Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and exercises for Psychology and sociology for University

Root Causes and Characteristics of Problems

Problems usually result from the following factors:

• Poor Communication

  Conversations become frustrated or fail to reach a mutual understanding.

• Unknowns (Insufficient Information)

  This occurs due to insufficient or missing information.

• Incorrect Information

  When part of the known data or facts is wrong.

• Confusion

  This arises when people or the history involved cause disorientation regarding incentives and options.

• Hidden Emotions

  These are feelings that surface as we analyze the situation.

• Differing Viewpoints

  When one person and another (or others) have conflicting ideas.

• Variable Impressions

  When investigating a situation or event, ideas, emotions, and explanations sometimes change dramatically as the investigation

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....

Integrative Theoretical Models of Crime

The Theory of Stress, Social Control, and Social Learning

These authors propose two paths that may lead to criminal behavior. The first, and likely the most common, begins with a weak link to conventional society. This is coupled with negative experiences that foster proximity to and involvement with groups engaged in criminal activity. The second path starts with a strong link to conventional society, but this link is weakened by various experiences and failures in achieving socially prescribed goals. These experiences may include limited opportunities, negative labeling, and conflicts within the family or community. Consequently, this leads to contact with and joining groups of offenders.

Links or controls...

Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligence Theory

For much of the 20th century, Spearman’s theory dominated the understanding of intelligence. He argued for the existence of a general intelligence factor (g factor), meaning a single intellectual capacity that influenced performance across different tasks. According to this view, someone who performed well in one area would likely perform well in others, and this ability could be measured through an IQ score.

Gardner and other authors pointed out several limitations of IQ:

• It creates a hierarchy among people.
• It oversimplifies human abilities.
• It is not completely stable.
• It fails to measure important capacities such as creativity, social skills, art, and emotions.

Howard Gardner proposed a different...

Nature of the Information Used

Research Approaches

• Qualitative Studies: Focus on internal aspects (attitudes, "why?"). Uses small samples and methods like focus groups.
• Quantitative Studies: Focus on numerical analysis ("how much?", "where?"). Uses statistical precision and larger samples.
• Mixed Studies: A combination of both approaches.

Research by Role

• Descriptive Research: Provides broad information; often the starting point.
• Exploratory Research: Identifies problems or opportunities and tests hypotheses.
• Explanatory Research: Detects cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
• Predictive Research: Quantitative estimation of magnitudes over time (e.g., demand, prices).
• Control Research: Analyzes the results of decisions already made.

Qualitative

পৰিচয়ঃ দূৰ শিক্ষা হৈছে এনে এক শিক্ষণ পদ্ধতি য'ত শিক্ষাৰ্থীসকল পৰম্পৰাগত শ্ৰেণীকোঠাৰ পৰিৱেশত শাৰীৰিকভাৱে উপস্থিত নাথাকে। ইয়াৰ পৰিৱৰ্তে তেওঁলোকে অনলাইন প্লেটফৰ্ম, ছপা সামগ্ৰী বা মাল্টিমিডিয়াৰ জৰিয়তে নিৰ্দেশনা লাভ কৰে। ই শিক্ষাৰ্থীসকলক দূৰৰ পৰা অধ্যয়ন কৰিবলৈ অনুমতি দিয়ে, সময়...

Major Schools of Psychology

Behaviorism

Behaviorism, a dominant school of thought in the 1950s, emphasizes the role of environmental causes in shaping behavior. Observable behaviors, such as classical conditioning (Pavlov's experiment) and operant conditioning (Skinner's experiment), are the focus of research.

Psychoanalysis

Founded by Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis highlights the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Freud's theory of the id, ego, and superego explains the complex interactions that drive human behavior. The five stages of psychosexual development (oral, anal, phallic, latency, genital) are key concepts.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychology emerged as a response to behaviorism, focusing on mental processes such as thinking,...

Sensation and Perception

Sensation: Receiving stimuli.

Perception: Understanding stimuli.

Selective attention: Focusing on a specific aspect of experience.

Selective perception: Recalling only circumstances that confirm our beliefs.

Cognitive Frameworks

Paradigms (Frames): Theoretical frameworks.

Paradigm shift: Change in the overriding theoretical framework.

Neuroplasticity: Brain's capacity to change based on experience.

Functional fixedness: Getting locked into one way of thinking.

Determinism vs. Free Will

Determinism: Belief in being governed by external forces (biological, Freudian, behavioral).

Free will: Belief in being a result of choices made.

• Internal locus of control: Taking responsibility.
• External locus of control: Blaming others.

Self-Talk

The Critical Period for Language Acquisition

In many animal species, failure to learn various skills before a certain age makes it difficult or even impossible to learn those skills later. Examples include:

• Ducklings: The innate ability to identify and follow the mother.
• Human Development: Children raised in conditions of extreme isolation and deprivation often fail to develop normal grammatical abilities.
• Case Study: Oxana Malaya, a Ukrainian girl found in 1991 at age 8 after being abandoned by her mother.

Cerebral Cortex Organization

The primary functional areas of the cortex are organized as follows:

• Primary Motor Cortex: Located at the top.
• Primary Sensory Cortex: Located alongside the motor cortex.
• Primary Visual Cortex: Located at the back.
• Primary

In the late nineteenth-century Britain, girls were taught domesticity, while boys learned mathematics for work. Women's entry into higher education was very slow. The situation began to change in the 1960s and 1970s. Today the secondary school curriculum no longer distinguishes between boys and girls. However, there are various other points of entry for the development of gender differences in education.

Some History

Until recently, it was common for storybooks in primary schools to portray boys as showing initiative and independence, while girls, if they appeared at all, were more passive. Stories written for girls take the form in a domestic or school setting. Boys' adventure stories are more wide-ranging, having heroes who travel off to distant...