INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY d.
Developmental – study the changes physical,
st
1 Midterm Examination
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
- The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
- Psyche: breath, spirit, soul, and; -logia: study of, research
Behavior
- All of our outward or overt actions (reactions, such as
talking and movement)
- Two kinds of behavior:
o Covert – hidden, private
o Overt – obvious, shown
Mental Processes
- All the internal or covert activity of our minds
- As long as you have not executed an action, it is not a
behavior, but a mental process
- Examples: memorizing, decision making, solving
Scientific
- To study behavior and mental processes in both animals
and humans; researchers must observe them
Scientific Method
- To be precise and to measure as carefully as possible
Biases
- Can cause them to make faulty observations; called as
“assumptions”
Goals
- Aims to uncover mysteries of human and animal behavior
are description, explanation, prediction and control
- Psychology’s Goals:
o Description (What is Happening) – involves
observing a behavior and noting everything
about it
o Explanation (Why is it Happening) – finding
explanations for behavior is a very important
step in the process of forming theories of
behavior
o Prediction (When will it Happen Again) –
determining what will happen in the future
o Control (How it can be Changed) – modification
of some behavior, is to change a behavior from
an undesirable one to a desirable one
What Psychologists Do
1. Research:
a. Basic/Pure Research – undertaken when the
researcher is interested in the research topic; no
immediate application to personal or social
problems
b. Applied Research – designed to find solutions to
specific personal or social problems; used in
businesses, medicine, and education in order to
find solutions that may cure diseases, solve
scientific problems or develop technology
2. Practice: Carry out tasks (clinical, IO, specialized fields)
3. Teaching: Share knowledge (lectures, seminars,
workshops)
Fields of Psychology
A. Academic Psychologists:
a. Social – how people behave when they are
together
b. School – help school systems assist students who
have problems that intervene with learning
c. Educational – research theoretical issues related
to learning
SAYEN MADARANG
cognitive, social, and emotional throughout the
life span
B. Medical Psychologists:
a. Clinical – help people with psychological
disorders adjust to the demands of life
b. Clinical Neuropsychologist – using therapy, they
help people who have suffered from brain
disease regain abilities they lost as a result of the
damaga
c. Counseling – use of specific counseling methods
to help people cope with problems
d. Health – study the effects of stress
C. Applied Psychologists:
a. Industrial-Organizational – work in the business
world
b. User experience/researcher/designer – create
websites that are engaging and intuitive
c. Human Factors – mostly in transportation;
improve the design of signs and controls to
improve safety
d. Sports – improve performance in sports
e. Consumer – behavior of shoppers to predict and
influence
f. Forensic – criminal justice system
History of Psychology
 2000 years ago: Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes
(connection of the human mind to the physical body)
 400 BCE: Democritus suggested that we could think of
behavior in terms of a body and a mind
 1879: Wilhelm Wundt (Father of Modern Psychology)
attempted to apply scientific principles to the study of the
human mind
 1894: Margaret Washburn became the first woman to
receive a Ph.D. in Psychology
 1940: George (Jorge) Sanchez conducted research in the
area of intelligence testing, focusing on cultural biases in
such tests
Five Major Schools of Psychology
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt)
- Breaks conscious experiences into three:
o Objective sensations (sight, taste)
o Subjective feelings (emotional responses, will)
o Mental images (memories, dreams)
- In order to inspect these nonphysical elements, students
had to learn to think objectively about their own thoughts
— after all, they could hardly read someone else’s mind.
Wundt called this process objective introspection, the
process of objectively examining and measuring one’s own
thoughts and mental activities
- One of Wundt’s students was Edward Titchener expanded
on Wundt’s original ideas, calling his new viewpoint
structuralism because the focus of study was the structure
of the mind. He believed that every experience could be
broken down into its individual emotions and sensations
(Brennan, 2002).
- Although Titchener agreed with Wundt that consciousness
could be broken down into its basic elements, Titchener
also believed that objective introspection could be used on
thoughts as well as on physical sensations.
Functionalism (William James)
- Focused on behavior in addition to mind and
consciousness; uses direct observations to supplement
introspection
 - Unlike Wundt and Titchener, James was more interested
in the importance of consciousness to everyday life rather
than just its analysis.
- James focused on how the mind allows people to function
in the real world—how people work, play, and adapt to
their surroundings, a viewpoint he called functionalism.
Gestalt psychology (Max Wertheimer)
- “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”
- Emphasizes the tendency to organize the perception into
wholes and to integrate separate stimuli into meaningful
patters
- Wertheimer believed that psychological events such as
perceiving and sensing could not be broken down into any
smaller elements and still be properly understood
- Wertheimer and others devoted their efforts to studying
sensation and perception in this new perspective, Gestalt
psychology. Gestalt (Gesh-TALT) is a German word
meaning “an organized whole” or “configuration,” which
fit well with the focus on studying whole patterns rather
than small pieces of them.
Theory of Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)
- Importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as
determinants of human behavior
- Proposes that much of our lives is governed by
unconscious ideas and impulses that originate in childhood
conflicts
- Freud stressed the importance of early childhood
experiences, believing that personality was formed in the
first 6 years of life; if there were significant problems,
those problems must have begun in the early years.
- Freudian psychoanalysis, the theory and therapy based on
Freud’s ideas, has been the basis of much modern
psychotherapy (a process in which a trained psychological
professional helps a person gain insight into and change
his or her behavior)
Behaviorism (John Broadus Watson)
- Focuses on learning observable behavior and relationships
between stimuli and response
- Wanted to bring focus back on scientific inquiry and
believed only way to do so was to focus on observable
behavior and ignore “consciousness” issue; early work
examined phobias
o Ivan Pavlov – made the “conditioned response
experiment” wherein it studies unrelated
stimulus. While working with dogs, Pavlov
observed that the salivation reflex (which is
normally produced by actually having food in
one’s mouth), could be caused to occur in
response to a totally new stimulus, in this case,
the sound of a ticking metronome. At the onset
of his experiment, Pavlov would turn on the
metronome, give the dogs food, and they would
salivate. After several repetitions, the dogs
would salivate to the sound of the metronome
before the food was presented—a learned (or
“conditioned”) reflexive response (Klein &
Mowrer, 1989). This process was called
conditioning.
o B.F. Skinner – used reinforcement as a stimulus
that follows a response and increases the
frequency of the response
Seven Modern Perspectives of Psychology
Psychodynamic Perspective
SAYEN MADARANG
- In the more modern psychodynamic perspective, the
focus may still include the unconscious mind and its
influence over conscious behavior and on early childhood
experiences, but with less of an emphasis on sex and
sexual motivations and more emphasis on the
development of a sense of self, social and interpersonal
relationships, and the discovery of other motivations
behind a person’s behavior.
o Neoanalysts: contemporary psychologists who
follow theories derived from Freud.
- Karen Horney and Erik Erikson focused less on unconscious
processes and more on conscious choice and self-esteem
Behavioral Perspective
- Skinner not only continued research in classical
conditioning, but he also developed a theory called
operant conditioning, to explain how voluntary behavior is
learned
- In this theory, behavioral responses that are followed by
pleasurable consequences are strengthened, or
reinforced. For example, a child who cries and is rewarded
by getting his mother’s attention will cry again in the
future.
Humanistic Perspective
- Often called the “third force” in psychology, humanism
was really a reaction to both psychoanalytic theory and
behaviorism.
- Humanists held the view that people have free will, the
freedom to choose their own destiny, and strive for self-
actualization; the achievement of one’s full potential.
- Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were the most famous
founders of this view
Cognitive Perspective
- The cognitive perspective with its focus on memory,
intelligence, perception, thought processes, problem
solving, language, and learning has become a major force
in psychology.
- Has roots in Socrates’s “Know Thyself”
Sociocultural Perspective
- Combines two areas of study: social psychology, which is
the study of groups, social roles, and rules of social actions
and relationships; and cultural psychology, which is the
study of cultural norms, values, and expectations. These
two areas are related in that they are both about the
effect that people have on one another, either individually
or in a larger group such as a culture
- Lev Vygotsky used this in forming his sociocultural theory
Biopsychological Perspective
- In the biopsychological perspective, human and animal
behavior is seen as a direct result of events in the body.
Hormones, heredity, brain chemicals, tumors, and diseases
are some of the biological causes of behavior and mental
events.
Evolutionary Perspective
- The evolutionary perspective focuses on the biological
bases for universal mental characteristics that all humans
share.
- It seeks to explain general mental strategies and traits,
such as why we lie, how attractiveness influences mate
selection, why fear of snakes is so common, or why people
universally like music and dancing. This approach may also
overlap with biopsychology and the sociocultural
perspective.
Five Steps of the Scientific Method
Scientific Method – a way to accomplish the goals of psychology
 1. Perceiving the question
2. Forming a hypothesis
3. Testing the Hypothesis
4. Drawing conclusions
5. Report your results
Descriptive Methods
1. Naturalistic Observation – observe people or animals in
their natural environment
a. Observer Effect – subjects who know they are
being watched will not be able to behave
normally
b. Participant Observation – they might actually
become participants in a group
c. Observer Bias – happens when the person
observing has a particular opinion about what he
expects to see
2. Laboratory Observation – observe objects in a laboratory
3. Case Studies – individual is studied in greater detail;
researchers try to learn everything they can
4. Surveys – ask questions about the topic the researchers
are studying via telephone, internet, or questionnaire
Sampling Techniques
I. Probability Sampling – uses randomization to make sure
every element gets an equal chance to be part of the
selected sample.
a. Simple Random Sampling – drawn so that each
member of a population has an equal chance at
being selected to participate
b. Stratified Random Sampling – drawn so that
identified subgroups in the population are
represented proportionally in the sample
II. Non-Probability Sampling – does not rely on
randomization. This technique is more reliant on the
researcher’s ability to selects elements for a sample.
a. Convenience Sampling – samples are selected
based on availability
b. Purposive Sampling – based on the intention or
the purpose of the study
c. Quota Sampling – depends on some pre-set
standard. It selects the representative sample
from the population
d. Snowball Sampling – where the population is
completely unknown
Correlations: Finding Relationships
Correlational Technique
- A measure of relationship between two or more variables
o Correlation coefficient is a statistical measure
that calculates the strength of the relationship
between variables
- Does not provide causation – variables can be related but
you cannot assume that one of them causes the other to
occur
Types of Correlation
1. Positive – when one variable increases, the other
increases as well
2. Negative – when one variable increases, the other
decreases
3. No Correlation – a change in a variable may not see
change in the other
The Experiment
Experiment - only method that will allow researchers to determine
the cause of a behavior
SAYEN MADARANG
 Variables – to decide on the variable the researchers want
to manipulate and the variable they want to measure to
see if there are any changes
o Operational definition specifically names the
operations (steps or procedures) that the
experimenter must use to control or measure
the variables in the experiment.
 Independent Variable - The name for
the variable that is manipulated in any
experiment
 Experimental Group - The group that is
exposed to the independent variable
 Control Group – no treatment
 Dependent Variable - The response of
the participants to the manipulation of
the independent variable is a
dependent relationship, so the
response of the participants that is
measured
 Importance of Randomization - Not surprisingly, random
assignment of participants to one or the other condition is
the best way to ensure control over other interfering, or
extraneous, variables.
 Experimental Hazards – There are a few other problems
that might arise in any experiment, even with the use of
control groups and random assignment.
o Placebo Effect - The improvement may have had
more to do with participants’ belief in the drug
than the drug itself
o Experimenter Effect - It has to do with the
expectations of the experimenter, not the
participants.
 Single Blind Study - the participants are “blind” to the
treatment they receive.
 Double Blind Study - highlights the need for the
experimenter to be “blind” as well as the participants in
research.
Ethics of Psychological Research
Humans – promote individual dignity and human welfare; ensure no
harm will come to the participants
a. Informed Consent – participant’s agreement to participate
in the research after receiving information about the study
and the treatment
b. Debrief – explain the purpose and methods of a
completed procedure to a participant
Animals – can only be harmed when: (1) there is no alternative, and;
(2) benefits of research justify the harm done
Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking - means making reasoned judgments. Reasoned
meaning people’s judgments should be logical and well thought out.
1. There are very few “truths” that do not need to be
subjected to testing.
2. All evidence is not equal in quality.
3. Just because someone is considered to be an authority or
to have a lot of expertise does not make everything that
person claims automatically true.
4. Critical thinking requires an open mind.
CHAPTER 2: THE BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
Nervous system
- A network of cells that carries information to and from all
parts of the body.
Field of neuroscience
 - A branch of the life sciences that deals with the structure
and functioning of the brain and the neurons, nerves, and
nervous tissue that form the nervous system.
Biological psychology
- Also called as behavioral neuroscience
- Is the branch of neuroscience that focuses on the
biological bases of psychological processes, behavior, and
learning, and it is the primary area associated with the
biological perspective in psychology.
- place
Neurons
Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1887)
- First theorized that the nervous system was made up of
individual
- Although the entire body is composed of cells, each type
of cell has a special purpose and function and, therefore, a
special structure.
Neuron
- Is the specialized cell in the nervous system that receives
and sends messages within that system
- Neurons are one of the messengers of the body, and that
means that they have a very special structure
Dendrites
- Receive messages from other cells; structure does indeed
look like the branches of a tree.
Soma
- The dendrites are attached to the cell body, or soma,
which is the part of the cell that contains the nucleus and
keeps the entire cell alive and functioning.
Axon
- Fiber attached to the soma, and its job is to carry
messages out to other cells
- Axon terminals are the end of the axon branches out into
several shorter fibers that have swellings or little knobs on
the ends
- May also be called presynaptic terminals, terminal
buttons, or synaptic knobs
- Are responsible for communicating with other nerve cells
Myelin Sheath
- Layer of fatty substances; wraps around the shaft of the
axons, forming an insulating and protective sheath
- Bundles of myelin-coated axons travel together as “cables”
in the central nervous system called tracts, and in the
peripheral nervous system bundles of axons are called
nerves.
- Has a unique feature that can serve as a tunnel through
which damaged nerve fibers can reconnect and repair
themselves.
- insulates and
- Protects the neuron, it also speeds up the neural message
traveling down the axon.
SAYEN MADARANG
- Multiple sclerosis: the myelin sheath is destroyed
(possibly by the individual’s own immune system), which
leads to diminished or complete loss of neural functioning
in those damaged cells
Glial Cells
Glial Cells
- Primary cell that serve as a sort of structure on which the
neurons develop and work and that hold the neurons in
- provide physical and metabolic support to neurons;
communicate with other cells; specific types have stem
cell-like properties
o For example, during early brain development,
radial glial cells (extending from inner to outer
areas like the spokes of a wheel) help guide
migrating neurons to form the outer layers of
the brain
o Other glia are involved in getting nutrients to the
neurons, cleaning up the remains of neurons
that have died, communicating with neurons and
other glial cells, and providing insulation for
neurons.
- Affect both the functioning and structure of neurons and
specific types also have properties similar to stem cells,
which allow them to develop into new neurons
- Are also being investigated for their possible role in a
variety of psychiatric disorders, including major depressive
disorder and schizophrenia.
- Two special types of glial cells:
o Oligodendrocytes – produce myelin for the
neurons in the brain and spinal cord (the central
nervous system)
o Schwann cells – produce myelin for the neurons
of the body (the peripheral nervous system)
Neural Impulse
Neural Impulse
- The transmission of charges is due to ions (positively or
negatively charged)
- Regulated by a semi-permeable cell membrane (selective)
- Electrochemical messages (travel within neurons)
- Electricity-to-Chemistry Process: neurons generate
electricity from chemical events
- Two types of impulses:
o Biochemical Impulse – between neurons (in the
synapse)
o Electrical Impulse – within neurons (along the
length of the cell)
How Messages Voyage from Neuron to Neuron
- Firing: conduction of neural impulse along the length of a
neuron
- Threshold: neurons will not fire unless the incoming
messages combine to reach a certain strength
- All-or-None Principle: an occurrence that transmits an
impulse of same strength
Ions
- A neuron that is at rest is electrically-charged
- A semiliquid (jelly-like) solution in which there are charged
particles
Electrochemical Voyage
- Resting Potential: state of the neuron prior to the sending
of a nerve impulse
o Not responding to other neurons (unstimulated)
- +
o Negative inside (Cl ): Positive outside (Na )
 - Polarization: electrical gradient - Neurotransmitters:
o Difference in electrical charges in which the o Excitatory – cause other neurons to fire
neuron is ready to fire  Acetylcholine (ACh) – controls muscle
- Action Potential: the inside of the cell become mostly contraction and also involved in
positive and the outside of the cell become mostly memory (brain, spinal cord, ANS,
negative, because many of the positive sodium ions are selected organs)
now inside the cell—at the point where the first ion  Dopamine (DA) – acts in the brain and
channel opened. affects to receive pleasure, voluntary
movement, learning and memory
(brain)
 Norepinephrine (NE) – largely
produced when there is an emergency
situation; this activates the
sympathetic nervous system; regulates
physical logical arousal, learning,
memory, and emotions (brain, spinal
cord, selected organs)
o Inhibitory – prevent other neurons from firing
 Acetylcholine (ACh)
 Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) –
helps in anxiety reactions; involved in
motor behavior and arousal (brain,
spinal cord)
 Serotonin (5-HT) – involved in
emotional arousal and sleep;
deficiency could cause anxiety, mood
The Synapse disorders, eating disorders, and
Synaptic Vesicles: Notice that the presynaptic terminal is not empty. insomnia
It has a number of little sac-like structures. The word vesicle is Latin  Endorphins - When you exercise, your
and means a “little blister” or “fluid-filled sac” body releases chemicals called
endorphins. These endorphins interact
Neurotransmitters: Inside the synaptic vesicles are chemicals with the receptors in your brain that
suspended in fluid, which are molecules of substances; they are reduce your perception of pain.
inside a neuron and they are going to transmit a message. Next to Endorphins also trigger a positive
the axon terminal is the dendrite of another neuron feeling in the body, similar to that of
morphine.
Synapse or Synaptic Gap: Between them is a fluid-filled space called
the synapse or the synaptic gap. Instead of an electrical charge, the
vesicles at the end of the axon (also called the presynaptic
membrane) contain the molecules of neurotransmitters, and the
surface of the dendrite next to the axon (the postsynaptic
membrane) contains ion channels that have receptor sites.

Receptor Sites: proteins that allow only particular molecules of a

certain shape to fit into it, just as only a particular key will fit into a
keyhole; on dendrites or the soma of the receiving neuron; tailored
to harbor neurotransmitters. Although some people refer to
neurotransmitters that turn cells on as excitatory neurotransmitters
and the ones that turn cells off as inhibitory neurotransmitters, it’s
really more correct to refer to excitatory synapses and inhibitory
synapses.
- In other words, it’s not the neurotransmitter itself that is
excitatory or inhibitory, but rather it is the effect of that The Central Nervous System
neurotransmitter that is either excitatory or inhibitory at Central Nervous System
the receptor sites of a particular synapse. - Composed of the brain and the spinal cord. Both the brain
Neurotransmitters and the spinal cord are composed of neurons and glial
Neurotransmitters cells that control the life sustaining functions of the body
- Inside the synaptic vesicles are chemicals suspended in as well as all thought, emotion, and behavior.
fluid, which are molecules of substances A. Brain: the core of the nervous system, the part that makes
- They are inside a neuron and they are going to transmit a sense of the information received from the senses, makes
message. decisions, and sends commands out to the muscles and
- Loose neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft reuptake the rest of the body, if needed. (control center)
o They are reabsorbed back to the transferring o Hindbrain – medulla, pons, and cerebellum
axon
SAYEN MADARANG
  Cerebullum – essential to balance and
coordination
 Medulla – regulation of heart rate,
respiration, circulation and blood
pressure
 Pons - the bridge between the lower
parts of the brain and the upper
sections
 Reticular Formation – involved in
regulation of sleep and walking; when
damaged severely, it can cause coma;
network of neurons running through
the middle of the medulla and the
pons
o Limbic System – emotions, motivation, memory,
and learning
 Thalamus – relay station for sensory
information
 Hypothalamus – secretes hormones
that stimulates secretion of hormones
by the pituitary gland
 Hippocampus – structure involved in
the formation of memories
 Amygdala – involved in fear responses
and memory of fear
 Cingulate Cortex - plays an important
role in both emotional and cognitive
processing
o Cortex - made up of tightly packed neurons;
outermost part of the brain
 Cerebral Hemispheres - are connected
by a thick, tough band of neural fibers
(axons) called the corpus callosum that
allows the left and right hemispheres
to communicate with each other
 Cerebrum – center of thinking
 Occipital Lobe – vision
 Temporal Lobe – hearing and auditory
 Parietal Lobe – somatosensory cortex
 Frontal Lobe – motor cortex
 Two Key Language Areas
 Wernicke’s Area: temporal
lobe; responds mainly to
auditory information;
uniquely important for the
comprehension of speech
sounds; Wernicke’s Aphasia:
a language disorder
characterized by difficulty
comprehending the meaning
of spoken language; impairs
ability to comprehend
speech and think of words to
express own thoughts;
difficulty understanding
 Broca’s Area: allows a
person to speak smoothly
and fluently; Broca’s
Aphasia: a language disorder
characterized by slow,
laborious speech language;
speech is typically fluent but
is empty of content; uses
SAYEN MADARANG
words that have meaning
only to the person who uses
them
 Angular Gyrus: translates
visual into auditory
information; damage impairs
reading ability
o Left Brain – primarily logical and intellectual
o Right Brain – intuitive, creative and emotional
o Mapping Structure:
 Computed Tomography (CT) – three
dimensional images of the brain
 Positron Emission Tomography (PET) –
method of brain study involves a
computer-generated image of brain
activity by tracing the amount of
glucose metabolized in areas of the
brain
 Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) –
the person lies in a powerful magnetic
field and is exposed to radio waves
that cause parts of the brain to emit
signals
o Mapping Function:
 Eletroencephalogram (EEG) –
detecting brain waves
B. Spinal Cord: long bundle of neurons that serve two vital
functions for the nervous system. (information
superhighway); spinal cord reflexes involve several
different neurons; spinal reflexes enable fast, often
lifesaving, actions that do not require conscious thought.
o Afferent (sensory) neurons - carry messages
from the senses to the spinal cord and brain
o Efferent (motor) neurons - carry messages from
the spinal cord and brain to the muscles and
glands
o Interneurons - connect the afferent neurons to
the motor neurons and make up the inside of
the spinal cord and much of the brain itself
o Reflex Arc: controlled by the spinal cord alone
allows for very fast response times.
The Peripheral Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System
- The term peripheral refers to things that are not in the
center or that are on the edges of the center.
- Made up of all the nerves and neurons that is not
contained in the brain and spinal cord.
- It is this system that allows the brain and spinal cord to
communicate with the sensory systems of the eyes, ears,
skin, and mouth and allows the brain and spinal cord to
control the muscles and glands of the body.
- Somatic Nervous System
o made up of the sensory pathway, which
comprises all the nerves carrying messages from
the senses to the central nervous system (those
nerves containing afferent neurons), and the
motor pathway, which is all of the nerves
carrying messages from the central nervous
system to the voluntary, or skeletal, muscles of
the body—muscles that allow people to move
their bodies
o Transmits messages of sensation to the brain
o Transmit messages to control purposeful body
movements from the brain
 - Autonomic Nervous System
o The word autonomic suggests that the functions
of this system are more or less automatic, which
is basically correct. Whereas the somatic division
of the peripheral nervous system controls the
senses and voluntary muscles, the autonomic
division controls everything else in the body—
organs, glands, and involuntary muscles
o Regulates glands and muscles of internal organs
(internal regulation)
 Sympathetic Division – primarily
located on the middle of the spinal
column—running from near the top of
the ribcage to the waist area. It may
help to think of the name in these
terms: The sympathetic division is in
sympathy with one’s emotions. In fact,
the sympathetic division is usually
called the “fight-or-flight system”
because it allows people and animals
to deal with all kinds of stressful
events; emotional responses
 Parasympathetic Division – called the
“eat-drink-and-rest” system. The
neurons of this division are located at
the top and bottom of the spinal
column, on either side of the
sympathetic division neurons (para
means “beyond” or “next to” and in
this sense refers to the neurons
located on either side of the
sympathetic division neurons);
restoring the body’s energy
Language Functions
THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
Evolutionary Psychology
- Studies ways in which adaptation and natural selection can
be applied to mental processes and behavior
- Suggests that social behavior evolves and can be
transmitted from one generation to the next
- Suggest that traits such as aggression and altruism help
organisms survive and thus reproduce
Endocrine Glands
- no ducts and secrete their chemicals directly into the
bloodstream
- Hormones: chemicals secreted by the endocrine glands;
regulate growth, metabolism and some forms of behavior;
maintain steady bodily states
- Act on the Brain: influence our interest in sex, food and
aggression
Endocrine Glands
Pituitary Gland
- Located below the hypothalamus
- Controls the glandular system by influencing the pituitary
- Master gland that controls or influences all of the other
endocrine glands
- Oxytocin: stimulates labor in pregnant women; causes the
breast to eject milk; maternal behavior
- Prolactin: regulates maternal behavior in lower mammals;
stimulates production of milk in women
- Growth Hormone: regulates growth of muscles, bones,
and glands
SAYEN MADARANG
- Vasopressin: antidiuretic hormone; inhibits production of
urine when body fluids are low; paternal behavior in some
mammals
Pineal Gland
- Also located in the brain, near the back, directly above the
brain stem. It plays an important role in several biological
rhythms.
- Melatonin: the pineal gland secretes a hormone which
helps track day length (and seasons); helps regulate sleep-
wake cycle; may affect onset of puberty; aging; treating
sleeping disorders and jet lag
Thyroid Gland
- Located inside the neck and secretes hormones that
regulate growth and metabolism
- Thyroxin: regulates metabolism (how fast the body burns
its available energy)
- Hypothyroidism: overweight people; feel tired, sluggish;
deficiency resulting from too little thyroxin
- Cretinism: thyroxin is deficient; resulting to stunted
growth and mental retardation in children
- Hyperthyroidism: highly excitable, insomnia, weight loss
Pancreas
- Controls the level of blood sugar in the body by secreting
insulin and glucagon
- Diabetes: release of too little insulin
- Hypoglycemia: low blood sugar feel hungry all the time
and often become overweight as a result
Gonads
- Ovaries: female sex glands; produces estrogen and
progesterone; female sex characteristics
- Testes: male sex glands; produces testosterone; male sex
characteristics
- Primary Sex Characteristics: involved in reproduction
(increase in penis size, sperm producing ability of the
testes)
- Secondary Sex Characteristics: not directly related to
reproduction (presence of beard, deeper voice)
Adrenal Glands
- One on top of each kidney
- Releases epinephrine and norepinephrine, when people
are under stress, and aids in sympathetic arousal
- Corticoids or steroids: hormones released by the adrenal
cortex that regulate salt intake , help initiate, and control
stress reactions, and also provide a source of sex
hormones in addition to those provided by the gonads
- Cortisol: released when the body experiences physical and
psychological stress; important in the release of glucose
CHAPTER 3: SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
SENSATION
What is Sensation?
- occurs when special receptors in the sense organs are
activated, allowing various forms of outside stimuli to
become neural signals in the brain
- Transduction: of converting outside stimuli, such as light,
into neural activity
- Sensory Receptors: are specialized forms of neurons, the
cells that make up the nervous system
Sensory Thresholds
Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Differences (JND):
- Ernst Weber (1795-1878) did studies trying to
determine the smallest difference between two
weights that could be detected
 - smallest difference between two stimuli that is
detectable 50 percent of the time
- whatever the difference between two stimuli might
be, it is always a constant
- If to notice a difference the amount of sugar a person
would need to add to a cup of coffee that is already
sweetened with 5 teaspoons is 1 teaspoon, then the
percentage of change needed to detect a just
noticeable difference is one fifth, or 20 percent.
Absolute Threshold
- Gustav Fechner (1801-1887) expanded on Weber’s
work by studying something he called the absolute
threshold
- lowest level of stimulation that a person can
consciously detect 50 percent of the time the
stimulation is present
- For example, assuming a very quiet room and normal
hearing, how far away can someone sit and you might
still hear the tick of their analog watch on half of the
trials?
- Examples:
o Sense: A candle flame at 30 miles on a
clear, dark night
o Hearing: The tick of a watch 20 feet away in
a quiet room
o Smell: One drop of perfume diffused
throughout a three-room apartment
o Taste: 1 teaspoon of sugar in 2 gallons of
water
o Touch: A bee’s wing falling on the cheek
from 1 centimeter above
Subliminal Stimuli
- Stimuli that are below the level of conscious
awareness
- The word limin means “threshold,” so sublimin means
“below the threshold.”
- strong enough to activate the sensory receptors but
not strong enough for people to be consciously aware
of them
- Subliminal Perception: process wherein these stimuli
act upon the unconscious mind, influencing behavior.
Habituation and Sensory Adaptation
Habituation
- The way the brain deals with unchanging information
from the environment
- Some of the lower centers of the brain filter sensory
stimulation and “ignore” or prevent conscious
attention to stimuli that do not change
- People don’t really “hear” the noise of the air
conditioner unless it suddenly cuts off, or the noise
made in some classrooms, unless it gets very quiet or
someone else directs their attention toward it.
Although they actually are hearing it, they aren’t
paying attention to it
- sensory receptors are still responding to stimulation
but the lower centers of the brain are not sending the
signals from those receptors to the cortex.
Sensory Adaptation
- another process by which constant, unchanging
information from the sensory receptors is effectively
ignored
- differs because the receptor cells themselves become
less responsive to an unchanging stimulus—garbage
SAYEN MADARANG
odors included—and the receptors no longer send
signals to the brain
- when you eat, the food that you put in your mouth
tastes strong at first, but as you keep eating the same
thing, the taste does fade somewhat
SCIENCE OF SEEING
Perceptual Properties of Light
- Photons: Albert Einstein who first proposed that light is
actually tiny “wave packets”
- Three Aspects to Our Perception of Light:
o Brightness: determined by the amplitude of the
wave—how high or how low the wave actually
is; the higher the wave, the brighter the light
appears to be. Low waves are dimmer.
o Color (Hue): largely determined by the length of
the wave. Long wavelengths (measured in
nanometers) are found at the red end of the
visible spectrum (the portion of the whole
spectrum of light that is visible to the human
eye), whereas shorter wavelengths are found at
the blue end.
o Saturation: refers to the purity of the color
people perceive
Structure of the Eye
- Visual accommodation: process wherein the lens changes
its shape from thick to thin, enabling it to focus on objects
that are close or far away. The variation in thickness allows
the lens to project a sharp image on the retina
- Presbyopia: disease where people lose this ability as the
lens hardens through aging
- Myopia: nearsightedness; visual accommodation may
occur but the shape of the eye causes the focal point to
fall short of the retina
- Hyperopia: farsightedness; focus point is behind the retina
Retina, Rods, and Cones
- Retina: lightsensitive area at the back of the eye
containing three layers:
o Ganglion Cells
o Bipolar Cells
 o Receptor Cells/Photoreceptors (Rods and
Cones)
- While the retina is responsible for absorbing and
processing light information, the rods and the cones
are the business end of the retina
- the part that actually receives the photons of light
and turns them into neural signals for the brain,
sending them first to the bipolar cells (a type of
interneuron; called bipolar or “two-ended” because
they have a single dendrite at one end and a single
axon on the other;) and then to the retinal ganglion
cells whose axons form the optic nerve.
- The rods and cones are responsible for different
aspects of vision; receptors for visual acuity, or ability,
to see fine detail
Blind Spot
- The eyes don’t adapt to constant stimuli under
normal circumstances because of saccadic
movements.
- No rods and cones
- But if people stare with one eye at one spot long
enough,
- objects that slowly cross their visual field may at one
point disappear briefly because there is a “hole” in
the retina—the place where all the axons of those
ganglion cells leave the retina to become the optic
nerve, the optic disk
How the Eye Works
- The areas of the retina can be divided into halves, with the
halves toward the temples of the head referred to as the
temporal retinas and the halves toward the center, or
nose, called the nasal retinas
- Dark adaptation: occurs as the eye recovers its ability to
see when going from a brightly lit state to a dark state.
- Light adaptation: The cones have to adapt to the
increased level of light
Perception of Color
- Trichromatic Theory: proposed three types of cones: red
cones, blue cones, and green cones, one for each of the
three primary colors of light
o In the trichromatic theory, different shades of
colors correspond to different amounts of light
received by each of these three types of cones.
These cones then fire their message to the
brain’s vision centers. It is the combination of
cones and the rate at which they are firing that
determine the color that will be seen.
- Opponent-Process Theory: there are four primary colors:
red, green, blue, and yellow. The colors are arranged in
pairs, with each member of the pair as opponents. Red is
SAYEN MADARANG
paired with its opponent green, and blue is paired with its
opponent yellow.
o If a person stares at a picture of the American
flag for a little while—say, a minute—and then
looks away to a blank white wall or sheet of
paper, that person will see an afterimage of the
flag.
o Afterimages: occur when a visual sensation
persists for a brief time even after the original
stimulus is removed
- Color blindness: caused by defective cones in the retina of
the eye; are inherited and recessive
SCIENCE OF HEARING
Perception of Sound
- Sound waves: the vibrations of the molecules of air that
surround us; has three properties:
o Wavelength (Hz): are interpreted by the brain as
frequency or pitch (high, medium, or low)
o Amplitude: is interpreted as volume, how soft or
loud a sound is
o Purity: timbre in sound, a richness in the tone of
the sound
Structure of the Ear
Outer Ear
- Pinna: is the visible, external part of the ear that
serves as a kind of concentrator, funneling* the
sound waves from the outside into the structure of
the ear.
- Auditory canal: is the short tunnel that runs down to
the tympanic membrane, or eardrum.
Middle Ear
- Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup (ossicles): smallest bones
in the human body. The vibration of these three
bones amplifies the vibrations from the eardrum. The
stirrup, the last bone in the chain, causes a
membrane covering the opening of the inner ear to
vibrate.
Inner Ear
- Oval window: the membrane where its vibrations set
off another chain reaction in the inner ear.
- Cochlea: Snail-shaped structure that is filled with fluid
called the basilar membrane.
- Basilar membrane: resting place of the organ of
Corti, which contains the receptor cells for the sense
of hearing.
- Organ of Corti: has special cells called hair cells,
which are the receptors for sound
Perceiving Pitch
- Pitch: how high or low a sound is; there are three primary
theories about how the brain receives information about
pitch:
o Place Theory: the pitch a person hears depends
on where the hair cells that are stimulated are
located on the organ of Corti
o Frequency Theory: pitch is related to how fast
the basilar membrane vibrates. The faster this
membrane vibrates, the higher the pitch; the
slower it vibrates, the lower the pitch.
o Volley Principle: groups of auditory neurons take
turns firing in a process called volleying
Types of Hearing Impairment
- Conduction hearing impairment, or conductive hearing
loss: refers to problems with the mechanics of the outer or
middle ear and means that sound vibrations cannot be
 passed from the eardrum to the cochlea. The cause might
be a damaged eardrum or damage to the bones of the
middle ear
- Nerve hearing impairment, or sensorineural hearing loss:
the problem lies either in the inner ear or in the auditory
pathways and cortical areas of the brain. This is the most
common type of permanent hearing loss. Normal aging
causes loss of hair cells in the cochlea, and exposure to
loud noises can damage hair cells.
CHEMICAL SENSES: TASTE AND SMELL
Gustation
- Taste buds: taste receptor cells, special kinds of neurons
found in the mouth that are responsible for the sense of
taste, or gustation.
o The “bumps” are called papillae, and the taste
buds line the walls of these papillae.
- Five Basic Tastes: In 1916 a German psychologist named
Hans Henning proposed that there are four primary tastes:
sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Lindemann (1996)
supported the idea that there is a fifth kind of taste
receptor that detects a pleasant “brothy” taste associated
with foods like chicken soup, tuna, kelp, cheese, and soy
products, among others. Lindemann proposed that this
fifth taste be called umami, a Japanese word first coined in
1908 by Dr. Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University to
describe the taste. Dr. Ikeda had succeeded in isolating the
substance in kelp that generated the sensation of
umami— glutamate
o The taste information is sent to the gustatory
cortex, found in the front part of the insula and
the frontal operculum. These areas are involved
in the conscious perception of taste whereas the
texture, or “mouth-feel,” of foods is processed in
the somatosensory cortex of the parietal lobe
Olfaction
- Ability to smell odors is called olfaction, or the olfactory
sense.
- The outer part of the nose serves the same purpose for
odors that the pinna and ear canal serve for sounds: Both
are merely ways to collect the sensory information and get
it to the part of the body that will translate it into neural
signals.
- The part of the olfactory system that transduces odors—
turns odors into signals the brain can understand—is
located at the top of the nasal passages.
- Olfactory receptor cells: each have about a half dozen to a
dozen little “hairs,” called cilia, that project into the cavity.
Like taste buds, there are receptor sites on these hair cells
that send signals to the brain when stimulated by the
molecules of substances that are in the air moving past
them.
- Olfactory bulbs: send their neural signals directly up to
these bulbs, bypassing the thalamus, the relay center for
all other sensory information
SOMESTHETIC SENSES: TOUCH
- Somesthetic senses: body senses
o Soma means “body,” esthetic means “feeling”
- Skin senses: touch, pressure, temperature, pain
- Kinesthetic senses: location of body parts in relation to
each other
- Vestibular senses: movement and body position
Perception of Touch, Pressure, Temperature, and Pain
Types of Sensory Receptors in the Skin
SAYEN MADARANG
- Pacinian corpuscles: located just beneath the skin
and respond to changes in pressure; sensitive to both
pain and touch
- Free nerve endings: just beneath the uppermost layer
of the skin that respond to changes in temperature
and to pressure—and to pain
Different Types of Pain
- Visceral pain: pain in the organs
- Somatic pain: pain sensations in the skin, muscles,
tendons, and joints are carried on large nerve fibers
Pain Disorders
- Congenital analgesia and congenital insensitivity to
pain with anhidrosis (CIPA): Children with these
disorders cannot feel pain when they cut or scrape
themselves, leading to an increased risk of infection
when the cut goes untreated
- Phantom limb pain: occurs when a person who has
had an arm or leg removed sometimes “feels” pain in
the missing limb
Gate Control Theory
- First proposed by Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall (1965)
and later refined and expanded
- The pain signals must pass through a “gate” located in the
spinal cord. The activity of the gate can be closed by
nonpain signals coming into the spinal cord from the body
and by signals coming from the brain. The gate is not a
physical structure but instead represents the relative
balance in neural activity of cells in the spinal cord that
receive information from the body and then send
information to the brain.
- Substance P: Neuromodulator released during stimulation
of the pain receptor cells
Kinesthetic Sense
- Kinesthesia: the movement and location of the arms, legs,
and so forth in relation to one another.
o Greek words kinein (“to move”) and aesthesis
(“sensation”)
Vestibular Sense
- Sense of balance; located in the innermost part of the ear
o Latin word that means “entrance” or “chamber.”
- Two kinds of vestibular organs:
o Otolith organs: tiny sacs found just above the
cochlea. These sacs contain a gelatin-like fluid
within which tiny crystals are suspended. The
head moves and the crystals cause the fluid to
vibrate, setting off some tiny hairlike receptors
on the inner surface of the sac, telling the person
that he or she is moving forward, backward,
sideways, or up and down.
o Semicircular organs: three somewhat circular
tubes that are also filled with fluid that will
stimulate hairlike receptors when rotated.
Having three tubes allows one to be located in
each of the three planes of motion. Those are
the three planes through which the body can
rotate, and when it does, it sets off the receptors
in these canals. When you spin around and then
stop, the fluid in the horizontal canal is still
rotating and will make you feel dizzy because
your body is telling you that you are still moving,
but your eyes are telling you that you have
stopped.
- Motion sickness: disagreement between what the eyes
say and what the body says
 o Sensory conflict theory: information from the
eyes may conflict a little too much with the
vestibular organs, and dizziness, nausea, and
disorientation are the result.
PERCEPTION
What is Perception?
- method by which the brain takes all the sensations a
person experiences at any given moment and allows them
to be interpreted in some meaningful fashion
- Perceptual constancy: something that remains the same,
the property of remaining stable and unchanging
The Constancies: Size, Shape, and Brightness
- Size constancy: the tendency to interpret an object as
always being the same size, regardless of its distance from
the viewer
- Shape constancy: the tendency to interpret the shape of
an object as constant, even when it changes on the retin
- Brightness constancy: the tendency to perceive the
apparent brightness of an object as the same even when
the light conditions change
The Gestalt Principles
- Figure-ground relationships: refer to the tendency to
perceive objects or figures as existing on a background
o Reversible figures: the figure and the ground
seem to switch back and forth
 Necker Cube: Louis Albert Necker
(1832); there are conflicting sets of
depth cues, so the viewer is never
really sure which plane or edge is in
the back and which is in the front—the
visual presentation of the cube seems
to keep reversing its planes and edges
- Proximity: to perceive objects that are close to one
another as part of the same grouping; nearness
- Similarity: tendency to perceive things that look similar as
being part of the same group
- Closure: tendency to complete figures that are incomplete
- Continuity: tendency to perceive things as simply as
possible with a continuous pattern rather than with a
complex, broken-up pattern
- Contiguity: tendency to perceive two things that happen
close together in time as being related. Usually the first
occurring event is seen as causing the second event
- Common region: tendency is to perceive objects that are
in a common area or region as being in a group
Depth Perception
- the capability to see the world in three dimensions
o Monocular cues: require the use of only one eye
in perceiving depth; Monocular cues are often
referred to as pictorial depth cues because
artists can use these cues to give the illusion of
depth to paintings and drawings
 Linear Perspective: tendency for lines
that are actually parallel to seem to
converge on each other
 Relative Size: when objects that
people expect to be of a certain size
appear to be small and are, therefore,
assumed to be much farther away.
 Overlap/Interposition: If one object
seems to be blocking another object,
people assume that the blocked object
is behind the first one and, therefore,
farther away.
SAYEN MADARANG
 Aerial (atmospheric perspective): The
farther away an object is, the hazier
the object will appear to be due to tiny
particles of dust, dirt, and other
pollutants in the air
 Texture gradient: used by artists to
give the illusion of depth in a painting
 Motion parallax: The next time you’re
in a car, notice how the objects outside
the car window seem to zip by very
fast when they are close to the car,
and objects in the distance, such as
mountains, seem to move more
slowly; The discrepancy in motion of
near and far objects
 Accommodation: tendency of the lens
to change its shape, or thickness, in
response to objects near or far away
o Binocular cues: both eyes are used
 Convergence: rotation of the two eyes
in their sockets to focus on a single
object
 Binocular disparity: scientific way of
saying that because the eyes are a few
inches apart, they don’t see exactly the
same image.
Perceptual Illusions
- Illusion: perception that does not correspond to reality:
People think they see something when the reality is quite
different
o The Hermann Grid: gray blobs or diamonds that
fade away or disappear completely when you try
to look directly at them
o Muller-Lyer Illusion: The distortion happens
when the viewer tries to determine if the two
lines are exactly the same length. They are
identical, but one line looks longer than the
other
o Moon Illusion: moon on the horizon appears to
be much larger than the moon in the sky
 Apparent Distance Hypothesis: The
moon is seen as being behind these
objects and, therefore, farther away
from the viewer. Because people know
that objects that are farther away from
them yet still appear large are very
large indeed, they “magnify” the moon
in their minds—a misapplication of the
principle of size constancy
o Illusions of Motion: Sometimes people perceive
an object as moving when it is actually still
 Autokinetic effect: small, stationary
light in a darkened room will appear to
move or drift because there are no
surrounding cues to indicate that the
light is not moving
 Stroboscopic motion: rapid series of
still pictures will seem to be in motion
 Phi Phenomenon: lights turned on in
sequence appear to move
Other Factors that Influence Perception
 - Perceptual Set/Expectancy: tendency to perceive things a
certain way because their previous experiences or
expectations influence them
o Top-Down Processing: the use of preexisting
knowledge to organize individual features into a
unified whole
o Bottom-Up Processing: no expectancy to help
organize the perception, making bottom-up
processing more difficult in some respects
CHAPTER 4: CONSCIOUSNESS
WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness
- awareness of everything that is going on around you and
inside your own head at any given moment, which you use
to organize your behavior, including your thoughts,
sensations, and feelings
- In a cognitive neuroscience view, consciousness is
generated by a set of action potentials in the
communication among neurons just sufficient to produce
a specific perception, memory, or experience in our
awareness
- Waking consciousness: much of people’s time awake is
spent in which their thoughts, feelings, and sensations are
clear and organized, and they feel alert
Altered States of Consciousness
- occurs when there is a shift in the quality or pattern of
your mental activity such as daydreaming, being
hypnotized, or achieving a meditative state
- E.g. sleep, meditation, hypnotic trance, distorted
perceptions from mind-altering drugs
SLEEP
Biology of Sleep
- Sleep: one of the human body’s biological rhythms,
natural cycles of activity that the body must go through
- Circadian Rhythms: the sleep-wake cycle; comes from two
Latin words, circa (“about”) and diem (“day”); ultimately
controlled by the hypothalamus that influences the
glandular system
- Light ꜜ - Suprachiasmatic Nuclues – Pineal Gland –
Melatonin – Sleep – Awake – Melatonin – Pineal Gland –
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus – Light ꜛ
- Melatonin: may be linked to a healthier metabolism; it can
help who suffers from shift-work schedule
- Serotonin: it said to be part of sleep; since this
neurotransmitter is inhibitory, some receptors facilitate
some stages of sleep while others inhibit other stages
- Body Temperature: it plays a part in inducing sleep; higher
the body temperature, the more alert people are, the
lower the temperature, the sleepier they are
- Enough varies from person to person:
o Short Sleepers: needing only 4 to 5 hours of
sleep
o Long Sleepers: which they require more than 9
hours of sleep
- Sleep can also vary as we age. We seem to sleep less
during each night until the average length of sleep
approaches only 6 hours
- Amount of sleep needed may be partly genetically
determined. Additional sleep is needed when you are
under stress. As you age, you require less sleep
- Sleep rejuvenates the body and helps us recover from
stress, consolidate learning, and may promote
development of infants’ brains
- Microsleep: brief sidesteps into sleep lasting only seconds
SAYEN MADARANG
- Sleep Deprivation or Loss of Sleep: a serious problem,
which many people have without realizing it; having this
would prevent you from doing the complex tasks
- Consequences of not sleeping:
o It has a bad effect on mental and physical
functioning
o Symptoms of sleep deprivation includes
trembling hands, in-attention, staring off into
space, droopy eyelids, irritability, even
depression
o Increased risk of insulin resistance, which can
lead to diabetes
o Possible delays in the onset of puberty
- Theories of sleep:
o Adaptive Theory of Sleep: It proposes that
animals and humans evolved different sleep
patterns to avoid being present during their
predators’ normal hunting times, which typically
would be at night
o Restorative Theory of Sleep: states that sleep is
necessary to the physical health of the body.
During sleep, chemicals that were used up
during the day’s activities are replenished and
cellular damage is repaired
Stages of Sleep
- Two kinds of sleep:
o REM (Rapid Eye Movement): relatively
psychologically active type of sleep when most
of a person’s dreaming takes place; the
voluntary muscles are inhibited, meaning that
the person in REM sleep moves very little
o NREAM (Non-REM): sleep spans from lighter
stages to a much deeper, more restful kind of
sleep; the person’s body is free to move around
- Electroencephalograph (EEG): allows scientists to see the
brain wave activity as a person passes through the various
stages of sleep and to determine what type of sleep the
person has entered
o Alpha waves: brain waves that indicate a state
of relaxation or light sleep
o Theta waves: brain waves indicating the early
stages of sleep
o Delta waves: long, slow waves that indicate the
deepest stage of sleep
o Beta waves: wide awake and mentally active

- N1 (R&K Stage 1): light sleep
o may experience:
 hypnagogic images: hallucinations or
vivid visual events
 hypnic jerk: knees, legs, or whole body
jerks
- N2 (R&K Stage 2): sleep spindles
o sleep spindles: brief bursts of activity only
lasting a second or two
- N3 (R&K Stages 3 and 4): delta waves pronounced
o deepest stage of sleep: 50 percent or more of
waves are delta waves; body at lowest level of
functioning; time at which growth occurs
- REM sleep: is paradoxical sleep (high level of brain
activity); If wakened during REM sleep, sleepers almost
always report a dream.
o REM rebound: increased amounts of REM sleep
after being deprived of REM sleep on earlier
nights
- Typical night of sleep:
o Tend to undergo 5 cycles through the stages of
sleep
o First time in stage 4 sleep is usually the longest
o Sleep becomes longer as night wears on (last
REM period may be about 30 minutes)
Sleep Disorders
- Nightmares: bad dreams and some nightmares can be
utterly terrifying; it occurs during REM sleep (can only
move a little)
- Night Terror: essentially a state of panic experience while
sound asleep; it occurs during NREM sleep (can move
around freely)
- REM Behavior Disorder: mechanism that blocks the
movement of the voluntary muscles fails; allows the
person to thrash around, or even get up and act out
nightmares
- Sleep Paralysis: feeling of being conscious but unable to
move; occurs when a person passes between stages of
wakefulness and sleep; during these transitions, you may
be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few
minutes; one of the symptoms of narcolepsy; stress,
trauma, anxiety, and depression make sleep paralysis
more likely
SAYEN MADARANG
- Sleep walking or Somnambulism: episode of moving
around or walking around in one’s sleep occurs in deep
sleep (N3); more common among male children than
adults; most people do not remember what happened the
next day
- Insomnia: inability to get to sleep, stay asleep, or get a
good quality of sleep
o Causes of insomnia:
 Psychological: worrying, trying too
hard to sleep, having anxiety
 Physiological: too much caffeine,
indigestion, aches and pain
o Things to do to fall asleep:
 Consuming no caffeinated drinks or
foods that cause indigestion before
bedtime
 Taking medication for pain
 Dealing with anxieties in the daytime
rather than facing them at night
- Sleep Apnea: loud snoring in which the person stops
breathing for nearly half a minute or more; when
breathing stops, there will be a sudden silence, followed
shortly by a gasping sound as the person struggles to get
air into the lungs
o Obesity is often a primary cause of apnea
o Can cause heart problems as well as poor sleep
quality
- Narcolepsy: sleep disorder in which a person falls
immediately into REM sleep during the day without
warning called excessive daytime sleepiness (EDM)
o Results in the person falling asleep throughout
the day at inappropriate times and in
inappropriate places
o Sleep Attacks: may happen without warning
o Cataplexy: sudden loss of muscle tone; often
triggered by a strong emotion such as laughter
- Restless Leg Syndrome: uncomfortable sensations in legs
causing movement and loss of sleep
- Nocturnal leg cramps: painful cramps in calf or foot
muscles but can also occur in thighs or feet
- Hypersomnia: excessive daytime sleepiness
- Circadian rhythm disorders: caused by de-synchronization
between internal sleep-wake rhythms and the light-
darkness cycle
- Enuresis: urinating while asleep in bed
DREAMS
Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
- Freud believed that the problems of his patients stemmed
from conflicts and events that had been buried in their
unconscious minds since childhood
- He examined his patients dreams believing that conflicts,
events and desires of the past would be represented in
symbolic form in the dreams
o Manifest Content: the actual dream itself
o Latent Content: the true meaning of a dream
which was hidden; to Freud, most dreams’ latent
content was sexual in nature
The Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis
- A dream is merely another kind of thinking that occurs
when people sleep; it comes not from the outside world
but within people’s memories and experiences of the past
- Acetylcholine and the pons stimulate responses that lead
to dreaming
 o Reticular formation stimulates parts of the
cortex involved in memory, cortex then
synthesizes sources of stimulation into dreams
- Most likely dream of recent events the view that dreams
reflect activation of cognitive activity by the reticular
formation and synthesis of this activity into a pattern
Activation-Information-Mode Model (AIM)
- Hobson and colleagues tried to improve the hypothesis in
regards to the questions of the meaning of dreams
- This model explains that, when the brain is “making up” a
dream to explain its own activation, it uses meaningful bits
and pieces of the person’s experiences from the previous
day or the last few days rather than just random items
from memory
HYPNOSIS
What is hypnosis?
- Altered state of consciousness in which the person is
especially susceptible to suggestion
- state of highly focused attention or concentration, often
associated with relaxation, and heightened suggestibility
- There are three popular kinds of hypnosis:
o Street Hypnosis/Covert Hypnosis: an attempt to
communicate with another person’s unconscious
mind without informing the subject that they will
be hypnotized; it is also known as conversational
hypnosis or sleight of mouth
o Stage Hypnosis: hypnosis performed in front of
an audience for the purposes of entertainment,
usually in a theatre or club
o Hypnotherapy: a combination of hypnosis and
therapeutic intervention; the therapist leads the
patient to positive change while the patient is
deeply relaxed in a state of heightened
suggestibility called trance
- Four elements of hypnosis:
o hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is
being said
o person is told to relax and feel tired
o hypnotist tells the person to “let go” and accept
suggestions easily
o person is told to use vivid imagination
- Hypnotic Susceptibility: degree to which a person is a
good hypnotic subject, often makes use of a series of
ordered suggestions
- Using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans,
researchers discovered that people who were more likely
to be hypnotized show more activity in areas of the brain
concerned with executive control and attention
SAYEN MADARANG
- The hypnotist may only be a guide into a more relaxed
state, while the subject actually hypnotizes himself; people
cannot be hypnotized against their will
- Basic suggestion effect: the tendency to act as though
their behavior is automatic and out of their control; it
gives people an excuse to do things they might not
otherwise do because the burden of responsibility for their
actions fall on the hypnotist
Theories of Hypnosis
- Hypnosis as Dissociation (The Hidden Observer): one part
of the mind is aware of actions taking place (hypnotized
self). While the “hypnotized” part is not (the hidden
observer)
o The notion of people having a hidden observer is
that even when someone experiences deep
hypnosis, the individual still knows what he is
doing
- Hypnosis as Social-Role Playing (The Social Cognitive
Theory of Hypnosis): assumes that people who are
hypnotized are not in an altered state but are merely
playing the role expected of them in the situation
MEDITATION
What is meditation?
- Focusing consciousness to alter relationship between the
self and the environment
- Transcendental Meditation (TM): concentrate on
mantras; relaxation response
- Mindfulness Mediation (MM): focus on present versus
ruminate on problems
Biofeedback
- A system that provides information about a bodily
function in order to gain some control over it
- Biofeedback training (BFT): helps combat stress, tension,
and anxiety
- Electromyograph (EMG): monitors muscle tension
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
Psychoactive substances
- Drugs that distort perceptions and change moods
- Causes of substance abuse and dependence
o Experimentation
o Recommendation or observation of others
o Reinforcement by peers or positive effects
o Self-medication
o Genetic predisposition toward physiological
dependence