This document contains extensive notes of all the lectures (Topic 1 till 14) that belong to the exam of introduction psychology. Many pictures are included with explanations. There is also a little summery of the pages of the book which belong to topic 10 but were not discussed during the lecture.
Test Bank for Psychological Science Seventh Edition by Elizabeth A. Phelps, Elliot Berkman & Michael Gazzaniga, A+ guide.
Test Bank for Psychological Science Seventh Edition by Elizabeth A. Phelps, Elliot Berkman & Michael Gazzaniga, A+ guide.
TEST BANK PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 7TH EDITION BY MICHAEL S. GAZZANIGA | Complete Guide A+
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Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU)
Minor Psychology And The Brain
Introduction To Psychology (P_UINLPSY)
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Lectures – Introduction to psychology
,Index
Introduction to psychology UM ............................................................................................................. 5
Topic 1 – Genes and Evolution ............................................................................................................... 5
The genetic basis............................................................................................................................. 5
Evolution by natural selection........................................................................................................ 7
Genes and behavior ........................................................................................................................ 9
Topic 2 – The Brain and the Nervous System ...................................................................................... 11
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 11
Building blocks of the nervous system......................................................................................... 11
Communication among neurons .................................................................................................. 12
Communication of the brain with the body ................................................................................ 15
Studying the brain......................................................................................................................... 16
The brain ....................................................................................................................................... 17
Topic 3 – Consciousness ....................................................................................................................... 20
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 20
Attention ....................................................................................................................................... 23
Variations in consciousness .......................................................................................................... 25
Sleep .............................................................................................................................................. 25
Drugs ............................................................................................................................................. 27
Topic 4 – Sensation and perception: Vision ......................................................................................... 30
The senses ..................................................................................................................................... 30
Vision – The retina ........................................................................................................................ 32
Vision – Beyond the retina ........................................................................................................... 35
Visual perception .......................................................................................................................... 36
Perceptual organization ............................................................................................................... 37
Perception of depth ...................................................................................................................... 38
Topic 5 – Learning ................................................................................................................................. 41
Nonassociative learning ............................................................................................................... 42
Associative learning: Classical conditioning ................................................................................ 42
Associative learning: Operant conditioning................................................................................. 48
Observational learning ................................................................................................................. 53
Topic 6 – Memory ................................................................................................................................. 54
The study of memory.................................................................................................................... 54
Encoding ........................................................................................................................................ 55
Storage .......................................................................................................................................... 58
Retrieval ........................................................................................................................................ 59
, Varieties of memory ..................................................................................................................... 60
When memory fails ...................................................................................................................... 61
Topic 7 – Thinking and language .......................................................................................................... 65
Mental representations ................................................................................................................ 65
Decision making ............................................................................................................................ 66
Problem solving ............................................................................................................................ 71
Language ....................................................................................................................................... 73
Topic 8 – Intelligence ............................................................................................................................ 76
Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 76
Intelligence testing ....................................................................................................................... 76
The psychometric approach ......................................................................................................... 78
Intelligence beyond the IQ test .................................................................................................... 79
The relation between IQ and cognitive performance ................................................................. 80
The roots of intelligence ............................................................................................................... 81
Topic 9 – Human development ............................................................................................................ 84
Prenatal development .................................................................................................................. 84
Further development.................................................................................................................... 85
Psychical and sensorimotor development ................................................................................... 85
Socio-emotional development ..................................................................................................... 86
Cognitive development ................................................................................................................ 90
Some final thoughts ...................................................................................................................... 94
Topic 10 – Emotion and motivation ..................................................................................................... 95
Emotions ....................................................................................................................................... 95
Motivation .................................................................................................................................... 99
What motivates eating? ............................................................................................................. 101
How does motivation give us meaning? (pages 398-406 of the book) ..................................... 104
Topic 11 – Social psychology .............................................................................................................. 107
Social influence ........................................................................................................................... 107
Social cognition – Attitudes ........................................................................................................ 113
Social cognition – Thinking about others ................................................................................... 115
Social relations ............................................................................................................................ 116
Topic 12 – Personality......................................................................................................................... 118
The origins of personality ........................................................................................................... 118
The psychodynamic approach .................................................................................................... 120
The trait approach ...................................................................................................................... 124
The cognitive-behavioral approach............................................................................................ 125
,Introduction to psychology UM
What is psychology?
- According to the book → Psychology is the scientific study of mind, brain, and behavior.
- Other definition → Psychology is the scientific study of mind and brain to explain behavior.
o We study the mind and the brain so we are able to predict behavior.
▪ In order to predict behavior we need to understand the underlining mind
and brain.
o Why do we need a science for that? → Because common sense fails.
▪ Example → In general people tend to accept very general relatively fake
personality descriptions as very accurate personality descriptions of their
own personality.
Topic 1 – Genes and Evolution
Overview:
- The genetic basis.
- Evolution by natural selection.
- Genes and behavior.
The genetic basis
Is it correct to claim that “a violent person has violent genes”?
- Do genes can predispose someone to become violent?
- In the seventies → No! → (violent) behavior is caused by environment.
o This point of view was primarily driven by ideology.
o Violence was seen as a product of capitalism or bad parenting for example.
o It was inappropriate to assume that genes could cause violent behavior.
- In the nineties → Yes! → (violent) behavior is caused by genes.
o With the development of genetic techniques it was possible to do gene studies.
o Point of view → Children turn out the way they do because of their genes and good
parenting will not make any difference.
- Today → (violent) behavior is the result of the interaction between genes and
environment.
The genetic basis
- Every human cell has a nucleus.
- Each nucleus contains 46 chromosomes.
- Chromosomes carry instructions for how to
build and operate a body.
- Chromosomes are made up of coiled strands of
DNA.
- The DNA molecule has a double helix shape.
- The specific sequence of bases along the
backbone of the DNA strand provides codes for
specific proteins → Only the meaningful parts
of the sequences will code for a protein.
,Genes
- Genes are the meaningful sections of the DNA molecule → Sequences of the DNA that code
for proteins.
- Genes govern the cell’s functioning by providing instructions for making proteins.
- The presence of a specific gene in a specific cell does not necessary mean that the protein is
produced → Gene can be expressed or not expressed.
Gene expression
- Whether a gene is turned “on” or “off” → The extent to which a gene is
transcribed into a sequence of amino acids (protein).
o The specific pattern of turned on and turned off genes leads to
different cells.
o Turn off → Methylation of the gene sequence so it cannot be
transcribed anymore.
- In each cell, some genes are expressed at any point in time and others are not. This is
controlled by the biochemical environment inside the cell.
o The biochemical environment inside the cell is influenced by e.g., the environment
outside the cell, timing in development, the overall environment, experience,
behavior.
o Important → The environment is crucial for the gene expression.
o The outside environment can also change the environment inside your body which
can lead to altering the gene expression.
▪ Example → If you watch tv all day long and don’t move at all, things change
in your body → Hormone levels change, blood pressure changes.
• These changes can alter gene expression in the muscle cells → For
example, turn off genes that are responsible for muscle growth →
Less muscle growth because you don’t need it when you are sitting
all day long.
Genotype → An organism’s specific set of genes.
Phenotype → The overt traits and behaviors of an organism.
- Phenotype is determined by interaction between genotype and environment (experience,
past and present).
o Monozygotic (identical) twins have the same genotype but when they live in
different environments it will lead to different looks and behavior of the twins
(different phenotype).
Each gene is paired with another gene.
- One gene you get from your mother and the other you get from your
father.
o You get 23 chromosomes from your mother and 23 chromosomes
from your father which leads to 46 chromosomes in total.
- The gene pairs are located at corresponding positions on pairs of
chromosomes.
- There are different variants of a gene → An allele is one specific variant of
a gene.
o Dominant → Show their effect in phenotype independent from the other allele.
, o Recessive → Only shows their effect in the phenotype if the other
allele is the same variant.
- Homozygote → Alleles on locus are the same.
- Heterozygote → Alleles on locus are different.
A specific trait or behavior is determined by the interaction between the environment
(past and present) and:
- One gene pair.
- Multiple gene pairs → Polygenetic inheritance.
o Physical and psychological behavior are often determined by multiple genes and the
environment.
Where do our parent’s sets of genes come from?
- From their parents.
o And theirs? → From their parents → Etc.
The genome is shaped by evolution over the years → Darwin’s evolution theory.
- The complete set of genes of an organism has been developed by evolution.
- Darwin however did not know anything about the genetics like we do now.
Evolution by natural selection.
Charles Darwin hypothesized that all modern organisms:
- Are descended from a small set of shared ancestors.
- Have merged over time through the process of evolution.
The key mechanism of evolution is natural selection.
- Three conditions:
o There is variation among individuals of a population.
o Individuals with a certain trait, survive and reproduce at higher rates than others →
The trait gives a benefit.
o The trait associated with this advantage is passed from parents to offspring.
▪ The trait is genetic.
- Specific traits will be better represented in the next generation because of natural selection.
- Organisms differ in genotype and variations in genotype are passed from generation to
generation → What matters is the survival of genes, not the survival of individuals.
- Darwin did not know why there were differences in traits and how they were passed on from
one generation to the next one.
o Now we know that organisms vary in phenotype partly as a result of differences in
genotypes and the genotypes variations are passed on from parents to offspring.
The evidence for modern evolutionary theory comes from many sources.
- The fossil record.
o In Darwin’s time people thought that the earth was only a few thousands years old.
o But in order to explain the large variety in flora and fauna the earth should be much
older → Darwin predicted that the earth was at least a few hundred million years
old.
, o Darwin predicted that there would be very old fossils.
▪ In 1953 there were the first reports of these very
old fossils.
o Later they found that fossils gradually change along
heritage lines and that there are transitions forms
between different species.
- The resemblance between genomes of various organisms
(species).
o Genome of humans are very similar to bonobos,
chimpanzees, gorillas (anthropoid apes).
▪ However the anthropoid apes have 24 chromosome
pairs but humans have 23 chromosomes pairs.
• Chromosome number 2 of the human is a
combination of two anthropoid apes
chromosomes → 2 chromosomes are merged
into one chromosome over the years.
- Pseudogenes.
o Inactive genes that do not produce any proteins anymore but
probably did made proteins in our ancestors.
o Because of a mutation in the gene the gene does not work anymore.
o Humans have a lot of pseudogenes.
▪ Example → The production of vitamin C from glucose.
• To convert glucose into vitamin C there are 4 steps necessary and in
each step an enzyme participates.
• Humans have the enzymes for the first 3 steps but don’t have the
enzyme for the fourth step anymore and can therefore not produce
vitamin C but in our DNA the sequence of the enzyme is still there
but with a mutation in the gene.
• This mutation is not eliminated by natural selection because there
was enough food that contained vitamin C so it was not necessary to
make it yourself.
- Distribution of species across the world.
o Continental islands versus oceanic islands.
▪ Continental islands were once connected to the main continent.
▪ Oceanic islands → Islands that are developed as a result of an volcanic
rupture and where never connected to the main continent.
▪ There were different original species on the continental islands and oceanic
island.
• On a continental island → A large variety of species.
• On oceanic island there were only flies and birds because they could
fly to the islands in the middle of the ocean and other animals like
land mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fresh water fish could not reach
the island.
Despite overwhelming evidence, many people remain skeptical about the theory of evolution.
- Results of a survey (2005): “human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species
of animals.” → Right or false?
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