your behavior and your feelings are dictated by the culture you live with

Psychoanalytical/Psychodynamic

• The interaction between the conscious and unconscious shape behavior

Personality 

Psychological Disorders

• A harmful dysfunction in which behavior is judged to be atypical, disturbing, maladaptive and unjustifiable

o   Depend on:

§  Culture

§  Time period

§  Environmental conditions

§  Individual reason

Medical Perspective- psychological disorders are sicknesses and can be diagnosed, treated, and cured

Bio-Psycho-Social Perspective – assumes biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors combine to interact causing psychological disorders

DSM-IV- Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the big book of disorders

Neurotic Disorders- distressing but one can still function in society and act rationally

Psychotic disorders- person loses contact with reality, experiences distorted perceptions

Anxiety Disorders

• phobias, OCD, PTSD, etc.
• dread or fear
• state of intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear

Phobia

• a person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread
• irrational fear

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)- person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system aroused 

Panic Disorder- and anxiety disorder marked by a minute-long episode of intense dread in which a person experiences terror and accompanying chest pain, choking and other frightening sensations

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)- persistent unwanted thoughts cause someone to feel the need to engage in a particular action

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 physiological symptom
• Hypochondriasis- frequent physical complaints for which doctors are unable to locate the cause; usually believe minor issues are indicative of larger illness
• Conversion Disorder- report the existence of severe physical problems with no biological reasons

Dissociative Disorders

• these disorder involve a disruption in the conscious process

Psychogenic Amnesia- person cannot remember things with no physiological basis for the disruption in memory

Dissociative Fugue- People with Psychogenic Amnesia find themselves in an unfamiliar environment

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) 

• multiple/split personality disorder
• a person has several rather than one integrated personality
• people with DID commonly have a history of childhood abuse or trama

Mood Disorder

• Experience extreme or inappropriate behavior

Major depression

• A.k.a unipolar depression
• Unhappy for at least two weeks straight with no apparent cause
• Common cold of physchological disorders

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

• Depression during the winter months
• Not based on temperature, but on amount of sunlight
• Treated with light therapy

Bipolar disorder 

• Formally manic depression
• Involves periods of depression
• Manic episodes involves feelings of high energy

Personality Disorders

• Well-established, maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people's ability to function
• Dominates their personality

Antisocial Personalty Disorder

• Lack of empathy
• Little regard for others feelings
• View the world as hostile and look out for only themselves

Dependent Personality Disorders- rely too much on the attention and help of others

Histrionic Personality Disorder- needs to be the center of attention

Narcissistic- having unwarranted sense of self-importance, thinking you are the center of the universe

Schizophrenic Disorders

• About 1 in every 100 persons are diagnosed with schizophrenia
• Symptoms
• Disorganized thinking
• Disturbed perceptions
• Inappropriate emotions and actions

Disorganized Thinking- fragmented and bizzare and distorted with false beliefs

Delusions- delusions of persecutions, grandeur; hallucinations are sensory experiences without sensory stimulation

Inappropriate Emotions and Actions - laugh at inappropriate times, flat effect, senseless, compulsive acts, catatonia

Positive Symptoms

• Hallucinations
• Disorganized
• Diluted in talk
• Inappropriate

Negative Symptoms

• Monotone voice
• Expressionless faces
• Mute
• Rigid body

Types of Schizophrenia

• Disorganized- disorganized speech or behavior, or flat or inappropriate emotion
• Paranoid- preoccupation with delusions or hallucinations
• Catatonic- parrot like repeating of another's speech and movements
• Undifferentiated- many and varied symptoms 

Psychological Therapies

• Treatment based on psychological principles

Types of therapies:

Biomedical - treatment that focuses on altering the brain w/ drugs, psychosurgery, or electro- convulsive therapy 

Phychoanalysis - Frued, used free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation to gain insight into the clients unconscious

Humanistic - focus on present and future, conscious thoughts; take responsibilities for your actions, instead of blaming childhood anxieties

Client Centered - Carl Rogers; therapist should use genuiness, acceptance and empathy to show unconditional positive regard towards their clients

Systematic Desensitization - therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety - triggering stimuli

Behavior - therapy that applies learning principle to the elimination of unwanted behavior

Exposure therapy - form of desensitization where the client directly confronts the anxiety causing therapy

Aversive Conditioning - type of counter conditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior 

Cognitive - therapy teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting; based on the assumptions that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions

Biomedical (Drugs)

Phychopharmacology - the study of the effects of drugs on mind and behavior

Antipsychotic Drugs - a class of medicines used to treat phychosis and other mental and emotional conditions

Antianxiety Drugs - depress nervous system activity; most widely abused drugs

Antidepressant Drug - lift you up out of depression

Electroompulsive  Therapy - biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient