Psych 101 Review

History of Psych

T: Ancient Greeks. Plato-Nativism, knowledge (like language) is innate. Aristotle-Philosophical empirici

sm- all knowledge acquired through experience.

Rene Descartes- body was physical, mind was spiritual- dualism, how does mental activity coordinate
the body

Thomas Hobbes- Mind is what the brain does, the mind is part of the body

Phrenology- Franz Joseph Gall, certain parts of the brain were specialized for certain traits- the larger
that part of the head/skull was, the more prominent that trait
Pros- regularity of brain structure- certain parts specialized /localization
Textbook- T: Flourens removed parts of dogs brains to see that they behaved diff. Broca explores brocas
area, guy who could only say tan. Showed brain and mind were closely linked

Structuralism-Wilhelm Wundt/ Edward Titchener, 1860s -based on physisiology, biological processes

T-Helmholtz studied reaction times and measured speed of nerve impulses
Wundt- first lab dedicated to psychological studies- study of conscious thought and experience- analysis
of basic elements that make up the mind- elemental sensations and feelings- introspection- subjective
observation of sensations and feelings.
“consciousness could be broken down into separate elements”
-Too subjective, not concrete, replicable

Functionalism – William James, late 1800s- mental processes serve to help ppl adapt – based off of
Darwin’s revolution. What did mental processes serve? Why did they evolve?
-Influential and huge in N America, but too deterministic
T: G Hall set up first American psych lab. Children develop over a lifetime like humans evolved over eons

T: Charcot and Janet- hysteria, hypnosis

Psychoanalytic Theory- Freud, early 1900s, exploration of subconscious and how it influences conscious
thought and behaviour- exploration of abnormal psychology related to painful childhood- bringing
unconscious to conscious awareness
-Explored hysteria among patients
-Too negative, didn’t focus on possibilities, only limitations

Humanistic Psychology- Maslow and Rogers, post WW2, focus on potential of human mind to grow an
develop- more positive, emphasis on disorders and negative emotions
Behaviour reducible to instinct and past experiences

Behaviourism – John Watson 1920s-50s- Influenced by Pavlov, Scientific study of behaviour; concrete,
observable- predict and control behaviour, stimulus-response
T: Skinner and Operant Conditioning/ Reinforcement – societal pressures controlled how ppl behaved

Gestalt (whole) theory- perception of whole rather than sum of parts, exploration of memory, reacted
to theories that tried to explain thinking as a collection of stuff
Cognitive Psych- Advancement in tech to see the brain thru scans- study of cognitive processes-
perception, thought, memory, reasoning
T: Cognitive Neuroscience, behavioural neuroscience, evolutionary psych
T: Social and Cultural Psych

T: Empiricism- accurate knowledge gained through observation

Empirical problems with psych- complexity- brain too complex
Variability- people are all real diff
Reactivity- ppl react differently and unexpectedly.

Central Tendency- Mean, median, mode, what happens around the centre of the data
Variability- range and standard dev

Observer bias- expectations influence observations, expectation can influence reality

Double blind method- observers don’t know true purpose of experiment

Matched Sample Technique- participants in two groups are identical in third variables
Matched pairs technique- each participant identical to one other participant in the other group
-does not eliminate other third (fourth?) variables

Psychologsists must: publish truthfully, give credit where credit is due, publish all data, cant fake data

Mirror neuron?
Santiago Ramon y Cajal discovered neurons and synapse gap
Endorphins- act on pain pathways and emotion centres of brain- dulls pain, elevates mood
Amphetamines- stimulates release of norepinephrine and dopamine, blocks reuptake of some NT
Striatum- part of basal ganglia- controls posture
Temporal Lobe- primary cortex receives sounds and secondary areas process sounds into recognizable
things
Association Areas- secondary neurons that help provide context and meaning to information received
Mirror neurons- active when animals perform a behavior or see another one do the behaviour,
especially if the behaviour is beneficial (like eating)

Brain development- develops early- neural tube formed from groove- forms spinal cord and eventually
brain- ontogeny- how brain develops within an individual phylogeny- how a brain develops within
a species

Degree of relatedness- probability of sharing genes

Identical twins share 100% genes, dizygotic twins and siblings share 50%
Epigenetics- DNA methylation- addition of methyl group on a gene inhibits its expression
Histone modification- proteins that package DNA- can increase or decrease expression
Cool things-
Wernicke- guy who couldn’t understand language but could talk
Broca- guy who could understand language but could barely talk
Phineas Gage- frontal lobe damage changed his personality, judgement, emotions
Split- brain procedures. Right side can be spoken (seen by left side) Left side can draw/point
EEG- records electrical activity in the brain thru amplification
Neuroimaging techniques-images of the brain created
CT- Xray, shows different densities of the brain
MRI- Magnetic, shows differneces in molecular composition of brain
DTI- visualize white matter, connections within brain
Functional brain imaging- PET scan- shows blood flow thru dye
FMRI- detects oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin – effective look at behaviour
TMS- temporarily stop function in sections of brain- see causations