Psychology 111
Pennebaker: “confession is good for the soul”
Self-disclosure enormous psychological and physical benefits
The feelings of shame and guilt decreased
Criminals confessed became more relaxed even though they knew they would have to face the consequences
A stronger immune system response the production of white blood cells and antibodies increases
Nondisclosure: “let sleeping dogs lie” (sometimes better)
Children and sexual abuse
Difficult because adults either took no action or didn’t believe them the adult failed them
Revealing can be harmful if judgmental and unsupportive
* Psychological advances and theories are supported and based off of empirical observations * Goal: don’t accept the statement (folklore and common sense) blindly
Need to know when to apply (fact v. fiction)
* Extra Credit: * Identifiable picture of how you currently look * Name and information (some interesting facts – major, interest in psych for what reason, etc.)
* Common sense = unreliable * Lance Armstrong confessing why?
Yields erroneous conclusions
Fosters acceptance of psychomythology: the collective body of misinformation about behavior and human nature
Cognitive error, careless thinking, illusions from cognitive realm
Sources of Careless Thinking and Cognitive Error:
1) Word of Mouth
False beliefs spread through generations by verbal communication
Ex: alligators in the sewer
Tendency to confuse a statement with the truth of it * * 2) Easy Answers
Everyday life – incredibly complex, nothing is simple
No quick fix/easy answer to make it better now
Ex: a program on TV that says they have a program that will help you stop smoking in 24 hours; politics and adolescent pregnancy/how to deal with it
The “just say no” campaign * * 3) Selective Attention and Memory
Not 100% accurate in cognitive processes two people can see a situation and remember very different things
We rarely perceive reality as it actually is
Our lens, biases, pre-existing beliefs before coming into the situation make us anticipate what we see * * 4) Causation
Confusing correlation with causation
If two things go together, it doesn’t mean that one causes the other
Ex: physical abuse and childhood physical abuse in childhood does not necessarily cause aggression as an adult – there can be other variables and factors involved
Cant assume causes
5) Temporal Relationships
The idea if something precedes something else, it was caused by it not necessarily! The events can be completely unrelated
Ex: this person became a serial killer because as a child he went to preschool
Ex: I feel less depressed because I drank herbal tea earlier * * 6) Exposure to a Biased Sample
Ex: individuals in a liberal college setting develop the notion that the rest of the world is the same liberal environment
Non-random individuals * * 7) Representatives
You evaluate two things based on some superficial relationship they have with each other
Ex: I eat rice cakes when I study because they look like brains so that will boost my brain power
Ex: a guy in a dark alley tells you to give him your wall, your representativeness tells you he wants to rob you
8) Media Portrayals
Inaccurate representations from the media
Depicts things being more sensational then they actually are
Ex: with shootings, the media immediately said mental illness is a marker in people who are violent * * 9) Exaggeration
Small facts in myths have been exaggerated
Ex: we only use 10% of our brains false, but it is true that we don’t use our brain to its full potential
Ex: communication patterns between men and women
10) Terminology
Words used incorrectly leads to erroneous assumptions and conclusions
Imprecise
Misapplication of terms leads to confusion
Ex: schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder words used interchangeably a lot, but in reality these are completely different
How about uncommon sense instead?
Unlearn the tendency that common sense can tell you something useful because it only leads to erroneous conclusions
A new, different perspective on psychology
What is psychology?
Psyche = spirit
Logos = the study of
The study of the spirit
Ancient Greeks rigorous science; roots in ancient inquiry a long past, but a short history
Study of psychology began to change around the 18th century
The scientific study, no longer the realm of the spirit
The scientific and systematic study of human behavior
Applies to all different types of sciences, humanities, etc
There are a number of different ways of looking at behavior; psychology looks through the perspective of the individual, whereas sociology looks through the perspective of a group, for example
Therefore can come up with different conclusions
Roots in religion, philosophy, sociology, mythology, etc
Psychology: the scientific study of mind, brain and behavior
Behavior, mental processes, and how they both are affected by an organisms physical and mental state, as well as external environment
Philosophical Issues:
1) Free Will and Determinism
Independent decision or externally determined
Made assumption that everything in the physical world has a cause, a determinant we can apply to behavior
Does everything we do have a cause? Influence?
Or do individuals have free will in which actions are caused by an independent decision?
The test of determinism is empirical
Ex: if a fire alarm goes off, we would evacuate predictable behavior
Unpredictable = what you will eat for lunch today, who you will see on the quad today, etc.
Accumulation of influences that shape behavior and impact it
Variables yield information on behavior that is predictable, but never 100%
The more we know, the more predictable we can be
2) Mind-body problem
Same or separate entities?
Nervous system and the body follow science, so what role does the mind play?
Does mind control the brain, vice versa, or the same?
Empirical perspective: what we can now about the brain’s information, through MRI’s, etc.
Does the brain cause associated thoughts?
3) Nature and nurture
Both are influences, we must be aware of them
Maturation and learning genetics and experience common and unique effects
Behaviors result because of genetic or cultural influences?
Which process is primary and more important?
Maturation: biological enfolding; these processes occur across all cultures, how you develop in the womb (or growing through puberty) is a universal process that affects all individuals
Neurological growth
Learning: nurture; do personal experiences produce permanent changes in the individual?
Allows the individual to develop in their own, unique way
Ex: language and communication
A behavior produces a consequence we act the same if we want that consequence again * *
3 Philosophical Issues:
1) Free Will vs. Determinism
2) Nature vs. Nurture
3) Mind-body vs. Mind-brain
Q: Why are these still relevant today?
Background for empirical studies
Nature of Humanity/of mankind (addressed by social philosophers)
Q: Is mankind naturally good or evil?
Hobbes
Original sin “doomed to always be imperfect”
Inherently social egoist
Controlled, taught what the right way it
Children are evil
Rousseau
Children and adults are born with innate purity
Sense of right vs. wrong
Misdirected by impure adults in society
Freedom to follow own inclinations do the right thing
Locke
Mind = a blank slate
No inborn tendencies
Experiences (society) shape outcome of the individual
Society has to provide instructions and control what the child experiences * * Q: Are children passive or active in their development? * * Research provides explanation * Critical Thinking: the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments (on the basis of supportive reasoning/evidence) * There must be a willingness to ask questions * You must be curious and wanting to think outside the box * Ex: WWII vulnerable parts of plane put more armor on the places where there were no holes, not where there were holes because the plane was able to survive with those holes * Willingness to examine the evidence, no matter what you believe * Be aware of biases (surrounding the data and your own) * Avoid emotional reasoning * Will replace clarity of thought * Entertain other interpretations * The simpler explanation is much more likely * Willingness to tolerate uncertainty * Evidence can be very supportive but its never 100% sure usually you can get to a point where you are very, very sure * Unlikely for there to be only one answer * There can be several explanations for the cause of one thing
Theory vs. Method
Theory: will tell us where to look
Pick a particular viewpoint
Ex: aggression in children is a result of parenting techniques
Integrated set of principles that will allow you to describe (how), explain (why), and predict (what) is happening in science
Organize facts (dealing with multiple instances)
Ideas that help you summarize the facts and integrate them into a testable hole
Generate logical hypotheses (educated guesses)
Focus future predictions and intentions
Broad view on complexities
Will support or fail your hypothesis
Always being modified
Theories give structure to facts
Must be open to public scrutiny
Less complex than the behavior it seeks to explain
Must be testable
Opinion vs. Fact
Opinion everyone’s thoughts are valid (especially when concerning religion or personal preferences)
Fact once you enter this realm, opinion doesn’t matter
Ex: Honda is a better car than BMW
What proof is there that Hondas are better than BMWs?
* Psychology = the study of thinking, problem solving, creativity (all aspects of critical thinking) and of breaking down the barriers to critical thinking (biases) * There is a separate psychological truth from what the media puts out to the public in the form of TV, books, Internet, etc.
* Critical thinking (and uncritical) thinking * Theory and methods * * Methods * How to look – methods * Scientific method how we can gather information in order to be confident in it * Think about research design * Observation * Correlation * Experiment
1) Ask a question
What you see in the world around you
Personal reflections and observations
Prior research
Theory
2) Reformulate into a specific hypothesis
Hypothesis: a specific prediction that can be empirically tested
3) Test provide evidence (research)
4) Draw conclusions based directly off of results
Don’t over-generalize
Not too broad or too narrow * 5) Obligation to make results available scientific publication (open to peer review)
Safeguard the results of your work (objective eyes)
Description about procedure, apparatus, participant audience, statistical analysis
Detailed so that it can be repeated * * Observation: description of behavior * Descriptive: looking and recording behavior * Caution! Hawthorne Effect: mere fact of observation might impact the behavior you are trying to observe * Chicago (East Electric Company) * Tinkered with variables to find out what would make work more productive * EVERYTHING they changed increased productivity
External Validity: how well this behavior is in real life; how closely is it related to real life behavior * Reactivity: the idea that behavior is modified simply as a result of being observed not truly representative * Behavior seen is a response to being observed; it changes * Need to have a very specific thing you test * Observation depends on how you define what you are looking at * Operational Definition * Everyone knows what you are trying to test * Ex: what qualifies as aggression? * Go to a pre-school where everyone is nice and over time your definition of what aggression is will start to change
Start out observing the same thing but through observing over time, the definition of what you were looking for begins to change * Observer Bias
Ex: thinking boys are more aggressive than girls so when a girl pushes a boy you will not acknowledge of that as an act of aggression * Laboratory vs. Natural Observation * Laboratory * Ainsworth and attachment (between children and care givers)
Naturalistic Observation: out in the world; you go and observe behavior in a natural setting (i.e., park, mall, school, etc.)
Latane and helping
Created a situation where help was needed (i.e., dropping a bag of groceries when boarding a bus)
Participant Observation: you are part of the group you’re trying to observe
Try to become a part of the group and what you are trying to study * Case Study: observation of a single individual/instance over a fairly long period of time * Ex: Genie * Locked in a room * No contact or interaction with people * Researchers wanted to observe how she acted after being released
Ex: Piaget with Laurent and Lucienne
Their developmental process and moral reasoning
Ex: Do you know what a lie is? Yes. It’s when you don’t tell the truth. Well, what if you are just confused? Or made a mistake?
Only one instance
External Validity? not a good indicator for the general, bigger audience
Q: Are case studies truly representative of all individuals? * Survey: observation by getting information through a questionnaire, interview, etc. * Gather information from a lot of people in a short period of time * Understand who your sample is and who you want this to generalize to * Limited number of questions * Self-implored people can lie! * Does the individual understand what you’re asking? * Phrasing the question * Asking it in several ways
Systematic Observation: you go to where people are and observe them in that setting
Ex: want to observe preschoolers? Go to a preschool.
Making Predictions
Correlation: if there are 2 variable measures, what kind of relationship do they take on?
Nature of the relationship? Two variables varying together systematically.
Add predictive power
Correlation Coefficient: how well can we predict one variable when we know the value of the second variable
-1.0 +1.0
Positive Correlation: will change in the same direction [both increase, both decrease] (i.e., study longer, get higher grades)
Negative Correlation: will change in opposite directions (i.e., practice longer, make less errors on court)
Zero Correlation: there is no systematic relationship between the two variables (i.e., number of siblings and shoe size)
Absolute Value: lets us know about the strength of the relationship
Ex: -0.69 > +0.32
The higher the number, no matter positive or negative, the stronger the relationship * * Prediction with correlation is helpful and will certainly provide us with a lot of information but usually (unless it is -1.0 or +1.0) it will not tell us everything we need to know.
Strong correlation? We know, for sure, that this relationship exists. We also know about the likelihood of the probability of variables.
Correlation permits prediction but not correlation of causality.
Ex: there is a strong amount of correlation between the amount of violent TV children watch and them being violent later on in life.
We know that these two things go together, but we don’t know why
People can say that if children watch more violent TV then they will definitely be violent as adults
But…could there be a third, unknown variable that explains why children are violent?
Yes. For example, he comes from an abusive, violent, aggressive household
We can’t say that one causes the other.
Correlation is NOT causation.
Experiment: a way to explain the cause of a behavior * Add causal statement
Control
The amount of control an experimenter can exert on the surrounding variables
Manipulation of variables – actively manipulating some aspect of the environment (internal or external)
Manipulations you choose will be determined by your hypothesis: if…then… statement (ex: if the room is dark, then it’ll be difficult to perform a maze task correctly)
If certain conditions are present, then a specific type of behavior will occur
Ex: temperature in the room, time of day, amount of lighting, participants internal state (i.e., happy, crabby, hungry, etc.), social factors (i.e., presence or absence of an authority figure)
Independent variable – the part of the environment that is manipulated (ex: when studying the relationship between violent TV and violent adults, your independent variable would be what kind of TV show your participants watch)
Response
Dependent variable – the response to the manipulation
Confounding variables – something other than the independent variable that might impacting the performance of your groups
Something that you have no adequately controlled for (not thought about), but was something that you did need control for, is now affecting the outcome of your study
Random assignment – any individual is going to have an equal opportunity to end up in the control group or the experiment group
Trying to minimize the impact of some other, possibly confounding variable, as you look at your results
Experiment is trying to created a very controlled environment that seeks to eliminate the presence and affects of any other outside variables other than the one you are testing
Common goal of research designs – to know about behavior and especially about naturally occurring behavior
Idea of realism: the more realistic your experiment situation is, the more likely it is that you will see real behavior
Mundane – how much like is a situation where this behavior might occur is like it is in a real world where this situation would happen
How much is this situation like a naturally occurring situation
Experiential – to what extent does the participant buy into whatever scenario it is that you have set up
High in experiential realism, it doesn’t matter that its not high in mundane realism because you’ve put people into a situation where they’re responding naturally and don’t have to think about their actions
Ready to go? Ready to investigate some question about human behavior?
Well not quite – one more thing to consider…ethical concerns (how participants are treat in the study).
Ethics in research
IRB – institutional review board
Any institution that receives federal funding must go through the IRB
Will make a determination about what is being asked about the participants and will make a cost-benefit analysis
How important is this information?
Can it be gathered some other way?
Overview about how the participants of any given study will be treated
Various stages of review depending on the various characteristics of the study; also depends on the participants of the study because it will require more care and concern and consideration (i.e., studies involving children will always go under the most inspection; elderly; hospitalized people)
Informed consent – before you participate in a study, the participants have the right to know what is being asked of them, the right to know what they will be doing, and the right to know some information about the study
Information regarding any possible harm that might follow as a result of this
Can withdraw consent at any point in the study
Who is in charge and contact information
If participants know what it is that is being asked of them then they will not find themselves in a situation where they feel uncomfortable and abused
Debriefing – after the study is over, participants have the right to know what has transpired, where they kind find out information, they have the right to have their questions about the study answered
* CITI city certification that permits an individual to serve in the capacity as a researcher * Undergraduates also have to take this test in order to prove that they are held to the highest standard * * Issues with Ethics * Deception * Cost-benefit analysis does the good outweigh the bad? * Can the experiment be preformed without deception? * Sometimes it’s very necessary to use deception because there’s “no better way” * Need deception in order to preform the experiment correctly and without any bias
Ex: in the Hawthorne Effect example (people’s behavior changing as a result of being observed) it would be necessary to use deception because then you can make sure people aren’t reacting in a certain way just based off of your observation of them
There are cases where deception appears to be the only way that you can look at people behaving in their natural habitat
There are ethical implications involved with the use of deception
Harmful psychological effects even after debriefing
Ex: telling some people that they have better social skills than others and even after debriefing that sticks with them
Destroys the experimenter-participant relationship
A professional relationship based on trust that needs to be maintained – deception can ruin it
Deprives the subject of choosing whether or not they want to be exposed to the risks of the study
Is it the right of the experimenter to force something onto their participants? Is it their right to enforce obedience?
Is it the experimenter’s right to teach their participants a lesson?
There are methodological implications
The level of trust between the participant and the experimenter
Participant goes in expecting to be treated honestly and fairly – with deception, they are fooled and lied to
Participant population will be altered because the trust will be broken – altered to the point where it will be extremely different to get them to the point of experiential realism
A desire (by the participant) to “outwit” the experimenter because they think they know (or want to figure out) what the study is about
Not opposed to the use of deception, but opposed to use it as something forceful and without thinking about its implications
Shouldn’t be the first alternative – need to think about how else the information can be obtained…and if the information can be gotten in a different way, with the same quality of results, then deception shouldn’t be implemented
Sometimes the questions being asked can only be answered using deception
Almost never appropriate to use deception with special populations (i.e., children, the elderly, inmates, people with cognitive learning disabilities, etc.) * Subject protection – * In certain groups, deception is never appropriate to use these groups need to be protected * Ex: children, the elderly, prisoners, people with cognitive disabilities
Hurley and Underwood
The rights of participants in a study
Study: how children cope with peer provocation (97 girls, 81 boys)
2nd, 4th, or 6th grade (8, 10, or 12 years old)
How children get along with other children?
After the procedure was over and the children were debriefed, what did they understand – about consent, about what it was they were doing, why they were doing these things, about participating voluntarily, did they feel pressure from the outside (parents, adults, etc.) to participate, did they understand confidentiality?
What is it that every participant has the right to expect with an experiment?
Gave consent freely – weren’t coerced by anyone else to participate
Older children (especially the 6th graders) understood the study
They understood the idea of confidentiality
Understood the purpose of the study after they had participated
Younger children (2nd graders) were essentially clueless
Agreed that they had given their consent on their own terms
After debriefing, they knew no more about the experiment or what had transpired than before debriefing
When dealing with children, it is extremely important to think about the level of cognition that these children are and to use language and words to describe it to them in a way that they will and can understand
Important to think about the cognitive level where children are
Have to think about the risk of having children participate in studies
Vulnerable in a lot of ways:
Willingness to believe (whatever the researcher tells them)
Naïve – very trustful of others
Totally dependent on their parents/other adults
Level of cognitive maturity
Young children have a difficult time thinking abstractly
Risk for older children (teenagers, 15 & 16) as well:
Children at this age are concerned about themselves, their identity, how others see them – they are A LOT MORE impressionable at this age because they care about how others perceive them
Can develop self-doubt at a time when they should be developing confidence, in themselves and the world
When dealing with children, young or old, there are important factors to consider in the experiment because there are risks – different risks, but still risks – involved in dealing with children of all ages
Intelligence * What are the different meanings of intelligence? * Ex: 12 year old in medical school vs. 22 year old with the behavioral and mind of a 4 year, but is extremely mathematically gifted * Conceptual Definition: deals with the concept, basic essence of what we are looking at – not trying to measure something * Intelligence has to do with adaptation – to the situation you are in, the demands of the situation, etc. * Someone who is intelligent is able to adapt and figure out how to be successful in that environment * Conceptual Definition of Intelligence deals with adaptation * Operational Definition: how something is measured and how we can measure it * IQ (intelligence quotient) * A number of challenges when studying intelligence * How is intelligence conceptualized? * Intelligence is something possessed by the individual * You can’t see it and it cannot be measured directly – not easily observable * Not necessarily a single ability – can be a collection of a number of different abilities
How can we measure individual differences in a certain skill to determine the level of intelligence?
If it is possible to measure activities accurately, then it is possible to tailor skills and activities specific to what you’re talented in
What is the source of intelligence?
Genetic background? Race? Gender? Life experience?
The study of intelligence is also the study of the plasticity of the mind
Individuals do differ in abilities, but for what reason does that difference exist? * * Conceptual Definition of Intelligence * Theoretical * The adaptive nature of the brain * An individual can be considered intelligent if they are able to solve problems that are in some way related to their environment * Non-human intelligence (i.e., birds, mammals) * Intelligence is not something that we see only in humans but is also something that we can see in non-humans as well * Different survival needs which require different intelligences * * Approaches – accounting for individual differences 1) Psychometrics: a mental capacity understood by analyzing performance on mental tests
Giving a multitude of tests that analyze and test specific skills (verbal ability, mathematical ability, etc.) and then piecing together all of this information to determine intelligence and mental ability
“Measure the mind”
Sir Francis Galton – half-cousin to Charles Darwin
Saw intelligence as a way to determine who was the fittest
Individual differences in intelligence are based in heredity
Differences can be measured through tests of sensory discrimination, reaction time
Results and accuracy of these tests (in terms of measuring intelligence)
If the individual scored high on one test, there was a good chance he would score high on other tests
General Intelligence – contributed in some way to each of the various measured skills
Idea that there is some general ability that can be seen in other, more specific abilities
Spearman – factor analysis (g) analyzes the relationships and correlations among a variety of test scores
If a single factor is going to be influencing intelligence, then we would expect someone to perform similarly on other types if tests if you are in fact testing the same ability
Performance would be able to be predicted by looking at other tests (i.e., math ability can be predicted by verbal ability)
General (g) and specific (s)
General Intellectual Ability (G): can be used to explain performance on a wide variety of mental tasks
Not entirely possible to explain individual test scores based solely on the principle of g
Specific Intellectual Ability (S): abilities specific to an individual test
The general factor (g) will be interacting with the specific abilities (s) in a variety of tests
Hierarchical
Thurstone – 2 factor (analysis)
7 primary mental abilities –
Verbal comprehension
Verbal fluency
Numerical ability
Spatial ability
Memory
Perceptual speed
Reasoning
7 factors are largely independent of each other – the performance on one test doesn’t necessarily tell you about the performance of the other test
Catell & Horn – intelligence is composed of 2 different intelligences
Fluid Intelligence: the ability to solve problems, the ability to reason and remember in ways that are relatively (unrelated to learning?)
More biological and genetic
Crystallized Intelligence: measures acquired knowledge and acquired ability
Determined by the types of living experiences an individual has (schooling, cultural, environmental)
The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence is important because it shows about intelligence changes through the aging process in different cultures
Analyzing the measures of intelligence through various tests
* 2) Cognitive Approach 3) Multiple Intelligences 4) Triarchic Theory
Intelligence: Approaches that Account for Individual Differences * Psychometric: performance on tests * Catell and Horn – fluid and crystallized intelligence * Both factors of general (g) intelligence * Gc (crystallized) or Gf * Discrete, independent entities – it’s apparent that one of these powers that the fluid quality of being directed to any problem, while the other can be crystallized to more specific problems * Early claims of independence have been challenged by later work – there is a relationship between these types of intelligences * Modified and elaborated on by Horn
Fluid Intelligence: the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations
Independent of acquired knowledge
Ability to analyze novel situations/problems (things you may not have seen before), identify patterns in these problems, and identify the relationships that exist between these elements
Necessary when thinking about logic and trying to solve logical problems scientific problem solving, mathematics, technical
Crystallized Intelligence: the ability to use the skills, the knowledge, and the experience that you have acquired over time
Doesn’t equate precisely to memory or knowledge, but rather how you use the things you have been exposed to
Cultural and educational experiences
Tends to improve over time because experiences will be used to expand your knowledge base leads to an increase
The product of educational and cultural experience as it interacts with fluid intelligence
Not completely independent of fluid intelligence – interactions
Capacity to reason using words and numbers
Neuro-systems are thought to be responsible for controlling and modifying these types of intelligences
Fluid Intelligence – dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex & anterior singulit cortex and other systems related to attention and memory (short-term memory ONLY)
Crystallized Intelligence – regions involved in the storage and use of long-term memories (hippocampus)
Appear to be correlated with each other tests of intelligence tap into both types of intelligence
WAIS: Wexler Adult Intelligence Scale (widely used psychometric test for intelligence)
Measures fluid intelligence with items from the performance scale and measures crystallized intelligence with items from the verbal scale
In a corporate environment – mostly concerned with fluid intelligence viewed as a predictor of a person’s capacity to work well in an environment concerned with ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty
Deficits in fluid intelligence are found in autistic individuals
Ex: Asperger’s
Crystallized intelligence is amenable to change depending on your cultural and educational experiences
Rely on specific, required knowledge
Relatively stable over adulthood and then begins to decline around the age of 65
If you don’t use the knowledge and experience you’ve acquired then it is forgotten and becomes no longer accessible and cannot be used when you need it to
Forgetting exceeds the rate at which new knowledge is acquired (around 65)
Fluid intelligence tends to peak in young adulthood steadily decline over time after that
Related to the aging processes that take place in the brain?
Lack of practice and utilization (of acquired skills)
Can fluid intelligence be maintained over time? [What if practice is continued?] Can we increase fluid intelligence?
Look at research that seeks to improve fluid intelligence by training working memory
Working Memory: part of long-term memory that is available for active information processing – putting information into and then retrieval of it from storage
Backward digit span (start with the most recently mentioned number and then go backwards)
Ex: 2, 3, 4, 7 correct answer would be 7, 4, 3, 2
N-back task: N can be any number person is presented with a sequence of stimuli and telling if the current stimuli you’re being exposed to is the same as the stimuli exposed to N tasks ago
Jaeggi – N-back test with adults – training adults (providing them with practice) and then looking to see what the impact of that training was on the testing of another fluid intelligence test
Fluid intelligence was trainable and significant to a certain degree
More training = greater gains (dosage affect)
Occurs across the spectrum of abilities – affect was larger on the lower end of the spectrum because these individuals have more room to improve
Cognitive exercise (practicing with your working memory) can increase your working memory, thereby improving your fluid memory suggests the modify-ability of intelligence
The assessment of intellectual abilities is dynamic, not static in psychiometry
Jaeggi’s experiments are controversial – replication? (some can, some can’t)
Can see the impact of this work through advertisements
Ex: tasks and strategies to increase your “brain power” [working memory]
* Cognitive Approach: emphasis on analyzing internal mental processes * 2 ways to analyze these mental processes * 1) Mental Speed: speed of transmission along neural pathways * The faster the transmission, the higher the intelligence * Process more information and more efficiently
Significant correlations between measures of neural transmission and performance on psychometric tests
2) Componential Analysis: identifying the specific mental processes that contribute to intellectual performance
A way that uses reaction time, as well as error rate, to isolate a lot of the internal mental processes that can be tapped by traditional intelligence tests
Ex: analogies – an individual’s ability to detect relationships
Lawyer is to client as doctor it to patient
An intelligence person will be able to infer a relationship between the first two components quickly and then generate what will be the next target of the component of that analogy
Intelligent people can generate and monitor overall effective plans for attacking a problem faster and more efficiently than others
Understand the nature of the relationship
Basis for work in artificial intelligence and expert systems
What are the rules by which we make decisions?
Aviation Psychology – Pilot Associate Program What are the types of decisions that the pilot makes? Possible alternatives? Etc.
Looking at what is involved (in decision-making) and then being able to specify it so that an intelligent choice can be made
* Multiple Intelligences: specialized skill or unique-type of ability that stands alone * Howard Garner – uncomfortable with the idea that there is solely one intelligence suggests that there are a whole host of intelligences and depending on the situation that the individual finds themselves in, the individual can tap into different abilities * Broadens traditional ideas of intelligence * Intelligences are independent of each other and how you do on one intelligence doesn’t impact or determine how you will perform on other intelligence tasks * There are other aspects of intellectual behavior (other than verbal or mathematics) that arise depending on the situation the individual is in * Can’t depend on test scores to tell you about an adaptive behavior – if it actually is adaptive then you can see it in real life * Case studies – got information on the talents of individuals * Musical Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * Logically-Mathematical Intelligence * Linguistic Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Interpersonal Intelligence * Individual who is capable of understanding how other people work, how to get others to do stuff for them (i.e., salesman) * Intrapersonal Intelligence * Individual who knows and understands themselves pretty well
Naturalistic Intelligence
Identify and be able to understand animals and plants and other living beings
“An” intelligence – not “the” intelligence
Depending on the situation that the individual finds themselves in, some of these intelligences will be more important than others in order to be successful in the environment
Importance of the cultural setting that the individual finds themselves in
Represent ways of being adaptive in different environments * * Triarchic Theory: an alternative to Gardner’s multiple intelligences * Sternberg: combination of multiple intelligences, cognitive approach, psychometric approach – he had a background in cognition mental operations related to the environment
Have to think about what happens outside (in the environment) to be able to call the mental operations being performed intelligence
3 major parts:
1) Analytic: basic analytic skills – some are better than others at processing information seeing problems in ways that are solvable and generating new strategies for solving these problems
Tend to perform well on conventional intelligence tasks that test reasoning and mathematical ability
2) Creative: how well people are able to cope with new or novel tasks – how well someone can come up with novel solutions and generate new ideas
How can we put all of this together in a new way, that no one has yet thought of, to solve this problem and attack it in a novel way
People who don’t score well – difficulties in application can know things but don’t see how it is relevant or how it can be applied anywhere else
3) Practical: how well do you fit into your environment
Can solve problems that are uniquely posed by whatever environment they find themselves in – can shift gears and change based upon which environment they exist in
Ex: study abroad programs
Adapt to the environment
* Emotion * Conceptual definition the mental state, or feeling, associated with the evaluation of experience * * Theoretical approaches * Discrete States: there are some small number of distinct emotional states; these can combine together in unique ways to generate new, more complex, emotional states * Biological roots – emotions tend to be universal
Emotion is the result of cognition, of thinking; and individuals emotional state depends on how you interpret a situation
Somatic Marker: automatic response (i.e., heart rate, sweaty palms or respiration) to determine how to act/how one acts in certain situations
Causes physiological arousal
Incorporates variables
* Sources of information – where can you get information about an individuals emotional state? * Verbal behavior – asking someone how they feel and getting a response * Ex: “I have never been so humiliated before in my life….that was so embarrassing!”
Sometimes an individual might not be that in touch with their emotional state (or may want to mislead you) you have to move past verbal communication
* Nonverbal Behavior: identification of underlying emotion – not what is being said, but what a person is emitting through other (i.e., gestures) actions * Where to look [for clues]? * Physical movement * Gestures – Paul Ekman people use gestures and their bodies in many different ways that give you information about their emotional and mental state; must be interpreted correctly * Emblem – culturally learned specific meaning in one culture, but completely different in another culture; historically bound as well * Shakespeare: “I bit my thumb at you” * Illustrators – people are going to nonverbally illustrate some physical event or thought process * A child stretching her arms out to indicate the size of how big monsters under her bed are
Regulator – lend structure to social interaction; facilitates conversation; indicates attention; segments conversation
Ex: when following along in a conversation – head nodding and eye contact
Ex: not following along in a conversation – bowing down your head and not keeping eye contact
Adapter/Manipulator – self-directed types of gestures; when people are not paying attention, distracted, having an internal conflict not paying attention to things going around them but rather to what is going on inside themselves
Ex: hair flip, twirling hair * * Facial Expression: Ekman – strong proponent of discrete states of emotion way to communicate * Facial expressions that individuals might assume are not culturally dependent, but rather are universal across cultures and therefore biological in origin * Six expressions thought to be universal * False – there are cultural differences in how people will interpret certain facial features and emotional states * Nowicki: how good are people (students) at interpreting facial expressions within their own racial group * Did a study with African Americans and European Americans * African American students were overall much more successful and consistent at identifying BOTH African American and European American emotional faces and states * European Americans were pretty consistent with identifying themselves, but not good at recognizing the emotions of African Americans * African Americans are part of a minority group and essentially had more pressure on themselves to figure out the emotional states of the students, both in their group and in the European Americans * Cultural In-Group Advantage being able to identify faces and emotional states of members within their own group * Did another study with the addition of international students * African Americans and European Americans were more successful at interpreting the emotions given off by the photographs of the European American faces * International students were less accurate at recognizing the emotions * More exposure you had to individuals of European descent, the higher your chance of guessing their emotion was * Four emotional states: happy, sad, angry, fearful [basic expressions]
Exposure, acculturation
Common errors
For international students, they tended to misidentify angry faces as happy faces
African American and European Americans misidentified fearful faces as sad faces
While these emotions may be common across all groups, the identification of associated facial features is not common across all groups
Survival function – individuals recognize faces that indicate some threat or potential danger Hansen & Hansen
Showed individuals a group of 9 faces – 8 had the same face [angry] and the remaining 1 person showed a different face [neutral or happy]
8 [happy], 1 [neutral or angry]
How long will it take the participant to find the odd face?
Angry faces were located and noticed more rapidly than finding happy faces in a neutral or happy crowd
Much more attuned to finding an angry face because that might represent a threat or danger to you
Less errors made in identifying angry faces
Information source – facial feedback hypothesis suggests that the information you provide on your face tends to feedback; your muscles feeding back to your brain
Ex: happy face, position of facial muscles (i.e., lips to form a smile) will feedback and alter your emotional state, making you happier
One group received Botox (paralyzes facial muscles) and the other Restylane (fills in wrinkle-lines but doesn’t paralyze their facial muscles)
People receiving the Botox injections should report weaker emotional responses to the stimuli (of positive and negative clips) – can’t smile or frown [or react in any way] to provide feedback to the clips
True!! people with Botox reported less emotion upon watching the videos than those given Restylane * * What kind of information are we getting about nonverbal communication? * Status and power * Preference * Especially true with eye contact, personal space, and touching * Eye contact – can indicate dominance or intimacy * Long & hard gaze offsetting and creepy versus romantic * Personal space – who respects other peoples personal space? * People of lower status respect the personal space of those with a higher status * People who are friendly and warm will be permitted into personal space
Touch – who do you touch?
Touch people you like (to reassure, greet, etc.)
Individuals of lower status do not touch those of higher status * * Why is it important?! * Nonverbal behavior is a good indicator of interpersonal relationships – what kind of emotional signals are being provided for other people * Provides a lot of information about social behavior and emotional state * Problem for people bad at interpreting nonverbal social skills
Nowicki & Duke: the ability to analyze the nonverbal signals is extremely important because very little communication is delivered verbally in interpersonal relationships
Nonverbal communication is continuous and constant
Dyssemia: the problem understanding and analyzing nonverbal communications
Rhythmic Dyssemia: people have difficulty with timing and cant seem to adjust the pace of their interaction or conversation with other people – rhythmicity
Ex: person who doesn’t understand when to shut the fuck up or who doesn’t know how to join in the conversation
Spatial Awareness: unaware of their own personal space or of others personal space
Gestural or Postural: people who don’t understand the moods associated with certain postures and gestures
Facial: poor eye contact, facial expressions are absent or inappropriate
Ex: when someone is telling you that they just got broken up with and you’re smiling
Paralanguage: not what you say, but how you say it – how the voice is being used
Ex: person who talks too loudly when you’re having a private conversation; emphasizing the wrong words in sentences; can’t decode intonations
Lower social confidence – poor peer relations, low sociometric status (indicates that people don’t want to hang out with you…probably because you suck); stronger in females than in males
Emotional – depression, social anxiety, externalizing behaviors [aggressive behaviors]; stronger in males than in females
Not associated with any significant differences in intelligences – just not being able to understand and interpret these emotional cues low social competence
Nonverbal – language of relationships
Verbal – language of information * * Deception: nonspontaneous and posed expressions * False Smiles – smiles usually indicate happiness and openness but fake smiles happen when you’re trying to disguise your unhappiness * Ex: when someone gives you a shitty present
Self-disclosure enormous psychological and physical benefits
The feelings of shame and guilt decreased
Criminals confessed became more relaxed even though they knew they would have to face the consequences
A stronger immune system response the production of white blood cells and antibodies increases
Nondisclosure: “let sleeping dogs lie” (sometimes better)
Children and sexual abuse
Difficult because adults either took no action or didn’t believe them the adult failed them
Revealing can be harmful if judgmental and unsupportive
* Psychological advances and theories are supported and based off of empirical observations * Goal: don’t accept the statement (folklore and common sense) blindly
Need to know when to apply (fact v. fiction)
* Extra Credit: * Identifiable picture of how you currently look * Name and information (some interesting facts – major, interest in psych for what reason, etc.)
* Common sense = unreliable * Lance Armstrong confessing why?
Yields erroneous conclusions
Fosters acceptance of psychomythology: the collective body of misinformation about behavior and human nature
Cognitive error, careless thinking, illusions from cognitive realm
Sources of Careless Thinking and Cognitive Error:
1) Word of Mouth
False beliefs spread through generations by verbal communication
Ex: alligators in the sewer
Tendency to confuse a statement with the truth of it * * 2) Easy Answers
Everyday life – incredibly complex, nothing is simple
No quick fix/easy answer to make it better now
Ex: a program on TV that says they have a program that will help you stop smoking in 24 hours; politics and adolescent pregnancy/how to deal with it
The “just say no” campaign * * 3) Selective Attention and Memory
Not 100% accurate in cognitive processes two people can see a situation and remember very different things
We rarely perceive reality as it actually is
Our lens, biases, pre-existing beliefs before coming into the situation make us anticipate what we see * * 4) Causation
Confusing correlation with causation
If two things go together, it doesn’t mean that one causes the other
Ex: physical abuse and childhood physical abuse in childhood does not necessarily cause aggression as an adult – there can be other variables and factors involved
Cant assume causes
5) Temporal Relationships
The idea if something precedes something else, it was caused by it not necessarily! The events can be completely unrelated
Ex: this person became a serial killer because as a child he went to preschool
Ex: I feel less depressed because I drank herbal tea earlier * * 6) Exposure to a Biased Sample
Ex: individuals in a liberal college setting develop the notion that the rest of the world is the same liberal environment
Non-random individuals * * 7) Representatives
You evaluate two things based on some superficial relationship they have with each other
Ex: I eat rice cakes when I study because they look like brains so that will boost my brain power
Ex: a guy in a dark alley tells you to give him your wall, your representativeness tells you he wants to rob you
8) Media Portrayals
Inaccurate representations from the media
Depicts things being more sensational then they actually are
Ex: with shootings, the media immediately said mental illness is a marker in people who are violent * * 9) Exaggeration
Small facts in myths have been exaggerated
Ex: we only use 10% of our brains false, but it is true that we don’t use our brain to its full potential
Ex: communication patterns between men and women
10) Terminology
Words used incorrectly leads to erroneous assumptions and conclusions
Imprecise
Misapplication of terms leads to confusion
Ex: schizophrenia and multiple personality disorder words used interchangeably a lot, but in reality these are completely different
How about uncommon sense instead?
Unlearn the tendency that common sense can tell you something useful because it only leads to erroneous conclusions
A new, different perspective on psychology
What is psychology?
Psyche = spirit
Logos = the study of
The study of the spirit
Ancient Greeks rigorous science; roots in ancient inquiry a long past, but a short history
Study of psychology began to change around the 18th century
The scientific study, no longer the realm of the spirit
The scientific and systematic study of human behavior
Applies to all different types of sciences, humanities, etc
There are a number of different ways of looking at behavior; psychology looks through the perspective of the individual, whereas sociology looks through the perspective of a group, for example
Therefore can come up with different conclusions
Roots in religion, philosophy, sociology, mythology, etc
Psychology: the scientific study of mind, brain and behavior
Behavior, mental processes, and how they both are affected by an organisms physical and mental state, as well as external environment
Philosophical Issues:
1) Free Will and Determinism
Independent decision or externally determined
Made assumption that everything in the physical world has a cause, a determinant we can apply to behavior
Does everything we do have a cause? Influence?
Or do individuals have free will in which actions are caused by an independent decision?
The test of determinism is empirical
Ex: if a fire alarm goes off, we would evacuate predictable behavior
Unpredictable = what you will eat for lunch today, who you will see on the quad today, etc.
Accumulation of influences that shape behavior and impact it
Variables yield information on behavior that is predictable, but never 100%
The more we know, the more predictable we can be
2) Mind-body problem
Same or separate entities?
Nervous system and the body follow science, so what role does the mind play?
Does mind control the brain, vice versa, or the same?
Empirical perspective: what we can now about the brain’s information, through MRI’s, etc.
Does the brain cause associated thoughts?
3) Nature and nurture
Both are influences, we must be aware of them
Maturation and learning genetics and experience common and unique effects
Behaviors result because of genetic or cultural influences?
Which process is primary and more important?
Maturation: biological enfolding; these processes occur across all cultures, how you develop in the womb (or growing through puberty) is a universal process that affects all individuals
Neurological growth
Learning: nurture; do personal experiences produce permanent changes in the individual?
Allows the individual to develop in their own, unique way
Ex: language and communication
A behavior produces a consequence we act the same if we want that consequence again * *
3 Philosophical Issues:
1) Free Will vs. Determinism
2) Nature vs. Nurture
3) Mind-body vs. Mind-brain
Q: Why are these still relevant today?
Background for empirical studies
Nature of Humanity/of mankind (addressed by social philosophers)
Q: Is mankind naturally good or evil?
Hobbes
Original sin “doomed to always be imperfect”
Inherently social egoist
Controlled, taught what the right way it
Children are evil
Rousseau
Children and adults are born with innate purity
Sense of right vs. wrong
Misdirected by impure adults in society
Freedom to follow own inclinations do the right thing
Locke
Mind = a blank slate
No inborn tendencies
Experiences (society) shape outcome of the individual
Society has to provide instructions and control what the child experiences * * Q: Are children passive or active in their development? * * Research provides explanation * Critical Thinking: the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments (on the basis of supportive reasoning/evidence) * There must be a willingness to ask questions * You must be curious and wanting to think outside the box * Ex: WWII vulnerable parts of plane put more armor on the places where there were no holes, not where there were holes because the plane was able to survive with those holes * Willingness to examine the evidence, no matter what you believe * Be aware of biases (surrounding the data and your own) * Avoid emotional reasoning * Will replace clarity of thought * Entertain other interpretations * The simpler explanation is much more likely * Willingness to tolerate uncertainty * Evidence can be very supportive but its never 100% sure usually you can get to a point where you are very, very sure * Unlikely for there to be only one answer * There can be several explanations for the cause of one thing
Theory vs. Method
Theory: will tell us where to look
Pick a particular viewpoint
Ex: aggression in children is a result of parenting techniques
Integrated set of principles that will allow you to describe (how), explain (why), and predict (what) is happening in science
Organize facts (dealing with multiple instances)
Ideas that help you summarize the facts and integrate them into a testable hole
Generate logical hypotheses (educated guesses)
Focus future predictions and intentions
Broad view on complexities
Will support or fail your hypothesis
Always being modified
Theories give structure to facts
Must be open to public scrutiny
Less complex than the behavior it seeks to explain
Must be testable
Opinion vs. Fact
Opinion everyone’s thoughts are valid (especially when concerning religion or personal preferences)
Fact once you enter this realm, opinion doesn’t matter
Ex: Honda is a better car than BMW
What proof is there that Hondas are better than BMWs?
* Psychology = the study of thinking, problem solving, creativity (all aspects of critical thinking) and of breaking down the barriers to critical thinking (biases) * There is a separate psychological truth from what the media puts out to the public in the form of TV, books, Internet, etc.
* Critical thinking (and uncritical) thinking * Theory and methods * * Methods * How to look – methods * Scientific method how we can gather information in order to be confident in it * Think about research design * Observation * Correlation * Experiment
1) Ask a question
What you see in the world around you
Personal reflections and observations
Prior research
Theory
2) Reformulate into a specific hypothesis
Hypothesis: a specific prediction that can be empirically tested
3) Test provide evidence (research)
4) Draw conclusions based directly off of results
Don’t over-generalize
Not too broad or too narrow * 5) Obligation to make results available scientific publication (open to peer review)
Safeguard the results of your work (objective eyes)
Description about procedure, apparatus, participant audience, statistical analysis
Detailed so that it can be repeated * * Observation: description of behavior * Descriptive: looking and recording behavior * Caution! Hawthorne Effect: mere fact of observation might impact the behavior you are trying to observe * Chicago (East Electric Company) * Tinkered with variables to find out what would make work more productive * EVERYTHING they changed increased productivity
External Validity: how well this behavior is in real life; how closely is it related to real life behavior * Reactivity: the idea that behavior is modified simply as a result of being observed not truly representative * Behavior seen is a response to being observed; it changes * Need to have a very specific thing you test * Observation depends on how you define what you are looking at * Operational Definition * Everyone knows what you are trying to test * Ex: what qualifies as aggression? * Go to a pre-school where everyone is nice and over time your definition of what aggression is will start to change
Start out observing the same thing but through observing over time, the definition of what you were looking for begins to change * Observer Bias
Ex: thinking boys are more aggressive than girls so when a girl pushes a boy you will not acknowledge of that as an act of aggression * Laboratory vs. Natural Observation * Laboratory * Ainsworth and attachment (between children and care givers)
Naturalistic Observation: out in the world; you go and observe behavior in a natural setting (i.e., park, mall, school, etc.)
Latane and helping
Created a situation where help was needed (i.e., dropping a bag of groceries when boarding a bus)
Participant Observation: you are part of the group you’re trying to observe
Try to become a part of the group and what you are trying to study * Case Study: observation of a single individual/instance over a fairly long period of time * Ex: Genie * Locked in a room * No contact or interaction with people * Researchers wanted to observe how she acted after being released
Ex: Piaget with Laurent and Lucienne
Their developmental process and moral reasoning
Ex: Do you know what a lie is? Yes. It’s when you don’t tell the truth. Well, what if you are just confused? Or made a mistake?
Only one instance
External Validity? not a good indicator for the general, bigger audience
Q: Are case studies truly representative of all individuals? * Survey: observation by getting information through a questionnaire, interview, etc. * Gather information from a lot of people in a short period of time * Understand who your sample is and who you want this to generalize to * Limited number of questions * Self-implored people can lie! * Does the individual understand what you’re asking? * Phrasing the question * Asking it in several ways
Systematic Observation: you go to where people are and observe them in that setting
Ex: want to observe preschoolers? Go to a preschool.
Making Predictions
Correlation: if there are 2 variable measures, what kind of relationship do they take on?
Nature of the relationship? Two variables varying together systematically.
Add predictive power
Correlation Coefficient: how well can we predict one variable when we know the value of the second variable
-1.0 +1.0
Positive Correlation: will change in the same direction [both increase, both decrease] (i.e., study longer, get higher grades)
Negative Correlation: will change in opposite directions (i.e., practice longer, make less errors on court)
Zero Correlation: there is no systematic relationship between the two variables (i.e., number of siblings and shoe size)
Absolute Value: lets us know about the strength of the relationship
Ex: -0.69 > +0.32
The higher the number, no matter positive or negative, the stronger the relationship * * Prediction with correlation is helpful and will certainly provide us with a lot of information but usually (unless it is -1.0 or +1.0) it will not tell us everything we need to know.
Strong correlation? We know, for sure, that this relationship exists. We also know about the likelihood of the probability of variables.
Correlation permits prediction but not correlation of causality.
Ex: there is a strong amount of correlation between the amount of violent TV children watch and them being violent later on in life.
We know that these two things go together, but we don’t know why
People can say that if children watch more violent TV then they will definitely be violent as adults
But…could there be a third, unknown variable that explains why children are violent?
Yes. For example, he comes from an abusive, violent, aggressive household
We can’t say that one causes the other.
Correlation is NOT causation.
Experiment: a way to explain the cause of a behavior * Add causal statement
Control
The amount of control an experimenter can exert on the surrounding variables
Manipulation of variables – actively manipulating some aspect of the environment (internal or external)
Manipulations you choose will be determined by your hypothesis: if…then… statement (ex: if the room is dark, then it’ll be difficult to perform a maze task correctly)
If certain conditions are present, then a specific type of behavior will occur
Ex: temperature in the room, time of day, amount of lighting, participants internal state (i.e., happy, crabby, hungry, etc.), social factors (i.e., presence or absence of an authority figure)
Independent variable – the part of the environment that is manipulated (ex: when studying the relationship between violent TV and violent adults, your independent variable would be what kind of TV show your participants watch)
Response
Dependent variable – the response to the manipulation
Confounding variables – something other than the independent variable that might impacting the performance of your groups
Something that you have no adequately controlled for (not thought about), but was something that you did need control for, is now affecting the outcome of your study
Random assignment – any individual is going to have an equal opportunity to end up in the control group or the experiment group
Trying to minimize the impact of some other, possibly confounding variable, as you look at your results
Experiment is trying to created a very controlled environment that seeks to eliminate the presence and affects of any other outside variables other than the one you are testing
Common goal of research designs – to know about behavior and especially about naturally occurring behavior
Idea of realism: the more realistic your experiment situation is, the more likely it is that you will see real behavior
Mundane – how much like is a situation where this behavior might occur is like it is in a real world where this situation would happen
How much is this situation like a naturally occurring situation
Experiential – to what extent does the participant buy into whatever scenario it is that you have set up
High in experiential realism, it doesn’t matter that its not high in mundane realism because you’ve put people into a situation where they’re responding naturally and don’t have to think about their actions
Ready to go? Ready to investigate some question about human behavior?
Well not quite – one more thing to consider…ethical concerns (how participants are treat in the study).
Ethics in research
IRB – institutional review board
Any institution that receives federal funding must go through the IRB
Will make a determination about what is being asked about the participants and will make a cost-benefit analysis
How important is this information?
Can it be gathered some other way?
Overview about how the participants of any given study will be treated
Various stages of review depending on the various characteristics of the study; also depends on the participants of the study because it will require more care and concern and consideration (i.e., studies involving children will always go under the most inspection; elderly; hospitalized people)
Informed consent – before you participate in a study, the participants have the right to know what is being asked of them, the right to know what they will be doing, and the right to know some information about the study
Information regarding any possible harm that might follow as a result of this
Can withdraw consent at any point in the study
Who is in charge and contact information
If participants know what it is that is being asked of them then they will not find themselves in a situation where they feel uncomfortable and abused
Debriefing – after the study is over, participants have the right to know what has transpired, where they kind find out information, they have the right to have their questions about the study answered
* CITI city certification that permits an individual to serve in the capacity as a researcher * Undergraduates also have to take this test in order to prove that they are held to the highest standard * * Issues with Ethics * Deception * Cost-benefit analysis does the good outweigh the bad? * Can the experiment be preformed without deception? * Sometimes it’s very necessary to use deception because there’s “no better way” * Need deception in order to preform the experiment correctly and without any bias
Ex: in the Hawthorne Effect example (people’s behavior changing as a result of being observed) it would be necessary to use deception because then you can make sure people aren’t reacting in a certain way just based off of your observation of them
There are cases where deception appears to be the only way that you can look at people behaving in their natural habitat
There are ethical implications involved with the use of deception
Harmful psychological effects even after debriefing
Ex: telling some people that they have better social skills than others and even after debriefing that sticks with them
Destroys the experimenter-participant relationship
A professional relationship based on trust that needs to be maintained – deception can ruin it
Deprives the subject of choosing whether or not they want to be exposed to the risks of the study
Is it the right of the experimenter to force something onto their participants? Is it their right to enforce obedience?
Is it the experimenter’s right to teach their participants a lesson?
There are methodological implications
The level of trust between the participant and the experimenter
Participant goes in expecting to be treated honestly and fairly – with deception, they are fooled and lied to
Participant population will be altered because the trust will be broken – altered to the point where it will be extremely different to get them to the point of experiential realism
A desire (by the participant) to “outwit” the experimenter because they think they know (or want to figure out) what the study is about
Not opposed to the use of deception, but opposed to use it as something forceful and without thinking about its implications
Shouldn’t be the first alternative – need to think about how else the information can be obtained…and if the information can be gotten in a different way, with the same quality of results, then deception shouldn’t be implemented
Sometimes the questions being asked can only be answered using deception
Almost never appropriate to use deception with special populations (i.e., children, the elderly, inmates, people with cognitive learning disabilities, etc.) * Subject protection – * In certain groups, deception is never appropriate to use these groups need to be protected * Ex: children, the elderly, prisoners, people with cognitive disabilities
Hurley and Underwood
The rights of participants in a study
Study: how children cope with peer provocation (97 girls, 81 boys)
2nd, 4th, or 6th grade (8, 10, or 12 years old)
How children get along with other children?
After the procedure was over and the children were debriefed, what did they understand – about consent, about what it was they were doing, why they were doing these things, about participating voluntarily, did they feel pressure from the outside (parents, adults, etc.) to participate, did they understand confidentiality?
What is it that every participant has the right to expect with an experiment?
Gave consent freely – weren’t coerced by anyone else to participate
Older children (especially the 6th graders) understood the study
They understood the idea of confidentiality
Understood the purpose of the study after they had participated
Younger children (2nd graders) were essentially clueless
Agreed that they had given their consent on their own terms
After debriefing, they knew no more about the experiment or what had transpired than before debriefing
When dealing with children, it is extremely important to think about the level of cognition that these children are and to use language and words to describe it to them in a way that they will and can understand
Important to think about the cognitive level where children are
Have to think about the risk of having children participate in studies
Vulnerable in a lot of ways:
Willingness to believe (whatever the researcher tells them)
Naïve – very trustful of others
Totally dependent on their parents/other adults
Level of cognitive maturity
Young children have a difficult time thinking abstractly
Risk for older children (teenagers, 15 & 16) as well:
Children at this age are concerned about themselves, their identity, how others see them – they are A LOT MORE impressionable at this age because they care about how others perceive them
Can develop self-doubt at a time when they should be developing confidence, in themselves and the world
When dealing with children, young or old, there are important factors to consider in the experiment because there are risks – different risks, but still risks – involved in dealing with children of all ages
Intelligence * What are the different meanings of intelligence? * Ex: 12 year old in medical school vs. 22 year old with the behavioral and mind of a 4 year, but is extremely mathematically gifted * Conceptual Definition: deals with the concept, basic essence of what we are looking at – not trying to measure something * Intelligence has to do with adaptation – to the situation you are in, the demands of the situation, etc. * Someone who is intelligent is able to adapt and figure out how to be successful in that environment * Conceptual Definition of Intelligence deals with adaptation * Operational Definition: how something is measured and how we can measure it * IQ (intelligence quotient) * A number of challenges when studying intelligence * How is intelligence conceptualized? * Intelligence is something possessed by the individual * You can’t see it and it cannot be measured directly – not easily observable * Not necessarily a single ability – can be a collection of a number of different abilities
How can we measure individual differences in a certain skill to determine the level of intelligence?
If it is possible to measure activities accurately, then it is possible to tailor skills and activities specific to what you’re talented in
What is the source of intelligence?
Genetic background? Race? Gender? Life experience?
The study of intelligence is also the study of the plasticity of the mind
Individuals do differ in abilities, but for what reason does that difference exist? * * Conceptual Definition of Intelligence * Theoretical * The adaptive nature of the brain * An individual can be considered intelligent if they are able to solve problems that are in some way related to their environment * Non-human intelligence (i.e., birds, mammals) * Intelligence is not something that we see only in humans but is also something that we can see in non-humans as well * Different survival needs which require different intelligences * * Approaches – accounting for individual differences 1) Psychometrics: a mental capacity understood by analyzing performance on mental tests
Giving a multitude of tests that analyze and test specific skills (verbal ability, mathematical ability, etc.) and then piecing together all of this information to determine intelligence and mental ability
“Measure the mind”
Sir Francis Galton – half-cousin to Charles Darwin
Saw intelligence as a way to determine who was the fittest
Individual differences in intelligence are based in heredity
Differences can be measured through tests of sensory discrimination, reaction time
Results and accuracy of these tests (in terms of measuring intelligence)
If the individual scored high on one test, there was a good chance he would score high on other tests
General Intelligence – contributed in some way to each of the various measured skills
Idea that there is some general ability that can be seen in other, more specific abilities
Spearman – factor analysis (g) analyzes the relationships and correlations among a variety of test scores
If a single factor is going to be influencing intelligence, then we would expect someone to perform similarly on other types if tests if you are in fact testing the same ability
Performance would be able to be predicted by looking at other tests (i.e., math ability can be predicted by verbal ability)
General (g) and specific (s)
General Intellectual Ability (G): can be used to explain performance on a wide variety of mental tasks
Not entirely possible to explain individual test scores based solely on the principle of g
Specific Intellectual Ability (S): abilities specific to an individual test
The general factor (g) will be interacting with the specific abilities (s) in a variety of tests
Hierarchical
Thurstone – 2 factor (analysis)
7 primary mental abilities –
Verbal comprehension
Verbal fluency
Numerical ability
Spatial ability
Memory
Perceptual speed
Reasoning
7 factors are largely independent of each other – the performance on one test doesn’t necessarily tell you about the performance of the other test
Catell & Horn – intelligence is composed of 2 different intelligences
Fluid Intelligence: the ability to solve problems, the ability to reason and remember in ways that are relatively (unrelated to learning?)
More biological and genetic
Crystallized Intelligence: measures acquired knowledge and acquired ability
Determined by the types of living experiences an individual has (schooling, cultural, environmental)
The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence is important because it shows about intelligence changes through the aging process in different cultures
Analyzing the measures of intelligence through various tests
* 2) Cognitive Approach 3) Multiple Intelligences 4) Triarchic Theory
Intelligence: Approaches that Account for Individual Differences * Psychometric: performance on tests * Catell and Horn – fluid and crystallized intelligence * Both factors of general (g) intelligence * Gc (crystallized) or Gf * Discrete, independent entities – it’s apparent that one of these powers that the fluid quality of being directed to any problem, while the other can be crystallized to more specific problems * Early claims of independence have been challenged by later work – there is a relationship between these types of intelligences * Modified and elaborated on by Horn
Fluid Intelligence: the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations
Independent of acquired knowledge
Ability to analyze novel situations/problems (things you may not have seen before), identify patterns in these problems, and identify the relationships that exist between these elements
Necessary when thinking about logic and trying to solve logical problems scientific problem solving, mathematics, technical
Crystallized Intelligence: the ability to use the skills, the knowledge, and the experience that you have acquired over time
Doesn’t equate precisely to memory or knowledge, but rather how you use the things you have been exposed to
Cultural and educational experiences
Tends to improve over time because experiences will be used to expand your knowledge base leads to an increase
The product of educational and cultural experience as it interacts with fluid intelligence
Not completely independent of fluid intelligence – interactions
Capacity to reason using words and numbers
Neuro-systems are thought to be responsible for controlling and modifying these types of intelligences
Fluid Intelligence – dorsal lateral pre-frontal cortex & anterior singulit cortex and other systems related to attention and memory (short-term memory ONLY)
Crystallized Intelligence – regions involved in the storage and use of long-term memories (hippocampus)
Appear to be correlated with each other tests of intelligence tap into both types of intelligence
WAIS: Wexler Adult Intelligence Scale (widely used psychometric test for intelligence)
Measures fluid intelligence with items from the performance scale and measures crystallized intelligence with items from the verbal scale
In a corporate environment – mostly concerned with fluid intelligence viewed as a predictor of a person’s capacity to work well in an environment concerned with ambiguity, complexity, and uncertainty
Deficits in fluid intelligence are found in autistic individuals
Ex: Asperger’s
Crystallized intelligence is amenable to change depending on your cultural and educational experiences
Rely on specific, required knowledge
Relatively stable over adulthood and then begins to decline around the age of 65
If you don’t use the knowledge and experience you’ve acquired then it is forgotten and becomes no longer accessible and cannot be used when you need it to
Forgetting exceeds the rate at which new knowledge is acquired (around 65)
Fluid intelligence tends to peak in young adulthood steadily decline over time after that
Related to the aging processes that take place in the brain?
Lack of practice and utilization (of acquired skills)
Can fluid intelligence be maintained over time? [What if practice is continued?] Can we increase fluid intelligence?
Look at research that seeks to improve fluid intelligence by training working memory
Working Memory: part of long-term memory that is available for active information processing – putting information into and then retrieval of it from storage
Backward digit span (start with the most recently mentioned number and then go backwards)
Ex: 2, 3, 4, 7 correct answer would be 7, 4, 3, 2
N-back task: N can be any number person is presented with a sequence of stimuli and telling if the current stimuli you’re being exposed to is the same as the stimuli exposed to N tasks ago
Jaeggi – N-back test with adults – training adults (providing them with practice) and then looking to see what the impact of that training was on the testing of another fluid intelligence test
Fluid intelligence was trainable and significant to a certain degree
More training = greater gains (dosage affect)
Occurs across the spectrum of abilities – affect was larger on the lower end of the spectrum because these individuals have more room to improve
Cognitive exercise (practicing with your working memory) can increase your working memory, thereby improving your fluid memory suggests the modify-ability of intelligence
The assessment of intellectual abilities is dynamic, not static in psychiometry
Jaeggi’s experiments are controversial – replication? (some can, some can’t)
Can see the impact of this work through advertisements
Ex: tasks and strategies to increase your “brain power” [working memory]
* Cognitive Approach: emphasis on analyzing internal mental processes * 2 ways to analyze these mental processes * 1) Mental Speed: speed of transmission along neural pathways * The faster the transmission, the higher the intelligence * Process more information and more efficiently
Significant correlations between measures of neural transmission and performance on psychometric tests
2) Componential Analysis: identifying the specific mental processes that contribute to intellectual performance
A way that uses reaction time, as well as error rate, to isolate a lot of the internal mental processes that can be tapped by traditional intelligence tests
Ex: analogies – an individual’s ability to detect relationships
Lawyer is to client as doctor it to patient
An intelligence person will be able to infer a relationship between the first two components quickly and then generate what will be the next target of the component of that analogy
Intelligent people can generate and monitor overall effective plans for attacking a problem faster and more efficiently than others
Understand the nature of the relationship
Basis for work in artificial intelligence and expert systems
What are the rules by which we make decisions?
Aviation Psychology – Pilot Associate Program What are the types of decisions that the pilot makes? Possible alternatives? Etc.
Looking at what is involved (in decision-making) and then being able to specify it so that an intelligent choice can be made
* Multiple Intelligences: specialized skill or unique-type of ability that stands alone * Howard Garner – uncomfortable with the idea that there is solely one intelligence suggests that there are a whole host of intelligences and depending on the situation that the individual finds themselves in, the individual can tap into different abilities * Broadens traditional ideas of intelligence * Intelligences are independent of each other and how you do on one intelligence doesn’t impact or determine how you will perform on other intelligence tasks * There are other aspects of intellectual behavior (other than verbal or mathematics) that arise depending on the situation the individual is in * Can’t depend on test scores to tell you about an adaptive behavior – if it actually is adaptive then you can see it in real life * Case studies – got information on the talents of individuals * Musical Intelligence * Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence * Logically-Mathematical Intelligence * Linguistic Intelligence * Spatial Intelligence * Interpersonal Intelligence * Individual who is capable of understanding how other people work, how to get others to do stuff for them (i.e., salesman) * Intrapersonal Intelligence * Individual who knows and understands themselves pretty well
Naturalistic Intelligence
Identify and be able to understand animals and plants and other living beings
“An” intelligence – not “the” intelligence
Depending on the situation that the individual finds themselves in, some of these intelligences will be more important than others in order to be successful in the environment
Importance of the cultural setting that the individual finds themselves in
Represent ways of being adaptive in different environments * * Triarchic Theory: an alternative to Gardner’s multiple intelligences * Sternberg: combination of multiple intelligences, cognitive approach, psychometric approach – he had a background in cognition mental operations related to the environment
Have to think about what happens outside (in the environment) to be able to call the mental operations being performed intelligence
3 major parts:
1) Analytic: basic analytic skills – some are better than others at processing information seeing problems in ways that are solvable and generating new strategies for solving these problems
Tend to perform well on conventional intelligence tasks that test reasoning and mathematical ability
2) Creative: how well people are able to cope with new or novel tasks – how well someone can come up with novel solutions and generate new ideas
How can we put all of this together in a new way, that no one has yet thought of, to solve this problem and attack it in a novel way
People who don’t score well – difficulties in application can know things but don’t see how it is relevant or how it can be applied anywhere else
3) Practical: how well do you fit into your environment
Can solve problems that are uniquely posed by whatever environment they find themselves in – can shift gears and change based upon which environment they exist in
Ex: study abroad programs
Adapt to the environment
* Emotion * Conceptual definition the mental state, or feeling, associated with the evaluation of experience * * Theoretical approaches * Discrete States: there are some small number of distinct emotional states; these can combine together in unique ways to generate new, more complex, emotional states * Biological roots – emotions tend to be universal
Emotion is the result of cognition, of thinking; and individuals emotional state depends on how you interpret a situation
Somatic Marker: automatic response (i.e., heart rate, sweaty palms or respiration) to determine how to act/how one acts in certain situations
Causes physiological arousal
Incorporates variables
* Sources of information – where can you get information about an individuals emotional state? * Verbal behavior – asking someone how they feel and getting a response * Ex: “I have never been so humiliated before in my life….that was so embarrassing!”
Sometimes an individual might not be that in touch with their emotional state (or may want to mislead you) you have to move past verbal communication
* Nonverbal Behavior: identification of underlying emotion – not what is being said, but what a person is emitting through other (i.e., gestures) actions * Where to look [for clues]? * Physical movement * Gestures – Paul Ekman people use gestures and their bodies in many different ways that give you information about their emotional and mental state; must be interpreted correctly * Emblem – culturally learned specific meaning in one culture, but completely different in another culture; historically bound as well * Shakespeare: “I bit my thumb at you” * Illustrators – people are going to nonverbally illustrate some physical event or thought process * A child stretching her arms out to indicate the size of how big monsters under her bed are
Regulator – lend structure to social interaction; facilitates conversation; indicates attention; segments conversation
Ex: when following along in a conversation – head nodding and eye contact
Ex: not following along in a conversation – bowing down your head and not keeping eye contact
Adapter/Manipulator – self-directed types of gestures; when people are not paying attention, distracted, having an internal conflict not paying attention to things going around them but rather to what is going on inside themselves
Ex: hair flip, twirling hair * * Facial Expression: Ekman – strong proponent of discrete states of emotion way to communicate * Facial expressions that individuals might assume are not culturally dependent, but rather are universal across cultures and therefore biological in origin * Six expressions thought to be universal * False – there are cultural differences in how people will interpret certain facial features and emotional states * Nowicki: how good are people (students) at interpreting facial expressions within their own racial group * Did a study with African Americans and European Americans * African American students were overall much more successful and consistent at identifying BOTH African American and European American emotional faces and states * European Americans were pretty consistent with identifying themselves, but not good at recognizing the emotions of African Americans * African Americans are part of a minority group and essentially had more pressure on themselves to figure out the emotional states of the students, both in their group and in the European Americans * Cultural In-Group Advantage being able to identify faces and emotional states of members within their own group * Did another study with the addition of international students * African Americans and European Americans were more successful at interpreting the emotions given off by the photographs of the European American faces * International students were less accurate at recognizing the emotions * More exposure you had to individuals of European descent, the higher your chance of guessing their emotion was * Four emotional states: happy, sad, angry, fearful [basic expressions]
Exposure, acculturation
Common errors
For international students, they tended to misidentify angry faces as happy faces
African American and European Americans misidentified fearful faces as sad faces
While these emotions may be common across all groups, the identification of associated facial features is not common across all groups
Survival function – individuals recognize faces that indicate some threat or potential danger Hansen & Hansen
Showed individuals a group of 9 faces – 8 had the same face [angry] and the remaining 1 person showed a different face [neutral or happy]
8 [happy], 1 [neutral or angry]
How long will it take the participant to find the odd face?
Angry faces were located and noticed more rapidly than finding happy faces in a neutral or happy crowd
Much more attuned to finding an angry face because that might represent a threat or danger to you
Less errors made in identifying angry faces
Information source – facial feedback hypothesis suggests that the information you provide on your face tends to feedback; your muscles feeding back to your brain
Ex: happy face, position of facial muscles (i.e., lips to form a smile) will feedback and alter your emotional state, making you happier
One group received Botox (paralyzes facial muscles) and the other Restylane (fills in wrinkle-lines but doesn’t paralyze their facial muscles)
People receiving the Botox injections should report weaker emotional responses to the stimuli (of positive and negative clips) – can’t smile or frown [or react in any way] to provide feedback to the clips
True!! people with Botox reported less emotion upon watching the videos than those given Restylane * * What kind of information are we getting about nonverbal communication? * Status and power * Preference * Especially true with eye contact, personal space, and touching * Eye contact – can indicate dominance or intimacy * Long & hard gaze offsetting and creepy versus romantic * Personal space – who respects other peoples personal space? * People of lower status respect the personal space of those with a higher status * People who are friendly and warm will be permitted into personal space
Touch – who do you touch?
Touch people you like (to reassure, greet, etc.)
Individuals of lower status do not touch those of higher status * * Why is it important?! * Nonverbal behavior is a good indicator of interpersonal relationships – what kind of emotional signals are being provided for other people * Provides a lot of information about social behavior and emotional state * Problem for people bad at interpreting nonverbal social skills
Nowicki & Duke: the ability to analyze the nonverbal signals is extremely important because very little communication is delivered verbally in interpersonal relationships
Nonverbal communication is continuous and constant
Dyssemia: the problem understanding and analyzing nonverbal communications
Rhythmic Dyssemia: people have difficulty with timing and cant seem to adjust the pace of their interaction or conversation with other people – rhythmicity
Ex: person who doesn’t understand when to shut the fuck up or who doesn’t know how to join in the conversation
Spatial Awareness: unaware of their own personal space or of others personal space
Gestural or Postural: people who don’t understand the moods associated with certain postures and gestures
Facial: poor eye contact, facial expressions are absent or inappropriate
Ex: when someone is telling you that they just got broken up with and you’re smiling
Paralanguage: not what you say, but how you say it – how the voice is being used
Ex: person who talks too loudly when you’re having a private conversation; emphasizing the wrong words in sentences; can’t decode intonations
Lower social confidence – poor peer relations, low sociometric status (indicates that people don’t want to hang out with you…probably because you suck); stronger in females than in males
Emotional – depression, social anxiety, externalizing behaviors [aggressive behaviors]; stronger in males than in females
Not associated with any significant differences in intelligences – just not being able to understand and interpret these emotional cues low social competence
Nonverbal – language of relationships
Verbal – language of information * * Deception: nonspontaneous and posed expressions * False Smiles – smiles usually indicate happiness and openness but fake smiles happen when you’re trying to disguise your unhappiness * Ex: when someone gives you a shitty present
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