Introduction to Psychology - Assignment Example

Introduction to Psychology In regards to the Pigeons in a Pelican study, the reinforcement would be what would take place if the pigeons were to stop pecking at the screens. The reinforcement would train them to peck when they were supposed to, and to do it properly. Shaping is a form of reinforcement, which involves changing the behavior of the subject; in this case, shaping pigeons to peck at a screen in a certain spot. Chaining is when the subject is taught something outside of their normal behavior. 2. In Watsons and Rayners Little Albert experiment, the unconditioned stimulus was the loud noise, while the conditioned stimulus was the white rat that the boy would be around when the loud noise was made. The unconditioned response was the fear that the child felt and associated with the mouse and loud noise. Generalisation is when the subject, the child, begins to associate fear with objects similar to the mouse. 3. Clark and Clark measured racial identity in children by letting them choose between black dolls and white dolls. It was common that black children would choose the white dolls, which Clark and Clark believed meant that the black children felt inferior to white children. I feel that this does not necessarily mean that black children feel inferior; they may just be more used to the white dolls, or feel more drawn to them. Many of them could just be intrigued by the different colors of the dolls. 4. The two assumptions behind gender reassignment are that they are postbirth phenomenon and have to deal with nature and nurture that begins with prenatal hormones. These assumptions show that gender reassignment is not really a choice but something that happens outside of the control of the person. 5. From an evolutionary perspective, a chimpanzee would have large testicles because of sperm competition, which has come about due to the fact that chimpanzees are not as monogamous as humans are. There were more males than there were females, so each individual male would be having less sex than the females. 6. The problem of anthromorphism in psychology is that a rat that is confined to a cage is unable to definitely display emotions and characteristics that are more common with humans. Confining the rat confines the responses that are given, limiting the research and conclusions. This applies to other creatures; it is difficult to fully understand their behaviors of their environment is restricted. 7. The patient did have multiple personality disorder because 1) she had three recognizable personas that would come out of their own accord (one being her true self and the other three being MPD) though a total of 22 were later brought up and 2) she had blackouts that she could not explain that usually involved her forgetting about things that she had done. 8. A. Supporting the statement that "the second hemisphere does not know what the first hemisphere has been doing" is that the one hand can pick up an object and the brain knows what it is without the subject seeing it; however, when picked up with the other hand, the subject is unable to describe the object, even though it is the same one as before. B. This problem does not matter in the everyday activities of the patients in the study because they are capable of recognizing items with both hands. 9. Expectancy/expectancy effects are when an observer predicts a biased outcome to an experiment and unconsciously manipulates the findings and data to get that outcome. The observer will twist the findings and do all that they can to get to the conclusion that they believe in most, regardless of whether or not the experiment will turn to that direction. Experiments with odd results are usually what comes from these. (Edward OConnell, 1974) 10. Winer et al. manipulated the demand characteristics of their task in order to provoke non-conservation responses in adults and children by rephrasing what was said so that the patients did not feel the need to respond in a way that was expected of them; they were able to respond of their own accord. 11. When psychologists contrast "competence" with "performance", they are comparing what can be done based on skills and knowledge compared to how well it is done and if the result can equate to the competence that a person has. 12. Four strengths of quantitative data are - 1) the researcher knows in advance what they are looking for, 2) the entire study is designed prior to the data being collected, 3) researcher keeps himself separated from the subject matter, and 4) the researcher uses tools to gather information. 13. Operant procedures are procedures done numerous times to condition a behavior in a person, as well as when and how often this behavior occurs. Operant procedures were used to teach an autistic child how to answer questions appropriately by using positive reinforcement when they answered a question correctly (Betty Jo Freeman, 2005). 14. The two major differences between the languages developed by Washoe and Kanzi are that Kanzis language was based off of need, rather than just developing the language as the person ages, and that the Washoe language is based off of regular languages that require words, while Kanzis involves specific noises and sign language-esq hand movements. 15. To demonstrate that colour-number synaesthesia can be "genuine sensory phenomenon", Ramachandran and Hubbard studied two normal synaesthetic people who saw a specific color when they saw a specific number. This is considered a "genuine sensory phenomenon" as the subjects did not have any control or choice over what colors or numbers they associated each other with. The subjects were continuously presented with the numbers and they would repeat the same colors for each number before thinking on it. 16. Developmental psychologists face many challenges when trying to find out about the capabilities of young children. Some of these challenges include the fact that children cannot be tested in the same ways as adults, children are constantly changing in their capabilities, each child learns at a different pace, and children react differently when compared to other children their age or over various ages. It becomes hard to test children and understand their capabilities when these things get in the way of the developmental psychologists. Children cannot be tested in the same ways as adults because the tests are usually too complicated the younger a person is. Children have not fully developed as much as adults to be able to comprehend the tasks being presented to them. Childrens developmental skills differ greatly from adults; they need tests designed especially for them if observers wish to see anything unique. Furthermore, as the mind of a child is so underdeveloped, their mind would not be able to get around the complex tasks and assignments given to them. Most of the time, they would not be able to even register what is expected of them. Separate tests need to be created for each young age group; even between infants and toddlers, there is still a lot of underdevelopment of the brain, so the children need to be tested in ways that can truly show their capabilities. Children are constantly changing in their capabilities because they learn the most as they develop as children. In the development stages of children, most of the development takes place before adolescence. Therefore, it tends to be difficult to keep up with the constantly changing capabilities of children, as they learn and understand one thing, then quickly take on something else. Especially when children are being tested does it become even more difficult, since they can go through one test after another, showing how quickly their development is and what they are capable of doing. In the same sense, they might catch on to something quicker than they had with a previous capability; their levels of learning and understanding increase the more that they learn and understand, so some children may experience capabilities a little advance for their age. This makes it difficult for developmental psychologists to keep up with the subject children. Though children do learn the majority of their capabilities around the same time as other children their age, many children also learn at their own pace. Some are slower to catch on to a certain capability, while others can be faster, progressing from one new capability to another. Again, it becomes hard for developmental psychologists to keep up with the pace of children, especially where testing is concerned. It is fairly simple for developmental psychologists to pinpoint approximately when a child should have a specific skill or capability, yet it is still up to the child of whether or not they actually know what they should when they should. Some catch on faster than others, yet there are many that need more time before they full develop a capability. When compared to other children, whether they are of the same age or slightly older or younger, the results can vary greatly in regards to what a child may or may not be able to do. This applies to children that are being compared together, or separately and with differences with age. As aforementioned, each child can learn at their own pace, so in a way, they cannot be compared with other children. This becomes less obvious if children are being studied together - they may conform to what the other is doing, attempting something that is beyond their own current development; likewise, they can try to do something that is below what they should already know. When compared separately, it still needs to be taken into consideration that children do learn at their own pace, making the development process something that cannot be fully comprehended even by developmental psychologists. Developmental psychology has been formed enough to allow the psychologists to understand what a person should know by a certain age. However, everyone learns in a different space of time, all at different paces. There are many capabilities characteristic of a certain age group, yet those within the age group have their own unconscious methods of learning. What may be difficult to grasp for one person might be simple for another person. Since children develop more quickly than adults, they are taking in and processing more information at any given time than any adult. Developmental psychologists need to make sure that they are properly testing and studying children since their minds and their capabilities can change so much that it does become difficult to keep up with. Read More