(8/26)

● Assumptions of Psych:
○ Definition: ​Science of mind/behavior (why people do what they do)
■ Why? ​Stress, crave attention, power, genetics, environment, to make
themselves feel ‘good’, social/peer pressure, insecurity, addiction,
mental disorder/brain injuries, emotions, IQ,
traits(introverts/extroverts), developmental stages
○ Common Assumption: Psychology is about Frued/Psychoanalysis/the
subconscious
● Psychology as a science:
○ Science (based on theories, creates patterns):
■ Manipulation of relevant variables
■ Control of extraneous variables
■ The goal: Understanding (the human nature)
■ The Hypothesis: A prediction
○ Common Sense Psych:
■ The fallacy of CSP: ​Cliches

(8/28)
● The scientific method is a formulization of ​critical thinking
● 5 important questions (for thinking critically):
○ What am I being asked to believe?
○ What evidence is available to support the assertion?
○ Are there alternative ways of interpreting the evidence?
■ Conspiracy theory- QNI
○ What additional evidence would help to evaluate the alternatives?
○ What conclusions are most reasonable?
● Accurately determining what is true MATTERS!!
● There is an external reality, there ​ARE​ facts, and we can know it if we observe carefully.
● Be aware of your own biases!

(9/4)
Biology and Behavior:
● Hypothalamus controls the “Four F’s”: fighting, fleeing, feeding, and mating.
● Video Summary: The frontal lobe is responsible for long term affects, and many social
aspects of life. Damage to the frontal lobe can hinder the way a person reacts to the
world in massive ways.
● Phineas Gage: A railroad worker. Before his injury, he was responsible, friendly,
well-liked. After his injury, he was impulsive, he often got into fights, and he severely
lacked foresight or foreplanning.
● Anatomy:
○ Cell Body:​ Responsible for
○ Axon: R ​ esponsible for sending messages from one cell to another
 ○ The cells fire to help perform specific takes, called ​Synapses
○ Dendrites: ​Responsible for receiving messages from another cell
● Communication:
○ There are many diff types of neurotransmitters, and they have diff jobs
○ Neurotransmitter:​ Chemicals that allow communication between neurons
○ Receptor cites:​ Receive the neurotransmitters for the cell
■ Lock and key system: The NTs have specific shapes, and receptor cites
are shaped to attract specific shapes.
○ Reuptake:​ Cell fires, shooting out the NTs, and immediately begins to suck them
back in. (essential to keep brain functioning properly)
○ Breakdown: ​In the synapse, there are chemicals that are used to break down
NTs that are unaffected by reuptake.
● Brain Chemistry:
○ Acetylcholine (ACh): NT used between the synapses in our muscle tissues, and it
gives the message to your muscles to clench/contract
■ Botulinus Toxin (botulism): Paralyses the muscles, keeps them from
contracting. Blocks ACh from the muscle tissues
■ Curare and Cobra Poison: They block ACh from contracting muscles,
CAN CAUSE DEATH, paralysis
○ Black Widow Venom and some chem warfare agents: Prevent the breakdown of
ACh after cell fire. Painful convulsions, CAUSES DEATH
○ Norepinephrine (NE): Increases activity in the Central Nervous System (CNS)
○ Amphetamines: Increases stimulation after cell fire, causes the “wide-awake” feel
○ Reserpine: Antagonist to NE. Causes the NE to leave, less activation, causes
lower stimulation effect.
○ Dopamine: “feel-good” hormone. Amphetamines also increase this hormone
○ Parkinson’s Disease: occurs after the dying off of cells that produce dopamine.
■ The Movie “Awakenings”: Doctor working at a mental ward with ‘sleeping
sickness’, Gradually stop moving. Believed to be an extreme symptom of
Parkinson’s.
■ Schizophrenia: OVERactivity in the dopamine system. (Discovered almost
accidentally) Dopamine-restricting drugs can ‘cure’ it in some cases.
○ Serotonin: Involved in mood and emotion
■ Depression can be improved by taking drugs that increase the effects of
serotonin in the brain
■ LSD: Limits the release of Serotonin, causes psychological effects.
■ GABA: tells cells not to fire.
○ Endorphins: The “Pain Medication” of your nervous system
■ Acupuncture: stimulates the release of endorphins, causes a reduction of
pain
■ Opiates (heroine, morphine, codeine): Very addictive, pain relievers

(9/9)
● Cerebral lateralization:
○ Brain is divided into two halves- the right and left hemisphere
○ Cerebral specialization:
■ Paul Broca: Studied stroke patients with speech deficits- identified
Broca’s area (associated with speech)
■ Wernicke: also studied stroke patients- discovered Wernicke’s aphasia
had the opposite effect to Broca’s area (unintelligible chatter)
■ Sex diffs.
● More likely for women to have capabilities of speech on both sides
of the brain than for men.
● There is a slight correlation between dominant handedness and
which side the speech correlates. Men are more likely to be
left-handed
■ Historical perspectives:
● Alien Hand Syndrome- 1908
Woman had a stroke and damaged the nerves connecting the
right and left hemisphere, causing her to lose control of her own
limbs
● The first experimental exploration: Surgery on a cat to decide
which side of the brain receives information.
● Human split brain patients: Sometimes a surgery to separate the
halves of the brains is needed.
○ Day-to-day: The same as normal
○ Research:
■ Gazzaniga
■ Another study:
● HE*ART (patients see ART as it is known
by speech-capable left side)
■ Attempts to communicate: The non-verbal right side
of the brain may sometimes try to communicate
with the left through actions
■ Non-split brained people (video): left side of the
brain is (dominantly) responsible for
consciousness. Most cognitive acts come from the
left side of the brain.
■ Bodies are cross-wired
● Alzheimer’s Disease: a slight memory loss, a progressive disease
(slowly grows more dangerous)
○ Abnormal changes in the brain’s:
■ Loss of brain tissue
■ Neurons of the cortex and hippocampus
■ Senile plaques: Dead Neurons that don’t dissolve
or are destroyed
 ○ Acetylcholine
○ May be genetic (chromosome 21)
○ Treatment:
■ Procedure: Stem cells (cells in development) could
be developed into brain cells

(9/16)
● Nature vs. Nurture:
○ Personality is a set of traits that stay (somewhat) constant throughout their lives.
■ Introvert vs. Extrovert
■ Change vs. Routine
■ Neuroticism: Warrior vs. Worrier
■ Leader vs. Follower
○ Nature: Genetics, traits you’re born with
○ Nurture: Experiences, the way you are raised
○ Minnesota Twins: Identical twins have the same Nature, but they were separated
and had different Nurtures. How similar are they?
○ Evolution:
■ Natural Selection: Certain indiv. may possess a trait that is beneficial to
survival, and indiv. with those traits tend to survive and reproduce and
changes the indiv. gene pool permanently
■ Chromosomes and Genes: Chromosomes are created by many strands
of DNA, and chromosomes are broken up into segments called genes.
■ Genetic mutation: A real-world example of natual selection in humans.
Genes can be mutated that either help or hurt the survival of the
individual. (ie. opposable thumbs)
■ Sexual Selection: It’s not just survival traits that are useful, traits that help
the genes be passed on to the future generations.
● Competition (ie. deer fighting)
● Opposite sex selection (ie. Peacocks)
■ Evidence of Evolution:​
● Dog Breeding
● Antibiotic resistant bacteria
● The beak of the finch: The size of the beak changed based on the
climate of the islands over the course of that year.
○ Evolutionary Psychology:
■ Psychological tendencies can be selected based on evolution
■ Mate Preference: Preferences are DIFFERENT based on Sex/Gender.
Men and Women prefer traits that help pass their genes along, but those
traits are not the same between the sexes.
● Men: ​Youth, Beauty/appearance, Fidelity (Loyalty)
● Women: ​Stability, Resources
 ○ Men and Women face different problems when trying to
pass genes on to the next generation.

(9/18)
● Cheating:
○ Approx. 22% of men and 15% of women will cheat on their long-term spouses
○ Who are women likely to cheat with?
■ Men with hyper-physical masculine traits
○ Men?
■ Attractive/appearance
○ When women cheat?
■ When a woman is ovulating, she is most likely to get pregnant.
● Sperm competition (an interesting evolutionary problem):
○ Sperm production: Being away from a spouse or s/o can cause an increase in the
production of sperm
○ “Kamikaze” sperm: Strangely acting sperm is actually created by the body to
attack unfamiliar sperm
○ Penis shape: The coronal ridge is more likely to “clean out” the unfamiliar sperm
from the other man
● Why does sex feel good? Evolution and the desire to pass genes to new generations
● Aggression- Men are more (physically) aggressive than women. Why? Of reported
murders, 87% were by men, and 13% Women
○ Testosterone: (it’s adaptive) Increasing testosterone increases aggressive
behavior.
○ Steroids: Synthetic testosterone; used to gain muscle mass, also increases
aggression.
■ Mate selection: Women may select for men who have a higher level of
aggression/more testosterone.
■ Mate competition: Being more aggressive may lead some men to be more
successful in defeating rivals.
○ Statistical Evidence: a large number of murders are committed because of
unfaithful partners or potential rivals
■ Cultural evidence: Many murders involve “sexual politics”
■ Murderous fantasies: “Have you ever thought about killing someone?”
91% said YES. Those men said they wanted to kill rivals/women. Women
had a percentage of 84%. Women said they wanted to kill men.
■ Just because we are built a certain way, DOES NOT mean that is right!!
○ Altruism exists because it is a beneficial survival trait. Help someone else and
they’ll help you later.
○ Culture/learning can emphasize certain qualities between the sexes.
Boys=Aggressive, Girls=Soft, not aggressive

Developmental Psychology:
 ● Cognitive development (thinking):
○ Meta-cognition: Evaluating how you think.
■ About people: Acquire beliefs about how other people think/act about the
world.
■ About Tasks: Some tasks require us to think, our brain comes up with
ways to complete them.
■ About strategies: Coming up with ways to complete tasks.
○ Meta-cognition and children:
■ Inability of young children: A failure in meta-cognition; unable to evaluate
their own thought process.
■ Implications for education:
● Adjusting strategies: Children may not have the right strategies for
completing tasks. They may be available to them, but they don’t
know to use them.
○ Piaget’s theory of cognitive development:
■ Suggest every person goes through them in the same order (you do not
skip stages)
■ There are two mechanisms that drive cognition:
● Assimilation: t​ he ability of creating schemas in a person’s life.
● Accomodation: ​the ability to change/update the already created
schema in the person’s brain. Taking new information and
changing your already-acquired schema.
■ The Sensori-motor stage (0-2):
● Object permanence: The infant will search for an object in the
place they last saw it. They can’t see it, but it still exists.
● Intentional, goal directed behavior: The infant might do something
that has a consequence they didn’t expect. They will repeat things
that are interesting.
● Deferred imitation: Memory for past events; Seeing something,
and later on doing the same thing.

(9/23)
● Piaget’s theory cont:
○ The preoperational stage (2-7):
■ Language: Language is a form of symbolic thought
■ Symbolic thought: Thinking about the world symbolically
■ Make believe play: “The thing that is there does not have to be what it
means symbolically”
■ Pictorial representation: Drawing pictures is a way for children to think
deeper about their surroundings.
■ Limitations to preoperational thought:
 ● Egocentrism: Children have difficulty putting themselves in
someone else’s shoes. They have a hard time imagining what
another sees/feels/hears.
● Perception Bound: They perceive height=more
● Centration: They focus on one aspect of a problem instead of the
whole picture.
● Transductive Reasoning: Children’s thinking can sometimes not
match the way things really are.
● Identity Constancy: Children sometimes believe they are no longer
who they are, they become someone else (ie. halloween)
○ The Concrete operational stage (7-12):
■ Conservation: Children learn about mass, and become successful solving
conservation problems
■ Spatial Observations: Children learn to view the world spatially more
effectively
■ Cognitive maps: Internal GPS, how to tell where they are
■ Understanding humor: They gain their “sense of humor”
■ Have trouble thinking abstractly!!
○ The Formal operational Stage (12+):
■ Abstract, scientific thinking
■ Propositional in nature: You no longer have to look right at an object to
think logically about it
■ Formal operational egocentrism
● Piaget’s applied legacy:
○ Focus on process
○ Active involvement in the classroom
○ Don’t try to make kids like adults!!
○ Acceptance of individual differences
● Social development:
○ Attachment Theory:
■ Secure (Mom=safe place, get upset when Mom leaves, excited when she
returns)
■ Insecure
● Anxious (Cling to Mom, don’t want her to leave)
● Avoidant (Ignores Mom, no powerful attachment)

(9/30)
● States of consciousness:
○ Consciousness:
■ Sleep: Very different from waking consciousness. (ie. Dreams)
● Disorders: ​Narcolepsy (sleep seizures)​- Falling asleep at very
unusual times, in times of extreme emotion; ​Sleep Apnea​- Will
stop breathing while asleep (for extended periods of time), often
do not feel well rested; ​Sleep walking​- Will occur in non-REM
deep sleep, moving, speaking, etc. while asleep; ​Insomnia​- the
inability to go to sleep even when tired (COMMON)
● Treating Insomnia: ​Sleep restriction-​ Keeping a rigid sleep
schedule, no napping throughout the day; ​Stimulus control​-
Reserve the bed for sleep (and nothing else) to help train the brain
to help fall asleep; ​Relaxation Response Training​- Therapy to help
with sleep; ​avoid coffee, alcohol, cigarettes before bed
● Dreaming: ​Occurs during the REM-phase of sleep
○ Content:
■ Material from daily life: Especially things we are
worried/anxious about
■ Material from sleep environment: When asleep,
your consciousness does not shut off completely.
You are still conscious in your environment.
■ Memory: People vary
■ Lucid Dreaming: Dreaming, and realizing you are
dreaming, gaining control of their dreams
○ Theories of dreams:
■ Activation Synthesis Theory​: While dreaming,
our cerebral cortex is being stimulated by the
brainstem, and the cells create a ‘story’ to try to
analyze the info it’s given, and that is a dream.
■ Freud’s view​: Dreams are windows into the
unconscious. The unconscious is very important.
Dreams are the best way to see what you
wish/want deep down. ​Wish fulfillment​.
○ Drugs: Alter our state of consciousness
■ Alcohol​: Alters the physical perceptions of the
world. The Beer Goggles effect- Alcohol can make
people look more attractive in the eyes of a person
than when sober. Decreases hand-eye
coordination, it is a depressant (slows down the
functions of the body). Reduced inhibitions and
anxiety. Aggression is increased. Expectancies:
(What is being drunk like?) Behavioral changes can
be caused by their expectancies of being drunk as
opposed to ACTUALLY being drunk.
○ Influence without consciousness:
 ■ Audio recordings? They don’t do anything, a SCAM
(Creates a sense of helpfulness that doesn’t
actually exist)
■ Visually? Yes, they could potentially change our
experiences.
● Subliminal priming: If you are exposed to
certain things, things related to it come to
mind and effect judgement.
● Subliminal mere exposure: If initially you
feel neutrally about something, the more
you are exposed to it, the more you start to
like it.
(10/2)
● Sensation and Perception:
○ Proprioception??: The ability to sense your body’s location in physical space.
● Sensation: The gathering of information about the outside world by our senses
○ Basic Principles:
■ Distinction between sensation and perception- Sensation is how we see
the world and perception is how we understand what we see
■ Weber’s Law: For each type of sensory information, a constant exists as a
threshold before a person’s senses pick up a change.
■ Sensory adaptation: Senses are wired to notice subtle changes
● Visual adaptation-
● Olfactory adaptation-
● Touch adaptation-
○ Vision:
■ The structure of the eye:
● The retina: 2 types of sensory cells, rods and cones; Rods are
better at seeing things in dim lights, not good at color-vision.
Cones are better at seeing things in color, but bad at night vision.
● Cones are more common in the fouvea, while Rods are more
prevalent in the peripheral vision
● Perception: Attempt to make sense of the sensory information we are receiving
○ Constancies:
■ Size constancy:
■ The moon illusion:
○ The Muller-Lyer Illusion: Our perceptual systems automatically adjust to things
before we have even thought about it.
● Visual deprivation experiments:
● The Ponzo Illusion:

(10/7)
● Gestalt Principles of Perception:
 ○ Proximity: We perceive things together if they are close together in our
perceptual world
○ Similarity: Similar things are grouped together (Red vs. Black dots)
○ Continuity:
○ Closure: Our brain will take open-ended objects in our world and close them.
(Seeing things that aren’t really fully there.)

THINKING:
● Solving problems:
○ Trial and Error
○ Algorithms: A set of steps that can be utilized to solve a problem (Guaranteed to
come to a solution) Algorithms take mental energy to come to the solution
○ System 1 vs. System 2 Thought (Intuition vs. Analysis): Algorithms are a System
2 process, but sometimes a solution could be created using system 1 which is
much less taxing because it takes less mental energy. (A shortcut to making a
judgement)
○ Heuristics:
■ The availability: If I could bring to mind something easily, it must happen
more often, and if I can’t it must be more rare.
● The false consensus effect: “I think there are more people like me
than there really are”
■ The simulation: We tend to simulate possible outcomes in order to solve
problems.
● Prediction: Predicting the possible future
● Assessing Causality: Using the past to assess why a certain event
had occured.
■ The representativeness: Taking certain traits/characteristics and
assuming they belong in a certain category. (Or vise versa)
● Random sequences: Humans have a hard time understanding
random sequences.
● The gambler’s fallacy: “If something is random, it must alternate
between options” This is flawed. There is no force acting upon any
random event making it even out between options.
● Judgement and prediction
■ The Anchoring and Adjustment: Flawed because we don’t adjust enough
from the anchor because it is assumed that the anchor was chosen
because it is close.
○ Blind spots:
■ Functional Fixedness: Looking for something specific to the function,
while ignoring things that could work (even if that’s not its created
function)
■ Mental Set: Thinking about things in one way, based on routine or
expectancies, and ignoring easier/better options.
 ■ Confirmation Bias: The way a question is asked can lead to a change in
how evidence is gathered.
■ Overconfidence

(10/14)

LEARNING:
● Classical Conditioning:
○ Terminology:
■ The Unconditioned Stimulus (US): The stimulus that occurs without prior
learning, its an automatic stimulus (ie. food)
■ The Unconditioned Response (UR): How the animal responds to US (ie.
salivating)
■ The Conditioned Stimulus (CS): The stimulus that only occurs after
learning/conditioning (ie. the bell)
■ The Conditioned Response (CR): Once the pairing between US and CS
has been made, it triggers UR without the presence of US. (ie. salivating
at the sound of the bell)
○ Ex. 1: Jaws
■ US: Shark attack
■ UR: Fear, anxiety
■ CS: Music
■ CR: Fear or anxiety caused by music
○ Ex. 2 Cancer patients
■ US: Chemotherapy
■ UR: Nausea/sickness
■ CS: The room/decor/maple ice cream
■ CR: Nausea/sickness
○ Phenomena of Classical conditioning:
■ Second order conditioning: Conditioning the conditioning (CS became the
US)
■ Extinction: Learning that connections are no longer true.
■ Reconditioning
■ Spontaneous recovery: The CR comes back without reconditioning (after
a break)
■ Generalization: CS and similar objects are generalized and will trigger a
CR
■ Discrimination: Distinguishing between the CS and other similar ones.
■ Blocking: Prior information ‘blocking’ other potential stimuli
■ Overshadowing: one CS and its connection to its US is noticed, another
(less noticeable) CS is overlooked by the first CS.
■ Biological constraints on learning: The equipotentiality Principle vs.
Preparedness: I can connect anything to anything else/Any connection
 between a CS and an US is possible vs. Our brains are wired to make
certain connections between certain stimuli easier than others
■ Conditioned compensatory responses: Drug Tolerance
■ Conditioned inhibition: A signal that the US will not occur.
■ Sensory preconditioning: (Similar to 2nd order) Pair two stimuli together,
regularly, the animal will associate both stimuli with the CS.
■ Contiguity vs. contingency: The presentation of the US and the CS (too
long=no association) vs. the timing of the response
■ Instrumental (Operant) conditioning: Punishment vs. Reward to help
shape the way the world is viewed.
● The major phenomena of instrumental conditioning:
● Positive reinforcement: desired behavior followed by something
that is wanted
● Negative reinforcement: desire behavior followed by the removal
of something that is disliked
● Punishment: Negative stimulus is followed by undesired behavior

(10/16)
● Positive reinforcement has been ​proven​ to be more effective than punishments when it
comes to long-term learning.
● Discriminative Stimulus: A stimulus that tells the organism when a reinforcement is
available.
○ Skinner Box: The red light is the discriminative stimulus as it is an indicator that
the reward(food) is available in that moment for the rat.
● Shaping: Reinforcing in small stages to eventually achieve the desired behavior.
● Schedules of reinforcement:
○ Fixed/Variable x Ratio/Interval: Lead to different patterns of behavior
■ Fixed-ratio; Fixed-interval
■ Variable-ratio; Variable-interval
● Preparedness/Belongingness: Some things are easier to learn than others (pigeons)
● Superstitious behavior
● Habituation: The learning of what is safe/adapting to certain behaviors or events.

MEMORY:
● Basic Memory Processes:
○ Encoding: Your sensory systems must notice it to remember.
○ Storage: Storing the information that has been recognized for recall.
○ Retrieval: Pulling the information from your memory.
● Types of memories:
○ Episodic: Memories that happened to you in your life
○ Semantic: Memories of generalized information about the world
○ Procedural: Memories about how to do things
● Amnesia: Loss of memory
 ○ Retrograde
○ Anterograde (happens usually after damage to the brain; the hippocampus)
● Acquiring new memories:
○ Sensory memory: Our sensory organs must take information in and hold it in
place for a moment before storing it
○ Short term (or working) memory: Your stream of consciousness. Whatever you
happen to be thinking about in the moment.
■ Storage capacity of STM: (7 + or - 2) It is very limited;
■ Chunking: If you can group several pieces of information together, it takes
several pieces of info and makes it one.
○ Long term memory:
■ Storing items in LTM:

(10/21):

● Reconstructive nature of memory: Our memory is very fragile.

○ The case of Harry Cashin: Accused of murder; Took place during prohibition. The
only evidence was the eye-witness testimony of the woman , and there was so
much evidence to prove his innocence, but he was convicted anyway. ​Judges
tend to believe eye-witness accounts over real evidence​.
○ Study by Loftus (1974)- How much faith do we place in eyewitness testimony?
■ If an eyewitness is willing to testify against someone, people tend to
believe it.
○ Factors influencing memory for an event.
■ Postevent information- nonexistent objects
■ Compromise memories-
■ Rewriting memories-
■ Labeling-  
■ Identifying faces- What happens in photo lineups? 
■ Things are not remembered perfectly, the information given can often 
effect the way a person remembers a certain event. 
● False Memories? 
● Application to therapy:  
 
(10/28): 
 
Intelligence: 
● Intelligence:  
○ Historically:  
■ Paul Broka (1861): Interested in overall brain function; wanted to study 
intelligence; proposed a set of hypotheses that assumed white, european 
men were smarter than all others 
● Proposes a relationship between brain size and intelligence 
 ● Relative size 
● Exceptions to Broca’s rule (elephants) 
● Binet’s ideas: paper and pencil measure of intelligence (tests) 
■ Cyril Burt: “Studies” of heritability and intelligence 
● Kamin (1973) notices some inconsistencies 
● London Times (1976) accuses Burt of being a fraud 
■ Arthur Jenison (1969): Brings race into the debate once more 
● Heritability estimates: .4-.6 
● What is intelligence:  
○ General intelligence- g 
■ Correlated subskills 
■ Speed of cognitive processing 
■ The flynn effect- increasing IQ performance over time 
○ Multiple Intelligences (gardner) 
 
(10/30) 
 
Social Psychology​: 
 
● What is social psychology? 
● Social Perception (how we think about other people/how to perceive others’ actions) 
○ Attribution Theory:  
■ Early work: Heider (1944)-  
■ How do we make attributions? Kelley’s model: If asked these questions, 
and given specific answers, then we can discover the motivations of 
people’s behaviors. 
● Is their behavior distinctive/unusual for this person? 
● If they are in the same situation, do they behave this way 
consistently? 
● If other people are placed in the same situation, do they behave 
the same way? 
■ Attributional Biases: How does this process go wrong?  
● The fundamental attribution error: People have a powerful 
tendency to assume certain things about people around them. 
○ ie. Actors playing characters 
■ Manipulating the attributions of others: 
● Excuse giving 
● Self-handicapping: Provide an excuse BEFORE they engage in a 
performance 
○ Another social cognitive bias: The False Consensus Effect-  
■ Selective Exposure 
■ Salience: An unusual trait that a person possesses is often more 
noticeable to that person 
 ■ Motivation: “Well, I’m not the only one.” 
○ Attitudes: A relatively stable mental position toward an idea, object, or person. 
(like or dislike) 
■ ie. gun control, a car, another person 
■ 3 components- 
● The cognitive component: ​The information you have towards the 
idea, person, or person 
● The affective component: ​Do i like it or do i not like it? 
● The behavioral component: ​How do I behave towards the attituded 
object, idea, or person 
■ Attitude change and persuasion:  
● ADVERTISING!! (Peripheral) 
● Political Debates (Central) 
● The elaboration likelihood method: Do you respond to the 
persuasive message? Do you think about the message? 
○ Central vs. peripheral routes to persuasion 
○ C: Good argument/facts  
○ P: Doesn’t require much thinking  
■ Cognitive Consistency Theory: We like our attitudes to be consistent with 
our behavior 
● Balance Theory: “​The enemy of my enemy is my friend” 
○ Yourself 
○ Object or person 
○ Object or person 
■ Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Inconsistency between attitude vs. 
Consistency. 
● Prejudice: An attitude towards a group of people (Nationality, religion, sex, etc.) 
○ 3 components: 
■ Stereotypes: B ​ elieving certain groups of people to have certain traits 
(Asian->being smart, women->more emotional than men) 
■ Prejudice: D ​ o I like this group or do I not like it? 
■ Discrimination: ​You may treat someone differently based on the group 
they are involved in 
○ Where does prejudice come from?  
■ Motivational Theories-  
● Realistic Conflict Theory: When groups compete for valuable 
resources, they begin to dislike each other 
● Social Identity Theory: We get something by being a member of a 
certain group. We get a boost in self-esteem, and we can derogate 
other groups  
■ Learning Theories- 
■ Cognitive Theories-  
● Social categorization: via age, sex, race, religion, gender, etc. 
 ● The automaticity of prejudice 
 
(11/4): 
 
Social Psychology cont.: 
● Aggression:  
○ Causes: Aggression is the result of a variety of things (not just one cause!) 
■ Biology 
● Testosterone: male hormone that directly affects aggression 
■ Learning 
■ Heat: May be r​ elated ​to aggression 
■ Frustration 
■ Arousal 
■ Violent Media: seeing violent media tends to increase aggression, but 
doesn’t guarantee violence. 
■ Self-esteem 
● Altruism: When we become helpful to someone else 
○ Variables influencing when help is given (and not given):  
■ The presence of others: discourages altruism 
● Diffusion of Responsibility:  
● Pluralistic Ignorance: 
■ Personality: People with more empathy are more likely to help/have 
altruism 
■ Degree of relationship: ie. Love or Protective Instincts 
● Social Influence: 
○ Some Distinctions: 
■ Conformity 
■ Compliance 
■ Obedience 
 
(11/11) 
MOTIVATION 
● Motivation: 
○ Concepts and Theories of motivation 
■ Sources of Motivation 
● Biological Factors: F​ ood, sex, hydration, etc. 
● Emotional Factors: F ​ ear, anger, love, etc. 
● Cognitive Factors: How we think about things can alter motivation. 
● Social Factors: ​Conformity, Prejudice, social norms, etc. 
■ Instinct Theories: Through evolution, certain abilities are more prevalent 
because they benefit the survival of the person. 
■ Drive Reduction Theories:  
 ● Homeostasis: We strive for a comfortable “balance point”, so 
when we move away the body strives. ​ie. Body temperature 
● Example: ​Need -> Drive -> Drive-reduction 
■ Arousal Theory: 
● Thrillseekers vs. Scaredycats: SCs have high level of internal 
simulation, TS have low and seek out stimulation 
■ Incentive Theories: 
○ Hunger:  
■ Physiological mechanisms of hunger 
● Blood glucose level: As BGL drops, hunger tends to increase.  
● PYY (Hormone released from intestines when it senses food): 
When PYY increases, hunger decreases 
● Serotonin: The NT most closely tied to mood (Carbs= increased 
levels of Serotonin) 
● The Hypothalamus: related to hunger motivation (and other 
biological functions) 
○ Ventromedial- turns OFF hunger 
○ Lateral- turns ON hunger 
● Set Point Theory: Brain is wired to keep the body at a weight that 
feels “normal” 
● Metabolic Efficiency: Body is striving to keep them at the Set 
Point, and the efficiency changes in order to keep the body at the 
Set Point. 
■ Obesity 
■ Anorexia Nervosa 
● Psychological differences: Strive to be successful in other aspects 
of their life 
● Family dynamics 
○ Sexual Motivation: 
■ An evolutionary perspective 
● Why would evolution play a role in sexuality? 
● Gender differences 
○ Traits in a partner 
○ Interest in casual sex 
○ Jealousy 
○ Cheating 
○ Interest in pornography 
● Sexual orientation:  
○ Prenatal hormone exposure 
○ Gender nonconforming Play 
○ Twin studies 
○ Brain differences 
 
(11/13) 
 
● Dr. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: 
○ Self-actualization: m
​ orality, creativity, spontaneity, etc. 
○ Esteem: ​ self-esteem, confidence, acheivement 
○ Love/Belonging:  
● Sensation seeking scale: 
○ B 
○ B 
○ B 
○ A 
○ A 
○ A 
○ B 
○ B 
○ B 
○ B 
○ A 
○ A 
○ B 
● Sensation Seeking 
○ Optimal level theories 
■ Eysenck (1967): I​ ntroversion 
 
EMOTION 
● What characterizes emotion? 
○ Transitory 
○ Has Valence 
○ Needs Cognitive Appraisal 
○ Alters Thought 
○ Creates an Action Tendency 
○ They ‘Happen’ to you 
● The James-Lange Theory: 
○ Emotional stimulus-> Physiological Arousal-> Experienced Emotion 
○  

(11/18)

● Catharsis
● Appraisals
○ Primary appraisals
○ Secondary appraisals
● Coping strategies
○ Emotion focused coping: Distractions (from emotions)
○ Problem focused coping: Fixing the problem (to keep from stressing)
● Coping outcomes
○ Social Support (​ buffer against negative consequences of stress)
○