Portafolio final psychology

Licenciada Jeannette Mendez Angel Rafael Jimenez Alvarado 5076-14-19114

Index 1. INTRODUCTION PG. 3 2. INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY PG. 4 3. BIOPSYCHOLOGY PG. 17 4. PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT PG. 31 5. LEARNING AND BEHAVIORAL PERSONALITY PG. 46 6. SENSATION AND PERCEPTION PG. 60 7. MEMORY, INTELLIGENCE AND STATES OF MIND PG. 80 8. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION PG. 89 9. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PG. 121 10. PSYCHOPATHOLOGY PG. 145 11. PSYCHOLOGY DICTIONARY PG. 149 12. HOMEWORK AND SCHOOL WORK PG. 164 13. CONCLUSION PG. 173

Introduction

In the following portafolio you will find all the documents, presentations, video links that helped us through the semester that we are about to finish. Every document it’s a different pace that I walk as an educator, these documents will help me to understand my students feelings, emotions, thoughts, behavior, that will help me to find the best way to help them in their educational needs and emotional needs. Thanks to Psychology class I have a better understanding of human behavior and emotions. Psychology was an adventure for me because it was the first time that I take a psychology class and I am amaze of the things that I learned through the semester.

How our brains work to remember sounds, smells, taste, etc. Motivation and emotion, sensation and perception, behavioral personality and more.

Enjoy the journey of Psychology!!!

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction to psychology

Psychology helps us how information is developed, what we have learned about ourselves, and how psychology is applied to help improve people´s lives.

What is Psychology Is the study of cognitions, emotions, and behavior. The study of psychology has five basic goals: 1. Describe 2. Explain 3. Predict 4. Control 5. Improve

Influence of Research on Psychology Research helps us understand what makes people think, feel, and act in certain ways. Allows us to categorize psychological disorders. Helps us to understand how intimate relationships, development, school, family, peers and religion affect us as individuals and as a society. Helps us to develop effective treatments to improve the quality of life of individuals and groups.

BIOPSYCHOLOGY

MIND BODY CONNECTION Most experts in the field of psychology and biology agree that the mind and the body are connected in more complex ways than we can even comprehend.

Research constantly shows us that the way we think affects the way we behave, the way we feel, and the way our body’s respond. The opposite is also true, physical illness, physical exhilaration, exercising, insomnia all affect the way we feel and behave, but also the way we think about ourselves and the world.  Since most of this online text is devoted to the way our mind works (as opposed to our brain), this chapter will focus on the brain, the nervous system, and how these physiological components of our being interact, respond to, and influence our psychological health. 

NEUROTRANSMITTERS 

A Neuron is a specialized nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information to other cells in the body. We have a fixed number of neurons, which means they do not regenerate.

About 10,000 neurons die everyday, but since we start out with between ten and 100 billion (Hooper & Teresi, 1987), we only lose about 2% over our lifetime.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS 

Information comes into the neuron through the Dendrites from other neurons. It then continues to the Cell Body – (soma) which is the main part of the neuron, which contains the nucleus and maintains the life sustaining functions of the neuron. The soma processes information and then passes it along the Axon. At the end of the axon are bulb-like structures called Terminal Buttons that pass the information on to glands, muscles, or other neurons.

NEUROTRANSMITTER

NEUROTRANSMITTERS 

Information is carried by biochemical substances called neurotransmitters, which we will talk about in more detail shortly. The terminal buttons and the dendrites of other neurons do not touch, but instead pass the information containing neurotransmitters through a Synapse.

Once the neurotransmitter leaves the axon, and passes through the synapse, it is caught on the dendrite by what are termed Receptor Sites.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS 

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Neurotransmitters have been studied quite a bit in relation to psychology and human behavior. What we have found is that several neurotransmitters play a role in the way we behave, learn, the way we feel, and sleep. And, some play a role in mental illnesses. The following are those neurotransmitters which play a significant role in our mental health.

Acetylcholine – involved in voluntary movement, learning, memory, and sleep § Too much acetylcholine is associated with depression, and too little in the hippocampus has been associated with dementia.

Dopamine – correlated with movement, attention, and learning § Too much dopamine has been associated with schizophrenia, and too little is associated with some forms of depression as well as the muscular rigidity and tremors found in Parkinson’s disease.

Norepinephrine – associated with eating, alertness § Too little norepinephrine has been associated with depression, while an excess has been associated with schizophrenia.

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Epinephrine – involved in energy, and glucose metabolism § Too little epinephrine has been associated with depression.

Serotonin – plays a role in mood, sleep, appetite, and impulsive and aggressive behavior § Too little serotonin is associated with depression and some anxiety disorders, especially obsessivecompulsive disorder. Some antidepressant medications increase the availability of serotonin at the receptor sites.

GABA (Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid) – inhibits excitation and anxiety § Too little GABA is associated with anxiety and anxiety disorders. Some antianxiety medication increases GABA at the receptor sites.

Endorphins – involved in pain relief and feelings of pleasure and contentedness Please note that these associations are merely correlations, and do not necessarily demonstrate any cause and effect relationship. We don’t know what other variables may be affecting both the neurotransmitter and the mental illness, and we don’t know if the change in the neurotransmitter causes the illness, or the illness causes the change in the neurotransmitter.

THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 

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The nervous system is broken down into two major systems: Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System. We’ll discuss the Central Nervous System first.

The Central Nervous System consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The Cerebral Cortex, which is involved in a variety of higher cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor functions is more developed in humans than any other animal. It is what we see when we picture a human brain, the gray matter with a multitude of folds covering the cerebrum. The brain is divided into two symmetrical hemispheres: left (language, the ‘rational’ half of the brain, associated with analytical thinking and logical abilities) and right (more involved with musical and artistic abilities). The brain is also divided into four lobes: o Frontal – (motor cortex) motor behavior, expressive language, higher level cognitive processes, and orientation to person, place, time, and situation o Parietal – (somatosensory Cortex) involved in the processing of touch, pressure, temperature, and pain

THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM

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o Occipital – (visual cortex) interpretation of visual information o Temporal – (auditory cortex) receptive language (understanding language), as well as memory and emotion Typically the brain and spinal cord act together, but there are some actions, such as those associated with pain, where the spinal cord acts even before the information enters the brain for processing. The spinal cord consists of the Brainstem which is involved in life sustaining functions. Damage to the brainstem is very often fatal. Other parts of the brainstem include the Medulla Oblongata, which controls heartbeat, breathing, blood pressure, digestion; Reticular Activating System (Reticular Formation), involved in arousal and attention, sleep and wakefulness, and control of reflexes; Pons – regulates states of arousal, including sleep and dreaming.

Cerebellum – balance, smooth movement, and posture Thalamus – "central switching station" – relays incoming sensory information (except olfactory) to the brain

THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 

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Hypothalamus – controls the autonomic nervous system, and therefore maintains the body’s homeostasis, which we will discuss later (controls body temperature, metabolism, and appetite. Translates extreme emotions into physical responses.

Limbic System – emotional expression, particularly the emotional component of behavior, memory, and motivation Amygdala – attaches emotional significance to information and mediates both defensive and aggressive behavior Hippocampus – involved more in memory, and the transfer of information from short-term to long-term memory The Peripheral Nervous System is divided into two sub-systems. The Somatic Nervous System – primary function is to regulate the actions of the skeletal muscles. Often thought of as mediating voluntary activity. The other sub-system, called the Autonomic Nervous System, regulates primarily involuntary activity such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and digestion. Although these activities are considered involuntary, they can be altered either through specific events or through changing our perceptions about a specific experience. This system is further broken down into two complimentary systems: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems.

THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM 

The Sympathetic Nervous System controls what has been called the "Fight or Flight" phenomenon because of its control over the necessary bodily changes needed when we are faced with a situation where we may need to defend ourselves or escape. Imagine walking down a dark street at night by yourself. Suddenly you hear what you suspect are footsteps approaching you rapidly. What happens?

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Your Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in to prepare your body: your heart rate quickens to get more blood to the muscles, your breathing becomes faster and deeper to increase your oxygen, blood flow is diverted from the organs so digestion is reduced and the skin gets cold and clammy and rerouted so to speak to the muscles, and your pupils dilate for better vision. In an instant, your body is prepared to either defend or escape.

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Now imagine that the footsteps belong to a good friend who catches up to you and offers to walk you home. You feel relief instantly, but your body takes longer to adjust. In order to return everything to normal, the Parasympathetic Nervous System kicks in. This system is slow acting, unlike its counterpart, and may take several minutes or even longer to get your body back to where it was before the scare.

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These two subsystems are at work constantly shifting your body to more prepared states and more relaxed states. Every time a potentially threatening experience occurs (e.g., someone slams on their breaks in front of you, you hear a noise in your house at night, you hear a loud bang, a stranger taps you on the shoulder unexpectedly), your body reacts. The constant shifting of control between these two

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http://www.drstandley.com/bodysystems_digestiv e.shtml

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Personality Development

Introduction to Development, personality and stages theories

• When discussing any type of development, most theorist break it down into specific stages. These stages are typically progressive. In other words, you must pass through one stage before you can get to the next. Think about how you learned to run; first you had to learn to crawl, then you could learn to walk, and finally you could develop the skills needed to run. Without the first two stages, running would be an impossibility. • In this chapter we will discuss the most prominent stage theories in regard to motor and cognitive, social development, development, and moral development. Most of these stage theories are progressive, although in some, such as Erikson's psychosocial and Freud's psychosexual, a person can fail to complete the stage while still continuing. This failure, however, will result in difficulties later in life according to the theories. The following offers an overview of development according to the principles of psychology. •

Motor Development in Infancy and Childhood

Motor Development in Infancy and Childhood • Most infants develop motor abilities in the same order and at approximately the same age. In this sense, most agree that these abilities are genetically preprogrammed within all infants. The environment does play a role in the development, with an enriched environment often reducing the learning time and an impoverished one doing the opposite.

Motor Development in Infancy and Childhood • The following chart delineates the development of infants in sequential order. The ages shown are averages and it is normal for these to vary by a month or two in either direction.

• 2 months – able to lift head up on his own • 3 months – can roll over • 4 months – can sit propped up without falling over • 6 months – is able to sit up without support • 7 months – begins to stand while holding on to things for support • 9 months – can begin to walk, still using support • 10 months – is able to momentarily stand on her own without support • 11 months – can stand alone with more confidence • 12 months – begin walking alone without support • 14 months – can walk backward without support • 17 months – can walk up steps with little or no support • 18 months – able to manipulate objects with feet while walking, such as kicking a ball

Cognitive Development in Children •

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Probably the most cited theory in the cognitive development in children is Jean Piaget (1896-1980). As with all stage theories, Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development maintains that children go through specific stages as their intellect and ability to see relationships matures. These stages are completed in a fixed order with all children, even those in other countries. The age range, however can vary from child to child.

Sensorimotor Stage. This stage occurs between the ages of birth and two years of age, as infants begin to understand the information entering their sense and their ability to interact with the world. During this stage, the child learns to manipulate objects although they fail to understand the permanency of these objects if they are not within their current sensory perception. In other words, once an object is removed from the child’s view, he or she is unable to understand that the object still exists.

The major achievement during this stage is that of Object Permanency, or the ability to understand that these objects do in fact continue to exist. This includes his ability to understand that when mom leaves the room, she will eventually return, resulting in an increased sense of safety and security. Object Permanency occurs during the end of this stage and represents the child’s ability to maintain a mental image of the object (or person) without the actual perception.

Preoperational Stage. The second stage begins after Object Permanency is achieved and occurs between the ages of two to seven years of age. During this stage, the development of language occurs at a rapid pace. Children learn how to interact with their environment in a more complex manner through the use of words and images. This stage is marked by Egocentrism, or the child’s belief that everyone sees the world the same way that she does.

The fail to understand the differences in perception and believe that inanimate objects have the same perceptions they do, such as seeing things, feeling, hearing and their sense of touch.

A second important factor in this stage is that of Conservation, which is the ability to understand that quantity does not change if the shape changes. In other words, if a short and wide glass of water is poured into a tall and thin glass. Children in this stage will perceive the taller glass as having more water due only because of it’s height.

This is due to the children’s inability to understand reversibility and to focus on only one aspect of a stimulus (called centration), such as height, as opposed to understanding other aspects, such as glass width

Cognitive Development in Children • Concrete Operations Stage. Occurring between ages 7 and about 12, the third stage of cognitive development is marked by a gradual decrease in centristic thought and the increased ability to focus on more than one aspect of a stimulus. They can understand the concept of grouping, knowing that a small dog and a large dog are still both dogs, or that pennies, quarters, and dollar bills are part of the bigger concept of money. • They can only apply this new understanding to concrete objects ( those they have actually experienced). In other words, imagined objects or those they have not seen, heard, or touched, continue to remain somewhat mystical to these children, and abstract thinking has yet to develop. • Formal Operations Stage. In the final stage of cognitive development (from age 12 and beyond), children begin to develop a more abstract view of the world. They are able to apply reversibility and conservation to both real and imagined situations. They also develop an increased understanding of the world and the idea of cause and effect. By the teenage years, they are able to develop their own theories about the world. This stage is achieved by most children, although failure to do so has been associated with lower intelligence.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development •

Like Piaget, Erik Erikson (1902-1994) maintained that children develop in a predetermined order.

Instead of focusing on cognitive development, however, he was interested in how children socialize and how this affects their sense of self. Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development has eight distinct stage, each with two possible outcomes. According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and successful interactions with others. Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self. These stages, however, can be resolved successfully at a later time.

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Trust Versus Mistrust. From ages birth to one year, children begin to learn the ability to trust others based upon the consistency of their caregiver(s). If trust develops successfully, the child gains confidence and security in the world around him and is able to feel secure even when threatened.

Unsuccessful completion of this stage can result in an inability to trust, and therefore an sense of fear about the inconsistent world. It may result in anxiety, heightened insecurities, and an over feeling of mistrust in the world around them.

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Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt. Between the ages of one and three, children begin to assert their independence, by walking away from their mother, picking which toy to play with, and making choices about what they like to wear, to eat, etc. If children in this stage are encouraged and supported in their increased independence, they become more confident and secure in their own ability to survive in the world. If children are criticized, overly controlled, or not given the opportunity to assert themselves, they begin to feel inadequate in their ability to survive, and may then become overly dependent upon others, lack self-esteem, and feel a sense of shame or doubt in their own abilities.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development •

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Initiative vs. Guilt. Around age three and continuing to age six, children assert themselves more frequently. They begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with others. If given this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative, and feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.

Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control, children develop a sense of guilt. They may feel like a nuisance to others and will therefore remain followers, lacking in self-initiative.

Industry vs. Inferiority. From age six years to puberty, children begin to develop a sense of pride in their accomplishments. They initiate projects, see them through to completion, and feel good about what they have achieved. During this time, teachers play an increased role in the child’s development. If children are encouraged and reinforced for their initiative, they begin to feel industrious and feel confident in their ability to achieve goals. If this initiative is not encouraged, if it is restricted by parents or teacher, then the child begins to feel inferior, doubting his own abilities and therefore may not reach his potential.

Identity vs. Role Confusion. During adolescence, the transition from childhood to adulthood is most important. Children are becoming more independent, and begin to look at the future in terms of career, relationships, families, housing, etc. During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. This sense of who they are can be hindered, which results in a sense of confusion ("I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up") about themselves and their role in the world.

Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development •

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Intimacy vs. Isolation. Occurring in Young adulthood, we begin to share ourselves more intimately with others. We explore relationships leading toward longer term commitments with someone other than a family member. Successful completion can lead to comfortable relationships and a sense of commitment, safety, and care within a relationship. Avoiding intimacy, fearing commitment and relationships can lead to isolation, loneliness, and sometimes depression.

Generativity vs. Stagnation. During middle adulthood, we establish our careers, settle down within a relationship, begin our own families and develop a sense of being a part of the bigger picture. We give back to society through raising our children, being productive at work, and becoming involved in community activities and organizations. By failing to achieve these objectives, we become stagnant and feel unproductive.

Ego Integrity vs. Despair. As we grow older and become senior citizens, we tend to slow down our productivity, and explore life as a retired person. It is during this time that we contemplate our accomplishments and are able to develop integrity if we see ourselves as leading a successful life. If we see our lives as unproductive, feel guilt about our pasts, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, we become dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often leading to depression and hopelessness.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development •

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Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is probably the most well known theorist when it comes to the development of personality. Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development are, like other stage theories, completed in a predetermined sequence and can result in either successful completion or a healthy personality or can result in failure, leading to an unhealthy personality. This theory is probably the most well known as well as the most controversial, as Freud believed that we develop through stages based upon a particular erogenous zone. During each stage, an unsuccessful completion means that a child becomes fixated on that particular erogenous zone and either over– or under-indulges once he or she becomes an adult.

Oral Stage (Birth to 18 months). During the oral stage, the child if focused on oral pleasures (sucking). Too much or too little gratification can result in an Oral Fixation or Oral Personality which is evidenced by a preoccupation with oral activities. This type of personality may have a stronger tendency to smoke, drink alcohol, over eat, or bite his or her nails. Personality wise, these individuals may become overly dependent upon others, gullible, and perpetual followers. On the other hand, they may also fight these urges and develop pessimism and aggression toward others.

Anal Stage (18 months to three years). The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is on eliminating and retaining feces. Through society’s pressure, mainly via parents, the child has to learn to control anal stimulation. In terms of personality, after effects of an anal fixation during this stage can result in an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive). On the opposite end of the spectrum, they may become messy and disorganized (anal expulsive).

Phallic Stage (ages three to six). The pleasure zone switches to the genitals. Freud believed that during this stage boy develop unconscious sexual desires for their mother. Because of this, he becomes rivals with his father and sees him as competition for the mother’s affection. During this time, boys also develop a fear that their father will punish them for these feelings, such as by castrating them. This group of feelings is known as Oedipus Complex ( after the Greek Mythology figure who accidentally killed his father and married his mother).

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development •

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Phallic Stage (ages three to six). Later it was added that girls go through a similar situation, developing unconscious sexual attraction to their father. Although Freud Strongly disagreed with this, it has been termed the Electra Complex by more recent psychoanalysts.

According to Freud, out of fear of castration and due to the strong competition of his father, boys eventually decide to identify with him rather than fight him. By identifying with his father, the boy develops masculine characteristics and identifies himself as a male, and represses his sexual feelings toward his mother. A fixation at this stage could result in sexual deviancies (both overindulging and avoidance) and weak or confused sexual identity according to psychoanalysts.

Latency Stage (age six to puberty). It’s during this stage that sexual urges remain repressed and children interact and play mostly with same sex peers.

Genital Stage (puberty on). The final stage of psychosexual development begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened. Through the lessons learned during the previous stages, adolescents direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure is the genitals.

Ego Defense Mechanisms • •

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We stated earlier that the ego's job was to satisfy the id's impulses, not offend the moralistic character of the superego, while still taking into consideration the reality of the situation. We also stated that this was not an easy job. Think of the id as the 'devil on your shoulder' and the superego as the 'angel of your shoulder.' We don't want either one to get too strong so we talk to both of them, hear their perspective and then make a decision. This decision is the ego talking, the one looking for that healthy balance.

Before we can talk more about this, we need to understand what drives the id, ego, and superego. According to Freud, we only have two drives; sex and aggression. In other words, everything we do is motivated by one of these two drives.

Sex, also called Eros or the Life force, represents our drive to live, prosper, and produce offspring. Aggression, also called Thanatos or our Death force, represents our need to stay alive and stave off threats to our existence, our power, and our prosperity.

Now the ego has a difficult time satisfying both the id and the superego, but it doesn't have to do so without help. The ego has some tools it can use in its job as the mediator, tools that help defend the ego. These are called Ego Defense Mechanisms or Defenses. When the ego has a difficult time making both the id and the superego happy.

Defensem(Defense Mechanisms) Psychological forces which prevent undesirable or inappropriate impulses from entering consciousness (e.g., forgetting responsibilities that we really didn't want to do, projecting anger onto a spouse as opposed to your boss). Also called Defense Mechanisms, Defense System, or Ego Defenses.

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http://youtu.be/nBlLVT8j7PY http://youtu.be/m_8phjwzSI0 http://youtu.be/kWaZ20Lh7_s http://youtu.be/Vu01Cymum-c

INTRODUCTION TO LEARNING THEORY AND BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction to Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology • Learning can be defined as the process leading to relatively

permanent behavioral change or potential behavioral change. In other words, as we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave. John B. Watson (1878-1958) was the first to study how the process of learning affects our behavior, and he formed the school of thought known as Behaviorism. The central idea behind behaviorism is that only observable behaviors are worthy of research since other abstraction such as a person’s mood or thoughts are too subjective. This belief was dominant in psychological research in the United Stated for a good 50 years.

• Perhaps the most well known Behaviorist is B. F. Skinner (19041990). Skinner followed much of Watson’s research and findings, but believed that internal states could influence behavior just as external stimuli. He is considered to be a Radical Behaviorist because of this belief, although nowadays it is believed that both internal and external stimuli influence our behavior.

• http://youtu.be/eGa1NaUFbaM

Introduction to Learning Theory and Behavioral Psychology • Behavioral Psychology is basically interested in how our

behavior results from the stimuli both in the environment and within ourselves. They study, often in minute detail, the behaviors we exhibit while controlling for as many other variables as possible. Often a grueling process, but results have helped us learn a great deal about our behaviors, the effect our environment has on us, how we learn new behaviors, and what motivates us to change or remain the same.

Classical and Operant Conditioning Classical Conditioning • One important type of learning, Classical Conditioning, was actually discovered

accidentally by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936). Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who discovered this phenomenon while doing research on digestion. His research was aimed at better understanding the digestive patterns in dogs.

• During his experiments, he would put meat powder in the mouths of dogs who

had tubes inserted into various organs to measure bodily responses. What he discovered was that the dogs began to salivate before the meat powder was presented to them. Then, the dogs began to salivate as soon as the person feeding them would enter the room. He soon began to gain interest in this phenomenon and abandoned his digestion research in favor of his now famous Classical Conditioning study.

• Basically, the findings support the idea that we develop responses to certain

stimuli that are not naturally occurring. When we touch a hot stove, our reflex pulls our hand back. It does this instinctually, no learning involved. It is merely a survival instinct. But why now do some people, after getting burned, pull their hands back even when the stove is not turned on? Pavlov discovered that we make associations which cause us to generalize our response to one stimuli onto a neutral stimuli it is paired with. In other words, hot burner = ouch, stove = burner, therefore, stove = ouch.

• http://youtu.be/FMJJpbRx_O8

Classical and Operant Conditioning Classical Conditioning • Pavlov began pairing a bell sound with the meat powder and found that even

when the meat powder was not presented, the dog would eventually begin to salivate after hearing the bell. Since the meat powder naturally results in salivation, these two variables are called the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the unconditioned response (UCR), respectively. The bell and salivation are not naturally occurring; the dog was conditioned to respond to the bell. Therefore, the bell is considered the conditioned stimulus (CS), and the salivation to the bell, the conditioned response (CR). • Many of our behaviors today are shaped by the pairing of stimuli. Have you ever

noticed that certain stimuli, such as the smell of a cologne or perfume, a certain song, a specific day of the year, results in fairly intense emotions? It's not that the smell or the song are the cause of the emotion, but rather what that smell or song has been paired with...perhaps an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend, the death of a loved one, or maybe the day you met you current husband or wife. We make these associations all the time and often don’t realize the power that these connections or pairings have on us. But, in fact, we have been classically conditioned.

Classical and Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning Another type of learning, very similar to that discussed above, is called Operant Conditioning. The term "Operant" refers to how an organism operates on the environment, and hence, operant conditioning comes from how we respond to what is presented to us in our environment. It can be thought of as learning due to the natural consequences of our actions.

Classical and Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning We learn this way every day in our lives. Imagine the last time you made a mistake; you most likely remember that mistake and do things differently when the situation comes up again. In that sense, you’ve learned to act differently based on the natural consequences of your previous actions. The same holds true for positive actions. If something you did results in a positive outcome, you are likely to do that same activity again.

Reinforcement • The term reinforce means to strengthen, and is used in psychology to

refer to anything stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response. For example, if you want your dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he sits for you. The dog will eventually come to understand that sitting when told to will result in a treat. This treat is reinforcing because he likes it and will result in him sitting when instructed to do so.

• This is a simple description of a reinforcer (Skinner, 1938), the treat, which increases the response, sitting. We all apply reinforcers everyday, most of the time without even realizing we are doing it. You may tell your child "good job" after he or she cleans their room; perhaps you tell your partner how good he or she look when they dress up; or maybe you got a raise at work after doing a great job on a project. All of these things increase the probability that the same response will be repeated.

• There are four types of reinforcement: positive, negative, punishment, and extinction. We’ll discuss each of these and give examples.

Reinforcement • Positive Reinforcemen The examples above describe what is

referred to as positive reinforcement. Think of it as adding something in order to increase a response. For example, adding a treat will increase the response of sitting; adding praise will increase the chances of your child cleaning his or her room. The most common types of positive reinforcement or praise and rewards, and most of us have experienced this as both the giver and receiver. • Negative Reinforcement Think of negative reinforcement as taking something negative away in order to increase a response. Imagine a teenager who is nagged by his mother to take out the garbage week after week. After complaining to his friends about the nagging, he finally one day performs the task and to his amazement, the nagging stops. The elimination of this negative stimulus is reinforcing and will likely increase the chances that he will take out the garbage next week.

Reinforcement • Punishment refers to adding something aversive in order to

decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is disciplining (e.g. spanking) a child for misbehaving. The reason we do this is because the child begins to associate being punished with the negative behavior. The punishment is not liked and therefore to avoid it, he or she will stop behaving in that manner. • Extinction. When you remove something in order to decrease a behavior, this is called extinction. You are taking something away so that a response is decreased.

Research has found positive reinforcement is the most powerful of any of these. Adding a positive to increase a response not only works better, but allows both parties to focus on the positive aspects of the situation. Punishment, when applied immediately following the negative behavior can be effective, but results in extinction when it is not applied consistently. Punishment can also invoke other negative responses such as anger and resentment.

Reinforcement Schedules • Know that we understand the four types of reinforcement, we

need to understand how and when these are applied (Ferster & Skinner, 1957). For example, do we apply the positive reinforcement every time a child does something positive? Do we punish a child every time he does something negative? To answer these questions, you need to understand the schedules of reinforcement. • Applying one of the four types of reinforcement every time the

behavior occurs (getting a raise after every successful project or getting spanked after every negative behavior) is called a Continuous Schedule. Its continuous because the application occurs after every project, behavior, etc. This is the best approach when using punishment. Inconsistencies in the punishment of children often results in confusion and resentment. A problem with this schedule is that we are not always present when a behavior occurs or may not be able to apply the punishment.

Reinforcement Schedules • There are two types of continuous schedules: • Fixed Ratio. A fixed ratio schedule refers to applying the

reinforcement after a specific number of behaviors. Spanking a child if you have to ask him three times to clean his room is an example. The problem is that the child (or anyone for that matter) will begin to realize that he can get away with two requests before he has to act. Therefore, the behavior does not tend to change until right before the preset number.

• Fixed Interval. Applying the reinforcer after a specific amount of time is referred to as a fixed interval schedule. An example might be getting a raise every year and not in between. A major problem with this schedule is that people tend to improve their performance right before the time period expires so as to "look good" when the review comes around.

• When reinforcement is applied on an irregular basis, they are called variable schedules.

Reinforcement Schedules • Variable Ratio. This refers to applying a reinforcer after a variable

number of responses. Variable ratio schedules have been found to work best under many circumstances and knowing an example will explain why. Imagine walking into a casino and heading for the slot machines.

After the third coin you put in, you get two back. Two more and you get three back. Another five coins and you receive two more back. How difficult is it to stop playing?

• Variable Interval. Reinforcing someone after a variable amount of time is

the final schedule. If you have a boss who checks your work periodically, you understand the power of this schedule. Because you don’t know when the next ‘check-up’ might come, you have to be working hard at all times in order to be ready.

In this sense, the variable schedules are more powerful and result in more consistent behaviors. This may not be as true for punishment since consistency in the application is so important, but for all other types of reinforcement they tend to result in stronger responses.

videos • http://youtu.be/RTVQHhbhYbA • http://youtu.be/Z1-nSzQp-ZM

constructivismo

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION

Introduction to Sensation and Perception 



Although intimately related, sensation and perception play two complimentary but different roles in how we interpret our world. Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. This information is sent to our brains in raw form where perception comes into play. Perception is the way we interpret these sensations and therefore make sense of everything around us.

This chapter will describe various theories related to these two concepts and explain the important role they play in the field of psychology. Through this chapter, you will gain a better idea of how our senses work and how this information is organized and interpreted.

Sensation 

Sensation is the process by which our senses gather information and send it to the brain. A large amount of information is being sensed at any one time such as room temperature, brightness of the lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the smell of perfume. With all this information coming into our senses, the majority of our world never gets recognized. We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the microscopic parasites crawling on our skin. We don't sense all the odors around us or taste every individual spice in our gourmet dinner. We only sense those things we are able too since we don't have the sense of smell like a bloodhound or the sense of sight like a hawk; our thresholds are different from these animals and often even from each other.

Sensation Absolute Threshold The absolute threshold is the point where something becomes noticeable to our senses. It is the softest sound we can hear or the slightest touch we can feel. Anything less than this goes unnoticed. The absolute threshold is therefore the point at which a stimuli goes from undetectable to detectable to our senses.

Difference Threshold 



Once a stimulus becomes detectable to us, how do we recognize if this stimulus changes. When we notice the sound of the radio in the other room, how do we notice when it becomes louder. It's conceivable that someone could be turning it up so slightly that the difference is undetectable. The difference threshold is the amount of change needed for us to recognize that a change has occurred. This change is referred to as the Just Noticeable Difference.

This difference is not absolute, however. Imagine holding a five pound weight and one pound was added. Most of us would notice this difference. But what if we were holding a fifty pound weight? Would we notice if another pound were added? The reason many of us would not is because the change required to detect a difference has to represent a percentage. In the first scenario, one pound would increase the weight by 20%, in the second, that same weight would add only an additional 2%. This theory, named after its original observer, is referred to as Weber's Law.

Sensation Signal Detection Theory 

Have you ever been in a crowded room with lots of people talking? Situations like that can make it difficult to focus on any particular stimulus, like the conversation we are having with a friend. We are often faced with the daunting task of focusing our attention on certain things while at the same time attempting to ignore the flood of information entering our senses. When we do this, we are making a determination as to what is important to sense and what is background noise. This concept is referred to as signal detection because we attempt detect what we want to focus on and ignore or minimize everything else.

Sensory Adaptation 

The last concept refers to stimuli which has become redundant or remains unchanged for an extended period of time. Ever wonder why we notice certain smells or sounds right away and then after a while they fade into the background? Once we adapt to the perfume or the ticking of the clock, we stop recognizing it. This process of becoming less sensitive to unchanging stimulus is referred to as sensory adaptation, after all, if it doesn't change, why do we need to constantly sense it?

Perception 

As mentioned in the introduction, perception refers to interpretation of what we take in through our senses. The way we perceive our environment is what makes us different from other animals and different from each other. In this section, we will discuss the various theories on how our sensation are organized and interpreted, and therefore, how we make sense of what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell.

Perception Gestalt Principles of Grouping  The German word "Gestalt" roughly translates to "whole" or "form," and the Gestalt psychologist's sincerely believed that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In order to interpret what we receive through our senses, they theorized that we attempt to organize this information into certain groups. This allows us to interpret the information completely without unneeded repetition. For example, when you see one dot, you perceive it as such, but when you see five dots together, you group them together by saying a "row of dots." Without this tendency to group our perceptions, that same row would be seen as "dot, dot, dot, dot, dot," taking both longer to process and reducing our perceptive ability. The Gestalt principles of grouping include four types: similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure.

Perception Gestalt Principles of Grouping

Perception 

Similarity refers to our tendency to group things together based upon how similar to each other they are. In the first figure above, we tend to see two rows of red dots and two rows of black dots. The dots are grouped according to similar color. In the next figure, we tend to perceive three columns of two lines each rather than six different lines. The lines are grouped together because of how close they are to each other, or their proximity to one another. Continuity refers to our tendency to see patterns and therefore perceive things as belonging together if they form some type of continuous pattern. In the third figure, although merely a series of dots, it begins to look like an "X" as we perceive the upper left side as continuing all the way to the lower right and the lower left all the way to the upper right. Finally, in the fourth figure, we demonstrate closure, or our tendency to complete familiar objects that have gaps in them. Even at first glance, we perceive a circle and a square.

Perception Maintaining Perceptual Constancy 









Imagine if every time an object changed we had to completely reprocess it. The next time you walk toward a building, you would have to re-evaluate the size of the building with each step, because we all know as we get closer, everything gets bigger. The building which once stood only several inches is now somehow more than 50 feet tall.

Luckily, this doesn't happen. Due to our ability to maintain constancy in our perceptions, we see that building as the same height no matter what distance it is. Perceptual constancy refers to our ability to see things differently without having to reinterpret the object's properties. There are typically three constancies discussed, including size, shape, brightness.

Size constancy refers to our ability to see objects as maintaining the same size even when our distance from them makes things appear larger or smaller. This holds true for all of our senses. As we walk away from our radio, the song appears to get softer. We understand, and perceive it as being just as loud as before. The difference being our distance from what we are sensing.

Everybody has seen a plate shaped in the form of a circle. When we see that same plate from an angle, however, it looks more like an ellipse. Shape constancy allows us to perceive that plate as still being a circle even though the angle from which we view it appears to distort the shape.

Brightness constancy refers to our ability to recognize that color remains the same regardless of how it looks under different levels of light. That deep blue shirt you wore to the beach suddenly looks black when you walk indoors. Without color constancy, we would be constantly re-interpreting color and would be amazed at the miraculous conversion our clothes undertake.

Perception Perceiving Distance 





We determine distance using two different cues: monocular and binocular. Monocular cues are those cues which can be seen using only one eye. They include size; texture, overlap, shading, height, and clarity.

Size refers to the fact that larger images are perceived as closer to us, especially if the two images are of the same object. The texture of objects tend to become smoother as the object gets farther away, suggesting that more detailed textured objects are closer. Due to overlap, those objects covering part of another object is perceived as closer. The shading or shadows of objects can give a clue to their distance, allowing closer objects to cast longer shadows which will overlap objects which are farther away. Objects which are closer to the bottom of our visual field are seen as closer to us due to our perception of the horizon, where higher (height) means farther away. Similar to texture, objects tend to get blurry as they get farther away, therefore, clearer or more crisp images tend to be perceived as closer (clarity).

Binocular cues refer to those depth cues in which both eyes are needed to perceive. There are two important binocular cues; convergence and retinal disparity. Convergence refers to the fact that the closer an object, the more inward our eyes need to turn in order to focus. The farther our eyes converge, the closer an object appears to be. Since our eyes see two images which are then sent to our brains for interpretation, the distance between these two images, or their retinal disparity, provides another cue regarding the distance of the object.

Sherlyn Padilla Zuzana Letona Mariela Pacheco Ana Paulina Mazariegos Ely Pineda

 When we smell a fragrant flower, are we

experimenting sensation or perception?

 In everyday language, the terms "sensation"

and "perception' are often used interchangeably.

 However, as you will see, they are very different

complementary processes.

ď‚— Sensations can be defined as the passive

process of bringing information from the outside world into the body and into the brain. ď‚— The process is passive because we do not have to be consciously engaging in a "sensing" process.

ď‚— Sensation doesn't automatically occur; sensory

processes must first transform stimulation into neural messages before any other processing is formed.

ď‚— This process of transferring energy is

termed transduction.

ď‚— Stimuli detectors are important because one of their

abilities is to alert us to changes. They also hold authority in sensory adaptation; the absolute threshold, the terminal threshold, and the difference threshold.

 ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD: is the lowest level that a

person will feel sensation.  DIFFERENTIAL THRESHOLD: is the minimal difference that a person can detect between two stimuli.  TERMINAL THRESHOLD: the intensity of the stimulus is so high above the absolute threshold that it causes the person pain.  The intensity of the stimulus is high enough that the sensory receptors and neurons maybe damaged.

ď‚— Perception can be defined as the active

process of selecting, organizing, and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses.

Perception is how one "receives" this feeling or thought, and gives meaning to it through memories and emotions.

 1) Sensation occurs:  a) sensory organs absorb energy from a physical

stimulus in the environment.  b) sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain.

 2) Perception follows:  a) the brain organizes the information and

translates it into something meaningful.

ď‚— Sensation: The sense organs register the stimulus

– with it's physical properties, "decode" it, and transform it into a neural signal that is then transmitted to the brain.

ď‚— Perception:

In the brain, the neural signal is organized and interpreted. Perception involves "making sense" of our sensations.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SErqVGc

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQcFlPqa

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 http://education-

portal.com/academy/lesson/intro-to-sensationand-perception.html#lesson

Memory, Intelligence and states of mind

Memory: The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience.

Process involved in memory: Enconding: association with an existing memory. Retrieval: return the information. Storage: holding onto information.

We have 3 storage capabilities: Sensory memory: receive through the senses.

STM: limited capacity. LTM: unlimited.

Subcategories of LTM: Declarative Memory: memory for facts, information about our enviroment. Semantic Memory: knowledge like the meaning of words Episodic Memory: events and situations.

Forgetting 1. Interference Proactive interference is when an old memory makes it more difficult or impossible to remember a new memory, and retroactive interference occurs when new information interferes with your ability to remember previously learned information.

2. Retrieval Failure According to this theory, a memory trace is created every time a new theory is formed. Decay theory suggests that over time, these memory traces begin to fade and disappear.

3. Failure to store Sometimes, losing information has less to do with forgetting and more to do with the fact that it never made it into long-term memory in the first place.

4. Motivated Forgetting The two basic forms of motivated forgetting are: suppression, a conscious form of forgetting, and repression, an unconscious form of forgetting.

INTELLIGENCE Intelligence is defined as general cognitive problem-solving skills. The German psychologist L. Wilhelm Stern was the first to coin the term intelligence quotient (IQ), a figure derived from the ratio of mental age to chronological age.

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.

It can also be more generally described as the ability to perceive or retain knowledge and information.

Relaxation In psychology is the emotional state of a living being, of low tension, in which there is an absence of arousal that could come from sources such as anger, anxiety, or fear.

The idea of relaxation in psychology became popular when Dr.Edmund Jacobson published his book Progressive Relaxation.

Relaxation refers to a focusing on the mind and a relaxing of the body's muscles, including breathing exercises, deep muscle relaxation, progressive muscle relaxation, imagery, meditation, and yoga.

Hypnosis Hypnosis is a very deep state of relaxation where your mind is more focused and the connection between your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are clearer.

•

5 elements of hupnosis: Induction, deepening, therapy, wakening, final thoughts

While one stream of consciousness responds to the hypnotist’s suggestions, another dissociated stream processes information outside of the hypnotized individuals conscious awareness

INTRODUCTION https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eTtzH_4gP8 MEMORY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbWZAckCam0 FORGETTING http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5zH4N3ohR0&list=P Lb08E1Nek-5DmFI2_hGia5AFKIG5VUP3W INTELLIGENCE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBbmerzR2JI

Motivation and emotion

Motivation and emotion Introduction ď‚› What drives you to want to learn about psychology? Why did you choose your career? Your partner? Where you would live? Are your drives different from other people or do we all share the same goals in life? ď‚› This chapter will discuss the various theories related to motivation and emotion. You will learn the different views on motivation, from those deemed instinctual, internal, and those viewed as external. You will also be presented with the theories of emotion, an abstract concept which has yet to have an agreed upon definition.



Ever wonder why some people seem to be very successful, highly motivated individuals? Where does the energy, the drive, or the direction come from? Motivation is an area of psychology that has gotten a great deal of attention, especially in the recent years. The reason is because we all want to be successful, we all want direction and drive, and we all want to be seen as motivated.



There are several distinct theories of motivation we will discuss in this section. Some include basic biological forces, while others seem to transcend concrete explanation. Let's talk about the five major theories of motivation.

Instinct Theory



Instinct theory is derived from our biological make-up. We've all seen spider's webs and perhaps even witnessed a spider in the tedious job of creating its home and trap. We've all seen birds in their nests, feeding their young or painstakingly placing the twigs in place to form their new home. How do spiders know how to spin webs? How do birds now how to build nests?



The answer is biology. All creatures are born with specific innate knowledge about how to survive. Animals are born with the capacity and often times knowledge of how to survive by spinning webs, building nests, avoiding danger, and reproducing. These innate tendencies are preprogrammed at birth, they are in our genes, and even if the spider never saw a web before, never witnessed its creation, it would still know how to create one.



Humans have the same types of innate tendencies. Babies are born with a unique ability that allows them to survive; they are born with the ability to cry. Without this, how would others know when to feed the baby, know when he needed changing, or when she wanted attention and affection? Crying allows a human infant to survive. We are also born with particular reflexes which promote survival.

The most important of these include sucking, swallowing, coughing, blinking. Newborns can perform physical movements to avoid pain; they will turn their head if touched on their cheek and search for a nipple (rooting reflex); and they will grasp an object that touches the palm of their hands.



Drive Reduction Theory



According to Clark Hull (1943, 1952), humans have internal internal biological needs which motivate us to perform a certain way. These needs, or drives, are defined by Hull as internal states of arousal or tension which must be reduced. A prime example would be the internal feelings of hunger or thirst, which motivates us to eat. According to this theory, we are driven to reduce these drives so that we may maintain a sense of internal calmness.



Arousal Theory



Similar to Hull's Drive Reduction Theory, Arousal theory states that we are driven to maintain a certain level of arousal in order to feel comfortable. Arousal refers to a state of emotional, intellectual, and physical activity. It is different from the above theory, however, because it doesn't rely on only a reduction of tension, but a balanced amount. It also does better to explain why people climb mountains, go to school, or watch sad movies.



Psychoanalytic Theory



Remember Sigmund Freud and his five part theory of personality. As part of this theory, he believed that humans have only two basic drives: Eros and Thanatos, or the Life and Death drives. According to Psychoanalytic theory, everything we do, every thought we have, and every emotion we experience has one of two goals: to help us survive or to prevent our destruction. This is similar to instinct theory, however, Freud believed that the vast majority of our knowledge about these drives is buried in the unconscious part of the mind.



Psychoanalytic theory therefore argues that we go to school because it will help assure our survival in terms of improved finances, more money for healthcare, or even an improved ability to find a spouse. We move to better school districts to improve our children's ability to survive and continue our family tree. We demand safety in our cars, toys, and in our homes. We want criminal locked away, and we want to be protected against poisons, terrorists, and any thing else that could lead to our destruction. According to this theory, everything we do, everything we are can be traced back to the two basic drives

 Humanistic Theory  Although discussed last, humanistic theory is perhaps the most well know theory of motivation. According to this theory, humans are driven to achieve their maximum potential and will always do so unless obstacles are placed in their way. These obstacles include hunger, thirst, financial problems, safety issues, or anything else that takes our focus away from maximum psychological growth.  The best way to describe this theory is to utilize the famous pyramid developed by Abraham Maslow (1970) called the Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow believed that humans have specific needs that must be met and that if lower level needs go unmet, we can not possible strive for higher level needs. The Hierarchy of Needs shows that at the lower level, we must focus on basic issues such as food, sleep, and safety. Without food, without sleep, how could we possible focus on the higher level needs such as respect, education, and recognition?

Humanistic Teorist

Humanistic Teorist ď‚› Throughout our lives, we work toward achieving the top of the pyramid, self actualization, or the realization of all of our potential. As we move up the pyramid, however, things get in the way which slow us down and often knock us backward. Imagine working toward the respect and recognition of your colleagues and suddenly finding yourself out of work and homeless. Suddenly, you are forced backward and can no longer focus your attention on your work due to the need for finding food and shelter for you and your family. ď‚› According to Maslow, nobody has ever reached the peak of his pyramid. We all may strive for it and some may even get close, but no one has achieved full self-actualization. Self-actualization means a complete understanding of who you are, a sense of completeness, of being the best person you could possibly be. To have achieved this goal is to stop living, for what is there to strive for if you have learned everything about yourself, if you have experienced all that you can, and if there is no way left for you to grow emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually.

Emotion ď‚› What is emotion? A feeling? Then what is a feeling? These terms are difficult to define and even more difficult to understand completely. People have been attempting to understand this phenomenon for thousands of years, and will most likely debate for a thousand more.

This section will present the various theories related to the acquisition of emotion.

ď‚› The mainstream definition of emotion refers to a feeling state involving thoughts, physiological changes, and an outward expression or behavior. But what comes first? The thought? The physiological arousal? The behavior? Or does emotion exist in a vacuum, whether or not these other components are present? There are five theories which attempt to understand why we experience emotion.

Emotion



James-Lange Theory Event

 

arousal

interpretation

Cannon-Bard Theory=

Event

emotion

arousal

emotion

Schachter-Singer Theory Event

arousal

reasoning

emotion



Lazarus Theory emotion Event



thought

arousal

Facial Feedback Theory Event

facial changes

emotion

 http://youtu.be/UP4dEr1wsjM  http://youtu.be/dNLTBpFDjag

 http://youtu.be/9nZkq31J-GY  http://youtu.be/xWKdMmH0B-E

excellent video!

Motivation and Emotion

What is motivation?

Motivation has been defined in various ways over the years, but a common component of the different definitions is that motivation is a force that energizes, activates and directs behaviour. In 2006, Franken defined motivation as the “arousal, direction and persistence of a person’s behaviour”.

Most theorists who proposed their own explanation of motivation believe that any learned behaviour cannot be executed unless it is energized. Thus, motivation is important in performing all kinds of behaviour. Also, this means that any changes in motivation reflect on an individual’s behaviour.

We can say that motivation is the factor that direct and energize the behavior of humans and other organisms.

Motivation is the willingness and desire to participate or do something.

Let’s talk about the 5 theories of Motivation Instinct Theory All creatures are born with specific innate knowledge about how to survive. Animals are born with the capacity and often times knowledge of how to survive by spinning webs, building nests, avoiding danger, and reproducing. These innate tendencies are preprogrammed at birth, they are in our genes, and even if the spider never saw a web before, never witnessed its creation, it would still know how to create one.

Drive Reduction Theory According to Clark Hull (1943, 1952), humans have internal internal biological needs which motivate us to perform a certain way. These needs, or drives, are defined by Hull as internal states of arousal or tension which must be reduced. A prime example would be the internal feelings of hunger or thirst, which motivates us to eat. According to this theory, we are driven to reduce these drives so that we may maintain a sense of internal calmness.

Arousal Theory Similar to Hull's Drive Reduction Theory, Arousal theory states that we are driven to maintain a certain level of arousal in order to feel comfortable. Arousal refers to a state of emotional, intellectual, and physical activity. It is different from the above theory, however, because it doesn't rely on only a reduction of tension, but a balanced amount. It also does better to explain why people climb mountains, go to school, or watch sad movies.

Psychoanalytic Theory Remember Sigmund Freud and his five part theory of personality. As part of this theory, he believed that humans have only two basic drives: Eros and Thanatos, or the Life and Death drives. According to Psychoanalytic theory, everything we do, every thought we have, and every emotion we experience has one of two goals: to help us survive or to prevent our destruction. This is similar to instinct theory, however, Freud believed that the vast majority of our knowledge about these drives is buried in the unconscious part of the mind.

Humanistic Theory Although discussed last, humanistic theory is perhaps the most well know theory of motivation. According to this theory, humans are driven to achieve their maximum potential and will always do so unless obstacles are placed in their way. These obstacles include hunger, thirst, financial problems, safety issues, or anything else that takes our focus away from maximum psychological growth.

The best way to describe this theory is to utilize the famous pyramid developed

by Abraham Maslow (1970) called the Hierarchy of Needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Extrinsic

Intrinsic

• It is driven by external forces and structures such as increases in pay for course credit and rewards for program completion.

• Extrinsic motivation occurs when people take action based on tangible or intangible rewards or other outside influences. For example, teachers may entice children with stickers or promises of class parties.

• It comes from within a person including personal, professional and academic desires; the need to conform or succeed; or the thrill of a challenge.

• Intrinsic motivation is evident when people engage in activities without outside suggestion or pressure. This motivation may come from the desire for enjoyment or a feeling of obligation.

Emotions Strong emotions can cause you to take actions you might not normally perform, or avoid situations that you generally enjoy. Why exactly do we have emotions? What causes us to have these feelings?

Researchers, philosophers, and psychologists have proposed a number of different theories to explain the how and why behind human emotions.

In psychology, emotion is often defined as a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behavior. Emotionality is associated with a range of psychological phenomena including temperament, personality, mood and Motivation. According to author David G. Meyers, human emotion involves "...physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience."

Emotion is different from “feelings” because feelings subjectively represent emotions, which means that feelings are only private to the person. Also, emotion is distinguished from “mood” based on the period of time that they are present; a mood lasts longer than an emotion. Interchangeably used with emotion, “affect” is the experience of emotion, and is associated with how the emotion is expressed (as seen on facial expressions or hand gestures).

Emotion can be differentiated from a number of similar constructs within the field of affective neuroscience.

Feelings are best understood as a subjective representation of emotions, private to the individual experiencing them.

Emotions Moods

Affect

are diffuse affective states that generally last for much longer durations than emotions and are also usually less intense than emotions.

is an encompassing term, used to describe the topics of emotion, feelings, and moods together, even though it is commonly used interchangeably with emotion.

Theories of Emotions The major theories of motivation can be grouped like this: The James-Lange Theory of Emotion

The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion

Schachter-Singer Theory

• According to this theory, you see an external stimulus that leads to a physiological reaction. Your emotional reaction is dependent upon how you interpret those physical reactions.

• EXAMPLE: You are walking

• This theory states that we feel emotions and experience physiological reactions such as sweating, trembling and muscle tension simultaneously. More specifically, it is suggested that emotions result when the thalamus sends a message to the brain in response to a stimulus, resulting in a physiological reaction.

• This theory suggests that the physiological arousal occurs first, and then the individual must identify the reason behind this arousal in order to experience and label it as an emotion.

down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens. You notice these physiological changes and interpret them as your body's preparation for a fearful situation. You then experience fear.

Emotions

James-Lange Theory

Cannon-Bard Theory

Schachter-Singer Theory

Theories of Emotions

Lazarus Theory

Facial Feedback Theory

Lazarus Theory states that a thought must come before any emotion or physiological arousal. In other words, you must first think about your situation before you can experience an emotion.

EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and you think it may be a mugger so you begin to tremble, your heart beats faster, and your breathing deepens and at the same time experience fear.

According to the facial feedback theory, emotion is the experience of changes in our facial muscles. In other words, when we smile, we then experience pleasure, or happiness. When we frown, we then experience sadness. it is the changes in our facial muscles that cue our brains and provide the basis of our emotions. Just as there are an unlimited number of muscle configurations in our face, so to are there a seemingly unlimited number of emotions.

EXAMPLE: You are walking down a dark alley late at night. You hear footsteps behind you and your eyes widen, your teeth clench and your brain interprets these facial changes as the expression of fear. Therefore you experience the emotion of fear.

Similarities Motivation And Emotions

Relationship

Many psychologists believe that the link between motivation and emotion emerged from three reasons. First, the arousal of emotion and motives of motivation both activate or energize behaviour. Second, emotions often go together with motives. The common Latin root word of emotion and motivation, “movere” (to move) seems to imply the said reason. And third, it is typical for basic emotions to possess motivational properties of their own. For example, happiness motivates a person to achieve better performance.

A noticeable similarity between emotion and motivation is that they are both linked to energy or intensity instead of information or direction.

Another one is that while cognition seems to be wrapped in “coldness”, emotion and motivation are often associated to pressure and heat. Yet another similarity is that both psychological constructs rely on the relationship between an individual and his environment.

Human beings tend to execute things that we hope would lead to happiness, satisfaction and any other positive emotion at some degree. With this said, emotions could be viewed as a reward or punishment for a specific motivated behaviour.

http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/theoriesof-emotion.html#lesson este video habla 6 minutos sobre teorias de la emocion esta muy bueno pero si ya tenias Tere algo de eso pues no se pondria

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY GROUP # 4 ANA RIZO GIOVANNI DE LEON CRISTHA AREVALO

Social psychology is about understanding individual behavior in a social context.

Baron, Byrne & Suls define social psychology as ...

“the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior in social situations�.

It therefore looks at human behavior as influenced by other people and the social context in which this occurs.

Social psychologists therefore deal with the factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior/actions and feelings occur.

Social psychology is to do with the way these feelings, thoughts, beliefs, intentions and goals are constructed and how such psychological factors, in turn, influence our interactions with others.

SELF CONCEPT

SOCIAL INFLUENCE

PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AGRESSION

BEHAVIOR

FEELINGS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6 AwmsfhoNp0

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY • It is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. All of these variables are the ones we use to measure a human being.

• What is it that shapes our attitudes? Why are some people such great leaders? How does prejudice develop and how can we overcome it?

Feelings: while the animals just act or react with impulses, the humans use feelings to express emotions. The feelings transform the personality , the character and how a person see the world.

Thoughts: Thought can refer to the ideas or arrangements of ideas that result from thinking, the act of producing thoughts, or the process of producing thoughts. Although thought is a fundamental human activity familiar to everyone, there is no generally accepted agreement as to what thought is or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkMYkXLlad0 how it is created. Thoughts are the result or Behavior: acts Human behavior is believed to be product of spontaneous of thinking. influenced by the endocrine system and the nervous system. It is most commonly believed that complexity in the behavior of an organism is correlated to the complexity of its nervous system. Generally, organisms with more complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior.

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS. The advent of the Internet has changed the way individuals and groups of individuals interact with one another and the world. In fact, an entire generation has been brought up with the idea that “socializing� includes an online component. Yet despite the recent technological advances in social communication, and the fact that social bonding is a crucial psychological aspect of being human, there are certain individuals for whom social interactions are difficult, leading to real-life anxiety.

How social media affects our relationships to others…

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HffWFd_6bJ0

Social media of all kinds has become such an important part of our society that looking at it in a negative way will only set us back. We as a society must push forward and continue to incorporate social media in more positive ways.

• In March 2013, Facebook reported having 1.11 billion active

users, Instagram reported having 100 million users, and Twitter had 200 million active users. These numbers have experienced immense growth even in the past year alone. This just proves the fact that social networking is a rapidly changing field, and even if we solve the question of how current social media affects interaction, more questions will continue to arise as these sites continue to change. So now the question remains: Is our society really ready to harness these new social media technologies to our advantage? Will we be able to handle it and maintain face-to-face interaction as our main source of communication?

THANK YOU!

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Everybody has heard of peer pressure, but most people argue that they are not affected by it, or at least not affected as 'most people.' The truth is, we are all affected by the people we interact with, many of whom we don't even know personally. Our social environments play a significant role in how we view ourselves, and conversely, how we see ourselves impacts our view of the world.

This chapter will discuss the various aspects of social psychology and the role these play in our everyday lives. We will emphasize the interaction between our view of self and others, the role of power in social interactions, and how groups, or the people with whom we interact, affect our decision making process.

Everybody has heard of peer pressure, but most people argue that they are not affected by it, or at least not affected as 'most people.' The truth is, we are all affected by the people we interact with, many of whom we don't even know personally. Our social environments play a significant role in how we view ourselves, and conversely, how we see ourselves impacts our view of the world.

This chapter will discuss the various aspects of social psychology and the role these play in our everyday lives. We will emphasize the interaction between our view of self and others, the role of power in social interactions, and how groups, or the people with whom we interact, affect our decision making process.

OUR VIEW OF SELF AND OTHERS The way we look at ourselves plays an important role in how we see the world. The way we see the world plays an important role in how we see ourselves. In this sense, our view of self and others is an ever-changing circle of influence. We know that those who are happy see more positive aspects of the world than those who are depressed. We also know that living in an abusive household or an overly restrictive environment can both lead to depression. This section will explore the social areas of attribution (how we interpret those around us) and attraction (what we seek in a friend or partner).

OUR VIEW OF SELF AND OTHERS Attribution Theory We tend to explain our own behavior and the behavior of others by assigning attributes to these behavior. An attribute is an inference about the cause of a behavior. According to the Attribution Theory, we tend to explain our own behavior and the behavior of others by assigning attributes to these behavior.

There are basically two sources for our behavior; those influenced by Situational (external) factors and those influenced by Dispositional (internal) factors. Imagine walking into your boss's office and he immediately tells you, in an angry tone, not to bother him. An external explanation of this behavior might be, "He's really a nice guy but the stress is overwhelming. He needs a vacation." On the other hand, you might see the same behavior and say, "What a jerk, I don't know why is is so angry all the time." The same behavior is given two very opposite explanations.

Many factors play a role in how we assign attributes to behaviors. Obviously our view of the world, our previous experience with a particular person or situation, and our knowledge of the behavior play an important role. Other factors can influence our interpretation as well, and there are two important errors or mistakes we tend make when assigning these attributes.

OUR VIEW OF SELF AND OTHERS 1. Fundamental Attribution Error. This refers to the tendency to over estimate the internal and underestimate the external factors when explaining the behaviors of others. This may be a result of our tendency to pay more attention to the situation rather than to the individual (Heider, 1958) and is especially true when we know little about the other person. For example, the last time you were driving and got cut off did you say to yourself "What an idiot" (or something similar), or did you say "She must be having a rough day." Chances are that this behavior was assigned mostly internal attributes and you didn't give a second thought to what external factors are playing a role in her driving behavior.

2. Self-Serving Bias. We tend to equate successes to internal and failures to external attributes (Miller & Ross, 1975). Imagine getting a promotion. Most of us will feel that this success is due to hard work, intelligence, dedication, and similar internal factors. But if you are fired, well obviously your boss wouldn't know a good thing if it were staring her in the face. This bias is true for most people, but for those who are depressed, have low self-esteem, or view themselves negatively, the bias is typically opposite. For these people, a success may mean that a multitude of negatives have been overlooked or that luck was the primary reason. For failures, the depressed individual will likely see their own negative qualities, such as stupidity, as being the primary factor

OUR VIEW OF SELF AND OTHERS Attraction Why are we attracted to certain people and not others? Why do our friends tend to be very similar to each other? And what causes us to decide on a mate? Many of these questions relate to social psychology in that society's influence and our own beliefs and traits play an important role. Research has found five reasons why we choose our friends.:

Proximity - The vast majority of our friends live close to where we live, or at least where we lived during the time period the friendship developed (Nahemow & Lawton, 1975). Obviously friendships develop after getting to know someone, and this closeness provides the easiest way to accomplish this goal. Having assigned seats in a class or group setting would result in more friends who's last name started with the same letter as yours (Segal, 1974).

Association - We tend to associate our opinions about other people with our current state. In other words, if you meet someone during a class you really enjoy, they may get more 'likeability points' then if you met them during that class you can't stand.

Similarity - On the other hand, imagine that person above agrees with you this particular class is the worse they have taken. The agreement or similarity between the two of you would likely result in more attractiveness (Neimeyer & Mitchell, 1988) Reciprocal Liking - Simply put, we tend to like those better who also like us back. This may be a result of the feeling we get about ourselves knowing that we are likable. When we feel good when we are around somebody, we tend to report a higher level of attraction toward that person (Forgas, 1992; Zajonc & McIntosh, 1992) Physical Attractiveness - Physical attraction plays a role in who we choose as friends, although not as much so as in who we choose as a mate. Nonetheless, we tend to choose people who we believe to be attractive and who are close to how we see our own physical attractiveness

OUR VIEW OF SELF AND OTHERS Attraction This last statement brings up an important factor in how we determine our friends and partner. Ever wonder why very attractive people tend to 'hang around' other very attractive people? Or why wealthy men seem to end up with physically attractive, perhaps even much younger, women? There is some truth to these stereotypical scenarios because we tend to assign "social assets" or "attraction points" to everyone we meet.

These points are divided into categories such as physical attractiveness, sense of humor, education, and wealth. If we view education as very important, we may assign more points to this category making it more likely that our friends or our mate will have more education. If we view wealth as more important then we will be more likely to find a mate who has more money.

We rate ourselves on these same categories and, at least at some level, know our score. We tend to then pick friends and partners who have a similar score that we do. Hence an attractive person hangs with other attractive people; or a wealthy older man gets the beautiful younger woman. Think about your friends and how you would rate them in these categories to find out what is important to you.

OBEDIENCE AND POWER Why do we obey some people and not others? Why are you able to influence your friends? What attributes cause a person to be more influential? These questions are paramount in understanding social order. The answers to these questions also play an important role in many professions, such as sales and marketing and of course politics.

Lets start with a closer look at what 'power' is. Power is typically thought of has having a certain attribute which gives one person more influence over another. This attribute could be intelligence or experience, it could be job title, or perhaps money. According to most social psychologists, there are five types of power: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent.

OBEDIENCE AND POWER Coercive power: means the power punish. Parents are said to have coercive power because they can place their child in time-out, for example; bosses have coercive power because they can fire an employee or assign an employee a less pleasing job. Reward power is almost the opposite; it is the power to reward. In that sense parents and bosses have this type of power as well, as do many others in our lives. Legitimate power refers to the power granted by some authority, such as the power a police officer has due to the local or state government or the power a professor has due to the rules of a college or university.

Expert power results from experience or education. Those individuals with more knowledge tend to have more power in situations where that knowledge is important. For instance, the physician will have more power in a medical emergency than the plumber. But, when the pipes explode and the house is being flooded, the physician is not the person to call. Finally, referent power refers to admiration or respect. When we look up to people because of their accomplishments, their attitude, or any other personal attribute, we tend to give them more power over us. Imagine being asked to do something by your "hero" or your favorite movie star; we are very likely to comply out of admiration or respect.

OBEDIENCE AND POWER Now that we know what power is and how people get it, lets talk about how this power is used to influence others. Most of us know that liking and agreeing tend to go together. We agree with our friends about many issues, especially the bigger ones, and often disagree with our opponents. Also, beliefs and behaviors tend to go together. For instance, most people who believe stealing is very immoral would not steal, most who believe littering is wrong, do not litter.

What's interesting about this latter concept is what happens when our belief and our behavior do not correspond. You might think that we would change the way we act, but in the real world, we tend to change our belief about a topic before we would change our behavior. The person who believes littering is wrong, after throwing a soda can from their car window, might say to himself, "It was only one time," or "look at all the other trash on the freeway." in this sense, his belief has changed; littering is now okay if it is only done once or if others have littered first.

To equate this with influencing others, we see that if we can change the way a person behaves, we can change the way they think or feel. Imagine the car salesman who is able to convince the potential buyer that this new car is the one he wants to buy. The sales man might try to use many different techniques, but one is the 'test drive.' The theory behind this is that if the person's actions include driving the car, they are more likely to change their belief about the car.

OBEDIENCE AND POWER Using Power to Influence Others There are other variables associated with influencing others or attitude change. Lets take a look first at what attributes the source or the talker help her influence others. First of all is power, as discussed above. The more types of power and the stronger each of these is, the more influential she will be. Second, a person must be believable in order to influence us. The source must therefore be trustworthy, after all, if we don't believe someone, they're going to have a much more difficult time changing our minds. Finally, attractiveness plays a role in how influence us. We tend to be influenced more by attractive people, including physical and social attractiveness, likeability, demeanor, and dress.

The target or listener plays a role in how he will be influenced as well. Those with low self-esteem and/or high self-doubt tend to be more influenced that others. The more we doubt our own ability, the more we look to others for guidance or input. Other factors such as age, IQ, gender, or social status do not appear to play a significant role in how we are influenced by others.

Finally, lets look at the relationship between the source and the target. First of all, there needs to be some similarity between the two people. If the target or listener does not feel any similarity with the talker, he is much less likely to accept what she is saying. After all, we have nothing in common so what could she possible know about my life. The more similar the two, the greater the influential ability. Second, there needs to be a moderate discrepancy in attitude. If the difference between the two is too large, changing the listener's attitude or belief will be too difficult. If the difference is too small, then no significant change will take place at all. The difference must be great enough that a change is possible but small enough that the listener is open to the change.

THE ROLE OF GROUPS Do you think you act differently when alone than when other people are around? The answer to this question is typically a resounding 'yes.' We are concerned with our social image or how other people see us; some more than others, but very few people see no difference in their behavior. This section will discuss various theories relating to our behavior in group settings or when others are present.

Social Facilitation Lets start with one of the most simple theory related to social psychology. When alone, we tend to be more relaxed, less concerned with the outward expression of our behavior, and are basically 'ourselves.' Add just one other person, even if we don't know that person, our behavior tends to change, and not always for the better. Research has found that when others are present, our level of arousal is increased (Zajonc, 1965). In other words, we are suddenly more aware of what's going on around us. Because of this, we tend to perform better at tasks that are well learned or simple (Guerin, 1993). When completing a difficult or new task, however, our performance level decreases and we tend to do more poorly.

This phenomenon is called Social Facilitation (Guerin, 1993) , and as we try harder due to the presence of others, our performance actually decreases for difficult or unlearned tasks. Think about learning to play basketball for the first time. If you are alone, you will likely be more relaxed, and better able to concentrate. When others are watching you, however, you are more likely to be self-conscious, and therefore make more mistakes. Professional basketball players, however, because the task is so well learned, perform better when others are watching and they are able demonstrate their confidence and ability.

THE ROLE OF GROUPS Group Think and Group Polarization If you've ever been involved in a group decision making process, you've probably seen one of two things happen: either the group agrees on all of the major issues, or there is significant dissent that splits the group. If the group is cohesive; if they agree on most issues, they tend to stifle dissent because group harmony is the anticipated outcome (Janis, 1972). When we all agree, and are happy with that agreement, we typically do not want to hear opposing arguments. This phenomenon is referred to as Group Think It can lead to impulsive decisions and a failure to identify and/or consider all sides of an argument. Some classic examples of group decisions going bad include lynch mobs, actions of the Ku Klux Klan, discrimination among hate groups, and mass riots.

Similar to this, Group Polarization refers to a groups tendency to talk itself into extreme positions. In this case, a group gets so focused and energized about a decision that it creates an internal fuel, so to speak, which pushes itself forward faster than originally intended. Imagine a group of protesters, all agreeing and deciding to picket. You can see how this could get out of hand because opposing views (Group Think) are not considered and the push to move forward for the cause is fueled internally (Group Polarization).

THE ROLE OF GROUPS Social Loafing

Another phenomenon that occurs in groups is referred to as Social Loafing. This theory states that as a group gets larger, the individual contribution decreases disproportionate to the group size (Everett, Smith, & Williams, 1992; Hardy & Latane, 1986; Ingham et al., 1974) . This is due to the diffusion of responsibility created as the size of the group increases. Imagine being assigned a project to complete by yourself. Most likely you would complete 100% of it. Now if two people are involved, the percentage will typically not be 50/50. As more people are added to the group, you will end up with a small percentage doing a large portion of the work and a large percentage doing a much smaller proportion.

Bystander Effect

This last phenomenon is an unfortunate reality which has been observed far to many times in groups and in larger cities. We've all heard stories of people getting mugged, or beaten, or raped in broad daylight while people around offered no assistance. We have found that the internal push to help a person in need decreases as the group gets larger, very similar to Social Loafing. In this instance, however, people tend to be followers and will only get involved if they witness another person getting involved. What results is a group of people witnessing a crime and wondering why nobody is helping. This does not occur if you are the only person witnessing the crime. If nobody else is around, a person will tend to help the victim. The more people, however, the less likely someone will offer assistance.

VIDEOS

http://youtu.be/zCJzcS1BugQ

Psychology Dictionary

Homework and School work

Unbelievable!!! It’s over It was a wonderful experience, I learned a lot things, things that I ignored and now I can say that I have some knowledge in psychology. And this is just the beginning in my psychology journey because I also want to have a psychology degree. All the things that I learned during the semester will help me to understand my students bad behaviors and before I make a bad judgment I will try to find a logical answer. Every student is different and with the knowledge that I acquired I can be a better educator, I am going to be more sensitive, I am going to help those students that need emotional and spiritual help.

Thank you licenciada Jannett for sharing your knowledge with us , trust me that I will use them in my classroom and also thank you for your patience and understanding.

I see you next year!!!!!!