PSYCH 1010 1st EditionExam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 5 - 12Lecture 5 (January 14)Persons and causes.Psychologists are experts in persons. This causes them to disagree. Psychologists are experts in different things. Psychologists define”causes” as an antecedent leading to a consequence. A cause is a necessary factor in explanation. One statement about causality in which most psychologists will agree is that persons are caused by variables. What is a variable? A variable is anything that can vary. They vary between persons and within persons. 1. Male and Female. sex hormones circulating. 2. The amount of love you receive in life. Some people have more opportunity for love and some are not the target of as much affection of how much they would life. The amount of love varies among people. 3. Self conflicts vary among persons.Some have enormous self confidence, others have so much its obnoxious. some confident in math, some confident in athletics. 4. Political affiliationNature-Nurture conceptSocial scientists who emphasize the role of “nature” believe that persons are caused by their inborn nature. Biology. Social scientists who emphasize the role of “nurture” say that persons arecaused by their experience. Principle of ParsimonyWhen scientists use this, they try to use as few causal principles as possible. Spend as few causalconcepts as possible. Gives rise to disagreement. Lecture 6 (January 16) The Model of Causality; Five parts: A. Phsyio-personal - bodyB.Intrapersonal - mindC.Interpersonal - close relationshipsD. Meta - personal - culture and history E.Non - personal - physical environmentThese are all of the things that cause persons. Each of these 5 parts can be involved in causing aperson’s depression. The fundamental question of psychology is “What is the cause of a person?” The physio-personal variable could cause a person's depression if they had a physical disability that they were born with. According to the intrapersonal aspect of causality, a person's depression can be caused from their mind. If a person is constantly having negative thoughts about her or his life, it could contribute to their depression. The interpersonal pert could contribute to one’s depression is a family member dies or something happens to a lovedone. Interpersonal means “between persons.” Meta-personal aspects affect depression because they are our culture and history. A persons historical background of being enslaved could have an affect on oppression within. Finally, non-personal causes can cause a person's depression. A person could become addicted to cocaine and become depressed because it controls their lives. This is a meta-personal cause because it comes from their physical environment. Lecture 7 ( January 21)Cooperative-collectivistic vs. Competitive-IndividualisticCooperative-collectivistic cultures are very closely tied to family and responsibilities. When something goes wrong, people will be there to help. There is a societal “safety net” to fall back on. Depression is less likely in these cultures. Competitive-individualistic cultures move on mobile and rise to the highest level. There is not a lot of responsibility of obligation to the family. Individuals are encouraged to the the best that they can be. This form of social life is more vulnerable to depression because there is not a “safety net” to fall back on. If you fail, you fail. Religion and DepressionThere have been studies that have shown that there is a relationship between sincere religious commitment and depression. The relationship is that people with a sincere religious commitment are less vulnerable to depression. this is because often times religion teaches that life exists after death. This gives people hope that their lives are not going to end when they die. Without a system of meaning, a person is more vulnerable to depression.Lecture 8 ( January 23)Participation is an in-class psychological research studyLecture 9 ( January 26)The scientific method-prevents scientists from disagreements. - The three most important things is psychology are: persons, causes, and the scientific method. Philosophy and PsychologyRationalism is the belief that all true knowledge comes from the use of logis and reason alone. Engage in systematic thinking. Empiricism is the belief that all true knowledge comes through experience. Empiricists demand evidence. Social sciences are disciplines that attempt to be reasonable about evidence. Some examples of social sciences are the humanities, religious studies, philosophy, and literature. Natural sciences use the scientific method to answer the question “what is the cause of a person?” Some natural sciences are biology, chemistry, meteorology. The social sciences use rationalism and natural sciences use empiricism Lecture 10 (January 28)Some questions that you might need answered from this lectureHow are these two variables defined? Independent variable - variable that is manipulated, presumed cause of the experimental hypothesis. free and independent to directly cause it. ex. The selected clips from Kill bill. Independent variable. could have chosen other movies. Dependent variable - variable that the researcher measures. Presumes effect of your hypothesis.What are these groups called and how are they defined? Experimental group- group that receives the independent variable of interest. The kill bill group is the experimental group. Control group - A comparison group as much like experimental group as possible except it does not receive independent variable of interest (violent TV programs) instead they watch Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. What is a confounding variable? occurs when an uncontrolled variable is unequally linked or tied to the independent variable. ( 18 boys 2 girls watched kill bill, 18 girls 2 boys watched Mr. Rogers) How many potential confounding variables are there in any particular experiment? Infinite number of compounds. What does the existence of confounding variables mean with regard to how the results of any single experiment should be interpreted? no one experiment proves anything. Lecture 11 ( January 30)Class cancelledLecture 12 (February 2)Origins of Biological psychologyBiological psychology is a specialization within a broader group of disciplines known as the neurosciences. It breaks things down to the biological level using eliminative