Anatomy and Functioning of the Human Brain: Older Structures and Cerebral Cortex - Prof. C, Study notes of Psychology

Download Anatomy and Functioning of the Human Brain: Older Structures and Cerebral Cortex - Prof. C and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! The History and Scope of Psychology 01/13/2011
Psychology’s Roots  Aristotle o 384 – 322 BC o Not technically a psychologist o Theorized about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception and personality o His answers are a bit silly, but he was definitely asking the right questions
Psychological Science  Wundt o 1832 – 1920 o Seen as starting psych. science with his lab  Created a machine that measured the lag between when people heard a ball hit a platform and when they pressed a telegraph key  Asked people two things:  Press the button when you hear it  Took about 1/10 second  Or when you were aware of perceiving a sound  Took about 2/10 second  This is considered by many to be psychology’s first experiment  Ivan Pavlov o Pioneered study of learning o Russian physiologist  William James o 1842 – 1910 o Author of an important 1890 textbook o American philosopher  Mary Calkins o Student of James o Studied psychology at Harvard and excelled o Could not graduate with a degree because she was a female o Harvard offered her a degree from their sister school Radcliffe College, but Calkins declined o Became American Psychological Association’s first female president in 1905  Sigmund Freud o 1856 – 1939 o Developed influential theory of personality o Austrian physician  Jean Piaget o The 20th century’s most influential observer of children o Swiss biologist  Margaret Floy Washburn o First woman to receive psychology PhD o In 1921, became APA’s 2nd female president
Behaviorists  Behavior Genetics: How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences  Psychodynamic: How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts  Behavioral: How we learn observable responses  Cognitive: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information  Social-cultural: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures Two Types of Research  Basic: Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base  Applied: Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
Psychology’s Subfields: Research  Biological: Explore the links between brain and mind  Developmental: study changing abilities from womb to tomb  Cognitive: Study how we perceive, think, and solve problems  Personality: Investigate our persistent traits  Social: explore how we view and affect one another
Psychology’s Subfields: Applied  Clinical: Studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders  Counseling: Helps people cope with academic, vocational, and marital challenges  Educational: Studies and helps individuals in school and educational settings  Industrial/Organizational: Studies and advises on behavior in the workplace
Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry  CP: Branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders  P: Branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders o Practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy
SQ3R  Survey: Look at the big picture, what each section covers  Question: Form questions to answer as you read  Read: Actively search for the answer to your question  Rehearse: Repeat the information you have just read in your own words  Review: Read over notes and important info Research Strategies: How Psychologists Ask & Answer Questions 01/13/2011
Thinking Critically with Psychological Science  What About Intuition and Common Sense? o We operate on two levels: conscious and unconscious o We “fly mostly on autopilot” o Hindsight and overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition o Scientific inquiry can help us sift reality from illusion o Hindsight Bias  The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it  Found in various cultures, both genders, and among people of all ages  Common sense can be said to more easily describe what has happened than what will happen o Judgmental Overconfidence  Humans tend to think we know more than we do  We are often more confident than correct  Knowing the answer to a problem tends to make us more confident in our ability to have solved it  Scientific Attitude o Composed of curiosity (passion for exploration), skepticism (doubting and questioning), and humility (ability to accept responsibility when wrong) o Critical Thinking: Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
The Scientific Method  Constructing Theories o Theory: An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events o Hypothesis: A testable prediction, often implied by a theory  It merely indicates the possibility of a cause- effect relationship  Illusory correlations  IC: the perception of a relationship where none exists  When we believe there is a relationship between two things, we are likely to notice and recall instances that seemingly confirm our belief  Perceiving order in random events  Random sequences often don’t look random  Some happenings seem so extraordinary that we feel we must find an explanation  “With a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen.”  Experimentation o Controlling: statistically removing differences; not everything can be controlled for o Experiment: a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (dependent variable)  By random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to control other relevant factors o Random Assignment  RA: assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups  Experimental group: the group that is exposed to the treatment, to one version of the independent variable  Control group: the group not exposed to the treatment  Contrasts with the experimental group and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment  Double-blind procedure: both the research participants and staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or placebo  Placebo effect: experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent o Independent and Dependent Variables  IV: the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied  DV: the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the IV  Not all proposed experiments are ethical  We can not force children to be raised by abusive parents; we can only survey the results of such abuse if it occurred naturally
Frequently Asked Questions About Psychology  An experiment’s purpose is not to recreate the exact behaviors of everyday life but to test theoretical principles o It is the resulting principles, not the specific findings, that help explain everyday behaviors  Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a groups of people transmitted from one generation to the next o Culture shapes our behavior, influences standards, etc. o Experimenters must be aware of these differences o However, certain things remain constant regardless of culture, such as a reading disorder  Gender also matters, but men and women are very similar in many regards  International ethical principles to guide investigators: o Obtain potential participants’ informed consent o Protect participants from harm and discomfort o Keep information about individual participants confidential o Fully explain the research afterwards  Psychology is not value-free o Researchers choose topics based on values o Values can bias observations


In Class:
 Measures of Central Tendency o Mode: The most frequently occurring score in a distribution. o Mean: The arithmetic average of scores in a distribution obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores that were added together. o Median: The middle score in a rank-ordered distribution.  Measures of Variation o Range: The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution. o Standard Deviation: A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean.  Normal Curve o A symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data (normal distribution). Most scores fall near the mean. o Neurotransmitters: chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse  Neurotransmitter unlocks tiny channels at the receiving site  Electrically charged atoms flow in, exciting or inhibiting the receiving neuron’s readiness to fire  Reuptake: the sending neuron reabsorbs the excess neurotransmitters  How Neurotransmitters Influence Us o Acetylcholine: messenger at every junction between a motor neuron (which carries info from the brain and spinal cord to the body’s tissues) and skeletal muscles  Enables muscle action, learning, and memory  When released to muscle cell receptors, the muscle contracts  If transmission is blocked the muscles can’t contract and we are paralyzed  This happens during some kinds of anesthesia o Dopamine: influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion o Serotonin: affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal o Norepinephrine: helps control alertness and arousal o Endorphins: lessen pain and boost mood  Short for endogenous morphine o Agonist: drugs that are similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind to the receptor and mimic its effects o Antagonist: binds to receptors and blocks the neurotransmitter’s effects
The Nervous System  Nervous System: body’s speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems o Nerves: bundled axons that form neural “cables” connecting the CNS to the rest of the body  Sensory: carry incoming info from sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord  Motor: carry outgoing info from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands  Interneurons: within brain and spinal cord; communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs  The Peripheral Nervous System o Sensory and motor neurons responsible for gathering info and transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts o Two components:  Somatic: division of peripheral nervous system that controls body’s skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system  Enables voluntary control of skeletal muscles  Autonomic: control glands and muscles of internal organs.  Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms. Work together to keep you in a steady internal state  System can be consciously overridden but usually autonomous  The Central Nervous System o Made up of brain and spinal cord o Neural networks: clusters of brain neurons o Spinal cord: “information highway” connecting PNS o Reflex: simple, automatic response to sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response; governed by neural pathways in spinal cord  Reflexes are so fast they often kick in before you know what’s going on  Ex: hand touches flame; hand moves before you feel the burn  If spinal cord is severed, reflexes may still work (depends on severity/location of separation)
Endocrine System  Endocrine system: body’s “slow” chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream  Hormones: chemical messengers manufactured by endocrine glands, travel through bloodstream, and affect other tissues o Influence interest in sex, food, and aggression  Messages tend to outlast the effects of neural messages o Ex: feeling of anger, even after the cause has passed  Adrenal glands: endocrine glands that sit just atop the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress o Epinephrine and norepinephrine  Pituitary gland: most influential gland of ES. Under influence of hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands o Master gland! (who serves under hypothalamus) o  Many experiments done to find out what part of MC controls what  Helped open door for advanced prosthetics o Sensory Functions  Sensory cortex: front of parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations  The more sensitive the area, the more SC devoted to it  Visual cortex: in occipital lobes  Auditory cortex: temporal lobes o Association Areas  AA: areas of cerebral cortex that aren’t involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather they are involved in higher mental functions, such as learning, remembering, thinking, speaking, and integrating info  Not triggered by electrical probing  About ¾ of cerebral cortex o Language: Specialization and Integration  Aphasia: impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage to Broca’s area (impairing speaking) or to Wernicke’s area (impairing understanding)  Can impair one use of language while leaving others fine (ex: speaking vs. comprehension)  Broca’s area: controls language expression; area of frontal lobe, usually in left hemisphere, that directs muscle movements involved in speech  Damage disrupts speaking  Wernicke’s area: controls language reception; brain area, usually in left temporal lobe, that is involved in language comprehension and expression  Damage disrupts understanding  Angular gyrus: transforms visual representations into an auditory code; involved in reading aloud  Damage disrupts ability to read  The Brian’s Plasticity o Plasticity: brain’s ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience o Neurogenesis: formation of new neurons
Our Divided Brain  Hemispheric specialization (lateralization): the brain’s 2 sides serve differing functions  Splitting the Brain o Corpus callosum: large band of neural fibers connecting the 2 brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them o Split brain: condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain’s two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them  Right-Left Differences in the Intact Brain o Perceptual tasks go to right hemisphere o Left hemisphere involved in speaking and calculating o Behavior Genetics & Evolutionary Psychology 01/13/2011
Behavior Genetics: Predicting Individual Differences  Behavior genetics: study of relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior  Environment: every nongenetic influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us  Genes: Our Codes for Life o Chromosome: threadlike structure made of DNA molecules that contain genes o DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): a complex molecule containing the genetic info that makes up the chromosomes o Genes: biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein  Environmental events “turn on” genes  When turned on, genes provide the code for creating protein molecules, the building blocks of physical development  Twin and Adoption Studies o Identical Versus Fraternal Twins  Identical twins: develop from single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms  More similar in behavior as well  Fraternal twins: develop from separate fertilized eggs; genetically no closer than normal brothers and sisters, but they share a fetal environment o Separated Twins  Often strikingly similar to each other  Shows importance of nature o Biological Versus Adoptive Relatives  People who grow up together do not often resemble each other in personality  But parenting does still affect a child’s development  Temperament, Heredity, and Personality o Evocative rGE: when an individual's (heritable) behavior evokes an environmental response. For example, the association between marital conflict and depression may reflect the tensions that arise when engaging with a depressed spouse rather than a causal effect of marital conflict on risk for depression
Separated Twins
Personality, Intelligence
Abilities, Attitudes
Interests, Fears
Brain Waves, Heart Rate

Parenting Influences Children’s
Attitudes, Values
Manners, Beliefs
Faith, Politics
Environmental Influences 01/13/2011
Parents and Peers  Parents and Early Experiences o Experience and Brain Development  People must be stimulated for proper brain growth  This includes social interactions and “handling” of infants  Not using a sense at a young age will prevent you from being able to use it fully later o How Much Credit (or Blame) Do Parents Deserve?  Parenting affects development  Most obvious when dealing with extremes  Ex: abusive parents = abusive child  But not really responsible for child’s personalities/most traits  Peer Influence o Parents and peers are complimentary, as parents can help choose who and what surrounds their children o Ultimately, peers are typically more powerful influences
Cultural Influences  Culture: enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next  Variation Across Cultures o Cultures vary over the world o Each have their own norms  Big norm difference between cultures in regards to personal space, expressiveness, and pace of life  Variation Over Time o Cultures adjust over time  Culture and the Self o Some cultures preach individualism while others prefer collectivism o Individualism: giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications o Collectivism: giving priority to group goals (often those of extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly  Culture and Child-Rearing o Family self: a feeling that what shames the child shames the family  Part of Asian and African cultures o Many different forms of child-rearing o None is inherently “the right way”  Developmental Similarities Across Groups o Humans are more alike than different o Applies with different cultures and inside the same one
Gender Development  Gender Similarities and Differences o Each gender has its own issues and perks, but they are overall quite similar o Gender and Aggression  Aggression: physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone  Men tend to be more physically aggressive (getting into fights)  Women, more verbally (gossip) o Gender and Social Power  Already discussed: nature or nurture?  Is development gradual and continual or a series of discrete stages?  Is it characterized over time more by stability or change?  Continuity and Stages o Stage theories not exactly correct, but still useful o Brain experiences growth spurts in childhood and puberty  Stability and Change o There is a continuity to personality o Researchers generally agree on the following:  First 2 years of life don’t really predict traits. Older children and adolescents also change  As we age, our personalities begin to stabilize. Temperament and emotionality tend to be consistent over time.  In some ways, we all change with age. Shy babies can open up and become outgoing children. Some changes occur without changing a person’s position relative to others of the same age o We need stability and change  Stability enables us to depend on others, provides our identity, and motivates our concern for the healthy development of kids  Change motivates our concern about present influences, sustains our hope for a brighter future, and lets us adapt and grow with experience
Conception  200 million sperm race to the egg  The ones that reach it release digestive enzymes that eat its protective coating  One sperm enters, and if it is accepted, others are blocked out
Prenatal Development  Zygote: fertilized egg; enters a 2-week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo  10 days later: zygote attached to uterine wall. Remains here for 37 weeks  Zygote’s inner cells become the embryo o Embryo: developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month  Over next 6 weeks, organs start to form and function  9 weeks after conception, it is now a fetus o Fetus: developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth  Teratogens: agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm  Placenta provides nutrients and screens against harm o Teratogens like alcohol and HIV can slip through, though, and harm the fetus  Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial disproportions The Competent Newborn  Babies come packed with certain reflexes necessary for life  Tonguing, swallowing, and breathing are all important; we are born knowing them, not taught  We are born preferring sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness  Infancy and Childhood 01/13/2011
Physical Development  Brain Development o Neurons not fully developed at birth o Ages 3 – 6 most rapid growth in front lobes o Association areas last to develop o Maturation – biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience  Motor Development o Maturation of muscles and nervous system enables emergence of skills o Tend to learn skills in same order, but timing differs  Roll over  sitting  crawling  walking o Maturations and Infant Memory  Average age of conscious memory is 3.5 years  Babies capable of learning before that time
Cognitive Development  Cognition: all mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating  Children’s brains aren’t underdeveloped adult brains o Kids reason differently in ways that seem extremely illogical to adults  Piaget believed kid’s brains developed in a series of stages  Schema: a concept or framework that organizes and interprets info  Assimilation: interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas  Accommodation: adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new info  Attachment and Adult Relationships  Basic trust: a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers  Forms in securely attached children  Deprivation of Attachment  Abused/neglected kids lack attachment  Become sad, withdrawn, frightened, etc.  Most abusive parents were abused or neglected as children  Parenting Styles  Authoritarian: parents impose rules and expect obedience; no wiggle room  Permissive: parents submit to children’s desires; make few demands and use little punishment  Authoritative: parents are both demanding and responsive; exert control by setting and enforcing rules, but also explain the reasons for the rules. And, especially with older kids, encourage open discussion and allow some exceptions to rules  Adolescence 01/13/2011 Adolescence Adolescence: time between childhood and adulthood Physical Development  Puberty: period of sexual maturation, during which a person becomes capable of reproducing Primary sex characteristics: body structures that make sexual reproduction possible  Secondary sex characteristics: nonreproductive sexual characteristics, such as female breasts and hips, male voice quality, and body hair  Girls have earlier pubertal growth spurt  Boys keep growing and become taller than girls after age 14  Menarche: first menstrual period
Cognitive Development  Developing Reasoning Power o Can now begin to engage in abstract thinking o But frontal lobe doesn’t fully develop until age 25  Developing Morality o Discerning right from wrong o Preconventional morality: before age 9, most children’s morality focuses on self-interest: they obey rules either to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards o Conventional morality: by early adolescence, morality focuses on caring for others and on upholding laws and social rules, simply because they are the laws and rules o Postconventional morality: with the abstract reasoning of formal operational thought, people may reach a third moral level. Actions are judged “right” because they flow from people’s rights or from self-defined, basic ethical principles
Social Development  Increased level of social awareness: o About their own thinking o What others are thinking o What others are thinking about them o How ideals can be reached. They criticize society, parents, and even themselves  Forming an Identity o We all have different selves, based on where we are and who we’re with o Identity: our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent’s task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles o Social identity: the “we” aspect of our self-concept; the part of our answer to “Who am I?” that comes from our group memberships o Intimacy: in Erikson’s theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood  Parent and Peer Relationships o By adolescence, kids begin to pull away from parents and become closer with friend groups o Teens who feel outcast suffer greatly; usually in silence  Few lash out physically at peers  Emerging Adulthood o Spans ages 18-25 o On average, emerging adults marry in their mid-twenties o In-between time of adolescent dependence and full independence of responsible adulthood o