GRE Psychology Study Aid

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Concerned with social behaviour. The ways in which people influences each others attitudes and behaviors.
Historical Perspective Norman Triplett

Published the 1st study of social psychology. Investigated the effect of competition on performance; cyclists People perform better on familiar tasks.
William McDougall & E.H.Ross

Published the 1st textbook on social psychology
Verplank
Suggested that social approval influences behaviour. The course of a conversation changes dramatically based upon feedback and approval form others.
Reinforcement Theory
Verplank, Pavlov, Thorndike, Hull, Skinner Holds that behaviour is motivated by anticipated rewards
Role Theory Bindle

Bindle People are aware of social roles they are expected to fill Much of the observable behaviour can be attributed to adopting those roles.
Attitudes
Attitude refers to: Cognition and beliefs Emotions and feelings Behavioral aspects and predisposition
Consistency Theories
How attitudes change. People prefer consistency, and will change or resist changing attitudes based upon this preference. Individuals have a tendency to seek a state of consonance/harmony between their attitudes and their behaviour. Inconsistencies are viewed as stimuli or irritants that are often resolved by changing attitudes.
GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com
GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Consistency Theory: Balance Theory - Fritz Heider
3 elements (triad) are related in any given moment. Balance exists when all 3 fit together harmoniously. For example: a Person (P) who likes an Other (O) person will be balanced by the same valence attitude on behalf of the other. \ Symbolically, P (+) > O and P < (+) O results in psychological balance. Balance will exist in a triad if there are 1 or 3 positives; when there is an even number of negative signs.
Consistency Theory: Cognitive Dissonance Theory - Festinger

Individuals act in order to gain consonance by changing their attitude in the direction of the behaviour that had BEEN performed. If a person is pressured to act contrary to its privately held attitudes, there will be a tendency to change those attitudes. The greater the pressure to comply, there will be more resistance to change attitudes. A persons degree of cognitive dissonance will depend upon the strength of that persons need for consistency. Free-Choice Dissonance: A person makes a choice between several desirable alternatives. Post-Decisional Dissonance: dissonance that emerges after a choice is made. Forced-Compliance Dissonance: A person is forced into behaving in a manner that is inconsistent with his beliefs or attitudes. Spreading of alternatives: the way of reducing dissonance. Minimal justification effect: when the external justification for the behavior is minimal, one will reduce dissonance by changing internal conditions.
Consistency Theory: Self-Perception Theory - Daryl Bem

Situational inference People infer that their attitudes are based upon observation of their own behaviour. A persons initial attitude is irrelevant and there is no discomfort produced by behaviour.
Over justification effect - Daryl Bem

if people are rewarded for their behaviour, they may stop liking that behaviour.
Carl Hovlands Model

Deals with attitude change as a process of communicating a message with the intent to persuade someone. Highly credible sources are more effective in changing attitudes. Arguing in a manner that appears to be against self-interest may produce a significant attitude change.
Sleeper effect
Over time, low credibility sources persuasive forces increase. Over time, high credibility sources persuasive forces decreases. Communication that has no immediate effect but proves to have long-range influence. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com 2

Elaboration Likelihood Model of Persuasion (ELM)
Petty and Cacioppo People use either a central or a peripheral route to decision making. Central: people are highly motivated and give careful thought and extensive deliberation to the IMPORTANT decision they are making. Peripheral: people have low motivation and give very little thought or deliberation to the NOT IMPORTANT decisions they are making.
Resistance to Persuasion: Analogy of inoculation

William McGuire People can be immunized against a subsequent persuasive communication of they have been familiarized in advance with the persuasive arguments they are going to hear and have heard the counterarguments. Anticipate and discredit the actual arguments prior to the presentation of an alternative attack. Cultural truisms: beliefs that are seldom questioned.
Belief Perseverance
People will hold beliefs even after those beliefs have been shown to be false.
Reactance
People will tend to act in a way to reassert a sense of freedom when attacked against its beliefs.
Motivational Arousal-Enhancement Type Theories

Optimal state theories: there is an optimal arousal state for maximal efficiency. Each of us has a personal adaptation level and finds small deviations from it pleasant and stimulating, while large deviations produce anxiety. Intrinsic Motivation: There is an internal drive to develop our competencies and to accept challenges that will promote our individual growth. It is a related motivation to have personal control over events affecting our lives. Opponent Process: Pleasurable affective stimuli evoke one brain process that then triggers an opposing inhibitory process that is longer and gradual than the pleasurable stimuli. This has implications in substance abusers, which engage in vicious-cycle-type phenomenons.

Motivational Acquired-Type Theories Need-Press [MURRAY]: Used to create the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), considers several need and motives that are activated by the pressure of environmental stimuli (people, settings, places). i. Simple pictues depicting scenes that have ambiguous meanings. Motivation stems from a list of needs that include: abasement, achievement, aggression, play, dominance, and understanding. Etc. Expectancy-Value [TOLMAN, ROTTER]: based on the purposive behaviour work of Tolman that suggests we come to expect certain outcomes from given behaviour and place a value on those outcomes. The individual then is motivated to repeat those behaviors that bring an outcome it highly values. Latent Learning Achievement [McClelland, Atkinson] Postulated a basic achievement motivates of need to achieve on a Ach scale. People high in the N Ach welcome new challenges and are constantly seeking to attain high standards and to excel.
Affiliation and Attraction Social Comparison Theory - Leon Festinger

People are drawn to affiliate because of a tendency to evaluate ourselves in relationship to other people. People have a need to evaluate their own attitudes and abilities. 3 Principles 1. People prefer to evaluate themselves by objective, nonsocial terms. When not possible, people evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparison. 2. People are attracted to personas they perceive as similar to themselves. When there is a discrepancy in opinions and abilities, there is a tendency to change ones position in favor of the majority. 3. People perceive the persons to whom they are attracted as more similar to themselves than is really the case.
Reciprocity Hypothesis
People like other whom indicates that they like us. People dislike others that indicate a dislike to one.
Gain-Loss Model/Principle - Aronson and Linder

An evaluation that changes will have more of an impact that an evaluation that remains constant. Movement from a negative to a positive evaluation leads to a stronger attraction toward the evaluator by the person being evaluated than did movement from a neutral position.
Social Exchange Theory

Assumes a person weight the rewards and costs of interacting with others. People attempt to maximize rewards and minimize costs. Social exchange theory features many of the main assumptions found in rational choice theory and structuralism.
Equity Theory
People not only consider their own costs and rewards, but that of the other person. The costs and rewards must be equal or there will be instability due to perceived inequity.
Individual Characteristics Determinants of attraction

1. Proximity Mere exposure hypothesis: repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to enhanced liking for it. 2. Similarity Leads to stronger affiliation. 3. Rewardigness/Reciprocity People choose relationships so that they mutually satisfy each others needs = complementation
Complementary Theory
Winch In romantic relationships, aspects of the personality must be complimentary in order for the relationship to be successful.
Prosocial Behaviour
The Kin-Selection Hypothesis = explains altruistic behaviour as the result of an individuals interest in promoting their genes. Currently a controversial claim.
Bystander Intervention - John Darley and Bibb Latan

New York crime; the assassination of Kitty Genovese Diffusion of Responsibility: the more people present, the less likelihood that any individual will offer help. Nave subjects are likely to reveal more concern than a person trained not to react. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com 5

Social influence = Pluralistic Ignorance
Helping Behaviour
The likelihood of anyone helping decreasing as the number of bystanders increased. If a model of helping has preceded the incident in which a person is called upon to help, the likelihood that that person will help is greater than the likelihood present in a no-model setting.
Batesons Empathy-Altruism Model

When faced with situations in which others may need help, people might feel distress or empathy.
Aggressive and Antisocial Behaviour Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

When people are frustrated, the act aggressively.
Banduras Social Learning Theory on Aggression

Aggression is learned through modeling (direct observation) or reinforcement. Bobo Doll experiment.
Conformity Study I - Muzafer Sherif

Study with the movement of light; autokinetic effect. Individuals conform to the groups ideas of the estimation of movement of the light.
Conformity Study II- Solomon Asch

Study where individuals had to compare groups of lines then report their findings in group. Demonstrated a surprising degree of conformity to a majority opinion and the willingness to conform publicly in order to attain social reward and avoid social punishment.
Stanley Milgrams Obedience Experiment

Milgram studied the pressure to conform and obedience behaviour. Through a shock-administering experiment, he found that people are surprisingly obedient to commands to administer high-level shocks to other people. Stimulus-Overload Theory: differences between city and country dwellers. o Urbanites are less prosocial than country men because they dont need any more interaction.
Foot-in-the-door
Freedman People are more likely to agree to a large, commitment-type request if we have approach in advance to a smaller commitment request.

Door-in-the-face
Begins with a unreasonable commitment potential, and relief comes when a more modest opinion is presented.
Self-Perception Doll Preference Study - Clark and Clark

Study of ethnic self-concept with children; children chose the white doll. Showed the negative effects of racism and minority group status on the self-concept of blacks.
Social Perception Primacy (1st) Tendency Effect - Hermann Ebbinghaus

First impressions are more important than subsequent impressions. Among earlier list items, the first few items are recalled more frequently than the middle items.
Recency (Last) Effect - Hermann Ebbinghaus

The most recent information we have about an individual is most important in forming our impressions. People tend to begin recall with the end of the list, recalling those items best.
Attribution Theory - Fritz Heider

We form impressions of others through observation of their behaviour There is a tendency to infer the causes of other peoples behaviour. o Dispositional causes of behaviour: relate to the features of the individual (beliefs, attitudes, personality) whose behaviour is considered. o Situational causes: external and environmental causes.
Halo Effect (Bias)

Tendency for bias in evaluations of other people. Tendency to allow a general impression about a person to influence other, more specific evaluations of that person.
Groups Theodore Newcombs Study

Experiment demonstrating the influence of political group norms. Study in an all-women University; Politics and Ideals.
Edward Hall and Proxemics

Proxemics = research relating to territoriality and personal space; one foot. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com 7

Mere Exposure effect - Zajoncs Theory
Attraction determinants Social facilitation effect The presence of others increases arousal and consequently enhances the emission of dominant responses. The presence of others only facilitates the performance once the performance is mastered. During early stages of learning, dominant responses are likely to be the wrong ones.
Social Loafing
Group phenomenon to the tendency for people to put forth less effort when part of a group than when acting individually.
Eat-while-reading
People are more likely to acquiesce to a request or agree if it were presented during a pleasurable activity.
Ask-and-you-shall-be-given
High likelihood that a person will respond positively to our request on behalf of a charitable, worthy cause.
Low-balling
Tendency to stay with a commitment weve made after the initially low stakes have been raised.
Anonymity/Deindividuation Zimbardo
People are more likely to commit antisocial acts when they feel anonymous. Prison Simulation Study Deindividuation: indicated that when people lose their identities or become anonymous within a larger group, they are likely to engage in aggression and violence.
Group Decision-Making - Irving Janis

Verbal Communication and group decisions that go awry. Studied historical and political mistakes. Groupthink: tendency of decision-making groups to strive for consensus by not considering discordant information. Group decisions are riskier and more extreme than the average of the individual choices. Janis considers it important that arranging group conditions in such a manner that individual thought and expression are encouraged.
Group Polarization
The tendency for group decision to enhance the groups initial tendencies towards riskiness or caution. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com 8

Leadership and Communication Kurt Lewins Study
Leadership Styles o Autocratic: greater output; less motivation and interest o Democratic: more motivation and cohesiveness o Laissez-faire: less efficient and organized
Cooperation and Competition Prisoners Dilemma - Morton Deutsch

Canonical example of a game analyzed in game theory that shows why two individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interest to do so. Both players can make intermediate gains if they cooperatively refrain from trying to maximize individual gain. If they both try to maximize individual gains, they will both suffer great losses. The matrix concept allows several payoff possibilities to be established and investigated.
Game decision theory

Zero-sum game: gains of one player are made at the direct expense of the other. Nonzero-sum game: allows each player to make intermediate gains. (cooperationcompetition)
Robbers Cave Experiment - Muzafer Sherif

Experiment on a boys camp on the concepts of hierarchy, roles and cooperation. Having superordinate goals increases intergroup cooperation and relations.
Nonverbal communication - Ekman

Concluded that the smile was a universal expression, a general communicator across all the cultures he has studied.
Violence Bandura
Modeling effects of aggression Childrens aggression is heightened immediately following observation of a model that has been rewarded for aggressive activity. VICARIOUS LEARNING / OBSERVATION
Wolfgang
Believes our society has, in effect, legitimized violence.
Zillman and Bryant

Link aggression to arousal and affect.

Prejudice
- Prejudice: an attitude against an identifiable group, formed without knowledge of or familiarity with specific members of the group. The challenge becomes that of getting to know individuals, which serves to weaken and dilute group stereotypes. - Social identity theory: allows us to enhance our individual self-esteem by out association with the groups to which we belong.
Information integration theory - Anderson

Proposes that our impressions of others are formed by a combination of: Our own personal disposition (the perceiver) Weighted average of the target persons characteristics.
DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Historical Perspective Stanley Hall
Father of Developmental Psychology First psychologist to do empirical research on children. Founder of APA, and child and adolescent psychology.
John Watson Behaviorist

Believe in tabula rasa as Locke. Give me a dozen healthy infants and own my own special world to bring them up in, Ill guarantee to take one at random and make up any type of specialist Placed great responsibility on upbringing; had an extreme view that emotions and thought were acquired through learning.
Arnold Gesell
Believed development occurred as a maturational/biological process, regardless of practice or training. There is a biological blue print, people are pre-determined.
Research Methodologies
Cross-sectional: compare groups of subjects at different ages. Longitudinal: compare a specific group of people over an extended period of time Sequential Cohort: combined cross-sectional and longitudinal.
Heredity Gregor Mendel Genetics

Studied pea plants and discovered genes, the basic unit of heredity. For any given gene, there are 2 alleles; which can be dominant or recessive. Parental genes are distributed randomly, given this distribution, there are 4 equally likely possibilities of combining alleles. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 10 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Genotype: total genetic complement or genetic makeup of an individual. Phenotype: individuals observable characteristics. Chromosomes: where genes are located. Humans have 23 chromosomes. Each cell of the human body has 23 PAIRS of chromosomes. 46 in TOTAL = diploid cells Gametes: sperm and egg cells that only have 23 SINGLE chromosomes = haploid cells. Children have 50% of their genes in common with each of their parents, siblings and fraternal twins. Identical twins have 100%. Monozygotic Twins = genetically identical Dizygotic twins = share approx. 50% of genes
R. C. Tryon Study
Studies on inheritance of maze-running laboratory rats. Learning abilities have a genetic basis.
Lewis Terman
Important longitudinal study that compared the development of children with high IQs. Revised the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test
Genetic Disorders
Downs syndrome: genetic anomaly in the 21st chromosome. Mental retardation Phenylketonuria (PKU): degenerative disease of the nervous system. Klinefelters syndrome: males with XXY sexual chromosome disconfiguration. Turners syndrome: females with only one X chromosome.
Stages of Prenatal Development Conception Germinal Period

o Zygote/Fertilized Egg travels along the fallopian tubes. o 2 weeks Embryo starts to have human appearance. Nerve cells and spine development. Movement of limbs 8-10 weeks
Embryonic
o o o o
Fetal
o Beginning of measurable electrical activity in the brain. o 3rd month forward
GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 11 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Patterns of development
1. Cephalocaudal = top-down (first the head) 2. Proximodistal = center to extremities 3. General to specific = large motor movement first, fine motor movement later.
Newborn Characteristics Neonatal Reflexes

1. Rooting: turn the head in direction of the stimuli 2. Moro: react to abrupt movements of their heads, arms, extending fingers and hugging themselves. 3. Babinski: toes spread apart when the soles are stimulated 4. Grasping: automatically close their fingers around objects in their hands 5. Sucking
Infant perceptual preferences Complex over simple images Curved over straight images Human faces over random patterns or mixed features Cognitive Development Jean Piaget
Humans learn though reflexive behaviours and organized patterns = behavioral schematas. Schemas Conceptual frameworks we use to organize our knowledge. We interpret our experiences and therefore, remember them in terms of our existing schemata
Learning comes from adaptation: a. Assimilation = process of interpreting new info. In terms of existing schemata. b. Accommodation = process of modifying existing schemata to adapt to new information that cant be assimilated. Believed that the development of thought directs the development of language Comes from the capacity for symbolic thought Piaget used observation and clinical methods for experimentation

Piagets Stages of Cognitive Development Sensorimotor (0 to 2yrs)
Primary circular reactions: infants coordinate separate aspects of movement concerned with the body. Pleasurable responses that an infant discovers by change and repeats over and over with its own body. Secondary circular reactions: infants coordinate separate aspects of movement to manipulate objects in the environment. It is goal-oriented behaviour that is repeated with other objects. Development of Object Permanence Child realized that objects continue to exist even if they cant see it.
Preoperational (2 to 7 yrs)
Marks the beginning of representational mental thought of external objects and events. They understand a thing exists even if they cannot see it. Completely developed object permanence. Development of centration o Tendency to be able to focus on 1 aspect of a phenomenon; egocentrism. Development of Conservation o Notion that physical properties of matter does not change just because its appearance changes. (water glass bigger/thinner; same quantity of water)
Concrete Operational (7 to 11yrs)

Full development of conservation Limited to working with concrete objects and take account other individuals and information that is directly available. No abstract thought
Formal Operational (11 forward)

Logical and abstract thought and concepts is possible.
Lev Vygotsky
Zone of Proximal Development - Internalization of various aspects of culture to develop cognitive abilities. - Skills and abilities that have not yet developed but are in the process of - Child needs guidance to develop its skills.
Stages of Psychosexual Development: Sigmund Freud

Libidinal energy and the drive to reduce libidinal tension are the underlying dynamic forces that account for human psychological development. When a fixation occurs in a given stage, the individual forms a personality pattern that is expressed in adulthood. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 13 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Oral (0 to 1 yr)
Mouth Excessive dependency personality
Anal (1 to 3yrs)
Toilet training Excessive orderliness or messiness personality
Phallic (3 to 5yrs)
Oedipal or Electra complex is resolved in this stage
Latency (5 to Puberty)
Sublimation of the libido
Genital (Puberty to Adulthood)

If previous stages have been successfully resolved, the person will enter into normal heterosexual relations
Psychosocial Theory of Development: Erik Erickson

Development is sequential to central life crises and through the resolution of conflicts between needs and social demands that occur in stages. Describes the entire life-span Erickson is neo-Freudian
Thomas and Chess

Longitudinal study to examine infant temperament. Easy Slow to warm up Difficult GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 14 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Temperament
Central aspect of an individuals personality. Somewhat hereditable. Refers to the individual differences and patterns of responding to the environment.
Early social and emotional behaviour Crying Wolff

Wolff identified 3 types of crying: 1. Basic cry: hunger 2. Angry cry: frustration 3. Pain cry: pain People react with high palpitations when hear a child cry. Infants learn that their cry elicits a respond to their caregivers as early as the second month.
Attachment -- Harry Harlow

First to show that contact comfort was necessary for the formation of mother-infant attachment bond. Early bonding with parent and child is important for future emotional behaviour. Studied monkeys and their mothers.
Attachment -- John Bowlby

Studied children in orphanages and foster homes. Established 3 phases for attachment: 1. Pre-attachment = infants react the same way to every adult 2. Attachment = infants discriminate towards familiar and unfamiliar faces 3. Attachment intensifies = children are scared of strangers Separation anxiety; 2 years +
Attachment -- Mary Ainsworth

Strange-Situation Experiment: mother-child attachment Type A: Insecure/avoidant attachment Type B: Secure attachment Type C: insecure/resistant attachment
Fixed action pattern (FAP) - Konrad Lorenz

Imprinting: rapid formation of an attachment bond between organism and an object in the environment. Imprinting takes place during certain critical periods.
Fixed action pattern (FAP)

Or modal action pattern is an instinctive behavioral sequence that is indivisible and runs to completion.

Fixed action patterns are invariant and are produced by a neural network known as the innate releasing mechanism in response to an external sensory stimulus known as a sign stimulus or releaser (a signal from one individual to another). A fixed action pattern is one of the few types of behaviors that can be said to be hard-wired and instinctive. Theory by Tinbergen and Lorenz
Made Ethology a recognized discipline: The scientific study of animal behavior, and a sub-topic of zoology. Study of animals in their own natural habitat. Criticizes the study of animals in a laboratory
Diane Baumrind Parenting

Authoritarian punitive and lack emotional warmth Authoritative punitive and use positive reinforcement and has emotional warmth Permissive low control
Arnold Gesell
Maturation: found infant motor skills developing in a consistent sequence primarily of maturation. An infant typically sits without support between five and six months.
Cognitive Development:
1 2 3 4 5 6 Voluntary movement Mental representation and object permanence Symbolic thought Intuitive thought Concrete operations and conservation Information Processing
Gender Schematic Processing Theory - Martin and Halverson

As soon as children are able to label themselves, they concentrate their behaviors associated to that gender and pay less attention to those of the opposite gender.

Moral Development -- Lawrence Kolbers Stages
Stages are associated with changes in cognitive structure.
Gender Development
Gilligan criticizes these stages saying that the experiment was done with only males and that womens morality is more focused on caring and compassion, more concerned with relationships and social responsibilities.
Kohlbergs Gender Stages

Gender labeling (2 to 3 yrs) They are able to achieve gender identity Gender Stability (3 to 4 yrs) They can predict being a gender in the future, only in the concrete sense Gender Consistency (4 to 7 yrs) They understand the permanency of gender, regardless of how one behaves or wears.
PERSONALITY
Historical Perspective Big Five Personality Inventory - Norman, Hans and Eysenck
Advanced the premise that individual personality variations can be reduced to two or three dimensions: 1. Openness to experience 2. Conscientiousness 3. Extraversion 4. Agreeableness 5. Neuroticism
Body Types - William Sheldon

Theory of Personality by their physical/biological types o Endomorphy o Mesomorphy o Ectomorphy
Sigmund Freud
First comprehensive theory of personality
Cerletti and Bini - electroshock

Introduced the use of electroshock for the artificial production of convulsive seizures in psychiatric patients with schizophrenia.
Emil Kraepelin Taxonomy

1883 Devised a textbook and classification of mental disorders with clinical data. Precursor for the DMS.
Theories of Personality and Treatment Models Psychodynamic Sigmund Freud

Existence of unconscious internal states that motivate the overt actions of individuals and determine personality. a. Ego i. postpone discharge of energy until reality conditions are suitable for gratification ii. is at the service of the Id iii. mediates between libidinal forces and realistic demands b. Superego reality center c. Id discharges libidinal energy

Defense mechanisms: 1. Repression: is the blocking of unacceptable impulses from consciousness. 2. Suppression: Sometimes we do this consciously by forcing the unwanted information out of our awareness. 3. Projection: is the attribution of one's undesired impulses onto another. Thus, an angry spouse accuses their partner of hostility. 4. Reaction Formation: is the converting of wishes or impulses that are perceived to be dangerous into their opposites. A woman who is furious at her child and wishes her harm might become overly concerned and protective of the child's health. 5. Rationalization: is the cognitive reframing of ones perceptions to protect the ego in the face of changing realities. Thus, the promotion one wished fervently for and didn't get becomes "a dead end job for brown nosers and yes men". 6. Regression: is the reversion to an earlier stage of development in the face of unacceptable impulses. For an example an adolescent who is overwhelmed with fear, anger and growing sexual impulses might become clinging and begin thumb sucking or bed wetting. 7. Sublimation: is the channeling of unacceptable impulses into more acceptable outlets. 8. Displacement: is the redirecting of thoughts feelings and impulses from an object that gives rise to anxiety to a safer, more acceptable one. Being angry at the boss and kicking the dog can be an example of displacement.
A person is motivated by inborn instincts.
Psychoanalysts Points of View -- Carl Jung

Behaviour was motivated by a continuous life urge which had for its aim wholeness and the completion of creative development Thought of the libido as psychic energy in general Personal unconscious Collective unconscious = powerful system that is shared among humans; residue of the experiences of our ancestors. Arquetypes = thoughts or images that have an emotional element Persona social role Anima female gender Animus male gender Shadow animal instincts Self point of intersection between the personal and collective unconscious Proposed the Personality as Introvert Extrovert

Perceptual approaches to the environment Psychological Functions Sensing Thinking Feeling Intuiting
A persons conduct is governed by inborn archetypes.
Psychoanalysts Points of View Alfred Adler

Believed our basic, underlying drive was not instinctual or sexual, but a drive for superiority born of early inferiority feelings. - Inferiority Complex - Sense of imperfection - Physical inferiority - Social disabilities - Fictional Finalism people are motivated more by expectations of the future than past - Superiority Strivings - Uniqueness
The individual strives toward superiority; its what drives the personality.
Social interest as a determinant of mental health The personality must be directed towards the social, towards benefitting all people. If its endeavors are directed towards selfishness, then it is the root of all personality disturbances. - Creative Self shaping uniqueness - Style of Life manifestation of the creative self
Psychoanalysts Points of View Karen Horney

- - - Neurotic personalities are governed by one of 3 needs. Basic Anxiety an individuals perception of the self is important. At infancy, if a sense of helplessness confuses the child, it will lead to the need to overcome basic anxiety in 3 HEADINGS: o Moving towards people to obtain the good will and security LOVE o Moving against people to obtain the upper hand POWER o Moving away from people, withdrawal INDEPENDENCE When one of these dimensions is strictly and irrationally adhered, is when disturbance arises. Womb envy
- -

Psychoanalysts Points of View - Fromm
Distinctions in types of love: Brotherly Motherly Erotic Self Supernatural Five human needs: Relatedness vs. Narcissism LOVE NEED Creativeness vs. Destructiveness TRANSCENDENCE NEED Brotherliness vs. incest ROOTENED NEED Individuality vs. Conformity IDENTITY NEED Reason vs. Irrationality DEVOTION NEED
Behaviorist Points of View: Learned Behaviour

Determinism: all behaviour have causes Ineffectiveness of mental explanations Power of the environment to select behaviour Related psychoanalysis concepts with behavioral theory Translates psychosexual staged into learning-theory terms Behavioral stimulus-response reinforcement learning Focused on the conflicting motives or conflicting tendencies in the development of personality.
Behaviorism - Dollar and Miller
Behaviorism Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

Reflex: unlearned response that is elicited by a specific stimulus. Pavlov dog salivation experiment. Process by which an organism learns a new association between 2 paired stimuli (a neutral stimuli and the one that evokes a reflexive response). Unconditioned Stimulus Stimulus consistently and automatically elicits a particular unconditioned response Unconditioned response Response reflexively elicited by an unconditional response Conditioned Stimulus Stimulus that, after conditioning, is able to elicit a nonreflexive response Acquisition the process that establishes or strengthens a conditioned response. Extinction the process of unlearning a conditioned response (repeatedly presenting CS without the UCS)

Spontaneous Recovery temporary return of an extinguished response after a delay typically occurs during a rest period between extinction training sessions. It is defined as increased recovery of a conditioned behavior that occurs during a rest period with no visible reason for its occurrence (that is a conditioned or unconditioned response), which is why it is labeled spontaneous. The learning will be short lived and requires further training. Stimulus generalization learned response to one stimulus will respond similarly to stimuli that resemble it. Generalization tendency for stimuli similar to CS to elicit CR. Emotional conditioning without awareness is strongest. Second-Order Conditioning Neutral stimulus paired with CS rather than UCR. Contingency: CS is a good signal for UCS Introduced the concept of reinforcement/punishment in classical conditioning. Operant conditioning process of controlling the rate of a behavior through its consequences and rewards. Sometimes called instrumental conditioning Operant Behavior is controlled by its consequences Law of Effect if a response is followed by an annoying consequence, the animal will be less likely to emit the same response in the future. Stressed mentalistic terms: satisfying and annoying
Behaviorism - Operant Conditioning: Thorndike
Behaviorism - Radical Conditioning: Skinner and Watson

Radical Behaviorism o Focus on stimulus-response o Observable behaviour Form of learning during which an individual modifies the occurrence and form of its own behavior due to the association of the behavior with a stimulus. Shaping or Differential Reinforcement o Establishing a new response by reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behaviour. o Starts by initiating and reinforcing basic behaviours that the individuals does do before reinforcing the central behaviour a individual does not do because is scared or cant perform it Positive Reinforcement increase a behavior by giving a reward Negative Reinforcement Probability that a desired response will be performed is increased by taking away or preventing something undesirable whenever the desired response is made. Escape: behavior removes something undesirable (annoying buzzer to put seat belt on once its on) GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 22 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Avoidance: behavior avoids something undesirable (get a warning that an aversive stimulus will soon occur)
Punishment
behavior causes something undesirable
Partial Reinforcement Effect
it takes longer to extinguish a bebaviour when receiving only occasional reinforcement. The resistance that partial reinforcement schedules have to extinction. They are more effective at maintaining behaviour in the long run.
Generalization Fixed interval

o Behaviour will be reinforced for the 1st response after a fixed period of time has elapsed since the last reinforcement o Behavior will be reinforced for the 1st response after a varying period has elapsed since the last reinforcement
Variable interval
Fixed ratio o Reward after a fixed number of responses Variable ratio (on average reward every n responses) o Reward will be reinforced after a varying number of responses o Vey resistant to extinction o Very rapid response rate Language is acquired by reinforcement
Behaviorism Social: Bandura and Rotter - Social Learning Theory

Focus on expectancies and values of behavioral outcomes. Stimulus-Organism-Response Learning occurs not only by having behavior reinforced, but by observing other peoples behaviors being reinforced.
Behaviorism Seligman Helplessness Theory (Depression)

Clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation. In the learned helplessness experiment an animal is repeatedly hurt by an adverse stimulus which it cannot escape. Eventually the animal will stop trying to avoid the pain and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation. Finally, when opportunities to escape are presented, this learned helplessness prevents any action. The only coping mechanism the animal uses is to be stoical and put up with the discomfort, not expending energy getting worked up about the adverse stimulus. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 23 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Humanism Phenomenology Emphasize internal processes rather than behaviour. Humanism Phenomenology: Kurt Lewin
Personality is dynamic and constantly changing its SYSTEMS. The person needs to have well-articulated systems of his personality in order to have a normal life. Force field analysis: framework for looking at the factors (forces) that influence a situation, originally social situations. It looks at forces that are either driving movement toward a goal (helping forces) or blocking movement toward a goal (hindering forces).
Humanism Phenomenology: Abraham Maslow
Peak experiences: profound and deeply moving experiences in a persons life that have important and lasting effects on the individual.
Humanism Phenomenology: George Kelly - Personal Construct

The individual is a scientist that devises and tests predictions about the behaviour of significant people in their life. Individuals then create a scheme of anticipations and constructs of life. We view the world through our own personal constructs.

C-P-C Cycle o Circumspection o Preemption o Control Role Construct Therapy
Humanism Phenomenology: Carl Rogers

Humanistic point of view. The importance of our feelings; they are wiser than our intellects. Organized goal directed behaviour Conscious self structure Basic striving to actualize, maintain and enhance Listening to ones feelings
Humanism Phenomenology: Victor Frankl - Logotherapy

View of life-meaning coming through our pursuit of exciting goals Mental illness is a stems from the notion of a meaninglessness life. Will to meaning; setting goals and working towards them rather than pursuing a will to power or pleasure Existential vaccum/frustration Collective neurosis
Type A
Behaviour that tends to be competitive and compulsive.
Type B
Personality that is generally laid-back and relaxed.
Trait Theorists
Attempt to ascertain the fundamental dimensions of personality. o Traits: relatively permanent reaction tendencies
Trait Theorists: Raymond Cattell

Cattell introduced mental testing in USA. Used factor analysis to measure personality in a more comprehensive way, attempting to account for the underlying factors that determine personality. Identified 16 basic traits or relatively permanent reaction tendencies in individuals. Used objective tests
Trait Theorists: Hans Eysenck

1. Used factor analysis 2. Determined the broad dimensions of personality and that there were more specific traits. i. Introversion-extroversion ii. Emotional stability-neuroticism iii. Psychoticism 3. Wanted to test scientifically Jungs division of extroversion and introversion. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 25 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Trait Theorists: Gordon Allport
Cardinal traits around which a person organizes his life; basics Central major characteristics of the personality that are easy to infer; thought Secondary personal characteristics that are more limited in occurrence Functional autonomy: o A given activity or form of behavior may become an end or goal in itself, regardless of its original reason for existence. o People may continue to be the way that they are because of enjoyment, or other motives. o Traits that once had survival functions now take on a self-perpetuating life of their own. o Positive view of human nature. Idiographic approach individual case studies (this was preferred) Nomothetic focuses on group studies.
Trait Theorists: David McClelland

Personality as the need for achievement (nAch) They strive for goals Avoid high risks to avoid failing Avoid low risks because these wont produce a sense of achievement
Trait Theorists: Herman Witkin - field-dependence:

Drew a relationship between the personality and perception of the world. People can be classified by a Degree of field-dependence: o Independence o Dependence Personality characterized by inability or ability to distinguish experience from its context Rod and frame Experiment
Trait Theorists: Julian Rotter

Internal Locus Control believe that they can control their destiny External locus of control believe outside events to control their destiny Locus of control is related to SELF-ESTEEM and ATTRIBUTIONS
Trait Theorists: Sandra Bem

Androgyny simultaneously being very feminine and masculine Gender identity is related to personality
Mischels Criticism
Human behaviour is largely determined by the characteristics of the situation rather than by those of the person.

PSYCHOPATHOLOGY -- ABNORMAL CLINICAL
Pinel 18 Century advocate for asylum reform Dix 19th Century advocate for ASYLUM REFORM
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DSM-IV-TR
Based on atheoretical descriptions of symptoms of the various disorders. o It doesnt list neurosis as a category of mental disorders, since neurosis is a theoretical term that is derived from psychoanalytic theory.
Multi-axial system
Organizes each psychiatric diagnosis into five dimensions (axes) relating to different aspects of disorder or disability.
Axis I Clinical psychiatric syndrome; states the persons central problem.

Clinical disorder: major mental disorders, learning disorders and substance use disorders NOT personality & Mental retardation Common Axis I disorder: Depression anxiety disorders bipolar disorder ADHD autism spectrum disorders anorexia nervosa bulimia nervosa schizophrenia.
They have their onset after infancy. They carry the best potential for change and effective treatment.
Axis II Personality disorders and intellectual disabilities (retardation)

Developmental disorders Common Axis II disorders: personality disorders paranoid personality disorder schizoid personality disorder borderline personality disorder antisocial personality disorder obsessive-compulsive personality disorder intellectual disabilities.
These disorders are life-long, rather than having a specific onset-point.

Axis III Acute medical conditions and physical disorders
Gives general knowledge to the close relationship and balance between the body and mind Common Axis III disorders: brain injuries and other medical/physical disorders which may aggravate existing diseases or present symptoms similar to other disorders
Axis IV Psychosocial and environmental factors contributing to the disorder

addresses the severity of psychosocial stressors Indicates any psychosocial or environmental stresses that may influence progression, treatment, or outcome of the disorders from Axis I and Axis II.
Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning or Children's Global Assessment Scale for children and teens under the age of 18
evaluates the persons highest level of adaptative and overall level of functioning in the past year.
Disorders First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood or Adolescence

ADHD Autistic Disorder Tourettes Disorder
Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders

Schizophrenia o Bleuler coined the term schizophrenia o Positive & Negative Symptoms o Delusions of reference, persecution, grandeur o Hallucinations o Disorganized thought o Blunting, flat affect, inappropriate affect o Catatonic motor behaviour o Prodromal phase o Active Phase o Process schizo o Reactive schizo Catatonic Paranoit Disorganized Undifferentiated Residual o Basal ganglia Dopamine

Schizophrenia Disorder Theories Excess Dopamine Hypothesis Double-Blind Hypothesis
Mood Disorder
Major Depressive Disorder Bipolar disorder (manic depression) Hypomania Dysthymic Disorders o Doesnt meet the criteria for major depression; less severe symptoms Cyclothymic disorders o Doesnt meet the criteria for bipolar disorders; less severe symptoms
Mood Disorder Theories

o Norepinephrine and Serotonin o Monoamine Theory of Depression = Catecholamine Theory of Depression TOO MUCH leads to mania TOO LITTLE leads to depression
Anxiety Disorders
Phobias Specific phobias Social phobias Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Conversion Disorders (paralysis, blindness) Hypochondriasis
Somatoform Disorders
Dissociative Disorders
Escape from ones identity Dissociative amnesia Dissociative fugue Dissociative identity disorder Despersonalization disorder Schiziod Narcissistic Borderline Antisocial
Personality Disorders

Diathesis-Stress Model
Framework that can be used to examine the causes of mental disorders A diathesis is a predisposition or abnormality toward developing a specific mental disorder. o Genetic o Anatomic o Biochemical An individual whose brain is oversentitive to dopamine and who also experiences excessive stress may be likely to develop schizophrenia. CASUAL FACTORS AT THE BIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVELS INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER.
David Rosenhan LABELLING

Studied the labeling effects of mental disorders. Was admitted to a mental hospital acting as if suffering from auditory hallucinations. Rosenhan concluded that psychologists needed to exercise greater care when judging normality and abnormality.
Thomas Szasz
Argued that most mental illnesses arent really illnesses. He conceptualized them as traits or behaviours that differ from the cultural norm. Labeling people as metally ill is a way to force them to change and conform to societal norms rather than allowing them to attack th societal causes of their problems. The Myth of the Mental Illness
Personality Measurement Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

McKinley and Hathaway; 1942 It was invented towards detecting abnormality and Clinical Disorders 550 statements o True o False o Cannot Say Yields scores on 10 clinical scales High score can lead to the rejection of the rest record Was created using the Empirical Criterion-Keying Approach o Differentiation between mental patient and nonpatient populations. MMPI-2 more theoretical. Projective test of 10 ambiguous-stimulus plates. Allows to understand the mayor facets of an individuals concerns and thoughts. Stimuli is ambiguous There is no possible responses, just interpretations SUBJECTIVE
Rorschach Inkblot Test
GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS

Historical Perspective Franz Gall
Developed PHRENOLOGY o The brain had areas responsible for any given trait that was developed by an individual.
Pierre Flourens
1st to study the functions of the major sections of the brain. Extirpation = ablation then observed the behaviour in pigeons.
William James
Believed in studying how the mind functioned in adapting to the environment. Founder of FUNCTIONALISM = system of thought that was concerned with studying how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environments. Link between physiology and emotional experience.
John Dewey
Functionalist; believed that psychology should focus on the study of the organism as a whole and how it functions to adapt to the environment. Criticized the concept of the reflex arc (the breaking of the process of reacting to stimulus of parts)
Paul Broca
Examined the behavioral deficits of people with brain damage. 1st to demonstrate that specific functional impairments could be linked with specific brain lesions. Brocas Area = area related to speech production.
Phineas Gage
Underwent PREFRONTAL CORTEX damage and his personality changed completely.
Johannes Mller
Identified the law of specific nerve energies: - Each sensory nerve is excited by only one kind of energy - The brain interprets any stimulation of that nerve as being that kind of energy. - Sensation depends more on the part of the brain that the nerves stimulate than on the particular stimulus that activates them. - Differences in experienced quality are not stimulus-based but nervous-systembased. - Qualitative differences in the neural sings are due to the differences in the structures that the neural signals excite. - Stimuli are dimensions that are coded/translated into neural signals that are relayed to the appropriate projection area in the brain. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 31 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

- - There are several and unique ways in which each sense transduces or coded information about a stimulus, and then route that information to the final destination that is the brain. - All neurons have a specific receptive field and neurons are organized into systematic maps.
Hermann von Helmholtz

1st to measure the speed of a nerve impulse. Studied visual perception CONSTRUCTIONIST
Sir Charles Sherrington

1st to infer the existence of the synapse. Believed it was primarily a electrical process (its in fact, a chemical process)
Walter Cannon
- - Pioneering work in regard to the ANS. Developed the concept of homeostasis
James Olds and Peter Milner

Discovered the septum; primary pleasure centers in the brain. Mild stimulation in this area produces sexual arousing or agression
Klver-Bucy Syndrome
Performed studies with monkeys that linked the amygdala with defensive and aggressive behaviours.
Phelogeny
Term for evolutionary development in humans
Sperry and Gazzaniga

Studied the effects of serving the corpus callosum. Split Brain
Erick Kandel
Studied sea snails; aplysia Discovered the habituation phenomenon Demonstrated that changes in synaptic transmission underlie changes in behavior. Discovered specific changes in the neuron that explain a simple learned behavior. Researched the formation of long term memories.
A. R. Luria
Russian neurologist Learned that brain damage leads to impairment in sensory, motor and language functions.

Donald Hebb
Neurons are co-strengthened if the co-occur. Neurons that fire together, wire together. Are experiences leaves a strong imprint in the neurogenesis of neurons.
Brain Anatomy
Brain structures associated with basic survival are located at the base of the brain. Brain structures associated with more complex functions are located higher up. Hindbrain and Midbrain Brain Stem (first to develop in pregnancy)
Autonomic Nervous System

- Parasympathetic Nervous System o Resting and digesting Acetylcholine: neurotransmitter responsible for the responses of the PNS in the body. Sympathetic Nervous System o Fight of Flight o Increases heart rate, blood-sugar lever, and respiration o Decreases the digestive system o Dilates the pupils. Adrenaline: neurotransmitter responsible for the responses of the SNS Place where the Spinal Cord meets the brain. Primary Functions o Balance o Motor Coordination o Breathing o Digestion o General Arousal Processes Sleeping Walking VITAL FUNCTIONS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL Medulla Oblongata: breathing, heartbeat, digestion (Vital Functioning) Pons: sensory motor tracks between cortex and Medulla Cerebellum: balance, refined body movements Reticular Formation: nerve fibers that regulate Arousal, Alertness, Attention. - - - Manages sensoriomotor involuntary reflexes that also promote survival. Receives sensory and motor information Reflex responses triggered by visual or auditory stimuli
Hindbrain
- -
Midbrain

Superior Colliculi: VISUAL Inferior Colliculi: AUDITORY
Forebrain
Associated with complex perceptual, cognitive and behavioral processes. Emotion Memory Has the greatest influence on human behavior
Thalamus
o Relay station for incoming sensory information (all senses, minus smell) and transmits them to the appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex.
Hypothalamus:
Drive Behaviours Hunger Thirst Sexual Behaviour Emotions Endocrine/Hormone Functions Autonomic Nervous System Homeostatic Regulation o Metabolism o Temperature o Water Balance: Osmoregulation FIGHT OR FLIGHT Feeding Fighting Fleeing Sexual Functioning Amygdala Septum Hippocampues Structure that loops around the center of brain 2nd to develop during pregnancy Emotion Memory Aggression Fear Pleasure Pain Movement
Limbic System
Basal Ganglia

CEREBRAL CORTEX
Complex perceptual Complex cognitive Complex Behavioral processes
Ventricles
Fluid-filled cerebrospinal fluid cavities
Septum
Major Arousal section in the brain Aggression; septal rage Reward site
Amygdala
Defensive and aggressive behaviours Dual effect on behaviour Lesions produce docility and hypersexual states
Hippocampus
Vital for Memory and Learning processes Lesions produce anterograde amnesia (cant remember future things) When experiencing an event for the first time, a link is formed in the hippocampus allowing us to recall that event in the future. o The Three Stage Model Eichenbaum The hippocampus does three things with episodic memory: Mediates the recording of episodic memories Identifies common features between episodes Links these common episodes in a memory space
Cerebral Cortex
Neocortex F-POT
o Frontal
Executive Function Supervises processes associated with perception, memory, emotion, impulse control and directs the operations of other brain regions.
It doesnt store memory, but it reminds the body one has something to remember.
o Parietal

Touch Temperature Pain Striate cortex Vision
o Occipital

o Temporal
Auditory Cortex Hearing Wernikes Area Language reception and comprehension Hippocampus
Corpus Callosum
Collection of fibers connecting the hemispheres Works by sharing and coordinating information from left and right hemispheres
Association Area
Brain area that combines input from diverse brain regions. There are more association areas than projection areas. o Prefrontal Cortex
Projection Area
Brain area that receives incoming sensory information or sends out motor-impulsive commands. o Visual Cortex Receives visual input from the retina o Motor Cortex Sends out motor commands to the muscles
Contralaterally
Cerebral hemispheres communicate with the opposite side of the body.
Ipsilaterally
Cerebral hemisphere communicate with the same side of the body.
Action Potentials and Electrical Conduction

Resting Potential Polarization (-70mV) Depolarization Increase threshold potential (-50mV) Actual firing of the neuron Action Potential Spike Sodium ions in the cell are abundant +50mV Absolute Refractory Period Hyperpolarization Father away from the polarization potential -90mV Relative Refractory Period Resting potential GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 36 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Neurotransmitters Acetylcholine
Found in central nervous system hippocampus / Alzheimers Disease / memory Parasympathetic (peripheral) nervous system Transmits nerve impulses to the muscles
Monoamine Epinephrine
o Fight of Flight responses o Adrenaline o Alterness and wakefulness o Depression o Mania Movement Posture Basal ganglia Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: too much dopamine in the brain or a oversensitivity to dopamine o Parkinsons Disease Play important roles un the experience of EMOTIONS o o o o o Mood, sleep eating, dreaming o Too much mania o Too little depression
Norepinephrine
Dopamine
Serotonin
GABA
Produces IPSPs Important to stabilize neural activity in the brain Causes hyperpolarization in the postsynaptic membrane Anxiety Disorders Peptines: endorphins
Psychopharmacology
Sedatives
o o o o Benzodiazepines Barbiturates Alcohol Valium Facilitate and enhance the action of GABA (stabilize brain activity)
Stimulants
o Amphetamines sympathetic nervous system o Tricylics & monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAO) antidepressants Facilitates the transmission of norepinephrine or serotonin in the synapse

Narcolepsy o Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) Prozac Inhibits the reuptake of serotonin o Methylphenidate Ritalin
Antipsychotic Drugs
o o o o
Thorazine Chlorpromazine Phenothiazine Haloperidol Reduces hallucinations, delusional thinking and agitation o Lithium carbonate Bipolar disorder (manic-depression) Mood stabilizer o Morphine o Opium o Heroin Painkillers: endorphins
Narcotics
Neurological Disorders Aphasia

o Impairment of the language functions Brocas Aphasia: can convey content, but their speech is unstructured and typically omits function words (the, with, and) Wernickes Aphasia: can produce fluent speech that is largely devoid of meaning.
Amnesia Agnosia
o Impairment of memory functions o Impairment in perceptual recognition of objects
Aphagia o Disturbance in eating Apraxia
o Impairment of skilled motor movements

Brain Waves
Beta Alpha Theta o Awake state o Fast EEG o Awake state; relaxed o Slower EEG o Stage 1 Sleeping o Stage 2 Sleeping K Complexes Delta o Stage 3 Sleeping o Stage 4 Sleeping Slowest waveforms and steepest sleep REM o Paradoxical Sleep o Fast irregular EEG activity o Dreaming
Perception of Emotion and Physiology James-Lange Theory

We become aware of our emotions after we notice our physiological reactions to some external event You know you are sad because you are crying.
Canon-Bard Theory
Awareness of emotions reflects our physiological arousal and our cognitive experience of emotion. Bodily changes and emotional feelings occur simultaneously
Schachter-Singer Theory
Two-Factor Theory o Unspecified physiological arousal will be labeled as different emotions depending on mental response to environmental stimulation o When physiological arousal occurs without any obvious cause, a person will search the environment for something to explain the arousal and give it emotional meaning. o Emotions depend on individual interpretation
GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY PERCEPTION-SENSATION

Historical Perspective Perception
How we see things and how they fool us Is our mental organization of what is out there Our senses are all primed and ready to received input, and our past experiences and learning determine what we truly perceive. Expectations and past experiences make all the difference Reasoned that our perceptual experience must be the result of unconscious inferences; we combine the incomplete data we received from our eyes with assumptions based on our experiences in the world in order to reach a hypothesis about what we are seeing (INFERENCE) 1. formalism used by vision scientists to characterize this inference process for deriving a perception from sensory information.
Bayes Theorem:
Weber Law Just Noticeable Difference (JND)

Investigation of muscle sensation; the relationship between physical stimuli and another psychological responses to stimuli. Attempted to describe the relationship between the physical magnitudes of stimuli and the perceived intensity of the stimuli. Weber found that the just noticeable difference (jnd) between two weights was approximately proportional (ratio) to the mass of the weights o JND is the minimal change in a physical stimulus that corresponds to a change in the perception of an observer. Weber's law does not hold at perception of higher intensities. Measured the sensory abilities of nearly 10,000.
Sir Francis Galton Max Werthemier

Founder of Gestalt psychology. Phi phenomenon: experience of this visual illusion has a wholeness about it that is different from the sum of its parts.
The Phi-Phenomenon
is an optical illusion defined by Max Wertheimer in the Gestalt psychology. The phi phenomenon is an optical illusion of our brains and eyes that allows us to perceive constant movement instead of a sequence of images. We are supplying information that does not exist (between image and image) that creates the illusion of a smooth movement. The phi phenomenon, is only a limitation of the human eye, which depends on the persistence of visual sensations. In other words, it occurs in response to sequentially flashing lights. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 42 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Psychophysics
Concerned with measuring the relationship between physical stimuli and psychological responses to the stimuli.
Absolute Thresholds
Minimum physical energy that will activate a sensory system. Limen = another word for threshold.
Subliminal Perception
Refers to perception of stimuli below a threshold Below the threshold of conscious awareness
Difference Thresholds
Just Noticeable Difference. How different 2 stimuli must be before they are perceived to be different The amount of change necessary to predict the difference between 2 stimuli o The important part of determining difference thresholds is their ratio. o ?I/I = K.? o ?S/S = K
Fechners Law
Devised an equation to relate the intensity of the stimulus to the intensity of the sensation. Determined the sensation increases more slowly as intensity increases.
Stevens Power Law

Proved Fechners Equation wrong
Signal Detection theory

Cognitive bias or expectations of what senses a person. Other, non-sensory factors influence what the subject says it senses. o Experiences o Motives o Expectations Response Bias: o Tendency of subjects to respond in a particular way due to nonsensory factors. o Measures how risky the subject is in sensory decision-making. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) o Used to graphically summarize a subjects responses in a signal detection experiment

Sensory Information Processing Reception
Receptors around the body
Transduction
Translation of physical energy into neural impulses or action potentials
Reception
Once transduction finishes, electrochemical energy is sent to various projection areas in the brain along various neural pathways. Further analyze of sensory input.
VISION

Duplicity Theory of Vision
Retina contains two types of photoreceptors Rods Low sensitivity to detail No color More numerous Found in the periphery of the retina Cones Color vision Fine detail Found in the FOVEA Rods and cones connect Bipolar neurons ganglion cells optic nerve Optic Chiasm There is always a loss of detail because there are more receptors than ganglion cells.
Optic Chiasm
Fibers from the retina nasal fibers- cross paths. Temporal Fibers do not cross paths.
VISUAL Optic Chiasm Lateral Geniculate Nucleus Thalamus Visual Cortex Superior Collutis oCCipital Lobe Hubel and Wiesel: Feature Detection Theory
Certain cells in the cortex are maximally sensitive to certain features of stimuli. o Simple Orientation & boundaries o Complex Movement o Hypercomplex Shape (abstract) GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 45 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Work on physiology of visual perception Researchers understand the visual cortex (occipital lobe) better than any other brain region. Used electrodes to record electrical activity in the brain.
Illumination: Objective measurement of light on a surface Brightness: Subjective impression of the intensity of a stimulus Dark Adaptation
Photopigment in the rods: Rhodopsin Vitamin A retinal and protein opsim When a molecule of rhodopsin absorbs a photon of light, the pigment begins to decompose, onto retinene and opsin. Bleaching.
Lateral inhibition
Adjacent retinal cells inhibit one another sharpens and highlights borders between light and dark areas
Depth Perception: The image on our retina is only 2-dimensional but we see 3-D. Color in order of increasing Light Wavelength (nm) Blue Green Yellow Orange Red Young-Helmhotz: Trichromatric Theory
Three types of color receptors in the retina: RED BLUE GREEN All colors are produced by combined stimulation of these receptors varying degrees Ratio of activity that determines color
Hering: Oppopnent Process Theory

Three opposing pairs of colors o Red-Green o Blue-Yellow o Black-White Afterimages o Concept that lead to the theory. o Is a visual sensation that appears after a prolonged or intense exposure to a stimuli. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 46 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com
Cues for Depth Perception Interposition (Overlap) o One object covers another; partially hidden object is seen as father away Relative Size o Comparison of retinal size of object to actual size of objects gives cue to depth Linear Perspective o Parallel lines appear to converge as they recede into the distance Texture gradients o As scene recedes from viewer, the surface texture of the object appears to change Motion parallax o When observer moves, objects in a stationary environment appear to move relative to distance from observer Binocular disparity (Stereopsis) o Each eye sees a slightly different scene; when brain combines the scenes, we get perception of depth Perception of Form 1. Perceptual objects exist only in your mind. 2. Figure: integrated visual experience that stands out at the center of attention 3. Ground: simply the background against which the figure appears. Gestalt Laws of Organization Proximity elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit Similarity Elements similar to one another tend to be grouped together Good Continuation Elements that appear to follow in the same direction tend to be grouped together Closure Tendency to see incomplete figures as being complete Law of Prgnanz Perceptual organization will always be as good as possible

Wolfgang Kholer: Theory of Isomorphism
There is a 1 to 1 correspondence between the object in the perceptual field and the pattern of stimulation in the brain.
Types of Processing Bottom-Up Data-driven processing

Responds directly to the components of incoming stimulus on the basis of fixed rules and then sums up components to arrive at the whole pattern Would not be good for recognizing objects BOTTOM EARTH REALITY CONCEPT
Top-Down Processing Conceptually driven processing

Guided by conceptual processes such as memories and expectation that allow the brain to recognize while objects and then the components TOP BRAIN CONCEPT
Motion Perception Apparent Motion (Phi) When 2 or more stationary lights flicker in succession they tend to be perceived as a single moving light Induced Motion Stationary point of light appears to move when the background moves Autokinetic Effect Stationary point of light when viewed in an otherwise totally dark room appears to move; probably caused by involuntary eye movements o Conformity Study I - Muzafer Sherif Motion Aftereffect If a moving object is viewed for an extended period of time, it will appear to move in an opposite direction when the motion stops Distal stimulus
Refers to an actual external object of event in the world
Proximal stimulus
Refers to the information our sensory receptor receives about the object.
Visual Consistencies Size Consistency o Tendency for the perceived size of an object to remain constant despite variations in the size of its retinal image o Visual angle determines the size of the image in the retina

Size consistency depends on apparent distance Ames room Moon illusion Shape Consistency o Tendency for the perceived shape of an object to remain constant despite variations in the shape of its retinal image o How we judge the relative depth of the different parts of the stimulus Lightness Consistency o Tendency for the perceived lightness of an object to remain constant despite change in illumination Color Consistency o Tendency for the perceived color of an object to remain constant despite changes in the spectrum of light falling on it Visual Illusions Mller-Lyer
Hering

Ponzo
Wundt
Poggendorfff
Visual Perception and Experience Preferential Looking

Fantz Difference in time spent looking at each stimuli Inferred that infants can discriminate between 2 stimuli; the longest looked at is the preferred. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 50 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

o Infants prefer to look at complex and socially relevant stimuli o Patterns instead of uniform faces
Habituation
Decrease in an elicited behavior (response) resulting from the repeated presentation of an eliciting stimulus (a simple form of learning). Infants can discriminate between old and new stimuli.
Visual Cliff
Gibson and Walk Apparatus designed to assess infant depth perception
Auditory System
Malleus hammer - Incus Anvil

SOUND Cochlea: basiliar membrane Organ of Corti (hair cells; analogous to the cones and rods) Auditory Nerve Superior Olive Inferior colliculus Medial Geniculate Nucleus TEMPORAL CORTEX Dimensions of Sound Objective Dimensions
Frequency # of cycles per second (measured in Hertz; Hz) Short wavelength; higher frequency Intensity Amplitude of the sound wave (measured in decibels) LOUDNESS
Subjective Dimensions
Pitch subjective frequency Loudness subjective intensity of sound Timbre quality of sound
Helmholtzs Place Resonance Theory

The movement of the Basiliar membrane (Cochlea) determines pitch Different pitch causes a different place in the basiliar membrane to vibrate
Frequence Theory
Basiliar membrane vibrates as a whole. The rate of vibration equals the frequency of the stimulus
Bksys Traveling Wave

Movement on the basiliar membrane is maximal at a different place along the basiliar membrane for each different frequency.

Taste
Chemical Sense it requires receptors to have ACTUAL contact with the molecules that make up the stimulus. Taste Buds: bumps in the tongue (papillae)
FOOD Papillae Taste Center Thalamus Smell

Chemical Sense it requires receptors to have ACTUAL contact with the molecules that make up the stimulus.
SMELL Olfactory Epithelium Olfactory Bulb Touch

Pressure Pain Warmth Cold
Tactile Information Receptors

- - - - Panician Corpuscles Deep Pressure Meissner Corpuscles Touch Merkle Discs Warmth Ruffini Endinds Warmth
Touch Perception
Two-Point Thresholds o Minimum distance necessary between 2 points of stimulation on the skin that it will be perceived as 2 distinct stimuli o Depends on the density of nerves in particular areas of the skin Physiological Zero o Neutral temperature perceived to be neither hot nor cold. Gate Theory of Pain o There are gating mechanisms in the Spinal Cord that turns pain signals on and off o The Spinal Cord is able to block sensory input from large sensory fibers before the brain is able to receive pain signals GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 53 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Yerkes-Dogson Law
Performance & Arousal Performance is worst at extremely low and high levels of arousal.
Learning and Ethology

Law of Effect: Thorndike
States that responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation. In addition to practice, the role of reinforcement is central to learning. Basis for Operant Conditioning Experiment of Cat in Puzzle Box All problem solving is of the trial and error type.
Wolfgang Khler Gestalt Psychology

Learning by insight (an alternative to simple conditioning model) Experiments with chimpanzees; place foods out of reach Experiments of problem solving Contrasted Thorndikes assertion that all learning was trial-and-error Demonstrated that some animals in some situations can solve problems not by trial-anderror, but by insight Edward Tolman Experiments with rats and mazes Cognitive Map Mental representation of a physical space. Latent Learning
Cognitive Map

Biological Constraints
Biological Predispositions of learning certain things in different ways.
Clark Hulls Theory of Motivation: Drive Reduction Theory

The goal of behaviour is to reduce biological drives. Reinforcement occurs whenever a biological drive is reduced.
John Garca
Classical Conditioning is affected by the animals biological make-up Taste-Adversion Experiment Rats learn to associate foods with illness - Animals have instinctual predispositions to associate certain stimuli and not others.
Premack Principle
A more preferred activity could be used to reinforce a less-preferred activity
GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY Cognitive Psychology

Research Methods Reaction Time
o Elapse time between stimulus presentation and response o on-line measure of information processing o Associate various cognitive processes with various parts of the brain
Eye Movements Brain Imaging Memory
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve METHOD OF SAVINGS hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. A related concept is the strength of memory that refers to the durability that memory traces in the brain. The stronger the memory, the longer period of time that a person is able to recall it; there is a steep initial drop in retention followed by a gradual line. A typical graph of the forgetting curve purports to show that humans tend to halve their memory of newly learned knowledge in a matter of days or weeks unless they consciously review the learned material. This conclusion is not currently supported by evidence since the only studies done by Ebbinghaus are on himself. This does not meet the standards for scientific research. Ebbinghaus studied material for memory that was intentionally learned. He used nonsense syllables to study memory for items devoid of meaning or other associations.
Memory Processes:
Encoding: Storage Retention of memories for a period of time. Retrieval Recovery of information. o Recall Independently reproducing the information that you have been previously exposed to. o Recognition Realizing that a certain stimulus effect is one youve seen or heard before Putting information into memory.

o Generation-Recognition Attempt to explain why you can usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental process involved in recognition plus another process not required for recognition
Stage Theory of Memory

There are several different memory systems Each system has a different function Memories enter various systems in a specific order o Sensory Memory o Short-Term (working memory) o Long-Term
Levels of Processing Theory

Craik and Lokart What determines how long you will remember material is not what memory system it goes to, but the way in which you process the material There is only ONE memory system 3 Ways Memory is Processed o Physical Visual; appearance of the information [less energy] o Acoustical sound combinations words have [more energy] o Semantic Focusing on the meaning of the word [most energy] 3 ways demand different amounts of mental effort The deeper the processing and the greater the effort, the better your memory will be of the material
Paivios Dual-Code Hypothesis

Information can be encoded in 2 ways Visual Verbally Abstract Memory verbal Concrete Memory visual and verbal
Sensory Memory
Visual memory Iconic Memory Auditory Memory Echoic Memory
Short-Term Memory
Stay 20 seconds Link between sensory memory of long term memory
Maintenance Rehearsal
1. Repeating the information to keep it in short-term memory
Long-Term Memory
a. Permanent Store-house of experiences, knowledge, skills.

2 Types of Long-Term Memory Procedural Memory how to do things Declarative memory Explicit information o Semantic Memory: general knowledge o Episodic Memory: Particular events personally experienced
Although many psychologists believe that the entire brain is involved with memory, the hippocampus and surrounding structures appear to be most important in declarative memory specifically
Elaborative Rehearsal
2. Organizing the information and associating it with information already in long-term memory 3. Getting information into long-term memory
Spreading Activation Model

a. Collins and Loftus b. The shorter the distance between two words, the closer the words are related in the semantic memory c. Semantic memory organized into map of interconnected concepts; the key is the distance between the concepts
Forgetting Decay Theory o Information that is not used or rehearsed will eventually be forgotten. Inhibition Theory activities taken place between original learning and later learning o Retroactive Inhibition forget what you learned earlier as you learn something new o Proactive Inhibition What you learn earlier interferes with what you learn later Misinformation effect o memories can be distorted by things that happened or that are said after an event occurs. (eyewitness testimonies) Factors that influence memory:
1. Serial Position effect: advantage in memory due to the position of an item (first or last). 2. Von Restorff effect: memory may be better for unusual or novel things. 3. Flashbuld memories: emotionally charged events. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 57 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

4. Rehearsal: studying. 5. Elaborative rehearsal: things we make vivid though imagery or rich associations are processed more deeply and are better remembered. 6. Maintenance rehearsal: mere repetition.
Facilitating Memory Encoding Specificity

Recalling memory will improve if the context at the time of retrieval closely resembles the context during encoding
State-Dependence Learning
Recalling memory will improve if the context at the time of retrieval closely resembles an emotional or physical state during encoding.
Mnemonics
Learning strategies and aids that are meaningful in their elaboration o Acronyms o Chunking o Mental imagery o Method of loci System of associating information with some sequence of places with which you are familiar
Reconstructive Memory Sir Frederick Bartlett

Prior knowledge and expectations influence recall
Eyewitness Memory Elizabeth Loftus

Tendency for eyewitnesses to be influenced or confused by misleading information Eyewitness memory and testimony can be erroneous for a myriad or reasons
Zeigarnik Effect (Gestalt psychology - Ledwin)

An interrupted task is more likely to be remembered than a completed one The automatic system signals the conscious mind, which may be focused on new goals, that a previous activity was left incomplete. It seems to be human nature to finish what we start and, if it is not finished, we experience dissonance. In Gestalt psychology, the Zeigarnik effect has been used to demonstrate the general presence of Gestalt phenomena: not just appearing as perceptual effects, but also present in cognition. The Zeigarnik effect suggests that students who suspend their study, during which they do unrelated activities, will remember material better than students who complete study sessions without a break.
Gestalt psychology The school or theory in psychology holding that psychological, physiological, and behavioral phenomena are irreducible experiential configurations not

derivable from a simple summation of perceptual elements such as sensation and response. Problem Solving Luchins
Water Jar Experiment Mental Sets: Tendency to keep repeating solutions that worked in other solutions
Heuristic
Refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Where an exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Short-cuts and rules of thumb we can use in making decisions o Availability Heuristic Making decisions about frequencies based upon how easy it is to imagine the items involved o Representativeness Heuristic Categorizing things on the basis of whether they fit the prototypical image of the category o Base-rate Fallacy Ignoring the numerical information about the items being referred to when categorizing them
Language
Syntax: word order and inflection. Semantics: meaning and interpretation. Phonology: word structure.
Components of language: Phoneme Morpheme Word Preposition/Phrase/Constituents Sentence Phonemes

are the smallest structural units of sound in speech. Thus a phoneme is a sound or a group of different sounds perceived to have the same function by speakers of the language or dialect in question. Field: f sound. i sound. e sound. l sound. d sound.
Morphemes
is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language.

A morpheme is not entical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word, by definition, is a freestanding unit of meaning. Every word comprises one or more morphemes. Walked: walk and ed (2 morphemes) Bound morphemes: a morpheme like ing that add meaning or grammatical information to another morpheme.
Constituents
smaller units of a sentence. People process the meaning of sentences one constituent at a time.
Parsing
language comprehension whereby words in a spoken or written message are transformed into a mental representation of the meaning of the message.
Garden-path sentences
grammatically correct sentence that starts in such a way that the readers' most likely interpretation will be incorrect they are lured into a parse that turns out to be a dead end. Psycholinguistics to illustrate the fact that when they read, human beings process language one word at a time. "Garden path" refers to the saying "to be led down the garden path", meaning "to be misled".
- The ability to understand language comes before (precedes) the ability to produce language. Noam Chomsky
Nativist Theory of Language Acquisition o There must be a innate, biologically based mechanism for language acquisition LAD = Language Acquisition Device o Surface Structure SINTAX: actual order of words in a sentence o Deep Structure SEMTANTICS Underlying form that specifies the meaning of the sentence. Interpretation of a sentence. o Transformational Rules How we can change from one sentence form to another
Whorfian Hypothesis Linguistic Relativity Theory

Hypothesis that language determines how reality is perceived The content of language determines the way we think about the world GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 60 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Eleanor Macoby and Carol Jacklin
Found gender differences in gender 1. Girls have better abilities
Intelligence Charles Spearman

Individual differences in intelligence are largely due to variations in the amount of a general, unitary factor; G.
Louis Thurstone
7 Primary Mental Abilities
Sternbergs Triarchich Theory

3 Aspects to intelligence 1. Componential (Performance) 2. Experimental (Creativity) 3. Contextual (Street Smarts)
Theory of Multiple Intelligences Garner

Linguistic Ability Logical-Mathematic Spatial Ability Musical Ability Bodily-Kinesthetic Interpersonal Intrapersonal
Cattell - Fluid Intelligence

Ability to quickly grasp relationships in novel situations and make correct deductions from them. Increases throughout childhood and adolescence Levels off in young adulthood Steady decline in advanced health
Cattell - Crystallized Intelligence

Ability to understand relationships or solve problems that depend on knowledge acquired as a result of schooling or other life experiences. Increases throughout lifespan
Arthur Jensen
IQ Tests o Aptitude test predict what one can accomplish through training; predict future performance o Uses an equation comparing mental age to chronological age IQ is GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 61 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Mental age DIVIDED Chronological Age MUTIPLIED by 100 Mental Age is Chronological Age MULTIPLIED by IQ DIVIDED by 100
Learning-curve
is a graphical representation of the changing rate of learning (in the average person) for a given activity or tool. Typically, the increase in retention of information is sharpest after the initial attempts, and then gradually evens out, meaning that less and less new information is retained after each repetition. "steep learning curve" may refer to either of two aspects of a pattern in which the marginal rate of required resource investment is initially low, perhaps even decreasing at the very first stages, but eventually increases without bound. Asymptote refers to when learning reaches its all-time peak (which the function grows without bound).
Latent learning
Tolman Learning is when an organism learns a new concept in its life, however, the knowledge is not immediately expressed. Instead, it remains dormant, and may not be available to consciousness, until specific events/experiences might need this knowledge to be demonstrated. For instance a child may observe a parent setting the table or tightening a screw, but does not act on this learning for a year; then he finds out later on that he knows how to do these.
Guilfords Model of Structure of Intellect

Describes divergent production as the ability to generate a variety of hypotheses in a given problem situation. An individual's performance on intelligence tests can be traced back to the underlying mental abilities or factors of intelligence. SI theory comprises up to 150 different intellectual abilities organized along three dimensionsOperations, Content, and Products.
Modularity position
language is independent from other cognitive systems, like perception.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
Hypothesis Variable tentative and testable explanation of the relationship between 2 or more variables
Factor that varies in amount or kind and can be measured Operational Definitions State how the researcher will measure the variables GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 62 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Null-Hypothesis: the hypothesis that will be disproven or rejected during research. Reading speed is not affected one way or the other by carrot eating There is no difference between Independent Variable Variable whose effect is being studied Scientist manipulates this variable Dependent Variable Variable expected to change due to variations in the independent variable It depends on the action Usually has a some scoring, because it is being measured. Confounding Variables Unintended independent variables Variables that could differentially effect the DV
Types of Research
o o o o True Experiment I.V. manipulated; subjects randomly selected Quasi-Experiment I.V. manipulated; subjects not randomly selected Correlational IV not manipulated Naturalistic Observation No intervention Representative Sample Miniature Version of the population Random Sample Every population member has an equal chance to be selected Stratified Random Sample Relevant subgroups of the population are randomly sampled in proportion to size Each subject is exposed to only one level of each independent variable.
Populations and Samples
Between-Subjects Design
Matched-Subjects Design
Each group has matching subjects on the matter of a variable. Each subject is exposed to more than one condition, allowing the researcher to separate the effects of individual differences The control group is not necessarily similar to the experimental group since the researcher doesnt use random assignment
Within-Subjects Design
Nonequivalent Group Design

Potential Problems in Research Design
Experimenter Bias Inadverted manipulation of groups Double-Blinding Neither the experimenter or subjects know if they are the control or the experimental group Single-Blind Only the subjects dont know if they are the control or experimental group. Demand Characteristics Cues in research situation that suggests to the subject what is expected Placebo Effect Type of demand characteristic where a placebo has a beneficial effect on the subjects Hawthorne Effect Tendency of people to behave differently if they know they are being observed Organize, describe, quantify and summarize a collection of actual observations. Generalize beyond observations. Provide an estimate of popular characteristics using the information collected from the sample
Descriptive Statistics

Inferential Statistics
Frequency Distributions
Charts and graphs to illustrate the data collected.
Measures of Central Tendency

Mode: Most frequent score There can be more than one mode. o 2 modes: bimodal Median: Midpoint of the sample score Divides the distribution in half There can only be one median Mean: Average of the scores in the sample Add all the scores on your data set and divide the sum by the number of scores The measure of central tendency most sensitive to extreme scores (outliers) There can only be one mean
Measures of Variability
Range Highest score minus lowest score Standard Deviation (SD) Provides an index of the average scattered away from the mean o The greater the variability, the greater the scatter GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 64 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

The square root of the variance Must be 0 or positive # If a distribution has a lot of variability, the SD will be relatively high.
Variance The square of the standard deviation
If the standard deviation is 5 The variance is 25.
Normal Distributions
68% 1 SD 96% 2 SD 4% Beyond 2 SD Indicates the % of scores that fall at or below a given score Number of SD a given score is away from the mean A distribution of z-scores always has a mean of 0 and a SD of 1.
Percentile z-Score
Score [minus] Mean [divided by] Standard Deviation = Z-Score Correlation Coefficients
Used to determine whether there is any systematic relationship between two sets of measurements or observations. Positive Correlation Both variables change towards the same direction Negative Correlation A relationship between two variables in which one variable increases as the other decreases, and vice versa. Scatterplot Graphical representation of correlation data Best-Fitting Straight Line: the direction or slope GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 65 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Correlation does not mean causation. Numerical Correlation tells how strong the relationship and the prediction is. o 0 = no relationship o +1.0 = positive relationship o -1.0 = negative relationship o -1.1 = computational error IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE A CC ABOVE +1.00 or BELOW -1.00. Attemps to account for the interralationships found among various variables by seeing how variables hang together
Factor Analysis
Inferential Statistics Significance Testing

Tool researchers use to draw conclusions about populations based upon research conducted on samples. Experimental hypothesis are confirmed by disconfirming the null hypothesis o By showing that it is not supported by the data o Null Hypothesis us that the population mean is the same as the sample mean o Test the null hypothesis against the data obtained from the sample. .05 (5 times in each 100 cases) .01 (1 every 100 cases) Significance levels are set before statistics are computed. If the computation is larger than the number found in the table for the significance level (usually 5%) Reject the null hypothesis This is what every experimenter wants to find.
Criterion of Significance Level or Alpha Level
Errors in Significance Testing - Probability Type I Error = erroneously rejecting the null hypothesis - Probability Type II Error = erroneously accepting the null hypothesis BETA ERROR Types of Significance Tests T-Tests
Compares the means of two groups.
ANOVA
Compares the means for more than 2 groups. F Ratio = between-group variance estimate / within-group variance estimate Determine if there is any interaction between two or more IVs. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 66 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

Chi-Squared
Nonparametric method; works with categorical, rather than numerical data. Seeks to determine whether two variables are independent in a population from which a sample has been obtained. Deals with variables that are discrete categories rather than continuous measurements.
Tests and Measurements Score Interpretation Norm-Referenced Testing

Assessing an individuals performance in terms of how that individual performs in comparison to others.
Domain-Referenced Testing
What an individual knows on a given domain.
Reliability
Consistency with which a test measures whatever it is that the test measures. The consistency of a set of measurements or of a measuring instrument, often used to describe a test.
Validity
The extent to which a test actually measure what it purports to measure. Content Validity o The extent to which a measure represents all facets of a given social construct Considered when constructing a test o For example, a depression scale may lack content validity if it only assesses the affective dimension of depression but fails to take into account the behavioral dimension. o Determined BEFORE a test items are administered. o Strong statistical scrutiny Face Validity o Assesses whether the test "looks valid" to the examinees who take it, the administrative personnel who decide on its use, and other technicallyuntrained observers. o Intuitive judgment o The appearance face Criterion Validity o A measure of how well one variable or set of variables predicts an outcome based on information from other variables. Construct Validity o the extent to which what was to be measured was actually measured related to the theoretical ideas behind the trait under consideration. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 67 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com
Scales of Measurement Nominal/Categorical

Numbers used as labels/names Categorizing function. No arithmetic operation Ex: political affiliation Numbers involving a rank ordering Can indicate more of a quality than a quantity No arithmetic operation Ex: Order of a horse race Concerns the quantitative aspect of number usage Addition/subtraction Ex: Temperature Equal intervals + presumes an absolute zero point. All arithmetic operations Ex. Income
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

- Sampling Statistics: analyzing data collected from the smaller group that needs to be representative of the population - Statistical inference refers to sampling statistics and the process through which inference is made to whole populations through sampling procedures. RANDOMNESS - Parameters: values obtained from populations. - Statistics: values obtained from samples. - Non-parametric measures: tests that are not dependent upon this normal distribution assumption. - Spearman Rank-Order Correlation Coefficient: is a non-parametric measure of statistical dependence between two variables. It assesses how well the relationship between two variables can be described using a monotonic function. If there are no repeated data values, a perfect Spearman correlation of +1 or 1 occurs when each of the variables is a perfect monotone function of the other. - Pearson Product-Moment Correlation: is a measure of the correlation (linear dependence) between two variables X and Y, giving a value between +1 and 1 inclusive. It is widely used in the sciences as a measure of the strength of linear dependence between two variables. GRE Psychology Subject Test Study Aid Prepared by Laura C. Miln for Psi Chi UPR-RP. 68 Did you spot erroneus data? Please email lauracmilan@gmail.com

- Point-Biserial Correlation: used to correlate dichotomous scenarios. It is a correlation coefficient used when one variable (e.g. Y) is dichotomous; Y can either be "naturally" dichotomous, like gender, or an artificially dichotomized variable. In most situations it is not advisable to artificially dichotomize variables. When you artificially dichotomize a variable the new dichotomous variable may be conceptualized as having an underlying continuity
HISTORY AND SYSTEMS

Schools Structuralism
Wundt funded the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879 Cultural Psychology Experimental psychology was limited to study higher mental processes such as memory, thinking, and language. There could be no thought without an mental image Studies the mind through introspection (observe your own conscious experience) Lacked objectivity Titchener was the American to lead this school of thought with the goal to describe the structure of the mind in terms of the most primitive elements of mental experience. This theory focused on three things: the individual elements of consciousness, how they organized into more complex experiences, and how these mental phenomena correlated with physical events. The mental elements structure themselves in such a way to allow conscious experience. Titchener believed that the goal of psychology was to study mind and consciousness. He defined consciousness as the sum total of mental experience at any given moment, and the mind as the accumulated experience of a lifetime. He believed that if the basic components of the mind could be defined and categorized, then the structure of mental processes and higher thinking could be determined. What each element of the mind is (what), how those elements interact with each other (how), and why they interact in the ways that they do (why) was the basis of reasoning that Titchener used in trying to find structure to the mind.
Functionalism

Darwin, Dewey, James, Thorndike Emphasized adaptation to ones environment The mind is an adaptative tool Emphasized behavior and adjustment over introspection and isolated mental states. As such, it provides the general basis for developing psychological theories not readily testable by controlled experiments and for applied psychology.

Functionalism arose in the U.S. in the late 19th century as an alternative to structuralism. While functionalism never became a formal school, it built on structuralism's concern for the anatomy of the mind and led to greater concern over the functions of the mind, and later to behaviorism
Behaviorism

Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, Thorndike, Guthrie, Hull Insisted in objective observation, excluded the conscious experience. A more objective functionalism Based on the proposition that all things that organisms doincluding acting, thinking, and feelingcan and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns or modifying the environment. Watson = Experiment with Little Albert Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning
Gestalt

Wertheimer, Khler, Koffka, Kant Reaction to behaviorism and its reduction to behavior as a muscle-twitch element. Emphasized studying the whole person. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Gestalt psychologists stipulate that perception is the product of complex interactions among various stimuli. Contrary to the behaviouralist approach to understanding the elements of cognitive processes, gestalt psychologists sought to understand their organization. Insight: the perception of the inner relationships between factors that is essential to solving a problem. Learning comes from having an insight

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GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Historical Perspective Norman Triplett

William McDougall & E.H.Ross

Role Theory Bindle

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Consistency Theory: Cognitive Dissonance Theory - Festinger

Consistency Theory: Self-Perception Theory - Daryl Bem

Over justification effect - Daryl Bem

Carl Hovlands Model

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Resistance to Persuasion: Analogy of inoculation

Motivational Arousal-Enhancement Type Theories

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Affiliation and Attraction Social Comparison Theory - Leon Festinger

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Gain-Loss Model/Principle - Aronson and Linder

Social Exchange Theory

Individual Characteristics Determinants of attraction

Bystander Intervention - John Darley and Bibb Latan

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Batesons Empathy-Altruism Model

Aggressive and Antisocial Behaviour Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis

Banduras Social Learning Theory on Aggression

Conformity Study I - Muzafer Sherif

Conformity Study II- Solomon Asch

Stanley Milgrams Obedience Experiment

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Self-Perception Doll Preference Study - Clark and Clark

Social Perception Primacy (1st) Tendency Effect - Hermann Ebbinghaus

Recency (Last) Effect - Hermann Ebbinghaus

Attribution Theory - Fritz Heider

Halo Effect (Bias)

Groups Theodore Newcombs Study

Edward Hall and Proxemics

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Group Decision-Making - Irving Janis

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Cooperation and Competition Prisoners Dilemma - Morton Deutsch

Game decision theory

Robbers Cave Experiment - Muzafer Sherif

Nonverbal communication - Ekman

Zillman and Bryant

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Information integration theory - Anderson

John Watson Behaviorist

Heredity Gregor Mendel Genetics

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Stages of Prenatal Development Conception Germinal Period

o Beginning of measurable electrical activity in the brain. o 3rd month forward

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Newborn Characteristics Neonatal Reflexes

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Concrete Operational (7 to 11yrs)

Formal Operational (11 forward)

Stages of Psychosexual Development: Sigmund Freud

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY

Genital (Puberty to Adulthood)

Psychosocial Theory of Development: Erik Erickson

Thomas and Chess

GRE SUBJECT TEST PSYCHOLOGY