PSYC 101 Study Guide - Final Guide: Social Psychology, Mindfulness, Railways Act 1921
Intro to Psych Final Exam
• Definition of Psychology: The systematic study of the behaviors and mental processes of
individuals
• Types of Psychologists:
o Clinical/Counseling
o School/Educational
o Developmental
o Social and Personality
o Cognitive
o Neuroscience/Physiological
o Industrial/Organizational
• The Profession of Psychology
o Basic Research: Builds psychology’s knowledge base through research and
training
o Applied Research: Tackles practical problems in industrial or other
institutional/organizational settings
o A Helping Profession: That involves counseling and clinical treatment
• Four Basic Themes of Psychology
o Psychology is empirical
▪ Scientific method, not intuition or “common sense” which often is self-
contradictory
o Behavior is multiply-caused
▪ Ex: why did you sign up for this course
▪ Situational, emotional, genetic, cultural, physiological factors
o Individuals and group differences exist
▪ Individual differences > group ones
o We are often completely unaware about causes of our own behavior
▪ We ignore or deny social factors
▪ We are terrible forecastors of behavior including our own
• Major Psychological perspectives
o Behaviorist:
▪ Objective measurement important, so focus on behavior and ignore what
seems subjective
▪ Learning principles are the same for all animals
▪ Past experience and environment determine behavior (not genetic or social
background)
▪ Pavlov, Watson and Skinner
o Cognitive:
▪ Mental processes are important: the role of perception, thought, memory
▪ Expectations, goals, etc… matter
▪ You can objectively measure these concepts
▪ View from the train….how does the mind put things together?
• The whole > sum of its parts
o Neuroscience
▪ We are born with biological characteristics that limit and define us
▪ Nervous system structures (brain parts)
▪ Nervous system function/activity
▪ Genetic factors are essential: scientists have found genetic links to
psychological disorders, attitudes, intelligence, personality, etc…
o Evolution
▪ Just as evolutionary pressures caused structures to change over time, so
have preferences and behaviors been shaped by what provided a survival
advantage
• Theories of attraction
• Phobias
• Preferences for sweet or fatty foods
o Psychodynamic
▪ Unconscious motivations (sex and aggression) drive behavior and early
childhood experiences are critically important
▪ Freud had a powerful impact on all Western culture
o Humanistic
▪ More optimistic, emphasizes human freedom and potential (self
actualization)
▪ Less scientific (and less supporting evidence)
▪ Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
o Sociocultural
▪ Other people, situations and our own culture influence thoughts and
behavior
Learning
• Learning
o Relatively permanent change in performance potential brought about by
experience
o Not maturation, instinct
• Assumptions of the Behaviorist perspectives
o Laws of learning are the same for all species
o Learning is best understood by looking at environmental factors (rather than
internal)
o Key to learning is associations: both types of conditioning focus on basic
associations
• Classical Conditioning
o Pavlov
o A neutral object comes to elicit a response through association with another
stimulus that automatically elicits a response
o It often can be almost any neutral object
• Basic Paradigm
o Occurs Naturally
▪ UCS: Unconditioned Stimulus Food
▪ UCR: Unconditioned Response Salivate
o Occurs With Training
▪ CS: Conditioned Stimulus Bell
▪ CR: Conditioned Response Salivate
• Conditions of Classical Conditioning
o The CS generally must come before the UCS (Provides no information if it comes
after or at the same time)
o The CS and UCS usually must be paired several times
o The delay between the CS and UCS must usually be quite short (5 seconds or
less): would dogs learn if you rang the bell an hour before giving the meat powder
• Stimulus Generalization
o Response generalizes to similar stimuli
▪ You can borrow a friends computer and know how to use it
• Stimulus Discrimination
o Lessened or no response to a somewhat different stimulus than the one that was
conditioned
▪ Can differentiate between stimuli
• Second Order Conditioning
o A new CS associated with the original CS produces the response (though weaker)
o Pavlov’s example: black square precedes tone
o Training a dog with a clicker, then link to praise
o Why you may feel like smoking when at a party, or the sound of a big dog
barking may make you fearful
• Extinction
o Stop pairing CS (bell) with UCS (food) and the response (salivate) will extinguish
o Very useful if its a negative emotional response (fear); used in therapy
o Spontaneous Recovery:
▪ Pair the CS with UCS again and response will return (more quickly this
time)
• Taste Aversion
o Self explanatory
• Studies by John Garcia
o SEE BOOK
• Operant Conditioning
o Reinforcement
▪ Positive: Increases behavior by administering a stimulus
• Ex: Compliments on a shirt
▪ Negative: increases behavior by removing a stimulus
• Ex: Fingernails on a chalkboard
o Punishment
▪ Positive: Decreases behavior by administering a stimulus
• Ex: Spanking
▪ Negative: Decreases behavior by removing a stimulus
• Ex: Revoking TV privileges
• Positive Reinforcement
o Positive reinforcement: addition of a positive (desireable or appetitive) stimulus
▪ Premack Principle: More frequent behavior can reinforce less frequent
behavior
