Intro to Psychology (Psy 120)

Chapter 8 Some people claim that children’s memories of abuse are always accurate, while others claim that children cannot distinguish fantasy from reality. How can we avoid either-or thinking on such an emotional issue? Abuse is a very stressful and emotional topic regardless of the types of abuse received. Emotion and stress almost pave a way for memory. When someone is stressed their amygdala is provoked thus boosting the activity in the brain's memory-forming areas and significantly stressful events can form almost unforgettable memories. This suggests that memories serve to predict the future and alert us of potential danger. Very emotional events produce a quite narrowed memory, only focusing on high priority information and reducing the recollection of irrelevant details. "Flashbulb memories" suggest just that, it is a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.  In the debate of children's memories of alleged abuse, whether they'

Chapter 7 People cling to superstitious rituals because they think they work. Could this be explained in terms of operant conditioning principles? Operant conditioning is a type of learning. There are multiple types of conditioning this chapter mentions. With operant conditioning it is when behavior becomes more likely to recur when the decision you've made is followed by reinforcement. If your behavior or decision is followed by punishment then it is less likely that you would behave or do whatever you did to be punished again. It is a pretty straight forward concept. To put into example this learning condition say a child were to clean their room without being asked, it is very likely that their parents would be proud and say "good job" or "that's awesome". Allowing the child to feel accomplished thus making it more likely that they will do it again. In contrast to that, say the child were to talk back to their parents when asked to clean their roo

Chapter 6 For just $29.95, a “subliminal tape” promises to tune up your sluggish motivation. It is true that many perceptual processes occur outside awareness, but does that mean that these tapes can change your behaviour or improve your life? It is true that many perceptual processes occur outside awareness. We can be affected by subliminal sensations. This is when a stimulus so weak, that we don't consciously notice, still influences one's response. By using the technique of priming, doing just that of exposing a recipient to one stimulus influencing the response to a following stimulus, proves that many perceptual processes occur outside of awareness. For example say two people are shown pictures of vacant houses and are to rate it favorable or unfavorable. While one person looks at the pictures a subliminal flash of puppies are shown on the side of the screen but the stimuli is so weak the recipient wasn't consciously aware of the image. Now imagine the second r

Chapter 4 What does it mean to say that some trait is highly heritable? If you want to improve your flute playing and someone tells you that musical ability is heritable, should you stop practicing? Heritability is basically the part of an individual in a group that varies due to their genes, for example height, personality, and intelligence are all heritable. Although we inherit many things from our parents there are many population and environmental influences that can differ heritability between people. To say that personality traits are 40 percent heritable does not suggest that 40 percent of your personality comes from your parents and 60 percent comes from environmental factors. Heritability suggests that 40 percent of the observed differences among people are influenced by genes. To make matters even more clear heritability is how much of a difference there are in people based on their genetics. To say something is highly heritable suggests that it is more likely th

Chapter 3 One person takes a drink and flies into a rage. Another has a drink and mellows out. What qualities of the user rather than the drug might account for this difference? First off, alcohol is a depressant. Meaning that it reduces neural activity and body functions slow down. When alcohol is consumed in low doses it slows down judgement and inhibitions within the brain's activity. With reduced judgment and inhibition the user may find themselves left with less self-consciousness. The voice in their head that tells them not to do something is almost silenced. The feeling of guilt is reduced as judgement lessens. The thought of consequences has been override by by pure crave and desire. In low doses the user becomes more relaxed physically and mentally, often giving them the drive that they didn't have before to do certain things. When sober, one person in a relationship may see someone attractive and think that to themselves as well but not act upon it. When alcoh

Chapter 2  Why can a small glitch in the brain’s circuits be devastating to some people, whereas others can function with major damage? How do experiences in life alter our brains? To begin, experiences in life altering our brain is called plasticity. It occurs more prominently in childhood due to growth and experiencing many new and different things that they may have not experienced before. It is the brain's ability to change. Plasticity is when the brain reorganizes after being damaged or builds new pathways as you experience more in life. As you grow interests, practice a skill, care more about people that are important to you, or dedicate your devotion to specific ideas your brain changes in reflection to you and what or who you surround yourself with. Your brain continues to work and develop new pathways that correlate to your experiences. With this we as humans are able to adapt to the changes the world continues to bring. With all this growth and development the