HSP3M – Introduction to Psychology

HSP3M Grade 11 Anthropology – Introduction to Psychology Psychology ● brain is the physical thing inside the skull; mind is the mental processes ● flash mobs ■ a spontaneous public assembly of people that perform a brief, unusual act and then disperse ■ flash mobs can be dangerous as well—vandalism, burglary etc. ■ flash mobs have recently been agents of social change (eg.: carrotmob—environmental business) ■ people participate in flash mobs because of the sense of they are, or they lose themselves in the crowd ■ flash mobs aren’t crowds that have no order like common belief ■ when people act in a crowd, they develop a new sense of identity as a result of their participation ■ Flash mobs are studied by psychologists to better understand our culture and how individuals view themselves (recommendations to police on crowd control) Psychodynamic Theorists ● psychodynamic theories are approaches to therapy that focus on resolving a patient’s conflicted conscious and unconscious feelings ● based on Sigmund Freud’s theory—unlocking the unconscious mind is key to understanding human behavior ● unconscious mind: information processing in our mind that we aren’t aware of—holds our unacceptable thoughts and feelings and memories (calling girlfriend by ex’s name) ● the conscious mind is information that we are always aware of—performs the thinking when we take in new info ● Sigmund Freud ○ believed human conscious and unconsciousness to be made up of: ■ ego is the reality principle of mind (rational)—often suppresses id ■ superego is the moral center of mind ■ id is the impulsive/instinctual part of the mind (pleasure) ○ ego struggles to satisfy needs of superego and id (believed human personality to be results from the ego’s efforts to resolve these conflicts) ○ iceberg: ego, superego, id (clockwise—id at the bottom) ○ ego uses defense mechanisms (a way to distort reality in order to deal with anxiety) ○ ego represses (forces into the unconscious mind—out of conscious) unacceptable feelings and memories from consciousness to unconscious ○ his theory was to repress the memories so patients gain personal insight ○ denial is a defense mechanism (refusing to recognize/acknowledge something painful) ○ to uncover unconsciousness, Freud had clients engage in free association—saying whatever comes to mind, and also examine dreams/fantasies ○ patients often projects their feelings onto the therapist ● Karen Horney ○ believed repression to be rare ○ a neo-Freudian: modified Freud’s theories to fit social and cultural aspects ○ founder of feminine psychology—-believed society forced women to rely on men (to have husband and kid) ○ made significant contributions to neurotic disorder—mental disorder dealing with anxiety and fear ● Carl Jung ○ Freud’s student ○ founded analytical psychology—balancing a person’s psyche (combination of conscious and unconscious) allows the person to reach his/her potential ○ used same method to uncover unconscious—dreams, fantasies, creative projects which allowed unconscious mind to express itself ○ contributed greatly to personality—True Colors and other tests based on his contribution ○ believed there to be 2 parts to the unconscious mind: ■ reality—unique to each individual ■ collective—shared by all human beings— archetypes universal symbols that tend to reappear over time (stones, circles, mother vs. father) ● Psychology of Dreams ○ Freud’s student Behavioral Psychologists ● believed psychologists need empirical evidence (experiments) to understand and change human behavior ● Ivan Pavlov ○ unconditioned response: a natural response to an unconditioned stimulus ○ unconditioned stimulus: a stimulus that naturally causes a response ○ conditioned stimulus: an originally neutral stimulus that comes to trigger a conditioned response after being paired with a unconditioned stimulus ○ conditioned response: a learned response to a previously neutral stimulus ○ classical conditioning: a type of learning where a once neutral stimulus comes to produce a particular response after pairing with a conditioned stimulus ○ Dogs were fed and drooled; when they saw lab coats also drooled. Then, he rang a bell every time he brought food. Dogs associated the bell with food. He rings the bell with no food, and dogs salivate. ○ applications to children hating doctors office, after immunization ○ Pavlov showed that it’s possible to study internal processes with external experiments. ● B.F. Skinner ○ operant conditioning: a type of learning that uses rewards or punishments to achieve a desired behavior ○ Skinner box—rat pushed button got food. Once food runs out, and the rat tries a few more times, he stops pressing, thus causing extinction. ● these techniques used to treat anxiety, phobias and panic disorders today patient slowly introduced to object/situation, until no more distress ● education: big tasks broken into smaller tasks; punish/reward bad behavior Humanist Psychologists ● based on patient relationship of therapy ● clients should be involved in recovery—not relying on therapist ● preferred qualitative research above quantitative research (no experiments —pure observations: looking at diaries, open-ended surveys, unstructured interviews, Free Association) ● Abraham Maslow: ○ interested in studying well people—self actualized person )reached full potential) ○ hierarchy of needs: move your way from bottom (basic needs) to top (psychological needs) ○ theory questioned as no experimental proof ● Viktor Frankl ○ lived through Auschwitz—observed people survived if they had hope in life (something to hold onto) ○ created logotherapy—a form of psychotherapy where patient finds the aim and meaning of their life as a human, without medical help ○ believed all humans motivated by a need of meaning in their lives ● Carl Rogers: ○ developed client centered therapy—therapy in which client plays an active/major role ■ psychotherapist created warm environment in which clients can express any feeling or thought without fear of judgment, and eventually discover underlying motivations for their attitudes ■ doesn’t interpret anything for client ○ focuses therapy on present and future—not past ○ become basis of modern psychotherapy ● impact on education: open education—students take responsibility for learning ● impact on workplace: workers taking responsibility and pride in work allows workers to be more effective, thus causing company to make more money Cognitive Psychology ● mental processes of the brain—study and application of how the brain learns ● Albert Bandura ○ social-cognitive theory: people learn from seeing and then imitating others ○ Bobo doll experiment—children abused toy because they watched an adult do it ● Elizabeth Loftus ○ studied false memories and the flexibility and reliability of repressed memories ○ believed repressed memories rarely exist, but brought on by the power of suggestion ○ rape victims offended ○ Lost in Mall experiment—participants read stories of their lifetime, and 1 fictional story of being lost in a mall. 29% of participants “remembered” part of false event ○ people can remember events that never occur—impacted law enforcement’s selection of eyewitness ● Gerald Echterhoff ○ the memory of doing something can be created by watching it happen on TV Developmental Psychology ● the development of the mind ● Sigmund Freud ○ psychosexual development—children focus on pleasure as they mature ○ individuals can become fixated (can’t resolve issues) at certain stages ○ Oral (sucking), anal (pooping), phallic (genitals become source of pleasure; boys compete with dad for mom), latency (play with same sex—sex impulses repressed), and genital are the stages (directs sexual urges to opposite sex) ● Jean Piaget ○ cognitive development ○ there are several stages: sensorimotor (acknowledge senses), pre-operational (shows irrational, egocentric thinking), concrete operational (develops logic, creates connections), and formal operational (connections to abstract ideas, becomes egocentric again at beginning of stage) ○ used today in developing curriculum: older students do more thinking, discussions, problem solving) ● Erik Erikson ○ psychosocial development ○ believed humans developed through life—not just in childhood ○ adolescents can experience identity crisis—when a teen is filled with extreme self-consciousness as they attempt to test and integrate various roles) ■ being “cool” and being a good kid ○ trust/mistrust (needs to be met), autonomy/doubt (independence), initiative/guilt (responsibility, being good), industry/inferiority (successful), identity/role-confusion (who am i?), intimacy/isolation (love someone?), generativity/stagnation (guide next generation), integrity/despair (reflect on life) ○ theory believed to be gender biased towards males ● Leta Stetter Hollingworth ○ proved women were just as capable as men (physical characteristics experiment) ○ gifted children (>160 Binet IQ)—first to study gifted children. Understood needs of gifted children. ● Harry Harlow ○ responsible for developing primate tests ○ tested attachment of infant to caregiver based on satisfaction of needs (food) or affection. Used surrogate monkeys, put a baby with 2 fake moms—one providing soft touch, another providing food. Monkey preferred cloth mom, proving infants depended on caregivers for more than physical needs— affection needs as well. ● Mary Ainsworth ○ studied mother-infant separation and its effects on interactions later in life ○ attachment to caregiver necessary to survival ○ Caregiver coming and going experiment (strange situation). Found 3 types of attachment: ■ secure: caregiver is emotionally available, sensitive and supportive. when abandoned by caregiver, became upset, but was happy when caregiver came back ■ avoidant: caregiver who is rejecting. Were upset when abandoned by the caregiver, but when they returned, refused to play with the caregiver. ■ resistant: Caregiver is sometimes responsive, sometimes rejecting (inconsistent). Showed little emotion on caregivers returning and leaving. Understanding the Brain ● neuroscientist someone who specializes in study of the human brain ● An EEG measures electrical activity in the brain eusing electrodes which are placed on the scalp. Used to detect how much brain activity is occurring ● fMRI measures blood flow to certain areas of the brain. An increased blood flow to a certain part means oxygen is being brought to it, since the area is being used (experience patient to music, have patient do math, read etc.) Parts of the Brain ● brain is made of neurons which store info and communicate using electrical impulses ● the cerebral cortex covers all of the brain (gray matter) ● the cerebrum is the largest and most developed portion of brain, responsible for controlling memory, understanding, logic ● cerebrum divided into 2 parts: left and right ○ left deals with math, logic, language, communication ○ right deals with spatial awareness, facial recognition, visual imagery ○ each hemisphere controls the muscle movements on the opposite side of body ● hippocampus responsible for short and long term memory, and the emotional system—explains why you remember people who have affected you in some way (transfers info into memory, stores names of people/things) ● frontal lobe controls speech and planning actions ● corpus callosum connects the right and left hemispheres ● temporal lobe analyzes sound to make sense of speech ● amygdale—two almond shaped clusters regulating how emotion can affect memory and creating “fight or flight” response Perception ● perception is a person’s selecting, organizing, and interpreting of our senses ● filling in the gaps—mind assumes missing info when the info given to brain isn’t complete ● perceptual constancy—even though out view of an object changes as we move, the brain recognizes it as unchanged (as you move closer to object, becomes bigger but brain knows it’s same size) ● perceptual sets—the tendency to perceive one thing and not another. Perceptual sets are influenced by our experiences and expectations, affecting how we view the world and certain things (pink tends to be female —surprised to see baby boy in pink) Ever Changing Brain ● brain doesn’t stop developing at adulthood—brains never stop developing ○ diet, exercise, meditation, smoking etc. changes brain on daily basis ● brain rewires itself ○ PTS, brain damage patients have hope ○ ex.: lady lost sense of balance due to drug side effects, but after therapy regained it ● meditation ○ the focus required from meditation alters several parts of the brain (which can produce rare brain waves) ○ meditation made people more happy and gave them a better immune system ○ allowed Alzheimer’s patients to improve memory—the focus required allowed blood flow to parts of brains dealing with memory ● yoga ○ increased hormones in brain which made them more happy and less anxiety Internet Use and the Brain ● pros ○ multitasking skills (conditioning) ○ allows brain to filter info and make quick decisions ● cons ○ internet based on interruption—IM, changing webpage etc. causes our brains to be distracted Learning Language ● studies show brain is quite flexible with learning languages—many parts of brain assist in learning languages ● so far no definite scientific explanation to how language is acquired and learned ● there is belief that speakers of different languages think and behave differently (Spanish language has to do with intention—purposely causing harm or good) Teen Brain ● adolescent brain in “use it or lose it” stage—synapses of the brain not used will be eliminated from brain ● critical brain development: 10-25 ● frontal and temporal lobe develop last—because they’re responsible for judgment, perhaps reason why teens make poor decisions ● Western culture influences causes trouble in adolescence—aren’t taught how to be like adults since they are around other teens all the time (unlike other nations—developing for example)