3-31-05
EC-10 points
Positive Psych: people 0 through +5
Past: give a family tree with bio/societal/psyched strengths
Present: who am I bio/psych/soc now
Future what will I do bio/psych/soc
5-6 pages due last day to any one grade
Social Psychology:
-behavior is powerfully influenced by the situation
Fundamental Attribution Error:
-observer underestimates situation and overestimates dispositions of actor
Just World Phenomenon
-assumption is made that the world is just, blames victim, bad things happen to bad people, good things happen to good people
Informational Social Influence
-1937, Sherif- Autokinetic Effect
-informational soc. Influence: good
Normative Social Influence:
-1955-Asch: group pressure/conformity
-rather liked than right (baaad)
Conditions that strengthen Conformity:
-strengthen conform: made to feel incompetent or insecure, atleast 3 people, group is unanimous, behavior observed by others, socialized by culture that strongly encourages respect for social standards
65% of adult males continued in Milgrem’s exp. Shocking people
4-5-05
Milgrim:
Subjects were deceived about:
-purpose of the experiment
-role of other subject
-actual amount of shock
-fundamental lesson:
-even ordinary people who are not usually hostle can become agents of destruction if situation allows it
Cogntive dissonance: attitudes match behavior, want harmony in head, if not, will have cog. Dissonance:
-tension produced when people act in way that is inconsistent with attitude
Action 1 st
, Attitude 2 nd

Foot in door:
-once a person has granted a small request they are more likely to comply with a larger one too
Low ball technique:
-first, induce a person to agree to do something, second, raise the cost of compliance after the commitment to the behavior has been made door in the face:
-under certain circumstances a person who has refused to comply with a large request make be more likely to comply with a second smaller request
2 nd lesson of social psych:
-we construct the social reality around us
2 nd
lesson is:
-self fulfilling prophecy
-process in which a person’s expectation about another person elicits behavior from that person that confirms the expectation prejudice: an unjustifiable attitude toward a group of it’s members, interplay of social, emotional, cognitive
Social: rationalizes inequalities
Eye of storm: prejudice + discrimination are learned attitudes, which is key to their elimination
Once prejudice is established, the inertia of conformity helps maintain it
Emotional:
-scapegoat
-drain anger from frustration
-boosts self esteem
Cognitive:
-schema is the way we process information by characterizing people by groups they belong to, or by noticing and remembering vivid classes…creates stereotypes
-de-individualization: loss of individuality or depersonalization (self awareness) that comes from being in a group
4-7-05
Altruism: unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Bystander effect:
-reluctance to come to the aid of a person in need when others are present
Diffusion of Responsibility:
-idea that when we think others are present, out sense of responsibility decreases
Social Exchange:
-maximize our rewards
-minimize our costs
Social Norms:
-reciprocating the help we receive
-responsible toward those in need
Evolution:
-genetic predisposition to preserve our own genes through devotion to kin
We help when:
1.
just observed someone else being helpful
2.
not in a hurry
3.
recipient is similar to us
4.
recipient appears to need and deserve help
5.
feeling guilty (i.e. restore self image)
6.
not self preoccupied
7.
in a good mood
Bio-Psycho-Social…of love
Intimacy-commitment-passion
Proximity: geographical nearness (mere exposure effect) (neutral or positive first impression yields liking, but not negative)
Emotions
Affiliations
Complementary schismogenesis (withdraw the more a person pushes)
Attractiveness
Similarity-social validation
Reciprocal judgment-we like those who like us
1.
don’t attribute flattery to motives
2.
recently been deprived of approval
3.
others praise, reverse earlier criticism
Equity: a condition in which what people receive from a relationship is proportional to what they contribute

Walster:
Falling in love: phenylethylamine
Breaking up
Hatred NOT opposite of love
4-12-05 sensation: process by which stimulus energies are detected and encoded perception: process of organizing and interpreting sensations
Subliminal Messages:
-messages that are presented below the absolute threshold for awareness
Sensory Adaptation:
-diminished sensitivity to a prolonged unchanged stimulus
The color sensitive cones are concentrated around the fovea, the central focus in the retina
While color-blind rods predominate in the periphery
Direct Gibson vs Constructvist
Eye is NOT camera
Depth perception: Monocular Cues:
-relative size:
-if we assume two objects are of similar size, we perceive the one that casts the smaller image as further away
-overlap:
-when one object is partially covered by another, we perceive it as further away linear:
-we perceive the convergence of what we know to be parallel lines as indicating increased distance
-texture gradients:
-we perceive a gradual but continuous change from coarser, more distinct, to a finer, less distinct textural element as indicating increasing distance depth perception: binocular cues
-retinal disparity:

object
-refers to the somewhat different images out 2 eyes receive of the same convergence:
-the extent to which the eyes converge inward when looking at an object
Gestalt Principles of Organization:
-proximity:
-near each other, we group together (i.e. on a bus)
-similarity:
-if similar, we group together
-closure:
-if a figure has gaps, we complete it
-continuity:
-we perceive smooth, continuous patterns, not discontinuous ones
Contrast Effect: although they’re identical, the perceived lightness of the interior rectangles differs depending on their surroundings
Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP)
-telepathy: mind to mind communication
-clairvoyance: perceiving remote events (sensing that a person’s house is on fire)
-pre cognition: perceiving future events
-psycho kinesis: mind over matter (levitating a table or influencing roll of a dice)
4-14-05 memory is not a tape recorder memory located in hippocampus
Source memory Confusion: when a person says I know this has happened, but they can’t remember source
Screen Memory: a memory which includes the self, seeing ourselves in memories
Flashbulb memories: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment of event
Encode-Store-Retrieval
Encode:
Sensory:
-iconic, visual sensory, ¼ second
-echoic

-mnemonics devices: memory aids that involve the use of vivid imagery or clever ways of organizing material
-acronym
-acrostic: series of written lines in which the first, last, or other particular letters form a word, phrase, etc
Store:
Repressions
Amnesia
Trauma
DID
(bad encoding)
Retrieval:
Context dependent memory: context same helps, context different sucks
State dependant memory: study and take test in same mood
Déjà vu- mostly BS, something seems associated
Overconfidence Phenomenon: tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our current knowledge
4-21-05
Exam:
Friday, May 6 th
8-10am
Lambert Field House
(Near Mackey Arena)
Altered States of Consciousness
0. Eyes closed, awake, but alert (alpha waves, awake, relaxed)
1. Breathing slows, light sleep, brain waves slow further and show irregular waves (2 min): expierence fantastic images like hallucinations, sensation of falling body (jerking suddenly)
2. relax more deeply, easily awoken (20 min) has spindle busts of brain activity
3 transition to deeper sleep
4. deep sleep, hard to awaken (30 minutes)
-sleep talk, sleep walk, wet the bed (delta waves)
Insomnia: a sleep disorder involving recurring problems in falling or staying asleep
Narcolepsy: periodic uncontrollable attacks of overwhelming sleepiness
Sleep Apnea: temporary cessation of breathing while sleeping

Night terrors: a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. Unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during stage 4 sleep, within 2 or 3 hour of falling asleep and are seldom remembered
Why do we dream?
Wish Fulfillment (Freud)
-dreaming is a psych. Mechanism for fulfillment of wishes, often sexual
Freud: Dream Work:
Condensation:
-several things from a persons life condensed into one symbol
Displacement:
-dream about one thing symbolically related to anxiety provoking object, person, or event
Latent:
Manifest:
Activation Synthesis:
-dreaming is a consequence of random activity that occurs n the brain during
REM sleep. The brain creates a story to make sense of these random signals
Problem Solving:
-dreaming helps us focus on our current problems in order to find solutions
Threat simulation:
-dreaming evolved to help us practice the kills needed to avoid threats
Hypnosis: (induced dissociation) temporary state of heightened suggestibility (in which some people) are able to narrow their focus of attention and expierence imaginary happenings as if they were real
Can’t control, only suggest! (same with sub. Messages)
Day Dreams:
1.
prepare for future events
2.
playful, increase creativity a.
scientists b.
artists c.
writers d.
kids: imaginative play (important for social and cognitive development, tv= inc. concern)
3.
substitutes for impulsive behavior

Meditation: a self induced manipulation of awareness, often used for the purpose of relaxation and self-reflection
-can produce significant reductions in anxiety and improve physical and psych.
Well-being
Addiction/Drugs
“SET”
1.
the person’s state of mind at the time the drug is taken (wine: church vs reception)
2.
setting: the physical, social, and emotional atmosphere in which drugs is taken
Psychoactive Drugs:
Depressant: (stressed, looking to come down)
-alcohol
-heroin (an opiate)
-tranquilizer (a barbituate)
Stimulant: (small, looking to move up)
-cocaine
-nicotine
Hallucinogen: obsessed with dreams/fanatsy
-LSD
-marijuana near Death Expierence
1.
intense feelings of peace, joy, and calm
2.
feelings of departing their bodies
3.
transition stage
4.
movement through a dark space
5.
end of tunnel, met by light
6.
entering light, new land, field, beautiful and serene
4-26-05
1.
Mis-interpretation
2.
Mis-perception
3.
Mis-remembering
Concepts: building blocks of thinking, our concepts simplify and order the world by organizing it into a hierarchy of categories
Concepts often form around “prototypes”: the “best” examples of a category
Heuristics:
The representativeness Heuristic

-to judge the likelihood of things in terms of how well they fit/ represent particular prototypes
Availability Heuristic
When we base our judgement on the availability of info in our memories if instances of an event are easily available or if they come to mind readily, we presume such events are common
Framing: the way an issue is posed (framed) can significantly affect decisions and judgements (car accidents glass reaction)
Confrimation Bias: major obstacle in problem solving
-our tendancy to search for info that confirms our ideas
Belief Perserverance:
Clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited
Functional Fixedness
-tendancy to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving (lines connected by dots)
Overconfidence Phenomenon
-tendnacy to overestimate the accuracy of our knowledge
Thinking Errors
-B&W thinking: view a situation in only 2 categories instead of a continuum
-catastophizing: predict future negatively w/o considering other, more likely outcomes
-discounting: you unreasonably tell yourself that positive expierences, deeds or qualities do not count
-emotional reasoning: you think something must be true because you “feel”
(actually believe) it so strongly, ignoring evidence to the contrary
-labeling: a fixed global label on self or others w/o considering all evidence
-mind reading: you believe you know what others are thinking
-personalization: believe others are behaving negatively because of you, w/o considering more likely explanations
4-28-05
Review:
2 main lessons of social psych:
-powerfully influenced by situation

-we construct social atmosphere around us fundamental attribution error just world phenomon
Informational and Normative social influence
Groupthink
Asch’s experiment
Conditions that strengthen conformity
Milgram’s experiment
50 questions, 2 points each
Cognitive Dissonance
-behave first, change attitudes to rationalize
Foot in the door?
Low ball technique?
Door in the face?
2 nd
lesson of soc. Psych is: self-fulfilling prophecy prejudice: eye of the storm (learn when to be prejudice=elimination) altruism:
-bystander apathy
-diffusion of responsibility
-when do we help?
De-individualization
-what would you do if you couldn’t get caught
Love
-proximity
-emotions
-affiliation
-attractinveness
-similarity reciprocal judgement

equity falling in love: culture that taught it, appropriate person, 2 factor theory of emotion breaking up
Sensation
-perception (visual capture-vision dominates 5 senses, expression of why that is)
-subliminal messages
-sensory adaptation
-color sensitive cones
-color blind rods
Sight
-eye not camera
-figure ground
-reversible figure
-perceptual set
-culture and perception
-depth perception
-monocular cues
-binocular cues
-convergence, retinal desperity gestalt principles of organization perceptual constancy contrast effect
ESP
-telepathy, etc
Memory
Memory not tape recorder
Memory construction
-loftus
-reality monitoring
-screen memories flash bulb memory
Library metaphor
Encode
-ionic and echoic memory: sensory memory
-mnemonic devices
Storage

Retrieval
-déjà vu
-“sleep” wasn’t there but thought they heard/saw it state dependent memory context dependent memory
Concepts
Heuristics
-representativeness
-availability framing confirmation bias believe preservance functional dixedness overconfidence phenomenon thinking errors
Altered states of consciousness
Sleep: stage 4 deepest, dreaming in REM
Sleep Disorders: apnia, narch, night terror
4 theories of dreams daydreaming-Singer hypnosis drugs near death expierence curve: takes whole average
86 up A
76 up B
66 up C
56 up D