INSTRUCTOR MANUAL for Introduction to Psychology by Charles Stangor.

Chapter 1 Introducing Psychology 1. Psychology as a Science o o

Explain why using our intuition about everyday behavior is insufficient for a complete understanding of the causes of behavior.

Describe the difference between values and facts and explain how the scientific method is used to differentiate between the two.

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All psychologists use scientific methods.

Research psychologists use scientific methods to discover new knowledge about the causes of human behavior.

Psychologist-practitioners use existing research to enhance the lives of others.

Data is information collected through formal observation or measurement. Psychologists use data to answer questions about, and predict human behavior.

Most ordinary people collect and interpret data improperly. They rely upon their intuition, their personal feelings and experiences about what the right answer should be.

Without thoroughly testing hypotheses generated from data, people often think they know the causes of things when they do not.

People often believe they could have predicted the outcome of an experiment once they have seen the results, although research shows this assumption to be incorrect.

Hindsight bias is the tendency to think that we could have predicted something that has already occurred that we probably would not have been able to predict.

Empirical methods include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing conclusions about those data.

The scientific method is the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research.

If a statement cannot be measured objectively or tested for truthfulness, it cannot be evaluated using scientific inquiry. Such statements are frequently value statements.

Values are personal statements or beliefs, whereas facts are objective statements verified by empirical evidence.

Facts can be used by people to help develop or determine their values.

Values can impact research by determining what research is appropriate or important.

Levels of explanation are the perspectives that are used to understand behavior. o Lower levels are related to biological influences. o Middle levels are related to characteristics and abilities of individuals. o Higher levels are related to social groups, organizations, and cultures.

Individual differences are the variations among people on physical or psychological dimensions.

Almost all behavior is multiply determined, caused by many factors, often interrelated causes, which occur at many levels of explanation.

Much human behavior is caused by factors that are repressed, or outside our conscious awareness.

Key Takeaways

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Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior.

Though it is easy to think that everyday situations have commonsense answers, scientific studies have found that people are not always as good at predicting outcomes as they think they are.

The hindsight bias leads us to think that we could have predicted events that we actually could not have predicted.

People are frequently unaware of the causes of their own behaviors.

Psychologists use the scientific method to collect, analyze, and interpret evidence.

Employing the scientific method allows the scientist to collect empirical data objectively, which adds to the accumulation of scientific knowledge.

Psychological phenomena are complex, and making predictions about them is difficult because of individual differences and because they are multiply determined at different levels of explanation.

Exercises

1. Hindsight bias can be thought of as the “I could have told you that” bias. Consider, when one group was quoted “He who is generous is blessed”, they agreed. On the other hand, when a group is told P.T. Barnum’s maxim “There’s a sucker born every minute.” they find generosity to be somewhat foolish. Which is true?

Answer: Neither of these studies is a real study. Psychologists often use fake studies as a way of demonstrating hindsight bias. People reformulate their experiences and memories to feel right. The students may discuss other proverbs or maxims that are contradictory but apparently true.

2. It is important to provide federal funding for breast cancer research. Is this a statement of fact, or a value statement? How have facts about breast cancer affected the values we have regarding breast cancer? How have the values we hold regarding breast cancer altered the facts about breast cancer funding?

Answer: Breast cancer is commonly thought to be a leading killer of women. However, heart disease, all cancers, and stroke are the top three causes of death among women. In fact, breast cancer lags far behind the leading cause of cancer deaths in women, cigaretterelated lung cancer, which kills over 70,000 women annually as opposed to about 40,000 deaths due to breast cancer. Breast cancer may not be a leading cause of death in women, but the psychological effects of breast cancer diagnosis and the potential disfigurement from mastectomy make breast cancer a much feared disease. Funding for breast cancer research therefore remains high.

3. Think about a common behavior like touching your nose or lip when you are nervous. Is this a conscious or unconscious behavior? Why does one touch his lip or nose when nervous?

Answer: The lip touch is an unconscious behavior people perform when nervous. It is thought to be a modification of an infant’s sucking of his thumb when anxious. Most people modify this further by touching their noses rather than their lips. Students should discuss other common unconscious behaviors.

2. The Evolution of Psychology: History, Approaches, and Questions

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Explain how psychology changed from a philosophical to a scientific discipline.

List some of the most important questions that concern psychologists.

Outline the basic schools of psychology and how each school has contributed to psychology.

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The major questions psychology has tried to address have remained surprisingly constant over the history of the science. They include o Nature vs. nurture. Are genetic or environmental influences of greater importance in determining our behavior? o Free will vs. determinism. How much control do people have over their own actions? o Accuracy vs. inaccuracy. How well do people process and interpret information? o Conscious vs. unconscious processing. Is our behavior primarily under our conscious direction, or are we substantially influenced by factors that never enter into our conscious awareness? o Differences vs. similarities. Are people more similar than different despite differences in sex, ethnicity, race, culture, nationality, and other social factors?

The first known psychologists were philosophers. o Plato was a Greek philosopher who believed behavior was innate, the “nature” side of the nature vs. nurture argument. o Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who believed a child was born as a blank slate, or tabula rasa, the “nurture” side of the nature vs. nurture argument. o The French philosopher René Descartes believed behavior was under an individual’s direct control, arguing in favor of free will.

Wilhelm Wundt, in Leipzig, Germany, and William James, at Harvard in the US, established the first scientific psychology laboratories.

Structuralism, established by Wilhelm Wundt, proposes that it is possible to identify the basic elements, or “structures” of psychological experience. Structuralism is used to classify our conscious experiences.

Introspection is the method used by structuralists. Research subjects are asked to record their mental experiences as they complete mental tasks.

Structuralism and introspection are limited because of the unconscious processes involved in many activities.

Functionalism, founded by William James, attempts to understand why humans and animals have evolved the psychological aspects they possess.

Functionalism has evolved into evolutionary psychology, the study of how natural selection affects human and animal behavior.

Fitness is an important aspect of evolutionary psychology. Fitness is the extent to which a given behavioral characteristic helps an organism to survive and reproduce beyond the ability of the other members of the species.

Psychodynamic psychology, popularized by Sigmund Freud, focuses on understanding human behavior by examining the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Behavioralism, championed by John B. Watson, proposes that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and psychological studies should be limited to studies of behavior alone.

Behavioralists believe we are psychologically molded by our environment, and not by our genes. They also believe there is no free will.

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Cognitive psychology studies the mental processes of the mind, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment.

Cognitive psychology counters behavioralism with the proposal that stimuli that might elicit a behavior are evaluated by the mind, and may result in a different outcome than would be predicted by behavioralism alone.

Neuroimaging is the use of various techniques to provide pictures of the structure and function of the living brain, allowing researchers to see the mind at work.

Social-cultural psychology investigates the interactions between social settings and cultures and the ways in which people behave.

Social norms are ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and perceived by them as appropriate.

A culture represents the common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other moral beliefs, shared by the people who live in a geographical region.

Key Takeaways

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The first psychologists were philosophers, but the field became more empirical and objective as more sophisticated scientific approaches were developed and employed.

Some basic questions asked by psychologists include those about nature versus nurture, free will versus determinism, accuracy versus inaccuracy, and conscious versus unconscious processing.

The structuralists attempted to analyze the nature of consciousness using introspection.

The functionalists based their ideas on the work of Darwin, and their approaches led to the field of evolutionary psychology.

The behaviorists explained behavior in terms of stimulus, response, and reinforcement, while denying the presence of free will.

Cognitive psychologists study how people perceive, process, and remember information.

Psychodynamic psychology focuses on unconscious drives and the potential to improve lives through psychoanalysis and psychotherapy.

The social-cultural approach focuses on the social situation, including how cultures and social norms influence our behavior.

Exercises 1. Modern media such as TV, movies, and the internet provide vehicles for rapid social change. People around the globe can see, hear, and experience the lives and cultures of others at the touch of a button. How might the rapid changes taking place in societies around the world affect the psychology of people in different societies?

Answer: Modern media is primarily western in nature, and promotes the view that individual rights are paramount. Many cultures around the world place the society and its needs above those of the individual, stressing conformity and self-sacrifice for the good of others. Changes in such cultures include a sense of loss of community and family values, isolation and loneliness for elders, increased depression and suicide rates, “honor killings”, and changes in the roles of women and men that cause strife in the home,

community and workplace. They also bring improved self-esteem for women and other traditionally powerless members of society, increased opportunities for those able to adapt, and increased happiness with the increased opportunities. Student examples will vary.

2. Social comparison theory states that we compare ourselves to others around us, especially those deemed to be more successful, to create our own image of ourselves. Roles we choose could be to be more like the popular ideal, to rebel against popular ideals, or to become part of a subculture with alternative cultural ideals. Think about which role you prefer. With whom or which group do you compare yourself? What is it about that person or group that you think makes them worth emulating?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. People choose to emulate the most popular members of society because they see that as the way to be popular and accepted. Others look at social norms, feel they cannot realize the ideal type, and rebel by creating an “anti-type”. Goths, with their white faces and black hair and make-up are an example.

Still others choose to identify with subcultures within the main culture such as nerds or geeks. People often compare themselves to celebrities, models, and counterculture figures with either favorable or unfavorable results.

Chapter 2 Psychological Science 1. Psychologists Use the Scientific Method to Guide Their Research o o o

Describe the principles of the scientific method and explain its importance in conducting and interpreting research.

Differentiate laws from theories and explain how research hypotheses are developed and tested.

Discuss the procedures that researchers use to ensure that their research with humans and with animals is ethical.

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Basic research is research that answers fundamental questions about behavior.

Applied research is research that investigates issues that have implications for everyday life and provides solutions to everyday problems.

Peer review is the process whereby research published in scientific journals is evaluated and improved by other scientists before it is published. Poor quality research, or research that presents misinterpreted results, is frequently rejected for publication as a result of peer review.

All scientists use the scientific method, a set of rules, assumptions, and procedures used by scientists to conduct and evaluate research.

The scientific method requires that data be collected and evaluated in an objective manner, i.e., free of individual bias or emotion.

The scientific method ensures that conclusions reached by scientists are empirical, or based on the systematic collection and analysis of data.

Scientific information is organized into general statements that can be applied across many situations. o Laws are very general principles that can be applied to all situations in a given area of study. o Theories are integrated sets of principles that explain and predict many, but not all, observed relationships within a given area of study.

Theories have four important characteristics: o General – they are applicable to many different outcomes. o Parsimonious – they provide a simple explanation for the outcomes. o Provide ideas for future research – theories offer potential explanations for outcomes in other research domains which can be investigated further. o Falsifiable – the variables of interest can be adequately measured and the relationships between the variables that are predicted by the theory can be shown through research to be incorrect.

A research hypothesis is a specific and falsifiable prediction about the relationship between or among two or more variables.

A variable is any attribute that can assume different values among different people or across different times or places.

Conceptual variables are abstract ideas that form the basis of research hypotheses.

Measured variables are numerical representations of conceptual variables.

An operational definition tells us how to turn a conceptual variable into a measured variable.

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Researchers must consider the ethical implications of their research. o Prevent harm to the research participants. o Participants must be free to choose whether or not to participate. They cannot be coerced into participating, or continuing to participate after an experiment has begun. o Participant privacy must be protected. o Deception must be used with care. Research participants may be deceived when they are not fully informed about the nature of the research project before participating.

All research institutions receiving federal funds to conduct research must have an Institutional Review Board (IRB), a panel of researchers, ethicists, and the general public, who will determine whether a research project safeguards or violates participants’ rights to protection.

Informed consent is given by the research participant when the participant is fully and completely informed of the research goals and procedures, and the participant’s rights and protections, before the research is conducted.

Debriefing is a procedure designed to fully explain the purposes and procedures of the research and remove any harmful aftereffects of participation.

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Psychologists use the scientific method to generate, accumulate, and report scientific knowledge.

Basic research, which answers questions about behavior, and applied research, which finds solutions to everyday problems, inform each other and work together to advance science.

Research reports describing scientific studies are published in scientific journals so that other scientists and laypersons may review the empirical findings.

Organizing principles, including laws, theories and research hypotheses, give structure and uniformity to scientific methods.

Concerns for conducting ethical research are paramount. Researchers assure that participants are given free choice to participate and that their privacy is protected.

Informed consent and debriefing help provide humane treatment of participants.

A cost-benefit analysis is used to determine what research should and should not be allowed to proceed.

Exercises

1. Design an experiment to test the research hypothesis “girls like the color pink more than boys do”. Explain how you will convert your conceptual variables into measurable variables. What are the assumptions you are making in your experimental design?

Explain the results of your experiment.

Answer: Students can be divided into male and female groups and asked to answer questions about the color pink. The conceptual variable is “like the color pink”. This can be converted into a measurable variable by counting the number of male and female students wearing pink items and dividing by the total number of male or female students to arrive at a ratio. Students can answer questions about their perceptions and feelings about the color pink on a scale of 1 to 5 and a final score can be obtained. Student answers will vary.

2. Discuss whether the statement: “It is acceptable to deceive people when conducting psychological experiments.” is ethically correct. Upon what ethical authority or principle did you base your argument? What are the consequences of accepting or rejecting this statement?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some will find that if no harm is done to the participant other than that they were misinformed as to the purpose of the study, deception is acceptable. Others will argue that deception itself is wrong, and should not be used by ethical researchers. Most students will likely use a Utilitarian argument that the greatest good for the greatest number should be considered paramount. Others will use a Kantian or Virtue-based argument that it is wrong to lie under any circumstances.

Some researchers argue that certain types of human behavior cannot be accurately studied if participants are aware of the true nature of the study. If we accept the statement, we can gain this knowledge by deceiving the research participants. On the other hand, some researchers argue that we are doing harm by deceiving research participants, and that we must forego any knowledge that cannot be gained without deception.

2. Psychologists Use Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental Research Designs to Understand Behavior o o o o

Differentiate the goals of descriptive, correlational, and experimental research designs and explain the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Explain the goals of descriptive research and the statistical techniques used to interpret it.

Summarize the uses of correlational research and describe why correlational research cannot be used to infer causality.

Review the procedures of experimental research and explain how it can be used to draw causal inferences.

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A research design is the specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and interpret data.

Descriptive research is research designed to provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs. o Case studies are descriptive records of one or more individual’s experiences and behavior. o A survey is a descriptive study using a measure administered through either an interview or a written questionnaire to get a picture of the beliefs or behaviors of a sample of people of interest. o The people chosen to participate in survey research are known as the sample. o The sample are selected to be representative of all the people that the researcher wishes to know about, i.e., the population. o A type of descriptive study called naturalistic observation is research based on the observation of everyday events. o Descriptive statistics are numbers that summarize the distribution of scores on a measured variable. o A data distribution that is shaped like a bell is known as a normal distribution. o A distribution can be described in terms of its central tendency and its dispersion.

▪ Central tendency is the point in the distribution around which the data are centered.

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Dispersion is the spread of the data around the central tendency.

The arithmetic average, or arithmetic mean, is the most commonly used measure of central tendency.

▪ The median is the score in the center of the distribution, meaning that 50% of the scores are greater than the median and 50% of the scores are less than the median.

▪ The mode represents the value that occurs most frequently in the distribution.

▪ The standard deviation is the most commonly used measure of dispersion.

Correlational research is research designed to discover relationships among variables and to allow the prediction of future events from present knowledge. o When there are two variables, one of them is called the predictor variable and the other the outcome variable. o A scatter plot is a visual image of the relationship between two variables. o When the association between the variables on the scatter plot can be easily approximated with a straight line, the variables are said to have a linear relationship.

▪ When above-average values for one variable also tend to have aboveaverage values for the other variable, the relationship is said to be positive linear.

▪ When above-average values for one variable tend to have below-average values for the other variable, the relationship is said to be negative linear. o Relationships between variables that cannot be described with a straight line are known as nonlinear relationships. o When there is no relationship at all between the two variables, they are said to be independent. o Relationships that change in direction are called curvilinear relationships. o The Pearson correlation coefficient is the most common statistical measure of the strength of linear relationships among variables. o Multiple regression is a statistical technique that allows predicting a single outcome variable from more than one predictor variable. o Correlation does not indicate cause and effect. o A common-causal variable is a variable that is not part of the research hypothesis but that causes both the predictor and the outcome variable, producing the observed correlation between them. o A spurious relationship is a relationship between two variables in which a common-causal variable produces the relationship.

Experimental research is research in which initial equivalence among research participants in more than one group is created, followed by a manipulation of a given experience for these groups and a measurement of the influence of the manipulation. o The independent variable in an experiment is the cause of the effect, the variable that is created (manipulated) by the experimenter. o The dependent variable in an experiment is a measured variable that is expected to be influenced by the experimental manipulation. o Experimental research is characterized by random assignment to conditions, a procedure in which the condition that each participant is assigned to is determined through a random process.

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The disadvantages of experimental research include cost, the unlikelihood of encountering laboratory conditions in real life, and the inability to test hypotheses under extreme social conditions

Key Takeaways • • •

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Descriptive, correlational, and experimental research designs are used to collect and analyze data.

Descriptive designs include case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation. The goal of these designs is to get a picture of the current thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in a given group of people. Descriptive research is summarized using descriptive statistics.

Correlational research designs measure two or more relevant variables and assess a relationship between or among them. The variables may be presented on a scatter plot to visually show the relationships. The Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) is a measure of the strength of linear relationship between two variables.

Common-causal variables may cause both the predictor and outcome variable in a correlational design, producing a spurious relationship. The possibility of common-causal variables makes it impossible to draw causal conclusions from correlational research designs.

Experimental research involves the manipulation of an independent variable and the measurement of a dependent variable. Random assignment to conditions is normally used to create initial equivalence between the groups, allowing researchers to draw causal conclusions.

Exercises 1. Create a research survey using a scale of 1 to 5 to test the research hypothesis “chocolate candy makes people feel better”. Select a sample population from your class or school and explain how you selected the sample. Provide descriptive statistics, and describe the distribution of your data. Is the hypothesis correct?

Answer: Student examples will vary. Each should have a clear hypothesis using measured variables, a description of the sample population and how it was selected, and a number representing the central distribution and dispersion of the data.

2. Collect data from a sample population for their weight and height. Create a scatter plot and determine whether the relationship is linear or non linear. Determine whether there is a positive or negative correlation between weight and height.

Answer: Students will create a graph with data points plotted on it. The relationship between weight and height should be positive and linear, but due to small sample sizes, students may find different relationships between weight and height than the one expected. Students should discuss the effect of small sample size on research results.

3. You Can Be an Informed Consumer of Psychological Research o Outline the four potential threats to the validity of research and discuss how they may make it difficult to accurately interpret research findings. o Describe how confounding may reduce the internal validity of an experiment. o Explain how generalization, replication, and meta-analyses are used to assess the external validity of research findings.

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Construct validity refers to the extent to which the variables used in the research adequately assess the conceptual variables they were designed to measure.

Reliability refers to the consistency of a measured variable.

Statistical significance refers to the confidence with which a scientist can conclude that data are not due to chance or random error.

Statistical conclusion validity refers to the extent to which we can be certain that the researcher has drawn accurate conclusions about the statistical significance of the research.

Internal validity refers to the extent to which we can trust the conclusions that have been drawn about the causal relationship between the independent and dependent variables.

Confounding variables are variables other than the independent variable on which the participants in one experimental condition differ systematically from those in other conditions.

Experimenter bias is a situation in which the experimenter subtly treats the research participants in the various experimental conditions differently, resulting in an invalid confirmation of the research hypothesis.

In a double-blind experiment, both the researcher and the research participants are blind to who is receiving which treatment.

External validity refers to the extent to which the results of a research design can be generalized beyond the specific way the original experiment was conducted.

Generalization refers to the extent to which relationships among conceptual variables can be demonstrated in a wide variety of people and a wide variety of manipulated or measured variables.

The process of repeating previous research, which forms the basis of all scientific inquiry, is known as replication.

A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that uses the results of existing studies to integrate and draw conclusions about those studies.

Key Takeaways • Research is said to be valid when the conclusions drawn by the researcher are legitimate.

Because all research has the potential to be invalid, no research ever “proves” a theory or research hypothesis.

• Construct validity, statistical conclusion validity, internal validity, and external validity are all types of validity that people who read and interpret research need to be aware of.

• Construct validity refers to the assurance that the measured variables adequately measure the conceptual variables.

• Statistical conclusion validity refers to the assurance that inferences about statistical significance are appropriate.

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Internal validity refers to the assurance that the independent variable has caused the dependent variable. Internal validity is greater when confounding variables are reduced or eliminated.

External validity is greater when effects can be replicated across different manipulations, measures, and populations. Scientists use meta-analyses to better understand the external validity of research.

Exercises 1. Collect data from a sample population for their weight and height. Create a scatter plot and determine whether the relationship is linear or non linear. Determine whether there is a positive or negative correlation between weight and height. Combine your results with that of your classmates to create a meta-analysis. Discuss how the results of the meta-analysis of the results compares to the results found by individual students.

Answer: Students will create a graph with data points plotted on it. The relationship between weight and height should be positive and linear, but due to small sample sizes, students may find different relationships between weight and height than the one expected. However, the “meta-analysis” should result in a positive, linear relationship between weight and height.

2. Choose an online article about a psychology experiment and evaluate the validity of the claims made by the authors.

Answer: Students should provide an answer that includes a discussion of the website source and its potential reason for publishing the study, any perceived author bias, the authors’ credentials or professional standing, and links to original research articles.

3. Choose an article published in a psychology journal. Identify and discuss the potential threats to the validity of the research and how the authors countered those threats.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Each answer should discuss the threats to construct validity, statistical conclusion validity, internal validity, and external validity. Authors’ claims about measured variables should be examined, statistical analyses should be identified, potential confounding variables should be identified and the authors’ efforts to avoid confounding should be discussed, and the appropriateness of generalizations made by the authors should be examined.

Chapter 3 Brains, Bodies, and Behavior 1. The Neuron is the Building Block of the Nervous System o o o

Describe the structure and functions of the neuron.

Draw a diagram of the pathways of communication within and between neurons.

List three of the major neurotransmitters and describe their functions.

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Our behaviors, as well as our thoughts and feelings, are produced by the actions of our brains, nerves, muscles, and glands.

The nervous system is a collection of hundreds of billions of specialized and interconnected cells through which messages are sent between the brain and the rest of the body. o The central nervous system (CNS) is made up of the brain and the spinal cord o The peripheral nervous system (PNS) consists of the neurons that link the CNS to our skin, muscles, and glands.

The endocrine system is the chemical regulator of the body that consists of glands that secrete hormones.

A neuron is a cell in the nervous system whose function it is to receive and transmit information.

Neurons are made up of three major parts: o The cell body, or soma, which contains the nucleus of the cell and keeps the cell alive. o The branching treelike fiber known as the dendrite, which collects information from other cells and sends the information to the soma. o A long, segmented fiber known as the axon, which transmits information away from the cell body toward other neurons or to the muscles and glands.

The myelin sheath is a layer of fatty tissue surrounding the axon of a neuron that both acts as an insulator and allows faster transmission of the electrical signal. o Gaps between adjacent myelin cells are called nodes of Ranvier (pronounced ran-vee-AY). o Action potentials jump from node to node, traveling faster than they would without myelin.

Axons branch out toward their ends, and at the tip of each branch is a terminal button.

Neural signals are transmitted using an electrochemical process. o Electrical signals, called action potentials, travel down the length of the neuron. o Action potentials are all or nothing. Either they cause the signal to propagate or not. They do not modulate signals. o Chemical signals, called neurotransmitters, are exchanged among neurons to transmit the signal from one neuron to another. o Neurotransmitters are released at terminal buttons into a specialized space between neurons called a synapse.

Normally, the axon remains in the resting potential, a state in which the interior of the neuron contains a greater number of negatively charged ions than does the area outside the cell.

The refractory period is a brief time after the firing of the axon in which the axon cannot fire again because the neuron has not yet returned to its resting potential.

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Neurotransmitters; o can be excitatory, i.e., they stimulate the neuron to fire. o can be inhibitory, i.e., they decrease the likelihood the neuron will fire o are removed from the synapse by enzymatic degradation o are removed from the synapse by reuptake, or reabsorption into the terminal button for reuse o can be mimicked by drugs An agonist is a drug that has chemical properties similar to a particular neurotransmitter and thus mimics the effects of the neurotransmitter.

An antagonist is a drug that reduces or stops the normal effects of a neurotransmitter.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • • • •

The central nervous system (CNS) is the collection of neurons that make up the brain and the spinal cord.

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the collection of neurons that link the CNS to our skin, muscles, and glands.

Neurons are specialized cells, found in the nervous system, which transmit information.

Neurons contain a dendrite, a soma, and an axon.

Some axons are covered with a fatty substance known as the myelin sheath, which surrounds the axon, acting as an insulator and allowing faster transmission of the electrical signal.

The dendrite is a treelike extension that receives information from other neurons and transmits electrical stimulation to the soma.

The axon is an elongated fiber that transfers information from the soma to the terminal buttons.

Neurotransmitters relay information chemically from the terminal buttons and across the synapses to the receiving dendrites using a type of lock and key system.

The many different neurotransmitters work together to influence cognition, memory, and behavior.

Agonists are drugs that mimic the actions of neurotransmitters, whereas antagonists are drugs that block the action of neurotransmitters.

Exercises

1. Draw and label two adjacent neurons. Be sure to include the parts of the neuron, myelin, nodes of Ranvier, and the synapse. Explain the activities that occur at each structure.

Explain what happens at the synapse when an action potential reaches a terminal button.

Answer: Students should draw a neuron with dendrites, soma, axon, myelin ensheathment of the axon, nodes of Ranvier, and terminal button labeled. The terminal button should be apposed to, but not touching, an adjacent neuron. The gap should be labeled a synapse. Dendrites receive incoming signals from the environment or other neurons.

They transmit an action potential to the soma, where the signal is integrated with other incoming signals. The soma also contains the cell’s DNA and keeps the cell alive. If the signals are of sufficient strength, the action potential will be transmitted down the axon, jumping from one node of Ranvier to the next. At the terminal button, neurotransmitters will be released into the synapse. The neurotransmitters will excite or inhibit the adjacent neuron. The neurotransmitter will then wither be enzymatically degraded or undergo reuptake into the terminal button.

2. Explain how selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) are used in psychology to treat depression. Be sure to include an explanation of the effects of serotonin.

Answer: SSRI’s reduce the neuron’s ability to remove serotonin from the synapse. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression. By reducing the ability of the neurons to remove serotonin from the synapse, serotonin released from the terminal button has more time to act and can accumulate to levels high enough to stimulate the post-synaptic neuron, reducing depression.

2. Our Brains Control Our Thoughts, Feelings, And Behavior o o o

Describe the structures and function of the “old brain” and its influence on behavior.

Explain the structure of the cerebral cortex (its hemispheres and lobes) and the function of each area of the cortex.

Define the concepts of brain plasticity, neurogenesis, and brain lateralization.

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The brain stem is the oldest and innermost region of the brain. o It serves to control the most basic functions of life, including breathing, attention, and motor responses. o The medulla is the area of the brain stem that controls heart rate and breathing. o The pons is a structure in the brain stem that helps control the movements of the body. o The reticular formation is a long, narrow network of neurons that runs through the medulla and the pons. It filters stimuli that are coming into the brain, and plays important roles in walking, eating, sexual activity, and sleeping. o The thalamus is the egg-shaped structure above the brain stem that applies still more filtering to the sensory information that is coming up from the spinal cord and through the reticular formation, and it relays some of these remaining signals to the higher brain levels.

The cerebellum consists of two wrinkled ovals behind the brain stem which coordinate voluntary movement.

The limbic system is a brain area, located between the brain stem and the two cerebral hemispheres, that governs emotion and memory. o The amygdala consists of two “almond-shaped” clusters and is primarily responsible for regulating our perceptions of, and reactions to, aggression and fear. o The hypothalamus is a brain structure that contains a number of small areas that perform a variety of functions, including the important role of linking the nervous system to the endocrine system via the pituitary gland. o The hippocampus consists of two “horns” that curve back from the amygdale, and is important in storing information in long-term memory.

The cerebral cortex is the outer bark-like layer of our brain that allows us to use language, acquire complex skills, create tools, and live in social groups. o The cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres. o Each hemisphere is divided into four lobes. o Each lobe is separated by folds known as fissures. o The frontal lobe, behind the forehead, is responsible primarily for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment.

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The parietal lobe extends from the middle to the back of the skull and is responsible primarily for processing information about touch. o The occipital lobe, at the very back of the skull, processes visual information. o The temporal lobe, in front of the occipital lobe, is responsible primarily for hearing and language. o The motor cortex is a specific arch-shaped region that runs across the top of the brain from ear to ear, just at the front of the parietal lobe. It controls and executes movements of the body by sending signals to the cerebellum and the spinal cord. o The somatosensory cortex is an area just behind and parallel to the motor cortex that receives information from the skin’s sensory receptors and the movements of different body parts. o The visual cortex is the area located in the occipital lobe that processes visual information. o The temporal lobe contains the auditory cortex, which is responsible for hearing and language. o Association areas make up the rest of the cortex. They combine sensory and motor information and associate it with our stored knowledge.

Glial cells (glia) are cells that surround and link to the neurons, protecting them, providing them with nutrients, and absorbing unused neurotransmitters.

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change its structure and function in response to experience or damage.

Neurogenesis is the forming of new neurons.

Brain lateralization is the idea that the left and the right hemispheres of the brain are specialized to perform different functions.

The corpus callosum is the region that connects the two halves of the brain and supports communication between the hemispheres.

Key Takeaways • The old brain—including the brain stem, medulla, pons, reticular formation, thalamus, cerebellum, amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus—regulates basic survival functions, such as breathing, moving, resting, feeding, emotions, and memory.

• The cerebral cortex, made up of billions of neurons and glial cells, is divided into the right and left hemispheres and into four lobes.

• The frontal lobe is primarily responsible for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment.

The parietal lobe is primarily responsible for bodily sensations and touch. The temporal lobe is primarily responsible for hearing and language. The occipital lobe is primarily responsible for vision. Other areas of the cortex act as association areas, responsible for integrating information.

• The brain changes as a function of experience and potential damage in a process known as plasticity. The brain can generate new neurons through neurogenesis.

• The motor cortex controls voluntary movements. Body parts requiring the most control and dexterity take up the most space in the motor cortex.

• The sensory cortex receives and processes bodily sensations. Body parts that are the most sensitive occupy the greatest amount of space in the sensory cortex.

• The left cerebral hemisphere is primarily responsible for language and speech in most people, whereas the right hemisphere specializes in spatial and perceptual skills, visualization, and the recognition of patterns, faces, and melodies.

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The severing of the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres, creates a “split-brain patient,” with the effect of creating two separate minds operating in one person.

• Studies with split-brain patients as research participants have been used to study brain lateralization.

• Neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt and change as a function of experience or damage.

Exercises 1. Consider a patient in a psychological clinic who exhibits difficulty writing and eating with utensils with his right hand, remembering new people he has met and appointments he has made, who now drives recklessly and has become argumentative with supervisors.

Which area(s) of the brain might have been damaged and why?

Answer: The frontal lobe, hippocampus, and left motor cortex may have been damaged.

The frontal lobe is responsible for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment. Increased risky behavior such as reckless driving and arguing with supervisors may indicate damage to judgment. The patient appears to have difficulty forming new memories, indicative of hippocampal damage. Difficulty with fine motor tasks is indicative of motor cortex damage, although damage to the cerebellum, pons, and reticular formation cannot be ruled out as they are also involved in motor control.

2. Lateralization of the brain is hypothesized to confer an adaptive advantage by allowing organisms to accomplish two tasks at the same time. Choose a scientific article that either supports or refutes this hypothesis. Explain how it either supports of refutes the hypothesis, and identify any threats to its validity.

Answer: Student responses will vary. Some researchers have used animal models to demonstrate the ability of lateralized animals to focus on two different tasks at the same time. Threats to validity will include threats to construct validity, statistical conclusion validity, internal validity, and external validity.

3. Psychologists Study the Brain Using Many Different Methods o Compare and contrast the techniques that scientists use to view and understand brain structures and functions.

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Scientists can study the anatomy of cadavers’ brains to attempt to draw conclusions about differences in brain morphology and behavior.

Lesions, or damage, to the brain can provide clues as to the function n of the damaged area of the brain by examining changes in behavior and physical abilities after the lesion occurs.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a technique that records the electrical activity produced by the brain’s neurons through the use of electrodes that are placed around the research participant’s head.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a type of brain scan that uses a magnetic field to create images of brain activity in each brain area. o detects changes in blood flow in the brain o creates a very detailed picture o non-invasive

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Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a procedure in which magnetic pulses are applied to the brain of living persons with the goal of temporarily and safely deactivating a small brain region. o Researchers can draw causal relationships using TMS.

Key Takeaways • Studying the brains of cadavers can lead to discoveries about brain structure, but these studies are limited due to the fact that the brain is no longer active.

• Lesion studies are informative about the effects of lesions on different brain regions.

• Electrophysiological recording may be used in animals to directly measure brain activity.

• Measures of electrical activity in the brain, such as electroencephalography (EEG), are used to assess brainwave patterns and activity.

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures blood flow in the brain during different activities, providing information about the activity of neurons and thus the functions of brain regions.

• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is used to temporarily and safely deactivate a small brain region, with the goal of testing the causal effects of the deactivation on behavior.

Exercises 1. Researchers have distinguished 6 wave patterns normally seen in human electroencephalograms. List and describe the wave patterns and discuss their significance.

Answer: Delta waves have the highest amplitude and lowest frequency. They are normally seen in babies and sleeping adults. Theta waves have a slightly higher frequency than delta waves. They are normally seen in young children. Theta waves are also associated with relaxed, meditative, and creative states, or during drowsiness or arousal in older children and adults. The frequency of Alpha waves ranges from 8 Hz to 12 Hz; faster than theta waves. Alpha waves are seen when the eyes are closed and the subject is relaxed. They are attenuated when the eyes open, when the subject exerts himself mentally, or during sensorimotor tasks. Beta waves occur at a frequency range of between 12 Hz and 30 Hz. Beta activity is associated with motor behavior. Low amplitude, multi-frequency beta patterns are associated with alert, busy, or anxious thinking, and active concentration. Gamma waves occur at a frequency range of between 30 and 100 Hz. These are the most rapid EEG wave patterns. Gamma rhythms may be caused by networks of neurons executing cognitive or motor function. Mu waves range from 8 to13 Hz. They are thought to be caused by synchronous firing of resting motor neurons, and are sometimes seen in conjunction with alpha waves when the body is at rest.

4. Putting it All Together: The Nervous System and the Endocrine System o Summarize the primary functions of the CNS and of the subsystems of the PNS. o Explain how the electrical components of the nervous system and the chemical components of the endocrine system work together to influence behavior.

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Nerves are bundles of interconnected neurons that fire in synchrony to carry messages.

A sensory (or afferent) neuron carries information from the sensory receptors.

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A motor (or efferent) neuron transmits information to the muscles and glands.

Interneurons are located in the CNS and are responsible for communicating among the neurons.

The spinal cord is the long, thin, tubular bundle of nerves and supporting cells that extends down from the brain. o Sensory information passes up the spinal cord to the brain. o Motor impulses travel down the spinal cord to the body. o A reflex is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus, processed at the level of the spinal cord rather than the brain.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the division of the PNS that governs the internal activities of the human body, including heart rate, breathing, digestion, salivation, perspiration, urination, and sexual arousal. o The sympathetic division is involved in preparing the body for behavior, particularly in response to stress, by activating the organs and the glands in the endocrine system. o The parasympathetic division tends to calm the body by slowing the heart and breathing and by allowing the body to recover from the activities that the sympathetic system causes.

The somatic nervous system (SNS), also called the voluntary nervous system, is the division of the PNS that controls the external aspects of the body.

Homeostasis is the natural balance in the body’s systems.

A gland in the endocrine system is made up of groups of cells that function to secrete hormones. o A hormone is a chemical that moves throughout the body to help regulate emotions and behaviors. o The pituitary gland, a small pea-sized gland located near the center of the brain, is responsible for controlling the body’s growth and sex hormones. It is sometimes referred to as the “master gland.” o The adrenal glands produce hormones that regulate salt and water balance in the body, and they are involved in metabolism, the immune system, and sexual development and function. o The male sex glands, known as the testes, secrete a number of hormones, the most important of which is testosterone, the male sex hormone. o Testosterone regulates body changes associated with sexual development and secondary sex characteristics. o The ovaries, the female sex glands, are located in the pelvis. They produce eggs and secrete the female hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Key Takeaways • The body uses both electrical and chemical systems to create homeostasis.

• The CNS is made up of bundles of nerves that carry messages to and from the PNS • The peripheral nervous system is composed of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The ANS is further divided into the sympathetic (activating) and parasympathetic (calming) nervous systems. These divisions are activated by glands and organs in the endocrine system.

• Specific nerves, including sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons, each have specific functions.

• The spinal cord may bypass the brain by responding rapidly using reflexes.

• The pituitary gland is a master gland, affecting many other glands.

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Hormones produced by the pituitary and adrenal glands regulate growth, stress, sexual functions, and chemical balance in the body.

The adrenal glands produce epinephrine and norepinephrine, the hormones responsible for our reactions to stress.

The sex hormones, testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone, play an important role in sex differences.

Exercises 1. The pituitary is called the master gland of the body, because it controls so many of the body’s functions. However, the pituitary is under control of the hypothalamic neurons of the brain. Using valid sources, explain how the hypothalamic neurons control the release of gonadotropins from the pituitary to control sexual function.

Answer: Gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) is released from neurons in the hypothalamus which terminate on blood vessels in the brain instead of other neurons.

GnRH is transported in the blood to the pituitary where it stimulates pituitary cells to release luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). FSH and LH act on the gonads to alter release of testosterone in males, and estrogen and progesterone in females.

2. In writing the answer to this question, describe the neural control systems used to accomplish the task.

Answer: The neurons in the eyes transmit information via afferent sensory neurons to the brain about the contents of the page being read. The CNS is used to interpret the exercise and send signals via the spinal cord using efferent neurons to the arm and hand which write the answer on the page. Efferent neurons in the hands and arms transmit information back to the brain regarding their position in space and the pressure they exert on the page to write.

Chapter 4 Sensing and Perceiving 1. We Experience Our World Through Sensation o o

Review and summarize the capacities and limitations of human sensation.

Explain the difference between sensation and perception and describe how psychologists measure sensory and difference thresholds.

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Limits of human senses o Vision - a single candle flame burning 30 miles away, and more than 300,000 different colors. o Hearing - low as 20 hertz and as high as 20,000 hertz, and the tick of a clock about 20 feet away in a quiet room. o Taste - a teaspoon of sugar dissolved in 2 gallons of water. o Smell - one drop of perfume diffused in a three-room apartment. o Touch - the wing of a bee on our cheek dropped from 1 centimeter above.

Sensation is the awareness resulting from the stimulation of a sense organ.

Perception is the organization and interpretation of sensations. o Although we may sense a stimulus, we may not perceive it depending upon background noise, or our current state of awareness or concentration.

Transduction is the conversion of stimuli detected by receptor cells to electrical impulses that are then transported to the brain.

Psychophysics is the branch of psychology that studies the effects of physical stimuli on sensory perceptions and mental states.

The absolute threshold of a sensation is the intensity of a stimulus that allows an organism to just barely detect it.

Signal detection analysis is a technique used to determine the ability of the perceiver to separate true signals from background noise. o Sensitivity refers to the true ability of the individual to detect the presence or absence of signals. o Response bias, refers to a behavioral tendency to respond “yes” to a trial, which is independent of sensitivity. o The difference threshold (or just noticeable difference [JND]), refers to the change in a stimulus that can just barely be detected by the organism. o Weber’s law maintains that the just noticeable difference of a stimulus is a constant proportion of the original intensity of the stimulus. o Subliminal stimuli are events that occur below the absolute threshold and of which we are not conscious.

▪ There is little evidence to support the effectiveness of subliminal advertising. Its effects may be limited to only some people and in only some conditions. o Blindsight is a condition in which people are unable to consciously report on visual stimuli but nevertheless are able to accurately answer questions about what they are seeing.

Key Takeaways

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Sensation is the process of receiving information from the environment through our sensory organs. Perception is the process of interpreting and organizing the incoming information in order that we can understand it and react accordingly.

Transduction is the conversion of stimuli detected by receptor cells to electrical impulses that are transported to the brain.

Although our experiences of the world are rich and complex, humans—like all species— have their own adapted sensory strengths and sensory limitations.

Sensation and perception work together in a fluid, continuous process.

Our judgments in detection tasks are influenced by both the absolute threshold of the signal as well as our current motivations and experiences. Signal detection analysis is used to differentiate sensitivity from response biases.

The difference threshold, or just noticeable difference, is the ability to detect the smallest change in a stimulus about 50% of the time. According to Weber’s law, the just noticeable difference increases in proportion to the total intensity of the stimulus.

Research has found that stimuli can influence behavior even when they are presented below the absolute threshold (i.e., subliminally). The effectiveness of subliminal advertising, however, has not been shown to be of large magnitude.

Exercises

1. Choose a series 5 of lightweight physical objects. While blindfolded, have someone gently drop them one at a time onto your cheek. Using a table, record the objects, the height from which they were dropped, and whether you were able to detect them or not.

Remember to record false alarms and misses as well as hits.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Each student should provide a table containing a description of objects, heights, and detection. False alarms and misses should be recorded as well.

2. Eyewitness testimony is commonly believed to be the most certain way of identifying perpetrators in criminal cases. However, numerous studies have shown that eyewitnesses are remarkably unreliable and often wrongly identify people who are not connected to the crime as the guilty party. Given what you have learned, explain how this can be true.

Answer: Our judgments in detection tasks are influenced by both the absolute threshold of the signal as well as our current motivations and experiences. People have a behavioral tendency to respond “yes” to a trial, in this case, by identifying a defendant as the perpetrator when he was not.

2. Seeing o o

Identify the key structures of the eye and the role they play in vision.

Summarize how the eye and the visual cortex work together to sense and perceive the visual stimuli in the environment, including processing colors, shape, depth, and motion.

Section Outline • •

Visible light is a form of electromagnetic radiation detectable by the human eye.

Electromagnetic radiation travels as a wave and is measured in wavelengths o Wavelength is the distance between one wave peak and the next wave peak.

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Electromagnetic wavelengths range from over 3 km to under 3 ten billionths of a mm. o Visible light wavelengths range from 390 billionths of a meter to 770 billionths of a meter (390 to 770 nm).

The eye uses several structures to focus and detect light o The cornea is a clear covering that protects the eye and begins to focus the incoming light. o The pupil is a small opening in the center of the eye. o The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil by constricting or dilating in response to light intensity. o The lens is a structure that focuses the incoming light on the retina. o The retina is the layer of tissue at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptor cells called rods and cones.

▪ Rods • specialize in detecting black, white, and gray colors • do not provide a lot of detail about the images we see • are highly sensitive to shorter-waved (darker) and weak light to help us see in dim light ▪ Cones • specialize in detecting fine detail and colors • operate best in bright light • are located primarily in and around the fovea, which is the central point of the retina • Three types: one reacts primarily to blue light, one primarily to green light, and one primarily to red light. o Activation of rods and cones activates the bipolar cells which activate the ganglion cells. o Ganglion cells converge to form the optic nerve. o The optic nerve is a collection of millions of ganglion neurons that sends vast amounts of visual information, via the thalamus, to the brain. o Accommodation is the process of changing the curvature of the lens to keep the light entering the eye focused on the retina.

▪ People who are nearsighted focus images from far objects too far in front of the retina.

▪ People who are farsighted focus images from near objects too far behind the retina. o There are no photoreceptor cells at the place where the optic nerve exits the retina, creating a hole or blind spot in our vision.

Feature detector neurons are specialized neurons, located in the visual cortex, that respond to the strength, angles, shapes, edges, and movements of a visual stimulus.

Humans can detect and discriminate among 7 million color variations.

The shade, or hue, of a color is conveyed by the wavelength of the light (shorter wavelengths are more blue and longer wavelengths are more red).

Brightness is determined by the intensity or height (amplitude) of the wave (bigger or more intense waves are perceived as brighter).

The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic color theory posits that what color we see depends on the mix of the signals from the three types of cones (red, green, and blue).

The opponent-process color theory proposes that we analyze sensory information not in terms of three colors but rather in three sets of “opponent colors”: red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black.

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The tricolor and the opponent-process mechanisms work together to produce color vision.

Color blindness is the inability to detect either green and/or red colors. o About 1 in 50 people, mostly men o Lack functioning in the red- or green-sensitive cones We create forms out of their component sensations based on the idea of the gestalt, a meaningfully organized whole, or “whole is more than the sum of its parts.” o Figure and ground - We structure input such that we always see a figure (image) against a ground (background) o Similarity - Stimuli that are similar to each other tend to be grouped together. o Proximity - We tend to group nearby figures together. o Continuity - We tend to perceive stimuli in smooth, continuous ways rather than in more discontinuous ways.

Depth perception is the ability to perceive three-dimensional space and to accurately judge distance. o A visual cliff is a mechanism that gives the perception of a dangerous drop-off, in which infants can be safely tested for their perception of depth. o Depth cues are messages from our bodies and the external environment that supply us with information about space and distance. o Binocular depth cues are depth cues that are created by retinal image disparity, i.e., the space between our eyes, and thus which require the coordination of both eyes. o An important binocular depth cue is convergence, the inward turning of our eyes that is required to focus on objects that are less than about 50 feet away from us. o Monocular depth cues are depth cues that help us perceive depth using only one eye.

▪ Position - We tend to see objects higher up in our field of vision as farther away.

▪ Relative size - Assuming that the objects in a scene are the same size, smaller objects are perceived as farther away.

▪ Linear perspective - Parallel lines appear to converge at a distance.

▪ Light and shadow - The eye receives more reflected light from objects that are closer to us.

▪ Interposition - When one object overlaps another object, we view it as closer.

▪ Aerial perspective - Objects that appear hazy, or that are covered with smog or dust, appear farther away.

The brain detects motion o from the changing size of an image on the retina o from the relative brightness of objects o when objects near each other change their appearance The beta effect involves the perception of motion that occurs when different images are presented next to each other in succession. The visual cortex fills in the missing part of the motion and we see the object moving.

The phi phenomenon causes us to perceive motion because of the appearance and disappearance of objects that are near each other.

Key Takeaways • Vision is the process of detecting the electromagnetic energy that surrounds us. Only a small fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum is visible to humans.

• The visual receptor cells on the retina detect shape, color, motion, and depth.

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Light enters the eye through the transparent cornea and passes through the pupil at the center of the iris. The lens adjusts to focus the light on the retina, where it appears upside down and backward. Receptor cells on the retina are excited or inhibited by the light and send information to the visual cortex through the optic nerve.

• The retina has two types of photoreceptor cells: rods, which detect brightness and respond to black and white, and cones, which respond to red, green, and blue. Color blindness occurs when people lack function in the red- or green-sensitive cones.

• Feature detector neurons in the visual cortex help us recognize objects, and some neurons respond selectively to faces and other body parts.

• The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic color theory proposes that color perception is the result of the signals sent by the three types of cones, whereas the opponent-process color theory proposes that we perceive color as three sets of opponent colors: red-green, yellow-blue, and white-black.

• The ability to perceive depth occurs through the result of binocular and monocular depth cues.

• Motion is perceived as a function of the size and brightness of objects. The beta effect and the phi phenomenon are examples of perceived motion.

Exercises 1. Draw a diagram of the eye. Label each part. Include a diagram of the retina and label it as well. Briefly describe the function of each part.

Answer: Students should provide a diagram of the eye and the retina. The parts of the eye should include the cornea, pupil, iris, lens, retina and optic nerve. The cornea is a clear covering that protects the eye and begins to focus the incoming light. The pupil is a small opening in the center of the eye. The iris is the colored part of the eye that controls the size of the pupil by constricting or dilating in response to light intensity. The lens is a structure that focuses the incoming light on the retina. The retina is the layer of tissue at the back of the eye that contains photoreceptor cells called rods and cones. The optic nerve conveys visual information to the visual cortex for processing. The parts of the retina should include rods, cones, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells. Students may also include the optic nerve here instead of, or in addition to on the diagram of the eye. Rods specialize in detecting black, white, and gray colors, do not provide a lot of detail about the images we see, and are highly sensitive to shorter-waved (darker) and weak light to help us see in dim light. Cones specialize in detecting fine detail and colors, operate best in bright light, are located primarily in and around the fovea, the central point of the retina. Bipolar cells activate the ganglion cells, and ganglion cells converge to form the optic nerve.

2. Construct or look up a thaumatrope online. Spin the thaumatrope, and record your impression. What causes the thaumatrope to appear to move?

Answer: A thaumatrope is a card with different pictures on each side. When spun rapidly, the pictures appear to move. This is an example of the beta effect, wherein the visual cortex supplies the missing part of the motion.

3. Hearing o Draw a picture of the ear and label its key structures and functions, and describe the role they play in hearing. o Describe the process of transduction in hearing.

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Sound waves are carried within mediums such as air, water, or metal, and it is the changes in pressure associated with these mediums that the ear detects.

The wavelength of the sound wave, or frequency, is number of waves that arrive per second. o Pitch is the perceived frequency of a sound. o Sound waves with lower frequency and produce a lower pitch. o Sound waves with higher frequency have a higher pitch. o The frequency theory of hearing proposes that whatever the pitch of a sound wave, nerve impulses of a corresponding frequency will be sent to the auditory nerve. o The place theory of hearing proposes that different areas of the cochlea respond to different frequencies.

The amplitude, or height of the sound wave, determines how much energy it contains. o Loudness is the degree of sound volume. o Larger amplitude waves are perceived as louder. o Loudness is measured using the unit of relative loudness known as the decibel. o Each increase in 10 decibels represents a tenfold increase in loudness. o Loudness is directly determined by the number of hair cells that are vibrating Parts of the ear o The pinna is the external and visible part of the ear o The tympanic membrane (or eardrum), a tightly stretched, highly sensitive membrane at the end of the canal. o The ossicles are three tiny bones in the middle ear.

▪ hammer (or malleus) ▪ anvil (or incus) ▪ stirrup (or stapes) o The cochlea is the snail-shaped liquid-filled tube in the inner ear. o The oval window is the membrane covering the opening of the cochlea. o Hair cells are ciliated cells of the inner ear that transmit vibration impulses to neurons.

Audition (Hearing) o Sound waves are gathered by the pinna, pass down the auditory canal. o The tympanic membrane to vibrates, resulting in movement of the ossicles. o Ossicle movement vibrates the oval window, moving the fluid in the cochlea. o The fluid bends the cilia on the hair cells, causing neural signals to be sent via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.

Conductive hearing loss is caused by physical damage to the ear that reduces the ability of the ear to transfer vibrations from the outer ear to the inner ear.

Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the cilia or to the auditory nerve. o Frequently occurs with age.

Key Takeaways • Sound waves vibrating through mediums such as air, water, or metal are the stimulus energy that is sensed by the ear.

• The hearing system is designed to assess frequency (pitch) and amplitude (loudness).

• Sound waves enter the outer ear (the pinna) and are sent to the eardrum via the auditory canal. The resulting vibrations are relayed by the three ossicles, causing the oval window covering the cochlea to vibrate. The vibrations are detected by the cilia (hair cells) and sent via the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex.

• There are two theories as to how we perceive pitch: The frequency theory of hearing suggests that as a sound wave’s pitch changes, nerve impulses of a corresponding frequency enter the auditory nerve. The place theory of hearing suggests that we hear different pitches because different areas of the cochlea respond to higher and lower pitches.

• Conductive hearing loss is caused by physical damage to the ear or eardrum and may be improved by hearing aids or cochlear implants. Sensorineural hearing loss, caused by damage to the hair cells or auditory nerves in the inner ear, may be produced by prolonged exposure to sounds of more than 85 decibels.

Exercises 1. Working with a partner, blindfold yourself and cover one ear. Have your partner approach you from different directions and angles while holding a watch or other object that ticks or makes a quiet, regular sound. When you can hear the sound, measure the distance between you and your partner. Record the angles and distances. Repeat the process with the other ear covered, using the same angles and directions. Finally, repeat the process with both ears uncovered. Discuss your results. Compare your performance with that of your partner.

Answer: Students will create a table with angle of approach and distance recordings for each ear and both ears together. Results will vary, but most students will be able to detect the ticking object at a greater distance using both ears. Students will also hear objects on the uncovered ear’s side sooner than they will hear objects on the covered ear’s side.

2. Explain why a perforated eardrum results in an inability to hear.

Answer: The eardrum, or tympanic membrane, vibrates when moving air in the auditory canal strikes it. The vibration causes the ossicles of the middle ear to move, creating vibrations of the oval window. These vibrations case movement of the cochlear fluid which moves the cilia on the hair cells. The hair cells cause neural signals to be sent to the auditory cortex via the auditory nerve. The eardrum must be tightly stretched in order to vibrate. A perforated eardrum is no longer able to vibrate properly, and sound is not transmitted from the outer ear to the inner ear.

4. Tasting, Smelling, and Touching o Summarize how the senses of taste and olfaction transduce stimuli into perceptions. o Describe the process of transduction in the senses of touch and proprioception. o Outline the gate control theory of pain. Explain why pain matters and how it may be controlled.

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The tongue detects six different taste sensations, sweet, salty, sour, bitter, piquancy (spicy), and umami (savory).

Taste buds sense chemicals in the mouth.

Food dissolves and enters the taste buds, triggering nerve impulses that are transmitted to the brain.

Human tongues are covered with 2,000 to 10,000 taste buds Taste buds contain between 50 and 100 taste receptor cells.

Taste buds live for about 5 days.

o o o Smell o Airborne molecules are detected by receptor cells embedded in the olfactory membrane of the upper nasal passage. o Olfactory receptor cells are topped with tentacle-like protrusions that contain receptor proteins. o There are 10 million to 20 million olfactory receptor cells. o We have approximately 1,000 types of odor receptor cells. o We can detect 10,000 different odors.

Touch o Nerve endings in the skin respond to four basic sensations: Pressure, hot, cold, and pain. o Only pressure has its own specialized receptors.

Pain o The gate control theory of pain proposes that pain is determined by the operation of two types of nerve fibers in the spinal cord.

▪ Smaller nerve fibers carry pain from the body to the brain ▪ Larger fibers designed to stop or start the flow of pain. o Massage activates the large nerve fibers that block the pain signals of the small nerve fibers. o Pain is also a matter of perception.

▪ We feel pain less when we are busy focusing on a challenging activity.

▪ We also feel less pain when we are distracted by humor.

▪ Pain is soothed by the brain’s release of endorphins, natural hormonal pain killers.

Proprioception is the ability to sense the position and movement of our body parts. o Specialized neurons located in the skin, joints, bones, ears, and tendons send messages about the compression and the contraction of muscles throughout the body. o The vestibular system is a set of liquid-filled areas in the inner ear that monitors the head’s position and movement, maintaining the body’s balance.

▪ The semicircular canals sense the rotational movements of the body.

▪ The vestibular sacs sense linear accelerations.

Key Takeaways • The ability to taste, smell, and touch are important because they help us avoid harm from environmental toxins.

• The many taste buds on our tongues and inside our mouths allow us to detect six basic taste sensations: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, piquancy, and umami.

• In olfaction, transduction occurs as airborne chemicals that are inhaled through the nostrils are detected by receptors in the olfactory membrane. Different chemical molecules fit into different receptor cells, creating different smells.

• On average, women have a better sense of smell than men, and the ability to smell diminishes with age.

• We have a range of different nerve endings embedded in the skin, combinations of which respond to the four basic sensations of pressure, hot, cold, and pain. But only the sensation of pressure has its own specialized receptors.

• Proprioception is our ability to sense the positions and movements of our body parts.

Postural and movement information is detected by special neurons located in the skin, joints, bones, ears, and tendons, which pick up messages from the compression and the contraction of muscles throughout the body.

• The vestibular system, composed of structures in the inner ear, monitors the head’s position and movement, maintaining the body’s balance.

• Gate control theory explains how large and small neurons work together to transmit and regulate the flow of pain to the brain.

Exercises 1. Motion sickness is caused when the body perceives motion, but the eyes report little or no movement. Such a situation can occur when reading while riding in a car, flying in an airplane, or on board a ship. Explain what happens in motion sickness and the role of the vestibular system in motion sickness.

Answer: The movement of the body is reported by the vestibular system because the fluid in the semicircular canals and vestibular sacs is moving. However, the eyes see little or no motion. The current hypothesis about the cause of motion sickness is that the body perceives the reported disconnect between the eyes and vestibular system as due to a hallucinogen, i.e., a neurotoxin. Neurotransmitters in the area postrema of the brain cause the sensation of nausea in an attempt to eject the “neurotoxin” via emesis (vomiting).

2. Using two pins, have a partner touch your skin on your arms, palms, and fingertips while you are blindfolded. Measure the shortest distance apart at which the pins can still be distinguished as two rather than one. Which part of your body is best able to distinguish between the two pins? What conclusions can you draw about the touch receptors on the different parts of your body?

Answer: Students will create a table with measurements the distance between the pins for each body part. Students should be able to distinguish the distance between the pins over shorter distances on the fingertips, followed by the palms. There are more sensory neurons in the fingertips than the palms, and more in the palms than on the arms.

3. Explain why objects that are very cold may feel as if they are burning when they come into contact with our skin.

Answer: The experience of heat is caused by hot and cold receptors in our skin. If the receptors are overstimulated, they are no longer able to distinguish between heat and cold, and it feels as though we are being burned.

5. Accuracy and Inaccuracy in Perception o Describe how sensation and perception work together through sensory interaction, selective attention, sensory adaptation, and perceptual constancy. o Give examples of how our expectations may influence our perception, resulting in illusions and potentially inaccurate judgments.

Section Outline • • • • • • • •

Sensory interaction is the working together of different senses to create experience.

Selective attention is our ability to focus on some sensory inputs while tuning out others.

Sensory adaptation is decreased sensitivity to a stimulus after prolonged and constant exposure.

Perceptual constancy is the ability to perceive a stimulus as constant despite changes in sensation.

Illusions occur when the perceptual processes that normally help us correctly perceive the world around us are fooled by a particular situation so that we see something that does not exist or that is incorrect.

Our perception of the world around us may be influenced by our prior knowledge.

Emotions, mind-set, expectations, and the contexts in which our sensations occur all influence our perception.

Human factors is the field of psychology that uses psychological knowledge, including the principles of sensation and perception, to improve the development of technology.

Key Takeaways • Sensory interaction occurs when different senses work together, for instance, when taste, smell, and touch together produce the flavor of food.

• Selective attention allows us to focus on some sensory experiences while tuning out others.

• Sensory adaptation occurs when we become less sensitive to some aspects of our environment, freeing us to focus on more important changes.

• Perceptual constancy allows us to perceive an object as the same, despite changes in sensation.

• Cognitive illusions are examples of how our expectations can influence our perceptions.

• Our emotions, motivations, desires, and even our culture can influence our perceptions.

Exercises 1. As people grow older, their sense of taste declines because the number of taste buds decreases with age. Older adults are often told to choose foods with brighter colors to stimulate taste. Explain how more brightly colored foods improve flavor for older people.

Answer: Sensory interaction is at work in this case. More brightly colored foods are perceived as having more flavor molecules, so the perception of taste is enhanced.

2. Many students study or work on their homework while listening to music, watching or listening to TV, and texting or conversing with friends, often with more than one of these

stimuli involved. Explain how is it possible for them to study or complete their assignment despite the noise and distractions around them.

Answer: Sensory adaptation, which occurs when we become less sensitive to some aspects of our environment, freeing us to focus on more important changes. Students can concentrate on their work even while monitoring the other stimuli for personal interests.

Chapter 5 States of Consciousness 1. Sleeping and Dreaming Revitalize Us for Action o o o

Draw a graphic showing the usual phases of sleep during a normal night and notate the characteristics of each phase.

Review the disorders that affect sleep and the costs of sleep deprivation.

Outline and explain the similarities and differences among the different theories of dreaming.

Section Outline •

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Consciousness is defined as our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment. o Psychologists distinguish between automatic (unconscious) and controlled (conscious) behaviors. o Psychologists distinguish between implicit (unconscious) and explicit (conscious) memory. o Psychologists believe consciousness resides in the brain.

▪ some philosophers believe the consciousness is separate from the body (dualism). o The consciousness question is critical to the concept of free will. o Some people avoid consciousness by using alcohol or drugs to escape Biological rhythms are regularly occurring cycles of behaviors. o Circadian rhythms guide the daily waking and sleeping cycle in many animals. o Can be affected by daylength or the amount of light we receive in a day o Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a form of depression brought about by short days or prolonged lack of sunlight o The pineal gland secretes melatonin, a powerful hormone that facilitates the onset of sleep, during short days or when light levels remain low.

The brain remains active during sleep.

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a sleep stage characterized by the presence of quick fast eye movements and dreaming. o The first period of REM sleep about 90 minutes after falling asleep. o REM sleep is accompanied by ▪ an increase in heart rate, facial twitches, and the repeated rapid eye movements ▪ dreaming REM sleep cycle length increases as the night progresses Non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep is a deep sleep, characterized by very slow brain waves. o Three stages: o Stage N1 sleep is characterized by: ▪ drowsiness ▪ slow theta waves ▪ some muscle tone and most awareness of the environment is lost o Stage N2 sleep is characterized by: ▪ further decrease in muscular activity and conscious awareness of the environment is lost ▪ represents about half of the total sleep time in normal adults

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theta waves interspersed with bursts of rapid brain activity known as sleep spindles. o Stage N3 is known as slow wave sleep ▪ the deepest level of sleep ▪ characterized by an increased proportion of very slow delta waves ▪ most sleep abnormalities, such as insomnia, sleepwalking, sleeptalking, nightmares, and bed-wetting occur Sleep disorders o Insomnia is a sleep disorder involving persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep. o Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing that last at least 10 seconds during sleep. o Narcolepsy is a disorder characterized by extreme daytime sleepiness with frequent episodes of “nodding off.” o Somnamulism (sleepwalking) occurs when the person leaves the bed and moves around while still asleep. o Sleep terrors is most frequently experienced in childhood, may involve loud screams and intense panic, sufferer cannot wake from sleep even though trying to. o Bruxism is a condition in which the sufferer grinds his teeth during sleep. o Restless legs syndrome is a condition in which the sufferer reports an itching, burning, or otherwise uncomfortable feeling in his legs, usually exacerbated when resting or asleep. o Periodic limb movement disorder involves sudden involuntary movement of limbs. o REM sleep behavior disorder is a condition in which people (usually middleaged or older men) engage in vigorous and bizarre physical activities during REM sleep in response to intense, violent dreams. o Prolonged lack of sleep results in increased anxiety, diminished performance, and even death.

Dreams are the succession of images, thoughts, sounds, and emotions that passes through our minds while sleeping. o Dreams are thought to represent underlying desires, fears, concerns, and failures. o Psychologists analyze dreams to better understand these needs. o Dreams may be involved in converting short term memories into ling term memories – consolidation. o The activation-synthesis theory of dreaming proposes that dreams are our brain’s interpretation of the random firing of neurons in the brain stem. o People need to dream, otherwise, they become unable to accomplish important tasks during the day.

Key Takeaways • • • •

Consciousness, our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment, is functional because it allows us to plan activities and monitor our goals.

Psychologists believe the consciousness is the result of neural activity in the brain.

Human and animal behavior is influenced by biological rhythms, including annual, monthly, and circadian rhythms.

Sleep consists of two major stages: REM and non-REM sleep. Non-REM sleep has three substages, known as stage N1, N2, and N3.

• • •

Each sleep stage is marked by a specific pattern of biological responses and brain wave patterns.

Sleep is essential for adequate functioning during the day. Sleep disorders, including insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy, may make it hard for us to sleep well.

Dreams occur primarily during REM sleep. Some theories of dreaming, such Freud’s, are based on the content of the dreams. Other theories of dreaming propose that dreaming is related to memory consolidation. The activation-synthesis theory of dreaming is based only on neural activity.

Exercises

1. Record the number of hours of sleep you get for a full week. Remember to include naps and any time during the night when you wake up before returning to sleep. Using the data generated by your class, create a scatter plot of the amount of sleep the class gets.

Determine the central tendency and spread of the data. Do you get more or less than the average? Are there any days of the week during which the class tends to get more or less sleep than average? If so, why do you think the differences between you and the class, and between different days of the week for the whole class differ?

Answer: Students will create a short table with the days of the week and the number of hours of sleep they get. They will construct a scatter plot of the class data and determine the mean and spread, preferably using the standard deviation, of the data. They will compare their own average with the class average and determine whether there are any days during which the class gets more or less sleep than average. Students should develop possible explanations for the differences they find.

2. Students often “pull an all-nighter”, in which they stay up all night to study for an exam the next day. Is this a good strategy for performing well on an exam? Explain your answer.

Answer: All-nighters are a poor strategy for performing well on an exam. Students who are sleep-deprived are less likely to remember information and will require more time to accomplish tasks.

3. Researchers have distinguished 6 wave patterns normally seen in human electroencephalograms. List and describe the wave patterns and discuss their significance.

Answer: Delta waves have the highest amplitude and lowest frequency. They are normally seen in babies and sleeping adults. Theta waves have a slightly higher frequency than delta waves. They are normally seen in young children. Theta waves are also associated with relaxed, meditative, and creative states, or during drowsiness or arousal in older children and adults. The frequency of Alpha waves ranges from 8 Hz to 12 Hz; faster than theta waves. Alpha waves are seen when the eyes are closed and the subject is relaxed. They are attenuated when the eyes open, when the subject exerts himself mentally, or during sensorimotor tasks. Beta waves occur at a frequency range of between 12 Hz and 30 Hz. Beta activity is associated with motor behavior. Low amplitude, multi-frequency beta patterns are associated with alert, busy, or anxious thinking, and active concentration. Gamma waves occur at a frequency range of between 30 and 100 Hz. These are the most rapid EEG wave patterns. Gamma rhythms may be caused by networks of neurons executing cognitive or motor function. Mu waves range from 8 to13 Hz. They are thought to be caused by synchronous firing of resting motor

neurons, and are sometimes seen in conjunction with alpha waves when the body is at rest.

2. Altering Consciousness with Psychoactive Drugs o o

Summarize the major psychoactive drugs and their influences on consciousness and behavior.

Review the evidence regarding the dangers of recreational drugs.

Section Outline • •

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A psychoactive drug is a chemical that changes our states of consciousness, and particularly our perceptions and moods.

There are four primary classes of psychoactive drugs: o stimulants - block the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin in the synapses of the CNS o depressants - reduce the activity of the CNS o opioids - increase activity in opioid receptor neurons in the brain and in the digestive system, producing euphoria, analgesia, slower breathing, and constipation o hallucinogens - alter sensation and perception and that may create hallucinations Psychoactive drugs alter the activity of neurotransmitters at synapses in the CNS. o agonists mimic the operation of a neurotransmitter o antagonists block the action of a neurotransmitter o selective reuptake inhibitors block the removal of neurotransmitters at the synapse Drugs can be dangerous as well as useful. o Drug tolerance is an increase in the dose required to produce the same effect, which makes it necessary for the user to increase the dosage or the number of times per day that the drug is taken. o Drug dependence is defined as a need to use a drug or other substance regularly.

▪ Psychological dependence - the drug is desired and has become part of the everyday life of the user, but no serious physical effects result if the drug is not obtained.

▪ Physical dependence - serious physical and mental effects appear when the drug is withdrawn.

▪ Withdrawal is the negative experiences that accompany reducing or stopping drug use, including physical pain and other symptoms.

▪ Addiction - the user powerfully craves the drug and is driven to seek it out, over and over again, no matter what the physical, social, financial, and legal cost. Recovery success rate is generally low.

Dangers of drug abuse: o Smoking may produce throat and lung cancers and other problems. o Inhaling drugs can lead to a loss of the sense of smell, nosebleeds, difficulty in swallowing, hoarseness, and chronic runny nose. o Injecting drugs intravenously carries the risk of infection with hepatitis and HIV. o The quality and contents of illegal drugs are generally unknown. o Combining drugs can produce serious side effects and overdoses. o The safety ratio is based on the dose that is likely to be fatal divided by the normal dose needed to feel the effects of the drug.

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Common stimulants and the effect of stimulants include: o Increased heart and breathing rates, pupil dilation, and increases in blood sugar accompanied by decreases in appetite.

▪ May increase alertness.

▪ Can quickly create dependency.

▪ A “crash” that results when the drug loses its effectiveness. o Caffeine ▪ Found in the beans, leaves, and fruits of plants.

▪ Acts as a natural pesticide.

▪ More than 80% of adults consume caffeine daily. o Nicotine ▪ Found in the nightshade family of plants.

▪ Acts as a natural pesticide.

▪ Nicotine creates both psychological and physical addiction.

▪ One of the hardest addictions to break. o Cocaine ▪ Obtained from the leaves of the coca plant.

▪ Constricts blood vessels, dilates pupils, and increases body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure.

▪ Can cause headaches, abdominal pain, and nausea.

▪ Tends to decrease appetite, increased energy and reduced fatigue.

▪ Safety ratio is 15, making it very dangerous. o Amphetamine ▪ Produces increased wakefulness and focus, along with decreased fatigue and appetite.

▪ Used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), narcolepsy, and to control appetite.

▪ Methamphetamine (“meth” or “crank”), is a highly dangerous drug with a safety ratio of only 10.

▪ Physical dependency is low.

▪ Very strong psychological dependence. o Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, or “Ecstasy”) ▪ Prevents the reuptake of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine.

▪ Produces a catastrophic mental and physical “crash”.

▪ Results in serious, long-lasting depression.

▪ Affects the temperature-regulating mechanisms of the brain.

• High doses combined with vigorous physical activity can cause the body to become so drastically overheated that users can literally “burn up” and die from hyperthermia and dehydration.

Common depressants and the effect of depressants include: o Relieve pain, lower heart rate and respiration, and anticonvulsant effects. o Increase the production of the neurotransmitter GABA. o Decrease the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. o Reduces transmission of impulses from the lower brain to the cortex. o Alcohol ▪ Most commonly used depressant.

▪ Colorless liquid, produced by the fermentation of sugar or starch.

▪ Removes social inhibitions by slowing activity in the sympathetic nervous system.

▪ Acts on the cerebellum to interfere with coordination and balance.

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High blood levels leads to dizziness, nausea, and eventually a loss of consciousness. Can be fatal.

▪ Safety ratio is only 10.

▪ Increases the likelihood that people will respond aggressively to provocations.

Barbiturates ▪ Commonly prescribed as sleeping pills and painkillers.

▪ Produce relaxation and sleepiness.

▪ Higher doses may cause sluggishness, difficulty in thinking, slowness of speech, drowsiness, faulty judgment, and eventually coma or even death.

Benzodiazepines ▪ Used to treat anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and muscle spasms.

▪ Low doses produce mild sedation and relieve anxiety.

▪ High doses induce sleep.

Toxic inhalants ▪ Frequently abused as depressants.

▪ Vapors of glue, gasoline, propane, hair spray, and spray paint.

▪ Related drugs are the nitrites (amyl and butyl nitrite; “poppers,” “rush,” “locker room”) and anesthetics such as nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and ether.

▪ Dangerous recreational drugs, with a safety index below 10.

▪ Long-term use may lead to permanent brain damage.

Opioids ▪ Increase activity in opioid receptor neurons in the brain and in the digestive system.

▪ Produce euphoria, analgesia, slower breathing, and constipation.

▪ Similar to the endorphins, the body’s “natural pain reducers.”

▪ Derived from the opium poppy, but can be created synthetically.

▪ Opium is the dried juice of the unripe seed capsule of the opium poppy.

▪ Morphine and heroin are stronger, more addictive drugs derived from opium.

• Heroin is about twice as addictive as morphine.

• Creates severe tolerance, moderate physical dependence, and severe psychological dependence.

• Heroin has the lowest safety ratio of all the drugs listed in Table 5.1.

▪ Codeine is a weaker analgesic and less addictive member of the opiate family.

▪ The opioids activate the sympathetic division of the ANS. • Cause blood pressure and heart rate to increase that can lead to heart attack or stroke.

▪ Opioids influence the parasympathetic division, leading to constipation and other negative side effects.

▪ Symptoms of opioid withdrawal include: • diarrhea, insomnia, restlessness, irritability, and vomiting • strong craving for the drug ▪ Intravenous users often share contaminated needles.

• Very high risk of being infected with potentially fatal diseases.

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Pericarditis (an infection of the membrane around the heart) o Hepatitis B Hallucinogens are psychoactive drugs that alter sensation and perception and that may create hallucinations. o Also known as psychedelics. o Drugs include: ▪ lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD, or “Acid”) ▪ mescaline ▪ phencyclidine (PCP) ▪ cannabis (marijuana) ▪ peyote ▪ psilocybin (mushrooms or “shrooms”) o Hallucinogens are similar to the neurotransmitters serotonin and epinephrine. o Act primarily as serotonin agonists. o Effects are a function of the drug, the user’s preexisting mental state, and expectations of the drug experience. o Cannabis (marijuana) ▪ Most widely used hallucinogen.

▪ Banned in the United States under the Marijuana Tax Act of 1938.

▪ Modern use: prescribed for the treatment of pain and nausea, particularly in cancer sufferers, as well as for a wide variety of other physical and psychological disorders.

▪ Still banned under federal law; legal under state law in some states.

▪ May acts as a stimulant, producing giggling, laughing, and mild intoxication.

▪ Enhances perception of sights, sounds, and smells, and may produce a sensation of time slowing down. o Hallucinogens do not produce physiological or psychological tolerance or dependence.

Factors affecting drug abuse: o Pleasure occurs now; problems are abstract and occur in the future. o Individual ambitions, expectations, and values influence drug use. o Socialization. o Peer pressure.

Key Takeaways • Psychoactive drugs are chemicals that change our state of consciousness. They work by influencing neurotransmitters in the CNS. • Using psychoactive drugs may create tolerance and, when they are no longer used, withdrawal. Addiction may result from tolerance and the difficulty of withdrawal.

• Stimulants, including caffeine, nicotine, and amphetamine, increase neural activity by blocking the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin in the CNS. • Depressants, including, alcohol, barbiturates, and benzodiazepines, decrease consciousness by increasing the production of the neurotransmitter GABA and decreasing the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.

• Opioids, including codeine, opium, morphine and heroin, produce euphoria and analgesia by increasing activity in opioid receptor neurons.

• Hallucinogens, including cannabis, mescaline, and LSD, create an extreme alteration of consciousness as well as the possibility of hallucinations.

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Recreational drug use is influenced by social norms as well as by individual differences.

People who are more likely to take risks are also more likely to use drugs.

Exercises 1. Although the dangers of alcohol are well-documented, it continues to be both legally and socially acceptable. Why do you think alcohol continues to be readily available? What were the impacts of making alcohol illegal in the US in 1919?

Answer: Alcohol continues to be available because of strong social pressures. As long as alcohol consumption remains moderate, most people are willing to let others consume it.

However, tolerance is lost once consumption becomes excessive. Public intoxication, driving under the influence of alcohol, and consumption by minors are not socially or legally sanctioned.

The Prohibition era saw an increase in organized crime activity, especially the increase in power of the Mafia. Violent crime in the major cities where alcohol was shipped, distributed, and consumed increased. Rural southerners created modified cars to outrun federal agents, which evolved over several decades into stock car racing. Thousands of people lost their jobs as a result of the closure of breweries, distilleries, wineries.

Shipping companies that distributed alcohol lost business, and stores that stocked alcohol lost sales. In both cases, additional thousands of employees were laid off. This was of particular importance because the Great Depression was occurring at the same time. On the other hand, underground clubs, called speakeasies, illegally served alcoholic beverages, hired bands, especially jazz bands and thereby popularizing jazz music, and smuggling operations all hired people to work, often at inflated wages. Law enforcement was stretched to cope with the additional problems brought about by illegal activities while at the same time budgets were cut because of lost revenue from alcohol taxes.

2. Several states have legalized the use of cannabis (marijuana) for medical purposes.

Cannabis is still illegal under federal law. Several physicians’ organizations have proposed that federal regulation and funding guidelines be changed to allow for the study of the benefits and risks of medical marijuana. Discuss whether cannabis should be available for medical use and experimentation.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some will propose that marijuana use for medical use should be legal. Medical marijuana has been shown to have beneficial effects in a number of studies. However, students should point out that those studies have been of short duration and with small numbers of patients. Others will argue that marijuana has no medical benefits that cannot be obtained from other, approved medications. They should point out the dangers of smoked marijuana as being of primary concern. They should also note that comprehensive studies of the potential benefits of marijuana have been prevented by federal funding guidelines, so those who wish to argue the merits of medical marijuana have been prevented from obtaining the evidence they need to prove its worth.

3. Altering Consciousness without Drugs o Review the ways that people may alter consciousness without using drugs.

Section Outline •

Hypnosis is a trance-like state of consciousness, usually induced by a procedure known as hypnotic induction, which consists of heightened suggestibility, deep relaxation, and intense focus.

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Sensory deprivation is the intentional reduction of stimuli affecting one or more of the five senses, with the possibility of resulting changes in consciousness. o Can help with meditation and relaxation. o Prolonged deprivation is a torture method.

Meditation refers to techniques in which the individual focuses on something specific, such as an object, a word, or one’s breathing, with the goal of ignoring external distractions, focusing on one’s internal state, and achieving a state of relaxation and wellbeing.

Key Takeaways • Hypnosis is a trance-like state of conscious consisting of heightened susceptibility, deep relaxation, and intense focus.

• Hypnosis is not useful for helping people remember past events, but it can be used to alleviate anxiety and pain.

• Sensory deprivation is the intentional reduction of stimulation to one or more of the senses. It can be used therapeutically to treat insomnia, muscle tension, and pain.

• Meditation refers to a range of techniques that can create relaxation and well-being.

Exercises

1. What is highway hypnosis? Given what you have learned in this section, how do you think highway hypnosis occurs?

Answer: Highway hypnosis is a condition in which a driver operates a vehicle in a dulled, drowsy, trance-like state. It usually happens when drivers are traveling long distances on highways. Drivers can often cover long distances without recollection of how they did so. The condition probably occurs because the driver is already relaxed and somewhat drowsy, and is focusing on an essentially unchanging environment, allowing him to slip into a “hypnotized” state.

2. Explain the similarities between meditation and hypnosis.

Answer: Both practices require single-minded concentration on a specific object, inducing a state of relaxation and heightened awareness.

Chapter 6 Growing and Developing 1. Conception and Prenatal Development o o

Review the stages of prenatal development.

Explain how the developing embryo and fetus may be harmed by the presence of teratogens and describe what a mother can do to reduce her risk.

Section Outline • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Development is the physiological, behavioral, cognitive, and social changes that occur throughout human life, which are guided by both genetic predispositions (nature) and by environmental influences (nurture).

Infancy is the developmental stage from birth to 1 year of age.

Childhood is the developmental period from infancy to the onset of puberty.

Adolescence is the years between the onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood.

Adulthood is the stage of life after adolescence, including emerging, early, middle, and older adulthood.

Conception occurs when an egg from the mother is fertilized by a sperm from the father.

Ovulation is the process whereby an ovum, or egg, which has been stored in one of the mother’s two ovaries, matures and is released into the fallopian tube.

A zygote is the single-celled organ ism that results from the fusion of the egg with the sperm at conception.

The zygote divides and differentiates as it travels down the Fallopian tube.

When the zygote attaches to the wall of the uterus, it is known as the embryo.

A fetus is the stage of prenatal development from 9 weeks after conception to birth, the defining aspect of which is growth.

The amniotic sac is the fluid-filled reservoir in which the fetus will live until birth, and which acts as both a cushion against outside pressure and as a temperature regulator.

The placenta is an organ that allows the exchange of nutrients between the embryo and the mother, while at the same time filtering out harmful material.

The umbilical cord links the embryo directly to the placenta and transfers all material to the fetus.

Teratogens are any harmful material that can bypass the filter in the placenta and pass from the mother to the fetus.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a condition caused by maternal alcohol drinking that can lead to numerous detrimental developmental effects, including limb and facial abnormalities, genital anomalies, and mental retardation.

Key Takeaways • • •

Development begins at the moment of conception, when the sperm from the father merges with the egg from the mother.

Within a span of 9 months, development progresses from a single cell into a zygote and then into an embryo and fetus.

The fetus is connected to the mother through the umbilical cord and the placenta, which allow the fetus and mother to exchange nourishment and waste. The fetus is protected by the amniotic sac.

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The embryo and fetus are vulnerable and may be harmed by the presence of teratogens.

Smoking, alcohol use, and drug use are all likely to be harmful to the developing embryo or fetus, and the mother should entirely refrain from these behaviors during pregnancy or if she expects to become pregnant.

Environmental factors, especially homelessness and poverty, have a substantial negative effect on healthy child development.

Exercises

1. Teratogens often affect the developing embryo or fetus during specific periods or under specific conditions. J.G. Wilson, a co-founder of the Society of Teratology, developed “The Six Principles of Teratology” which are still used to study birth defects. What are Wilson’s six principles?

Answer: Wilson’s six principles are: 1. Susceptibility to teratogenesis depends on the genotype of the conceptus and the manner in which this interacts with adverse environmental factors.

2. Susceptibility to teratogenesis varies with the developmental stage at the time of exposure to an adverse influence. There are critical periods of susceptibility to agents and organ systems affected by these agents.

3. Teratogenic agents act in specific ways on developing cells and tissues to initiate sequences of abnormal developmental events.

4. The access of adverse influences to developing tissues depends on the nature of the influence. Several factors affect the ability of a teratogen to contact a developing conceptus, such as the nature of the agent itself, route and degree of maternal exposure, rate of placental transfer and systemic absorption, and composition of the maternal and embryonic/fetal genotypes.

5. There are four manifestations of deviant development (Death, Malformation, Growth Retardation and Functional Defect).

6. Manifestations of deviant development increase in frequency and degree as dosage increases from the No Observable Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) to a dose producing 100% Lethality (LD100).

2. Folic acid is an important dietary component, yet studies show most Americans do not consume enough green leafy vegetables to obtain the recommended daily allowance of folic acid. Folic acid is especially important during pregnancy. What are the consequences of inadequate folic acid intake during pregnancy on the health of the fetus?

Answer: Folic acid is important in the proper development of the embryonic neural tube.

The neural tube will eventually become the baby’s brain and spinal cord. If the neural tube fails to form properly, the baby may suffer from a neural tube defect. These defects can include spina bifida, in which the spinal cord fails to mature properly resulting in at least some paralysis, and anencephaly, in which the brain fails to form. Babies with anencephaly are usually stillborn or die shortly after birth.

2. Infancy and Childhood: Exploring and Learning o o o o

Describe the abilities that newborn infants possess and how they actively interact with their environments.

List the stages in Piaget’s model of cognitive development and explain the concepts that are mastered in each stage.

Critique Piaget’s theory of cognitive development and describe other theories that complement and expand on it.

Summarize the important processes of social development that occur in infancy and childhood.

Section Outline •

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Infants are born with a number of behaviors that help them protect themselves, as well as grow and develop. o Rooting reflex – helps with nursing o Blink reflex – protects eyes from dangerous stimuli o Withdrawal reflex – babies pull away from painful stimuli o Tonic neck reflex – helps develop hand-eye coordination o Grasp reflex – helps in exploratory learning o Moro reflex – protects against falling o Stepping reflex – helps with learning to walk o Prefer sweet tastes o Prefer the scent of their own mothers o Preference for mother’s face Habituation refers to the decreased responsiveness toward a stimulus after it has been presented numerous times in succession.

The habituation procedure is a procedure that uses the principles of habituation to allow researchers to infer the cognitive processes of newborns.

Jean Piaget’s stage model of cognitive development posits that children gain their cognitive ability in a developmental order, i.e., that children at different ages think in fundamentally different ways. o Children develop schemas, defined as patterns of knowledge in long-term memory, which help them remember, organize, and respond to information. o Children use assimilation and accommodation to incorporate and integrate new knowledge with what they already know.

▪ Assimilation is the use of an already developed schema to understand new information.

▪ Accommodation is the change of an existing schema on the basis of new information. o Sensorimotor stage - begins at birth and lasts until around the age of 2, defined by the direct physical interactions that babies have with the objects around them.

▪ Object permanence - the ability to be aware of an object’s existence even when it is not visible. o Preoperational stage – from about age 2 to 7, children begin to use language and to think more abstractly about objects, but their understanding is more intuitive and without much ability to deduce or reason.

▪ The theory of mind is the ability to take another person’s viewpoint.

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Preoperational children are egocentric—unable to readily see and understand other people’s viewpoints. o Concrete operational stage – from about age 7 to 11, more frequent and more accurate use of transitions, operations, and abstract concepts, including those of time, space, and numbers.

▪ Conservation—the understanding that changes in the form of an object do not necessarily mean changes in the quantity of the object. o Formal operational stage – from about age 11 onward, the ability to think in abstract terms and to use scientific and philosophical lines of thought. o In contrast to Piaget’s thinking, children can advance through stages more rapidly, and may use different stage-behaviors under different circumstances.

Self-concept is a knowledge representation or schema that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.

Attachment is the emotional bond that we develop with those with whom we feel closest, and particularly the bonds that an infant develops with the mother or primary caregiver. o Children need a secure base where they can feel confident when they explore. o The strange situation test measures an infant’s attachment to its parent because it is conducted in a context that is unfamiliar to the child and therefore likely to heighten the child’s need for his or her parent.

Temperament is defined as the innate personality characteristics of the infant.

Longitudinal research designs are research designs in which individuals in the sample are followed and contacted over an extended period of time, often over multiple developmental stages.

Cross-sectional research designs make comparisons between samples of different people at different ages at one time.

Cohort effect is the possibility that differences in cognition or behavior at two points in time may be caused by differences that are unrelated to the changes in age, but rather due to environmental factors that affect an entire age group.

Key Takeaways • Babies are born with a variety of skills and abilities that contribute to their survival, and they also actively learn by engaging with their environments.

• The habituation technique is used to demonstrate the newborn’s ability to remember and learn from experience.

• Children use both assimilation and accommodation to develop functioning schemas of the world.

• Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposes that children develop in a specific series of sequential stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.

• Piaget’s theories have had a major impact, but they have also been critiqued and expanded.

• Social development requires the development of a secure base from which children feel free to explore. Attachment styles refer to the security of this base and more generally to the type of relationship that people, and especially children, develop with those who are important to them.

• Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies are each used to test hypotheses about development, and each approach has advantages and disadvantages.

Exercises 1. Social comparison is especially important to adolescents. They are in the process of forming their adult identities, and often compare themselves to others to determine who they are and where they fit in to society. What are some of the ways you compare yourself to others?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Students compare themselves to others in regards to modes of dress, hairstyles, athleticism, academic performance, physical attractiveness, and popularity.

2. In community learning, students serve as both learners and teachers. Form a study group to review the material in this chapter. Before the group meets, write down your expectations for the outcome of the study group. Will it help you learn? Who do you believe will primarily lead or primarily learn? Record your impressions each time the group meets to study. How did your expectations match the actual experience? Did you see changes in leadership or learners? What effect did the change in leadership have?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Each student should complete a chart with expectations, observations, and interpretation of the observations. Students should discuss the results.

3. Adolescence: Developing Independence and Identity o Summarize the physical and cognitive changes that occur for boys and girls during adolescence. o Explain how adolescents develop a sense of morality and of self-identity.

Section Outline • • • •

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• • • •

Adolescence is defined as the years between the onset of puberty and the beginning of adulthood.

Emerging adulthood includes the ages between 18 years and the middle or late 20s when the adolescent is first becoming an adult.

Puberty is a developmental period in which hormonal changes cause rapid physical alterations in the body, culminating in sexual maturity.

Dramatic increases in steroid sex hormones initiate: o Maturation of the primary sex characteristics, the testicles and the penis in boys and the ovaries, uterus, and vagina in girls. o Development of secondary sex characteristics defined as features that distinguish the two sexes from each other but are not involved in reproduction. o Menarche (pronounced MEN-ar-kee) is the first menstrual period.

Timing of puberty can have significant psychological impacts on boys and girls.

Adolescent and emerging adult brains are not fully mature. Impulsive behavior is common. o Prefrontal cortex especially, continues to mature. Involved in reasoning, planning, and problem solving. o Myelination of neurons in the brain increases, making neural connections faster.

Hormonal changes may contribute to risky behavior.

Adolescents tend to be egocentric and self-conscious.

Adolescents form new personal attachments and move away from parents toward peers.

Identity development occurs during adolescence. o James Marcia’s Stages of Identity Development:

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• • •

Identity-diffusion status - no firm commitments regarding the issues in question and is not making progress toward them.

▪ Foreclosure status - no identity experimentation and has established an identity based on the choices or values of others.

▪ Moratorium status - exploring various choices but has not yet made a clear commitment to any of them.

▪ Identity achievement status - attainment of a coherent and committed identity based on personal decisions.

Social identity is the part of the self-concept that is derived from one’s group memberships.

Morality can be defined as those standards of behavior that are generally agreed on within a culture to be right or proper.

Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning: o Preconventional morality - Focus is on self-interest. Punishment is avoided and rewards are sought. o Conventional morality - Concern about how situational outcomes impact others and desire to please and be accepted. Values the good that can be derived from holding to social norms in the form of laws or less formalized rules. o Postconventional morality - Employs abstract reasoning to justify behaviors.

Moral behavior is based on self-chosen ethical principles that are generally comprehensive and universal, such as justice, dignity, and equality. o Criticized as too simplistic, appropriate for Western cultures only, and more applicable to boys than girls, but still a useful tool.

Key Takeaways • Adolescence is the period of time between the onset of puberty and emerging adulthood.

• Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 years until the mid-20s in which young people begin to form bonds outside the family, attend college, and find work. Even so, they tend not to be fully independent and have not taken on all the responsibilities of adulthood. This stage is most prevalent in Western cultures.

• Puberty is a developmental period in which hormonal changes cause rapid physical alterations in the body.

• The cerebral cortex continues to develop during adolescence and early adulthood, enabling improved reasoning, judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning.

• A defining aspect of adolescence is the development of a consistent and committed selfidentity. The process of developing an identity can take time but most adolescents succeed in developing a stable identity.

• Kohlberg’s theory proposes that moral reasoning is divided into the following stages: preconventional morality, conventional morality, and postconventional morality.

• Kohlberg’s theory of morality has been expanded and challenged, particularly by Gilligan, who has focused on differences in morality between boys and girls.

Exercises 1. Think about some risky behaviors in which your peers engaged while you were in high school. Do they still engage in those behaviors? If so, do you believe they will ever reduce the frequency of their risky behaviors or stop? If not, why have they quit?

Answer: Answers will vary. Some students will report peers remain unchanged, but that they will probably reduce or eliminate the behavior as they grow older and mature.

Others will report that their peers have already outgrown the behaviors or become bored

with them. Students should realize that as their brains mature, their engagement in risky behaviors is likely to decrease.

2. Who do you think exerted the greatest influence on your personality and outlook? What did that person do that was so critical?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Parents, teachers, coaches, friends’ parents, and others will have provided a role model, a sympathetic ear, or guidance at the right moment in the students’ lives.

4. Early and Middle Adulthood: Building Effective Lives o Review the physical and cognitive changes that accompany early and middle adulthood.

Section Outline • • • • •

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Early adulthood includes roughly the ages between 25 and 45.

Middle adulthood includes roughly the ages between 45 and 65.

Adulthood is marked by the ability to create an effective and independent life.

Psychologists used to treat adulthood as a single period, but they have come to realize adulthood has its own stages.

Parenting styles are behaviors that determine the nature of parent-child interactions and that guide their interaction with the child. o Authoritative parents are demanding, but they are also responsive. o Authoritarian parents are demanding, but not responsive. o Permissive parents make few demands, but they are responsive. o Rejecting-neglecting parents are undemanding and unresponsive overall.

Physical, cognitive, and sensory decline begins to be noticeable, but is not debilitating.

Menopause is the cessation of the menstrual cycle. o May be psychologically stressful. o May confer a sense of freedom from worry about pregnancy.

The social clock refers to the culturally preferred “right time” for major life events, such as moving out of the childhood house, getting married, and having children.

Key Takeaways • It is in early and middle adulthood that muscle strength, reaction time, cardiac output, and sensory abilities begin to decline.

• One of the key signs of aging in women is the decline in fertility, culminating in menopause, which is marked by the cessation of the menstrual period.

• The different social stages in adulthood, such as marriage, parenthood, and work, are loosely determined by a social clock, a culturally recognized time for each phase.

Exercises 1. Adolescents often think of their parents as boring, and don’t consider the difficulty of meeting the responsibilities their parents must meet. Talk to your parents about their typical day. How does it compare to yours? How much of their time and income are dedicated to meeting the basic needs of the family such as childcare, food, clothing, housing, utilities, and medical care? How much of your time and income is dedicated to meeting these needs?

Answer: Student answers will vary, but they should all note that parents spend at least half of their day working, performing household maintenance, and caring for children.

Many students will discover that almost all of their parents’ income is used to cover the basic household needs.

2. Think about the parenting style your parents used in raising you. How was it helpful to your personal development? Will you choose to use the same parenting style? Why? If not, how will you change your parenting style and why?

Answer: Students will report which of the four parenting styles was used in their households. They will provide examples of how the parenting style helped them become the person they are today. They will also report on things they wish had been done differently. They will choose a parenting style they intend to use, and state the reasons for their choice.

5. Late Adulthood: Aging, Retiring, and Bereavement o Review the physical, cognitive, and social changes that accompany late adulthood. o Describe the psychological and physical outcomes of bereavement.

Section Outline • • • • • • • • • • •

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Late adulthood begins in the 60s.

Physical and cognitive decline becomes more noticeable, and may become debilitating.

Information processing becomes slower.

Older adults generally report that they are as happy or are happier than when they were young.

Perceptions about aging affect how a person experiences old age.

Crystallized intelligence is general knowledge about the world, as reflected in semantic knowledge, vocabulary, and language.

Wisdom can be thought of as the combination of crystallized intelligence, slower and more complete processing style, and a more sophisticated understanding of the workings of the world.

Fluid intelligence is the ability to think and acquire information quickly and abstractly.

Declines with age.

Dementia is defined as a progressive neurological disease that includes loss of cognitive abilities significant enough to interfere with everyday behaviors.

Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia that, over a period of years, leads to a loss of emotions, cognitions, and physical functioning, and which is ultimately fatal.

Retirement is a major life change to which people may respond positively or negatively.

To ease the transition: o Continue to work part time. o Plan for retirement. o Retire with someone. o Have a happy marriage. o Take care of physical and financial health. o Retire early from a stressful job. o Retire “on time”.

Ross describes five phases of grief when someone or someone close to them is dying: o Denial o Anger o Bargaining o Depression

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Acceptance

Key Takeaways • Most older adults maintain an active lifestyle, remain as happy or happier as when they were younger, and increasingly value their social connections with family and friends • Although older adults have slower cognitive processing overall (fluid intelligence), their experience in the form of crystallized intelligence—or existing knowledge about the world and the ability to use it—is maintained and even strengthened during old age.

• Expectancies about change in aging vary across cultures and may influence how people respond to getting older.

• A portion of the elderly suffer from age-related brain diseases, such as dementia, a progressive neurological disease that includes significant loss of cognitive abilities, and Alzheimer’s disease, a fatal form of dementia that is related to changes in the cerebral cortex.

• Two significant social stages in late adulthood are retirement and dealing with grief and bereavement. Studies show that a well-planned retirement can be a pleasant experience.

• A significant number of people going through the grieving process are at increased risk of mortality and physical and mental illness, but grief counseling can be effective in helping these people cope with their loss.

Exercises 1. Talk to someone who is retired. Ask her to describe a typical day. Is she active and busy? Does she appear to be happy or less satisfied with her life? Notice how quickly or slowly she responds to questions. Does she conform to your expectations of what it will be like to be older and retired? Why or why not?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Many older adults are very active and can be hard to meet with. A few are less active and will gladly spend time talking to students. Most older adults will appear to be at least content with their lives, although older men can appear to be less happy than older women. Response times for older people should be a little slower than those for younger people, but this can vary widely.

2. Think about someone you know who has lost a loved one. What strategies did they use to overcome their grief?

Answer: Most people progress through Ross’ five stages of grief, so at least some of Ross’ points should be mentioned. Many people cope through religion and take great comfort that they will meet their loved ones again in an afterlife.

Chapter 7 Learning 1. Learning by Association: Classical Conditioning o o o

Describe how Pavlov’s early work in classical conditioning influenced the understanding of learning.

Review the concepts of classical conditioning, including unconditioned stimulus (US), conditioned stimulus (CS), unconditioned response (UR), and conditioned response (CR).

Explain the roles that extinction, generalization, and discrimination play in conditioned learning.

Section Outline • • •

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Learning is the relatively permanent change in knowledge or behavior that is the result of experience.

Conditioning is the ability to connect stimuli (the changes that occur in the environment) with responses (behaviors or other actions).

Classical conditioning refers to learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally produces a behavior. o An unconditioned stimulus is something that triggers a natural occurring response. o An unconditioned response is the naturally occurring response that follows the unconditioned stimulus. o A conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus that, after being repeatedly presented prior to the unconditioned stimulus, evokes a similar response as the unconditioned stimulus. o A conditioned response is the acquired response to the formerly neutral stimulus.

Extinction refers to the reduction in responding that occurs when the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous recovery is the increase in responding to the conditioned stimulus following a pause after extinction.

Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus.

Discrimination is the tendency to respond differently to stimuli that are similar but not identical.

Second-order conditioning is conditioning that occurs when an existing conditioned stimulus serves as an unconditioned stimulus for a new conditioned stimulus.

A phobia is a strong and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation. o Most phobias are toward objects. o Organisms are genetically predisposed to learn some associations more easily than others.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a fearful event, such as the threat of death.

Key Takeaways •

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In classical conditioning, a person or animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) with a stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or US) that naturally produces a behavior (the unconditioned response, or UR). As a result of this association, the previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same response (the conditioned response, or CR).

Extinction occurs when the CS is repeatedly presented without the US, and the CR eventually disappears, although it may reappear later in a process known as spontaneous recovery.

Stimulus generalization occurs when a stimulus that is similar to an already-conditioned stimulus begins to produce the same response as the original stimulus does.

Stimulus discrimination occurs when the organism learns to differentiate between the CS and other similar stimuli.

In second-order conditioning, a neutral stimulus becomes a CS after being paired with a previously established CS. Some stimuli—response pairs, such as those between smell and food—are more easily conditioned than others because they have been particularly important in our evolutionary past.

Exercises

1. Habits, both good and bad, are conditioned responses. Think about a habit you would like to form or break, then begin to do so. Create a plan you will use to “condition” yourself. Keep a daily log of how you did. How long did it take to accomplish your goal?

Answer: Students should submit a plan detailing the stimuli they will use to either make or break a habit. They should submit their daily log of their success or failure for each day. Because it takes about six weeks to develop a new habit, students will probably not report success in achieving their final goals.

2. Changing Behavior Through Reinforcement and Punishment: Operant Conditioning o o

Outline the principles of operant conditioning.

Explain how learning can be shaped through the use of reinforcement schedules and secondary reinforcers.

Section Outline • •

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Operant conditioning is learning that occurs based on the consequences of behavior.

Thorndike’s law of effect proposes that responses that create a typically pleasant outcome in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in a similar situation, whereas responses that produce a typically unpleasant outcome are less likely to occur again in the situation.

B.F. Skinner studied, in detail, how animals changed their behavior through reinforcement and punishment.

A Skinner box (operant chamber) is a structure that is big enough to fit a rodent or bird and that contains a bar or key that the organism can press or peck to release food or water. It also contains a device to record the animal’s responses.

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A reinforcer is any event that strengthens or increases the likelihood of a behavior.

A punisher is any event that weakens or decreases the likelihood of a behavior.

Positive and negative to refer to whether a reinforcement was presented or removed, respectively.

Positive reinforcement strengthens a response by presenting something pleasant after the response.

Negative reinforcement strengthens a response by reducing or removing something unpleasant.

Positive punishment weakens a response by presenting something unpleasant after the response.

Negative punishment weakens a response by reducing or removing something pleasant.

Positive reinforcement is almost always more effective than punishment in changing behavior.

A continuous reinforcement schedule is one in which the desired response is reinforced every time it occurs. o Learning and extinction both occur rapidly.

A partial (or intermittent) reinforcement schedule is a schedule in which the responses are sometimes reinforced, and sometimes not. o Learning and extinction occur more slowly. o Fixed-interval schedule - reinforcement occurs for the first response made after a specific amount of time has passed. o Variable-interval schedule - the reinforcers appear on an interval schedule, but the timing is varied around the average interval, making the actual appearance of the reinforcer unpredictable. o Fixed-ratio schedule - a behavior is reinforced after a specific number of responses. o Variable-ratio schedule – reinforcers occur after a specific but average number of responses.

Shaping is the process of guiding an organism’s behavior to the desired outcome through the use of successive approximation to a final desired behavior.

A primary reinforcer is a stimulus that is naturally preferred or enjoyed by the organism.

A secondary reinforcer (conditioned reinforcer) is a neutral event that has become associated with a primary reinforcer through classical conditioning.

Key Takeaways • Edward Thorndike developed the law of effect: the principle that responses that create a typically pleasant outcome in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in a similar situation, whereas responses that produce a typically unpleasant outcome are less likely to occur again in the situation.

• B. F. Skinner expanded on Thorndike’s ideas to develop a set of principles to explain operant conditioning.

• Positive reinforcement strengthens a response by presenting something that is typically pleasant after the response, whereas negative reinforcement strengthens a response by reducing or removing something that is typically unpleasant.

• Positive punishment weakens a response by presenting something typically unpleasant after the response, whereas negative punishment weakens a response by reducing or removing something that is typically pleasant.

• Reinforcement may be either partial or continuous. Partial reinforcement schedules are determined by whether the reinforcement is presented on the basis of the time that elapses

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between reinforcements (interval) or on the basis of the number of responses that the organism engages in (ratio), and by whether the reinforcement occurs on a regular (fixed) or unpredictable (variable) schedule.

Complex behaviors may be created through shaping, the process of guiding an organism’s behavior to the desired outcome through the use of successive approximation to a final desired behavior.

Exercises 1. Think about your attempts to form good habits or break bad ones, like losing weight, getting more exercise, or smoking cessation. What sort of operant conditioning did you use to help yourself? List the positive and negative reinforcers and the positive and negative punishers you used.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Students will have rewarded themselves with food, entertainment, purchases, or by depriving themselves of the same.

2. Think about a time when you were punished and another time when you were rewarded for doing or not doing something you were supposed to do. Which do you think was more effective in getting you to perform the desired task? Why? Answer: Student answers will vary. Most students will report that they were more likely to repeat the behavior when they were rewarded. People crave recognition and benefits in their lives and will usually strive to repeat such occurrences by repeating the behaviors that caused them.

3. Learning by Insight and Observation o Understand the principles of learning by insight and observation.

Section Outline • • • •

Insight is defined as the sudden understanding of a solution to a problem.

Latent learning refers to learning that is not reinforced and not demonstrated until there is motivation to do so.

Observational learning (modeling) is learning by observing the behavior of others.

Modeling allows humans to learn from the mistakes of others rather than suffer the consequences as would be the case when learning via trial and error.

Key Takeaways • Not all learning can be explained through the principles of classical and operant conditioning.

• Insight is the sudden understanding of the components of a problem that makes the solution apparent.

• Latent learning refers to learning that is not reinforced and not demonstrated until there is motivation to do so.

• Observational learning occurs by viewing the behaviors of others.

• Both aggression and altruism can be learned through observation.

Exercises 1. Think about the people in your life, friends, parents, teachers, and how they behave.

What have you learned by observing them that you have put into practice in your own life and why?

Answer: Answers will vary. Students will report a wide variety of behaviors they either exhibit or avoid based on what they have seen others do.

2. Prison inmates are often non-violent offenders, yet soon after their release, they may exhibit aggressive behavior or commit violent crimes. Why do you think this is? Is there something that could be done to reduce the possibility that they will become more aggressive or violent?

Answer: Non-violent prison inmates often witness or hear about violence while they are incarcerated. Constant exposure to such violence may contribute to their increased aggression after their release. Prison inmates could be exposed regularly to images of altruistic behavior and non-violent methods of interacting with others.

4. Using the Principles of Learning to Understand Everyday Behavior o Review the ways that learning theories can be applied to understanding and modifying everyday behavior. o Describe the situations under which reinforcement may make people less likely to enjoy engaging in a behavior. o Explain how principles of reinforcement are used to understand social dilemmas such as the prisoner’s dilemma and why people are likely to make competitive choices in them.

Section Outline • • • • • • • • •

Advertisers attempt to create a positive experience in viewing or hearing an ad, which can translate into a more positive feeling toward the object or service advertised.

Advertisers may attempt to create negative feelings about a product or service by coupling it with negative imagery.

Programmed instruction is an educational tool that consists of self-teaching with the aid of a specialized textbook or teaching machine that presents material in a logical sequence, allowing students to progress through a unit of study at their own rate.

When rewards are not earned, they become meaningless and no longer provide motivation for improvement.

Rewards may teach children that the activity should be performed for the reward, rather than for one’s own interest in the task.

If rewards are offered too often, the task itself becomes less appealing.

Outcomes are defined as the presence of reinforcers and the absence of punishers.

People act in ways that maximize their outcomes.

A social dilemma is a situation in which the behavior that creates the most positive outcomes for the individual may in the long term lead to negative consequences for the group as a whole. o The prisoner’s dilemma game represents a social dilemma in which the goals of the individual compete with the goals of another individual (or sometimes with a group of other individuals).

o

A payoff matrix is one in which numbers are used to express the potential outcomes for each of the players in the game, given the decisions each player makes.

Key Takeaways • Learning theories have been used to change behaviors in many areas of everyday life.

• Some advertising uses classical conditioning to associate a pleasant response with a product.

• Rewards are frequently and effectively used in education but must be carefully designed to be contingent on performance and to avoid undermining interest in the activity.

• Social dilemmas, such as the prisoner’s dilemma, can be understood in terms of a desire to maximize one’s outcomes in a competitive relationship.

Exercises 1. Create a prisoner’s dilemma game for yourself and your classmates. Create a payoff matrix for the game. Play the game and record the results of the game. Were you and your classmates more likely to cooperate or pursue individual rewards?

Answer: Student answers will vary, but they should create a game and payoff matrix that creates a real dilemma and real rewards for participants. Students will create a chart listing players and outcomes, and conclusions about whether they are cooperators or individualists.

2. Advertisers create ads that create positive associations with their products (you will be more attractive, smarter), or that attempt to associate bad outcomes if their product is not used (seat belts, smoking cessation, weight loss), to sell more of their product or service.

Which do you believe is more effective, creating positive or negative associations?

Why? Answer: Positive associations are usually more effective in generating sales than negative associations. People want to be perceived as being better, but the longer term consequences of avoiding a bad outcome are generally not as readily grasped.

Chapter 8 Remembering and Judging 1. Memories as Types and Stages o o o

Compare and contrast explicit and implicit memory, identifying the features that define each.

Explain the function and duration of eidetic and echoic memories.

Summarize the capacities of short-term memory and explain how working memory is used to process information in it.

Section Outline • • • • •

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Memory is often faulty because of our cognitive processing of events.

Memory is the ability to store and retrieve information over time.

Cognition is the processes of acquiring and using knowledge.

Memory and cognition work together to help us interpret and understand our environments.

Explicit memory refers to knowledge or experiences that can be consciously remembered. o Episodic memory refers to the firsthand experiences that we have had. o Semantic memory refers to our knowledge of facts and concepts about the world. o A recall memory test is a measure of explicit memory that involves bringing from memory information that has previously been remembered.

▪ must first generate an answer ▪ must determine whether it seems to be the correct one o A recognition memory test is a measure of explicit memory that involves determining whether information has been seen or learned before.

▪ determine which item from a list seems most correct o Relearning (or savings) is a measure of explicit memory that involves assessing how much more quickly information is processed or learned when it is studied again after it has already been learned but then forgotten.

Implicit memory is the influence of experience on behavior, even if the individual is not aware of those influences. Cannot be consciously accessed. o Procedural memory refers to unexplainable knowledge of how to do things.

We know how to do complex tasks but cannot explain how to do them. o Classical conditioning effects in which we learn to associate neutral stimuli with another stimulus which creates a naturally occurring response. o Priming involves changes in behavior as a result of experiences that have happened frequently or recently.

There are three stages of memory. o Sensory memory is the brief storage of sensory information. Quickly forgotten.

▪ Iconic memory is visual sensory memory, about 250 milliseconds.

▪ Echoic memory is auditory sensory memory, up to 4 seconds.

▪ Eidetic imagery (or “photographic memory”) is unusually long-lasting iconic memory. o Short-term memory (STM) is the place where small amounts of information can be temporarily kept for more than a few seconds but usually for less than one minute.

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o

Working memory is the set of processes that we use to make sense of, modify, interpret, and store information in STM. • The central executive is the part of working memory that directs attention and processing.

▪ Maintenance rehearsal is the process of repeating information mentally or out loud with the goal of keeping it in memory.

▪ Chunking is the process of organizing information into smaller groupings (chunks), thereby increasing the number of items that can be held in STM. Long-term memory (LTM) is memory storage that can hold information for days, months, and years.

▪ Large capacity ▪ No known limit

Key Takeaways • • • • • • • •

Memory refers to the ability to store and retrieve information over time.

For some things our memory is very good, but our active cognitive processing of information assures that memory is never an exact replica of what we have experienced.

Explicit memory refers to experiences that can be intentionally and consciously remembered, and it is measured using recall, recognition, and relearning. Explicit memory includes episodic and semantic memories.

Measures of relearning (also known as savings) assess how much more quickly information is learned when it is studied again after it has already been learned but then forgotten.

Implicit memory refers to the influence of experience on behavior, even if the individual is not aware of those influences. The three types of implicit memory are procedural memory, classical conditioning, and priming.

Information processing begins in sensory memory, moves to short-term memory, and eventually moves to long-term memory.

Maintenance rehearsal and chunking are used to keep information in short-term memory.

The capacity of long-term memory is large, and there is no known limit to what we can remember.

Exercises

1. With a partner, glance very quickly in front of yourself, then close your eyes. Try to “see” the image of what you saw. Without looking, describe what you saw to a partner who will write your description down. Look again. How well did you describe the scene? What stage of memory are you using to accomplish this task?

Answer: Most students will do a fairly accurate job of describing the major components of the scene, but will have difficulty recalling the details. A rare student will be able to accurately describe the setting well. This is an example of iconic memory.

2. Students frequently prefer multiple choice tests over essay or short answer tests despite the fact that students tend to receive lower grades on multiple choice tests. Why do you think this preference exists?

Answer: Essay exams are recall memory tests that require students to first generate an answer, then determine whether it is correct. Multiple choice exams are recognition

memory tests that simply require students to recognize whether a given piece of information is correct. Of the two, recognition memory tests are easier to do.

2. How We Remember: Cues To Improving Memory o o o

Label and review the principles of encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Summarize the types of amnesia and their effects on memory.

Describe how the context in which we learn information can influence our memory of that information.

Section Outline • •

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Memories must be processed to be stored in long term memory.

Encoding is the process by which we place the things that we experience into memory. o Some encoding methods are better than others, which has led to better study strategies.

▪ Elaborative encoding allows us to process new information in ways that make it more relevant or meaningful.

▪ The structural task condition is the memory processing method in which one judges whether the word was printed in uppercase or lowercase letters ▪ The phonemic task condition is the memory processing method in which one determines whether or not the word rhymed with another given word.

▪ The semantic task condition is the memory processing method in which one determines if the word was a synonym of another word.

▪ The self-reference task condition is the memory processing method in which one indicates whether or not the given adjective was or was not true of oneself.

▪ The self-reference effect is the improvement in memory over other methods when using the memory processing method in which one indicates whether or not the given adjective was or was not true of oneself. o Memory decays rapidly at first, but the amount of decay levels off with time. o The spacing effect refers to the fact that learning is better when the same amount of study is spread out over periods of time than it is when it occurs closer together or at the same time. o Overlearning is continuing to practice and study even when we think that we have mastered the material.

▪ Improves encoding Retrieval is the process of reactivating information that has been stored in memory. o The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon is the one in which we are certain that we know something that we are trying to recall but cannot quite come up with it. o Context-dependent learning refers to an increase in retrieval when the external situation in which information is learned matches the situation in which it is remembered. o State-dependent learning refers to superior retrieval of memories when the individual is in the same physiological or psychological state as during encoding.

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The ablility to retrieve more words that were presented at the beginning and the end of the list than they are words that were presented in the middle of the list is known as the serial position curve.

▪ Caused by two retrieval phenomenon: • The primacy effect refers to a tendency to better remember stimuli that are presented early in a list.

• The recency effect refers to the tendency to better remember stimuli that are presented later in a list. o Retroactive interference occurs when learning something new impairs our ability to retrieve information that was learned earlier. o Proactive interference occurs when earlier learning impairs our ability to encode information that we try to learn later.

Structure of long term memory o Memories are linked in categories, which are networks of associated memories that have features in common with each other. o Spreading activation occurs when activating one element of a category activates other associated elements. o A category prototype is the member of the category that is most average or typical of the category. o Schemas are patterns of knowledge in long-term memory that help us organize information. o Categories, prototypes, and schemas help us to organize memories such that they are easier to retrieve.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) refers to the strengthening of the synaptic connections between neurons as result of frequent stimulation. o The period of time in which LTP occurs and in which memories are stored is the period of consolidation.

One of the most important brain regions in explicit memory is the hippocampus. o Preprocessor and elaborator of information. o Encodes ▪ Information about spatial relationships.

▪ Context in which events were experienced.

▪ Associations among memories. o Switching point ▪ Holds the memory for a short time.

▪ Directs the information to other parts of the brain for rehearsing, elaboration, and long term storage. o The brain’s “librarian” - it makes our explicit memories efficient and organized.

The cerebellum is critical for implicit memories. o Active when we are learning associations o Active in priming tasks o Damage to the cerebellum creates difficulty in classical conditioning studies.

The amygdala is critical for emotional memories, especially fear.

Amnesia is a memory disorder that involves the inability to remember information. o Retrograde amnesia is a memory disorder that produces an inability to retrieve events that occurred before a given time. o Anterograde amnesia is the inability to transfer information from short-term into long-term memory.

Memory is distributed throughout the brain rather than located in a particular structure.

Glutamate, serotonin, epinephrine, and estrogen appear to be important in memory.

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Memory-enhancing drugs have little or no effect when compared to placebos.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • •

Information is better remembered when it is meaningfully elaborated.

Hermann Ebbinghaus made important contributions to the study of learning, including modeling the forgetting curve, and studying the spacing effect and the benefits of overlearning.

Context- and state-dependent learning, as well as primacy and recency effects, influence long-term memory.

Memories are stored in connected synapses through the process of long-term potentiation (LTP). In addition to the cortex, other parts of the brain, including the hippocampus, cerebellum, and the amygdala, are also important in memory.

Damage to the brain may result in retrograde amnesia or anterograde amnesia. Case studies of patients with amnesia can provide information about the brain structures involved in different types of memory.

Memory is influenced by chemicals including glutamate, serotonin, epinephrine, and estrogen.

Studies comparing memory enhancers with placebo drugs find very little evidence for their effectiveness.

Exercises 1. Think about how you study for exams. Do you use the most effective strategies given what you have learned? How will you change your study practices to take advantage of the most effective ways to remember information?

Answer: Very few students will use the most effective study methods. Students should change their study habits by studying for brief periods every day, self-reference the information to make it more relevant to themselves, they should “overlearn”, and attempt to take the exam under conditions and in the state in which they learned the information as closely as possible.

2. Describe the prototypical college student. How closely do you resemble the prototype?

Now look up the demographics of your school’s students. How closely did your description match the average student at your school?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. Most students will describe the prototypical student as between the ages of 18-21, single, middle class to upper middle class, and Caucasian. Most colleges and universities have significantly different student bodies. The average age of students on campus is over 21, with approximately 25% of the students over the age of 25. Campuses tend to be fairly diverse, but more women than men are attending. Depending upon the campus, the socioeconomic class could be quite disadvantaged.

3. Accuracy and Inaccuracy In Memory and Cognition o o o

Outline the variables that can influence the accuracy of our memory for events.

Explain how schemas can distort our memories.

Describe the representativeness heuristic and the availability heuristic and explain how they may lead to errors in judgment.

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Cognitive biases are errors in memory or judgment that are caused by the inappropriate use of cognitive processes.

Source monitoring refers to the ability to accurately identify the source of a memory. o May confuse dreams with reality. o May assume we are the source of information or ideas when we forget the source. o Sleeper effect refers to attitude change that occurs over time when we forget the source of information.

Schemas lead to the confirmation bias, which is the tendency to verify and confirm our existing memories rather than to challenge and disconfirm them. o Beliefs can become self-confirmatory. o Biases questions we ask.

Functional fixedness occurs when people’s schemas prevent them from using an object in new and nontraditional ways (inability to “think outside the box”).

Misinformation effect refers to errors in memory that occur when new information influences existing memories. o Most claims of recovered memories are due to implanted, rather than real, memories.

Overconfidence is the tendency for people to be too certain about their ability to accurately remember events and to make judgments. o A flashbulb memory is a vivid and emotional memory of an unusual event that people believe they remember very well.

Heuristics are information-processing strategies that are useful in many cases but may lead to errors when misapplied. o A representativeness heuristic is information that seems to represent, or match, what we expect will happen, while ignoring other potentially more relevant statistical information. o The availability heuristic is the tendency to make judgments of the frequency or likelihood that an event occurs on the basis of the ease with which it can be retrieved from memory.

We are more likely to attend to, make use of, and remember information that is highly salient, meaning that it attracts our attention.

Cognitive accessibility refers to the extent to which knowledge is activated in memory, and thus likely to be used in cognition and behavior.

Counterfactual thinking is a cognitive bias that involves the tendency to think about and experience events according to “what might have been.”

Key Takeaways • • •

Our memories fail in part due to inadequate encoding and storage, and in part due to the inability to accurately retrieve stored information.

The human brain is wired to develop and make use of social categories and schemas.

Schemas help us remember new information but may also lead us to falsely remember things that never happened to us and to distort or misremember things that did.

A variety of cognitive biases influence the accuracy of our judgments.

Exercises 1. Think of a strongly held political opinion you hold, then find a classmate with the opposing opinion. Write down the facts that support your opinions. Are there facts you don’t recall? Are there facts she does not recall? What kind of bias is exemplified by your differing memories of the facts?

Answer: Students will compile lists of facts to support their opinions and compare them with those who hold opposing viewpoints. Students can be expected to omit or disagree with the veracity of the facts of the opposing viewpoint. This is an example of confirmation bias.

2. With a partner, go to a public place such as a mall or restaurant. Look at a person at a cash register for as long as the transaction lasts, then each of you write down a description of the person without looking back at the person you are describing. Are your answers identical, similar, or very different? Were there descriptive details one or the other of you failed to mention? If you can still see the person you are describing, how accurate were your recollections?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. None should have identical descriptions, however, some will be very similar. A few will have very different descriptions. In most cases, at least one major identifier will not be used by both partners, e.g., hair color, color of clothing, height, weight, skin color and tone, etc.

Chapter 9 Intelligence and Language 1. Defining and Measuring Intelligence o o o

Define intelligence and list the different types of intelligences psychologists study.

Summarize the characteristics of a scientifically valid intelligence test.

Outline the biological and environmental determinants of intelligence.

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Intelligence is the ability to think, to learn from experience, to solve problems, and to adapt to new situations.

Language is a system of communication that uses symbols in a regular way to create meaning.

The general intelligence factor (g) is the construct that the different abilities and skills measured on intelligence tests have in common. o Relates to abstract thinking. o Includes the abilities to acquire knowledge, to reason abstractly, to adapt to novel situations, and to benefit from instruction and experience. o The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test is a measure of general intelligence made up of a wide variety of tasks including vocabulary, memory for pictures, naming of familiar objects, repeating sentences, and following commands.

Specific intelligence (s) is a measure of specific skills in narrow domains.

L. L. Thurstone proposed seven clusters of primary mental abilities: o word fluency o verbal comprehension o spatial ability o perceptual speed o numerical ability o inductive reasoning o memory Robert Sternberg has proposed a triarchic (three-part) theory of intelligence that proposes that people may display more or less analytical intelligence, creative intelligence, and practical intelligence. o Argues that traditional IQ tests only measure analytical intelligence. o Convergent thinking is directed toward finding the correct answer to a given problem. o Divergent thinking is the ability to generate many different ideas for or solutions to a single problem.

Components that are likely to be important for creativity: o Expertise. o Imaginative thinking. o Risk taking. o Intrinsic interest. o Working in a creative environment.

Practical intelligence refers primarily to intelligence that cannot be gained from books or formal learning. o Little evidence to support practical intelligence as different from general intelligence.

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Gardner proposed 8 specific intelligences: o Linguistic o Logico-mathematical o Spatial o Musical o Kinesthetic o Interpersonal o Intrapersonal o Naturalistic Good intelligence tests: o reliable - they are consistent over time. o construct validity - actually measure intelligence rather than something else. o Standardization of a test involves giving it to a large number of people at different ages and computing the average score on the test at each age level. o The Flynn effect refers to the observation that scores on intelligence tests worldwide have increased substantially over the past decades. o Wechsler Adult lntelligence Scale (WAIS) is the most widely used intelligence test for adults.

Mental age is the age at which a person is performing intellectually.

Intelligence quotient (IQ) is a measure of intelligence that is adjusted for age. o IQ = mental age ÷ chronological age × 100.

Personnel selection is the use of structured tests to select people who are likely to perform well at given jobs.

Brain processes believed to underlie intelligence are: o brain size o sensory ability o speed and efficiency of neural transmission o working memory capacity The outer layers of the cortex appear to be the primary center of intelligence.

IQ is highly heritable, with 40% to 80% of intelligence variability due to genetics.

Socioeconomic factors can have serious positive or negative effects on intelligence.

Education can improve IQ scores.

Emotional intelligence is to the ability to accurately identify, assess, and understand emotions, as well as to effectively control one’s own emotions.

Key Takeaways • • • • •

Intelligence is the ability to think, to learn from experience, to solve problems, and to adapt to new situations. Intelligence is important because it has an impact on many human behaviors.

Psychologists believe that there is a construct that accounts for the overall differences in intelligence among people, known as general intelligence (g).

There is also evidence for specific intelligences (s), measures of specific skills in narrow domains, including creativity and practical intelligence.

The intelligence quotient (IQ) is a measure of intelligence that is adjusted for age. The Wechsler Adult lntelligence Scale (WAIS) is the most widely used IQ test for adults.

Brain volume, speed of neural transmission, and working memory capacity are related to IQ.

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Between 40% and 80% of the variability in IQ is due to genetics, meaning that overall genetics plays a bigger role than does environment in creating IQ differences among individuals.

Intelligence is improved by education and may be hindered by environmental factors such as poverty.

Emotional intelligence refers to the ability to identify, assess, manage, and control one’s emotions. People who are better able to regulate their behaviors and emotions are also more successful in their personal and social encounters.

Exercises

1. Take an IQ test; there are many available online. While you are taking it, try to notice the questions and how you are being tested. Did you score above average, average, or below average on the test? Do you believe it truly reflects your intelligence? How do you think the questions may have affected your score?

Answer: Most students will test average or above average, probably because IQ scores are improved by education and the student body of a college or university has been selected to be made up of people with at least average intelligence. Some students will believe the test accurately reflects their intelligence, others will feel the questions asked do not assess their emotional intelligence or creativity.

2. Consider your own intelligence. What are some things you can do to improve your intelligence? Why do you believe these things will improve your intelligence?

Answer: Students can improve their own intelligence by obtaining additional education, exposing themselves to new situations, and seeking out creative challenges.

2. The Social, Cultural, and Political Aspects of Intelligence o o o

Explain how very high and very low intelligence is defined and what it means to have them.

Consider and comment on the meaning of biological and environmental explanations for gender and racial differences in IQ. Define stereotype threat and explain how it might influence scores on intelligence tests.

Section Outline • • • • •

Cultures interpret the meanings of intelligence tests and determine how people with differing levels of intelligence are treated.

A normal distribution (or bell curve) is the pattern of scores usually observed in a variable that clusters around its average.

Population IQ distribution generally exhibits a bell curve.

Males are found at the extremes of the intelligence bell curve (mentally retarded or gifted) in greater numbers than women.

Mental retardation is a generalized disorder ascribed to people who have an IQ below 70, who have experienced deficits since childhood, and who have trouble with basic life skills, such as dressing and feeding oneself and communicating with others. o Down syndrome is a chromosomal disorder leading to mental retardation caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome.

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Students with extremely high intelligence were above average in physical health, were taller and heavier than individuals in the general population, and had above average social relationships.

Men and women perform differently on various intelligence measures. o More men score in the highest and lowest intelligence categories. o Men perform better on spatial tasks, math and physical science, geometry, and geography. o Women perform better on verbal and written tasks, and detecting and recognizing others’ emotions. o Differences are greater within sexes than between sexes. o Some of the variability is explained by genetics, some by environment and socialization.

There are differences in the averages of different races and ethnic groups on intelligence tests. o IQ tests do not seem to be racially biased because the observed correlations between IQ tests and both academic and occupational achievement are about equal across races.

Eugenics is the proposal that one could improve the human species by encouraging or permitting reproduction of only those people with genetic characteristics judged desirable.

Stereotype threat proposes that performance decrements are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes.

Environmental factors as well as genetic factors contribute to the differences seen among races and ethnic groups.

Key Takeaways • •

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IQ is distributed in the population in the form of a normal distribution (frequently known as a bell curve).

Mental retardation is a generalized disorder ascribed to people who have an IQ below 70, who have experienced deficits since childhood, and who have trouble with basic life skills, such as dressing and feeding oneself and communicating with others. One cause of mental retardation is Down syndrome.

Extremely intelligent individuals are not unhealthy or poorly adjusted, but rather are above average in physical health and taller and heavier than individuals in the general population.

Men and women have almost identical intelligence, but men have more variability in their IQ scores than do women.

On average, men do better than women on tasks requiring spatial ability, whereas women do better on verbal tasks and score higher on emotional intelligence.

Although their bell curves overlap considerably, there are also average group differences for members of different racial and ethnic groups.

The observed average differences in intelligence between racial and ethnic groups has at times led to malicious attempts to correct for them, such as the eugenics movement in the early part of the 20th century.

The situation in which one takes a test may create stereotype threat—performance decrements that are caused by the knowledge of cultural stereotypes.

Exercises 1. Investigate the racial and ethnic make-up of your school. How do you think the racial/ethnic environment affects the performance of students on the campus? Now look up the survey responses of students regarding the campus climate in regards to race or ethnicity. Does the campus survey change your opinion? Why or why not?

Answer: Most colleges and universities undertake campus surveys to determine the feelings of students in regard to the racial and ethnic climate of the campus and publish them online. Students from Caucasian or Asian racial and ethnic groups will probably report the campus supports their academic performance. Students from historically underrepresented ethnic groups, such as African-Americans and Hispanics, will often report they feel isolated or singled out, and they will probably report the atmosphere hampers their academic success.

2. Why do you think people are offered and are willing to take IQ tests?

Answer: Intelligence is an important survival characteristic. Intelligence has a significant impact on the likelihood that a person will have a successful and satisfying career, and live a longer, healthier life. People want to compare themselves to the social norm and determine where they belong in society.

3. Communicating with Others: The Development and Use of Language o o o

Review the components and structure of language.

Explain the biological underpinnings of language.

Outline the theories of language development.

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A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that makes a meaningful difference in a language. o Produced by the positions and movements of the vocal tract. o In sign languages phonemes are defined by the shapes and movement of the hands. o The categorical perception of speech sounds is the ability of speakers of different languages to hear the difference only between some phonemes but not others. o Infants are born able to understand all phonemes A morpheme is a string of one or more phonemes that makes up the smallest units of meaning in a language.

Syntax is the set of rules of a language by which we construct sentences.

Words do not possess fixed meanings but change with the context in which they are used.

Contextual information is the information surrounding language used to help interpret it.

The critical period is a time in which learning can easily occur.

Children who are not exposed to language early in life will never learn language.

Broca’s area is an area in front of the left hemisphere near the motor cortex responsible for language production.

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Wernicke’s area is an area of the brain next to the auditory cortex responsible for language comprehension.

Aphasia is a condition in which language functions are severely impaired. o Broca’s aphasia sufferers have difficulty producing speech. o Wernicke’s aphasia sufferers can produce speech, but what they say makes no sense and they have trouble understanding language.

Babies learn language beginning in the womb. o Babbling is engaging in intentional vocalizations that lack specific meaning.

Generativity refers to the fact that speakers of a language can compose sentences to represent new ideas that they have never before been exposed to.

Key Takeaways • •

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Language involves both the ability to comprehend spoken and written words and to speak and write. Some languages are sign languages, in which the communication is expressed by movements of the hands.

Phonemes are the elementary sounds of our language, morphemes are the smallest units of meaningful language, syntax is the grammatical rules that control how words are put together, and contextual information is the elements of communication that help us understand its meaning.

Recent research suggests that there is not a single critical period of language learning, but that language learning is simply better when it occurs earlier.

Broca’s area is responsible for language production. Wernicke’s area is responsible for language comprehension.

Language learning begins even before birth. An infant usually produces his or her first words at about 1 year of age.

One explanation of language development is that it occurs through principles of learning, including association, reinforcement, and the observation of others.

Noam Chomsky argues that human brains contain a language acquisition module that includes a universal grammar that underlies all human language. Chomsky differentiates between the deep structure and the surface structure of an idea.

Although other animals communicate and may be able to express ideas, only the human brain is complex enough to create real language.

Our language may have some influence on our thinking, but it does not affect our underlying understanding of concepts.

Exercises 1. Explain whether recent laws banning bilingual education are a good idea.

Answer: Student responses will vary. Some will argue that by immersing themselves in their new language, English language learners will more quickly learn English and be more successful in academic settings later in life. Others will argue that bilingualism increases cognition. Also, students who do not understand English may fall behind in other classes until they have sufficient command of the English language to comprehend the material in other classes. Because they may have fallen so far behind, English language learners may choose to drop out rather than continue in a setting in which they have experienced failure.

2. How do you think language shapes your thoughts and determines how you think?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. People who have limited language capabilities have difficulty expressing their feelings, understanding complex ideas, and interacting with others. Words color our judgments and create emotional subtexts.

Advertisers take advantage of this when they choose language for advertising copy.

Some languages do not have words for certain concepts, and so those concepts are more difficult to understand and communicate.

Chapter 10 Emotions and Motivations 1. The Experience of Emotion o o o

Explain the biological experience of emotion.

Summarize the psychological theories of emotion.

Give examples of the ways that emotion is communicated.

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Affect is the experience of feeling or emotion. o Components of affect are emotions and motivation. o Emotion is a mental and physiological feeling state that directs our attention and guides our behavior. o Motivation is a driving force that initiates and directs behavior.

▪ Often thought of as drives.

▪ Drives are internal states that are activated when the physiological characteristics of the body are out of balance.

▪ Goals are desired end states that we strive to attain. o Arousal is our experiences of the bodily responses created by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). o Valence is whether emotions are pleasant or unpleasant feelings The basic emotions are those of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. o Determined by the limbic system of the brain. o Oldest emotions, related to survival. o Easily recognized, regardless of culture.

Cognitive appraisal is the cognitive interpretations that accompany emotions.

Secondary emotions are those that have a major cognitive component.

The primary and the secondary emotions travel on different two brain pathways: a fast pathway and a slow pathway, respectively, controlled by the thalamus.

The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal, i.e., emotions and arousal occur at the same time.

The James-Lange theory proposes that our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience, i.e., the emotion is the result of arousal.

Schachter and Singer’s two-factor model proposes that the experience of emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal we are experiencing, but that the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines what the emotion will be, i.e., arousal and cognition combine to create emotion.

Misattribution of arousal is the tendency for people to incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing. o Excitation transfer refers to the phenomenon that occurs when people who are already experiencing arousal from one event tend to also experience unrelated emotions more strongly.

Nonverbal communication is communication that does not involve words. o body language o facial expressions o tone of voice The facial feedback hypothesis proposes that the movement of our facial muscles can trigger corresponding emotions.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • • • • •

Emotions are the normally adaptive mental and physiological feeling states that direct our attention and guide our behavior.

Emotional states are accompanied by arousal, our experiences of the bodily responses created by the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system.

Motivations are forces that guide behavior. They can be biological, such as hunger and thirst; personal, such as the motivation for achievement; or social, such as the motivation for acceptance and belonging.

The most fundamental emotions, known as the basic emotions, are those of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.

Cognitive appraisal allows us to also experience a variety of secondary emotions.

According to the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion, the experience of an emotion is accompanied by physiological arousal.

According to the James-Lange theory of emotion, our experience of an emotion is the result of the arousal that we experience.

According to the two-factor theory of emotion, the experience of emotion is determined by the intensity of the arousal we are experiencing, and the cognitive appraisal of the situation determines what the emotion will be.

When people incorrectly label the source of the arousal that they are experiencing, we say that they have misattributed their arousal.

We express our emotions to others through nonverbal behaviors, and we learn about the emotions of others by observing them.

Exercises

1. Smiling communicates happiness and acceptance to others. Make a conscious effort to smile at people throughout a day. What do you think will happen? Record the number of people at whom you smiled and their response. How did you feel at the end of the day?

Answer: People tend to smile back when you smile at them. They may also begin a conversation. Students will prepare a table with the number of people at whom they smiled and their responses. The majority of people should smile back at the students.

The students may also report feeling happier throughout the day.

2. Record your emotions once every 15 minutes throughout the day. Are your emotions mostly primary or secondary emotions? Are they mostly pleasant or unpleasant? Are they mostly intense or mild?

Answer: Student answers will vary, but they should present a list of their emotions for the day in 15 minute intervals. Most of their emotions will be secondary and mild.

2. Stress: The Unseen Killer o o o o

Define stress and review the body’s physiological responses to it.

Summarize the negative health consequences of prolonged stress.

Explain the differences in how people respond to stress.

Review the methods that are successful in coping with stress.

Section Outline

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Stress refers to the physiological responses that occur when an organism fails to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a medical syndrome that includes symptoms of anxiety, sleeplessness, nightmares, and social withdrawal.

General adaptation syndrome is the three distinct phases of physiological change that occur in response to long term stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) is a physiological response to stress involving interactions among the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the adrenal glands.

Cortisol is a stress hormone that releases sugars into the blood, helping preparing the body to respond to threat.

Long term stress suppresses the immune system, contributes to depression, contributes to heart disease, and hypertension.

Daily hassles are our everyday interactions with the environment that are essentially negative.

The fight-or-flight response is an emotional and behavioral reaction to stress that increases the readiness for action.

The tend-and-befriend response is a behavioral reaction to stress that involves activities designed to create social networks that provide protection from threats.

Ignoring stress is not a good approach for coping with it. Negative thoughts cannot be suppressed.

It is healthy to let out the negative thoughts and feelings by expressing them, either to ourselves or to others.

It is easier to respond to stress if we can interpret it in more positive ways.

Emotion regulation is the ability to successfully control our emotions. o Training in self-regulation can improve emotional regulation.

Key Takeaways • • • • • •

Stress refers to the physiological responses that occur when an organism fails to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats.

The general adaptation syndrome refers to the three distinct phases of physiological change that occur in response to long-term stress: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.

Stress is normally adaptive because it helps us respond to potentially dangerous events by activating the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. But the experience of prolonged stress has a direct negative influence on our physical health.

Chronic stress is a major contributor to heart disease. It also decreases our ability to fight off colds and infections.

Stressors can occur as a result of both major and minor everyday events.

Men tend to respond to stress with the fight-or-flight response, whereas women are more likely to take a tend-and-befriend response.

Exercises 1. Use the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale to measure your present stress level. Are you in the high, moderate, or low stress portion of the scale? What is your biggest stressor and how can you reduce its effects?

Answer: Student answers will vary. They should provide a scale score and a response as to whether they are high, moderate, or low stress. They should also propose at least one coping strategy to help reduce the level of stress in their lives.

2. Create a plan to reduce the stress in your life. What strategies will you employ? How will you implement these strategies into your life?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. Students should propose expanding their social support network, exercise, reduction of alcohol consumption, and other strategies.

They should propose creating a log, reward system, or other mechanism to make sure they stay on track.

3. Positive Emotions: The Power of Happiness o o

Understand the important role of positive emotions and happiness in responding to stress.

Understand the factors that increase, and do not increase, happiness.

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The best antidote for stress is to think positively, have fun, and enjoy the company of others.

Optimism is a general tendency to expect positive outcomes.

Self-efficacy is the belief in our ability to carry out actions that produce desired outcomes.

Those who can control, or believe they can control stressors experience less stress overall.

Hardiness is a measure of attitudes and actions. o Positive overall about potentially stressful life events. o Take more direct action to understand the causes of negative events. o Attempt to learn from events what may be of value for the future.

Social support is the experience of having positive and supportive social relationships with others. o Those with more social support are happier overall. o Direct effects of social support include being able to share burdens or receive favors. o Appreciation effect is the good feeling about ourselves we receive simply from having a social support system.

People believe events (positive and negative) will have a greater impact on their happiness than they actually do because people adapt to circumstances with coping mechanisms.

Money does not increase happiness.

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Positive thinking can be beneficial to our health.

Optimism, self-efficacy, and hardiness all relate to positive health outcomes.

Happiness is determined in part by genetic factors, but also by the experience of social support.

People may not always know what will make them happy.

Material wealth plays only a small role in determining happiness.

Exercises 1. Write down a list of the good things that have happened in the last week. How has your emotional state changed now that the list is completed?

Answer: Students will submit a list of “good” events that have happened over the past week. Most students will find their mood has improved after completing the list. Those with few good things on their lists may report a worsening of mood.

2. Think about your social support network. Do you think your social support network is large enough? What are some ways in which you could enlarge your support network?

Answer: Student answers will vary. All should provide ideas for increasing their social support network. Things they could do include join campus clubs, become a member of a church, synagogue, mosque, or temple, become a member of a sports team, or join a support group, etc.

4. Two Fundamental Human Motivations: Eating and Mating o o

Understand the biological and social responses that underlie eating behavior.

Understand the psychological and physiological responses that underlie sexual behavior.

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Severe food or calorie restriction changes behavior. o Listlessness increases. o Apathy about saving energy increases. o Become preoccupied with food. o Loss of interest in sex and social issues.

Hunger is controlled by the lateral part of the hypothalamus.

Satiety is controlled by the ventromedial hypothalamus.

Hunger is also influenced by blood glucose levels, and the hormones insulin, orexin, ghrelin, and leptin.

The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy expended while at rest.

Environment can influence hunger. o Speeding up clocks makes people eat more frequently. o Culturally accepted body images affect how much we eat.

Eating disorders: o Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by extremely low body weight, distorted body image, and an obsessive fear of gaining weight.

▪ 90% of anorexia sufferers are women.

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by purging.

Obesity is a medical condition in which so much excess body fat has accumulated in the body that it begins to have an adverse impact on health. o Harmful stereotypes o Increased health risks o Reduced life expectancy o Determined by body mass index (BMI), a measurement that compares one’s weight and height. o Better diet and increased exercise reduce obesity.

Sex is the most powerful human drive.

The sexual response cycle is the biological sexual response in humans. o Excitement o Plateau o Orgasm o Resolution Sexual desire is regulated by estrogen in women and testosterone in both men and women.

Men and women differ in their interest in sex. o Men are less selective in partners, think about sex more frequently, and are more willing to have casual sex. o Women’s interest varies over the course of the menstrual cycle.

In hyperactive sexual desire disorder the sex drive is so strong that it dominates life experience. Primarily affects men.

Sexual orientation is the direction of our sexual desire toward people of the opposite sex, people of the same sex, or people of both sexes. o Primarily biological. o Has profound psychological impact depending upon cultural acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality. o

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Biologically, hunger is controlled by the interactions among complex pathways in the nervous system and a variety of hormonal and chemical systems in the brain and body.

How we eat is also influenced by our environment, including social norms about appropriate body size.

Homeostasis varies among people and is determined by the basal metabolic rate. Low metabolic rates, which are determined entirely by genetics, make weight management a very difficult undertaking for many people.

Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, affect more than 10 million people (mostly women) in the United States alone.

Obesity is a medical condition in which so much excess body fat has accumulated in the body that it begins to have an adverse impact on health. Uncontrolled obesity leads to health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, arthritis, and some types of cancer.

The two approaches to controlling weight are to eat less and exercise more.

Sex drive is regulated by the sex hormones estrogen in women and testosterone in both women and men.

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Although their biological determinants and experiences of sex are similar, men and women differ substantially in their overall interest in sex, the frequency of their sexual activities, and the mates they are most interested in.

Sexual behavior varies widely, not only between men and women but also within each sex.

There is also variety in sexual orientation: toward people of the opposite sex, people of the same sex, or people of both sexes. The determinants of sexual orientation are primarily biological.

We can outwit stress, obesity, and other health risks through appropriate healthy action.

Exercises 1. Create a food diary, in which you list everything you eat and how much (large, medium, or small portion) for at least three days, one of which should be a weekend day. What patterns can you discern in your eating habits? Do you make healthy eating choices?

How could you improve your eating habits? Did you find you ate more or less while you kept the food diary?

Answer: Students will compile lists of foods they ate over a three day period. They will discuss whether their intake is high in carbohydrates, protein, fats, whether they eat vegetables, and whether they believe their diet is balanced. Most students will report that they ate less while keeping the food diary.

Chapter 11 Psychology in Our Social Lives 1. Social Cognition: Making Sense of Ourselves and Others o o

Review the principles of social cognition, including the fundamentals of how we form judgments about other people.

Define the concept of attitude and review the ways that attitudes are developed and changed, and how attitudes relate to behavior.

Section Outline • • • • • •

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Social psychology is the scientific study of how we feel about, think about, and behave toward the other people around us, and how those people influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Our cognitions, emotions, and behaviors are substantially influenced by the social situation, or the people with whom we are interacting.

Social cognition is the part of human thinking that helps us understand and predict the behavior of ourselves and others.

Attitudes are our enduring evaluations of people or things.

Social norms are the accepted beliefs about what we do or what we should do in particular social situations.

Physical attractiveness is the most important determinant of our initial liking for other people. o Men and women prefer people whose faces have characteristics similar to those of babies. o People are more attracted to faces that are more symmetrical. o People prefer faces that are average rather than unique.

Stereotyping is the tendency to attribute personality characteristics to people on the basis of their external appearance or their social group memberships. o Prejudice is the tendency to dislike people because of their appearance or group memberships. o Discrimination is defined as negative behaviors toward others based on prejudice. o A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when our expectations about the personality characteristics of others lead us to behave toward those others in ways that make those beliefs come true.

Social identity is the positive emotions that we experience as a result of our group memberships.

Close relationships are the long-term intimate and romantic relationships that we develop with another person. o Perceived similarity in values and beliefs between the partners. o Self-disclosure, the tendency to communicate frequently, without fear of reprisal, and in an accepting and empathetic manner. o Proximity, or the extent to which people are physically near us.

▪ Mere exposure is the tendency to prefer stimuli (including but not limited to people) that we have seen more frequently.

Causal attribution is the process of trying to determine the causes of people’s behavior, with the goal of learning about their personalities.

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We make a person attribution when we believe the behavior was caused primarily by the person. o We make a situation attribution when we believe the behavior was caused primarily by the situation. o We make self-serving attributions by judging the causes of our own behaviors in overly positive ways. o The fundamental attribution error (or correspondence bias) is the common tendency to overestimate the role of person factors and overlook the impact of situations in judging others.

Attitudes are heritable as well as influenced by environment.

Attitudes can predict behavior.

Persuading people, or changing their attitudes effectively is done by: o Choosing effective communicators. o Considering the goals of the listener. o Using humor. o Using classical conditioning. o Making use of the listener’s emotions. o Using the listener’s behavior to modify his or her attitude.

Self-monitoring is the tendency to regulate behavior to meet the demands of social situations.

Self-perception occurs when we use our own behavior as a guide to help us determine our own thoughts and feelings.

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we experience when we choose to behave in ways that we see as inappropriate.

Key Takeaways • • • • •

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Social psychology is the scientific study of how we influence, and are influenced by, the people around us.

Social cognition involves forming impressions of ourselves and other people. Doing so quickly and accurately is functional for social life.

Our initial judgments of others are based in large part on what we see. The physical features of other people—and particularly their sex, race, age, and physical attractiveness—are very salient, and we often focus our attention on these dimensions.

We are attracted to people who appear to be healthy. Indicators of health include youth, symmetry, and averageness.

We frequently use people’s appearances to form our judgments about them, and to determine our responses to them. These responses include stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Social psychologists believe that people should get past their prejudices and judge people as individuals.

Close relationships are based on intimacy. Intimacy is determined by similarity, selfdisclosure, interdependence, commitment, rewards, and passion.

Causal attribution is the process of trying to determine the causes of people’s behavior with the goal of learning about their personalities. Although people are reasonably accurate in their attributions, they also succumb to biases such as the fundamental attribution error.

Attitudes refer to our relatively enduring evaluations of people and things. Attitudes are determined in part by genetic transmission from our parents and in part through direct and indirect experiences.

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Although attitudes predict behaviors, behaviors also predict attitudes. This occurs through the processes of self-perception and cognitive dissonance.

Exercises

1. Take one of the Implicit Association Tests found at the link on page 432. Which test did you take and what were the results? Did the results match your expectations? Explain your answer.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Most students will find they are more prejudiced than they believe themselves to be, and some may be disturbed by the finding. Others will reject the finding, either because it is not really true, or they cannot accept the results as part of their self-concept. Others may believe that because they do not practice discrimination, or because they are members of a group that is often discriminated against, that they cannot be prejudiced.

2. Think about a time when you were influenced by peer pressure. Were you influenced to do something you believed was wrong or harmful, or that was good or beneficial? Why do you think you acted as you did?

Answer: Student answers will vary. In most cases, peer pressure acts to make us do things we believe we should not do. However, some groups form to help peers make good decisions. We give in to peer pressure in part because of our desire to be accepted or to fit in. The situation in which we find ourselves also has a profound impact on our ability to resist peer pressure when we are pressured to do something we believe we should not do.

2. Interacting with Others: Helping, Hurting, and Conforming o o o

Summarize the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to human altruism.

Provide an overview of the causes of human aggression.

Explain the situations under which people conform to others and their motivations for doing so.

Section Outline •

Altruism refers to any behavior that is designed to increase another person’s welfare, and particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them. o Reasons people help others: ▪ Positive moods ▪ Similarity ▪ Guilt ▪ Empathy ▪ Benefits ▪ Personal responsibility ▪ Self presentation o Reciprocal altruism is the principle that, if we help other people now, those others will return the favor should we need their help in the future. o Diffusion of responsibility occurs when we assume that others will take action and therefore we do not take action ourselves.

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Aggression is behavior that is intended to harm another individual. o Aggression has a genetic component. o Testosterone levels are correlated with aggression in men and women. o Alcohol increases the likelihood of aggression. o Catharsis is the idea that observing or engaging in less harmful aggressive actions will reduce the tendency to aggress later in a more harmful way.

▪ The opposite actually appears to be true. o Viewing or other exposure to aggression increases our aggressiveness. o Desensitization is the tendency over time to show weaker emotional responses to emotional stimuli. o A culture of honor is a social norm that condones and even encourages responding to insults with aggression.

Conformity is a change in beliefs or behavior that occurs as the result of the presence of the other people around us.

Obedience is the tendency to conform to those in authority. o People will often conform to behaviors to which they would not otherwise conform if an authority figure insists. o Guilt for bad behavior is projected onto the authority figure.

Conformity is highly dependent upon the situation in which the person finds himself.

Minority influence occurs when a smaller number of individuals is able to influence the opinions or behaviors of the larger group.

Psychological reactance is a strong emotional reaction that leads people to resist conformity. o People feel that their freedom is being threatened by influence attempts. o They also have the ability to resist that persuasion.

Key Takeaways •

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Altruism is behavior that is designed to increase another person’s welfare, and particularly those actions that do not seem to provide a direct reward to the person who performs them. The tendency to help others in need is in part a functional evolutionary adaptation and in part determined by environmental factors.

Although helping others can be costly to us as individuals, helping people who are related to us can perpetuate our own genes. Some helping is based on reciprocal altruism, the principle that if we help other people now, those others will return the favor should we need their help in the future.

We also learn to help through modeling and reinforcement. The result of this learning is norms about helping, including the reciprocity norm and the social responsibility norm.

Research testing the Latané and Darley model of helping has shown the importance of the social situation in noticing, interpreting, and acting in emergency situations.

Aggression is physical or nonphysical behavior that is intended to harm another individual. Aggression has both genetic and environmental causes. The experience of negative emotions tends to increase aggression.

Viewing violence tends to increase aggression.

The social norm that condones and even encourages responding to insults with aggression is known as the culture of honor.

Conformity, the change in beliefs or behavior that occurs as the result of the presence of the other people around us, can occur in both active and passive ways. The typical outcome of conformity is that our beliefs and behaviors become more similar to those of others around us.

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The situation is the most powerful determinant of conformity, but individual differences may also matter. The important influence of the social situation on conformity was demonstrated in the research by Sherif, Asch, Milgram, and others.

Minority influence can change attitudes and change how majorities process information.

Exercises 1. Do you think of yourself as an altruistic person, or are you a more aggressive person?

Make a list of altruistic behaviors and aggressive behaviors you perform over the course of a week. Did your behavioral diary confirm or refute your opinion about your altruism versus your aggressiveness? Explain.

Answer: Most students will believe they are more altruistic than aggressive, although some, primarily male, will believe they are primarily aggressive. Students should turn in a log of the altruistic and aggressive behaviors in which they engaged over the course of a week. The number and magnitude of each behavior should be evaluated. Students will analyze their results and determine whether their opinion of themselves is correct or not.

Based on the number and magnitude of each behavior, they will be able to explain their answer.

2. Kitty Genovese was murdered despite the fact that many people heard her cries for help and could have come to her aid. Psychologists have shown many times the effect of the diffusion of responsibility. Watch the videos for which the link is provided in the chapter. Do you think it would have made a difference if the people who heard her cries were people who knew her well instead of strangers? How might their actions have been different and why?

Answer: Had the people who heard Kitty Genovese’s cries for help been friends or acquaintances, they would probably have quickly come to her aid. The reason for the difference is that the strangers formed a group of their own in which she was not included and for which the rule was “don’t get involved”. Friends or acquaintances would have already included her as a member of their group and would be more likely to respond to the needs of a group member.

3. Working with Others: The Costs and Benefits of Social Groups o o

Summarize the advantages and disadvantages of working together in groups to perform tasks and make decisions.

Review the factors that can increase group productivity.

Section Outline • • • •

The tendency to perform tasks better or faster in the presence of others is known as social facilitation.

The tendency to perform tasks more poorly or more slowly in the presence of others is known as social inhibition.

Social loafing is a group process loss that occurs when people do not work as hard in a group as they do when they are working alone.

Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when a group made up of members who may be very competent and thus quite capable of making excellent decisions nevertheless ends up, as a result of a flawed group process and strong conformity pressures, making a poor decision.

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The tendency for group members to overvalue the productivity of the groups they work in is known as the illusion of group productivity.

Key Takeaways • • • • •

The performance of working groups is almost never as good as we would expect, given the number of individuals in the group, and in some cases may even be inferior to the performance of one or more members of the group working alone.

The tendency to perform tasks better or faster in the presence of others is known as social facilitation. The tendency to perform tasks more poorly or more slowly in the presence of others is known as social inhibition.

The ability of a group to perform well is determined by the characteristics of the group members as well as by the events that occur in the group itself—the group process.

One group process loss that may occur in groups is that the group members may engage in social loafing. Group process losses can also occur as a result of groupthink, when group members conform to each other rather than expressing their own divergent ideas.

Taken together, working in groups has both positive and negative outcomes. It is important to recognize both the strengths and limitations of group performance and use whatever techniques we can to increase process gains and reduce process losses.

Exercises 1. Think about a time when you were involved in a group project. Would you describe yourself as someone who performs better or worse when in a group? Why do you believe you function in this way? What could you do to improve your group performance?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some students have well-developed leadership skills, some want the attention that comes from leading a group. Others do not have welldeveloped leadership skills, lack subject matter knowledge, or are more introverted than their peers. Students can improve their group performance by improving their subject matter knowledge, becoming comfortable with the group members over time so that introversion and shyness exert less of an effect on their behavior, or recognize that they are likely to over-dominate a discussion so that they will step back and let others participate.

Chapter 12 Personality 1. Personality and Behavior: Approaches and Measurement o o o

Outline and critique the early approaches to assessing personality.

Define and review the strengths and limitations of the trait approach to personality.

Summarize the measures that have been used to assess psychological disorders.

Section Outline • •

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Personality is as an individual’s consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving.

Early theories assumed that personality was expressed in people’s physical appearance.

Research does not support any of these theories. o Phrenology measured personality by assessing the patterns of bumps on people’s skulls. o Somatology measured personality based on people’s body types. o Physiognomy assesses personality from facial characteristics.

Traits are relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behavior across many situations. o Introversion o Friendliness o Conscientiousness o Honesty o Helpfulness Personality tests must be valid and reliable. o Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a commonly used test that is neither reliable nor valid.

Gordon Allport organized traits into three levels according to their importance o Cardinal traits (the most important traits) o Central traits (the basic and most useful traits) o Secondary traits (the less obvious and less consistent ones) Raymond Cattell used the statistical procedure factor analysis to analyze the correlations among traits and to identify the most important ones. o Source (more important) o Surface (less important) o 16 dimensions of traits based on personality adjectives taken from everyday language Hans Eysenck was particularly interested in the biological and genetic origins of personality o Extroverts have lower levels of naturally occurring arousal and desire social interactions to raise their arousal level. o Introverts have naturally high arousal do not desire to engage in social activities because they are overly stimulating.

Five- Factor (Big Five) Model of Personality states that there are five fundamental underlying trait dimensions that are stable across time, cross-culturally shared, and explain a substantial proportion of behavior: agreeableness, conscientiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience.

Traits may not be as stable as we perceive them to be. o Can be situational.

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o May be the result of our use of schemas to organize our thinking. o We see more traits in others than in ourselves. o People can be convinced that trait descriptions of themselves are accurate.

The Barnum effect is the observation that people tend to believe in descriptions of their personality that supposedly are descriptive of them but could in fact describe almost anyone.

Personality is derived from our interactions with and observations of others, from our interpretations of those interactions and observations, and from our choices of which social situations we prefer to enter or avoid.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a test used to identify personality and psychological disorders.

Projective measures are measures of personality in which unstructured stimuli, such as inkblots, drawings of social situations, or incomplete sentences, are shown to participants, who are asked to freely list what comes to mind as they think about the stimuli. Research support for the use of these tests is limited. o Rorschach Inkblot Test is a projective measure of personality in which the respondent indicates his or her thoughts about a series of 10 symmetrical inkblots. o Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective measure of personality in which the respondent is asked to create stories about sketches of ambiguous situations, most of them of people, either alone or with others.

Leadership is the ability to direct or inspire others to achieve goals. o Charismatic leaders are leaders who are enthusiastic, committed, and selfconfident; who tend to talk about the importance of group goals at a broad level; and who make personal sacrifices for the group. o Transactional leaders are the more regular leaders, who work with their subordinates to help them understand what is required of them and to get the job done. o Transformational leaders have a vision of where the group is going, and attempt to stimulate and inspire their workers to move beyond their present status and to create a new and better future.

Key Takeaways • • • • • •

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Personality is an individual’s consistent patterns of feeling, thinking, and behaving.

Personality is driven in large part by underlying individual motivations, where motivation refers to a need or desire that directs behavior.

Early theories assumed that personality was expressed in people’s physical appearance.

One of these approaches, known as physiognomy, has been validated by current research.

Personalities are characterized in terms of traits—relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behavior across many situations.

The most important and well-validated theory about the traits of normal personality is the Five-Factor Model of Personality.

There is often only a low correlation between the specific traits that a person expresses in one situation and those that he expresses in other situations. This is in part because people tend to see more traits in other people than they do in themselves. Personality predicts behavior better when the behaviors are aggregated or averaged across different situations.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most important measure of psychological disorders.

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Projective measures are measures of personality in which unstructured stimuli, such as inkblots, drawings of social situations, or incomplete sentences are shown to participants, who are asked to freely list what comes to mind as they think about the stimuli. Despite their widespread use, however, the empirical evidence supporting the use of projective tests is mixed.

Exercises

1. Try the Five-Factor Personality Test found on page 329. Do you agree with the results?

Explain. Show it to someone who knows you well. How well does she feel it reflects your personality? Explain her answer.

Answer: Students may feel the results represent their personality fairly well, but they should be aware of the Barnum effect when interpreting their results. Others tend to be able to more objectively compare the results to your personality.

2. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a widely used personality test that is often used by human resource personnel to determine your suitability for a particular job. Do you think this is a good practice? Why do you think the Myers-Briggs test is used?

Answer: The MBTI has been shown to be neither valid, nor reliable. It should not be used to make employment or other decisions. However, because it is easy to understand and allows decision-makers to easily categorize people, it remains popular.

2. The Origins of Personality o o o

Describe the strengths and limitations of the psychodynamic approach to explaining personality.

Summarize the accomplishments of the neo-Freudians.

Identify the major contributions of the humanistic approach to understanding personality.

Section Outline •

Psychodynamic psychology is an approach to understanding human behavior that focuses on the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories. o Theorized by Freud. o Freud believed we are controlled by unconscious motivations. o Mind is divided into three components: ▪ The id is the component of personality that forms the basis of our most primitive impulses.

• Entirely unconscious.

• Drives our most important motivations.

• Sexual drive (libido).

• Aggressive or destructive drive (Thanatos).

• Driven by the pleasure principle—the desire for immediate gratification of our sexual and aggressive urges.

▪ The superego represents our sense of morality and oughts.

• Strives for perfection.

• Demands we feel guilty.

▪ The ego is largely conscious controller or decision-maker of personality.

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Based on the reality principle—we must delay gratification of our basic motivations until the appropriate time with the appropriate outlet.

• Serves as the intermediary between the desires of the id and the constraints of the superego. o Defense mechanisms are the unconscious psychological strategies used to cope with anxiety and to maintain a positive self-image.

▪ Displacement ▪ Projection ▪ Rationalization ▪ Reaction formation ▪ Regression ▪ Repression ▪ Sublimation o Freud’s psychosexual stages: ▪ Oral ▪ Anal ▪ Phallic ▪ Latency ▪ Genital ▪ Not supported by research Neo-Freudian theories are theories based on Freudian principles that emphasize the role of the unconscious and early experience in shaping personality but place less evidence on sexuality as the primary motivating force in personality and are more optimistic concerning the prospects for personality growth and change in personality in adults. o An inferiority complex is a psychological state in which people feel that they are not living up to expectations. o Carl Jung proposed that there is a collective unconscious, i.e., a collection of shared ancestral memories that contains a variety of archetypes, or crossculturally universal symbols.

▪ the mother ▪ the goddess ▪ the hero ▪ the mandala or circle, symbolizing a desire for wholeness or unity o Karen Horney proposed that the underlying motivation that guides personality development is the desire for security. o Erich Fromm argued that the increases in use of technology have led people to feel increasingly isolated from others.

Humanistic psychology is an approach to psychology that embraces the notions of selfesteem, self-actualization, and free will. o Self-concept is the set of beliefs about who we are. o Self-esteem is our positive feelings about the self. o Self-actualization is the motivation to develop our innate potential to the fullest possible extent. o Abraham Maslow conceptualized personality in terms of a hierarchy of needs.

▪ Physiological ▪ Safety ▪ Love/belonging ▪ Esteem ▪ Self-actualization

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Carl Rogers believed that we can achieve our full potential for emotional fulfillment if the self-concept is characterized by unconditional positive regard—a set of behaviors including being genuine, open to experience, transparent, able to listen to others, and self-disclosing and empathic.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • •

One of the most important psychological approaches to understanding personality is based on the psychodynamic approach to personality developed by Sigmund Freud.

For Freud the mind was like an iceberg, with the many motivations of the unconscious being much larger, but also out of sight, in comparison to the consciousness of which we are aware.

Freud proposed that the mind is divided into three components: id, ego, and superego, and that the interactions and conflicts among the components create personality.

Freud proposed that we use defense mechanisms to cope with anxiety and to maintain a positive selfimage.

Freud argued that personality is developed through a series of psychosexual stages, each focusing on pleasure from a different part of the body.

The neo-Freudian theorists, including Adler, Jung, Horney, and Fromm, emphasized the role of the unconscious and early experience in shaping personality, but placed less evidence on sexuality as the primary motivating force in personality.

Psychoanalytic and behavioral models of personality were complemented during the 1950s and 1960s by the theories of humanistic psychologists, including Maslow and Rogers.

Exercises 1. Think about your own personality. What defense mechanisms proposed by Freud do you believe you use most often? Provide an example.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Rationalization will probably be common, as will repression and sublimation. Fewer students are likely to report displacement, projection, reaction formation, or regression. Students will provide varying examples of these behaviors.

2. Where do you think you are on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? What do you think you have to do to reach the next level?

Answer: Students will have varying answers. Most students will find themselves at the Love/belonging or Esteem levels. Adolescents feel the need to belong while older students are more secure in their sense of place and have begun to need to earn their place in the world and its respect. Older students may have returned to school to achieve selfactualization. Students who have experienced a traumatic event or are from dysfunctional homes may still be at the Safety level. Students will propose differing ways to achieve their current goals and move on to the enxt level.

3. Is Personality More Nature or More Nurture? Behavioral and Molecular Genetics o o

Explain how genes transmit personality from one generation to the next.

Outline the methods of behavioral genetics studies and the conclusions that we can draw from them about the determinants of personality.

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Explain how molecular genetics research helps us understand the role of genetics in personality.

Section Outline •

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Personality is largely controlled by genetics. o Personality is not determined by any single gene, but rather by the actions of many genes working together. o Environment has a strong effect on whether and how genes are expressed.

A gene is the basic biological unit that transmits characteristics from one generation to the next.

Instincts are complex inborn patterns of behaviors that help ensure survival and reproduction.

Behavioral genetics is a variety of research techniques that scientists use to learn about the genetic and environmental influences on human behavior by comparing the traits of biologically and nonbiologically related family members. o A family study starts with one person who has a trait of interest and examines the individual’s family tree to determine the extent to which other members of the family also have the trait. o Twin studies research the personality characteristics of twins. o An adoption study compares biologically related people, including twins, who have been reared either separately or apart.

The influence of shared environment (i.e., the effects of parents or other caretakers) plays little or no role in adult personality.

Molecular genetics is the study of which genes are associated with which personality traits.

The major influence on personality is nonshared environmental influences, i.e., all the things that occur to us that make us unique individuals.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • •

Genes are the basic biological units that transmit characteristics from one generation to the next.

Personality is not determined by any single gene, but rather by the actions of many genes working together.

Behavioral genetics refers to a variety of research techniques that scientists use to learn about the genetic and environmental influences on human behavior.

Behavioral genetics is based on the results of family studies, twin studies, and adoptive studies.

Overall, genetics has more influence than do parents on shaping our personality.

Molecular genetics is the study of which genes are associated with which personality traits.

The largely unknown environmental influences, known as the nonshared environmental effects, have the largest impact on personality. Because these differences are nonsystematic and largely accidental or random, we do not inherit our personality in any fixed sense.

Exercises 1. Non-shared environmental factors appear to play the greatest role in forming our personalities. What events, people, or other environmental factors do you believe were most important in forming your personality and why?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Students will provide examples of people, events, and circumstances they believe had the greatest impact on forming their personalities and they will explain why they believe this to be true.

2. Even though you may possess the genes for a specific personality trait, you may not possess the personality trait. Explain why this would happen.

Answer: Personality traits are a function of both genes and environmental factors. If the appropriate environmental factors do not exist, the genes will not be expressed and the personality trait will not be seen.

Chapter 13 Defining Psychological Disorders 1. Psychological Disorder: What Makes a Behavior “Abnormal”? o o o

Define “psychological disorder” and summarize the general causes of disorder.

Explain why it is so difficult to define disorder, and how the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is used to make diagnoses.

Describe the stigma of psychological disorders and their impact on those who suffer from them.

Section Outline • •

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Abnormal psychology is the application of psychological science to understanding and treating mental disorders.

People with psychological disorders are stigmatized, resulting in shame and embarrassment, as well as prejudice and discrimination. o About 1 in 4 Americans will be affected by a psychological disorder in a given year. o Mental illness is harder for those in lower socioeconomic classes.

A psychological disorder is an ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress, and that is considered deviant in that person’s culture or society.

The bio-psycho-social model of illness is a way of understanding disorder that assumes that disorder is caused by biological, psychological, and social factors.

Diagnosis of psychological disorders can be more difficult than for other medical problems.

Comorbidity occurs when people who suffer from one disorder also suffer at the same time from other disorders.

A stigma is a disgrace or defect that indicates that person belongs to a culturally devalued social group.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a document that provides a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. o Organizes psychological disorders into five dimensions (known as axes) that concern the different aspects of disorder. o Does not attempt to specify the exact symptoms that are required for a diagnosis. o Uses qualifiers to indicate different levels of severity. o Primarily focused on Western illness.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a developmental behavior disorder characterized by problems with focus, difficulty maintaining attention, and inability to concentrate, in which symptoms start before 7 years of age. o Diagnosed in about 1 out of every 20 American children. o The most common psychological disorder among children in the world.

Autistic disorder (autism) is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication and by restricted and repetitive behavior, and in which symptoms begin before 7 years of age. o up to 90% is genetic effect

Key Takeaways

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More psychologists are involved in the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorder than in any other endeavor, and those tasks are probably the most important psychologists face.

The impact on people with a psychological disorder comes both from the disease itself and from the stigma associated with disorder.

A psychological disorder is an ongoing dysfunctional pattern of thought, emotion, and behavior that causes significant distress and that is considered deviant in that person’s culture or society.

According to the bio-psycho-social model, psychological disorders have biological, psychological, and social causes.

It is difficult to diagnose psychological disorders, although the DSM provides guidelines that are based on a category system. The DSM is frequently revised, taking into consideration new knowledge as well as changes in cultural norms about disorder.

There is controversy about the diagnosis of disorders such as ADHD and autism spectrum disorder.

Exercises

1. Given the APA definition of a psychological disorder, why is it possible for a behavior to be classified as a psychological disorder in one country and not in another?

Answer: A critical component of the definition of a psychological disorder is that it results in deviant behavior in a society. Because different countries have different social norms, it is possible to classify a behavior as deviant in one, but not the other..

2. Explain why you think the diagnosis of ADHD is increasing.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some will propose that improvements in diagnosing the problem have lead to better diagnosis and treatment. Others will argue that it is simply an easy way to force conformity on otherwise healthy individuals. Both should point out the potential flaws in their arguments. Most psychologists believe ADHD is real, and may be influenced by genetics, differing brain structures, and exposure to environmental toxins such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, or industrial toxins. However, it is possible that many of these environmental factors coexist with, rather than result in, ADHD. ADHD tends to be more common in those from lower socioeconomic strata, the very people most commonly exposed to environmental toxins.

2. Anxiety And Dissociative Disorders: Fearing the World Around Us o o o

Outline and describe the different types of anxiety disorders.

Outline and describe the different types of dissociative disorders.

Explain the biological and environmental causes of anxiety and dissociative disorders.

Section Outline • •

Anxiety is the nervousness or agitation that we sometimes experience, often about something that is going to happen.

Anxiety disorders are marked by irrational fears, often of everyday objects and situations.

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A generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is diagnosed in situations in which a person has been excessively worrying about money, health, work, family life, or relationships for at least 6 months, even though he or she knows that the concerns are exaggerated, and when the anxiety causes significant distress and dysfunction. o Panic disorder is characterized by sudden attacks of anxiety and terror that have led to significant behavioral changes in the person’s life. o A phobia is a specific fear of a certain object, situation, or activity.

▪ Social phobia is extreme shyness around people or discomfort in social situations.

▪ Agoraphobia is anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing, or in which help may not be available.

▪ Phobias are twice as likely to be found in women as men. o Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is diagnosed when an individual continuously experiences distressing or frightening thoughts, and engages in obsessions (repetitive thoughts) or compulsions (repetitive behaviors) in an attempt to calm these thoughts. o Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is marked by anxiety that may begin months or even years after the event, re-experiencing the trauma (flashbacks), and a strong desire to avoid any reminders of the event.

A dissociative disorder involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, and identity. o Attempt to escape a traumatic memory. o Dissociative amnesia involves extensive, but selective, memory loss, but in which there is no physiological explanation for the forgetting. o In dissociative fugue, an individual loses complete memory of his or her identity and may even assume a new one, often far from home. o Dissociative identity disorder exists when two or more distinct and individual personalities exist in the same person, and there is an extreme memory disruption regarding personal information about the other personalities. o Psychologists disagree as to the existence of dissociative disorders.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • •

Anxiety is a natural part of life, but too much anxiety can be debilitating. Every year millions of people suffer from anxiety disorders.

People who suffer from generalized anxiety disorder experience anxiety, as well as a variety of physical symptoms.

Panic disorder involves the experience of panic attacks, including shortness of breath, heart palpitations, trembling, and dizziness.

Phobias are specific fears of a certain object, situation, or activity. Phobias are characterized by their specificity and their irrationality.

A common phobia is social phobia, extreme shyness around people or discomfort in social situations.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is diagnosed when a person’s repetitive thoughts are so disturbing and their compulsive behaviors so time consuming that they cause distress and significant disruption in a person’s everyday life.

People who have survived a terrible ordeal, such as combat, torture, rape, imprisonment, abuse, natural disasters, or the death of someone close to them, may develop PTSD.

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Dissociative disorders, including dissociative amnesia and dissociative fugue, are conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, and identity.

The dissociation is used as a defense against the trauma.

Dissociative identity disorder, in which two or more distinct and individual personalities exist in the same person, is relatively rare and difficult to diagnose.

Both nature and nurture contribute to the development of anxiety disorders.

Exercises 1. There are occasional stories in the news about people who have simply disappeared, only to be found later using completely different identities. Explain whether you think these stories generally represent real psychological disorders, or the people involved are simply using a psychological disorder to explain away their behavior.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Most of the stories in the news have been presented as the actions of an irresponsible person rather than as those of someone suffering from a psychological disorder. There is some debate among psychologists as to whether dissociative disorders are real, or attempts by individuals to escape responsibility.

2. Exams tend to increase student anxiety, sometimes to the point where student performance on the exam suffers. What are some strategies you can use to reduce your anxiety at exam time?

Answer: Strategies to reduce so-called test-anxiety include being prepared for the test, getting sufficient rest the night before, preempt negative self-talk or thoughts with positive ones about how well you will do on the exam, try stress-reduction exercises such as deep-breathing or meditation.

3. Mood Disorders: Emotions as Illness o o

Summarize and differentiate the various forms of mood disorders, in particular dysthymia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder.

Explain the genetic and environmental factors that increase the likelihood that a person will develop a mood disorder.

Section Outline • •

Mood is defined as the positive or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences.

Mood (or affective) disorders occur when the person’s mood negatively influences his or her physical, perceptual, social, and cognitive processes. o Dysthymia is a condition characterized by mild, but chronic, depressive symptoms that last for at least 2 years. o Major depressive disorder (clinical depression) is characterized by an allencompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities.

▪ In major depressive episode with psychotic features, the depression includes delusions and hallucinations o Bipolar disorder is characterized by swings in mood from overly “high” to sad and hopeless, and back again, with periods of near-normal mood in between. o Mood disorders have a strong genetic component. o Negative thoughts create negative moods.

Key Takeaways • • • • • •

Mood is the positive or negative feelings that are in the background of our everyday experiences.

We all may get depressed in our daily lives, but people who suffer from mood disorders tend to experience more intense—and particularly more intense negative—moods.

The most common symptom of mood disorders is negative mood.

If a person experiences mild but long-lasting depression, she will be diagnosed with dysthymia. If the depression continues and becomes even more severe, the diagnosis may become that of major depressive disorder.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by swings in mood from overly “high” to sad and hopeless, and back again, with periods of near-normal mood in between.

Mood disorders are caused by the interplay among biological, psychological, and social variables.

Exercises 1. Have you or someone you know ever suffered from dysthymia or major depression?

What did you or she do to break the cycle of depression?

Answer: Most students will either have suffered from or know someone who has suffered from a depressive disorder. Methods they will have used to break the cycle will include psychotherapy and antidepressants, changing their self-talk and the use of positive thoughts, and relying with their social support network.

4. Schizophrenia: The Edge of Reality and Consciousness o o o

Categorize and describe the three major symptoms of schizophrenia.

Differentiate the five types of schizophrenia and their characteristics.

Identify the biological and social factors that increase the likelihood that a person will develop schizophrenia.

Section Outline •

Schizophrenia is a serious psychological disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, loss of contact with reality, inappropriate affect, disorganized speech, social withdrawal, and deterioration of adaptive behavior. o Highly heritable. o Positive symptoms refer to the presence of abnormal behaviors or experiences (such as hallucinations) that are not observed in normal people. o Negative symptoms (such as lack of affect and an inability to socialize with others) refer to the loss or deterioration of thoughts and behaviors that are typical of normal functioning. o Cognitive symptoms are the changes in cognitive processes that accompany schizophrenia. o Psychosis is a psychological condition characterized by a loss of contact with reality. o Hallucinations are imaginary sensations that occur in the absence of a real stimulus or which are gross distortions of a real stimulus.

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▪ Usually auditory, voices in the head.

▪ Visual hallucinations usually involve God or the devil.

Delusions are false beliefs not commonly shared by others within one’s culture, and maintained even though they are obviously out of touch with reality.

Derailment is the shifting from one subject to another, without following any one line of thought to conclusion.

Other positive symptoms include: ▪ Grossly disorganized behavior.

▪ Inappropriate affect, may laugh uncontrollably when hearing sad news.

▪ Agitated movements ▪ Catatonia, a state in which a person does not move and is unresponsive Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include: ▪ Social withdrawal ▪ Poor hygiene and grooming ▪ Poor problem-solving abilities ▪ Distorted sense of time ▪ Failure to express emotional responses ▪ Incoherent language ▪ Motor disturbances Those who exhibit negative symptoms tend to have the poorest outcomes.

Cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia include: Difficulty comprehending information and using it to make decisions (the lack of executive control).

Difficulty maintaining focus and attention.

Problems with working memory.

Key Takeaways • • • • • • •

Schizophrenia is a serious psychological disorder marked by delusions, hallucinations, and loss of contact with reality.

Schizophrenia is accompanied by a variety of symptoms, but not all patients have all of them.

Because the schizophrenic patient has lost contact with reality, we say that he or she is experiencing psychosis.

Positive symptoms of schizophrenia include hallucinations, delusions, derailment, disorganized behavior, inappropriate affect, and catatonia.

Negative symptoms of schizophrenia include social withdrawal, poor hygiene and grooming, poor problem-solving abilities, and a distorted sense of time.

Cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia include difficulty comprehending and using information and problems maintaining focus.

There is no single cause of schizophrenia. Rather, there are a variety of biological and environmental risk factors that interact in a complex way to increase the likelihood that someone might develop schizophrenia.

Exercises 1. Schizophrenic patients tend to be among the most marginalized of psychological patients.

Explain why you think this might be true.

Answer: Schizophrenics exhibit a variety of behaviors that make them difficult to approach or understand. They have often lost touch with reality, they may not practice good hygiene, they may dress or behave inappropriately, they may exhibit odd, random movements, they may become agitated, and a small group may become violent. They often do not express emotions, so they can be difficult to understand. The result is that most people avoid, rather than seek out, schizophrenics.

5. Personality Disorders o o

Categorize the different types of personality disorders and differentiate antisocial personality disorder from borderline personality disorder.

Outline the biological and environmental factors that may contribute to a person developing a personality disorder.

Section Outline •

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A personality disorder is characterized by inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others that cause problems in personal, social, and work situations. o Personality disorders are categorized into three types: ▪ Odd or eccentric behavior ▪ Dramatic or erratic behavior ▪ Anxious or inhibited behavior o Difficult to diagnose. o Highly comorbid. o Personality disorders are essentially milder versions of more severe Axis I disorders. o Some argue they should be removed from the DSM. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is characterized by a prolonged disturbance of personality accompanied by mood swings, unstable personal relationships, identity problems, threats of self-destructive behavior, fears of abandonment, and impulsivity. o More common in women. o An internalizing disorder because the behaviors that it entails are mostly directed toward the self.

Antisocial personality disorder (APD) is a pervasive pattern of violation of the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. o More common in men. o Also known as “sociopaths” or “psychopaths.”

Key Takeaways • • • •

A personality disorder is a disorder characterized by inflexible patterns of thinking, feeling, or relating to others that causes problems in personal, social, and work situations.

Personality disorders are categorized into three clusters: those characterized by odd or eccentric behavior, dramatic or erratic behavior, and anxious or inhibited behavior.

Although they are considered as separate disorders, the personality disorders are essentially milder versions of more severe Axis I disorders.

Borderline personality disorder is a prolonged disturbance of personality accompanied by mood swings, unstable personal relationships, and identity problems, and it is often associated with suicide.

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Antisocial personality disorder is characterized by a disregard of others’ rights and a tendency to violate those rights without being concerned about doing so.

Exercises 1. Some theorists have proposed removing personality disorders from the DSM. Explain why you believe they should be removed or not.

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some will argue that because these are mild forms of Axis I disorders, they are not distinct disorders and should simply be classified as very mild cases of Axis I disorders. Others will side with clinicians, who use the presence of personality disorders in the DSM as a means of gaining acceptance and payment for treatment of people who suffer from a real problem.

6. Somatoform, Factitious, and Sexual Disorders o o

Differentiate the symptoms of somatoform and factitious disorders.

Summarize the sexual disorders and paraphilias.

Section Outline •

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Somatoform disorders occur in cases where psychological disorders are related to the experience or expression of physical symptoms that are real. o Somatization disorder (also called Briquet’s syndrome or Brissaud-Marie syndrome) is a disorder in which a person experiences numerous long-lasting but seemingly unrelated physical ailments that have no identifiable physical cause. o Conversion disorder causes patients to experience specific neurological symptoms such as numbness, blindness, or paralysis, but where no neurological explanation is observed or possible. o Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) an imagined or exaggerated defect in body parts or body odor. o Hypochondriasis (hypochondria) is focused on preoccupation, accompanied by excessive worry about having a serious illness.

Factitious disorders occur in cases where psychological disorders are related to the experience or expression of physical symptoms that are not real. o Patients fake physical symptoms in large part because they enjoy the attention and treatment that they receive. o Münchausen syndrome the patient has a lifelong pattern of a series of successive hospitalizations for faked symptoms.

Sexual dysfunction occurs when the physical sexual response cycle is inadequate for reproduction or for sexual enjoyment. o Hypoactive sexual desire disorder o Sexual aversion disorder o Female sexual arousal disorder o Male erectile disorder o Female orgasmic disorder o Male orgasmic disorder o Premature ejaculation o Dyspareunia

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o Vaginismus o Most sexual disorders are temporary.

Gender identity refers to the identification with a sex.

Gender identity disorder (GID, or transsexualism) is diagnosed when the individual displays a repeated and strong desire to be the other sex, a persistent discomfort with one’s sex, and a belief that one was born the wrong sex, accompanied by significant dysfunction and distress.

Paraphilia is a sexual deviation where sexual arousal is obtained from a consistent pattern of inappropriate responses to objects or people, and in which the behaviors associated with the feelings are distressing and dysfunctional. o Bestiality o Exhibitionism o Fetishism o Frotteurism o Masochism o Pedophilia o Sadism o Voyeurism

Key Takeaways • •

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Somatoform disorders, including body dysmorphic disorder and hypochondriasis, occur when people become excessively and inaccurately preoccupied with the potential that they have an illness or stigma.

Patients with factitious disorder fake physical symptoms in large part because they enjoy the attention and treatment that they receive in the hospital. In the more severe form of factitious disorder known as Münchhausen syndrome, the patient has a lifelong pattern with a series of successive hospitalizations for faked symptoms.

Sexual dysfunction is a psychological disorder that occurs when the physical sexual response cycle is inadequate for reproduction or for sexual enjoyment. The types of problems experienced are different for men and women. Many sexual dysfunctions are only temporary or can be treated with therapy or medication.

Gender identity disorder (GID, also called transsexualism) is a rare disorder that is diagnosed when the individual displays a repeated and strong desire to be the other sex, a persistent discomfort with one’s sex, and a belief that one was born the wrong sex, accompanied by significant dysfunction and distress.

The classification of GID as a mental disorder has been challenged because people who suffer from it do not regard their own cross-gender feelings and behaviors as a disorder and do not feel that they are distressed or dysfunctional.

A paraphilia is a sexual deviation where sexual arousal is obtained from a consistent pattern of inappropriate responses to objects or people, and in which the behaviors associated with the feelings are distressing and dysfunctional. Some paraphilias are illegal because they involve a lack of consent on the part of the recipient of the sexual advance, but other paraphilias are simply unusual, even though they may not cause distress or dysfunction.

Exercises 1. The somatoform disorder BDD typically begins in adolescence. What factors of adolescence do you think might contribute to the initiation and severity of this disorder?

Answer: Adolescence is a time of great changes in the body as well as in the brain. Many adolescents are exceptionally self-conscious, and have a high desire to be accepted by their peers. The physical changes they experience often make them subjects of ridicule by peers. Combined with the changes that are occurring in their brains, obsession with their physical appearance may grow into BDD.

Chapter 14 Treating Psychological Disorders 1. Reducing Disorder by Confronting It: Psychotherapy o o

Outline and differentiate the psychodynamic, humanistic, behavioral, and cognitive approaches to psychotherapy.

Explain the behavioral and cognitive aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy and how CBT is used to reduce psychological disorders.

Section Outline • • • • • • • •

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Outcome studies are empirical tests of the effectiveness of different treatments.

The psychological approach to reducing disorder involves psychological therapy, including psychoanalysis, humanistic-oriented therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and other approaches.

The biomedical approach to reducing disorder uses of medications and brain intervention techniques, including electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and psychosurgery.

The social approach to reducing disorder focuses on group, couples, and family therapy, as well as community outreach programs.

A formal psychological assessment is an evaluation of the patient’s psychological and mental health.

Psychotherapy is the professional treatment for psychological disorder through techniques designed to encourage communication of conflicts and insight.

Psychologists are bound by strong legal and ethical guidelines to protect privacy and treat patients with respect.

Psychodynamic therapy (psychoanalysis) is based on Freudian and neo-Freudian personality theories in which the therapist helps the patient explore the unconscious dynamics of personality. o Interpretation is the process of allowing the therapist to try to understand the underlying unconscious problems that are causing the symptoms. o In free association, the therapist listens while the client talks about whatever comes to mind, without any censorship or filtering. o Dream analysis analyzes the symbolism of the dreams in an effort to probe the unconscious thoughts of the client and interpret their significance. o Insight is an understanding of the unconscious causes of the disorder. o Resistance is the use by the patient of defense mechanisms to avoid the painful feelings in his or her unconscious. o Transference occurs when the patient unconsciously redirects feelings experienced in an important personal relationship toward the therapist.

Humanistic therapy is treatment based on the personality theories of Carl Rogers and other humanistic psychologists. o Person-centered therapy (or client-centered therapy) helps the client grow and develop as the therapist provides a comfortable, nonjudgmental environment. o Therapeutic alliance is a relationship between the client and the therapist that is facilitated when the therapist is genuine, when the therapist treats the client with unconditional positive regard, and when the therapist develops empathy with the client.

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Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) attempts to reduce psychological disorders through systematic procedures based on cognitive and behavioral principles. o Treats the symptoms of the disorder and does not attempt to address the underlying issues. o Behavioral therapy is based on principles of learning.

▪ Exposure therapy confronts people with a feared stimulus with the goal of decreasing their negative emotional responses to it.

• Systematic desensitization combines imagining or experiencing the feared object or situation with relaxation exercises.

▪ Aversion therapy uses positive punishment to reduce the frequency of an undesirable behavior. o Cognitive therapy helps clients identify incorrect or distorted beliefs that are contributing to disorder.

▪ Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) or rational emotive therapy (RET) points out the flaws in the patient’s thinking.

Eclectic therapy uses whichever techniques seem most useful and relevant for a given patient. o Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a cognitive therapy that includes a particular emphasis on attempting to enlist the help of the patient in his own treatment.

Key Takeaways • •

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Psychoanalysis is based on the principles of Freudian and neo-Freudian personality theories. The goal is to explore the unconscious dynamics of personality.

Humanist therapy, derived from the personality theory of Carl Rogers, is based on the idea that people experience psychological problems when they are burdened by limits and expectations placed on them by themselves and others. Its focus is on helping people reach their life goals.

Behavior therapy applies the principles of classical and operant conditioning, as well as observational learning, to the elimination of maladaptive behaviors and their replacement with more adaptive responses.

Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck developed cognitive-based therapies to help clients stop negative thoughts and replace them with more objective thoughts.

Eclectic therapy is the most common approach to treatment. In eclectic therapy, the therapist uses whatever treatment approaches seem most likely to be effective for the client.

Exercises

1. Psychologists are bound by strong legal and ethical guidelines. Why is it so important that they follow these guidelines?

Answer: Psychologists work with the most intimate details of people’s lives. They must create an atmosphere of trust so that people will divulge their innermost thoughts so that therapy can be successful. In addition, psychological disorders still carry social stigma.

If others were to find out that you are in therapy, it is less likely that you will seek out psychological help to begin with, and that you will remain in therapy. Psychologists have the ability to create dependency in their patients, thereby inflating their incomes via the suffering of others. Finally, people may not know what to expect of psychotherapy, or

they may have unrealistic expectations. Psychologists must clearly outline what can and cannot be achieved, as well as a reasonable timetable for doing so.

2. Of the four basic types of psychological therapy, psychodynamic, humanistic, cognitivebehavioral, or eclectic therapy, which do you believe will be most effective in most situations and why?

Answer: Eclectic therapy will probably be most effective in most situations because it freely borrows from all of the other therapies to tailor a therapy that is best suited to the individual patient.

2. Reducing Disorder Biologically: Drug and Brain Therapy o o

Classify the different types of drugs used in the treatment of mental disorders and explain how they each work to reduce disorder.

Critically evaluate direct brain intervention methods that may be used by doctors to treat patients who do not respond to drug or other therapy.

Section Outline • • •

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Biomedical therapies influence the action of the central nervous system.

Stimulants improve the major symptoms of ADHD because in smaller doses, stimulants improve attention and decrease motor activity.

Antidepressant medications are drugs designed to improve moods. o Alter the production and reuptake of neurotransmitters related to mood. o Tricyclic antidepressants and the monamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) increase the amount of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine at the synapses. o Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) selectively block the reuptake of serotonin at the synapse.

Mood stabilizing drugs like lithium carbonate are used to treat bipolar disorder.

Antidepressants are not effective for bipolar disorder.

Antianxiety medications relieve fear or anxiety by increasing the action of the neurotransmitter GABA. o Tranquilizers ▪ Benzodiazepines Antipsychotic drugs (neuroleptics) treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders. o Reduce the transmission of dopamine at the synapses in the limbic system. o Improve negative symptoms by influencing levels of serotonin.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical procedure in which electric currents are passed through the brain, deliberately triggering a brief seizure.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) uses a pulsing magnetic coil to electrically stimulate the brain.

Psychosurgery is surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in the hope of improving disorder. Very rarely used.

Key Takeaways • • •

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Psychostimulants are commonly prescribed to reduce the symptoms of ADHD. Antipsychotic drugs play a crucial role in the treatment of schizophrenia. They do not cure schizophrenia, but they help reduce the positive, negative, and cognitive symptoms, making it easier to live with the disease.

Antidepressant drugs are used in the treatment of depression, anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They gradually elevate mood by working to balance neurotransmitters in the CNS. The most commonly prescribed antidepressants are the SSRIs. Antianxiety drugs (tranquilizers) relieve apprehension, tension, and nervousness and are prescribed for people with diagnoses of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and panic disorder.

The drugs are effective but have severe side effects including dependence and withdrawal symptoms.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a controversial procedure used to treat severe depression, in which electric currents are passed through the brain, deliberately triggering a brief seizure.

A newer method of brain stimulation is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive procedure that employs a pulsing magnetic coil to electrically stimulate the brain.

Exercises 1. Patients with bipolar disorder can be treated with Depakote and other anticonvulsants.

What other psychological disorder might be treated with these medicines given their method of action?

Answer: Depakote and many of the other anticonvulsants act by enhancing the actions of, or mimicking the actions of GABA. Antianxiety drugs also act to enhance the effects of GABA, so patients suffering from anxiety might be treatable with Depakote, and patients with bipolar disorder might receive some relief from antianxiety drugs.

3. Reducing Disorder by Changing the Social Situation o o

Explain the advantages of group therapy and self-help groups for treating disorder.

Evaluate the procedures and goals of community mental health services.

Section Outline • •

Interactions with family and community members may significantly impact psychological disorders, positively or negatively.

In group therapy, clients receive psychological treatment together with others. o People can help each other by sharing ideas, problems, and solutions. o Provides social support. o Offers the knowledge that other people are facing and successfully coping with similar situations. o Allows group members to model the successful behaviors of other group members.

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Couples therapy is for two people who are cohabitating, married, or dating meet together with the practitioner to discuss their concerns and issues about their relationship. o Family therapy involves families meeting together with a therapist, based on the assumption that the problem is the result of an interaction among the people in the family. o A self-help group is a voluntary association of people who share a common desire to overcome psychological disorder or improve their well-being.

Community mental health services are psychological treatments and interventions that are distributed at the community level. o Goal of community mental health service is prevention. o Primary prevention is prevention in which all members of the community receive the treatment. o Secondary prevention focuses on people who are most likely to need it—those who display risk factors.

▪ Risk factors are the social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities that make it more likely than average that a given individual will develop a disorder. o Tertiary prevention focuses on people who are already diagnosed with disorder.

Key Takeaways • • •

Group therapy is psychotherapy in which clients receive psychological treatment together with others. A professionally trained therapist guides the group. Types of group therapy include couples therapy and family therapy.

Self-help groups have been used to help individuals cope with many types of disorder.

The goal of community health service programs is to act during childhood or early adolescence with the hope that interventions might prevent disorders from appearing or keep existing disorders from expanding. The prevention provided can be primary, secondary, or tertiary.

Exercises 1. Think about a problem you are facing in your life. How comfortable would you be working through that problem in a group setting? What would be your main concerns about group therapy? How effective do you think group therapy would be in addressing your problem?

Answer: Student answers will vary. Some students will be comfortable with the idea of group therapy and others will not. Concerns may include privacy and confidentiality issues, acceptance by the group after the problem is revealed (what will they think of me?), and introversion, among others. Students’ opinions as to the effectiveness of group therapy for their issue will vary, but overall, group therapy has been shown to be very effective.

4. Evaluating Treatment and Prevention: What Works? o o

Summarize the ways that scientists evaluate the effectiveness of psychological, behavioral, and community service approaches to preventing and reducing disorders.

Summarize which types of therapy are most effective for which disorders.

Section Outline •

Outcome research is studies that assess the effectiveness of medical treatments. o Natural improvement is the possibility that people might get better over time, even without treatment. o Nonspecific treatment effects occur when the patient gets better over time simply by coming to therapy, regardless of the therapeutic mode. o Placebo effects are improvements that occur as a result of the expectation that one will get better rather than from the actual effects of a treatment. o A meta-analysis is a statistical technique that uses the results of existing studies to integrate and draw conclusions about those studies. o Psychological therapy is effective, but the type of therapy is not important. o Biomedical therapies are effective, but specific to the therapy and disorder. o Community or social interventions are effective, but their effects are modest.

Key Takeaways • • •

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Outcome research is designed to differentiate the effects of a treatment from natural improvement, nonspecific treatment effects, and placebo effects.

Meta-analysis is used to integrate and draw conclusions about studies.

Research shows that getting psychological therapy is better at reducing disorder than not getting it, but many of the results are due to nonspecific effects. All good therapies give people hope and help them think more carefully about themselves and about their relationships with others.

Biomedical treatments are effective, at least in the short term, but overall they are less effective than psychotherapy.

One problem with drug therapies is that although they provide temporary relief, they do not treat the underlying cause of the disorder.

Federally funded community mental health service programs are effective, but their preventive effects may in many cases be minor.

Exercises 1. Patients who receive a sugar pill instead of a pill containing a drug often see improvements in their symptoms that are similar to those patients who actually received the drug. Why does this happen and what impact does it have on drug manufacturers and clinicians who prescribe drugs for their patients?

Answer: Scientists still do not understand the workings of the placebo effect. However, in many cases, patients who believe they are receiving a treatment for an illness will get better, even though the treatment is a sham. Drug manufacturers and clinicians must be aware of the placebo effect for different reasons. Drug manufacturers must demonstrate that their treatment works better than a placebo before the new drug can be approved.

Clinicians need to be aware of how much better a drug is than a placebo so they can

weigh the improvements expected from drug treatment versus the potential side effects of the drug. A few clinicians may take advantage of the placebo effect when there is no effective treatment for a disorder. By simply telling a patient he is receiving an experimental treatment, it may be possible to improve the patient’s condition, even though no drug is really present. Clinicians must be very careful in proposing such a treatment because of the ethical considerations involved..