Diving into
Psychology!
TRUE or FALSE?!
Opposites Attract…
FALSE!
●
●
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(McCutcheon, 1991) — over three-quarters of undergraduates believe
this statement to be true, however, there is almost no research to
support such an assertion.
Many studies showing the opposite: similarity and attraction are
closely linked, especially for platonic attraction (e.g., Byrne, 1961;
Singh, 1973; Newcomb, 1961; Montoya, Horton & Kirchner, 2008).
Experimental research shows that there is a positive linear
relationship between attitudes similarity and attraction (e.g., Byrne,
1961); for example, if people have twice as many attitudes in common
they will tend to like each other twice as much
TRUE or FALSE?!
Rapid loss of smell predicts dementia and
smaller brain areas linked to Alzheimer's…
TRUE!
●
New research shows that a decline in a person's sense of smell over time
predicts their loss of cognitive function and can foretell structural changes
in regions of the brain that are important in Alzheimer's disease and
dementia. The findings could lead to the development of smell-test screening
to detect cognitive impairment earlier in patients.
○ Smell and memory are so closely linked because the anatomy of the brain
allows olfactory signals get to the limbic system very quickly.
○ Experts say the memories associated with smells tend to be older and
thought about less often, meaning the recollection is very vivid when it
happens
TRUE or FALSE?!
Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts
Their Intelligence…
FALSE!
●
There is no scientific evidence that listening to Mozart improves
children's cognitive abilities.
○ The whole idea comes from a small study done in 1993, Rauscher et al.,
which made the surprising claim that, after listening to Mozart's sonata
for two pianos (K448) for 10 minutes, normal subjects showed
significantly better spatial reasoning skills than after periods of
listening to relaxation instructions designed to lower blood pressure or
silence.
○ The enhancing effect did not extend beyond 10-15 minutes. These results
proved controversial. Many investigators were unable to reproduce the
findings
TRUE or FALSE?!
People use only 10% of their brain…
FALSE!
●
Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Positron
Emission Tomography (PET), scientists observe that all areas of
healthy brains are active all the time, even while people sleep or are
in a coma.
○ However, depending on the task a person engages in, some areas of
the brain become more active than others. Further evidence from
neuropsychological studies show that there is no area of the brain
that can be damaged in adults without some measurable loss of
function.
TRUE or FALSE?!
Music memories remain in the brain after
patients lose language.
TRUE!
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Despite the level of brain impairment and severity in dementia, certain
activities remain preserved in most instances and are very resistant to
decline.
○ These include activities such as pedaling an indoor bicycle,
enjoying music, dancing, and throwing a baseball.
The person doing these activities may not know who you are or who they
are, but these activities were learned and engrained in their younger
years and remain. The memory for these activities is called Procedural
Memory (PM). Memory for events, knowledge, and reasoning, known as
Explicit Memory (EM), gradually disappears as dementia worsens
TRUE or FALSE?!
Psychology is just common sense
FALSE!
●
To arrive at findings, it employs systematic and objective methods of
observation and experimentation.
○ Experimenters can study human concerns objectively and fairly using
scientific approaches.
TRUE or FALSE?!
Not all psychologists are therapists
TRUE!
●
The APA has 54 affiliated divisions representing a wide range of
subject areas including experimental psychology and cognitive science,
quantitative and qualitative methods, developmental psychology,
applied experimental and engineering psychology, psychopharmacology
and substance abuse, health psychology, and clinical neuropsychology
TRUE or FALSE?!
Some people are left brained, and some are
right brained…
FALSE!
● Although the left and right brain do have preferred
activities they undertake, it does not mean our general
personality is also right or left brain-dominant.
● All parts of the brain interact and work seamlessly to
create the experience we call ‘consciousness’.
TRUE or FALSE?!
Eye movements in REM sleep mimic gazes in the
dream world…
TRUE!
●
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Scanziani, along with UCSF postdoctoral researcher Yuta Senzai, PhD, were
able to look at "head direction" cells in the brains of mice, who also
experience REM sleep. These cells act something like a compass, and their
activity shows researchers which direction the mouse perceives itself as
heading.
The team simultaneously recorded data from these cells about the mouse's
heading directions while monitoring its eye movements. Comparing them,
they found that the direction of eye movements and of the mouse's internal
compass were precisely aligned during REM sleep, just as they do when the
mouse is awake and moving around.
TRUE or FALSE?!
Prolonged use of sleeping pills often causes
rebound insomnia.
TRUE!
●
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The use of sleeping pills enhances chemicals that are naturally present in
the brain and nervous system.
○ One medication, Belsomra, blocks the wakefulness signal delivered via
orexin (or hypocretin). When the sleeping pill is suddenly withdrawn,
the brain is left in a lurch, almost like you pulled the rug out from
beneath it.
When someone becomes tolerant to medications like sleeping pills, they
discover that they need more and more of the medication to get the same
effect. It works less and less well and may stop working completely.
Why study Psychology?
“Psychology is without question, the single most
important discipline a person can study in regards to
relevance and understanding of one’s everyday life.”
Findings are all around you. It is THE most influential
science and most relevant to your everyday life in a
way that you can control your surroundings.
Have you ever…
1. …found yourself reacting to something as one of your parents
would? How much of your personality is inherited? To what
extent are our personalities a product of our home and
community environment?
2. …awakened from a nightmare and wondered why you had such a
crazy dream?
3. …played peekaboo with a 6 month old and wondered why the baby
finds the game so delightful?
4. …wondered what leads to school and work success? Are some
people just born smarter?
5. …become depressed or anxious and wondered where it came
from? What triggers our bad moods or our good ones?
How can psychology help you in
day-to-day life…
What IS psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Any action which is
observable and/or
measurable in some way.
Cognitive activities
- Dreams,
perceptions,
thoughts,
emotions,
feelings
- NOT directly
observable
Try to Reach Four Goals
01
02
Describe what
people do
Describe why
people think,
feel, and act the
way they do
03
04
Predict what,
when, and how
they will do it
To change the
parts of human
behavior that
cause us pain
History of Psychology
Psychology has only
existed as science for a
little over a 100 years.
Stone Age-People
thought that spirits
possessed the body.
02
01
Before that:
speculation
Had to find a way to
make the evil spirits
escape the body.
-
First lobotomies
Egyptians-Believed
inside each person
was a smaller person
(Ka)
03
KA: Soul
History of Psychology
Middle Ages
01
Again, the idea of being
possessed by evil spirits.
More tortuous ways of
expelling the demons.
1800s Phrenology
02
Read people’s
personality traits by
reading bumps on the
head
Structuralism: Wilhelm
Wundt
*primary method used:
Introspection (looking
within)
03
Established the first formal psychology
lab in Germany. Analyzed conscious
process into basic elements: sensations,
images, feelings & how are these elements
connected
Historical Approaches
(1) Structuralism
● focused on breaking down
mental processes into the
most basic components.
● Wilhelm Wundt – Father of
Psychology, first to create a
psychology lab.
● Developed technique of
introspection
Historical Approaches
(2) Functionalism
(1890)
– 1st American School of
Psychology
– Led by William James
– The study of the mind as its
functions in adapting the
organism to its environment
– Tried to provide objective
descriptions of behavior
– G. Stanley Hall; 1st to receive a
doctorate in Psychology
Founder of APA-American
Psychological Association
Historical Approaches
(3) Gestalt
● Several Theorists working
together develop the idea that
the whole is more than the
sum of its parts.
● Emphasizes that the whole of
anything is greater than its
parts.
● Wertheimer
● Koffka
● Kohler
Historical Approaches – Sigmund Freud: Austrian Physician
(4) Psychoanalysis
▪ Developed idea of the
unconscious mind and that
(1880s-1890s)
behavior was largely influenced
by conflicts
within…unconscious mental
forces direct our everyday
behavior
– Focused on the development and
treatment of abnormal behavior
Historical Approaches
(5) Behaviorism
(1913)
– John Watson started the behaviorist
movement: suggested the focus of
psychology should be on directly
observable behavior, making psych a
hard science
– Psychology should study only what
could be observed and measured
objectively
– Behavior is determined by the
environment, product of learned
responses
– B.F. Skinner: operant conditioning…
Historical Approaches
(5) Behaviorism pt. 2
(1913)
– B.F. Skinner: operant
conditioning…
– Developed virtually all we
know about conditioning
using rewards and
punishments. Although his
strict behaviorist ideas have
died, his research is applied
today in everything.
Humanistic
(1960s)
– Carl Rogers
– Behavior is a
reflection of internal
growth
– Every individual has
the need to
self-actualize
▪ Abraham
Maslow-SelfActualization
Pyramid
3 Main Levels of Analysis
Behavior and
mental
processes
Psychodynamic Perspective
▪ Newer version of traditional
Freudian psychoanalytic
perspective
▪ Hold true to the role of
unconscious forces on our
behavior.
▪ Differ in the views regarding the
roles of sex and aggression
Behavioral/Learning Perspective
▪ Role the environment plays
on our behavior.
▪ Comes from several
different older perspectives
but focuses on the role of
how learning and experience
shape us.
Cognitive Perspective
▪ Old perspective, still going
strong
▪ How do our thoughts,
feelings, emotions affect our
behavior?
Evolutionary Perspective
▪ Recent addition
▪ Explains modern behavior in
regards to how it at one time
helped the species survive
▪ Sexual behavior differences
in men and women
Behavioral Genetics
▪ Another recent addition
▪ Recent advancements in technology
have advanced the perspective.
(human genome project)
▪ New version of the nature/nurture
debate
▪ How much nature? How much
nurture? How do genes and
environment interact?
Sociocultural
▪ How society and culture
shapes behavior.
▪ Role and effects of prejudice
and discrimination.
▪ Gender roles.
Neuroscience
▪ Gaining popularity over the last
50 years
▪ Why has it been gaining
popularity?
▪ Advancements in technology
▪ Seems scientifically sound
▪ Circular relationship?
8 Major Disciplines of Psychology
1. Clinical Psychologist - focuses on psychopathology — the study of mental
disorders
2. Counseling Psychologist - help patients or clients address emotional, social, and
physical stressors in their lives.
3.
4.
5.
6.
School Psychologist - action plans, behavior modification, counseling
Educational Psychologist - research and analysis
Developmental Psychologist - study how people grow and change
Personality Psychologist - interested in the study of how an individual's major
psychological subsystems—motives, emotions, the self, and others— function together
to create a person's life patterns
7. Social Psychologist - study interpersonal and group dynamics and social
challenges, such as prejudice, implicit bias, bullying, criminal activity and substance
abuse
8. Experimental Psychologist - use scientific methods to collect data and perform
research.
Psychology vs. Psychiatry
Psychologist
Psychiatrist
●
Deals with all ● Deals with
specific
subfields within
psychological
Psychology
disturbances
●
Does NOT hold ● Medical Doctors
a medical
● Went to Med
degree
School
●
Not licensed to ● Prescribe the
drugs
practice
medicine
● Trained for
●
Usually hold a
Ph.D
preventing more
serious cases
Considering a Career in Psychology…
●
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Experimental Psychologist- Works primarily in a lab w/ animals
Developmental Psychologist- Research behavior change occurring
across a life span (birth-old age) Can work for toy companies
Health Psychologist- Nutritionist; works on the total well being of
the person; effects of stress
Educational Psychologist- works with the processes of learning
(Teacher training); Guidance Counselors, School Psychologists
Engineering Psychologist- efficiency expert; improve worker
productivity; study consumer behavior
Forensic Psychologist- studies abnormal behavior, will work on
personality profiles (patterns of behavior) of criminals
Psychometric Psychologist- works on creating standardized tests
(ACT, SAT, ERB, HSPA)
Rehabilitation Psychologist- Like a physical therapist, they work
with stroke or accident victims and adjustment
Sports Psychologist- works with athletes to help with motivation,
performance anxiety, etc
Social Psychologist- study who we influence and interact with one
another. (Conformity, prejudice, aggression, altruism)