Psychology Notes All Lecture

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Lecture note, all lectures
Psychology 1A (University of New South Wales)
Distributing prohibited | Downloaded by Thu Rein we (zwe.lay1995@gmail.com)

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2/3/15
psychology@unsw.edu.au
3/3/15:
Psychological Perspectives
Scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

o Behaviour overt actions (observable); physiological correlates of actions
(pupil dilations, functional MRIs, neural activity in the brain etc.) anything
that can be measured
o Mental processes thoughts (memories, imagery, concepts); emotions
(fear, happiness); interactions between the two (e.g. decision making)
category boundaries, development of fear memories
Scientific psychological aims:
o What: Describe behaviour using careful observations
o When: Prediction allows for specification of the conditions under which a
behaviour will or not occur
o Why: Explanation identifying the cause(s) of behaviour
o Change: facilitating changes in behaviour (e.g. therapy)
Why scientific Psychology:
o Clichs can be used post-hoc to explain most behaviours therefore our
common sense is unfalsifiable
o Science: objective data collection, systematic observation, reliance on
evidence
o Common sense: subjective data collection, hit or miss observation, ignores
counterevidence
Learning smart:
o www.nature.com/scientificamericanmind/journal/v24/n4/full/scientificame
ricanmind0913-46.html
o Self testing and spreading out study sessions
o Elaborate interrogation
o Self-explanation: how do I know?
o Interleaved practice: mixing apples and oranges, different subjects
o Brain games dont work little evidence. improves underlying broad
cognitive abilities. better navigate a complex realm of everyday life
Milgram studies of obedience and authority:
o Volunteer asked to play role of a teacher in learning experiment (paired
associate learning)
o Asked to administer electric shocks when responds incorrectly
o Factors affecting obedience to authority: perceived authority of the person
giving orders, presence of a contradicting authority, proximity of victim,
level of direct responsibility for the outcome
o Blind obedience more likely to occur when people shift the responsibility for
their actions onto someone or something else
History of Philosophy:
o Part of philosophy
o Empirical science defined itself
o Introspection first psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt failed peoples self report
o Functionalism William James, defining psychological processes

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o Behaviourism subjective experience could not be verified by an objective

observer, observable behaviour qualified as scientific
o Radical behaviourism BF Skinner, John Watson
o Methodological behaviourism acceptable to study internal states as long
as linked to observable behaviours (Edward Tolman)
o Psychoanalysis- Freud, many important psychological events are
unconscious
o Neuroscience dont tell you about behaviour, tells memories/associations
are formed
Level of analysis
As a natural science
o Empirical based on systematic observation
o Experiments manipulate one variable to observe effect on another
o Analysis examine data to determine conclusions that can be drawn
o Theory - used to generate predictions and summarise existing knowledge
o Public results are subject to review by others, peer review
o Science knowing about empirical state of psychology, be cynical
04/03/15:
Clinical Perspectives in Psychology:
Stress disorders: PTSD, after disasters, terrorism, war accidents etc. (marked by
distressing memories of event, anxiety, avoidance of reminders affects 10% of
survivors)
Managing stress responses: common response trauma counselling psychological
debriefing - many millions spent each year
Psychological debriefing: 48 hours of trauma, discuss experience/emotional
responses, intended prevent PTSD doesnt work
Measurement:
o Assess people before treatment standardized measures
o Find starting point of distress
o Properly developed measurement tools are essential
Comparison:
o Treatment to compare against know if treatment works
o Observed changes may be due to: time, attention received, repeated
assessments, must have comparative condition
Bias:
o Avoid biased allocation to treatment condition
o Randomization
o Assessment bias: assessment after treatment, independent assessment,
blind assessment (not biased by knowing what treatment was given)
Double blind studies:
o Drug trials involve these designs
o Patients dont know what treatment theyre getting
o Clinicians dont know what drugs they are giving
Quality checks:
o Procedures followed properly
o Treatment fidelity checks do what they say theyre doing
o Video/voice recording
Psychological debriefing:

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o Above principles ignored

o Believed worked because they like it
o Controlled trials have now proven that debriefing doesnt prevent
psychological disorders
Randomized controlled trials: check if its working
o Random allocation to groups
o Independent assessments
o Standardized assessments
o Strict protocols for interventions
o Checks that interventions are valid
What does basic psychology say about trauma responses?

Classical condition:
o Main model work with borrowed from neuro-animal science
o Rat in a chamber give light shock, and turn light on at same time
teaches that light means danger
o Turn light on, fear response freezing, potentiated startle, heart rate, blood
pressure, stress hormones
o Fear conditioning models: electric shock (trauma), rats fright (fear), light
(reminders), fear to light (distress) shaping understand PTSD
Extinction: new learning, stimuli are repeatedly presented but without a negative
outcome, teaches stimuli its now signalling safety (light without shock) 10-20%
failed extinction learning, develop PTSD
o How humans respond to stress
o Help understand people at risk for PTSD
o Possible leads to better prevention methods
Treatment:
o Putting humans back to remind in a safe way leads to new learning world is
safer hearing sounds etc.
Animal neuroscience shape clinical practice:
o Same brain regions underpinning extinction predict exposure therapy for
fear in humans *
o Glutamate excitatory neurotransmitter linked to emotional learning,
increasing G experimentally pre extinction trials, can increase extinction
learning
o DCS taken before sessions, leads to better outcomes in panic disorders,
OCD, PTSD, social anxiety
09/03/15:
Personality: psychodynamic approaches
What is personality?
William James- whenever two people meet there are six present. There is the man
as he sees himself, each as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is
Questionnaires determine personalities
14th century = as a person individuality associated with charm charisma (20th
century)
Psychological differences between people (thought, emotion expressive etc.,
behaviour some people argue only learn personality through behaviour)

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Generally distinct from intellectual abilities

Enduring dispositions dont go away with time, traits are generally stable
Generalised patterns of responding
Encompasses underlying psychological mechanisms funder an individuals
characteristic patterns of thought, emotion and behaviour, together with the
psychological mechanisms hidden or not behind those patterns
Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic Approaches:
Unconscious mind (hidden motives, that influence our personality)/ intrapsychic

conflict (conflict between unconscious desires and the conscious mind)
Trait approaches:
o Describing how people differ psychologically
o Determining which features are important
o How we should conceptualize and measure these features
Genetic approaches:
o Inherit some of our personality from parents 15%-50%
o Genes+ environment= our personality
o Evolution has help select traits that ensure survival of the species
o Nature and nurture
Phenomenological approaches:
o Understanding subjective reality (PA)
o Focus on experience
o Becoming the best person we can be
o Existential anxiety, creativity, free will
o Cross-culture phenomenology varies across cultures
Learning approaches:
o Focus on measureable behaviours
o Personality shaped by rewards, punishments, and expectations in life
Where does it fit:
o Focus on difference between people (PP), whereas psychology focuses on
what makes us the same
o Focus is on whole persons in their daily environments level of abstraction,

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o Distinct from social psychology internal vs. external influences, stability vs.
malleability (what sort of situational features cause people to change)
Distinct from clinical psychology
o Several important personality psychologist had clinical training and saw
clients
o Pervasive problems in functioning associated with personality = personality
disorders
o Both fields study whole person, one at a time
Psychodynamic approaches:
Talking cure
Roar shock test ink blots
Freud:
o His ideas dominated psychology for nearly 100 years
o Many of his ideas are still with us today in altered form
o His ideas are often misunderstood in popular culture
o Working in Victorian England
o Neurologist seeing patients with hysteria
o Hypnotised them found they were sexually abused as children
10/03/15:
Personality:
Freud:
o Source of problem of hysteria stems from the unconscious
o The mind is a place of conflict
o Emphasis on childhood experiences wasnt considered a special time (child
labour seen as source of revenue), Freud changed this view
o Emphasis on sexuality
o Three models of F topographic, structural, genetic
Topographic:
o Conscious is the tip of the ice
berg (thoughts perceptions)
o Preconscious could access this
but dont pay attention to it
(memories, stored knowledge)
o Unconscious largest
component, the repressed
desires/urges that is kept down
Freud suggests that there are
mechanisms to suppress urges
(fears, violent motives,
unacceptable sexual desires,
immoral urgers, irrational
wishes, selfish needs, shameful
experiences)
o Hydraulic model unconscious
trying to push its way up
o Dreams: Latent content

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(meaning behind the dream) manifest content (the transformation of the

content)
o Slips unconscious desires slip out
Structural
o Id (es) wants it now, wants maximised pleasure, immediate gratification,
sex, death, operates by primary process (drive) desire to create and
destroy
o Ego (ich) conscience, reality principle, the sense of self, Ego defence
mechanisms, operates by secondary process
o Super ego (uber-ich) rational, socialised, internalized standards and values,
conscience and guild
o Ego defence mechanisms projection (attribute an unconscious impulse,
attitude, trait, or behaviour to someone else, help you hide the unwanted
object from yourself), false consensus effect (overestimating the percentage
of other people who share ones traits/opinions/preferences/motivations,
protects self-esteem by reducing the distinctiveness of ones bad traits,
derived from suppressing bad traits and causes rebound effect), reaction
formation (converting a socially unacceptable impulse into its opposite),
displacement (satisfying an impulse on a substitute object, displaced
aggression kicking the dog), isolation (putting mental space between a
threatening cognition and other aspects of the self, temporal bracketing
born again, addiction recovery, divorce/break-ups, juvenile crimes),
sublimation (rechannelling an impulse into a more socially appropriate
outlet, sexual desire into art)
Genetic
o Psychosexual stages- sexuality centres on the mouth, anus and then genitals
o Fixation staying in one stage too long
Age Name Pleasure source Conflict/effect of
fixation
0-2 Oral Sucking, biting, Weaning from
swallowing mothers
breast/passive
dependence or
excessive smoking
or eating
2-4 Anal Defecating or Toilet training, self
retaining faeces control/ retentive,
obsessive
neatness,
expulsive, reckless,
disorganised
4-5 Phallic Genitals Oedipus (boys),
Electra (girls)
6-puberty Latency Sexual urges Usually no fixation
sublimated into at this stage, but if
sports and so, sexual
hobbies, same immaturity and
sex friends help dissatisfaction
avoid sexual

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feelings
Puberty Genital Physical changes Social rules/

onward reawaken frigidity,
repressed needs. impotence,
Direct sexual unsatisfactory
feelings towards relationships
others lead to
sexual
gratification
Critique:
o Freuds account of motivation rests in 2 instincts (sex/death)? Study
against that
o Inference problems wild arbitrary claims
o Unreliable
o The data are by nature ambiguous
o Psychoanalytic theory is based on soft evidence data arent publically
available, objectivity is compromised, interpersonal expectancies
o Falsifiability problem Karl Pooper No need for data. Clinical evidence is
sufficient
o What does the data support unconscious mental processes, conflict
between unconscious and conscious processes, some defence mechanisms
11/03/15:
Behaviourist/Learning/Conditioning Theories of Personality
Radical vs. moderate behaviourism:

Personality is observable and measurable
Behaviourist movement as a reaction against psychologys focus on unmeasurable
phenomena
o Wundts introspection
o Freuds unconscious
Wundts
o All born with a blank slate, just depends on environment
o No genetic predisposition
o Personality is the sum total of the experiences
o Stimulus-response contingencies (classical conditioning)
o Reinforcement contingencies punishments or rewards
(operant/instrumental conditioning)
Skinner:
o Radical behaviourism the contents of the organism arent important in
explaining behaviour (all RB)
o No need to talk about bonds, connections, satisfactions, or discomforts
o Three elements: stimulus, response, reinforcements
Moderate behaviourism:
o The contents of the organism are important in explaining behaviour
o MB e.g. social learning theorists and cognitive behaviourists
o Will use terms describing activities inside the organism e.g. habits, motives,
drive, expectancies, thoughts

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Classic conditioning:
Dog salivating
Dog phobia being bitter = fear, seeing dog=fear
John Watson baby albert, fury animal with bell
Can reverse phobia:
o Extinction - Not bitten no fear, pair with dogs eventually learn you dont
get bit and overcome fear
o Systematic desensitization: think of dog = fear, relaxation response = no
fear, pair with dog = no fear
o Aversion therapy: smoke=pleasure, put nauseating substance on cigarette =
nausea, pair with smoking cigarette = nausea
How is this personality: according to behaviourist approach, personality is what we
do sum total of observable, measurable behaviours
Unconscious or unobservable reasons are irrelevant to behaviourist approaches to
personality
Operant/instrumental conditioning:
Reinforcement: increasing the frequency or probability of a behaviour by presenting
or removing a stimulus following that behaviour
Punishment: decreasing the frequency or probability of a behaviour by presenting or
removing a stimulus following that behaviour
Positive reinforcement: increasing frequency of a behaviour by presenting an
appetitive stimulus following the behaviour e.g. press level get food
Negative reinforcement: increase frequency of a behaviour by removing an aversive
stimulus following the behaviour e.g. press level shock ends
Positive punishment: decreasing frequency of behaviour by presenting an aversive
stimulus following the behaviour e.g. cheat on exam fail the course
Negative punishment: decreasing the frequency of a behaviour by removing an
appetitive stimulus following behaviour e.g. break rules no cigarettes
Two stage theories of phobias:
o Phobias are acquires by classical conditioning neutral us is pairs with a CS
that produces fear
o Phobias are maintained by operant conditioning: each time the phobic
object is removed or avoided negative reinforcement occurs, because the
phobic object is always avoided, the phobic never learns the object is
harmless
Schedules of reinforcements:
o Continuous reinforcements, get reinforces every time you engage in the
behaviour, extinction is easy
o Fixed interval reinforcement: get reinforced every n
hours/minutes/seconds/days e.g. weekly pay check
o Variable interval reinforcement: get reinforced on average every n
hours/minutes/seconds/days e.g. checking for rewarding emails on random
schedule
o Fixed ratio reinforcement: get reinforce for every n responses e.g.
piecework, freelance work
o Variable ratio reinforcement: get reinforced for, on average, every n
responses e.g. checking FB 100 times a day

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o Extinguishing a response: e.g. fixed interval how long before you quit if the
paychecks stop coming regularly? / Variable ration how long does it take
for someone to stop gambling? Or stop checking FB?
16/03/15:
Humanistic Perspectives
Basics of Humanistic Theories:

Phenomenology: the study of conscious experience as it exists for the person,
without an attempt to reduce, divide or compartmentalise it in every way
Focus on phenomenology
Believe in free will
Believe meaning is important influenced by existential philosophers (Sarte,
Nietzche, Kierkegaard)
Emphasize the uniqueness of each individual
Personal growth personality tends to change in a good way if we are in a good
environment
Enjoying the here and now being in the moment
On human nature: humanists see it as basically good
Optimistic vs. pessimism Humanist optimistic about humanity and the future
Personality change driven to change
Effect of culture:
o Carl Rogers: In a psychological climate which is nurturing of growth and
choice, I have never known an individual to choose the cruel or destructive
path, it is cultural influences which are the major actor in our evil behaviours
culture can manipulate us
o Can distort our inherit goodness
o Happier people earn more money
o People in higher income countries tend to be happier (0.67)
o Does money buy happiness on average yes
o Amish just as happy as richest people social needs being met
o Within a country wealth isnt a strong predictor
o Countries that get richer dont necessarily get happier
o Money is necessary but not sufficient to be happy need to have basic
needs met, once that is so, the amount of money is going to have an
incremental effect on your happiness
Rogers theory:
o Actualising theory, built in motivation to develop its potential to the fullest
extent possible
o Organismic valuing process: subconscious guide that attracts people to
growth producing experience and away from growth inhibiting experience
o Positive regard: experiencing love, affection, attention, nurturance and so
on
o Positive self-regard: self esteem, self-worth, a positive self image
achieved through parental unconditional positive regard
o Insert photo
o What personality characteristics would make the very best you?
1. Openness to experiences: receptive to the objective and subjective
happenings of life, expanded consciousness, able to tolerate ambiguity
2. Existential living: living fully in each moment e.g. mindfulness

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3. Organismic trusting: allowing ourselves ot be guided by the organismic

valuing process
4. Experiential freedom: we feel free when we have choices
5. Creativity: adapting to new situations, creative expression
o Creative environment: facilitates openness to experience, facilitates internal
locus of evaluation, provides the ability to toy with conceptual elements and
ideas
o Experiment:
1. IV=Leadership style: Rogerian style, structured, considerate
2. The Problem: Design a method of releasing water to the family dog
while on holidays
3. DV = creativity ratings Rogerian more creative
Rogers:
o Necessary and sufficient conditions for psychotherapeutic change
o He was a therapist
o Unconditional positive regard
o Empathetic understanding
Maslows theory:
o Freud supplied to us the sick half of psychology and we must now fill it out
with the health half
o Zeitgeist Great Depression Era
o Three type of needs:
1. Basic needs
2. Needs to know and understand
3. Aesthetic needs
o Hierarchy of basic needs insert photo
o Deficiency needs (food/water/shelter) vs. growth needs (being artistic)
o Physiological needs:
1. Needs for food etc.
2. These are the most proponent needs
3. One function of civilisation is to satisfy these needs so we can focus on
higher ones
o Safety needs:
1. Needs for safety, order, security etc.
2. Focused on after physiological needs met
3. Commonly in children
4. Seen in some mental disorders (OCD, anxiety, dependent personality
disorder)
o Belongingness and love needs:
1. Need for affiliation for friends, supportive family, group identification,
intimate relationships
2. This level and higher ones often not satisfied even in affluent countries
3. These needs being unfulfilled at root of mental disturbances
(depression)
4. Need to receive and to give love
o Esteem needs:
1. Need to be held in high regard by self and others
2. Comes from mastery, achievement, adequacy, feelings of competence,
confidence, independence
o Self-actualisation needs:
1. Maslow estimates 10% of the population satisfies these needs

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2. A person must actualize

that is make real what
exists inside them as
potential
3. Most other theorists
wouldnt see this as needs
Freud would predict people
would stop at lower needs
o Source of neuroses:
1. Insert diagram
o Exceptions to hierarchy:
1. Esteem taking precedence over love, person who ignores and ruins
relationships in order to achieve
2. People not striving after physiological and safety needs met
psychopath not desiring love, could be because they were deprived of
love when young or the need always met in abundance
3. Extreme reversals: Artists who have produced their greatest works in
times of dire physical need Van Gogh, Martyrs people who sacrifice
their safety and lives for a value or ideal
o Needs met in early life providing reserves:
1. People who have always had a need met may not notice when it first
isnt met
2. May build strong character structure that allows them to withstand
need not being met later on
3. For example a person may quite job rather than lose their self respect
and might beg for it back
o Humanistic Formula for Happiness: Need satisfaction
1. Self determination theory proposes 3 universal need autonomy,
relatedness, competence
2. Self determination theory is a modern humanist theory of motivation
and personality
3. Autonomy sense of choice/freedom, decisions reflect what they
want/express who they are, doing what interests them
4. Competence confident can do things well, capable at what they do,
competent to achieve goals, successfully complete difficult tasks
Humanistic Formula for happiness flow
o Happiness = taking personal responsibility for finding meaning and
enjoyment in our ongoing experiences
Through flow
o Flow:
Ones attention is completely absorbed by the activity
Clear goals
Clear feedback
Concentrate only on task
Achieves a sense of personal control
Loses self-consciousness
Loses sense of time
Humanisms lasting impact:
o Positive psychology self determination theory
o Client-centred therapy

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o Promoting job satisfaction by fulfilling higher needs - flow

o Child rearing e.g. unconditional positive regard
o Criticisms:
Free will versus determinism can you study free will scientifically?
Poorly defined concepts
Some unscientific methods Maslow selected self actualized
people based on intuition
Humanistic therapy may not work for severe mental disorders e.g.
psychopaths
17/03/15:
Genes and Personality Traits
Nature vs. nurture

Reconceptualization nature prepares us for nurture
Study the effects of biology on personality is more informative
Genes:
No single trait X gene
Clusters of genes likely predispose use to certain personality traits
o E.g. physical strength and coordination (athletic type) versus academic
ability (nerd)
Twin Studies:
Sir Francis Galton (1869)
o Emphasis on heritability proposed twin studies
o Eminence runs in the families
o Sexist- thought male carried genes
o Racist Eugenics
Methodology:
o Monozygotic (100% DNA) vs. dizygotic (50% DNA)
o Heritability estimate percentage of variance due to genetics
o Insert diagram
o Are DZ and MZ twins treated similarly? Yes they are
o Adoption approach
MZ twins reared apart
If heredity is really important - MZ twins reared apart MZ twins
reared together
15%-50% of variance in personality characteristics is genetically
influenced
Public policy implications
o Social Darwinism:
Survival of the fittest
Misinterpreted as weka shouldnt survive
Societies cultures compete for survival immigration laws, biased
testing, preservation and purification of the gene pool of the elite
(eugenics)
o Eugenics:
Encourage reproduction among genetically advantaged

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Lower reproduction among genetically disadvantaged e.g.

sterilization, abortions
AUS (stolen generation)
o Genocide in the name of Eugenics:
Ethnic and or religious cleansing
Nazi Germany Jews, Roma, homosexuals, physical/mental
disabilities
Iraq
Rwanda
Darfur
Sudan
o Eugenics Today: the case of IQ
Minnesota twin studies Identical twins reared apart (r=0.76) or
together (r=0.86) have higher IQ concordance than biological
siblings (0.47)
Meta-analysis heritability accounts for 48% of IQ
Bell curve 1994 Asians 0.33 SDs higher than whites, whites 1.58
SDs higher than African Americans
Intelligence varies with:
o SES:
Going low to high SES increases IQ 1 SD black children adopted by
whites has equal IQs to whites
o Education:
2.7 IQ point advantage for each year of schooling
5 point decrease for each year of delay
18/03/15:
Trait Perspectives:
Early History and Theories:

o Four body humours (Ancient Greeks) If you had too much or too little of
one fluid, influenced personality
Sanguine (blood)
Choleric (yellow bile)
Melancholic (black bile)
Phlegmatic (Phlegm)
o Phrenology- 1700s
Certain parts of the head correlate with personality
o Sheldons body types 1940
Endomorph
Mesomorph
Ectomorph
Big Five:
o Personality can be reduced to 5 broad trait dimensions
o 50 years of evidence supporting this model
o Crosses culture/language
o Maybe present in animals
o Openness to experience

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Knowledgeable
Perceptive
Imaginative
Desire artistic expression
Devalue traditional marriage
More arrests
o Conscientiousness
Neat
Planful
Careful
More likely to ban household smoking
Avoid unsafe sex
Responsive parenting
Live longer
o Extraversion
Gregarious
Outspoken
Energetic
Greater prominence is groups
Greater peer acceptance in adolescents
Firm handshake
Less cooperative
More satisfied with life (dominance- more sense of autonomy)
o Agreeableness
Considerate
Nice
Dont complain
More empathic parents
Less revenge seeking
Greater control of negative emotions
Less poaching of romantic partners
o Neuroticism
Nervous
Tense
Fearful
Less satisfied with life
Increased anxiety and depression
Among youth troubled relationships with parents
Lower status among men only
Poor romantic relationship quality
o Criticisms:
Five factor structure only? The big five, plus or minus 2
Five super traits or single traits best for prediction?
Interactionism Molecular Genetics:
o Genes Life path (modified by environmental encounters
MAOA aggressive gene
But relationship between MAOA and aggressive behaviour is
strongest for those who had experienced childhood abuse
Lead to mental disorders schizophrenia, bipolar, alcoholism,
antisocial personality
Interactionism perspectives:

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o People choose their social environments (friendships, act ivies etc.) to match
their personality
E.g. extraversion = parties, aggressiveness = violent bars
o If people choose social environments might they also select and craft
physical environments?
o Can we judge other peoples personality from other very minimal
information? E.g. rooms
o Brunswiks lens model 1956
Insert photo
Two types of physical information: behavioural residue (remnants of
personality induced behaviours e.g. conscientiousness = organise
belongings = clean workspace), identity claims (reminds us and
others of who we are e.g. extraversion = liking people = photo of self
with friends)
Office space study 2002 Gosling (5 office locations in a US city,
administered the BFI (self and peer reports) 8 raters examined each
office on 43 aspects and the BFI more accurate in bedrooms
More minimal information judgements
Can you discern someones personality by where they live?
Robert Levines research observed how fast locals walked with 31
countries/ how worried with time they are fastest Switzerland,
Ireland, Germany (colder, high GDP, more smokers, death from
heart disease)
Handshaking and first impressions Chaplin 200
112 participants had their hand shaken twice by 4 coders (2M 2W)
Firm shakers more extraverted, less neurotic, high in openness
(W), liked more
Walking across room Borkenaus
Conscientiousness (formal dress)
Extraversion (friendly expression, relaxed walking, loud voice, didnt
avoid camera)
Agreeableness (soft facial contours, friendly expression)
Trait stability - Set like plaster hypothesis:
o Trait tendency to respond in a certain ways under certain circumstances
o Personality traits stopped changing in young adulthood
o Additional Processes
The environment channels our personality many life changes
before 30
People select environments based on personality extraverts
structure lives around social opportunities
Self perceptions of personality crystallised with age
Genes 80% of consistency of personality was due to genes (twin
study)
Some traits might increase consistency low openness, high
conscientiousness
23/03/15:
Health Psychology:
Intersection between our psychology processes and health outcomes

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Health behaviours:
o Health belief model
How likely you think
youll get into this
situation perceived
susceptibility
Perceived seriousness
minor/major whether
to dissuade you
o Theory of reasoned action
Subjective norm what do other people think of this

behaviour, are they encouraging/dissuading?

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o Theory of planned behaviour
Perceived behavioural control do you think you can do it?
o Implementation intentions:
Translating intention to action
Develop a specific plan about what, where and when
How can also be important
o Obesity:
Your weight in kilograms/height
Doesnt take into consideration fitness levels, eating habits, muscles
etc.
Increasing rate of obesity in America over the past years
Cause of obesity part genetics, balance of energy
intake/expenditure
Treating obesity variety of diet/exercise programs, commercial
products (Jenny Craig etc.), diets dont work (often gain them back
after a year but also dont lose much weight), surgeries (which
enable you to eat less, result in average 45kg)
o Exercise:
US more specific 2.5 hours a week
Australia 30 minutes most days
o Shifting the balance:
Shift energy balance slightly have lasting impact
More fruit less of junk food
24/03/15:
Health Psychology 2:

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Smoking:
o One of the leading causes of death per year (19000)
o Men rates has decreased over the years (1945 72%)
o Women relatively stable helps lose weight
o Effects of smoking
Negative effects Positive effects
Cancer Stress reduction
Coronary heart disease Positive mood
Lowered life expectancy Socialising
Stinks Weight control
Social stigma
o Smoking in films:
More movies you see with more representations of smoking the
more likely you are to try smoking
Correlation doesnt prove causation
o Relaxing effects:
Smoking does relax people level of nicotine is related to how
relaxed you get by smoking
Smoking stresses you in the first place if you quit youd be more
relaxed than if you didnt have a cigarette
o Quitting:
Pharmacological treatments Nicorette
Psychological and behavioural treatments aversion therapy,
scheduled smoking
Long term success of quitting is 25%
Alcohol:
o Effects of alcohol:
$36 billion per year
70,000 Australian target of alcohol related assaults 24,00
domestic violence, 20,000 child abuse
Every day 1 person dies and 4550 sent to hospital due to someone
elses alcohol use
o Treatment:
Spontaneous remission less than 20% of problem drinkers
Detox programmes
Pharmacological treatments aversion therapy, antagonist therapy
Psychological or supportive treatments
AA claims of 75% success rate
Stress and coping:
o What is stress:
Physiological reaction flight or fight response
Stimulus event catastrophes, major life events/transitions, daily
hassles
Psychological appraisal

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o Transactional model of stress
o Stress and health:

More stress you experience the more likely you are to get sick
o Coping with stress:

Problem-focused coping direct action to solve problem
Emotion-focused coping reduce emotional consequences of
problem

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25/03/15:
Health Psychology 3:
Public health:
o Why focus on public health?
Many interventions arent particularly effective better to prevent
issues
Targeting one person at a time is inefficient better reach broad
audience
Change three components simultaneously
Framework for public health interventions:
o Environmental changes:
Changing the physical environment
Minimising barriers to healthy behaviours e.g. footpaths (more
likely to walk), bike paths (more likely to ride)
Increase barriers to health-damaging behaviours e.g. age limits for
smoking/drinking
o Economic factors:
People from lower socio-economic brackets more likely to smoke
similar in less healthy diets
People of low SES daily stress unhealthy behaviours, lack
opportunities to change
Changing economic environment - change the cost of unhealthy
behaviours
Study if the cost of cigarettes increased most effective way to get
people to quit
o Communication environment:
Advertising bans/regulations e.g. cigarette advertisement
Public service announcements knowledge isnt enough, do
emotional appeals work? (Try to grab onto your emotion of
fear/disgust easy to distance yourself from extreme situation),

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need to provide people with self-efficacy information ability to

change behaviour e.g. quit on cigarette packets
30/03/2015:
Culture Psychology:
What is culture?
o Share values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours
o Includes history, cuisine, religion, clothing, government structure, family
structure
o Race = Caucasian white, Asian, black etc.
o Nationality = Italian, Australian
o Ethnicity = African-American, Chinese-Australian
Share geographic, language, culture, religious origins
o Filter through which we view reality
o Learned consciously/unconsciously
o Developed/reinforced through artefacts and rituals
o Relatively stable but changes overtime
o Hard to imagine what life is like outside your own culture
Why does culture emerge?
o Evolutionary account:
Premise Darwinism, survival/reproduction/child raising
Being by yourself is actually dangerous mutually supportive
behaviour is beneficial (able to survive, reproduce and work
together)
As a result certain behaviours to survive
o Prediction:
Some values are more likely to emerge than others
Morality equity (valued behaviour)
Unvalued behaviour (stealing, murder)
Caution with evolution account
o Psychological needs:
Terror management theory: realisation of own mortality (realising
death causes anxiety)
Culture offers immortality (literally survive death religion etc.)
Shared conception of reality structure/meaning
Standards to judge people value contribution to collective, socially
acceptable behaviour
Goal live up to standards, be valued member e.g. die for good
cause (war)
Experiment: remind of death, control group, filler task (other
activities to distract form experiment), measure outcome of
interest, measure other potential factors morality salience,
increase feelings of self worth (reduced anxiety, reduce
physiological arousal before shock)*
o Dynamic social impact theory:
More convincing arugements change others view

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Outcomes vary as a function of population size, proximity,

individual persuasiveness, prone the belief/behaviour is to social
influence
How prone belief or behaviour is to influence: heritable attitudes
(less amenable to social influence, less likely to cluster), more
communicable beliefs become normative (memes culture genes,
units of information that undergo variation, selection, retention,
truth? Emotional (disgust)
Measurement:
o Cultural psychology country level
o Organisational psychology- company level
o Hofstedes model:
IBM researcher
116000 morale surveys in 40 countries in 20 languages in 1967-1969
and 1971-1973
Individualism preference to act independently vs. In a group, self
reliant, competitive, autonomous, uniqueness
Collectivism conformity, interdependent, connections
Power-distance extent to which individuals accept unequal
distribution of power
Uncertainty avoidance threat from uncertainty, amount of rules,
tolerance of change, belief in absolute truths, belief in the
attainment of expertise, not the same as risk avoidance
Masculinity (quantity of life) assertive, financial focus,
performance, success, competitive
Femineity (quality) friendly atmosphere, cooperation, care for
weak, solidarity
Confucian dynamism/pragmatism/time orientation short-term
orientation (past/present orientation values, respect for tradition,
fulfilling social obligations), long-term orientation (future oriented
values)
Indulgence vs. restraint extent of control of desires and impulses
Power distance higher for Asian & Latin countries
Individualism higher for Western countries
Uncertainty avoidance highest for Latin American
Masculinity high in Japan, low Scandinavia
Pragmatism high in E Asia, low in Muslim world
Indulgence high in Latin America
Problems with dimensional approach self report many aspect
outside of awareness, assumes culture is static (isnt not), too broad
(lack predictive power)
o Questionnaires:
Do test items have the same meaning when translated into different
languages?
Does the group measured reflect culture?
o Item choice:
Do test items have same meaning when translated into different

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languages?
o Equivalent samples:
Does the group being measured reflect the culture?
Random sampling
Matched samples age, socio-economic, gender
o Research bias:
Theoretical approach may be biased from ones own cultural
background
E.g. Intelligence tests
o Sensitivity issues:
Political tensions
Identifying issues
Distrust/threatened
Left out
31/03/15:
Culture 2:
Interpersonal space:
o Persons surrounding they regard as psychologically theirs
Intrusion cause discomfort
Population density effect

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Intelligence:
o Western cultures:
Emphasize verbal, numerical, spatial abilities in intelligence tests
Performance on these tests varies as a function of culture
Can only remember 7+/- 2 how much information can remember
US African American generally perform lower
Indigenous Australians generally perform lower
o Why?
No biological evidence
Black child raised in white family outperform those raised in black
family
But still lower than white child in white family
Some have argued for genetic differences
Psychosocial/cultural differences expectations?
o Universal predictors of academic motivation and achievement:
Values, beliefs, goals relating to positive sense of self
Sense of purpose goal of doing well
Level of mastery orientation and intrinsic motivation
Students perceived parental support and value of education for
getting ahead
o Culturally appropriate instruments:
Intelligence tests for specific populations
The in group perform better than out group
Should we redefine intelligence for different groups?
What about the predictive value?
Relativism dont address potential problems
Why study culture?
o Relationships:
Business
Romantic

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Friendships
o Differences in culture can cause problems
Insult others un/intentionally
Culture and insults:
o Study of 3 regions in Italy:
Write insults that you are aware of/used
Differences in culture
South more insults north lower relational insults
o Responses to insults:
Being in group and someone insults you at a high status more
acceptable in HK than US
o Culture of honour Cohen et al, 1996
Compared participant from north US vs. South US
Matched demographics (socio-economically)
Participants insulted by confederate
Rate participants reaction to insult
Southerners would more likely harm Larry
o Neural basis for racism/prejudice:
Explicit racism
Implicit racism not aware of it
More likely to fear people of certain backgrounds
Reducing prejudice challenging false beliefs, fostering empathy,
fostering collective guild, not labelling people equal status,
common goals, superordinate goals, support from authority
1/03/15:
Culture 3:
Religion:
o Desist a personally uninvolved god
o Theist a personally involved god
o Gnostic certain god exists
o Agnostic uncertain god exists
o Atheist reject claim gods exists
o Anti-theist reject god (if existed)
o Why do we have religion:
Assumptions either 1 is correct or none are correct
Evolutionary account:
o Adaptive:
Beneficial for survival, religious cultures survive more than non-
religious
Other adaptive behaviours sex, eating, raising children
o Non-adaptive:
Evolutionary by-product
Piggy backs onto established cognitive mechanisms
Other by-products- music, arts
Cognitive mechanisms:
o Intuitive (mind-body dualism) vs. analytical thinking
o Social processing
o Metalizing

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o Meaning
Intuitive mind-body dualism:
o A = body
Not eternal
Material
o B = soul
Eternal
Immaterial
o If B is true, then why not C = God (immaterial, eternal, spirit)
Social processing:
o Humans fundamental need for affiliation and companionship
o People seek out the minds of others new social contacts
o Findings:
Lonely/need to belong increase belief in supernatural agents
Reminded of religion buffer against ostracism
Erratic object behaviour attribute mental states
o Compensates for perceived loss of control
Metalizing:
o Mind perception/theory of mind
o Ability to perceive and read other minds
o Use introspection and other cues situation, testimonials
o Women better than men at metalizing more likely to be religious
o Autistic 11% less likely to endorse religion more likely to be atheist
Self-awareness - What has metalizing have to do with religious belief?

o If religious, reminders of god increase public self-awareness
o If not religious, reminder of god didnt increase self-awareness
o Increase feelings of being watched socially desirable responding
o Pro-social stereotype activation more honest responding
Evolutionary account:
o Mal-adaptive:
Provides social order religion
Body mutilation
Sacrificing valuable goods
Choosing celibacy
Spending a productive day doing nothing
Refusing to eat nutritious foods
Enduring painful initiation rites
o Maladaptive but social order:
Credibility enhancing displays
Solves problem of free riders
Instils cooperation suppress inner chimp, bring out inner bee
Motivates kindness and compassion to other members of group[
And other religious activities to create bonds

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Religious groups with more rituals outlast hose with fewer

Current believers report 2 times as many CREDs while growing up
Meaning:
o Need to understand world (order, control) why do good people die?
Reward, punishment, karma
o Increased randomness or lower control increase belief in god
o Uncertain negativity > stress than certain negativity
o Brain region involved Anterior cingulate cortex:
Self-control, negative emotion, psychological pain
o Lesion:
Decrease in anxiety and autonomic reactions
Patients unconcerned with making errors
o Anxiety disorder/induced anxiety:
Higher ACC activity
o Error-related negativity (ERN)
Neural distress signal
Negative affect
Responds to error
Response level decreases when given anxiolytics or alcohol
13/04/15:
Consciousness 1:
What is consciousness:
o Its a working definition
o If psychology is something like of the science of mind and behaviour then
the fundamental basis of this has to be conscienceless
o Understanding conscientiousness - might know how to fix it when it goes
wrong, able to monitor it, what the nature of reality is
o Monism you are your brain (The astonishing Hypothesis)
Monism Dualism:
o Descartes/ dualism doubted, back to the foundations
Think, therefore I exist
Mind and body are separate
Scientific consensus is the dualism is wrong no you separate from
your body and brain, the mind is what the brain does
o Issue with dualism:
Unscientific we want to know about mental phenomena
If machines can*
You and your brain
o Brain activity corresponds to your thoughts or thoughts respond to brain
activity
o Brain damage can change behaviour
o Tell if you are thinking about music, tennis or solving moral dilemma FMRI
o Thoughts have specific physical association in the brain
Qualia:
o Describe the qualitative feeling of an experience
o Redness of red/wetness of water
o Almost impossible to compare quales
o Epiphenomenal like the heat given off from a light bulb not the main thing

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Reactions:
o Bodies react to fearful sights without us being aware of them bodily
functions etc.
o Much of what goes on n the brain bypasses consciousness
o Awareness and action the room with moving walls
o Blind sight damage to visual cortex, blackness but avoid obstacles
Problem of 3rd party consciousness:
o Never be sure you are conscious due to qualia
14/04/15:
Consciousness 2: How to Study Consciousness
How to study consciousness:

o Assuming the brain/body creates consciousness
o Where is it done?
Do you need toes/hands to be conscious/have conscious experience
of those things
Phantom limbs syndrome
o How is it done?
o Is there something special about it or could a computer be conscious?
o Enabling factors:
Do you need blood supply/oxygen
o NCC neural correlate of consciousness
Does not mean the neural activity is causing consciousness but
correlates with it
How to isolate possible NCC?
Visual parts of the brain our experience of the environment is
formed from all five senses
Eyes what happens when you see something, if you close your
eyes can you have a visual experience? If you dont have eyes can
you have a visual experience? Are your eyes the NCC? No
Visual illusions
Damage to the brain:
o Primary visual cortex, visual area one (V1) area where you get visual
information
o What happens if V1 is damaged?
o Even without V1 some information can get through
o Does this mean that v1 is not the site for NCC
o Damage to higher level areas:
V 4 lead to colour blindness cortical
Motion blindness area MT
Without higher level visual areas wwe still perceive but the
experience is incomplete
Without the motion area (MT) cant perceive motion
o Motion processed in the brain?
Stimulating MT causes motion perception
TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)
Strong evidence that MT processes motion
o Prosopagnosia or face blindness:
People have damage to this area they can no longer recognise faces

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Doe this mean this is the NCC for faces

o Is the brain modular?
Each process is done in particular location
True for MT, FFA, V4
Isnt a general trend though
o Different NCCs in different places how does the brain know which colour
belongs to which face/motion
Blinding problem:
o Humpty dumpty problem
o Once activity is sent off to separate brain areas
o Neural synchrony
o Feedback to a common high resolution area e.g. V1
o How is C created?
Areas in the brain
Know that C for particular things is contingent on activity in certain
brain areas
Neurons are the building blocks of C
Activity of the neurons seem to relate to C
o Grandmother cells could there be a single cell for each object we know in
the world? Some problems with this theory (cell death)
o Population coding each single neuron is firing or not firing
Election as a metaphor:
o Neural completion
o Single coalition of neurons corresponds to the winning aspect of
consciousness
o Thresholds for consciousness
o Once enough activity you are aware of it
o An alternate theory depends the pattern not the threshold
o Can FMRI be used to communicate with vegetative patients?
Use this activity in different brain areas to communicate with
vegetative patients
Something close to a consciousness meter?
Or a method to communicate directly with someone and their brain
15/04/15:
Consciousness 3: Non-ordinary states of consciousness and sleep
Pathological hallucinations:
o Charles bonnet syndrome
o Schizophrenia
o Parkinsons disease
o Scintillating scotomas/migraine auras bereavement, fever, blindness,
macular degeneration...
Sleep:
o Stages of non-REM:
Stage 1 light sleep muscle activity slows down, occasional
twitching
Stage 2 breathing/heart rate slows, decrease body temp.
Stage 3 deep sleep

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Stage 4 very deep sleep

Stage 5 rapid eye movement, brainwaves speed up and dreaming
occurs muscles relax and heart rate increases breathing rapid
o Measures:
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Types/stages identified by differences in electrical activity of brain,
muscles and eyes
o Sleep in the womb:

Foetus spends 20/24 hours asleep
70% REM important for growth and organisation of brain cells
REM sleep: Dreams
o Interpretation:
Great history of interpreting dreams
Many cultures do this in some form or another
o What do you dream about:
Vividly sensing a presence in the room
Flying or soaring
Person who is alive is dead
Trying to repeatedly to do something
Being on the verge of falling
Arriving late
School, teachers, studying
Falling
Sexual experiences
Chased or pursued, not physically injured
Meditation:
o Changing normal flow of conscious thoughts
o EEG patters look like someone is asleep when they are alert/awake
Hypnosis:
o Volition changes, more likely to follow suggestions
o Used in therapy, entertainment and an anaesthetic
o Sometimes unlock information hidden in memory
o People open to suggestion need to be careful asking leading questions

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Substance induced states of consciousness:

o Most people take psychoactive drugs caffeine
o Depressants:
***
o LSD:
Lysergic acid diethylamide
Studies on alcoholism success rate of 50%
Anxiety disorders 70%
Depression 60%
Personality disorders 50/60%
OCD 42%
1950s research
o Psilocybin:
Magic mushrooms
Testing awareness and psilocybin people to track binocular rivalry
after taking P awareness slowing down
o Ayahuasca:
Many ongoing studies looking at both mechanism and therapeutic
properties
o Shamanic rituals:
Non-drug techniques to get into non-ordinary states of consciousness
Breathing techniques, drumming, music etc.
Near death experiences:
o People experience seeing from outside their body when in NDE
o Many atheists as well and religious
20/4/15:
Issues and Methods in Developmental Psychology:
What is development:
o In humans what develops:
Emotional
Physical
Mental
o Characteristics of developmental change:
Why study development:
o Basic science many of the tings psychologist try and understand things are
complex, more of these traits - allows to look back in time, look at these
phenomena as they are emerging in their most simple form
o Applied science apply this to outside the lab, e.g. how memory works can
apply to education
Issues in developmental psychology:
o Nature vs. nurture:
What are the causes of developmental change?
o Early experience vs. later experience:
To what extent does early experience shape later functioning?
o Continuity vs. discontinuity:
What is the nature of developmental change?
Nature vs. nurture:

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o Biology vs. experience push ups, natural vs. gym

o Genes vs. environment
o Biology:
Development is simply maturation
Genetically demined process of growth that unfolds naturally over a
period of time
o Environmental view:
Environmental events shape the course of a childs development
Genetics place no restriction on how a child develops
o Both views are incorrect and simplified
o Development proceeds as an interaction of biological and environmental
forces
Early vs. late experience:
o To what degree and under what conditions does experience influence
development
o Critical or sensitive periods in development?
o Critical periods:
Period time during development when certain experiences are crucial
for a particular feature of development to emerge
o Sensitive periods:
Period of time during which experience is optimal for the
development of a particular function, but is not critical
Similar function can develop after the sensitive period window has
closed, but usually under more intense experience
Continuity vs. discontinuity:
Continuous Discontinuous
Change is gradual and uniform Change is abrupt and step-like
Change is quantitative quantity or amount Change is qualitative quality or kind of skill,
of skill, behaviour behaviour
E.g. Rovee-Colliers theory of infant memory E.g. Piagets stage theory of cognitive
development development
o Development is both continuous and discontinuous

Goals of development psychology:
o To describe RP observe how humans can change over time
o To explain DP want to understand what causes developmental change
o To apply DP try to use their knowledge to optimise developmental
outcome
Methods of studying development:
o Longitudinal studies:
Same participants are observed, tested or interviewed repeatedly over
a period of time
Measure age-related changes
But time consuming, attrition (loss of participants), generational
differences, practice effects from repeated measures
o Cross-sectional design:
Participants from different age groups are studied at the same point in
time
Measure age related differences
Less time consuming
Representative sample of population?

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Cohort effects
21/04/15:
Nature and Nurture Genes and Environments
Genes:
o Chromosome threadlike structure found in the nucleus
o DNA double stranded molecule that makes up the chromosomes
o Basic units of heredity
o Each chromosome, or long double-stranded molecule of deoxyribonucleic
acid (DNA) contains 1000s genes
o Contain instruction for building a specific protein
o Gene is expressed if it has been turned on to make its specific protein
Genes and environment:
o Genotype genetic blueprint, DNA passed from parents to child
o Phenotype observable physical or psychological attributes or qualities
o Behaviour genetics researchers try to understand how genetic and
environmental factors combine to produce individual differences in
behaviour
o Estimate heritability:
Degree which variation in particular trait among individuals is genetic
Varies from 0 to 1
o Kinship studies:
Family studies
Twin studies
Adoption studies
o Degree of relatedness:
Use knowledge of degree of relatedness to work out relative
contribution of genes and environment to particular phenotype
Probability sharing genes among relatives
G x E interaction:
o Genes arent static
o Environmental factors turn them on gene expression
o Certain genes are expressed at certain times in response to certain
environmental influences
o Dunedin Multidisciplinary study:
1000 individuals followed from age 3

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DNA findings related to environmental measures and psychopathology
o Conduct disorder:
MAOA gene low activity, high activity
G x E interaction maltreatment is a risk factor for antisocial
behaviour, but only in individuals with low MAOA activity
o IQ:
FADS2 gene homozygous (cc or gg), heterozygous (CG)
G x E interaction breastfeeding enhanced IQ, but only in children
who are carriers of the C allele

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22/4/15:
Prenatal Development and Environmental Influences:
Prenatal development:
o Occurring between conception and birth
o Three periods:
Germinal period from conception through implantation (14 days)
Embryonic period 3rd week 8th, formation of organs
Foetal period 9th onward, organ system function
Teratogens:
o Disease, drug or other environmental agent that can harm a developing
embryo or foetus
o Effect depend on timing (organ systems and brain particularly susceptible
during periods of rapid development), dose, duration
o Alcohol (Foetal Alcohol Syndrome):
Abnormalities that appear in offspring of mothers who drink alcohol
heavily
Small head, brain damage, malformations of face, congenital heart
disease, joint anomalies
27/4/15:
Early Experience and Later Experience: Perceptual Development:
How important is early experience:

o Wild Boy of Aveyron:
Possible for child raised by wolves to learn language?
Able to function with humans?
o Critical period:

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Period time during development when certain experiences are crucial

for a particular feature of development to emerge
o Sensitive period:
Period of time during which experience is optimal for the
development of a particular function but not critical
How do we know what world looks like to infant?
o Visual scanning and fixation patterns:
What do they look at
What does that tell us about what they see?
o Habituation
o Visual preferences:
What do babies prefer to look at
What does this tell us
Prefer patterned over plain
What drives perceptual development:
o Infant visual abilities are immature at birth improve rapidly over first few
months
o How does visual experience shape the way infants see the world monkey
experiment
o With experience the infant gradually becomes an expert in processing
the world he/she is born into
o Congenital cataracts:
Clouding of lens if not removed early, will have permanent vision
impairments
28/4/15:
Early experience and later experience: Social and emotional development
Attachment:
o Relationship infants form with caregiver:
Want to be close
Seek security from them
Exhibit distress when they are absent
o Example:
Infant rhesus monkeys raised by inanimate mothers
Wire monkey with bottle vs. soft monkey without
Preferred soft monkey
o Attachment theory: John Bowlby
Attachment in humans analogous to imprinting in animals adaptive
bond
Figure becomes safe base from which children can explore the world
Disruptions to attachment may have long term impact on emotional
and cognitive development
o How does it develop?
Recognise mothers voice and show visual preferences for faces over
objects
Recognise mothers face within first few days
Separation anxiety appears 6-7 months, peaks second year
o Measurement: Child response when moth returns is coded
Secure attachment welcomes return, seeks closeness, comforted

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Avoidant attachment ignores mother on return

Ambivalent attachment angry/rejecting but desires closeness,
difficult to sooth
Disorganised attachment contradictory behaviour, approach mother
but look away
Social and emotional deprivation:
o What happens when early social/emotional experience isnt normal?
o Orphans in institutions, infants with depressed mothers
o Institutionalisation:
High child/caregiver ratio
Some basic needs met
Little attention
Lack of touch
Lack of responsiveness
Consequences psycho-social dwarfism, stunted growth,
disturbances of attachment, intellectual delay, behaviour problems,
inattention/hyperactivity, autism-like symptoms
Foster care can ameliorate effects
o Post partum depression:
Affects 15% of new mothers
Alters early infant-mother social interactions dyadic interactions,
physical growth, cognitive development, attachment
Effects are reversed? Massage therapy (12 day intervention
compared to rocking control group), improve emotionality,
sociability, sooth ability, interaction quality, greater weight gain,
lowered biochemical measures of stress
29/4/15:
Continuity and Discontinuity Memory and Cognitive Development:
Continuous Discontinuous
Change is gradual and uniform Change is abrupt and step-like
Change is quantitative quantity or amount Change is qualitative quality or kind of skill,
of skill, behaviour behaviour
e.g. Rovee-Colliers theory of infant memory e.g. Piagets stage theory of cognitive
development development
Memory:
o Do infants remember?
Visual recognition (familiarisation, paired comparison tests)
Novelty preferences = memory
Null preferences = forgetting
Operant conditioning good at learning contingencies between
actions and consequences
o Memory gradual or abrupt:
Issue infants of different ages often tested on different tasks
It is continuous
Processes like retention improve linearly across infancy
Cognitive development:
o What do they know? Innate knowledge? Tabula rasa?

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o How do they learn how the world works?

Constructive approach: Piaget thought children construct knowledge
by mixing experiences with own ideas
Schemas: mental structures, models that we create to represent,
organise and interpret our experiences
o How does knowledge change?
Adapt to meet the demands of environment assimilation (fitting
reality into existing schemas), accommodation (adjusting schemas
to fit with reality)
o Piagets Stages of Cognitive development:
Sensorimotor (0-2): infants think with hands, mouths and senses,
sensing and acting (little reasoning), egocentric, milestone (object
permanence e.g. peek-a-boo)
Preoperational (2-7): symbolic thought (can imagine without action,
egocentric, problems with perspective taking), centration (fixate on
single feature of object, fail conservation tasks, fail dimensional card
sorting tasks)
Concrete operational (7-12): able to perform reversible mental
operations on representations of objects, apply logic to situations,
understanding of conservation
Formal operational (12+): apply logic more abstractly, hypothetical
thinking
o Criticisms of Piaget theory:
Thinking can be domain specific
Underestimates infants and young children
Evidence object permanence much earlier
Dissociations with knowledge and action
4/5/15:
Motivation and Emotion:
Motivation:
o Why do we behave a certain way
o Motivations:
Hunger
Thirst
Salt
Air
Achievement
Power
Affiliation
Aggression
Fear
Sex
o Force that moves organisms to behave as they do force or urge that may
not result in behaviour
o Types of motivation:
Approach motivation: the impulse to move toward a stimulus
Avoidance motivation: the impulse to move away from a stimulus

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o Intensity from 0-infitity

o Partially voluntary:
Related to behaviour but not the same as behaviour
Often possess 2 or more conflicting motivations
Self-control may require choosing long term goal over short term
o Conscious?
May be more difficult to put into words than other psychological
states
Subject to rationalisation
o Related to emotion:
Provides force behind motivation
Approach emotions: desire, interest, anger etc.
Avoidance emotions: fear, disgust
Evolutionary approach:
o Charles Darwin:
Origin of species by means of natural selection or the preservation of
the favoured races in the struggle for life
o Instincts: unlearned responses to stimuli that are universal throughout a
species
o Adaptive: assumes that organisms are motivated to engage in behaviours
that help them to pass on their genes
o Humans possess a high degree of flexibility of behaviour
o Theory of evolution:
Evolutionary success
Adaptive tasks mating, parenting, nutrition, social relations
Not a struggle for survival
Race for reproductive success
o Key ideas to evolution:
Variability live long enough to reproduce
Heritability
Natural selection fertility (mating success), fecundity (number of
offspring)
o Evolved psychological mechanisms:
Set of processes inside an organism that:
Exist in the form they do because they solved specific problems of
individual survival or reproduction
Take only certain classes of input where input either internal or
external, can be actively extracted from the environment or
passively received from the environment
Transform that information into output through a procedure (e.g.
decision rule) where output regulates psychological activity,
produces information to other psychological mechanisms, or
produces action and solves a particular adaptation problem
Species have evolved psychologies to the extent that they possess
mechanisms of this sort
o Implications for behaviour:
Behaviour must evolves hand in hand with anatomy
There is continuity between animals and humans
Abandon idea that only animals have instincts and only humans have
minds

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o Evolutionary psychology:
Adaptations inherited, expression depends on environmental
conditions
By products not adaptive
Exaptation feature now enhances fitness for one function was
originally adapted for different functions
Spandrels incidental by product that became functional adaptions
brain functions (Stephen J. Gould)
o Do animals have minds?
Thorndike animal intelligence
Animal behaviour is affected by its consequences
Law of effect
o Do humans have instincts?
James principles of psychology
Complex unlearned response to characteristic stimulus
Reflex instinct learning
o Instincts:
Distinguishing reflexes and instincts is a somewhat arbitrary
matterit is bestto call an activity instinctive if it is naturally
provoked by the presence of specific sorts of outward fact James
Outward fact releasing stimulus
Naturally act must not have come about as result of learning
Instinct tendency to act in specific way
Variability of behaviour from instinct experience can modify
instinctive behaviour
E.g. rivalry, curiosity, pugnacity, sympathy, shyness, fear, modesty
etc.
Much behaviour is instinctive
Consist of complex actions are characteristics of species, triggered by
specific stimuli, unlearned but modifiable
Descriptive not explanatory concept
Action needs to be explained and it seems that it is not due to
experience
o Problems with instinct concept:
How many instincts are they?
Vague, arbitrary
If a man seeks his fellows, it is the instinct of gregariousness; if he
walks alone, it is the solitary instinct; if he twiddles his thumbs, it is
the thumb-twiddling instinct; if he does not twiddle his thumbs, it is
the thumb-not- twiddling instinct. Thus everything is explained with
the facility of magic word magic
Ethology:
o What is it:
Study of behaviour in natural setting
Identify action patterns of species and causes of action patters
Evolution, development, function or behaviour
Instinctive behaviours exist because they have or had adaptive value
for the species
o Behaviour as viewed by ethology:
Action specific energy
Key stimuli releaser, sign stimulus

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Innate releasing mechanism

Fixed action patter instinctive behaviour sequence that is indivisible
and runs to completion
o Key stimuli and innate releasing mechanisms:
Adaptive behaviours
Socially adaptive behaviours
Monkeys and recognition of facial expressions chimpanzees
(good), rhesus (okay)
Humans and recognition
Prepared behaviours:
o Innate association between stimulus and response
o Seligman phobias often involve evolutionary threats
o Conditioning experiments
Acquisition present CS (photo) followed by UCS (electric shock)
Extinction present CS without UCS and record skin conductance
Measured - Sweat gland activity; sympathetic nervous system
Longer extinction time for angry faces than happy faces, even when
CS is subliminal
Longer extinction time for out-group/neutral faces than in-
group/neutral faces
Behaviourist or drive reduction theory:
o Biological need: a deprivation that energises a drive to eliminate the
deprivation
o Drive: an internal tension state that occurs because of a need
o Motivated to satisfy drive
o Goal directed action occurs
o Drive reduced and need satisfied
o Homeostasis the bodys tendency to maintain a steady state
o Lots of motivation due to drives
o Not all motivation is due to deprivation
o Secondary/learned drives motivate money
o External incentives/rewards motivate delicious looking dessert (when not
hungry)
Biological neo-behaviourist theory:
o Jeffrey Grays reinforcement sensitivity theory
o Behaviour approach system (BAS): lets go for it
Sensitive to appetitive stimuli
Associated with approach and anticipatory pleasure motivation
Personality: optimism, reward responsiveness, and impulsive
Clinical addictive behaviours, high-risk impulsive behaviours, and
mania
o Fight-Flight-Freeze System (FFFS) get me out of there
Sensitive to aversive stimuli
Associated with defensive avoidance (fear) , escape (panic)
Personality: fear-proneness, avoidance
Clinical conditions: phobia, panic
o Behavioural inhibition system (BIS)
Sensitive to goal conflict (e.g. approach-avoidance)
Inhibits behaviour and seeks to resolve conflict
Associated with rumination, risk-assessment and anxiety
o 3 systems work together to regulate behaviour

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o Situations can influence the relative activation of each system
5/5/15:
Motivation 2:
Psychosocial motives:
o Maslows hierarchy of needs
o Henry Murray:
Motives are largely unconscious
Need recurrent concern for goal state
Needs direct and energise
o Need for achievement:
To do well
Unique accomplishment
Achievement imagery thoughts about achieving
Relate to hard workers, excel at challenging tasks
o Need for power:
Having impact on others through strong, forceful actions
Controlling, influencing, helping or impressing others
Relate to effective leaders
o Need for affiliation:
Concern with establishing, maintaining or restoring friendly relations
Positive feelings about groups or persons
Friendly/nurturing acts
Related to team players, good friend/romantic partners
o Measurement of needs:
Cant be measured by self-report (not aware of needs, dont correlate
with TAT **needs)
Self reports reflect values or conscious motives
Needs can be trait or states
o Self-determination theory:
Three basic organismic needs
Organismic: exist in every human/innate
Growth needs, not triggered by deficits
Humanistic perspective: emphasises human motivations that differ
from those of non-human animals
Competence: need for self-efficacy, mastery, achievement
Relatedness: need for warm relations with others, need to belong
Autonomy: need for independence and self-reliance
o Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation:
Intrinsic motivation: behaviour fulfilling organismic needs is
enjoyable, freely engage in behaviours that are intrinsically
motivated
Extrinsic motivation: incentives (rewards, punishments, evaluation),
individuals engage in non-enjoyable behaviours in order to receive
incentives
Rewards affect intrinsic motivation? Reduces future freely-chosen
performance of behaviour, reduces quality of behaviours that
require complex mental operations, reduces creativity
Sexual motivation:

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o Evolutionary perspective:
Sexual behaviours were shaped by natural selection
Humans motivated to engage in behaviours that increase
reproductive success for ancestors
Reproductive success: passing genes on to the next generation in such

a way that they can too pass genes
Strategies: large number of offspring (low investment), small number
of offspring (high investment)
o Bonding:
Causes intense emotional bond
Neurotransmitters: endorphins and oxytocin are released during sex
o Motivated engage in sex without reproduction:
Genes want us to reproduce
Have developed workarounds (birth control, other forms of sex)
o Restriction of sexual behaviour:
Rules regarding sexuality
Highly related to values and morals
Intensely affects emotions and relationships
Physical health effects healthier old persons, improves
cardiovascular functioning
o Gender differences:
Male sexuality stronger more specific sex drive, more frequent
infidelity, more frequent arousal
Female sexuality more concealed
Testosterone levels
Concealed vs. obvious responses may explain arousal report
differences
Social role more concerned with controlling female sexuality
o Sexual orientation:
Considered heritable
48%-52% monozygotic twins (for 10 twin pairs where 1 is gay, half will
be gay
Social factors gender non-conforming behaviour in childhood
o Sexual behaviour:
Actions that make fertilisation possible
Behaviour that involves a sexual response of the body
Behaviour that is especially intimate and personal
Kinsey many people engaged in sexual behaviours considered
perversions
o Human sexual response pattern:
Masters and Johnson
Excitement/arousal
Plateaus
Orgasm
Resolution
o Sex and psychological well-being:

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Adolescents/young adults to connect, improve self esteem, gain

partners approval, avoid feeling distressed/lonely
Adults greater life satisfaction, more satisfied with relationship
Depression breakups of romantic relationships at risk of
depression, teen relationships may not be taken seriously by adults
Regulating motivation:
o Self regulation:
Process which an organism controls behaviour in order to pursue
other objectives
E.g. conflict between motivations
Factors in goal success specific goals, challenging, long-term
purpose. Short term steps, behavioural intentions
o Resisting temptation:
Delay of gratification put off pleasurable experience for future
payoff, difficult because immediate rewards more valued than
delayed
Reducing motivational characteristics placing reward out of sight
Internal distraction focusing attention away from reward
External distraction toy
Imagery cool characteristics of the reward
6/5/15:
Emotion 1:
What is emotion:
o Psychological state that can involve changes in physiological arousal,
conscious experience, motivation and behavioural expression
o Physiological arousal:
Autonomic Nervous System
Sympathetic Nervous System arouses
Parasympathetic Nervous System calms
o Conscious experience:
Positive or negative in valence
Positive joy, contentment, calm
Negative fear, anger, disgust, sadness, boredom
o Emotion and arousal:
High arousal emotions fear, anger, joy, desire
Low arousal emotions Contentment, calm, sadness, boredom
o Emotion and motivation:
Approach related emotions anger, joy, desire
Avoidance related emotions fear, disgust
Theories of emotion:
o James-Lange Theory:
Stimulus physiological arousal emotion
Body responds to the environment
Individuals perception of these responses is emotional feeling
o Cannons criticisms:
Bodily responses arent necessary
Insensitive internal organs and feedback
Responses are too slow to cause feeling

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Artificial inducement of arousal does not cause feeling

o Cannons emergency theory:
Emergency reaction to need for energy
Fight or flight
Autonomic nervous system sympathetic energy expended,
parasympathetic storing energy for future
All emotions have same physio
o Two factor theory:
Physiological arousal
Cognitive labelling: arousal interpret external cues label
emotion
o Excitation transfer:
Arousal takes time to decay
During this time may incorrectly identify source of arousal and
transfer arousal to another source
Occurs when less aware of arousal
11/5/15:
Emotion 2:
Factors:
o The primacy debate:
Feeling or thinking?
Lazarus: appraisals (thoughts) determine feelings
Zajonc: emotional experience occurs before appraisal
o Emotion and the brain:
Amydala fear system two pathways, direct pathway is fast but not
detailed
Behavioural factors:
o Facial feedback hypothesis:
Facial expression can influence emotions
Support James-Lange theory body responses affect experience
Support Zajonc affect emotion even when people are unaware
that they are making emotion
o Emotions motivate behaviours:
Instrumental behaviours
Facial and bodily expressions
o Families of emotions:
Classes of emotion states that share many characteristics in terms of
subjective feelings, behavioural expressions
Motivation, instrumental, communicative
o Other expressions of emotion:
Touch
Full-body displays
Sound

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Tools of human affective neuroscience:

o Classic measures:
Skin conductance
Cardiac measures e.g. heart rate, SNS PNS measures, BP
Oculomotor and pupil metric measures
Electromyography activity
Respiration
Gastrointestinal activity
Penile and vaginal plethysmography
Electroencephalographic oscillatory
Event related brain potentials
Event related frequency changes

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o Newer measures:
Hormonal and endocrinological
Immune function
Neuroimaging PET, fMRI, optical imaging, MEG
o Manipulations:
Lesions
Biofeedback
Rapid Transracial Magnetic Stimulation
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
Alterations of cardiac pacemakers, vagus nerve stimulators
Hormone manipulations
Hormones and emotions:
o Oxytocin affiliation, trust
o Testosterone angry aggression, low empathy
o Cortisol stress, anxiety
o Rarely 1 to 1 relationship between psychological and physiological variables
Oxytocin doesnt only cause affiliation
Affiliation is caused by more than oxytocin
o Electroencephalogram (EEG)
An oscillating voltage recorded on a scalp surface
Reflects large number of neurons
Post synaptic potentials
Event related potentials
12/5/15:
Social Psychology 1:
Definition:
o Scientific investigation of how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of
individuals are influenced by actual or implied presence of others
o Study of how people think about, influence and relate to each other
o Imagined or implied presences is enough social is in the mind
o Studying everyday behaviour scientifically, produces more sceptical and
critical attitude
o Informs other disciplines:
o What do social psychologists study:

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How can we influence others?

How can attitudes be changed?
How can we tell when a person is lying?
Do groups make better judgements than individuals?
What influences conformity?
How do intimate relationships develop?
How do we form impressions?
o Social psychology vs. common sense:
Same subject matter different methods
Common sense: rich, general, non-specific everything and its opposite
can be true
Science: specific
Common sense cant distinguish between coincidence and causality
History:
o Human nature:
Human social behaviour shaped by evolutionary forces
Living alone effect hallucination, psychotic symptoms, visions
Schachter isolated 5 volunteers in a windowless room for as long as
they could endure humans are profoundly social animals
o Evolutionary origins of sociability:
Adaptation for group living, cooperation and conformity
Steve Pinker human mind evolved to manage social relationships
Robin Dunbar social brain hypothesis
o Gender differences:
Men as seekers and women as choosers
Different mating preferences
Different jealousy patterns
Differences in perceptions and judgements
Parental investment theory higher investing sex (selective), lower
investing sex (less selective, more competitive), common
male/female differences
o In group favouritism:
Primary groups vs. mass society
How to achieve tolerance 18th C individualism (all humans equal),
20th C multiculturalism (all cultures are equal)
Dangers of group emphasis vs. individualism
Need for identity and attachment 18th C, more freedom, mobility,
productivity and wealth but impoverished social relationships
what drives consumption? Need to satisfy social needs?
Methods:
o Multi-method discipline:
Controlled laboratory experiments
Descriptive and survey techniques
Field experiments and unobtrusive techniques
o Studying social behaviour:
Represents a continuous interaction between the person and the
situation
Person: features or characteristics that individuals carry into social
situation
Situation: environmental events or circumstances outside the person

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13/5/15:
Social influence processes:

o Minimal social influence mere presence and audience effects
o Social facilitation:
Dynamogenic factor theory: presence of another person is a stimulus
to arousing the competitive instinct
Real world drivers take 15% less time to travel first at an
intersection when there is another driver beside them than when
they are alone
Animal kingdom eat more even though full
o Contrary evidence social inhibition:
Zajonc drive theory arousal increases dominant responses
If dominant responses correct- facilitation
If dominant response incorrect inhibition
What you do well you will tend to do best in front of others
o Arousal:
If task is easy or well learned arousal helps performance
If it is hard hinders performance

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Sources for arousal mere presence, evaluation apprehension,

distraction-conflict
Cockroach
Social loafing:
o Slack off when individual effort cannot be monitored
o Own contributions cannot be identified
o Large group size less responsibility low expectancy low instrumentality
o Solution:
Increase relevance and commitment to task
Make individual performance identifiable
Increase group cohesion
Conformity:
o Universal tendency
o When we adhere to or adjust our thoughts, feelings and/or behaviours to be
consistent with the standards of a group or society
o Conformity vs. individualism
o Asch paradigm:
Judge length of lines
Alone everyone is correct
35% conform but know they are wrong
25% independent
Influence of group size
o Power of conformity challenged by presence of non-conformist
o Normative vs. informational conformity
o Situations that strengthen conformity:

When feeling incompetent or insecure
Group has 3+
Admiring the group
No prior commitment to any response
Being observed
Culture encourages shared norms
Group is unanimous

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18/5/15:
Obedience:
o Creates social structures
o Behaviour change produced by commands of authority
o Milgrams studies:
Shocking participants
Variables influencing obedience role of proximity between teacher
and learner, another teacher present
Deindividuation:
o When group participation makes people feel aroused and anonymous
often leads to the reduction of normal constraints against deviant behaviour
o E.g. food fights, vandalism, riots, mob violence
o Zimbardo:
Due to anonymity, arousal and diffusion of responsibility
Compliance:
o Robert Cialdini studied compliance professionals by taking on jobs:
Friendship/liking (you look good)
Commitment/consistency
Scarcity (going fast! Last one!)
Reciprocity (you also get...)
Social validation (group endorsements)
Authority
o Foot in the door technique:
Requesters begin with small request, once granted ask a larger one
the one desired
Freedman and Fraser huge drive carefully sign (17%) vs. put small
sign then drive carefully (76%)
o Low balling technique:
Offer is changed after acceptance
Start at 7am (76% refuse), participate (56%) its at 7am (95% show)
o Door in the face technique:
First large request after refusal, smaller request (one desired)
2-hour zoo visit (17%) vs. 2 hours a week for 2 years (0%) then 2 hour
(50%)

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Minority influence:
o Social change is driven by what starts out as minority opinion
o Moscovici:
Dissenting individuals can produce change
o Consistent minorities can be influential because:
Disrupt majority norm
Draw attention to the minority as entity
Draw attention to alternative position
Demonstrate commitment
Must be consistent, avoid appearing rigid, in touch with current trend
and similar to majority in other ways
19/5/15:
Attribution theory and biases:

o Explaining peoples behaviour
o Attribution theory:
Giving casual explanation for someones behaviour
Crediting either internal dispositions or external situations or
combinations
o Person vs. situation attributions:
People categorise the behaviour they observe
People categorise the persons personality
People assess the situation
o Attribution process:
3 types of information that we consider when making dispositional or
situational attribution
Consensus: extent to which other people react to the same stimulus
or event in the same way as the person that we are considering
Consistency: the extent to which the person in question reacts to the
stimulus or event in the same way on different occasion
Distinctiveness: extent to which the person in question responds in
the same manner to different stimuli or events

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Attributional biases:
o The fundamental attribution error:
Tendency for observers when analysing anothers behaviour to
underestimate the impact of the situation, overestimate the impact
of dispositions
When observing others, we tend to focus more on the person than
the situation
Notice situational cues but give them less weight in our attributions

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We assume that the actions of the others reflect their underlying

characteristics then we correct for situational factors
o The actor-observer bias:
Tendency to attribute our own behaviour mainly to external causes
but the behaviour of others mainly to internal causes
More aware of how the situation affects our behaviour act
differently according to the situation
See others perform an action, concentrate on the actor, not the
situation
Stereotypes:
o Generalisation about a group of people in which identical characteristics are

assigned to virtually all members group, regardless of actual variation
among the group
o Prejudice:
Hostile or negative feelings toward a distinguishable group of people
based solely on their membership in that group
o Discrimination:
Unjustified negative or harmful action toward a member of a group,
simply because of a membership in that group
o Three levels of stereotypes in todays research:
Public what we say to others about a group
Private what we consciously think about a group, but dont say to
others
Implicit unconscious mental associations guiding our judgements
and actions without our conscious awareness
o Stereotypes and attributions:
Due to fundamental attribution error blame internal characteristics
rather than the situation when attributing the behaviour of
stereotyped individuals
Consistent behaviour stereotype confirmed (internal)
Inconsistent behaviour stereotype confirmed (situational)
Self-fulfilling prophecy:
o When beliefs and expectations create reality by influencing the behaviour
ourselves and others
o Pygmalion effect:
Person A believes that person B has a particular characteristic
Person B may begin to behave in accordance with that characteristic

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20/5/15:
Influences on human attraction:

o Physical attractiveness:
Vary across time and cultures
Non symmetrical features can indicate odd genes or environmental
stressors average effect
Symmetrical face is more attractive than one that is asymmetrical
Composite faces are found to be more attractive than 96% of
individual faces
Pupil dilation may be the only universal beauty feature dilate when
we are interested and contract when we are bored
Women signs of arousal (red lips, flushed cheeks), signs of youth
(neotenous/child like features full lips, round mouth, big eyes)
Men signs of maturity (clear/small eyes, square jaw, thrusting
chin), v shape torso, height
o Arousal:
Experience of emotion arises from our awareness of our bodys
arousal
Emotion= arousal +label (cognitive interpretation)
Participants rated the same photos more attractive after a roller-
coaster than before
Bridge experiment called woman met on the bridge more vs. rest
o Similarity:
Friends and couples more likely to share common attitudes, beliefs,
interests, religion, intelligence, economic status, smoking behaviour,
**age, ethnicity, education**
Matching hypothesis: people pair up with those who are equivalent in
physical attractiveness
Want partners who are attractive but generally avoid people who are
out of our league
o Proximity:
Being near makes the heart grow dear
Mere exposure effect: What is unfamiliar is potentially dangerous
and met with negative feelings. If nothing negative happens after
repeated exposure to the unfamiliar stimulus, negative feelings
decrease, and positive feelings increase
Lecture women attended lectures most often deemed most
attractive although equally attractive
o Affect:
Meeting someone and have positive feelings will like them
Negative feelings wont like them
Affect may have direct effect on attraction or associated effect
Direct: like people who make us feel good and dislike those who dont
Associated: when positive emotion is due to something else, but gets
associated with a person although they arent responsible they are

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evaluated according to the emotion good weather, laughter,

background music, familiar scents
o Self-disclosure:
Sharing leads to caring
Sharing of personal information
Disclosure during early stages based on reciprocity
Medium levels of self-disclosure found most attractive
Triangular theory of love:

o Three components of love:
Intimacy
Passion
Commitment
o Combine to form 8 types of love

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25/05/15:
What is prosocial behaviour:

o Actions intended to benefit others
o Kitty:
Abused = took a while to call for help
Witnesses reported being distressed for years
Didnt lack empathy so why didnt they help?
o Inaction due to situation not personality?

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Didnt report because thought others had

o Bystander effect:
Presence of others inhibits helping
Number of people involved increases individual feel less
responsibility and help becomes less likely
Emergency intervention:
o Decision tree:
Notice the emergency
Interpret as emergency are others responding as if its an
emergency (informational social influence)
Assume responsibility more bystanders diffuse responsibility
Know what to do
Decide to help cost of helping vs. not helping, audience effect
(reluctance to help for fear of making bad impression on observers),
legal concerns
o Make clear need help and reduce diffusion of responsibility
Personal factors:
o People who are more helpful in one situation are more likely to be helpful in
another
o Religious faith:
Minor emergency situations religious only slightly more helpful
Planned helping (volunteering) religious faith is a good predictor of
helping
o Cultural factors:
Brazil, India Austria and Spain helping
Singapore, NY, KL less
Who is more likely to help whom?
o Gender:
Women receive more help especially when dressed more feminine
Minor problems women ask for help more
o Attributions of responsibility:
More likely to help others who appear less responsible for their
situation
o Similarity:
More likely to help others similar
What increases helping:
o Media:
Pro social video games
Pro social music
o Value of education:
Assigned two topics bystander and unrelated
Student on the floor those bystander more likely to help
26/05/15:
What are attitudes:

o Beliefs and feelings that predispose our reaction to objects, people and
events
o Positively or negatively valenced

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o ABCS:
Affect: what we feel toward that object/person/event
Behaviour: how we act
Cognition: what we think
How attitudes vary:

o Attitude strength:
Durability and impact of an attitude
Influenced by attitude importance and attitude accessibility
Importance: personal relevance of an attitude for an individual
Accessibility: ease with which the attitude comes to mind
o Explicitness of attitude:
Some attitudes are explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious)
Implicit attitudes regulate thought and behaviour unconsciously and
automatically
o Cognitive complexity:
Intricacy of thoughts about attitudinal objects
E.g. Tetlock read political speeches and coded them politicians at
both extremes show less attitudinal complexity than people whoa
are more moderate
o Attitudinal ambivalence:
Extent to which a given attitude object is associated with conflicting
evaluative responses
E.g. love effects of alcohol hate the taste/hangover
o Coherence:
Extent to which an attitude (cognitive and evaluative components) is
internally consistent
Beliefs/feelings comprising an attitude frequently develop
separately and change independently
E.g. smokers knowledge about effects vs. feelings about smoking
Attitude Behaviours:
o Intuitively, attitudes affect behaviour
o When will attitudes guide behaviour:
Outside influences on what we say and do are minimal free from
social pressures
Attitude is specifically relevant to the behaviour

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Aware of that attitude

Members of important group appear to share and endorse the
attitude
Attitudes are shaped by personal experience
o Attitudes dont always predict behaviour:
Minor behaviours can influence attitudes

E.g. nodding/shaking the head, found vertical agreed with content
more (positive thoughts are compatible with vertical nodding and
incompatible with horizontal)
E.g. rate Chinese characters when pressing their arms upward from
the desk or downward on the desk upward press led to more
positive ratings (compatible with bringing something toward you)
E.g. pen in mouth side ways (like what listening to more)
Cognitive dissonance and attitude change: feel need to have
attitude be consistent with behaviour (experience tension if not
called cognitive dissonance)
E.g. Festinger and Carlsmith: boring task for an hour, lie to next
subject about it (that it was fun) and paid $1 or $20 to do the lie
when paid less more willing to come back and said it was fun and
reverse for more

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Grasshoppers: nasty experimenter vs. nice, nasty rated it more and

endorsed them for others nice had a reason as a favour, nasty
only reasons guess I like it

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Lecture note, all lectures

Psychology 1A (University of New South Wales)

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Scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

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o Behaviourism subjective experience could not be verified by an objective

Clinical Perspectives in Psychology:

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o Above principles ignored

What does basic psychology say about trauma responses?

Personality: psychodynamic approaches

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Generally distinct from intellectual abilities

Unconscious mind (hidden motives, that influence our personality)/ intrapsychic

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(meaning behind the dream) manifest content (the transformation of the

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Puberty Genital Physical changes Social rules/

Behaviourist/Learning/Conditioning Theories of Personality

Radical vs. moderate behaviourism:

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Basics of Humanistic Theories:

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3. Organismic trusting: allowing ourselves ot be guided by the organismic

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2. A person must actualize

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o Promoting job satisfaction by fulfilling higher needs - flow

Genes and Personality Traits

Nature vs. nurture

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Lower reproduction among genetically disadvantaged e.g.

Early History and Theories:

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Intersection between our psychology processes and health outcomes

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o Theory of reasoned action

Subjective norm what do other people think of this

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o Theory of planned behaviour

Perceived behavioural control do you think you can do it?

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o Transactional model of stress

o Stress and health:

o Coping with stress:

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need to provide people with self-efficacy information ability to

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Outcomes vary as a function of population size, proximity,

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Self-awareness - What has metalizing have to do with religious belief?

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Religious groups with more rituals outlast hose with fewer

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Consciousness 2: How to Study Consciousness