HANDOUTS FOR PSYCHOLOGY 101

Psychosexual Theory of Personality Development By S. Freud

Freuds theory is rooted on the concept of the Unconscious. He believed that all behavior and actions are influenced by the unconscious motives that may have been repressed early in childhood. The personality of a person is governed by three elements: Id (animal instinct; seat of baser emotions; operates on pleasure principle), the Ego (social representation of the self; operating on reality principle), and the Superego (moral arm of the personality; known as the conscience). Further, he believed that in each stage of personality formation, the individual incorporates into his system, different behaviors as a result either of over compensation or lack of stimulation in the different stages (fixation in the stages). Outcomes of personal experiences (which are very sexual in nature) greatly determine exhibition of personality characteristics.

5 Stages of Psychosexual Personality Development

1. Oral stage (mouth) --- behavior and stimulated activity is centered on the mouth. Fixation in this stage can cause development of behaviors or actions which are related to the mouth activity (oral personality characteristics). Examples are over eating, talkativeness, submissive personality (swallowing anything), smoking obsession and etc.
2. Anal Stage (anus) --- the center of activity (erogenous zone) is the anus. Toilettraining is the central activity. Overtraining or lack of training during this stage may result to fixation and development of an anal personality. Characteristics: obsession, overly controlling, tidy/untidy, thriftiness and etc.

3. Phallic stage (penis) --- the penis, the traditional symbol of authority power is central figure in this stage. Young girls are said to suffer from penis envy and young boys suffer from castration fears. In this stage, the Oedipus and Elektra complex develop. Much later, the child will learn to identify with the characteristics of the parent of the opposite sex thus learning the masculine and feminine sex roles.

4. Latency stage --- the quiet years. This is the period when seemingly, there is no significant happening. However, it is during this period when there is much internal processing by the individual. Learnings are slowly being realized and concretized and therefore made strong in the personality system. In addition, the unfavorable experiences in the first three stages are repressed in this stage.

5. Latency stage --- is the period when all other behaviors learned (based on earlier experiences) are exhibited. This is when relationships become much more complicated and personality characteristics more defined.

Psychosocial Theory of Personality Development by Erik Erikson

Eriksons theory has been proposed as a reaction to the too vulgar theory of Freud. This theory maintains that personality is a product of mans interaction with others in the society.

Stage 1 - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust

* Developing trust is the first task of the ego, and it is never complete. * The child will let mother out of sight without anxiety and rage because she has become an inner certainty as well as an outer predictability. * The balance of trust with mistrust depends largely on the quality of maternal relationship.

Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt

* If denied autonomy, the child will turn against him/herself urges to manipulate and discriminate. * Shame develops with the child's self-consciousness. * Doubt has to do with having a front and back -- a "behind" subject to its own rules. Left over doubt may become paranoia. * The sense of autonomy fostered in the child and modified as life progresses serves the preservation in economic and political life of a sense of justice.

Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt

* Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of undertaking, planning, and attacking a task for the sake of being active and on the move. * The child feels guilt over the goals contemplated and the acts initiated in exuberant enjoyment of new locomoter and mental powers. * The castration complex occuring in this stage is due to the child's erotic fantasies. * A residual conflict over initiative may be expressed as hysterical denial, which may cause the repression of the wish or the abrogation of the child's ego: paralysis and inhibition, or overcompensation and showing off.

Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority

* To bring a productive situation to completion is an aim which gradually supersedes the whims and wishes of play. * The fundamentals of technology are developed * To lose the hope of such "industrious" association may pull the child back to the more isolated, less conscious familial rivalry of the Oedipal time * The child can become a conformist and thoughtless slave whom others exploit.

Stage 5 - Identity vs. Role Confusion (or "Diffusion")

* The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to others. * Ego identity is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness and continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness and continuity of one's meaning for others, as evidenced in the promise of a career. * The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity is disturbing. Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation

* Body and ego must be masters of organ modes and of the other nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon. * The avoidance of these experiences leads to isolation and self-absorption. * The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation, which is the readiness to isolate and destroy forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to one's own. * Now true genitality can fully develop. * The danger at this stage is isolation which can lead to sever character problems.

Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation

* Generativity is the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation. * Simply having or wanting children doesn't achieve generativity. * Socially-valued work and disciples are also expressions of generativity.

Stage 8 - Ego Integrity vs. Despair

* Ego integrity is the ego's accumulated assurance of its capacity for order and meaning. * Despair is signified by a fear of one's own death, as well as the loss of self-sufficiency, and of loved partners and friends. * Healthy children, Erikson tells us, won't fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death.

MORAL REASONING DEVELOPMENT THEORY

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) was a well-known theorist in the field of moral development. He posed moral dilemmas (e.g., Jay-R Dilemma) to his subjects then asked questions to probe their reasons for recommending a specific course of action.

The Jay-R Dilemma

Scenario 1 A woman was near death from a unique kind of cancer. There is a drug that might save her. The drug costs 400,000 PhP per dosage. The sick woman's husband, Jay-R, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried ALL legal means, but he could only get together about 200,000 PhP. He asked the doctor-scientist who discovered the drug for a discount or let him pay later. But the doctor scientist refused. Jay-R broke into the laboratory and stole the drug.

Was Jay-R correct to break into the lab to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?

Stages of Moral Reasoning Development and orientations (focus)

Level One: Pre-conventional Morality Stage 1: Punishment-Obedience Orientation Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation

Level Two: Conventional Morality Stage 3: Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation

Level Three: Post-Conventional Morality Stage 5: Social Contract Orientation Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principle Orientation

In applying Kohlbergs Theory of the Six Stages of Moral Reasoning to students at the middle school level, teachers must first look at the demographics and developmental factors of the students being examined. Because most middle schools serve a wide range of students from 10 to 14 years old, many stages of moral reasoning are represented among the student body.

William Damon in his 1999 article, The Moral Development of Children, expounded upon Kohlbergs Six Stages of Moral Reasoning published in the 1950s. Damon referred to these six stages as, The Six Stages of Moral Judgment. The stages are then further divided into three different levels outlined as follows:
Level l: Preconventional Morality (Self Interest)

This stage is most often seen in children from preschool age to high school. Most children who fall into this level of moral development are most often elementary and junior high school age.

Stage 1 punishment and avoidance: children at this stage tend to very egocentric, where they base their actions on what is best for them, without considering the feelings or needs of others. Children tend to follow the rules enforced by their parents and teachers, but will disobey when the teachers' or parents' backs are turned.

Examples of this behavior are demonstrated when a student pays attention in class only when he thinks the teacher is looking; but, when the teacher turns her back, the students at stage 1 will attempt to throw spit wads and other objects across the classroom. Students at this level are willing to risk getting in trouble,and may seem to be very immature compared to other students in the classroom.

Stage 2 Reward or Exchange of favors: These students are highly motivated by extrinsic rewards. That is they tend to cooperate best in a token economy, where the teacher regularly gives prizes for exhibiting desired behaviors. Students at this stage are often reluctant to cooperate without the reward being offered.

Students at this level will tend to work with others so long as they will be rewarded themselves. Examples of this stage are evident with the boys who bring marbles to school. They may only agree to cooperate and play with a student, even if they dont like the student, in hopes of winning some of his marbles during recess. The same situation applies in the class as well. Students may only work on a project, perhaps somewhat reluctantly, in hopes of winning a class prize or teacher recognition.

Level ll Conventional Morality (Interest of others)

This level is seen in a few older elementary children and in junior high age students, and many high school students.

Stage 3 Interpersonal Relations: In this stage the child has learned to make moral decisions that are more likely to please their parents, teachers, coaches, and other authority figures. Students at this stage have developed a strong sense of character virtues such as cooperation, compassion, trustworthiness and loyalty, and may reinforce these traits through interpersonal relationships. This child also knows the difference between innocence and guilt in given situations.

Stage three is present among middle school students that tend to be a bit more mature. They usually come from homes that provide more familial and parental support for their academics and school success. These students tend to be responsible with their homework, and feel great pleasure when they do something well.

Stage 4 Social Order: In this stage, students are more apt to follow rules and conform to social expectations and norms. They have a strong sense of right and wrong, and strive to exhibit positive behavior.

Stages four is evident in students who tend to provide leadership in the school. These are the students that participate in student government. They volunteer for community events that support charities the homeless shelter or the needy at Christmas time with food baskets. They go beyond the call of duty to help others and to be a role model at the school. These students rarely get in trouble, and they have friends that are involved also in being leaders in the school.
Level III: Postconventional Morality (Abstract Ideals)

This level is rarely seen before students reach college age.

Stage 5 Social Contract: Stage five affords the individual with higher thinking skills, and the knowledge that rules are flexible and subject to change for the greater good of society. Stage 6 Universal Rights: Rely on the conscience for making decisions rather than social norms. Individuals at this level may feel that its acceptable to break a law as to justify the obligations of his moral belief system.

Moral Development Theory Applied in Middle Schools

The stages of Kohlbergs Development of Moral Reasoning normally present within the middle school level are stages 1 to 4, with stage 5 and 6 being rare among students. The reason for the wide disparity in stages is due to various maturity levels among students. Some students within this age group may display very immature levels or moral judgment; those that seem to be very self-centered, and willing to risk getting away with things that they know they should not be doing. References Ormrod, Jeanne E. Educational Psychology, Developing Learners. NY: Prentice Hall, 2007. Damon, William. "The Moral Development of Children." The Scientific American Journal. 1999.

JEAN PIAGET: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Jean Piaget was born in Neuchtel (Switzerland) on August 9, 1896. He died in Geneva on September 16, 1980. He was the oldest child of Arthur Piaget, professor of medieval literature at the University, and of Rebecca Jackson. At age 11, while he was a pupil at Neuchtel Latin high school, he wrote a short notice on an albino sparrow. This short paper is generally considered as the start of a brilliant scientific career made of over sixty books and several hundred articles.

Piaget may be best known for his stages of cognitive development. Piaget discovered that children think and reason differently at different periods in their lives. He believed that everyone passed through an invariant sequence of four qualitatively distinct stages. Invariant means that a person cannot skip stages or reorder them. Although every normal child passes through the stages in exactly the same order, there is some variability in the ages at which children attain each stage. The four stages are: sensorimotor - birth to 2 years; preoperational - 2 years to 7 years; concrete operational - 7 years to 11 years; and formal operational (abstract thinking) - 11 years and up. Each stage has major cognitive tasks which must be accomplished. In the sensorimotor stage, the mental structures are mainly concerned with the mastery of concrete objects. The mastery of symbols takes place in the preoperational stage. In the concrete stage, children learn mastery of classes, relations, and numbers and how to reason. The last stage deals with the mastery of thought (Evans, 1973).

A central component of Piaget's developmental theory of learning and thinking is that both involve the participation of the learner. Knowledge is not merely transmitted verbally but must be constructed and reconstructed by the learner. Piaget asserted that for a child to know and construct knowledge of the world, the child must act on objects and it is this action which provides knowledge of those objects (Sigel, 1977); the mind organizes reality and acts upon it. The learner must be active; he is not a vessel to be filled with facts. Piaget's approach to learning is a readiness approach. Readiness approaches in developmental psychology emphasize that children cannot learn something until maturation gives them certain prerequisites (Brainerd, 1978). The ability to learn any cognitive content is always related to their stage of intellectual development. Children who are at a certain stage cannot be taught the concepts of a higher stage.

Intellectual growth involves three fundamental processes: assimilation, accommodation, and equilibration. Assimilation involves the incorporation of new events into preexisting cognitive structures. Accommodation means existing structures change to accommodate to the new information. This dual process, assimilation-accommodation, enables the child to form schema. Equilibration involves the person striking a balance between himself and the environment, between assimilation and accommodation. When a child experiences a new event, disequilibrium sets in until he is able to assimilate and accommodate the new information and thus attain equilibrium. There are many types of equilibrium between assimilation and accomodation that vary with the levels of development and the problems to be solved. For Piaget,

equilibration is the major factor in explaining why some children advance more quickly in the development of logical intelligence than do others

2 kinds of cells in the Nervous System a. Glial cells ---acts as support structures; providing form to the nervous system b. Neurons/Nerve cells --- main cells which process electro chemical signals in the system. They generally cannot be replaced or repaired when they are damaged. A Neuron is a specialized nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information to other cells in the body. We have a fixed number of neurons, which means they do not regenerate. About 10,000 neurons die everyday, but since we start out with between ten and 100 billion (Hooper & Teresi, 1987), we only lose about 2% over our lifetime. Information comes into the neuron through the Dendrites from other neurons. It then continues to the Cell Body (soma) which is the main part of the neuron, which contains the nucleus and maintains the life sustaining functions of the neuron. The soma processes information and then passes it along the Axon. At the end of the axon are bulb-like structures called Terminal Buttons that pass the information on to glands, muscles, or other neurons. Information is carried by biochemical substances called neurotransmitters, which we will talk about in more detail shortly. The terminal buttons and the dendrites of other neurons do not touch, but instead pass the information containing neurotransmitters through a Synapse. Once the neurotransmitter leaves the axon, and passes through the synapse, it is caught on the dendrite by what are termed Receptor Sites. Neurotransmitters have been studied quite a bit in relation to psychology and human behavior. What we have found is that several neurotransmitters play a role in the way we behave, learn, the way we feel, and sleep. And, some play a role in mental illnesses. The following are those neurotransmitters which play a significant role in our mental health. Acetylcholine involved in voluntary movement, learning, memory, and sleep Too much acetylcholine is associated with depression, and too little in the hippocampus has been associated with dementia. Dopamine correlated with movement, attention, and learning Too much dopamine has been associated with schizophrenia, and too little is associated with some forms of depression as well as the muscular rigidity and tremors found in Parkinsons disease. Norepinephrine associated with eating, alertness Too little norepinephrine has been associated with depression, while an excess has been associated with schizophrenia. Epinephrine involved in energy, and glucose metabolism Too little epinephrine has been associated with depression. Serotonin plays a role in mood, sleep, appetite, and impulsive and aggressive behavior

 Too little serotonin is associated with depression and some anxiety disorders, especially obsessivecompulsive disorder. Some antidepressant medications increase the availability of serotonin at the receptor sites. GABA (Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid) inhibits excitation and anxiety Too little GABA is associated with anxiety and anxiety disorders. Some antianxiety medication increases GABA at the receptor sites. Endorphins involved in pain relief and feelings of pleasure and contentedness Please note that these associations are merely correlations, and do not necessarily demonstrate any cause and effect relationship. We dont know what other variables may be affecting both the neurotransmitter and the mental illness, and we dont know if the change in the neurotransmitter causes the illness, or the illness causes the change in the neurotransmitter.

The Brain and Nervous System

The nervous system is broken down into two major systems: Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System. Well discuss the Central Nervous System first. The Central Nervous System consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The Cerebral Cortex, which is involved in a variety of higher cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor functions is more developed in humans than any other animal. It is what we see when we picture a human brain, the gray matter with a multitude of folds covering the cerebrum. The brain is divided into two symmetrical hemispheres: left (language, the rational half of the brain, associated with analytical thinking and logical abilities) and right (more involved with musical and artistic abilities). The brain is also divided into four lobes: o Frontal (motor cortex) motor behavior, expressive language, higher level cognitive processes, and orientation to person, place, time, and situation o Parietal (somatosensory Cortex) involved in the processing of touch, pressure, temperature, and pain o Occipital (visual cortex) interpretation of visual information o Temporal (auditory cortex) receptive language (understanding language), as well as memory and emotion Typically the brain and spinal cord act together, but there are some actions, such as those associated with pain, where the spinal cord acts even before the information enters the brain for processing. The spinal cord consists of the Brainstem which is involved in life sustaining functions. Damage to the brainstem is very often fatal. Other parts of the brainstem include the Medulla Oblongata, which controls heartbeat, breathing, blood, pressure,digestion; Reticular ActivatingSystem (Reticular Formation), involved in arousal and attention, sleep and wakefulness, and control of reflexes; Pons regulates states of arousal, including sleep and dreaming. Cerebellum balance, smooth movement, and posture Thalamus "central switching station" relays incoming sensory information (except olfactory) to the brain

Hypothalamus controls the autonomic nervous system, and therefore maintains the bodys homeostasis, which we will discuss later (controls body temperature, metabolism, and appetite. Translates extreme emotions into physical responses. Limbic System emotional expression, particularly the emotional component of behavior, memory, and motivation Amygdala attaches emotional significance to information and mediates both defensive and aggressive behavior Hippocampus involved more in memory, and the transfer of information from short-term to longterm memory

The Peripheral Nervous System is divided into two sub-systems. The Somatic Nervous System primary function is to regulate the actions of the skeletal muscles. Often thought of as mediating voluntary activity. The other sub-system, called the Autonomic Nervous System, regulates primarily involuntary activity such as heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and digestion. Although these activities are considered involuntary, they can be altered either through specific events or through changing our perceptions about a specific experience. This system is further broken down into two complimentary systems: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous Systems. The Sympathetic Nervous System controls what has been called the "Fight or Flight" phenomenon because of its control over the necessary bodily changes needed when we are faced with a situation where we may need to defend ourselves or escape. Imagine walking down a dark street at night by yourself. Suddenly you hear what you suspect are footsteps approaching you rapidly. What happens? Your Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in to prepare your body: your heart rate quickens to get more blood to the muscles, your breathing becomes faster and deeper to increase your oxygen, blood flow is diverted from the organs so digestion is reduced and the skin gets cold and clammy and rerouted so to speak to the muscles, and your pupils dilate for better vision. In an instant, your body is prepared to either defend or escape. Now imagine that the footsteps belong to a good friend who catches up to you and offers to walk you home. You feel relief instantly, but your body takes longer to adjust. In order to return everything to normal, the Parasympathetic Nervous System kicks in. This system is slow acting, unlike its counterpart, and may take several minutes or even longer to get your body back to where it was before the scare. These two subsystems are at work constantly shifting your body to more prepared states and more relaxed states. Every time a potentially threatening experience occurs (e.g., someone slams on their breaks in front of you, you hear a noise in your house at night, you hear a loud bang, a stranger taps you on the shoulder unexpectedly), your body reacts. The constant shifting of control between these two systems keeps your body ready for your current situation.

SENSATION AND PERCEPTION Although intimately related, sensation and perception play two complimentary but different roles in how we interpret our world. Sensation refers to the process of sensing our environment through touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. This information is sent to our brains in raw form where perception comes into play. Perception is the way we interpret these sensations and therefore make sense of everything around us. Sensation
Sensation is the process by which our senses gather information and send it to the brain. A large amount of information is being sensed at any one time such as room temperature, brightness of the lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the smell of perfume. With all this information coming into our senses, the majority of our world never gets recognized. We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the microscopic parasites crawling on our skin. We don't sense all the odors around us or taste every individual spice in our gourmet dinner. We only sense those things we are able too since we don't have the sense of smell like a bloodhound or the sense of sight like a hawk; our thresholds are different from these animals and often even from each other. The senses operate on the principle of specificity. The sense organs can only react to a specific stimulus; the organs process only specific energies. Eyes process light waves or photo energy Nose process scents/odors or gaseous chemicals Ears process sound waves Tongue processes flavors (sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami) Skin processes temperature and pressure These energies are first transformed into electrochemical energy so that it can be sent to the brain for interpretation. Remember that the neurons only process electrochemical signals. Absolute Threshold The absolute threshold is the point where something becomes noticeable to our senses. It is the softest sound we can hear or the slightest touch we can feel. Anything less than this goes unnoticed. The absolute threshold is therefore the point at which a stimuli goes from undetectable to detectable to our senses. Eyes --- on a dark night, the eyes can detect light from a candle 30 miles away. Nose --- on a three-room apartment without windows, one drop of perfume can be smelled by the nose. Ears --- the ticking of a wristwatch can be heard at arms length/ ticking of second hand of wall clock can be heard from a distance of 20 feet on a very silent night. Tongue --- 1 teaspoon of sugar dissolved in 2 gallons of water can be tasted by the tongue. Skin --- a wing of a bee falling at a height of 1cm in the cheek can be felt.

Difference Threshold Once a stimulus becomes detectable to us, how do we recognize if this stimulus changes? When we notice the sound of the radio in the other room, how do we notice when it becomes louder. It's conceivable that someone could be turning it up so slightly that the difference is undetectable. The

difference threshold is the amount of change needed for us to recognize that a change has occurred. This change is referred to as the Just Noticeable Difference. This difference is not absolute, however. Imagine holding a five pound weight and one pound was added. Most of us would notice this difference. But what if we were holding a fifty pound weight? Would we notice if another pound were added? The reason many of us would not is because the change required to detect a difference has to represent a percentage. In the first scenario, one pound would increase the weight by 20%, in the second, that same weight would add only an additional 2%. This theory, named after its original observer, is referred to as Weber's Law.

Inter relatedness of the senses The sense organs usually work together in helping the perceptual process. Ie. Nose and tongue work together in sensing flavors and perception of food palatability

Perception
As mentioned in the introduction, perception refers to interpretation of what we take in through our senses. The way we perceive our environment is what makes us different from other animals and different from each other. In this section, we will discuss the various theories on how our sensation are organized and interpreted, and therefore, how we make sense of what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Gestalt Principles of Grouping The German word "Gestalt" roughly translates to "whole" or "form," and the Gestalt psychologist's sincerely believed that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In order to interpret what we receive through our senses, they theorized that we attempt to organize this information into certain groups. This allows us to interpret the information completely without unneeded repetition. For example, when you see one dot, you perceive it as such, but when you see five dots together, you group them together by saying a "row of dots." Without this tendency to group our perceptions, that same row would be seen as "dot, dot, dot, dot, dot," taking both longer to process and reducing our perceptive ability. The Gestalt principles of grouping include four types: similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure.

Similarity refers to our tendency to group things together based upon how similar to each other they are. In the first figure above, we tend to see two rows of red dots and two rows of black dots. The dots are grouped according to similar color. In the next figure, we tend to perceive three columns of two lines each rather than six different lines. The lines are grouped together because of how close they are to each other, or their proximity to one another. Continuity refers to our tendency to see patterns and therefore perceive things as belonging together if they form some type of continuous pattern. In the third figure, although merely a series of dots, it begins to look like an "X" as we perceive the upper left side as continuing all the way to the lower right and the lower left all the way to the upper right. Finally, in the fourth figure, we demonstrate closure, or our tendency to complete familiar objects that have gaps in them. Even at first glance, we perceive a circle and a square. Maintaining Perceptual Constancy Imagine if every time an object changed we had to completely reprocess it. The next time you walk toward a building, you would have to re-evaluate the size of the building with each step, because we

all know as we get closer, everything gets bigger. The building which once stood only several inches is now somehow more than 50 feet tall. Luckily, this doesn't happen. Due to our ability to maintain constancy in our perceptions, we see that building as the same height no matter what distance it is. Perceptual constancy refers to our ability to see things differently without having to reinterpret the object's properties. There are typically three constancies discussed, including size, shape, brightness. Size constancy refers to our ability to see objects as maintaining the same size even when our distance from them makes things appear larger or smaller. This holds true for all of our senses. As we walk away from our radio, the song appears to get softer. We understand, and perceive it as being just as loud as before. The difference being our distance from what we are sensing. Everybody has seen a plate shaped in the form of a circle. When we see that same plate from an angle, however, it looks more like an ellipse. Shape constancyallows us to perceive that plate as still being a circle even though the angle from which we view it appears to distort the shape. Brightness constancy refers to our ability to recognize that color remains the same regardless of how it looks under different levels of light. That deep blue shirt you wore to the beach suddenly looks black when you walk indoors. Without color constancy, we would be constantly re-interpreting color and would be amazed at the miraculous conversion our clothes undertake.

Perceiving Distance We determine distance using two different cues: monocular and binocular. Monocular cues are those cues which can be seen using only one eye. They include size; texture, overlap, shading, height, and clarity. Size refers to the fact that larger images are perceived as closer to us, especially if the two images are of the same object. The texture of objects tend to become smoother as the object gets farther away, suggesting that more detailed textured objects are closer. Due to overlap, those objects covering part of another object is perceived as closer. The shading or shadows of objects can give a clue to their distance, allowing closer objects to cast longer shadows which will overlap objects which are farther away. Objects which are closer to the bottom of our visual field are seen as closer to us due to our perception of the horizon, where higher (height) means farther away. Similar to texture, objects tend to get blurry as they get farther away, therefore, clearer or more crisp images tend to be perceived as closer (clarity). Binocular cues refer to those depth cues in which both eyes are needed to perceive. There are two important binocular cues; convergence and retinal disparity. Convergence refers to the fact that the closer an object, the more inward our eyes need to turn in order to focus. The farther our eyes converge, the closer an object appears to be. Since our eyes see two images which are then sent to our brains for interpretation, the distance between these two images, or their retinal disparity, provides another cue regarding the distance of the object. ATTENTION

There is a principle that says the brain only interprets what the organism is attending to. Without attention, the information gathered by the sense organs cannot be understood by the brain. Factors determining Attention Size, color, shape/texture, kind of energy, movement, novelty or newness, location and intensity are some factors that affect the energys potential to be paid attention to.

Observational learning,

also called social learning theory, occurs when an observers behavior changes after viewing the behavior of a model. An observers behavior can be affected by the positive or negative consequencescalled vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment of a models behavior. Discussion There are several guiding principles behind observational learning, or social learning theory:

The observer will imitate the models behavior if the model possesses characteristics things such as talent, intelligence, power, good looks, or popularitythat the observer finds attractive or desirable. The observer will react to the way the model is treated and mimic the models behavior. When the models behavior is rewarded, the observer is more likely to reproduce the rewarded behavior. When the model is punished, an example of vicarious punishment, the observer is less likely to reproduce the same behavior. A distinction exists between an observers acquiring a behavior and performing a behavior. Through observation, the observer can acquire the behavior without performing it. The observer may then later, in situations where there is an incentive to do so, display the behavior. Learning by observation involves four separate processes: attention, retention, production and motivation. Attention: Observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to whats happening around them. This process is influenced by characteristics of the model, such as how much one likes or identifies with the model, and by characteristics of the observer, such as the observers expectations or level of emotional arousal. Retention: Observers must not only recognize the observed behavior but also remember it at some later time. This process depends on the observers ability to code or structure the information in an easily remembered form or to mentally or physically rehearse the models actions. Production: Observers must be physically and/intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases the observer possesses the necessary responses. But sometimes, reproducing the models actions may involve skills the observer has not yet acquired. It is one thing to carefully watch a circus juggler, but it is quite another to go home and repeat those acts. Motivation: In general, observers will perform the act only if they have some motivation or reason to do so. The presence of reinforcement or punishment, either to the model or directly to the observer, becomes most important in this process. Attention and retention account for acquisition or learning of a models behavior; production and motivation control the performance. Human development reflects the complex interaction of the person, the persons behavior, and the environment. The relationship between these elements is called reciprocal determinism. A persons cognitive abilities, physical characteristics, personality, beliefs, attitudes, and so on influence both his or her behavior and environment. These influences are reciprocal, however. A persons behavior can affect his feelings about himself and his attitudes and beliefs about others. Likewise, much of what a person knows comes from environmental resources such as television, parents, and books. Environment also affects behavior: what a person observes can powerfully influence what he does. But a persons behavior also contributes to his environment.