Psychology:

a student friendly approach

(7TH EDITION)

authored by

T.L. BRINK, PH.D., M.B.A.

published by

The San Bernardino

Community College District
San Bernardino, CA

2018
contact the author for use of copyleft privileges

[email protected]

Companion website for drills, games, puzzles, tests

https://sites.google.com/site/BrinkPsyc100
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Title Page

1 Definitions & History 1
2 Research Methods 17
3 Statistics 33
4 Nervous System 53
5 Perception 70
6 Learning 90
7 Memory 116
8 Cognition 132
9 Emotion & Motivation & Stress 166
10 Personality 190
11 Clinical 215
12 Developmental 261
13 Social 291
14 Applied 319
 UNIT 1: THE DEFINITION AND HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

QUESTION #1.1: What is the definition of psychology?

Psychology is best defined as the "scientific study of behavior in

humans and animals." Some definitions are a little broader, including
“mental processes,” but the essential features of psychology involve
“science” and “behavior.” Behavior is what people and animals do: e.g.,
what a person says about last night's dream, or how long it takes a rat
to run a maze, or which brand of perfume a customer purchases.

Maybe you thought that psychology was the "study of the mind" due to
the fact that the prefix psyche is Greek for mind, soul, spirit, and
the suffix ology refers to the study of something. About a hundred
years ago, John Watson decided that psychology should be a science:
not just a vague and introspective reflection on our own thoughts and
feelings. Watson urged that psychology be defined as the scientific
study of behavior (since it was only overt behavior, and not the mind
itself, that could be studied objectively). Since about 1920, most
university psychologists have accepted Watson's definition. So, think
of psychologists as scientists who study behavior.

Introspection was the first technique for studying the mind

There are some terms related to psychology that are frequently confused
with it. You must be able to distinguish between psychology and fields
such as psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. These are not
branches or sub-fields of psychology.

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Psychiatry is a branch of medicine specializing in the treatment of
patients with mental disorders. Psychiatrists are medical doctors, and
have been through medical school, an internship, residency training,
and board certification as specialized physicians. The letters M.D. or
D.O. usually appear at the end of the name. The letters at the end of
the name of a psychologist may be Ph.D., Ed.D., or Psy.D., and so it
may be appropriate to address a psychologist as "Dr." but he or she is
not a physician.

There is one important difference between what psychologists and

psychiatrists can do. Under the current laws of most states and
countries, the ability to write prescriptions for psychiatric
medication is limited to physicians. So, if you needed a prescription
for an anti-depressant like Prozac, you would have to go to a
psychiatrist (or other physician); a psychologist could not legally
write the prescription under current laws in most states.

Here is how to remember what psychiatrists can do.

Look at “psychiatrist” and see the pills he can prescribe

Notice that the word psychiatrist unlike the word psychologist repeats
the letter i. Now, look at the dots above those letters, and imagine
that they are little Prozac pills.

Psychotherapy is a form of treatment emphasizing communication. A

psychotherapist is a mental health professional who treats patients
("clients") by communicating with them. Usually, this takes place in
verbal form: talking and hearing. Here is how to remember that.

At the very middle of the word psychotherapy you find the letters t and
h and they stand for talking and hearing, the kind of communication
that goes on in psychotherapy.

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Only some psychologists, clinical psychologists, can perform
psychotherapy, but most psychologists do not, working instead in some
other branch of psychology. Some psychiatrists perform psychotherapy,
but most do not, relying instead on other forms of psychiatric
treatment, such as medication. Not all psychotherapists are
psychiatrists or psychologists. Some psychotherapists may have
professional training as a marriage counselor, social worker, nurse, or
member of the clergy (e.g., priest, minister, imam or rabbi), such as a
hospital chaplain.

Here is how to remember that not all psychologists are

psychotherapists, and not all psychotherapists are psychologists.
Notice the overlapping relationships between these categories.

Not all psychologists are psychotherapists.

Not all psychotherapists are psychologists.
Clinical psychologists represent the overlap.

Psychoanalysis refers to the theories of the mind and psychotherapeutic

techniques developed by Sigmund Freud (pronounced FROID). Do not use
the noun psychoanalysis or the adjective psychoanalytic or the verb to
psychoanalyze synonymously with psychology, psychotherapy, or
psychiatry, but only to refer to that which is Freudian.

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Freud himself was a medical doctor, so we can also call Freud a
psychiatrist. He treated his patients by talking with them, so we can
also call him a psychotherapist. Whether or not we can also call Freud
a psychologist depends upon whether or not we consider his research
methods sufficiently scientific to warrant that title.

A psychoanalyst is someone, usually a psychotherapist, who has received

specialized formal training in Freudian theory and techniques. Until
about 1960, most American psychiatrists and psychotherapists were of a
psychoanalytic orientation. Today, most psychiatrists emphasize
medication as the main approach to treatment, and most American
psychotherapists follow other, non-Freudian theories and techniques of
treatment.

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QUESTION #1.2: What makes psychology scientific?

Empiricism emphasizes objective and precise measurement. Psychology is

a science because it follows the empirical method. The scientific
status of any endeavor is determined by its method of investigation,
not what it studies, and certainly not by who did the investigation.
All true sciences use the empirical method.

Psychology and the other behavioral or social sciences (sociology,

anthropology, economics, political science) are not as precise in their
measurements as are biology, chemistry or physics, but to the extent
that psychologists use empirical evidence, the findings of psychology
may be referred to as scientific.

It is this emphasis on the empirically observable that made it

necessary for psychology to change its definition from the study of the
mind (because the mind itself could not be directly observed) to the
science of behavior. We can directly observe and carefully measure
externals such as what a person does, says, and marks down on a
psychological test. We cannot directly observe a person's mind (e.g.,
internal thoughts, emotions). Even brain scans do not directly measure
what a person thinks or feels, but only how the brain is acting.

Here is how to remember that a psychologist is a scientist who studies

behavior using the empirical method. Notice that in the word
psychologist the letter O is repeated twice. That does not happen in
psychiatrist or psychoanalyst or even psychotherapist. Imagine that
those letters are eyeballs opened wide, so that the psychologist can
better observe behavior: e.g., what a rat does in a maze or how a
patient behaves.

The letters O look like two eyes observing

Pseudo-psychology is phony, non-scientific speculation about human

behavior. Astrology (trying to predict a person's behavior or character
on the basis of the position of planetary bodies) is generally regarded
as a pseudo-science because of its origin in ancient Babylonian
religion, not in the modern science of astronomy, which carefully
measures and calculates the position of the planets. If someone were to
gather enough data to prove that astrology could consistently and

5
systematically predict behavior or character, then astrology would
become a genuine science. However, until that evidence is presented,
scientists, including psychologists, prefer to err on the side of
skepticism and regard astrology as a pseudo-science.

Common sense, by itself, is not sufficient for science. Common sense refers
to generally accepted ideas about human behavior, but many of these
have not been subjected to the kind of systematic investigation that
formal science demands. Common sense tends to limit its database to
self-reflection (introspection) and over-emotionalized, isolated
examples (anecdotes), some of which might even be contradictory. Common
sense may be a starting point for some of our hypotheses about human
nature, but we cannot stop there: we must go forward and systematically
gather empirical data to test those hypotheses. So, it is best not to
use the term common sense in this course.

Common sense is not science

GRAMMAR LESSON: The word hypothesis is singular. The plural word

would be hypotheses.

Data are the bits of information that are observed by psychological

research. Within the social sciences, it is best to regard the term
data as a plural word. So, we should say these data are instead of this
data is. Within other fields, such as information technology, data is
regarded as singular (a base of information) and therefore, in that
field, people say this data is.

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GRAMMAR LESSON: The word data is plural, and means “facts.” The
term for a single bit of information is datum.

A theory is an abstract concept which science uses to understand,

explain, or control what is being studied. Theories are never to be
seen as substitutes for an insufficiency of facts. Theory works
together with observed data to form scientific knowledge.

DATA + THEORY = KNOWLEDGE

If we have only theory, but no data, we do not have scientific

knowledge, but only idle speculation. If we have only data, but no
theory to make sense of those data, then we are left with meaningless
trivia. Both theory and data are essential components of scientific
knowledge. Scientific knowledge is always growing. Sometimes the growth
is produced by new data (more facts to back up an old theory, or
perhaps challenge an old theory) and sometimes the growth is due to a
new theory that does a better job of explaining existing data.

Inference is the process of reasoning from something directly observed

to something else not directly observed. This word comes from the verb
to infer. Psychologists observe behavior and then make inferences about
why the person (or animal) behaved in that way. Emotions, motives, and
abilities are never directly observed, but only inferred. Here are some
examples of inferences that psychologists (or you yourself) might make.

OBSERVATION INFERENCE
The patient scored high on the The patient is feeling very
depression scale. depressed.
The cat went to the water bowl The cat is more thirsty than
before going to the food bowl. hungry right now.
That guy plays his music too loud. He is a jerk.

Science tries to explain the natural world with theories of cause and
effect. Sometimes we observe an effect, and infer a likely cause.

OBSERVATION effect INFERENCE cause

The little girl is crying. She probably fell and got hurt.

Of course, if the cause was not essential to produce the effect, we

could be mistaken, for there may be some other cause of the observed
behavior. Perhaps the little girl was not able to use the swing because
another child cut in front of her: she was not physically hurt, but her
sadness was due to disappointment.

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Sometimes we observe a cause, and infer a subsequent effect.

OBSERVATION cause INFERENCE effect

That little boy is being badly He will grow up to become a
beaten by his father. serial killer.

Of course, if the cause is not always adequate to produce the effect,

these predictions can be mistaken. Predictions are much easier in a
science like physics, where all hydrogen atoms always react in the same
way. In psychology, we must keep in mind that people do not merely
react, but they respond. Between the cause (an environmental stimulus)
and the effect (the response) is an organism (a person or an animal).
The stimulus is always something external, a change in physical or
chemical energy that the organism can perceive (e.g., a loud sound).
The stimulus is not an internal drive (e.g., hunger). The organism is a
person or animal who perceives the stimulus and then creates a
response. The response is what the organism does (e.g., action, speech,
performance, choice, scores on a test). The stimulus elicits a
response; the organism emits a response.

GRAMMAR LESSON: The word stimulus is singular. The plural is

stimuli.

Because no two people are exactly alike, there is only a limited

ability to predict if a given stimulus will lead to a given response.
Psychologists disagree about whether these differences are due to free
will (different organisms make different choices on how to deal with
the same situation) or whether different responses are determined by
the different background factors (e.g., heredity, early childhood)
influencing later responses to later stimuli.

So let us be cautious when we infer what will become of an abused

child. Perhaps the mistreated little boy will become a serial killer,
or perhaps he will develop a great empathy for other abused children,
and become a police officer, nurse, social worker or psychotherapist
who tries to help others in the same situation.

This course in psychology will overlap in its topics and methods with
other courses. The sciences of biology and sociology also use the
empirical method and study human life, but their focus is different.
Biology has a micro focus, and looks at human life as organ systems and
metabolism. Sociology has a macro focus and looks at human life in
terms of participation in larger units: groups and cultures. Think of

8
psychology as the bridge between biology and sociology. The first few
units of this book emphasize the physiological areas of psychology, and
the last units will overlap with sociology.

BIOLOGY PSYCHOLOGY SOCIOLOGY

Study human life as Study human life as Study human life as
Organ systems of Individual centers Participants in
tissues and of thought, group and cultural
metabolism emotion, and action processes

The relationship between psychology and religion is often debated. Some

(but not most) scientists are atheists who view religion as not much
more than superstition or pseudo-science. Sigmund Freud (the
psychoanalyst) and B.F. Skinner (the Behaviorist) thought that as
science came to better understand human behavior, there would be less
reliance upon religion.

On the other hand, some religious extremists may oppose science. Cult
leaders may claim to be the only authority on everything and forbid
their followers from consulting science. Some traditional religious
fundamentalists take scripture (e.g., the Bible, Torah, Quran)
literally, and contend that scripture contains all that we need to know
about human nature, and therefore, we do not need a science of
behavior.

On the relationship of religion and psychology, this book takes the

middle position: there is no contradiction between the two because they
employ different methodologies in coming to conclusions about human
nature. Psychology and other sciences use the empirical method of
observation. Religion gets its knowledge from revelation: scripture, a
prophet, a pope, etc. Science tells us what people are like, while
religion tells us what people should be like. Psychology searches for
techniques to promote mental health, while religion seeks salvation. It
is the contention of this book that one can be a devout Christian, Jew,
Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, Muslim or Buddhist and also be a good
scientist. The religiously devout should not be concerned that
psychology, or any other science, is going to conclude that God does
not exist, or come up with another formula for saving one's soul.

SCIENCE RELIGION
Method Empirical observation Revelation
Truth as Valid data Enduring values
Human nature The way it is The way it should be

Most psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists are not

atheists, but have some religious affiliation. Indeed, many Catholic
priests, Protestant ministers, and Jewish rabbis blend modern
psychotherapeutic techniques with traditional spiritual counseling in
what is known as pastoral care.

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QUESTION #1.3: Who were the major figures and schools in
the historical development of psychology as a science?
We could go back to the first human who introspected, and reflected
upon questions such as Why do I feel what I feel? think what I think?
do what I do?

We could start on the continent of Africa, with the Egyptian physician

Imhotep, who dissected and observed the human body. His later Greek
counterpart, Hippocrates, is better remembered, probably because his
writings have been better preserved. Hippocrates concluded that mental
disorders were not due to demonic possession, but to physical problems
with the body. He is also credited with the first physicians’ oath
embodying ethical principles and professional obligations. Galen, who
lived in Rome during the first century of the common era, concluded
that the brain and nervous system had a central role in thought and
emotion. A clearer understanding of how mind and body interact had to
await the foundation provided by chemistry and biology in the last
hundred years.

Philosophers and theologians have long addressed the question of human

behavior and free will (the idea that people actually choose what they
are going to do) or determinism that thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
are completely determined by forces beyond our control (e.g., heredity,
environment, the unconscious). In ancient Greece, Socrates advocated
the use of questioning as a method of furthering knowledge. His
student, Plato, concluded that the healthy mind (soul) was governed by
reason and kept the body's passions and the quest for honor in check.
Plato’s student, Aristotle, advocated more of an empirical approach to
understanding the world, but he did not always stick to rigorous
observation. For example, Aristotle used mere reasoning to conclude
that the heavier an object is, the faster it will fall to earth. It
took almost two thousand years before Galileo actually performed an
experiment at the leaning tower of Pisa to conclude that it was an
object's mass density, not its weight, which determined the rate of its
descent.

Modern science is generally traced from events in Europe known as the

Renaissance and the Enlightenment. British philosophers such as Bacon
and Locke emphasized the importance of empiricism as the basis for
science. Gradually, the empirical method advanced with the use of the
telescope to observe the planets, the microscope to detect germs, and
the laboratory to perform experiments on chemicals, cells, and
electricity.

Science needs math. In 19th century England, nursing pioneer Florence

Nightingale and physician Sir Francis Galton applied statistics to
health care and epidemiology: "Wherever you can, count." In Germany,
physicist Gustav Fechner (say "FEK ner") developed mathematical
formulas that related the brightness of light to the ability of humans
to detect the stimulus. Today, we would regard much of the research of
Galton and Fechner as being within the field of psychology.

The first psychology research laboratory is usually credited to Wilhelm

Wundt (say "VOONT") of Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. He was a physician

10
by training, but developed an interest in investigating human behavior.
He established the first university department of psychology, and the
first professional journal in the field. However, much of his
laboratory work would not be considered true experiments by present day
standards. His main research technique was still introspection,
reflecting on his own private mental activities. Wundt's school was
known as German Structuralism because he maintained that the structure
of the mind could be inferred from observing the structure of its
thought. Wundt influenced the first generation of scientific
psychologists in Europe and abroad.

On this side of the Atlantic, William James was an American physician

who offered the first U.S. course in psychology in 1875 and also
developed a demonstration laboratory at Harvard. He also studied the
contents of his own "stream of consciousness" but acknowledged some of
the limitations of introspection. His school became known as American
Functionalism because he emphasized how organisms function with respect
to their environments. Although James recognized the power of habits,
he championed the doctrine of free will: that people are not mere
billiard balls reacting to their environment, but conscious organisms
with the power of deciding how to respond.

More than anyone else, it was William James who put together the modern
field of psychology in his definitive book, Principles of Psychology in
1890. The field of modern scientific psychology is actually triangular,
with the three corners representing the three starting points of
medicine, natural science and philosophy. Each of these left a
different focus in the study of human behavior: clinical practice,
laboratory research, or theoretical formulations. William James had
training as a physician, a laboratory for some rudimentary research,
and a growing interest in pragmatic philosophy.

The triangular field of psychology

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Today, a good undergraduate curriculum in the field of psychology must
cover all the corners of this triangle. Regardless of your future
career objective within the field of psychology, you must learn about
its theories, research methods, and clinical applications.

The American Psychological Association was founded in 1892 by G.

Stanley Hall of Clark University. Credit for the current definition of
psychology should go to John B. Watson (the founder of Behaviorism)
who urged that psychology reject the purely introspective approach of
studying the mind, and define itself as the science of behavior, even
if that shifted the data of psychology from the armchair study of the
mind to observing animals in cages.

Pioneers in psychology
NAME DATES COUNTRY BACKGROUND METHODS
Weber 1795-1878 Germany Physiology Math
Laboratory
Fechner 1801-1887 Germany Physics Math
Laboratory
Dix 1802-1887 U.S. Nursing & Reform of
Activism Mental Health
Nightingale 1820-1910 England Nursing Statistics
Cases
Galton 1822-1911 England Medicine Statistics
Wundt 1832-1920 Germany Medicine Introspection
Laboratory
Bucke 1832-1903 Canada Medicine Introspection
Literature Cases
James 1842-1910 U.S.A. Medicine Introspection
Art Laboratory
Pavlov 1849-1936 Russia Medicine Laboratory
Physiology
Hall 1844-1924 U.S.A. Divinity Survey
Laboratory
Ladd-Franklin 1847-1930 U.S.A. Psychology Animal
behavior
Ebbinghaus 1850-1909 Germany Philosophy Graphs
Laboratory
Ramon y 1852-1934 Spain Medicine Laboratory
Cajal Physiology
Kraepelin 1856-1926 Germany Medicine Cases
Freud 1856-1939 Austria Medicine Introspection
Cases
Binet 1857-1911 France Law Testing
Entomology
Calkins 1863-1930 U.S.A. Philosophy & Introspection
Psychology
Titchener 1867-1927 England Philosophy Introspection
Physiology
Washburn 1871-1939 U.S.A. Psychology Animal
Behavior
Watson 1878-1958 U.S.A. Psychology Laboratory
Wertheimer 1880-1943 Czech Psychology Laboratory
Note: psychology’s female pioneers are in a different font.

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Modern psychology owes its advances to men and women who differed
greatly in terms of their academic training, research methods, topics
of interest, and countries of origin. Although most of the earliest
figures in psychology were white males, the field soon attracted women
and persons of all ethnic backgrounds. Margaret Washburn was the first
woman Ph.D. in psychology in 1894. Mary Whiton Calkins was the first
woman president of the American Psychological Association in 1905.
Kenneth B. Clark was the first African-American president of the
American Psychological Association, over a half century ago. Today, two
thirds of the students in American graduate programs in psychology are
women. Around the world, the figure is well above three-quarters.

Many of the pioneers of scientific psychology developed a loyal cadre

of followers who continued to advance the founder’s research and
theory. One early school was the Structuralism of Wundt. It developed
in Germany, but was brought to England and the U.S. by Edward
Titchener. Structuralism was based primarily upon introspection and
assumed that the structure of the mind could be inferred by observing
the structure of how it perceived. The approach of William James became
known as American Functionalism. He wanted to focus more on how the
organism adapted to its environment, but he still used introspection in
the form of following his own "stream of consciousness". The more
extreme environmental approach of Behaviorism rejected introspection as
unscientific, and instead suggested that research be confined to
laboratory studies of human and animal behavior.

When the school started

Before 1900 After 1900
W Structuralism Psychoanalysis
H Wundt: demo labs Freud: case studies
E European and introspection and introspection
R
E

Functionalism Behaviorism
S James: demo labs Watson & Skinner:
T and introspection serious labs
A American
R
Humanism
T Maslow & Rogers: case
E studies and
D introspection

Within psychotherapy, the first great school was Freud's

psychoanalysis, with its emphasis on the unconscious determinants of
behavior: sexual and aggressive drives. After 1960, the psychoanalytic
hold on American psychotherapy gave way to the more Humanistic approach
of Rogers, emphasizing free will, and the great reservoir of human
potential and goodness.

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 SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

School Start major studied branch research

figure(s)
STRUCTURALISM 19c Wundt perception Experimental demo
Titchener labs
FUNCTIONALISM 19c James adaptation to Experimental demo
Angell environment labs
PSYCHOANALYSIS 19c Freud unconscious Clinical Cases
Erikson sex &
aggression
BEHAVIORISM 20c Pavlov conditioned Experimental serious
Watson behaviors labs
Skinner
HUMANISTIC 20c Adler free will Clinical Cases
Rogers
Maslow
COGNITIVE 20c Schachter expectation Experimental Serious
21c Beck interpretation Clinical labs,
Csikszent- flow Industrial cases,
mihaly Big Data
Seligman

QUESTION #1.4: What are the major fields of psychology

today?
Modern psychology is a hybrid science, a tree with many roots and many
branches, but a common trunk of empirical methodology. As in other
professions (e.g., medicine, engineering), most psychologists tend to
specialize in one particular field of psychology, but these fields
often overlap, so a psychologist might work in more than one field.

Clinical psychologists are still the most numerous field. These are the
psychologists who work with mentally ill patients, alongside
psychiatrists, social workers, and nurses. Many clinical psychologists
are in private practice, while others work for hospitals, health
maintenance organizations, prisons, or agencies. Some clinical
psychologists assess the mental health of patients and diagnose
specific mental disorders. Some clinical psychologists perform
psychotherapy, while others use other techniques of treatment or
specialize in diagnosis.

Industrial / Organizational psychologists (I/O) study the workplace. They

may be in private practice, or be employed by large private companies,
consulting firms, government agencies, or the military. Industrial
psychologists focus on selecting, training, and supervising workers.

Consumer psychologists study the marketplace. They help determine

which people are the best source of potential customers for a product,
which products will sell, and how to advertise to products.

Comparative psychologists study different animal species. Ethologists

study animals in natural habitats: feeding, mating, aggressive, and
other social behaviors.

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Experimental psychologists work primarily in laboratories, studying
topics such as sensation, perception, learning, and memory.

Developmental psychologists focus on specific stages of the lifespan:

infants, toddlers, children, adolescents, young adults, and/or old age.

Social psychologists study how people respond to interpersonal stimuli:

attitude change, prejudice, group behavior, and conformity to cultural
norms.

For example, T.L. Brink has researched the later life cycle. This work
in gerontology would be part of developmental psychology. He has
performed experiments on the best way to assess memory decline, so that
could be called experimental psychology. Most of his books have been
about the assessment and treatment of mental disorders in later life,
which would be in the clinical area. He had a consulting firm which
specialized in recruitment and assessment of engineers, which would be
I/O). More recently, he has done consulting on entrepreneurship and
marketing, which puts him in the area of consumer behavior. Currently,
he is doing research on attitudes toward cancer treatments, which would
be more in the social psychology field.

Psychiatry is not a branch or a sub-field of psychology, but separate

profession, rooted in medicine. Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis are
not branches or sub-fields of psychology, but overlapping fields (in
which most of the practitioners are non-psychologists). Pseudoscience
is not a branch or sub-field of psychology, but a non-scientific (or
anti-scientific) alternative view of how we should study the behavior
and mental processes of humans and animals.

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 Fields of psychology
specialty proportion where they work activities
Clinical About half Private practice Diagnosis
Clinics Psychotherapy
Hospitals
Universities
Cognitive Small but Universities Basic Research
growing
Community Small but Government Applied Research
growing Universities
Comparative Small Universities Basic Research
Consumer Small but Corporations Applied Research
growing Private practice
Counseling a tenth Private practice Counseling
Clinics
Hospitals
Universities
Cultural Small Universities Basic Research
Applied Research
Developmental Small but Universities Basic Research
growing Applied Research
Educational Small but Schools Applied Research
growing Universities
Engineering Small but Corporations Applied Research
growing Universities
Environmental Small Universities Applied Research
Forensic Small but Law enforcement Applied Research
growing
Gender Small Universities Basic Research
Health Small but Hospitals Applied Research
growing Universities
Industrial – Small but Corporations Applied Research
Organizational growing Private practice
Military
Learning Small Universities Basic Research
Medical Small but Hospitals Applied Research
growing Universities
Personality Small Universities Basic Research
Political Small Universities Applied Research
Campaigns
School Small but Schools Applied Research
growing Universities
Sensation & Small Universities Basic Research
perception
Social Small Universities Basic Research
Sports Small Sports teams Applied Research

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 UNIT 2: RESEARCH METHODS

QUESTION #2.1: What does psychology study?

Science observes variables. A variable is something that can change, and

can be measured. (A constant is something that does not change.) Any
report of scientific research should describe how the variables were
measured. This constitutes the operational meaning of those variables.
A good operational definition is one that can be measured precisely and
is quantifiable. Operational definitions should also be valid and
reliable, but that will be explained in the next chapter.

There are two types of variables: dependent (observed effects) and

independent (usually understood to be the possible causes of those
effects). In psychology, the dependent variable will always be some
form of behavior. Going back to the stimulus and response model
introduced in the first chapter, it can be said that in psychology, the
dependent variable corresponds to the response. Here are some examples
of dependent variables and their operational definitions.

ORGANISM DEPENDENT OPERATIONAL

VARIABLE DEFINITION
Rat Performance running Number of seconds it took
a maze to get through the maze
Voter Attitude about a Whom the voter says that
political candidate she will vote for
Consumer Decision to Whether or not the
purchase a product consumer purchases the
product
Worker Absenteeism How many times last year
the worker did not show up
for a scheduled shift
Patient Depression Score on a valid and
reliable depression scale

All decisions are dependent variables, but not all dependent variables
are decisions (e.g., outcomes).

In psychology, whenever we are talking about actions, decisions,

choices, attitudes, performance, or scores on tests, we are talking
about dependent variables. Of course, each of these variables could
also be seen as a cause of some other event further down the chain. The
rat may receive a reward for running the maze quickly, the worker might
get fired for his absenteeism. However, in psychology, the dependent
variables are behaviors, not the later consequences of the behaviors.

Independent variables are the potential influences upon behavior. Some

independent variables are stimuli coming in from the environment. Here
are some examples of such independent variables.

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ORGANISM INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT VARIABLE
VARIABLE (influenced by the
(stimulus factor) independent variable)
Rat Shape of the maze Performance running the maze
Voter Campaign materials Attitude about political candidate
Consumer Advertisement Decision to purchase a product
Worker The surf report Absenteeism
Patient Death of his wife Depression
three months ago

All stimuli are independent variables, but not all independent

variables are stimuli. Another type of independent variable would be
something in the organism's background that also influences the
organism's behavior. This can include hereditary factors or experiences
during a formative time in the organism's life, such as early
childhood.

ORGANISM INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT VARIABLE

VARIABLE (influenced by the
(background factor) independent variable)
Rat Age of rat Performance running a maze
Voter Raised by parents who Attitude about a political
were strict Republicans candidate
Consumer Female gender Decision to purchase a product
Worker His father was an Absenteeism
alcoholic
Patient He was orphaned in Depression
childhood

The goal of science is to understand, predict, and control.

Science tries to explain things in terms of cause and effect.
Psychology is the science of behavior, so it tries to explain behavior
in terms of independent and dependent variables. Here are examples of
different kinds of predictor variables.

We call these predicted outcomes criterion variables. The topic of a

study is usually defined by the criterion variable.

18
 ORGANISM PREDICTOR DEPENDENT
VARIABLE VARIABLE
(outcome)
Rat The rat ran the maze The rat will
quickly yesterday probably run the
maze quickly
DV: past performance again today
Voter She voted Republican She will probably
last time vote Republican
again this year
DV: previous decision
Consumer She is a woman She will probably
look for clothes
in the women’s
IV: background section
Worker His supervisor has He will probably
evaluated him as be absent more
“irresponsible” often than the
other workers
DV: past assessment
Patient He is now getting Depression will
psychotherapy probably subside
in eight weeks
IV: treatment

QUESTION #2.2: Whom does psychology study?

Psychology studies the behavior of people and animals. We use the term
subject to describe the person or animal (the organism) whose behavior
we are studying. We do not use the term subject to describe the topic
of the study. (The topics are defined by variables studied.) We will
use the terms subject, participant, case, and organism interchangeably
in this book. So, a given subject could be a rat, a pigeon, a dog, a
human patient, a worker, a voter, or a consumer.

The population is the general class of subjects we are studying.

Examples of populations might be all rats of a certain species, all
female consumers, all U.S. voters, all workers in a certain industry,
all depressed patients. Any one particular member of such a population
would be one subject.

Unless we are doing a complete census, we cannot directly observe all

the members of a given population. We only get data from a few
subjects. A sample refers to the subjects actually observed. Examples
of samples would be: the rats (n = 24) which we observed running this
particular maze, the voters (n = 980) whom we polled, the customers (n
= 123) who registered their product purchases on the WalMart website,
the workers (n = 14) on the dayshift in the shipping and receiving
department, and patients (n = 34) receiving psychotherapy for
depression at the clinic.

19
 Science must get data from large and representative samples

There are two essential features of good sampling. The first is an

adequate sample size. In general, the larger the sample is, the more
significant the data are. The second feature is that the sample be
representative of the population. In general, a sample is
representative of the larger population the sample and the population
are similar on the most relevant background variables: gender, age,
geography, etc.

Representativeness is even more important than absolute size. If our

sample of 980 voters all came from a gun show, we should not expect our
sample to represent the population of U.S. voters on a topic such as
gun control. If our sample of 123 clothing customers were all large
sized women, that would not representative of all the clothing
customers who may have different clothes buying experiences and
preferences.

One kind of sample that is rarely representative is when the subjects

are self-selected. If we have a banner ad inviting people to go to our
website to vote about social security benefits, those who respond will
not be a representative sample of U.S. voters. People who are more
motivated on this topic will be over-represented. People who are more
fervent in their attitudes are more likely to participate. In the case
of this example of social security benefits, few young people might be
motivated enough to make the effort to call in, while many older
persons living on social security would definitely want their views
made known. (Some might even call in several times.)

20
The best form of sampling is random. That word should not imply
“haphazard.” Random sampling is done in such a way that each subject
in the population has an equal chance to be included in the sample.
Most student projects are not close to being random, but are samples of
convenience using those subjects who were easiest to access (e.g.,
students walking across campus).

Some forms of psychological research take a sample and divide it into

separate groups that are then compared. These groups may be defined by
independent variables (e.g., male vs. female) or by allowing the
subjects to self-select their grouping (e.g., Democrats vs.
Republicans) in which case the grouping would be done on the basis of a
dependent variable.

Part / Whole Relationships

P Sally Jones (one subject)

O S First group (women) Maria Garcia (one subject)
P A Betty Williams (one subject)
U M Michelle Nguyen (one subject)
L P
A L Bob Smith (one subject)
T E Second group (men) Juan Gonzalez (one subject)
I Bill Johnson (one subject)
O Eric Wong (one subject)
N Subjects not observed

The relationship between population, sample, group, and subject

21
QUESTION #2.3: How does psychology study behavior?
Most psychological research begins with a specific question. Usually
that question is based upon some theoretical or assumed relationship
between variables, and generates a specific prediction. A hypothesis
(plural hypotheses) is what we call a specific prediction that guides
research. The purpose of research is to gather data that can test the
hypothesis. The hypothesis is to research what diagnosis is to clinical
work: a starting point for the treatment proposed at present, based
upon a past fund of knowledge, and confirmed (or not confirmed) by
future results.

GRAMMAR LESSON: The word hypothesis is singular. The plural is

hypotheses. The adjective would be hypothetical.

Visualize the triangular field of psychology as a pyramid of knowledge.

The base of the pyramid must be larger than the capstone. The base of
the pyramid is formed by the data, while the capstone is theory. When
research supports a hypothesis consistent with a theory, that theory is
supported by the data.

Psychology’s Pyramid of Knowledge

22
There are four major forms of psychological research: introspection,
the case study, the correlational survey, and the experiment.

Introspection means self-reflection, looking within at our own thoughts,

emotions, and behaviors. This is the oldest form of psychological
research, going back to when the first human exercised these powers of
self-reflection, asking "Why do I do what I do? think what I think?
feel what I feel?" Each of us has used introspection as starting point
for our ideas on human behavior, but few of us have been as systematic
as the great theologian Augustine (354-430 C.E.) in his autobiography.
Even as late as a hundred years ago, introspection was still the major
research technique in academic psychology, used by Wundt, Titchener,
James, and Calkins. Although these 19th century psychologists developed
many sophisticated guidelines for improving introspection, it was
rejected by Watson as being insufficiently scientific for what he
hoped psychology would become: a laboratory science.

There are several limitations to introspection. First, and foremost, is

that of bias. The observer (the psychological researcher) is also the
observed. People may not report what they are really feeling or
thinking, but what they prefer to imagine that they were thinking or
feeling (or what they think will present themselves in the best light
in front of others who may be reading their research).

GRAMMAR LESSON: Bias is the singular noun, not biasness. The plural
is biases. Bias is also a verb. Its adjectival form requires the ed and becomes
biased. So, do not say “He was bias” but “He was biased” or “He had bias.”

A related problem is that the observation may change what is being

observed. When someone knows that he is looking at (and attempting to
record) his own thoughts, that very process might alter those thoughts,
changing the course of the stream of consciousness. Thinking about your
thoughts changes what you are thinking about.

Another problem is that the sample size (n = 1) is too small and not
representative: Augustine may have given us a great example of his
self-reflection, but he was a genius and a saint, titles to which most
of us may only aspire.

We must agree with Watson on one point: introspection proves nothing,

at least in the sense that it cannot establish a cause and effect
relationship between the emotions, thoughts, and actions that emerge in
our minds. However, Watson may have been too quick to completely reject
introspection from modern academic psychology. While introspection
cannot test hypotheses, it may generate a hypothesis that could then be
tested by some other research method.

23
The case study is an in-depth study of one particular subject. The
individual in question might be a famous person, and so the case study
would be a biography that gives an account of the subject’s background
and later behavior. In clinical psychology case studies are frequently
done on individual patients, describing the initial presentation of
symptoms, psychometric assessment, relevant background, diagnosis,
course of treatment, and outcomes.

Unfortunately, the case study has some of the same limitations that we
find in introspection. Most obvious is the limited sample size (n = 1).
Neither is the sample usually representative. Biographies are usually
written on the most famous persons of the past, due to their great
accomplishments (e.g., Leonardo da Vinci) or the great evil they have
done (e.g., Hitler). Such individuals are not typical of even their own
times and cultures, let alone the entire human race.

Even the problem of selective observation and bias is present in case

studies. The person who wrote up the case study (e.g., Freud) may have
looked for certain things that fit a certain theory, and ignored those
data that did not fit.

Case studies, like introspection, prove nothing in the sense that they
cannot establish a cause and effect relationship between the events in
a person’s life: merely a record of what happened next. However, while
case studies cannot test hypotheses, they may be yet another source of
hypotheses which would then have to be tested by some other research
method. The other great use of case studies, especially within the
clinical branch of psychology, is that they serve to illustrate how to
do something: diagnosis, treatment, etc.

Surveys measure several variables in a large sample, and then attempt

to find a relationship (correlation) between the variables. There are
several ways that surveys can be done. Most questionnaires are surveys,
but most surveys do not involve questionnaires.

Perhaps the easiest way to gather data is to look in archives such as

patient records or job applications. One of my students was a certified
nursing assistant at a convalescent hospital. She started off with the
hypothesis that most of the combative patients were that way because
they had suffered left hemisphere strokes that had diminished their
ability to express themselves verbally. She got permission to look
through the records of the patients (n = 98) and recorded two variables
for each patient: did the patient have a left hemisphere stroke (IV, an
organismic background factor), and was the patient classified by the
staff as combative (DV, an evaluation of patient behavior). She found
that among the patients with the left hemisphere strokes (n = 20), most
were labeled as combative, but few of the other patients (n = 78) had
been so labeled (even the ones with right hemisphere strokes).

Field counts are another way to do a survey. One student who worked at a
cineplex counted the number of customers (n = 326) waiting in line for
two different movies: an action picture and a romantic comedy. He
measured two variables for each subject: gender (IV) and choice of
movie (DV). He confirmed his hypothesis that a higher percentage of the
males were going to see the action picture, while a higher percentage
of the females were going to see the romantic comedy.

24
Trace studies do not look at the subjects or their behavior directly,
but from some of the results of those behaviors. In trying to see which
of two museum exhibits was more popular, we might look at the patterns
of worn floor tiles and infer that one exhibit had more visitors.

Questionnaires are one of the hardest ways to do surveys. You have to

phrase the questions clearly, phrase the responses in quantifiable
format, find a potential sample, distribute the questionnaires, get the
questionnaires back, eliminate the responses that are inappropriate,
and then tabulate the remaining data.

Ways to do a survey
Type of survey Examples
Archival data Patient records, employee records
Field count Count the customers in line
Trace Study Bird droppings show where birds were
Questionnaire Product warranty registration form

One problem particularly with orally administered questionnaires is

that of demand effect (also known as courtesy bias). The subjects may
answer in such as way as to try to please the questioner. In the wake
of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, two of my students (a White woman and a
Black woman) went around asking students what they thought about the
verdict acquitting the four police officers who had beaten Rodney King.
About half of the White subjects questioned by the White investigator
thought that the verdict was justified, but none of the White subjects
who were questioned by the African-American researcher expressed that
view.

Until you become skilled with all of these aspects of questionnaires,

it is probably best to keep your questionnaires short, and distribute
them only among highly cooperative samples (e.g., students walking
across campus).

When done well, surveys avoid most of the problems of introspection and
case studies. The samples can be large and representative. Confusion
can be reduced by careful phrasing of the questions. (See the examples
below.) If we can clearly identify which variables are independent
before we conduct the research, and fully account for the influence of
other potential independent variables (confounding variables), a survey
might suggest some causal relationships.

25
This is an anonymous questionnaire, so please do not write your name on
this sheet. For each of the following questions, please CIRCLE the
response which best describes you or your opinions.

What is your gender? MALE FEMALE

How old are you? UNDER 25 25 OR OVER

What is your present marital status?

MARRIED WIDOWED DIVORCED NEVER MARRIED

Are you a parent or step-parent? YES NO

Compared to your brothers and sisters, are you

OLDEST YOUNGEST IN THE MIDDLE AN ONLY CHILD

How often do you …

ALWAYS USUALLY HALF THE TIME SELDOM NEVER

How often have you …

NEVER ONCE SEVERAL TIMES MANY TIMES

Would you describe yourself as …

EXTREMELY VERY SOMEWHAT SLIGHTLY NOT AT ALL

Is it true that …

DEFINITELY PROBABLY POSSIBLY NO WAY

Do you agree that …

STRONGLY AGREE MOSTLY DISAGREE

NOT SURE
MOSTLY AGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE

How likely is it that …

VERY SOMEWHAT SOMEWHAT VERY

LIKELY LIKELY UNLIKELY UNLIKELY

How would you rate …

EXCELLENT GOOD FAIR POOR

26
An experiment is research in which the independent variable is
intentionally manipulated by the investigator. Experiments can be done
in the artificial environment of a laboratory, or in "the field" of
real life such as a workplace or store. As in a survey, the sample
should be large and representative of the population, and the dependent
variables should be measured precisely. The major difference between a
survey and an experiment is that a survey just measures the variables,
while an experiment takes an independent variable and then manipulates
it. The end result is that the experiment is the best way to infer a
cause and effect relationship between the variables.

ORGANISMS INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT

VARIABLE VARIABLE
(manipulated)
Rats Half of the rats ran at Rats ran faster
a lower temperature at 60 degrees
than at 90
degrees
Voters Two different ads ran Voter turnout was
in comparable counties lower with the
attack ad
Consumers Two stores had One store had
different displays of higher sales of
the same product that product
Workers A new policy is Absenteeism
instituted: good declines under
attendance rewarded new policy
with flex time
Patients Half of the patients Depression is
are required to do lower in the
aerobic exercise exercise group

Suppose you have a hypothesis: students who work with computer drills
(predictor variable) will score higher on the final exam (outcome
variable). A survey could be done, just asking the students to indicate
on their final exams how often they worked with the computer drills.
Suppose we found out that the students who used the computer drills
scored much higher on their final exams than did the students who did
not use those drills. However, since this was only a survey, and not an
experiment, we must be cautious about interpreting cause and effect
relationships. The scores on the final exam were clearly a dependent
variable, a measure of students’ performance, but so was the other
variable, whether or not students chose to use the computer drills. We
may have simply shown a relationship between two dependent variables.
Students who do better on the final exam may have a number of
characteristics that differentiate them from students who do poorly on
the final: greater use of computer drills, more frequent church
attendance, fewer speeding tickets, and fewer tattoos. While these
might help me predict who is more likely to do well in the course, I
should not infer than any of these other measures of student choice or
performance actually causes exam scores to be higher or lower.

27
Now, let's test that same hypothesis with an experiment. One group, the
experimental group, is forced to use the computer drills. The other
group, the control group, is prevented from using the computer drills.
We measure the dependent variable in the same way: scores on the final
exam, but now we must treat the computer drills as an independent
variable to be was manipulated. One of the easiest ways to do this is
to have two separate groups, and random assignment of the subjects to
those groups. This means that each subject in the sample has an equal
chance of winding up in the experimental group. Each subject is
therefore assigned (independently of his or her own choice or
preference) to one of those groups. The random assignment serves to
balance out some of the other background variables, such as previous
academic preparation or socio-economic class that could have confounded
our results. Now, if the two groups differ significantly in their final
exam performance, we may attribute that difference to the computer
drills alone.

Research that uses pre-established groups (e.g., a morning section of

psychology vs. an afternoon section) does not use random assignment,
and may be influenced by those confounding variables that differentiate
the two existing groups. Such designs using non-random groups are
usually called quasi-experiments.

GRAMMAR LESSON: The group not receiving the experimental

treatment is known as the control group, not the controlled group.

structure of a separate groups experiment

28
Another way to conduct an experiment is with a repeated measures
(before vs. after) design. The entire sample is measured on the
dependent variable in the control condition, then the independent
variable is manipulated, and the entire sample is measured again on the
dependent variable under the experimental condition. While this design
has some advantages, it is vulnerable to practice, fatigue, or the
natural course of development or disorders. For example, if we took a
hundred patients who had been recently diagnosed with depression,
measured their level of depression (which would be high), and then
forced all of them to rap three hours a day for the next two months
(the independent variable manipulated), and then measured the
depression level again (the average score would be lower). However,
this repeated measures design ignored another important variable: the
natural course of depression. Most depressed patients will improve
somewhat in two months, even when no effective treatment is provided.

structure of a repeated measures experiment

A better approach in psychiatric research is to use a separate groups

design with random assignment. Suppose that the independent variable to
be manipulated is the treatment. Each subject should have an equal
chance of winding up in the experimental group. In medication studies,
the experimental group would get the new medication, while the control
group would be getting a placebo (a pill containing an inert
substance). In a double blind study, neither the patients, nor the
researchers observing the patients’ levels of depression should know
which patients are getting the medication and which are getting the
placebo. If the experimental treatment is to sing rap songs, perhaps
the control group should have to sing some other kind of music. If
after two months there is no significant difference in the depression
levels between the two groups, then we would have to conclude that
there is nothing special about rap, at least when it comes to
depression levels.

One problem often found with experiments (as well as other forms of
research) is known as the Hawthorne Effect. In one study done about a
hundred years ago, assembly workers seemed to increase their production
regardless of the type of experimental manipulation to which they were
subjected. Subsequent analysis of the study concluded that the workers
were responding mostly to the attention that the researchers gave them.

29
So, Hawthorne effect refers to the fact that the very process of
observing a behavior can influence that behavior.

How research techniques meet scientific standards

INTROSPECTION CASE SURVEY EXPERIMENT
STUDY
Empirical ? YES YES YES
Objective NO ? YES YES
Quantifiable NO NO YES YES
Can Infer a NO NO ? YES
Cause-Effect
Relationship

Whatever research technique we select, we must make sure that each

variable has been taken care of in one of the following ways:
measurement, manipulation, control or randomization. The most common
technique is to measure the variable with a valid and reliable
operational definition. It is helpful to get a scale of measurement so
that most of the subjects are scoring toward the middle. For example,
if a test is too easy, and most of the subjects score near the top of
the scale, that is known as ceiling effect. If a test is too hard, and
most of the subjects score near the bottom of the scale, that is known
as floor effect. Both ceiling and floor effects complicate the
statistics and make it harder for the research to be significant.

Dependent variables must be measured, whereas independent variables can

be measured, or dealt with in the following four ways. We can
manipulate the variable by making it vary in a manner independently of
the choice of the subjects. The easiest way to do this is usually in
the form of randomly assigned grouping. (Manipulation of an independent
variable makes the research an experiment.) Another option is to control
the variable by turning it into a constant. The easiest way to do this
is through selective sampling (e.g., control gender by only including
women in the sample) or by proportionate assignment (e.g., include the
same proportion of men and women in both the experimental and control
groups). If we have a large enough sample (and random selection and
assignment), we can assume randomization of background variables (which
means the impact of those variables will probably cancel out).

Independent variables that are not sufficiently measured, manipulated,

controlled or randomized become confounding variables which means that
they limit how we can make causal inferences. Another name for
confounding variables would be third variables or extraneous variables.

QUESTION #2.4: What are the major ethical guidelines in the

study of behavior?
When psychologists treat patients, help clients, or perform research on
subjects, there are important ethical guidelines to be followed.

With human subjects, there are guidelines about the subject’s right to
privacy. In some cases there are requirements for anonymity which means

30
that not even the researcher should know the identity of the subject.
Confidentiality means the researchers should not disclose the identity
of the subjects. Someone reading a case study of a patient should not
be able to infer that the 46-year-old male divorced accountant is
really Mr. Jones down the street. Many hospitals, companies, and
schools have internal review boards or written policies which limit
what kinds of data can be used in research. So, before you start
distributing your questionnaire around the office, or sifting through
the employment records, make sure that your research is permitted.

Another ethical concern with human subjects is that of informed

consent. Each participant should have a clear idea of what he or she is
getting into when agreeing to fill out a questionnaire or be subjected
to the manipulation of the independent variable. Ideally, the
participant should also have the ability to quit the research at any
point. One great limitation of this guideline is that many of the
subjects that psychology is most interested in (e.g., children, the
mentally ill) might be incapable of fully comprehending the
ramifications of their participation in the research. It is not settled
whether the subjects of an archival study must give formal consent
before their data can be analyzed: the organization accumulating the
data may have had a legitimate right to do so. It is doubtful that
subjects in a field count have to give formal consent, if the data are
based upon public behaviors.

Yet another limitation of informed consent is that certain experiments

necessarily involve some degree of deception of the subjects because if
they really knew what the research was really about, that would affect
the responses. It may be necessary to lead participants to think that
the research is about one variable (e.g., attitudes about the
qualifications of job applicants) when actually it is about another
variable (e.g., discrimination based upon the gender or ethnicity of
the job applicants).

A related guideline is debriefing. After the research has been

completed, subjects should have the opportunity to learn about the
results. If the subject has experienced any stress due to the research
process, he or she should have an opportunity to get some counseling in
order to overcome those problems.

Another guideline is lack of coercion. Subjects should not be forced to

participate in the research. Prisoners should not be promised special
consideration in parole hearings for their agreement to participate in
dangerous experiments. Even students in psychology courses should not
be required to participate in research as part of their grades, but
should be given alternative ways of meeting course requirements.

With all research subjects, human and animal, there is a need to

minimize harmful consequences: risks, dangers, suffering, even
embarrassment. Perhaps the classic example of where this criterion was
not followed was in the Tuskegee syphilis study. The long term effects
of untreated syphilis on a White population were widely known: damage
to a variety of organ systems is possible. (About ten percent would get
a form of syphilis-related dementia known as general paresis.) In 1932
a study was organized by the U.S. Public Health Service in order to
study the long term effects of syphilis on African-American males.
During World War II, penicillin was discovered to be an effective cure

31
for syphilis, but over the next thirty years, administrators made the
decision to withhold such treatment from the participants in order to
maintain the original purpose of a long term study of untreated
syphilis on Blacks men.

The concern for minimizing risk to human subjects is one reason why
many topics in psychology (e.g., loss of parents at an early age, brain
damage) cannot be studied by experiments on human subjects. These
topics can only be studied by surveys (which are not as good at
eliminating the possible confounding independent variables) or by
experiments on animals. Indeed, one of the most controversial areas of
scientific research is the justifiability of the pain (and even death)
given to the more than twenty million animal subjects each year in
U.S. laboratories.

Research on
Researcher(s) U.S. Public Health Service 1932-1972
Subjects African-American males in Alabama
Type of Longitudinal survey to track the course of
research untreated syphilis
Independent Age, length of time infected
Variable(s)
Factors held Ethnicity, gender, diagnosis of syphilis
Constant
Dependent Symptoms throughout the course of the
Variable(s) untreated disease
Results About ten percent developed general paresis
(dementia due to tertiary syphilis)
Ethical Ten years into the study, penicillin had
Considerations been developed, and the patients could have
been cured, but that would have interfered
with the original goal of the study
Conclusion The disease has similar results for African-
Americans as it does for Caucasians

32
 UNIT 3: STATISTICS

QUESTION #3.1: What is role of statistics in psychology?

Math and science go together. Descriptive statistics are measurements about

variables in groups, samples or populations. A variable can be described by
its central tendency (mean, median, mode, percentage) or dispersion
(variance, standard deviation, range). Here are examples where simple
descriptive statistics could be used to summarize the results of experiments.

SUBJECTS INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT VARIABLE

VARIABLE (precisely measured)
(manipulated)
Rats Half of the rats ran Rats ran faster at the
at a lower temperature lower temperature: a
mean of 45.5 seconds at
60 degrees versus a
mean of 52.8 seconds at
90 degrees
Voters Two different ads ran Voter turnout was lower
in comparable counties with the attack ad:
54.4% vs. 65.1% without
Consumers Two stores had One store had higher
different displays of sales: 34% increase vs.
the same product only a 3% increase
Workers A new policy is Absenteeism declined
instituted: good under new policy: from
attendance rewarded a median of 6 per month
with flex time to only 2 per month
Patients Half of the patients Depression is lower in
are required to do the exercise group: a
aerobic exercise mean CES-D score of
38.7 vs. 51.6 points

QUESTION #3.2: What is a correlation?

Correlation describes the association between two variables (or two measures
of the same variable). The direction of a correlation may be positive,
negative, or zero.

GRAMMAR LESSON: In this class, do not use “positive” to mean good or

“negative” to mean bad.

33
 Math You Need for this Course
Symbol What it means
= Equals

> The thing on the left is greater than the thing on the right

< The thing on the left is less than the thing on the right

r Stands for correlation: the association between variables

+ Positive, direct relationship between the variables

If one goes up, the other goes up.

If one goes down, the other goes down.

- Negative, inverse relationship between the variables

If one goes up, the other goes down.

r > .60 High correlation, strong trend, few exceptions
Between Moderate correlation, some exceptions to the trend
.2 & .6
r < .20 Low correlation, weak trend, many exceptions
0.00 No correlation, no relationship between variables
Null Hypothesis that there is no real difference between groups, no real
correlation between variables; chance explains data variations
Reject Rejecting the null means that we cannot attribute the resulting data to
random variation, so we proved something (but we have to figure out what)
p Probability of the null hypothesis being consistent with these data
p > .10 Data are not significant
p < .10 Data have marginal significance
p < .05 Data have fair significance, reject the null
p < .01 Data have good significance, reject the null
P < .001 Data have excellent significance, reject the null
E-0 Scientific Notation: move the decimal point to the left
E-02 Put one zero between decimal and first number
7.65E-02 = .0765 (significance is marginal, or fair if < .05)
E-03 Put two zeros between the decimal and first number
1.34E-03 = .00134 (significance is good)
E-04 Put three zeros between the decimal and first number
1.34E-04 = .000134 (significance is excellent)

34
A positive correlation is a direct relationship between the two variables. (We
never use the words good or bad to describe a correlation.) A direct
relationship means that if a given subject scores high on one variable, he is
likely to score high on the other variable; and if a subject scores low on
one variable he is likely to score low on the other variable.

For an example of a direct correlation, students who tend to score high on

the first quiz, tend to be the same ones who get the higher scores on the
second quiz. When each variable can be measured on an interval scale, we can
use a graph known as a bivariate scatterplot. Each subject appears as one data
point. The X axis represents that subject's score on the X variable, while
the Y axis represents that subject's score on the Y variable.

The two-by-two contingency table is another diagram for showing correlation,

especially in categorical variables (e.g., male-female, yes/no, pass/fail,
experimental/control). Here is an example of the direct correlation between
whether workers had undergone special safety training and whether these
workers passed a test on safety. Out of the fifty workers in the sample,
twenty were selected for safety training, and thirty served as controls
(independent variable). When all the workers were given a knowledge test
related to safety, most of the trained workers passed, while most of the
untrained workers failed (dependent variable). There was a direct correlation
between the variables of training and passing the test because the trained
workers were more likely to pass.

35
 Positive correlation
VARIABLE TWO: safety test
passed failed totals
V
A
R training 15 5 20
I
A
B
L
E No
training 10 20 30
O
N
E
Totals 25 25 N = 50

Negative correlations occur when subjects who score high on one variable tend
to score low on the other variable. Another name for this relationship is
inverse. (We never use the words "good" or "bad" to describe a correlation.)

For example, students who tend to work more hours at their place of
employment, tend to get lower grades. Here is a bivariate scatterplot
demonstrating that inverse relationship.

Here is another example of an inverse correlation: workers who completed

safety training were less likely to be involved in an industrial accident
during the following year. We can use a two-by-two contingency table to
describe this relationship.

36
 Negative correlation
VARIABLE TWO: accident?
yes No totals
V
A
R training 1 19 20
I
A
B
L
E No
training 4 26 30
O
N
E
Totals 5 45 N = 50

A zero correlation is one in which there is no relationship between the

variables observed. If you choose any two variables at random (say, the price
of beans at the local grocery store, and whether or not the Dodgers will win
the World Series) there will most likely be no relationship between them, a
zero correlation. When the correlation is zero, there is no way that we could
use a knowledge about a subject's score on one variable to predict what kind
of score that subject would have on the other variable.

Here is the way that a zero correlation looks on a bivariate scatterplot: no

trend between how tall a student is and how well the student does in the
course. So, there is no way that I can size up the students on the first day
of class and predict who will be the A students.

Here is what a zero correlation looks like on a two-by-two contingency table

showing a zero correlation between whether workers wear glasses and whether
or not they have an accident.

37
 Zero correlation
VARIABLE TWO: accident?
Yes No totals
V
A
R Wears 2 18 20
I Eye
A Glasses 10%
B
L Does
E NOT
Wear 3 27 30
O Eye
N Glasses 10%
E
Totals 5 45 N = 50

Notice that ten percent of workers have accidents, whether or not they wear
glasses, so there is no way that I could look at whether or not a worker
wears glasses in order to predict a higher (or lower) risk of accident.

QUESTION #3.3: How is the strength of a correlation measured?

A correlation coefficient is a number with a theoretical range between -1.00
and +1.00 (but remember: the negative or positive sign just tells us the
direction of the relationship). The closer to zero, the weaker the
relationship, the closer to 1.00 (+ 1.00 or -1.00) the stronger the
relationship between the variables. Here is a rough guide to words describing
the strength of different coefficients.

38
These cut offs are not hard and fast. In experimental psychology, it is more
common to find correlations above .6 (positive or negative) than it is in
industrial psychology. This is because much of the research in experimental
psychology takes place in the confines of the laboratory where the impact of
extraneous independent variables can be controlled, while in the open
environment of the workplace, there are many more influences on the subjects'
performance, and these confounding variables create more exceptions to the
trend, hence, weaker correlations.

When dealing with bivariate scatterplots, the strength of the correlation

tells us how closely the individual data points approximate a theoretical
regression line that expresses the general trend of the data points. (The
exact slope and intercept of the regression line are separate calculations.)

39
Return to our example of the inverse relationship between students working
and getting a good grade in the course. Perhaps you thought to yourself, "but
that doesn't fit everyone. I know one really lazy guy who doesn't even have a
job, and he still flunks, while I work forty hours a week and get a B." You
are right: there are some exceptions to the trend, like Lazy Larry and
Hardworking Harry, which means that the correlation is only moderate, and not
strong.

In using a two-by-two contingency table, high positive correlations have most

of the subjects ending up in cells A and D, while high negative correlations
have most of the subjects ending up in cells B and C. We know that the table
below represents a positive correlation because most of the subjects ended up
in cells A and D. The exceptions to the trend occurred in cells B and C. One
quick way of estimating the strength of such a correlation is to put the
percentage of the trained group (n = 20) who passed the test in cell A, and
put the percentage of the untrained group (n = 30) in cell C, and then
subtract C from A. So, this correlation is only moderate, about .4. (The
actual formulas used for calculating correlations can wait until you have a
class in statistics. One of the most commonly used is the Pearson product
moment coefficient, and is symbolized by the small letter r.)

40
 Moderate correlation
VARIABLE TWO: safety test
Passed failed totals
V A B
A
R training 15 5 20
I
A 75% 25%
B TREND EXCEPTIONS
L
E C D
No
O training 10 20 30
N
E 33% 67%
EXCEPTIONS TREND
Totals 25 25 N = 50

In a perfect positive correlation of +1.00, all of the trained workers would

pass the test, and none of the untrained workers would pass the test: no
exceptions to that trend. Cells B and C would be empty.

QUESTION #3.4: What is reliability?

Reliability means consistency of measurement. This is especially important in

standardized psychological tests, but reliability is a criterion for any
operational measure of a variable. Imagine a twelve-inch ruler made out of
elastic instead of wood. One carpenter might measure a board as being 5
inches, but another carpenter using the same ruler might stretch it a little
less and determine that the board was 6 inches. This kind of inconsistency is
not tolerable in science. When one clinical psychologist says that a patient
is depressed, she should be using the same standards as those used by a
psychiatrist in a different city.

Correlation coefficients are a useful way to determine just how reliable

psychological measurements are. Reliable tests have high correlation
coefficients. Most of the patients end up in cells A and D where there is
agreement between the first measure of the test and the second measure, and
there are very few disagreements in cells B and C.

One form of reliability is inter-rater. Two different raters (e.g., judges,

interviewers, diagnosticians) evaluate the same subjects on the same
variable. For example, the first measure might be the diagnostic judgment of
one clinical psychologist, and the second measure might be the diagnostic
judgment of a psychiatrist. Both mental health professionals are using the
same test in order to determine if each of the twenty patients has a certain
disorder. Suppose that the psychologist diagnoses 10 out of twenty patients
as having the mental disorder, while the psychiatrist only finds that 8
patients have the disorder (all of whom were also diagnosed by the first
psychologist). Both diagnosticians agree that ten patients do not have the

41
disorder. The only real disagreement is on two patients: the first
psychologist says that these patients have the disorder, but the second
psychologist says that they do not have the disorder. The correlation here is
high, about +.8 because there are very few exceptions to the trend of
agreement about the diagnoses.

Inter-rater Reliability
SECOND RATER says patient
Has disorder Does NOT totals
F A B
I patient
R has the 8 2 10
S disorder
T AGREEMENT DISAGREEMENT

R C D
A Patient
T does NOT 0 10 10
E Have the
R Disorder DISAGREEMENT AGREEMENT

Totals 8 12 N = 20

Another form of reliability is test-retest. The subject is given the same test
twice to see if he scores consistently. Suppose this is a test of personality
that classifies subjects as introverts or extraverts. If the test is
reliable, we should not see a subject looking like an introvert this week and
looking like an extravert next week.

Test-retest Reliability
SECOND TEST says patient
Introvert Extravert totals
F A B
I
R Introvert 30 0 30
S
T AGREEMENT DISAGREEMENT

T C D
E
S Extravert 0 20 10
T
DISAGREEMENT AGREEMENT

Totals 30 20 N = 50

42
Suppose fifty subjects take the personality test, resulting in 30 being
classified as extraverts and 20 as introverts. A week later everybody takes
the same test again, and gets the same classification. There are no
exceptions to the trend. That is perfect consistency, a reliability
coefficient of +1.00.

Other forms of reliability include alternate (parallel) forms in which there

might be two slightly different versions of the same test, and internal
reliability in which we look at the different parts of a test and make sure
that each part is really measuring the same thing as the other parts of the
test.

Establishing the reliability of a test

Type of reliability Research involved
Test-retest Give the test twice to each subject;
Correlate first administration to the second
Inter-rater Have two judges evaluate each subject;
Correlate the first ratings to the second
Alternate form Give two versions of the test to each subject;
Correlate the first version to the second
Internal Give the entire test to each subject;
Correlate one part of the test to the rest of it

QUESTION #3.5: What is validity?

Validity means that a measurement actually measures the variable that it

claims to measure (and not some other variable that might be easier to
measure). Validity is especially important in standardized psychological
tests, but validity is a criterion for any operational measure of a variable.
Validity and reliability are both important for psychological measures, but
they are not the same thing. Imagine that you need to weigh a brick, and
someone brings out a ruler. That ruler may measure very reliably
(consistently) but what it measures is how long the brick is, not how heavy
the brick is (which is what we need to measure now).

One of the biggest problems in psychological research is using the wrong

tests to measure variables: using a life satisfaction scale to measure
clinical depression, using a test of childhood minimal brain dysfunction for
senile dementia, or using an IQ test to determine if a job applicant has the
aptitude to learn a certain job skill.

Correlation coefficients are useful in describing how valid a test is. In

order to validate a new test, we must correlate it to some pre-established
standard measure of that variable. (Just like if we wanted to see if a watch
kept the correct time, we would have to compare it with the official
government clock.)

43
Suppose a medical clinic wants to develop a brief scale to screen patients
for depression. The established standard for diagnosing depression is given
in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of the American Psychiatric
Association, so the results of the new test must be correlated with those of
a formal diagnosis following the DSM standards.

Suppose we give the new test to the next hundred patients at a general
practice medical clinic. Each of these patients then sees a clinical
psychologist who does a complete, formal assessment for depression following
the DSM. The results indicate that the new test labeled twenty patients as
depressed, but the DSM found that only ten were really depressed.

Validating a test
ESTABLISHED MEASURE (DSM)
Depressed NOT Depressed totals
A B
Patient
N is 10 10 20
E Depressed
W TRUE FALSE
POSITIVE POSITIVE
T C D
E Patient
S is NOT 0 80 80
T Depressed
FALSE TRUE
NEGATIVE NEGATIVE
Totals 10 90 N = 100

The strength of the correlation coefficient between these variables is one

important factor in the decision whether or not to use the new test. If there
were no exceptions (r = +1.00) we could say that the new test had a perfect
predictive value. In practice, few psychological tests even come close to
this level of validity.

It is also important to note what kind of errors the test is making: false
positives and/or false negatives. In the example above, there were no false
negatives (patients who were really depressed, but the test did not identify
them as such). So, if a patient were depressed, the test would be sensitive
enough to point that out. However, this new test had a high rate of false
positives (patients who scored high on the test even though they were really
not depressed). So, given these rates of false positives and false negatives,
here is how the new test could be used: patients who score low are clearly
not depressed, so they do not have to be tested for depression by the
psychologist, but patients who score high need to be referred for further
diagnostic assessment to confirm that they are really depressed (rather than
false positives) before we place them into some form of treatment.

44
GRAMMAR LESSON: Do not use the words accurate or accuracy in this class.
Figure out which of the following concepts you want to convey: precision,
reliability or validity.

QUESTION #3.6: What is statistical significance?

Significance is our level of confidence that the data really prove something.
Psychology and other sciences do this by using a branch of statistics known
as inferential statistics. The most widely used technique is known as null
hypothesis testing (though other approaches to inferential statistics are
emerging).

The null hypothesis states that the data observed in our sample could have
been produced by chance variation (and therefore we proved nothing). Maybe
there was a slight difference in mean performance between the experimental
group and the control group, but that could be attributed to random
variation. Maybe there was a slight difference in the percentage of Alzheimer
patients who were clinically confused before and after starting a memory
training program, but that difference could be attributed to random
variation. Maybe there was a weak positive correlation between how much sugar
children consumed and how violent they were at school, but that could be
attributed to random variation. Notice that the null hypothesis always has
the same explanation for these results: we did not prove anything, the
differences (or correlations) were not significant, we can explain minor
fluctuations or trends as due to pure chance. Whenever we fail to reject the
null hypothesis as an explanation for our data, we admit that we have proved
nothing.

In order to prove something, we must start by rejecting the null hypothesis.

This is where inferential statistics come in. We must calculate (or estimate)
the probability of the null hypothesis being able to explain the observed
data. Probabilities are represented by decimal numbers that range from 0.00
(which stands for something completely impossible) to 1.00 (which stands for
something completely certain). Notice that both correlation coefficients and
null hypothesis probabilities use decimal numbers in the same range (except
that probabilities can never be negative). In order to avoid confusion
between the two, we use the letter r for correlation coefficients and the
letter p for the probability of the null hypothesis. Here is how to remember
the difference.

CO R R E L A T I O N

repeats the letter r, and does not have the letter p

NULL H Y P O T H E S I S

uses the letter p, and does not have the letter r

45
For example, suppose I claimed to have a magical ability (e.g.,
psychokinesis) such that if you flipped a coin, I could use my mind power to
make it come up heads. If you are thinking like a scientist, you would start
off being skeptical of my claim, and demand an empirical demonstration. So,
you flip a coin, and I say the magic word, and lo and behold, the coin comes
up heads. I say "See, I told you so." But then you say, "That was just pure
luck because you had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right." What you have
just done is accepted the null hypothesis. You looked at the fact that p =
.50 and concluded that my data were not statistically significant. So, we
flip the coin again, and again it comes up heads, but still you are not
convinced, because p = .25, so you keep accepting the null hypothesis,
claiming that I am just lucky. Even after three flips and heads, most
students would still say "still probably just luck" because p = .125 at this
point. However, there would come a point at which you would say "No one is
that lucky, there is something else going on here." At that point you have
rejected the null hypothesis as an explanation because its probability was
too low. Then some other explanation (e.g., fraud, psychokinetic ability)
must be considered.

We need to come to some agreement as to where to draw the line, when to

reject the null hypothesis as an explanation for our data. Most editors of
psychology journals have regarded that if the probability of the null is less
than .05 (p < .05) then we reject the null with some confidence that we have
really proved something. The smaller the probability, the more confident we
can be about the significance of our findings.

46
When we speak about statistical significance we should use terms such as
excellent, good, fair, marginal, and not significant. It is confusing to use
terms such as strong and weak, or low and high when discussing p values, so
reserve those terms for describing correlation coefficients.

GRAMMAR LESSON: Do not use the word significant unless you mean p < .05.

In practice, statistical significance is influenced by several factors. The

first is sample size. In general, the larger the sample is, the more
significant the data are. If the sample size is small (say, under twenty) it
is pretty hard to reject the null. Professional polling organizations, such
as Gallup, usually go with a sample size of about a thousand, because that
means that a difference of just a few percentage points in the polls will be
statistically significant (p < .05). Another factor influencing significance
is the magnitude of the difference between the groups (or the strength of the
correlation coefficient). The stronger the correlation (or difference between
two groups), the more likely it is to be a significant one. It takes a large
sample for a small difference to be significant, and it takes a large
difference for a small sample to yield significant data. Yet another factor
is how much dispersion there is on the dependent variable. High standard
deviations may make it harder to achieve statistical significance.

significance Better Worse

Difference between groups Bigger Smaller
Difference within groups Smaller Bigger
Sample size Bigger Smaller

QUESTION #3.7: How can psychologists infer a cause and effect

relationship between two variables?
We know that introspection cannot enable us to make a causal inference, for
it merely records of series of thoughts, emotions, and other experiences, and
can prove no causal relation between them.

We know that case studies cannot enable us to make a causal inference, for
case studies merely record bits of information about one subject, and cannot
prove a causal relation between them. A single case study cannot be used to
prove a diagnostic technique as valid or reliable. Case studies cannot prove
what was the cause of the patient's mental disorder or whether the prescribed
treatment was effective.

In order to confirm a causal hypothesis about two variables, we must

accomplish three things.

47
 • First, we must reject the null, and thereby declare statistical significance.

• Second, we must be able to establish one of the variables in the role of a likely cause.

• Third, we must make sure that the direction of the correlation is consistent with that of
the causal hypothesis.

Here are three examples of research that fail to confirm the original causal
hypothesis.

Example #1: Do students perform worse on exam if the room is hot and stuffy?
It was hypothesized that students who took an exam in a room with a
Fahrenheit temperature of 78 degrees would do worse than students who took
the exam in a room with a temperature of 68 degrees.

Data which are not significant:

No causal relationship can be established
VARIABLE TWO
Mean score on the exam n
V
A
R Warm 72 20
I room
A
B
L
E
Cool 74 24
O room
N
E

The first group did score lower (mean of 72 vs. 74, p > .10). Since these
data were not significant, we cannot reject the null hypothesis. We did not
verify any causation between performance and temperature. Perhaps if the
sample had been larger, the difference might have been significant, but so
far, all we can say is that we have proved nothing.

Example #2: Does watching violent videos cause children to become violent? It
was hypothesized that watching violent videos would make children more
violent. The subjects were eight-year-old boys (n = 46). The children could
choose to watch any of a selection of videos that had been classified by the
researchers as violent or non-violent. The number of children engaging in
physical aggression was then measured.

48
 Correlation between dependent variables:
No causal relationship can be established
VARIABLE TWO: aggressive?
Yes No totals
V
A
R Chose a
I Violent 15 11 26
A Video
B
L
E Chose a
NON- 1 19 20
O violent
N video
E
Totals 16 30 N = 46

The results indicate a moderate relationship between the variables (r = +.55)

the children who watched the videos were more likely to engage in physical
violence themselves. These data cannot be explained by random variation (p <
.001), the null hypothesis can be rejected with an excellent level of
confidence. However, it is on the second step that our causal reasoning
breaks down. This research was only a survey (not an experiment in which the
video watched was manipulated), and whether or not the child saw the violent
video was the choice of the subject (and was therefore a dependent variable).
So, we cannot conclude that watching the video (variable X) caused the
child's later violent behavior (variable Y). Even though we have rejected the
null, there remain three plausible causal relationships between these
variables.

One, the video did cause the boys to be violent.

(X caused Y.)

Two, the boys who were more violent to begin with

tended to prefer the more violent videos.

(Y caused X.)

Three, both the boys' violent behavior and their

video viewing preferences should be regarded as
dependent variables which are the result of some
other background factors, such as irresponsible
parents or violent genes.

(some other variable Z caused both X and Y.)

49
This last explanation is sometimes called a spurious relationship between two
collateral effects in which neither observed variable was the cause of the
other. Note: a spurious correlation may be strong and statistically
significant, it just does not show that one variable caused the other. To
make such a causal inference is to commit the post hoc fallacy.

If this research had been an experiment, instead of a mere survey, we could

have confirmed the originally hypothesized causal relationship. In such an
experiment, we would have had to treat the viewing of the video as an
independent variable to be manipulated, not a dependent variable left up to
the choice of the individual subjects. The boys would have been randomly
assigned to one of two groups, being forced to watch (or prevented from
watching) the violent videos. The process of random assignment would have
also served to balance out such background factors as parental influences,
such that children from good homes and bad homes had the same probability of
ending up in each group.

Example #3: Does video training improve worker performance? It was

hypothesized that newly hired workers (n = 25) would perform better on their
jobs if they received video based training. In this experiment, ten workers
were randomly assigned to receive video based training, while the other
fifteen served as controls (receiving the standard training which takes place
in person). After two weeks on the job, the performance of these two groups
was compared.

The results indicate a moderate relationship between the variables

(r = -.50). These data cannot be explained by random variation (p = .036), so
the null hypothesis can be rejected with a fair level of confidence. We have
cleared step one.

Correlation in unanticipated direction:

Proves the opposite of initial prediction
VARIABLE TWO: performance
Satisfactory Unsatisfactory totals
V
A
R Video
I Based 3 7 10
A Training
B 30%
L
E
Training
O Without 12 3 15
N The
E Video 75%

Totals 15 10 N = 25

50
Since this was an experiment, we know that the video training was a variable
independent of the individual subject's choice, therefore, it has the role of
cause. So, we have cleared the second step.

However, the correlation is not in the expected direction. The original

hypothesis said that the workers who received the video training should do
better on their performance evaluations. The correlation we expected to get
between the variables was direct, but the little sign in front of the
correlation coefficient is negative. That reverses the relationship between
the variables: the workers who got the video training tended to do worse.
Less than a third of the video trained workers performed satisfactorily,
compared to three-quarters of the control group. So, we did not prove that
the videos helped training; we proved that the videos hurt training.

GRAMMAR LESSON: Terms such as helped, hurt, improved, and impaired

imply a causal relationship. Don’t use them unless you want to imply causation.

Here is an example of research that clears all three steps on the road to
causal inference. It was hypothesized that customers (n = 500) would be more
likely to register their product warranties when promised a ten-dollar gift
certificate as a reward. In this experiment, a hundred of the products were
randomly packed with the offer of the gift certificates and the rest were
not. Within two weeks after purchase, the following registration rates were
noted: 50% with the gift certificate versus only 10% without.

Data which demonstrate causation:

Statistical Significance,
Expected Direction of Correlation,
Identifiable Independent Variable
VARIABLE TWO: warranty
registered?
Yes No totals
V
A
R Gift
I Offer 50 50 100
A
B 50%
L
E
No
O Gift 40 360 400
N Offer
E 10%

Totals 90 410 N = 500

51
These data cannot be explained by random variation (p < .001), the null
hypothesis can be rejected with an excellent level of significance, so we
have cleared step one.

Since this was an experiment, we know that the gift offer was a variable
independent of the individual subject's choice, therefore, it could have the
role of cause. So, we have cleared the second step.

These data indicate a moderate relationship between the variables (r = +.4):

half of the subjects receiving the gifts registered, but this was true for
only ten percent of the other purchasers. Since the correlation was in the
expected direction (we predicted that the customers who got the gift offers
would be more likely to turn in their cards), we have cleared the third step.

52
 UNIT 4: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM

QUESTION #4.1: What is the basic unit of the nervous

system?

The neuron is a single nerve cell, and you have billions of them. There
are three basic types of neurons: association, afferent, and efferent.
The association neurons comprise the central nervous system (CNS) that
is the brain and spinal cord. The afferent neurons are also known as the
sensory neurons: they bring the stimuli from the sensors (e.g., skin,
eyes, ears) to the CNS. The efferent neurons are also known as motor
neurons: they bring the responses from the brain to the muscles and the
glands. An analogy for afferent and efferent neurons is that they are
like one-way streets: on a given neuron the traffic can only travel in
one direction: to or from the CNS depending upon the type of neuron.

Here is how to remember the difference between afferent and efferent

neurons. The letter A comes before the letter E in the alphabet. The
stimulus must come before the response. The afferent neuron must bring
the stimulus to the CNS before the efferent neuron can send the
response from the CNS.

Most neurons are long, thin cells. One neuron stretches from the tip of
your big toe to the base of your spine. At the beginning of the cell
are the dendrites that pick up the stimulus from the sensor (or impulse
from another neuron). At the other end are the terminal fibers, which
end at another neuron (or at a muscle or gland). Between the two ends
is the long middle, the axon. Here is a diagram not to scale. If it
were more to scale it would look like a piece of dental floss, with the
two frayed ends representing the dendrites and terminal fibers,
respectively.

Surrounding the axon is a sheath of myelin, a white, fatty substance

that insulates the neuron much as the black plastic coating insulates
an electrical wire. Myelin increases the speed at which a neural
impulse passes through a neuron.

About a century ago, Santiago Ramon y Cajal determined that individual

memories are not stored in individual neurons, but in networks of
neurons.

53
QUESTION #4.2: How are neural impulses conducted and
transmitted?

Conduction is when a neural impulse goes from one end of the neuron to
the other. Neural impulses involve an electro-chemical spike that is
conducted along the axon from the dendrites to the terminal fibers.
This has a speed of several hundred meters per second, and even
somewhat faster in a thick, fully myelinated neuron.

Neural impulses have a fairly constant voltage, a difference of

electrical potential of about a tenth of a volt. Each time a neuron
conducts an impulse, this is an all-or-nothing event: the neuron either
conducts the impulse or it does not. When a stimulus is below the
threshold for triggering an impulse, no impulse is sent.

So, the brain has no way of knowing about the intensity of the stimulus
based upon the voltage of the incoming impulse. Whether it was a major
pain or a minor tickle, the voltage of the neural impulse will be the
same, due to the all-or-nothing nature of conduction. The only way that
the brain can distinguish the intensity of stimuli is to look at the
frequency with which the impulses arrive: the more intense the
stimulus, the greater the number of impulses sent. A very painful
stimulus might result in eight hundred impulses per second being
conducted.

Transmission is the process of getting the impulse from one neuron to

another. Unlike two electrical wires, the two neurons are not in direct
contact, but there is a microscopic gap between them. The synapse is
the gap between the two neurons. This gap lies between the terminal
fibers of the sending neuron to the dendrites of the receiving neuron.
The impulse must pass over this gap before it is to get to the next
neuron. This is a relatively slow point in the process of getting the
message to or from the brain.

54
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that work in the synapse to transmit
the impulse from the sending neuron to the receiving neuron. The
terminal fibers of the sending neuron have vesicles containing these
chemicals. As the impulse arrives in the terminal fibers, the vesicles
release the chemicals into the synapse. The chemicals then go across
the microscopic synaptic gap and are received by tiny receptor sites in
the dendrites of the receiving neuron. When a sufficient number of
receptor sites have been filled, the receiving neuron then conducts the
neuron impulse down its axon to its terminal fibers. Some
neurotransmitters have the role of agonists which facilitate
transmission while others have the role of antagonists, which make
transmission more difficult.

Dopamine is one example of a major neurotransmitter. When levels of

dopamine are low, the individual might have difficulty sending out
responses to the limbs or tongue. In one neurological disease,
Parkinsonism, dopamine levels are low, and patients stutter in their
speech, and their hands may tremor. A medication for Parkinson's,
Levodopa, temporarily increases the levels of dopamine, and the patient
can speak, walk, and write in a more normal fashion. However, right
after receiving a daily dosage, Parkinson patients might have such
abnormally high levels of dopamine that their neurons start
transmitting information from the senses even though there is no
physical stimulus, resulting in hallucinations.

Case Study: Mr. G was a retired real estate developer in Silicon

Valley. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in his early fifties.
As it worsened, his dosage of Levodopa was increased. Although he lived
in a well-constructed house (that he himself had built) on a large lot
in a quiet neighborhood of an exclusive suburb, he began to complain
about the racket that the neighbors were making. He thought that one
neighbor was using power tools working on a boat, playing music loudly,
and using foul language. His wife could hear none of this. The
neurologist concluded that that these morning auditory hallucinations
were a side effect of his Levodopa dosage, and recommended a divided
dosage. Then the reports of hallucination subsided both in frequency
and intensity.

55
 Importance of neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitter Role Affects Disorders
Acetylcholine Excitatory Arousal, Low in
attention, Alzheimer’s
memory,
motivation,
movement
Dopamine Inhibitory Attention, High in
learning, schizophrenia,
movement, low in
pleasure Parkinson’s
Serotonin Inhibitory Anxiety, Depression
dreaming, (Prozac, Paxil
eating, sleep, and Zoloft
mood, pain increase
serotonin
levels)
Noradrenaline Excitatory Activity, Depression
Norepinephrine alertness, (cocaine and
eating, heart amphetamines
rate, increase
learning, norepinephrine
memory, mood, levels)
sleep
Gamma-amino- Inhibitory Eating, sleep Anorexia,
butyric acid bulimia
Endorphins Inhibitory Pain
Enkephalins
Substance P Excitatory Pain

Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental disorder characterized by

symptoms such as auditory hallucinations. Some of the older anti-
psychotic medications (e.g., chlorpromazine) given to schizophrenics
controlled symptoms such as hallucinations by reducing levels of
dopamine. Unfortunately, prolonged use of these medications meant that
some patients developed Parkinson-like symptoms.

Case Study: Ms. R is now in her sixties. She was initially hospitalized
for schizophrenia in her mid twenties and has spent most of her life in
mental institutions. She receives regular doses of anti-psychotic
medications to reduce her hallucinations and disruptive behavior. Now
her hands show an obvious tremor. Her eyes roll involuntarily. She
tends to drool and her tongue frequently juts out, as if she were a
frog trying to catch a fly. These extrapyramidal symptoms, such as
tardive dyskinesia, are probably the side effects of long-term use of
the medication, and its depletion of her dopamine levels.

Norepinephrine and serotonin are neurotransmitters that are generally

in low levels in depressed patients. Medications like Prozac and other
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors SSRIs are usually effective in
alleviating symptoms of depression in about four weeks.

56
Other important neurotransmitters are the catecholamines which can
transmit arousal or inhibitory messages, and the endorphins which go
into the opiate receptor sites and give the kind of natural high you
get after a good physical workout.

Anything that affects the body's chemistry can impact the

neurotransmitters and alter a person's mood, behavior, or mental
performance. This would include legal drugs like caffeine (from tea and
coffee), nicotine (from tobacco), and alcohol, as well as illegal
drugs. Even fluctuating levels of hormones (the chemicals associated
with sex) and the endocrine glands (e.g., pituitary, thyroid, adrenals)
can cause such changes.

Case Study: Ms. H was a fourteen-year-old freshman at an exclusive

girls' boarding school. She was from a relatively stable, intact family
of financial means. During her first semester, she was a model student,
earning a 3.5 GPA. After Christmas, her grades plummeted and she became
a disciplinary problem in the dorm and during her frequent weekend
visits home. Her parents suspected that she was getting in with the
wrong crowd or using drugs. The school counselor suggested that she be
given a thorough physical exam by her regular pediatrician during the
upcoming spring break. The exam revealed that Ms. H was suffering from
hyperthyroidism, making her moody, agitated, and unable to concentrate.
When she was given the proper medication, she returned to her old self.
She exhibited no more disciplinary problems. Her academic success
resumed.

Case Study: Ms. K is now in her mid forties and in the midst of
menopause. Her hormonal levels are fluctuating rapidly. This is giving
her physical symptoms, such as night sweats, and moodiness similar to
an agitated depression. She gets angry or weepy for no apparent reason.
When she was started on hormone replacement therapy to guard against
loss of bone mass (osteoporosis) an added benefit was that her mood
stabilized.

QUESTION #4.3: What is the role of the autonomic nervous

system?

The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is part of the peripheral nervous

system that either gets the body ready for action, or slows it down to
conserve resources. The ANS governs such organs as the heart (speeding
up or slowing down circulation) lungs (speeding up or slowing down
respiration), and the release of glucose.

The sympathetic nervous system activates the body's resources for the
fight or flight response. When you suddenly see some danger, or are
getting ready for a major athletic contest, you can feel the adrenaline
kick in. Your respiration and heart rate increase. Your blood clots

57
more readily. Nutrients are being released and sent to the major
voluntary muscles so that you can run or engage in physical combat.

The parasympathetic nervous system calms down the body by inhibiting

the aforementioned activities. This serves to conserve the body's
scarce resources during times of injury or exhaustion. Here is how to
remember the difference between the two: when you are injured, you need
to call the PARAmedics. Think of the PARAsympathetic nervous system as
the body's own paramedic.

Autonomic nervous system

Sympathetic Parasympathetic
Pupils Dilate Constrict
Glands stimulated Sweat Salivary, Tear
Heartbeat Accelerates Slows
Bronchial tubes Dilate Constrict
Digestion Inhibited Stimulated
Urine Volume decreases Bladder contraction
Liver glucose release Stimulates Inhibits
Digestion Inhibits Stimulates

Biofeedback is a way of monitoring the response of the ANS. Normally,

the muscles and glands of the ANS are involuntary: we cannot
consciously trigger the sympathetic or parasympathetic responses.
However, with the technology of biofeedback, individuals can gradually
learn to control these activities, achieving a greater degree of
activation or relaxation. This can be of practical application in
controlling such psychophysiologic disorders as asthmatic bronchial
constriction or migraine headaches.

QUESTION #4.4: How can scientists study the brain?

Lesions are points of damage to neural tissue. In research on brain

injuries, the site and scope of the damage would be the independent
variable, and the resulting changes in behavior and emotion would be

58
the dependent variable. Damage to the CNS (central nervous system) is
serious because neural tissue (compared to say, skin cells) is less
likely to regenerate. That is why cases of brain damage and spinal cord
injury may involve permanent losses. Neuroplasticity is the ability of
the brain to adjust to injury, the environment and even its own
behavior. Infants have a greater degree of plasticity than do geriatric
patients. One of the hopes of stem cell research is that new approaches
can be found to increase plasticity. When speech therapy or physical
therapy helps brain injured patients to recover a lost function, it is
usually because these patients have been taught to use other parts of
their brains to take over for the lost function.

Case Study: In 1848, a railroad worker named Phineas Gage survived a

horrible accident. While setting an explosive charge, it went off
prematurely, sending a heavy tamping iron through his cheek and up
through the front part of his brain. The most amazing thing is that
Gage survived. Prior to the accident he was mild mannered and hard
working. After the accident, for the rest of his life, he was
cantankerous and belligerent, given to using profanity and alcohol.
After he died, the physicians who examined his brain injury inferred
that those parts of his injured brain (the frontal lobe) must have a
major impact on human emotion.

While the location of brain injuries is an important factor in

behavioral disturbances, there is no scientific credibility to the
theories of phrenology, a pseudoscience which claimed that a person’s
character could be inferred by examining the bumps on his head.

A comprehensive study of brain injuries was done by German neurologist

Kurt Goldstein. In the wake of the First World War, he examined
thousands of patients with brain injuries. While he agreed that there
was a moderate correlation between where the injury occurred and the
resulting behavioral changes, Goldstein noted a great degree of
individual variation in terms of how well the patients succeeded in
their rehabilitation. The nature of the brain injury was only one
influence. Other important factors (independent variables) in
successful outcome (the dependent variable) were the patient's age,
social support, and pre-morbid personality.

ESB (electronic stimulation of the brain) is used in animal research.

An electrode is implanted to a certain part of the brain, and this
serves to directly stimulate that region (and constitutes the
independent variable). The resulting changes in mood or behavior would
constitute the dependent variable.

EEG (electroencephalography) is a technique for studying the electrical

activity of the brain, the "brain waves." This technique involves
placing electrodes on the scalp. It has been around since the 1930s.
Electroencephalography can look at the entire brain, or evoked
potentials for specific regions or neurons. It can identify a person's
level of sleep or indicate if the person is undergoing a convulsion,
such as epilepsy.

59
Brain scanning techniques involve computerized technology that has only
been around for just over thirty years. CAT or CT (computerized axial
tomography) assembles a three dimensional picture of the brain from
thousands of separate x-rays. This is useful in detecting abnormalities
of mass, such as tumors. It can also detect the later stages of some
chronic brain syndromes, such as Alzheimer's Disease. Nuclear resonance
magnetic imaging (NMRI) uses a powerful magnetic field to generate an
even more detailed picture of the brain. PET (positron emission
tomography) scans look at the metabolic function of different organs,
including specific regions of the brain. Newer techniques of single
photon emission tomography (SPECT) and brain electrical activity
mapping (BEAM) offer hope for greater precision, validity, and
reliability in looking at specific brain functions.

Electronic techniques for studying the brain

Acronym Complete term What it measures
ESB Electronic How brain responds to
stimulation of the electrical stimulation of
brain specific parts
Electro Electrical wave activity
EEG encephalography
CT, CAT Computerized axial Scans with x-rays, creates
tomography three dimensional image
PET Positron emission Scans for metabolism
tomography
NMRI Nuclear magnetic Scans using magnetic fields
resonance imaging instead of x-rays

QUESTION #4.5: What is the limbic system?

The limbic system is a part of the brain that deals with emotions,
drives, and the internal organs. The limbic system includes the
amygdala, hypothalamus and hippocampus. The amygdala is the center for
sexual arousal, the aggressive drive, and fear. Experiments with
lesions in animal brains indicate that damage to the amygdala can
reduce aggressiveness. On the other hand, ESB experiments in animals
indicate that stimulating the amygdala can produce aggressive or sexual
behavior even when sufficient environmental cues might be lacking.
After ESB stimulated his amygdala, one tomcat tried to mount females
who were not in heat.

The hippocampus is primarily concerned with memory, specifically with

encoding memories for long-term use. We will discuss it more thoroughly
in unit 7, on memory.

The hypothalamus also deals with emotions, as well as the drives for
hunger and thirst. There is one part of the hypothalamus that initiates
eating or drinking behavior by telling the organism that it is hungry
or thirsty. There is a different part of the hypothalamus that tells
the organism that it has had enough, and can stop eating or drinking.
Lesions on the first part, the initiation center, can greatly reduce
eating or drinking behavior. Lesions on the second part, the satiety

60
center, can cause the organism to keep on eating or drinking to the
point where the stomach can simply take no more.

QUESTION #4.6: What is the role of the cerebrum?

The cerebrum is the top most part of the brain. The cerebrum deals with
thinking, voluntary muscles, and perception of stimuli. The cerebrum is
the largest part of the human brain, but this is not the case with
lower species. Invertebrate, fish, amphibian, and reptile brains have
small cerebra. Birds, such as the parrot, have a larger cerebrum, and
most mammals have one even larger. Whales and elephants have very large
cerebra, but in proportion to their total body size, it is not nearly
as large as the human cerebrum. Only dolphins are in the same league
with humans: about two percent of body weight in the cerebrum.

Each part of the cerebrum, whether it deals with incoming sensory

stimuli or outgoing motor responses, is highly specialized. The area of
the brain devoted to a specific function is related to the complexity
of the function. So, more of the cerebrum is devoted to the control of
the tongue or thumb than to the leg because the tongue and thumb are
much more complex in their activity. Specialized areas such as
Wernicke's and Broca's are associated with language skills. Lesions to
those areas can greatly reduce a patient's ability to understand or
produce speech, respectively.

The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the cerebrum.

Its primary function is to process new information. Cortical atrophy
can lead to disorientation in place or time.

The lobes are the four main areas of the cerebrum, as they are divided
by various fissures. Each lobe tends to specialize. The frontal lobe is
just behind the forehead. The frontal lobe deals with the control of
emotion. Just below the frontal lobe is the thalamus, which acts as a
relay station of neural impulses from the limbic system to the frontal
lobe. Damage to this area (as seen in the case of Phineas Gage) may
make the individual less able to control emotional expression. On the
other hand, other types of damage in this area may serve to blunt the
individual's overall level of emotionality. Indeed, one particular
psychiatric treatment developed in the 1930s was a brain surgery known
as pre-frontal lobotomy, which severed the connective tissues between
the thalamus and the frontal lobe with the expressed purpose of
reducing the patient's emotions of fear, anger or sadness.

The temporal lobe is just in from the ears, on either side of the head.
The temporal lobe processes the sense of hearing. Lesions on the
temporal lobe can create hearing loss, even when there is nothing wrong
with the ear or auditory nerve.

T E M P O r a l tempo of the music you hear

The occipital lobe is in the back of the head. The occipital lobe
processes the sense of vision. Lesions on the occipital lobe can result
in blindness, even when there is nothing wrong with the eyes or optic
nerve.

61
 O C C I P I T A L two I's (eyes) help you CC (see, see)

The parietal lobe is at the top of the head, just about where many
fifty-year-old men get a bald spot. The parietal lobe processes the
other senses, such as those coming from the skin.

Do not confuse the cerebrum with the cerebellum. The cerebellum is

located just below the occipital lobe. It is much smaller than the
cerebrum, about the size of your fist. The cerebellum is concerned with
posture, balance and coordinated locomotion. The cerebellum will be
highly developed in species that must run, jump or fly fast.

Parts of the brain

Part Location Function
Medulla Hindbrain Controls autonomic
system activity,
breathing
Pons Hindbrain Bridge connecting other
parts of brain
Cerebellum Hindbrain Coordinates muscular
movements
Reticular Midbrain Controls level of
formation arousal, alertness
Corpus callosum Forebrain Connects hemispheres
Cerebral cortex Forebrain Processes new
Cerebrum information from the
senses, motor response
Frontal lobe Forebrain Emotions
Cerebrum
Occipital lobe Forebrain Vision
Cerebrum
Temporal lobe Forebrain Hearing
Cerebrum
Parietal lobe Forebrain Other senses
Cerebrum
Left hemisphere Forebrain Logic, math, language
Cerebrum
Right Forebrain Spatial relations
hemisphere Cerebrum
Broca’s area Forebrain Language
Wernicke’s area Forebrain Language
Limbic system Forebrain Emotions
Hippocampus Forebrain Memory
Thalamus Forebrain Connects limbic system
and frontal lobe of
cortex
Hypothalamus Forebrain Emotions, hunger, thirst
Septal area Forebrain Processes cognition into
emotion
Cingulus Forebrain Processes cognition into
emotion

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QUESTION #4.7: What is the role of the left and right
hemispheres?

It has been more than a half century since Roger Sperry’s split brain
research demonstrated the different functions and independence of the
hemispheres. Although the brain appears to be symmetrical, the left and
right halves (hemispheres) are somewhat specialized. Each one controls
the other side of the body, which is why an injury to the left side of
the brain (or a stroke) can result in paralysis on the right side of
the body. The right hemisphere is more concerned with spatial relations.

Case study: Mr. T was a 61-year-old man who suffered a stroke in the
right hemisphere, occipital lobe. When he awoke in the hospital, and
his wife entered the room to see him, he did not recognize her until
she spoke. His ability to recognize faces had been lost.

The left hemisphere is more concerned with skills such as language,

mathematical computation, logical and sequential thinking.

Case Study: When Mr. J was a young boy in Mexico, he was shot in the
head. The small caliber bullet entered his left hemisphere at about the
hairline, and exited just above the occipital lobe. He almost died from
the wound, and for a year he could not walk or talk. Gradually, he
regained both of these abilities, but only as other parts of the brain
could learn to take over the lost functions. Before the accident, he
was right handed, but since then his right arm and leg have been weaker
than his left. Before the accident, he attended school and was a very
good student in reading, writing, and arithmetic. After the accident,
he was unable to read or write, use a digital watch, or perform the
simplest calculations.

Research on cerebral hemisphere specialization

Researcher Gazzaniga
Subjects Patients who had undergone surgery to diminish seizures: the corpus
callossum was severed so that the left and right hemispheres were no
longer connected
Independent Visual stimuli (objects) were presented either on the right or left
Variable sides
Dependent What the subject reported was seen
Variable
Results When shown objects on the left side, the subject could identify the
objects by pointing to them, but could not verbally name them
Conclusion Objects on the left side were interpreted by the right hemisphere,
which has less of a verbal ability

63
 Role of the cerebral hemispheres

One measure of laterality is handedness, the preference to consistently

use one hand for a particular task, such as writing or throwing a ball.
Only about ten percent of the population is thoroughly left handed,
while about four fifths are right handed in everything they do. The
remaining small percent have what is sometimes known as cross-
preferences, and may write with one hand, yet throw with the other.
There are low to moderate correlations between left-handedness and
artistic interest.

QUESTION #4.8: What are the main diseases of the brain?

Several psychiatric conditions are due entirely to major disturbances

of brain function, even when the individuals have been entirely normal
throughout their lives.

Delirium is a disturbance in the brain's metabolic function. The

delirious patient is usually seen in hospital emergency and intensive
care units, rather than the private practice of a clinical
psychologist. The delirious patient is going in and out of a fitful
sleep. He is probably hallucinating, and may be talking incoherently.

64
If he could be assessed for orientation, he would be found disoriented
for place and time.

Delirium is due to an acute brain syndrome that has disturbed

metabolism. This can be something as simple as exposure to industrial
chemicals (e.g., lead, mercury), illegal drugs, or the interactions of
prescription medications. Deficiencies of B vitamins or minerals such
as potassium can lead to delirium, especially in the aged. Extreme
fever or dehydration can produce delirium (e.g., travelers wandering in
the desert, sailors on a raft, patients suffering from diarrhea).

The key to treating delirium is to remove the underlying cause:

detoxification, rehydration, vitamin supplements, etc. The prognosis is
that the patient will probably make a full recovery to his pre-morbid
state of functioning, or die if the conditions that resulted in the
delirium are not corrected. Indeed, many dying patients go through a
delirious state on their final death trajectory as various organ
systems shut down, disturbing the brain's metabolism.

DISORDER: delirium

OLDER TERMS: acute brain syndrome

CLASSIFICATION: organic (old term)

SYMPTOMS: confusion, disturbed sleep, hallucinations

CAUSES: dehydration, exposure to toxic substances,

medication, interactions and side effects

TREATMENT: correcting the underlying medical condition

Dementia is a loss of mental capacity in adulthood (especially later

life when it is known as senile dementia). While the vast majority of
cases of dementia occur in later life, it is an ageist stereotype to
think of old people as having reduced mental capacity. Only ten percent
of people over age 65 have clinically relevant dementia, which is
different in degree and quality from the benign forgetfulness
associated with the normal processes of aging.

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 symptoms NORMAL AGING DEMENTIA
Vulnerable memories Recent past Recent past
Scope of forgetting Details of event Entire event
Remembers later Sometimes Rarely
Follows instructions Usually Increasingly difficult
Can use memory aids Usually Increasingly difficult
Belligerence Rare More frequent as disorder
progresses

The initial symptom in most cases of dementia is a loss of short term

memory. As the condition worsens, the patient may lose orientation in
time, and not remember what day of the week it is. The ability to
follow instructions diminishes. At this early stage, minor depression
and paranoia may arise. At a more advanced stage, the patient may lose
orientation for place, and get lost, even in familiar territory. At a
later stage, the patient may not be able to recognize family members,
or even put a sentence together. About this time, the parts of the
brain that govern the bowels and bladder may go out, yielding
incontinence. The patient may be unable to dress or feed himself. Later
he may choke on food, or his own saliva. The part of the brain
governing respiration may become impaired, and he may require a
ventilator to keep breathing. Eventually, the parts of the brain
governing the heartbeat will go out, and heart failure will ensue.

66
Case Study: Ms. T, at age 81 went to live with her grandson and his
wife. The reason for the move was that Ms. T was getting too confused
and frightened living alone, and was no longer capable of getting money
out of the bank or paying her bills. Physically strong, Ms. T would
spend most of the day working outside in the large yard, quickly
filling up each of four garbage cans with clippings. Her grandson told
her to leave one can empty for the garbage coming from the house. She
could not remember this and still filled up all four cans. A reminder
note was written on one of the cans, but she either did not understand
it, or decided not to follow the instructions. One garbage can had to
be chained closed so that she could not get into it. The same thing
happened in the kitchen. She was told that she was not supposed to use
the stove, but used it anyway, ignoring written notes. Finally, a baby
fence was put up between the kitchen and the dining room. She kept on
getting the mail from the mailbox, and then putting it down somewhere
and could not remember where. A new mailbox with a lock was purchased
to keep her out. Six years later, Ms. T started wandering off and
getting lost outside, and getting violent during bath time. Then the
grandson's wife decided that it was time to have Ms. T go to a nursing
home.

Dementia can be caused by over fifty different chronic brain syndromes.

Many of these are treatable, such as adult hydrocephalus (“water” on
the brain) in which an operation can implant a ventricular shunt for
reducing the pressure of cerebral spinal fluid on the cortex. If the

67
dementia is due to a cerebral vascular insufficiency, then carotid
artery surgery might improve blood flow to the brain in some cases.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the cases of late life dementia are
due to chronic brain syndromes that are not reversible. At least half
of all cases of late life dementia are due to Alzheimer's disease. We
are not certain what the cause of this disease is, and we have no way
to cure it. At best, some medications can slow its advance.
Psychotherapy and memory training can help patients and their
caregivers cope with the gradual advance of this debilitating disorder.

DISORDER: dementia

OLDER TERMS: chronic brain syndrome

CLASSIFICATION: organic (older term)

PREVALENCE: 10 - 20% of people over age 65

SYMPTOMS: loss of short term memory, emotional

instability,
loss of social skills

AGE OF ONSET: more prevalent after age 65

CAUSES: Alzheimer's disease, vascular (multi-infarct),

alcoholism, general paresis

TREATMENT: memory training, some medications may slow

progression

One of the great challenges in geriatric psychiatry is the differential

diagnosis between delirium and dementia, and between different forms of
dementia, and even between dementia and other mental disorders (e.g.,
depression) than can reduce the patient’s level of functioning.

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 DELIRIUM DEMENTIA
Organic brain syndrome Acute Chronic

Most common cause Medication interaction Alzheimer’s

Other common causes Dehydration, fever, Stroke, vascular
poison, vitamin deficiency
Type of disturbance Metabolic Usually lesions
Onset Rapid Gradual
Memory Impairment Yes Yes
Disorientation Yes Yes
Prognosis Recovery or death Slow decline
Sleep disturbance Usually Occasionally

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 UNIT 5: PERCEPTION

QUESTION #5.1: What is psychophysics?

Psychophysics is the scientific study of sensation and perception. This is one

of the oldest branches of laboratory based scientific psychology. Back in the
1830s physicist Gustav Fechner (say “FEK ner”) studied the relationship between
the intensity of a physical stimulus and the ability of a person to detect it.
He was able to formulate some key mathematical equations which are still used
today. Below a certain level, the stimulus will not even be perceived. The
threshold is defined as that minimum level at which the stimulus will be
detected at least half of the time.

A few decades later, Ernst Weber (say “VAY ber”) used experiments to determine
that a person's ability to distinguish between two stimuli is determined, not by
the absolute difference in intensities, but by the relative, proportionate
difference in intensities. Weber's constant is the number he came up with for a
given sensory modality that tells us how much of a proportionate difference
between two stimuli will be a "just noticeable difference." Adaptation refers
to the fact that with prolonged exposure, the stimulus has less and less effect
(the organism gets used to it). Organisms are better at perceiving changes in
the level of stimulation, especially those that are greater than the just
noticeable difference.

Case Study: Ms. S weighs 120 and her younger sister weighs 180. They agree to go
on a diet and each loses about a dozen pounds. Ms. S’s husband has noticed his
wife’s weight loss just by looking at her fully clothed, but not that of his
sister-in-law. The reason is that Ms. S’s weight loss of ten percent was
proportionately sufficient to attain that just noticeable difference. However,
her sister’s equal weight loss is distributed over a greater starting weight,
resulting in a lower proportion of weight lost, and a difference that is not yet
noticeable.

QUESTION #5.2: What are the major senses?

The body's senses are transducers: they change one form of energy into another.
The sensors transduce the physical energy of environmental stimuli into the
electrical impulses that travel on the afferent neurons to the CNS, where they
go to different, specialized lobes of the cerebrum.

The cutaneous senses (located on the skin) include separate sensors for the
detection of heat, cold, pain, and pressure (also known as the punctiform,
tactile, or "touch" sense). Sensitivity (ability to detect a slight stimulus)
varies according to both the individual and the site of the body involved. For
example, you might be able to dangle your feet in a cold mountain stream
(because there are few cold sensors in your feet), but when you try to wade in
above the waist, the cold might be unbearable (because there are many cold
sensors in the chest and back). It is easier to read brail with the tips of your
fingers than the soles of your feet because the tips of the fingers have more
pressure sensors than do the feet.

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Proprioception involves the sensing of the motion of the body or its parts.
Proprioceptive senses include kinesthesia and equilibrium. Kinesthetic sensors
are in the muscles, and detect the position of a limb and/or the load on a
muscle. This sense must be highly developed in athletes and dancers.

SENSE LOCATION LOBE DIMENSIONS

Heat Skin Parietal
Cold Skin Parietal
Pressure Skin Parietal
Pain All over Parietal
Kinesthesia Muscles Parietal
Equilibrium Inner ear Parietal
Gustation Tongue Parietal
Olfaction Nose Parietal
Audition Ear Temporal Loudness,
Pitch,
Timber
Vision Eyes Occipital Brightness,
Hue,
Saturation

Weber calculated the “just noticeable difference” constant for lifted weights to
be about two percent. Try this: go to the gym and bench press, say about twenty
pounds lighter than your maximum lift. Say you can bench press 120 pounds, so
work with some reps of 100. Now, have a friend put an extra pound or so of
weight on when you are not looking. You probably cannot notice the difference,
because it is only one percent of the total weight you are lifting, less than
what Weber's constant says you need for a just noticeable difference. Now take
two sealed envelopes down to the post office: same type of envelope, same
thickness, but the contents are different so that one envelope is just under one
ounce (and can go for one first class stamp) while the other is nearly two
ounces (and will require additional postage). Heft the two envelopes, and
despite the similarity of appearance, your kinesthetic sense will be able to
detect a noticeable difference between the two. This is because one is twice as
heavy as the other. So, because of Weber's constant, and the importance of
proportionate differences, you can detect a one-ounce difference in one
situation, but you cannot detect a one-pound difference in the other.

Equilibrium is another proprioceptive sense. Equilibrium detects the position of

the body or a rapid change in velocity. Equilibrium is sometimes called the
vestibular sense because it is based on three semi-circular canals located in
the area of the inner ear. Damage to the inner ear (through injury or high
fever) might impair a person's sense of balance. The proper interpretation of
this sense can be hampered by the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in
space, or by the frequent unpredictable motions experienced in car, sea or air
sickness. Indeed, this sense was developed for a species with a top natural
speed of about twenty-five miles per hour. When you are in an automobile, or jet
aircraft, your sense of equilibrium might misinterpret a rapid acceleration as
climbing (or a rapid deceleration as falling). This is one reason why pilots in
training must learn to trust their instruments, and not their senses.

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The interaction of different sensory modalities can be seen with equilibrium.
When visual cues about motion match the vestibular cues, the individual is less
likely to misinterpret them or develop motion sickness.

Case Study: As a child, J tended to get car sick each Saturday when his family
drove up the windy roads to the mountain cabin in Big Bear. Then he had a driver
training course in high school. He obtained his learner's permit and drove with
his father around the school parking lot, and later around town. J did so well
that he convinced his father to let him drive up to the cabin on the weekend.
His father agreed, but said that if J started to get car sick, he could return
to his usual place in the back seat. J never got car sick when he drove because
the driver must look in front, where the car is going, while a person in the
back seat looks out the side window, where the visual report of motion does not
match what the vestibular sense reports. The driver sees the upcoming curves,
and must anticipate them, and is much less likely to be confused by the
vestibular sense.

Chemoceptive senses detect the body's contact with chemicals. Chemoception

includes smell and taste. Olfaction is the formal name for the sense of smell.
Olfaction is located at the top of the nasal passage, where thousands of little
epithelium cells detect molecules of inhaled substances. Humans can detect well
over a thousand odors, but only a small percent of human sensory neurons are
devoted to olfaction. Compare this to the dog, which has about a third of
afferent neurons devoted to this sense. Dogs cannot only detect more smells,
with fainter traces, but canines have a complex, multidimensional capacity for
analyzing odors.

Because sensors detect change rather than absolute levels, we tend to become
accustomed to surrounding smells. Our cologne is intensely noticeable when we
put it on, but after awhile we adjust to it, and forget about it. When others
come close, it might be easily detectable by them, because it is a change in
their olfactory stimuli. When we walk into our houses or offices, we may
remember their old familiar smells, but after a few minutes, we adjust, and stop
noticing them. Anytime our internal chemical levels change, this can impair our
olfactory sensitivity. This would be most obvious in the case of smoking.

Here's how to remember that olfaction is the sense of smell: imagine walking
into a dusty, greasy old factory.

O L F A C T I O N = noun

O L F A C T O R Y = adjective // the smell of an OLD FACTORY

Gustation is the sense of taste. Gustation uses at least four different kinds
of taste receptors on the tongue: sweet (located at the tip of the tongue),
bitter (located at the base of the tongue), salty, and sour (located on the
sides of the tongue). Perhaps you are thinking that you can detect more than
four different flavors, and you are right, because complex flavors are
determined by much more than mere individual tastes, or even blends of tastes.
The perception of flavor also depends upon the interaction with the other
senses, especially smell. This is why wine connoisseurs try to smell the wine
before tasting it. Restaurants also know that the visual presentation of the
food is important in the customer's overall satisfaction.

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The tongue is an organ covered with skin, so all of the cutaneous senses come
into play in the perception of flavor. The temperature of the food should match
the diner's expectation. Some people experience great disappointment the first
time they try Spanish gazpacho or Russian borscht because most Americans are
accustomed to being served hot soup. The texture of the food is also measured by
the tongue, and we expect some foods to be crunchy, others smooth, others
coarse, others chewy. The pain receptors of the skin on the tongue come into
play when we eat chile. With dining experience, and aging, people's taste
preferences may change. You can build up your pain threshold, and increase your
tolerance for chile.

Case Study: Ms. T is now in her 80s living with family. She always liked a
teaspoon of sugar in her morning coffee. After age 60, she noticed that she
preferred two teaspoons. Now she has developed a mild case of dementia, and she
forgets what she has just said, done, heard or seen. When her grandson prepares
her morning coffee, he puts in three teaspoons of sugar, and she responds,
"Whoa, not so much!" Then she waits a couple of minutes for it to cool, and she
tries it. "Ugh, you forgot my sugar" and she puts in another teaspoon. Her loss
of sweet sensors is not a direct result of her dementia, just another collateral
effect of aging.

How to remember

G U S T A T I O N = eat the food with GUSTO because it tastes so good

Audition is the sense of hearing and involves the detection of sound waves.
After processing the sound wave through the outer ear and inner ear, the neural
impulse is sent along the auditory nerve to the temporal lobes. There are three
dimensions to the sound wave: loudness, pitch, and timbre.

Decibels Examples Danger after

10 Normal breathing
20 Whisper
40 Quiet office
50 Quiet restaurant
60 Normal conversation
70 Noisy restaurant, normal traffic
80 Alarm clock at 2 feet Over 8 hours
90 Heavy traffic, power tools, lawn Less than 8 hours
mower, food blender, Niagara Falls
100 Chain saw, pneumatic drill Less than 2 hours
110 Riveter, Stadium crowd
120 Rock concert in front of speakers, Immediate danger
sandblasting, thunderclap
140 Gunshot, jet plane at 50 feet

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Volume (loudness) is determined by the height of the sound wave (the amount of
energy it contains). An explosion has much sound wave pressure, while a whisper
has very little. Loudness is measured in decibels. A quiet office may be about
40 decibels, a normal conversation about 50, street traffic about 60, louder
with horns, sirens, and screeching breaks. The key decibel level to remember is
90, because prolonged exposure to sounds above 90 decibels can lead to permanent
hearing loss. Some industrial machinery, aircraft engines, music in nightclubs
(or even earphones) may easily exceed 90 decibels.

Case Study: Mr. L, in his 70s, now has to wear hearing aids in each ear if he is
to hear normal conversation. He had excellent hearing as a young adult, but
worked for forty years in a factory running a machine that was louder than 90
decibels. Now, Mr. L's former company requires operators of those machines to
use earplugs for protection.

Pitch (tone) is another dimension of audition. Pitch is determined by the

frequency of the sound wave, and is measured in cycles per second. Pitch is
detected in the organ of the inner ear known as the cochlea, which has thousands
of hairs at different lengths. The different hairs vibrate to the different
pitches, and send a neural impulse down the auditory nerve. Human hearing ranges
from a low of about 50 cycles per second to a high of about 20,000 cycles per
second. This top end is much lower than that of other animals. This is why cats
and dogs (who can hear up to about 25,000 cycles per second) can be trained to
respond to a whistle that cannot be heard by humans. Bats can hear well above
50,000 cycles per second, and use this sonar to navigate their way around dark
caves by emitting high pitched screeches and listening for the echoes. Within
humans, pitch sensitivity varies greatly between individuals, and over the life
cycle.

Case Study: About forty years ago, a major state mental hospital closed in
northern California, and the local news media reported that most of the patients
would be living in half way houses within the community. The next week, a
totally unrelated even occurred: a new shopping center opened on the west side
of San Jose. On the first day of operation, the young assistant manager of one
of the stores was confronted by an irate customer who said that she could no
longer remain in the store because of the horrible screeching sound. The
assistant manager was initially puzzled, because neither he nor any other
workers or customers had heard anything akin to the distressing sound reported
by that one customer. Remembering the closure of the state mental hospital, he
inferred that the customer had been one of the patients released by the
hospital, and that she had been experiencing some kind of hallucination.
However, over the next week, several other customers had a similar complaint.
Sensitive listening equipment was brought in and verified that a loud sound of
about 20,000 cycles per second was being produced by an improperly lubricated
escalator. This was beyond the range of most individuals’ hearing, but for those
with great high end sensitivity, the sound was extremely annoying.

Case Study: Ms. P was a widow in her 70s. She showed no signs of dementia, but
had a progressive high end hearing loss. One day her daughter arranged to come
by and take Ms. P grocery shopping. As the daughter noticed she was running
late, she called from her cell phone and told Ms. P to wait outside on the porch
when she drove up, and that the weather was looking pretty bad, so she better

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wear a raincoat and hat. When the daughter drove up, she noticed Ms. P on the
porch, wearing a raincoat, but no hat, so she yelled to her mother, "Your forgot
your hat." Ms. P responded "What?" The daughter repeated: "Go inside and get
your hat. I want you to bring your hat." Ms. P looked a little confused and
perturbed, but she obeyed and came out carrying her cat, muttering "I don't know
why I have to bring the cat to the store. I know what kind of food he likes. No
one else brings their pets to the store." Because consonants like h and c are
very high pitched sounds, Ms. P had a hard time hearing the different between
cat and hat.

Weber determined that of all the sensory modalities, the one with the smallest
value for the “just noticeable difference” was the detection of the pitch of a
tone. That is why we can listen to adjacent keys on a piano, one right after the
other, and determine that they are different notes, even if we do not have the
"perfect pitch" that would allow us to identify which notes they are.

Timbre is the third dimension of the sound wave, and involves overtones. A
tuning fork has a pure sound wave, but most musical instruments have a rich
complexity that means that we can hear the difference between a trumpet and a
violin hitting the same note at the same volume. Each human voice has a voice
print as unique as a finger print or DNA. White noise is a sound that blends
all different frequencies. Examples of white noise include the sound of a
waterfall, or wind rustling through the trees. Many people find this quite
relaxing, and it tends to obscure other sounds.

Case Study: Dr. T is a clinical psychologist who has just become licensed to
practice psychotherapy. She has just rented a two room suite in an older
building in a busy downtown area. She eventually hopes to put a receptionist in
the first room, which will also serve as a waiting room for patients. The other
room, which has windows on the street side, will be for individual psychotherapy
sessions with her patients. Dr. T noticed that the street noise was a little
loud, and that the door and walls between the two rooms was a little thin. She
worried that the street noises might distract the patients, and make it hard for
them to relax. She was also concerned that the poor insulation might make it
easy for someone in the waiting room to overhear the private conversations that
take place in psychotherapy. Dr. T purchased a sound screen for under a hundred
dollars. Like a fan, this sound screen circulates air but produces more noise
than air circulation. These appliances are also known as white noise generators.
They serve to mask the patient's perception of the street noise, and reduce the
ability of someone in the waiting room to hear what the patient is saying.

Vision (sight) is the sense that detects light waves. Light is the visible
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes everything from x-rays and
ultraviolet tanning rays on one end to television broadcasting and infra-red on
the other end. There are three dimensions to the light wave: brightness, hue,
and saturation.

Brightness is the intensity (amount of energy) of light coming from a source

(or reflected off of a surface). White surfaces have the capacity to reflect the
most light. That is why projection screens are white, because of their ability
to reflect more light energy back to the audience. If you go out on a hot, sunny
day, and wear a white shirt, it will reflect most of the sun's energy away from
your body. If you wear a black shirt, it will absorb most of the sun's energy,
and you will get very hot very soon.

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Rods are the eye's brightness receptors, and are important in night vision.
Nocturnal predators like owls and cats have mostly rods. In the human eye, there
are no rods in the fovea (the area of central focus), but they are off to the
side about 30 degrees. Here is how to remember the role of the rods in seeing
night brightness. Visualize this scene: over fifty years ago teenagers would get
old cars, paint them a bright, metallic coat, and cruise these “hot rods” around
on warm summer nights.

Hue (color) is the dimension that is determined by the wavelength. Each color
on the color wheel can be defined in terms of its wavelength in nanometers.

Wavelength Electro-magnetic radiation Effects

Shortest Gamma rays Very harmful to tissue
x-rays Harmful with over-exposure
Ultraviolet rays Tanning, sunburn, cancer possible with
prolonged over-exposure
400 – 700 Visible spectrum Hues of rainbow
nanometers
Infrared Warmth
Microwaves Rapid heating
Longest Broadcast TV, AM, FM

Cones are the eye's color receptors, and are important in daytime vision.
Chickens have only cones (no rods). When the sun goes down, chickens cannot see,
so they go to sleep. When the sun comes up, they get busy looking, and
scratching and pecking. In the human eye, cones are tightly packed in an area of
central focus known as the fovea. Here is how to remember that cones process
color vision. Visualize yourself on a hot summer day, going down to the ice
cream parlor, ordering a very large cone with scoops of different colors: cherry
(red), berry (blue), and pistachio (green).

Color blindness is where a person has no cones. Such individuals can still see,
but everything is going to look like a black and white movie. Complete color
blindness is rare, especially in females. Many individuals do experience some
color weakness in which it is hard for them to distinguish between two colors.
That is one reason why stoplights are always arranged in the same pattern: red
on top, yellow in the middle, and green on the bottom, so even when someone is
cannot tell the color of the light, at least he can infer whether he should go
or stop by the position of the light.

Case Study: Mr. V was an 18-year-old student. He told me on the first day of
class that he was completely color blind. He was not just preparing me to see
socks that did not match. He explained that if he looked directly at something,
he could not see it (for the fovea contains only cones, and he had no cones). He
could only see with his rods, and so he seemed to be looking askance when he was
talking to you. He thought it wise to inform me of this disability because
otherwise I might observe him during a test, with his eyes wandering, and I
might make the inference that he was cheating by trying to see his neighbor's
answers.

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Saturation is the mixture of different wavelengths. A "color" with greater
saturation has greater purity of wavelength. If you have two red shirts, and one
is a redder red, truer red, deeper red, fuller red, that is what we mean by
saturation. Brown represents a "color" lacking in saturation. Perhaps you
remember in elementary school when you learned how to create brown by coloring
over yellow, blue, and red, and the result was a brownish mixture of all three.

The rods and cones detect the brightness and hues of visual images and transduce
these into neural impulses that go down the optic nerve to the occipital lobe of
the cerebrum. About a third of incoming cortical neurons are related to vision:
a higher proportion than that found in any other human sense.

QUESTION #5.3: What is figure/ground perception?

Perception is when the brain organizes and interprets the incoming neural
impulses from the sensors. Perception is this process of becoming aware of the
environment via interpretation of information from the senses. There are some
differences between individuals in terms of sensory acuity: some people can see
or hear better than others. However, these sensory differences are minor in
comparison to perceptual differences. Two people seeing the same sight or
hearing the same sounds might perceive very different things, based on how those
people might differ in terms of experience, expectation, context and motivation.

Case Study: Mr. B and his wife were watching the sun go down at a beach on the
west side of Acapulco. Then they wanted to get back to their place downtown.
They walked to the street and waited a few minutes for the bus to come by. Mr. B
was thinking of how thirsty he was getting, and about the six pack of beer he
had at home, so he said "Why don't we start walking down the right side of the
street down to the corner with the highway, where other routes of busses pass.
If one of these busses comes by, we can still take it." Just then a large, noisy
truck came by, and his wife responded to his idea. Mr. B had heard the words
"ice" and "back" so, thinking of his beer, he turned into a little store to get
a bag of ice to take back with them, and then he started to walk along his
proposed route. He noticed that his wife seemed a little angry, but did not find
out until later why. What she had really said was "I don't have eyes in the back
of my head" which reflected her concern that if they started walking in that
direction, they would not be able to see the approach of a bus from behind. But
Mr. B only heard (perceived) what matched his motives (having a cold beer).

Figure/ground perception is where we focus on certain stimuli that are the most
relevant, and ignore the rest, pushing them into the background. This can occur
in any sensory modality. A driver might scan visual field through the
windshield, focusing on the figure of a sign indicating the desired off-ramp,
while he ignores all the billboards advertising eating places. If he were less
interested in finding a particular off-ramp, and getting very hungry, he might
be focusing on the figure of a billboard about a fast food place, pushing the
signs about upcoming off-ramps into the background. The hostess at a cocktail
party in her home hears noises from a dozen conversations, but she focuses her
attention on what her boss is saying, ignoring what the neighbors are saying a
few feet away. Later she hears her baby start to cry upstairs (the figure
perceived), and excuses herself to see if the sitter needs any help, allowing
all the downstairs conversations to fade into the background.

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External cues to figure/ground perception include contrast and similarity,
nearness, and holism. We tend to group together into one figure things that are
similar, and then contrast them with things which are dissimilar. Below most
people will usually perceive two vertical columns, one of composed of * and one
composed of #.

We tend not to perceive these figures as four rows, each containing both a #
followed by a *, because the similarity cue encourages us to group together that
which is similar to form a complete figure of our focus: the vertical columns.
However, when too many dissimilar things are present, this may create some
interference that makes perception of the figure more difficult.

Nearness refers to the cue that encourages us to group together things having
the greatest physical proximity, to treat them as distinct figures. Look at the
above array again: similar stimuli grouped together and set apart from
contrasting stimuli. However, if we increased the vertical distance between the
similar stimuli, and decreased the horizontal distance between the contrasting
stimuli, you would be more likely to perceive these same stimuli as four rows of
# * instead of the two columns you initially perceived.

Holism refers to the cue of perceiving standard, familiar whole figures, as

opposed to irrelevant parts. We piece together those partial stimuli that would
fit together to fit a standard whole. We perceive all the following as
triangles, even though they differ in composition, size, and angles.
Cartoonists know that they can express familiar forms that lead the viewer to
perceive the rest of the whole.

QUESTION #5.4: What is depth perception?

Depth perception is how organisms are able to perceive depth from the two
dimensional neural impulses coming from the retinas of the eyes. Depth cues
include binocular vision, overlap, shading, relative size, height on the
horizon, and linear perspective.

Binocular (or stereoscopic) vision refers to the fact that each of the two eyes
sends different neural impulses to the occipital lobe. When the object is close
to the face, the difference between what the right eye sees and what the left
eye sees is great. As the object moves away from the face, the difference in
what is reported by each eye becomes less and less. The brain calculates the
differences between the impulses from each eye, and estimates the distance of
the object. However, most depth cues are monocular, and can work with just one

78
eye. This is why over a thousand individuals licensed to fly as private pilots
have functional vision in only one eye: they still have enough depth perception
to land an airplane.

Motion parallax helps depth perception. When we are in motion and observing
stationary objects (such as from the side window of a train or car). Distant
objects (such as the moon) seem to move forward with us, but objects closer to
us (such as signs along the side of the road) seem to be moving backward.

Shading is a cue to depth because we assume that light comes from the top (the
sun outside or the lights in the ceiling). We can then infer if a change in
shading indicates if something is popping out (or going into) a surface.

Overlap helps us judge the relative distance of two objects. We see that one
figure appears to cut into our view of the other, and we infer that the one
superimposed on the other must be the closer of the two. Use of this depth cue
is somewhat dependent upon our use of holism as a figure/ground cue, for we are
assuming what each of the complete figures must look like, without the overlap.
Here we assume that the square must be closer than the triangle, and is blocking
our view of part of its left side.

Overlap of two figures

Relative size is a cue to depth based upon our experience that objects closer to
us take up a larger portion of the retinal screen. If we assume that the two
squares on the next page are of equal size, then we will infer that the one on
the left must be much closer than the one on the right.

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Height on the horizon is a depth cue based upon our experience of distance
objects appearing higher up on our retinal screens. Linear perspective is a tool
used by visual artists to convey the perception of distance on a flat canvas.
Linear perspective is actually a combination of two other cues: relative size
and height on the horizon. Imagine that the figures below are telephone poles.
As we move from left to write, the artist has started each one up higher on the
horizon, and making it smaller, and this creates the perception that an object
at point D must be farther away than an object at point A.

QUESTION #5.5: What are perceptual constancies?

Perceptual constancies help in the visual perception of motion. There are size,
brightness, and shape constancies. An example of size constancy would be when I
take a basketball and pass it to another player further down the court. When the
basketball is close to my face, it occupies a major portion of my retinal
screen. As it moves away from me to the other player, the basketball occupies a
smaller and smaller proportion of my retinal screen. I do not interpret this
decreasing visual screen as a physically shrinking basketball. Rather, I assume
that the basketball remains a constant size, and is in motion away from me.
Brightness constancy involves an object moving through an area of shadows. When
I see a car drive down a shaded lane, I do not perceive the car as changing its
brightness, but as an object of constant brightness moving across a background
of changing brightness.

Shape constancy explains that when an object moves by rotating with respect to
my visual fiend, and casts a different shape upon my retinal screen, I perceive
it is an object of constant shape in rotational motion. When my line of vision
is perpendicular to a wall, a closed door makes a rectangular shape on my
retina. If the door is opened away from me, the edge of the door rotating out is
further away, a smaller portion of my visual screen, giving the entire figure
more of a trapezoid shape, but I perceive this as a door maintaining its
rectangular shape, opening away from me.

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 Cue or constancy Figure/ground Depth Motion
Similarity and Similar things are
Contrast perceived as part
of the same figure
Holism Things that
approximate
familiar figures
are perceived as
those figures
Nearness Things that are
close to each
other are
perceived as going
together
Binocular vision Different views
from each eye
leads to an
estimation of
distance from the
face
Overlap Images which are
superimposed on
others are
perceived as being
closer
Height on horizon Images which are
higher are
perceived as being
farther away
Relative size Images which are Changes in size
larger are lead to inferences
perceived as being about motion
closer
Shading Brightness and Changes in shadows
shadows lead to and brightness
inferences about lead to inferences
positions of about motion
objects
Parallax Objects which move Changes in nearby
forward with us objects lead to
are perceived as inferences about
farther away, motion
while those which
move backward are
perceived as near
Shape Changes in shape
lead to inferences
about motion

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QUESTION #5.6: What are illusions?

An illusion is a misinterpretation or mismeasurement of a real physical stimulus.

Do not confuse this term with an allusion (which comes from the verb "to
allude") and refers to a literary reference, or with elusion (which comes from
the verb "to elude") and means to get away or escape. There are also two
psychological terms that are frequently confused with illusion: delusion and
hallucination.

A delusion is a false belief, especially one characteristic of certain mental

disorders. As we shall see, depressed patients have delusions of helplessness
and hopelessness; paranoids have delusions of persecution; hypochondriacs have
delusions of ill health; anorexics have the delusion of being overweight;
phobics have a delusion of excessive danger. The main difference between
illusion and delusion is that illusions are experienced by normal people
everyday, and are not symptomatic of mental disorder.

HALLUCINATION DELUSION ILLUSION

Definition Sense experience False belief Mismeasurement
without a physical of a stimulus
stimulus
Causes Metabolic disturbance Threat to self Perceptual
esteem habits or
alternation
of physical
stimuli
Present in Yes Yes Yes
dreams
Present in Yes Yes Yes
mental illness
Present in No No Yes
normal people
in normal
states of
consciousness
Examples Schizophrenic hears Paranoid is Doppler effect
voices suspicious
Mirage
Dreamer sees a Depressed
monster patient is Miller-Lyer
hopeless

Hallucinations are sensory perceptions in the absence of any physical stimulus.

Hallucinations can occur in any sensory modality, but most are visual (seeing
something which is not there) or auditory (hearing something which is not
there). Most hallucinations occur in altered states of consciousness, such as
delirium, schizophrenia, drug-induced states, or (as we shall explain later in
this chapter) in dreams. Normal people in normal states of consciousness do not
experience hallucinations, but they frequently experience illusions.

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Case Study: Mr. B was lying down in his bed on a summer's evening. He was trying
to sleep, but it was a warm night. Through the open window he thought he heard a
baby cry. He went outside, worried that some infant or toddler might fall into
his swimming pool. He turned on the yard light to see the cause of the noise:
two male cats getting ready to fight. This was not a hallucination; Mr. B really
did hear a noise. This was an illusion. Mr. B had misinterpreted the noise of
the cats and perceived the cry of a baby.

Physical alteration of stimuli causes some illusions. A stick placed in water

appears to be bent, but it really remains straight. What was bent by the water
was the light waves traveling to the eyes, leading the viewer to conclude that
the stick had been bent. A similar explanation applies to the mirage of water on
a hot desert road: the heat from the road has bent the light waves until they
look wet. Some auditory illusions can be explained by physical alternation of a
stimulus. The Doppler Effect explains the illusion that when one is standing at
a train station, a rapidly approaching train's whistle seems to be ascending in
pitch, but as the train passes, the pitch of the whistle seems to descend. To
someone on the fast moving train, the tone of the whistle has remained constant.
The reason for this is the alteration of the physical sound wave: each peak of
the approaching soundwave came a little bit sooner (increasing frequency) while
each peak of the soundwave of the whistle of the departing train came a little
later (decreasing frequency).

Most illusions are due to perceptual habits rather than physical factors. These
habits involve expectations that tie in with cues to figure/ground, depth, and
constancies. One of the most famous optical illusions is the Muller-Lyer. Most
people see line segment AB as longer than that of CD, when actually they are of
equal length. One explanation for this is that we habitually perceive depth
within the context of right angle and cubicle architecture. This means that we
perceive the line segment as being a distant inner corner of a room, and
therefore, because it is the same size on our retina, it must be a longer line.
Persons who grow up in small villages of circular architecture are less likely
to be fooled by this illusion.

Case Study: Don C is now past 90. He grew up and still lives in a mountainous
area of Mexico. His village did not even have electricity until he was past 70.
The roads and paths are still windy, rather than straight or right angle
intersects. The indigenous architecture still prevails: round bases with a
conical thatched roof. Despite his age, Don C shows no signs of dementia. His
hearing is somewhat diminished by years of firing his rifle, but his near vision
is still good. When shown the Muller-Lyer illusion, he immediately determined
that the lines were of similar length.

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 Muller-Lyer illusion: the horizontal lines are actually equal in length

QUESTION #5.7: What are dreams?

An altered state of consciousness (ASC) is a way of experiencing which is
fundamentally different from normal waking consciousness. Examples would include
delirious conditions, meditative trances, and drug-induced states.

Dreaming is an altered state of consciousness occurring during the lightest

stage of sleep. When the sleeper is in the first four hours of sleep, most of
the time is spent in the deepest stages that help replenish the body. As the
sleeper comes up into light sleep several physical measures indicate that
dreaming is taking place. The EEG would have some similarities to an individual
in an awake, but relaxed (alpha) state. The eyes start to move under the lids,
as if these rapid eye movements (REM) were trying to follow the action of the
dream. Dreams can be described as a series of hallucinations and illusions
occurring during light sleep.

Most movements in dreams are blocked by a muscular inhibition. A few movements

(such as a slap) or a few words (usually garbled) may get past the muscular
inhibition of sleep. Dreamers are not capable of carrying on complex
conversations or performing complex actions. "Sleep walking" is actually
something different, a mild dissociative reaction.

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Case Study: When Mrs. B was a newlywed, she and her husband lived in a tiny
apartment, and slept on a mattress on the floor. They both worked full time and
took classes at night. One night her husband got to bed quite late, and she had
already been asleep for several hours, tired from a hard day. Mr. B could not
resist kissing his lovely, sleeping wife as he too crawled into the covers, and
then rolled over. But immediately, he felt a fist on the side of his head. He
turned over to see why his wife had hit him, but she was still asleep. The next
day at breakfast she was very excited to tell her husband about the dream that
she had had the night before. "I was making bread here in the apartment, when
the doorbell rang. It was a Western Union delivery boy with a telegram for me.
It was great news: my sister had a healthy baby girl. I was so very happy that I
wanted to give the boy a tip, but I had no money, so I just gave him a piece of
bread. He ate it, but then he tried to kiss me so I hit him." In her dream, the
ringing doorbell and the delivery boy were hallucinations because they did not
happen, but the kiss was an illusion, a real physical stimulus that was
misinterpreted in the dream.

Most people dream several times a night, averaging four or five dreams in an
eight-hour period of sleep. The first four hours involve more time in the deeper
stages of sleep, while the last four involve more time in the lighter stages,
and more periods of dreaming, and longer periods of dreaming. Many people wake
up from the night’s sleep while they are in their last dream of the night.

Most people do not remember any dreams from the previous night. If they do, it
is the last dream that is most likely to be remembered. The earlier dreams are
most likely to be forgotten, and if they are remembered, they are usually
perceived as parts of the last dream. Dream recall can be improved by setting a
habit of writing down the dream before you leave your bed in the morning. For
the first week or so, the dreamer may give up after spending a few minutes
trying to recall the dream, but after a week of this focus, dreams are more
frequently remembered and they become more elaborate. The same trend can be seen
in those forms of psychotherapy emphasizing dream work.

Case Study: Mr. G was a 35-year-old Silicon Valley engineer. He sought therapy
for unresolved anxiety about interpersonal relationships. The psychotherapist
decided to focus on dream analysis to get around some of the intellectual games
which the patient was attempting to play. For the next three sessions, Mr. G
claimed that he could not remember a dream. He then employed some of the dream
recall techniques proposed by the therapist, and brought in a short dream. Mr. G
was pleased with how this opened up the course of that therapeutic session, and
had at least one dream for each of the remaining weekly sessions. The dream
reports also increased in length and complexity.

Whether the dream content described by the patient is a valid recount of what
was actually experienced in the dream is a matter of debate among
psychotherapists and sleep researchers. One possible explanation is that the
dream is just a few jumbled images and experiences, and that any real meaning is
created later by the dreamer as she remembers, tells, and self-interprets her
dream. Indeed, the remembering, telling, and interpreting of the dream may not
be separate phases, but interacting aspects of the same process.

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Case Study: Mr. V is a graduate student at a major university. He has been in
Jungian therapy for two years. When he began therapy, he too found it difficult
to remember his dreams. After about a month, he remembered dreams for most
nights. After three months, he noticed that the dreams were more highly
structured and detailed, and would fill up most of the therapy session. Now most
of his dreams have Jungian symbols, and the typical session has Mr. V telling
and explaining his dream, with his analyst playing more of a role of an observer
and guide, making sure that Mr. V is on the right path with his own dream work.

Many people become convinced that their dreams are precognitive, giving them
insight into future events. Most people have had several of these dreams or
other deja vu experiences in which they become convinced that a new experience
has already been experienced before. This is best explained by a confirmation
bias of sampling, and by how later situations reconstruct our memories of our
dreams. Let's do the math: five dreams a night, 365 nights a year, that is over
thirty-six thousand dreams by the time a person is twenty, and the details of
the remembered dreams are unconsciously made to fit the details of the events as
they later came to pass.

When people are deprived of sleep for more than a couple of nights, they tend to
became physically exhausted and mentally agitated. They may even begin to
hallucinate while awake.

QUESTION #5.8: What is hypnosis?

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness characterized by relaxation,

focused attention, and increased suggestibility. Hypnosis is used in several
tribal cultures as part of shamanic rituals of spiritual passage and healing. A
similar practice was probably used by ancient Egyptian and Greek physicians, who
had to operate without anesthesia, and found hypnosis useful in controlling the
perception of pain.

About 250 years ago, hypnosis was rediscovered by an Austrian physician, Franz
Anton Mesmer. After using it clinically, he went to Paris where he used his
Mesmerism (or animal magnetism as he called it) to entertain at the parties of
the nobility, much as stage hypnotists do nightclub acts today. One of his most
popular acts was to get stuffy guests to act foolishly, as if they could not
walk, talk, or see. By the 1880s several Paris physicians had the idea that if
Mesmerism could make normal people act as if they had a hysterical disorder
(what we now call somatoform or conversion reaction), then perhaps hysterical
patients could be hypnotized to act normally.

Jean Martin Charcot became the most famous of these French psychiatrists,
treating hundreds of patients at the women's mental hospital outside of Paris.
He found that the most effective way to use hypnosis was to regress the patient
back in time before the onset of the disorder. Charcot discovered that in many
cases patients reported an emotionally traumatic event (such as sexual abuse in
childhood) and that the hysterical disorder was a sort of mental block to
prevent remembering the trauma. Under hypnosis, that mental block could be
gotten around, and the patient could relive the trauma.

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Sigmund Freud was a young neurologist in Vienna who heard about Charcot's work,
and decided to go to Paris for residency training in psychiatry. When Freud
returned to Vienna to set up a private practice, he came to two conclusions. One
was that he himself was not a very good hypnotist, and so he decided to use a
different technique to probe the unconscious minds of his patients: talking to
them (and that was the birth of modern psychoanalytic psychotherapy).

Freud also concluded that when a female patient reported recovered memories of
having been sexually abused at an early age by her fathers, that these were not
factual memories being recalled. Rather, the hypnosis had liberated the
patient’s Oedipal fantasies about desiring her father’s sexually.

Even today there is a great debate about what patients describe under hypnosis
(or the altered state of drugs like sodium pentothal, "truth serum"). What the
patient reports may be a factual memory, repressed by emotional trauma, or what
the patient reports may be a false memory, a pure fantasy concocted by the
patient at that point during the highly suggestible state in hopes of pleasing
the therapist.

Most people have some level of hypnotizability, especially children and those
prone to hysterical disorders (such as what we now call dissociative reactions
or "multiple personality"). The hardest people to hypnotize are the highly
suspicious, schizophrenics, and dementia patients (because they lack the ability
to focus the attention).

The value of hypnosis beyond the control of pain is debatable. Hypnosis does not
seem to greatly increase mental or physical performance, otherwise coaches
should hypnotize their teams and professors should hypnotize their students to
concentrate and do better.

QUESTION #5.9: What are psychic phenomena?

Psychic phenomena are supernormal events or abilities claimed by some people.

The term psychic can also be used as a noun to describe someone who claims these
abilities. Parapsychology is the study of psychic phenomena such as channeling,
psychokinesis, and extrasensory perception.

Channeling is the ability to communicate with disembodied spirits. This is

sometimes done in the practice of holding a seance in which the psychic (or
medium) goes into an altered state of consciousness (trance). The spirits
(perhaps demons or souls of deceased loved ones) then talk to or through the
medium.

Case Study: Dona A is a woman of mixed African-Indian extraction who was born in
a small mountain village outside of Acapulco. She went to the city where she
worked as a maid in a hotel and earned good money. Then she became very ill, and
went to several physicians, but none could help her. Then in one of the slums of
Acapulco she found a group of spirit doctors (women of background similar to her
own). One of the spirit doctors put on a white robe and went into a trance, then
spoke in a strange voice (that of a spirit) who diagnosed Dona A's problem as
that of the evil eye: another woman from her village had become jealous of Dona
A's relative success and had sought a local brujo (sorcerer) to put a hex on
her. But the spirits contacted by Dona A's spirit doctor were stronger, so the
hex was undone, and Dona A got better. Dona A is now so committed to this

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practice of channeling, that she herself is studying to become one of the spirit
doctors. She keeps up her work as a hotel maid, remains a practicing Catholic,
and still goes to the national health service when she gets a flu, or injured on
the job, but she is convinced of the reality of spirit channeling and exorcism.

There is no way to empirically verify such claims. We can interview Dona A and
her "spirit doctor" and observe how they practice their craft (e.g., they do not
charge huge fees for their services) and we can infer that they are sincere.
However, we cannot empirically verify what is really being done. Is it
contacting disembodied spirits or is it hallucinating?

Possible fraud is one reason why most scientists remain skeptical about
channeling and other psychic claims. There have been many examples of criminals
who have sought to use their victims' belief in these powers in order to take
advantage of them. Even when there is no criminal intent, fraud might come about
because the psychics want to maintain a position of attention and importance.

Case Study: In the 1850s in upstate New York, the Fox family moved into an old
farm house. The father heard his two daughters giggling loudly the first night.
He went into their room to see what was the matter. The girls said that they
were talking to Mr. Splitfoot, the ghost of the Dutch farmer who used to have
the house. The father himself then heard loud clicking sounds. Someone could ask
a question, and there would be one click for yes, or two for no. People came
from miles around to witness this conversation with the ghost, which only seemed
to work in the presence of the Fox sisters. After the Civil War, they became
quite famous, and traveled around doing seances so that the bereaved could talk
to their war dead and hear the answers as one click for yes or two for no. In
1920 on her deathbed, the younger of the two sisters admitted it was a trick.
Her sister had learned to pop her big toe. The girls thought it up just for fun,
but when the adults paid so much attention to it, they decided to keep it up.

Psychokinesis is the psychic ability that claims to influence physical energy,

events, and/or objects without using one's muscles. One example of this is
levitation: using one's powers of concentration to get objects to defy the force
of gravity. When studied under controlled laboratory conditions, claims of
psychokinesis are usually found to be fraudulent.

(P S Y C H O) (K I N E S I S)
MIND MOVEMENT

Case Study: Mr. L was born in a tiny Russian village in 1940, and his family
barely survived the starvation of the Second World War. Even later, life was
hard on the collective farm. When he was twenty, Mr. L went to Moscow and
convinced the officials that he had a special psychokinetic ability. He showed
them that he could suspend small objects above the ground. He argued his way
into a position in which he would spend all day long practicing his ability, so
that some day he might be able to use it to destroy incoming missiles. He got a
tiny apartment and a food ration card. When the Soviet Union fell, western
reporters came to Moscow and interviewed psychics such as Mr. L. The reporters
were quickly able to identify the sleight of hand he had used: a tiny thread
stretched between his knees to suspend the small objects. Mr. L was not good
enough to have made it on the Las Vegas stage.

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Extra sensory perception (ESP) involves gaining knowledge about things external
to the mind without use of sensory input. There are three forms of ESP:
telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition. Telepathy is thought transference:
the ability to read the mind of another person. Clairvoyance is remote viewing:
the ability to perceive persons, objects, or events despite the presence of
distance or obstacles. Precognition is foretelling the future and has taken the
forms of soothsaying, augury, divination, astrology, and fortune telling.

Most scientists, including psychologists, remain quite skeptical about claims

for ESP and other psychic phenomena. In addition to some obvious cases of fraud,
the greatest problem concerns lack of good research design. In those cases where
there is a success rate above that expected by pure chance, there is usually
some defect of design (such as another possible explanation as to why the
receiving subjects in the research were able to come up with the knowledge). In
those studies where there is careful methodological control, the results are
rarely statistically significant.

Some psychics have responded to these data by saying that by their very nature
psychic phenomena are not normal, and cannot be studied by normal empirical
techniques. The kind of situations leading to ESP are situations involving great
danger or great emotions, and this is not the same as the conditions which exist
in identifying randomly selected cards and numbers in a parapsychological
laboratory.

Altered States of Consciousness

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 UNIT 6: LEARNING

QUESTION #6.1: What is classical conditioning?

Learning is a change in behavior due to the organism's experience with

the environment. The simplest form of learning is conditioning, which
can be reduced to a basic reflex relationship between stimulus,
organism, and response.

Not all reflexes are learned. Many reflexes are the result of heredity.
The stimulus might come from the environment, but the reflex itself
(the relationship between the stimulus and the response) can be pre-
programmed inside of the organism. One example would be the spawning
habits of the salmon fish. Salmon don't need special training or
orientation to know that this is what they must do, or how to do it.

A human example would be the knee jerk reflex. When you go to the
doctor for a general physical examination, you have to sit on the
examining table, cross your legs, and then the doctor will use a little
rubber hammer to strike just below your knee, and then observe the knee
jerking in response. Your mother did not have to tell you to do that;
your knee was pre-programmed to respond in that way.

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Classical conditioning is one way that the organism can learn a new
stimulus-response relationship by building on an old one. Classical
conditioning requires the paired presentation of two stimuli. The first
stimulus was originally neutral (at least with respect to the
response). The second stimulus already has a reflex relationship with
the response. After enough paired trials of presentation (first
stimulus followed by second stimulus) a new reflex will be acquired. At
that point, the formerly neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned
stimulus capable of eliciting the same response on its own, even if it
is not always followed by the second stimulus.

Ivan Pavlov was one of the first researchers in classical conditioning.

Most of his research subjects were mongrel dogs. He liked to work with
the individual animals over a period of years, getting to know their
peculiarities. As a skilled surgeon, he was able to install a glass
window on a dog's stomach, so that the digestive processes could be
directly observed. In 1904 he won the Nobel Prize for his work in the
physiology of digestion.

One day as he was preparing an animal for observation, Pavlov noticed

that the digestive processes did not start when the dog actually
received the food in its mouth, but as soon as the dog could tell that
the food was coming. After the dog had been through the procedure a few
times, Pavlov noted that the dog's digestive juices began to flow at
the first indication of the coming food: the distinctive sound of the
shoes of the attendant who brought the food.

It is a natural reflex for a dog to salivate at the taste of the food,

but there is no inherited reason for a dog to salivate at the sound of
someone's footsteps. That sound was originally a neutral stimulus. Note
that the dog did not salivate to the sound of the footsteps until it
had learned to associate that sound with the subsequent stimulus of the
food. The dog's experience with the footsteps being followed by the
food was a new learning experience. When the footsteps began to elicit

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the salivation on their own, we could say that the sound was no longer
neutral, but had become a conditioned stimulus.

Pavlov was a master researcher when it came to the precision of his

measurements and thorough control of extraneous variables. He
constructed a special observation cage for the dog: it was soundproof
and had a one-way mirror, so Pavlov could observe the dog, but the dog
could not see or hear the approach of an attendant with food. The dog
was placed in a special harness to reduce extraneous movements. Pavlov
surgically implanted a tube into the dog's salivary gland. The tube
carried the saliva into a collection cup where the flow was measured by
a drum rotating against an inked needle. Pavlov decided to try a
different sound this time for his neutral stimulus, a bell.

The bell would be rung inside of the cage for the dog to hear, then the
dog would get food in the form of meat powder. Pavlov observed the
charted flow of the saliva, noting that after just a few trials (paired
associations) of these two stimuli, the dog had acquired a new reflex.
At that point, the bell could be called a conditioned stimulus, since
the dog began to salivate as soon as the bell sounded, even before the
food arrived.

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Pavlov experimented with several variables, and consistently found that
timing was most important: the less delay between the neutral stimulus
(the bell) and the unconditioned stimulus (the food), the sooner and
stronger the new reflex acquired. If he waited too long to present the
food, the dog never associated the bell with the food.

Case Study: The subject is now a different dog, a street dog in Mexico.
He sees a jogger, and decides to give chase. The jogger notices the
approaching, growling dog, and stops, and brings his right hand back as
if to throw a rock. The dog turns and runs in the opposite direction.

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Classical condition might give us a useful insight on why the dog so
drastically changed its behavior. Perhaps that dog has had some bad
experiences with people throwing rocks.

About the time that Pavlov was doing his research on salivating dogs,
young John Watson was a graduate student at the University of Chicago.
Most of his professors had studied or taught with Wundt or James, and
emphasized introspection. Watson worked his way through graduate school
doing various jobs, such as working on the other side of campus, in the
medical school, cleaning out the animal cages in the laboratories. This
experience led Watson to the conclusion that if psychology was to
achieve the status of a respected science, it also had to embrace the
precise measurement and control found in research on laboratory
animals. Most of Watson's own later research was done with rats, but
his most famous subject was a human baby, identified as Little Albert.

Watson was interested in studying fear in babies. Babies fear loud

noises, so Watson decided to use that as his unconditioned stimulus to
elicit the response of fear. For a neutral stimulus, Watson could have
chosen just about anything, but he selected a live, white mouse. This
leads many students to misinterpret the components of Watson's
research. The mouse was not the subject; the human baby was the
subject. The mouse's role was that of a stimulus. Watson could just as
easily have used a toy mouse or any other object to serve as the
initially neutral stimulus.

Watson hid behind a curtain with a metal bar in one hand and a hammer
in the other. His assistant led the baby boy into the room. When the
baby was calm, she let the mouse out. When the baby noticed the mouse,
she signaled Watson who then struck the bar with the hammer, making a
very loud sound. The baby was frightened and began to cry. The next
day, the procedure was to be repeated. Watson took up his place behind
the curtain, ready to strike the bar again when he was signaled. His
assistant brought the baby into the room, and when he was calm, she
released the mouse again. But this time, even before Watson could
strike the iron bar with the hammer, the baby began to cry. The white
mouse was no longer a neutral stimulus for the baby, but something

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frightening on its own. A new reflex had been acquired with just one
paired association.

Later in life, Watson gave up academic psychology and accepted a

position with an advertising agency. His strategy was similar to the
logic of classical conditioning: pair the name of the product (perhaps
a neutral stimulus) with another stimulus (one that the consumer
already responds to, such as an attractive spokesperson).

Higher order learning refers to the process of using previously

conditioned stimuli to condition new stimuli. Once a stimulus has
become conditioned, that stimulus can now serve in the role of
unconditioned stimulus for the acquisition of a new reflex. For
example, if a rattle was shaken just before the white mouse was
presented, Little Albert could have been conditioned to fear the noise
of the rattle.

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Watson was an advocate of the philosophical position known as
determinism. He doubted that people really had free will to choose
their own behaviors. Whether he was thinking of a lab rat, a baby, or a
potential consumer, Watson conceived of a passive organism whose
behavior was completely determined by the pattern of stimuli coming in
from the environment. He boasted that he could make any healthy newborn
into a beggar, thief, or saint, just by varying the conditioning.

Stimulus generalization is the tendency of similar stimuli to elicit

similar responses. If you were going to adopt one of the dogs from
Pavlov's laboratory, you might have the problem of the dog salivating
every time your doorbell rang. Someone conditioned like Little Albert
might develop stimulus generalization in terms of fearing other white,
furry objects: perhaps a toy stuffed bunny, a live white kitten, and
even a man with a Santa Claus beard. Stimulus discrimination is where
the organism learns to respond to a particular stimulus, and not to
other stimuli that are similar.

Extinction is a gradual loss of conditioning. Before you adopted one of

Pavlov's dogs, you might insist that it be deconditioned. In classical
conditioning, this is usually accomplished by massed trials of
presenting the conditioned stimulus alone, without being followed by
the unconditioned stimulus. With Pavlov's dogs, this would mean ringing
the bell without any presentation of food, many times over the day. The
flow of saliva after the bell will diminish as the dog tires of
salivating without the food.

Recovery of a reflex refers to reconditioning an organism. For example,

suppose you adopted two dogs, one from the pound (a dog who had never
been conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell), and a dog from
Pavlov's lab (who had been conditioned, then extinguished with massed
trials). Now suppose that you want to condition both dogs to salivate
at the sound of the bell, so you ring the bell and follow it with the
food. Both dogs can be conditioned to salivate at the sound of the
bell, but it will be the dog from the Pavlov lab that will be quicker
to condition, as it is merely relearning an old habit.

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 Classical conditioning pairs two stimuli SS to a passive organism

The fear response is difficult to extinguish. Massed presentation of

the conditioned stimulus might be effective over time, but the subject
will find it terrifying. As we shall see in chapter 11, the favored
approach is one of systematic desensitization: slowly exposing the
relaxed organism to a series of approximations of the feared stimulus.
This technique for undoing classically conditioned feared stimuli was
not developed by Watson, but only years later by Mary Cover Jones.

One of the great ethical concerns raised by Watson's work was the well-
being of his human subject. We do not know if Little Albert continued
these phobic (intense, irrational fear) responses throughout his adult
life. We do know that Watson did not report any deconditioning work on
his subject.

QUESTION #6.2: What is operant conditioning?

Operant conditioning uses reinforcement. Reinforcement is a stimulus

that the organism gets (or gets rid of) after the response has been
given. After Watson, many behaviorist psychologists did research on
what was called effect-based, instrumental, or operant conditioning.
The key difference with the classical conditioning of Pavlov and
Watson, and this newer approach was that operant conditioning used an
active organism that emitted the response, and then the stimulus was
presented to the animal. You have performed some operant conditioning
if you taught your pet to do a trick.

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Behaviorist B.F. Skinner was one of the major researchers with operant
conditioning. He developed specialized cages known as Skinner boxes.
These cages made it very easy to study operant conditioning. A Skinner
box for a pigeon would have a dispenser that could give the pigeon one
food pellet at a time, and also a mechanism to record the pigeon's
pecking (the response).

A Skinner box for a rat would also have a dispenser that could give one
food pellet at a time, and a mechanism to record the pressing of a bar
by the rat (the response).

Skinner was able to identify several factors influencing the organism's

learning of a reflex. Timing was important: the longer the delay
between the organism's response and the provision of the reinforcement,
the harder it was to learn the connection between the two.

QUESTION #6.3: What are different types of reinforcement?

Reinforcement is the stimulus that the organism receives (or gets rid
of) right after emitting a response. In other words, reinforcement is
what happens to the organism because of its response.

Reinforcers can be either primary or secondary. Primary reinforcers are

unlearned: the organism naturally appreciates them. The example given
above, food, is a primary reinforcer. The avoidance of pain would be
another. In one sense, primary reinforcers in operant conditioning are
similar to the unconditioned stimulus used in classical conditioning.
Food presented before the response would be an unconditioned stimulus
in classical conditioning. Food presented after the response would be
primary reinforcement in operant conditioning.

Secondary reinforcers are those that the organism has had to learn to
appreciate. Experience teaches us the value of money, good grades,
social approval, and the avoidance of embarrassment. In a sense,
secondary reinforcers in operant conditioning are like conditioned
stimuli in classical conditioning: the organism has learned to respond
to them. All conditioning involves the learning of a new response, but
only those cases in which the organism has learned to appreciate the
value of the reinforcer can be called secondary reinforcement.

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Reinforcers can also be classified as positive or negative. A positive
reinforcer is a reward, something that is provided to the organism,
especially something it wants and appreciates. Food and pleasure would
be primary positive reinforcers. Money, good grades, and social
approval would be secondary positive reinforcers, because a person must
learn to appreciate the value of those things.

Extinction with positive reinforcement is easy: just remove the

reinforcer. If we want to get the pigeon to stop pecking, or the rat to
stop pressing the bar, we just turn off the food dispensing mechanism.
Human reinforcement is more complicated, especially where some
secondary reinforcement may also be involved.

Case Study: Mr. H had a newspaper route when he was just twelve years
old. He was able to save up enough money for his first car at age
sixteen. He worked his way through college selling and installing chain
link fence. After college he became a life insurance agent. He worked
very hard and was outstanding in his sales. He then had the capital to
purchase other businesses: oil development, cattle, real estate. Now in
his 70s he keeps on working, even though he has no need for more money.
Perhaps he has been conditioned by secondary reinforcers such as social
approval and status. On the other hand, the determinists may be wrong,
and people might actually have free will. Mr. H may keep on with his
business dealings because he enjoys the excitement of the business
world, and wants to help his customers, employees, and community with
his business acumen.

Like Watson, Skinner was a major force on Behaviorism, and an advocate

of the philosophical doctrine of determinism. Skinner considered the
concept of free will to be a mere delusion. He thought that a perfect
society could be constructed if we just systematically controlled the
positive reinforcers so that every individual would be conditioned to
do good, pro-social behaviors. Before he went to graduate school to
study psychology, Skinner had spent a year in Greenwich Village trying
to make it as a writer. After he had earned his reputation as a serious

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scientist, Skinner returned to his love of fiction writing, describing
a utopian society, Walden II, which employed his theories of positive
reinforcement. Unlike Huxley's Brave New World or Orwell's 1984, there
is no obvious fatal flaw in Skinner's perfect system. People in Walden
II act in a kind, cooperative and conscientious manner because that is
how they have been conditioned to act.

The power of positive reinforcement is not limited to normal adults,

rats and pigeons. In mental hospitals, developmentally disabled and
schizophrenic patients have their behavior altered by the behavioral
modification of positive reinforcement. These patients can be trained to
turn in their dirty laundry, take their medication, and show up for
group therapy by getting rewards such as candy, cigarettes, or various
privileges.

Even invertebrates lacking a real central nervous system (e.g.,

planarian worms) can be conditioned operantly to make certain motions
if reinforced by food.

Unfortunately for Skinner’s theory, positive reinforcement does not

always lead to an increase in the reinforced behavior. Human motivation
is more complex. Skinner assumed that people were solely motivated by
extrinsic factors (e.g., I get some candy), while humanistic
psychologists have pointed out a number of intrinsic motivators (e.g., I
feel like I have achieved something). Sometimes if parents give too
much extrinsic reinforcement (e.g., money, praise) for when the child
does something she already enjoys doing (e.g., reading, athletics) this
results in an overjustification, in which the child’s level of intrinsic
motivation decreases, and then the actual levels of response also
decrease.

Negative reinforcement involves the prevention or removal of an

aversive stimulus. An aversive stimulus is something that the organism
does not like (and serves as a punishment). So, negative reinforcement
is the opposite of punishment: punishment provides an aversive
stimulus, while negative reinforcement would prevent or remove that
aversive stimulus. (Skinner preferred positive reinforcement.)

Imagine that a cat (or less lovable creature) has been placed into a
special cage that has a small fence down the middle, separating the two
sides of the cage. The cat cannot jump out of the cage, but he can jump
over the fence onto the other side of the cage. Each side of the cage
has a separate electrifiable grid capable of giving a mild, but
unpleasant shock to any organism standing on the grid. The cage also
has two little light bulbs in the roof. The light bulb on the left
comes on, but this is like a neutral stimulus for the cat, so there is
no immediate response. A few seconds later, the grid on the left side
of the cage is electrified, presenting the organism with an aversive

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stimulus. The cat now responds by trying to get away from the shock,
and jumps the fence, finding that the grid on the right side of the
cage is off. The cat has escaped from the aversive stimulus. A few
minutes later, the right light comes on, and a few seconds later, the
right side of the cage becomes electrified. The cat jumps over the
fence again to escape the new shock, and lands back over on the left
side of the cage, finding that grid has now been turned off. In a short
time, the cat will figure out that the lights are a warning of a
forthcoming shock, and if the cat jumps fast enough, it can completely
avoid being shocked.

Negative Reinforcement in the form of Avoidance conditioning

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Case Study: Let's revisit a previous example: the street dog who was
chasing a jogger, but then ran the other way when the jogger pretended
to throw a rock. Negative reinforcement could also explain the dog's
actions.

Negative reinforcement can explain about a dozen activities you might

engage in each morning before you leave the house. You get on the
exercise machine, even though it is boring, in order to get the
negative reinforcement of avoiding weight gain. You swallow a large,
bitter vitamin pill in order to get the negative reinforcement of
reducing your chances of getting ill. You bathe, groom, and dress
yourself, to get the negative reinforcement of avoiding embarrassment.
As you leave the house, you set the alarm and lock the doors, in order
to get the negative reinforcement of not having a burglar come into the
house while you are gone.

Forms of reinforcement
Positive Negative
(provide a (remove an
reward) aversive S)

Food Take away

Primary Pleasure Pain

Money Take away

Secondary Points Embarrassment
Praise

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Negatively reinforced behavior may be harder to extinguish. Suppose we
turned off the electrified grids in the cage, but still had the light
bulbs come on every once in a while. The cat would not know that the
lights will no longer be followed by shocks, and so will continue to
jump. The fact that he is not shocked after the jump, is merely more
reinforcement for his jumping behavior. Suppose that your local police
became extremely effective in stopping burglaries in your neighborhood,
you might not decide to get rid of the alarm, or stop locking your
doors. Indeed, you might conclude that the reason you have not been
burglarized is because of the precautious responses you have taken.
Even when the aversive stimulus is provided after the response, this
does not necessarily extinguish the reflex. If your house were
burglarized despite your alarm and lock, you would probably conclude
that you needed a quicker responding alarm company and bigger locks.

Instrumental (operant) conditioning uses reinforcement

QUESTION #6.4: How can reinforcement be scheduled?

At the beginning of operant conditioning, it may be necessary to

reinforce successive approximations of the end response. Suppose that
we want to condition a pigeon to peck at a target in its cage. We might
have to take over manual control of the food pellet dispenser. We might
send the first pellet down the chute when the pigeon first faces the
wall containing the target. We might give another food pellet when the
pigeon starts to walk toward the wall. We will wait until the pigeon
pecks somewhere on the wall before the next pellet is dispensed. Then
we will require the pigeon to hit one of the rings of the target before
giving another food pellet. Then we can progressively reduce the number

103
of rings in the target until we only reinforce a direct hit on the
bull's eye center of the target.

Once an organism has been operantly conditioned, reinforcement does not

have to be maintained on a continuous schedule. It can be used
intermittently, so that only some of the responses are reinforced, while
the majority of the responses go unreinforced.

Case Study: Mr. L watches a lot of television. He knows exactly what he

likes: action-filled police dramas and action-filled sporting events.
Even when he is watching his favorite programs, or the World Series, if
a commercial comes on, or the action gets a little slow, he gets out
his channel flipper. Each time he flips to the next channel, that
constitutes a response. If such flipping results in his seeing
something more interesting, he has been positively reinforced. But most
of the time he flips to the next channel, he sees something just as
boring as what he flipped away from: another commercial, talking head
newscasters, cartoons, women's talk shows, soap operas. He may not be
reinforced that often, but he is reinforced often enough to keep on
flipping channels. People and animals keep on doing things even when
they are reinforced only occasionally.

Intermittent reinforcement can be set up on schedules that are

determined by the ratio of the responses, or by the interval of the
responses. Ratio schedules make the amount of reinforcement
proportionate to the number of responses, such that if the organism
emits more responses, he will end up getting more reinforcement over
the long run. Time interval schedules of reinforcement mean that in any
given time period, the organism will be reinforced only once,
regardless of how many additional responses might be made.

Fixed ratio reinforcement could be set at any ratio, say, five to one.
The pigeon might be required to make five pecks at the target in order
to get one food pellet. The first four responses made by the pigeon
will be ignored, but on the fifth response, a food pellet will be
delivered. This will get more responses out of the pigeon than if it
were reinforced on a continuous one-to-one ratio.

There are many human examples of fixed ratio reinforcement, especially

in the world of work. Piecework is the practice of varying the worker's
pay according to how much the worker does. In agricultural harvesting,
fruit pickers are usually paid by the box, and so they pick fast in
order to get more money. On some construction projects, workers are
paid according to how many loads of bricks are laid, or how many houses
are framed. In the clothing industry, some workers are paid by how many
pieces of clothing are sewn.

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Variable ratio reinforcement means that the proportion of reinforcers to
responses might have a certain average, say five to one, but there is
no guarantee that each fifth response will be reinforced. One of the
best examples of variable ratio reinforcement is gambling. Imagine a
slot machine that takes quarters and pays off dollar jackpots. The
machine has been set to a five to one ratio (on the average, taking in
five quarters for every dollar paid out, which would return a 25
percent profit to the house). You decide to try your luck, and put in a
quarter, hoping to get a dollar back, but nothing happens after you
pull the handle. You put in a second quarter, thinking that you can
still double your money, pull the handle, but nothing happens. You put
in your third quarter, still thinking that you could be money ahead,
pull the handle, but nothing happens. You put in your fourth quarter,
thinking that you can break even, pull the handle, but nothing happens.
You put in your fifth quarter, starting to feel like a sucker because
you remember that it is a five to one ratio, and so far you have not
beaten those odds. You pull the handle, and expect your jackpot, but
you just might be disappointed again. If the machine were set up with
fixed ratio reinforcement, you would be guaranteed of getting your
jackpot after five pulls, but this is variable ratio: on the average it
takes five pulls. That means that some people may win in fewer, but
others will be reinforced less often. That is why they call it
gambling, and that is why gamblers lose over the long run.

Variable ratio reinforcement schedules are also faced by authors who

try to get their books (or articles or poems or screen plays)
published. Imagine that you write a novel, then send it to a book
publisher. It is rejected by the first publisher, so you send it to
another, and it is rejected there too. Finally, you try a third
publisher, and this time it is accepted for publication. You receive a
royalty contract, a large monetary advance, and invitations from talk
shows. There was no guarantee that the third publisher would accept the
book. You might have had to send it to five, or ten, or a hundred, and
even then realize that most books are not published. But occasionally
some new authors get through, and that is enough reinforcement to keep
them writing and submitted the books to publishers.

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Yet another example comes from the world of commission sales. The
organism is a car salesman. The response he is supposed to make is to
greet a potential customer, go on a test drive, and write up a deal
that he then takes to management. If a sale can be negotiated and
financed, the salesman will be paid a commission (a positive
reinforcer). An old rule of thumb in auto sales is that you have to
present yourself to twenty customers for every sale you get. The times
around Christmas might be a little slower, and then some times (during
a factory rebate) might be a little better, but the salesman never
knows if the next customer will be one who ends up saying "just
looking" or the one who drives out with a new car.

Fixed interval schedules mean that there would be a rigid time period
(say an hour) during which only one response will be reinforced.
Imagine that the pigeon in the Skinner box is getting too fat. Putting
him on ratio reinforcement would give him more exercise, but putting
him on interval reinforcement would be a diet. We will give the pigeon
a maximum of one food pellet per hour. The very first time it pecks the
target during the hour, one food pellet is dispensed. No additional
pecks will be reinforced until the next time period commences. The
closest human example of fixed interval reinforcement would be hourly
pay. Regardless of how much work the person does in that hour, the pay
for showing up will be the same.

Variable interval reinforcement means that the time period may fluctuate,
although it may average a certain length of time. Fishing is one
example of variable interval reinforcement. Suppose you go up to the
lake each Saturday morning, and spend about four hours on the water
fishing. You catch an average of four fish, so that means you are
getting about one fish per hour. However, this is a variable schedule
so the reinforcement is not guaranteed: you cannot look at your watch
and say "It has been 58 minutes, so I better get ready for my first
fish." On a good day, the interval between catches might be short.
Indeed, you might catch all four fish in your first hour. On a bad day,
you might end up with no fish at all.

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Another example of variable interval reinforcement would be calling up
a friend on the phone and trying to get through. You know that your
friend is usually on the phone for about ten minutes before she ends
the conversation and a new call can get through to her. If you call her
and get a busy signal, you might hang up and call again in a minute and
be lucky to catch her. Or sometimes you can try several calls during an
hour and keep on getting a busy signal because she is having unusually
long and frequent conversations on the phone.

A beggar on a busy street works under a variable interval schedule. His

begging behavior may be to look sad, draw attention to his disability,
say religious things, offer to work for money, sing or play a musical
instrument, or be accompanied by an animal. He may average a "donation"
every ten minutes, but he cannot predict when the next one is coming:
thirty seconds? three hours?

Examples of Reinforcement Schedules

FIXED VARIABLE

Ratio Gambling
(determined Piecework
by number Commission
of sales
responses)

Fishing
Interval
(determined Hourly wage Getting
by time through on
period) the phone

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 Advantages of Reinforcement Schedules
FIXED VARIABLE

High rates of High rates of

Ratio response response
(determined
by number Low rates of
of Extinction
responses)

Interval Lower fatigue Low rates of

(determined and stress Extinction
by time
period)

These schedules offer different advantages. In general, ratio schedules

get higher rates of response than do interval schedules. Variable
schedules tend to resist the extinction produced by non-reinforcement
because variable schedules are the least predictable. As any gambler,
author, salesman, or fisherman can tell you, there will be some long
dry periods when “the luck runs cold.” Eventually, the luck will turn
around and some money will be made (but in the long run, most gamblers
lose more than they win). Perhaps the greatest advantage of fixed
hourly pay is that it removes the stress of unpredictable compensation,
and allows the worker to focus on quality. Perhaps the major reason why
so many careers involve the fixed interval of hourly wage or monthly
salary is that it is difficult to measure and reinforce many work-
related responses.

Schedules of reinforcement
Schedule Examples High rates Resistance to Levels of
of response extinction stress and
fatigue
Fixed Ratio Piecework Excellent Fair Fair
Fixed Interval Hourly Fair Fair Good
wage
Variable Ratio Gambling Excellent Excellent Poor
Variable Interval Fishing Fair Excellent Fair

Indeed, we must always be careful when using positive reinforcement

that we end up getting the behavior that we really wanted. Some
companies have given up piecework when they found that the workers
quickly assembled shoddy units. Some retailers have found that
commission sales lead to high pressure tactics that drives away the
customers and gives the firm a bad reputation. One rural district in
India decided to try to control the cobra population by offer a bounty
to villagers for each snake, dead or alive, brought in.

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At first the program seemed quite successful. Hundreds of snakes were
turned in. The officials were certain that a large reduction in the
snake population would result. The next year even more snakes were
turned in, and the number increased geometrically the following year,
and the officials wondered how they would get enough to pay all these
bounties, and they were amazed that there had been so many snakes to
begin with. Then one of the hunters admitted that it was a lot easier
to raise the snakes than to catch them.

Here is a summary of the main differences between classical and operant

conditioning.

CLASSICAL OPERANT
Major figures Watson, Pavlov Skinner
Subjects Dogs (Pavlov) Rats,
Baby (Watson) Pigeons
Organism is Passively Actively
anticipating emitting a
a stimulus response
Stimulus is Paired Presented
before a after the
response response
(NS / UCS)
Role of stimulus Elicits the Reinforces
Response the response
Generalization To similar To similar
Stimuli responses
Extinction Due to Due to
presenting Non-reinforcement
CS without UCS of response
Resistance to UCS was intense The schedule is
Extinction is (e.g., Little Variable
Greatest when Albert) (e.g., gambling)

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QUESTION #6.5: What is punishment?

Punishment is the provision of an aversive stimulus, presenting the

organism with something that it does not want to happen. Punishment is
not the same as negative reinforcement (which prevents or removes an
aversive stimulus).

Punishment is employed in order to reduce a specific response by the

organism. Punishment can be effective if it is sufficiently intense, is
consistently applied, and immediately follows the response. The longer
the time lag between responses and punishment, the less likely the
organism will connect the two. Telling a toddler "wait until your
father gets home" is a bad discipline strategy for several reasons. The
delay breaks the connection between the punishment and the bad act
which the mother or baby sitter may wish to suppress. Assigning
discipline exclusively to the father (or any one adult) may cause the
child to associate punishment with that individual rather than her own
behavior.

Another limitation to certain forms of punishment is that termination

may constitute a negative reinforcement for whatever the organism was
doing just prior to termination. A five-year-old boy was placed in a
chair facing the corner for a timeout by his sitter. She had intended
to leave him there for about five minutes, but she got distracted
making lunch. After about seven minutes, the boy said "Is it time yet?"
The sitter looked at her watch and agreed that he could go back and
play. On the next occasion for a time out, the boy started asking "Is
it time yet?" just a couple of minutes into his time out. He had been
negatively reinforced for his questioning.

Even when punishment is effective in suppressing a response, it does

not necessarily weaken the underlying habit. "When the cat is away, the
mice will play." If a child has associated the risk of punishment with
the presence and vigilance of a parent, she might conclude that she
just has to be more careful not to get caught.

One alternative to punishment is distraction. Small children may throw

a tantrum because they want something right now, and have little
capacity for self-restraint or delayed gratification. Imagine this
situation in the supermarket. A three-year-old boy in a shopping cart
sees a cereal carton with a toy he has seen advertised on television.
He asks for it, but the mother says no, so he responds with a tantrum.

110
Many “old fashioned” parents think that quick punishment is the best
tactic at this point.

This might work, but here are some other possible outcomes.

111
One alternative especially appropriate for subjects with limited
attention spans (e.g., young children and dementia patients) is
distraction. The connection between the initial stimulus (the cereal
box) and the child's interest will be short lived if one stimulus can
be replaced by another. One mother distracted her little girl, a young
fan of the Simpsons cartoon series, by saying "Oh, look, there is
Krusty the Clown, let's try to catch him." When the little girl looked
around and said "Where is Krusty?" the mother responded, "Well, you
know Krusty does not like the sound of children crying."

The worst thing that a parent could do in the above situation would be
to give the child the cereal box after a tantrum has already emerged.
That merely provides positive reinforcement for the tantrum. Many
parents rationalize their giving in, thinking, "Well, just
occasionally" but that only serves to schedule the reinforcement on a
variable schedule, which will make it most difficult to extinguish
later on.

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Here is a summary of the differences between positive and negative
reinforcement, punishment, and non-reinforcement.

Different forms of learning

PROVIDED REMOVED

Positive Non-
reinforcement reinforcement
REWARD Extinguishes

Increases R Decreases R

AVERSIVE Punishment Negative

STIMULUS Suppresses Reinforcement

Decreases R Increases R

So, here is a guide as to what to use.

In order to Use Which means

Increase behavior Positive reinforcement Give reward
After behavior
Increase behavior Negative reinforcement Withdraw aversive S
After behavior
Decrease behavior Punishment Give aversive S
(suppress habit) After behavior
Decrease behavior Extinction via Give no reward
(weaken habit) Non-reinforcement After behavior

QUESTION #6.6: What are other forms of learning?

Modeling is where the subject observes another organism doing

something, and then imitates that behavior. This is also known as
vicarious or observational or imitative learning. The idea of "monkey
see, monkey do" has been around a long time, but Albert Bandura has
been one of the pioneer researchers in this area.

Several factors influence whether a subject will choose to model his

own behavior on that observed in another person. One is whether the
subject observes the other organism being reinforced (or punished) for
the behavior. One little girl was all dressed in her Halloween costume,
but she was shy about going to a stranger's door and saying "Trick or
Treat." When she saw the other kids getting candy, she overcame her
shyness.

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Another factor is whether the subject regards the model as a high
status figure. Over the past decade, hip hop music artists have worn
their pants low, exposing their abdomens or boxer underwear. This has
become a fashion mode for many young men.

Sixty years ago the most famous actor in Mexico, Cantinflas, portrayed
a character with low pants in many popular films. But this character
was portrayed as being a comic figure, clumsy, poor, and socially
inept. Anyone who wore his pants low at school in Mexico would be
teased by the other students.

Another form of learning is cognitive problem solving. This works with

organisms with highly developed cerebra. Rather than waiting for some
reinforcement before acting, the organism predicts the future
consequences (reinforcement) of its behavior. One chimpanzee was shown
some bananas at the top of the cage. There were some cardboard boxes in
the cage. He figured out how he could build a tower out of the boxes
and then climb that tower to get the bananas.

114
When such a solution emerges spontaneously, without the organism
following systematic steps pursuing that solution, this is known as
insight learning.

The transfer of training is where old learning impacts on new. The

organism may develop a new insight about how to apply old skills or
strategies to new problems. When similar stimuli call for similar
responses, old learning can facilitate new. Many pilots who have
learned to fly on propeller planes find that many of their skills
transfer to flying jet aircraft. When picking up a new language (like
German) after one has already learned English, similar words will be
learned most easily.

New stimulus (German) Old response (English)

Mann Man
Haus House
Buch Book
Ja Yes

But when the new stimulus calls for a very different kind of response
(e.g., flying a helicopter after flying a plane) some subjects might
find that the old learning gets in the way, interfering with the new
skills.

New stimulus (German) Old response (English)

Elf Eleven
Wand Wall
Gift Poison

When studying Portuguese after mastering Spanish, many students find

that reading the new language is easy, because so many Portuguese words
look like similar words in Spanish. However, when learning to speak
Portuguese, many Spanish speakers find that learning the different
sounds is made more difficult because of the tendency to try to go back
to the more familiar sounds of Spanish.

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 UNIT 7: MEMORY

QUESTION #7.1: What is memory?

Memory is the amount of previously learned material that has been

retained. Therefore, retention is another name for memory. There are two
basic forms of retention: procedural and declarative.

Procedural memory is how to perform an action, in sequence. Athletic

skills are one example of procedural memory. We learn the fundamentals,
practice them over and over, and then they seem to flow naturally when
we are in a game. Rehearsing for a dancing or musical performance would
be other examples of procedural memory. Everyday examples might be
remembering how to tie our shoes, drive a car, or get on the internet.

Declarative memory involves memory for facts, concepts and events rather
than muscular procedures. Declarative memory may be episodic or
semantic. Semantic retention is for the type of knowledge we associate
with books and school: names, dates, and numbers. But it can also
include personal information, such as telephone numbers and addresses.
Episodic retention involves memories for specific events. Flashbulb
memories are of particularly vivid events that persist in our minds.
Some of these events became flashbulb memories because they were so
important, or connected with intense emotions (pleasure, pain or
pride).

Case Study: Mr. B, now in his 60s, has less than a dozen episodic
memories that easily come to mind. Some of these flashbulb memories are
probably shared by most of the members of his generation of Baby
Boomers. Mr. B remembers coming out of swim class in November of 1963
to learn that President Kennedy had just been shot. In 1968 he was in
his college dorm when he heard a great shout coming from the other
students, and he learned that President Johnson would not seek re-
election. He remembers walking home from the movies in June of 1968 to
learn that Senator Robert Kennedy had been shot. Fifteen years later,
he remembers the look on his business partner's face when he arrived at
his office to learn that the space shuttle had just exploded. On
September 11, 2001, he remembers flipping TV channels while he was on
his aerobic exercise machine, when he noticed a news report from New
York City. Mr. B also had personal flashbulb memories associated with
intense joy (hitting a game winning grand slam home run at age 10),
fear (getting held up at the point of a gun at age 24), worry (wearing
the wrong shoes on his wedding day), terror (accidentally starting a
fire at age 9), and pain (being verbally tormented by an adult when he
was just 7).

QUESTION #7.2: How can memory be measured?

There are four measures of retention: redintegration, relearning,

recall, and recognition.

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Redintegration is the process of assembling a complete memory on the
basis of partial cues. An essay exam would be an example of a test of
redintegration: the question contains a few partial cues or suggestions
about how to structure the answer. If the student knows the material,
she will be able to construct a complete answer from what she has
retained from the course. Redintegration does not result in objectively
quantifiable scores that researchers need for employing statistical
analyses of data. (Indeed, note that the grading of essay exams is
somewhat of a subjective procedure on the part of the instructor.)
Within professional psychology, redintegration is more commonly
employed within the context of psychotherapy.

Case Study: Ms. S was 20 when she came in for psychotherapy in 2002.
The therapist determined that her present anxieties might be related to
something that happened in her childhood, perhaps around the age of
ten. Her therapist helped her begin to piece together a more complete
memory of that time. At age ten she would have been in the fourth or
fifth grade. Ms. S was able to remember her best friend at that time,
and how she became very sick that year, and Ms. S herself began to
worry that she herself might also become ill. The therapist also
reminded her, that she would have been ten years old in 1992. That was
a year after the Persian Gulf War. (Ms. S had no connection to that.)
1992 was the year of the Clinton - Bush - Perot presidential campaign.
(Ms. S remembers doing a report on Ross Perot for school, but could not
find any important associations with that.) 1992 was the year that the
Atlanta Braves won the World Series against Toronto. Although Ms. S was
not a baseball fan, this fact triggered a series of relevant memories.
She remembers her step-father getting upset with her little brother
because the child was making noise during the TV game. Ms. S then
remembered that year was very difficult in terms of domestic strife:
the step-father and her mother soon separated, and they had to move to
a smaller apartment in a worse part of town. These recoveries of
memories led to other relevant tie-ins later.

The skills (and agenda) of the therapist are major factors in the
outcome of redintegration. What the therapist expects to be told, and
what the patient is verbally reinforced for reporting have an impact on
what is reported by the patient (and even what the patient comes to
belief about the validity of a memory).

Case Study: Ms. W, age 33, has been having intimacy problems in her
recent marriage. When she heard a lecture about Satanic Ritual Abuse at
her church, she went to see a counselor who specialized in this area.
At first, Ms. W described her own childhood in most favorable terms.
The counselor accused Ms. W of denial. After more than a dozen

117
sessions, Ms. W was able to redintegrate a horrible memory about her
own father being a satanic priest, and the whole family having to watch
sacrifices of little animals, and later all of the children were
sexually abused. Both of Ms. W's parents, and her three older siblings
completely deny these reports.

Satanic Ritual Abuse does exit, but so does false memory syndrome in
which people become convinced that they have had an experience (such as
Satanic Ritual Abuse, sexual abuse, or alien abduction) when all of the
objective evidence suggests that the experience did not happen. Under
hypnosis, or during intensive therapy, patients can be convinced what
did not happen really did, and vice versa.

Over a hundred years ago, Freud himself came to the conclusion that his
female patients' reports of childhood sexual abuse were merely
fantasies from a repressed Electra Complex (the female version of the
Oedipus Complex). Freud probably then erred on the side of discounting
some accounts of real abuse later on. One of the greatest challenges
for psychotherapists is to investigate the patient's past in such a way
as to liberate (but not fabricate) such painful memories. There have
been so many overly exaggerated reports of satanic ritual abuse in
children's day care centers over the past few decades that we run the
risk of having real cases go ignored, because law enforcement and
juries may no longer believe any such claims.

Courtroom attorneys are well aware of the limitations of redintegrative

memory in eyewitness testimonies. The lawyers know how to phrase
questions in such a way as to shape the process of redintegration, both
in the witness who is trying to remember what happened, and in the
minds of the jurors who will have to remember what the witness said. An
attorney may ask "How fast was the car going when it smashed into the
tree"? fully aware that the word "smashed" will imply a greater speed
than a different word like "hit" or "came into contact with." A lawyer
may ask "What color was the man's hat"? and even if the witness cannot
remember the answer, both witness and jury may now think that the man
was wearing a hat.

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Relearning measures how much time it takes the subject to come up to a
certain level of competence. Relearning can be employed with either
procedural or declarative retention. The important thing for the
researcher to measure is the time savings that can be attributed to
retention of previously learned material. A ballerina has not danced
the part of the Snow Queen in the Nutcracker for ten months. Now, in
October, she is again assigned the part. One way to measure how well
she remembers is to see how many hours of practice it takes to get her
up to the same level of performance she had the previous December. If
it takes her twenty hours to master the part this year, while it took
her fifty hours during the first year she had the part, that savings of
thirty hours can be attributed to retention.

Recall asks the subject to repeat what has been previously learned, but
no cues are given. The results of the test can be scored quantitatively
as the number or percentage of right answers. Recall is often used with
tests of declarative memory, and is represented by fill in and short
answer tests.

MEASUREMENTS OF RETENTION
Type of memory Cues Format Scores Example
over time
REDINTEGRATION Yes Qualitative . . . Essay exam
RELEARNING Yes Quantitative Decline Time savings
RECALL No Quantitative Decline Short answer
RECOGNITION Yes Quantitative Decline Multiple choice
True / false

Recognition is where the original content is reproduced, and all the

subject has to do is to identify it as being correct. Both multiple
choice and true/false tests would be examples of recognition.
Recognition usually gets the highest retention scores.

QUESTION #7.3: What are the stages in the processing of memory?

Most of the experiences that you have had and things that you have
studied are not retained (at least, we cannot measure their retention
through any of the techniques discussed above). Your memory is not like
a bucket, but more like a fishing net hung out over a bridge on a
river. Miles of river water have passed through that net, but very
little was retained: some debris and hopefully some fish.

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The reason for this limited retention of human memory is that, in order
to be retained, something must be processed through the various stages
of memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term. Failure to successfully
process at each stage means that the item will be forgotten (and that
is the fate of most of what comes into the mind). These stages are like
different parking lots at the airport: you can only leave your vehicle
there for so long before you get into trouble.

Sensory memory is the first stage. The retention at this level can only
last for a few seconds at most. Iconic retention refers to visual
images at this stage. Echoic retention refers to sounds that have just
been heard. Memory at this stage is quite fragile, and quickly fades
away if not further processed ("in one ear and out the other"). Notice
what happens when you get a phone number after dialing 411: if you do
not write it down immediately, or keep repeating it to yourself, you
may have forgotten it by the time you try to dial the number.

Short term memory is the middle stage, with an average capacity of

minutes, although this might cover a few hours in some situations (and
seconds in other situations). During short term, memory is still pretty
fragile. To use a computer analogy, if you are writing a document on
the screen, and save your program only about every twenty minutes or
so, what has been typed on the screen in the last few minutes is like
short term memory, and may not survive an unexpected power outage.

Case Study: Mr. R, age 43, was diagnosed with major depression. He had
several trials of different medications, without any symptomatic
relief. He has made no progress in psychotherapy. His psychiatrist
recommended electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). Mr. R spent the night in
the hospital. At 6 A.M. he was awakened and prepped for the procedure:
a protective mouthpiece to prevent damage to the teeth and tongue,
muscle relaxants to prevent bone fractures. The electric current passed
through his brain served to induce a convulsion and depolarize his
neurons. After a week of these treatments, he was more active and in a
better mood, but there is one important side effect. Each treatment
erases whatever was in his short term memory. When he awakens, he is
groggy, and his head hurts, but he cannot remember the procedure or the
prepping. Indeed, one of the reasons that he is being given his ECT so
early in the morning is so that he will not lose important memories of
what he is working on during the day or studying at night.

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Long term memory is the last stage of processing, and the semi-
permanent stage. If we want to remember something tomorrow, it will
have to be consolidated in to the long term stage today. Going back to
our computer analogy: the long term memory is like the internal hard
disk or flash drive on which the computer stores its files. We say that
after these files are saved they are "semi-permanent" because it is
possible that they could be lost by a hard drive crash or other
physical problem with the media.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that consolidates short term
memory into long term. Damage to the hippocampus would make it
impossible for an individual to form any new long term memories, but he
would still be able to use his previously created long term memories,
as well as anything currently in the short term stage. A computer
analogy might suppose that you could not save any new files, but you
could still read from old, previously saved files, and print from new
files you were creating on the screen (but as soon as you turn the
computer off, those new files are gone).

Case Study: Back in the 1950s, Mr. E, then 25 years old, was diagnosed
with a brain tumor. The neurosurgeons were able to remove the tumor and
save his life, but during the operation there was substantial damage to
the hippocampal area. Mr. E could form no new long term memories. His
short term memory was still very good, and so was his retrieval of
previously stored long term memories. An avid baseball fan, he could
recount the details of each of the World Series games in which the
Yankees faced the Dodgers (1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956)
occurring before his surgery. But show him a new sports magazine, he
will read it attentively and be able to discuss it with intensity right
afterward, but tomorrow you can show him the same magazine, and it will
be like he is seeing it anew for the first time. When old high school
friends came to visit, they could talk about old times, and talk about
the baseball game on the television that they were watching together,

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but a couple hours later Mr. E would forget everything about that game,
or even that his friend had been over to see him.

QUESTION #7.4: Why do we forget?

Forgetting is a natural, inevitable part of the learning process. This

was established by some of the earliest laboratory research on
retention by Hermann Ebbinghaus over 130 years ago. He had his subjects
learn a list of "nonsense syllabus" composed of three letters (a
consonant on each end and a vowel in the middle). All of these stimuli
were therefore the same length, and Ebbinghaus tried to avoid having
syllables that were similar to real words (just in case that would give
some subjects any added help). Regardless of how the retention was
measured (relearning, recall or recognition), the longer after
retention, the more forgotten.

In this research, the independent variable was the amount of delay

selected by the researcher. The performance score of the subjects would
be the dependent variable. Notice that the correlation is inverse
(negative): the longer that Ebbinghaus waited to test his subjects, the
less well they did in terms of retention scores. Also notice that the
decline was not linear. The subjects tended to forget most in the first
few days (or even hours), and then the decline leveled off as the
subjects got down to the minimum that they would probably retain
permanently.

Forgetting can take place at any stage in the memory consolidation

process, but the most likely cause of that forgetting differs at these
different points of the process.

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Encoding failure means that the memory never got consolidated beyond
the initial sensory stage. The subject was just not paying enough
attention to move the item into short term memory. If you are listening
to the radio and all of a sudden the phone rings (and you answer
without bothering to turn off the radio) and then devote your attention
entirely to the phone conversation, what is being said on the radio is
not making it into your short term memory.

Case Study: Mr. B, only 61, has shown no signs of clinically relevant
dementia. He has a good memory, which is helped out by the fact that he
is a creature of habit, and may assume that his tools and other
important objects can always be found in their proper place. For
example, he keeps his keys in his right front pocket or else on the
stand on top of the refrigerator. One day as he was arriving home, he
heard the phone ring. He was expecting an important call, so he wanted
to get to the phone as quickly as possible. He was wearing an
especially tight pair of jeans that day, and the big ring of keys did
not quickly go back to his right front pocket, so he just threw them on
the little side table next to the front door. He remained on the phone
for half an hour discussing some important details of one of his
investments. Then he fed the cat, made a few more phone calls, wrote
some checks, and decided to go to the post office to mail them. When he
reached for his keys in his pocket, it was empty. He looked on the
stand above the refrigerator, and neither were they there. He reasoned
that he must have brought his keys from the car in order to get into
the house, so he retraced his steps from the front door, saw the keys
on the side table, and deduced the sequence of events that must have
resulted in the keys being mislaid. The fact that he had put his keys
on that table was not consolidated beyond sensory stage: encoding
failure.

Similar forms of interference can occur at other stages of

consolidation. Especially during the short term phase, memory is
vulnerable to serial position effect. When you have to learn several
different items in a series, one right after the other, there is the
danger that one will crowd another out of memory. Proactive interference
is when the first things crowd out the subsequent material. The
advantage of what is first learned is called primacy: it gets there
first and gets established. Nothing has come before to cause a
proactive interference with it. Retroactive interference is when the
things that come later disrupt our retention of what came before.
Recency is the advantage of what is learned last: nothing comes later

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to crowd it out with retroactive interference. If a subject has to
learn a list of names (or non-sense syllables) the ones most likely to
be remembered are the first and the last, while the ones most likely to
be forgotten are those crowded out in the middle: that’s the serial
position effect.

One practical application of this is to avoid studying two different

things in one short time period, back to back. Suppose you have two
final exams the next day, and need to study for them both. It would be
wise to study one until you are done with it, then give yourself at
least a half hour break from studying (e.g., go and have dinner) before
getting started on the other one.

Another practical application would come in those forms of competition

in which a series of contestants must compete on stage, one right after
the other, before a panel of judges who will then announce their
decisions after the last contestant has finished. Most speech, talent
and beauty contests are set up in this fashion. Serial position effect
says that it is not best to be in the middle, because these will be
most easily forgotten.

Of course, if contestant number four were head and shoulders above the
others in terms of talent, she may overcome the advantage of serial
position effect, but if there is little difference between how well the
contestants really did, the advantage of recency or primacy can be
enough to determine who wins.

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There is one type of contest in which primacy might be a great
disadvantage. In those contests in which the judges must announce their
ratings of each contestant as soon as that contestant finishes, and
before the next contestant gets on stage (e.g., Olympic figure skating,
gymnastics, diving), the judges have a motive to restrict the points
awarded to the first contestant, out of fear that the next one will be
even better.

This situation is akin to what is found in many job interviews in which

the company will interview applicants as they become available, and
keep on interviewing until the position is filled. Unless the company
is really desperate to fill that position immediately, many
interviewers may use that first interviewee as a calibration candidate
to see what is out there in the labor market. No matter how good that
first candidate looks, there may be someone better. Many interviewers
in this situation hire the first acceptable candidate who was better
than the first interviewee. (Of course, if the process first identifies
a fixed number of candidates to be interviewed, and they are
interviewed in short order, and the hiring decision is not made until
the last one is interviewed, then the advantage of primacy returns.)

Another application of interference applies to prospective memory: our

intentions to do things in the future. One of the main reasons why
people forget to do something is that they have become distracted by
some newer event or thing to remember.

Case Study: Mr. V, age 33, is a student who works full time in a
restaurant and is a father of two. In the beginning of the semester,
the professor mentioned that the class would have a field trip on the
first Saturday in November. Mr. V did not write it down, and his
professor did not mention the date again. In the meantime, his
daughter’s soccer team advanced to the regional finals, and he eagerly
volunteered to drive several children to the soccer game. When he
returned from the game, he sat down to do a little homework, and then
remembered that he had missed the field trip. It had slipped his mind
because he had been distracted by thinking about the soccer game.

Retrograde amnesia can be caused by a physical trauma to the brain that

disrupts short term memory consolidation into long term. The trauma can
be an electro-convulsive shock (as seen in the previous case of Mr. R)
or a physical blow to the head.

Case Study: Mr. Q is 25, married for three years, and father of a two-
year-old son. One morning while riding to work on his motorcycle, he
had an accident and suffered a severe blow to the head. He woke up in
the hospital, with his wife by his side, but calling the name of his
high school sweet heart. His amnesia had (temporarily) blotted out a
large part of his life. His memories started to return, but in reverse
order. A couple weeks later, he could remember graduating from high
school and joining the army. A week after that he remembered being
overseas when he got a letter from his then girl friend saying that she

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had met someone new. Later he remembered coming home, getting his
present job, and meeting his wife, getting married, and the birth of
his son. He eventually recovered almost all of his old memories, except
for the morning of his accident, and he probably never will recover
those memories, because they were only in that vulnerable short term
phase and never made it into the semi-permanent structure of long term.

Anterograde amnesia refers to the inability of the individual to form

any new long term memories (as in the case of Mr. E with the damage to
the hippocampus). Some blows to the head can produce anterograde
amnesia as well as retrograde. Perhaps the greatest cause of
anterograde amnesia is dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.

Case Study: Ms. G was 90 when she was examined in the nursing home. The
staff had identified her as a behavioral problem. She used foul and
aggressive language, everything from barnyard vulgarities, to sexual
innuendoes, to racial slurs. Ms. G would insult the other patients,
staff, and even visitors. When the psychologist examined her, Ms. G had
no short term memory abilities. She could answer questions about her
past (e.g., that she had been a barmaid and singer in a speakeasy back
in the days of prohibition) but seemed quite confused about when her
family had last visited her in the nursing home. The psychologist
inferred that Ms. G's unacceptable language was in part an attempt to
get some attention and respect from the staff and other patients. The
psychologist decided to find a more socially acceptable way to
accomplish this, and so he arranged for Ms. G to play the piano in the
recreation room. She chose one of the songs that she had played 50
years before back in some honkytonk. It was played well enough so that
the other patients could recognize it, and they clapped when Ms. G was
done, and even asked her for another one. Ms. G thought through her
repertoire for a moment and then agreed to play another song, and she
started, playing the same song. Ms. G could remember that old song
(because that was in her long term memory) but she could not remember
that she had just played it (because that would require a functioning
short term memory).

When we no longer need a particular memory, it may decay. Most food

servers find that once they have finished with a table, and focus their
attention on other customers, the details of the old table quickly
fade. Passive decay associated with lack of use can occur even in the
semi-permanent encoding of long term memory. Trying to remember the
mailing address or telephone phone number of a former employer may be
difficult if you have not needed it for a while. For future reference,

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it would be wise to copy down that information when you leave your
current employment.

Retrieval failure describes the situation when the memory made it into
long term, but now the subject is having difficulty accessing it. One
example of this is the "tip of my tongue" phenomena. The subject has
the right answer, and knows he has the right answer in his memory, but
he cannot find it just now. A few moments later (or maybe the next time
he needs it) the subject may be able to access that memory with no
difficulty. One frequent situation in which the "tip of my tongue"
phenomenon occurs is when you see someone you have not seen in a while,
like an old classmate. You remember the person's face, and you know
that you know the name, but you cannot think of it just now. One of the
things that make this process more difficult is that some of the old
cues that you associated with the person (e.g., where she sat in class)
might not be present. You might be able to help yourself out by doing a
little redintegration, coming up with a few associations, and the rest
will then come: she did well on the midterm exam, her brother was a
starting quarterback at our high school the previous year, number 14,
starts with G, Gomez? No, Gonzalez!

Another example of frustrating retrieval failure comes in the situation

of trying to remember where you hid something valuable. You probably
have not thought of it (rehearsed the memory) since you hid it. Indeed,
when you selected a hiding place you probably tried to think of a place
with no logical connections, so that a burglar would not think to look
there. The result of that process is that now you have no clue of where
to look either.

One reason why recognition consistently gets the highest retention

scores is that it gets around retrieval failure. It gets the answer off
of the tip of your tongue, and you merely have to identify it as
correct. If your old classmate had a sign around her neck reading "My
name is either Gonzalez, Gomez or Garcia" you probably would have
selected the right one.

Repression is an unconscious motive to forget an emotionally traumatic

memory. The pain of reliving the experience creates an unconscious
mental block that prevents us from recovering it. Repression was a
major theory developed by psychoanalysis.

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Case Study: Ms. Z, now 95, was a young woman in Poland during World War
II. She has flashbulb memories for some of the events of that time,
such as the day the war began on the morning of September 1, 1939.
However, some of the painful events that occurred at that time (such as
her rape by German soldiers) she has repressed. Whether it is best to
try to get around the unconscious mental block and liberate the memory
is a decision that a psychotherapist would have to make. Hypnosis and
psychotherapy could get around the repression (or they could activate
some false memories) and the net result could be counterproductive in
some cases.

QUESTION #7.5: How can we improve memory?

Mnemonics are techniques for improving memory. Rote memorization is

simple repetition of the stimuli over and over again without any real
cues or understanding. Rote is one of the least effective, but most
widely used mnemonics.

Eidetic images involve pairing semantic memories with vivid visual cues.
Most children are better at this than adults are. Some individuals
claim to have a photographic memory in which they find it very easy to
recall what has been visualized.

Case Study: Mr. B uses eidetic images to help his recall. Before going
around town on errands, he takes an imaginary mental video of himself
driving around to the bank, post office, grocery store and gas station.
Within the grocery store, he sees himself getting cat food, cream
cheese, and vegetables in the exact order in which they are arranged in
the store. When he meets a new client, he tries to associate something
about the person's face with the last name. When he met Maria Coronado,
he imagined her coronation as a new queen, he visualized the archbishop
ceremonially placing a crown on her head (in Spanish Coronado means
crowned). The limits to this approach come from the fact that the
subject can get mixed up about how the image relates to the name. Mr. B
once tried to remember a Mr. Sherlock by visualizing him in the
deerstalker hat used by Conan Doyle's fictional detective.
Unfortunately, Mr. B then called him "Holmes" instead of Sherlock.

One way to improve retention of non-visual material is to associate it

with things that can be visualized. This is a technique as old as the
ancient Romans, and is known as the method of loci. Imagine walking
through a familiar area, such as your home, or the campus of the
college. As you come to familiar sites, imagine that you can see the
things you need to remember. Suppose you have to remember the first
four presidents of the United States: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and
Madison. Your apartment also has four rooms: living room, kitchen,
bathroom, and bedroom (and this is the order that you would see them if
you were walking into your apartment). So put the first president,
Washington, in the first room, the living room. Imagine him standing on
your sofa as if it were the boat on which he crossed the Delaware River
standing (well, at least he was standing in the painting). Now, the
second room is the kitchen, and so you would put John Adams there.

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Imagine him going over to the refrigerator, opening up and taking out a
beer and remarking that his cousin Samuel had brewed it. Next comes the
third room, the bathroom, so put the third President Thomas Jefferson
there. Remember that he was an architect who designed his own home at
Monticello. Imagine Jefferson in your bathroom, amazed at the flushing
toilet. Last comes the fourth room, the bedroom. Imagine James Madison
in a night shirt with a night cap on his head under the covers next to
his wife, Dolly Madison.

Songs and sayings can be effective mnemonics. When I was in the third
grade, I remembered how to spell GEOGRAPHY with the saying George
Eagle's Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday. Many advertising
copywriters try to come up with little jingles that will stick in our
heads to make us remember the names of their products.

Conceptual memory tries to associate details to be memorized with

specific concepts, categories or goals. It is easier to remember a few
key rules rather than tons of specific data. For example, instead of
remembering that 40 degrees Celsius is 105 Fahrenheit, and 30 degrees
Celsius is 86 degrees Fahrenheit, etc., it is just easier to remember
the formula for conversion: F = C x 9/5 + 32. The downside of
conceptual memory is that it may distort our trace memories to match
the convenient concepts and categories. Some voters try to remember who
to vote for with a simple party concept (Republicans good, Democrats
bad) but such a stereotype might ignore the exceptions (the Republican
who is a professional politician, and the honest Democrat).

Research on conceptual memory

Researcher(s) Elizabeth Loftus
Subjects Students
Type of research Experiment involving five different groups
Factors held All subjects were shown the same video of automobiles
Constant getting into an accident.
Independent Each of the five groups heard the accident described
Variable with a different phrase (e.g., “the cars contacted
each other” or “the cars smashed into each other”
Dependent Subjects had to estimate how fast the cars were going
Variable when the accident took place
Results Subjects who heard “smashed into” estimated that the
cars were going faster compared to those who heard
“contacted”
Conclusion Using concepts as a mnemonic can distort the trace
memory

Motor memory involves muscular practice. This is very prominent in

procedural memory, and accounts for the relatively high retention of
such things as riding a bicycle or swimming even after years of
inactivity. The use of gesturing helps memories for semantic content as
well if the subject can associate the two.

Overlearning refers to practicing the material even after the point

where the subject can demonstrate perfect recall. Overlearning is a
very powerful mnemonic for both procedural and semantic memories.
Overlearning should not be confused with the idea that the memory is a

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muscle, and that practice by memorizing one thing will help you retain
other things. You will not help your retention of the content of this
course by going out to the parking lot and trying to strengthen your
memory muscle by repeating the license plate numbers. If anything, that
might produce a kind of interference with learning the content of the
course. Overlearning means practicing and practicing the specific
material to be retained.

Spaced practice is a better mnemonic strategy than massed practice.

Spaced practice breaks up study time into smaller units, while massed
practice is like a marathon. If you decide that you will devote a total
of ten hours studying for one of your finals, it would be better to do
two hours a day, for five days, rather than ten hours in one long
period the night before. Such marathon study sessions lead to fatigue
rather than better retention.

Sleeping right after learning is a good technique to reduce retroactive

interference. Indeed, you can use an audio recording of some of the
most important concepts in this course, and play it while you are
trying to go to sleep. Once you are actually in the first stage of
sleep, there is no real learning going on because during sleep it is
hard to consolidate memories much beyond the sensory (which is another
reason why we tend to forget most of our dreams). However, those things
which you hear on the recording, just before you fall into sleep, will
be very likely to be retained because of your relaxed and focused state
of mind, and the advantage of the recency: nothing came later to crowd
out these ideas.

Mood congruence is another possible mnemonic, but one not easily

employed. People are more likely to be able to retrieve a memory if
they are in the same mood state now as they were when the memory was
formed. Notice how when a couple gets angry at each other, they can
remember all the other times when they were angry with each other. When
they are happy they remember the happy times more easily.

Environmental structuring is a mnemonic useful as part of a routine.

In its simplest form, it means physically arranging things so that we
will bump into them in time to remember to do them. Environmental
structuring is particularly useful as a technique for reducing
prospective forgetting. We can put things in certain places so that we
are more likely to remember to do them.

Case Study: Mr. B., a 62-year-old businessman, is extremely vulnerable

to encoding failure and retroactive interference: things are always
occurring, demanding his immediate attention, and distracting him from
things he was intending to do. He compensates for this by structuring
his environment in several ways. Whenever he thinks about calling some
one, he makes a note in his phone log. Whenever he thinks about an
errand that he must make, he puts a note or some papers associated with
the errand by the briefcase that he uses when he goes out to his car.

Another use of environmental restructuring is to guard against the type

of memory loss associated with late life dementias: helping a patient
remember what he has already done so that he does not have to worry (or
go and do it again). One of the best uses of this approach would be

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those handy pill boxes which are coded to the days of the week, with
seven little compartments labeled SMTWTFS.

Case Study: Ms. T, age 83, always enjoyed sending out greeting cards
for the holidays. Her memory was failing, and she had to go live with
her daughter. The first year, the daughter noticed that Ms. T sent out
cards right after Thanksgiving, and then started getting cards from her
old friends. She enjoyed getting these cards, but they would just make
her nervous as she began to worry whether she had already sent a card
to her friend (and so she would send another card just to be sure).
Several of her old friends received multiple cards, and correctly
inferred that Ms. T was getting confused. Next year, the daughter
decided to employ a more systematic approach. When her mother sent out
the cards, each name in the address book would get a sticker to
indicate that the card had been sent for that year.

HOW TO REMEMBER THINGS

Mnemonic Description Retention
Rote Repetition without Poor
Understanding
Eidetic Visual image Good
Conceptual Logical links Good, but
has some
distortion
Motor Uses muscles, Excellent
Not just brain
Overlearning Repeated practice Good
Spaced practice Include rest breaks Good
Sleep after Make what you learn Good
learning the last thing you
do before sleeping
Mood congruence People more easily Hard to use
remember things when
in the same mood as
when it happened
Environmental Arrange physical Good but,
restructuring objects so that we sometimes
will run into them hard to use
in order to remember
them

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 UNIT 8: COGNITION

We are approaching the limits of the S-O-R model. As we move into the
topic of cognition, we shall see that it is becoming less important
what an organism experiences, and more important how the organism
understands those past and present experiences (and decides what to do
in order to achieve better future experiences).

QUESTION #8.1: What is cognition?

Cognition refers to concept formation, thinking, reasoning, logic,

language, beliefs, problem solving, and decision making. These are
higher functions of the cerebrum, and distinguish humans from lower
forms of life (but not necessarily from other mammals).

Concept formation is how an organism discovers (or creates) a pattern

among sensations, memories, or thoughts. This is an extension of the
figure/ground perceptual cue of similarity versus contrast. We can
categorize things together based upon a recognized, assumed, or
invented similarity, and then contrast them with things that are
different (e.g., lacking that key concept). Sometimes we are given a
couple of categories, and we have to figure out how they differ.

Concept formation
These are similar And differ from these
Raiders Angels
Bears D-Backs
Eagles Pirates
49ers Padres
Patriots Tigers
Titans Dodgers
Broncos Orioles
Packers White Sox
The categories are Pro Football vs. Pro-Baseball teams

Sometimes, the subject confronts a new category and must infer what are
its distinctive features.

Concept of “GURS”
These depict the category of GURS And these do not
B =
Y 8
Q +
C /
U !
K <
J }
G &
The category to be inferred is letters of the alphabet

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Sometimes concepts are expressed in the form of an analogy that is
based upon the concept.

Analogies
THIS IS TO THAT AS THIS IS TO THAT CONCEPT INVOLVED
Hot Cold Up Down Opposites
Austin Texas Albany New York Capital city
Glue Fasten Saw Cut Use, purpose, function
7 49 10 100 Squared
U.S. England Mexico Spain Former Colony

Cognitive maps are enduring and structured conceptual relationships

that organisms use to understand their environments, solve problems,
and make decisions. Here are two different cognitive maps of the same
city. Neither closely parallels the actual geography, because both of
these cognitive maps have been simplified to accentuate the role and
needs of the person who uses that cognitive map.

Cognitive Map of someone who uses the subway

This first cognitive map of Mexico City is used by a resident of

Toluca, a city an hour to the west. He never drives in Mexico City, so
the freeways, on-ramps, and one-way streets are not part of his
cognitive map. When he comes into Mexico City (and arrives at the bus
depot on the west side) he uses the metro subway or walks to where he
wants to go: the U.S. Embassy, the Commerce Library, or the center of
town (the Zocalo) where he likes to see the Aztec dancers. The only
other thing that he uses regularly in Mexico City is the airport, so
his cognitive map must include the transfer point where the subway line
from the bus depot connects with the subway line that goes to the
airport. If any special need to go to any other part of Mexico City
arises, this individual will have to expand his cognitive map, or get a
taxi and rely upon the cab driver's more extensive cognitive map of the
city. If something were to change in this person's environment, for
example if the Toluca airport were to begin offering more flights
directly to the U.S., this might reduce the cognitive map even further.

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The cognitive map below is slightly more complicated. It is the product
of a man who lives in Mexico City, but has an aversion to riding the
subway. He has a car and likes to drive, so his cognitive map is based
upon avenues and streets. He is not interested in going to the U.S.
embassy or the Zocalo, but he also uses the airport, bus depot and
commerce library, but he must get there on the streets and avenues. He
also has a brother and mother living in the city, and visits them
regularly. If the brother had his car stolen, then this driver would
probably alter his cognitive map, since he would then probably stop by
his brother’s house before the two of them went together to visit the
mother.

Cognitive Map of someone who drives

More complicated maps might simultaneously involve more than one

concept. Separate concepts can be simultaneously related as conjunctive
(both/and) or disjunctive (either/or).

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Here is an example of how a conjunctive concept might form two
criteria. Suppose you are starting up a new club on campus, and you
want to have well-rounded members. So the by-laws state a conjunctive
set of criteria ...

"Club members must be athletes who have lettered in a sport and good
students who have maintained a minimum grade point average of 3.0."

Conjunctive Concepts
GRADE POINT AVERAGE
High Low

A High QUALIFIES DOES NOT

T
H
L
E
T
I Low DOES NOT DOES NOT
C
S

Notice that both athletic performance and academic performance

constitute dependent variables. The purpose of this diagram is not to
suggest that these two variables are correlated directly or inversely,
but to show the four possible combinations of skills, and whether those
individuals having that combination would qualify for the new club.

Now suppose that the club has too few members, and so the leadership
decides that it has been too restrictive with the conjunctive approach
to membership, and so it switches to the disjunctive approach...

"Club members must be athletes who have lettered in a sport or good

students who have maintained a minimum grade point average of 3.0."

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 Disjunctive Concepts
GRADE POINT AVERAGE
High Low

A High QUALIFIES QUALIFIES

T
H
L
E
T
I Low QUALIFIES DOES NOT
C
S

Now, qualifying members can come from any of the three quadrants
representing different skill combinations.

QUESTION #8.2: What is language?

Language development in the British Isles

ERA PEOPLE LANGUAGES
Ancient Celts Gaelic, Welsh
Cornish
43 C.E. Romans Latin
600 C.E. Angles German
Saxons
Jutes
1066 C.E. Normans French
Resulting language: English

Language is a socially institutionalized sign system that facilitates

communication between people (the interpersonal function) and thinking
(the intrapersonal function). Indeed, John Watson once declared that
thinking was nothing more than sub-vocal speech. It is certainly more
than that, but Watson was insightful to notice the link between
language and conceptual development.

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 Language development on the Iberian Peninsula
ERA PEOPLE LANGUAGE
Ancient Basques Euskara
2000 B.C.E. Iberians Iberian
900 B.C.E. Celts Galician
800 B.C.E. Phoenicians Phoenician
500 B.C.E. Greeks Greek
250 B.C.E. Carthaginian Carthaginian
200 B.C.E. Romans Latin
70 C.E. Jews Aramaic, Hebrew
400 C.E. Goths Gothic
711 C.E. Moors Arabic
Resulting languages: Catala, Gallego,
Portuguese, Castillian

Linguistics is the hybrid social science that studies language. It is a

blend of psychology, neurology, anthropology, human development, as
well as scholarship from the humanities. A hundred years ago
linguistics was known as philology, and fifty years ago it was known as
semantics. (The treatment of language dysfunctions, dysphasias, is the
task of another discipline, speech therapy.)

Most human and animal languages originated in sounds and/or gestures

that developed within a living community. Phonemes are the small sound
units of language. Specifically, a phoneme is a range of sounds
regarded as similar by the speakers of a language. There is only one
phoneme which all human languages seem to use, the broad AH sound found
in FATHER. Hawaiian has few phonemes, so the words and names must have
many syllables. Some dialects of India have several hundred phonemes,
but most of which would not be identifiable to mere speakers of
English. English has only 44 phonemes, slightly more than Spanish.
These would include consonants such as the TH in THEY, the TH in THIN,
the J in JOY, the V in VICTOR, the Z in ZEBRA. Spanish has the rasping
J and trilled double RR that English does not have. The sounds of the
D, T, and single R are slightly different in English and Spanish.
Another great difference in phonemes would be the vowel sounds. Spanish
just has five: broad AH, long A (short E), long E (short I), long O,
long U. Native speakers of Spanish must struggle to hear the difference
between GATE and GET, or BEET and BIT.

Words develop meanings. Denotative meanings of words are explicit,

precise, and objective. These are the kinds of meanings that are found
in a dictionary. When trying to learn a new language, it is easy when
the different languages have a one-to-one correspondence of denotative
meanings. To speak Spanish, just say PERRO for DOG. But sometimes one
English word might have several Spanish equivalents, depending upon the
context. The verb TO BE in English can be translated as SER, ESTAR,
QUEDAR, or HABER in Spanish.

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 Comparative linguistics of the verb “TO BE”
ENGLISH SPANISH
I am northamerican. Yo soy norteamericano.
I am ready. Yo estoy listo.
Where is the Church? Donde queda la iglesia?
Is there any more? Hay mas?

The opposite can also hold. There may be several different English
words that can be translated as the same Spanish word: KEY, WRENCH, and
FAUCET are all called LLAVE in Spanish.

Connotative meanings of words are more implicit, subjective, emotional.

What words connote is frequently determined by context, tone, body
language, and other non-verbal cues. One of the difficulties in
communicating informally via pure written text is that informality
achieved through face to face (or even telephone) voice conversation
may be lacking due to the non-verbal cues. Even with the use of smiley
faces and other emoticons, people sometimes misinterpret and even take
offense when no insult was intended. (This is why the attempt to insert
a little humor can easily backfire, especially when not delivered face
to face.) Children frequently misunderstand adults, men frequently
misunderstand women because one might be talking in a connotative
framework and the other is hearing in a denotative framework.

Contextual meanings
TERM DENOTATIVE CONTEXT CONNOTATIVE CONTEXT
“Yeh, right” Yes, correct. No, very wrong.
“Baaad” Not good. Very good.

Another problem, particularly with spoken language, is the occurrence

of Mondegreens in which people hear something that sounds like the
words of the speaker, but those words have a completely different
meaning.

Grammar is the system of rules for connecting words into meaningful

sentences. Part of the difficulty in learning a new language is the
challenge of learning not only words, but the grammatical rules: the
sequencing of subjects, verbs, and objects, especially the
idiosyncrasies of tenses of verbs, pluralizations, and punctuation.
Consider how you would punctuate this sentence with commas.

Woman without her man is lost.

Do you understand it to mean ...

Woman, without her, man is lost.

or

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 Woman, without her man, is lost.

The punctuation changes whether it is the man or the woman who is lost.

Some vandals came across the following sign in front of a church of a

controversial preacher.

Christ

is the answer!

... Pastor Smith

They only had to change the punctuation.

Christ!

is the answer

Pastor Smith?

The complexities of grammar, like those of connotative meanings develop

over generations within the context of a living community that uses the
language. Therefore, real human languages have an irregular core that
defies logic or careful planning. We may now agree that the best way to
form a plural noun is by adding S, so one COMPUTER becomes two
COMPUTERS. But look at some of the oldest nouns in English: one CHILD,
two CHILDREN; one SHEEP, two SHEEP; one WOMAN, two WOMEN (and it is
even pronounced WIMMUN). We may now agree that the best way to form a
past tense of a verb is to ad ED, so I TEXT, becomes I TEXTED. But look
at the oldest verbs in English and their pronunciations: DO (DOOH)
becomes DONE (DUNN), AM becomes WAS, ARE becomes WERE.

Codes, ciphers, computer programming languages and other artificial

languages such as Esperanto and Lojban have a consistent underlying
logic that makes them easy to develop, learn and apply. But it also
means that an outsider will have an easier time breaking the code, once
the cognitive map can be inferred. During World War II, both sides
developed secret code languages for communicating with diplomats,
spies, ships at sea, and troops in the field. Given enough time and
resources, the other side was always able to break the code. However,
there was one battlefield language used by the U.S. Marine Corps when
it communicated with "walky talkies" (the first cell phones) in the
Pacific that was never decoded. That is because this language was not a
code created according to some logical pattern. The Marines recruited
native Navajo speakers and taught them to be "walky talkie" operators
(codetalkers). When the Japanese eavesdropped on the conversations,
they were convinced that this was a new code, and so they made
recordings and sent them to Tokyo. But this code was never broken,
because it was based on a real human grammar, full of unpredictable
irregularities, and no one in Tokyo spoke Navajo.

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The origin of human language is from a combination of environment and
heredity. B.F. Skinner championed the Behaviorist position that
environment determined speech and language use. He thought that both
classical and operant conditioning played a major role in the child's
acquisition of language. Classical conditioning gives the child an
understanding of spoken words.

We associate Skinner even more with operant conditioning and the use of
positive reinforcement. This was the key with which he understood the
verbal behavior of the child. The reinforcements are both primary and
secondary.

Reinforcement and modeling can also be used to understand such verbal

behaviors as swearing and joke telling.

Noam Chomsky pointed out some of the limitations of a purely

Behaviorist understanding of language. Chomsky argued that most animal
language systems (e.g., bees, ants, birds, wolves) involve an inherited
capacity to communicate with other members of the species. Within the
human language, there are such great complexities (e.g., the shifting
roles of first person and second person within a conversation) that a
merely Behaviorist approach cannot explain the rapid acquisition of
language within children. Chomsky contended that humans have an

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inherited capacity to understand the deep structure of grammar,
although the individual words and grammatical patterns they learn will
be supplied by their unique environments.

Other species with highly developed cerebra can learn human language
systems, and communicate with humans. The earliest attempts to teach
apes to speak had little success, mostly because of the limited vocal
equipment (tongue, lips, teeth, vocal cords) rather than cerebral
capacity for cognition. About forty years ago, there were successful
attempts to teach apes a hand-based sign language, similar to American
Sign Language (ASL) used by the deaf community. Apes have also learned
to communicate with humans using special keyboards with large symbols,
each one standing for a different object or verb (similar in concept to
Chinese characters). Dolphins and whales have also been able to make
symbol-based communication with humans. These other species may not
have as large as a vocabulary as humans of a comparable age, and they
may make more grammatical errors, but their mastery of human language
is more complicated than a parrot's who says "Polly wanna cracker" and
is rewarded for that response with a cracker. Apes and dolphins learn
the components of language and create new sentences that they have
never heard.

I want the banana.

and

Look at the toy.

can be fused into a completely novel sentence.

I want the toy.

This is real cross-species communication indicating cognitive capacity

in the speaker.

QUESTION #8.3: How do people reason?

Reasoning is the logical procedure by which an organism starts with one

thing which is known, observed, or assumed, and then makes an inference
about something else which is not itself directly known, observed, or
assumed. Much of our reasoning is based upon our understanding of
causation: the relationship between cause and effect. Do not confuse
the word CAUSAL (which is an adjective relating to cause and effect)
with the more common word CASUAL.

In the first chapter we introduced the concept of causal reasoning used

by science. Sometimes we observe an effect, and infer a likely cause.

OBSERVATION effect INFERENCE cause

The little girl is crying. She fell and got hurt.

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This process of reasoning from effect to cause requires that the cause
be essential to produce the effect (that no other alternative cause
could be inferred). If the girl could be crying for some other reason
(e.g., she did not get her way with her brother), then we cannot
conclude that falling down is the only (or even the most likely)
explanation.

Sometimes we observe a cause, and infer a subsequent effect.

OBSERVATION cause INFERENCE effect

That boy practices music He will became a famous
every day. musician some day.

This process of reasoning from cause to effect requires that the cause
be adequate to produce the effect in question (that no other
alternative outcome is possible). Practicing may be essential for a
successful musical career, but it is not adequate: talent and luck are
also needed.

The Requirements of Causal Inference

To cause To effect

Cause is Cause must be

observed adequate

Effect Cause must be

is essential
observed

Causal reasoning is similar to process of deduction which uses

conceptual categories depicted in syllogisms and Venn diagrams.
Deductive reasoning applies general rules to specific cases.

D E D U C T I V E

starts with the big principle and applies to many small cases just like

D E S T R U C T I V E

starts with one big thing and then breaks it up into many small pieces

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The classic example of deductive reasoning was given by Socrates as he
prepared himself for his forthcoming execution.

Deductive reasoning leading to correct conclusion

“All men are mortal” Major premise
“Socrates is a man” Minor premise
“Socrates is mortal” Conclusion

This can be viewed in the concentric circles of an Euler Circle. If all

members of the category of men are in the larger category of things
mortal, and Socrates is in the category of men, then the conclusion is
visually obvious: Socrates is also in the larger category of things
mortal.

Diagram for correct deductive reasoning

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The most frequent fallacy associated with deductive reasoning is to
invert the minor premise and conclusion, as in the following example.

Deductive reasoning leading to incorrect conclusion

“All men are mortal” Major premise
“My cat is mortal” Minor premise
“My cat is a man” Conclusion

The circular diagrams help us visualize the fallacy.

Diagram for deductive fallacy

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Correct conclusion: you don't have to be a man in order to be mortal.
Since other things are also mortal, you cannot deduce that something is
a man just because it is mortal.

Causal fallacies can be portrayed in terms of such syllogisms and

diagrams. Practicing may be an essential cause to achieve success as a
musician, but it is not an adequate cause.

Deductive reasoning leading to incorrect conclusion

“All great musicians practice” Major premise
“This boy practices” Minor premise
“He will become a great musician” Conclusion

The diagram helps us visualize the fallacy.

Diagram for deductive fallacy

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Correct conclusion: we do not know if this particular boy will end up
in the smaller circle of great musicians. Indeed, the majority of
people who practice their instruments do not end up as famous
musicians.

Deductive reasoning is used in the areas of mathematics, philosophy,

theology, and statute law, wherever we can start the process with a few
general rules or definitions that have been given.

Inductive reasoning starts with observed cases (specific examples) and

then attempts to infer general rules.

INDUCTIVE start with INDIVIDUAL CASES

Here is how inductive reasoning would address the Socratic question of

human mortality.

Inductive reasoning leading to generalization

Mr. A, a man, died. 1st example
Mr. B, a man, died. 2nd example
Mr. C, a man, died. 3rd example
Mr. D, a man, died. 4th example
“All men are mortal” Conclusion

The scientific method is inductive: we start empirically, with observed

data. Scientific truth is probabilistic rather than absolutely certain
(therefore, we express the level of significance with a p value).

Fallacies are flawed (but sometimes convincing) attempts at reasoning.

In inductive reasoning, fallacies can come from either of two sources.
The first is the question of the sufficiency of our number of examples.
Is the conclusion warranted after just making four observations? Forty
would be better, and four hundred better still. Within the science of
psychology, this translates into the question of sample size. The
larger the sample size, the better our level of statistical
significance.

The second vulnerability of inductive reasoning relates to the

typicality of the cases examined. Were all of these men condemned
criminals awaiting execution? Perhaps the conclusion may only apply to
a smaller, more clearly defined category. Within the science of
psychology, this translates into the question of the representativeness
of the sample. The more representative a sample is of a population, the
more confident we can be that the same trend observed in the sample can
be assumed in the population.

Confirmation bias is one problem that impairs inductive reasoning in

many individuals. Confirmation bias occurs when a person only looks for
(or notices) examples that fit an emerging conclusion. If I look in the
newspaper obituaries each morning and see many examples of men in their
fifties who die from heart attacks, I might conclude that all (or most)
men in their fifties die of a heart attack. What is not in the

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newspaper each morning is all the men in their fifties who did not die
from a heart attack the previous day.

When students go into nursing homes to do research, they easily find

old, dementia patients and may readily conclude that most elders
develop dementia. Each additional patient examined tends to confirm
that hypothesis, but the students tend to ignore the other nursing home
patients who do not suffer from dementia and all the other elders (90
percent of the population over age 65) who are not sick enough to be in
nursing homes. So, confirmation bias is comparable to the problem of
non-representative sampling.

Most dementia patients are old, but

most old people do not have dementia
VARIABLE TWO: dementia
Yes No totals
V
A
R Over 20 180 200
I age 65
A
B
L
E Under
age 65 5 795 800
O
N
E
Totals 25 975 N = 1000

Tversky and Kahneman referred to a related problem of the availability

heuristic. When we are asked to think of something, we over-estimate
those things that have examples that readily come to mind. When
Americans travel abroad they are much more frightened about the risk of
dying in a terrorist attack than they are of getting run over crossing
a street. Many more tourists are killed in traffic accidents than are
killed by terrorists, but terrorist attacks make news, so those
instances more readily come to mind.

Imagine that John is a 17-year-old African American. He is a good

student, and was admitted to a prestigious private university. He is
also a good basketball player, and was awarded an athletic scholarship.
A dozen years from now, is it more likely that John will be a
professional basketball player or a surgeon? People might be fooled by
the availability heuristic because it is so easy to think of African
American basketball players: a majority of the NBA rosters. African
Americans are less than ten percent of America's doctors, and many
people may not have personally known an African American physician.
However, there are only a few hundred players in the entire NBA, while
there are thousands of African-American physicians. It is much more

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likely that John will end up a surgeon than a pro-basketball player,
but where he finally ends up will depend upon his unique combination of
talent, motivation, and opportunities.

Tversky and Kahneman also studied another factor impairing thinking,

anchoring. This is similar to illusions being due to expectation.
Anchoring is where a question or problem is presented with an initial
reference point that distorts the subject's estimate. Even when the
subject knows that the anchoring reference point is inflated, that
serves to have the subject adjust upward (or downward) his own
estimate. Flea market venders understand this and frequently have very
high initial asking prices. Most of the buyers will decline the initial
price, but the larger the initial asking price, the higher the buyer's
initial counter offer. The asking price was the anchor that set the
standard for the buyer's own attempt at valuing the item.

Complex problems can be approached with algorithms or heuristics. The

algorithm is a structured, rigid approach that guarantees the right
answer if it is followed. Suppose you were not close to a calculator or
computer, and were asked the square root of 500. The algorithm would be
that old paper and pencil formula that looks something like long
division. It will take a while, but it will get you the right answer.

A heuristic is a rule of thumb that might give a quick estimate. A

heuristic approach to the above problem would be to say, the square
root of 400 is 20, so somewhere around 22 ought to be the square root
of 500. Multiply it out and you are close: 484. Now, if we had taken
every number down to the hundredths place and squared it to see how
close we could get to 500, that would be another algorithm, structured
and slow, but guaranteed to get the right answer. For many problems,
there are no algorithms, so heuristics are all we have to go with.

Today, problem solving using algorithms can be assigned to computers to

systematically explore every possible solution much more quickly than a
human could do. This kind of problem solving by computers is also known
as artificial intelligence.

QUESTION #8.4: How should intelligence tests be used?

Intelligence is defined as a generic aptitude for cognitive learning. An

aptitude is an innate ability to do something, prior to having had any
specific training. Clearly, individuals do differ in terms of their
capacity to demonstrate specific skills, and psychology can develop
reliable and valid tests to measure those specific skills. The big
question as it relates to intelligence is: can psychologists develop a
valid, reliable, and cross culturally fair test for the measurement of
a generic aptitude for learning?

In practice, the operational definition of intelligence is IQ test

scores. The first IQ test was developed in 1904 by Alfred Binet in
France. His purpose was to develop a technique for predicting which
children would do well in school. Binet and subsequent research has
shown moderate, positive correlations between scores on IQ tests and
grades in elementary school, just as scores on (so called scholastic

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aptitude tests) SATs have a moderate, positive correlation with college
grades.

The Binet test was modified for use with American children at Stanford
by the work of Edward Terman and Lillien Martin. The resulting Stanford-
Binet is scored by looking at the subject's raw score (the number of
right answers), and then assigning a mental age equivalent MA, and then
dividing by the actual (chronological age) CA, and then multiplying by
a hundred.

IQ = (mental age / chronological age) X 100

Suppose children at these different ages have these average raw scores.

Hypothetical age norms for a children’s IQ test

AGE AVERAGE RAW SCORE
4 16
5 23
6 27

Now let’s imagine three different five year olds and see how they would
be scored. The first little girl is slightly below average, not but
retarded. Although she is five, she only got 16 right, which is what
the average four-year-old can do, so she had a mental age equivalent of
four. Her IQ is 80, somewhat below average, but still within the normal
range.

The next little boy is an average performer. He got a raw score of 23,
which is right at the average for his age norm. So his mental age
equivalent and chronological age are both 5. His IQ is the same as the
average IQ: 100.

The last little girl is an above average performer (but not a genius).
She obtained a raw score of 27, which is what the average six-year-old
can do.

In general, the Stanford-Binet is used as a children's test, and if it

is given to someone older than 15, the denominator is set at 15 because
performance does not improve that much in the years after.

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Wechsler developed separate IQ tests for children and adults: WISC
(Weschsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and WAIS (Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale). The Wechsler tests are scored according to bell
curve norms of a mean (and median and mode) of 100 and a standard
deviation of 15. In practice, children tend to get similar scores on
the Stanford-Binet and the WISC, for their similarities outweigh their
differences.

Other tests of cognitive aptitudes include those which many

practitioners regard as particularly useful in assessing school-related
problems, such as the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC)
and Woodcock-Johnson.

Both heredity and environment seem to impact IQ. The best evidence that
heredity is important comes from studies of identical twins. Even in
cases of twins reared apart, if one twin scores high, so does the
other; and if one twin scores low, so does the other. Evidence for the
importance of the environment come from experiments that attempt to
provide intellectually enriched environments for young children. This
can also raise IQ performance by a few points. Studies on the IQs of
adopted children indicate that they have low to moderate correlations
with the IQs of the biological parents, and similar low to moderate
correlations with the IQs of the adopting parents. The conclusion is
that both heredity and environment matter.

IQ tests are very reliable, much more reliable that other types of
psychological tests: personality, attitude, or mood. Here it is
important to remember the definition of reliability: consistency of
scores. One form of reliability is test/retest, referring to the long
term stability of scores. Most children's IQ scores stay around the
same range year after year. If we were to give all the students in
class an IQ test today, and then wait for twenty years, and give the
same test again, the correlation would be high: the same people who
scored high today, would be the ones scoring high in twenty years, and
the same people who score low today would be scoring low in twenty
years. There would be very few exceptions to the trend, perhaps a few

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students who developed Alzheimer's disease would have greatly reduced
scores.

Other forms of reliability generally show the consistency of IQ test

scores. Both the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet scores have slightly
varied alternate forms. When subjects take both versions, the same
people who score low on one test tend to score low on the other and the
same ones who score high on one test tend to score high on the other.
Inter-rater reliability is less of a problem in the more objective area
of IQ testing that it would be in terms of clinical diagnoses or job
interviews. Most subjects will score pretty much the same regardless of
who administers and scores the test. The one exception to this
generalization may be children from ethnic minority or disadvantaged
backgrounds, and these subjects may do better with an examiner with
whom they can be comfortable: one from their own background.

The validity of IQ tests is questionable. If validity is understood as a

test measuring what it purports to measure, then it may be impossible
to ever validate IQ tests. Many specific items (and the overall test
taking procedures) may be influenced by past learning, and therefore
not measure an aptitude for new learning. Indeed, some items may deal
more with memory or perception than cognition.

Over sixty years ago, Charles Spearman argued that there was one
generic cognitive aptitude (which he termed the g factor) underlying
all measurable cognitive performance. Many psychologists now doubt that
there is one, generic form of intelligence. Robert Sternberg suggested
that intelligence had a triarchic dimensionality, with componential
(analytic), contextual (practical), and experiential (creative)
aspects. Howard Gardner pointed out a related limitation of IQ tests:
at best they measure a limited range of mental abilities (e.g., mostly
math, verbal) rather than a broad, generic aptitude. Gardner suggested
that individuals may have many different kinds of aptitudes (e.g.,
kinesthetic) which are not being measured by standardized IQ tests.
Gardner's theory is known as multiple intelligences.

Most IQ tests lack cross cultural fairness. While the average IQ of

middle class white children is about 100, it is about 90 for Hispanics,
Native Americans, and African Americans. These ethnic differences are
best accounted for by socio-economic, educational, and cultural
differences. By measuring what has been learned, IQ test items may lack
cross cultural fairness.

Let's take this example of an item cross culturally fair to someone

raised in Mexico. On what day is the revolution celebrated? Of course,
if you were raised in Mexico, you know the answer, because the schools
teach it, and they are closed that day, along with government offices,
and there are parades in the streets, and politicians make speeches
about the glories of the revolution. The problem with the cross
cultural fairness of this item is that it is more than just remembering
a specific date (indeed, your first guess was probably May 5, but that
is wrong). The deeper problem is that we need to have an entire
cognitive map with connections to other events and aspects of culture.
In the U.S., the American Revolution is celebrated on July 4, the date
of the Declaration of Independence from England. So, if you go to a
history book and read about May 5, you will discover that was the

151
Battle of Puebla in 1862 when the Mexican Republic forces of Benito
Juarez fought against the French, but the independence from Spain was
declared back in 1810 on September 15, but that is not the correct date
of the Mexican revolution either. The U.S. cognitive map of Revolution
= Independence does not hold in Mexico. In the U.S., the Civil War
occurred when Americans fought Americans north vs. south 1861-1865. In
Mexico, their great civil war started in 1910, when Madero and Villa
and Zapata fought against old dictator Porfirio Diaz, and that civil
war is known as the Mexican Revolution, and it began in Ciudad Juarez
on November 20. (But now the government celebrates Revolution Day on
the third Monday in November.)

When cross culturally unfair IQ tests are used to track children into
pre-college or manual arts, the result is that such tests become tools
for the perpetuation of racial and social class discrimination.

Case Study: Dr. F was born in 1921, seventh child of nine. His parents
were Mexican immigrants who had come to California to harvest
agricultural crops. Both parents were only marginally literate in
Spanish, and spoke very little English. Their home had few books or
writing materials. The children would often join their parents in the
picking fields during harvest time. On the basis of his low IQ scores,
a school counselor advised Mr. F to take vocational classes and hope
for a job where he could better himself as a carpenter or mechanic.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Mr. F took
advantage of the GI bill and attended Los Angeles Community College,
which he followed by attending Cal State Los Angeles, where he earned a
bachelor's degree, and then he became a school counselor. He later
returned to UCLA where he earned a master's and doctorate, and became a
professor of educational counseling. Fortunately, Dr. F had the courage
to defy the track upon which he had been placed by cross culturally
biased tests.

Another example of IQ test fairness relates to age or historical

differences. Many IQ test items of today may be inappropriate for
elders. A Fairness of Geriatric Intelligence Examination might have to
use an entirely different set of items.

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ANSWERS: Jack Benny was a radio comedian of the 1940s. 23-skiddoo is a
popular saying from the 1920s and 1930s. Johnny called for Phillip
Morris in a famous cigarette commercial. FREE is in the center of a
bingo card. Sunday, December 7, 1941, was a day that lives in infamy
because of Pearl Harbor, a flashbulb memory for the older generation.
Of course, these items are not cross culturally fair to someone who did
not live in American culture in the first half of the 20th century, and
the validity of these items can be challenged: they measure what has
been learned, not a capacity to learn.

The normal range of IQ is 70-130. The average (mean, median and mode)
IQ score is 100. Within two standard deviations of that score fall
about 95% of the population. Three percent of adults have IQs below 70,
and only two percent have IQs above 130. Those who score at the
extremes also run the risk of receiving labels.

Retardation refers to an IQ score below 70. Older terms would be moron

(mildly retarded), imbecile (moderately retarded), and idiot (severely
retarded), amentia, mental subnormality. Newer terms for these
individuals would be developmentally disabled or intellectually
challenged. Over five million American adults fall into these
categories, but most of them are only in the mild range. They can get
through public school and can work at jobs that do not exceed their
abilities. Indeed, retarded workers tend to be more attentive on tasks

153
that workers of average intelligence might find boring and repetitive.
Such individuals can live independent, productive lives outside of
institutions. The moderately retarded may require employment in
sheltered workshops and living in group homes. Only the most severely
retarded will require complete institutional care.

Retardation can be caused by a variety of factors. Only a small percent

is due to heredity obtained from retarded parents. The vast majority of
retarded individuals had two parents who were in the normal range of
intelligence. Chromosomal abnormalities, intra-uterine exposure to a
virus or toxic chemicals, early childhood malnutrition can all produce
retardation. Although retardation may be more likely in poorer
families, it can occur in any family.

Case Study: Ms. K was born in 1919, right after the great flu pandemic.
She was the third of nine children. She was slow to learn and her
behavior was unusual. Her father was a self-made financier. Her mother
was the daughter of the mayor of Boston. Her sisters did well in
school, and her brothers, Joe Junior, Jack, Robert and Edward, had
stellar careers, but when she was twenty, Rosemary Kennedy was placed
in an institution because her family was having problems taking care of
her at home.

An idiot savant is a rare individual who tests in the retarded range

but nevertheless has amazing mental abilities (e.g., memory,
calculating, artistic, mechanical). Remember the case of Mr. J
introduced in chapter four.

Case Study: When Mr. J was a young boy in Mexico, he was shot in the
head. The small caliber bullet entered his left hemisphere at about the
hairline, and exited just above the occipital lobe. Before the
accident, he attended school and was a very good student in reading,
writing, and arithmetic. After the accident, he was unable to read or
write, use a digital watch, or perform the simplest calculations. He
was certifiably retarded, but he had some amazing mental abilities. He
could look at a person, and paint the portrait several days later. He
could take apart and reassemble just about any mechanical device. He
could hang a punching bag from a tree with a series of ropes and
pulleys so that its motion would simulate that of a live opponent.

The above case reiterates what Howard Gardner said about IQ tests. Mr.
J was retarded because the bullet destroyed his left brain aptitudes,
the math and language abilities measured by the IQ tests. His right
brain artistic and mechanical abilities remained intact. (It is
important not to infer from this case that the damage to the left side
could have stimulated the development of his right brain abilities. Mr.
J's father and several brothers demonstrated amazing right brain
abilities as well, so it may be an inherited family trait.)

A genius is a person who scores above 130 on an IQ test. Another

popular term used would be gifted. Only about two percent score this
high on IQ tests: usually 130 is used as the cutoff score. These

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individuals also must deal with stereotypes, ranging from excessive
expectations of academic and professional achievement, to the
stereotypes that they are socially inept, athletically uncoordinated,
and prone to mental illness. The Terman longitudinal study at Stanford
started looking at super high IQ children back in the 1920s and
followed them through the different stages of life. Contrary to popular
stereotypes about the gifted, these children were not rated as being
lower than average in their physical attractiveness, social popularity,
athletic prowess, or mental health. On each of these variables, some
individuals scored higher and others lower. Their overall educational
achievements were quite high, and the men ended up in careers such as
medicine, law, science, and education. Two-thirds of these high IQ
women ended up choosing one career (homemaker), typical of the choice
made by their average IQ cohorts of the 1950s.

Most individuals, whether normal, retarded, or genius, will not benefit

from being told their IQ labels.

Case Study: Mr. H was born in 1953 in Chicago. At age 7 he was told by
his father, "You got it made, kid! Remember that long test you took at
school last month? You got the highest score of any kid in the Catholic
School system of the city." Young Mr. H then coasted through high
school and a private university with a 3.8 GPA. He never decided to get
a graduate degree. He held a series of high school teaching positions
interspersed with stints as a composer and singer.

Rather than try to come up with one aptitude test that purports to
measure an all-encompassing generic aptitude, a better approach would
be to assess students’ specific strengths and weaknesses. The strengths
can be used to select students for specific programs (art, music, and
sports, as well as math and language) in order to develop these innate
talents. The discovery of specific learning disabilities can target
students for specific interventions and remediations designed to
correct these limitations.

QUESTION #8.5: What is creativity?

Creativity is divergent problem solving. Convergent problem solving is

when there is only one possible answer (like on most IQ test items).
Divergent problem solving means that several solutions are possible
(but some might be better than others). Most real world problems call
for divergent solutions.

Situations calling for divergent problem solving

What is the best way to control air pollution?
Which product should our company manufacture now?
What is the best way to advertise our product?
How can I get my kid to stop . . . ?

A creative solution has to meet two criteria. It must be feasible (it

must solve the problem), as well as being original.

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 Criteria for Creativity
SOLUTION IS ORIGINAL
Yes No

F Yes CREATIVE PRACTICAL

E
A
S
I
B
L No IMAGINATIVE TRIVIAL
E

It is quite difficult to develop paper and pencil tests to measure

creativity. Not all creativity comes forth with a paper and pencil.
Consider the limitations of this test item.

Draw a picture of how people will dress in a hundred years.

Unlike "objective" tests (e.g., IQ) which presumably have one and only
one answer, divergent problem solving necessarily permits many possible
answers, so we might have to get a panel of judges to evaluate the
subjects' answers for both originality and feasibility.

Reliability would be a problem. Since we use judges, we would have to

look at inter-rater reliability. If the judges came from different
backgrounds (e.g., a scientist, fashion designer, graphic artist) they
might emphasize different criteria in their judgments, and disagree.
Test/retest reliability would be another consideration. Indeed, we
would not even expect creative individuals to come up with the same
design if given the problem again. With a different design, the subject
might get a different score.

Validity would be a problem. How could we verify that the test item is
actually measuring creativity? What is the established measure of
creativity with which we could correlate these test scores? How could
we be assured that this test is not really measuring some other
variable, such as fashion consciousness or drawing ability?

Cross cultural fairness is another problem. Fashion differs greatly

according to culture. If the subjects taking the test and the judges
scoring the test came from different cultures, they may have different
standards on clothing, as well as different notions of what is feasible
and original in the area of dress.

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Creativity proceeds in stages. Different writers and researchers on
creativity may use different words to describe these stages, and they
may even disagree about how many stages there are, but they do agree
that creativity proceeds in stages. One commonly used set of stages
would be orientation, preparation, incubation, illumination, and
verification. It is not important to memorize these stages, because
other books might have more or fewer stages, but it is important to
remember that creativity proceeds in stages.

Orientation is the initial approach to a problem, how it is understood,

framed, and defined. This stage is where the originality of the
individual is important. Creative people understand an old problem in a
new way and end up with a new solution.

Preparation is the next stage. This refers to getting the necessary

information on the problem and potential solutions. If preparation is
not adequate, a feasible solution is not likely.

The incubation stage may be the longest of the stages. The individual
must put the problem on the back burners of the mind and allow it to
simmer, simmer, until ...

Illumination is when the little light bulb comes on and the inventor
says "Eureka!" I have it. This is the original insight that suggests
the new solution.

Verification is the last stage, and involves testing out the new
solution, making sure that it is actually feasible.

Think of these stages of creativity, not as a linear path that

guarantees success, but as a cycle that must be gone through many
times. To be truly creative, the inventor must go back to step one, the
orientation stage, otherwise he will merely come up with minor
improvements on the last idea. For example, take the problem of air
pollution in southern California.

Example of the creative process in search of a solution

1. orientation The problem is that people are breathing polluted
air.
2. preparation Get information on lungs, toxins, asphyxiation, etc.
3. incubation Think about and visualize the problem, consider
different aspects
4. illumination Aha!! Let’s have people in southern California wear
gas masks.
5. verification We try this, and find that people consider it to be
inconvenient.
So, it’s back to the old drawing board

So we have to go through the stages again, but if we start with the

same orientation, we will just come up with a more popular version of
the gas mask. We should go back to the first step, orientation.

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 Example of the creative process in search of a solution
1. orientation The problem is that the air is being polluted in
the first place.
2. preparation Get information on vehicle exhaust, smokestacks,
etc.
3. incubation Think about and visualize the problem, consider
different aspects
4. illumination Aha!! Let’s have mass transit in southern
California.
5. verification We try this, and find that people consider it to be
inconvenient.
So, it’s back to the old drawing board

We might need a few more times through this cycle for this problem.

Creative individuals have a personality profile of independence,

originality, good use of reasoning, persistence, flexibility,
tolerance, and are knowledgeable. The independence, tolerance, and
originality are necessary for the orientation and illumination stages.
The knowledge is important in the preparation. Good reasoning is
required for the verification stage. The flexibility and persistence is
necessary to go through the stages again if the first solution fails to
pass verification.

These individual traits are rare, and even more rare is their
combination. There may be some inherited component, but there are also
things that parents can do to provide an early childhood environment
conducive to creativity. The above personality traits can be thought of
as virtues or habits that can be modeled and reinforced.

Creativity can be hurt by the lack of any of the above, and also by
situational factors, such as functional fixedness and a rigid mental
set. Functional fixedness refers to using the same tool for the same
purpose over and over. Creativity relies upon finding new uses for the
familiar. Alexander Graham Bell was trying to develop a hearing aid,
and then he realized that the wires could be made much longer, and then
he had a telephone. He became a creative inventor by overcoming his
functional fixedness.

Habitual (rigid) mental set is probably the greatest stumbling block to

creative problem solving. Rigidity of set is orienting oneself to the
problem in the same way, over and over again. It is important to
reframe what the problem really is and what the solution really
requires. There are many advertisements that imply their products are
creative because "they have broken the rules." The important thing
about creative solutions is not breaking the rules, but to re-examine
which rules we really need to follow and which become irrelevant to a
reframed problem.

Consider the case of the Willis Tower in Chicago. When it was designed
in 1973 as America’s tallest building, it had the fastest elevators
running the most efficient schedule, but as soon as the building was
occupied, there was an internal traffic jam at quitting time. Workers
were complaining about waiting several minutes for an elevator to take
them down to the ground floor where the parking structures and public

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transportation could be found. The Sears executives called in some
consultants and clarified one major priority: "This is our corporate
headquarters. We don't want to change the work schedule: everyone still
gets off at five."

When most students hear this problem they come up with solutions that
are trivial (make more elevator shafts by sacrificing office space) or
imaginative (e.g., give the workers parachutes). All of these solutions
show the habitual rigid set of defining the problem as people moving.
The engineering company that came up with a creative solution went back
to the orientation stage and redefined the problem by focusing on the
sentence "Workers were complaining about waiting several minutes ... "
The solution which they tried was mirrors. The mirrors gave the workers
something to look at while they waited for the elevator to come.

Creativity can be helped by training thinkers to go through the stages

and spend a proper amount of time at each stage. Creative thinking can
also be performed in a group context, but leadership is required. The
leader must make sure that the members of the group keep moving through
the various stages.

QUESTION #8.6: How should we make decisions?

Even after good reasoning has defined our problem, and creativity has
come up with several viable solutions, we must then choose which course
of action to take. People, and even groups, do not always make the best
decisions.

Most opportunities for making a decision are not even recognized and
seized. In the majority of occasions, we simply employ a previously
selected solution for a similar problem. Most people don't think about
making a choice of which route to take to work today. They have
developed a routine, a habit, and tend to use it unless they have some
reason for change. When it comes to purchasing products, going shopping
for groceries, or booking a flight, most people demonstrate brand
loyalty: they stick with the same product, usually because it has
served them well in the past. Rather than view routine behavior as a
form of habitual set, it might be better to say that people are trying
to use their decision making resources more efficiently. "If it ain't
broke, don't fix it." Their dedication to a certain route for getting
to work, or shopping at a certain grocery store has been based upon
past experiences, and careful reasoning. Unless something major changes
in their own priorities, or in the ability of that brand to meet those
priorities, the subjects will continue to meet their priorities by
sticking to that brand.

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External referral is another cautious way to make decisions. The
individual decision maker "passes the buck" or "follows the book." This
may be the wisest strategy when it is important to get the approval of
someone else.

Intentional randomization appears to be another way to avoid making a

decision, but it may have some merits. Drawing straws, flipping a coin,
or using a lottery makes the outcome very unpredictable to possible
opponents, and has the appearance of being fair if someone ends up
being a loser.

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Affect means emotion, and some people make big decisions by impulse or
emotion. The decision is made by the individual, but not by utilizing
any of the types of reasoning we have discussed.

A more rational approach is the lexicographic, which identifies a

specific criterion against which all possible alternatives will be
objectively evaluated.

The British mathematician Bayes developed a complicated approach for

dealing with multiple criteria. Therefore, it is also known as the
compensatory model, because effectiveness in meeting certain criteria
can compensate for deficiencies on meeting other criteria. Specific
weightings are given for different criteria, and then we estimate how
well each possible alternative meets each of these criteria. We then
multiply these scores by the weights, and add up the products to get
the total expected value for each alternative.

Case Study: Let's go back and revisit that street dog chasing a jogger,
but now the jogger is stopping and making a throwing motion. Perhaps
this dog is very cognitive, and has come up with two alternative
courses of action: continue the chase or run away. The dog identifies
his priorities: the satisfaction of the chase versus the pain of
getting hit with a rock. He calculates that the probability of getting
hit with the rock is much higher if he continues the chase. He weights

161
the criterion of avoiding pain as much more important than the
satisfaction of the chase, so he decides to turn and run away.

A more cautious approach for dealing with multiple criteria would be

the conjunctive. (This approach is sometimes called the elimination-by-
aspects or multiple hurdles.) Here we view each criterion as a
different hurdle that each alternative must clear if it is to be
selected. What we are left with is the alternative that at least
minimally satisfies all criteria. We may not be selecting the
alternative with the maximum potential for gain, but we will get the
alternative with the minimum overall risk.

The conjunctive approach is similar to the satisficing approach developed

by Nobel Prize winning economist Herbert Simon. When people are looking
for a solution (especially when the solutions are presented
sequentially over a long period of time rather than all at once) people
tend to accept the first minimally satisfactory solution presented, and
then view the problem as solved.

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Case Study: Mr. P, 44, is the owner of a growing freight company. His
business has outgrown its existing warehouse. Rather than buy a new
one, or expand the size of his present warehouse, Mr. P has decided
that the best thing to do in his current local real estate market is to
buy an existing warehouse. He has just started looking around for
alternatives. He has three main criteria: size, location, and cost. He
rejected the first warehouse that the real estate agent brought to his
attention (too far away), but the next alternative looks acceptable on
all three counts. Rather than wait and see if another alternative
presents itself over the next few months, he has decided to satisfice
with this one.

Case Study: Mr. K, 34, is at the stage of life when he is ready to

settle down, get married, and start a family. He had one brief prior
marriage in his 20s, out of pure infatuation, but he has resolved that
this marriage will be based upon the right foundation (and then the
emotion of love will come later). His criteria are few: the prospective
bride must be Jewish (observant), educated, and desire children. He
went to a “speed dating” seminar organized at his synagogue. In one
evening, he met over a dozen young women interested in getting married.
He was able to rapidly learn who was insufficiently religious and
indecisive about having children. Mr. K has one candidate who clearly
satisfies his criteria, and will be courting her. If that relationship
no longer appears viable, Mr. K is not interested in dating any other
candidates.

Case Study: Mr. A, 53, is a street beggar in a large U.S. city. His
major decision is what kind of begging behavior to emit. He has three
main approaches: a sign offering to work for food, a sign saying that
he is a homeless Vietnam veteran, or to bring a dog. He has two main
criteria. The first is to get as much money as he can. The second is
not to get any of the other beggars upset. Recently, he found that
another beggar has been harassing those who (falsely) claim to be
Vietnam veterans, so Mr. A has given up that strategy. Nobody seems to
object to either of the other two alternatives, and since the dog seems
to bring in more money, that is the strategy which Mr. A now employs.

One additional use of the conjunctive approach is that it can be used

to preserve harmony in a group of decision makers when each one of the
subjects has a different priority. Essentially, we are giving each
member of the group a veto over the final decision. For example, a
married couple must choose where to go on their vacation: Denver, Lake
Tahoe, or Hawaii. The husband's main criterion is good skiing: Denver
is number one, but the other two are acceptable. His other criterion is
keeping the cost down. That would eliminate Hawaii, but the other two
are still OK. The wife's main criterion is having some romantic time
together. She ranks Hawaii as ideal, Lake Tahoe as acceptable, and
Denver as unacceptable. They use the conjunctive process to select Lake
Tahoe. It was not the ideal choice of either, but it is an acceptable
choice for both.

Kurt Lewin pointed out that decision making often produces intra-
psychic conflict for the decision maker. Some decisions are yes/no
decisions on a specific alternative. There will be conflict if there is

163
an ambivalence, with the alternative having both favorable (approach)
and unfavorable (avoidance) characteristics. Imagine that you have just
gained admission to the University of Redlands. The approach factor is
that it is a quality educational institution with a student friendly
campus. The avoidance factor is that you gained admission but not
financial aid.

In choosing between two alternatives, Lewin noted that the most

difficult was the avoidance-avoidance decision: a forced choice between
two undesirable alternatives. Imagine that you wake up one morning with
a tooth ache. You call the dentist only to find out that the corrective
procedure will be expensive and it will not be covered by your
insurance. You want to avoid the tooth ache, but you also want to avoid
the cost, and you will not be successful in avoiding both. Whatever
decision you make you will have some regrets.

Even when there is a choice between two desirable alternatives, Lewin

pointed out that there would be some approach-approach frustration,
because you cannot have both of them. Imagine that you have just been
selected for a special study abroad program in Salamanca, Spain. You
have been dreaming about this for years ever since your friend told you
what a great time she had. You also get a job offer from ESRI, a
company you have heard to be one of the best local employers. They need
someone now and are not going to wait for you to get back from Spain.
If you take the job, you have lost a once in a lifetime chance to study
abroad. If you go to Spain, you may lose your only chance to get with
that company.

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Although we cannot get rid of such intra-psychic conflicts, we can make
today's decisions so that tomorrow's decisions are more of the
approach-approach variety, and less of the avoidance-avoidance variety.

Unfortunately, when people make the wrong decision, they sometimes

stick with those decisions long past the point when it has become
obvious that the wrong choice was made. This kind of entrapment, may
involve an escalation of commitment, hoping that "If I can stand it
just a little bit longer, things will turn around, it will all be
worthwhile." Some investors will keep on pouring "good money after bad"
in hopes that their investments will start going up and erase their
previous losses. Some people who are married to violent or addicted
spouses stay in the relationship, hoping against all evidence for a
change, and their justification is "I have invested so many years of my
life so far, I would hate to throw them away." Nations who have been
engaged in a stalemated war continue fighting for the same reasons. In
most cases, a wiser strategy is to cut losses, and admit that all those
years invested with the hopeless spouse have already been thrown away,
and that we need to focus on the years that remain.

A similar deficit in the decision making strategy of groups was studied

by Irving Janis. He studied classic bad decisions such as Ford's
decision to launch the Edsel in 1958, and the singular greatest foreign
policy failure of the Kennedy administration, the Bay of Pigs invasion
of Cuba in 1961. When Janis interviewed the members of the decision
making teams responsible for those disasters, he kept hearing that they
foresaw the probable failure of the suggested course of action.
However, they perceived that the team had already invested so much time
developing the proposal that any individual who stood up to speak out
in opposition at that point in time would have been ridiculed by the
group think which had prevailed. Another example would be the design of
the Challenger Space Shuttle which exploded because of a design flaw
which several engineers had worried about, but were unable to get the
design committee to pay attention to.

Some of the solutions for more creativity and less group think coming
out of committees would be to have the leader initially refrain from
stating a preference. The large committee can be broken down into
several smaller groups working independently for a while to see if they
all select the same alterative. Individuals must be encouraged to take
the role of devil's advocate and demonstrate how an alternative fails
to pass the verification stage.

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 UNIT 9: EMOTION & MOTIVATION & STRESS

QUESTION #9.1: What is affect?

Affect (accent on the first syllable) is a noun that refers to emotions,

mood, feelings, values, preferences and priorities. The adjective is
affective (with emphasis on the second syllable). Do not confuse this
word with other words that have a similar spelling, but different
pronunciation.

Affect and similar words

WORD ACCENT ON NOUN OR VERB MEANING
Affect First syllabus Noun Emotion, mood, feelings,
values, goals, priorities
Affect Second syllable Verb To influence
Effect Second syllable Noun The result of a cause
Effect Second syllable Verb To make something happen

Affect differs from cognition

Noun Affect Cognition
Adjective Affective Cognitive
Focus Feelings Thoughts
Process Emotion Logic
Tests measure Mood level Mental ability
Future is Preferences Predictions
Planning involves Ends Means
Formation of Commitments Concepts

The most commonly identified emotions would be joy, sadness, fear and
anger, though some researchers such as Robert Plutchik have suggested
that there might be four more primary emotions, and then eight
secondary or blended emotions.

We never really know what emotion another person is experiencing. We

infer the emotional experience based upon what the person says or does.
We observe the external behavior, then we infer the internal emotion.

OBSERVATION INFERENCE
That woman is crying. She is sad.
That man is yelling. He is angry.
The dog has its tail between its legs. It is frightened.
The dog is wagging its tail. It is happy.
The cat is purring. It is happy.

Sometimes people make the wrong inference about somebody else's

emotion.

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Case Study: Jack and Jill, both 19, have been dating for a few months.
Tonight they are going on a drive to San Diego. The traffic is even
slower than usual, and Jack seems even quieter than usual. He seems to
be staring at the car's clock in the dashboard most of the time. His
eyes are pinched and looks like he is frowning. Jill can stand it no
longer: "I can't take it when you act this way, blaming me for the slow
traffic and everything." Jack is now perplexed. He had no inkling that
Jill was getting upset, and has no idea what she is upset about. He has
been fully concentrating on his dashboard to check the oil pressure and
engine temperature in this difficult drive. His facial expressions
reflect that concern, not an emotion like anger. When Jack says that he
does not know what she is talking about, Jill thinks that he is just
trying to play mind games with her, so she demands to be taken home.
Jack infers that Jill must have PMS. Her own inferences may have been
influenced by the behaviors of some other people that she has known.

The gulf between what emotions others are actually experiencing, and
what we infer that others are experiencing can be greater if there are
historical or cultural divides. When we read a passage of scripture
recorded two thousand years ago, and translated into English four
hundred years ago, we must be cautious that the physical description of
emotions may have changed. Different cultures may have developed
different ways of expressing emotion, leading outsiders to misinterpret
these expressions.

Cross cultural differences in emotional expression

BEHAVIOR U.S. CULTURE OTHER CULTURE
Speaks in low Subject is calm Subject is angry
voice (Navaho)
Spits in face Subject is angry, Older male shows
showing disrespect respect for younger
(Masai)
Clapping Joy, applause Welcome greeting
(western China)
Thumbs up Joy, approval Crude insult (Europe)

The relationship between behavior and emotion has enabled many judges
to infer if a suspect was lying. The assumption is that if the accused
is lying, he will be fearful of being caught in the lie, and that fear
translates into observable behaviors.

Some north African tribes would have trials in front of a chief. Each
witness and the accused had to testify, and then stick out their
tongues. The chief would say, "I have been heating this sword in the
camp fire. If you have testified honestly you will be protected. If you
have lied, your tongue will be burned." Then he touched the sword to
the tongue of the witness who had just testified. This worked pretty
well: those who lied worried about their tongues getting burned, and
their mouths dried up, and their tongues were burned.

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In northern India they used a "magic" donkey that they said could tell
when a man lied. They would put the donkey and the accused into a small
hut with no windows, close the door, and tell the accused to grab the
donkey's tail so it could tell if the man lied, and let out a "hee
haw." Then the judge would shout the questions and listen to the
accused answer. When the accused finally left the hut, his hands would
be examined. The donkey's tail had been smeared with soot, and if the
accused had been afraid to grab the donkey's tail, the judge inferred
that the accused had been lying.

The validity of the polygraph

Suspect is actually telling
A lie The truth

P Suspect Honest person

O shows who just got
L high Right verdict worried about
Y polygraph the process
G activity
R
A Hardened
P Suspect criminal or
H shows low deluded Right verdict
polygraph person who
activity beats the
polygraph

Modern lie detectors work on the same principle: that someone who lies
will be afraid, and that the fear leads to observable physical
responses. Polygraphs measure respiration rate, heart rate, and
galvanic skin response (perspiration) under the assumption that all of
these will go up if the person experiences the fear of being caught
lying. With a skilled operator, the polygraph is right most of the time
(but not often enough to be admissible as evidence in most courts of
law). Some hardened criminals beat the lie detected because they have
had so much practice lying and getting away with it. Other people who
are lying, but sincerely believe that they are telling the truth, can
also beat the lie detector (such as individuals who claim to have been
abducted by space aliens). The biggest problem with lie detectors are
the false positives: honest people who are telling the truth, but who
get so nervous that the machine will falsely accuse them, make the
machine react, and then are falsely accused.

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Future research with brain scanning techniques may yield more valid and
reliable correlates of lying. One area of the brain associated with
memory may activate when the truth is being told, and another area
associated with fantasy may activate when the subject is lying.

QUESTION #9.2: What causes emotions?

Emotions are definitely influenced by the brain (e.g., limbic system

and frontal lobe). The causal relationship between emotion, thought and
behavior has been long debated even before psychology became a science.
The "common sense" approach is widely assumed, but not based upon
systematic observation and empirically tested hypotheses. Most people
assume that emotions are the cause of behavior.

As we shall see, this is not very different from Freud's psychoanalytic

theory that behavior is motivated by sexual and aggressive drives.

In 1884 William James challenged the common sense approach, arguing

that emotion is the result of behavior: we are sad because we cry, we
are happy because we laugh, we are angry because we are yelling. Later
endorsed by a Danish physiologist, Lange, the James-Lange theory
identifies physiological arousal as the key factor that generates and
sustains the experience of emotions.

The cognitive theory of emotion is the leading contemporary approach,

holding that our interpretations and expectations play a major role in
generating and sustaining our emotional experiences. Schachter and his
colleagues performed a series of experiments on college students,
attempting to discover which factors had an impact. They verified that
putting people into frustrating situations, or having someone else
model an emotion could intensify the emotional experiences reported by
the students. When physiological arousal was induced by an injection of
norepinephrine (which activated the sympathetic nervous system)
emotions also intensified. The cognitive aspect of the resulting theory
was based upon a finding that what the subjects believed about their

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injections also influenced the emotional intensity. In one round of
experiments, all of the subjects were injected with norepinephrine, but
half were intentionally misinformed that their injection was actually a
vitamin. It was these subjects who had the most intense emotional
experience. When they noticed their hearts accelerate and their faces
flush, they reasoned that this could not be the result of the vitamin
injection, so it must be a very intense emotion.

Research on Cognitive labeling of emotions

Researcher(s) Schachter and Singer
Subjects College students
Type of Experiment
research
Independent What subjects were told that they had been
Variable injected with
Factors held All students got the same injection
Constant
Dependent The emotional experience reported by the
Variable students
Results Students who did not know that they had
received norepinephrine reported more
emotional intensity (anger or happiness)
Ethical Students were temporarily deceived about the
Considerations injections they had been given
Conclusion Expectations influence emotional intensity

Imagine yourself in the following situation: you go down to the post

office to send a package. It is close to 5:00 PM and you are expecting
the lines to be long and the counter employees to be tired and slow.
You take a number, wait for five minutes, and then you are at the
window. Then you stop off at the grocery store to get a quart of milk,
cereal, bananas and cat food. You go to the express check out line,
where you expect to go right through. The people in front of you
include a lady who wants to write a check and record the amount, a man
who asks for a rare pack of cigarettes that the clerk has to get from
a locked case, and someone else who wants to get extra cash back with
his ATM card. When you finally get to the clerk, you are angry and tell

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her so "This is an express line, and you should not let customers pay
with ATM cards and checks, and you should not close the register to run
off and look for cigarettes or anything else. I have been waiting in
this line for five minutes!" A five-minute wait at the post office was
a relief, because you expected to wait more, but a five-minute wait in
the express check out line was intolerable because you expected less.

QUESTION #9.3: What are motives?

A motive is something within the organism which excites the organism to

action, especially when certain external stimuli are also presented to
the organism. This is related to drives. A drive is the aroused
internal condition of the organism. When a motive is activated, the
drive condition is high. An incentive is an external reinforcer that
has the ability to satisfy the drive, and thereby lower the internal
level of excitation. An instrumental response is a specific behavior
that is capable of attaining the incentive. Here are some examples of
motives with their respective drives, incentives and instrumental
responses. This model of motivation is known as drive reduction theory.

Relationship of motives, drives, incentives, and response

Motive HUNGER THIRST OXYGEN
Drive Being hungry Being Out of breath
thirsty
Incentive Food Liquid Air
Instrumental Response Eating Drinking Breathing

Do not confuse motive or drive (or intuition) with instinct. Only use
the term instinct when speaking of a behavior that meets certain
criteria: instincts are complex behaviors that are rigidly patterned,
inherited, and found in all members of a species. Nest building
behavior in birds would be an example of an instinct because it meets
all four of the criteria.

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 Nest building behavior in birds is an instinct
Complex behavior Yes
Rigidly Yes, birds do not alter nests to suit changes in
patterned climate.
Inherited Yes, birds to not have to go to a school to learn
how to build nests.
Species wide Yes, all robins do it one way; all swallows do it a
different way.

Origin of the behavior

Inherited Learned

TRUE Modeled
INSTINCTS
Complex Cognitively
Rigidly learned
patterned &
species-wide Chain
conditioned

Simple Inherited Conditioned

reflexes reflexes

Instincts are a greater source of behaviors for lower species, and less
important with a highly developed cerebrum. Humans have few, if any
real instincts. Many behaviors presumed to be instinctive in humans
actually fail to meet one or more of the criteria. Some are just simple
reflexes.

Eye blink is a simple reflex, not an instinct

Complex behavior No, a simple reflex
Rigidly patterned Yes
Inherited Yes
Species wide Yes

Other behaviors permit too much situational variation to qualify as an

instinct.

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 Survival behavior is not an instinct, but a varied strategy
Complex behavior Yes
Rigidly patterned No, people can appraise the situation and try a
variety of things to survive
Inherited Yes
Species wide Yes (ignoring the rare cases of suicide and
altruistic sacrifice of life)

For motives to be studied scientifically, we must come up with

operational definitions specifying how the variable is to be measured in
research. We can simply ask people if they are hungry or thirsty, but
especially when it comes to animals, we infer the strength of the drive
by observing how much of the incentive the animal consumes, which
incentive the animal chooses, roaming behavior, effort to get around
barriers, and resistance to extinction during non-reinforcement.

OBSERVATION INFERENCE
Cat drank a lot. Cat was thirsty.
Cat went to water bowl before food bowl. Cat was thirsty.
Male cat is roaming farther from home. It must be mating season.
Female dog digs under the fence every few Dog has come into heat.
months.
Rat keeps pressing bar even though the Rat is very hungry.
food dispenser is not working.

There are several ways of categorizing motives. Physiological motives

are primary because they are based upon the body's need for survival.
Primary motives include hunger, thirst, sleep, oxygen, temperature
maintenance, elimination, and pain avoidance.

Stimulus motives are based in the fact that humans have such a highly
developed cerebrum that they need to interact with the physical
environment: explore, manipulate, and master it. These would include
such things as curiosity, intellectual activity, and the need for
entertainment.

Secondary motives are learned, but they can be powerful also. In many
societies and families, the most powerful motives are associated with
acceptance by the group. Individuals raised under these norms will be
reluctant to do anything that sets them apart from their group. In
North American middle class culture individual achievement has become a
powerful, learned motive for many individuals. Of course, different
people may define achievement in different ways. No matter how powerful
the motive, it is still called secondary if it is learned.

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 Types of motives
Unlearned Learned

PRIMARY
Sleep
Based Thirst
in Hunger
Body Oxygen
Elimination
Temperature

Based STIMULUS SECONDARY

in Mastery Approval
Cerebral Excitement Acceptance
Cortex Exploration Achievement

Abraham Maslow developed a model of a pyramidal hierarchy for relating

the relative priorities of these different motives (or needs as he
called them). Notice that Maslow also agrees that it is the primary,
physiological needs that have priority. They must be met first, before
the individual can go on to the higher levels of needs.

Sometimes operant conditioning can reduce the importance of other, more

intrinsic motives, a situation known as overjustification.

Case Study: Jane, age 8, loved to play chess. Her parents were very
proud of her accomplishments, and entered her in some tournaments. To
get her to practice more, they mistakenly thought it wise to reinforce
her with candy for playing practice games of chess. After awhile, Jane
became so concerned about getting her candy that she enjoyed playing

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chess less and less. When her parents stopped reinforcing her, she
completely gave up the game.

QUESTION #9.4: What is homeostasis?

Homeostasis is the term describing a physiological steady state, an

equilibrium in which something is kept at just the right level, not too
low and not too high. Homeostasis is a noun, and the corresponding
adjective is homeostatic. Physiological motives (with the exception of
pain) have their own homeostatic mechanisms. When it comes to the need
for temperature maintenance at 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees
Celsius), the homeostatic mechanism is that going much below that level
causes the body to shiver to generate heat, while going much above that
level causes the body to perspire to cool itself down.

The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that contains the body's
homeostatic mechanisms for hunger and thirst. One part of the
hypothalamus (the lateral) initiates eating behavior, and another part
(the ventromedial) indicates satiety, ending eating behavior. A lesion
on the first hypothalamic center means that the organism loses the
desire to eat. A lesion on the latter hypothalamic center means that
the organism will not know when to stop eating, leading to hyperphagia:
nearly constant eating behavior and a great gain in weight.

It is doubtful that this concept of homeostasis can be applied to much

beyond the physiological motives, or even to human sexual behavior.

QUESTION #9.5: What causes eating disorders in people?

The three main eating disorders in the U.S, today are obesity,
anorexia, and bulimia. All are more prevalent today than they were
forty years ago, and all of them are more prevalent in the U.S. than in
other countries.

Obesity is being extremely overweight, not just pleasingly plump.

Estimates differ about what percent of Americans are overweight, or
about how fat is too fat. Most human obesity cannot be explained as
hyperphagia due to hypothalamic lesions. A genetic predisposition might
explain why some people are more likely to be stockier, or why fat kids
tend to have fat parents, but this is not the whole story. Americans,
particularly overweight individuals, have developed unhealthy dietary
habits: too much grease, too much sugar, too much salt, large portions,
frequent snacking, and way too many calories. Perhaps more importantly,
we have been conditioned to think we should eat (and so we feel hungry)
when the clock says it is time to eat, or when we pass a McDonald's, or
when we are at a party, or when we are watching a movie in a theater,
or watching the Superbowl.

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The average American college freshman living in a dormitory gains a
pound a week in her first semester because late night studying is
associated with pizza and potato chips.

Perhaps the biggest reason why Americans are overweight today is the
sedentary life style. Fifty years ago, more people were engaged in
manual labor and walked to work. Today, a majority of Americans still
do not engage in vigorous daily exercise. Worse yet, many Californians
will get in the car and drive two blocks to the store, and reward
themselves with a slurpee. Many American tourists in Europe are amazed
that although they are eating so much rich food, and missing their
regular workouts at the gym, they are losing weight because of all that
walking around.

What is most unfortunate is that the increasing levels of obesity have

come at a time when we have simultaneously set up a ridiculously
slender figure as the ideal of feminine beauty. Four hundred years ago,
the Dutch masters painted beautiful women in the nude who would be
considered flabby by contemporary standards. The term "Rubenesque
figure" is now a euphemism for fat. Even the film stars of the 1950s
(e.g., Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell) would be considered overweight by
contemporary standards. This fixation with thinness equaling beauty
results in the fact that about two-thirds of American women think that

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they should be trying to lose weight. The traditional Mexican norm for
feminine beauty was a full figured woman.

Case Study: Gloria and her sister, Ruth, were born in a small Mexican
village. Both girls left while in their teens and headed for Mexico
City. Ruth married a dairy farmer, worked all day with cream and
butter, and had four children. She now weighs about 200 pounds. Gloria
went to the U.S., married a successful businessman, and adopted the
American norm of “slender is beautiful,” spending much of her day
working out in the gym, maintaining a slim 100-pound figure. Then,
about twenty years later, the two women were spending Christmas in
Mexico together, and decided on a whim to go back to their old village.
As they came up the dusty pathway, they saw an old neighbor who
recognized both the girls. Putting her arm around the larger girl, the
old woman muttered, "Ruth, you are still the most beautiful girl to
come out of Tlatlaya." Then she hugged the slender sister, "Gloria, we
heard about you, marrying that Gringo. What is the matter? Doesn't he
feed you enough?"

In Northamerican culture, being fat is also stereotyped with traits

such as being lazy and socially inept, so it should not be surprising
that there is job discrimination against people of larger girth: they
are less likely to be hired and less likely to be promoted.

The warped feminine ideal of beauty and the real job discrimination
faced by the overweight has caused many women to become fat phobic.
They so much fear being overweight that they will try any kind of diet.
When they fall back under the sway of the old habits of unhealthy
eating and lack of exercise, they suffer a blow to self esteem as well.
Those women who do succeed in their diets run another risk. The social
reinforcement they receive as they become thinner can lead to
compulsive dieting, beyond the point of what is necessary or healthful.

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Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric condition in which the individual
obsesses about being overweight, and compulsively diets to a level that
is physically dangerous. Over 90 percent of anorexics are female,
mostly adolescents and young women. Anorexia and bulimia were rare
fifty years ago, but now anorexia affects about ten percent of young
women, and bulimia about five percent. These rates are higher among
cheerleaders, ballet dancers, and women in college dormitories.
Unfortunately, these disorders are also spreading abroad, as the
American ideal of slender beauty has become part of globalized culture.
Even in the Mexico, the more modern cities like Toluca have special
clinics for weight loss, and now, special clinics for eating disorders
like anorexia and bulimia.

Hospitalization is sometimes necessary to deal with medical

complications and to stabilize eating behavior. Long term success
usually requires family therapy and ongoing group therapy.

DISORDER: anorexia nervosa

CLASSIFICATION: eating disorder

PREVALENCE: up to ten per cent, more prevalent among

women under 30

SYMPTOMS: delusions of being fat, compulsive dieting

leading to substantial weight loss

AGE OF ONSET: usually in adolescence

CAUSES: societal norms of feminine beauty, dysfunctional

families, compulsive personality, comorbidity with
depression

TREATMENT: cognitive-behavior therapy, group therapy,

family therapy

Case Study: Ms. T, age 13, was the youngest in a family of three
daughters. One older sister had been a teenage model, the other had
been a homecoming queen. Ms. T herself was more athletic, a good soccer
player with a more muscular, stocky build. When she gave up soccer at
twelve, and went through puberty, she put on about ten pounds. Her
sisters and even her parents began to kid her about this, even calling
her "Miss Piggy." She began to diet, and lost the weight, and started
to receive the praise of her family and friends, but kept on dieting
and losing weight, until it became dangerous and she was hospitalized.

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She was released after five weeks, but when her father was picking her
up, he asked the staff "I am glad that she has this starvation thing
out of her head, but tell me, is she going to get fat again?" The
prognosis was not good.

Bulimia is a slightly different eating disorder in which the individual

may have food binges (e.g., peanut butter or ice cream) but then self-
induce vomiting.

DISORDER: bulimia nervosa

CLASSIFICATION: eating disorder

PREVALENCE: one to five per cent, more prevalent among

women under 30

SYMPTOMS: obsessive concern with weight, compulsive

bingeing and purging

AGE OF ONSET: usually in adolescence

CAUSES: societal norms of feminine beauty, dysfunctional

families, compulsive personality, comorbidity with
depression

TREATMENT: cognitive-behavior therapy, group therapy,

family therapy

QUESTION #9.6: What is sex?

There are several understandings of a person's sex: genetic, genital,

gonadal, hormonal, identity and orientation.

Genetic sex refers to the chromosomal pattern in every cell in the

person's body: XX in the female, XY in the male. These chromosomal
differences may account for other inherited differences, such as color
blindness being more prevalent in males.

Genital sex refers to the external sex organs: the penis in the male,
and the vagina and clitoris in the female. Hermaphroditism is when
individuals are born with genitals of both sexes, an extremely rare
condition also known as intersexed.

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Gonadal sex refers to the "internal" sex organs that are associated
with fertility: ovaries in the female, testes in the male.

Hormonal sex refers to chemical levels: estrogens in the female and

androgens (e.g., testosterone) in the male. These hormones not only
influence sexual response and fertility, but also secondary sexual
characteristics such as breast development in the female and facial
hair in the male. Hormones can also influence mood level. About ten
percent of women experience intense mood swings just before the onset
of menstruation, a syndrome known as pre-menstrual syndrome, PMS.

Gender identity refers to a person's social and psychological sense of

being a male or a female. This is usually fairly well established by
the time the child is four or five: boys and girls know that there are
differences between them, and most children are comfortable being what
they are. In the past, when female roles were more constrained (e.g.,
"little girls had to wear dresses and avoid rough play") some girls
delayed their assumption of feminine roles for a few years, and were
known as "tomboys."

Gender identity disorder is a rare condition in which an individual is

dissatisfied with physiological gender. The patient (usually a male)
feels as if he is a woman trapped inside of a man's body. Some respond
well to counseling, and develop a male gender identity to match their
four physiological markers of gender. However, when counseling fails,
some individuals opt for a medical treatment of sexual reassignment,
becoming a transgender individual.

The first step is that the patient will start to dress and act like a
woman in public. (This is not to be confused with transvestism, a
sexual fetish in which males dress up like women temporarily, often
just in private, in order to achieve sexual stimulation.) The next step
would be to take female hormones and develop some secondary sexual
characteristics (e.g., breast development). The next step is the
biggest: surgery to remove the male genitals and gonads, and then the
surgeon fashions a female vagina and clitoris. (It is even a more
difficult procedure when going from female to male, fashioning a
working penis.) The male to female transgender individual is now female
in genitals, hormones, and identity (and some governments may issue new
identity papers such as birth certificate or driver license). However,
this person now has no gonads, and can neither sire nor conceive nor
bear a child. Genetically, the XY male pattern remains in every cell.

Do not confuse sexual identity disorder with homosexuality.

Heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are sexual orientations, also
known as sexual preference (whom the individual is attracted to).
Heterosexuals are exclusively attracted to members of the opposite sex,
and are clearly the majority of the population. Homosexuals (gay men
and lesbian women) are exclusively attracted to members of their own
sex, and may be as rare as two percent of the population. Bisexuality is
the capacity to find some attraction to either sex, even though the
individual might be more attracted to one or the other. Many, perhaps
most, individuals who refer to themselves as homosexuals are actually
bisexuals, having had some experience in heterosexual relationships.

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Case Study: Mr. E, now in his late 40s, was the youngest child of a
farm family. Tall, handsome, intelligent, and with a pleasant
personality, he was very popular in school. At age 19 he got his
girlfriend pregnant. They married, he finished college, and took over
the family farm, greatly expanding its operations. About five years
into the marriage, he announced that he and his wife were divorcing,
which totally shocked the other family members because Mr. E and his
wife got along so well, and he was a great father. She remarried within
a couple of years, but he never married or even dated. He has had a
long term relationship with another man. Mr. E has “come out” to some
of his family members, including his son. Although he could be
classified as a bisexual, Mr. E was more comfortable in his homosexual
orientation, and views his early heterosexual experience as due to
adolescent confusion and denial of his homosexual orientation.

The cause of homosexuality is much debated. There is not much evidence

to support the view that a "sissified" home environment results in a
boy becoming gay or that tomboys become lesbians. There is probably a
genetic or congenital factor creating a difference in the limbic
system, influencing sexual arousal.

Environment may have a role in homosexual behavior. While sexual

orientation may be present at birth, the decision to engage in sexual
activity is influenced by what a society permits, models, and
reinforces. No society has ever completely suppressed homosexual (or
heterosexual) behavior, but the heavy sanctions imposed in medieval
Christendom or under Taliban Afghanistan might reduce such behavior. On
the other hand, when homosexual behavior becomes more of a norm (e.g.,
in certain prisons and boarding schools) some individuals with mild
bisexual tendencies might engage in homosexual acts when they would not
do so otherwise. In ancient Athens, homosexual relationships were
widely practiced, and many men acted bisexually (having sexual contact
with male buddies as well as wives, girl friends, mistresses, etc.)

Freud and other early psychiatrists considered homosexuality to be a

mental disorder. Back in the 1940s and 1950s many homosexuals spent
years in therapy trying to change their sexual orientation. Although
many reported that the therapy had been helpful in improving their
self-esteem and coping with depression and anxiety, very few became
heterosexuals.

Case Study: Mr. W, now age 77, was born in a small Midwestern town. He
says that he always felt different. When puberty hit, he felt a
powerful attraction to other boys, but fought against these urges
believing that they were sinful temptations. When he became 18 he moved
to San Francisco, and got into the homosexual scene. During a severe
depression he attempted suicide and was hospitalized. In 1956 he
admitted his orientation to his parents: more of a confession than a
coming out. They offered to pay for psychoanalysis, and he agreed to
it, still viewing his orientation as something sinful or sick. After
four years the depression had lifted, and the suicidal impulses were
gone, but he remained homosexual, only better adjusted.

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In the 1970s both the American Psychological Association and the
American Psychiatric Association declared that homosexuality should no
longer be viewed as a mental disorder, but as a sexual orientation.
Since that time, psychotherapists have come to consider homosexuals as
a special population (like immigrants) who may have greater
vulnerabilities to certain mental disorders or requiring certain
special considerations in treatment.

Homophobia literally means fear of homosexuality. In a broader sense,

it refers to stereotypes about and discrimination against homosexuals.

The concept of homeostasis does not apply to human sexual behavior.

Homeostasis applies to the primary physiological motives necessary for
the body's survival (e.g., hunger, thirst, oxygen) and sexual activity
is not necessary for survival. People can survive long periods of
sexual abstinence (although they may not like abstaining). No one ever
died from lack of sex. Although sexual behavior is rooted in the
physiology, it is also influenced greatly by other motives: stimulus
and learned. So, human sexuality is non-homeostatic.

Modern psychology has a part in the medical treatment of sexual

dysfunctions. Such dysfunctions include male problems as impotence
(male erectile disorder), and premature ejaculation, as well as female
problems such as frigidity (a lack of erotic response by the female)
and vaginismus (female muscle spasms preventing intercourse).
Most of these sexual dysfunctions are like phobias that have been
classically conditioned, and can be treated with some of the
psychotherapy and behavior modification discussed in chapter 11.

Psychology can also help by encouraging responsible sexual behavior:

supporting individuals in their decisions to abstain from sexual
activity, practice safer sex with condoms, and use family planning to
avoid unwanted pregnancy. Psychology can also help to identify,
understand, and control dangerous sexual perversions such as rape and
child molestation.

QUESTION #9.7: What is stress?

Stress is defined as excessive environmental demands for adaptation. It

can be thought of as too much stimulation. Any kind of change in the
environment (even good events like getting married, moving into a new
home, or getting a promotion) can be stressful because they are demands
for change. Perhaps the most stressful situations are those that
frustrate our motives, especially when these events were unanticipated.
General Adaptation Syndrome is where stress leads to physiological
problems.

Bereavement is the reaction that individuals have to unexpected and

devastating losses and frustrations. The greatest forms of bereavement
are constituted by the untimely death of a loved one (losing your child
or spouse). Anticipation and appropriate timing can reduce the feelings
of stress and bereavement. When patients suffering from Alzheimer's
Disease or cancer finally die, their loved ones may experience a relief
that the patient's suffering (and a great source of their own stress)
is now over. Much more stressful is to get a call from the hospital

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that there has been an accident, or that someone has had a heart
attack, when there was no expectation of the event.

One possible outcome to stress, especially frustration, is aggression.

Aggression is defined as any action designed to harm another. This
includes, but is not limited to violent actions, for insulting words
and gossip are other ways of hurting another. Most violent acts by
animals have some obvious means-end purpose, such as getting food or a
mate. Human violence may be used for these purposes, but much of it is
a simple irrational response to extreme frustration.

In the last two decades there has been a rash of workplace and school
shootings. Several of these occurred at post offices, so the phrase
"going postal" came to mean that one was becoming so stressed out that
one would start shooting co-workers.

Case Study: Mr. T, age 15, was small for his age. He was poor at sports
and unpopular. Since grade school he was the butt of jokes by larger
boys, especially athletes. One day he brought his father's loaded
revolver to his gym class, and got it out of the bag, but before he
could discharge it, he was wrestled to the floor. He had written in his
diary that he would teach the jocks a lesson that day.

Stress can lead to physical illness, especially those that are known as
psychophysiologic (psychosomatic). These are real physical illnesses
and may require medical intervention through medication or even
surgery, but the fact is that these disorders can be exacerbated by
exposure to stress. Migraine headaches, asthma, skin rashes can often
be psychosomatic. Perhaps half of all American adults have some
physical condition that is in part exacerbated by stress. In addition
to medical intervention, many forms of psychosomatic disorders can be
helped by psychotherapy, behavior modification, biofeedback, or by the
simple reduction of stress in the patient's life.

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Case Study: Ms. C, now 77, was the only daughter, the youngest child in
a large farm family. She recalls her parents as being strict and cold.
Her mother was sickly, suffering from migraine headaches, but still
remarkably hard working. Ms. C was a plain, homely girl, or so her
parents told her. She did hard physical work on the farm, as well as
the housework and cooking, and later while in high school, she took
over keeping the books for the farm business. She started having
migraines during her senior year in high school. She married at age 20
and moved away with her husband to another state. She did secretarial
and bookkeeping work, usually putting in much overtime "doing the work
of three girls" her boss bragged. When the workload got exceptionally
heavy, or when her husband (a self-centered man) complained that she
did not have enough time to give to him, the migraine headaches came
back. They persisted until age 64, when she retired from a stressful
job as corporate secretary for a conglomerate. She has not had a
migraine since the day of her retirement.

Do not confuse psychosomatic diseases with hypochondriasis. A

hypochondriac is a patient who has no real physical disease (or who
greatly exaggerates the degree of suffering or limitation due to a real
physical disease). Hypochondriacs obsess about being ill and
compulsively seek medical attention. When the physician reports back
that there is nothing physically wrong, the patient greets this with
disbelief and rage. The frequency of the hypochondriac’s complaints may
wax and wane with depression or stress, but the underlying
hypochondriacal personality was conditioned in early childhood.

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 Interaction of mind and body
Symptoms are
Real Imaginary

Most Schizophrenic
Cause is physical Hallucinations
largely illness
organic

Cause Psychosomatic
includes Hypertension
some Migraines Hyphochondriacal
reaction Some skin delusions
to rashes
stress

Case Study: Mr. S, now in his early 50s, was an only child. One morning
when he was about 7, he thought about how scary it was going to be at
school that day. A bully wanted his milk money. S felt the butterflies
in his stomach, and told his mother that he was sick. She told him he
should stay home from school that day. She wheeled the family room TV
into his bedroom so that he could watch it from bed. She gave him a
special flavor of ice cream that she had heard would "settle his
stomach" and at the end of the day, she gave him a new toy as a get
well gift. Whenever Mr. S felt worried about school, or work, or some
social responsibility, he would feel sick, and escape from those
responsibilities. Mr. S was reinforced both negatively and positively
for his sickly behavior.

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QUESTION #9.8: What is catharsis?

Catharsis refers to a purifying release of pent up emotions. Freud must

be credited with developing the theoretical framework for understanding
the therapeutic value of abreaction, as he called catharsis. A basic
assumption is that emotions (especially anger and sadness) can be
stored up like so many marbles in a sack, or so much steam in a kettle.
If too much emotional pressure builds up, the vessel may become
stretched out of shape, spring a leak, or completely rupture. The
abreaction obtained during therapy serves to discharge excessive
tension and return emotional pressure to tolerable levels.

HOMEOSTASIS: tendency to maintain a steady state of balance and equilibrium.

ADVOCATE: Sigmund Freud

EMOTIONS: assumes that emotions store up if not released, then reach dangerous
levels and explode. The expression of anger reduces the accumulation of anger.

ANALOGIES: steam in a kettle, water in a balloon, marbles in a sack

BALL METAPHOR: Imagine a ball in the bottom of a soup bowl. Any external
movement to the bowl may temporarily jar the ball up one of the sides, but the force
of gravity will cause the ball to come down and resume its place of equilibrium at
lower levels in the bottom of the bowl.

Homeostasis: each move away from equilibrium is counterbalanced

Although the homeostatic understanding of catharsis has persisted on

the popular level, it always had its opponents within academic and
professional psychology, starting way back with William James, who
argued that people who allow themselves to get angry do not discharge
pent up anger, but establish a habit of getting angry. More recently,
cognitive and behavioral therapists have lined up behind heterostasis.

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Most experimental research also tends to cast doubt on the theory of
catharsis.

HETEROSTASIS: tendency to intensify movement in the same direction.

ADVOCATE: William James

EMOTIONS: assumes that emotional expression becomes a stronger habit each time
it happens. Angry behavior leads to more anger.

ANALOGIES: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

BALL METAPHOR: Imagine a ball in the center of a turned-over soup bowl. Any
external movement to the bowl may jar the ball toward one side or the other, and
the farther it goes, the more likely it is to keep on going, faster and faster.

Heterostasis: each move away from equilibrium is intensified

Berkowitz used the following technique to frustrate students who

volunteered to participate in an experiment: they were given a boring
paper and pencil task, and then when they turned it in, it was torn up
and thrown away right in front of them. Half of the subjects were then
placed in a group that was distracted for half an hour watching a
movie. The other half of the students engaged in some cathartic
activities, such as punching a bag and imagining it was the
experimenters. An hour later, both groups had their level of anger
measured. The distracted group turned out to be slightly lower.

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 Research on emotional storage
Researcher(s) Berkowitz
Subjects College students
Type of Experiment
research
Factors held All students were given a boring task which
Constant was designed to build a level of frustration
Independent Half of the subjects engaged in simulated
Variable catharsis; the other half were distracted
Dependent How angry the subjects felt
Variable
Results The subjects who had engaged in the
simulated catharsis expressed higher levels
of residual anger
Ethical The frustration involved some deception of
Considerations the subjects and may have posed a minor risk
Conclusion Catharsis does not seem to reduce anger

QUESTION #9.9: What are defense mechanisms?

The theory of defense mechanisms was part of Freudian psychoanalysis.

Defense mechanisms are techniques that individuals develop to shield
the conscious self (the ego) from tension. Defense mechanisms operate
unconsciously, so we are not even aware that we are using them. It is
normal and even helpful to use these defense mechanisms, as they can
prevent the self from being overwhelmed by frustration. However,
excessive use of defense mechanisms is associated with mental illness.

Imagine that you have your hopes set on becoming an attorney, just like
your father and grandfather. They went to Stanford Law School, and you
know that it is rated as the best in the west. Your undergraduate GPA
was so-so, not bad enough to prevent you from getting in, but not good
enough to assure that you will get in, so you really need to get good
LSAT scores. You take the test, and two weeks later a letter arrives
from the Educational Testing Service. You open it up and see that the
scores were pretty low. Here are how different defense mechanisms might
deal with your frustration.

Repression pushes painful thoughts out of consciousness. (It is

repression that can cause a memory loss of traumatic events. Sometimes
hypnosis can get around the unconscious mental block of repression, and
liberate these memories.) Using repression in the above situation, you
might say "I wonder when my scores will arrive. It is about that time."
(You have forgotten that you already saw them.)

Denial refuses to accept reality. Using denial in the above situation,

you might say "These are not my scores. There must have been some mix
up at the ETS."

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Rationalization means coming up with pseudo reasons to explain away the
pain. Rationalization might come in the form of saying why something
really was not your fault. Using rationalization in the above
situation, you might say "I was ill that day, I should not have taken
the test. These scores are not a valid measure of my ability or
potential to be a great lawyer."

Another slant on rationalization tries to come up with reasons why a

loss is not that serious. Using this type of rationalization in the
above situation, you might say "I did not want to be a lawyer anyway;
it was all about trying to live up to my parents' ideals, and now I
will not have to."

Fantasy is where the subject daydreams about an unreal situation that

is not so frustrating. Using fantasy in the above situation, you might
say "I am going to call the dean of Stanford Law School, and explain
how I am destined to be another Abraham Lincoln, and of course they
will let me in."

Reaction formation refers to the forced maintenance of a pseudo emotion

opposite to the real one you are feeling. Using reaction formation in
the above example, you might say "Tonight, we party!"

Projection shifts the blame to another person, usually in a suspicious

way. Using projection in the above situation, you might say "They knew
I was going to be a great lawyer, reforming the whole corrupt system
and that is why they changed my scores to keep me out of law school."

Regression means going back to a more childish level of coping. Using

regression in the above example, you might get out some old video games
you haven't played in two years and try to re-experience that joyous
absorption.

Displacement is the idea of discharging anger on to an innocent third

party. (This ties in with Freud's theory of homeostatic emotional
storage.) Using displacement in the above example, when your sister
comes back from cheerleading practice you might say something
intentionally hurtful like "When are you going to grow up and get a
life" belittling her accomplishments so that your disappointment does
not seem so great in comparison.

Compensation means trying to achieve a success in a different area to

compensate for your loss in another area. Using compensation in the
above example you might say "There is still time to study for the GMAT
and get into a good business school. Corporate lawyers do not make as
much as CEOs." Compensation is one of the healthiest defense
mechanisms.

Sublimation is the rechanneling of drives into more socially acceptable

behaviors. Sublimation is not a term widely utilized outside of
psychoanalytic circles because it assumes that sexual and aggressive
energies accumulate and need to be discharged. Sublimation holds that
it is possible to take the aggressive drive that is pushing you to be a
competitive lawyer and re-channel that into another field, such as
business.

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 UNIT 10: PERSONALITY

QUESTION #10.1: What is personality?

Personality is an individual's unique, integrated, and enduring pattern

of coping. Personality tests and theories must be able to describe the
uniqueness of each individual, and yet compare one person with another,
explaining the reasons for the differences. Personality theories must
also be able to explain how the different aspects of a personality all
fit together in some form of unified, integrated whole. Finally,
personality theories must be able to explain the relative stability of
personality across an individual's life span, through an ever-changing
array of developmental tasks and situational challenges. Psychologists
disagree about how much of personality is inherited temperament and
how much is determined by the environment, and how much is left up to
individual choices (free will).

It is important to emphasize what personality is not. Most people's

"common sense" approach to personality is that it is merely a set of
aptitudes or skills for getting along with others. Some girls come back
from a first date, and when asked how it went, reply "Nice guy, but no
personality." By the official definition, everyone has a personality.
What the girl should have said was "His personality was not the one I
would prefer in a long term relationship." What most of us would
probably infer from her answer is that her date was a little low on the
trait of extraversion.

Personality should not be confused with mood level: the emotions that
a person experiences are temporary states. Personality is composed of
enduring traits. To say "He is sad" describes a mood, unless you mean
"He has had a tendency to be sad most of the time, since he was a
little child" and only then would it be more of a personality trait. Do
not confuse traits with attitudes which will be discussed later.

QUESTION #10.2: How are personality traits measured?

Traits are the specific, empirically measurable components of

personality. This approach began with William James, who suggested that
psychology focus on specific, enduring habits defining a person.
Although a habit may have arisen as a result of a specific environment
in which the organism developed, the habit comes to have a life of its
own, and guides behavior in the future even when the environment
changes greatly.

By the 1930s, Gordon Allport had focused the study of personality on

traits, seeing them as the distinguishing characteristics or qualities
of individuals that guide their behavior through a variety of
situations. Traits are enduring predispositions to respond in a certain
way to different kinds of stimuli. Traits even motivate the person to
seek out certain types of stimuli. Traits should be measurable on a
continuum of low to high, especially if we want to compare an
individual to some external norms.

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An adjective checklist is the easiest way to measure traits. This is a
list of words (adjectives) each describing a specific trait. The
subject is told to circle each adjective that he thinks describes him,
the way that he sees himself as being, most of the time. Sometimes the
subject might be told to circle a certain maximum or minimum number if
it is found that some people are circling all or very few terms.

FRANK HUMBLE PERSISTENT SHY

HONEST MATERIALISTIC STABLE PRACTICAL

ANALYTICAL CAUTIOUS CURIOUS INTELLECTUAL

PRECISE RATIONAL METHODICAL INTROVERTED

DISORDERLY EXPRESSIVE EMOTIONAL IMPRACTICAL

INTUITIVE ORIGINAL NONCONFORMING COMPLICATED

CONVINCING HELPFUL KIND TACTFUL

COOPERATIVE RESPONSIBLE UNDERSTANDING FRIENDLY

ADVENTUROUS DOMINEERING OPTIMISTIC POPULAR

AMBITIOUS ENERGETIC PLEASURE-SEEKING CONFIDENT

CONSCIENTIOUS DEPENDABLE ORDERLY SELF-CONTROLLED

CAREFUL OBEDIENT DETAILED EFFICIENT

The scoring for an adjective checklist is not very precise; on each of

these 48 traits we simply categorize a person as yes or no depending
upon whether or not the trait was circled. A greater precision of
measurement can be obtained by using an ordinal scale that permits of
more gradations of response. Instead of asking, “Are you shy: yes or
no” we could ask …

Would you describe yourself as shy?

DEFINITELY PROBABLY POSSIBLY NO WAY

Would someone who knows you well would describe you as shy?
VERY SOMEWHAT SOMEWHAT VERY
LIKELY LIKELY UNLIKELY UNLIKELY

How often are you shy around others?

ALWAYS MOST OF THE TIME ABOUT HALF THE TIME SELDOM NEVER

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How shy are you?
EXTREMELY VERY SOMEWHAT SLIGHTLY NOT AT ALL

Do you agree that you are shy?

STRONGLY AGREE MILDLY DISAGREE

MOSTLY AGREE NOT SURE MOSTLY DISAGREE

MILDLY AGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE

On a scale of 0 to 10, estimate your shyness.

(0 = extremely low; 5 = average; 10 = extremely high)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

So far, we are still basing the evaluation of a trait on a person's

answer to just one question. We could include more questions, and then
add up the individual answers to derive a composite score. Of course,
we would have to assume content validity (that each of the individual
items on the composite scale really does measure what it claims to
measure) and also internal reliability (that there are high correlations
between the individual items) that would indicate that the separate
items are really consistently measuring the same underlying trait.

Internal Reliability of a personality test

SECOND ITEM
Careful Not circled totals

F
I Obedient
R 15 10 25
S
T

I Not
T circled 0 25 25
E
M

Totals 15 35 N = 50

R = +.65, p < .001

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For example, look at the last two rows of the 48 adjectives presented
above. Each of the eight adjectives describes a similar trait, one that
might be very helpful in someone hired as a filing clerk. We could
score each person from 0 to 8 based upon the number of adjectives
circled, or we could have each person rate each adjective 0 to 10, and
then add up the total score, yielding a range of 0 to 80.

One of the most important personality traits studied by psychological

research over the past forty years has been locus of control developed by
Julian Rotter, who represents a synthesis of the cognitive and social
learning approaches. Like Bandura, Rotter did not believe in a direct
link between stimulus and response. Rotter thought that there were
cognitive variables mediating between the two: that we consciously
choose which response to utilize depending on the reinforcement or
punishment we expect to receive.

Similar to Skinner's model, Rotter credited reinforcement with having

the main control over learning. However, Rotter said that people could
choose the situations in which to place themselves. Rotter said that
our previous experience with the environment teaches us which kinds of
reinforcement to expect. Rotter classified people according to whether
they believed that things merely happened to them or that things were
really under their own control. Internal locus of control means that
people believe that they are masters of their own destiny. External
locus of control means that people believe that things outside of their
own control determine what happens in their lives.

Rotter's model was heterostatic. If a person has external locus of

control, he is more likely to behave in a passive way, and obtain less
positive reinforcement from the environment, and this will confirm the
external locus. If a person has internal locus of control, she is more
likely to behave in an active, future-oriented way, and obtain more
positive reinforcement from the environment. One's locus of control
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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The future results that each subject gets will only serve to confirm
his or her locus of control.

Finding just the right number of traits on which to focus has been a
main topic of trait psychologists. It may be possible to reduce a
myriad of separate traits into just a few superfactors that contain
highly correlated traits. Hans Eysenck suggested three such embracing
traits: extraversion (outgoingness), neuroticism (tendencies of anxiety
and fear) and psychoticism (which included impulsivity, creativity, and
anti-social tendencies).

Eysenck’s 3 dimensions
Trait Includes
Extraversion Sociable, lively, active, assertive, sensation-seeking
Neuroticism Tense, low self-esteem, guilt feelings
Psychoticism Aggressive, cold, egocentric, impersonal, impulsive

Eysenck also developed a pyramid of personality, showing the

relationship between typologies, measurable traits, specific habits and
responses in situations. Specific responses are what is observed, and
the higher up we go on the pyramid, the more we are inferring non-
observed concepts.

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 Costa & McCrae’s Big 5 Traits
TRAIT INCLUDES EXAMPLE
Openness Curious, original, imaginative, Leonardo
broad interests da Vinci
Extraversion Gregarious, assertive, talkative Axel Foley
Conscientiousness Dutiful, organized, hard-working, Robo Cop
punctual
Agreeableness Altruistic, compliant, modest, Mister Rogers
lenient, soft-hearted
Neurotic Anxious, sad, hostile, insecure, Woody Allen
worrying

Costa and McCrae developed the NEO 5 test, in which they accepted
Eysenck's traits of extraversion and neuroticism, but included openness
(seeking new experiences), agreeableness (people whom others find
pleasant to be around), and conscientiousness (this has a few
similarities to the opposite of Eysenck's psychoticism, especially
impulsiveness). These “big five” traits are sometimes remembered with
the acronym OCEAN.

Another mnemonic for these traits would be to visualize famous people

(historical or fictional) who epitomize that trait.
British mathematician Raymond Cattell used a technique called factor
analysis, a technique of internal reliability, to discern which
separate items on a questionnaire actually measure the same variable.
Starting with hundreds of separate traits, he was able to collapse the
number of important traits down to sixteen, because dozens of items
turned out to be just measuring the same factor. The result was a long,
objectively scored, paper and pencil test, the 16PF. Each subject gets
a profile, a percentile rank on these sixteen scales.

Cattel’s 16 PF traits
Scale Low end High end
A Reserved Outgoing
B Concrete thinking Abstract thinking
C Emotional Stable
E Submissive Dominant
F Serious Happy-go-lucky
G Expedient Conscientious
H Timid Bold
I Tough-minded Sensitive
L Trusting Suspicious
M Practical Imaginative
N Forthright Shrewd
O Self-assured Apprehension
Q1 Conservative Experimenting
Q2 Group dependent Self-sufficient
Q3 Uncontrolled Controlled
Q4 Relaxed Tense

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When most people see their 16PF results they are disappointed, because
most of scales show scores that hug the middle, between the 40th and
60th percentiles, and people tend to think of themselves as more
unusual in their personalities than they really are. Statistically,
most people are close to the average on most scales. One useful feature
of the 16PF is that it looks at such different dimensions of
personality, that research attempting to correlate just about any
variable with a 16PF profile is virtually guaranteed to find at least
one scale where at least a moderate correlation can be found.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is one of the

longest paper and pencil personality tests. It was developed over
seventy years ago as a comprehensive psychiatric screening test for
medical patients. The MMPI has ten basic "clinical" scales

Clinical Scales of the MMPI

Scale Abbreviation What it purports to measure
1 hypochondriasis Hs Concern with bodily functions
2 depression D Pessimism, hopelessness
3 hysteria Hy Exaggeration of symptoms
4 psychopathy Pd Disregard for social standards
5 masculinity Mf Gender role-based interests
6 paranoia Pa Suspiciousness, delusions of
persecution
7 psychasthenia Pt Guilt feelings, tendency to worry
8 schizophrenia Sc Bizarre thoughts, withdrawn
9 hypomania Ma Overactive, excited, impulsive
10 introversion Si Shyness, inhibition

Over many years, the role of the MMPI has gradually shifted from
psychiatric diagnosis to personality profiling. Newer, more valid tests
have been developed to assess disorders such as depression.

One of the helpful features of the MMPI is that it has several built in
"validity scales" which can serve as lie detectors. This is based upon
the fact that most subjects who try to fake their way through the MMPI
(e.g., a job applicant who wants to appear more responsible, a prisoner
who wants to appear certifiably insane) will give a certain pattern of
answers which are rarely given by people who really have those traits.
So, if you ever take the MMPI, do not try to beat it, just be honest.

The great length of the MMPI has enabled investigators to create new
scales over the years to measure hundreds of specific traits such as
addiction proneness, ego strength, and the tendency to use certain
defense mechanisms. With the scoring and word processing capacities of
computers, it is possible to feed in the subject's raw answers to the
questions, and get out numerical data on hundreds of scales, and a
twenty-page narrative report which many therapists find to be a most
useful window into the mind of a new patient.

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QUESTION #10.3: What are the main typologies?

A typology is a theoretical approach that classifies people into

specific types (two, three, four, twelve, etc. categories). A good
typology of personality should be clear-cut, exhaustive, permanent,
empirically based, and relevant. Clear-cut means that people should be
classified into one category or another. If introverts and extraverts
are two distinct types, rather than a trait that is a continuum, then
people should come down on one side or the other, and no one should be
straddling the fence in the middle. Exhaustive means that we have
enough types to classify everyone. Permanence refers to the enduring
characteristic of personality: someone should not be classified as an
introvert type today, and an extravert next week.

The empirical basis is the essential criterion for all scientific

theories. (Ancient typologies, such as the twelve signs of the
astrological zodiac, do not have an empirical foundation, and are
therefore mere pseudo-science). Attempts to validate astrology have
been made using a variety of trait and type measures, and usually have
to accept the null hypothesis rather than the predicted relationship
between specific zodiac signs and specific personality traits.

Attempted validation of astrology

Independent measure of trait
Bold Not bold Totals

Aries
6 4 10
S
I
G
N Other
signs 44 46 90

Totals 50 50 N = 100
r = +.07, p > .20 ACCEPT THE NULL

In the example above, about half of people describe themselves as bold,

whether or not they are Aries, so we must accept the null hypothesis
rather than claim that astrology has predictive value.

Typologies must be relevant. These theories must help psychologists by

identifying subjects who should be treated differently. An industrial
psychologist might want to identify the type of job applicant that will
be suited to the demands of a particular career. A psychologist
studying consumer behavior would want a typology to identify the type

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of people who would be most likely to become the potential customers of
a new product. A counseling psychologist specializing in the adoption
of children might want to identify which type of would-be parents would
turn out to be good parents for special needs children up for adoption.

One old typology that began with ancient Greek physicians (e.g.,
Hippocrates, Galen) started with the premise that an imbalance in
bodily fluids (e.g., blood, phlegm) might lie at the core of
personality differences. Hippocrates speculated that there were four
basic fluids (humors), and it was the relative excess of these fluids
that shaped personality. These ideas are merely in rudimentary form in
Hippocrates, and were formalized by later writers (e.g., Galen).

Hippocrates’ typology
Type excess of Seeks behavior
Sanguine Blood Pleasure Happy-go-lucky
Choleric Yellow bile Power Hot-headed
Melancholic Black bile Perfection Sad
Phlegmatic Phlegm Peace Calm, sluggish

The original empirical foundation was inadequate, being based mostly

upon case studies. However, Hans Eysenck later used large sample
surveys to demonstrate that traits do cluster into these four types
according to the dimensions of introversion/extraversion, and
neuroticism/stability.

Eysenck’s understanding of Hippocrates

Introvert Extravert

Neurotic Melancholic Choleric

Stable Phlegmatic Sanguine

Florence Littauer made the theory relevant for contemporary marriage

counseling by defining the key difference between the types (not as
imbalance of bodily fluids) but as the individual's central goal in
life: power, perfection, pleasure, or peace. Littauer noted that two
people of the same type rarely couple successfully. Two cholerics would
both try to be the boss, while two phlegmatics would have each trying

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to defer to the other; yet a choleric and a phlegmatic would get along
great: the choleric would lead and the phlegmatic would follow.

Case Study: At age 21 Mr. V went out on his first date and proposed two
weeks later. Mr. V was a man of few words and a calm mood, but his wife
was gabby and bossy. After several years on their ranch, they were
still using empty fruit boxes for furniture. After Mr. V returned from
being paid cash for their first really good harvest, Mrs. V began
talking about the different types of furniture they could get. Mr. V
just put the roll of money on the broad plank that served as their
table and said four words, "Get what you want."
Similarly, two melancholics would not make a good marriage: each might
try to outdo the other in displays of sacrifice. Two sanguines might
have a good time (until the money ran out). A sanguine and a
melancholic could make a good pair. The melancholic both enables and
provides realistic limits for the sanguine, experiencing joy
vicariously through the pleasure seeking partner.

Case Study: Mrs. C, now 77, was described in the last chapter as a
migraine patient. Her perfectionistic personality made her a dutiful
farm daughter, and later an efficient office worker. She married at age
20 to Mr. C, a sanguine seven years her senior. She thinks that he is
the perfect husband for her because "He knows how to have fun" and she
has followed his lead, doing things like going dancing, entertaining at
home and going on cruises, that she would not have done on her own. He
agrees that she has been the perfect wife for him, occasionally
restraining his excessive spending. What he likes most about his wife
is that he can delegate the details to her and be confident that she
will get the job done. "We share the same goal: keeping me happy."

Another theory that appears simplistic on the surface was William

Sheldon's somatotypology of body types.

Sheldon’s typology
Personality Body type Body type Simpson Characteristics
Type
Visceratonic Endomorphic Fat Homer Joyful, sociable
Somatotonic Mesomorphic Muscular Bart Bold,
confident
Cerebratonic Ectomorphic Skinny Lisa Withdrawn,
intellectual

Sheldon recognized that early childhood was a critical period in which

the individual's body type and his social environment interacted to
shape the personality for a lifetime. Adults assume that endomorphs
love food, and use this to establish social bonds. For mesomorphs, both
adults and peers expect more in terms of athletics, aggression, and
leadership from muscular boys who go through puberty early. Ectomorphs,
lacking in muscle or fat to protect their bones from the rough and
tumble play of childhood, withdraw and pursue things intellectual.

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Later investigators were unable to replicate Sheldon's findings. The
stereotypical view of "fat and jolly" is inconsistent with modern
research which shows more depression associated with obesity. Sheldon
did influence Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, who argued
that alcoholism should be seen as a disease because it is due to an
inherited body type unable to resist addiction.

Alfred Adler suggested a typology based upon birth order. The first-born
child (oldest sibling) tends to get more parental attention, and
identify more closely with the parents and their values. First-borns
also get more experience bossing around younger siblings. First-borns
are more authoritarian, achievement oriented, and seek positions of
power (e.g., priesthood, law enforcement). Youngest children (last-
borns) are more likely to be pampered. They tend to be impatient and
rebellious. Middle children lack the parental attention lavished on
both the oldest and youngest, and may perceive that they are neglected.
They may compensate for this through the development of inter-personal
skills, becoming smooth negotiators. Children without siblings (only
children) run the risks of combining the problems of both the oldest
and youngest siblings.

Adler’s birth order typology

Birth order Other siblings Interpersonal
FIRST BORNS Oldest sibling Identify with parents; responsible,
achieving, nurturing
MIDDLE CHILDREN On both sides May perceive that they are
neglected and compensate with
social skills
LAST BORNS Youngest Identify with peers; rebellious,
sibling creative, many are spoiled
ONLY CHILDREN No siblings May be spoiled and/or perceive that
they are neglected; some have a
deficit of social skills

Case Study: the R brothers were the three sons born to an immigrant
father, and were born just two years apart. Karl Junior was the first-
born. He always made his Papa proud, doing well at school and helping
out in the family business (specialized industrial castings made in the
garage and delivered in an old station wagon). Junior graduated summa
cum laude from a prestigious private university, served as an officer
in the Air Force, and then got his doctoral degree and became a college
professor, just as Papa had hoped. John was the middle son, the
handsomest and most charming of the three. He was better at interacting
with the customers than he was making the castings. He became student
body president of the local high school, and also graduated from the
same prestigious private university, though not with the honors of his
older brother. John taught at the local middle school for a while, and
then decided to travel around the world and get temporary teaching jobs
along the way. The last anyone heard of him, he was principal of a
private school in Africa. Willy was the youngest boy, somewhat spoiled
by the mother and sometimes a disappointment to the father. Whenever
the high school had a performance, Willy would sing and dance and act,
usually in a lead role. After graduation, he headed for Broadway, where
he had some success. Late one summer, the father was dying, and the

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three brothers came home. When Papa passed away, the two older brothers
had to get back to their teaching assignments, but Willy was between
shows and offered to wind down the father's business. As he called the
customers he heard "Your dad was a great craftsman, but he had no
business sense. He should have mass produced some of those parts."
Willy got his mother's and brothers' OK to take over the business. He
turned it into a multi-national corporation. If his father had lived,
there would have been no way that Willy could have joined the business,
but now his energy and innovation could create something new. Most of
his products are made in Asia and sold around the world through various
distributors.

Adorno’s typology
Status of defendant
Street criminal Brutal policeman

Vote for a Vote for an

conviction; acquittal;
Authoritarian
Mete out Mete out
J harsh lenient
U sentence sentence
R
O
R Vote for an Vote for a
acquittal; conviction;
Egalitarian
Mete out Mete out
lenient harsh
sentence sentence

Social psychologist Robert Adorno developed a typology that is relevant

to the consultants who help attorneys select and present cases to
juries. Adorno identified an authoritarian type who tended to identify
with authority figures (e.g., the military, law enforcement). On a jury
deciding the fate of a man accused of a street crime, authoritarians
would be more likely to convict, even with questionable evidence, and
after conviction, authoritarians would be more likely to mete out a
stiff sentence. The opposite type, egalitarians, value freedom and
distrust authority figures. On a jury deciding the fate of a man
accused of a street crime, egalitarians would be more likely to acquit
on questionable evidence, and if there was a conviction, the
egalitarians would be more likely to mete out a lenient sentence.
However, if the defendant were an authority figure, such as a police
officer accused of brutality, the behaviors of the egalitarians and
authoritarians would be reversed.

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Case Study: Mr. B, 53, has never served in the military, but he
sometimes fantasizes that he should have had a career in the navy. He
is comfortable with authority figures like police and priests. He has
never been arrested. If he is ever stopped by traffic police, he is
totally cooperative. He has never tried any illegal drugs. He has been
summoned for jury duty a half dozen times, but never selected to hear a
case. The defense attorneys wisely identify Mr. B as someone who would
not be sympathetic to their gang member clients.

Cardiologist Meyer Friedman noticed a pattern of personality traits

among his heart attack patients. He called this Type A (ambitious,
demanding, impatient, competitive). Lower incidence of heart attack was
found among the opposite type, which Friedman called Type B (easy-
going). Remember that the terms A and B are just letters used to
distinguish between the two personality types, and do not correlate
with blood types: A, B, AB and O.

Friedman’s typology
Type A Type B
Workaholic Enjoys leisure
Competitive Cooperative
Hard-driving Easy-going
High risk of heart attack Low risk of heart attack
Impatient Patient

Case Study: Mr. B, 53, took the Jenkins Activity Schedule (which
measures Type A tendencies) when he was 34, and scored in the 96th
percentile. His career at that time was a management consultant, and
his future career goal was to become a venture capitalist. He made
enough money to buy a luxury car, a ranch with horses, and a large
vacation home in Acapulco, but even when he goes there he brings his
work and is tied to the rest of the world with electronic
communication. He feels guilty if he spends more than an hour in his
boat on the lagoon. Although he eats a reasonably healthy diet and
exercises regularly, he had his first heart attack at age 50 (the chest
pains began while he was waiting in a long line at a store). He went
home and worked on his computer for a couple of hours before the pain
got so severe that he had to go to the emergency room. (He even brought
something to read while he was in the emergency room).

Sandra Bem found a relevant typology in terms of masculine, feminine,

or androgynous. Stereotypically masculine traits included being
logical, emotionally stable, work oriented, and assertive.
Stereotypically feminine traits included being more nurturing and
sensitive to the needs of others. Bem noticed that over the past forty
years, more men and women have developed an androgynous personality
type that includes some of the traits stereotypically associated with
the other gender. Do not confuse the term androgynous (having the
personality traits of both genders) with hermaphroditism (have the
genitals of both sexes) or bisexuality (being sexually attracted to
both males and females).

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 Bem’s typology
Masculine Feminine
Logical Emotional
Competitive Cooperative
Aggressive Nurturing

The most comprehensive type theory is that of C.G. Jung, and is

assessed by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a long paper and
pencil test. There are four dimensions of this theory, and 16 resulting
types. The first dimension is the introvert (I), extravert (E). Next is
the perceptive function, and the typology is determined by how people
get information about reality, mostly from external cues though the
senses (S) or through internal vibes, intuitive (N). Next is the
judging function, and the typology is either thinking (T) or emotional,
feeling (F). If a person's judging function is stronger than his
perceptive function, he is classified as a judging (J), but otherwise
he is classified as a perceptive (P).

Jung’s typology
Term Description
I Introverted Withdrawn from social interaction
E Extraverted Seeks social interaction
S Sensate Perception oriented to external cues
N Intuitive Perception oriented to internal cues
T Thinking Judge according to logic, reason
F Feeling Judge according to emotion
J Judging Decisive, rigid
P Perceptive Flexible, but indecisive

Case Study: Mr. B, age 53, has taken Myers-Briggs twice and as well as
the Kiersey test, which also gives a profile. He is always categorized
as an INTJ. His high school counselor once told him, "Your problem is
you are so much smarter than the other kids, and you know it" to which
Mr. B responded "The problem is that I am right, and I know it." This
approach is typical of INTJs who are very independent thinkers who set
high goals for themselves and their organizations. Mr. B is not a
person who enjoys small talk or suffers fools gladly.

QUESTION #10.4: What is psychodynamic theory?

Psychodyamic theory is based on the psychoanalytic model of Sigmund

Freud. As early as the late 1880s, Freud speculated that sexual energy
(known as eros or the libido) was the primary force of the psyche. This
was a homeostatic model: energy built up, and had to be released,
otherwise problems (e.g., neuroses) would result. During World War I,
Freud speculated that there was a second source of energy, the death
instinct, which became variously known as thanatos, destrudo, or
mortido. Dreams are powered by these energy sources, but disguise their
content with symbols.

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Freud's structural model was not completed until the 1920s, but it
became increasingly important in his later theory. The psyche has three
components: id, superego, and ego. The id is the source of the sexual
and aggressive drives and engages in primary process thought (fantasy)
and follows the pleasure principle: it seeks immediate release of these
drives, now, regardless of the social context or consequences.

The superego is the conscience that makes us feel guilty. It attempts

to repress the sexual and aggressive drives of the id. The superego is
formed around the age of two by identification with the parents and is
powered by the death instinct energy that it converts from the id.

When Freud used the term ego, he did not mean it in the way that many
people use it today, to convey excessive conceit. Freud saw the ego as
the rational self that attempts to balance the demands of id and
superego, as well as relate to the demands of external reality.
Therefore, it uses secondary process thought (reason) and follows the
reality principle. It is powered by eros energy that has been converted
from the id.

Freud’s model of the mind

Let's try this analogy. Imagine that you are driving down the freeway
in very hectic traffic. There are two fussy kids in the backseat. You
(the ego) must not get distracted by the kids (id and superego), but
remain focused on the road (reality principle). But the kids won't shut

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up. Id constantly urges the expression of the sexual or aggressive
drives. "Look at that woman in the next line: she is not wearing much.
Don't let that guy cut in front of you: honk at him and give him the
finger." Superego then blurts out "You are so pathetic: just thinking
those dirty thoughts." The ego wishes they would both be quiet long
enough to get off the freeway. Sometimes the ego uses a special
mechanism which is like a sound proof internal window separating the
front seat from the back seat, just to have a moment of peace (and that
is what the defense mechanisms do).

This conflict between conscience and the drives of sex and aggression
is epitomized by what Freud called the Oedipus Complex. In the Greek
myth, the King of Thebes goes to an oracle before the birth of his
first child, and is told "This child will kill his father and marry his
mother." To prevent this from coming about, the king orders that the
newborn be taken up to the mountain top and slain, but the servant
charged with this task merely abandons the baby there. Meanwhile, a
passerby discovers the abandoned baby and takes him along, over the
hill, into the next kingdom. There the king and queen, who have been
childless, adopt the baby, name him Oedipus, and vow never to tell him
that he was adopted. When Oedipus becomes a young man at 18, he goes to
an oracle and is told "You will kill your father and marry your
mother." To prevent this from coming about, he immediately leaves the
land of his (adoptive) parents by traveling over the hill (but that
brings him into the land of his biological parents). He meets an old
man on the road, they quarrel, and the old man is killed (his
biological father). Eventually, Oedipus solves a riddle posed by the
sphinx, and is declared the new king of Thebes, but part of the deal is
that he has to marry the old widow of the last king, and she just
happens to be his biological mother. Freud was convinced that the
Oedipus story depicted a universal urge of little boys to kill their
fathers (aggressive drive) and marry their mothers (sexual drive).
Little girls have the Electra Complex, desiring to kill their mothers
and marry their fathers.

If you are thinking that Freud must be a real “sicko” to come up with
such dirty and ridiculous ideas, he would respond that you are just in
denial of your own unresolved Oedipal feelings. If you sincerely cannot
remember hating the parent of the same sex, and lusting for the parent
of the opposite sex, the fantasies must be repressed, and therefore
unconscious.

When Freud uses the term unconscious, he does not mean that you are
knocked out. The unconscious is a region of the mind, a deep level in
which you are not aware of what is going on. Freud himself used the
analogy of an iceberg to understand levels of consciousness. Just as
most of the iceberg is always below the water, so most of the mind is
below our capacity to gain awareness of its contents. The individual
cannot voluntarily bring these contents into consciousness. They may
come out involuntarily in dreams, fantasies, or mental disorders. The
energies of the libido and thanatos lurk in the unconscious. Painful
memories and shameful fantasies are often forced into the unconscious
by defense mechanisms such as repression. During therapy, patients may
experience a blockage of sensitive unconscious contents or a refusal to
accept the analyst's interpretation (known as resistance).

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The conscious level would correspond to the tiny tip of the iceberg
that is always above the water. The conscious is that part which the
individual is aware of at any given moment. The preconscious is that
part which the individual can bring into consciousness, but which is
not now the focus of attention, and would correspond to that part of
the iceberg which bobs up and down in the water. Freud and
psychoanalysts do not use the term subconscious, and in this class,
neither should you.

How to remember CONSCIOUS: the eyes are open, aware

We have just introduced two terms, conscious and conscience, which you
might confuse. Here is how to remember them. The conscious relates to a
level of awareness. The conscience is the part of your mind that makes
you feel guilty.

How to remember CONSCIENCE: it tells you what you cannot do

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Freud's levels of consciousness and his structural model of the ego-id-
superego overlap: all of the id is unconscious, and so are some regions
of the ego and superego.

Freud's daughter, Anna, became head of the psychoanalytic movement

after his death and extended Sigmund's elaboration of defense
mechanisms (things that the ego unconsciously tells itself in order to
cope with the stress). Her increasing focus on inter-personal relations
in early childhood lead to the neo-psychoanalytic movement known as
Object Relations.

QUESTION #10.5: What is humanistic theory?

Humanistic theories of personality assume that people are essentially

good: capable of free will and love. Some of Freud’s early
collaborators broke with him and moved in a humanistic direction.
Later, many American psychologists broke with behaviorism and furthered
the humanistic approach.

Alfred Adler broke with Freud in 1912 over the latter's increasing
emphasis on the Oedipus Complex. Adler's own school became known as
Individual Psychology. Adler viewed people as social beings rather than
sexual and aggressive drives. The coping patterns which individuals
learn in early childhood in the relationship with parents and siblings
influence (but do not rigidly determine) later life functioning. There
is a tendency for neglected and abused children to develop low self
esteem (inferiority feeling) and cope poorly as adults. Also, children
who are spoiled or pampered or overly protected do not learn to cope
effectively. In later life, effective coping is attained via the
defense mechanism of compensation (overcoming inferiority feeling by
means of achievements) and is distinguished by what Adler called social
interest. This healthy approach is reflected and reinforced by
interpersonal activity such as career, family, and friends.

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 Adler: mental health vs. inferiority feeling

Adler came to reject the Oedipus Complex in favor of the Inferiority

Complex. All individuals experience some sense of inferiority as a
result of being born children in an adult world. Most people gradually
overcome it with social interest, but it is harder for those who have
excessive inferiorities or faulty parenting (e.g., being pampered or
neglected). This model was heterostatic: people who developed some
social interest had better social experiences, and these then reflected
and reinforced the development of more social interest. In those adults
with persistent inferiority feeling, there is the development of
inappropriate guiding "fictions," whose purpose it is to assuage
inferiority feeling, but which then lead people to disconnect from
interpersonal reality, and develop dysfunctional behaviors which
reflect and reinforce inferiority and self-boundedness. One example
would be the attempt to cover up inferiority feeling by acting tough
and violent. Adler's formula for success boils down to: stop feeling
sorry for yourself, and start doing something for others.

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While Freud argued that human behavior was determined by the forces of
sex and aggression, Adler was a champion of free will. He acknowledged
both heredity and environment as influences upon behavior, but he said
that a person's interpretation of her heredity and environment was more
important. (This view established Adler as a forerunner of cognitive
psychotherapy.) Adler is also known as the first major humanistic
theorist: people were essentially good, capable of love, and overcoming
sexual and aggressive drives, as well as inferiority feeling.

C.G. Jung broke with Freud in 1913 over similar reasons. His school
became known as Analytical Psychology. Jung accepted Freud's concept
that most of the psyche was unconscious, but contended that Freud had
not gone deep enough. Jung credited Freud with having discovered the
personal unconscious, but Jung saw a deeper level, the collective
unconscious composed of inherited patterns of symbol formation known as
archetypes. Jung used Freud's term, libido, to describe the creative
energy coming from the collective unconscious, and did not reduce it to
a mere sexual or aggressive drive, but more of a numinous life force.
Jung's model has both a homeostatic component (energy builds up and
must be released) as well as a heterostatic component (the release of
energy can lead to transformation which drives individual growth, which
Jung referred to as psychic integration or individuation. Jung
criticized Freud for offering a sterile view of symbols as mere signs
of sexual energy. Jung thought that symbols could serve as gradients
that brought the energy from the unconscious and then harnessed it in
the service of individuation.

Jung's structural model included the ego as the conscious component

that is the center of individuality. It is the process of the
transformation of the ego via the provision of the energy from the
unconscious that is the essence of the process of individuation. At the
level of the personal unconscious, there are three components. The
anima (in men) or animus (in women) is formed out of the contrasexual
characteristics that are repressed when the ego assumes a gender role.
The persona represents the social roles that unconsciously influence
individual behavior. The shadow is formed out of the parts of the self
repressed by the persona. The shadow is what we are most ashamed of.
People who are out of touch with their anima(us) or shadow have a
tendency to project them onto external phenomena and other persons.

Jung’s model of the mind

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Jung was an advocate of free will. Although all energy comes from the
unconscious, it is the task of life to find symbols that can harness
it. Jung was clearly an optimist. He had a great respect for the
creativity in all individuals and all cultures. He viewed religion and
art as vehicles that different peoples have used to get in touch with
their creative forces through symbols.

The embrace of humanism in American psychology can be traced all the

way back to William James, who was a consistent advocate of free will,
and a consistent critic of those who would reduce human phenomena
(e.g., religion) to a drive for food or sex.

In the 1930s Gordon Allport began as a critic of the limitations of both

behaviorism and psychoanalysis. They both view persons as reactive,
whether reacting to internal drives or external stimuli. Allport viewed
human behavior as proactive, selecting responses according to certain
guiding traits. A reactive perspective puts much weight on past causes
that "push" the organism to action; Allport’s proactive perspective
puts the emphasis on future goals that create a "pull" when they tie in
with the organism's motives and values.

Allport appreciated individual differences: two very opposite

backgrounds may produce similar personalities, or two similar
backgrounds may produce radically different personalities: "boiling
water softens a potato but hardens an egg."

Abraham Maslow's pyramid of needs can also be considered humanistic.

The self-actualized person demonstrates acceptance of self and others,
spontaneity, autonomy, freshness of perspective, identification with
all of mankind, democratic values, an ethical sense, a non-hostile
sense of humor, and has peak spiritual experiences. The only reason
that more people do not function on the level of self-actualization is
that they are constrained by the lower levels of needs.

Psychotherapist Carl Rogers understood the central human problem as a

lack of self esteem, which he termed an incongruence between one's
ideal self and perceived self. The origin of this incongruence was in

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early childhood with harsh parenting. Specifically, parents impose
"conditions of worth" with subtext messages which the child interprets
as "I love you when you are good, but when you are not good, you are
not loved."

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 Comparison of personality theories
BEHAVIORIST PSYCHODYNAMIC COGNITIVE HUMANIST
Main Watson Freud Rotter Adler
figure(s) Skinner Adler Jung
Allport
Maslow
Rogers
Main Stimuli Sex and Conceptual Striving for
theme(s) aggression maps growth,
congruence,
individuation,
actualization,
social
interest
Structure Habits Id Interpretive Whole Self
Ego
Superego
Role of None Great None Varies
unconscious
factors
Role of Reinforcer Superego Conceptual Ideal self,
conscience map identification
with humanity
Free will No No Yes Yes
View of Neutral Unfavorable Favorable Very favorable
human
nature
Barriers to Bad habits Unresolved Dysfunctional Low self
growth conflicts cognitions esteem

QUESTION #10.6: What are projective techniques?

Personality tests such as the MMPI, 16PF, NEO 5, Myers-Briggs, and

Locus of Control tests are referred to as "objective" because subjects
choose specific answers that can then be quantifiably scored. By
contrast, projective techniques use vague stimuli to elicit narrative or
artistic responses from the subject.

When using a Word Association Test or Sentence Completion, we never

know where the subject is going to go with the answer. Scoring the
response is more complicated than just entering multiple-choice answers
into a computer. The interpretive skill and theoretical orientation of
the psychologist come in to play.

Some psychologists might have a child draw a picture of the entire

family and after observing the drawing, make inferences about how the
child perceives functioning relationships. Another technique is to have
the child arrange toy figures in a sand tray, or to draw a house, a
tree, and a person.

Dream analysis can be viewed as another projective technique. How the

subject remembers the dream, and engages emotionally with it is a
qualitative experience that cannot be reduced to numbers, but it may
reveal much about what is really on the patient's mind, perhaps even

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some unconscious conflicts. Freud, Adler, and Jung were very interested
in dream analysis, but Allport and Rogers were not.

Henry Murray developed a Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a series of

vague pictures that the subject is asked to view and tell a story about
what is going on. The assumption is that the subject's own perceptions,
motivations, and unconscious conflicts will end up being woven into the
resulting story. The Rorschach Ink Blot test is similar, except that it
uses a series of ink blots as the stimuli.

Compared to the “objective” techniques for personality assessment, the

projective techniques have lower rates of validity and reliability. For
example, there are four major scoring systems for interpreting
Rorschach responses.

Consider the following dream reported by a fifty-year-old man on a

business trip overseas.

"We were in the old house putting blocks of ice into my daughter's
bedroom as a sort of air conditioning system. Then a man was talking. I
identified him as my father, but he had a long, thin face, short dark
hair combed back, and spoke with a strange speech impediment. He said
he had been dead for twelve days, but they had brought him back to
life, and then he could smell the ‘six fumes’. He kept saying ‘ten to
Hartford’ but it was hard to understand him."

A psychoanalytic approach would seek evidence of an unresolved Oedipus

Complex. Does the daughter symbolize the mother (one generation in the
other direction)? Does bedroom symbolize sex? Does the cooling system
represent a defense mechanism for cooling lustful passion? Was the long
thin face with the hair combed back a phallic (penis) symbol? Was the
subject's reported fear that his father was dead merely a reaction
formation disguising his real unconscious wish that his father be dead?
Is the mention of the "six fumes" just a garbling of "sex rooms" or
"sex dooms"? Was "ten to Hartford" really "I am tempted to hurt you"?

The approaches of Adler, Jung, and other humanistic therapists would

focus more on how the dreamer is able to use the dream to express his
own concerns and foster his own growth of potential (unlike the
psychoanalytic approach which would accuse the dreamer of denial if he
did not accept the psychoanalytic interpretation). Adler and Jung would
probably view this dreamer as a very healthy individual, given his
sincere concern for father and daughter.

Although this particular dreamer does not believe that dreams have any
precognitive capacity, it very much upset him. As soon as he woke up,
he began to do the calculations. It was about 6 AM where he was in
Europe when he had the dream, about midnight (10 + 2) Eastern Time, in
Hartford, CT. Then he thought it might be a date: October the 2nd in
Hartford. Perhaps an address, like maybe 1002 Hartford Avenue. Or maybe
a bus or flight number ten bound for Hartford. Or maybe a preference:
"tend to hot food." Then he remembered that he had just switched his
company's insurance service to a new provider "tend to the Hartford."
One of his biggest worries was possible action by the Environmental

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Protection Agency on some toxic waste sites owned by his company "the
six fumes." The dreamer also disclosed that he frequently dreams about
old houses he has lived in, and enjoys these dreams very much. In his
dreams, the houses are usually larger or more elegant than they were in
real life, sometimes with new and mysterious rooms that he has never
explored. The houses are being used as a symbol for his conception of
self, which is constantly being improved. Despite his own challenges,
and those of his company, his major concern is the well being of his
family (both his children and his parents). "Dead for twelve days"
could refer to the anticipated length of his trip abroad, and that he
feels dead without his family.

Psychological assessment
Objective Projective
Paper & pencil Vague stimuli

MMPI Rorschach ink blot

Long 16 PF
NEO 5 Thematic
Myers-Briggs Apperception

House-Tree-Person
Rotter Locus
Short of Control Sentence Completion

Adjective Word Association

checklist
Dreams

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 UNIT 11: CLINICAL

QUESTION #11.1: What is mental illness?

Abnormal psychology (psychopathology) is the branch of psychology

specializing in mental disorder (mental illness). In the broadest
sense, mental disorder is defined as behavior that is maladaptive,
i.e., conduct that is dysfunctional or harmful to self or others.

Mental health professionals who work in this area come from a variety
of professions: medicine, psychiatry, social work, and nursing.
Psychiatrists are medical doctors with residency training and board
certification in the specialty of treating mental disorders. As
physicians, they can prescribe medication. Those psychologists who work
in the field of mental health are those in the clinical branch, and must
have a doctoral level degree and state licensure.

Insanity is a term now used only in a legal context to refer to a

judgment that a person is not to be considered mentally capable of
managing his own affairs, or be held legally culpable for his actions.
Standards for a legal judgment of insanity vary from state to state.
Some jurisdictions rely heavily upon the testimony of mental health
professionals that a specific mental disorder is present, while other
jurisdictions stick to older legal standards, such as "did the person,
at the time that he committed the act, have an understanding that it
was wrong?"

Case Study: Mr. W, at age 77 was declared "not competent" to manage his
own affairs. This happened after he had set fire to his house, and was
wandering around dazed when the fire fighters arrived. After talking
with neighbors and his physician, the court suspected a case of
dementia, and so Mr. W was not charged with the crime of arson. He was
sent to a nursing home, and his closest relative, a nephew, was
appointed conservator of his estate.

Diagnosis (plural, diagnoses) is the process of observing the patient's

symptoms, and inferring the most likely underlying disorder. Other
sources of relevant data from the patient might include the patient's
own description of the problem, the views of other family members,
background case history, and what other mental health professionals
have previously diagnosed or prescribed. The results of psychometric
tests (e.g., the MMPI) and laboratory results should also be included.

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 OBSERVATION INFERENCE
Symptoms
Self-description
Family’s description
Background Diagnosis
Previous prescriptions
Lab tests
Psychometric test scores

Case Study: Mr. W's main symptom was a lack of orientation. He was
confused about where he was, when it was, and with whom he was
speaking. His own description of his problem is that he was worried
about the terrorists stealing his old schematic diagrams. (This did not
seem plausible, for although Mr. W was a retired aeronautical engineer,
he had not designed a plane for twenty years, and was not in the
possession of any classified documents.) Mr. W's neighbors said that he
had grown increasingly withdrawn over the past year, and that his wife
seemed to be in charge of handling his affairs. When she died two
months ago, he let the garden go, failed to pick up the mail, and
became more suspicious about everyone. His physician reported that Mr.
W had scored poorly on the Mental Status Questionnaire, a test for
short term memory, and had prescribed a low dose of Aricept, which is
intended to slow down the progression of dementia. A psychologist used
a battery of other psychometric tests indicative of dementia, and
confirmed the diagnosis.

Diagnostic validity and reliability have been greatly improved since

1952 when the American Psychiatric Association issued its first
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that is the accepted guideline. Now in
edition DSM-5, mental disorders are listed along with the specific
criteria for a patient to be labeled as having that disorder.

Prognosis (plural, prognoses) refers to a prediction about the course

of the disorder over time. Factors to consider in prognosis might be
the usual natural course of the disorder, the unique background of the
patient, social support and coping abilities, the usual effectiveness
of the prescribed treatment, the patient's own previous response to
treatment, and how well the patient is likely to comply with it.

OBSERVATION INFERENCE
Background
Coping skills
Social support
Course of disorder Prognosis
Previous response to treatments
Usual effectiveness of treatment
Patient compliance with treatment

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Case Study: Mr. W's prognosis was poor: it was extremely unlikely that
he would make a full recovery to his former state of mental health.
This is based upon the fact that the natural course of most forms of
dementia is steadily downward until death. Aricept and other
medications at best slow the decline. Mr. W had already been given a
prescription, but it had obviously not helped him. His greatest source
of social support, is wife, was now gone.

Epidemiology refers to the investigation of diseases in a population,

both the incidence (current level), and prevalence (lifetime
occurrence). Diseases can be acute (intense, with rapid onset) or
chronic (gradual onset, long standing) or episodic (those disorders
which come and go).

We rarely use the term "cure" when speaking of mental disorders, but
rather the remission (cessation) of symptoms. When we evaluate a
treatment, we look at how complete the remission, how rapid, and how
resistant to relapse.

Etiology refers to the origin or causal nexus of disease. Some causes

are essential (necessary) to produce their effects: without the cause,
the effect cannot be produced. Some causes are adequate (sufficient) to
produce their effects: whenever the cause exists, the production of the
effect is guaranteed. Some causes are both adequate and essential,
while most are merely contributory in that they make the event more
likely to occur.

Any mental disorder can be analyzed in terms of four types of causes.

Principal causes are those that have the most impact. They are usually
essential and sometimes adequate. Predisposing causes are found in the
distant background (e.g., heredity, early parenting, culture), and make
the patient more susceptible or vulnerable or "at risk" for certain
disorders. These predisposing causes are sometimes essential, but never
adequate. Indeed, many individuals with these predisposing backgrounds
do not get the disorder, but demonstrate great resilience. Precipitating
causes are those that occur just before the disorder and trigger it.
They are never adequate, and only rarely essential. Environmental
stress usually has only a precipitating role in most mental disorders.
Those things that occur after the onset of the disorder, but tend to
perpetuate it in a vicious cycle, are known as perpetuating (or
reinforcing) causes. They are neither essential nor adequate, but can
contribute much to sustaining the cycle.

Comparison of causes of mental disorder

Cause Essential? Adequate? Role? When in sequence?
PRINCIPAL Usually Sometimes Major Sometime before onset
PREDISPOSING Sometimes Never Minor Early
PRECIPITATING Sometimes Never Minor Just before onset
PERPETUATING Never Never Varies After onset

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Case Study: Mr. W's disorder was his confused behavior. There was
probably no specific predisposing cause with any important role in this
case (although there is a genetic predisposition to develop some
dementias). The principal cause was a chronic brain syndrome, probably
Alzheimer's (a post-mortem autopsy would be required for confirmation).
The precipitating cause would be the recent death of his wife, which
made his confusion more difficult to cope with or hide. His suspicious
and belligerent behavior also served the role of a perpetuating cause,
deterring his neighbors from having a closer relationship and offering
more help.

How causes relate in a chronological path

There are several theoretical models for understanding the principal

cause of mental disorders.

MAGICO-RELIGIOUS: This is the oldest model, found in many tribal

societies before the development of the modern sciences of biology,
chemistry, and psychology. The view of the world is animistic: every
being and object has a living spirit or soul that determines its
action. Depression might be considered a loss of soul, schizophrenia as
possession of an evil spirit. The usual solution is exorcism, a
ritualistic expulsion of the evil spirit.

BIO-MEDICAL: This neuroscience perspective began with Hippocrates and

Galen who argued that human behavior was determined by the brain,
nervous system, and bodily fluids. This model emphasizes the necessity
of diagnosing specific diseases. Hippocrates classified disorders into
dementia, frenzy (schizophrenia, mania), and melancholia (depression).

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He also looked for physical treatments: medicines, surgery. Major
advances in this perspective came in the last three centuries with the
advance of organic chemistry and pharmacology (the development of
medications).

About a hundred and thirty years ago Emil Kraepelin systematically

classified all psychiatric disorders. This facilitated bio-medical
research on one disorder at a time, emphasizing genetics and chemical
imbalances. The disorders that clearly fit this model include dementias
such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's. With the introduction of
effective psychiatric medications, this model has come to predominate
in contemporary psychiatry.

PSYCHOTHERAPEUTIC: This model views the mind as having important

internal (e.g., unconscious) and external (e.g., interpersonal)
relations. Some of the early humanistic reformers have fed into the
modern psychotherapeutic model: the medieval shrine for the mentally
ill at Gheel, Pinel in revolutionary France, Dorothea Dix in 19th
century America, Tuke in England, Bucke in Canada. They shared the view
that people, even those mentally ill, were deserving of kind treatment,
and would probably improve more rapidly with such an approach. Modern
psychotherapists such as Alfred Adler, and Carl Rogers have shared this
view. Another root of the psychotherapeutic approach would be those who
see the unconscious as a fearful repository that can distort an
individual's behavior and relationships: Charcot and Freud
(psychoanalysis). The psychotherapeutic approach frequently emphasizes
attacking defense mechanisms and provoking a catharsis (purifying
release of stored up emotions). This model dominated at mid-century:
psychoanalysis from 1930-1960 in American psychiatry and psychotherapy,
the humanistic approach in American psychotherapy 1960-1980.

BEHAVIORAL: This model says that behaviors are learned, due to

conditioning (Pavlov, Watson, Skinner). Since the background of the
founders was more in the area of experimental psychology, it took
awhile for clinicians such as Mary Cover Jones and James Wolpe to
suggest possible therapeutic applications of conditioning and other
forms of learning. Only a few mental disorders (e.g., phobias like
Little Albert's conditioned fear of the mouse) neatly fit the model.

219
COGNITIVE: This approach focuses on the role of the patient's
interpretations and expectations (thoughts) in generating and
sustaining the emotions (e.g., Beck, Ellis). This approach offers one
(among many) useful understanding of depression, and has grown in favor
among psychotherapists since 1980.

SYSTEMS: This approach emphasizes the role of the culture and

especially family dynamics. It may explain such diverse disorders as
running amok in Malaya, and anorexia in the U.S. This systems model has
become increasingly popular among social workers and family counselors.

220
 Models of mental disorder
Model Advocate(s) Main Disorders Started
theme explained
Magico- Ancient Spirit Depression Pre-
religious possession Dissociative historic
Bio-medical Hippocrates Structural Depression 1860s
Kraepelin or metabolic Dementia
abnormalities Delirium
Schizophrenia
Psycho- Freud Difficulties Depression 1900s
therapeutic Adler In childhood Dissociative
Rogers Anxiety
Behavioral Jones Conditioning Depression 1960s
Wolpe Anxiety

Cognitive Beck Irrational Depression 1970s

Ellis expectations
And inferences
Systems Social work Dysfunctional Depression 1970s
Family group Dissociative
Counselors relations

Many mental health professionals now regard themselves as eclectic,

drawing from several of these perspectives, depending upon the unique
characteristics of the case at hand. One of the advantages of an
eclectic approach is that it can yield a variety of insights into which
principal or perpetuating cause might be targeted by therapeutic
intervention to help this patient at this time.

QUESTION #11.2: What are the main psychiatric treatments today?

Since the 1950's, the use of psychotropic medications has become the
most widespread treatment for most mental disorders. This is because
these medications are relatively cheap and relatively effective. The
introduction of these medications made possible the out-patient
treatment of thousands of patients who would otherwise have been
institutionalized in mental hospitals. Even for those patients who
still needed to be hospitalized, the advent of the medications greatly
reduced the need for straight jackets and other physical restraints and
meant that more patients could be trusted with razors, mirrors, tools,
and craft materials.

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These psychiatric drugs should not be confused with illegal street
drugs, with their risks of habituation, dependence, and addiction. Only
a few psychiatric medications (e.g., benzodiazepines) pose these risks.
A greater problem in practice has been securing patient compliance:
making sure that patients keep on taking their medication once they
have been released from the hospital.

The specific side effects of these medications differ greatly depending

upon the medication and the patient. Side effects can stretch the
continuum from very serious neurological damage (e.g., the Parkinson-
like tardive dyskinesia of the phenothiazines) to the merely
discomforting (e.g., the dry mouth of the tricyclics).

Anti-psychotic medications are known as the major tranquilizers (e.g.,

phenothiazines). These are prescribed for treating the symptoms of
schizophrenia (e.g., delusions, hallucinations, violent behavior) but
can also be used with such behaviors in dementia and mania. These
medications may carry a risk of side effects with long term use (e.g.,
tardive dyskinesia). Newer anti-psychotic medications (e.g.,
respiridone) have different side effect profiles from the older anti-
psychotics (e.g., Thorazine, Haldol).

Anti-anxiety medications are also known as minor tranquilizers (e.g.,

benzodiazepines). These are prescribed for treating physical symptoms
of anxiety. They are quick acting, but carry some risk of addiction.
Newer anti-anxiety agents (e.g., Buspar) may have less addictive risk,
but their effectiveness and side-effect profile must be matched to the
individual patient.

Anti-manic medications are mood stabilizers (e.g., lithium) that are

appropriate for mania and bipolar disorders. They take about four weeks
to work and have to be carefully monitored to be sure that the dosage
is sufficient without compromising liver or kidney functioning. Newer
mood stabilizers (e.g., valproate) may have less renal and hepatic
risk, but must be matched to the needs and limits of the patient.

Anti-depressant medications are in three main families. Monoamine

oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) have been around since the 1950s, and have a
variety of side effects and dietary restrictions. Heterocyclics (e.g.,
Elavil) have side effects such as dry mouth. Selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been around for a quarter of a century
and are the most popular (e.g., Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil). More new anti-
depressants come on the market each year. All of these anti-depressants
have about 70% effectiveness, and take about four weeks to work. The
difference is in their pattern of side effects. The good news is that
if one anti-depressant does not appear to be effective, or if it has
distressing side effects, another can be tried.

222
The important thing to keep in mind with all psychiatric medications is
that the patient must stay on the schedule and dosage prescribed, and
if any problems occur, confer with the physician so that the dosage or
medication can be changed.

Case Study: Ms. R, at age 19 became very depressed. She was placed upon
Prozac, which lifted her depression in four weeks. After six months,
she decided to go off the medication, and remained fine for eight
years. At age 27, depression returned. She went back on the Prozac,
which kicked in a month later, but her behavior became more bizarre.
Upon re-examining Ms. R (and discovering a family history of manic-
depression), her physician switched her to lithium. Ms. R now enjoys a
stable mood. If she were to adjust her dosage, or go off of her
medication without her physician's consent, she would be running the
risk of depression or mania.

Electro-convulsive Therapy (ECT) is also known as "shock treatment." It

has been around since the 1930s, and is probably the most researched of
all psychiatric treatments. It is appropriate for severe depression and
catatonia. It is relatively rapid (e.g., about a week), effective, and
safe.

The team administering ECT usually includes a psychiatrist,

anesthesiologist and nurse. Patients are given injections of muscle
relaxants in order to reduce physical expressions of the convulsion
(and to prevent fractures of the vertebra). In order to protect the
teeth and tongue, a plastic protective block is inserted prior to
turning on the current. The voltage is that of wall current, but is
only applied for a fraction of a second. Convulsions then occur, and
may last up to a minute. The patient regains consciousness in a few
minutes, but may not be fully alert and able to leave the treatment
area for an hour. During this recovery period the patient may be
confused and experience a headache.

ECT is not the dangerous procedure that some people imagine. Deaths
occur in less than four in 100,000 cases. (This is equivalent to the
death rate for general anesthesia without ECT.) Conditions that are
considered to be contraindications are brain tumor and postpartum
depression. Age, cardiovascular problems and pregnancy are not
generally regarded as contraindications, but many child psychiatrists
may question the use of ECT with pre-adolescents.

One limitation is that ECT is not a permanent cure. There is always the
danger that the patient might become depressed again. While this is
true of medication and psychotherapy, the relapse rates seem to be
higher for ECT. (Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that ECT only
gets used on the most serious cases in the first place.)

The most frequently reported side effect of ECT is memory loss, both in
the form of retrograde amnesia (especially for what happened just
before the ECT was administered) and anterograde amnesia. Almost half
of ECT patients complain of memory impairments right after treatments,
but this only lasts a few weeks. Newer procedures for administering ECT
(multiply monitored micro-seizures) may reduce memory loss.

223
Case Study: Mr. N, age 68, became depressed after retirement at age 64.
He was placed on a heterocyclic medication, and responded after four
weeks. After five months he went off the medication, and felt fine.
Last year, his wife died, and his depression returned, and became even
more severe. He did not respond to the medication, and constantly
thought about suicide. After six ECT sessions, he was able to return
home and participate in group psychotherapy.

The greatest problem with ECT is not that it is cruel or barbaric, but
that the general public regards it as such. (Although the patient
experiences no pain in the procedure, the clouded consciousness of the
recovery period is not pleasant.) A few states have reacted by putting
obstacles in the path of ECT. Many community, private, and even
teaching hospitals do not perform ECT.

A new treatment which also uses electricity to change the brain’s

functioning is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). It also seems
to be effective on severe depression, but does not require anesthesia
or hospitalization. TMS may also have a lower risk of amnesia.

Psychosurgery involves cutting the brain in order to change the

patient’s emotional processing. Back in the 1930s Moniz developed the
primitive pre-frontal lobotomy that severed the connective tissues
between the thalamus and frontal lobe. This generally reduces the
overall level of emotionality of the patient. Most lobotomized patients
remain institutionalized, but are more manageable. In rare cases, the
improvement is so substantial that the patient may return home. Modern
forms of psychosurgery are more targeted to specific disorders and have
a better prognosis, but this treatment has become very rare in this
country, due to the effectiveness of psychotropic medication.

Case Study: Mr. K, now age 74, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and
institutionalized in his 20s. His tendency to be violent led to a
lobotomy at age 40. He was transferred to a private, locked, nursing
home when the state mental hospital closed down. He is docile and
manageable, never getting upset about anything for more than a few
seconds. He spends most of the day just walking around the facility in
a set course.

Patient response to medication, ECT and psychosurgery is not

distributed like a bell curve. If patients respond, the response tends
to be marked and the patient experiences substantial symptomatic
relief. If the patient is a non-responder, that is usually obvious in
the first couple of weeks. Semi-responders are rare: the treatment
works or it does not. About two-thirds to three-quarters of patients
respond well to medication. For ECT and psychosurgery the rates
approach 90 percent.

224
 Comparison of somatotherapies for mental illness
Treatment Type Assumes Effective Disadvantages
on
Lobotomy Surgery Disorder Lowering Irreversible
is in the level of
structure emotion
of the
brain
ECT Shock Disorder Depression Relapse
is (1-2 weeks)
metabolic
MAOIs (e.g., Pharmacology Disorder Depression Side-effects
phenelzine) is (3-5 weeks) serious
metabolic
Tri-cyclics Pharmacology Disorder Depression Side-effects
(e.g., Elavil) is (3-5 weeks) bothersome
metabolic
SSRIs (e.g., Pharmacology Disorder Depression Side-effects
Prozac) is (3-5 weeks) rare, mild
metabolic
Anti-psychotic Pharmacology Disorder Psychotic Side-effects
Phenothiazines is symptoms neurological
(e.g., metabolic
Thorazine)
Anti-psychotic Pharmacology Disorder Psychotic Side-effects
Atypical (e.g., is Symptoms potentially
Clozaril, metabolic serious
Risperdal
Anti-manic Pharmacology Disorder Mania, Side-effects
(e.g., lithium) is bipolar nausea
metabolic (3-5 weeks)
GABA Pharmacology Disorder Mania, Side-effects
antagonists is bipolar
(e.g., valproic metabolic (3-5 weeks)
acid)
Anti-anxiety Pharmacology Disorder Anxiety Addictive
benzodiazepines is
(e.g., Valium, metabolic
Xanax)
Anti-anxiety Pharmacology Disorder Anxiety Side effects
Other types is minimal
(e.g., Buspar) metabolic

Because medications are so widespread and effective today, the need to

resort to treatments like ECT and lobotomy has lessoned. Several states
(e.g., California) have imposed legal hurdles that must be cleared
before patients can be treated with ECT or lobotomy.

Ideally, a patient who is receiving medication (or ECT) should also be

receiving some form of psychotherapy, but in practice, many insurance
plans may not cover any treatment beyond the medication.

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QUESTION #11.3: What is psychotherapy?

Psychotherapy involves communication between a patient and a therapist,

individually or in a group, verbally or non-verbally.

At the very middle of the word "psychotherapy" are the letters T and H
and they stand for talking and hearing, the kind of communication that
goes on in psychotherapy.

Psychotherapy is an in depth form of counseling

Psychotherapy is a specialized form of counseling. All counseling tries

to help the client (patient). In the more superficial forms of
counseling, we assume that the client is a responsible adult, capable
of making her own decisions, and is only in need of expert information.
In deeper forms of counseling, we assume that more than mere
information might be necessary. The patient may need to grow and
change. This is sometimes understood as insight into self motivation,
release of distressing emotions, or the learning of new coping skills.

Psychodynamic approaches to psychotherapy emphasize the techniques of

Freud. The patient free associates, just saying whatever comes to mind,
and the therapist listens, occasionally offering an interpretation. The
patient is encouraged to bring in a dream, and after awhile, this may
come to dominate the therapy sessions. Whenever the patient cannot

226
continue on in the process of free association, or cannot answer a
question, or rejects an interpretation posed by the therapist, this is
termed a resistance, which itself becomes a further topic for
discussion. Sessions of fifty minutes long take place at least once a
week, and the median time for completed therapy is two years. This long
term relationship with the therapist will evoke powerful emotions that
the patient transfers onto the therapist (Oedipal transference) and
this becomes a yet another topic of conversation. This treatment can be
effective in depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, conversion, and
dissociative reactions. It seems to work best with patients who are
intelligent, educated, and fluent. Psychoanalysis dominated American
psychotherapy and psychiatry until about 1960, when medication use
became widespread.

Freud offered several explanations for why his therapy worked. Early in
his career, he emphasized catharsis: that therapy lets off the drive
pressures of the unconscious within the safety of the therapeutic
relationship. Later, he developed more of an insight model: during
therapy, the conscious self, the ego, comes to understand the origins
and dynamics of the patient's problems. In his later years, Freud
seemed to view psychoanalysis as a process of strengthening the ego so
that it can take over the role of controlling the drives of the id, so
that the superego's need to repress is diminished.

Case Study: Ms. G was born in 1925 on a farm in what was later to
become Silicon Valley. She earned a degree from the state university
and hoped to become a newspaper reporter. Upon graduation from college
she married her old high school sweetheart, who had just graduated with
a degree in civil engineering. He became a very successful homebuilder.
Over the next five years they had three children (the last two
pregnancies were due to contraceptive failure). She tried to count her
blessings: good husband, three beautiful kids, big house, new station
wagon, but she was becoming miserable and irritable. She hated hauling
the kids around to school, ballet, music lessons, scouts, 4-H, Little
League. She called up the psychiatry department at Stanford and got a
referral. This was the 1950s, so the main form of psychiatric treatment
was psychoanalysis. During the first few weeks, she said very little,
but just reclined upon the couch and cried. The psychoanalyst did not
push her to pull herself together or to try to talk sense. He allowed
her time. After a while, the words came, and she was able to review her
own childhood and her current frustrations. After about a year, she
said that she had had enough therapy. She told her husband that they
would be hiring a chauffeur to drive the kids around. She called up the
local newspaper and volunteered her services as a reporter (which
eventually worked into a high level position). Ms. G is to this day
convinced that her psychoanalysis was one of the most important growth
experiences in her life. She is the kind of intelligent and articulate
person who is most likely to benefit from the process.

Carl Rogers developed a form of therapy that became known as client-

centered or person-centered. This approach is non-directive: the
therapist attempts to avoid making an interpretation. The goal is to
get the patient in touch with his or her feelings. The basic technique
is for the therapist to demonstrate empathy (reflecting the patient's

227
emotions) and "unconditional positive regard" for any emotion that the
patient might express. This is not the same thing as positive
reinforcement, but a permissive environment in which the patient comes
to realize that he can say anything, and express any emotion, without
being harshly criticized by the therapist. This form of therapy usually
takes several months. The similarities with psychoanalysis probably
outweigh the differences. In both forms of therapy, the focus is on
getting in touch with buried emotions in a safe therapeutic context.
Client-centered therapy is effective with the same conditions that
psychoanalysis works with: depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive,
conversion, and dissociative reactions. It also seems to work best with
patients who are intelligent, educated, and fluent. Starting in the
1960s, Rogers became the main figure in American psychotherapy.

Other forms of humanistic therapy (e.g., existential, Gestalt) are

generally similar to Rogers' in their assumptions and techniques.
Gestalt therapy, developed by Fritz Perls, also assumes that repressed
emotion is at the core of adult neurosis. It aims for a more direct and
immediate catharsis for a growth experience. One technique is direct
confrontation when the patient uses defense mechanisms. This can yield
a more rapid remission of symptoms, but relapse rates can be higher.

Cognitive approaches to therapy can be traced back to Alfred Adler who

sought to identify the patient's guiding fictions because they
reinforced inferiority feeling and served as stumbling blocks to the
development of social interest. In the 1960s Albert Ellis identified a
list of irrational thoughts, and developed a form of Rational Emotive
Therapy to challenge those thoughts. This seems to work rapidly with
minor depression and anxiety. The predominant approach to cognitive
therapy today is that developed by Aaron Beck. It is widely regarded as
a treatment for depression that is highly effective, quick acting, and
resistant to relapse. It involves structured homework assignments in
which the patient begins to identify thoughts that trigger depressive
emotions.

Case Study: Mr. C, age 50, had suffered from bouts of depression
throughout his life. In college, he had received four months of client-
centered counseling, and that seemed to lift his spirits. When he hit
30, his first marriage was cracking up, and it was unclear whether his
depression was the result of the marital problems, or whether the
marital problems were the result of his wife not being able to put up
with his depression. He stayed on Elavil for three years, and this
helped him get through an amicable divorce. At age 46 his depression
returned, and he immediately sought help. Prozac worked for about 15
months, and then it was coming back. He found a cognitive therapist and
was amazed at how directive the approach was (compared to what he
remembered about Rogerian, client-centered therapy). After a few weeks
his depression had lifted, and his therapy terminated. With his
physician's approval, he stopped taking this medication, and has
suffered no relapse. Mr. G credits the insights he got from cognitive
therapy for really turning his life around.

228
 Comparison of psychotherapy schools
Treatment Main figure Assumes Effective on Timeframe
Psychoanalysis Freud Disorder is Anxiety Months or
emotional Depression years
Dissociative
Non-Directive Rogers Disorder is Anxiety Months
Client- emotional Depression
centered Dissociative
Person-
centered
Cognitive Beck Disorder is Depression Weeks
Ellis thought based

Ideally, a patient who is receiving medication (or ECT) should also be

receiving some form of psychotherapy, but in practice, many insurance
plans may not cover any treatment beyond the medication.

The effectiveness of psychotherapy may follow more of a bell curve,

with the majority of the patients getting at least moderate benefit in
most forms of psychotherapy.

QUESTION #11.4: What is behavior modification?

Behavior modification, or behavior therapy, had its origins in

conditioning. These techniques have been applied clinically for only
about fifty years. They tend to work fast (three to twelve sessions),
be highly effective (achieving desired results in 90% of the cases) and
have low rates of relapse.

Positive reinforcement targets a skill deficit (e.g., speech in

autistics) and schedules reinforcers to increase the desired behavior.
The practical difficulties involve identifying an appropriate
reinforcer (e.g., food) and then controlling the patient's environment
in such a way that the only way to get the reinforcer is to exhibit the
desired behavior. Token economies in institutions give the patients
points on a punch card when they engage in behaviors such as turning in
laundry and showing up for group therapy, and then these points may be
exchanged for such things as videos or candy. Biofeedback uses
monitoring of physiological processes to provide a tighter feedback
loop for the conditioning of physiological responses, and is useful in
panic attacks, migraines, and stress reduction.

Non-reinforcement is used to extinguish undesirable behaviors. Once

again, the practical problem is to gain control of the patient's
environment to make sure that the undesired behavior is not reinforced.

Case Study: Ms. T, 80, is a widow perhaps in the earliest stage of

dementia. She has developed the delusion that her neighbors are
stealing her possessions and her mail. Each night on the telephone, she
talks to her daughter and makes charges, such as "Today, I noticed that
they took my good new garden hose, and replaced it with an old leaky
one." When the daughter tried to explain that maybe her hose was
getting old, and she just did not notice it, the mother got angry and

229
came up with additional complaints. The psychologist consulted by the
daughter examined Ms. T, and suggested that in the near future it might
be necessary to relocate the mother, because her ability to live alone
might be fading. In the meantime, he suggested that the level of
complaints could be reduced by non-reinforcement. Whenever the mother
started to make one of those complaints, the daughter was to find an
excuse to hang up, and not call back. Over the next week, the phone
conversations were pretty short, not like the usual forty minutes to an
hour, because the daughter hung up as soon as the mother started on one
of her diatribes. By the next week, the mother was waiting ten or
twenty minutes before she brought up a complaint. After two weeks, the
mother no longer came up with these charges over the phone, because
they no longer obtained attention or sympathy.

Flooding (implosive therapy) is used to treat phobias and related

disorders (e.g., obsessive-compulsive). It subjects the patient to the
full force of a feared stimulus. One who is obsessive-compulsive about
cleanliness might be told to handle dirt. Getting the patients to
comply with the treatment is the hard part, but if they do, most will
overcome their irrational fear in short order.

Case Study: Ms. T, 25, was rising rapidly in the marketing department
of a major corporation. She knew that she would have to make some major
presentations in front of large audiences. She had always feared public
speaking. At one recent department meeting, which was small by
comparison, her Power Point presentation did not work properly and she
became extremely anxious. Since that time she has feared that speaking
in front of a large audience would make her vomit. Her therapist
brought her to a large empty auditorium, and had her walk up to the
stage, imagining all the bad things that could happen, and then try as
hard as she could to vomit. When she realized that she could not make
herself vomit, she overcome the fear of vomiting, and was able to
accept the presentation assignments.

Systematic desensitization is another way to approach the feared

stimulus, in a series of baby steps, small successive approximations,
each one done in a relaxed state. This is probably the treatment of
choice on most phobias. Here are the steps that might be used to treat
a fear of heights.

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 SYSTEMATIC DESENSITIZATION OF ACROPHOBIA

1. master deep muscle relaxation

2. construct a hierarchy of feared stimuli approximations

3. work through the hierarchy while in a relaxed state

 outside on the roof of a tall building

 inside looking out the window of a tall building

 on roof of house

 on fifth rung of ladder

 on fourth rung of ladder

 inside on second story, looking out of a window

 on third rung of ladder

 on second rung of ladder

 on first rung of ladder

 on footstool

 standing on a book

Reciprocal inhibition is where an opposite response is modeled and

reinforced to take the place of a dysfunctional response to a stimulus.
Assertiveness training is an example of a different way to respond to
feared social situations.

Aversive conditioning is the systematic provision of punishment in

order to suppress an undesirable behavior.

Case Study: Mr. S, now 54, picked up smoking when he was in high
school. When he was thirty, he went through a behavioral program
emphasizing aversive conditioning. He received mild but painful
electric shocks every time he took a puff. This suppressed his smoking
for several months, but when things got particularly stressful at work
again, he went back to smoking. Last year he began participating in a
new program to end smoking at the Veterans Hospital. He received an
anti-depressant medication (Wellbutrin) in addition to group
psychotherapy, and behavioral modification. He stopped smoking in three
weeks and has not returned to cigarettes.

231
Today many therapists combine behavioral techniques with
psychotherapeutic techniques, especially those of cognitive therapy.
Some of the more traditional psychoanalytic and humanistic approaches
have not figured out how to integrate the behavioral processes. This
may be due to a basic philosophical difference as to how to view the
patient's suffering. Those who advocate medication, behavior mod, and
cognitive therapy usually advocate symptomatic relief: target the
specific symptoms that are distressing the patient and alleviate the
suffering. Many traditional psychotherapists (e.g., psychoanalytic and
humanistic) prefer to view suffering as only the surface effects of
deeper, underlying causes (perhaps stretching back to early childhood).
Rather than seek a "quick fix" of removing the distressing symptoms,
these psychotherapists hope that the deep levels of suffering will help
the patient work through denial and facilitate growth experiences.

Comparison of behavior treatments for mental illness

Treatment Type Assumes Effective Disadvantages
on
Aversive Behavioral Behavior can Bad Painful
conditioning Modification be suppressed habits
Extinction Behavioral Behavior will Bad
Modification cease when habits
reinforcement
is removed
Token economy Behavioral Behavior will Ward
Modification increase when behavior
reinforced
Modeling Behavioral Behavior will Phobia
Modification be adopted
when shown
Systematic Behavioral Disorder is Phobia
desensitization Modification conditioned
Flooding Behavioral Disorder is Phobia Scary
modification conditioned

Case Study: Mr. S, age 31, had a hard time getting a job or making
friends, because of his great shyness. At age 23 he spent four months
in client-centered therapy, where the therapist kept urging him to get
in touch with his inner child, but S said that he was in touch with
that frightened child, and that was the problem. Even hypnotic
regression did not bring relief. Mr. S quit going because he was
convinced that he was disappointing the therapist. He later sought help
from a psychoanalyst but after six months he could not see any
improvement. Last year he heard about a new combined treatment program.
He was placed on a new SSRI medication, and in a cognitive-behavioral
training program emphasizing the modeling of competent social skills.
He completed the program in seven weeks. He declares that he is no
longer shy. There is no evidence of relapse or symptom substitution.

232
 Treatments for mental disorders
Psychotherapeutic Other treatments

Focus on Psychoanalysis Psychosurgery

body and
emotions Client- ECT
centered
Pharmacology
Gestalt

Focus on
thought Cognitive Behavioral
and modification
behavior

Comparing the effectiveness of the different major forms of treatment,

both psychotherapy and behavior modification are good at resisting
relapse because they change the patient’s underlying personality traits
or habits. However, because psychotherapy has the capacity to
deconstruct certain old defense mechanisms, it is possible that the
patient might end up worse off after the psychotherapy, but most
patients do experience some degree of benefit. With medications (e.g.,
anti-depressants) patients usually divide bimodally into responders
(they get better) and non-responders (the medication did not work).

The treatment decisions that clinicians make actually constitute an

ongoing process of assessment, treatment, and reassessment. The
clinician has four basic responses to a patient seeking help:
treatment, reassurance that there is nothing wrong, referral to another
professional, or consolation when the case is hopeless. When treatment
is not effective, or has side effects, the treatment (or even the
initial diagnosis) needs to be reconsidered.

233
 Clinician Options

QUESTION #11.5: What are mood disorders?

Mood disorders include depression, mania and bipolar. This

classification used to be known as affective disorders because they are
distinguished by emotional lows (major depression or the mild
dysthymia) or highs (mania) or both (bipolar).

234
 Domains of Depression symptoms

Depression is the most widespread mental disorder in the U.S. today,

probably at every age level. Major depression and its less severe form,
dysthymia, are characterized by sadness, delusions of hopelessness and
helplessness, even some somatic symptoms (e.g., disturbances of
appetite, insomnia). The diagnosis of depression is made easier by the
use of any of several valid and reliable depression scales.

Scales for assessing level of depression

ACRONYMN DEPRESSION SCALE RATING BY MEASURES WITH
HRS Hamilton Rating Scale Observer Emphasizes somatic
symptoms
MMPI-D Minnesota Multiphasic Patient Emphasizes affective
Personality Inventory symptoms
Depression Scale
SRS, SDS Zung self-rating Patient Frequency of symptoms
depression scale
CES-D Center for Epidemiological Patient Frequency of symptoms
Studies Depression Scale
BDI Beck Depression Inventory Patient Intensity of symptoms
GDS Geriatric Depression Scale Patient Yes/no format
No somatic items

235
 GERIATRIC DEPRESSION SCALE
1 Are you basically satisfied with your life? N
2 Have you dropped many of your activities and interests? Y
3 Do you feel that your life is empty? Y
4 Do you often get bored? Y
5 Are you hopeful about the future? N
6 Are you bothered by thoughts that you just cannot get out of Y
your head?
7 Are you in good spirits most of the time? N
8 Are you afraid that something bad is going to happen to you? Y
9 Do you feel happy most of the time? N
10 Do you feel helpless? Y
11 Do you often get restless and fidgety? Y
12 Do you prefer to stay home, rather than go out and do new Y
things?
13 Do you frequently worry about the future? Y
14 Do you feel that you have more problems with memory than most? Y
15 Do you think it is wonderful to be alive now? N
16 Do you often feel downhearted and blue? Y
17 Do you feel pretty worthless the way you are now? Y
18 Do you worry a lot about the past? Y
19 Do you find life very exciting? N
20 Is it hard for you to get started on new projects? Y
21 Do you feel full of energy? N
22 Do you feel that your situation is hopeless? Y
23 Do you think that most people are better off than you are? Y
24 Do you frequently get upset over little things? Y
25 Do you frequently feel like crying? Y
26 Do you have trouble concentrating? Y
27 Do you enjoy getting up in the morning? N
28 Do you prefer to avoid social gatherings? Y
29 Is it easy for you to make decisions? N
30 Is your mind as clear as it used to be? N

DISORDER: depression

OLDER TERMS: melancholia

CLASSIFICATION: mood OLDER TERM: affective

PREVALENCE: 5 - 30 percent, women are more commonly

diagnosed

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SUBTYPES AND RELATED DISORDERS: dysthymia: chronic
low grade depression; seasonal mood disorder (wintertime
blues); postpartum depression in new mothers

CAUSES: predisposing heredity (endogenous depression)

and early childhood losses; precipitating causes include
reaction to loss (reactive depression)

a. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES OF DEPRESSION:

1. loss of love object (mourning)

2. superego turns death instinct against

the ego

3. dissipation of libido (neurasthenia)

b. COGNITIVE THEORY OF DEPRESSION:

perpetuating causes are cognitive schemas which
are pessimistic, global, and stable

c. BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF DEPRESSION: lack of

positive reinforcement for recreational and social
activities; social reinforcement for morose
behavior

SYMPTOMS: sadness, lack of energy, problems in

concentration, constipation, insomnia, lack of appetite;
delusions of hopelessness, helplessness, guilt; suicidal
thoughts

TREATMENT: cognitive-behavior therapy, psychoanalysis,

Gestalt therapy, client-centered therapy; anti-depressant
medications, electro-convulsive therapy, lobotomy

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Fortunately, depression is one of the most treatable mental disorders.
It responds to over fifty different medications, and most forms of
psychotherapy work on depression. Probably the best treatment for most
people would be a combination of an SSRI (or SNRI) anti-depressant
medication (e.g., Prozac) and cognitive psychotherapy.

Perhaps because so many forms of treatment can work with depression,

there are many theories that claim to explain its origins and dynamics.
The bio-medical model would focus on metabolic abnormalities in levels
of neurotransmitters such as serotonin. Further evidence for the
importance of metabolic levels comes from Seasonal Affective Disorders
(e.g., the winter reduced sunlight at the northern latitudes produces
fluctuation in neurotransmitter levels).

There are several different psychoanalytic models for understanding

depression. Freud in the 1890s described depression as the result of
dissipation of libido. By 1915, he described it as a process of
bereavement (mourning) over the loss of the object of one's love.
Later, he explained it by saying that the superego turns the death
energy against the ego.

The cognitive theory (e.g., Beck, Seligman) of depression focuses on

perpetuating causes, such as beliefs (cognitive schemas) that are
pessimistic ("bad stuff happens"), global ("this bad stuff is happening
in every part of my life"), and stable ("this bad stuff is always going
to be there in my life").

Behaviorists (e.g., Lewinsohn) have an interesting dual theory of

depression. Depressed people tend to experience an anhedonia, and no
longer get pleasure from their regular recreational and social
activities, so they give up these activities, and this makes them more
depressed.

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 Lewinsohn’s cycle of depression: withdrawal and non-reinforcement

Also, depressed people are likely to whine about their problems to

friends, and that will bring some (temporary) positive reinforcement as
the friends try to be encouraging and make efforts to cheer up the
depressed person. But after a while, the friends get burned out, and
stop calling or coming by. This intensifies the depression, and gives
the patient something more to whine about with the next listener. This
sets up another vicious cycle of perpetuation.

Most cases of suicide occur in depressives. One of the greatest

challenges facing a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist is the
prediction of suicide risk, knowing when to intervene with temporary
hospitalization, and when to allow the patient to work out her own
problems.

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 Lewinsohn’s cycle of depression: reinforcing dysfunctional behavior

Mania is the opposite of depression. The patient has an expansive (but

unstable) mood. The patient may feel great, so confident that he might
engage in unwise or dangerous activity: gambling, driving fast,
spending too much money, risky business deals, picking fights. Other
manic symptoms include rapid, pressured speech, and a reduced need for
sleep. Mania is usually episodic, lasting only for a period of days or
weeks. There is less debate about the cause, an inherited biochemical
disorder, which usually has its onset between the ages of 15 and 30.
Medication is the core of treatment, and the greatest challenge is to
keep the patient on his medication, even though he may claim not to
need it, or he may want to re-experience the manic highs.

Most manic patients also experience longer depressive swings. However,

most patients who experience depression do not also have manic
episodes.

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DISORDER: bipolar (cycling of mania and depression)

OLDER TERM: manic-depression

CLASSIFICATION: mood OLDER TERM: affective

PREVALENCE: 1 percent, maybe more common among

writers and artists

SUBTYPES AND RELATED DISORDERS: cyclothymia (less

severe)

SYMPTOMS: in mania: expansive but unstable mood, rapid

speech, lack of need for sleep; depressive cycles usually
longer; suicidal risk when cycling out of depression

AGE OF ONSET: 15 - 30

CAUSE: inherited metabolic disturbance

TREATMENT: lithium, valproate acid

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 Mood disorder cases: manic highs and depressive lows

QUESTION #11.6: What is neurosis?

Neurosis is an old term (plural, neuroses; adjective neurotic) for

minor mental disorder. Since the DSM-III in 1980, it is preferable to
use the term anxiety disorders to describe this cluster: generalized
anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, obsessive-compulsive, and post-
traumatic stress disorder.

Generalized anxiety affects about one in ten Americans, and is slightly

more common among women than men. The symptoms involve an overactive
sympathetic nervous system: heart palpitations, sweating, queasy
stomach. Cognitive symptoms might include difficulty of concentration.
The closest emotion is fear or general excitement. Panic attacks are
similar, but more episodic.

Medication may offer immediate symptomatic relief, but may carry some
risk of addiction. Several forms of behavior modification
desensitization, flooding) as well as psychotherapy can bring long term
relief.

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DISORDER: Generalized Anxiety Disorder

CLASSIFICATION: anxiety disorder

OLDER: neurotic disorder

PREVALENCE: 5 to 15 percent, more common in women

SYMPTOMS: palpitations, difficulty concentrating, trembling

TREATMENT: anti-anxiety medication (e.g., Valium, Xanax,

Buspar), psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy

DISORDER: panic attack

CLASSIFICATION: anxiety disorder

OLDER: neurotic disorder

PREVALENCE: 3 to 5 percent of adults, more common

among women

AGE OF ONSET: usually between the ages of 15 - 24

TREATMENT: both minor tranquilizers (e.g., Xanax) and

SSRI anti-depressants (e.g., Prozac) are effective; so is
behavioral modification: systematic desensitization,
modeling

A phobia is an intense and irrational fear. It becomes disabling when

it interferes with an important area of life, which may depend upon
where the person lives.

243
What is a disabling phobia depends upon where you live
LOCATION DISABLING FEAR
New York Elevators
San Francisco Bridges
Mexico City Subway
Los Angeles Freeways
North Dakota Open spaces

The object of the fear can be anything (e.g., heights, animals, dirt,
loud noises, crowds, small enclosures, open unfamiliar spaces). One of
the most disabled phobias is agoraphobia, also known as territorial
apprehension.

Case Study: Mr. A, now 51, was a successful manufacturing entrepreneur

by the time he was in his thirties. He had a beautiful home in the
exclusive town of Atherton in northern California. One day when he was
45, he started to drive to his plant. He turned on El Camino Real, and
the traffic was particularly stressful that day. He started to have
chest pains, and feared that it might be a heart attack. He knew that
he should head right for the hospital, but decided to turn off on a
side street and go back home. As soon as he got in his long, tree-lined
driveway, his chest cramps went away. Over the next few months, this
scenario repeated several times. He decided to sell his business, but
he could not enjoy his early retirement, because whenever he left his
yard, he feared another panic attack. At this point he realized that he
needed help. (Some agoraphobias get even worse, and cannot get out of
the front door, or out of the bedroom, or even out of bed.) Mr. A was
treated by Terap: a program that combined behavioral systematic
desensitization and group psychotherapy. After his complete recovery,
he went back to school and became a psychotherapist.

DISORDER: phobia: an intense, unrealistic, disabling fear

CLASSIFICATION: anxiety disorder OLDER: neurotic

disorder

PREVALENCE: about one in ten adults; more common

among women

SUBTYPES AND RELATED DISORDERS: acrophobia (heights),

claustrophobia (enclosed spaces), zoophobia (animals),
agoraphobia (open spaces)

CAUSES: principal cause is usually unfortunate prior

exposure to the stimulus (e.g., classical conditioning)

244
TREATMENT: behavioral modification: systematic
desensitization, flooding

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was first recognized on the field
of military combat, but it has also been seen in victims of crime,
natural disaster, and long term abusive relationships. The individual
may have had a completely normal life prior to confronting a horrifying
experience (e.g., military combat, rape, torture). The main symptom is
painful flashbacks of the event that disrupt sleep, concentration, and
normal emotional expression. Frequently, this may lead the patient to
alcohol or other chemical dependency, which only serves to complicate
the problem. Others find that they develop their own strong defense
mechanisms and go on with their lives. Treatment usually requires some
form of long term therapy, usually in a group context in which the
survivors "debrief" their experiences over and over again.

DISORDER: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

OLDER TERMS: Shell Shock, Transient Situational Disorder,

Combat Fatigue

CLASSIFICATION: anxiety disorder

OLDER: neurotic disorder

SUBTYPES AND RELATED DISORDERS: within the first three

months, known as adjustment disorder

SYMPTOMS: flashbacks, nightmares, disturbed concentration

CAUSES: principal cause is exposure to traumatic situation

such as combat, torture, rape

TREATMENT: group psychotherapy

Case Study: Mr. Z, age 81, was a new nursing home patient who had been
admitted for purely physical reasons. He had no previous history of
psychiatric disorders, but became extremely fearful and potentially
combative when the certified nursing assistant tried to get him for the
first time into the shower. A small dose of haloperidol was tried, but
with no real improvement. A social worker then interviewed Mr. Z and

245
discovered that he had survived a holocaust death camp, where he had
learned to associate going to the shower with being gassed. Although
this nursing home had a holocaust survivors’ reminiscence group, Mr. Z
said that he preferred not to participate. The social worker agreed
that his defense mechanisms had served him well for over fifty years
and should not be tampered with now. The solution to the presenting
problem was to remove the terrifying stimulus: Mr. Z would be given
baths instead of showers.

Obsessive compulsive disorder OCD is usually a defense against a

phobia. The patient obsesses about the feared stimulus or situation and
then compulsively enacts some dysfunctional behavior. OCD patients come
in several varieties. Arrangers get nervous when things are out of
order and compulsively want to keep things tidy. Cleaners fear dirt or
germs, and compulsively try to clean and disinfect (e.g., washing one's
hands hundreds of times a day). Counters fear losing or forgetting
something important, and compulsively count irrelevant things over and
over again (e.g., "Do I still have 43 cents in my pocket or have I lost
some coins?"). Checkers, before they leave home or go to bed, may have
to go around the house a dozen times to make sure that the gas is off
and the doors are locked, and then drive around the block again just to
make sure. Clutterers are so afraid of throwing away something of
future value that they keep everything, to the point where their houses
may become an unlivable pile of junk and trash.

Treatment for OCD can include variants of anti-depressant medication

along with different forms of psychotherapy. If a specific underlying
phobia can be identified, then the behavioral approaches of flooding
and desensitization can also be considered.

DISORDER: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

CLASSIFICATION: anxiety disorders

OLDER: neurotic disorder

PREVALENCE: 2 percent

SYMPTOMS: intrusive thoughts and images, irresistible acts

(e.g., cleaning, checking, counting, cluttering, arranging)

CAUSES: negative reinforcement: avoidance or escape

conditioning

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TREATMENT: cognitive-behavior therapy; SSRI anti-
depressants (e.g., Prozac)

QUESTION #11.7: What is hysteria?

Hysteria is an old term used at the time when Freud was in training.
Hysteria refers to those mental disorders in which an unconscious mental
block brings about the loss of a function. Now we classify these
disorders into somatoform and dissociative reactions.

Somatoform disorders deal with the body. These conversion disorders

result in the upsetting or loss of a physical function. The function
may be sensory (e.g., paresthesias, anesthesia, blindness, deafness) or
motor (e.g., walking, talking, gagging, fainting, sneezing). These
disorders were common during Freud's time, especially in women, but are
now rather rare in the U.S. and other developed countries.

Case Study: Mr. D, age 19, comes from a small, rural village in Mexico
where the public school system only went up to the sixth grade, and
until five years ago, there was no electricity. Mr. D grew up in an
environment in which regular contacts with the public health service
were rare, and when someone was ill a local curandero or herbalist
would be called in. He had a great aunt who at the age of 12
disappeared for a week, and then suddenly reappeared, claiming that she
had been taken by the Devil. The entire village has heard that story,
and no one has ever publicly doubted it. Mr. D knew that he would have
to venture out of his village to find some opportunity in life so he
joined the Mexican military. He was assigned to paratrooper training at
the air base just west of Acapulco. He had not previously been close to
an airplane, let alone up in one, and now he is being told that he will
be jumping out of one. On the morning of the day that he was to make
his first jump, he fell out of bed and claimed that his legs were
paralyzed. He was not consciously faking it. The mental block was
unconscious, but it prevented him from walking.

DISORDER: conversion

OLDER TERM: hysteria

CLASSIFICATION: somatoform; neurosis (old), functional

(old)

PREVALENCE: widespread in 19th century, rare today in

developed areas

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SYMPTOMS: loss of a bodily function (e.g., sight, walking,
talking, hearing, swallowing) for which no organic cause can
be found

CAUSES: psychoanalytic theory: unconscious mental block;

behavioral theory: secondary reinforcement of attention and
escape

TREATMENT: psychoanalysis, sodium pentothal, hypnosis

Somatoform patients present to physicians in general practice or one of

the non-psychiatric specialties. The diagnosis of conversion reaction
is a process of elimination. Extensive laboratory and neurological
tests are performed and only when a physical cause of the disorder can
be ruled out should a psychiatric diagnosis be considered. Before the
unconscious mental block of conversion can be inferred, one more
possibility must be ruled out: the conscious faking of a physical
disability known as factitious disorder (i.e., malingering,
goldbricking). This is a much more likely explanation, especially when
the loss of physical function is associated with a chance for financial
gain (e.g., an insurance settlement) or getting out of military duty.

DISORDER: malingering, factitious disorder

OLDER TERMS: goldbricking

CLASSIFICATION: somatoform; neurosis (old)

PREVALENCE: widespread among military conscripts

SYMPTOMS: loss of a bodily function (e.g., sight, walking,

talking, hearing, swallowing) for which no organic cause can
be found; what differentiates this from conversion reaction is
that the patient is consciously faking

CAUSES: behavioral theory: monetary gain or escape from

duty

TREATMENT: non-reinforcement

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Once the diagnosis of conversion has been inferred, the quickest
treatment for somatoform disorder remains hypnosis. If the patient is
not easily hypnotized, a drug such as sodium pentothal ("truth serum")
might be useful. (This was all that was needed for Mr. D, the Mexican
paratrooper.) Long term psychotherapy may be called for in some
patients. The psychoanalytic approach is particularly well suited.

Do not confuse conversion reactions with hypochondriasis or

psychosomatic disorders. Most hypochondriacs complain vigorously, but
manifest no loss of physical function, while the conversion patient has
lost a function, but may not seem all that upset. The treatment also
differs. Hypochondriacs might benefit from a little supportive
psychotherapy, but they are usually helped most by anti-depressant
medication. Psychosomatic (psychophysiologic) disorders are where there
is a real physical problem, exacerbated by stress.

DISORDER: hypochondriasis

CLASSIFICATION: somatoform; neurosis (old), functional

(old)

SYMPTOMS: delusions of physical illness, diverse somatic

complaints, compulsive seeking of medical attention

CAUSES: behavioral theory: secondary reinforcement of

attention and escape; seems to be activated by comorbidity
of depression

TREATMENT: anti-depressant medication; non-reinforcement

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 Comparison of disorders of the body
Disorder Psychosomatic Conversion Hypochondriasis
Also known as Psychophysiologic Somatoform Crock
Examples Skin rash, Paralysis Doctor shopping
Migraines, Paresthesias
Hypertension Blindness
Physical cause Maybe some No No
Physical Yes Yes Not real
symptoms
Level of Varies Low High
patient
complaint or
concern
Environmental Stress Feared Social
cause situation obligation or
manipulation
Behavioral Biofeedback Operant Extinction
modification conditioning
Medication Symptomatic Sodium Anti-depressant
relief pentothal
Psychotherapy Supportive In-depth Supportive

Dissociative reactions involve an unconscious mental block that results

in the patient losing some function of memory or identity.
Depersonalization may be the most common and mild form. The patient is
troubled by recurring thoughts that he himself, and/or the entire
world, are not really real.

DISORDER: depersonalization

OLDER TERM: hysteria

CLASSIFICATION: dissociative, neurosis (old)

PREVALENCE: more common than other dissociative

disorders

SYMPTOMS: subjective perception of unreality of external

world and/or self

TREATMENT: psychoanalysis, client-centered therapy

250
Another relatively simple form is psychogenic amnesia. The patient
presents a loss of memory too great to be explained by the normal
processes of forgetting. This is also a diagnosis by exclusion. The
most likely alternatives of dementia and physical trauma (e.g., blow to
the head or electro-convulsive shock) must be ruled out. Malingering
must also be considered.

DISORDER: psychogenic amnesia

OLDER TERMS: hysteria

CLASSIFICATION: dissociative, neurosis (old), functional

(old)

PREVALENCE: rare

SYMPTOMS: loss of memory that cannot be explained by

normal forgetting, dementia, or physical trauma

CAUSES: exposure to an emotionally traumatic situation

TREATMENT: psychoanalysis, sodium pentothal, hypnosis

Even more rare is a fugue disorder, a dissociative reaction in which

the loss of memory is complete for the previous identity. The patient
also travels several hundred miles from his residence or place of
employment. She is then usually discovered in a dazed condition.
Conscious fabrication (perhaps associated with criminal intent or
psychopathy) is a good alternative explanation. Indeed, if there is any
evidence of premeditation or planning (such as shifting money into
different accounts or setting up a false identity) fugue is ruled out.

DISORDER: fugue

OLDER TERMS: hysteria

CLASSIFICATION: dissociative, neurosis (old), functional

(old)

PREVALENCE: rare

251
SYMPTOMS: loss of memory and previous identity, departure
from usual surroundings; cannot be attributed to conscious
intent

CAUSES: exposure to an emotionally traumatic situation

TREATMENT: psychoanalysis, sodium pentothal, hypnosis

Case Study: Ms. H, 32, lives in rural Mexico, the common law wife of an
agricultural laborer. She has been with Mr. H for twelve years and
stuck with him only because of her two children. Mr. H has problems
with drinking and battering, but most of the time he was away, north of
the border working and sending a little money home. A few months ago,
the two children and the parents of Ms. H died in a bus accident. When
Mr. H returned home from the U.S., he was especially brutal, blaming
her for the loss of their children. She disappeared with just the
clothes on her back, and was found two weeks later at a bus stop in the
next state, claiming that she did not know who she was.

The rarest and most severe of all dissociative reactions would be

dissociative identity disorder (i.e., "multiple personality"). The
individual's regular (host) personality tends to be rather meek and
passive. At least one other personality is developed. These alter
personalities pop out without warning and take over the individual's
behavior: posture, gestures, facial expressions, voice tone and word
choice changes dramatically under the influence of the other
personality. The alter personalities are aware of the host personality,
but regard it with contempt for being too weak. The alter personalities
tend to be more confident, bold, and daring. The host personality is
not consciously aware of the existence of these other personalities,
and the time when they pop out is later perceived as a blackout period.
In most cases, the patient's childhood was a traumatic one and the
dissociative identity can be seen as some sort of defense mechanism,
"This is not happening to me, but to her, because she is so weak."
Treatment for most dissociative reactions is similar: hypnosis or
sodium pentothal interviews combined with long term psychotherapy (with
an emphasis on the latter in the more severe cases).

DISORDER: dissociative identity disorder

OLDER TERMS: hysteria, multiple personality

CLASSIFICATION: dissociative, neurosis (old), functional

(old)

252
PREVALENCE: rare, but seen more often than it was fifty
years ago

SYMPTOMS: host personality is weak, passive; alter

personalities pop out and dominate the individual's behavior,
and these periods of dominance are perceived as blackouts

CAUSES: enduring reaction to childhood abuse

TREATMENT: psychoanalysis, sodium pentothal, hypnosis

QUESTION #11.8: What is psychosis?

Psychosis (plural, psychoses; adjective, psychotic) refers to serious

mental disorders (as opposed to the more mild neurosis) and involves a
severe inability to function within normal society. It used to be said
in jest that the neurotic may build imaginary castles in the air, but
it is the psychotic who actually tries to live in them.

Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder. It is not a "split" or multiple

personality (that is the rarer, dissociative reaction described above).
Schizophrenia is defined by its symptomatic cluster. Schizophrenics
have severe delusions (false beliefs) sometimes relating to identity. I
have met the “President of Argentina,” holding an imaginary cabinet
session, in Hospital Borda in Buenos Aires; and the Devil and the Son
of the Devil (same patient) outside of Santo Domingo. Another frequent
symptom is hallucinations (sense experience in the absence of stimuli)
especially voices which the patient perceives as threatening and
insulting.

In one famous study of the early 1970s, David Rosenhan recruited eight
healthy volunteers and had them show up at different mental hospitals
complaining about hearing voices. All of these volunteers were admitted
with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Under subsequent editions of the
DSM, more criteria have been required for diagnosis of schizophrenia.

Another frequent symptom is bizarre use of language. The patient may

think that he is waxing profound and poetic, but it sounds like word
salad with strange grammar and invented words. Most schizophrenics have
difficulty expressing an emotion appropriate to the occasion. They may
appear to be more happy, sad, angry, or frightened than the situation
would call for. Another possibility is "flat affect" in which the
patient seems entirely aloof to what is going on around him. Deficits
in social skills may be observed in many patients.

253
DISORDER: schizophrenia

OLDER TERM: dementia praecox

CLASSIFICATION: psychosis

PREVALENCE: 1 percent

SUBTYPES AND RELATED DISORDERS:

o SCHIZOPHRENIFORM: all the required symptoms,

but a duration of less than six months

o PARANOID: bizarre and incredible delusions of

persecution, plots and thought control

o CATATONIC: extreme withdrawal to the point of

acting like a statue

o PROCESS: chronic, gradual onset, no stressful

precipitant, poor prognosis

o REACTIVE: acute, rapid onset after stressful

event, better prognosis

o REFRACTORY: term given to schizophrenia case

which is not responsive to treatment

o RESIDUAL: delusions, bizarre language, and

hallucinations are absent, but the patient remains
socially withdrawn

SYMPTOMS: "positive" symptoms include hallucinations,

delusions, agitation, bizarre use of language; "negative"
symptoms include deficits in social skills, affective response

AGE OF ONSET: 15 to 25

254
CAUSES: there is a genetic (and/or intrauterine congenital)
predisposition; the principal cause would be abnormalities of
brain structure or chemistry (e.g., surplus of dopamine)

TREATMENT: anti-psychotic medications (old: Thorazine,

Mellaril, Haldol; newer: Risperdal, Clozaril). Older
medications carry high risk of tardive dyskinesia

Case Study: Mr. L, was born in Cuba before the Castro Revolution. His
family moved to Mexico in the early 1960s, and he was sent to a
boarding school in the U.S. He finished his bachelor's degree at an Ivy
League college and earned an M.B.A. from another prestigious
university. He told his family he was having "adjustment" difficulties
during his first year of graduate work, but his family began to fear
that he was coming down with the strain of mental disorder found in an
uncle and a couple of cousins. He returned to Mexico, and spent a short
time working for the family business in Mexico City. With his next
breakdown, they decided to send him to a luxurious mental hospital just
outside of Guadalajara, where he remains today. When he is on his
medication, he dresses impeccably, reads the New York Times each day,
and has fooled more than one visitor into thinking that he is the
director of the asylum instead of one of the patients. If he misses his
medication, he cannot comprehend what he reads, sees, or hears, and
quietly retreats to a private world. If the family were more motivated,
he could probably be living at home, and perhaps helping out with the
family business.

Catatonia and paranoia are types of schizophrenia. Catatonics withdraw

into a statue-like stupor for periods of several hours. Paranoids have
delusions of persecution and extreme suspiciousness. Some depressed
patients and many early stage dementia patients also develop paranoid
delusions, but when schizophrenics become paranoid, their delusions are
bizarre. The conspiracies might be incredible, involving the Mafia,
CIA, and space aliens conspiring to read the patient's thoughts.

Schizophrenia has at least a biological predisposing cause (and

probably that is also the principal cause). Some older theories
suggested that there might be some role of a dysfunctional family of
origin, perhaps a mother who is cold or too controlling. These factors
might serve more as a perpetuating cause: the parents and other family
members are reacting to the patient's deteriorated behavior, and
unfortunately their reactions might make it worse.

The genetic link in schizophrenia (and mania) is probable: the closer

the genetic relatedness between two individuals, the more likely that
if one is diagnosed with schizophrenia, so will the other one. The
incidence of schizophrenia in the general population is about one
percent, in children or siblings of schizophrenics it is about ten
percent, but if one identical twin is diagnosed with the disorder, odds
are about even that the other will also get that diagnosis. While most
children of schizophrenics do not develop schizophrenia themselves,

255
they might be carriers of a gene that makes for susceptibility to the
disorder. It is very rare that someone will be diagnosed as
schizophrenic unless someone else in the family tree has already
received that diagnosis.

Relationship between Schizophrenia and Paranoia

Treatment for schizophrenia must center on medication to control the

symptoms. Schizophrenics generally do not follow very well the
structured approach of cognitive therapy. Freud himself argued against
using psychoanalysis with schizophrenics: they are already lost in
their own free association. More client-centered, and Jungian
therapists have reported some favorable results, especially with
teenage, reactive patients. About a third of schizophrenics require
lifetime hospitalization. Behavioral approaches (such as token
economies) and psychosurgery are usually limited to making the patient
more manageable within an institutional context.

256
 Comparison of major mental disorders
Disorder Depression Anxiety Bipolar Schizophrenia Multiple
personality
Classification Mood Anxiety Mood Psychosis Dissociative
Incidence Common Common Low Low Very rare
Gender Female Female Equal Equal Female
predominance
Age of onset Anytime Anytime 15-30 15-25 15-30
Link to heredity Moderate Moderate Great Great Little
Link to childhood Moderate Moderate None Little Great
trauma

QUESTION #11.9: What is a psychopath?

Psychopath (also known as sociopath) is an older term for what the DSM
now calls anti-social personality. This is one of several Axis II
diagnoses known as personality disorders. The antisocial personality is
best understood as a person without a conscience, someone who can
easily exploit or harm someone else without guilt or remorse. Most
criminals probably do not fall into this category: for many have a real
sense of shame and remorse for what they have done. Not all psychopaths
end up incarcerated. Many may stay on the fringes of legitimate
business (or go into politics) and are clever enough to avoid getting
caught. Psychopaths are skilled liars and charmers.

There are two basic types of anti-social personality: violent and non-
violent. The violent ones are the rare serial killers who target
strangers just for the thrill of the power. The non-violent are more
common. They tend toward imposture and swindling.

Case Study: Mr. U, age 56, was finally brought to trial in Arizona for
bigamy. It was discovered that he had married (and neglected to
divorce) over a hundred women. His pattern was to court wealthy women
who had been recently widowed. Although he was short, balding, and
chubby, he was very charming. Soon after the marriage, he would figure
out a way to abscond with the woman's fortune, and then go to another
town and do the whole thing over again with some other victim.

DISORDER: antisocial personality disorder

DSM-IV: Axis II

OLDER TERMS: psychopath, sociopath

PREVALENCE: two to three percent, more common among

men

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CLASSIFICATION: personality disorders, character disorder
(older)

SYMPTOMS: exploits others without guilt, shame or

remorse; manipulative, deceitful, some are violent; history
of conduct problems as a child

AGE OF ONSET: childhood or adolescence

TREATMENT: none effective

Anti-Social Personality and Convicted Criminals

258
Somewhat less dangerous are the histrionic and narcissistic types. They
both crave to be the center of attention and demand to be treated with
special status by those around them. Histrionics tend to be a little
more obnoxious about it, with self-dramatizing behavior comparable to
that of soap-opera characters.

DISORDER: histrionic personality disorder

DSM-IV: Axis II

OLDER TERMS: hysterical personality disorder

PREVALENCE: two or three percent, more common among

women

CLASSIFICATION: personality disorders, character disorder

(older)

SYMPTOMS: chronic and excessive attention seeking; self-

dramatization, irritability

AGE OF ONSET: childhood or adolescence

TREATMENT: none

DISORDER: narcissistic personality disorder

DSM-IV: Axis II

PREVALENCE: two to three percent

CLASSIFICATION: personality disorders, character disorder

(older)

SYMPTOMS: preoccupation with admiration of others, self-

promoting, lack of empathy

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AGE OF ONSET: childhood or adolescence

TREATMENT: none

The borderline personality initially appears to be a case of depression

or bipolar. The patient turns out to be non-compliant with medication,
manipulative in psychotherapy, and frequently self-mutilating. In the
past, the label of borderline personality was assigned when the
therapist realized that further treatment with an uncooperative patient
was fruitless. In the past two decades, much progress has been made
with the use of dialectical-cognitive-behavioral therapy with
borderline adolescents.

DISORDER: borderline personality disorder

DSM-IV: Axis II

CLASSIFICATION: personality disorders, character disorder

(older)

PREVALENCE: two to three percent; more common among

women

SYMPTOMS: impulsive, emotional instability, angry

outbursts, fear of being alone, manipulative, boredom, self-
mutilation, suicidal risk

AGE OF ONSET: childhood or adolescence

TREATMENT: dialectical-cognitive-behavioral

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 UNIT 12: DEVELOPMENTAL

QUESTION #12.1: What is human development?

Developmental psychology is the branch concerned with the changes in

behavior over the life cycle. In many ways, the individual's growth and
development follows an orderly sequence, but one influenced by both
heredity and environment. Because the term “maturation” can imply
physical, emotional, intellectual, and interpersonal development (as
well as wise decision making), it is best to avoid using that term (as
well as “mature” and “maturity”) and search for one that is more
precise.

Heredity refers to the characteristics of the organism determined by

the genes received from the biological parents. At the moment of
conception, when the sperm unites with the egg, the heredity of the
individual is fixed for a lifetime. Anything that happens to the
individual after that time is not the fault or the credit of heredity.

Sir Francis Galton, a century and a half ago, argued that heredity was
the main determinant of human behavior. Modern sociobiologists also
echo that view, claiming that everything from sexual behavior to
patterns of stylized aggression (behavior which intends to harm
another) are dictated by millennia of natural selection. Some
ethologists (scientists who study animals in their natural habitat)
argue that many species have evolved complex instincts to govern
important behaviors. One ethologist, Konrad Lorenz, noted that most
species which are naturally well armed with claws (e.g., lions) or
horns (e.g., elk) have a stylized pattern of male combat to determine
who will have mating rights. The loser knows when to give up, and the
victor spares the life of the loser. Those species that are not
naturally well armed (e.g., doves, humans) have not evolved natural
limits on intra-species aggression, do not know when to stop, and may
fight to the death.

Most psychologists would say that the role of heredity is limited to

influences on anatomical and glandular structure. Humans have several
inherited reflexes (simple behaviors), but few if any true instincts
(complex, inherited behaviors). Obviously, physical characteristics
such as height and weight and longevity are influenced by genes.
Genetics are one influence on measures of intelligence, such as IQ, as
well as mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar.

Temperament refers to the inherited core of personality. Several

trait and typology theorists have suggested that personality
differences in adults can be traced back to temperament. Eysenck
contended that the introvert / extravert distinction was based upon
inherited levels of cortical excitation. The introvert is blessed (or
cursed) with a high level of cortical excitation, and therefore
generating enough internal activation, and does not need the
stimulation provided by contact with other people. Indeed, the very
conversation of others, and their demand for attention could be
perceived as sensory overload. The extravert has a low level of

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cortical excitation and needs the presence of others to rescue her from
the boredom of solitude.

Environment is the cumulative influence of the outside world:

experience and learning. Starting with Watson and Skinner, the
Behaviorists have emphasized the environment as the main factor in
accounting for human development and differences. Watson boasted that
he could take any healthy newborn and condition him to be a beggar,
thief or saint. Skinner thought that a perfect society could be
constructed with the technology of positive reinforcement. Most
psychologists are somewhere between the extremes of Galton (heredity)
and Watson (environment) noting that both factors influence adult
behavior, and we can never be certain exactly in what proportion.

One research design very useful in the study of the relative impact of
heredity and environment is the investigation of identical twins. Twins
are siblings that share the same intra-uterine environment, and are
born at the same time. Fraternal twins are the product of two
separately fertilized ova (sperm-egg) combinations. They have the same
mother and father, so they have some genetic similarity, but no greater
than that of any full siblings born in different years. Identical twins
are the result of a single sperm-egg combination, a fertilized ovum
that split into two individuals. Identical twins much have the same
genes, and therefore must be of the same gender.

Possible relationship between two siblings

Same fertilized egg?
Yes No

T
I Same time Identical Fraternal
M twins twins
E

O
F

B Different Impossible Siblings with

I times different
R birth order
T
H

Some reporters and talk show hosts have tracked down a pair of
identical twins separated early in life, and have been amazed at the
similarities: same career, same hobbies, married women of the same
name, preferred a dog of the same breed. The inference made was that
heredity was an overwhelming determinant of behavior. This type of

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research is a case study of the worst kind: an example selected because
it was so amazing.

Research on identical twins separated at birth

Researcher(s) Reporters, talk show hosts
Subjects One pair of identical twins separated early
in life
Type of Case study
research
Independent Environment: raised in different families
Variable
Factors held Heredity
Constant
Dependent Vocational choices, preferred hobbies, breed
Variables of dog chosen, name of spouse
Results Amazing similarities reported
Conclusion Heredity is more important than environment.

A survey would have to quantify how frequent one of these patterns of

similarity was in pairs of identical twins, and then compare that with
the frequency of that similarity in unrelated individuals.

Research design required to demonstrate a

correlation between heredity and careers
Similar career chosen?
Yes No

R Identical
E twins A B
L reared
A apart
T
I
O Unrelated
N pairs of
S individuals C D
H reared
I apart
P

Even if the talk show had contained a dozen examples of identical twins
separated at birth who had the same amazing similarity, that would
prove nothing (except that the reporters had looked very hard to find
twelve examples for cell A). Good sampling does not just seek those
subjects who fit the confirmation bias of the hypothesized trend.

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Although the Behaviorists and the Sociobiologists disagree about the
role of heredity and environment, they are in agreement about one
thing. They are both examples of extreme determinism, the view that
human behavior and choice are dictated by causes (e.g., heredity and/or
environment) beyond a person's own free will. This debate between free
will and determinism predates modern psychology and goes back to
philosophy and theology. When you choose to do something, was your
choice really free? or was it predestined by forces beyond your
control: your genes, your childhood, your society, God or the Devil? In
the 16th century theologians such as the Protestant Calvin and the
Catholic Jansen argued that humans are so depraved that they do not
even have the free will to accept God's grace: those who are saved do
not choose God, He chose them. Those who are chosen are irresistibly
drawn to God. Theologically, the free will doctrine was argued by the
Dutch Protestant Arminius and the Catholic Jesuits. In psychology, the
Humanistic (e.g., Allport, Maslow and Rogers) and Cognitive theorists
(e.g., Seligman) have been the great defenders of free will. Perhaps
Adler was the most eloquent: "It is not your heredity or your
environment that makes you what you are; it is your decisions about
your heredity and environment that make you what you are."

One way that heredity and environment interact is by the process of

imprinting during critical periods. A critical period is a genetically
pre-determined developmental phase in which the organism will be
extremely sensitive to stimuli from the environment. The particular
stimuli provided at that point by the environment will have a major and
permanent impact upon the subject's behavior.

One example of imprinting comes from ethologist Konrad Lorenz. He

observed that when waterfowl hatched, they immediately followed the
first large moving object they saw (usually, the mother). If she
waddled somewhere on land, the ducklings followed in a row. If she went
into the water, the ducklings also followed, swimming by instinct.

Lorenz decided to do an experiment. He put the duck eggs in an

incubator to hatch. The first large moving object that the newly
hatched ducklings saw was Lorenz himself, and they tried to follow him
around, as if he were their mother. He then repeated the experiment
with another stimulus: a large box on a toy train going on a track
around the incubator. The ducklings tried to go around in circles,
following the box on the train.

Imprinting right after hatching might also explain other behaviors

right after emerging from an egg. Certain fish return to the same
spawning grounds. When chickens hatch, the first fourteen days are a

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critical period for mastering the eye-beak coordination of pecking.
Chicks raised in the dark for the first fourteen days never become very
good at scratching and pecking.

Research on imprinting
Researcher(s) Lorenz
Subjects Ducklings
Type of Experiment
research
Independent First large moving object seen after
Variable hatching
Factors held Species, age
Constant
Dependent How the ducklings respond to the object.
Variable
Results The ducklings followed the first large
moving object that they saw after hatching.
Conclusion Just after hatching is a critical period for
ducklings. The first large moving object
becomes imprinted as the mother.

Imprinting can also occur as a young adult. Some species of birds mate
for life. When the bird is in the critical period of mate selection,
the very first mate it has become imprinted. After that point, no other
bird will be considered an acceptable mate. Even if the original mate
dies, the surviving bird will not seek or accept a new mate.

Imprinting also occurs in mammals. Puppies and kittens raised without

human contact for the first six weeks of life never become very good
pets. Harry and Margaret Harlow found that monkeys raised alone for the
first six months miss the critical period for developing social skills.
When later put in a cage with other monkeys, they will either cower
with fear before the other monkeys or else behave very aggressively.

One example of a critical period for humans may be the first eight
years of life in terms of language acquisition. A child of any
ethnicity can learn any human language and speak it like a native if
the learning takes place while young. The older someone is when she
tries to master a new language, the more difficult it will be to
articulate the phonemes and comprehend the grammar. When three
generation families of immigrants come to the U.S., it is the children
who pick up English first, and have the most thorough knowledge of it.
The parents may pick up enough English to get by, but may remain more
comfortable in using their first language at home. The grandparents
will have the hardest time with the new language. In financial and
legal activities, such as the purchase of an automobile, the children
might have to play the key role of translator for the rest of the
family.

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Case Study: Mr. B., 53, grew up on a ranch where most of the workers
were from Mexico and spoke Spanish. When he took Spanish in high school
to learn the spelling and vocabulary, his teachers marveled at his
"near native" pronunciation. He also studied two years of Russian in
high school, and German at the university. He remembers just a few
words and phrases from these languages, but when he is traveling and
hears German or Russian spoken, he cannot resist uttering a sentence of
greeting. The usual reply he receives is "Do you speak English?" His
lack of mastery of German and Russian phonemes is evident from the very
first words he speaks. But when he travels in Spain or South America,
and greets the locals in Spanish, the first question they ask is “Are
you from Mexico”?

QUESTION #12.2: What are the main features of early human development?

Inside of the womb of the mother, the fertilized ovum is officially

known as a fetus from eight weeks after conception until birth. About
four weeks after pregnancy begins a critical period for the development
of the brain (even though many women do not yet know that they are
pregnant at this time). The head and brain grow faster than the rest of
the body. By five months, the fetus is about half head. At birth, a
quarter of the length of the newborn is head. By age six, the brain has
attained 90 percent of its eventual size. Although people at any age
can form new neural connections, it is especially easy in these early
years. Therefore, conditions such as exposure to a harmful virus, toxic
chemical, cocaine, alcohol, or nicotine occurring in pregnancy might
permanently stunt the development of the brain. Even malnutrition in
the first six years of life might have this impact, leading to
retardation.

Congenital problems are those that originate in the fetal period. Like
inherited disorders, congenital problems are present at birth. Unlike
inherited disorders, congenital problems were not caused by a faulty
genetic blueprint for development, but by a faulty execution of that
blueprint during the fetal stage due to some problem within the intra-
uterine environment.

The neonate (adjective, neonatal) is a newborn baby. The newborn has

several inherited, simple reflexes, such as the rooting reflex (turning
its head toward a touch and sucking).

Much motor (muscular) development must wait until the proper critical
period has been reached before it can be learned. Most children cannot
be trained to walk, talk, or use the toilet before their little bodies
are ready. In some cultures, babies are swaddled (tied to a board for
easier carrying). Even though this means that the babies cannot
exercise their legs, this does not seem to be a permanent disadvantage
when it comes time for the child to walk. Similarly, some cultures do
not emphasize diapers or early toilet training: toddlers are allowed to
wander around naked. By the time they are three, they are controlling
their bowels and bladders (most of the time) and going where their
older siblings go to do those things.

Emotional development must also wait for the infant's readiness. The
neonate can express excitement and react to pain. He can smile, but it

266
is not clear what emotion is involved subjectively. After about five
months, anger and sadness can be identified. A couple months later,
fear and shyness are possible. More complex emotions such as contempt,
guilt, and real affection for other children might have to wait until
the second year of life.

Types of disorders
Problem present at birth?
Yes No

D
U
E YES Hereditary Hereditary

T
O

G
E
N
E NO Congenital Environmental
T
I
C
S

Two things that parents can do for newborns is breast feeding and
intellectual stimulation. Many surveys and experiments have confirmed
that breast fed babies have a number of behavioral differences compared
with those fed bottled formula (e.g., lower heart rate, lower
irritability).

Mental stimulation seems to have short term and long term benefits for
the infant. In one famous experiment done with baby rats, they were
separated into two different cages. One cage was bare, just the wire
enclosure and the tube for water and the dispenser for the food
pellets. The other cage was an "enriched" environment with designs on
the wall and equipment for the rats to run or climb on. When the brains
of the two groups were studied, the group exposed to the enriched
environment had significantly greater growth in the cortical areas.

267
 Research on role of environment on intelligence
Researcher(s) Rosenzweig and Krech
Subjects Rats
Type of Experiment
research
Independent Decorations and equipment in the cages
Variable
Factors held Same age, litter
Constant
Dependent Growth of cortical tissue in the brain
Variable
Results The rats in the enriched environment had
more cortical growth
Ethical The rats had to be killed in order for their
Considerations brains to be studied.
Conclusion The enriched environment stimulated brain
growth.

Babies also need comforting and nurturing. A famous study indicating

this was performed by Harry and Margaret Harlow, who took a baby
monkey, and raised it in a cage separated from its natural mother. The
Harlows then put two surrogate mothers into the cage. One was made out
of wire, and had a feeding apparatus for dispensing milk. The other had
a soft cloth covering and a friendlier looking face. Except when it was
feeding, the baby monkey spent most of its time with the soft mother,
especially after becoming frightened.

Research on infant attachment

Researcher(s) Harlow & Harlow
Subjects Baby monkeys
Type of Case studies
research
Independent Two “surrogate mothers” were provided: a
Variable wire one with a milk bottle, and a soft
cloth one with a friendly face
Factors held Same species, age
Constant
Dependent Where the monkeys went when frightened
Variable
Results The monkeys went to the soft mother
Ethical The monkeys had to be separated from their
Considerations natural mothers
Conclusion Babies need comforting as well as feeding.

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Different styles of parenting exist. According to Diana Baumrind, the
authoritarian emphasizes rules and the child's responsibility. The
permissive approach, common among middle class Americans over the past
fifty years, emphasizes the child's rights. (Permissive childrearing
was endorsed around 1950 by pediatrician Benjamin Spock, Carl Rogers,
and Erik Erikson.) A middle approach, the authoritative, focuses on
reasoning with the child and building a higher sense of morals and
duty. Whatever style of parenting is used by the parents, consistency
and love seem to be important for it to work.

Comparison of Baumrind’s parenting styles

Parenting Level of Emphasis is on Effectiveness
style emotional
support
Authoritarian Low Child’s duties, Children tend to be
limits; punitive withdrawn or hostile
Permissive High Child’s rights Children tend to have low
self-control
Authoritative High Goals, reasoning, Most children develop
independence social skills,
independence
Uninvolved Low Provision of Children tend to be
material things; apathetic or aggressive
emotional
detachment

Emir was three in this video. Some students regard this as

authoritarian parenting, but I regard this as authoritative since Emir
can see the consequences of his behavior and choose his response. When
he was seven he returned to Acapulco with younger cousins and repeated
to them what he had been told that “good children get to go to the
beach and bad children have to stay home.”

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The existence of male/female differences becomes apparent in early
childhood. The older children are, the more likely they are to prefer
to spend time with peers of the same gender. Boys do tend to
demonstrate more spatial and mathematical aptitude, and display more
aggressive and socially dominant behaviors. Girls are less likely to
have language deficits, and more likely to report being more concerned
about the feelings of others. However, it is important to note that
each of these dependent variables shows a bell curve distribution
across both genders: a few score very low, a few score very high, but
most score toward the middle. This means that although there may be
significant differences between the groups when looking at large sample
sizes, the overlap between the groups is great. Therefore, some girls
may be higher than the boys' norm, and some boys may be lower than the
norm for girls. Also, it is not clear if these differences are really
genetic, or merely reflect the fact that the subjects grew up in a
culture that emphasizes sex role differences in many ways.

Some of the important disorders of childhood are pica (the craving for
unnatural foods, such as paint chips), dyslexia (an inversion of letters
which makes it difficult to read), enuresis (persistent bedwetting
beyond the toddler stage), and sibling rivalry (conflicts with brothers
and sisters). Most of these disorders do not last past childhood, and
can be dealt with through a variety of interventions.

For example, enuresis can be treated through medication (e.g.,

imipramine, which just happens to be an anti-depressant, but it is
prescribed for its side effect of drying out the individual). Enuresis
can also be dealt with using a behavioral technique that conditions the
child to awaken when he feels a full bladder, just before urination
begins. The child sleeps on a special pad that will sound a loud bell
when it gets wet. The child learns to associate the full bladder with
waking up, and after acquisition of this new reflex he awakens just
before urination, and can walk to the bathroom.

270
Hyperactivity is characterized by a limited attention span (ADD,
ADHD). This is more widespread in the U.S. than in other countries,
and more commonly found in boys than girls. The exact cause is
uncertain, but a physiological factor is at least predisposing, and
probably principal. Medication can be used to stimulate the parts of
the brain that allow the child to focus. One controversial area of the
current DSM is that it contains adult ADHD. The most widely used
treatment is the SSRI anti-depressants (e.g., Prozac).

DISORDER: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

OLDER TERMS: attention deficit disorder (ADD),

hyperactivity

PREVALENCE: 2 - 15 percent, more common among males

SYMPTOMS: distractibility, inability to follow instructions,

aimless activity

AGE OF ONSET: preschool or elementary school

CAUSES: there is at least a biological predisposition

TREATMENT: medication (e.g., Ritalin, Pemoline, Concerta)

Tourette Syndrome involves irresistible movements (known as tics) and

making sounds. It is relatively rare, but is found predominantly in
boys. It is usually controlled with medication.

DISORDER: Tourette's Syndrome

PREVALENCE: rare, but more often among males

SYMPTOMS: uncontrollable recurring movements (tics) and

vocal patterns (grunts, clicks, obscenities)

AGE OF ONSET: preschool or elementary school

TREATMENT: anti-psychotic medications (e.g., Haldol),

cognitive-behavioral therapy
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Perhaps the most severe childhood mental disorder is autism. Autism is
a refusal to interact socially. The individual withdraws into various
forms of self-stimulation. Parents of autistics frequently report that
the baby never did seem to want to be held, talked to or played with.
Asperger syndrome is a term given to high functioning autistics.

DISORDER: autism

PREVALENCE: rare

SYMPTOMS: extreme social withdrawal, self-stimulation,

wants order

AGE OF ONSET: earliest childhood

CAUSES: genetics or prenatal development

TREATMENT: behavior modification to control more extreme

behaviors

Puberty is a biological event: the child gets the adult reproductive

system and secondary sexual characteristics. Adolescence is the
psychosocial period begun by the biological event of puberty, lasting
until the full assumption of adult roles. Until about a hundred years
ago, most children in most of the world passed right into adulthood
without this adolescent liminal period. The female menarche (first
menstrual period) occurred around age 15, and the girl was married,
working (or became a nun) within a few years. Over the course of the
20th century, the developed countries saw that better nutrition led to
earlier and earlier menarche (age 13), yet the median age for marriage
approached the mid-20s. Both boys and girls required more years of
formal education before they could assume financial independence.

Case Study: Ms. T, born in 1899 in Italy, immigrated to California with

her family in 1902. Her father worked in a tannery, while the mother
raised five children. Italian was the only language spoken at home, and
by some of the neighbors. Ms. T remained at home, helping to take care
of younger siblings, until she entered the public schools at age 9. At
age 16 she graduated from the 8th grade and got her first job in a
candy store. Two years later, with the U.S. entry into World War I, she
got a job in an aircraft factory, working long hours but earning good
money. Three years later she got married to a farmer, another immigrant
who had started school late and only finished the 8th grade and then
went right to work. Neither thought of themselves as particularly
deprived by their childhood experiences, regarding it as the norm for
immigrant Americans at that time.

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Case Study: Mr. S, born in 1941 in rural Mexico, was the sixth child in
a family of eleven. His siblings always regarded him as the most
articulate, ambitious and charming. After his father died when he was
12, he became a discipline problem. He did not want to follow the
directions from his older brothers or mother. When she would beat him
with a riding crop, he would just turn around and say, "You can't hit
as hard as daddy could." He ran away just after turning 13, and was
gone for a year. When he returned with his pockets full of money, he
boasted that he had been to Veracruz (several hundred miles away) where
he had cut sugar cane: getting a man's wage for a man's work. His
experience of early adulthood was not unusual for his generation. An
older brother had married at age 15, and a younger sister ran away at
age 14 to avoid marriage to an unwanted suitor.

Many tribal cultures have rites of passage: designated rituals that

indicate to the child that he is no longer a child (and must assume an
adult role within the society) and to the larger society that the
individual is no longer to be regarded as a child. Among the Australian
Aborigines, male initiation involved subincision, a painful genital
mutilation. On some Polynesian islands, this might involve mastering
certain dances, and being tattooed. For African tribes it could mean
circumcision and aesthetic scarring of other parts of the body. Among
the North American Indians, male initiation involved tests of strength,
wit and bravery. In Melanesia young males confronted tasks such as
bungee jumping or hunting the heads of enemies.

For most of the 20th century, American adolescence roughly corresponded

with the teen years. By age 20 most boys had joined the army or gotten
a job, and most girls were working or had gotten married. One of the
problems in American culture today is that there is not a clear cut end
point to adolescence, because the assumption of adult roles is varied
and gradual. In most places, American teens can drive at and get a job
at 16; vote, get tattoos and purchase cigarettes (legally) at 18;
gamble and drink (legally) at 21. Drug activity, sex, or having a baby
are sometimes seen as a declaration of being grown up. Financial
independence may occur at different ages, dependent upon social class
and family structure.

One of the current challenges of adolescence is that the adult body

comes before the adult roles (or the wisdom in how to deal with greater
strength and freedom). It is not just raging hormones, but the entire
limbic system (which intensifies the emotions) develops faster than
does the frontal lobe of the cerebrum (which controls emotions).

QUESTION #12.3: What is gerontology?

After adolescence, the age demarcations are less clear cut. Biological
events do not arrive at a uniform age. For example, menopause is the
end of female sexual fertility, and usually takes place between the
ages of 40 and 55. This can be a time of mood swings for some women,
primarily due to hormonal shifts. Hormone replacement therapy, as well
as anti-depressant medication, can stabilize menopausal moods. There is
no comparable male menopause, although some men may attempt to use that
as an excuse to justify their bad behavior.

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Senescence is old age. There is no universally agreed upon definition
of when old age begins, although somewhere between the ages of 60 to 66
is used by many governments in determining eligibility for benefits
such as pensions and medical coverage. In poor, developing nations low
life expectancy and high birth rates mean that only 2 or 3 percent of
the population is in the aged range. In developed countries of Europe,
North America and East Asia, the proportion of aged is increasing, and
will soon surpass a quarter of the population in some countries.

In 1900, only 4 percent of the U.S. population was over age 65, by mid-
century it was 8%, and by the century's end it was 12%. Now for the
first time, there are more Americans over age 65 than there are in the
nation’s high schools. In Japan and some European nations, the
proportion of aged is approaching 20% of the population. The proportion
could rise as high as one in four Americans by 2050, depending upon
trends in life expectancy, birth rate, and immigration. The gender
differential in life expectancies has meant that women outnumber men
about 3 to 2 at age 65, 2 to 1 at age 75, and 3 to 1 at age 85. Most
aged men in the U.S. are still married, but most aged women are widows.

The adjective "senile" implies some kind of problematic aging (such as

senile dementia). It is important to view aging as a normal process of
life, perhaps involving inevitable declines in measures such as
physical strength, endurance, and sensory acuity. However, old age
itself should not be viewed as a disease, but as a period of time in
which here may be greater vulnerability to certain diseases, physical
and mental. To assume that most old people are confused by dementia
would be an example of ageism (unfavorable stereotypes about the aged).
Less than ten percent of people over age 65 have clinically relevant
dementia. (Indeed, the incidence of depression in this age group is at
least double that of dementia.) We should not assume that all, or even
most, aged drivers are incompetent, but the incidence of difficulty in
driving may be high enough after age 70 or 80 to call for required
driving tests for license renewal.

The branch of medicine devoted to treating patients in later life is

known as geriatrics. Gerontology is the study of old age. Most
gerontologists received their scientific training in a discipline such
as biology, psychology, or sociology before specializing in gerontology
by focusing on aging as a content area.

One of the main challenges in any branch of psychology is how to obtain

the best research methodology given the limitations of the content
area. In gerontology, the problem of selecting the appropriate research
design centers around the difficulty posed by the concept of cohort. A
cohort is composed by individuals who were born over a certain range of
time. Usually, a cohort is narrower (covering perhaps a ten-year range)
than a generation (which may be 25 years). The problem posed to
research is that each cohort is unique, due to its particular
experiences of the interaction of the course of human lives with the
course of history.

For example, the cohort born around 1920 faced a number of early
disadvantages. There was a high proportion born with birth defects
(perhaps due to the flu pandemic of 1918-1919). This cohort entered the

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workforce in the late 1930s, when the U.S. economy was still sluggish.
This was the only U.S. cohort (with the possible exception of those
born around 1840) where most of the males saw military service and
combat. But then some advantages became evident.

This was the first cohort in which a large proportion went on to

college (making use of the G.I. Bill benefits) but as adult veterans,
not as adolescents. This cohort was poised to take advantage of the
prosperity and homebuilding boom of the 1950s, but too old to
participate in the sexual revolution of the late 1960s. As we look at
people in their 90s today, we see not only the effects of aging, but
the mark of that cohort's unique experience in history.

Case Study: Mr. Z, was born in 1920 in New Jersey. He married at age 19
to a local girl, and then moved to California in 1942 to work in a
booming defense related industry, but was eventually drafted. After the
war, he returned home to find his wife living with another man. He got
a divorce, but was saddled with alimony and child support payments that
took most of his paycheck. He married again in 1948, and had a second
family. They got a large piece of land from his father-in-law, and he
was handy with tools, so he built a very large, elegant home, far
beyond the hopes of the typical factory worker (in which he worked the
night shift). He regrets the trauma and expense of his first marriage,
but is very satisfied with his second marriage, his children, and
career. He thinks that his life before 1948 was hell, and after 1948
heaven. He is sorry that his own children and grandchildren, who have
college educations and two income households cannot purchase a home as
nice as he was able to have with a high school education, factory job,
and one paycheck household.

One frequently used research design to study human development is the

cross sectional design. A cross sectional design employs separate groups.
In studying children, we could achieve this by going to an elementary
school and looking at first graders (for a group of six year olds) and
fifth graders (for a group of ten year olds). In general, we could say
that both groups come from the same cohort, because a four-year
difference is not that great in most cases. However, when we are
studying aging, a cross sectional design will end up with separate
groups who come from different cohorts.

design problem: confounding variables due to different

historical factors influencing different groups.

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Suppose we want to see if attitudes about pre-marital sex differ across
the life cycle. We go down to the local senior citizen center and get a
group of 80 year olds (born in the 1930s). We go down to the local
community college to get a sample of 20 year olds. We go down to a
health club and look for an exercise class for middle aged people for
some 50 year olds. (Already, you might be wondering if these three
different locations might end up getting people who differ on so many
other variables, that a comparison just based upon age will be
difficult.) We ask all the subjects in the sample the same question.

"In general, do you think it is wrong or not wrong for a man and a woman
to have sexual relations if they are not married to each other?"

We find that the majority of the older cohort says that it is wrong,
and a majority of the younger cohorts say that it is not wrong. Should
we infer that this attitude difference is due to the natural process of
aging and going through different social roles? One confounding
variable is that these three different age groups have come from three
different cohorts, and therefore, these attitude differences may tell
us more about unique historical periods rather than a universal process
of aging. The 50 year olds born in 1960 grew up during the height of
the sexual revolution (just after the widespread distribution of the
pill, and the legalization of abortion), and just before the discovery
of AIDS. Those "Baby Boomers" may be the sexiest cohort ever.

An alternative design for research is the longitudinal. These studies

take the same sample and repeatedly measure it over different time
periods. In dealing with children at an elementary school you could
start this year with the first graders, and come back in just four
years to look at the same kids as fifth graders. When you use a
longitudinal study in gerontology, you have to wait many years between
measures. (The same researchers who start such a study are rarely
around at its completion, but must turn over the study to a new
generation of investigators.) Another problem is that even when the
study is over, we may have discovered a trend that only applies to the
one cohort that was studied in the sample. The biggest problem in
longitudinal research is known as differential attrition: the sample we
end up with is not representative of the population. The people most
likely to drop out of the sample (i.e., die) are those who use drugs,
smoke, and have multiple sexual partners. The final sample will overly
represent people like Ned Flanders, Mormons, and Seventh Day
Adventists, and they are more likely to have traditional views about
pre-marital sex.

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 design problem: differential attrition of subjects will yield a
non-representative sample by the time later measures are done

These design problems impact most research on aging. For example, do

mental abilities decline in later life? Suppose we use a standardized
IQ test like the WAIS. Cross sectional studies usually show the younger
(more test wise) cohort doing much better. Longitudinal studies show
more stability of scores (as the poor performers are more likely to
drop out due to attrition).

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Differences would be found if we changed the operational definition of
IQ: are we looking more at fluid intelligence (the ability to
demonstrate flexible problem solving) or crystallized intelligence (an
expanding fund of knowledge based upon learning and experience)? Fluid
intelligence is more likely to show a decline, while crystallized
intelligence is more likely to show stability.

Psychiatrist Elizabeth Kubler-Ross has speculated that as individuals

approach death, they go through predictable stages: denial, bargaining,
anger, depression and acceptance. This model may fit many patients
suffering from terminal illness (some cancers) but it does not apply to
everyone, such as the aged, most of whom express a readiness for death.

Case Study: Ms. J, 90, is in a nursing home due to physical

disabilities (hip fracture, arthritis) but shows no signs of dementia.
She is normally in good spirits. One day, the nursing home staff could
not find her, which was very unusual because she was usually in her
room, in the recreation area, or slowly moving between the two with her
walker. Ms. J was discovered outside in the parking lot, under a tree.
When asked what she was doing there, she replied "Every day I pray to
the Lord to call me to heaven. My time in this old body should be over,
but sometimes I worry that inside, He may not be able to hear me."

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The Kubler-Ross model has been applied to the trajectory of bereavement
(grief, mourning) in the survivors, especially when the death was
unexpected.

QUESTION #12.4: What is the cognitive stage theory of development?

Jean Piaget constructed a stage theory of child development that is

cognitive, emphasizing how children's mental abilities progress
qualitatively in a fixed, invariance sequence of stages. Piaget is not
so much concerned with emotion, or interpersonal processes, but with
the child's cognitive schemas: the way that the child thinks about the
world, using categories and heuristics to understand its complexities.
As the child perceives new sensory information that fits his pre-
existing schemas, the child engaged in assimilation, using the same
schemas to digest the new information. If he confronts new information
that does not fit into his pre-existing schema, he will have to engage
in accommodation, changing his schema in some way so that the new
information fits.

Stage one is sensorimotor (ages 0-2). The child is just beginning to

relate to his senses and muscles and understand himself as different
from the rest of the world. During this stage he comes to master the
concept of object permanence. Before this happens (between 6 to 12
months) a child who is shown a toy, and then the toy is put behind a
screen, may conclude that the toy no longer exists. This explains why
children of this age are so fascinated by the game "peek-a-booh"
because when the other person's face disappears, it is as if the other
person has ceased to exist, and when the face returns, there is a
magical quality.

Stage two is preoperational (ages 2-7). Here the child has mastered the
rudiments of language and symbolic thinking. He can pretend that a
stick is a gun or a horse. He is not yet capable of understanding the
conservation of quantity. If he is shown some grape juice in a tall
cylinder, and then watches it being poured into a flat bowl, he will
think that there was more juice in the tall cylinder.

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At this stage he also remains very egocentric, and is unable to look at
something from the perspective of another person. In the three mountain
problem, the child is asked to imagine how the three mountains (cones
of different colors) must look to the doll on the left. In this
arrangement, the big mountain is in the back, to the right. A medium
sized mountain is in the back, to the left. A small mountain is on the
right, fairly close, in front of the big mountain. Most children at
this stage will assume that the doll would see it just like the child's
own view from the front.

Stage three is the concrete operational stage (ages 7-11). The child
will come to understand that an object might fit in more than one
category. A baseball fits into the category of plaything, and the
category of white, and the category of round. The child will come to
understand conservation of quantity (that we have the same amount of
juice whether it is poured into one container or another). He will come
to be able to perceive things from different perspectives.

Stage four is the formal operational stage (starting after age 11). The
child will be able to employ abstract concepts, analogies, and
hypothetical reasoning. Consider the following series of questions.

"Will a penny float?" The child agrees that it will not.

"Why doesn't a penny float?" The child says it is too heavy.

"Will a big boat float?" The child agrees that it can.

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"What weighs more: a big boat or a tiny penny?" The child agrees that the boat
weighs more.

"Why will a big boat float, but a tiny penny sink?" The child may admit that he
does not know, or guess that it may be the shape of the boat, or what
it is made out of.

When children are firmly in the formal operational stage, their answers
will be able to include something about the weight of the boat, in
proportion to its size, being less than that of the water.

Why does a tiny penny sink but a large boat float?

Another example is the pendulum problem. After being shown a pendulum,

the child is asked, how can we get this pendulum to go back and forth
in less time? He is shown three possible alternations of an independent
variable: higher drop point, greater weight, or shorter string?

The correct answer is the shorter string, but to get it the child has
to go through the formal operation of actually doing the experiment
systematically: observing the results (swing time) of the manipulation
of each independent variable.

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 How could we shorten the time of the pendulum’s swing?

Many psychologists have questioned the specifics of Piaget's stages,

suggesting that children may be just confused by the phrasing of the
questions, and maybe there are wider individual variations that he
thought possible. However, the central concept to be gleaned from
Piaget is that children can only learn complicated reasoning processes
when they are ready.

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Lev Vygotsky offered a different view of cognitive development in
childhood. When children confront a task that is beyond their present
capabilities, they may develop fear or frustration. A parent, teacher,
or older child may intervene to provide the scaffolding the child needs
to accomplish the task. This scaffolding may involve instructions,
encouragement, and/or assistance. As the child demonstrates increasing
competence on the task, the adult can decrease the level of assistance.
These three videos demonstrate the superiority of Vygotsky over Piaget.
The first video shows that six-year-old Emir cannot pass Piaget’s test
of seriating seven objects of different length. The second video shows
that he can put seven cardinal numbers in order. The third video shows
that with cardinal scaffolding, he can correctly seriate the objects.

One follower of Piaget was Lawrence Kohlberg, who attempted to apply

cognitive developmental theory to moral development. Kohlberg suggested
that moral development is dependent upon the child's ability to reason
out the ethical implications of actions. He suggested that there were
three levels and six stages of this cognitive development. Most
children are in the pre-conventional level, most adolescents make it
into the conventional level, and some adults may make it into the post-
conventional level.

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 KOHLBERG'S STAGES OF ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT

LEVEL ONE: PRE-CONVENTIONAL

STAGE ONE: "What is bad is what you get punished for."

STAGE TWO: "What is bad is what has bad results."

LEVEL TWO: CONVENTIONAL

STAGE THREE: "Bad intentions are evil; good intentions are good."

STAGE FOUR: "Do your duty. Follow the rules."

LEVEL THREE: POST-CONVENTIONAL

STAGE FIVE: "Encourage democracy, protection of

individual rights, due process of law."

STAGE SIX: "Pursue universal ethical principles."

One way to determine at which stage a child is functioning is to

present a story with a moral dilemma, and listen to the child's
verdict.

"This is a story about two boys, Jack and Jim. Both did something bad,
but who should be punished more? Jack tried to help an old lady across
the street, but they both slipped and she broke her hip. Jack intended
to do something good, but the results were bad. Jim tried to break into
an old lady's house to steal her money. When he tried to get in, that
set off an alarm, and he ran away. When the police came to see why the
alarm went off, they found that the old lady had fallen the day before,
and could not get up. Because the Jim tried to get in, and set off the
alarm, the police were able to come and save her life. Jim intended to
do something bad, but the results were good. Which boy should be
punished more severely: Jack who had the good intensions with the bad
results, or Jim who had the bad intensions with the good results?"

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Children in the second stage will tend to punish Jack more severely
(morality based upon results), while children in the third stage will
tend to punish Jim more severely (morality based upon intensions).

Kohlberg's model may ignore some additional factors in moral decision-

making. For example, boys are more likely to think in terms of concepts
of justice, while girls are more likely to consider the feelings of
everyone involved. Another factor may be the social context in which
the individual functions.

Case Study: Mr. B, now in is 50s, considers himself to be honest and

ethical, at least when dealing with U.S. government agencies. He is
stage four, declaring all of his merchandise when he passes customs,
declaring all of his income for the I.R.S. When he first started doing
business in Mexico in 1976 he went down to the preconventional level of
avoiding punishment or trying to get reasonably good results for all
concerned. He engaged in smuggling and bribery in Mexico which he would
never dream of doing in the U.S. With the passage of NAFTA and the
change of government in Mexico, Mr. B no longer finds it necessary to
engage in bribery or smuggling on the Mexican side, and he has come up
to a stage four level of functioning on that side of the border as
well.

QUESTION #12.5: What is the psychoanalytic stage theory of development?

Freud's personality theory contains a developmental model focused on the

locus of psychosexual energy. In the oral stage (0-1) the sexual energy
is clustered about the mouth, as the infant gains pleasure from sucking
at the breast. Disturbance and fixation at that stage can lead to a
dependent and gullible individual. In the anal stage (1-3) the sexual
energy goes to the opposite end of the alimentary canal during toilet
training. Disturbance and fixation at the anal stage can result in a
character type depicted by Ebenezer Scrooge: emotionally constricted,
obsessed with cleanliness, order, punctuality, and frugality (traits
associated with toilet excessive toilet training.) During the phallic
stage (3-6) the sexual energy gets to the right place (phallus is the
Greek word for penis). This is the time of the Oedipus Complex.
Someone stuck in this phase would be flirtatious and seek many sexual
partners. In latency (6-13) the sexual energy is quiescent. It is
awakened in the full adult genital (13+) stage at puberty when the
adolescent projects libido onto other members of the opposite sex
beyond the mother.

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 Freudian psycho-sexual developmental stages
Stage Age Characteristics of those fixated
Oral 0-1 Dependent, whiny, gullible
Anal 1-3 Emotionally constricted, frugal, orderly, punctual
Phallic 3-6 Flirtatious, conceited
Latency 6-13
Genital 13+

Case Study: Mr. C, born in 1946 after the death of his father in a car
accident, grew up to see his mother have a series of boyfriends and
husbands. Mr. C never identified with any of them, but considered them
all as rivals for his mother's affection. Tall and charming, he had
many lovers. Although he married at age 30, he continued his
philandering with all kinds of women, good looking and plain. The lack
of an appropriate father figure meant that Mr. C would be vulnerable to
fixation at the phallic stage.

Erik Erikson was a loyal member of the Vienna psychoanalytic movement,

trained by Anna Freud herself, and specializing in child analysis.
Erikson never rejected his psychoanalytic foundations, but he just
shifted the emphasis from the sexual to the interpersonal and cultural.
He then added three adult stages. Each stage constitutes a critical
period for the development of a key virtue. Failure to resolve any
stage will make resolution of later stages more difficult.

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In stage one, oral (0-1) the child is in an incorporative mode, taking
in the mother's nourishment and love. The central conflict is one of
trust vs. mistrust, and the central virtue to be attained is hope. If
adult(s) are present and tend to the child's needs for nurturing in
this first stage, the child will learn to trust the world to meet his
needs. If he does not develop trust at this time it will be difficult
for him to successfully negotiate the later stages.

In stage two, anal (1-3) the child must meet the social demands for
toilet training. If he is helped to do this gently, he will develop a
sense of autonomy from his biological limits, otherwise he may be
plagued by shame and doubt about his ability to achieve anything.
Successful toilet training is the prototype of his use of his will
power.

In stage three, phallic (3-6) the child is in an intrusive mode and

starts getting into everything. What he needs at this point is
realistic standards of conduct that will not stifle his initiative.
Erikson, who supported a relatively permissive approach toward
childrearing, contended that excessive standards or limits would just
give the child excessive guilt.

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In stage four, latency (6-13) the child is in school, and must develop
competency in both academics and social skills. A deficiency in either
of these will give a sense of inferiority that will plague him the rest
of his life. Erikson's description of this stage incorporates some of
Adler's model.

In stage five, adolescence (13-20) the goal is to figure out who one is
and formulate an individual identity. Erikson considered adolescence to
be an important stage, a moratorium on adult responsibilities to give
the teen the extra time needed to try out some different possibilities.
If she keeps up this tentativeness too long, that results in identity
diffusion. Eventually, the adolescent must have some fidelity to
certain roles that can form the core of her new adult identity.

In stage six, young adulthood (20-30) the goal is to develop true

emotional intimacy with another, and avoid selfish isolation. Success
at this stage is heavily dependent upon success in the prior stage: if
you do not know who you are (identity) you will have a hard time
building an intimate relationship with another person.

Case Study: Mr. Z, born in 1920 (and discussed above) is a good example
of stage six. He now admits that when he married his first wife at age
19, he was not ready for the responsibilities of marriage (either to
know what he really wanted in a mate or how to function in the role of
a husband). A couple of years overseas in the army, and a couple more
living on his own after the divorce helped him identify his priorities
in life, so that when he selected the second Ms. Z, he chose someone
more compatible, and he was better prepared to be a good husband.

Stage seven, middle age (30-60) is the longest and the conflict is
generativity vs. stagnation. This is the time when men must focus on
developing their careers and raising their families. This is the time
when they must create something which will sustain the contributions of
their identity after they are gone. In this phase, Erikson has also
incorporated much of Adler's ideas about social interest. Homer Simpson
epitomizes the stagnant middle aged male. He hates his job. He is
tormented by his children. He is perplexed by the needs of his wife. He
just wants to eat, drink, and watch TV.

Stage eight, old age (60+) is the last. The task is to look back and
accept that one has done well, without too many regrets or apologies.
Most gerontologists have found this to be a superficial and idealized
view of old age, ignoring the “here and now” problems that can lead to
depression.

Erikson's model was further extended by Levinson who added several

adult sub stages. Levinson did a longitudinal study of a graduating
class of men from Yale. He found that most of them went through about a
dozen identifiable stages (which may be attributable to the homogeneity
of his sample).

Carol Gilligan has pointed out that Erikson's model is excessively male.
Female development tends to come less in terms of fixed stages and more
in terms of gradually widening circles of caring relationships.

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All of the stage theories tend to overemphasize the similarity of
experience of each individual going through the life cycle and ignore
individual differences. Both Piaget and Erikson worked primarily at the
front end of the life cycle, where individual differences in the life
cycle are minimal: e.g., all children start school around age 5. At the
end of the life cycle there is greater variability, in physical and
mental hardiness, accomplishments, and results.

One way to appreciate these differences is to get out of the modality

of stairs, and start using Brink’s metaphor of multiple moving conveyor
belts, and how people have to straddle several of them simultaneously,
and how they make choices to get on, or off and maybe on again. The
only role you have from the day you are born until the day you die is
that you are a possessor of a physical body. The other roles come and
go, and perhaps change. For example, you are a child of your parents
until they die, but that role changes after about age 18. You will
probably start the student role at age 5, and remain to at least 18,
but some people choose to stop then, and maybe come back and restart it
later by going back to start or finish college. The work role usually
starts in the late teens, but that also might stop at times: to go back
to school, to be a primary at home parent, to take care of aging
parents, or because of unemployment, disability or retirement. The
spouse role starts, usually in the twenties, but that can be ended (by
divorce or widowhood) and then started again by remarriage. One of the
most powerful and enduring roles is being a parent to one's own
children. This conveyor belt (or “people mover”) model is of use to
clinical psychologists and vocational counselors who are trying to
understand the client’s condition and help the client make realistic
decisions about role commitments.

Case Study: Ms. L, age 64, has her life space depicted by the diagram
below. With it we can see several problematic periods of her life. She
experienced some rapid role transitions in her late twenties. In one
year she quit work, had a baby, and tried to go back to school. A few
years later, she got out of a bad marriage and went back to work at the
same time. In her forties, she was parenting teenagers, then quit work
to take care of a dying parent. She then went into a deep depression,
and when she came out of it she remarried and went back to work. In her
early sixties, she became a widow and then was forcibly retired within
the same year. Focusing on these stress points in life can help her
sort through priorities, and strengths, and make good decisions for the
rest of her life.

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 Brink’s developmental model of overlapping roles

Theories of Psychological Development

Theorist Approach Subjects Main theme
Lorenz Ethology ducks, geese Imprinting in critical
periods
Harlow Lab monkeys Infants need nurturing and
experiments mental stimulation
Freud Psychoanalytic adult Psychosexual fixation
clinical & patients,
historical Da Vinci,
case studies Wilson
Erikson Psychoanalytic child Eight psychosocial critical
clinical & patients, periods
historical Luther,
case studies Gandhi
Piaget Cognitive children Cognitive stages of reasoning
Kohlberg Cognitive children & Cognitive stages of reasoning
adults about ethics
Vygotsky Cognitive children Process of helping the child
learn new tasks
Brink Cognitive elders, Overlapping roles
Clinical & workers,
industrial & Hitler,
historical Joseph Smith
case studies

This video summarizes many of these models.

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 UNIT 13: SOCIAL

QUESTION #13.1: What are attitudes?

Social psychology is the branch studying individuals in a macro

interpersonal environment, how they respond to interpersonal and
institutional stimuli. One topic within social psychology would be
attitudes, which are defined as learned habits for responding to social
stimuli. Attitudes must not be confused with personality traits.
Attitudes are not as permanent or as consistent as personality traits.
Traits are supposed to be characteristic of the individual, regardless
of the situation. Attitudes are more influenced by the situation. The
relationship between attitudes and personality traits is seen below.

Relationship between PERSONALITY and ATTITUDES

The common use of the term "attitude" often fails to appreciate this
distinction. Whenever you hear someone say "He has a bad attitude" (if
it is about everything, it is not an attitude contingent upon the
object, it is an enduring trait of the subject).

PERSONALITY IS TRAITS.
(enduring, integrated)

ATTITUDES ARE SOCIAL HABITS.

(changeable, diverse)

An attitude is always about a specific thing, an object, and describes

the subject's understanding of that object, the emotional evaluation of
that it, and his predisposition to act in a certain way toward it. So,
each attitude can be dissected into three components: cognitive,
affective, and behavioral.

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The cognitive component refers to the subject's belief about the object
in question. Here we are not talking about religious beliefs (which are
doctrines about God and salvation) but beliefs as factual statements
that are empirically testable. For example, "I believe that it is now
about 73 degrees Fahrenheit in this room" is a belief in the sense of
being a statement about my acceptance of a certain claim of fact. We
could empirically verify the statement by getting a thermometer. Notice
that my belief about the temperature in this room (unlike my religious
doctrines) will frequently change when new information is supplied. I
might readjust my estimate upward if I notice that I am perspiring, or
if someone shows me a different thermometer with a reading of 76
degrees.

The affective component is how I feel about the object in question. This
might be the emotions I experience when I am in the presence of the
thing, or even start to think about it. The affective component can
also refer to how I evaluate the object in question, especially how it
fits into a larger scheme of preferences, priorities and values. Note
that ethical and moral judgments should not be referred to as "beliefs"
(because they are not empirically verifiable). Moral judgments are not
based upon facts, but values, and are therefore part of the affective
component of the attitude.

The behavioral component refers to what the subject tends to do in the

presence of the object. When it comes to attitudes about political
candidates or issues, the corresponding behavior is how you vote or to
which side you might contribute your time or money. When it comes to
attitudes about products and companies, the behavioral component is the
consumer's decision to purchase the product.

Case Study: Ms. I, 18, has a strong attitude on the topic of abortion.
She describes herself as Pro-Life (anti-abortion). Here is how her
attitude could be diagramed into the three components.

Ms. I has an unfavorable attitude toward abortion. (We do not call

attitudes positive or negative.)

COGNITIVE COMPONENT: Ms. I believes that the process of abortion

results in the death of the fetus.

AFFECTIVE COMPONENT: Ms. I greatly values all human life, and says that
it is morally wrong to kill the innocent. Ms. I accepts the doctrine of
her Church that the protection of the life of the fetus is a higher
priority than the right of the pregnant woman to terminate an unwanted
pregnancy. When Ms. I thinks about the dead aborted fetus, she feels
very sad, but also angry.

BEHAVIORAL COMPONENT: Ms. I has participated in several anti-abortion

demonstrations. When an election comes up, she votes for Pro-Life
candidates. If Ms. I were to become pregnant, she would not get an
abortion herself.

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Case Study: Mr. B, age 53, is an international businessman. He must fly
between California and Mexico about a dozen times a year. He has tried
just about every airline on that route, but his experiences and
priorities have made him brand loyal to Volaris. Here is how we could
diagram his attitude.

Mr. B has a favorable attitude toward Volaris.

COGNITIVE COMPONENT: Mr. B believes that Volaris has the highest

percentage of on time flights.

AFFECTIVE COMPONENT: Mr. B prefers to arrive at his destination on

time. This punctuality is his priority when he selects an airline. He
so greatly values this feature, that he would pay more for a ticket on
an airline with a better on time record. When Mr. B arrives on time, he
is calm. When he even thinks that he might arrive late, he gets very
nervous.

BEHAVIORAL COMPONENT: Mr. B goes to the Volaris website and purchases a

ticket.

In the examples above, all three components of the attitude are

consistent. When they are not, the individual perceives a frustrating
situation known as cognitive dissonance. Leon Festinger studied
cognitive dissonance and found that when the components of an attitude
disagree, belief may be the weakest of the three, and people may change
what they believe in order to match what they do.

In 1954 the first Surgeon General's report about the dangers of

cigarette smoking was issued. These were correlational data pointing
out the link between smoking and lung cancer. While most smokers do not
end up getting lung cancer, most cases of lung cancer are found in
smokers. In the wake of this report, national polling organizations
asked Americans if they believed that smoking caused cancer. Most non-
smokers agreed that it did, and cited the Surgeon General's report as
convincing evidence. Most smokers who were surveyed did not accept the
causal inference, but suggested an alternative explanation for the
correlation: "Maybe people get cancer because they are more nervous,
and nervous people have a greater need to smoke." This is a plausible
explanation of spurious correlation due to collateral effects.

(The actual causal link was not verified for another decade. Then
experimenters forced dogs to smoke the equivalent of two packs of
cigarettes a day in order to show that smoking greatly increases the
risk of lung cancer.)

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 Smokers’ explanation of spurious correlation: smoking & lung cancer

Research on cognitive dissonance

Researcher(s) Festinger
Subjects Adults who responded to a poll
Type of Survey
research
Independent Whether or not the respondent was a smoker
Variable (but if this is a choice, it is a DV).
Factors held All persons received the same information:
Constant the Surgeon General’s report about the
correlation between smoking and cancer
Dependent Whether or not the respondent inferred a
Variable causal link between smoking and cancer.
Results Smokers were less likely to infer that
smoking was the cause of cancer
Conclusion Smokers would experience cognitive
dissonance if they believed that smoking
caused cancer, and therefore rejected this
belief rather than changed their smoking
behavior.

What is more important in the development of the topic of cognitive

dissonance is how Festinger interpreted the poll data. He inferred that
smokers had greater resistance to the belief that smoking causes cancer
because it would place them in a state of cognitive dissonance. We can
assume that smokers and non-smokers alike have a similar affective

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component (i.e., a preference for health and a long life). When the
smoker hears evidence suggesting that smoking might cause cancer
(cognitive component) he can either stop smoking (change the behavioral
component) or he can reject the causal link. Since smoking is
physically addictive, and not easy to quit, most smokers choose to
minimize acknowledgement of the risk rather than change their behavior.

Another example of Festinger's research on cognitive dissonance comes

from an experiment he did on college students who had volunteered to
participate in a study. When the students arrived, they went into a
room where they had to work individually on a rather boring task
(thinking that their performance was the dependent variable being
measured). When the students were done, they were asked to go out and
talk to another student about volunteering for the experiment.
Specifically, the students who had just performed the boring task were
asked to describe the boring task as somewhat interesting. Half of the
students were told that they would be paid ten dollars for talking to
the next student, but the other half of the students were told that
they would be paid only a dollar. Later, all of the original students
were debriefed and asked if they honestly thought that the task was
boring. Almost all of the group paid ten dollars agreed that the task
was boring.

Research on cognitive dissonance

Researcher(s) Festinger
Subjects College students
Type of Experiment
research
Independent Whether subjects were paid $20 or $1 to
Variable describe a boring task as interesting
Factors held All students performed the same boring task
Constant
Dependent What the students reported that they really
Variable thought about the task when being debriefed
Results Students who were paid more were more likely
to think that the task was really boring
Ethical The students were forced to do a boring task
Considerations and then encouraged to deceive other
students about the nature of the task
Conclusion The students who were paid less experienced
a cognitive dissonance, and resolved it by
changing their belief about whether or not
the task was boring.

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Festinger inferred that they had justified their lying by telling
themselves "At least I am getting ten dollars for saying this."
However, many of the students who had only been paid one dollar for
describing the task as interesting subsequently reported that the task
really was somewhat interesting. Festinger inferred that these subjects
could not justify lying for just a dollar, so they must have convinced
themselves that they were actually telling the truth when they
described the task as interesting: behavior had changed belief.

The tendency of consumers and voters to retrospectively regard their

decisions with greater confidence might also be explained by cognitive
dissonance. After the behavior (the purchase or the vote) was
accomplished, the reasons for it look more clear and compelling than
before. The polls that were done before the 2000 presidential election
in Mexico indicated that it would be a close one. Many voters were
relatively undecided up to the last minute. Potential voters were asked
to rate the favorability of Labastida, Fox, and Cardenas, on a five-
point scale: very favorable, somewhat favorable, neutral, somewhat
unfavorable, very unfavorable. The mean favorability ratings were
pretty close. Right after Fox's victory in the election, the survey was
repeated and his favorability ratings jumped, especially among those
who admitted to having voted for Fox. Before the election, voters had
thought "maybe Fox would be a little better" and after they had finally
voted for Fox they thought "I know I did the right thing, Fox is
definitely much better."

Another application of cognitive dissonance occurs in the case of

effort justification. The more someone invests time, money, or effort,
the more he is convinced that he made the wise choice, and that his
efforts were worth it. A child who has to work and save for a bicycle
will value it more, and take better care of it, than if the bicycle was
given to him as a gift, with no effort on his own part.

Persuasion is the attempt to change attitudes. Persuasion can target

any of the attitudinal components: cognitive, affective or behavioral.
The central route to persuasion is to focus on the facts and reason, but
this is not always the most effective technique. Just focusing on
objective information (the cognitive component) will probably only be
effective if the audience already agrees with the values and finds the
behaviors otherwise acceptable. A message that focuses on values that
the audience already holds can be very effective in spurring them to
action.

According to the cognitive dissonance theory, the best way to change

certain behaviors would be to get the audience doing something, and
their hearts and minds will follow. This is why getting someone to
invest the time and effort to attend a political rally is one of the
best ways of making sure that he will convince himself that the
candidate is really worth voting for: "He was worth going to that rally
for, so he is definitely worth voting for." In the 2000 election in
Spain, Prime Minister Aznar, who was generally known for his
promptness, would intentionally make his audiences wait at least half
an hour for his appearances, hoping that it would build their sense of
commitment: "I waited a long time to see him, he must be good."

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Sales representatives and politicians have developed a variety of
techniques for persuasion, and know when one is more likely to be
effective. The foot in the door technique starts with a small request to
get the subject into the habit of complying, and then greater requests
follow. The opposite approach is called door in the face, which begins
with a large request (which the sales person expects to be rejected)
but is then followed by a more moderate request which the initial
anchoring will cause the subject to see as more reasonable by
comparison.

Ethnocentrism refers to the fact that people tend to have more

favorable attitudes about their own group, and less favorable attitudes
about others. Pride in one’s ancestry, political party or
denominational affiliation is normal, but it can lead to dogmatism,
stereotyping, prejudice, scapegoating and discrimination. Dogmatic
attitudes are those that are most rigid and intolerant. Therefore, they
are more resistant to persuasion. The word "dogma" comes from religion,
and refers to a core of doctrine that should not be questioned.

Profiling based upon stereotypes

Passenger is a terrorist
Yes No
P
A
S Middle Very few Most Middle
S Eastern passengers Eastern males
E males (but most going through
N terrorists) the airport
G
E
R

P
R All
O other Extremely Most
F passengers rare passengers
I
L
E

Stereotypes are the cognitive component of attitudes about types of

people (or other things). Stereotypes are in the form of
generalizations that may (or may not) be based upon statistics such as
averages or correlations. The problem arises when the subject
overgeneralizes, and starts treating individuals in those classes as if
all members of the class had the trait. To say that the crime rate is
higher among African American males than it is among White males may be
verifiable if we look at the averages. However, if I conclude that all
African Americans are criminals, then I have accepted a stereotype that
can lead to prejudice, scapegoating and discrimination. Many

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stereotypes are not even based upon averages or correlations, but upon
a handful of isolated, emotionalized examples that fit the individual's
confirmation bias. "They arrested another criminal. His picture is in
the paper, another Black man." Stereotypes are at the core of much of
profiling used by law enforcement agencies.

Profiling should be based upon more than such stereotypes, and should
involve statistical analysis. When the airport screeners select the 70-
year-old grandmother or the couple traveling with an infant, this is
almost certainly a waste of everyone’s time. The only purpose of
searching these passengers is to send a message: anyone might be
searched. By focusing on the profile of the Middle Eastern male, the
screeners would be more likely to catch most of the terrorists, however
over 99 percent of the Middle Eastern males flying would be innocent,
targeted only because of the stereotype. Such profiling might also
convince other terrorists (e.g., another Tim McVeigh or another Manson
family) that the opportunity exists for airline terrorism. It could
also convince Middle Eastern males planning terrorist activities to try
some other technique.

Scapegoating is the process of blaming an individual or an entire class

of people for problems of which they are innocent. Some players on a
losing sports team may try to scapegoat one player, "If you hadn't made
that bad play in the second quarter…" The Irish joke that the English
brought the fleas. Perhaps the most severe example of scapegoating
occurred in Germany in the 1930s. This proud, industrious, well
educated nation had suffered a great series of setbacks: losing the
First World War, hyperinflation in the 1920's, the Great Depression and
massive unemployment starting in 1929, and political instability in the
early 1930s. One party rose to power based upon effective use of
scapegoating. The National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazis)
claimed that all the problems of Germany could be blamed on the three
percent of the population that was Jewish. Why did we lose the war? Our
soldiers fought bravely at the front! It must be those Jewish diplomats
who sold us out during the peace talks. Why did we have the inflation?
The Jewish bankers! Why did we have unemployment? The Jewish
industrialists! Why do we have political instability? The Jewish
radicals! Pornography? The Jewish writings, artists, and film
directors! As far-fetched as these claims may seem, Hitler was not the
first or the last to use these Anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) claims. In the
Middle Ages, the Jews were blamed for the plague. Some current Middle
Eastern leaders may blame the Jews for poverty in the Arab world. One
explanation for these attempts at scapegoating is that leaders might be
trying to distract the people from the real causes of their problems,
and/or trying to use public wrath against the scapegoats to consolidate
political power.

Prejudice refers to an attitude held without sufficient evidence.

Prejudice usually refers to attitudes about other classes of people,
usually unfavorable attitudes. Most prejudice is at least in part based
upon stereotypes, scapegoating and other dogmatic attitudes. Allport
and Adler described the dynamics of prejudice and scapegoating:
subjects try to feel better about themselves by denigrating someone
else. Sixty years ago, Milton Rokeach found that in the South, White
prejudice against African Americans was inversely related to socio-
economic class. It was the poor Whites who were most opposed to

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integration. This was to some extent a fear of competing with African
Americans in the workplace, but also it related to the frame of mind "I
may be poor, but at least I am White." If poor Whites accepted the idea
that Blacks were not inferior, then there was nothing special about
being White.

Research on Prejudice
Researcher(s) Rokeach
Subjects Southern whites
Type of Survey
research
Independent Social class
Variable
Factors held All subjects were white, and living in the
Constant south
Dependent Prejudice against Blacks
Variable
Results Prejudice against Blacks was greater among
the lower class subjects
Conclusion Racial prejudice serves to help one feel
better about one’s own low status

A related example comes from India, which for centuries had fixed
social classes known as the caste system: Brahmin priest, noble,
merchant, worker-peasant (and many sub-caste divisions, especially
within the lowest caste). The great leader of the independence movement
from Britain, Mohandas Gandhi, was also a reformer in the area of
caste. Gandhi and other reformers tended to come from the Brahmin
(highest) caste. Today, most Brahmins are convinced that their economic
strength and educational attainments will not be threatened by
abolishing caste inequities. The greatest opponents to these reforms
have been members of the lower (but not lowest) groups, who do not have
very much, and do not want to lose the privilege of being able to at
least look down on someone else.

Discrimination refers to arbitrary behavior jeopardizing the rights of

others. Discrimination often occurs in areas such as the workplace
(hiring and promotion) and the real estate market. Discrimination is
the behavioral component of the prejudicial attitude.

Case Study: Mr. U, 43, runs a property management firm in San

Francisco. He is of Chinese descent, but his family has been in
California for several generations. When he presented himself to a
prospective client (the new owner of an apartment building who was
looking for tenants), Mr. U displayed one of his prejudices, perhaps
thinking that his client might also share it. "Don't worry, I only get
tenants who are from Taiwan or Hong Kong. You have to watch out for
Chinese right off the boat from the mainland. You rent to one of them
and they put forty people into one apartment." His generalization about

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the mainland Chinese is a stereotype. If he follows through on his
actions, that would be discrimination.

Mr. U's rental practices are illegal in certain localities. Also

illegal are hiring practices that undeservedly discriminate on the
basis of ethnicity, gender, disability, national origin, religion, or
age (over 40). Two classes not usually protected in hiring and rental
discrimination are fat people and homosexuals.

Case Study: Mr. R, age 30, is a freelance technical writer. He was

recruited by a head hunter who then interviewed him, and she was highly
impressed with his talents. Mr. R owns a home in San Francisco with a
male pediatrician, with whom he has been in a long term relationship.
He is not "in your face" about his homosexuality, but it is not
something that he hides. When the head hunter sent Mr. R as a candidate
for a technical writing job with a client company in Oakland, the firm
was reluctant to call back and give a verdict. Finally, the head hunter
got through and was told "He would not really fit in here."
Fortunately, the head hunter found Mr. R a better position with a "gay
friendly" firm in Palo Alto.

Case Study: Ms. Y, age 36, had ten years of office experience before
she left work to have two children and be a stay at home Mom until they
were both in school. Now Ms. Y is trying to return to the work force,
six years later and forty pounds heavier. She has not obtained a
position comparable to the one that she had previously had with a
different employer. One such job that she interviewed for was given to
a slender 18-year-old right out of high school. The manager doing the
hiring may have discriminated based upon a stereotype such as, "Fat
people are lazy" ignoring Ms. Y's energetic performance in the
interview and glowing references from her former employer in another
state.

The experience of Ms. Y is not unusual: among White women, being

overweight is correlated with earning less money. For those who oppose
size-based discrimination, these data are evidence that discrimination
does exist: overweight women had a harder time to get hired or promoted
to the well paying jobs. For those hiring authorities who discriminate,
these data might fit the confirmation bias: overweight women earn less
because they are lazier.

One way to answer the question about the reality of discrimination is

to perform an experiment where fictitious job candidates are presented,
and the variable of size (or ethnicity) is manipulated. For example, in
a class of graduate students working on their M.B.A. degrees, most of
the students were already managers who had some hiring authority.
Subjects had to rate candidates for a position. One candidate was
described on half of the questionnaires as a male weighing 165 pounds,
but on the other half of the questionnaires as weighing 365 pounds. All
other background statements were the same, but this candidate was
judged significantly less appropriate for the job when he was described
as obese.

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One of the great benefits of laws against discrimination is that they
can begin to change prejudices and stereotypes. At first, people may
hire African Americans, women, fat people, or gays just out of fear of
a discrimination suit if these "minorities" are not hired. Hopefully,
the resulting experience working alongside of others in a diverse
workplace will overcome the stereotypes.

Research on Size discrimination

Researcher(s) Brink
Subjects MBA students
Type of Experiment
research
Independent The weight of fictitious job candidates
Variable
Factors held The real qualifications of the fictitious
Constant candidates: education and experience
Dependent The subjects’ ratings of the candidates
Variable
Results The overweight candidate received much lower
ratings
Conclusion There exists job discrimination against the
obese

QUESTION #13.2: What is attribution?

Attribution is the interpretation of behavior. It is like an inference:

we observe someone's behavior and try to figure out why he did it. Can
we attribute the behavior to internal (dispositional) factors such as
intention, effort and/or skill, or to external (situational) factors such
as luck or task difficulty?

Case Study: T, age 12, was up on a stepladder painting the side of his
house. He told his ten-year-old little brother to hand him up a little
can of the other color paint for the trim. The younger brother put the
can on the little shelf of the ladder, but it quickly fell down,
spilling the paint. T started yelling at his little brother. T has made
a dispositional attribution, seeing the bad result as being caused by
the little brother's inattentiveness.

Several factors influence attributions. One is the subject's past

knowledge of the other person's behavior. Has T's little brother a
history of being clumsy? (If so, that would argue for a dispositional
attribution). Another factor might be observations of other results in
the same situation, even when T's little brother was not involved. Has
the ladder shelf failed before? (That would argue for a situational
attribution.)

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Most people are tempted to engage in the fundamental attribution error:
excusing their own bad behavior with situational attributions, yet
using internal attributions to blame others for bad behavior.

Case Study: Mr. A is driving on a difficult stretch of the 10 freeway.

He is late for an appointment, when all of a sudden, the car on his
left cuts in front of him in order to get an approaching off ramp. Mr.
A brakes and makes a dispositional attribution: "That idiot, he did not
even care how dangerous that was. He sure can't drive." A few miles
later we find Mr. A in the left lane and he notices that his exit is
fast approaching, and he cuts across two lanes of traffic (quite
comparable to what the other driver had done just minutes before). Mr.
A immediately comes up with a situational attribution of task
difficulty: "They ought to give you more time to get over by announcing
those exits in advance."

Attributions are reversed when the outcome is good, such as getting a

promotion. Here, the subject is likely to use a dispositional
attribution if he himself gets the promotion: "I earned it." If someone
else got the promotion that he had hoped for, the subject might use a
more situational attribution, "Some guys have all the luck."

FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR:

we blame others for their bad behavior, but excuse it in ourselves
OUTCOMES WERE
Good Bad

INTERNAL: EXTERNAL:
self Deserved not my fault

E “I am smart” “I was
X unlucky”
P “I worked
L hard” “I was tired”
A
N “It was too
A hard”
T
I EXTERNAL: INTERNAL:
O undeserved his fault
N
Other “He was “He was lazy”
F persons lucky”
O “He was
R “It was too irresponsible”
easy”
“He was
stupid”

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Adler would explain the fundamental attributional error as just another
way that we try to avoid feelings of inferiority by diverting blame to
the situation when we fail, but by using dispositional evaluations of
others when they fail (in order to feel superior to them).

Case Study: Mr. D, age 35, is a supervisor at a manufacturing plant.

His wife, Ms. D, is a stay at home mother of three. One particular week
has been difficult at the plant, with Mr. D having to work late hours
and weekends. When he comes home he is exhausted. He hugs his wife, but
he just wants to relax in front of the TV with something to eat and
drink. Instead of making a situational attribution ("He is tired from
work") his wife makes a dispositional attribution ("He is cold,
detached, and unappreciative of all that I do in the house"), and
starts to talk, which Mr. D interprets as nagging, and he makes another
dispositional attribution ("She is just a whiner, unappreciative of how
hard I am working for the family") instead of a situational attribution
("She has been in the house with the kids all day long and is in need
of some adult conversation").

QUESTION #13.3: What is social influence?

Human behavior is greatly influenced by the presence and behaviors of

other persons.

The simplest form of social influence is the dyad, two persons

interacting. The behavior of each one serves as a stimulus for the
behavior of the other. A dyad could be composed of two friends on the
phone, two boxers in a bout, these two dogs, a customer and a retail
clerk, a worker and a supervisor, a psychotherapist and patient, or in
the case of Mr. and Mrs. D cited above.

Let's return to the example of the street dog chasing a jogger. We have
an interactive dyad with the behavior of each changing the behavior of
the other.

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Let's return to the example of the street beggar. There is a second
person in the dyad, the prospective donor.

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Crowds influence the behavior of individuals in special ways. A crowd
is simply a large number of people assembled at a given time in the
same place. Examples of crowds would be customers waiting to get
through a checkout line, riders waiting at a bus stop, students waiting
in line to register for courses, fans in the stands at a football game.
Notice that crowds are a temporary phenomenon: once the customers get
through the checkout line, or the football game is over, the members of
the crowd get in their cars and go their separate ways. Although in
each of these examples of crowds, the members did have a common
purpose, that is not an essential feature of the crowd.

Modeling is one way that crowds influence behavior. The behavior of

other members in the crowd may be taken as a norm to be imitated.
Especially if someone is new to the situation (e.g., has never been in
a registration line, or been to a football game) he may assume that
this is just the way things are done here and go along with it.

Anonymity is a possible characteristic of crowds. You may have never

seen these other people before, and may never see them again. Anonymity
can also come from wearing uniforms (as in military combat) or
disguises (as in Halloween or the Ku Klux Klan). Anonymity can lead to
a deindividuation and loosen many inhibitions against violent,
vandalistic, or other criminal behavior as individuals may figure that
they will not be identified or held to account for their behavior.
Anonymous mobs may riot or lynch.

Crowds do not have any internal organization to limit such mob

behavior. The most that can be hoped for is that the people in the
checkout line at the grocery store will remain neatly in line, each
awaiting his turn without causing a disruptive scene, and the fans at
the stadium will remain in their seats until the game is over, and then
exit in an orderly fashion and go home.

Bystander apathy or involvement

Step one Step two Step three Bystander action
Does not notice Does not take
victim -------------> -------------> action

Notices victim Does not define Does not take

as emergency -------------> action

Defines as Does not assume Does not take

emergency responsibility action
Assumes some Offers
responsibility assistance

Bystander assistance is another form of behavior that is influenced by

the crowd phenomenon. There are instances of individuals being robbed
or murdered while no passersby offered any reaction or assistance to
the victim. When the victim and passerby know each other, assistance is
more likely to be offered. If there are no other passersby, assistance
is more likely to be offered. The subject's decision to stop and help
is actually a series of classifications, a cognitive map. On step one,
the bigger the crowd, the less likely any individual victim would be

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noticed. On step two, the more unfamiliar the individual is with the
situation, the less likely he would be to define it as an emergency. On
step three, seeing other crowd members respond might convince the
individual that "They already have it under control, so I do not have
to get involved" but seeing no one else stop and intervene might
convince the individual "If no one else is stopping, maybe I should not
either; everybody else must have a good reason for not stopping."

Organizations may be an even greater influence on behavior than crowds

are. An organization is a structured, ongoing cluster of individuals
sharing a similar purpose. The workers in a place of employment would
be a good example, whether they work for a private company, government
agency or non-profit organization. The organization is enduring (semi-
permanent) even if the individual membership changes over time. If we
were to look at the workers of the XYZ company in 2000 and today, we
might see many of the same old faces and a few new hires. Missing would
be those workers who since 2000 have retired, resigned, died, or been
laid off or fired. Consider the local high school football team in 2008
and today. Some of the players were cut from the team, others decided
not to try out again, some got suspended from school, some moved out of
the district, and hopefully most graduated from high school. The point
is that the organization (the football team) endures even if the
individuals come and go.

Unlike a crowd, the organization must have a common purpose and

structured roles to meet that purpose. The fans in the stands may be a
crowd, but the team on the field is an organization, sharing the common
purpose of winning the game, and structuring itself into roles such as
offence or defense or special teams; ball carrier or blocker or
receiver, etc. When students are waiting in line to get their courses,
that is a crowd, but once the students are in an ongoing class, that is
an organization. Then the students share the common goals of getting
through the class, learning something, and getting a good grade. The
customers waiting in line at the grocery store are a crowd, but the
workers at the grocery store are an organization with a common goal
(making money by selling groceries), and structured roles such as
butcher, checker, bagger, etc.

Dyad Crowd Organization

Examples Spouses Customers in Workers in a
Boxers line; fans company;
Clerk/customer at a stadium football
Worker/manager team;
Patient/therapist religious
Criminal/victim congregation
Internal Usually roles Assigned Roles,
Structure location, Ranks
anonymity
Time frame Varies Temporary Enduring
Common Possible, but
purpose they may also Perhaps Required
have cross-
purposes

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Organizations, as well as nations, have cultures. Cultures are patterns
of life comprised of roles and norms that are transmitted to new
members. Most of what takes place in military boot camp is not training
on how to do a future specific task in the military, but an orientation
to the roles and rules of the military culture. When a company hires a
new worker it may provide both training (how to do the task of the
specific position) and orientation (how to function in the corporate
culture). On the national level, individuals might be enculturated to
norms and roles through the public school system, religious
organizations, the scouts, YMCA, Boys & Girls Clubs, and 4-H.

Research on roles
Researcher(s) Zimbardo
Subjects College students
Type of Experiment
research
Independent Whether the student was assigned to the role
Variable of “guard” or that of “prisoner”
Factors held All subjects had to assume a role
Constant
Dependent How the subjects behaved
Variable
Results “Guards” became brutal; “prisoners” became
withdrawn and anxious
Ethical The welfare of the subjects was being
Considerations jeopardized, so the simulation was stopped
early
Conclusion Assigned roles have an impact on behavior

The power of an organization’s roles was demonstrated by one of

Zimbardo's experiments. He took normal college students and conducted a
prison experiment in which the volunteers were randomly assigned to the
roles of guard or prisoner. Zimbardo ended up stopping the simulation
before it was scheduled to end because some of the guards had become
too brutal, and some of the prisoners too anxious and withdrawn.
Zimbardo was called as an expert witness in the Abu Ghraib trial in
which U.S. Army prison guards were accused of brutalizing Iraqi
prisoners. Zimbardo’s point is that “the rotten barrel makes the apple
rotten,” so it was less the fault of the individual guards and more the
fault of the way the prison had been set up and run. The guards had
deindividuated and were being driven by group norms rather than their
individual consciences.

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Norms are rules governing behavior, and include mores and folkways.
Mores are rules about what the culture considers to be serious matters.
Violation of mores may bring severe sanctions from the culture.
Folkways are rules about less serious things. Usually, matters of
taste, fashion and etiquette are mere folkways. The violation of
folkways may only call forth minor sanctions, such as disapproving
looks or gentle chiding by peers or superiors. What a culture regards
as a more or folkway may differ greatly from place to place and time to
time.

In the U.S. norms for appropriate sexual behavior have changed over the
last hundred years. Before World War I, there were strict ideals.
Abortion and homosexuality were seen as clearly immoral. Sex was
supposed to be in marriage only. Women who had children were supposed
to stay at home and be homemakers rather than seek outside employment.
If they were in a bad marriage, that is where they should stay (for the
welfare of the children). Women were supposed to dress appropriately
(long dresses). By World War II, some of those mores had relaxed into
folkways. As women went to work in the defense plants, they began
wearing pants. As many wartime romances broke up, the divorce rate
climbed. By the end of the century, most mothers were working outside
of the home; many couples were cohabitating prior to (or instead of)
marriage. Things may had been illegal in most states at the beginning
of the century (abortion and homosexuality) were now protected
behaviors in many jurisdictions.

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The above example of sexual mores becoming folkways shows how norms can
go in one direction, but they can also go in the other. Some activities
that were mere folkways fifty years ago have become mores. In the 1950s
if you were riding a bus, smoking was governed by good manners (which
usually meant offering the stranger next to you a cigarette before you
lit up). Now, not smoking in public places has become a more, backed up
by legal sanctions.

It is important to mention that we are talking here about mores and

folkways, not about morality. Just because a society has no sanctions
against a behavior does not mean that it is moral. Individuals must
still decide on their own if they should engage in those actions. The
eating of meat is not prohibited anywhere in the U.S., but millions of
vegetarians have decided on their own that it is not moral to kill
animals in order to eat them. Some form of gambling is now legal in
most states, but millions of individuals have decided that it is not
moral to participate in gaming or wagering.

One example of a norm is proxemics, the study of the rules for the use
of interpersonal space. When the professor is standing in front of the
classroom, and most students are more than a dozen feet away, that is a
distance for public events, but not personal conversations.

After class if you have a question for the professor, you might catch
him outside of the classroom. You would probably stand about two to
four feet away during this personal conversation. If you got within a
foot of him, he might back up a little, because you are getting into
intimate space. Normally, we reserve intimate space for those
individuals that we feel comfortable giving a hug to.

Rules for placing a home upon a lot are also governed by the norms of
proxemics. In the U.S., especially California suburbs, the house is set
back from the sidewalks and neighbors. This may be a mere custom
(folkway) whose violations will only receive disapproving glances of
passersby, or it might be a more in certain communities enforced by
zoning and building permits. In Mexico, by contrast, houses are built
up to the property line, and an inner courtyard takes the place of a
front or back yard for garden and play areas.

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Related to proxemics are the rules for interpersonal touching. In most
dyads, the handshake is the appropriate form of touching between new
acquaintances, and it must be the right hand, a certain length of time,
and a certain strength of grip. Other forms of touching that might be
acceptable on a football field, would be considered sexual harassment
or battery in the workplace.

One example of a powerful source of normative referencing in the U.S.

would be socio-economic class. All societies, human and animal, tend to
segment and differentiate by function and by gradations of status and
power. In modern free market economies, social class is determined by
perceptions of wealth, education, and occupational prestige. Although
American social class is not fixed like the castes of ancient India,
about eighty percent of Americans end up in the social class of their
parents. Most of the children of upper middle class parents go to
college, while most of the children of the poor are lucky to finish
high school. About ten percent of Americans (and many immigrants) move
up from the class of their parents, and some move down.

Socio-economic classes in America

SOCIAL CLASS EDUCATION HOME OCCUPATION
High, elite Post-graduate Mansion Investors,
Executives
Upper middle Post-graduate Exclusive suburb Managers,
Professionals
Middle Bachelors or Suburb or White collar
some college city condo
Working, High school Old neighborhood, Blue collar
Lower middle or some Apartments or
college Trailers
Low, poor, Drop out Housing projects Unemployed,
Marginalized, Unskilled, or
Underclass Migrant

Social class dictates norms for behavior, including what clothes are
appropriate, and whether it is acceptable to park a vehicle on the
front lawn. The individual's very perception of the milestones in the
life cycle may be determined by social class, with the higher classes
having higher age norms for certain transitions. Bernice Neugarten
asked a series of questions about age norms to steelworkers on
Chicago's South Side, and then asked the same questions to upper middle
class professionals in the suburb of Skokie.

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 Research on social class and the life cycle
Researcher(s) Neugarten
Subjects Chicago area residents
Type of Survey
research
Independent Socio-economic class
Variable
Factors held Geographical location (Chicago metro area)
Constant
Dependent Perceived points in the life cycle
Variable
Results Those with higher socio-economic status
perceived later age points
Conclusion Socio-economic class influences perception
of the life cycle

Brink followed up the study in the 1970s in rural Mexico. He found an

even more constricted life span, with adult responsibilities beginning
in the teens and old age beginning about fifty.

Perceptions of the life cycle according to social class differences

Question Working class Middle class Rural Mexico
When should a boy
shoulder a man’s 18 24 16
responsibilities?
What is the best
time for a girl 20 25 16
to get married?
When is a man an
old man? 65 70 50

When rural Mexicans migrate to cities like Toluca and get a job in an
automobile plant, their perception of the life cycle changes. Now, they
expect to keep on working hard until age 65, and hope that their
children will finish high school, and that their daughters will not
marry as young as their mothers did. In a generation or two when some
of their children succeed in rising to the middle class by virtue of
starting a successful business or getting into one of the professions,
the age norms will shift again, approximating those of the American
middle class, helping their children through the university, and
continuing on later on in their own careers.

High social class has a moderate correlation with successful aging.

Middle and upper middle class aged tend to be healthier and more active
than working class and lower class counterparts of the same age.
Go to a senior center in a working class or lower class area and see a
lot of people sitting around: "We worked hard all of our lives, and now
we have earned the right to rest and relax." Go to a senior center in

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an upper middle class area and see people learning new languages,
engaged in volunteer service, dancing, and planning their next cruise:
"We worked hard and invested our money while we were young so that we
would have the ability to be active at this time of our lives."

Case Study: Mr. G, now age 74, had been a high school principal in a
factory town in the Midwest. Most of the men in town tried to retire at
age 62. Mr. G retired at 67. Many of the men from his town have escaped
the cold winters by retiring to a part of Florida, where they could
fish all year round. Mr. G retired to a suburb of Guadalajara. (He is
not alone, for there are over a hundred thousand retired Americans in
the greater Guadalajara area.) Although he does enjoy fishing and lives
close to Lake Chapala, Mr. G gets to fish only a couple of days a
month. Most of the time he is too busy as a volunteer administrator
with the local American Legion Hall or working with several Mexican
charities. One of his new interests is Charreria, traditional Mexican
horsemanship and costuming. Every few months, he and his wife travel
around Mexico to some part they have not seen. Every year, they try to
travel to some other country they have not seen.

The just world hypothesis is a variant of the fundamental attribution

error. It says that those people who have a comfortable life think that
life is fair, while those who have a difficult life think that things
are unfair. This means that social class is a source of stereotypes,
scapegoating, prejudice and discrimination. Middle class people often
define themselves by who they are not (lower class). Subscribing to the
just world hypothesis, middle (and upper) class individuals tend to use
dispositional attribution to explain the relative success of the
different classes: "I live so well because I earned it; those lower
class people have such a hard life because they have been so lazy and
irresponsible."

Social class norms also influence choice of spouse. Parents are

delighted if their children (especially their daughters) can marry up
into the next class, and horrified that a daughter may throw away the
benefits of her class by marrying down. This gender differential can be
explained by the fact that it is the man who is the traditional
breadwinner, and whose occupation would determine the status of the
entire nuclear family created by the marriage.

Case Study: Mr. B grew up in a middle class family. He did well in

college and went on for an M.B.A. degree and seemed poised for a career
in business that would put him into the upper middle class at least.
His family was pleased when he announced that he was going to marry an
immigrant woman with little formal education who had worked as a maid.
They thought that she would be a good homemaker and helpmate who would
not take the spotlight off of their son with a competing career. On the
other hand, when Mr. B's own parents married a generation earlier, his
maternal grandparents were very disappointed when their only daughter
was going to lower herself by marrying a factory worker.

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Alienation is the feeling that one is cut-off from one's normative
culture. Alienation is an uncomfortable emotion. Alienation has become
more widespread in the U.S. over the past five decades. Many people
respond to alienation by seeking a new, rigid culture with clear mores
for reference norms. Street gangs are organizations with clear goals
(even if the goals are rejected by the larger, national culture),
definite roles, and harsh sanctions for the violation of mores. Notice
that such gangs are most popular among those who are most marginalized
and alienated from the larger national culture (poor, urban youth).

Affiliation means seeking the presence of other people. When people

become confused or frightened, their need to affiliate increases. In
one experiment, psychology students were told to report in the
afternoon to participate in an experiment. They were randomly assigned
to see a presentation describing the experiment in one of two rooms. In
one room the students were shown a small device that would fit around a
finger and told "This will give a mild electric shock, a tingle that
most of you will not be able to feel. This is an experiment in your
sensitivity to that tingle. As soon as you detect the tingle, press the
button, and the electricity ceases." The other room saw a large device
that sent crackling sparks across the room and were told that it was an
experiment to measure pain threshold. All students were told to wait in
the hall and they would be called in one at a time to be shocked.
Actually, no students received either kind of shock. The purpose of
this experiment was to see how the students would react to the prospect
of receiving a shock. Students from the first group tended to sit down
and read while they waited, or conversed in pairs. Students from the
second group tended to stand and talk in larger numbers, "Do we have to
do this for the class? Are you going in there? Do you think we should
just go back to the dorm?"

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Attraction is different from affiliation. Attraction is being drawn to
specific others. Attraction might be the first step to relationships
involving love and/or respect. Factors that can influence attraction
might be physical appearance or common values. Factors that might lead
to a longer relationship might be intimacy, passion, and commitment.

Equity theory holds that most people will pair up with someone who is at
a comparable level of attractiveness. When a person settles for someone
who is at a lower level of physical attractiveness, the more attractive
partner usually expects some form of compensation in return. When we
see couples of similar levels of attractiveness, we regard that as the
normal state of affairs. When we see couples of differing levels of
attractiveness, we speculate about what the compensation might be.

OBSERVATION INFERENCE
Handsome man with a homely woman. “He must walk all over her.”
Beautiful woman with an old, short, “He must be rich.”
fat, bald man.

Women and men may have different priorities when it comes to looking
for an ideal partner. One social psychologist, Goode, ran different
fictitious personal advertisements. More men responded to an
advertisement about a beautiful waitress than responded to an ad about
an average looking female lawyer. More women responded to an ad about
an average looking male lawyer than responded to an ad about a handsome
cabdriver.

Research on attraction
Researcher(s) Goode
Subjects Men and women who responded to personal ads
Type of Experiment
research
Independent How a fictitious person was described:
Variable average or good looks; average job or lawyer
Dependent How many responses each advertisement
Variable received
Results Most males responded to an attractive woman;
most females responded to a high status job
Ethical The subjects were tricked into thinking that
Considerations a real person was available and potentially
interested in them
Conclusion Men care about physical attractiveness while
women care more about socio-economic factors

There are many factors other than initial physical attraction to

explain the success of long term dyads. Similarities of values are
probably more important than other types of similarities (e.g., age,
intelligence, education). Complementary differences also have a role

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(e.g., a dominant choleric might team up with a submissive phlegmatic).
A good analogy might be a successful football team. You cannot build
such a team by taking the best quarterback and cloning him. Having
eleven of him on the field is not going to win many games. A good team
needs someone to pass the ball, but also someone to catch it, someone
to rush, to kick, to punt, and to block. A diversity of skills all
working toward the same goal makes for an effective team.

Conformity means that individuals bring their behavior or thoughts into

line with social norms. The higher an individual’s anonymity, self
esteem or status within a group, the less he will tend to conform. The
larger the group, the greater the conformity. The more unanimous the
group, the greater the conformity. Solomon Asch studied high school
males who wanted to apply to a service academy so that they could
become military aviators. They were told to show up for a group
interview. After about twenty minutes of questions such as "why do you
want a career in the military," the subjects were told that pilots
needed to have good vision, so part of the interview would be a test
for vision. On one side of the room was a large card with a ten-inch
reference line on it. On the other side of the room was a card with
three lines, one of which was the same length as the reference line.

The interviewer then went around the room asking each interviewee to
announce which line on the right was closest in length to the reference
line on the left. The first few “interviewees” who responded were
actually confederates of the interviewer, and they had been instructed
to give the wrong answer A, instead of the right answer B. The last
person to give his answer was the real subject of this experiment. Many
of these subjects agreed with the group and conformed to the wrong
answer.

Depending upon different factors, between a third and four-fifths of

the subjects agreed with the wrong answer given by the rest of the
panel. By manipulating a variety of independent variables, Asch found
that if just one other interviewee came out with the right answer, then
the subject was likely to give the right answer. Also, if the other
interviewees were perceived as having lower status than the subjects
(e.g., they are going to West Point to be infantry officers) the
subjects were likely to give the right answer (perhaps the subjects
then thought "We pilots have better vision.")

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 Research on conformity
Researcher(s) Asch
Subjects High school males being interviewed
Type of Experiment
research
Independent What the other “interviewees” announced was
Variable the right answer
Factors held Age, gender, situation
Constant
Dependent Whether the subjects would give the right
Variable answer
Results Many subjects gave the wrong answer given by
the other “interviewees”
Ethical Subjects were deceived and felt foolish
Considerations afterwards
Conclusion Most people conform under social pressure

Obedience is complying with the demands of an authority figure.

Milgram studied obedience by getting students to volunteer for what
they thought was an experiment on the role of punishment in learning.
The students were taken to a special lab and introduced to a researcher
(wearing a white coat who would conduct the project) and to a man who
would function in the role of learner in the next room. The subject was
told that he would instruct the learner on how to do a task by using an
intercom, and the learner in the next room had to complete the task
correctly, and if he did not, the subject was to administer
progressively stronger electric shocks as punishment.

Things went along well for a while with the "learner" apparently
performing well and no shock was required. Then the progress stopped
and the subject was told to administer the first, mild shock. After
several of these learning failures calling for shocks, the "learner" in
the other room started to object to the pain. At higher voltages, he
screamed, then pounded on the wall, then was silent. In reality, the
person in the other room at the other end of the intercom was not
performing any tasks or getting any shocks. He was just an actor who
pretended to be getting shocked. The subject of this research was the
student who had been assigned the instructor role and to administer the
shocks.

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 Milgram’s research on obedience
Volts Label What “learner” does Subjects who obeyed
30 Slight Silence 100%
90 Moderate Grunt 100%
150 Strong “Stop, I can’t go on” 100%
210 Very strong “Stop, I can’t go on” 100%
270 Intense Screams, pounds on 100%
wall
330 Extreme Silence 72%
390 Dangerous Silence 65%
450 XXX Silence 65%

Follow up experiments found that the subject’s obedience was more

likely if the authority figure was seen as affiliated with a
prestigious institution. Several factors tended to increase the
likelihood of disobedience. If the subject and “student” had met and
shaken hands, the subject was less likely to apply shocks. If the
subject had observed a previous subject in the instructor role refuse
to give a shock, that greatly increased the chances of disobedience.

Research on Obedience
Researcher(s) Milgram
Subjects College students
Type of Experiment
research
Independent Presence of the investigator reminding the
Variable subject that he had agreed to fulfill a role
Factors held All subjects were in the role of “teacher”
Constant who administered shocks
Dependent Whether or not the subject obeyed the
Variable authority and administered the shocks
Results Most subjects obeyed and administered shocks
labeled as dangerous
Ethical Subjects were deceived and felt badly
Considerations afterward for having obeyed so blindly
Conclusion People readily obey authority figures

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Cult is a somewhat derogatory term for a new religious movement,
especially one with unusual theological doctrine or one that is abusive
of its membership. Cult leaders tend to be charismatic individuals whom
the followers find attractive and whom they must obey without question.
Individuals with high alienation from the larger culture, and with low
self esteem, are more likely to join cults. New members tend to
affiliate, conform and obey very strongly, dogmatically accepting new
doctrines. Robert Adorno’s typology may be useful in understanding
those individuals most likely to be attracted to cults: authoritarians
rather than egalitarians.

Many cults are apocalyptic, preaching an end of the world scenario.

Many cult members may experience a cognitive dissonance if a predicted
end of the world does not occur on schedule, and because they have so
committed themselves to the cult by their previous behavior, they may
readily accept a trumped up explanation and continue on in their
membership. “God saw their faith and decided to be merciful for now.”

However, which religious organizations are considered cults by

outsiders often tells us more about the stereotypes and prejudices of
the outsiders rather than the practices of the religious movements.

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 UNIT 14: APPLIED
Most of the branches of psychology discussed so far (experimental,
comparative, developmental, social) involve basic research that attempts
to support theories about why people do what they do. Applied research
tries to come up with specific solutions for real world problems. Most
experimental, social, developmental, and comparative psychologists work
for universities where they engage in teaching and/or grant-funded
research. Most applied psychologists work for private companies, but
some are in private practice as consultants, and others work for the
government or non-profit agencies, and a few even teach in
universities. Applied fields of psychology (e.g., industrial, consumer)
are growing most rapidly and have the highest pay.

QUESTION #14.1: What is consumer behavior?

Consumer behavior is psychology applied to the marketplace. This is

actually a hybrid endeavor, drawing upon sociology, anthropology, and
economics as well as psychology to gain a comprehensive understanding
of the consumer. This field is rooted in the concerns of those who
attempt to market products and services. The relevant topics and issues
include advertising, sales, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty,
decision making and product development. The branch of social
psychology may contribute the most to this field, but the study of
sensation, perception, conditioning (classical and operant), modeling,
memory, motivation, and personality are also relevant.

The main message that experts in this field have for sales and
advertising professionals is "never assume that you know the customer:
do research!" The potential consumer is the subject of this research.
Independent variables include the six P's of marketing: product,
packaging, promotional campaigns, places of distribution, price, and
purchasing options. The dependent variable is how the potential
customers respond: how much of the product is purchased?

More so that other branches of psychology, consumer behavior makes use

of qualitative research techniques. These techniques are similar to the
case study; providing such insight into the complexities, suggesting
future hypotheses to be investigated, but not providing definitive
verification. The starting point of much marketing research is the

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qualitative technique known as the focus group. Potential consumers are
interviewed in order to understand what their concerns might be, what
they are looking for in a product, what kinds of advertisements they
would find appealing (or offensive), and most importantly, how they go
about making the purchase decision.

Case Study: While most universities are either owned by state

governments or not-for-profit private organizations, several private
universities are profit-making institutions owned by corporations whose
stock is publicly traded on exchanges. One particular proprietary
university had a mission of becoming the largest university in America
serving adult, re-entry students. Early focus groups of working adults
who were considering going back to college to finish up their degrees
indicated that there were some concerns even greater that the cost of
tuition. As students thought about going to the nearest state
university, they were discouraged by the long drive at night and the
difficulty finding parking. Even if they were ready to start school
now, they would have to wait about a year to apply and then have to
worry about waiting in line to register. This particular university
developed a system of branch campuses in rented office buildings close
to freeway exits. The potential student could call an 800 number and
find a convenient location where a class will be starting the following
week. (While this has led to a profitable corporation, it does not
necessarily guarantee a quality education.)

Surveys are also a major part of research in consumer behavior.

Sometimes these involve face-to-face questionnaires of customers in
stores or malls. Another technique is to include a questionnaire for
new customers along with a mail in product warranty card. Some grocery
stores encourage customers to have discount "club cards" which enables
the store to build a database on each consumer: how much was spent,
which products were purchased, even what time of day. Websites often
put a “cookie” on the viewer's computer so that it can track other
websites visited. When all these data are put together, interesting
correlations emerge, from such Big Data such as people who shop at
WalMart with the American Express card have low credit balances, but
good credit ratings. This new field, known as Analytics involves
computer analysis of such data.

Experiments can be conducted either in laboratory conditions or else in

the field (e.g., running one advertising campaign in Cincinnati, and
comparing its results with that of another campaign run in St. Louis).
New technology allows researchers to measure whether a television is
on, who is watching, or (in the laboratory) how well an advertisement
captures the attention as measured by a tracking of eye movements or
brain metabolism.

Perhaps the greatest theoretical advance in consumer behavior over the

last hundred years has been the concept of segmentation and targeting.
The marketplace is not monolithic, but divisible into distinctive and
identifiable niches. The success of a product or promotion depends upon
its ability to find a niche and succeed there. Demographic
segmentation is based upon measurable socio-economic background factors

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(e.g., age, gender, residence, education, income). Psychographic
segmentation was developed principally by the followers of Maslow, and
attempts to divide the marketplace along the lines of personality
types. Benefit segmentation focuses on developing a product and
promotional campaign geared to the potential customers' understanding
of what they need. When all of these segmentations are put together,
the marketer knows that the segment of the market interested in new
luxury cars is not the same segment as those who are looking for parts
to fix up old cars, and there must be an emphasis on different
advertisements, in different media: Match the product with the customer
in medium and message.

Market Segmentation
Approach Popular Focus Examples
Demographic 1950s Socio-economic Age, gender, income,
education, geography (e.g.,
men drink beer, women buy
laundry detergent)
Psychographic 1970s Personality Types, traits, dynamics (e.g.,
Mustang versus station wagon)
Benefit 1990s Needs, wants Shoes, office supplies (e.g.,
computer owners need software)

Case Study: In 1987, Diane Feinstein was retiring as mayor of San

Francisco. She endorsed centrist Democrat, Jack Molinari. He had a
major opponent in a Republican businessman, Roger Boas, and a minor
opponent in state legislator Art Agnos, a liberal Democrat. Both
Molinari and Boas had well funded campaigns, and bought full page ads
in the San Francisco Chronicle, a newspaper read all over northern
California, and spots on the big radio and TV stations. When the votes
were counted the winner was ... Art Agnos!? Most people in northern
California had not even seen one of his ads. He had a small campaign
budget, so he focused on his demographic target by sending a mailer to
every home and apartment in San Francisco (where the voters lived)
while Molinari and Boas spent millions reaching residents all over
northern California (most of whom were not even registered to vote in
San Francisco).

Case Study: Mr. Z, 53, is the street beggar. We can view his potential
donors as a market segmented demographically. After years on the
streets, Mr. Z has come to this profile of the most likely donor:
white, female, young, rich. He is not certain about what is going on in
their heads, he just knows that he is better off outside of a women’s
clothing store than outside of a hardware or computer store.

Case Study: In the 1990s, a bank ran a strange newspaper ad. The top
half advertised a sale on Nehru jackets, love beads, and turtlenecks.
The bottom half of the ad gave the details for a line of credit to be
based upon equity in one's home. This ad made use of very effective
targeting based upon age. The clothing described in the top part of the
ad was in style during the summer of 1967. Anyone who was a teen or in
the early 20s at that time would not be able to resist reading the rest
of the ad. By the 1990s, these same people would be forty-something,
and most of them would have owned their homes for enough years to have

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built up a good deal of equity which they might want to borrow against
to pay for a child's college or wedding.
Case Study: Ms. T, age 22, is a recent college graduate just beginning
work with a large accounting firm. She has some student loans to pay
off because she elected not to work while she was going to school in
order to get through faster. She is going to need a car, and she has
decided to purchase a new one. Demographically, she is female, single,
and no children, living in southern California's "Inland Empire"
flatlands. Psychographically, she is a serious, calm, confident,
future-oriented person. The kind of benefits she wants in a car is
mechanical reliability and something that can take her all the way to
Orange County each day for her job. She has no particular hobby that
would require a special vehicle. She decided on the cheapest Saturn.

Example of Inferences based upon Segmentation Stereotypes

Approach Ms. T Marketers infer that she wants . . .
Demographic Female Automatic transmission
Young Not a Buick
Educated Not lowered or raised
Flatland Not four wheel drive
Non-parent Not a large sedan or van
Psychographic Serious, calm Not high performance
Benefit Some debt Not too expensive
Mechanical Not British or Italian
Long drive Four cylinder
No hobbies Not an SUV, not a truck

Perhaps some of the inferences seem overly determined by stereotypes

about different types of cars and the people who drive them: not every
woman prefers an automatic transmission, but most do; not every driver
of a Buick is over 60, but that make of automobile does have a high
average owner age. These demographic, psychographic, and benefit clues
could have predicted that Ms. T was a potential Saturn customer.

There were models of other vehicles that Ms. T could have considered,
but she was thinking Saturn from the beginning. Those ads really
appealed to her and portrayed the car as something made just for the
no-nonsense practical person that she saw herself as being. Other small
cheap cars had ads with loud music, pictures of the cars driving fast
along windy roads or through mud; the kind of TV commercials she would
flip away from. The Saturn commercials were properly targeted to the
demographic, psychographic, and benefit segments who would be
interested in that kind of car.

Another task of psychologists in the field of consumer behavior is to

develop and sustain favorable attitudes toward companies and products.
This can be accomplished through advertising, publicity, and the use of
coupons and free samples.

Case Study: In the early 1970s Standard Oil was the most hated company
around. In 1973 there was a reduced supply of oil from the Middle East.
The price of a gallon of gasoline and home heating oil doubled. Worse
yet, some gas stations were running out of gasoline. Panicked drivers

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waited for hours in long gas lines just to fill up their tanks in case
there would be no gasoline tomorrow. When high oil company profits were
announced, the public blamed the oil companies for contriving the
shortages just to boost prices.

The first attempted solution by Standard Oil was to attack the

cognitive component of the unfavorable attitude. They ran an
advertisement with a talking head: "Hello. I am an accountant with
Standard Oil. Many people think that my company is making exorbitant
profits out of the high prices you pay at the pump. Out of every dollar
you pay at the pump, we get only three cents profit. Thank you."
Everything in the ad was factual, but the public did not buy it. They
even thought that the actor didn't look like a real accountant (even
though he was not an actor, but a real accountant). When people are
upset, they may not listen to the facts.

The next attempt focused on the behavioral component. Standard Oil set
out coupons. "When your Chevron station is out of gas, come in anyway.
We want to buy you a cup of coffee and give you a free tire rotation."
When the customers came in, they had a chance to chat with the local
service station owner about how neither he nor Standard Oil were making
easy money during this period of gas shortage. Getting the customer to
come in for the free tire rotation also set up a cognitive dissonance
within the unfavorable attitude structure. "If Standard Oil is such a
horrible company, why I am dealing with them? If Standard Oil is just
out to rip me off, why are they giving me a free tire rotation?" This
was a clever application of cognitive dissonance: changing behavior in
order to change other attitudinal components.

The last attempt focused on the affective component, and resulted in a

series of TV ads designed to change the emotion associated with
Standard Oil from anger to joy. One advertisement was a cartoon about a
dinosaur eating grass, then he died and went into the earth and became
oil, then a Standard Oil engineer found the oil, and it was drilled,

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and refined into gasoline, and brought to the Chevron station, and then
a motorist pulled up and filled his tank, and as he drove away, the
dinosaur stuck its head out of the tank and roared. Viewers chuckled
and they had a joyous moment, and then the Standard Oil company logo
appeared on the screen.

This ad campaign worked so well, that five years later when the
Revolution in Iran led to another oil crisis, Standard Oil ran a
newspaper advertisement explaining its situation. At the top of the ad
was a picture of the cartoon characters: the engineer and the dinosaur.

QUESTION #14.2: What is industrial psychology?

Industrial / organizational (I/O) psychology is the scientific study of

job-related behaviors. The subjects are workers (or candidates for
employment). The dependent variables are behaviors related to work:
output, productivity, accidents, absenteeism, turnover, workers'
attitudes. Anything resulting from a worker's performance, choices,
decisions, or preference is usually regarded as a dependent variable,
as are scores on tests. Independent variables are potential causes of,
or influences on, behavior, and can include background factors (e.g.,
gender, age) and current environmental stimuli, and in I/O that would
include training, physical environment, compensation and supervision.
Such variables are usually independent of worker choice or preference.

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The first task of the I/O psychologist, whether she works for a private
company, government agency, non-profit organization or the military, is
job analysis. This is the process of coming up with a job description
(which defines what the worker is to do or be responsible to get done),
a job specification (which defines the ideal person to have that job),
and a job evaluation (which describes an appropriate range of
compensation a person should receive).

Job descriptions must focus on behaviors and/or responsibilities. A job

is comprised of specific tasks, which are the smallest units of a job,
each with a clear beginning and end. A job description may also include
information such as when (work schedule), where (work site), and why
(statement of purpose) the job is to be done, but these are secondary
concerns. Here are examples of two job descriptions:

JOB TITLE: President of the United States. The president will ...

• campaign for the office during a national election

• raise funds for this campaign

• appoint people to cabinet positions, judgeships,

ambassadorships

• hold press conferences and deliver speeches as necessary

• submit a budget to Congress

• sign or veto bills passed by Congress

• appear at state dinners

• command the armed forces

• negotiate with heads of state and their representatives

• consider requests for pardons and clemency

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JOB TITLE: beautician (hair stylist). A beautician will ...

• unlock the shop at 8:30 am Monday through Saturday

• clean the shop before 9:00 am

• answer the telephone and schedule appointments

• advise clients about hair styles

• wash, dye, cut, dry, curl and style clients' hair

• receive and record client payment

• inventory and purchase supplies

• clean up the shop before leaving

• lock shop after 6:00 pm Monday through Saturday

The usual technique of job analysis begins with the study of incumbents
(workers who now hold the position) via field observation, interviews,
job diaries or questionnaires.

A job specification is a statement about the characteristics of a person

who is acceptable to be hired for the position. An example of a job
specification for a beautician would be "holds current state beautician
license; has at least two years of experience as a beautician." Job
specifications can get a company into trouble with the ADA (Americans
with Disabilities Act) if the specifications stand in the way of
disabled potential employees who could perform the job description if
"reasonable accommodation" were made to their disabilities. Reasonable
accommodation for someone in a wheelchair might be easier for the
position of computer operator than for the position of fire fighter.

Job evaluation is supposed to ascertain what individual employees in

large organizations should be paid. This is done by listing the
compensable factors associated with each position's job description and
specification (e.g., education, hazards, supervisory responsibilities).
Inadequate job evaluation can lead to male carpenters being paid more
than female nurses. “Comparable worth” is an approach to redressing
such discrimination. Another gender bias problem associated with
managerial careers is the “glass ceiling” (e.g., women may be promoted

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to be nursing supervisors or office managers, but rarely are they
promoted all the way to hospital CEO's).

I/O psychologists are usually in charge of the organization’s

performance evaluation system. The measurement of worker performance
should start with the job description, attempting to precisely measure
relevant aspects such as output, speed, quality, and/or safety. The
measurements may be based upon the worker's behaviors, outcomes, or
traits. (The last approach is the least relevant, and most open to
bias.) Performance evaluation measurements become the operational
definition of these variables. Valid measures focus on the most relevant
aspects of performance and avoid both criterion deficiency (not
measuring what we should) and criterion contamination (measuring
something else in addition to, or instead of, what we should). It is
important that the measurement of criterion variables not be
contaminated with the measurement of predictor variables (independent
and dependent variables which describe what might be measurable about
an applicant prior to hiring). A good way to maximize relevance and
minimize bias would be the use of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
(BARS) that describe specific levels of behavior.

BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED EVALUATION SCALE

Worker being evaluated ______________ Job Title _________

Date of evaluation ________ Name of Evaluator ______________

How often does this worker meet or exceed the production quota?

ALWAYS ALMOST ALWAYS MOST OF THE TIME SELDOM

What percent of this worker's production meets quality standards?

UNDER 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% OVER 95%

How often does this worker arrive on time?

ALWAYS ALMOST ALWAYS MOST OF THE TIME SELDOM

How often in the last year did this worker have unexecused absences?

NEVER ONCE SEVERAL TIMES MANY TIMES

How often in the last year did this worker have a disciplinary
incident?

NEVER ONCE SEVERAL TIMES MANY TIMES

How often in the last year was this worker at fault for an accident?

NEVER ONCE SEVERAL TIMES MANY TIMES

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The reliability of measures of performance refers to the consistency of
rating a given worker regardless of who is doing the rating (inter-
rater reliability), when the rating is done (test/retest reliability),
or which of several possible formats of evaluation were used (alternate
form reliability). All of these forms of reliability are expressed as
correlations between the measures. If there are several components to
performance evaluation, a high positive correlation demonstrates
internal reliability, while low (or negative) correlations demonstrate
that the job is multi-factorial, composed of unrelated components.

Performance evaluations can lead to legal action if they unfairly

discriminate against workers in protected categories (e.g., ethnicity,
origin, gender, disability, age). The best defense against such charges
is that the performance measurements are based upon a thorough job
analysis, that the measures have been demonstrated to be both valid and
reliable, and that the performance evaluation processes have been
standardized in order to assure objectivity and unbiased application.

U.S. Law impacting discrimination

Year Law Impact
1787 5th amendment Individuals guaranteed “due process”
1865 13th amendment Slavery is abolished
1866 14th amendment Individuals guaranteed “equal protection”
1963 Equal Pay Act Prohibits gender-based pay discrimination
1964 Civil Rights Act Prohibits discrimination in hiring, pay,
promotion or work assignments based upon
race, gender, religion, or national origin.
1967 Age Discrimination Prohibits discrimination against workers
in Employment Act over age 40
1990 Americans with Prohibits discrimination against disabled
Disabilities Act workers and job applicants; requires
employers to make “reasonable
accommodations”
1991 Civil Rights Act Modifications based upon court rulings

One of the most important tasks of I/O psychologists is to select new

workers from job applicants. In these hiring decisions, it is necessary
to use the best predictor variables in making the decision. These are
the variables that have the highest correlations with the outcome
variables (criteria). One form of research is concurrent, and
correlates the job related criteria as measured in current employees
with how these subjects measure on predictor variables. A better, but
more difficult technique is predictive validity based upon a
longitudinal study; hire the applicants and then come back months or
years later and measure the outcome variables.

When a predictor is not valid, it can produce errors in the form of

false positives and/or false negatives. False positives (known in I/O as
false acceptances) occur when a candidate for a job scores high on the
predictor, yet turns out to perform poorly on the job. A test with many
false positives does not screen out the bad candidates. False negatives
(known in I/O as false rejections) occur when a candidate scores low on
the predictor, and is labeled as lacking the traits being assessed, yet

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would perform well on the job. A test with many false negatives does
not give a fair chance to all applicants. This can be quite problematic
if there is adverse impact such that women or ethnic minorities are
more likely to be false negatives.

Validation of pre-employment predictors

Outcome variable (criterion)
Good worker Bad worker

SCORES A B
P HIGH
R TRUE FALSE
E Looks ACCEPTANCES ACCEPTANCES
D good
I
C
T SCORES C D
O LOW
R FALSE VALID
Looks REJECTIONS REJECTIONS
bad

Some predictors frequently used in hiring decisions are the biodata on

application forms (e.g., education, experience) and tests of aptitude
(which measure the potential for job-related performance). Since IQ
tests such as the WAIS are generic measures of aptitude, they should
not be used to make hiring decisions. Tests of aptitude should match
the job to be filled in terms of both content and format. Paper and
pencil tests tend to be most valid for clerical positions. Tests with
physical manipulatives (e.g., pegboards) tend to be more valid for
positions involving assembly line and mechanical tasks. Managerial and
sales positions might be best assessed by the type of simulations used
by assessment centers.

Tests of interests and personality can also be used if they are valid
for the positions concerned. Some employers use more generic measures
of personality such as Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Neo 5, and 16PF.
Projective tests (e.g., TAT, Rorschach) involve qualitative responses
to vague stimuli and tend to have lower reliability and validity. The
MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) is a long paper and
pencil test which may identify specific pathological traits associated
with inappropriateness for a specific position. The Strong-Campbell,
Edwards Personal Preference, and Holland Self-Directed Search are also
popular. However, the best personality test for most positions is one
that has been specifically developed for, and validated with, that
particular position (or at least vocations in general).

John Holland categorizes people into six vocationally related

personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social,
Enterprising, and Conventional. The Realistic types prefer to work with

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things, but the Social types want to help other people. The
Investigatives want to study a problem in a library or laboratory,
while the Enterprising types want to lead organizational action which
will solve the problems. The Conventionals want structured work
environments (e.g., the post office, the assembly line), while the
Artistics want unstructured situations in which their creativity can
flow.

Holland’s vocationally related personality types

Personality Description Examples of occupations
R Realistic Hands-on, outdoors, Construction, mechanical,
like to work with farming, mining, fishing
things
I Investigative Like to solve problems Scientist, programmer
in a lab, library, or
on a computer
A Artistic Wants to be creative Musician, advertising
and perform for others
S Social Wants to help people Teacher, social worker
E Enterprising Wants to lead people Management, sales,
entrepreneur, politics
C Conventional Wants routine and Office work, assembly line
security on the job

There are inter-correlations between these types reflecting some

underlying similarities and differences.

Holland’s model of vocationally related personality types

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Note: Holland's use of the letters R, I, A, S, E, C should not be confused
with the use of the same letters by other theories of personality. For
Jung, I means introvert; for Holland, investigative. For Jung, S means
sensate; for Holland, socially oriented. For Jung, E means extravert;
for Holland, leader like. For Friedman, A is an impatient fast tracker,
for Holland, someone who prefers the unstructured environment where
creative juices can flow.

Tests for honesty and integrity (e.g., the polygraph "lie detector")
have only moderate validity, and tend to have more false positives
(i.e., falsely labeling honest persons as lying) than false negatives,
especially for nervous job applicants.

Interviews of candidates can be a poor selection procedure if the

interviewers are untrained or inappropriately trained, resulting in low
reliability, low validity, and hiring choices that reflect the bias of
"like hiring like" or a halo effect where the interviewer focuses in on
one irrelevant feature of the candidate ("we both went to the same
college") and ignores the relevant details.

Case Study: Mr. N, age 24, works in the human resources department of a
large corporation. His B.A. was in political science, and he never had
any course in industrial psychology. He spent his first two years
orienting new employees to their benefits package. He was then promoted
to being an interviewer, but his training consisted only of a one-day
workshop in which he was told to look for good grooming and eye
contact. He has rejected several job candidates for research or
production jobs, who had excellent training and prior experience just
because of how they were dressed or how inarticulate they were in the
interview.

Case Study: Ms. O, 53, has been the office manager for ten years.
Everyone agrees that she is a great supervisor and is extremely
knowledgeable about every job in the office, but she cannot understand
why she has been getting such poor new hires. She begins her interviews
by saying "Tell me about yourself." She does not hire the talkative
candidates, thinking that they will also talk too much instead of work.
That might be one helpful trait, but her technique misses so many other
aptitudes and personality traits.

Neither Mr. N nor Ms. O really knows how to interview. Both end up
hiring the people that they like superficially, and ignore the
candidate’s real abilities or constraints. The only real purpose of the
interview is to see if there is a fit between this particular worker
and this particular position. Instead of trying to oversell the
candidate on the job, it may be wise to realistically preview the
unattractive aspects of the job. Inappropriate candidates may then
remove themselves from consideration by not calling back. The person
finally hired will have lowered expectations about the job that will
tend to inoculate against stress and dissatisfaction.

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The guidelines of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) are violated by
hiring procedures that use race, national origin, gender, age,
religion, or disability as factors. These guidelines can also be
violated by adverse impact: when the results of the hiring procedures
show a disproportionately low rate of persons from the protected
categories. At that point, the burden of proof may be on the employer
to justify the validity of predictors used. The best defense is
quantifiable empirical research that establishes criterion related
validity of that particular predictor with that specific job at that
particular place of employment.

QUESTIONS FORBIDDEN BY FEDERAL RULES

Age

Race

Color

Religion

Nationality

Citizenship (it is OK to inquire about one’s legal right to work in the U.S.)

Country of origin

First language (but it may be OK to ask which languages a person speaks)

Pregnancy status (or intention of becoming pregnant)

Military status (including membership in National Guard or Reserves)

Union membership

Physical and mental disabilities

QUESTIONS FORBIDDEN BY SOME OTHER STATE OR LOCAL RULES

Arrest records (you may inquire about convictions)

Family status (questions about dependents may be asked after hiring for purposes of
determining fringe benefits)

Personal organizations to which one belongs

Sexual orientation

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The process of selection involves a multiple cutoff or multiple hurdle
technique that uses sequential filters to reduce the number of
applicants being considered further. The best strategy is to use the
most valid and cheapest measures first. Usually, this would involve
beginning screen-outs by focusing on the biodata presented in the
application form, then those who pass would be tested on easily
administered aptitude and trait tests, and those applicants who pass
would receive initial interviews from the human resources (personnel)
department, then those who pass would receive some reference checks,
then those who pass would be called in for a second interview, this
time with a hiring authority, then those who pass might be sent to an
expensive assessment center, then go through thorough background
checks, then a medical exam.

Some I/O psychologists run the organization's training for new workers.
Training programs must start with a needs assessment based upon job
descriptions. Training deals with the actualization of aptitude through
a facilitation and guidance of the learning process. The result of
training will be an increase of knowledge and skills demonstrable by
improved job related performance. What makes training effective would
be the application of learning principles (such as classical
conditioning's association of different stimuli, timely feedback,
modeling through observation, shaping behaviors in small steps, and
explanations so that the worker can understand what is being done and
why) and also mnemonic principles of visual (eidetic) images,
conceptual memory, and muscular practice (kinesthetic). I/O
psychologists can do formal experiments on training to determine if one
type is better than another.

Experimental research on training

Outcome variable (criterion)
HIGH PRODUCTION LOW PRODUCTION

I A B
N Training
D
E
P
E
N C D
D No
E training
N
T

Some I/O psychologists run the company's orientation program.

Orientation (indoctrination) is the systematic exposure of the new
worker to the organization's values and procedures. An experiment on
different orientation procedures might look at a dependent variable
such as turnover.

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 Experimental research on orientation
Outcome variable (criterion)
Follow up after one year
With company Quit or fired

I A B
N Orientation
D
E
P
E
N C D
D No
E orientation
N
T

Job satisfaction is an outcome variable (which may be relevant in that

it can reduce absenteeism and turnover). Global assessment of
satisfaction looks at overall levels without breaking it down into
separate components. Facet measurement concerns the measurement of the
individual components of job satisfaction (e.g., wages, benefits,
supervision, physical working conditions, relations with co-workers).
The norms for both global and facet job satisfaction are high: 80 - 90
percent of all workers like their jobs. Herzberg has argued that
satisfaction and dissatisfaction should be viewed as separate
variables, and that some facets (e.g., intrinsic nature of work) lead
to job satisfaction while others (e.g., supervision, working
conditions, salary, benefits) lead to job dissatisfaction. Different
facets may have different levels of importance for different workers,
depending upon gender, age, and personality. Flextime and job
enlargement (also known as job enrichment, an attempt to provide varied
tasks) may be appreciated by some workers, but not others.

MacGregor suggested two types of management styles, and these reflect

the two basic approaches to motivational theory. Theory X assumes that
workers are lazy and need to be externally motivated in order to work.
Examples of this approach begin with “Scientific Management” at the
turn of the century under F.W. Taylor, who wanted to use fear and greed
(higher pay) to get workers to work more efficiently. Skinner's
perspective on operant conditioning applies, showing that reinforcement
schedules can be manipulated to get more output through piecework and
gainsharing. Newer cognitive theories of learning show the importance
of expectance (e.g., Porter-Lawler, self-efficacy) in which workers
must believe in the connection between their efforts and their rewards.
Another cognitive theory is that of equity: if workers perceive that
they are being treated unjustly, they may reduce their efforts or
honesty.

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Theory Y assumes that workers are essentially good people, and just
need to be treated decently. This approach began with Mayo's research
at Hawthorne where he found that workers responded favorably to extra
attention and group incentives. In later studies, Mayo also noticed
that informal groups of workers could also restrict production by
establishing norms. Lewin pointed out the importance of industrial
democracy: workers will improve output and safety procedures if they,
as a group, have some input into the decision. Maslow's hierarchy of
motives says that the lower, physiological, needs have priority, and
must be satisfied first. The implication for management is that workers
first desire a living wage before considering safety, social
interaction, esteem, or self-actualization. As each need is met, the
next comes to the fore as the one that is the main motivation.

Human factors engineering is a branch of I/O also known as ergonomics

and deals with the physical work environment. The founders of
Scientific Management, Taylor and the Gilbreths, emphasized finding the
most efficient arrangement of tasks and tools and motions. Safety
concerns indicate that while digital displays are best for precise
measurement of complex information, analog displays are best for
monitoring, and auditory displays (e.g., buzzers) combined with
flashing lights might be best for warnings of danger (recall from
chapter 5 that permanent hearing loss might be caused by prolonged
exposure to over 90 decibels). Tactile coding of controls also prevents
errors. Safety procedures are more effective when they are not
contradicted by demands for output or informal group norms.
Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) contains specific federal
guidelines for a safe work environment. Accident proneness is a
personality trait in which persons pay insufficient attention to
environmental cues of danger.

Advantages of different information displays

Format Degree of Ease of Effectiveness of
precision monitoring warning
Digital
Excellent Fair Poor
Analog
Good Excellent Good
Buzzer and
flashing
Poor Fair Excellent
light

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Burnout is an emotional alienation and exhaustion often attributed to
prolonged exposure to job related stress or dissatisfaction. The worker
may become frustrated and emotionally disengaged. Aggression and
psychosomatic illness are also possible outcomes. Certain careers are
considered especially vulnerable for burnout (e.g., emergency services,
social work, high school teaching). Police departments which deal with
high crime rates and law suits against the police have high rates of
burnout, resulting in a high turnover of officers. The individuals most
prone to burnout are those who are most prone to be frustrated by the
job. Frequently, this would be people who went into the field (e.g.,
law enforcement, teaching, or social work) because they wanted to help
other people, and what they find most frustrating is not the quantity
of the workload, but the lack of making a real impact on other people's
lives. One of the best lines of defense in preventing burnout in the
public sector would be good managers and supervisors who shield their
subordinates from unnecessary frustration, and maximize the more
fulfilling aspects of the job.

Case Study: Mr. J, now 34, always wanted to be a policeman. When he

turned 21, he started with a local Nebraska department. His performance
evaluations and job satisfaction were high. At thirty he married and
moved to California to help his wife's career. He got a good salary and
a promotion at a large metropolitan force, but he found the stress
overwhelming. In his new position, it was not so much the stress of the
direct interaction with the criminals, but his inability to steer
around the bureaucracy. After two frustrating years, he resigned and
found a position with a lower rank at a smaller department. His job
satisfaction went way up.

Burnout can be prevented and ameliorated in several ways. One is by

using realistic job previews as a selection technique. In other words,
tell applicants all the bad things about the position. Some applicants
will then withdraw their candidacy: that is what we want, removing a
future burnout before the organization invests time and money in
training. Those who persist through the job application process are now
inoculated, and will not be measuring the everyday job frustrations
against idyllic standards of what the job entails. Therefore, realistic
job previews reduce early turnover.

In dealing with workers subjected to highly stressful situations, the

good manager attempts to be as supportive as possible. One important
aspect of this is to shield the individual front line worker from
bureaucratic hassles. Another strategy is to give the individual worker
as much control as possible over her own job flow, so that she can
self-regulate the incoming stress. The last resort is to build
emotional support for burnt out workers by creating empathic teams and
also be being there as an individual when needed.

The assumption that excessive stress is the primary cause of burnout

can be traced to the Yerkes-Dodson law, which holds that there is an
optimum level of environmental stimulation: below that point, workers
get bored and performance declines, and above that point, workers get
overly stressed and performance declines.

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Some industrial psychologists view stress and boredom, not as opposite
ends of the same continuum, but as two distinct and undesirable
workplace conditions. A given job can be stressful, or boring, or both,
or neither. Some jobs (e.g., tending a slow paced station on the
assembly line) are low stress, high boredom, while other jobs (e.g.,
emergency medical services) are definitely high stress and low boredom.
However, a job can avoid both stress and boredom, as is known by those
professionals have managed to build a practice with their preferred
clientele and those university professors and researchers who work in
supportive environments with few deadlines. Unfortunately, some jobs
can be both stressful and boring (e.g., tending a fast paced station on
an assembly line, military on full alert). In selecting a career or a
position, an individual worker must decide how much of a priority it is
for him to avoid stress, and to avoid boredom.

Relationship between stress and boredom

Stress level
High Low

Military Military
on alert at peacetime

B High Fast assembly Slow assembly

O line or line or
R office work office work
E
D
O Military Private
M Low in combat Practice

Emergency Research
services

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Another way of looking at work-related challenges is suggested by
Csikszenmihaltyi’s concept of flow: the idea that the optimum experience
is when the challenges of work are matched to the individual’s full
abilities.

Different organizations have different cultures that determine how they

make decisions, what kind of people they hire, and what kinds of people
they retain. Max Weber found that older, larger organizations tend to
become bureaucracies with well-defined authority and strict rules. The
power of managers in bureaucracies is "legitimate" in that it comes
from their role within the organization rather than from their own
personal characteristics (e.g., charismatic), as is the case in smaller
organizations. Some managers exercise coercive power (punishments and
threats) while others exercise reward power.

Some organizations have a culture in which they promote from within.

This tends to reinforce the corporate culture, but it can also lead to
promotion being a reward for behavior in one's current position. The
problem with that is that if the positions require different kinds of
skills (e.g., sales manager vs. sales representative), then success in
a previous position is no guarantee of success at the promoted
position. Such organizations run the risk of the Peter Principle:
promoting individuals level by level until they reach a level at which
they are incompetent, and there they remain.

QUESTION #14.3: What are the career opportunities in psychology?

Most of the future opportunities, and the best pay, will be in the
applied fields, especially I/O and consumer behavior. Depending upon
how the nation and the states work out a strategy for health care,
there could be a large demand for clinical psychologists (if optimal
mental health care is funded) or very little demand for clinical
psychologists (if governments and private health care providers decide
to cut costs by providing cheap medication regardless of effectiveness
or diagnosis).

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Case Study: During the late 1970s, Argentina was having an economic
crisis of massive inflation. The military overthrew the Peronist
government and made some simplistic choices about the nation's
priorities. Military spending had the highest priority (as the generals
prepared for an invasion of the Falkland Islands). Mental health care
had the lowest priority. Hospital Borda, one of the largest in the
world, had very few psychologists or social workers to provide a
thorough diagnosis of the patients, or perform any kind of
psychotherapy, let alone therapeutic activities during the day. The
patients just sat around all day on their filthy beds. Security was
inadequate, and patients frequently escaped. The staff did not mind,
figuring extra space was needed, and if the patients could make it on
their own on the outside, maybe they were not so bad off to begin with.
The military dictatorship determined that the cheapest treatment was
medication, and that it would be cheaper to have all the patients take
the same medication (in this case, generic haloperidol). While this
might be a good prescription for most schizophrenics, as well as some
bipolars and dementia patients, it would be the wrong medication for
depressed patients. Furthermore, the medication supply frequently ran
out toward the end of the month, and the medical staff hastily made up
some placebos, noting which patients did alright on the placebos, so
that next month the real medicine could be saved for the patients who
really needed it. The long term impact on clinical psychology in
Argentina has been great. Enrollments in such programs went way down,
and became almost entirely female. (The men figure that they should
study engineering or business because they will have to support a
family some day and need to get into a field where there are jobs at
the end of the line.)

In most foreign countries, 18 year olds right out of preparatory (high

school) choose their careers when they enter the university, going
directly into a specific professional school: medicine, law,
engineering, dentistry, psychology, etc. In Mexico, psychology is a
five-year program leading to a degree known as a Licenciatura. When the
student graduates, she is a licensed clinical psychologist (or some
other specialty). The educational program is more compressed: no
electives, no general education. Psychologists only get the math that
they will need to interpret psychological tests (statistics) while the
civil engineers will study calculus. The advantage of this educational
strategy is that one spends fewer years in school before getting into a
profession. The disadvantage is that one has to make an almost
irreversible decision at age 18.

The U.S. higher educational system is more drawn out, but it gives many
opportunities to change one's direction, stop out and restart at almost
any point. The best strategy is to start with general education
courses, then select a major. Some professions (e.g., engineering,
nursing, architecture) may require certain specific courses to be taken
in the first year or two of college, but this is not the case with
other professions (e.g., psychology, law, business). With psychology,
there are not many career opportunities at the A.A. level, or even at
the B.A. level. It is best to get a well rounded major which covers
each of the three corners of the psychology field: theory, research and
practice. That means taking at least one course in history and systems
(theoretical models), some practical experience (even as a volunteer),

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two courses in statistics, and several in research methods (and try to
be involved with several research projects).

Triangular Field of Psychology: cover all the corners in your B.A.

Career path for clinical psychology

Level Where Study Outcome
Lower Community college General Get transferable
division education credits or A.A.
Volunteer Agency Internship Get experience
Upper U.C. system, Major in Get B.A. or B.S.
division Cal State, psychology
Private university
M A K E C A R E E R D E C I S I O N
Graduate U.C. system, Specialized Master’s or
Private university, program doctoral degree
Free-standing
graduate school
Post- Agency such as V.A. Internship Get experience
doctoral or state hospital
Licensing State agency Take exam Get license

The decision of which branch to specialize in must be made at the point

of selecting a graduate program. It is a very bad strategy to get a
graduate degree in one area of psychology, and then try to work in
another. If you want to work with patients, get a degree in clinical,
look for an APA approved doctoral (e.g., Ph.D., Ed.D., Psy.D.) program
in clinical psychology. If you want to be a California marriage
counselor, look for a master's program approved for that license by the
Board of Behavioral Science Examiners.

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There are other career paths within the human services, such as
nursing, social work, or psychiatry. Psychiatrists in private practice
or working for hospitals will usually earn more than psychologists (but
maybe not as much as other physicians, such as surgeons).

Career path for a psychiatrist

Level Where Study Outcome
Lower Community college General Get transferable
division education credits or A.A.
Volunteer Agency Internship Get experience
Upper U.C. system, Major in Get B.A. or B.S.
division Cal State, chemistry,
Private university biology, or
neuroscience
MAKE CAREER DECISION
Graduate U.C. system, Specialized M.D. or D.O.
Private university, program
Free-standing
medical school
DECIDE MEDICAL SPECIALTY
Post- Agency such as V.A. Internship & Get experience
doctoral or state hospital Residency
Licensing State agency Take exam Get license and
board certification

Social workers usually do not earn as much as psychologists or

registered nurses.

Career path for a social worker

Level Where Study Outcome
Lower Community college General Get transferable
division education credits or A.A.
Volunteer Agency Internship Get experience
Upper U.C. system, Major in Get B.A. or B.S.W.
division Cal State, psychology,
Private university sociology or
social work
MAKE CAREER DECISION
Graduate U.C. system, Specialized M.S.W. or D.S.W.
Cal State, program
Private university
Post-degree Agency such as V.A. Internship Get experience
or state hospital
Licensing State agency Take exam Get license

Compared to many other human service professions, nursing gives more

career and educational options in terms of levels and specializations.

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 Career path for a nurse
Level Where Study Outcome
Lower Community college Pre- Get transferable
division requisites credits
Volunteer Agency Internship Get experience
Lower or Community college Major in Get A.S.N. or
upper or C.S.U. or nursing B.S.N.
division Private University
Licensing State agency Take test Get license
Work Hospital, clinic, Paid Get experience
or agency employment
MAKE DECISION TO GO BACK
Upper C.S.U. or U.C. Major in Get B.S.N. or B.A.
division Private University nursing in other field
MAKE DECISION TO GO BACK
Graduate U.C. system, Specialized M.S.N. or masters
Cal State, program in other field
Private university
MAKE DECISION TO GO BACK
Graduate U.C. system, Specialized D.S.N. or doctoral
Private University Program in other field

There are many new emerging fields within psychology (e.g., sport
psychology) or related to psychology (e.g., gender studies), but it is
not always clear what the career path is going to be for persons who
get an advanced degree in those fields. For example, many students have
earned master's or doctoral degrees in gerontology, under the
assumption that the growing aging population will guarantee a demand
for such specialists. However, never assume that real human needs
translate into government decisions about funding priorities. In the
field of gerontology, for example, when most Veterans Administration
Hospitals and other government agencies hire people to work with the
aged, what they are looking for is specific qualifications that match
careers such as physician, clinical psychologist, social worker or
nurse. Someone with a gerontology degree may not fit either the job
description or the job specification.

Careers in the human services

Career Degree needed Pay Job market
Psychiatric technician Certificate $ Fair
Psychiatric Nurse A.S.N. $$$ Good
Psychiatrist M.D.+ $$$$ Good
Psychoanalyst M.D. / Ph.D. ++ $$$$ Poor
Social worker B.S.W. $$ Fair
Marriage counselor M.A.+ $$ Fair
School psychologist M.A. $$$ Fair
Clinical psychologist Ph.D.+ $$$ Good
Industrial psychologist M.A. $$$$ Excellent
Consumer psychologist Ph.D. $$$$ Excellent
Sport psychologist Ph.D. ? ?
Research psychologist Ph.D. $$$ Fair

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