PSY 325
Brain activity + imaging
- EEG (electroencephalography): electrodes on scalp to pick up electrical signals of brain activity - MEG (magnetoencephalography): delicate sensors to detect magnetic indications of brain activity - both useful for determining when the brain is especially active, but not specific as to where the activity is specifically concentrated - CT scan (computed tomography): combining different images/angles into a representations of very thin slices (tomographs) - PET (positron emission tomography): creates a map of brain activity by following a harmless radioactive tracer in the bloodstream; assumes that the harder the brain works, the more blood it needs - can learn where the brain is most active when doing various tasks; some use Radioactive Molecules that bind/collect at particular brain structures that let us focus on specific regions - Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI): monitors magnetic pulses generated by oxygen in the blood to map where the brain is most active at a given moment - New/Developing: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) - Perfusion imaging: arterial spin labeling - yields more precise measures of blood flow in the brain (IE "To show that a certain brain region is relevant to emotional experience, for example, it is necessary for the researcher to come up with a stimulus that evokes an emotion in the participant (e.g., a photograph of the participant's child) and a stimulus that is as similar as possible without being emotionally affecting (perhaps a picture of a stranger). Then the areas where brain activation differs between the two conditions are mapped.") Biggest challenge: all parts of a living brain are always metabolically active to some degree, so a researcher has to do more than just measure what the brain does (IE "blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal measured by fMRI is not an absolute number; rather, it is calculated as a difference in levels of brain activity between experimental conditions, or between different individuals")
CHAPTER 10: Basics of psychoanalysis
- Freud: in the end died a pessimist, convinced that since WW2 is so closely following WW1 proved that we humans have an aggressive, destructive urge that will eventually destroy us all - discovered that when patients talked about their psychological problems, sometimes it was enough to help or cure them —> "free association": instructing patient to say whatever came to mind = "talking cure" - "talking cure"- talking about it helps. he thought it worked bc making thoughts and fears explicit by verbalizing them brings them into the open, where the conscious rational mind can deal with them; also that the psychotherapist can provide emotional support during the patient's trouble of figuring out what's wrong - influenced/led to Carl Jung, Alfred Adler (most prominent of freuds followers who evetually split)
Controversy
- Freuds insights that human nature is largely hidden/motivations that drive many behaviors are base and irrational - ideas he knew he'd get shit for - situation of learning/loving psych, but sister or boyfriend says "you better not psych me dude" - comment is highly pertinent! - ^ learning about personality psych, esp psychoanalytic approach, can produce irresistible urges to analyze the behavior and thoughts of those around us - Dont do it lol
genome-wide association studies
- GWA study: data concerning hundreds of thousands of genes and patterns of genes in thousands of people —> computer, along with the data about these peoples personalities; computer searches to find which genes/patterns are associated with which traits - difficult and expensive - 3 studies/100,000ppl: found genetic variants ass with traits related to happiness, depression, and anxiety; another found patterns of genes ass with all big 5 traits except extraversion (but only the pattern ass with agreeableness was consistent across 3 separate samples) - some suggest that the attempt to connect traits to genes is doomed at the outset and should be abandoned: pessimistic and premature conclusions AGAIN; most likely outcome in the longrun is that each major trait will turn out to be ass with many diff genes, each of which has a small effect that depends on the effect of other genes and the environment - aka the ultimate picture is going to be complicated !!!
CHAPTER 9: Biochemistry of Personality
- Neurotransmitters and hormones - neurotransmitters travel the synapse to the next neuron where they cause a chemical reaction that has an Excitatory or Inhibitory effect - excitatory effect: the second neuron fires, which causes the release of neurotransmitters at it's other end, and so on down the neural line - inhibitory: the firing of the second neuron is suppressed - the activity of one neuron might be influenced by excitatory AND inhibitory inputs
The mind-body problem
- Personality traits are somewhat inherited, but they are also products of evolution/biology - To what degree is human psych reducible to processes of the body and the brain? — reductionist position: willing to argue that the answer is 100% — humanist position: maintain that the answer is 0%
Biology: cause and effect
- The relationship between the brain and its environment works in both directions - biological processes are the effects of behaviors or experiences as often as they are causes (i.e. stressful environment/feeling depressed/anxious will raise cortisol level, and the result (not the cause) may be a smaller brain! winning a game/election raises one's testosterone level; behavior and the social environment affect levels of other hormones and neurotransmitters, as well as development/functioning of the brain
psychosexual development: "follow the money"
- "follow the energy": psychic energy is both absolutely necessary and absolutely limited, so the story of where it goes tends to be the actual real story - freuds view: psychosexual development is the story of how life energy/libido becomes invested and then redirected over an individuals early years; each stage has 3 focuses (physical, psychological theme, and adult character type) - PICTURE OF TABLE WITH ALL STAGES/COMPONENTS moving through the stages: - overall goal during stages is building basic psychological structures: beg of oral stage, newborn is all ID- seeing bundle of want/need —> anal: experiences of frustration and delay lead part of the mind to differentiate and separate aka energy to form Ego (duty to control/channel urges of the ID) —> phallic: identifies with important people (parents), sum of all identifications form the SUPEREGO (the conscience; morally judges persons actions and urges, sometimes tries to stop them)
Oxytocin
- "love hormone" - important role in mother/child bonding, romantic attachment, and sexual response - released by hypothalamus - make people less fearful: fear-associated parts of the amygdala responded less if the subject were given a dose of oxytocin first - also causes people to rate the faces of strangers as more trustworthy and attractive - increase receptiveness to signs of affection - in general though, the effects are complicated and depend on the individual, the situation, and the local environment - proposed that it facilitates all kinds of approach behavior, positive (sexual encounters) and negative (attacking someone) - proposed that a primary function of oxytocin is to help women to accept the "challenges to bodily or psychological integrity" that inevitably arise in vital activities like sex, labor, and breastfeeding, which can be "seen as invasions of the usual bodily boundaries that define the individual as a discrete organism - females! —> next points - bc the chemicals its constructed from, and the neural receptors that respond to it, are closely related to estrogen - closely related to stages of reproduction: level in the body increases during sexual activity and orgasm, childbirth, and breastfeeding - women whose levels of oxytocin increase during pregnancy appear to bond better with their children - more likely to think fondly about their babies, gaze at them, touch them affectionately, and check on them frequently
The Cingulate
- Cingulate is structure in the cortex, just on top of the corpus callosum, and extends from the front of the brain to the back - Posterior cingulate: important for processing information about time and space and in reacting rapidly to threatening situations Anterior cingulate: - especially important for the experience of normal emotion, partially because it projects inhibitory circuits into the amygdala - interaction between cingulate, frontal lobes, and lower areas like the amygdala: may be critical for controlling emotional responses and impulsive behavior - with two traits: the anterior cingulate is not directly responsible for negative emotional responses but is important for computing mismatches between expected and actual states of the world. These mismatches sometimes trigger negative emotions (e.g., when getting an unpleasant surprise). When the anterior cingulate is chronically overactive, one result may be neuroticism
Big 5 and the brain
- DeYoung theory that the "meta traits" of stability and plasticity organize the big 5 into two groups - stability traits: include emotional stability (inverse of neuroticism), agreeableness, and conscientiousness; associated with serotonin - plasticity traits: include extraversion and openness; associated with dopamine
Hormones
- act throughout the body, stimulating the activity of neurons in many locations at the same time - those that are important for behavior are released by the hypothalamus, gonads (testes + ovaries), and the adrenal cortex (part of adrenal gland atop the kidneys) Epinephrine/Norepinephrine: - epi and its neurons that respond to it are found throughout the body - norepi and its neurons work primarily in the brain/brain stem - when released into the bloodstream, the heart speeds up, digestion stops, and muscles tense - "adrenaline rush"; brain becomes fully alert and concentrated on the matter at hand - Fight or flight! -response to threats may be different in men and women: prehistoric age, man under threat chose to stand and fight or run away, but women it was harder: might be pregnant, nursing, or caring for children, so fighting or running away might put them at greater/unacceptable risk, so she has to respond differently by calming everyone down and banding people together to fend off the threat "tend and befriend"! — another hormone in stress-response is Oxytocin: in females in promotes nurturant and sociable behavior, relaxation and fear reduction (opposite of fight or flight!); one effect might be decreasing anxiety and increase attachment between mothers and their children (this why primates ESP human mothers rarely abandon their infants, even when in grave danger) - men and women have fundamentally different responses to threats and attacks; men evaluate their strength relative to their opponent and assess their chances of escape, then fight or run away; women are more likely to seek out friends and relatives and "circle the wagons" - cant always fight or flee, but there is some safety in numbers!
will biology replace psychology?
- anatomy, physiology, genetics, and evolution: all say a lot about personality - Allport wrote "the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his/her characteristic behavior or thought" - "Biological Reductionism": personality is a psychophysical system, so once everything is known about brain structure and physiology, there will be nothing left for psychologists to investigate! - bio approaches to psych, by themselves, tell us much more about bio than psych; bio is really interesting, but doesn't provide description of how ppl act in their daily social environments, or of the consistencies found in their behaviors - ^ ie: the evolutionary process, as it has affected men, gives them a biological tendency to be unfaithful to their mates (according to one theory). But what happens inside the man's head at the moment he is unfaithful? What does he perceive, think, feel, and, above all, want? Evolutionary psychology not only fails to answer this question; it fails to ask it.
Anxiety and defense
- any anxiety: might be too intense to bear, so to help prevent this, the ego employs array of defense mechanisms! - pics of table on phone - denial: refusing to believe whatever it is that might cause anxiety - repression: failing to acknowledge anything that might remind person of the unwanted thought, and can lead to forgetting things - reaction formation: creating the opposite idea to have peace of mind; like somebody worried about their own morality might write a book telling others how to be virtuous - projection: developing the idea that something one fears is true about oneself is instead true about others rationalization: come up with a rational explanation for doing what she wants without acknowledging the real motivation - intellectualization: moves anxiety-producing thoughts into concepts/jargon that put emotions at a distance (ie. a doctor talks about a patient who "expired") - displacement: moving the object of emotions from a dangerous target to a safe one (ie kicking wall instead of boss after a work disappointment) - sublimation: safe outlet for otherwise problematic desires (ie someone who likes to argue, become lawyer; someone wants to cut people open, become surgeon)
Psychoanalysis as a therapy + route to understanding
- despite his focus on irrational mental processes, Freud believed in the ultimate power of reason - it aint that easy - "flight from health": phenomenon of running away from the solution to one's psychological problems; very common ie "i dont wanna talk about it" - therapeutic alliance - transference: tendency to bring ways of thinking/feeling/behaving that developed toward one important person into a later relationship with another; emotional relationship the patient develops with therapist is built on the model of the patient's past relationships with other important ppl - countertransference: therapist has reactions to the patient also, positive and negative - these can cause problems: sexual attraction sometimes arises between patient/client; therapists working with difficult patients describe feeling resentful, regretful, fightened, and manipulated
Brain stimulation
- difficult and rare! - stimulation of parts directly with electrodes - patients report visions, sounds, dreams, and memory flashbacks - stimulation of the central region of the left substantia nigra could produce symptoms of depression - newish: transcranial magnetic stimulation: rapidly changing mag fields to temporarily "knock out" areas of brain activity to see if that part is essential for a psychological task - transcranial direct current stimulation: shown that the R frontal lobe is important for making morally relevant decisions (like whether to punish someone for playing a game unfairly, or whether to play fairly oneself) - using these techniques to study personality is promising + might be useful for treating other brain disorders like migraines, effects of strokes, hallucinations, and depression
Behavioral genetics controversy
- eugenics: belief that humanity could/should be improved through selective breeding; has led to range of activities like campaigns to keep "inferior" immigrants out of some countries, to even trying to setting up sperm banks stocked with nobel prize winners sperm (also lead to cloning) - cloning: belief that it might be tech possible to produce a complete duplicate (psych and phys) of a human - the research on genetic bases of behavior might lead the public to think that outcomes such as intelligence, poverty, criminality, mental illness, and obesity are fixed in one's genes rather than changeable by experience or social circumstances - personality is the result of interaction of genes and environment, so the chances of eugenics/cloning aren't really all that feasible anyways
Evolution and behavior
- every human, even me, is the latest in a long, unbroken chain of winners - evolutionary approach to personality assumes that human behavioral patterns developed because of our long-ago ancestors found them helpful/necessary to survive - the more a behavioral tendency has helped people to survive and reproduce, the more likely the tendency will be to appear in subsequent generations - ppl higher in extraversion but lower in conscientiousness and openness to exp tend to have more children and grand children; higher agreeableness corr with having more grandchildren but not more children EVOLUTIONARY MISMATCH - modern environment is a mismatch with human history (traits helpful/essential back in stone age are not necessarily helpful in modern urban world and may even lead to psych/phys dysfunction (ie. workplaces take us out of the natural environment, where we evolved to feel safe and comfortable, into fluorescent-lit, windowless offices where stress sometimes increases by the hour) - postpartum depression may result from lack of support from the family/community of the kind that our ancestor mothers could take for granted - our tendency to consume every resource in sight comes from a past where there were too few of us - evolution isn't the same as progress; just bc a tendency is "natural" doesn't mean it cant be harmful AGGRESSION AND ALTRUISM - Konrad Lorenz: discussed possibly necessary/harmful role of the instinct toward aggression - tendency to be aggressive: help person to protect territory, property, mates, leads to dominance in social group/status; - can also lead to fighting, murder, and war - Richard Dawkins: considered evolutionary roots as Altruism - tendency to aid/protect others, esp close relatives, might help ensure one's own gene survival in succeeding generations (this outcome = "Inclusive Fitness": - pays to be nice to those around you/relatives bc if those who share your genes survive, some of your genes may make it to the next gen anyways lol SELF-ESTEEM - "sociometer theory" by Mark Leary: feelings of self-esteem evolved to monitor the degree to which a person is accepted by others - signs that we are not valued/accepted causes self-esteem to go down, motivating us to do things that will cause others to think better of us (so we think better of ourselves) DEPRESSION - different kinds of depression - different causes - depression after social loss (breakup): pain, crying, seeking social support - depression after failure (F on exam): fatigue, pessimism, shame, guilt — may have promoted survival- pain = something wrong and must be fixed (like it's important to feel pain of broken leg so you won't try to walk, it also may be important to feel emotional pain bc that is also a signal that your chances for reproducing/surviving may be at risk - go further than Leary- suggest that crying may often be useful way to seek social support, and fatigue/pessimism can prevent wasting energy/resources on fruitless endeavors - ^ implication: in the same way that blocking fever might prolong infections, blocking normal depresso symptoms with antidep could increase risk of chronic negative life situations + poorer outcomes; also indiv who lack capacity for these symptoms might be more likely to lose valuable relationships, persist at unachievable pursuits, less able to learn from mistakes, and less able to recruit friends when things go wrong
Individual differences
- evolution ~requires~ ind differences: species change only through selective propagation of previous generations' successful genes, which simply cant happen if everybody is the same ADAPTATION - english peppered moth: mostly white until industrial rev in mid 19th/factories that spewed coal dust; white moths stood out in new env, became easy prey, but the few individuals who were darker colored survived and propagate: soon all moths were black! end of 20th, air was cleaned up and white peppered moths became common again:) - trait that adaptive in one situation may be harmful in another - neuroticism: can cause needless anxiety in safe sit, but might promote lifesaving worry in dangerous ones - agreeableness: can make u popular, but also vulnerable to people cheating you - one that may encompass both kinds of adaptation: "Life History" (LH): animals generally exhibit 1 out of 2 reproduction approaches: 1. "fast-life history": reproduce multiple times at young age but doesn't devote many/any resources to protect offspring (ie. rabbits); seems best adapted to species that live in dangerous circ and typ die young 2. " slow-life history": reproduce relatively late w/ fewer offspring, but invests more in each one (elephants and humans!); seems to work better w long-lived species w chances for extended protection and nurturing of their offspring - safe, predicable env promote slow-LH ind's who marry late, few children w/ lots of resources raising them - dangerous, unpredictable env more likely promote fast-LH who have children when they're very young but (esp if male) may not stay around to help support/raise them - slow-LH: behaviors like considerate, kind, hardworking, reliable, but socially awkward, insecure, and over-controlling - fast-LH: swear words, anger words, sexual words, and words related to death - fast-LH men: also seen as talkative, socially skilled, dominant, charming, more likely to talk about work - evolutionary POV: neither is "better"; each is adapted to diff env circumstances ACCOUNTING FOR INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES - 3 basic ways to: 1. behavioral patterns evolve as reactions to particular environmental exp; only in certain conditions does the evolved tendency come "on line" (like caucasian skin has bio tendency to darken but only if exposed to the sun) (a person who grows up in unpredictable/dang env may be stimulated to fast-LH; the same person growing up in safe/predictable env may do the reverse 2. people may have evolved several possible behavioral strategies, but actually use the one that makes the most sense given their other characteristcs (like how phys attractive people are more likely extraverts - social activity = more rewarding for ppl who are good looking); we all have both innate aggressive/agreeableness abilities, but aggressive works if ur big and strong, but if not then agreeableness is safer route 3. some biologically inf behaviors may be Frequency Dependent: they adjust according to how common they are in the population at large (ie. one theory of psychopathy (behavioral style of deception, deceit, exploitation) is that it is biologically rooted in only a small # of ppl - if more than a few tried to live this way, nobody would ever believe anybody + the psychopathic strategy for getting ahead would become evolutionary impossible to maintain) - human nature has evolved to be flexible!!! - reasonable conc, but undermines idea that evol is the root of specific behavioral tendencies
Behavioral genetics
- examines the way inherited biological material (genes) can influence broad patterns of behavior - personality trait: a pattern of behavior that is generally consistent across situations -
Gene - environment interactions
- genotype provides the design, so affects the behavioral phenotype indirectly by influencing biological structure and physiology as they dev in an environment - environment can affect heritability itself: ie. when a child has proper nutrition, variance in heigh will be under genetic control - tall parents tend to have tall kids, etc - heritability coeff of close to 1.0; but in an environment where some are well fed while others starve, variance in heigh will fall more under the control of the environment (heritability coef will be much closer to zero) - IQ: in a place where intellectual stim + educational opportunities vary a lot for kids: IQ might be more environmentally controlled. the ones who are stimulated/education - grow up to have intelligence near the top of their genetic potential, while those who couldnt will fall far short of what they could achieve, and heritability of iq will be low - - BUT- if we could get to a society where all kids got good education/stimulation, then the differences in IQ that remained would be due to differences in their genes: means that as the intellectual environment improves for everybody, we should expect the heritability of IQ to go up! and it has been found true! - a boy teased in school bc he's shorter: the teasing could have long-term effects on personality: effects are true and due party to his genes, but they came about only through an interaction between the genetic expression (being short) and the social environment (school bullies) - without both, there would've been no such effect - a girl who inherits genetically-based tendency to be easily angered may tent to create (then experience) hostile social situations - process parallel to the EVOCATIVE PERSON-ENVIRONMENT TRANSACTION - "niche picking" - parallel to ACTIVE PERSON-ENVIRONMENT TRANSACTION: people tend to select/create envir that are compatible with/magnify their genetically influenced tendencies (person who inherits predisposition toward sensation seeking may take dangerous drugs) - extraversion trait: unsuccessful finding genes that are directly related to it; but people who are physically attractive and strong are relatively likely to be extraverted (prolly bc it makes interacting with people more frequently/rewarding): genes and environ transact, but also to study bases of attractiveness, strength, etc to find genes responsible for extraversion - may effect how a child is treated by parents: extreme example of EVOCATIVE PERSON-SITUATION TRANSACTION: parenting affects the dev of children's personalities - but can run in reverse direction too: boys with genetic tend toward poor self-control received less motherly attention - tendency only got stronger as he got older - the same environments that promote good things for some, can promote bad for others and vice versa - REACTIVE PERSON-ENVIRONMENT TRANSACTION: stressful envir may lead genetically predisposed person to develop mental illness but leave other people unscathed - people who had the short allele for 5-HTT serotonin gene: more likely to experience depression after these stressful experiences than those without it BUT there was no difference in outcome between those with the long allele and those with short if they had not suffered any stress (perfect example! the genotype is important, but only for people who have exp a certain kind of env) - ^ a little more complicated than this: results are not found in every study; one meta-analysis said it found no evidence that the gene "alone or in interaction with stressful life events is associated with an elevated risk of depression in men alone, women alone, or in both sexes combined" - ^ discouraging outcome, led researches to argue that "studies of gene-environment interactions are very unlikely to enhance our understanding" so pessimistic?? - it is not really in doubt that the same env can have different results on people with different genes (problem is that any one gene probably only has a small effect - ie. neuroticism: important risk factor for poor mental/physical health outcomes, but where does the trait come from? may be a result of series of complex transactions: person may have general biological vulnerability to stress thats influenced genetically, while also may having general psychological vulnerability caused by environment like bad parenting or lack of warmness/support in early childhood —> combine + produces general inability to handle stress well (def of neuroticism lol) —> next depends on the persons environment: if experiencing things that teach them (like learning illness is dangerous via having a relative get really sick) then they may develop specific phobia to germs or a generally maladaptive response to illness; if he learns being rejected by others is a dire threat (maybe negative experiences with peers) he may develop social phobia —> in the end, neuroticism can have x # of negative consequences for mental health, but specific results dont depend on genes or biology, but on the way they interact with experience
Cortisol
- glucocorticoid hormone released by the adrenal cortex as a response to physical or psychological stress: part of body's prep for action - important part of several metabolic processes: can speed heart rate, raise BP, stimulate muscle strength, metabolize fat, and other - those who suffer from severe stress, anxiety, and depression: tend to have chronically high levels: in this case means that the rise in cortisol seems to be an effect of stress and depression rather than a cause - infants with high levels tend to be timid and vulnerable to developing social phobias later in life; but this may be stimulated by their fearful reactions rather than the other way around - people high in Narcissism respond to stressful experiences (make a videotaped speech and perform mental arithmetic in front of lame observers) respond with heightened cortisol levels, compared to non-narcissists - excess cortisol production stimulated by too much fear/anxiety increases the risk of heart disease and may even make one's brain smaller - chronically low cortisol levels are ass with PTSD; may lead to "sensation seeking" and underreactivity - impulsive and disinclined to follow the rules of society; maybe because they have lost their ability to generate the normal surge in cortisol production in response to danger, so they fail to response normally to danger signals associated with high-risk activities like car racing and shoplifting
Epigenetics
- has begun to document how experience, esp early in life, can determine how or whether a gene is expressed during development - study of genetically identical mice: the ones that explored their envir grew more brain cells than mice that did not - perfect ex of how experience can affect biology!! - all mice had genetic potential to grow their brains, but only the ones who cared to look around took advantage of it & became smarter presumably - early study kinda in this direction: people from colder areas of Japan develop fewer sweat glands than people from warmer areas - resulting that they are more susceptible to heat stroke when they travel to warmer places - more recent: the experience of social stress can activate expression of genes that lead to vulnerabilities to depression, inflammatory diseases, and viral infections - another study: just acting kindly towards others can reduce the expression of a gene expression profile ass with responses to stressful events - as these findings accumulate and are replicated, windows will open into how genes + the environment interact
Brain damage
- injury or deliberate damage (surgery) - we shouldn't assume that animals and humans are the same in all respects, but knowledge about animal brains is very relevant to understand human brains
Capgras Syndrome
- injury to the RFL which is particularly important in positive emotional response —> patients recognize a loved one but they fail to feel any emotional response to this recognition (the patients said that these people could not possibly be who they appeared to be, and that the most likely explanation (from the uninjured left side) is that they must have been replaced by identical doubles - Recognizing someone who is emotionally significant to you is not just a judgment; it is also a feeling, without which the judgment may be meaningless
The Amygdala // Insula and Anterior cingulate
- links perceptions and thoughts about the world with their emotional meaning - important effects on negative emotions like anger and fear - amygdala of shy people: highly active when they are shown pics of people they don't know - amygdala of people with anxiety disorders like PTSD: highly active all the time, even at rest - social attraction and sexual responsiveness, reactions to pleasurable stimuli like photos of happy things, and pleasant tastes - plays big role in computing the degree to which a stimulus (person or thing) offers a threat or a reward - may respond by making the heart beat faster, raise blood pressure, and release hormones like cortisol and epinephrine - motivations and emotions - both are deep in the middle of the brain - personality traits that are relevant to amygdala: chronic anxiety, fearfulness, sociability, and sexuality (all related to whether other people are generally seen as attractive or threatening) - (Whitman killing his wife and mom story) lower parts of the brain near/inc the amygdala might be capable of producing motivations for actions like murder; rest of the brain doesn't understand the strange impulses produced by the amygdala any more than outside observers do (brain AS the outside observer) -In order to understand/consciously experience/"feel" these emotions, other brain structures like cerebral cortex might by needed - "many animals, including reptiles, have an amygdala suggests that the basic foundation of emotional processes is ancient, evolutionarily speaking, and functions similarly across species. But the unique development of the neocortex in humans suggests that other animals might not understand or experience emotions as humans do."
Testosterone
- normal women have about 40 ng (nanograms) of testosterone in each deciliter of their blood, whereas normal men have 300-1,000 ng per deciliter, approximately a 10 times (or more) greater concentration - hypothesis that testosterone causes aggressive behavior: those with higher testosterone levels reported trouble with others/history of assault/use of hard drugs/numerous sexual partners/"general tendency toward excessive behavior" - young men w/ higher basal testosterone levels found to be higher on traits of Avoidance, dominance, and loneliness - high testosterone men: are more likely to choose a red rather than a blue symbol for themselves (dominant, risky, powerful, and aggressive color to them); more dominant and "clicked" with women better - fatherhood lowers tes temporarily, maybe bc the men need to mellow out to help care for their kids - tends to fall after marriage, and rise after divorce - might interfere with certain kinds of thinking: having extra testosterone was enough to make a person more likely to give the quick/wrong answer instead of the slower/right one - Anabolic steroids: synthetic t; speedier muscle development but bad side effects: erratic/uncontrolled aggressiveness and sexuality - some extreme criminal types may be likely to have high levels of T, but men with high levels of T are not necessarily aggressive - males are not more aggressive than females among : gibbons, wolves, rabbits, hamsters, and lab rats (mama bear will NOT tend-and-befriend) - most FEMALE T is produced by adrenal cortex and small amount from the ovaries - female prisoners who had committed unprovoked violent crimes had higher levels of T than women who had been violent after provocation/committed nonviolent crimes; "butch" role have higher T than "femme" role or heterosexual women - women who produce less T seem to be less interested in sex; administration of T to women can sometimes dramatically increase sexual desire: suggest that T is a chemical contributor to sexual motivation in men AND women! - higher levels of T in women are associated with higher levels of self-reported sociability and with impulsivity, lack of inhibition, and lack of conformity - admin T to women: they became less trusting of their opponent in an experimental game, but more inclined to cooperate if the opponent did too - in BOTH sexes, higher T is ass with holding a blue-collar industrial job rather than a white-collar professional jobs (ie. lawyers who battle cases in court have higher T levels than those who work in the back room with law books) - males with more T are higher in "stable extraversion": sociability, self-acceptancem\, dominance; more restless energy, spend a lot of time thinking about concrete problems in the immediate present, and become frustrated when they can't get things done; smile less - more dominant appearance; report having more sexual experience with more partners - high T men who are also conscientious make better EMS providers - high T men who are extraverted and active are better firefighters - testosterone should be thought of as an energizing factor that appears to facilitate the behavior of individuals along directions they are already inclined to take" - play a role in the control/inhibition of aggressiveness and sexuality - inc normal assertiveness and even general activity level - as well as the normal range of sexual function and responsiveness in both sexes - when it is present in abnormally high proportions, aggression and sexuality are not so much enhanced as they are messed up - NOT JUST A CAUSE OF BEHAVIOR; ALSO AN EFFECT: T levels in fans of the winning team had increased, and the T of the fans of the losers had decreased; people from the states that supported the winning candidate look at more porn that do people from states who supported the loser (may explain riots after big games/etc) - men who achieve prestige in a new group bc of their success, skills, and knowledge experience a rise in T which increases their further efforts to gain even more prestige - more than a simple/undirectional cause of behavior: it is an important part of the feedback system that regulated how people respond to winning and losing
The future of behavioral genetics
- pessimistic bc it might be taken to imply a sort of doctrine of predestination that people cannot change what they were born to be - "a psychologist who proposed that persons with a genetically influenced determined tendency toward sensation seeking might be deterred from crime by participating in less damaging occupations that satisfy the need for excitement (such as race-car driving or hosting a radio talk show). Frankly, I'm not sure whether this was a serious suggestion. But it makes a point: If we understood an individual's genetic predispositions, we might be able to help her find an environment where her personality and abilities can lead to good outcomes rather than bad ones"
Replication/reliability
- rapidly developing area of research, such as the relationship between biology and personality, most finding should be regarded as interesting, but tentative: - a few studies turn out to not be true at all: previously, reports that men with wider, shorter faces, fWHR, were more violent and antisocial - ascribed to the influence of androgens (male sex hormones) during prenatal and early childhood development - but then the finding simply went away when it was tested in larger, more representative samples: lead to - "physiognomic belief": a generic belief that various traits can be inferred from faces...because the world is an orderly place where people get faces they deserve"
Serotonin
- role in the inhibition of behavioral impulses (i.e stopping oneself from doing something attractive yet unwise or dangerous) - can help keep humans from being too quick to anger, being oversensitive to the minor insults of daily life, and from worrying too much - prozac to improve personalities - stop needless worrying and being oversensitive to minor stresses; makes it "more like themselves"; get more work done, become more attractive to the other sec - normal people (those with no diagnosable personality disorders in themselves or in any of their close relatives): showed personality changes when they took paroxetine (generic of paxil, closely related to prozac); they became more extraverted and obtained lower scores on a neuroticism test; feeling happier and less hostile; but side effects like feeling sleepy and having delayed orgasms (didnt mind!) - SSRI's seem to make negative emotions less severe while leaving positive emotions unaffected; might be better classified as "antineuotics" - critical role in broad trait of stability - inhibits feelings and impulses, which helps people to organize their behavior and get work done (CONSCIENTIOUSNESS), get along with others even when they're annoying (AGREEABLENESS), avoid mood swings and emotional overreactions to life events (EMOTIONAL STABILITY/LOW NEUROTICISM) - helps to stabilize information processing in the brain and generally calm things down
Anatomy of Personality
- the brain and its tentacles/nerves - neurons with dendrite projections that receive stimulation —> axons that pass the message along - afferent nerves: dendrites that can be extremely long, they extend from the CNS to the rest of the body - messages travel up dendrites to the brain to report what the body is feeling and doing - efferent nerves: extra long axons that send impulses + instructions from the CNS to the muscles, glands, and other - interneurons: short axons (or none) that organize + regulate transmissions between nerve cells; the brain is the biggest bundle of IN
Brain Systems
- the brain is connected to everything - systems or circuits within the brain may be more important than discrete areas - fMRI study examined persistence (similar to conscientiousness in the Big 5): trait was associated with relatively high levels of brain activity in a complex circuit that included two areas of the frontal cortex and the ventral (lower) part of the striatum (in the middle of the brain behind the frontal lobes) - C-system (involved in effortful, reflective thinking about the self and others) and the - X-system (involved in effortless, reflexive social thought) - C-system includes, among other areas, the lateral (side) prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, the medial temporal lobe, and the posterior parietal cortex - X-system includes the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the lateral temporal cortex - The importance of systems rather than discrete areas in the brain helps to explain why the results of psychosurgery were so erratic and disappointing, and why the results of the hundreds of accumulating fMRI and other imaging studies can be so difficult to integrate and assimilate. The activities of individual areas may not mean very much in the absence of knowledge about what other areas of the brain are doing at the same time -The effect of context is important to keep in mind
Cognition for emotions
- the connection between cognition and emotion may also help explain why many people who excel at what they do are so involved with their work, not just intellectually but emotionally - emotions motivate their thinking and guide their strategic decision making; it is clear that the gut—emotional experience—is an important part of thinking, and one does not fully work without the other
Thinking and consciousness
- through the stages, mind undergoes subtle, profound, but incomplete shift in two kinds of thinking: - Secondary process thinking: what we typically mean by the work "think"- conscious part of ego thinks this way: rational, practical, prudent, can delay/redirect gratification; it is secondary in two ways: appears only as the ego begins to develop (like a newborn has no capacity for secondary process thinking); and freud believed it played less importance relative to primary, he thought it was more interesting, important, and powerful through all of life, not just infancy - Primary process thinking: the way the unconscious mind operates, and how the infant's as well as the adult's id is said to operate; fundamental aspect is that it does not contain the word, or even the idea of, NO. it's thinking w/out negatives, qualifications, sense of time, or any practicalities, necessities, and dangers of life; one goal: immediate gratification of every desire - operates by an odd shorthand that can die disparate feelings closely together; ie. how your feelings about family can affect how you feel about your house: can use displacement to replace one idea/image with another: anger towards your father might be replaced by anger at all authority figures, or vice versa—> - Condensation: can compress several ideas into one (image of a house or woman might consolidate a complex set of memories, thoughts, and emotions) - through Symbolization: one thing might stand in for another - pic of freuds translations for the unconscious - idea of universal symbols: meanings vary for every ind, so a general dictionary of the unconscious wasn't useful - 3 levels of consciousness: topographic model: smallest = conscious mind; second layer = preconscious (ideas you arent thinking about rn but you could easily bring into consciousness, ie. how is the weather outside right now?); third and biggest = unconscious: includes all of the ID, almost all superego, and most of ego - its the deepest and you gotta dig to get to it (hypnosis is an ex of "digging")
Damage + accidents to frontal lobes
- victims can still function, but are less excitable and emotional than they were before - people with FL damage (inc deliberate) appear to suffer from an inability to understand the emotions of others and to appropriately regulate their own impulses and feelings - Emotions enable people to make decisions that maximize good outcomes and minimize bad ones, and to focus on what is really important. Feelings tie the body to the brain - after surgery: could move and speak normally, and memory was unimpaired, but had become very unemotional; something severely lacking in his judgement; unable to allocate his time and effort appropriately between important tasks and activities and those that were trivial - Damasio's analysis: flattened emotional landscape and their problems with decision making stemmed from the same kind of neural damage. The damage to tissue in the right frontal lobes impaired their ability to use their emotional reactions in decision making - Somatic marker hypothesis: Emotions enable people to make decisions that maximize good outcomes and minimize bad ones, and to focus on what is really important. Feelings tie the body to the brain Capgras Syndrome: next card
Research methods for studying the brain
1) Brain damage 2) Brain stimulation 3) Brain activity and imaging
4 areas of cross-species similarities
1. Brain + nervous system 2. Chemical (overlap of prescriptions) 3. Human nature + personality is so biologically inherited/generational heritage 4. Biological evolution!
Molecular genetics
1. DRD4: study examines relationships between behavioral & emotional control and DRD4 gene that affects the development of dopamine receptors - different forms of the DRD4 gene are associated with variations in sensation seeking; the gene might affect this trait via its effect on dopaminergic systems - also ass with risk for ADHD, given the association between dopamine and cognition/behavior regulation, as well as related trait of impulsivity - but nothing to do with risky behavior among skiers and snowboarders - sensation seeking is also relevant to Serotonin and its related genes 2. 5-HTT gene: ass with a serotonin transporter protein, has 2 variants/allels: people with short allele score higher on neuroticism (relevant to anxiety/overreaction to stress) - the amygdala in people with short allele also show stronger responses to viewing fearful/unpleasant stimuli - people who have social phobias - same thing happens if they have to give a public speech - appears to regulate the degree to which the amygdala + the prefrontal cortex work together (clue to brain structure of depression!) - prevalence of short allele gene may vary across cultural groups: present in ~ 75% of Japanese (more than 2x caucasians): may be one reason why Asian cultures emphasize cooperation and avoiding conflict over the kind of individualistic striving characteristic of Western cultures; bc of the emotional sensitivity w the allele, asians might find interpersonal conflict more aversive, so they make more effort to smooth it over 3. COMT (catechol-O-methyltransferase) found to be ass with higher levels of dopamine in prefrontal cortex + also with extraversion and reasoning ability - suggests a connection between a gene, neurotransmitter, a personality trait, and an aspect of intelligence
Assumptions/challenges
1. The data in most studies allow an inference in only one direction; correlation does not equal causation 2. most studies necessary look at small areas of the brain 3. as brain activity imaging is becoming more powerful and more sensitive, it is also becoming scary expensive and difficult to use - An influential critique suggested that some of the commonly used data analytic techniques are questionable, causing results that might be misleading or exaggerated - Controversy over whether signals like BOLD actually reflect specific areas of brain activity
Psychoanalytic theory: a critique
1. excessive complexity - occam's razor: basic principle that less is more; all things being equal, the simplest explanation is the best 2. case study method - necessary for science that data must be public/must be laif out so other scientists can evaluate evidence together. classic psychoanalytic theory NEVER DID THIS! is based on analysts' (inc freud's) introspections and on insights drawn from single therapeutic cases, which are confidential. they don't care: dismissive attitude towards requests for empirical proof, "take it or leave it" slogan 3. vague definitions - another science standard is the operational definition: concept should be defined in terms of the operations/procedures by which it can be identified and measured; psychoanalytic rarely does this!! ie psychic energy: no unit of measure, how much psychic energy, what %, say - needs to be left behind at the oral stage to develop an oral character??? they give no specific answers to these questions 4. untestability - science theory should be disconfirmable: it should imply a set of observations/results that, if found, would show it to be false (difference between religion and science); in same way: no set of observations that psychoanalytic theory cannot explain- after the fact; because no experiment can prove it wrong, then it IS scientific (some have argues making it a religion??); question is not whether psychoanalysis is testable in a strict sense, but whether it leads to hypotheses that can be tested individually (for psychoanalysis, yes and no) 5. sexism - to freud, much of a womans life is based on her struggle to come to terms with the tragedy that she is not male - psychoanalytic theory is sexist: freud considers men the norm + bases his theories on them; then considers women (if at all), as aberrations or deviations from the male model - side effects of being a woman - in psychoanalytic theory- inc less self-esteem, creativity, and morality
Why study freud?
1. freud and the tradition he initiated acknowledge/focus on ideas that are underemphasized or ignored elsewhere 2. psychoanalysis continues to profoundly influence psychology + modern conceptions of the mind (even though very few moderns consider themselves Freudians) 3. continues to influence the practice of psychotherapy (about 75% of practicing psychotherapists rely somewhat on psychoanalytic ideas) 4. many ideas have entered pop culture and provide a common/helpful part of how people think and talk about each other, in ways they might not always recognize as Freudian 5. freudian thought has undergone something of a revival within research psych 6. his theory remains the only complete theory of personality ever proposed
What heritability tells you
1. genes matter! 2. insight into effects of the environment: provide a window into non-genetic effects (how the early environment does/doesn't operate in shaping personality dev) - the portion of childhood environments that siblings no NOT share is more important that those they do share (different treatment, friendships, outside interests, etc) - juvenile delinquency, aggression, and love styles have been found to be affected by growing up in the same household ("shared family environment") - the environment siblings share growing up was important in the dev of several types of psychopath: including conduct disorder, rebelliousness, anxiety, and depression (ADHD doesn't seem to matter) - results MAY vary depending on methods used: study gathered ratings of twins traits based on direct observations of 15 dif behaviors (introducing yourself to a stranger, singing a song, etc) and results of "extraversion was the only trait that seemed not to be influenced by shared environment" but every other trait in the study WAS affected by the shared environment - most cases means the family and kinda the neighborhood - ^ 2 important implications: 1. the widely advertised conc that shared family env is unimportant for personality dev was reached too quickly! on the basis of limited data 2. personality research can employ many kinds of data, and they should all be used
what heritability cant tell you
1. nature vs nurture: Ever since scientists realized that genetics affect behavior, they have longed for a simple calculation that would indicate what percentage of any given trait was due to nature (heredity) and what percentage was due to nurture (upbringing and environment); - heritability is the proportion of variation due to genetic influences, if there is no variation then the heritability much approach zero - - (heritability stats are NOT nature-nature ratio! a biologically determined train can have a zero heritability!) 2. how genes affect personality - "watching tv is heritable" - no, but maybe related things like sensation seeking, lethargy, or a craving for blue light MIGHT have genetic components - "divorce is heritable" - people were more likely to have similar marital outcomes to their biological parents than to their adoptive parents (exact h = .13); implies that one of more genetically influenced traits are relevant, maybe extreme emotionality and lack of self-control
Key ideas of psychoanalysis
1. psychic determinism - determinism: idea that everything that happens has a cause that (in principle not always practice) can be identified - psychic d: assumption that everything that happens in a person's mind also has a specific cause (no room for miracles, free will, or random accidents) - the key faith of a psychoanalyst is that psych can explain anything - using diligence, insight, and proper psychoanalytic framework - nondeterministic alt: "he decided to get a prostitute or go gambling on his own free will, despite what he said" - might be true, but it doesn't explain anything - all seeming contradictions of mind and behavior can be resolved, and nothing is ever accidental 2. internal structure - mind has an internal structure made of parts that can function indep of and sometimes in conflict with each other - mind divided into 3 parts: Id, Ego, and Superego (irrational/emotional part, rational part, and moral part, respectively) 3. psychic conflict and compromise - mind can cause conflict with itself, but isn't always so dramatic: ie. my id wants ice cream rn, but my superego thinks i dont deserve it bc i havent sudied all week. it might fall to your ego to form a compromise: you get ice cream after you finish reading this chapter - ^ "compromise formation" - key tenet of modern psychoanalytic thought - result is what the ind consciously thinks and actually does 4. mental energy - assump of approach taht the apparatus of the mind needs energy to make it go - sometimes called mental/psychic energy - aka "libido" - only a fixed/finite amount is available at any given moment - so, energy doing one thing is unavailable for other purposes - some implications haven't stood test of time: original formulation ass that if a psych impulse was not expressed, it would build up like steam, and if something angered you and you don't express your anger, then it's gonna keep until it snaps - ^research says it's usually wrong - expressing anger typ makes a person more angry, not less
Cerebral Cortex
6 layers, all with different anatomy/function; outermost: Neocortex- the most distinctive part of the brain that is more complex and wrinkled than the cortex in other animals
Psychosurgery
Becky and Lucy the chimps: - were difficult to handle, easily frustrated and got irritable and bit their keepers —> surgeons removed part of the chimps' frontal lobes - the effects on learning were inconclusive, but: Becky and Lucy had become relaxed and mellow chimps, placid instead of vicious, and downright pleasures to work with - Psychosurgery received the ultimate scientific seal of approval in 1949, when Egas Moniz was awarded the Nobel Prize. - Prefrontal Leucotomy: small areas of white matter behind each frontal lobe are deliberately damaged; specific purpose of altering personality, emotions, or behavior — idea that patients with pathological levels of agitation and emotional arousal had OVERACTIVE frontal lobes - Egas Moniz operated only on people with severe emotional problems: Whatever subtle damage was done to their emotional lives or decision-making capabilities through the operation may have been outweighed by their relief from a miserable and uncontrollable degree of emotional overexcitement! But then... - Prefrontal lobotomy: whole sectors are scooped out - results are drastic: some ended up much worse than previously mentioned brain damage guys - almost inert/mere shells of the person they were before - it is almost impossible to call upon a person who has undergone [an] operation on the frontal lobes for advice on any important matter; reactions to situations are direct, hasty, and dependent upon his emotional set at the moment - chemical therapies (drugs) were developed to make mentally ill patients manageable, if not cured
Neurotransmitters
Dopamine: - turns motivation to action - role in mechanisms that allows brain to control body movement - involved in systems associated with response to reward and tendencies to approach attractive objects and people - helps produce norepinephrine - part of the basis of sociability and general activity level - a gene assoc. with response to dopamine seems to relate to the trait of novelty seeking - facilitates exploration, approach and learning, and extraversion and openness - severe lack of dopamine - basis of Parkinson's disease: L-dopa increases brain's production of dopamine- experienced positive emotions, motivation, sociability, and interest in and awareness of their surroundings; BUT the patients worsened over time: went from normal enthusiasm/energy levels into hypermanic excitement, restlessness, and grandiosity, then crashed into deep depression: - dopaminergic systems (systems affected by dopamine) also might be related to manic-depressive/bipolar - dopamine might be relevant to traits of extraversion, impulsivity, and maybe others Nucleus accumbens: locaated in basal ganglia (junction between cerebral cortex and brain stem): dopamine and nucleus accumbens form the "Go" system/Behavioral Activation System: produces and reinforces the motivation to seek rewards; the left nucleus accumbens is particularly responsive to the experience of reward like winning money in experimental game - differences in the degree to which people develop neurons that produce/respond to dopamine: ind differences have genetic basis AND experience: People who have an abundance of rewarding experiences may develop more of these cells, causing Dopaminergic part of nervous systems to be well developed and active —> they are motivated to seek out rewards and are capable of enjoying them strongly, become assertive, dominant, and outgoing (extravert) - one theory: 2 fundamental dimensions of personality (stability and plasticity) organize the big 5 traits into 2 groups. the dopaminergic system is the foundation of plasticity "a general tendency to explore and engage with possibilities" - combines extraversion with openness to experience - dopamine is the critical common element in motivation to seek reward and even in impulsivity - extraversion has close ties to positive emotional experience + behaviors the seek social rewards like being talkative, sociable, and cheerful. - openness of experience includes mental playfulness, curiosity, and intellectual risk-taking (dopamine in the central role!)
4 humors of the body
Galen in Greece 130-200 AD: theory that personality depended on the balance of the 4 humors/fluids in the body: 1. a lot of blood: sanguine- cheerful, ruddy, and robust 2. excess black bile: depressed and melancholy 3. excess yellow bile: choleric, angry, and bitter 4. excess phlegm: phlegmatic, cold, and apathetic - choleric (chronically hostile person) may be at extra risk for heart attack; so kinda but ehhh modern research suggests that the basis of the risk is not the person's yellow bile, but rather the stress and hormonal reactions caused by a life filled with tension and fights!!
Hormones and Neurotransmitters
Hormones - biological substances that affect the body in locations different from where they were produced - once the hormone reaches neurons that are sensitive to it, it either stimulates or inhibits their activity Neurotransmitters - about 60 chemicals that transmit information through brain and body - chemicals and enzymes are important! i.e enzyme monoamine oxidase (mao) regulates the breakdown of neurotransmitters dopamine, norepi, and serotonin. a low level of mao in the blood (allows higher levels of these NT to build up) is associated with sensation seeking, extraversion, and even criminal behavior. BUT... a gene that promotes activation of MAO seems to help prevent development of delinquency among maltreated children. also i.e., antidepressent drugs like paroxetine (paxil) and prozac increase the amount of serotonin in the body by inhibiting the chemical process that cause serotonin to break down - BOTH affect the transmission of nerve impulses, and some chemicals belong to both categories (norepinephrine/epinephrine) - associated with variety of neural subsystems, many effects on behavior: norepi and dopamine work almost exclusively in the CNS (brain and spinal cord); by contrast: very little of neurotransmitter epinephrine is found in the brain, mostly it works in the PNS; serotonin in the brain helps with depression, but it's also found in the gut where it has a role in digestion regulation; oxytocin is in cns + pns. - some neurotransmitters cause adjacent neurons to fire while others inhibit neuronal impulses - ie. body's natural painkilling system is based on hormone class Endorphins, which inhibits the neuronal transmission of pain (opiates produced by the body!)
5 stress tests for evolutionary psychology
METHODOLOGY - sociometer theory of self-esteem that provided evolutionary reason for why we care what others think. But are there other reasons possible as well, or instead??? — how do we prove/disprove it?? or how can we test another commonly expressed evolutionary hypothesis: below—> - that men really seek multiple sexual partners to maximize their genetic propagation.; men who try to max their sex activity aren't necessarily trying to have tons of kids (even if it could be the result), but that still the underlying aim??? - even more radical proposal: that males have evolved instinct towards rape bc it furthers reproduction for ind's who could not otherwise find a mate; or that stepparents are prone to child able bc of the lack of shared genes - provocative suggestions, but also have other probs: - "dilemma of the rarely exercised option": its off to claim an instinctual basis for behaviors like rape/child abuse when most men are not rapists/most stepp arent abusive; - unwise to assume that every genetically inf trait or behavior pattern exists bc it has an adaptive advantage: human genome = people walk upright, and we evolved from 4-legged creatures, this has made us prone to backache (walking upright had enough adv to counteract disadv, but that doesn't mean that lower-back pain is an evolved mechanism) - beh patterns like depression, unfaithfulness, child abuse, rape: even if they are gen infl, may be unfortunate side effects of other more imp adaptations - "the natural world is rampant with flawed designs" bc evolution has to step by step go forward, it can't go back lol - ev theorists think these criticisms^ are fair to a point, but they have responses: - for any theoretical proposal in science, alternative exp are always possible - complex theories are seldom judged on basis of one crucial, decisive study - complex ev theories of beh are diff to prove/disprove all over, and some alt explanations may never be ruled out, but empirical research can address specific predictions REPRODUCTIVE INSTINCT - assumption that everybody is trying to have as many kids as possible is strange in a world where many choose to limit it - response: for evolutionary theorizing about behavior to be correct, it isn't necessary for people to consciously try to do what the theory says their behavioral tend are ultimately designed to do; (neither sterility nor abstinence runs in anyone's family); - people have tendencies toward sex behaviors in general bc the effects of similar sex behaviors on past gen's reproductive outcomes - not necessarily bc of any current intention to propagate CONSERVATION BIAS - criticism that ev approach embodies a certain kind of conservation bias: assumes that humans' current beh tendencies evolved as a result of species' past environments, and that these tendencies are bio rooted, the ev approach seems to imply that current beh order was not only inevitable, but also prolly unchangeable and appropriate - respond: objections like these are irrelevant from a science standpoint; opponents of ev theories themselves commit the "naturalistic fallacy" of thinking that anything shown to be natural must be assumed to be good - basic assump that our personalities have been selected over the millennia to favor behaviors that promote our ind survival may itself come from the larger culture HUMAN FLEXIBILITY - ev accounts describe specific behavior as genetically programmed into the brains, but general lesson of psych is that humans are incredibly flexible w/ a min of instinctive behavior patterns (comp to other species, like bears); seems they suggest the built-in patterns cannot be overcome by conscious/rational thought - not a problem of if evolution is real!: the issue is whether (in domain of behavior), ppl evolved general capacities for planning + responding to the env, or specific beh patterns (called modules) BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM OR SOCIAL STRUCTURE? - criticism that the ev approach to personality is closely related to the idea that ppl evolved to be flexible; many beh phenomena might not be result of evolutionary history, but of human responding to changing circumstances - esp social structure - alt to the evol account of the differences in the criteria used by men and women in choosing mates: hypothesize that bc of mens greater size/strength, and womens role in childbearing/lactation, societies have dev in which men and women are assigned diff jobs + social roles = difference comes not from a specific innate module, but from a reasonable and flexible response to the biological and social facts of life _ ^ findings that suggest (not prove) that as societies begin providing equal power to women, some sex differences may begin to erode
Frontal Cortex
R + L lobes; important for the unique aspects of human cognition
The Frontal Lobes // Neocortex
Right Frontal Lobe • associated with wanting to withdraw from something unpleasant or frightening • really active R brain = the big 5 trait Neuroticism —not all of Neuroticism lives on the R (i. e. propensity to get angry) Left Frontal lobe • more active when approaching something pleasant • associated with the ability to inhibit responses to unpleasant stimuli ↳ may be able to promote good feelings & reduce the bad ones! • really active L brain = emotional stability • propensity to get angry (neuroticism that does not live on the normal right side) Misc. facts/notes about Frontal lobe • accidents that involve F. L.: victim can still function, but were less excitable + emotional as they were before the accident • people with FL damage line. from surgeries!) are unable to understand the emotions of others + how to appropriately handle their own impulses + feelings - the frontal lobes are centers of cognitive control, serving to anticipate the future and plan for it. These results also suggest that a particular function of the frontal lobes might be to anticipate future negative outcomes and respond emotionally to the possibility—in other words, worrying. This emotional aspect of forethought seems to be particularly important. Unless you have the appropriate reaction to future possibilities—pleasant anticipation, or worrying - you will not be able to plan appropriately or make the right decisions about what to do - outer layer of the brain! - there's a lot of it, so it has a wrinkly appearance
Amygdala
behind + to the sides of hypothalamus; roles in emotion
Psychoanalysis, life, and death
freud believed in 2 fundamental motives for things that people want: one to life and one to death - both are always present and competing, but death always wins - life drive: libido/sex drive; sex = life, its necessary for creating children, and its enjoyment can be an important part of being alive; had to do with creation, protection, and enjoyment of life and with creativity, productivity, and growth - death drive: thanatos (greek for death); duality of nature, that everything contains its own opposite; he observed that people engage in lots of destructive activity that doesn't seem rational (war) but also, in the end, everybody dies! so, "the death drive accounts for these facts"; not that morbid, prolly more like "entropy" or the basic force in the universe toward randomness and disorder; we try desperately in live to make our thoughts and worlds orderly, and to maintain creativity and growth, although entropy dooms these efforts to failure in the end - but u can have a good ride in the meantime! - opposition of libido an thanatos derives from idea of The Doctrine of Opposites: everything implies/requires its opposite: life requires death, happiness req sadness, etc. - ^ implication: extremes on any scale may be more similar to each other than either extreme is to the middle (ie. porn stars and leaders of anti-porn campaigns: doctrine claims they have more in common with each other than either does with the people in the middle for who porn isnt much of an issue) - juxtaposition of life drive with death drive is also consistent with doctrine of opposites,; but death drive came to freud as an afterthought, not worked it into the fabric of his theory
Evolution for pyschology
implies that any attribute of any species may be present due to the advantages they offered for survival and reproduction
Calculating heritability
oldest research method in BG is based on: if a trait is influenced by genes, people who are genetic relatives ought to be more similar on that trait than people who are not genetic relatives, and the closer their genetic relationship, the more similar they should be (twins: identical/monozygotic, or fraternal/dizygotic) - more than 99% of all human genes are identical from one person to the next (and 98% of these in chimps!) - "a mother shares 50% of her genetic material with her child" really means that she shares 50 percent of the material that varies across individuals (rather technical, but highlights that behavioral genetics focuses exclusively on individual differences - studies work hard to find MZ and DZ twins, and also the rare twins who are separated at birth; then measure their personalities usually with self-report instruments (Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), the Cali Psychological Inventory (CPI) and the NEO-IP- a measure of the big 5, are popular ones); or less frequently the are directly observed in lab contexts in order to assess the degree to which they behave similarly - then compute the correlation coefficient, separately for MZs and DZs: to the degree that a trait or behavior is influenced by genes, then the trait and behavioral scores of MZ twins ought to be more highly correlated than the scores of DZ twins - "heritability coefficient": reflects the degree to which variance of the trait in the populations can be attributed to variance in genes (for twins, one simple formula is: heritability quotient = (rMZ - rDZ) x 2 - many traits: avg correlation across mZ is ~ .60, and DZ is ~ .40 (when adjusted for age/gender); end with heritability coefficient of .20, then x2 = heritability coefficient of .40. means that the average heritability of many traits is ~ .40, means that 40% of phenotypic (behavioral) variance is accounted for by genetic variance - ^ heritabilities of big 5 traits are a bit higher: range from .41 for agreeableness to about .57 for openness - other kinds of relatives: also vary in shared gene variability - behavioral genetic analyses and the statistics refer to groups/populations, not individuals - research that says that a personality trait is 50% heritable, doesn't mean that 1/2 of the extent to which an individual expresses that trait is determined genetically. it means that 50% of the degree to which the trait varies across the population can be attributed to genetic variation - the effects of genes are multiplicative rather than additive: estimates of heritability based on twin studies assume that individual genes + environment act independently to influence personality, and these influences can simply be added up. - genes can operate differently depending on other present genes - genes will express themselves in different ways/environments/and even members of same family may grow up + live in different social contexts: - while heritability estimates based on twins may be too high, those based on broader family relationships might be too low
Parapraxes (plural)
parapraxis: aka a "freudian slip": a leakage from the unconscious mind manifesting as a mistake, accident, omission, or memory lapse - freud was a determinist- everything had a cause 1. Forgetting: manifestation of an unconscious conflict revealing itself in your behavior; the slip is failure to recall that thing, which can result in embarrassment or worse; - consequences make the. lapse a parapraxis: in the service of suppressing something unconsciously, your slip messes up something in your life - freud insisted that ALL lapses reveal unconscious conflict, so what if you forget something for no reason??: "no such thing"; says that with sufficient psychotherapy using free association, you can figure it out 2. Slips: unintended actions caused by leakage of suppressed thoughts or impulses - can occur in speech and action: accidentally breaking something may be leakage of hostility against whoever owns it, who gave it to you, or what it symbolizes
Thalamus
regulates arousal + other
Brain Biochemistry
researches examine the effects of neurotransmitters and hormones
Hippocampus
tube-shaped near the amygdala; important in processing memories
Hypothalamus
underneath thalamus near bottom center of the brain, above the roof of the mouth; important bc it is connected to basically everything else; it secretes many hormones