Wednesday, February 12, 2014

02/10/14 Experimental Research


  • Experimental Research- Explores cause and effect relationship.
  • Experimentation- Experimentation is all about manipulating and controlling variables. 

  • Experimental Method
    • Blind Study- Subjects are unaware if assigned to experimental or control group.
    • Double- Blind Study- Neither subjects nor experimenters know which group is control or experimental.
  • Descriptive Statistics- Describe the results of a research.
    • Example: 400 likely voters surveyed by phone on Oct. 20. Of these, 230 said they will vote for Obama.
  • Inferential Statistics- Are used to make an inference or draw a conclusion beyond the raw data.
  • Measures of Central Tendency
    • Central Tendency- Where does the center of the data tend to be?
    • Mode- The most frequently occurring score in a distribution.
    • Mean- The arithmetic average of scores.
    • Median- The middle score in a rank ordered distribution.
  • Measures of Variation
    • Range- The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution.
    • Standard Deviation- A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean.


02/06/14 Types of Research


  1. Descriptive Research- We cannot say exactly, but we can describe what we see.
    • Types of Descriptive Research
      1. Case Studies- A detailed picture of one or few subjects.
      2. Survey Method- Most common type of psychology in study
        • Measures correlation
        • Cheap and fast
        • Use interview, mail, phone, internet
        • Low- response rate
  2. Random Sampling- Identify the population you want to study.
    • The sample must be representative of the population you want to study.
    • One reason is the false conscious effect.  The tendency to over estimate the extent to which others share out beliefs and behaviors.
    • Low- Response rate.
    • People lie or misinterpret themselves
    • Wording effects.
  3. Naturalistic Observation
    • Watch subjects in their natural environment.
    • Do not manipulate the environment.
    • Hawthorne effect but even the control group may experience changes. 
    • Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change.
  4. Correlation Method
    • Correlation expresses a relationship between two variables.
    • Does not show causation.
    • Measured used a correlation coefficient.
    • A number that measures the strength of a relationship.
    • Range is from -1 to +1 
    • The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero.
    • Positive correlation: the variables go in the same direction.
    • Negative correlation: the variables go in opposite directions. 

02/05/14 Research Methods


  • Psychology is a science, thus, it is based on research.
  • 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 Barnum Effect- It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate. 

  • Hypothesis
    • Expresses a relationship between two variables.
    • A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study.
  • Independent Variable
    • Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment.
    • Hopefully that independent variable brings about change.
  • Dependent Variable
    • Whatever is being measured  in the experiment.
    • It is dependent on the independent variable.
  • Operational Research
    • Explain what you mean in your hypothesis.
    • How will the variables be measured in "real-life" terms.


Monday, February 3, 2014

Video Links of Most Common Disorders

Phobia's
Dissociative Identity Disorder

Postpartum Depression

Schizophrenia

The following links may help you understand how realistic and serious some of these disorders should be taken.

01/31/14 Biomedical Therapies


  • Psychopharmacology- The study of the effect of drugs on mind and behavior
  • Anti-psychotic Drugs
    • Class of medicines used to treat psychosis and other mental and emotional conditions.
    • Used if suffer from hallucinations, agitations, and delusions.  
    • Beginning to help schizophrenics with both positive and negative symptoms.
  • Anti- Anxiety Drugs
    • Includes drugs like Valium and Librium.
    • Like alcohol, they depress nervous system activity.
    • Most widely abused drugs.
  • Anti-depression drugs
    • Lift you up out of depression
    • Most increase the neurotransmitter Nor-epinephrine.  
  • Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft (Antidepressants)
    • Work by blocking serotonin re uptake. 
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy
    • Biomedical therapy for severely depressed patients in which brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient. 

01/31/14 Psychological Therapies


  • Psychological therapist treatments that are based upon psychological principals.
  • Biomedical therapies- treatments that focus on alternating the brain with drugs, psychosurgery, or electro-compulsive therapy.
  • Therapy
    • Used to be that if someone exhibited abnormal behaviors, they were institutionalized.
    • Because of new drugs, and better therapy, the U.S. went to a policy of deinstitutionalized. 
  1. Psychoanalysis
    • Frued's therapy
    • Freud used free association, hypnosis and dream interpretation to gain insight into the client's unconscious.
  2. Humanistic Therapy
    • Focuses on people's potential for self- fulfillment (self- actualization)
    • Focus on the present and future (not the past)
    • Focus on conscious thoughts (not unconscious ones). 
    • Take responsibility for your actions- instead of blaming childhood anxieties.
      • Group therapies- ex: alcoholic addiction
      • Self-help support groups: family help. 
    • Most widely used humanistic technique is: Client (Person) Centered Therapy developed by Carl Rogers
    • Therapist should use genuineness, acceptance, and empathy to show unconditional positive regard towards their clients.
  3. Behavior Therapy
    • Therapy that applies learning principles to the elimination of unwanted behaviors. 
    • The behaviors are the problems- so we must change the behaviors.
  • Systematic Desensitization
    • A type of counter conditioning that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety- triggering stimuli.
  • Exposure Therapy- form of desensitization where the client directly confronts the anxiety- triggering stimuli.
  • Adversive Conditioning
    • A type of counter-conditioning that associates an unpleasant state with an unwanted behavior. 
  • Token Economy
    • An operant conditioning procedure that rewards as desired behavior. 
    • A patient exchanges a token of some sort, earned from exhibiting the desired behavior.
4. Cognitive Therapy
  • A therapy that teaches people new, more adaptive ways of thinking and acting, based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions.

01/23/14 Types of Disorders


  1. Anxiety Disorders
    • A group of conditions where the primary symptoms are anxiety or defense against anxiety.
    • The patient fears something awful will happen to them.
    • They are in a state of intense apprehension, uneasiness, uncertainty, or fear. 
  • Phobia
    • A person experiences sudden episodes of intense dread.
    • Must be an irrational fear.
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
    • An anxiety disorder in which a person is continuously tense, apprehensive and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal.
    • Patient is constantly tense and worried, feels inadequate, is oversensitive, can't concentrate and suffers from insomnia. 
  • Panic Disorder
    • An 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
    • Persistent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) cause someone to feel the need (compulsion) to engage in a particular action.
    • Obsession about dirt and germs may lead to compulsive hand washing. 
  • Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
    • Flashbacks or nightmare's following a person's involvement in or observation of an extremely stressful event.
    • Memories of the event cause anxiety
    2.  Somatoform Disorders- occurs when a person manifests a psychological problem through a physiological symptom. 
  • Hypochondrias- frequent physical complaints for which medical doctors are unable to locate the cause.
    • They usually believe that the minor issues (headaches, upset stomach) are indicative are more severe illnesses.
  • Conversion Disorder- Report the existence of severe physical problems with no biological reason.
    • Like blindness or paralysis.
3. Dissociative Disorder- these disorders involve a disruption in the conscious process.
  • Psychogenic Amnesia- A person cannot remember things with no physiological basis for the disruption in the memory.
    • Retrograde Amnesia (temporary)
    • NOT organic amnesia (head injury, substance abuse)
  • Dissociative Fugue- People with psychogenic amnesia find themselves in an unfamiliar environment.
  • Dissociative Identity Disorder
    • Used to be known as Multiple Personality Disorder.
    • A person has several rather than one integrated personality.
    • People with DID commonly have a history of childhood abuse of trauma.
4. Mood Disorders- Experience extreme or inappropriate emotions.
  • Major Depression
    • AKA unipolar depression.
    • Unhappy for at least two weeks with no apparent cause
    • Depression is the common cold of psychological disorders.
  • Seasonal Affective Disorder
    • Experience depression during the winter months.
    • Based not on temperature, but on amount of sunlight.
    • Treated with light therapy.
  • Bipolar Disorder
    • Formally manic depression.
    • Involves period of depression and manic episodes.
    • Manic episodes involve feelings of high energy. (But they tend to drifter a lot... some get confident.)
  • Personality Disorders
    • Well-established, maladaptive ways of behaving that negatively affect people's ability to function.
    • Dominates their personality.
  • Antisocial Personality Disorder
    • Lack of empathy
    • Little regard for other's feelings
    • View the world as hostile and look out for themselves.
  • Dependent Personality Disorder
    • Rely too much on the attention and help of others.
    • Historic Personality Disorder
    • Needs to be the center of attention.
    • Whether acting silly or dressing provocatively.
  • Narcissistic Personality Disorder
    • Having an unwarranted sense of self- importance.
    • Thinking that you are the center of the Universe. 
5. Schizophrenic Disorders- About 1 in every 100 person are diagnosed with schizophrenia.
  • Symptoms of Schizophrenia:
    1. Disorganized thinking
    2. Disturbed Perceptions
    3. Inappropriate emotions and actions
  • Disorganized thinking- The thinking of a person with schizophrenia is fragmented and bizarre and distorted with false beliefs.
    • Disorganized thinking comes from a breakdown in selective attention- they cannot filter our information. 
  • Delusions (false beliefs)
    • Delusions of Persecution- thinking someone is always following you.
    • Delusions of Grandeur- thinking you are somebody else.
  • Disturbed Perceptions
    • Hallucinations- Sensory experiences without sensory simulations.
  • Inappropriate Emotions and Actions
    • Laugh at inappropriate times, flat effect, senseless, compulsive acts, catalonia- montionless.
  • Positive v. Negative Symptoms
    • Positive- Hallucinations, disorganized, diluted in their talks (word salad), inappropriate laughter, tears or rage. ( Presenting inappropriate symptoms)
    • Negative- Toneless voice, expressionless face, mute, very rigid body. (Absence of  appropriate ones)
  • Types of Schizophrenia
    • Disorganized Schizophrenia- Disorganized speech or behavior, or than of inappropriate emotion.
      • Clang associations
      • "imagine the worst systematic, sympathetic, quiet."
    • Paranoid Schizophrenia
      • Flat effect
      • Waxy Flexibility
      • Parrot like repeating on another's speech and movement.
    • Undifferentiated Schizophrenia
      • Many and varied symptoms

01/22/14 Psychological Disorders


  • Psychological disorder- a "harmful dysfunction" in which behavior is judged to be atypical, disturbing, maladaptive and unjustifiable. 
  • Early Theories
    • Afflicted people were possessed by evil spirits.
    • Music or singing was often used to chase away spirits.
  • Current Perspectives
    • 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. 
      • Used to be called Diathesis- Stress Model: Diathesis meaning predisposition and stress meaning environment.
  • Classifying Psychological Disorder
    • 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. 

0/18/14 Ch. 15 Personality Ctd.


  • Evaluating the Trait Perspective
    • The Person-Situation Controversy Walter Mischel (1968, 1984, 2004) points out that traits may be enduring, but the resulting behavior in various situations is different. Therefore, traits are not good predictors of behavior.
  • The Person-Situation Controversy
    • Trait theorists argue that behaviors from a situation may be different, but average behavior remains the same.  Therefore, traits matter.
  • Consistency of Expressive Style
    • Expressive styles in speaking and gestures demonstrate trait consistency.  Observers are able to judge people's behavior and feelings in as little as 30 seconds and in one particular case as little as two seconds.
  • Social- Cognitive Perspective
    • Bandura (1986, 2001, 2005) believes that personality is the result of an interaction that takes place between a person and their social context.
  • Individuals & Environments
    • Specific ways in which individuals and environments interact
      1. Different people choose different environments.
      2. Our personalities shape how we react to events.
      3. Our personalities shape situations.
  • Behavior- Behavior emerges from an interplay of external and internal influences.
  • Personal Control
    • Social-cognitive psychologists emphasize our sense of personal control, whether we control the environment or the environment controls us.  External locus of control refers to the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate.  Internal locus of control refers to the perception that we can control our own fate. 
  • Learned Helplessness
    • When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness. 
  • Optimism vs. Pessimism
    • An optimistic or pessimistic attributional style is your way of explaining positive or negative events.  Positive psychology aims to discover and promote conditions that enable individuals and communities to thrive. 
  • Positive Psychology and Humanistic Psychology
    • Positive psychology, such as humanistic psychology, attempts to foster human fulfillment.  Positive psychology, in addition, seeks positive subjective well- being, positive character, and positive social groups. 
  • Assessing Behavior in Situations- Social- Cognitive psychologists observe people in realistic and stimulated situations because they find that is it the best way to predict the behavior of others in similar situations. 
  • Evaluating the Social- Cognitive Perspective
    • The social- cognitive perspective on the personality sensitized researchers to the effects of situations on and by individuals.  It builds on learning and cognition research. Critics say that social- cognitive psychologists pay a lot of attention to the situation and pay less attention the the individual, his unconscious mind, his emotions, and his genetics.
  • Exploring the self- Research on the self has a long history because the self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a critical part of our personality.
    1. Research focuses on the different selves we possess.  Some we dream and others we dread.
    2. Research studies how we overestimate our concern that others evaluate our appearance, performance, and blunders (spotlight effect).
  • Benefits of Self- Esteem
    • Maslow and Rogers argued that a successful life results from a healthy self- image (self-esteem).  The following are two reasons why low self-esteem results in personal problems.
      1. When self-esteem is deflated, we view ourselves and others critically.
      2. Low self-esteem reflects reality, our failure in meeting challenges, or surmounting difficulties.
  • Culture & Self-Esteem
    • People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing themselves to the people with similar positions. 
  • Self-Serving Bias
    • We accept responsibility for good deeds and successes more than for bad deeds and failures.  Defensive self-esteem is fragile and egotistic whereas secure self-esteem is less fragile and less dependent on external evaluation.