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

Analysis in Participant Observation

The final report will depend on a thorough job of collecting and analyzing information, in which only meaningful data are included. But to reach that point, one must pass through successive descriptive and interpretative phases, which are reflected in different types of field notes, culminating in the final report. This process can be summarized as follows:

Types of Field Notes

• Immediate Notes: These include all kinds of notes on what the observer sees, hears, or feels. They are concise, spontaneous, and sometimes include multiple keywords taken behind the observed subject. It is important to stress the verbatim record of the terms used by people observed (technical language, specific jargon, etc.), distinct

Precautions in Qualitative Observation

It is impossible to observe all phenomena that occur in selected scenarios. Events that occur less frequently can only be captured by a lucky or very careful choice of situations. One way to counter this problem is to extend the fieldwork.

Reliability problems arise from differences among various observers and the evolution of the researchers themselves. Criteria should be set for specific observation, and reviewing the journals of the field to carry out self-observation is recommended.

Denzin talks about some possible threats to internal validity:

• Historical factors that occurred before the observation, the disregard of which can cause errors of interpretation. It is proposed to use documents and interviews

McClelland's Needs Theory of Motivation

David McClelland, a prominent psychologist, argued that all individuals possess three fundamental needs that drive their behavior and motivation. These needs are not inherent but are learned and developed over time through culture and life experiences. The intensity of these needs varies from person to person.

The Three Core Needs

• Need for Achievement (nAch): This refers to an individual's desire to excel, achieve in relation to a set of standards, and strive for success. It's the drive to accomplish challenging tasks and attain a high level of performance.
• Need for Power (nPow): This refers to the need to make others behave in a way they would not otherwise. It concerns the desire to have impact, influence,

**Principles of Personality**

An individual's personality comprises attributes that represent ongoing behavior. These attributes may be acquired through unique personal experiences or shared experiences with others. They can also result from hereditary influence or the interaction of heredity and environment.

**General Factors Influencing Personality**

Regardless of the theory proposed to explain personality, two general factors influence its development: a person's experiences within their environment and the individual's hereditary basis.

**Environmental Experience**

Experiences within a person's surrounding environment can significantly affect the development of personality characteristics. These experiences can be unique to an individual or... Continue reading "Understanding Personality: Factors, Development, and Freud's Theory" »

Observational Learning

Social Cognitive Theory

Social cognitive theory argues that much human learning occurs in the social environment. By observing and imitating others, human beings acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes, etc.

Components of Social Cognitive Theory

Bandura synthesizes elements of reinforcement schemes and the theory of information processing.

Conduct + Personal Factors + Environment

Another basic component of this theory is Bandura's distinction between active learning and vicarious learning. While active learning is learning by doing, vicarious learning is learning by watching others.

Vicarious learning accelerates behavior and helps avoid negative consequences.

Bandura distinguishes well between the acquisition of knowledge (learning)

Brain Hemispheres

Left Hemisphere

Receives information from the right side of the body. Dominates verbal tasks such as identification of spoken words and written speech.

Right Hemisphere

Receives information from the left side of the body. Involved in visual-spatial tasks, non-verbal imagery (visual images, music, environmental noise), face recognition, and the perception and expression of emotions.

Brain Lobes

Occipital Lobe

Receives and processes visual information. Involved in experiencing shapes, color, and motion in the environment.

Temporal Lobe

Involved in visual tasks like face recognition, processing smell, receiving and processing information from the ears, helping with body balance, and regulating emotions and motivations like anxiety, pleasure,... Continue reading "Brain Structure and Memory Functions" »

Behaviorism

Appendix: Characteristics of Science

The criticisms that have been made of psychoanalysis have focused on the fundamental idea that psychoanalysis is not adapted to the requirements for a theory to be characterized as scientific. We shall therefore look very briefly at these requirements before continuing with the various trends in psychology.

Aside from the problem that creates the division between empirical and experimental sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and human or social sciences, there are a number of basic issues that science must share:

1. They deal with phenomena occurring in the physical world.
2. They begin with some common assumptions:
   • Determinism: It is assumed that the world, particularly the object of study of each discipline,

Learning styles are cognitive, affective, and physiological indicators of how learners perceive, interact with, and respond to their learning environments.

Understanding Learning Styles

When we discuss learning styles, we consider cognitive traits, including insights from cognitive psychology that explain individual differences in knowledge acquisition. This characteristic cognitive aspect is expressed as cognitive styles.

Key Cognitive Factors in Learning Styles

Four key areas help us define these cognitive factors:

• Field Dependence-Independence
• Conceptualization and Categorization
• Reflexivity versus Impulsivity
• Sensory Modalities

Field Dependence-Independence Explained

The factor of field dependence-independence has been studied by many authors who... Continue reading "Understanding Individual Learning Styles for Effective Education" »

Characteristics of the Self in Preschool Years

Children in preschool tend to describe themselves based on observable attributes.

Egocentrism

According to Piaget, egocentrism is the inability to understand another person's perspective.

Schemas and Scripts

Schemas and scripts help children organize and recall events in a structured way.

Self-Esteem

Self-esteem develops from a concrete understanding to a more abstract and multi-dimensional one.

Operational Thinking

False: Operational thinking is not characterized by irreversibility of thought.

Event Schemas

Temporal relationships connect the elements of an event schema or script.

Self-Concept (2-6 years)

False: Children between 2 and 6 years old are not typically hypercritical of themselves.

Reversibility

Reversibility,... Continue reading "Child Development: Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth in Preschool Years" »

Spiritual Materialism

The spiritual monist conception of human beings is the opposite of materialistic monism. According to spiritualists, also called idealists, all reality is mental. What we call matter is simply a creation of the mind. Thus, the human being is conceived as a mind that perceives itself as being. These beings, including their own bodies, only exist as perceptions of the mind. In Berkeley's philosophy, reality is to perceive or be perceived. It makes no sense to speak of the existence of the body or matter as independent of the mind because all we can say about material reality comes from our perception of it. This idealistic argument will be continued in the 19th century in the philosophy of Hegel.

Intermediate Monism

The Dutch... Continue reading "Understanding the Human Being: A Philosophical and Scientific Exploration of Mind and Body" »