Psychology chap 14

There are many different types of mental disorders that people suffer from. Disorders are classified on a system called the DSM, diagnostic and statistical manual for mental health. The five levels of the current model, DSM IV, clinical disorders, mental retardation, general medical conditions, psychosocial and environmental problems, and global assessment. The tests done to help evaluate mentally have validity scales to help insure disorders are not faked. There are different reasons a person may develop a mental disorder it could be a natural disposition or a traumatic experience. The diathesis stress model shows how a person may be more susceptible to a disorder based on previous experience. They can be caused biologically by a family history of illness or drugs by the mother during pregnancy. It can be caused culturally by expectations or lifestyle. It can also be caused by psychological trauma such as experiencing war first hand. Anxiety can be described as uneasiness or stress do to worrying about dangers even when they are not actually present. This can cause sweating, dry mouth, and extreme nervousness. Some examples of these phobias would be panophobia, the fear of everything, ochophobia, the fear of being in a moving automobile, and social phobia. Social would have such symptoms as being shy and being scared to speak in front of people. According to a 2008 study 7% are experiencing social phobia at any given time. Major depression can be described as long term depression which can be associated with eating habits, sadness, and loss of focus. Bipolar disorder is extreme changes in mood such as major depression followed immediately by extreme happiness. Biological evidence for Bipolar disorder is monoamines, neurotransmitters responsible for arousal, emotion, and motivation. Cognitive evidence of major depression is the cognative triad which shows depressed people often have a negative view of themselves. Positive symptoms of schizophrenia would be such things as delusions and hallucinations, that are in excesses in behavior. Negative symptoms would be such things as deficits in functioning like slow speech and movement or lack of emotion. Autism is a developmental disorder involving deficits in social interaction, impaired communication, and restricted interests. People with autism have difficulty predicting other peoples behaviors. It is becoming increasingly more common from 1991 to 1997 it rose 556% in diagnosed children. The DSM IV is a way of classifying mental disorders that are similar to each other. There are 5 different classifications clinical disorders, mental retardation and persanality disorder, general medical conditions, psychosocial and enviornmental problems, and global assessment of functioning. The MMPI is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. It has ten clinical scales that generate a profile indicating whether the client may have a particular mental disorder. Concordance rates are the odds that two similar studies will yield the same result. In twin studies those using identical twins yielded higher concordance rates. Antisocial personality disorder can be described as a lack of empathy and remorse. This is common among criminals. People with anorexia nervosa have an intense fear of becoming overweight. This causes eating disorders when they starve themselves to avoid being what they think is fat. Its far more likely in women then in men.

Psychology chap 13

Personality trait is defined as a characteristic, a depositional tendency to act in a certain way over time and across circumstances. There is a general agreement on having five main personality categories. This system is based on major charictoristic catagories made by putting general trait types into similar groups classifying them together. The five factor theory can easily be remembered by the acronym OCEAN. The O, openness to experience, would be describing a person by their personality with imagination vs down to earth or liking variety compared to routine. Next the C, conscientiousness, would be like are you organized ormore disorganized. The E, extraversion, would be if you are outgoing or shy. A, agreeableness, is like softhearted vs ruthless. Finally the N, neuroticism, is if you are more woried or calm. Certain traits are more consistent than others however your situation may change what would be a normal trait for you. For example if you are normaly a kind accepting person that trait will most likely stay consistent no matter the social situation. However say you are a very outgoing person who likes to be the center of attention you would be more likely to be more reserved in certain situations such as a funeral. The best way we have of studying genetic influence on behavior is studying identical twins. Since they are genetically identical you can study personality traits by the similarities. If they both display the trait it is more likely to be a trait closely linked to genetics. Self esteem is how a person views themself and their charictoristics. It is believed to be based on how we believe others percieve us. People who have high self esteem are more confident and tend to be happier than those with low self esteem. Sigmund Freud came up with the concept of psychodynamic theory of personality. This theory suggests unconcious forces that influence behavior often to recieve pleasure or to aide in survival. Positive psychology is based on studies of things such as faith and values. These studies have found people with this qualities to have a better well being an to be more successful. An idiographic approach would focus more on personal charictoristics. Nomothetic studies more common labeled personalities. Projective measures try to use things to elicit unconcious conflict and wishes. Objective tests require participant to make subjective judgements. Temporments are our tendencies to behave in certain ways. They have a great genetic influence which can be studied in infants.

Chapter 12

The book defines attitudes as the evaluation of objects, events, or ideas. There are several ways we require attitudes the first is by familiarity. We gain this by being exposed to something frequently, like foods in your culture. Also through classical conditioning we gain attitudes based on associations we have made between objects, such as a celebrity endorsing a popular shoe brand. Operant conditioning contributes too if you receive a reward every time you do something your more likely to keep doing it. We also develop attitudes based on society, for example for many westerners wouldn't eat a snail but in France its considered a delicacy. Attitudes can be changed and the theory of cognitive dissonance tells us why we might do it in some cases. The Festinger & Carlsmith experiment showed that people change their attitudes to explain their behavior. It showed that if we want to change attitudes we have to get them to do something inconsistent with their normal behavior. Attributions are peoples casual explanations for why events or actions occur. Experiments have found that people tend to be systematically bias in their processing information. They tend to make attributions consistent with what they previously believed. We are not always accurate in our attributions because of biases we have. Stereotypes are cognitive schemas that allow for fast and easy processing of information about people based on their membership in certain groups. According to the self fulfilling prophecy people tend to behave in ways that match their own or others expectations. They cause us to have different views on situations, for example the experiment where men where shown a picture of the woman they were on the phone with. The men that were shown a picture of an attractive woman reported her to be more sociable, poised, and humorous then the men presented with an unattractive photo. There are several ways to get rid of stereotypes and the prejudices that may come with them. One study showed boys at different summer camps competing in athletic events. The competition created some tension and hostility between the groups. After they had to do cooperative activities and started to make friends from different groups. So a great way to get rid of stereotypes and prejudices between groups is to make them work together on a goal. When people are put in certain situations their behavior is very predictive based on their attitude. For example in politics if a person is a democrat it is likely that in the election they will vote for a fellow democrat. There are two types of attitudes implicit and explicit. Explicit you know and are able to report to other people, such liking football or not. Implicit you are unaware because they are at the unconscious level, such as purchasing a product endorsed by a celebrity but being unaware of that fact. Personal attributions are defined as explanations that refer to internal characteristics, such as abilities, traits, moods, and effort. They help shape our personalities and make us individualized. Jigsaw classrooms are designed to involve person to person interactions. Studies have shown this leads to more positive attitudes toward other races when this is used.

Chapter 9

Motivation is defined as the factors that energize, direct or sustain a behavior. So it is basically why we do what we do. Most of the time we do things in hopes of some kind of reward. We may go to work everyday to get money to pay for food which we need. It could be because something sparked our interest or to get back to homeostasis by trying to return ourselves to a comfortable position. There are two different types of motivation intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic motivation would be doing something for an outside reward, for example working to earn a paycheck. Intrinsic would be doing something because it is rewarding itself, such as listening to music. What we do is driven by one or the other of these motives. Emotion is defined as feelings that involve subjective evaluation, physiological processes, and cognitive beliefs. Emotions are also adaptive because they prepare and guide behaviors, such as running from a dangerous animal. Also getting away when your scared. There are several different types of emotion including guilt and embarrassment which are used in the book. It talks about guilt as being when a person feels responsible for another persons negative state. According to the book embarrassment represents submission to and recognition of an unintentional social error. These different emotions seem to be liked in our self perception, how we view ourselves. There is evidence that damage to the prefrontal cortex effects emotion in people. There is an example in the beginning of the chapter of a man who had tissues removed from that area stopped showing signs of emotion after surgery. It has been found that the amygdala is also very important in emotions with fear. One patient that had this structure removed showed no fear even when she knew something was associated with a shock she didn't shy away from it. Negative feedback can affect motivation by telling us that we need to return ourselves back to a pleasant state. This is shown in the book with a person being in a cold room turning on the heat in hopes of returning to homeostasis. Very good supporting evidence for optimal level of arousal is athletic competition. If you are too over stimulated you become nervous and unable to focus on your task. If you aren't aroused you don't care and therefore tend to give little effort and not perform well. A very important thing about setting goals is we need to make sure they are realistic that we can actually obtain them. Another helpful idea is to make steps to reach your goal make it a process to simplify it. Flavor an variety are big factors in our motives for eating. We tend to eat more if it tastes good and we get bored of one food therefore stop eating before we are full. A study proved this when rats that were presented with a variety of food consumed more then the one food diet rats. One hormone that seems to have a big effect on human sexual motivation is testosterone. It has been shown that males need a certain level of testosterone to have sex and the more testosterone women have the more likely they are to have sexual thoughts and desires.

Chapter 8

Representations one of the general kinds is analogical representations. This is a mental representation with characteristics of an object. There is also symbiotic where it does not have physical characteristics. There is evidence with this in how analogical corresponds with geographical maps and symbiotic with how it is abstract. Expected utility is the ideal way for humans to make decisions by examining every option and possible outcome. The limitations to this would be its incredibly time consuming so humans have created shortcuts, known as heuristics, to help with decision making. Framing also contributes to decisions since it is how information is perceived. Goals are often associated with decision making. You could use sub goals to accomplish this. For example if you want to win a state championship you first have to have win your district first. Another is a sudden insight. This would be when the solution just comes to you immediately. There are several different types of intelligence that people have. The first would be general intelligence, the idea that one general factor underlies all mental abilities. One major finding is the fact we can find the general intelligence based on IQ tests. Fluid intelligence involves information processing in complex situation. An example would be reasoning or making analogies. Another is crystallized intelligence, which is the kind we gain from experience.  Prototype is based on categorization and how within categories some things are more representative than others. The good thing about this is it allows us to be flexible. People tend to follow scripts in certain situations. This is based on their expectations either from what they were told or what they experienced. There is a difference in problem solving and decision making. With decisions your trying to chose the best option. In problem solving your overcoming an obstacle. We tend to forecast how we will feel after events. If we think we will be sad we tend to do things to cheer ourselves up. Reliability would be how consistent something is. This differs from Validity which would be how relevant something is.

Psychology chap 7

Working memory is used for things you are currently doing storing temporary information. It helps you think of a specific task by remembering the details temporally. It is very limited though and will only remember a certain amount. The two forms of long term memory are implicit and explicit memory. Implicit is the memorizing facts for example its not very detailed. Explicit is recalling personal memories in great detail such as a traumatic event in your life where you recall everything about it. Long term memory is stored in a way that it can be retrieved based on its importance. So that certain situations are associated with it and are therefore easily recalled when needed. Most of the time we recall long term memories by things that we associate with it. For example when I see Idaho States football field I associate it with state football playoffs which brings back memories of our good plays there. These associations are due to memory cues. The medial temporal lobes are commonly identified as responsible for the declarative memory. There is evidence for this in the case of H. M. He had a brain surgery that removed part of the medial temporal lobes and afterwards was no longer able to remember new things he only had a short working memory. The long term memory was not seemingly effected he still had memories of before the surgery but was unable to create new memories. We have sensory memory that lasts only a fraction of a second that ties closely with our senses. It is so brief under most circumstances we are not even aware that it is working. The serial position effect is how the order we learn is related to how well we remember. We tend to have good memory at the beginning then not as well through the middle but then progress again toward the end. Distraction is one of the major forms of interference with memory. This was proved in class when after presented with the words we were asked to do a math problem then asked to recall again. Once we took are mind off the words it was had to think of them again. Two mnemonic devices I use to recall things are associating words with actions and picturing it with my mind. For example my dad taught me to screw and unscrew by telling me righty tighty lefty loosey. With football I try to picture the playbook in my mind and recall all the routes that way. There are two types of false memories where its episodic but we recall it wrong. The other is a type of amnesia where we recall something but do not remember where we got the information.

Psychology chap 5

Transduction is where sensory receptors produce neural impulses when they get physical or chemical impulses.It transmits this information to the brain through the connecting neurons. Difference threshold is the noticeable difference between stimuli and the minimal amount of change needed for a person to notice the difference. The difference threshold will increase if stimulus becomes more intense. Our receptors for sound are activated by changes in air pressure produce sound waves that travel into our ears. That makes our eardrums vibrate and transfers it to the occicles. From there it vibrates the oval window which causes vibrations that create waves in ear fluid. Finally it causes hairs to bend that cause firing of neurons on the basilar membrane. Psychological dimensions of color are through addictive and subtractive color the evidence of this is in the rods and cones in our brain's occipital cortex. The concept of opposite colors are based on the McCollough effect. For example if a ganglion receives input from an L cone it creates the idea red and green are opposite. A hit is when a signal is presented and a person notices. A miss would be presented but not detecting it. A false alarm is when there is no signal but a person thinks they detect one. There are biases in experiments with these tests. For example if you tell someone only ten percent will be signals they will likely report few signals even if there are many based on what they are expecting. Light becomes neural signals in the occipital cortex. It is goes through the rods, which respond to low light levels seeing black or white, to the cones, which respond to high light level producing color, and finally to the primary visual cortex. The evidence of our being able to perceive color is based on subtractive and additive color mixing. Subtractive is the physical process that happens within the stimulus. Additive is where lights of a different wave length are percieved by the eye. We have depth perseption because of biocular and monocular cues. Biocular is how our view are different based on the distance of the object from our eyes. Monocular is the things you can see with just one eye. According to our book brain imaging studies have confirmed that brain regions in the upper pathway activate by tasks that require disisions about spacial relationships between objects. The lower regions though are activated by tasks involving identifying.