Psychology and Sociology

Behavior in Biological Context

--behavior is defined as the sum coordinated responses of organisms to the internal and external stimuli that they experience --is partially influenced by the biology of the organism --genetic inheritance and neural connections can make humans more inclined to certain behavioral patterns --hormones from endocrine system can influence behavioral changes in a direct and immediate manner --verbal communication is a great importance to human societies and cultures --it helps transfer knowledge and ideas from one individual to the next --there's also nonverbal communication that consists of all communication between people that does not involve words --basically includes body language, touch, appearance, and facial expressions --animal signals can consists of vocalizations such as distress calls or use visual stimuli, touch and smell for communication --social behavior is defined as all interactions taking place between members of the same species. ex. attraction --> factors that draw members of a species together aggression --> conflict and competition between individuals attachment --> forming relationships between individuals social support --> finding help through social connections --foraging behavior is the set of behaviors through which animals obtain food --this behavior is a type of social behavior that can be observed in many species and it maximizes the energy available through food and minimize energy expenditure involved in obtaining it --the knowledge of effective techniques is passed to others through social behavior and ensuring the community to achieve what an individual alone could not helps increase foraging efficiency --mating behavior is a type of social behavior which generates propagation of a species through reproduction --mate choice is determined by number of factors such as genetic qualities, overall health and parenting skills of prospective mates --another type of social behavior is altruism which consists of behaviors that are disadvantageous to the individual acting --but it confer benefits to other members of its social group --it initially appears to have no evolutionary benefit. --but, altruism persists and is explained through the concept of inclusive fitness --If helping others is detrimental to an individual's survival, then the genes contributing to such behaviors would quickly be eliminated from population --inclusive fitness describes individual's level of success at passing on its genes. ex lemurs have often been observed to care for offspring that are not their own which diverts the lemur's time and energy away from the creation of its own --however, it directs toward assisting close relatives that share similar genetic makeup which is evolutionary benefit since concept of fitness is expanded --game theory is using mathematical models to represent complex decision making --interactions between organisms can be modeled as multiplayer game to carry out competitive and cooperative strategies that maximize evolutionary success such as fitness --it presupposes successful strategies result in greater fitness and favored by natural selection

Personality

--it develops and correlates with behavior --made up of internal characteristics --it is described as the collection of lasting characteristics that makes a person unique

Sensation

--sensation and perception are psychological processes that allow us to understand the environment --sensation is how we receive information from the outside world through our senses --basically, sensation is the conversion of physical stimuli into electrical signals that are transferred through nervous system by neurons --perception is our interpretation of that information --in other words, perception is the use of sensory information and pre-existing knowledge to create functional representations of the world --together, it helps formulate a response and be consciously aware of the environment from the information intake --while sensation is a physical process, perception involves physiological and mental processing Intensity-Threshold: --what is addressed is which stimuli are sufficiently intense to be sensed and this based on the type of stimulus involved --ex. intensity of sound is either the rate of energy transfer of sound wave or the logarithmic scale --ex. increasing loudness of footsteps as a predator approaches leads to biological and behavioral effects such as heart rhythm increase and fight/flight. --the intensity threshold is defined by the sensory organs and specific types of sensory receptors pick up different types of stimulus --absolute threshold is the lowest intensity of stimulus that can be sensed such as softest sound --similar to the absolute threshold of depolarization. a specific amount is required for generation of action potential in a neuron --difference threshold is also known as just noticeable difference --it describes the smallest difference that is sufficient for change in a stimulus to be noticed --essentially, thresholds can be lowered or raised psychologically according to factors such as strong emotions or degree of importance to correctly identify the stimulus --psychological processes can modify the threshold even though there are biological limits of sensory receptors and synaptic summation set --difference threshold measures sensory system's ability to detect small changes --keep in mind, study of threshold is to evaluate the ability to detect any stimulus regardless of its importance --according to Weber's Law, change required to meet difference threshold is a certain fraction of the originally presented stimulus --in other words, individual can detect a change when it reaches a certain fraction of the original stimulus --the fraction is constant for each sense but the actual amount of change required is not --ex. imagine a very bright room. if the lights are turned up just a bit more, the change may not be perceived (fraction like 1/10 vs 1/20). if you increase it in a dimly lit room, the small increase in brightness is easily noticeable (amount of drastic change) --since it is a law, questions about this may have calculations like physics Sensitivity: --more sensitive the sensory system, smaller change that is required for detection --sensitivity is the ability to detect a change from baseline --small Weber fraction for more sensitive sense organs meaning low change in stimulus is required for detection --every individual has slightly different set of Weber fraction. --ex. some individuals have evolved to have pitch detection as an adaption technique to detect threats or predators Different Kinds of Signals (Stimuli): --remember, signal/stimulus detection theory determines how an organism differentiates important or meaningful stimuli/signals from those are not of interest (noise) in an environment --essentially identifies of stimulus as meaningful and described as psychological process since it is influenced by the network of sensory receptors in the eye to focus on a particular visual stimulus --ex. differentiate between false alarm rate (signal when there is only noise) and hit rate (more of this means individual has high sensitivity) --sensitivity is mediated by bias because individuals will either move toward or against accepting evidence of a signal --the mind consciously filters incoming information while unconsciously filtering takes place in nervous system --individuals with different biases will have different false alarm and hit rates --rewards of hit rates and dangers of false alarms shape or adjust biases by manipulating signal detection and biases

Evolution of Culture

--through interactions, humans establish norms of behavior, define social expectations, exchange ideas and build culture --cave art, metal work, agriculture, urban lifestyle, steam engine and internet are a few of many innovations human culture has introduced to the world.

Problem Solving

Approaches to Problem Solving: --complex decision making and strategies for problem solving is associated with the frontal lobe --problem solving strategies can be divided into two major categories (exhaustive but not necessarily efficient vs. efficient mental short cuts but not yield the complete spectrum of potential solutions of potential solutions) --emotion and confidence level affects the way people approach problems and arrive at solutions 1. algorithm is a strategy and it is a step by step procedure that leads to definite solution. it is most efficient but exhaustive. ex. quadratic formula lead to the correct solution but factoring method is simpler but cannot always produce the answer 2. Analogies --prior knowledge or familiar methods of how to determine the solution is applied --a new complex problem is reduced to a set of simpler problems that can be solved 3. Trial and Error --repeated, unsystematic attempts to solve a problem until the desired outcome is achieved. --it is eventually successful but very inefficient. 4. Heuristics --mental shortcuts or "rules of thumb" that often lead to a solution but not always. --it is helpful and timesaving but can lead to problem solving efforts astray --ex is deciding if you will like a new book based on whether you have enjoyed similar books in the past 5. Intuition --based on personal perception or feeling rather than logic --it doesn't follow the stepwise, logical process --it is about gut feelings that leads to quick but potentially flawed solution --researchers suggest that it is neurologically algorithmic and not a conscious level --ex. algorithmic strategy is hearing symptoms to rule out alternative diagnoses and arrive at a definitive diagnosis Barriers to Effective Problem Solving: --Heuristic may lead to generalization since it is an educated guess about the probability of an event or characteristic based on prior knowledge --ex. a physician uses availability heuristic by increased likelihood of making a particular diagnosis that he or she has seen many times recently or seem highly likely (available) even if another diagnosis is more likely to be correct (unavailable) --therefore cognitive processes of doctoring is recommended to prevent medical errors and improve care --cognitive biases is a way of thinking that can be helpful but inhibit problem solving abilities. it is related to functional fixedness --ex. functional fixedness can be seen when a person only sees a hammer and nails to hang up a picture frame and not see the potential uses of the objects when faced with less traditional problem --another type of bias is confirmation bias which is when people tend to value new information that supports a belief they already hold --but it means those people will disregard information that goes against their preconceived notions or disapprove rational arguments that could suggest that they are incorrect --this is also known as belief perseverance --another example of belief perseverance is overconfidence which is overlooking information that undermine confidence and this can cause faulty problem solving --but overconfidence can be helpful by the idea of fake it till you make it approach which is beneficial. --another type is causation bias which is assuming cause and effect relationship --physician take patient history to account when hearing multiple symptoms and if the symptoms follows a patient's behavioral changes or life events --but correlation may not necessarily mean causation --symptoms may or may not be related to one another or related to the external factors --faulty decision making/judgements and problem solving occur as a result of fundamental attribution error which is the tendency to attribute others' actions to internal factors like personality ex. assume the student that fail the test is lazy and not intelligent. --attributing own actions to external factors or circumstances is known as self-serving bias ex. if you fail the test, you assume you didn't get enough sleep or the test written poorly. --not to mention, emotions can pose a barrier to effective problem solving and decision making. but during the right emotional state, it can be adventurous

Learn vs. Innate Behavior

--Behavioral patterns may naturally change and be taught as animals mature and develop in response to experiences --while innate means behaviors are fixed --it is influenced by physiology and genetic inheritance of organism and difficult or impossible to change through learning --animals carry out many behaviors by instinct because it is needed for survival and reproduction of species --animals also need to have the cognitive ability to perform new behavior asked of it --learning new behaviors is possible up to a point due to biological constraints --this represents cognitive processes which is necessary for associative learning of non-instinctual behaviors

Types of Partial Reinforcement (Intermittent Reinforcement)

1. Fixed Ratio: when rewards are provided after specified number of responses ex. reward given after every 3rd time a mouse presses a lever 2. Variable Ratio: rewards provided after an unpredictable number of responses ex. reward given after mouse presses a lever 3 times, then after 5 times, then after 2 times etc. 3. Fixed-Interval: rewards to a response are provided after a specified time interval has passed ex. reward given 20 seconds after first time a mouse presses a lever 4. Variable-Interval: rewards to a response are provided after an unpredictable time interval has passed ex. reward given 3 minutes after first time a mouse presses a lever, then 2 minutes after etc.

Differences Between Sensory Memory vs. Working Memory vs. Long-Term Memory

All Types of Memory Storage or Memory Formation: 1. Sensory Memory --> it is a temporary storage for incoming sensory stimuli. --it encodes physical transduction into electrical information for nervous system. --this transduction of stimuli is largely an unconscious, neurological process which is carried out by sensory receptors and dendritic summation. --information remains in storage for very limited time. --information that received attention is access to short term memory which is conscious and the information that is not is lost --information that is significant or related to completion of a task will pass sensory memory to enter short term memory which is where it can be manipulated (e.g., used, applied or elaborated such as answering a question) --this use of stored memory is like work memory 2. Working Memory --> it is different from sensory memory based on how it encodes and stores information. --information is encoded into working memory through auditory representation --ex. someone reads a string or numbers and see visual representations which goes through sensory memory. if attended to, will move into short term memory. then the numbers would be represented as auditory information --it is more limited than sensory memory in number of items that can be stored simultaneously. storage limit is 5 to 9 (7+-2) pieces of information at one time --keeping items active in working memory requires effort (rehearsal or repetition) or else short term memories fade 3. Long Term --> encodes meaning and assigning meaning occurs by reading information to meaningful ideas that already held in long term memory --storage is unlimited to the amount --after information passes from sensory storage to short term memory, information can enter this more durable storage --another way to keep large amount of information to last or maintained in working memory is by reorganizing large number of items into smaller number of chunks --information is held outside of conscious awareness and can be called out into work memory when needed

Anxiety Disorders

--defined by experience of unwarranted fear and anxiety, physiological tension and behaviors associated with emotional and physical experience of anxiety --anxiety connected to worries about future and hypothetical circumstances rather than events happened in the present --the disorder manifest physically as excessive sympathetic nervous system activation to prepare for flight or fight

Stress Management

--exercise can utilize the same physiological resources provided by acute stress response which increases blood flow and glucose levels --another way of relieving stress is spirituality by allowing people to achieve a sense of purpose, focus and optimism --spirituality help cancer patients reduce their stress throughout treatment and manage stress by allowing people to join communities or churches that provide social support --meditation is achieved by focusing on breath, guided imagery, mantra repetition or yoga --this allow for relaxation and pay attention to the present as a way of dissipating stressful thoughts and experiences and even reduce release of cortisol

Behavioral Learning

--individual determines what behaviors are culturally appropriate and how behaviors result in specific consequences --through learning, individual can help modify behavior to optimize results --psychological field of behaviorism is the study of external and observable behaviors rather than internal motivations and thoughts --people that study behavior look at learning that involves certain stimuli and specific responses --this study is called associative learning or conditioning --There are two types of conditioning (classical and operant)

Observational Learning

--is based on modeling (witnessing another person's actions, retaining information from the behavior and re-enacting it) --it explains patterns of individual behavior --it can also be task-oriented or it can have more general influence on individual's behavior ex. studies show children who watch an aggressive video are more violent after in real life --the learner must have the intelligence to recognize a novel behavior in others remember the behavior and apply it to his own life in appropriate situations such as new techniques --important for kids to determine what behaviors are socially acceptable --specialized nerve cells used are mirror neurons by helping humans understand the actions of others and learn by imitation --observer need some neural capacity for experiencing vicarious emotions which is feeling the emotions of others as though they are one's own

Self-Serving Bias

--is the tendency to attribute one's success to internal factors while attributing one's failures to external or environmental factors --in other words make attributions about your own behaviors particularly involves in success or failure --similar action of attribution of either internal or external factors like fundamental attribution error --but, instead it allows individuals to believe they control their success --and blaming failures on factors beyond their control

Stress

--it is the strain that is experienced when an organism's equilibrium is disrupted and it must adapt --some sources of stressors are daily hassles (e.g. traffic), personal events (e.g. going to college) and cataclysmic events (e.g. natural disasters or war) --cognitive appraisals is known as personal interpretations of situations that triggers stress Two Appraisals to Determine Someone's Emotional Reaction to An Event: 1. Primary Appraisal --> evaluating a situation for presence of potential threat. 2. Secondary Appraisal --> when there is a threat, the person assess her ability to cope with it. If she does not believe she can handle the threat well, stress level will increase

Continuous Reinforcement

--most rapid way of establishing a response --once learned, behaviors were established with partial reinforcement are much more resistant and difficult of extinction ex. gambling is risky but the unpredictable reward schedule maintain hope for the reward and keep gamblers coming back for more --the kind of operant conditioning known as shaping is providing continuous reinforcement toward a certain response as a way of leading successive approximations toward desired behavior

Motivation

--motivation is a psychological factor that provides a directional force or reason for behavior --it is also a complex psychological and behavioral event that can be influences by a variety of lower level factors --lower level factors such as needs, instincts, arousal and drives --motivation usually originate from unsatisfied needs --instinct is a biological, innate (people share same basic instincts) tendency to perform certain behavior that leads to fulfillment of a need. --arousal is a physiological and psychological tension and high levels of this causes someone to attempt to return to ideal and more comfortable level of arousal. --drives are urges to perform certain behaviors that resolves physiological arousal when the arousal is caused by biological needs. ex. is the drive of drinking water due to thirst Theories of Motivation: --reductive theory describes internal drives while incentive theory focuses on external rewards for motivation --drive reduction theory believes people are motivated to take action in order to lessen the state of arousal caused by physiological need. this best applies to innate biological drives such as hunger or thirst or sex drive --incentive theory is distinct in how it highlights psychological feeling of pleasure that comes with receiving an incentive or reward --similar to positive reinforcement that affects behavior in operant condition, but this condition looks at outcomes of reinforcement and punishment without attention to inner processes such as emotion and motivation --ex. of incentive is a person motivated to go to work each day to receive a paycheck --there's also cognitive theories of emotion to suggest that people behave based on their expectations --people behave in a way that they predict will yield the most favorable outcome (intrinsic way --> completing a task fulfills rewarding feeling/internal reward of satisfaction vs. extrinsic way --> external reward) --extrinsic has its down side as in causing loss of intrinsic. ex. someone who loves to bake enjoy it for fun but may not anymore if they begin to sell the baked goods for profit --Need-based theories propose that people are motivated by the desire to fulfill unmet needs --based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (on the pyramid 1->5 is from bottom to top) 1. Physiological --> food, water, sex, air 2. Safety --> physical and emotional security 3. Belongingness --> family, friends, coworkers 4. Esteem --> approval and recognition 5. Self-Actualization --> education, hobbies, religion, personal growth Regulation and Interaction of Motivational Processes: --motivation develops from interaction between biological drives, external incentives and socio-cultural factors --various theories of motivation can be applied to particular behaviors such as eating, sexual behavior, and drug and alcohol use --ex. people do not drink alcohol because of biological drive of thirst like the reduction theory. they may drink because it is socially or culturally normative. --this example can be incentive theory since the experience of alcohol can reduce social anxiety or people that is addicted have a physiology theory since brain's dopamine reward pathway or avoidance of withdrawal symptoms

Symbolic Interactionism

--related to social constructionism which allows for social determination of shared realities --but, it focuses on smaller scale of interaction between individuals and small groups --it is applied to single interaction between patient and physician or between two physicians --this impacts social interactions by having individuals develop shared meanings and labels for various symbols (terms, concepts, or items representing specific meaning by accepted convention --shared symbols allow for smooth societal interactions by permitting expectations of how other people will behave and what constitutes appropriate responses --within a single interaction, the meaning of a symbol can change and individuals may come up with different symbolic interpretations of environmental stimulus or social situation --ex. a symptom as a symbol could initially have meaning as a warning sign to the patient but then be re-understood as a harmless experience based on the information given by physician

Constancy

--type of perceptual organization --perceptual constancy deals with issue of distinguishing between information received by the retina and changes in the surroundings --ex. size constancy allows single object to be perceived as remaining constant in size even when it moves closer or further from the eyes (causing retinal image to change in size) --ex. shape constancy is when brain perceives an object as maintaining its shape even when it moves to the eyes --perceptual processing compensates for change to retinal image when shape of the light changes as it is reflected onto the retina

Culture and Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget vs. Lev Vygotsky: --Piaget initially presented his four stages as universal --but his critics state expectations and cultural context affected children's performance on Piaget's experimental tasks --Piaget later revised his theory to allow some contextual effects (environmental stimuli) --Lev believes societal factors such as parents, peers and cultural beliefs are essential factors in children's developmental progress --Piaget proposed that children's curiosity and discoveries were largely self-initiated --Lev thinks that social learning through caregivers is important meaning development is more complex than singular/internal --Role of culture in Cognitive Development depends on how children think about objects. ex. children in Western cultures are generally object-focused while Eastern children are more relationship focused. Western children will spend time talking about the colored bright fish in the tank while Eastern children discuss fish in relation to the tank, water and room --another example is Eastern medicine is holistic and emphasizes the relationship of mind and body as co-factors of health. but Western medicine takes more concrete symptom-based approach

Neural Basis of Language

Language can be located to specific areas in the brain (mainly in left hemisphere of cerebral cortex): 1. Broca's area --> located in frontal lobe and involved in speech production such as enunciating and speaking fluently. 2. Wernicke's area --> found in temporal lobe and contribute to understanding languages such as word's meaning. but patients can still hear and repeat words back

Culture

--Assimilation is the process by which an individual or group becomes part of a new culture --it occurs through language acquisition and gaining knowledge about social roles and rules of newly adopted culture --subculture describes a culture that is shared by a smaller group of people who are part of a larger culture but have specific cultural attributes that set them apart from larger group --essentially describing variation in behavioral expectations and social norms that exist within a single culture --ex. US contains many overlapping subcultures that contribute to overall population such as deaf community --many subcultures within the US led to the rise of multiculturalism which is the practice of valuing and respecting differences in culture --it includes the belief that the harmonious coexistence of separate cultures is a valuable goal instead of cultures blend together through assimilation --assimilation is a large part of immigrant experience in US by adopting American culture and forgetting the language or customs of their ancestors --overall goal of multiculturalism is having a variety of cultures coexist and interact productively and peacefully --its normal for someone to have a sense of identity with their culture and attached to their own way of life

Theories Behind Attitudes and Behavior Change

--Cognitive Dissonance refers to the conflict or inconsistency between internal attitudes and external behaviors --Cognitive Dissonance Theory is about people have inherent desire to avoid the internal discomfort associated with mismatch between attitudes and behaviors --the solution to this, is either change their attitudes towards a situation, change their perception of the behavior, or modify the behavior --this allows consistency and honesty between attitude and behavior Three Ways to Mitigate Cognitive Dissonance: Ex. Smoking is unhealthy and you should not smoke. with this attitude, behavior is inconsistent 1. To solve this, change the attitude or behavior -->"smoking is not actually bad" or "lets quit smoking" 2. Change the conflicting cognition to justify the behavior -->"it's not so bad to smoke as long as its only once in a while" 3. Add new cognitions to justify the behavior -->"I'll work out every day to nullify/negate the effects of smoking" **as you can see, cognitive dissonance affects decision making especially faulty ones** Two Major Theories of Attitude and Behavior Change: 1. describe changes through learning from social and environmental interactions 2. describes changes by response to specific persuasive argument Elaboration Likelihood Model: --processes information to persuade --it describes the interaction between an argument and psychological factors of the person who receives the argument --there are two routes due to the likelihood that the person who receives the argument will elaborate on it by generating her own thoughts/opinions in response 1. Peripheral Route Processing --> individual does not think deeply to evaluate the argument. it is because the person is unable or unwilling to evaluate the situation fully or uses method of problem solving. typically less interested and have minimal knowledge of the issues. 2. Central Route Processing --> individual does think deeply and elaborates on the argument. this route appeals to logic and reason and fueled by the argument itself and credibility of the source **studies shown that only strong arguments is effective in changing attitudes through central route of persuasion. both strong and weak arguments are effective through peripheral route** Social-cognitive theory: --approach behavior change from social learning perspective. --also proposes that behavior and attitudes change through system of reciprocal causation. --behavior is not based solely on internal drives or external, environmental reward and punishment --people learn behaviors by observing others' actions and consequences --this theory is relevant to personality development --reciprocal causation is when two or more events have simultaneously causal effects upon each other --personal factors include cognition, affect and biology. there's also behavior and environmental factors all influence each other

Reinforcement vs. Punishment

--Reinforcement is a stimulus that increases behavior --Punishment is a stimulus that decreases behavior --a stimulus added is called a positive reinforcement or positive punishment while a removed stimulus is negative --in other words, positive reinforcement is adding the stimulus in response to a desired behavior while negative reinforcement is removal of unpleasant stimulus to get a desired behavior --ex. boy takes out the trash to get rid of nagging parents vs. boy takes out the trash to receive allowance --There is positive punishment such as reprimand or criticism for a boy staying up late while negative punishment is taking a way the boy's cell phone for a week Two Classified Reinforcement and Punishment: 1. primary reinforcer is a delivery of food while primary punisher is exposure to extreme temperatures. it essentially harness physiological needs and drive for survival and does not require learning to increase likelihood of a response 2. secondary does require learning and social context to affect behavioral decisions. ex, secondary reinforcers is known as conditioned reinforcers such as money, praise, prestige and good grades. secondary punisher includes fines, scolding, ostracism and bad grades

Somatoform Disorders

--Somatic symptom and related disorders --demonstrate the advantages of incorporating psychological, biological and social conditions --characterized by bodily symptoms such as pain, fatigue, and motor problems --also includes associated psychological symptoms that cause significant health problems --these disorders differ from other psychological disorders since they are often first seen by clinicians who are not psychiatrists --somatic disorders is essentially psychological impairment that accompanies bodily symptoms, rather than the nature of bodily experience --opposite thinking of the traditional thinking that biological causes cannot explain somatic symptoms --traditional approach also neglected the psychological distress that can accompany somatic symptoms even when a biological cause can be found --with the new approach, it allows patients to experience their illness at the forefront and the focus of psychological symptoms increase clarity of diagnoses --hence better understanding between biological and psychological factors --somatoform disorders can be difficult to identify and treat --while biomedical model only allows for one directional relationship between biology and psychological, biopsychosocial model allows for psychology and biology to influence each other -- biological disease can lead to psychological effects

Influence of Heredity and Environment on Cognition and Intelligence

--Twin studies show that IQs of identical twins with the same genes raised in different environments tend to have greater similarities than fraternal twins with different genes who are raised in the same home environment --but identical twins raised in the same home have more correlated IQs than those raised in different homes --IQ is highly heritable trait Hereditary Influences: --generally learning disability can be traced to a genetic disorder --even when a trait has high heritability, change is still possible --ex. when children with phenylketonuria are provided a diet without foods containing it until maturity, intellectual development is normal --chromosomal disorders such as Down syndrome and Fragile X Syndrome also affect IQ Environmental Influences: --both chronic and acute conditions affecting a pregnant woman can lead to general learning disability in the child --ex. acute contractions of herpes, syphilis --ex. chronic conditions of diabetes or high blood pressure --even maternal drug use or alcohol consumption can contribute to intellectual impairment --Childhood socioeconomic status (SES) significantly influences children's cognitive development --according to study by Drs. Stipek & Ryan, children from disadvantaged families are less academically skilled than the privileged peers --some factors that effect of low SES on IQ includes lead exposure, poorly funded schools, racial tensions and less parental involvement in children education

Conflict Theory

--a different approach from functionalism by viewing society in terms of competing groups that act according to their own self-interests rather than according to the need for societal equilibrium --social groups naturally come into conflict as their interests collide --society changes over time due to continual competition for resources and power --this phenomena views human actions in terms of inequality but leaves motivation and choices of individuals unexamined --it essentially provide useful perspective on health inequalities --access is determined by imbalances of power between social groups especially when healthcare resources are limited --both functionalism and conflict theory fail to account for the impact of social life on the micro scale --overall, it argues that stability is undesirable (unlike functionalism) to social groups that are oppressed due to self0interests of those who are more powerful and changes are inevitable --therefore, it is better suited to explain how societies change over time --is the only theory that focuses on social disruption rather than social equilibrium

Attribution Theory

--a line of research into the causes that people use to explain the observed behaviors of others --it is a major source of ideas about how we understand people in social interactions --essentially, conscious and unconscious processes both contribute to the formation of ideas about what caused another person to behave in a way --it is deciding factor if the behavior was due to internal quality of the person or external factor outside the person's control --Dispositional Attribution (similar to internal locus of control) is when behavior is caused by an inherent quality or desire --Situational Attribution (similar to external locus of control) is when the environmental factors were in control --Fundamental Attribution Error is the constraints on our ability to judge the cause of behavior since we have incomplete information about other person's mental processes and life circumstances --in other words, it is the inclination to assume that another person commits an action because of their personal qualities and from environmental influences --essentially favors dispositional attributions over situational ones when judging other people --dispositional attribution happens quickly even outside conscious awareness --also information about another person's external circumstance is lacking which is then followed by slower, conscious and more effortful process of taking environmental influences into account to form situational attribution --overall fundamental attribution error results from dispositional attribution that has less information, needs time and attention to become situational attributions

Stress Responses & Outcomes

--acute stressor causes the body to prepare a physiological fight or flight response to the threat --long lasting stress responses begins at the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system --the system releases epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) --this cause increased heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate --adrenal glands also release cortisol which is primary stress hormone and it increases blood glucose to be directed toward body's muscles allowing the body for fight or flight --chronic stress can lead to consistent flight or fight activation maintaining high cortisol levels --long lasting stress leads to digestive problems, weight gain, high cholesterol, sleep issues, and increased risk of infection/suppressed immunity --all potential contribution to risk of heart attack --fight or flight response activates emotion of fear and chronic stress contributes to psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression --then it becomes physical such as lying in bed and worrying --besides the negative effects of stress, it can come in handy by enhancing performance --people tend to perform better under a mild amount of stress especially when they have expertise in the task at hand --stress leads to behavioral risk factors for heart disease such as smoking and overeating Relationship Between Arousal and Performance: 1. First, at low arousal, is weak performance 2. As arousal increase, so does performance (increased attention and interest) 3. at optimal arousal is optimal performance (peak of bell curve) 4. as arousal continue to incline or exceed optimal amount, performance declines (memory and cognitive impairment) because of strong anxiety

Social Construction

--adds to the idea of scientific models as representations of reality --according to this phenomena, human actors construct or create "reality" rather than discovering a reality that has inherent validity --essentially, the belief and shared understandings of individuals create social realities --social constructionists believe that all reality has no inherent meaning beyond human beliefs --others divide reality into two categories: brute facts and institutional facts ---brute facts are physical realities that exists outside of human input --institutional facts only exist as a function of society's structures and beliefs ex. it is a brute fact that objects fall to the ground but gravitational force involving large planets is an institutional fact --social constructionism is interested in social creation of shared meanings of health and illness

Consciousness

--also known as awareness --distinction between consciousness and unconsciousness is vital to the filtering process that sorts incoming sensory information --attention is like a gatekeeper of consciousness --stimuli that receive the most attention comes to be perceived consciously --Alertness is also called the default state of consciousness --people awake are generally in alert state or full consciousness --but wakefulness and alertness may not be identical since it is possible to be awake but not alert --this shown through recording electrical activity of the brain known as electroencephalogram (EEG) --EEG records patterns in electrical signals or brainwaves --during alertness, the type of brainwave recorded is beta wave which differs from the type of brainwaves observed during sleep stage

Biopsychosocial Approach (BPS)

--an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis --contrasts with traditional biomedical approach which focuses narrowly on physical aspects of illness --illness is determined by variety of influences rather than a single cause --causes and effects of illness can be examined at multiple levels in the life of an individual --BPS approach is developed to allow for a more complete and accurate understanding of patients and their medical conditions by including sociological and psychological situations instead of just biological aspects

Functionalism

--based on this phenomena, factions of society work together to maintain stability --it claims that society is a system that consists of different components working together --society contains distinct institutions that contribute to functioning like how each organ systems have roles in the body --these institutions and social structures work together to maintain equilibrium in the face of environmental demands --when disruption occurs, interacting systems respond by getting back to the previous state and acting like homeostatic mechanisms in the body --the actions of individuals and groups in society can be analyzed by asking how they contribute to long term societal stability --overall it provides useful perspective for considering processes that contribute to social stability (assumed as the ideal) but cannot explain societal changes **deals with small scale interactions and share similarities with symbolic interactionism**

Mood Disorder

--category of psychological disorders that deal with disruptions in emotion that influence personal functioning much like anxiety disorders --defined by two extremes or poles along the spectrum of emotional experiences (extreme sadness/despair/depression vs. excitement so intense that it can be mania) --while anxiety involves hyper-alert state, depression is characterized by flattened emotion and feeling normal tasks require extra energy **Besides mood disorders, there are other disorders... Anxiety ---> 18% rate Mood --> 9.5% rate schizophrenia --> 1% rate Personality --> 9% rate. Keep in mind schizophrenia is lowest rate meaning rare because it is a single disorder while mood and other groups like this is large**

Bipolar Disorder

--characterized by episodes of mania and depression --episodes consists of uncontrollable impulses and reckless decisions --involves distortion of self-concept (where self is viewed in an exaggeratedly positive light) or self-esteem is hugely elevated --self-concept and other ideas may become distorted to the point of delusion like schizophrenia --multiple genes can be involved in this inheritance

Consciousness: Circadian Rhythm & Hypothalamus

--circadian rhythm regulates the body's function on a predictable schedule --ex. opposing systems that promote sleep and wakefulness processes --circadian rhythm suggest drive for sleep builds up over the course of the day --in comparison, sleep is determined by a biological clock of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the hypothalamus --cells of hypothalamus regulates timing of many biological circadian rhythms such as body temperature and sleep-wake cycle --SCN promotes wakefulness by blocking the release of melatonin hormone from pineal gland. but SCN decrease its activity to release the hormone later in the day --the regulatory influence of SCN allow predictable switch between sleep and wakefulness --environmental factors such as light and noise can affect the sleep-wake timing by triggering SCN

Situational Approach to Explaining Behavior

--concept of enduring personality traits is fatally flawed because of the variations in behavior that occur across different situations --this perspective shifts the focus from internal-stable traits to external changing circumstances --but, it still allows for stability in personality because people apply their own characteristic patterns and behave according to their interpretations of changing situations --environmental influences dominate when the situation requires particular behaviors --think of it as "if-then" theory, people interpret a situation in a particular way which dictate how they respond with a certain behavior --tending toward certain interpretations adds elements of stability even though situations differ Personality Theory: 1. Trait --> stable traits/behavior and very little control over personality 2. Biological --> genetically influenced traits and very little control over personality 3. Psychoanalytic --> interplay between id, ego and superego and very little control over personality 4. Behaviorist --> learned reactions to situations and very little control over personality 5. Social Cognitive --> reciprocal interaction between personal and environmental factors and some control over personality by choosing experiences 6. Humanistic --> seeking betterment of self and free will/control over personality **according to Duberstein et al (2007) research, patients were most satisfied with long term primary care physicians who demonstrated high levels of openness to experience and average levels of conscientiousness.**

Behavior in Social Context (Social Processes that Influence Behavior)

--conformity is necessary for society to function smoothly and humans tends to have strong drive toward this with group norms --when group works together smoothly, the members may agree with each other so much that they exclude alternative possibilities, considerations and decisions --groupthink is the phenomenon where a group's members tend to think alike and agree for the sake of group harmony --members may self-censor ideas or opinions that go against group norms or may be pressured by other group members to keep silent on such opinions --groupthink can also be adaptive because it allows groups to make decisions quickly and efficiently, but it can lead to disastrous outcome ex. US presidents have intentionally included advisors and cabinet members in their administrations who challenge their ideas and express minority perspectives --group polarization occurs when the attitude of the group as a whole toward a particular issue becomes stronger than the attitudes of its individual members ex. group of condominium owners in the same building meets to discuss regulations and they may arrive with vague ideas. through the discussions, the regulation discussions become more and more extreme such as banning all paint color choices besides white or gray. so the individual desires are eliminated --social facilitation is tendency to perform better when a person knows he is being watched but can perform worse when carrying out a new or uncomfortable task --social loafing occurs when members of a group decrease the pace or intensity of their own work with the intention of letting other group members work harder --bystander effect occurs when a person is less likely to help when there is a crowd of the thought that someone else would stop and assist. but with fewer people it is the opposite --deindividuation occurs when people lose awareness of their individuality and immerse themselves in the mood or activities of a crowd --sometimes it is desirable such as a group complied t wear uniforms, masks and other methods that minimize individual identity which help them conform to social norms --can be destructive if people participate or follow orders to do violence such as genocide ex. is fans lose themselves in the mood of the crowd at a sport game

Schizophrenia

--debilitating and rare disorder that can have a wide variety of clinical presentations but is fundamentally characterized by an impaired connection with reality --symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized speech --hallucination is a sensory perception that does not correspond to an actual event or object in the outside world --hallucinations are commonly auditory and correlate with neural activity in brain associated with hearing and language --delusion is a disconnect from reality which is a sensory experience and is an unrealistic and unreasonable belief --disorganized speech is the inability to effectively communicate due to nonsensical trains of thought, responding inappropriately to other's speech or other disruptions --the disorder also involves negative symptoms which often consists of lack of emotion, motivation, and enjoyment of activities --biological basis of schizophrenia states genetic vulnerability is a contributing factor and it is sharply elevated among close relatives such as siblings instead of cousins --genetic vulnerability can be complications of pregnancy since it can raise the likelihood of development for individuals who is genetically at risk --like depression, schizophrenia cannot be pinpointed by a single specific genetic cause (involves multiple genes) --overall the development of schizophrenia involves interaction between genetic pre-disposition and environmental factors --other biological factors are genetics, excess dopamine activity and brain atrophy --in fact, drugs that block receptors of dopamine seem to be useful as antipsychotics especially since dopamine is associated to the positive symptoms than the negative ones --elevated dopamine contributes to abnormal perception and thought closely related to symptoms of recreational drugs --Walker et al. discovered multiple structures in the brains of people with schizophrenia are smaller and indicated inability to generate new neurons. also saw worsening atrophy

Forgetting of Memories

--decay is the fading of a memory or information in working memory that does not get encoded into long term memory --decay is also the weakening of connections of neural networks that help holds a memory --stronger the neural network = less chance of decay of long term memory --recall is reliably strongest for items at the beginning of the list (primacy effect) and items at the end of the list (recency effect) --usually memory of items in the middle are most vulnerable to decay before entering long term memory --unlike the middle, the first and last items are not displaced by new incoming information --decay also occurs for sensory memory since representation of sensory stimuli quickly fades --but for working and long term memory, information decays due to problems with retrieval rather than loss of memory Types of Memory Retrieval Interference: --it is when memory retrieval is prevented 1. Retroactive Interference --> newly learned material hinders successful retrieval of related older memories causing memory loss of old memory 2. Proactive Interference --> previously held/old knowledge prevents successful retrieval of more newly learned information causing old learning to interfere with new memory ---more similar between memories, more likely they will interfere with one another --it is caused by sharing retrieval cues since same retrieval cues are used for multiple memories

Dissociative Disorders

--defined as the experience of dissociation --dissociation is the split between different aspects of psychological functioning --dissociation is also a disruption in identity, memory, or consciousness. ex. dissociative amnesia is when a person forgets about the past events and it is usually caused by traumatic experience --experience of dissociation can be understood in terms of positive and negative symptoms. ex. amnesia is negative symptoms since it is the loss of psychological function that is typically intact in healthy individuals and negative symptoms can go unnoticed --positive symptoms is abnormal psychological experience that is disruptive to individual. ex depersonalization/derealization disorder is the feelings that either self or surroundings are unreal and disconnected from the individual. this is a way for a person previously traumatized to psychologically distance from trauma unlike amnesia when someone forgets traumatic incident --a type of dissociative disorder is dissociative identity disorder (DID) or multiple personality disorder. --it is significant disruption of stable identity by displaying multiple distinct personalities which differ in terms of traits and behaviors. different personalities may lack awareness of other personalities --patients that recover memories and are aware of their multiple personalities causes skepticism --remember cultural norms and beliefs can affect both the presentation and diagnosis of dissociative disorders. ex. possession can be considered appropriate and typical in some cultures. but in the US, it is instead taken as evidence for DID

Personality Disorder

--defined by the tendency to endure across different situations and over the course of a lifetime --involve the development of personality traits that cause psychological and social dysfunction --first noticeable during the adolescence stage --personality dysfunction is psychologically unhealthy for the individual and multiple specific personality disorders have been defined based on the type of personality dysfunction --DSM-5 changes it up by allowing personality disorders be understood in a continuous way rather than categorical way (based on disruption of thoughts, emotions, and behavior) --in other words, this model considered pathological traits that characterize the individual, specific types of personal and interpersonal/relationship or communication between other people functioning that are affected and severity/seriousness of each

Depressive Disorder

--do not involve the manic end of the spectrum while bipolar disorder do. --it's defined as pervasive feelings of sadness and hopelessness and/or loss of interest in activities that an individual usually enjoys. --people that are depressed experience physical and cognitive symptoms as well such as disrupted sleep and eating, thoughts of suicide and inability to concentrate. --genetic inheritance appears to have a strong influence (about 40%). --in fact, genetic contribution to depression involves multiple genes. the level of risk of inheriting depression depends on the array of genes --there's no biological factors responsible for depression Two Ideas about Neurological Function and Depression: 1. monoamine hypothesis --> involves monoamine neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine or noradrenaline and dopamine) and it states that deficiency of monoamines or transmission of this in the synapses contribute to depression. knowing this help pharmaceuticals create monoamine oxidase inhibitors which prevents breakdown of monoamines to increase availability of it in the brain 2. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis --> remember nervous and endocrine systems interact to produce body's response to stress. hypothalamus releases a hormone that initiate anterior pituitary to release ACTH hormone which triggers release of cortisol by adrenal cortex. elevated levels or one or more of these hormones involved in the HPA axis cause over activation of stress response system which could contribute to the development of the disorder

Consciousness Altering Drugs

--dramatic alterations in the state of consciousness --ex. caffeine, medications and recreational drugs --these substances affect nervous system function and psychological characteristics such as perception, attention and emotion --structures and pathways are altered in the brain which can contribute to addictiveness --overall consciousness-altering drugs affect biological functioning and behavior by mimicking or activating naturally occuring neural systems --drug addiction is achieved by hijacking system in the brain to cause feeling of pleasure and reward --the Reward Pathway within the limbic system is connected to feeling of reward and pleasure that lead to cravings and addiction --this activated pathway increase level of dopamine and the brain responds by trying to lower the baseline of dopamine which makes the feeling of reward harder to achieve in the absence of drug 1. Agonists --> mimics chemically and naturally occurring neurotransmitters to enhance substance effect on neural function 2. Antagonists --> substances that bind to neurotransmitter receptors without activating them and block the binding of associated neurotransmitter 3. Drugs influence the amount of neurotransmitters in the synapse. reuptake of neurotransmitters prevent constant stimulation of postsynaptic receptors. --there re reuptake inhibitors to prevent this and allow greater amount of neurotransmitter remaining in the synapse. --in comparison, enzyme inhibitors prevent breakdown of neurotransmitters to decrease the amount and have them taken up by presynaptic neuron Three Types of Drugs: 1. Stimulants --> raise level of activity in CNS by increasing number of monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine and epinephrine (associated with sympathetic nervous system) in the synapse 2. Depressants --> decrease of activity in CNS and associated with feelings of relaxation and decreased alertness **antidepressants is not considered as consciousness altering drugs but use the same mechanisms of SSRIs/selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or increase serotonin presence in synapse** **oppositely, Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) interfere with breakdown of monoamine neurotransmitters including serotonin and norepinephrine** 3. Hallucinogens --> not neatly classified as stimulants or depressants. it alters sensory and perceptual experience by mimicking the body's natural neurotransmitters and bind to and activate particular type of serotonin receptor Drug Addiction:

Freud's Theory of Development Stages

--figures out different factors involved in development such as social and mental processes --proposed a series of psychosexual stages in early childhood --Freud noticed id urges important part of personality in terms of the impulses caused by id --if a child gets too much or too little satisfaction of the urge associated with a certain stage, they may fail to move on to the next stage --this phenomenon is called fixation which he believes cause problems for people later in their lives Psychosexual Stages of Development: 1. oral --> age 1st year and children at this stage are preoccupied with oral processes such as sucking and biting. there's also nursing/milk and leading to development of trust and capacity for delayed gratification 2. Anal --> age 2nd year and children are toilet train and bowel movements which allow development of self-control 3. Phallic --> age 3-6 and children develop sexual and gender identification by focusing on sexual impulses on opposite sex parent and identifying with same sex parent. then they begin to internalize society rules and develop the superego 4. Latent --> age 7-12 and its mostly the period of calm since sexual impulses are suppressed and children focus on other developmental tasks 5. Genital --> adolescence and older and it is the return of sexual urges that lead to achievement of adult sexuality

Visual Processing From a Neurological Perspective

--focus on psychological theories of visual processing --visual processing consists of interpreting raw sensory data to produce visual perception Two Types of Processing (examples of bottom-up method): 1. Parallel Processing --> use of multiple pathways to convey information about the same stimulus. through the bipolar and ganglion cells in the eyes (highly sensitive given receptor fields), the information is split from parallel to two distinct pathways. one pathway that detects and process information about motion. the second pathway focuses on the form of stimuli such as shape and color. these pathways project to separate areas of lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and visual cortex. 2. Feature Detection --> once visual information reaches visual cortex, it is analyzed and the cells of this region responds to particular aspects of visual stimuli such as lines of particular orientation. essentially, the cells focus the basic features of objects that are used to produce perception of the object as a whole. more complex aspects of the stimulus are processes in sequence or serial process. **bottom-up is like starting from the bottom of small pieces to gradually create a whole perception**

Genetics, Environment, and Behavior

--focus on the interaction of genetics and environment that influences development and behavior --it will also consider genetic inheritance at population level --think simultaneously about psychological, sociological and biological factors --the dynamic interaction between the environment and heredity plays a critical role throughout psychological development including that of behavioral traits --ex. temperament (innate characteristic) demonstrates the effect of heredity on behavior, but environmental factors quickly come into play as the infant's behavior elicits certain reactions from caregivers. in other words, a baby's irritability will receive a different response from someone else than a calm and quiet one which leads to changes in the baby's behavior --essentially genetic inheritance provides guidelines that are then further shaped by the environment --ex genetic instructions guide neuronal growth but can be influenced based on stimulants. Hubel and Wiesel showed that absence of certain visual features in the environment can lead to loss of neurons --environment is experienced through sensation or gathering of information --environment is taken in by perception or processing and interpretation of information --through regulatory genes, the environment can impact gene expression by affecting the steps from DNA to protein such as promoting or repress transcription of a gene which indirectly affect an individual's behavior --genetic expression and associated behaviors change in response to environment through epigenetics --keep in mind, epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene expression which involves in change in phenotype (activation and inactivation) without changing genotype/dna sequence --epigenetic changes can cause physical alterations to the genome such as DNA methylation and histone modification without changing the base pairs and can be passed down to offspring --memory involves encoding, storage, retrieval and loss of information --the interaction between genetically based behavioral variation in a population and environment is studied such as the correct way of forging for food --in a gene pool of a population, there are relative number of unique alleles representing genetic variation --various combinations of alleles or genetic variation associate with different behaviors --so various traits and behavioral variation based on genotypes all differs in adaptive values (extent of survival and natural selection result) --typically genetic variants and changes help lead to behaviors that help organisms adapt and thrive under certain environmental conditions --stages of sleep: more time is spent in deep sleep, later more time in light sleep and REM sleep.

Behavior in Social Context (Elements of Social Interaction)

--group interactions happen through networks such as friends of friends --organization is a collection of individuals joining together to coordinate their interactions toward a specific purpose --roles in different groups or situations depends on person's status or social position, network or organization --ability to express emotion and detect emotions in others are key to engaging successful social interactions --people consciously make behavioral choices in order to create specific self presentations in minds of others is called impression management --the use of metaphor from the theater to explain human behavioral patterns in social situations is known as dramaturgical approach --theater metaphor explains how a person has both a front stage and back stage self for various social situations --front stage self encompasses the behavior that a player performs in front of an audience which is usually a society --a person performs front stage when she is being watched and her behavior is judged by an audience --back stage self is employed when players are together but no audience is present --players perform a different self for each other than they do for the audience such as behavior that may be unacceptable

Influence of Personal Factors on Identity Formation

--identity formation involves the interplay between individual's internal life and environment Three Interrelated Qualities that are Important to Identity Formation: 1. Self-esteem --> refers to person's overall value judgment of him or herself. it acts as a mediating factor between self-concept and experience by shaping interpretations of events which influence self-concept. hence, self concept and self esteem modify each other. the motivation for heightened self-esteem can stem from identifying with a social group. 2. Self-efficacy --> feeling of being able to carry out an action successfully. it affects the types of experiences that people choose and how well they perform. thus, experiences lead to changes in the perception of self and implicated in social cognitive theory personality (personal characteristics that impacts behaviors and interactions with environment that shape personality). ex is seeing if whether or not I can succeed at football which determines if trying out is a good idea. if i am good, being a football player is my new identity. 3. Locus of Control --> person's belief about the extent to which internal or external factors play a role in shaping his or her life. he or she with internal locus of control has complete control over their behavior and events while external locus of control believes external factors (people, environments and luck) determines outcome

Intellectual Functioning: Multiple Definitions of Intelligence

--intelligence is defined as ability to understand and reason with complex ideas, adapt effectively to the environment and learn from experience --Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale contains verbal scale and performance scale --these two scales are synthesized to yield one Intelligence Quotient (IQ) score --IQ predict school performance and correlates strongly with school related skills such as math and verbal skills --but this has lack of other skills such as art and design --IQ scores in a population fall along a continuum and below average IQ is to represent a general learning disability (15 points below mean) Intelligence Quotient Pros: --simple to administer --provide scores easy to compare --proven to correlate with academic performance Cons: --less useful in predicting later career success or advancement --show cultural bias since minorities tend to score lower than their white counterparts --single number score can be misleading when the test is used to diagnose learning disability by labeling someone as "not intelligent" which harms confidence and intellectual drive --the unnecessary labeling can not accurately depict the needs of a child that qualifies them for special education or government aid General Intelligence Factor --believes every individual has a set of intelligence that applies to all of their intellectual pursuits --this tests on various types of intelligence tests --its divided into two types of intelligence --first one is fluid intelligence which is the ability to think logically without need for previously learned knowledge (ex. detecting visual pattern). this peaks in young adulthood and then declines --second is crystallized intelligence which is the ability to think logically using previously learned knowledge (ex. facts, vocabulary etc). this remains stable throughout adulthood Theory of Multiple Intelligence: --Howard Gardner proposed that everyone has a variety of intelligences that are used in combination to solve problems and perform tasks --each individual has different levels of intelligence for each domains: musical, mathematics, spatial, interpersonal, linguistic and bodily-kinesthetic --however, Sternberg's triarchic theory believes intelligence emerges from a person's adaptive abilities --ex. analytical intelligence for problem solving abilities --also creative intelligence to handle new situations using existing skills and experiences --third, practical intelligence to respond to environmental changes

Identity

--is one's view of self or who they are in relation to the world and in terms of both internal factors (personality traits) and social/external factors (group membership) --identity differs from personality by placing a larger emphasis on the individual's own perception of self --recall that personality is generally thought of as part of the individual's psychological makeup that's stays constant over time. --but identity allows people to see themselves as constant but have enough flexibility to change in response to experience such as career change --metaphor of a "black box" is used to describe behaviorism --behavior is understood as an output that follows certain inputs --internal mental life is assumed to be unknowable There are two components: 1. Personal--> self concept is the most personal aspect of identity and it is the knowledge of oneself as a person separate from other people and from constant throughout changing situations. in other words, a person's view of his or her own personality. self concept is developed and refined through interactions with others. once individual has well developed self-concept, one will intentionally act in ways to uphold that and have strong emotional response to circumstances that threaten its validity 2. Social--> is the perception of oneself as a member of a certain social group. characteristics associated with the group come to be seen as part of self which influence individual's personal sense of identity. like self-concept, social identity involves cognitive component (categorization of oneself into certain group) and emotional component (individual's emotional attachment to groups with which they identify). overall social identity is flexible over various social contexts and levels of society (ex. same individual enact one facet of their social identity while interacting with a sport team and demonstrate different aspect of themselves at dinner with their extended family) **different types of identities could be about race/ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation and class** **long term health issues can lead to disruption of identity since it interferes with their ability to carry out social functions that the person sees as part of their identity** **illness can influence one's ideas of their own personal characteristics such as strength and healthiness**

Demographics

--is the study of a population based on factors such as age, race, ethnicity, marital status/family size, income, education, employment and sex. --these qualities are important in forming self-identity which depends on where you belong or not belong --it does not capture ever changing nature of society and only structure of populations --population size is based on birth rate (fertility) and death rate (mortality) which are generally lowers as area becomes more industrialized --this is an example of demographic transition which is demographic change that takes place over time --demographic of fertility rate can be measured either by following a subset of a population over a lifetime (cohort study) or by examining number of offspring produced during specific time period (period study) --factors that influence mortality rate is disease treatment, maternal care and immunization influences survival rates and social composition --population also influenced by migration or relocation of people from one place to another such as immigration (new people entering to specific area) and emigration (outflow of people) --different demographics can be compared over time as a way to study social change --social change is significant alteration over time in behavior patterns and cultural values and norms. By "significant" alteration, sociologists mean changes yielding profound social consequences. --social movement is a group of people who share an ideology/values and work together toward a set goal(s) which can be investigated by examining demographic groups

Operant Conditioning

--is to make behaviors either more or less likely by controlling the consequences of those behaviors --type of associative learning in which an individual becomes more or less likely to carry out a certain behavior based on its consequences --this study is often associated with experiments of B F skinner who used a Skinner Box (operant conditioning chamber) --the food is dispensed in the chamber when the rats carried out a specific behavior such as stepping on a lever --the rats learn that their behavior has consequences and began to step on the lever with greater frequency to obtain more food --the skinner box also provide electrified floor that shocks rat that exhibits a certain behavior --the rat will learn to avoid that area because of consequence of stepping on the floor --Hence, rat learns to adjust the frequencies of the behaviors in response to the consequence --Reinforcement is the consequence that increase likelihood of a behavior such as delivery of food --Punishment is stimulus that decrease the likelihood of a behavior such as delivery of a shock --the mouse moving toward the other side of the cage because of the electrified floor is an example of escape conditioning (escaping unpleasant stimulus) --similarly is avoidance conditioning in which subject learns behavior that allows subject to avoid unpleasant stimulus altogether before it occurs. ex. whistle happens before electric shock as a warning --reinforcement schedule describes how often and under what conditions a behavior is reinforced. ex. a mouse is trained to press a lever by providing a reward every time, this represents mouse receiving continuous reinforcement --partial reinforcement is also called intermittent reinforcement which means mouse is rewarded some of the times **reinforcement is to promote behavior to happen more likely while punishment is to make it stop or less frequent**

Attitudes

--it is favorable and unfavorable organizations of beliefs and feelings about people, objects or situations Major Components: 1. Affective Component --> a person's feelings or emotions about an object, person or event 2. Behavioral Component --> attitudes influence on behavior 3. Cognitive Component --> beliefs or knowledge about specific object of interest --attitudes and behavior are bi-directional. ex. food choices are influenced by attitudes towards diet and overall health which in turn will influence future own behavior --foot in the door phenomenon is based on the fact that people are more likely to agree to a large request if they first agree to a smaller one --accepting an initially modest request fosters an accepting and willing attitude --one is then motivated to comply with a larger request --it is a type of persuasive technique that uses changing behavior to affect attitudes Behavior over Attitudes: --behavior can also shape attitudes through role playing --ex. a newly graduated student dresses professionally and join the corporate world. this may feel forced role at first but she will eventually come to believe and feel that she is an adult contributor to the company --another words, behavior associated to new role initially feel artificial. but over time she seem to reflect true self while adopt role attitudes --remember role playing allow for internal self-concept development and identity. also develop external attitudes about the world Attitudes Influence Behavior: --behavior in accordance with attitude if attitude is repeatedly stated, personally meaningful, when something is at stake, or significant outcome is expected --ex. the way messages are framed can impact people's attitudes which subsequently influence their behavior. if a doctor tells a patient exercise is good for weight loss, patients develop positive attitudes about exercise which leads to them to exercise more. If a doctor said not exercising leads to weight gain, its not as effective as positive message since it encourage behavior change --also, some patients try to have a strong attitudes when about to go see their doctors because it will benefit them going to get check ups frequently and benefit health --negative messages like do not smoke does not always lead to smoke cessation

Ethnocentrism

--it is the belief that one's group is central importance and includes tendency to judge the practices of other groups --the opposite of ethnocentrism is cultural relativism --cultural relativism is the practice of trying to understand a culture on its own terms and judge a culture by its own standards instead of one's own cultural standards --ethnocentrism contribute to someone's sense of identity but it can cause misunderstanding and conflict --it essentially encourage people to define themselves in terms of social groupings but establishing a mental division between an in group vs. out group --in group is when an individual shares identity and feels loyalty --out group is when someone does not identify and feels competition and hostility --bias is when an individual favors the in group and devalues out groups --strong in group identity can lead to misunderstandings or unjustified generalizations about people who are not part of the in group --prejudices describe strict generalizations about other groups and often have underlie antagonistic (opposing) conflicts --usually power, prestige and class contribute to the effect of prejudice has on lives and opportunities of individuals and structure of social institutions --emotions and cognition contribute to prejudice through development of schemas (organizing patterns of thought in order to categorize and interpret information

Socialization

--it is the process by which people learn customs and values of their culture --essentially every culture have different practices that are considered individually acceptable and normal --it begins early in childhood and develops and evolves over a lifetime --through this, members of a culture learn what customs and ideologies are values and encouraged among their communities --people gain an understanding of social norms which are rules that community members expect to follow --socialization occurs through observational learning and operant conditioning which is proper behaviors rewarded and unacceptable behaviors associated with criticism or punishment --there's a type called agents of socialization which are comprised of groups and people who influence personal attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors --agents of socialization includes family, friends and neighbors, social institutions (religion or school), mass media influencers, sport teams and workplace. --the better an individual understands social norms, the more pressure she feels to conform to those norms --conformity is the tendency of individuals to change their attitudes, opinions and behaviors to align with group norms. it is driven to be socially accepted and need to fit in --it can be apparent throughout everyday life such as driving on correct side of the road to dressing in a certain style to fit with friends and go against their own best judgement to agree with their peers --obedience describes behavioral changes made in response to a command by authority figure. it is related to social power and desire to avoid punishment or undesirable consequences --ex. is the Stanley Milgram's study of obedience: a doctor directed the teachers to administer electrical shocks to another person when she produce incorrect answers to questions. this shows people going against their own ethical code and the level of power of authority --Deviance is when a person is unable to recognize social norms or chooses not to follow them since the behavior violates social expectations --deviant behavior is often met with disapproval to maintain societal rule --behavior that defies social norms is often associated with stigma which is a negative social label that changes a person's social identity by classifying them as abnormal or tainted

Perception

--it is the process by which the brain interprets incoming sensory information from the peripheral nervous system --this helps construct an organized big picture view of the external environment --it involves both bottom-up and top-down processing --sensation and perception tend to be used interchangeably --perception involves high level processing that occurs in the brain. --but, sensation occurs at the level of sensory organs and receptors (where environmental stimuli are first registered) --while sensation is the feeling of a pin pricking your finger, perception is the interpretation of the pain as meaningful information --that pin is interpreted as an object in the environment that should be avoided --perceptual processing is taken place out of conscious awareness Bottom-Up: --a process that includes the construction of perceptions from individuals pieces of information provided by sensory processing --without this, top-down processing would operate in a vacuum without the input from the surrounding Top-Down: --process that brings the influence of prior knowledge into play to make perception more efficient --without this, it would be difficult to organize the incoming information into useful model --ex. a reinvention of the wheel is required for each new stimulus --the stimuli that wasn't given enough attention and directed to others, those stimuli will not reach conscious awareness --it eliminate those stimuli from scope of perception Gestalt Principles: --Gestalt Principles describe how the process organizes sensory information such as from visual and auditory senses into distinct forms/objects --forms or objects are different since its based on the distinct regions of the sensed surroundings --while one object is recognized as a form or figure, the rest of the stimulus is perceived as the background or ground --the principle also explains the criteria that is used to distinguish between figure and background or between objects in a group or out of the group 1. Principle Nearness --> clusters of objects will each be perceived as a distinct group 2. Principle of Similarity --> objects with shared features like a shape is perceived as a single group 3. Principle of Common (separated) Region --> objects sharing common background are perceives as a group 4. Principle of Continuity --> group of stimulus that remains in its continuous form 5. Principle of Closure --> we see whole shapes even when they are not actually present (not completely intact or a whole) in the stimulus

Memory: Storage & Encoding

--it is the representation and maintenance of information by the nervous system --it is a tool that we use to organize information for the purpose of behavioral response --memory formation does not create an exact recordings of surrounding or events --instead, memory formation creates representative model based on incoming stimuli --memory process is carried out actively and not passively --this means only selected information proceeds throughout the stages of memory while others are discarded Encoding and Storage of Declarative Memory: --incoming information taken up by sensory memory --the information not selected is spit out or not attended --the ones selected will gain most attention which then transferred to short term memory --short term memory consists of working memory where memories are internally rehearsed and some are forgotten --the information remembered undergoes encoding where it's transformed into type of representation that's used by particular form of memory storage --meaningful encoding travel to long term where some is forgotten or some retrieved back to working memory Two Types of Memory: 1. Declarative Memory --> information that is consciously known such as memory of lifetime events and knowledge of facts. --consists of various types of memory storage with unique processing and storing strategies 2. Non-Declarative --> it is also known as procedural memory which is unconscious ability to remember how to perform a particular task

Attention

--it selects sensory information for perceptional processing --attention is often drawn to change --stimulus that stays the same is unlikely to provide useful information --sudden change like the appearance of a predator is more relevant to survival and is given more attention --sensory information that is not even attention may be unconsciously processed and not reach conscious awareness --after it is detected, selective attention is the focus of attention on one particular stimulus at the exclusion of other stimuli --only certain information between sensation and perception is allowed to proceed (narrowed down) --the limitation is that important information may be discarded and missed --but divided attention splits perceptual resources between multiple stimuli or behaviors. --in other words, this strategy divides the narrowing tunnel used for selective attention --it is used because attentional resources are limited --however, divided attention causes each of the multiple stimuli to receive less attention in comparison to selective attention

Influence of Language on Thought

--language provides tool for organizing and manipulating thoughts --ex. is specificity vs. generality of thought about certain concepts --ex. how and whether abstract ideas are understood --ex. how social connections and structures are understood --ex. several Inuit and Scandinavian dialects have many words for "snow" so snow can be discussed and thought about in a very specific manner depending types of snow named --overall language allows for understanding, expression and discussion of abstract concepts such as philosophy and psychology --also language helps frame thought about ourselves and others such as uses of personal pronouns and allows for meaningful social connection and empathy --simple linguistic changes like using person first language "a person diagnosed with schizophrenia" rather than a "schizophrenic" can ease stigma associated with mental illness --some cultures use different language to describe health issues, including terms that suggest spiritually elevated states rather than disordered conditions

Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

--like Freud, was part of the psychoanalytic tradition --but Erik envisioned the psychosexual stages as psychosocial ones --it involves the interaction between self and society Development Stages: Stage 1 --> like Freud's oral stage which occurs first year of life. presents crisis of trust vs. mistrust. basically infant develops lasting ideas about trust based on the actions of the parents Stage 2 --> like Freud's anal stage which concerns autonomy vs. shame and doubt. it involves a child's growing sense of being competent to carry out self care Stage 3 --> like Freud's Phallic stage which is the initiative vs. guilt when children attempt to develop the ability to execute a plan such as play activities Stage 4 --> like Freud's latent stage which is the industry vs. inferiority. when children are immersed in more complex social environment of school. during this, a child determines of he or she is capable of mastering skills that are societally valued Stage 5 --> like Freud's genital stage which is the identity vs. role confusion. is the concern with identity formation since adolescents explore different possibilities for their roles in society as well as personal beliefs and goals. there's also a chance of role confusion or lack of clear ideas about self and social belongings. usually identity crisis time and need to explore different possible identities. however identity diffusion is no sense of identity or motivation to engage in identity exploration which is the opposite of achieving identity Stage 6 --> like Freud's young adulthood stage (most important stage). is intimacy vs. isolation which occurs in young adulthood and involves the ability to form emotionally significant relationships with others Stage 7 --> like Freud's adulthood stage. it is generativity vs. stagnation which is when individuals (during adulthood) determines the extent to which they wish to "put back" energy into family, work and community /generativity or simply care for their own needs/stagnation Stage 8 --> like Freud's maturity stage or during old age, people face dilemma of integrity vs. despair. people evaluate their lifetimes and develop a sense of how well they have lived.

Health Disparity (health inequity)

--means difference in health and healthcare between groups of people --white Americans experience lower incidence of chronic illness and poor health outcome than Americans in other racial groups --ex. people of color are twice likely to have undiagnosed diabetes --Also mortality differs between sexes and depended on environment --ex. in countries causing women to have lower social status than men, it can also include high incidence of mortality from childbirth so sex gap in lifespan decreases --people with higher socioeconomic status overall have better health due to lack of environmental hazards, stress in lifestyle, amount of leisure time and quality of diet --other incidents can be a homosexual man living in a community with high incidence of homophobia may be reluctant to discuss sexual orientation which may prevent frequent STI screens which is prevalent in the gay male community

Memory Retrieval and Forgetting

--memory formation involves the transfer of information from the temporary storage of working memory to long term memory --from long term memory, the information can move in other directions --retrieval is when stored information from long term memory is returned to work memory for the purpose of problem solving and guidance of behavior --to quickly retrieve certain information depends on organization of massive amount of information --essentially semantic network is used to organize information in networks (like spider web or family tree) of meaningfully related memories --activation of a memory of a specific item leads to the activation of memories located in or linked to the network of idea --related memories to that idea or item are brought to the mind through spread activation --meaning (encoded by long term memory) plays a role in structuring the way that memory is stored Three Ways of Retrieval: 1. Recall --> the retrieval of memory from scratch. ex. student have to write down the definition instead of picking from a bunch of choices 2. Recognition --> correct identification of information that is presented. this is frequently easier task than recall. ex. someone pick the definition from a bunch of multiple choices. 3. Relearning --> detection of long term memories that have become inaccessible to conscious recognition or recall. lost memories persists unconsciously so when relearning, it requires less time or effort. ex. student took Spanish a few years ago and she thinks she has forgotten it. but when she goes to Spain, she picks it up right away. --all these processes are enhanced by retrieval cues which is an environmental stimuli associated some way with memory of being sought --these cues often presented at the time that the memory sought was originally formed --ex. student sat in a particular room while studying for an exam. retrieval of facts learned while studying would be improved by the student taking the exam in the same room. --presence of correct answer acts an effective recognition cue --emotions are retrieval cues --essentially memory retrieval is strongest when emotional state is similar to that memory formation --memories that have high emotional significance are strongest --but emotions like anxiety can diminish people's performance since it pose as a distraction and interference of memory retrieval

Revisiting the Biomedical and Biopsychosocial Models

--offers competing perspectives for the understanding of psychological disorders --remember psychological disorder is a model that allow scientists and clinicians to describe huge range of psychological functioning human beings experience --biomedical model assumes illness can be fully explained by biological processes --the model attributes psychological disorders to biological causes with an emphasis on genetics and neurological functioning --BPS rejects the idea that biological, psychological and social processes can be neatly divided --BPS states biology alone cannot account for disease progression in an individual patient

Culture

--people operate as the smallest functional units of society --thought of as all beliefs, assumptions, objects, behaviors and processes make up shared way of life --people who share a culture tend to have common values, learned behaviors and approaches to life --people immersed in a culture assume that their culture's way of doing things is normal and natural --ex. in the US decorating houses with lights as Christmas time is a widespread practice that is generally interpreted as celebratory and cheerful, but in many parts of the world this practice is viewed as wasteful --different perspectives and reactions are often due to cultural differences --experiencing shock or discomfort when first encountering new culture is common and can be catalyst for growth and reflection especially of your own culture --culture shock defined as the discomfort and re evaluation of personal cultural assumptions --shared cultural experiences are often related to geographical area or country of origin --formation of culture relates to shared experiences that transcend geography --social norms are the expectations that govern what behavior is acceptable within a group which is created through social interactions --expectations and norms differ between groups which identifies social groups and the culture --social groups is a subset of a population that maintains social interactions --social groups tend to have shared experiences that create a group identity --group identity helps bind people together and build shared cultural expectations --members of certain socioeconomics still connected or part of the community even though they do not directly interact --culture affects psychological and biological processes

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

--proposed that developing children progress through predictable sequence of stages of moral reasoning --essentially tying moral development with identity development --it is more of a Western value and may reflect own cultural biases since its not universal --like Erikson, Kohlberg point to adolescent stage as period of significant growth in identity Levels and Stages of Moral Reasoning: 1. Level 1 - Preconventional Morality (consequences for individual who carries out certain action) --Stage 1 concerns with punishment while Stage 2 is moral judgments motivated by reward ex. you might reason that you should not steal drug because you can get caught and arrested. but you might steal the drug because you may be upset by the loss of your spouse 2. Level 2 - Conventional Morality (social judgement) --Stage 3 forces on potential for social disapproval by others based on behavior while Stage 4 is about rule following or obey laws. essentially, the person will refrain from breaking rules that protects the rights of others because it is the law established by society ex. you might not steal drug because its against the law and people may think less of you. but you might do it because people may judge you for not saving your spouse 3. Level 3 - Postconventional Morality (universal principles succedent and fully developed ideas about right and wrong) --Stage 5 is moral reasoning which is guided by recognizing social contract that is for good of society while Stage 6 is universal ethics which is highest possible type of morality. at the last stage, individuals have their own beliefs about what is right and wrong and share commitment to the principles in consideration of consequences and disapproval of others ex. you may not steal the drug because you believe its wrong all together no matter what the circumstance. but you might steal because its also morally wrong for a dying person to be denied medication **preconventional level characterizes childhood while conventional reasoning during adolescence and continue through adulthood** **remaining in conventional level most likely to be in identity foreclosure which means accepting societal and parental guidelines for both identity and morality formation** **those who reached postconventional level are likely to have well established identity but not all individuals that have achieved identity have necessarily reached postconventional moral reasoning**

Lev Vygotsky

--proposed theory that recognizes the involvement of social and cultural factors in development --believes learning takes place through interactions with others that promote cultural value behaviors and beliefs --basically emphasize need of socialization and learning experiences to facilitate identity formation --unlike Freud and Erikson, Lev did not propose series of sequence development stages --instead he focused on the process of gaining higher levels of development and achievement with guidance of adults and peers Levels of Development: 1. start at current development level which consists of tasks that a child can perform without help from others 2. from center of step 1 leads outward to zone of proximal development and its a range of activities between current and potential development levels (step 1 and 3). it focuses on how skills are accomplished with help and development is fostered by only the activities in this child's zone (not less or more). 3. next is the level of potential development and this represents most advanced tasks that a child can do with guidance from more knowledgeable people. these people provide guidance by making their though processes explicit/clear so that they can be internalized by the learning child. 4. children begin to learn new skills and this processes continues and repeats to become beyond current potential **overall, children learn about culturally values worldviews and behavior with the help of others. the result is that they develop the ability to fill social roles and sense of self or form identities in collaboration with others in their environment** **basically tying theory of learning to identity formation through socialization and interactions**

Psychological Disorders

--psychological disorder can be developed by biological predispositions, psychological characteristics and environmental influences --it is defined as sets of psychological abnormalities that are maladaptive to the individual --it falls on the extreme end of the spectrum of typical human experience and behavior --Bell Curve for Trait Level such as anxiety or statistical guidelines establish cutoffs for the level of a given trait or behavior that is "abnormally" high or low. normal level of traits such as anxiety (x-lane) over the number of cases (y-lane) is considered the peak of the bell curve --it is possible for an individual to not experience distress (suffering and not adapting well to life circumstances and societal demands) for their psychological disorder such as bipolar disorder experiencing episodes of mania --Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition is the most recent edition of the guidebook used by mental health professionals for diagnostic of patients, communication with other professionals and collection of data on psychological disorders --DSM-5 provides standardized system for diagnosing and discussing psychological disorders, including specific symptoms that characterize each disorder --each disorder is observable by clinician and described by patient which differs from symptoms seen in other disorders --some psychological disorders seem to exist only in certain cultures and tied to cultural standards of a given time --ex. homosexuality was classified as psychological disorder in earlier editions of DSM and removed until 1973. DSM reevaluates lists of psychological disorders based on most recent research and cultural understandings of mental illness ex. DSM-5 ensures to not mix up depression with grief and make sure people diagnosed have mental health and not deeply sadden by like death of a loved one. the guideline states grief does not turn into depression at 2 months and 1 day

Eye Depth vs. Motion

--remember perceptual organization depends on visual intake and object's depth (distance) and motion. --it cannot be represented or perceived accurately on the retina --unlike other features like relative size, depth cannot be represented on the two dimensional surface of the retina --brain Interpret information provided by the eyes Depth: --interpretation helps represent depth in the mental model of object --Essentially, the eyes are in different locations, the images seen are compared --the eyes see two versions of the same stimulus or object but from slightly different locations --closer the object to the eyes, the further apart the two images are --the brain interprets the difference between the images to estimate the depth of the object --hence, further away the object from the eyes, the images produced become closer together --meaning retinal disparity/inconsistency becomes less useful for depth perception --if that is the case, the brain will use other clues -- ex. there are two objects placed in a way that one partially blocks view of the other. the brain use this information to understand that the blocked object is further away Motion: --like depth, motion cannot be represented by the brain based only on the pattern of information and representation received by the retina --motion does not always produce a pattern of motion by the retina --moving pattern on the retina may not always due to an object's motion --moving object with moving eyes will project as not move --eyes move on a stationary object image on retina does move but scene does not --brain's visual cortex integrates information gathered by the retina and information about eye movements to make inferences about motion

Stages of Sleep

--sleep state differs from the states of alertness and wakefulness due to its distinct patterns of brain activity --sleep deprivation leads to difficulty with attention, impaired memory, and variety of physical symptoms -stages of sleep are characterized by differing patterns of brain waves --people that suffer sleep disorder leads to insomnia which is low quality sleep and difficulty falling asleep --this leads to impairment and disrupted by sleep terror disorder which is severe nightmare like imagery and occurs during Nrem sleep. body becomes immobilized during Rem but body is free to move durig NRem for sleep walkers --another sleep disorder is narcolepsy which is a sleep paralysis or tendency to fall alseep whenever. 1. Stage 1 --> also called light sleep and consists of alpha waves. these waves are associated with state of wakefulness but more relaxed than fully alert state of beta waves 2. Stage 2 --> associated with bursts of brain wave activity which indicates full transition into sleep 3. Stage 3 --> when sleeping and beta waves (appear longer than alpha waves) 4. Stage 4 --> deepest sleep and completely delta waves

Social Class

--social class is a system that group members of society according to similarities in social standings --class is tied to status within a community and power (influence over that community) --social class is often associated with socioeconomic status which defines economic and social position of a person in terms of income, assets earned, wealth, assets already owned, education and occupation --social class is related to privilege and prestige since one would have power and opportunity over others --prestige is related to relative value assigned to something within a particular society --it is also associated with higher social classes that varies between cultures --it includes aristocratic titles (passed down from generation to generation), maintaining a respected occupation or consumption of luxury goods --class system allows possibility of individuals of all classes to move up or down the class hierarchy --moving up the class system is known as upward mobility which is achieved through education, marriage, career or financial success --moving down is downward mobility which result from unemployment, underemployment, reduced household income or health issues --America is not a true meritocracy (societal advancement based solely on abilities and achievements of individuals) --if America were a true meritocracy, people would have to get rid of all of the money earned during their lifetime after death rather than passing it on to their children which allows them to start on a level playing field much higher --this is because not every individual that works hard are rewarded with economic success and upward mobility --social reproduction defined as the transmission of social inequality from one generation to the next

Influence of social factors on identity formation

--societal and cultural factors guide identity development --these influences exist long before individuals are bone and --although people can influence the surrounding social environment, they are inevitably shaped by it as well --remember, socialization is the process of individuals learning the values, norms and appropriate behaviors of their society --it can be defined as the way children learn the culture into which they have been born (culture guiding force of socialization) --not only does culture and socialization help individuals gain awareness of themselves, but understand how they are a functioning member of society --people socialized in the same culture can still develop different identities. this is known as influence of individuals ex. young children socialize and learn from people available to them such as parents and close family members. --children engage in imitation of their family member's behaviors as they observe which allows children to view the parents as similar to them and allows children to engage in role taking (adopting role of another person and taking other person's point of view in social interactions which allow children to develop sense of who they are in relation to other people) --role taking requires the ability to use and understand symbols in order to imitate roles of adults behaviors as reflections of particular symbolic act --taking the perspective of others is a form of symbolic act since their viewpoint provides me with a mirror that I can use to evaluate myself or see myself --overall, role taking and imitation involve mimicking behavior of others as an attempt to "try out" new behaviors and roles --social comparison or evaluating oneself by contrast with others facilitate the development of a distinct sense of self in terms of similarity with and differences from other people --the effects of social comparison depends on whom an individual chooses as their point of comparison ex. individuals will draw different conclusions about their abilities depending on whether they compare themselves to an expert or a novice causing self-perception differ --reference group is a group that provides individual with a model for appropriate actions, values and worldviews. to be this kind of group, the individual must be or aspire to be a member of the group --therefore, a person that identify with the group is known as an in group for the person and identification with the reference group allows person to incorporate the group's way of perceiving and interacting with society into his or her own identity --by contrast, an out group is one that the individual does not identify --typically, people tend to choose reference groups that align with their own identities while groups exert their own influence on individual's identity ex. racial group as reference group

How Culture Affects Attributions

--societal culture influence the wat of life including wide-spread beliefs and values --so it affect the process of self attribution --its opposite to fundamental attribution error because it focuses seeing the individual rather than situational --in fact, Western and East Asian subjects seem to pay more attention to situational factors unlike Western subjects --members of individualistic cultures like Western culture are more likely to invoke self-serving bias especially towards dispositional attributions --in other words, cultural differences may affect unconscious cognitive processing, conscious attempts to consider situational influences or both The Influence of our Self-Perceptions and Perceptions of the Environment: --affect our attribution and perception of other people --remember self-perception is influences by reference groups since it provides members set of values and beliefs --it also include adopting viewpoints or perception of other people and groups as well ex. study by Schaller found dark surroundings to be indicated as possible danger which leads to subconscious view of danger related stereotypes images of black men --in group identification also leads to comparisons between in group and out group members --in group members are viewed more positively and thought to have greater variability on assorted personality traits than out group members

Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

--some psychologists argued that children's personality and cognitive abilities were innate and predetermined (nature) --other psychologists believed that children's experiences with environmental factors such as parenting and community shapes children's development (nurture) --Jean Piaget is the first developmental psychologists to reconcile the two opposing ideas into integrated theory of child development. he used his own 3 children as research subjects --he essentially conditioned his children to perform his tasks "correctly". as the parent he had enormous influence on the children's behavior and his subjects were genetically and experientially similar to each other (all these confounds raise issues about validity of his data) --Jean observed that children developed cognitively by experimenting with their environment. results show a child's mental assimilation or frameworks of the world is changed in response to new information that does not fit. this is known as accommodation --Jean's goal of the process is to develop accurate mental representations of the world Four Universal Stages of Cognitive Development (Jean believes all children pass through same set of discrete cognitive developmental stages): 1. Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years) --> children learn to separate themselves from objects and learn things exists when they are out of sight. they recognize that they are able to act on their own and affect the outside world 2. Preoperational (2 to 7 years) --> children learn to use language and maintain a self-centered (egocentric) world view and have difficulty taking perspective of others 3. Concrete Operational (7 to 11 years) --> children become more logical in concrete thinking and develop inductive reasoning meaning develop assumptions not tested. they come to understand the idea of conversation which is the concept that quantity remains the same despite change in shape 4. Formal Operational (11 and older) --> children develop deductive reasoning skills which is the ability to apply general concepts in specific situations and aims at testing an existing theory. they learn to think theoretically and philosophically. at this stage, children and adolescents reach what Kohlberg referred to as post-conventional moral reasoning. This means they are able to help others and act morally despite danger or consequences

Classical Conditioning

--test subject develops a response to a previously neutral stimulus by combining the stimulus with another stimulus that already induces response --Ivan Pavlov did so by presenting dogs with food to cause salivation --the food is recognized as unconditioned stimulus and salivation is unconditioned response --salvation is innate meaning natural or born response --the food cause dogs to salivate during feeding routine before food is present and the dogs come to associate food bowl or the person who normally feeds them with eating causing salivation --initially the food bowl was a neutral stimulus that elicit no response. eventually, it becomes conditioned stimulus now it is associate to food --conditioned stimulus causes a learned or conditioned response --Ivan found out that neutral stimuli can become conditioned stimuli if they are regularly presented before an unconditioned stimulus --also he discovered that dogs are capable of learning new behavior through association of one stimulus with another --acquisition is defined as the process of learning over conditioned response to a new stimulus --learned behaviors initially not reinforced can be relearned. --ex. dog can stop salivating if bell is rung repeatedly and no food is delivered --but learned behavior does not disappear --the reappearance of the conditioned response after a period of lessened response known as spontaneous recovery --dog can eventually learn to dissociate the stimulus of the bell from delivery of food known as extinction of conditioned response of salivation with bell (different from behavior disappearing because it cant) --a similar stimuli can also elicit the same conditioned response. ex. different bell sounds --tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to conditioned stimulus is called stimulus generalization --if a test subject is repeatedly exposed to the call of American crow with food presented while exposed to Western ravern without food present will allow the subject to differentiate between the two noises --learning lack of response to stimulus similar to conditioned stimulus is known as stimulus discrimination --classical conditioning plays an important role in how humans interact by affecting their likes and dislikes, fears and behaviors --ex. commercials combine calming music and celebrity appearances to products to encourage consumers to build positive association with it --ex. a child may get sick from eating ice cream which can cause the child to dislike ice cream for the rest of his life --associative learning is helpful in allowing us to anticipate appropriate responses to new situations by giving us intuitive feelings to make gut decisions --however it can be dangerous such as associating terrorism attack to religion of Islam leading to discrimination and prejudice

Three Major Theory of Language Development

--the approach of language development from different place on continuum of nature versus nurture 1. Learning Theory --> also known as behaviorist theory. language is seen as a form of behavior and learned through operant conditioning. children receive reinforcement such as excitement and kisses when they make correct vocalizations and punishment when they do not. as language development advances, the behaviors that are reinforced or punished become increasingly specific. language develops through continuing interactions with the environmental reinforcement rather than innate ability 2. Nativist Theory --> language development emphasizes innate biological mechanisms and developed in the context of criticism of the behaviorist explanation. according to the creator Noam Chomsky, children developed language even without systematic feedback from parents. instead, it is innately human and have neural cognitive system that allows for learning of syntax and grammar 3. Interactionist Theory --> emphasizes interplay between environmental cues and innate biology in language development. focuses on social role that language plays and believes human brain develops to be receptive to new language input. children become more motivated to practice and expand language base to communicate and socialize

stereotypes

--this is a type of Schema (ability to organize thoughts) --it is associated with prejudice --is a concept about a group that includes the belief that all members of the group share the same certain characteristics --can be positive, negative or neutral --stereotypes can cause self-fulfilling prophecies due to the stress and lowered expectations accompanying negative stereotypes which makes them into reality --but, stereotyping can provide useful mental shortcut when a person needs to make quick decisions based on incomplete information --generalizing a large group of people can leads to misjudgment of others, conflict and misunderstandings --the main difference is that prejudice is having belief (usually negative) about a person or group based on stereotype and this cause division of people --stereotype is having expectations about characteristics of certain people --overall prejudice and stereotyping leads to discriminations which is unfair treatment of others based on specific social group --it is typically mediated by factors of power, prestige and class. --ex. person of higher social position can inflict more damage on quality of life and opportunities available to a person in less powerful positions --there are two types of discrimination: individual (ex. landlord refusal to rent a house to a woman) and institutional (religions restrict women from being high ranking members of clergy) --another example of discrimination is racial profiling based on ethnicity, ancestry and religious affiliation --keep in mind, prejudice is based on ideas and attitudes while discrimination describes actions and behaviors

Sleep Cycle

--this means the sleep stages are repeated throughout the night --it ensures distinct benefits of both light and deep sleep to be gained which is why there are separated stages instead of having sleeper descend straight to stage 4 1. First Few Sleep Cycles: --include deepest level of sleep --this allows healing, growth, and recovery from fatigue of the day 2. Later in the Night: --lighter stage of sleep is spent more time --consists of two types of sleep; rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM (NREM) sleep --Rem is a period of high brain activity that occurs during stage 1 sleep --makes up significant portion of stage 1 sleep in later cycle --it is a period where the brain relives the massive amount of stimuli experienced during the day --this helps consolidate the important information into memory and discarding the less important information --also most Rem sleep is accompanied by dreaming while Nrem does not --one theory is that dreams tend to retrace daily experience as part of processing those experiences and consolidate the memory --dreaming provides a window into brain's functioning during REM sleep and sometimes thought of a special type of conscious awareness --the only consequence of dreaming is that it causes random activity in lower brain center which triggers the higher brain areas to review incoming information based on past experiences and making it seem its happening to the dreamer at the moment --this is why Rem has high brain activity due to dream --NRem sleep takes up the largest proportion of sleep but brain activity is much lower

Cognition

--thoughts and emotions and internal processes of mental life affects observable external behaviors --motivation uses thoughts and emotions to translate need into behavior --attitudes and behavior each influence the other and are crucial for change --cognition refers to a wide range of internal mental activities such as analyzing information, generating ideas and problem solving --perception refers to the organization and identification of sensory inputs, cognition refers to higher level processes like language and logical reasoning --cognitive psychological perspective is like a computer which includes input and processing ex. brain receives stimulus input, processes the stimulus and selects an output function. people draw prior knowledge such as stored memories to make decisions and solve problems --computer like models of cognitive functioning is called information-processing models which focus on input-output functions and distinguish between serial and parallel processing of information --serial processing consider each input one at a time while parallel processing devotes cognitive resources to multiple inputs at once --for MCAT, think cognition and emotion as internal processes that influence (not a form of) external behavior --serial and parallel processing is considered context of perception while information processing is a model of memory --overall, like identity, cognition develops over the course of a lifetime Computer Analogy Occurs in Lobes of Cerebral Cortex: (information processing): 1. Frontal Lobe --> sends motor control/instructions and other types of output to the body, decision making and long term memory storage 2. Parietal Lobe --> tactile information received since it contains somatosensory cortex 3. Occipital Lobe --> receive visual information 4. Temporal Lobe --> auditory and olfactory information received and associated with emotion and language **three other lobes receives sensory input from the front and sends it back to the frontal lobe for further processing**

Factors Affecting Attitude Change

1. Behavior Change --> foot in the door strategy, role-playing and instances of relieving cognitive dissonance 2. Characteristics of the Message --> credible people are better to affect the attitudes of the audience by providing strong and persuasive arguments 3. Characteristics of the target --> focusing on a target to persuade messages and the target tends to have deep knowledge and willing to engage with the argument. essentially, informed targets follow the central processing route. but targets who are less invested follow the peripheral processing route by paying attention to the number of arguments, the surroundings or credibility of the speaker. also age of the target matters since young individuals respond emotionally rather than logically which makes them susceptible to attitude change and manipulation 4. Social factors --> social and environmental forces impact attitude and behavior change. face to face communication and social factors such as group identification and group thinking all swat people's attitude and behaviors

Neurological Dysfunction

Alzheimer's Disease: --characterized of neurodegeneration and is associated with aging. but not connected to age-related cognitive change --symptoms begin with difficulty to form memories of recent events (mediated by hippocampus and surrounding areas) --two types of damages in the brain for this disease --> amyloid plaques (extracellular protein deposits) and neurofibrillary tangles (located within neurons) --as alzheimers get worse, amyloid plaques spread throughout the brain and further hinder abilities such as language Korsakoff's Syndrome: --it is similar to Alzheimer's disease in how people have the lack of ability to recall recent events while older memories are relatively unaffected --caused by nutritional deficiency rather than age-related neurodegeneration --ex is vitamin B2 which is often due to severe alcoholism --this syndrome appears to be caused by damages to the frontal cortex and thalamus Parkinson's Disease: --neurodegenerative disease like alzheimer's --the brain damage is restricted to a specific area rather than being widely spread or distributed --the deterioration seems to be within the substantia nigra (located in the midbrain) --the damage leads to impairment of motor abilities/initial movement and dopamine deficiency --for these neurodegenerative conditions, possible treatments are stem cell based therapy to regenerate and differentiate into neural cells in the CNS --it essentially replace lost or damaged neurons by adding more numbers or resolve injuries

Emotion

Emotion is a multifaceted (many aspects or sides) experience that is connected to thought, physiology and behavior. Three Components: 1. Cognitive --> personal assessment of a particular situation significance 2. Physiological --> associated with activation of autonomic nervous system such as heart racing and sweaty palms as a result of fear or anxiety. 3. Behavioral --> leading to urges to act in a certain way which leads to actions Biology of Emotion: --generation and experience of emotion involves the entire nervous system --limbic system and autonomic nervous system are significant in the physiology of emotion --limbic system connects hypothalamus with temporal lobe --amygdala is found in this system and is responsible for emotional reactions of fear and anger --amygdala responds to emotion-laden stimulus without conscious awareness of the stimulus --the circuitry of amygdala and hippocampus allows recollection of emotional memories when similar emotional circumstances occur --prefrontal cortex in the automatic nervous system is involved in conscious regulation of emotional states or responsible for emotion based planning --prefrontal cortex is critical in temperament and decision making --Hypothalamus regulates autonomic nervous system's sympathetic and parasympathetic function such as stressors on heart rate, sweating and arousal Major Theories of Emotion: 1. James-Lange Theory of Emotion --> physiologically based and states external stimulus elicits a physiological response. that emotional experience depends on recognition and interpretation of this physical reaction 2. Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion --> states feelings and physiological reactions to stimuli are experienced simultaneously. also believes emotions cannot be determined solely by physiological arousal because many physiological experiences have multiple emotional correlates. ex racing heart beat can indicate fear or anger 3. Schacter-Singer Theory of Emotion --> is cognitive theory and also known as two-factor theory of emotion. it states that physiological arousal is the first component of emotional response. it focuses on identifying the reason for initial arousal by taking into account both the physiological response and situational cues **ex, James-Lange would think "since I am trembling, I must be afraid. Cannon-Bard would say "I am afraid and I am beginning to tremble." But, Schacter-Singer would say "I am trembling and near a bear so I am in a threatening situation."** Universal and Adaptive: --major difference between cognition and emotion is that emotion is rooted in physiology (either source or effect) while cognition is a mental process that is localized to the brain --purpose of emotion is to enable physical response to internal mental states --it also allow people to communicate their internal experiences and understand the feelings and experiences of others --most basic emotions are universal (fear, anger, happiness, surprise, joy, disgust, and sadness) --emotion is also adaptive meaning it promotes organism's ability to thrive --also the adaptive universal emotion allows interpersonal communication such as cross-cultural communication --ex. facial expressions conveying basic emotions like smile communicates as happy --emotions help guide behaviors that promote safety

Emotional Intelligence

Four Components: 1. Perceiving Emotions --> recognizing other's or one's own emotions by body language or situational cues or recognizing chronic physiological arousal as a sign of anxiety 2. Using and Reasoning with Emotions --> employ emptions for cognitive ends 3. Understanding Emotions --> attribute emotions to a particular source 4. Managing Emotions --> regulate emotions by knowing when and to what degree to react in an emotionally charged situation --overall, physicians need to identify emotions and affects of patients while stay attuned to their own emotional states --be able to determine the root causes of their emotions and manage their emotions in emotionally charged environments of the hospital

Hypnosis & Meditation

Hypnosis: --is the state of relaxation, focused attention and increased willingness to relinquish control over one's own actions --it is induced and does not occur naturally through cooperation with a hypnotist or later as self-hypnosis --hypnosis is not actually separate state of consciousness --it is part of imaginative role-playing exercise --it is useful as a treatment for the anxiety and pain associated with medical conditions Meditation: --intentional, self-producing state of consciousness induced by relaxing and shifting attention away from day to day concerns or from anxiety provoking thoughts/stimuli --it is accomplished by narrowing attention to a single focus outside of the self --it can also happen by significantly broadening attention focusing on the external surroundings --effective coping mechanism for stress

Intragenerational vs. intergenerational mobility

Intragenerational: relates to the "American Dream." an individual can invent a new technology and become wealthy suddenly Intergenerational: immigrant families have children or grandchildren that may gain Ps (power, privilege and prestige)

Absolute vs. Relative Poverty

Isolation or social exclusion is when individuals in poverty have lack of access of options and excluded from opportunities available to others Absolute: describes lack of essential resources such as food, shelter, clothing and hygiene Relative: describes social inequality in which people are poor compared to other members Absolute poverty is more life threatening while relative poverty has profound effects on lifestyle and livelihood.

Culture Divided into Two Categories

Material Culture: includes all of the medical objects and instruments (from a stethoscope to throat swab). also includes various herbal powders and massage instruments. basically products manufactured, tools used, art made, and objects that enriches a lifestyle from nuts and bolts to teacups and toys Non-Material Culture: consists of ideas about disease and treatment that underlie the field of medicine. these ideas include germ theory and practice of western medication as standard treatment of disease even homeopathic belief (body treat itself). essentially it encompasses elements of culture that are not physical such as shared ideas, knowledge, assumptions, values and beliefs that unify a group of people. example is religions and superstitions studies developed from living among people of another culture

Memory Construction & Impairment/Inability

Memory Construction: --when memories are updated with new information/experiences --this construction occurs during retrieval. --when memory is retrieved, the neural network is re-activated which provides an opportunity for changes to be made in that network and associated memory Source Monitoring: --when a person assigns a memory to a particular source --ex. is recalling a story told by someone --this type of monitoring leads to construction of memories of events that never actually occurred --ex. incorrect belief that an imagined event, such as false memory, is real --ability to assign a memory to the correct source represents declarative memory that sometimes decline with aging --in fact, the ability for accurate source monitoring is one of several processes whose decline seems to be tied to damage of the prefrontal cortex --memory deficits also related to changes in the hippocampus with aging --declining memory or memory deficit such as Dementia is shown to be the loss of synaptic connections in both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus (less neural network strength) --in general aging is associated with cognitive decline which influence memory impairment --cognitive ability includes speed of thought, working memory and even other bodily signals such as activating more blood flow to the brain --studies have shown that completing crossword puzzles and playing bridge help maintain cognitive ability

Models and Theories

Models: provide an approximation a physical or conceptual representation of a scientific phenomenon that cannot be observed directly --it is organizational tool that helps healthcare providers consider factors interacting to affect health or illness --ex is structure of mental life put forth by Freud which frames a flow of psychic energy between id, ego and superego Theories: similar to models and crucial to developing scientific research --can be formed and modified to explain the results of studies --help guide the design of new studies --provide conceptual framework for understanding objects of study such as how people behave in groups and why they behave the way they do --it can be evaluated by how well it contributes to the development of new research and practical applications --both models and theories seem abstract they are used in all sciences-physical, biological and social ex. p subshell does not physically exist but people use it to predict formation of ions, bonds between atoms and mathematic probability instead of not the position --both are constructed by scientists to organize their research and perspective on naturally occurring phenomena --but both are prone to change over time along with trends in scientific thought --ex. psychological competing viewpoints have waxed and wanes in popularity and clinical acceptance over time **BPS views organs > people > society** **essentially models and theories are stories that we tell about the things that we study**

Biology of Memory Formation

Neural Plasticity: allows memories to be stored as changes to parts of the brain and networks of neurons correspond to working and long term memory --essentially it is the ability of the brain's networks of neurons and synapses to change --it tends to continue lesser extent throughout life --it includes brain's ability to reorganize in response to traumatic brain injury or stroke --a way to recover function given the lost of tissue --it plays a big role in adaptation to life changes and memory information Pattern of Neural Activity in Response to Internal and External Environment: --involves changes in receptors and synapses --ex. neurotransmitters are released by presynaptic neuron which triggers action potential in the post synaptic neuron. this is when a signal crosses that synapse and strengthens it. a network of neurons that is strengthened is a representation of long term memory --basically, memory is activated when firing of synapses causes neural connection to be strengthened --strengthened neural network represents a memory called memory consolidation --long term potentiation (LTP) describes increase of presynaptic input that triggers action potential in the postsynaptic neuron --basically LTP occurrence in the synapse means postsynaptic neuron becomes increasingly likely by response to stimulation by presynaptic neuron that receives signals --strengthen network with its connection to long term potentiation of excitatory synapses increases likelihood of persistent memory in the brain --LTP found in hippocampal synapses and interact with the prefrontal cortex which involves with storage of long term memories in various areas of cortex **emotion of terrified impairs creation and stored memories** **slightly irritated and amused assist or enhance information storage and memory**

Social Inequality

No society treats all of its members equally --inequality can be related to biological factors --for example no one under age 18 is allowed to vote --aging is a biological process that has social consequences determined by cultural beliefs and biases such as facing hiring discrimination --social inequality is defined as the unequal distribution of opportunities or treatment of individuals within a society based on various demographic categories --social inequality can be structural (law determining voting age) but can exist through discriminations --spatial inequality is unequal access to resources and variable quality of life within a population or geographical distribution --spatial inequality can be affected by income, unemployment, and unequal access to education and clean water and other resources --this can influence health such as getting access to doctors, diagnostic equipment, and options for treatment --Global inequality are evident in the disparities between between regions and nations based on gross national products, natural resources, access to healthcare and types of amount of work available --ex. is outsourcing labor which affects types of employment available, expectations and earning potential --environmental justice is the equal treatment of all people regardless of race, gender or social grouping to prevent and relieve from environmental and health hazards --the reality is that people are not given equal treatment in the face of environmental hazards or natural disasters depending on the resources in specific geographical area and value a society place on people who live there --residential segregation is an instance of social inequality on local scale --location affects access to transportation, quality of education, availability of goods, health hazards and levels of crime or feelings of personal safety --residential segregation often involves race and income level such as marginalized racial groups and low income individuals have less access to resources and opportunities --food deserts are common in low income neighborhoods where there are fewer grocery stores and fewer transportation options to seek out other food sources --it also pose a threat to health outcomes in affected populations since nutrition is important for health and wellness

Psychoanalytic Theory vs. Behaviorist Theory

Psychoanalytic Theory (only interested in hidden internal workings of the machine and how they produce machine function): --made by Sigmund Freud --proposes universal personality structure that contributes both to behavior and differences between people --it does not focus on internal processes that shape personality and translate personality traits into behavior --according to Freud's model, personality is determined by flow of psychic energy between 3 systems in level of consciousness: id, superego, and ego --id represents desire of instant gratification and avoid pain with no consideration for morality or social norms which is born with (like the little devil on the shoulder) --unlike id, superego is developed later in life through internalization of society's rules for moral behavior and learned through interactions with caregivers (like the little angel on the shoulder) --ego is part of the personality that is forced to direct behavior in a way that balances the demands of id and superego --essentially, ego forces the delay of gratification of id's desires until a socially acceptable method of gratification is found --this conflict does not take place in the individual's conscious awareness --the theory also assumes that early experiences can have lasting effects on individuals throughout life Behaviorist Theory: --states that personality is constructed by a series of learning experiences that occur through interactions the individual and their environment --look at how the environment shapes personality instead of biological factors or inherent psychological drives --more interested in external behaviors than internal factors --this theory believes individuals have learning experiences throughout their life that leads to predictable behaviors which make up personality --in other words, this theory believes personality is behavior while the other theories believes how personality affects behavior

Social Cognitive Theory vs. Humanistic Theory

Social Cognitive Theory: --like behaviorist theory, focuses on learning experiences and observable behaviors --it explores how though and emotion affect both the learning process and the experiences and surroundings that people choose for themselves --includes process of observational learning (learning from other people's experiences to apply the lessons to new situations) --a key concept in social cognitive theory is reciprocal causation which states that behavior, personal factors and environment continually interact and impact each other --ex. job environment and personal characteristics (such as motivation) contributes to new perceptions of the jobs. then job perception and job satisfaction influence each other and cause changes in behavior and vice versa. --overall, interacting situational and personal factors can lead to changes in features of personality Humanistic Theory: --people continually seek experiences that make them better, more fulfilled individuals --conscious decisions, uncontrolled traits, or unconscious impulses make people who they are --this theory smashes the machine and sees people as complex beings who can make their own choices to shape their personalities

Core Competence for Entering Medical Students

Thought and Behavior in Medicine: 1. social skills including ability to interpret behaviors of other people (such as patients and fellow physicians) 2. cultural competence 3. ability to apply knowledge of human behavior to clinical and professional encounters --Psychology is the study of people and how people think and act (mental processes and how people interact with their environment) --sociology is a field that studies how humans think and behave and concerned behavior in groups and larger social settings --psychology includes both elements of biology and sociology --how they entwine ex. a passage might discuss study investigating relationship between chronic health condition and social factor like socioeconomic status or psychological factor like self-esteem

Trait Theory vs. Biological Theory

Trait Theory of Personality (only interested in ability to predict what the machine will do): --is what people think of when they define personality --essentially personality consists of set of traits (characteristics that vary between people and are stable over course of lifetime regardless of environmental factors) --traits allow variation in degree or continuous variables rather than categorical (someone can be very friendly, unfriendly or somewhere in the middle) --trait is useful to quantifiable comparison between individuals and predictions about their behavior --Big 5 Factors model: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism Biological Theory of Personality: --focuses on biological contribution to certain traits --theory assumes that a person's genome contributes to the formation of personality --personality trait for this theory differ in the extent to which they are influenced by heredity vs. environmental factors --infants start life with a certain temperament (innate genetically influenced baseline of personality that includes their tendency toward certain patterns of emotion and social interactions --temperament is then modified by environmental influences --twin study are traits more closely tied to genetics. for instance, monozygotic twins are virtually identical genomes while dizygotic twins are no more related to each other than other biological siblings --this can be studied when comparing twins separated by birth to see how genetic vs environmental influences affect personality trait --genes associated with personality traits that improve an individual's chances for successful reproduction tend to be conserved

cultural vs. social capital

cultural capital: social factors that contribute to social mobility. factors such as dress, accent, manners, education, cultural knowledge and intellectual pursuits social capital: individual's social networks and connections that confer economic and personal benefits

Urbanization vs. Globalization

urbanization: increase in the proportion of people living in specified urban areas globalization: increase amount of integration and integration on international scale through exchange of products, services, ideas and information. contributes to broader understanding of what establishes a social group by connecting people who may not have face to face interactions --essentially they are societal change that can be monitored through demographic study --or it is changes in how individuals are living and interacting and shed light on societal shifts