Introduction to psychological theories
Lecture 1: The Science of Psychology (Ch 1)
Psychology is the study of the Soul. We, humans, are intuitive psychologist, we analyse our own
behaviour etc.
Heider&Simmel -> large triangle was chasing and attacking. The smaller triangle and circle were
collaborating. Attack human like behaviour to shapes, interpretation and understanding emotions.
Psychological science is the study through research of mind, brain and behaviour. Aimed at
understanding and predicting. Looking at behaviour (actions) and mind (mental activity). Mental
activity is produced by biological activity in the brain.
What is mind? Stuff of thought! Mental activities, perceptual experiences (sense) but also memories,
thoughts and feelings. Mind is not only thinking but also unobservable mental activities including
perceptions, memories and emotions.
What is behaviour? What we do. It can be observed but also interpretate it and understand it.
Many levels to study psychology -> groups vs individuals, behaviour vs brain activity and nature vs
nurture. The levels are complementary!
Culture = beliefs, values, rules and customs that exist within a group of people who share an area.
Nature/nurture debate = whether psychological characterisitics are biologically innate or acquired
through education, experience and culture.
Mind/body problem = psychological issue: are mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind
simply the physical brains subjective experience.
History of psychology:
- Dualism – Descartes -> separation of soul/mind and body! Identifying that psychological
processes are triggered in the body. Conscious efforts are not the domain of the body.
- Nature/Nurture debate -> held psychology back, believing that is either one or the other.
- Structuralism -> complex mental processes can be reduced to simples processes. Methods used
are reaction time (how long to identify something or decide, also in nowadays psychology!
Stroop test) and introspection (become yourself the subject of the experiment, inspect and
report the content of your thoughts; problem with introspection is that there is differences
between people, not a universal conclusion possible, also the process of describing is different. It
is not objective! Experience is subjective).
Wilhelm Wundt is a structuralist (physiology). Also Titchener.
- Functionalism -> concerned with the adaptive purpose/function of mind and behaviour. Mind is
more complex than its elements (synergy). William James is a functionalist (philosophy). The
mind came into existence over the course of human evolution. Adaptive purpose/function of
mind and behaviour. Evolution/adaptation (natural selection: Darwin): focus on the functions of
behaviour, the ways behaviour helps us to survive & reproduce.
Schools of thought => structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalytical theory, gestalt movement,
behaviourism, humanistic psychology and cognitivism.
Psychoanalytical approach: mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness (ego,
superego and ID). Unconscious drives. Many things we are not aware of and can influence our
behaviour. Idea from Freud, also outside of psychology. Attempt to bring contents of unconscious
into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed. Also used free association!
,Behaviourism: Only observable behaviour can be subject of scientific investigation. Focus should be
on how environment affects observable behaviour. Behaviour in response to environmental stimuli.
By Watson and Skinner
Gestalt => study subjective perceptions as a unified whole; not structuralist, cannot separate.
Principles guide visual perception: these explain how visual input is grouped into a coherent whole.
The whole is different from the sum of its parts. By Kohler.
Humanistic psychology: an approach focusing on basic goodness in people, achieving goals and
finding fulfilment. Now known as positive psychology -> gratitude, creativity. Overcome negative
circumstances. Maybe self-help even! Tempting that we create our own happiness but tricky to
blame an individual who is unhappy.
Cognitivism -> the cognitive revolution -> exploring mental process and influences by the progress in
computer science.
Cognitive neuroscience : follow up field. Neural mechanisms underlying thought, learning,
perception etc. Infer how the mind works by looking at behaviour. Neuroimaging made mind
observable. Link behaviour to the brain.
The scientific method:
-based on experience, observation, existing theories. Come up with a question and prediction.
-test that prediction against real measurement from the physical world, behaviour etc.
-make conclusion with regard to your questions, show support or lack of if for your prediction.
-update theory (repeat cycle, science always evolves), communicate to others etc.
Optimism bias -> tend to think we are better than others, not much but just above average.
Dunning-Kruger effect -> how good you think you at it and compared to the actual performance. Gap
between actual performance and thinking it! Not knowing what the gaps in your knowledge are, not
good because optimism bias there.
Availability heuristic: if something is easier to bring to mind/imagine or if we hear about something
more often (deadly shark or horse). We judge it as more probable!
The birthday paradox: difficulty with exponential growth. ‘’Rare’’ events given importance and self-
identity. You can’t imagine that someone shares it but it is common!
Common sense is often not common, nor can we rely on it to make sense. Our intuitions and even
perceptions are biased. The scientific method overcomes these problems so it is important.
There is conformation bias where you ignore evidence. Or seeing relationships that do not exist, this
can lead to superstitious behaviour. There is also hindsight bias: cannot predict future outcomes so
ignore it, there are after-the-fact explanations, give explanations of an outcome looking at old
evidence. Heuristic: taking mental shortcuts!
Consume psychological science with amiable scepticism -> traits that combines being open to ideas
and scientific findings but also being wary when good evidence and reasoning does not seem to
support this idea.
Contemporary psychology: new in psychology are biology (evolution), big data, computational
modelling, culture and interdisciplinary influences (crossing levels of analysis, intersection with
psychology). Also mental processes occur below level of conscious awareness is accepted.
,Evolution => genetic diversity. Mutation = variation. The benefits of sexual reproduction is that it
creates variation. The environment can influence that. Evolution has no foresight, it adapts to
environment as it comes about. Natural and sexual selection important. Sexual selection -> traits
that aid in the preproduction of the individual.
Psychology and evolution. Psychology is about behaviour and the brain. Evolution can provide
answers to why questions -> functionalism.
Functionalism -> what is a certain behavioural/physiological feature good for? Social behaviour or
just features.
Evolutionary misconceptions:
-deterministic fallacy: genes do not control or determine behaviour in a manner independent of
environmental influences.
-naturalistic fallacy: the mistake of explaining something as being good reductively, in terms of
natural properties such as pleasant or desirable.
-fallacy of optimal design
Evolution has no foresight!
Levels of analysis = biological, individual, social and cultural!
Quiz!!! – structuralism (describe parts of something) – behaviourism (environment affects behaviour)
– reproductive success, benefits of it, why is it valuable – availability bias
Summary;
Psychological science is the study of mind, brain and behaviour. Our common sense is often
wrong/biased. Scientific Method and evidence are required! Psychological sciences teaches critical
thinking. Psychology’s schools of thought reflect different perspectives on mind, brain and behaviour
with roots in structuralism and functionalism. Psychological science increasingly incorporates insights
from biology evolution and culture.
, Lecture 2: Basic Processes of Learning (Ch 6)
Vicarious learning – learning from other experiences – warm- up = C.
Environment is never constant, individuals must adapt to ever-changing conditions (behaviourism:
environment affects behaviour). Learning is an enduring change in behaviour that results from
experience.
There is nonassociative, associative and social (observational) learning.
Non-associative (habituation and sensitization) -> adaptation to environment. Getting used to
repeated exposure of certain stimuli, it can lead to a decrease behaviour, habituation: you get used
to it. Or increase behaviour, sensitization: you get more annoyed/sensitization. Learning because
change in behaviour. Habituation is not a good response when it is triggering like a fire alarm, need
to get more sensitized. There is individual variation.
The increase in a response because of a change in something familiar is dishabituation.
Associative (classical and operant conditioning) -> linking two events or stimuli! Conditioning come
in place, associate what does it lead to. Environmental stimuli and behavioural responses become
connected. The world is full of regularities. We learn connections between things. Superstition!
Associate things that happen close in time or behaviour that has a predictable outcome. Builds on
stimulus and that leads to response. Like reflexes – a stimulus leads to a response.
Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning) => respond to stimuli, create new reflexes from
existing reflexes! A reflex is a simple, automatic, stimulus-response sequence mediated by the
nervous system. Pair a new stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (acquisition, contiquity) leading
to an unconditioned response – create new reflexes! The neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned
stimulus and the unconditioned response becomes a conditioned response.
For a stimulus to be conditioned it must have a predictive value: precede unconditioned stimulus,
signal increased probability/ repeated pairing and there must not already be a better predictor!!!
The conditioned response can disappear because environment can change (unconditioned stimulus
not present)! Luckily there is extinction. But there is a trace in our memory so there can be
spontaneous recovery.
A stimulus needs to trigger a response (different tones but similar) – generalization (similar tones to
CS lead to CR) & discrimination (differentiate 2 similar stimuli).
Second-order conditioning -> conditioned responses can be learned even without the learner ever
associating the conditioned stimulus with the original unconditioned stimulus, it goes via another
conditioned stimulus.
Conditioning and evolution => Classic behaviourist view – humans and animals start as a blank slate:
tabula rasa. Any stimulus pair leads to conditioning equally and easily.
Modern view – more to evolutionary theory, conditioning occurs easily for stimulus pairs that are
relevant for survival (associate a taste with sickness, conditioned taste aversion).
Biological Preparedness -> animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects.
Rescorla-Wagner model = learning is determined by the extent to which a unconditioned stimulus is
unexpected or surprising. The difference between the expected and actual outcomes are prediction
errors, these can be positive or negative. Positive errors (unexpected is present) strengthen the
Lecture 1: The Science of Psychology (Ch 1)
Psychology is the study of the Soul. We, humans, are intuitive psychologist, we analyse our own
behaviour etc.
Heider&Simmel -> large triangle was chasing and attacking. The smaller triangle and circle were
collaborating. Attack human like behaviour to shapes, interpretation and understanding emotions.
Psychological science is the study through research of mind, brain and behaviour. Aimed at
understanding and predicting. Looking at behaviour (actions) and mind (mental activity). Mental
activity is produced by biological activity in the brain.
What is mind? Stuff of thought! Mental activities, perceptual experiences (sense) but also memories,
thoughts and feelings. Mind is not only thinking but also unobservable mental activities including
perceptions, memories and emotions.
What is behaviour? What we do. It can be observed but also interpretate it and understand it.
Many levels to study psychology -> groups vs individuals, behaviour vs brain activity and nature vs
nurture. The levels are complementary!
Culture = beliefs, values, rules and customs that exist within a group of people who share an area.
Nature/nurture debate = whether psychological characterisitics are biologically innate or acquired
through education, experience and culture.
Mind/body problem = psychological issue: are mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind
simply the physical brains subjective experience.
History of psychology:
- Dualism – Descartes -> separation of soul/mind and body! Identifying that psychological
processes are triggered in the body. Conscious efforts are not the domain of the body.
- Nature/Nurture debate -> held psychology back, believing that is either one or the other.
- Structuralism -> complex mental processes can be reduced to simples processes. Methods used
are reaction time (how long to identify something or decide, also in nowadays psychology!
Stroop test) and introspection (become yourself the subject of the experiment, inspect and
report the content of your thoughts; problem with introspection is that there is differences
between people, not a universal conclusion possible, also the process of describing is different. It
is not objective! Experience is subjective).
Wilhelm Wundt is a structuralist (physiology). Also Titchener.
- Functionalism -> concerned with the adaptive purpose/function of mind and behaviour. Mind is
more complex than its elements (synergy). William James is a functionalist (philosophy). The
mind came into existence over the course of human evolution. Adaptive purpose/function of
mind and behaviour. Evolution/adaptation (natural selection: Darwin): focus on the functions of
behaviour, the ways behaviour helps us to survive & reproduce.
Schools of thought => structuralism, functionalism, psychoanalytical theory, gestalt movement,
behaviourism, humanistic psychology and cognitivism.
Psychoanalytical approach: mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness (ego,
superego and ID). Unconscious drives. Many things we are not aware of and can influence our
behaviour. Idea from Freud, also outside of psychology. Attempt to bring contents of unconscious
into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed. Also used free association!
,Behaviourism: Only observable behaviour can be subject of scientific investigation. Focus should be
on how environment affects observable behaviour. Behaviour in response to environmental stimuli.
By Watson and Skinner
Gestalt => study subjective perceptions as a unified whole; not structuralist, cannot separate.
Principles guide visual perception: these explain how visual input is grouped into a coherent whole.
The whole is different from the sum of its parts. By Kohler.
Humanistic psychology: an approach focusing on basic goodness in people, achieving goals and
finding fulfilment. Now known as positive psychology -> gratitude, creativity. Overcome negative
circumstances. Maybe self-help even! Tempting that we create our own happiness but tricky to
blame an individual who is unhappy.
Cognitivism -> the cognitive revolution -> exploring mental process and influences by the progress in
computer science.
Cognitive neuroscience : follow up field. Neural mechanisms underlying thought, learning,
perception etc. Infer how the mind works by looking at behaviour. Neuroimaging made mind
observable. Link behaviour to the brain.
The scientific method:
-based on experience, observation, existing theories. Come up with a question and prediction.
-test that prediction against real measurement from the physical world, behaviour etc.
-make conclusion with regard to your questions, show support or lack of if for your prediction.
-update theory (repeat cycle, science always evolves), communicate to others etc.
Optimism bias -> tend to think we are better than others, not much but just above average.
Dunning-Kruger effect -> how good you think you at it and compared to the actual performance. Gap
between actual performance and thinking it! Not knowing what the gaps in your knowledge are, not
good because optimism bias there.
Availability heuristic: if something is easier to bring to mind/imagine or if we hear about something
more often (deadly shark or horse). We judge it as more probable!
The birthday paradox: difficulty with exponential growth. ‘’Rare’’ events given importance and self-
identity. You can’t imagine that someone shares it but it is common!
Common sense is often not common, nor can we rely on it to make sense. Our intuitions and even
perceptions are biased. The scientific method overcomes these problems so it is important.
There is conformation bias where you ignore evidence. Or seeing relationships that do not exist, this
can lead to superstitious behaviour. There is also hindsight bias: cannot predict future outcomes so
ignore it, there are after-the-fact explanations, give explanations of an outcome looking at old
evidence. Heuristic: taking mental shortcuts!
Consume psychological science with amiable scepticism -> traits that combines being open to ideas
and scientific findings but also being wary when good evidence and reasoning does not seem to
support this idea.
Contemporary psychology: new in psychology are biology (evolution), big data, computational
modelling, culture and interdisciplinary influences (crossing levels of analysis, intersection with
psychology). Also mental processes occur below level of conscious awareness is accepted.
,Evolution => genetic diversity. Mutation = variation. The benefits of sexual reproduction is that it
creates variation. The environment can influence that. Evolution has no foresight, it adapts to
environment as it comes about. Natural and sexual selection important. Sexual selection -> traits
that aid in the preproduction of the individual.
Psychology and evolution. Psychology is about behaviour and the brain. Evolution can provide
answers to why questions -> functionalism.
Functionalism -> what is a certain behavioural/physiological feature good for? Social behaviour or
just features.
Evolutionary misconceptions:
-deterministic fallacy: genes do not control or determine behaviour in a manner independent of
environmental influences.
-naturalistic fallacy: the mistake of explaining something as being good reductively, in terms of
natural properties such as pleasant or desirable.
-fallacy of optimal design
Evolution has no foresight!
Levels of analysis = biological, individual, social and cultural!
Quiz!!! – structuralism (describe parts of something) – behaviourism (environment affects behaviour)
– reproductive success, benefits of it, why is it valuable – availability bias
Summary;
Psychological science is the study of mind, brain and behaviour. Our common sense is often
wrong/biased. Scientific Method and evidence are required! Psychological sciences teaches critical
thinking. Psychology’s schools of thought reflect different perspectives on mind, brain and behaviour
with roots in structuralism and functionalism. Psychological science increasingly incorporates insights
from biology evolution and culture.
, Lecture 2: Basic Processes of Learning (Ch 6)
Vicarious learning – learning from other experiences – warm- up = C.
Environment is never constant, individuals must adapt to ever-changing conditions (behaviourism:
environment affects behaviour). Learning is an enduring change in behaviour that results from
experience.
There is nonassociative, associative and social (observational) learning.
Non-associative (habituation and sensitization) -> adaptation to environment. Getting used to
repeated exposure of certain stimuli, it can lead to a decrease behaviour, habituation: you get used
to it. Or increase behaviour, sensitization: you get more annoyed/sensitization. Learning because
change in behaviour. Habituation is not a good response when it is triggering like a fire alarm, need
to get more sensitized. There is individual variation.
The increase in a response because of a change in something familiar is dishabituation.
Associative (classical and operant conditioning) -> linking two events or stimuli! Conditioning come
in place, associate what does it lead to. Environmental stimuli and behavioural responses become
connected. The world is full of regularities. We learn connections between things. Superstition!
Associate things that happen close in time or behaviour that has a predictable outcome. Builds on
stimulus and that leads to response. Like reflexes – a stimulus leads to a response.
Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning) => respond to stimuli, create new reflexes from
existing reflexes! A reflex is a simple, automatic, stimulus-response sequence mediated by the
nervous system. Pair a new stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (acquisition, contiquity) leading
to an unconditioned response – create new reflexes! The neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned
stimulus and the unconditioned response becomes a conditioned response.
For a stimulus to be conditioned it must have a predictive value: precede unconditioned stimulus,
signal increased probability/ repeated pairing and there must not already be a better predictor!!!
The conditioned response can disappear because environment can change (unconditioned stimulus
not present)! Luckily there is extinction. But there is a trace in our memory so there can be
spontaneous recovery.
A stimulus needs to trigger a response (different tones but similar) – generalization (similar tones to
CS lead to CR) & discrimination (differentiate 2 similar stimuli).
Second-order conditioning -> conditioned responses can be learned even without the learner ever
associating the conditioned stimulus with the original unconditioned stimulus, it goes via another
conditioned stimulus.
Conditioning and evolution => Classic behaviourist view – humans and animals start as a blank slate:
tabula rasa. Any stimulus pair leads to conditioning equally and easily.
Modern view – more to evolutionary theory, conditioning occurs easily for stimulus pairs that are
relevant for survival (associate a taste with sickness, conditioned taste aversion).
Biological Preparedness -> animals are genetically programmed to fear specific objects.
Rescorla-Wagner model = learning is determined by the extent to which a unconditioned stimulus is
unexpected or surprising. The difference between the expected and actual outcomes are prediction
errors, these can be positive or negative. Positive errors (unexpected is present) strengthen the
