Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Psychology and Sociology

Classical Conditioning and Pavlovian Learning

• Definition: Learning through association, pioneered by Ivan Pavlov (1904 Nobel Prize).
• The Procedure: The famous experiment involving a dog, a bell, and food.
• The Four Pillars:
  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Naturally triggers a response.
  • Unconditioned Response (UCR): Natural reaction to the UCS.
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Previously neutral stimulus that triggers a response after pairing.
  • Conditioned Response (CR): Learned response to the CS.
• Principles:
  • Acquisition: The initial pairing phase.
  • Extinction: When the CS no longer triggers the CR.
  • Generalization: Reacting to stimuli similar to the CS.
• Application: Understanding phobias and celebrity branding in advertising.

Operant Conditioning and Skinner’s Theory

• Reinforcement:

Understanding Well-being and Personal Growth

Happiness: A Fleeting State

Happiness: A state of well-being and contentment characterized by feelings of joy, satisfaction, and pleasure. It is often seen as a temporary emotional state.

Fulfillment: A Deeper Sense of Purpose

Fulfillment: A deeper sense of satisfaction and contentment that comes from living a meaningful life, achieving personal goals, and feeling that one’s life has purpose. Fulfillment is more enduring and long-term compared to happiness.

Key Concepts for Well-being

Joy:

A feeling of great pleasure and happiness.

Gratitude:

A feeling of thankfulness and appreciation.

Relationships:

Connections or associations between individuals or groups.

Goals:

Desired outcomes or targets that individuals

Cognition, Perception, and Knowledge

• Cognition: The processes a system uses to acquire, store, represent, use, and respond to signals/information from the body and environment (e.g., body signals, environmental stimuli).

• Cognition: The mental operations that support people’s acquisition and use of knowledge.

• Conscious Cognition: Thought processes we are aware of, such as reasoning, decision-making, and problem-solving.

• Non-conscious Cognition: Mental processes that occur automatically, without conscious awareness, such as perception, memory retrieval, and habitual actions.

• All aspects of cognition are... INTERTWINED

• Top-down Processing: Processes (i.e., knowledge-based; e.g., thought and motivations) influence what we detect, attend to, and perceive!

1. Why is the Brain a "Miser"?

• The brain is often described as a "miser" because it strives to conserve cognitive resources and minimize mental energy expenditure. This principle, known as **cognitive miserliness**, refers to how the brain prefers using shortcuts and simplified processes to make decisions and respond to the world efficiently. It avoids complex, energy-consuming tasks whenever possible. This approach affects consumer behavior as shoppers tend to make decisions based on intuition and ease rather than through extensive deliberation.

Three Strategies of Cognitive Miserliness

• Efficiency

  Our brain uses heuristics, or mental shortcuts, to simplify decision-making processes. This includes reliance on quick judgments and familiar patterns

Understanding Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is the set of shared norms and values that govern interactions among members of the organization and between them and external stakeholders such as suppliers and customers.

Core Components of Culture

• Values: These are general principles that guide people in distinguishing desirable behaviors, events, situations, and outcomes from undesirable ones.
• Norms: These are behavioral standards or styles considered acceptable within a group of people.

Culture Transmission: Socialization and Tactics

Organizational culture is primarily transmitted through socialization. Socialization is the process through which members learn and internalize the organizational culture.

The 12 socialization tactics significantly... Continue reading "Organizational Culture: Understanding Socialization & Newcomer Integration" »

Jackson and Cox's Three Experimental Designs

Jackson and Cox describe three primary types of experimental designs:

Lab Experiments

Lab experiments are designed to manipulate both the social networks within which exchanges will be undertaken, as well as the form of social exchange.

Strengths:

• Manipulation of independent variables indicates cause-and-effect relationships.
• Increased control and accurate measurement.
• Standardized procedures allow for replication.

Weaknesses:

• Total control over all variables is not possible.
• Artificial conditions may produce unnatural behavior that lacks ecological validity.
• Results are likely to be biased by sampling, demand characteristics, and experimenter expectancy.
• May raise ethical concerns, such as deception.

Field Experiments

A... Continue reading "Understanding Experimental Designs: Lab, Field, and Survey Methods" »

Research Ethics: Core Principles & Case Studies

Ethical Violations: Critical Case Studies – Examples to understand in detail:

• The Little Albert Study – Classical conditioning of fear in a child without informed consent; no debriefing; potential long-term harm; lack of parental protection; poor beneficence and justice.

• The Bobo Doll Study – Exposed children to aggressive behavior; lack of parental consent (in early days); potential modeling of harm; possible psychological distress.

• The Stanford Prison Experiment – Psychological harm; lack of informed consent for extreme conditions; poor withdrawal rights; deception.

Belmont Report Principles

• Respect for Persons (Autonomy, Informed Consent)

• Beneficence (Maximize Benefits, Minimize Harm)

• Justice

Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory Concepts

A key concept in this theory is the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which refers to the difference between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance. Within this zone, learning is most effective because the learner is challenged but supported. Related to ZPD is the role of a More Knowledgeable Other (MKO)—someone, such as a teacher, parent, or peer, who provides assistance and guidance tailored to the learner’s current level. This support is often called scaffolding, where help is gradually withdrawn as the learner gains competence.

Vygotsky also highlighted the importance of language and thought. Language serves as the primary tool of cognitive development, allowing... Continue reading "Major Theories and Concepts in Developmental Psychology" »

Traditional School Policies and Their Drawbacks:

• Zero-tolerance discipline policy: Doesn’t give adolescents the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and make better choices next time.
• Emotionally flat classroom climate: Ignores or suppresses the youthful exuberance of the limbic system, thus inhibiting potential positive linkages between the emotional brain and the prefrontal cortex.
• Ban on social media apps in the classroom: Limits a potentially useful medium through which peers can learn from one another.
• More homework, tougher requirements, and a longer school day: Creates stress that can impair mental and physical health at a time when the adolescent is particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of stress.
• Early start time for the

Logical Fallacies in Arguments

1. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (False Cause)

The documentary suggests that because certain events happened beforehand (for example, military exercises on the same day or NORAD failures), they caused or prove the existence of a conspiracy. 📖 The document defines this fallacy as mistaking temporal sequence for causation. Essential fallacies essentially…

• 💡 Example: “There were military drills on 9/11, therefore those drills were designed to make the attacks possible.”

2. Ad Ignorantiam (Appeal to Ignorance)

The film argues that “since it hasn’t been proven that explosives weren’t used, then they must have been.” 📖 This fallacy assumes that lack of disproof is proof. Essential fallacies essentially…

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