allows designing interventions to fix the causal-effect (with other hypotheses /predictions)
General scope: need to apply across a variety of different settings
How reliable is research?
Construct validity: Am i measuring the right construct?
makes sure that events that occur in research setting actually correspond to the theoretical construct
The extent to which the independent and dependent variables used in research correspond to the theoretical constructs under investigation
IVs and DVs must correspond to the intended constructs, and they must not correspond to other constructs
There are infinitely many ways to measure psychological constructs
How to measure psychological constructs:
self-report measures: rate on a scale
observational measure: record actions
archival measures: see past trends
performance measure: test scores/speed/…
physiological measure: brain activity
Internal validity: can i draw the correct conclusions about causality?
extent to which it can be concluded that changes in the independent variable actually caused changes (not any other cause) in the dependent variable in a research study
dependent on the research design
Gold standard of establishing causality is an experimental design:
A research design in which researchers randomly assign participants to different groups and manipulate one or more independent variables.
Random assignment: The procedure of assigning participants to different experimental groups so that every participant has exactly the same chance as every other participant of being in any given group.
Manipulation: Intentionally varying some factor as the independent variable in an experimental research design
External validity: makes sure that we can make claims about more than just the people in a study (generalize)
extent to which research results can be generalized to other appropriate people, times, and settings
Biological psychology:
The human nervous system
Includes:
peripheral nervous system (PNS)
somatic nervous system: control what brain ask of the body
cranial nerves: Emerge directly from the brain
spinal nerves: Emerge from the segments of the spinal cord.
autonomic nervous system
parasympathetic nervous system: The “rest-and-digest” system, conserving energy and promoting routine body maintenance
sympathetic nervous system: The “fight-or-flight” system, preparing the body for intense physical activity or perceived danger.
central nervous system (CNS):
Stress
Three dimensions of stress:
Psychological stress
Sympathetic nervous system reaction to stress
Hormonal reaction to stress
Psychological stress response
Psychological stress = perceived stress
appraisal theory:
Our emotional and physiological response to an event is not determined by the event itself, but by our interpretation or appraisal of it
Stress is a transaction between an individual and their environment
Step 1: Primary Appraisal: interpretation of the stressors → if dangerous → step 2
Initial evaluation
“Am I in trouble?”
Three possible outcomes:
Irrelevant
Benign–positive
Stressful
Three stressful appraisal forms:
Harm/loss (damage already sustained)
Threat (anticipated harm/loss)
Challenge (possibility for mastery or gain)
Step 2: Secondary Appraisal: analysis of the available resources
“What might and can I do?” → if efficient → cause stress
Different coping options are evaluated:
Will it accomplish what it is supposed to do?
Can I apply a particular strategy effectively?
What are the consequences of using that strategy?
Step3: Reappraisal: pacing and learning
“How has the situation changed?”
Usually based on new information or as a result of cognitive coping efforts
Sympathetic nervous system reaction to stress
Increase quickly and dropping quickly right after
Neurons and neural activity:
Neurons communicate using electrical signals (action potentials)
Action potentials form the basis of all neuronal communication
At the macro level, the firing rate reflects transmission of information
Even during sleep, there is only a small, ~15%, decrease in energy use
Energy to the brain is supplied as oxygen and glucose (sugar)
How to measure neural activity? with subtraction method
Most common use of fMRI is to apply the subtraction method to identify brain areas related to certain cognitive functions
Example use:
Why do people remember some words but not others?
Participants learned lists of words
Needed to make recognition decisions
Measure activity for remembered vs. forgotten words
subtraction method: minus the 2 scans to identify the differences
Connectivity analysis
Measurement of neural activity asks which areas are active when engaging with a specific task
Connectivity analysis asks which areas influence the activity of other areas
Cognitive Psychology
Cognition is the set of mental processes the mind uses to acquire, represents, and processes information about the world.
Cognitive abilities:
learning
memory
attention
perception
problem-solving
decision making
reasoning
language
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of how the mind acquires, represents, and processes information about the world
The defining feature of cognitive psychology is analyzing mental phenomena in terms of how the mind processes and represents information
The perspective and methods of cognitive psychology can be applied to all mental phenomena
Memory
Human memory is not precise, often it links related items and remember things that didnt exist
Schema: knowledge about what is typical of a given situation, event, location, etc
we forget things because:
Memory decay
Memories naturally “degrade” over time
Retrieval failure
Forgetting occurs due to the loss of available retrieval cues
Memory can feel like it is on the “tip-of-the-tongue”
With the right prompting, old memories can come back
Interference
Retrieval is competitive; memories interfere with each other
Target memory retrieval is blocked by competing memories
Memory is a reconstructive process
We take whatever comes back to mind and fill in the gaps.
Retrieving a past event engages the same brain mechanisms as imagining a future event
Through the reconstruction process, memories can get distorted
Recipe for false memories: Source monitoring framework
People must accept that the suggested event is plausible
People must create contextual information for the event, such as an image and a narrative
People must commit a source monitoring error, wrongly attributing their memory construction to personal experience
