Sunday, April 6, 2014

Notes - March 6, 2014

The Nervous System

  • Starts with a nerve cell called a neuron
Neuron Anatomy
  • Neurotransmitter - chemical held in terminal button that travels through synaptic gap
  • Cell Body - the cells support center
  • Dendrites - Receive messages from other cells
  • Axon - passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles or glands
  • Terminal Branches of Axon - forms junctions with other cells
  • Mylin Sheath - covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed up neural impulse
  • Neural Impulse - electrical signal traveling down the axon
  • Synapse - a structure the permits a neuron to pass a chemical or electrical signal to another cell
How Does a Neuron Fire?
  • Resting Potential - Slightly negative charge
  • Reach the threshold when enough neurotransmitters reach dendrites
How a Neuron Fires
  • an electrochemical process
  • electrical inside neuron
  • chemical outside neuron in the synapse in the form of a neurotransmitter
  • the firing is called action potential
All or None Response
  • idea that either the neuron fires or not - no part way firing
  • No fire - trouble
Neurotransmitters
  • chemical messengers released by terminal buttons through synapse
4 Types of Neurotransmitters
  1. Acetylcholine (AcH)
    • Deals with motor movement and memory
    • Lack of AcH has been linked to Alzheimer's Disease
  2. Dopamine
    • Deals with motor movement and alertness
    • Lack of dopamine has been linked to Parkinson's disease
    • Too much dopamine = schizophrenia
    • End of relationship = lower dopamine levels
  3. Serotonin
    • involved in mood control
    • lack of serotonin has been linked to clinical depression
  4. Endorphins
  • involved in pain control
  • many of our most addictive drugs deal with endorphins
Drugs can be...
  • Agonists - make neuron fire
  • Antagonists - stop neural firing
3 Types of Neurons
  1. Sensory Neurons - (Afferent Neurons) Take info from the senses to the brain
  2. Inter Neurons - Take messages from sensory neurons to other parts of the brain or to motor neurons
  3. Motor Neurons - (Efferent Neurons)  - Take information from brain to the rest of the body
The Nervous System 
  • The Central Nervous System - Brain and Spinal Cord
  • Peripheral Nervous System - (PNS) all nerves that are not encased in bone. everything but the brain and spinal cord. Divided into 2 categories:
  1. Somatic Nervous System - controls voluntary muscle movements and uses motor neurons
  2. Autonomic Nervous System - controls the automatic functions of the body. Divided into 2 categories: 
    1. Parasympathetic Nervous System - Automatically slows the body down after a stressful event. Heart rate and digestion speeds up
    2. Sympathetic Nervous System - Flight or fight response. Automatically accelerates heart rate, breathing dilates pupils, slows down digestion. 

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Notes - March 3, 2014

Achievement Motivation - what motivates us to work?

  • Intrinsic Motivation - rewards we get internally, such as enjoyment or satisfaction
  • Extrinsic Motivations - rewards that we get for accomplishments from outside ourselves
Management Theory - management/teaching styles relate closely to intrinsic/extrinsic motivators
  • Theory X - managers believe that employees will work only if rewarded with benefits or threatened with punishment. Think employees are extrinsically motivated only interested in Maslow's lower needs.
  • Theory Y - managers believe that employees are internally motivated to do good work and policies should encourage this internal motive. Interested in Maslow's higher needs.
Theories of Emotion
  • James-Lange Theory - experience of emotion is awareness of physiological responses to emotion arousing stimuli
    • perception of stimulus - arousal - emotion
    • Emotion - we feel emotion because of biological changes caused by stress. The body changes and our mind recognizes the feeling.
  • Cannon-Bard Theory - emotion arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger: physiological responses, subjective experiences of emotion
    • perception of stimulus - arousal - emotion
  • Schacter's Two Factor Theory 
    • to experience emotion one must:
      • be physically aroused, cognitively label the arousal
    • perception of stimulus - arousal+label - emotion
Lie Detectors
  • Polygraph - machine commonly used in attempts to detect lies
    • measures several of the physiological responses accompanying emotion
    • perspiration
    • cardiovascular
    • breathing changes
Experienced Emotion
  • Catharsis
    • emotional release
    • Catharsis Hypothesis - releasing "aggressive" energy, through action or fantasy, relieving aggressive urges
  • Feel-Good, Do-Good Phenomenon
    • people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood 
  • Adaptation-Level Phenomenon - tendency to form judgments relative to a "neutral" level
    • brightness of lights
    • volume of sound
    • level of income
    • defined by our prior experience
  • Relative Deprivation - perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself

Notes - February 28, 2014


  • Hunger - both physiological and psychological
  • Biological Basis of Hunger
    • hunger does not come from the stomach but the hypothalamus
  • Hypothalamus
    • Lateral - when stimulated, it makes you hungry
    • Ventromedial - when stimulated, you feel full
How Does The Hypothalamus Work?
  • Two Theories
    • Leptin - a protein produced by bloated fat cells. Hypothalamus senses rises in leptin and will curb eating and increase activity
    • Setpoint - the hypothalamus acts like a thermostat. We are meant to be in a certain weight range when we fall below weight, our body will increase hunger and decrease energy expenditure.
  • Body Chemistry
    • Glucose - hormone insulin converts glucose to fat. When glucose levels drop, hunger increases.
  • Hypothalamus Hormones
    • Orexin increases; hypothalamus; increased hunger
    • Ghrelin increase; stomach; increased hunger
    • Insulin increases; pancreas; increase hunger
    • Leptin increase; fat cells; decrease hunger
    • PPY increase; digestive tract; decrease hunger
The Psychology of Hunger

  • Externals - people eating is triggered more by the presence of food than internal factors
  • Internals - taste preferences; when food taste better, we eat faster.
Eating Disorders

  • Bulimia Nervosa - characterized by binge eating (eating large amounts of food and purging)
  • Anorexia Nervosa - starve themselves to below 85% of their normal body weight. They see themselves as fat; a vast majority are women

Notes - February 27, 2014

Motivation and Emotion

Motivation - a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior.

  • Instinct Theory - we are motivated by our inborn automated behaviors. Instincts only explain why we do small fractions of our behavior.
  • Drive Reduction Theory - the idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need it is usually to maintain homeostasis 
    • we are not only pushed by our needs but pulled by our incentives: a positive or negative environmental stimulus that motivates behavior
  • Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Monday, March 3, 2014

Notes - February 24, 2014

Social Relations

  • How do we relate to others?
  • Attraction, conflict and prejudice, altruism and peacemaking
Prejudice - unjustifiable attitude towards a group of people

  • Stereotype - a generalized belief about a group of people
  • Social Inequalities - a principle reason behind prejudice
  • Ingroup - "us" people with whom one shares a common identity
  • Outgroup - "them" those perceived as different than ones ingroup
  • Ingroup Bias - the tendency to favor one's own group
  • Scapegoat Theory - the theory that prejudice provides an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame
  • Just World Phenomenon - belief that those who suffer deserve it
  • Reciprocity Norm - only help those who have helped you
  • Social Responsibility -  expectation that people will help those who depend on them
Why is there Prejudice?
  • categorization
  • vivid cases
Aggression - any physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt or destroy

The Psychology of Aggression 
  • Frustration-Aggression Principle - blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal
  • creates anger which generates aggression
Conflict - a perceived incompatibility of actions, goals or ideas - social trap or prisoner's dillema

Attraction

5 Factors of Attraction
  • Proximity 
    • geographic nearness
    • Mere Exposure Effect - repeated exposure to something breeds liking
    • mirror image concept
  • Reciprocal Liking
    • you are more likely to like someone who likes you
  • Similarity
    • opposites attract
    • birds of the same feather flock together
    • similarity breeds content
  • Physical Attractiveness
    • some people say beauty is facial symmetry
  • Love
    • Passionate Love - an aroused state of intense positive absorption of another
    • Compassionate Love - the deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined .
      • What makes compassionate love work?
        • Equity - fair
        • Self Disclosure - no secrets
Altruism - unselfish regard for the welfare of others
  • Bystander Effect - bystanders less willing to help if there are other bystanders around
  • Social Exchange Theory - the idea that our social behavior is and exchange procces which we maximize benefits and minimize cost
Peacemaking - give people superordinate (shared) goals that can be achieved through cooperation
  • win - win
  • GRIT - Graduated Reciprocated Initiatives in Tension Reduction

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Notes - February 17, 2014

Social Influence

  • Conformity - adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

Conditions That Strengthen Conformity
    • one is made to feel competent
    • group is at least 3 people
    • group is unanimous
    • one admires the group's status
    • one had made no prior commitment
    • the person is observed
Reasons For Conformity

    • Normative Social Influence - a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disappointment

    • Information Social Influence - one's willingness to accept other's opinions about reality
    • Obedience
    • Social Facilitation - improved performance of tasks in the presence of others
  • Social Loafing - tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling efforts toward a common goal than if they were individually accountable
  • Deindividuation- the loss of self-awareness and self restraint occurring in groups that foster arousal and anonymity

  • Groupthink - the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision making group overrides common sense
  • Self Fulfilling Prophecy - Occurs when one person's belief about another leads one to act in ways that induce the others to appear to confirm the belief

Notes - February 14, 2014

Social Psychology

  • the study of how we think about, influence and relate to one another


  • Social Thinking - how do we think about one another?
  • Attribution Theory - the idea that we give a casual explanation for someone's behavior. We credit that behavior either to the situation or the person's disposition
  • Fundamental Attribution Error - the tendency to underestimate the impact of a situation and overestimate the impact of personal dispositions
  • Attitudes - belief or feeling that predisposes one to respond in a particular way to something.
  • Foot In The Door Phenomenon - tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
  • Door In The face Phenomenon - the tendency for people who say no to a huge request, to comply with a smaller one
  • Cognitive Dissonance Theory - we don't like when we have either conflicting attitudes or when our attitudes to do not match our actions. When they clash, we will change our attitude to create a balance