False Memory: Lost in a Shopping Mall

How does your memory work?

Creating False Memories

Animation explaining classical conditioning

Homework

Here are links to some of the articles you can use for your 5-point summaries. Each paper you submit should be a summary of an article. (From time to time, I will show or post a video that is approved for this purpose as well.) To receive the full five points, you should write at least two full paragraphs about the article you chose, and include your own comments/reactions. (Resulting in approximately two-thirds of a page typed, double-spaced.) I will continue to post new articles throughout the quarter. The sooner you get started on these summaries, the better, because once you have earned the full 30 points for the "Homework" category on your syllabus, you will be allowed to submit additional papers for extra credit.

All homework must be submitted by March 10 (the last day of class), but I highly recommend submitting your first summary by Thursday, January 27. This will help me make sure you understand the assignment and are on the right track.


Optogenetics: controlling brain cells with lasers

Enhancing worker well-being

Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Hardiness Helps People Turn Stressful Circumstances into Opportunities

Alien Friends

Thriving on Half a Brain

When Rats Dream, It Seems, It´s After a Day at the Mazes
Tetris Dreams

Scientists Show Blue Light Can Help Reset Sleep Cycle

Scientists see how placebo effect eases pain

Déjà vu and the Brain, Consciousness and Self

One 'Type A' Trait May Actually Lower Work Stress

Dopamine Blockers Lead Faithful Voles Astray

Clever Hans

Time Magazine profile of Sigmund Freud

Skinner's "Baby Box"

The amazing brain

I will continue to add links over the course of the quarter, but you aren't limited to the articles I've linked to. If you like, you can find your own by going to this page on the American Psychological Association web site. Click on one of the topics, for example Learning and Memory,Intelligence, Children--anything that interests you. Once you choose one of those pages, look for the headings "News" and "Monitor on Psychology Articles". Articles in either of those categories are acceptable to use.

More articles:

Any of the articles at this Science Daily link.

YOU CAN'T BE A SWEET CUCUMBER IN A VINEGAR BARREL A Talk with Philip Zimbardo

"THAT DAMN BIRD" A Talk with Irene Pepperberg

Approved videos

Man without a memory: Clive Wearing

Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

Dr. Money and the Boy with No Penis

Can we slow aging?

Magnetic Mind Control

The riddle of experience vs. memory

Treatment

Therapy – General term for any treatment process; in psychology and psychiatry, therapy refers to a variety of psychological and biomedical techniques aimed at dealing with mental disorders or coping with problems of living

The components of therapy

In addition to the relationship between the therapist and the patient/client, the therapeutic process typically involves some or all of the following processes:

• Identifying the problem
• Identifying the cause of the problem or the conditions that maintain the problem
• Deciding on and carrying out some form of treatment

Psychological therapies –Based on psychological principles (rather than biomedical approach)

The psychological therapies are often collectively called psychotherapy

Biomedical therapies – Treatments that focus on altering the brain, especially with drugs, psychosurgery, or electroconvulsive therapy

Insight therapies – Psychotherapies in which the therapist helps patients/clients understand (gain insight into) their problems

Psychodynamic therapies – Insight therapies based on the assumption that mental disorder is caused by powerful (dynamic) mental forces and conflicts

Psychoanalysis – The form of psychodynamic therapy developed by Sigmund Freud



Analysis of transference – Analyzing and interpreting the patient’s relationship with the therapist, based on the assumption that this relationship mirrors unresolved conflicts in the patient’s past

Neo-Freudian psychodynamic therapies – Therapies developed by psychodynamic theorists who embraced some of Freud’s ideas, but disagreed with others

Humanistic therapies – Techniques based on the assumption that people have a tendency for positive growth and self actualization, which may be blocked by an unhealthy environment

Client-centered therapy – Emphasizes healthy psychological growth through self-actualization

Carl Rogers

Reflection of feeling – Paraphrasing client’s words to capture the emotional tone expressed

Cognitive therapy – Emphasizes rational thinking as the key to treating mental disorder

Cognitive therapy for depression involves

• Evaluating evidence
• Situational factors
• Alternative solutions

Group therapy – Psychotherapy with more than one client



Self-help support groups – Groups that provide social support and an opportunity for sharing ideas about dealing with common problems; typically organized/run by laypersons (not professional therapists)

Behavior therapy – Any form of psychotherapy based on the principles of behavioral learning, especially operant conditioning and classical conditioning

Systematic desensitization – Technique in which anxiety is extinguished by exposing the patient to an anxiety-provoking stimulus


Exposure therapy – Desensitization therapy in which patient directly confronts the anxiety-provoking stimulus (as opposed to imagining it)

Aversion therapy – Involves presenting individuals with an attractive stimulus paired with unpleasant stimulation in order to condition a repulsive reaction



Contingency management – Approach to changing behavior by altering the consequences, especially rewards and punishments, of behavior



Token economies – Applied to groups (e.g. classrooms, mental hospital wards) involving distribution of “tokens” contingent on desired behaviors; tokens can later be exchanged for privileges, food, or other reinforcers

Participant modeling – Therapist demonstrates and encourages a client to imitate a desired behavior

Cognitive-behavioral therapy

• Combines cognitive emphasis on thoughts with behavioral strategies that alter reinforcement contingencies
• Assumes irrational self-statements cause maladaptive behavior
• Seeks to help the the client develop a sense of self-efficacy

Rational-emotive behavior therapy – Based on the idea that irrational thoughts and behaviors are the cause of mental disorders (REBT)



Albert Ellis

Drug Therapies

Antipsychotic drugs

• Include chlorpromazine, haloperidol, and clozapine
• Usually affect dopamine pathways
• May have side effects

Tardive dyskinesia – Incurable disorder of motor control resulting from long-term use of antipsychotic drugs

Antidepressants and mood stabilizers

• Include Prozac, monoamine oxidase (MOA) inhibitors, and lithium carbonate (effective against bipolar disorder)
• Treat depression and bipolar disorder
• Usually affect serotonin and/or norepinephrine
• The use of antidepressants to deal with general feelings of unease is highly controversial

Antianxiety drugs

• Include barbiturates and benzodiazepines
• May include some antidepressant drugs which work on certain anxiety disorders
• Should not be used to relieve ordinary anxieties of everyday life
• Should not be taken for more than a few days at a time
• Should not be combined with alcohol

Stimulants suppress activity level in persons with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

There is controversy from concern that the causes and boundaries of ADHD are vague and the potential exists for overdiagnosis

Psychosurgery –The general term for surgical intervention in the brain to treat psychological disorders

The infamous prefrontal lobotomy is no longer performed

Severing the corpus callosum, however, can reduce life-threatening seizures

Electroconvulsive therapy is used for the treatment of severe depression


Therapeutic community – Program of treating mental disorder by making the institutional environment supportive and humane for patients

Deinstitutionalization – Policy of removing patients, whenever possible, from mental hospitals

Community mental health movement – Effort to deinstitutionalize mental patients and to provide therapy from outpatient clinics

Social Psychology

Chapter 14

Social psychology – The branch of psychology that studies the effects of social variables and cognitions on individual behavior and social interactions

Social context – The combination of

• The activities and interactions among people
• The setting in which behavior occurs, and
• The expectations and social norms governing behavior in that setting

Situationism – The view that environmental conditions influence people’s behavior as much or more than their personal dispositions do


Social role – One of several socially defined patterns of behavior that are expected of persons in a given setting or group

Script – Knowledge about the sequence of events and actions that is expected in a particular setting

Conformity - changing your behavior or opinions to match those of your group


Ashe identifies three factors that influence whether a person will yield to pressure:

• The size of the majority
• The presence of a partner who dissented from the majority
• The size of the discrepancy between the correct answer and the majority position

In “groupthink,” members of the group attempt to conform their opinions to what each believes to be the consensus of the group

Conditions likely to promote groupthink include:

• Isolation of the group
• High group cohesiveness
• Directive leadership
• Lack of norms requiring methodical procedures
• Homogeneity of members’ social background and ideology
• High stress from external threats with low hope of a better solution than that of the group leader

Obedience to authority


In Milgram’s experiment

• The victim was an actor
• The victim receive no actual shocks
• Nevertheless, this controversial experiment demonstrated how powerful effects of obedience to authority
• Situational factors, and not personality variables, appeared to effect people’s levels of obedience

Diffusion of responsibility – Dilution or weakening of each group member’s obligation to act when responsibility is perceived to be shared with all group members

Interpersonal attraction

Reward theory of attraction – A social learning view that says we like best those who give us maximum rewards at minimum cost

Matching hypothesis – Prediction that most people will find friends and mates that are about their same level of attractiveness

Cognitive dissonance – A highly motivating state in which people have conflicting cognitions, especially when their voluntary actions conflict with their attitudes



Fundamental attribution error – Tendency to emphasize internal causes and ignore external pressures

Self-serving bias – Attributional pattern in which one takes credit for success but denies responsibility for failure

Prejudice – A negative attitude toward an individual based solely on his or her membership in a particular group

Discrimination – A negative action taken against an individual as a result of his or her group membership

In-group – The group with which an individual identifies

Out-group – Those outside the group with which an individual identifies

Social distance – The perceived difference or similarity between oneself and another person

Scapegoating

Combating prejudice

Research suggests that the possible tools for combating prejudice include:

• New role models
• Equal status contact
• Legislation

In the Robber’s Cave experiment, conflict between groups arose from an intensely competitive situation


Cooperation, however, replaced conflict when the experimenters contrived situations that fostered mutual interdependence and common goals for the groups

If you have any questions for me, please fill out one of the blank sheets of paper I have up front, giving your name, the e-mail address you check most often, and the details of your question(s).

Also, if you are interested in doing any live online reviews before the final (using the Elluminate link), please list what time or times you might be available to attend such a session.

Strategies to use with difficult exam questions

Acedemic Calendar
Winter Quarter Final Exam Schedule

Edge: THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE: A Talk with John Gottman

Edge: THE MATHEMATICS OF LOVE: A Talk with John Gottman

Videos

The Science of Sex Appeal

Big Five Personality Test

Myers-Briggs Style Test

Personality

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Theories

Personality – Psychological qualities that bring continuity to an individual’s behavior in different situations and at different times

Psychoanalytic theory – Freud’s theory of personality

• Unconscious
• Eros
• Thanatos

Oral Stage


Anal Stage

Phallic Stage

--Oedipus complex

Latency Stage

Genital Stage

Ego defense mechanisms

• Repression
• Projection
• Denial
• Rationalization
• Reaction formation
• Displacement
• Regression
• Sublimation
  

Projective tests – Personality assessment instruments based on Freud’s concept of projection

Rorschach Inkblot Test


Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)



Carl Jung

Personal unconscious – Portion of the unconscious corresponding roughly to Freud’s id

Collective unconscious – Jung’s addition to the unconscious, involving a reservoir for instinctive “memories” including the archetypes, which exist in all people

Archetypes

• Shadow

Karen Horney

• Basic anxiety
• Neurotic needs

Humanistic theories

Abraham Maslow


Self-actualizing personalities – Healthy individuals who have met their basic needs and are free to be creative and fulfill their potentials

Carl Rogers


Fully functioning person – Term for a self-actualizing individual who has a self-concept that is both positive and congruent with reality

Unconditional positive regard – Love or caring without conditions attached

Denial is the refusal to accept reality and to act as if a painful event, thought or feeling did not exist. It is considered one of the most primitive of the defense mechanisms because it is characteristic of very early childhood development.

Displacement is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses from an object that gives rise to anxiety to a safer, more acceptable one. Being angry at the boss and kicking the dog can be an example of displacement.

Projection is the attribution of one's undesired impulses onto another. Thus, an angry spouse accuses their partner of hostility.

Rationalization is the cognitive reframing of ones perceptions to protect the ego in the face of changing realities. Thus, the promotion one wished fervently for and didn't get becomes "a dead end job for brown nosers and yes men".

Reaction Formation is the converting of wishes or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their opposites. A woman who is furious at her child and wishes her harm might become overly concerned and protective of the child's health.

Regression is the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. For an example an adolescent who is overwhelmed with fear, anger and growing sexual impulses might become clinging and begin thumb sucking or bed wetting.

Repression is the blocking of unacceptable impulses from consciousness.

Sublimation is the channeling of unacceptable impulses into more acceptable outlets.

Introversion – The Jungian dimension that focuses on inner experience–one’s own thoughts and feelings, making the introvert less outgoing and sociable than the extrovert

Extraversion – The Jungian personality dimension involving turning one’s attention outward, toward others

Jung’s principle of opposites portrays each personality as a balance between opposing pairs of unconscious tendencies, such as introversion and extroversion

----------------------------------------------

Positive psychology – Movement within psychology focusing on the desirable aspects of human functioning, as opposed to an emphasis on psychopathology

Observational learning – Process of learning new responses by watching the behavior of others

Reciprocal determinism – Process in which the person, situation and environment mutually influence each other

Locus of control – An individual’s sense of where his or her life influences originate

Temperament – Basic, pervasive personality dispositions that are apparent in early childhood and establish the tempo and mood of an individual’s behaviors

Traits – Stable personality characteristics that are presumed to exist within the individual and guide his or her thoughts and actions under various conditions

The “Big Five” traits

Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness, and high amounts of emotional expressiveness.

Agreeableness: This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors.

Neuroticism: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness.

Openness to experience: This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details.

Personality Type – Especially important dimensions or clusters of traits that are not only central to a person’s personality but are found with essentially the same pattern in many people

Person-situation controversy – Theoretical dispute concerning the relative contribution of personality factors and situational factors in controlling behavior

Implicit personality theories – Assumptions about personality that are held by people to simplify the task of understanding others

Fundamental attribution error – Assumption that another person’s behavior (especially undesirable behavior) is the result of a flaw in the personality, rather than in the situation

Emotions and Motivation

Emotion –A four-part process consisting of physiological arousal, cognitive interpretation subjective feelings, and behavioral expression

Emotions have evolved to help us respond to important situations and to convey our intentions to others

People everywhere can recognize at least seven basic emotions:

• sadness


• fear


• anger


• disgust


• contempt


• happiness


• surprise

Display rules –Permissible ways of displaying emotions in a particular society

Inverted “U” function – both low and high levels of arousal produce lower performance than does a moderate level of arousal





Sensation seekers – Individuals who have a biological need for higher levels of stimulation than do other people

James-Lange theory


Cannon-Bard theory

Two-factor theory of emotion – Emotion results from the cognitive appraisal of both (1) physical arousal and (2) emotion provoking stimulus



Emotional intelligence – Ability to understand and control emotional responses

Polygraph testing


Motivation – All processes involved in starting, directing, and maintaining physical and psychological activities

Drive – Biologically instigated motivation

Motive – Internal mechanism that directs behavior (often used to describe motivations that are learned, rather that biologically based)

Intrinsic motivation – Desire to engage in an activity for its own sake (personal enjoyment)

Extrinsic motivation – Desire to engage in an activity to achieve an external consequence (e.g. a reward)

Instinct theory – View that certain behaviors are determined by innate factors

Fixed-action patterns – Genetically based behaviors, seen across a species, that can be set off by a specific stimulus



Drive theory – View that a biological need (an imbalance that threatens survival) produces drive

Homeostasis – The body’s tendency to maintain a biologically balanced condition

Rotter's Internal and External Locus of Control

Locus of Control Test

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs


Overjustification: the process by which extrinsic (external) rewards can sometimes displace internal motivation

Need for achievement (n Ach) – Mental state that produces a psychological motive to excel or reach some goal

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): The subject is asked to tell the examiner a story about each card that includes the following elements: the event shown in the picture; what has led up to it; what the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking; and the outcome of the event.



Set point –Refers to the tendency of the body to maintain a certain level of body fat and body weight

Sexual scripts: socially learned programs of sexual interpretation and responsiveness

Videos to help you review

Availability Heuristic

Are planes for dangerous than cars?
Should you change your answer on a test?
Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Conservation task

Infant temperament

Fa'afafine - Samoan boys brought up as girls

We're Only Human...: The "Super Uncles" of Samoa

Charting the Pacific - Fa'afafine - Samoan boys brought up as girls

Intelligence

Intelligence Testing

Alfred Binet developed the first intelligence test in 1904 (for what purpose?)

Original formula for calculating IQ

(Why would this formula underestimate the intelligence of older children?)



Normal distribution – Bell-shaped curve describing the spread of a characteristic throughout a population

Normal range – Scores falling in (approximately) the middle two-thirds of a normal distribution



Mental retardation –Often conceived as representing the lower 2% of the IQ range

Giftedness –Often conceived as representing the upper 2% of the IQ range

Savant syndrome: can be seen in individuals who have a remarkable talent in one area, while often mentally slow in others

Spearman's "g" (general intelligence)

Sternberg's Triarchic Theory

• Practical Intelligence
  
• Logical Reasoning


• Experiential Intelligence

Gardner's Multiple Intelligences

• Linguistic


• Logical-mathematical


• Spacial


• Musical


• Bodily-kinesthetic


• Interpersonal


• Intrapersonal

Heritability – Amount of trait variation within a group that can be attributed to genetic differences

Eugenics: a philosophy and a political movement that encouraged biologically superior people to intervreed and sought to discourage biologically inferior people from having offspring

Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity

Nature versus Nurture

Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years.

John B. Watson

This statement expresses John Watson's belief that environment was everything in human development. He was saying could take any (essentially normal) baby and determine who and what that child would become--provided that he was able to have complete control over all elements of that child's environment.

Do you agree or disagree with Watson's idea that if it were possible (legal, ethical, etc.) to have complete control over all aspects of an infant's environment, you really could raise any child to enter whatever profession you chose for him or her?

This is going to be a discussion board topic. One thing I'd like you to start to think about is how one might go about Watson's unlikely experiment. If you wanted to raise a child to be a doctor--or a thief--what kind of environment would you set up? Think about things that might be done at the family level, choice of school, wider community and role models, and anything else you think might shape a child's destiny.

Developmental Psychology

Theoretical Issues: Ongoing Debates

• Nature versus Nurture
• Continuity versus Stages






• Stability versus Change

Prenatal development

• Germinal period





• Embryonic period

Fetal period

Early motor development

Cognitive Development

Schema –cognitive structures or patterns consisting of a number of organized ideas that grow and differentiate with experience

Assimilation – absorbing new information into existing schemas

Accommodation – adjusting old schemas or developing new ones to better fit with new information

Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor stage

Birth to about age 2
Child relies heavily on innate motor responses to stimuli
Mental representations


Object permanence

Preoperational stage

--About age 2 to age 6 or 7
--Marked by well-developed mental representation and the use of language

Egocentrism (video)

Animistic thinking




Concrete Operational Stage
--About age 7 to about age 11
--Child understands conservation but is incapable of abstract thought


Conservation

Formal Operational Stage

--From about age 12 on
--Abstract thought appears


Theory of Mind

Imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)

Harlow's attachment study

Mary Ainsworth's Strange Situation

Temperament –An individual’s characteristic manner of behavior or reaction

Socialization –The lifelong process of shaping an individual’s behavior patterns, values, standards, skills, attitudes and motives to conform to those regarded as desirable in a particular society

Most approaches to child rearing fall into one of the following four styles:

Authoritarian parents: parenting style emphasizing control and obedience

Authoritative parents: parenting style blending respect for a child's individuality with an effort to instill social values

Permissive parents: parenting style emphasizing self-expression and self-regulation

Uninvolved parents

Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages (see handout)

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning

I. Preconventional morality
II. Conventional morality
III. Postconventional (principled) morality