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Psychology Lecture Notes8/26/2103Notes always available Monday thru Friday (9-5) Williams 307Exams: only lecture notes will be covered in exams, no recitation material will be covered. 8/28/20131. Psychological Sciencea. The scientific study of behavior and brain processesb. Types of psychologyi. Pychophysiologist=brain functions as an electrical circuitii. I/O=leaders and businessc. Goal: to understand, predict, and control (modify: particularly in an ethical fashion helpful to society)d. Toolsi. Scientific method is utilized1. Observe:a. Ex) oncologist office, observe depressed individual, etc2. Define the problema. Ex) we have not made enough progress in treating cancer, but we have in solving nausea (Aloxi, blocks serotonin)b. Number 1 depression medicines utilized: SSRIsc. Less serotonin leads to more depression, more violence, etc3. Propose a hypothesisa. Ex) Aloxi blocks serotonin leading to depression4. Experimentation5. Theory formulationa. Hypothesis to test theory2. Appropriate Designi. Identifying “bullshit”1. Ex) Asking military men who should be in charge of nuclear weapons leads to the result being military men. THIS IS A SAMPLING ISSUE2. Ex) Crawl methods: those who don’t crawl as much as children have more psychological problems, found only in one study. Thus, those adults who have psychological problems, should crawl more. THIS IS A REPLICATION ISSUE3. Ex) genetic testing=violent killers all had XYY. THIS WAS A CONTROL GROUP ISSUEii. Science is never certain, can only make probabilities!iii. Ethical issues1. Delgado, stimulation of the amygdala: inhibited amygdalaa. Stopped a charging bullb. Showed that we can adjust behavior with electrical current to the brainc. IS THIS ETHICAL?i. We decided it was not ethical in violent offenders to cause decrease in activation in the brain to stop violent behavior.iv. Cloningv. Stem cells1. Growing human brains; is it ethical?vi. Later this year1. Social factorsa. Kitty Genovese, about 47 people watcher her get killed. Murdere left the scene and came back; nobody called the police. (BYSTANDER EFFECT, will be discussed)2. Bio Bases of Behavior3. Organic and psychological very highly related3. History of psychologya. William Wundt: first experimental lab in Germanyb. Mind-Body Controversyi. “free will” 1. Science has no free will assumption2. Monism=mind and body are the same thing3. Dualism=there is a separate mind from the body4. Interactionism=the mind will interact with the body for free willc. Historicallyi. Aristotle1. Monismii. Hippocrates1. Monismiii. Galen aka “the great physician”1. CSF with air will inflate the muscle and the body will move (WAS FOUNDTO BE WRONG)2. Monismiv. Lametrie “Man the Machine”1. Hydraulics2. Monismv. Decartes “father of phsychophysiology”1. Interactionism=soul will interact, happens in the headvi. Beliefs will determine what you can see: Start to decided what beliefs you have!vii. Science is a Monistic approach:1. More of a localization issuea. Bartholow=frontal parietal region exposed in patient, applied electrical current to the left, right side of body movedb. Fritz and Hitzig, electrical current to dog brains and cat brainsi. Top left of brain stimulated: cat moved right hind legc. Penfieldi. Right brain=left side, negative/sinisterii. Left brain=right side, positive09/03/20134. Science of psychologya. How do we explain behaviori. Reification-explanation by labeling1. Psychology, like biology uses taxonomy2. Label does not explain3. Label does allow us to research by giving us a language with which to communicate5. Psychology Level of Explanationa. Psychology would turn to Biology, who turn to chemistry, who turn to physicistsi. However, this is not the caseii. We cannot look to physics for an absolute explanationb. Newton and the apple treei. Gravity, things are absolute and mathematicc. Einsteini. Principle of relativityd. Heisenberg’s Physicsi. Uncertainty Principle1. We can only speak with certainty about that which we have observeda. Ex) Alpha male monkey urinating on Dr. Harrison2. The very act of observing changes that which is observeda. Dr. Harrison entering the area affected the monkeys6. Research termsa. Factual statementi. Ex) many students will do poorly on the exam (fact)1. Test anxiety could be root cause2. Arousal level needs to be similar to study to have better resultsii. Empirical law1. Yerkes Dodson lawa. Performance graph follows a negative hyperbole (upside down U)i. Under-arousal produces low performance as does over-arousalb. Reticular Activating System-acts like amplifier, “helps” one to wake upi. Downers (medicine) work on this area of the brainii. Fits the theory, looking to say the theory works1. Another supporting fact of the theory of arousal: rats with hypoarousal and hyperarousal7. Studying behaviora. Case History/Case Studyi. Freud utilized this method1. Ex) Anna O, suffering from hysteria2. Ex) Case history allows a therapist to labelii. Experiment is the ONLY method THAT SHOWS CAUSATION1. Single-subject experimenta. Cannot get multiple people, only one has problem2. ABAB Reversal designi. A=Baselineii. B=treatmentiii. A=baselineiv. B=treatmentb. To assure no confounding variables (ex: weather being well, treatment from specialized doctors)c. We can never be certain, but start to show causality3. Multiple Baseline Designa. Treat one problemi. Ex) spasmodic torticollis, first adjust vertical tilt, then lateral tilt4. Test methoda. Aptitude testsi. Do not evaluate current state, attempt to predict future statesb. Achievement testsi. Assure aptitude tests are properly predicted5. Survey methoda. Census6. Observational method: naturalistic observation, clinical observationa. Jane Goodall with primatesb. Masters and Johnson with sexual behaviorc. Observe in natural settings, don’t manipulate7. Correlational method: more formal measurements than observational; shows a relationship between causes, but we do not know which comes first. WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT CAUSED WHAT. CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION!a. Prediction: allows us to predict one variable from level of anotheri. NOT perfect, only used to assess LINEAR relationshipsii. R=-1 to 1, if r=-1 perfect negative correlation, r=1, perfect positive correlationb. Scatter plots of data show line of best fit for correlationc. DOES NOT SHOW CAUSATION!8. Experimental method: allows to determine causalitya. Manipulate a variable (independent variable)i. Ex) rats-which side of brain


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Virginia Tech PSYC 2004 - Psychological Science

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