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

Early Study of Non-Verbal Signals

Since 1914 to 1940, there was considerable interest in how people communicate through facial expressions.

Disciplines in Communication Study

The investigation of communication draws from 5 disciplines: psychology, psychiatry, anthropology, sociology, and ethology.

Culture Shapes Non-Verbal Cues

We take for granted premises about masculinity and femininity that originate from culture. Human culture can provide behavior patterns consistent or not consistent with the gender of the individual. Conventions, such as how people dress or style their hair, also help convey cultural norms.

Gender, Culture, and Behavior Patterns

Studies of three different tribes showed variations in gender roles. In one, both sexes were ferocious... Continue reading "Understanding Non-Verbal Communication Research" »

Scope and Limits of Corpus Formation

Formation of a shared corpus by psychologists: selection and hierarchy of criteria according to the public. Theoretical and methodological explanations advance in a clear direction.

Limits:

• Generally qualitative
• Primarily fit-adaptive systems assessed by the extent to which they describe and explain behavior

The Experimental Method in Psychology

Aims to discover the effects of one variable on another.

• Dependent variables: Observed behavior or effect.
• Independent variables: The treatment manipulated by the researcher.

Beginning with a scientifically solvable problem, a hypothesis is proposed and empirically verified (numerically). During the experiment, data collection is performed using measuring instruments.

Limitations:

Understanding Motivation: Definition and Core Concepts

Motivation is the reason or purpose for which an individual feels the impulse to act in a certain way and achieve a goal. Sometimes there are several causes for the same behavior, and sometimes one cause creates several behaviors.

The Motivation Process

The motivation process is a personal feeling that the individual experiences. While internal, it occurs externally through behavior. One can speak of motivation as a process involving five key stages:

1. Need: A need is born.
2. Tension: An imbalance between what we want and what we have.
3. Impetus (Impulse): An impulse arises that leads to trying to satisfy the created need.
4. Behavior: The individual performs an action to cover the need.
5. Satisfaction: The

Emotional Reactions to Health Loss

Emotional reactions to the loss of health are frequent and varied. Common reactions include:

• Anxiety: Feelings of worry or fear.
• Aggressiveness: Displays of rage.

When faced with unpleasant emotions, people often employ psychological strategies known as defense mechanisms. These are automatic, unconscious reactions to emotionally challenging situations, designed to help individuals cope.

Common Defense Mechanisms

• Denial: Refusing to acknowledge the reality of the situation.
• Manic Defense: Reacting with excessive excitement or happiness to mask distress. These two mechanisms are common initially but tend to fade as the illness becomes more apparent.
• Repression: Suppressing awareness of the illness.
• Regression: Adopting

Language Localization and Brain Areas

Language localization: Identification of circuits involved in language-related activities within the hemispheres. The Wernicke-Geschwind model influences the cortical localization of language.

Wernicke's Area

An area of the left temporal cortex; Wernicke's area is considered the center of language comprehension.

Expressive Language

Concerning the production of language, related to writing or speaking.

Broca's Aphasia

A disorder of speech production without a deficit related to language comprehension. For example, a patient asked about a dental appointment responds with choppy and unintelligible speech: "Yes ... Monday ... and Dick Pope ... Wednesday at nine o'clock in the morning ... and at ten in the morning... Continue reading "Language Localization: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas Explained" »

Understanding Key Theories of Intelligence

The Triarchic Theory by Sternberg is composed of the componential subtheory (process data acquisition, process implementation, and metacomponents), the experiential subtheory (intelligence operation applied to new experiences and automaticity), and the contextual subtheory (practical intelligence: selection, modification, and adaptation as basic mechanisms of operation). The primary focus of this theory is to determine the functioning of intelligence.

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Gardner, proposes various types of intelligence. Each type has distinct features and functions, which can be described, explained, and evaluated independently.

This theory presents a pluralistic conception of the... Continue reading "Understanding Sternberg, Gardner, and Feuerstein's Theories of Intelligence" »

Theoretical Estimates

Rationalism

Rationalism: All we know is already in our minds at birth. Learning is an upgrade of that knowledge. The environment acts as a trigger.

Evolutionary Psychology

Nativist approaches. Representatives: Chomsky.

Partnership

Knowledge is the mental representation of the associations observed in the external world. The basis of knowledge is sensory experience: Empiricism.

• Neoassociationism: Partnerships between mental events.
• Connectionism: Representing knowledge as multiple, massive, and distributed (meta fora of the brain).

Constructivism

Synthesis between rationalism and partnerships. Sources of knowledge: the innate and the empirical. The resulting internal representations of actions in the world are active constructions.... Continue reading "Understanding Theoretical Estimates in Human Development" »

The Landscape of Emotional Life

• Affective processes (emotions and feelings)
• Affective states (mood and bodily states)

Defining Emotion

Emotion is an internal emotional reaction of some duration, with a beginning and an end, directed toward an object (concrete or abstract). It is classified as positive or negative (pleasure vs. displeasure) and accompanies cognition and learning.

Key characteristics of emotion include:

1. No universally accepted definition.
2. Accompanied by autonomic, endocrine, and skeletomotor responses.
3. Dependence on subcortical areas such as the hypothalamus and brainstem (e.g., amygdala).

Key Affective Concepts

Affective Process

A psychological experience or response with a beginning and an end, aimed at a specific object.

Affective State

A... Continue reading "Neurobiology of Emotion: Brain Mechanisms and Theories" »

Personality: Key Aspects

Personality encompasses the total sum of inherited and acquired psychic qualities that are characteristic of a person, making them unique. It can be understood through three main components:

1. Total Psychic Qualities: The inherited and acquired psychic qualities that define an individual and make them unique.
2. Temperament: A person's reaction to stimuli, stemming from their constitutional psychic abilities and qualities, as the way a person reacts depends basically on their inheritance.
3. Character: The distinctive behavior patterns characteristic of an individual.

Understanding Culture

The term culture refers to the lifestyle of any society, not just to areas that society considers higher or more desirable. There is no society... Continue reading "Human Nature: Personality, Culture, and Fundamental Needs" »