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

Understanding Learning

Learning is the process through which new skills, abilities, knowledge, behaviors, or values are acquired as a result of study, experience, training, and observation.

Importance of Learning

This process can be analyzed from different perspectives. Learning is crucial as it enables individuals to acquire skills and knowledge, shaping their understanding of the world and influencing their future actions and goals.

Effects of Learning

A more direct way to verify the effects that learning to read has on the brain is studied by imaging the brains of children who are learning to read.

Modes of Learning

From a practical perspective, learning can be classified according to the aspects it encompasses. These may include:

• Cognitive aspects

The Superego: The Moral Compass of Personality

The superego represents the judicial branch or moral component of personality. It embodies societal standards and cultural values that individuals internalize. Internalization means integrating external values into one's own personality. The superego comprises two subsystems: the ego ideal and conscience.

Ego Ideal and Conscience

The ego ideal encompasses goals, objectives, and all positively valued behaviors deemed morally acceptable. Conscience, conversely, refers to everything negatively evaluated or rejected.

The superego operates both unconsciously and consciously, potentially causing anxiety and guilt.

The superego dictates what *not* to do, often without providing explanations. This is similar... Continue reading "Understanding the Id, Ego, and Superego in Psychology" »

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Physiological Needs

These fundamental needs include air, water, food, sleep, rest, elimination of waste, avoidance of pain, and sexuality. They are individual and somatic (bodily), making them distinct from other needs. They are also relatively independent of one another and are the first needs that humans strive to satisfy.

Safety Needs

Once physiological needs are met, the focus shifts to safety, protection, and stability. This involves addressing fears and anxieties. Children, with less control over their environment, are particularly vulnerable and require a safe and supportive environment to develop confidence and protect them from negative experiences.

Love and Belonging Needs (Social Needs)

After physiological... Continue reading "Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Personal Identity Development" »

Piaget and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood

Piaget: Cognitive changes ages 3 to 6

According to Piaget, cognitive changes that occur in childhood with regard to children ages 3 to 6 years are: B — is a more decentered thinking; it addresses changes in objects and operations that can be reversible.

Operational thinking: classes and seriation

In operational thinking. The mental operations that occur are: B — the logic of classes and seriation.

Sensorimotor period: primary circular reactions

With respect to Piaget's sensorimotor period we can mention: C — primary circular reactions, actions performed on the child's own body that are fortuitous.

Young child and false belief about candy location

One child under 4 years, on noticing that two

Direct Observation in Social Research

Introduction

Direct observation is a crucial data collection technique in social research, providing insights into the socio-cultural realities of communities and social groups. It involves observing and recording behaviors and events within a specific context.

What is Direct Observation?

Direct observation involves one or more researchers watching and recording events as they unfold in a natural setting. From a social research perspective, it's a method of gathering information using the senses to perceive and document social realities and behaviors within the context where they naturally occur (physical and cultural-social environment).

Two key characteristics of effective direct observation are:

• Intentional:

The Purpose of Scientific Activity

• Describe: What happens, how it works. Increases experiential knowledge (descriptive).
• Explain: Why is it? Why does it happen? Invents concepts, theories, and models, increasingly global, to explain what we describe.
• Predict: What will happen if...? Use and test the explanations to enhance our experiential knowledge.

The Nature of Scientific Knowledge

Scientific knowledge cannot be presented as a set of concepts, theories, and models already finalized. This set is the answer to problems and questions, and it is based on and confirmed by data, evidence, and prior knowledge. Scientific knowledge is not valid if it is not based on evidence.

Definition of Competence

Competence: The ability to implement, in an integrated... Continue reading "Fundamentals of Scientific Knowledge and Pedagogical Practice" »

The Scientific Method and Measurement

1. The Scientific Method

Scientific work describes the laws of nature through a valid and reliable process known as the scientific method.

1.2. Developing a Hypothesis

A scientific hypothesis is an assumption that must meet the following conditions:

• It must refer to a real situation.
• It must be stated as accurately as possible, using specific variables.
• The relationship between the hypothesis variables must be observable and measurable.

1.3 The Experiment

An experiment involves repeating the observation of a phenomenon under controlled conditions, sometimes replicating situations that do not occur naturally.

Variables in an Experiment

A variable is a factor whose change influences the results of an experiment.

A control... Continue reading "Scientific Method and Measurement Principles" »

Psychological Therapies

Definition:

It is a working relationship between a therapist and a client to develop more satisfying ways of being in the world.

Treatment Techniques:

1. Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud

   • Concept of Pathology: Instinctual conflicts that are beyond the reach of consciousness.
   • Objectives: To reveal the meaning of the unconscious.

   • Techniques:

     1. Free Association:

        The patient informs the therapist of their thoughts and memories that come to mind, regardless of their perceived importance. This facilitates the surfacing of repressed memories and desires for conscious acceptance.

     2. Interpretation of Dreams:

        Repressed desires during wakefulness are manifested in dreams in a disguised form.

     3. Transference:

        The patient transfers to the therapist hostility,

Defining Social Psychology

Defining a discipline characterized by a great diversity of fields and a rapid pace of change is challenging. However, it can be defined as the scientific field that seeks to understand the nature and causes of individual behavior and thinking in social situations.

Is Social Psychology a Science?

The term science refers not to a select group of highly advanced disciplines, but rather to a variety of methods. Therefore, when deciding whether a particular field is scientific, we must ask if it uses scientific procedures. To the extent that a discipline uses these methods, it can be viewed as scientifically oriented.

Conversely, disciplines not generally seen as scientific often make statements about the natural world and... Continue reading "Understanding Social Psychology: Behavior and Thought" »

Philosophical Perspectives on the Human Being

Monism

Monism posits that the human being is a unitary entity. Within this view, there are two opposing perspectives:

• Behavioral Monism: Human action, including responses to external stimuli, is the primary focus of study.
• Reductive Monism: All mental states are ultimately neurophysiological states.

Functionalism

Functionalism suggests that mental processes are not defined by their physical substance (like neurons) but by the function they perform, such as computing or thinking.

Emergentism

Emergentism offers a synthesis of monism and dualism. It proposes that mental states emerge from physical states but possess properties that are distinct from them.

Personalism

This view emphasizes the unity of the human... Continue reading "Human Behavior: Philosophical and Psychological Foundations" »