Introductory Psychology and Brain & Cognition (7201702PXY)
Summary
Summary Introductory Psychology & Brain and Cognition Part B
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Course
Introductory Psychology and Brain & Cognition (7201702PXY)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Book
Psychology
This is for the first year UvA Psychology course; Introductory Psychology & Brain and Cognition; the second interim exam. I don't know what my grade was for this exam, but I completed this course with a 9, so it might help you!
Introductory Psychology and Brain & Cognition (7201702PXY)
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Table of Contents
Summary Psychology part 2 - Gray & Bjorklund .............................................................................................. 2
Chapter 10 Solving problems: Reasoning and Intelligence ........................................................................................................ 2
Chapter 11 The development of body, thought and language ................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 12 Social development ..............................................................................................................................................................13
Chapter 13 Social Psychology..................................................................................................................................................................20
Chapter 14 Personality ................................................................................................................................................................................27
Chapter 15 Psychological disorders .....................................................................................................................................................35
Chapter 16 Treatment of psychological disorders .......................................................................................................................42
1
,Summary Psychology part 2 - Gray & Bjorklund
Chapter 10 Solving problems: Reasoning and Intelligence
How people reason I: Analogies and Induction
Analogies as a basis for reasoning
- Analogy = similarity in behaviour, function, or relationship between entities or situations that
are in other respects, such as physical makeup quite different from each other
o Based on similarity relations ->
▪ e.g. man - woman what boy - girl
▪ plane – air what boat – water
▪ soon – never what near – nowhere
o Raven’s progressive matrices test makes use of analogy problems ->
▪ Used to measure fluid intelligence
- Analogies in judicial and political reasoning and persuasion
o Judicial: e.g. prosecutor saying evidence is like a chain, with influence of weakest link,
other tells story about a rope, even with weak strands, rope still holds strong
- Analogies are fundamental components of human thought and persuasion
o Usual to the degree that the structural relationships in analogy hold true
o Misleading to degree that those relationships don’t hold true
- Anterior left inferior prefrontal cortex was activated when making semantic decisions
- Multiple areas of prefrontal cortex were activated when making analogical decisions
o White matter [mostly myelinated axons] changes after practicing a lot of analogies
o Analogical reasoning involves brain areas involved in integration of info
Inductive reasoning
- In inductive reasoning, or hypothesis construction, a new principle or proposition is inferred
on the basis of specific observations or facts. We are generally good at inductive reasoning,
but are susceptible to certain biases
o E.g. what detectives do
- True scientific reasoning is a form of inductive reasoning
- Availability bias = our tendency to give too much weight to info that comes more easily to
mind than other relevant info
- Confirmation bias = leads us to try to confirm rather than disconfirm our current hypothesis.
Logically, a hypothesis cannot be proven, only disproven
- Predictable-world bias = leads us to arrive at predictions through induction even when
events are actually random
o Maximizing strategy = only say red in a dice with 4 red sides an 2 green sides, since
the chance is 2/3 of the time you will throw red
o Matching strategy = vary their guesses over trials in a way that matches the
probability that red and green will show [2/3 times guess red, and 1/3 time guess
green]
2
,How people reason II: Deduction and Insight
Deduction and insight contribute to problem-solving ability
Concrete nature of deductive reasoning
- Deduction is the derivation of conclusions that must be true if the premises are true
o Sherlock Homes; doesn’t go into case with theories, but a blank mind
- Syllogisms are classic examples or deductive-reasoning problems
o Syllogism = presents a major premise, or proposition, and a minor premise that you
must combine mentally to see if a particular conclusion is true, false or indeterminate
- Older theories suggested that we solve such problems with formal logic
o Piaget thought that people over 13 years old solve problems via a sort of mental
algebra
- Whereas newer theories recognize that we are biased toward using content knowledge even
when told not to
o Research showed we are inclined to solve deductive problems by reflecting on our
real-world knowledge
- Deontic reasoning = reasoning about what one may, should or ought to do
Insight
- The candle problem has been used to study insight, where sudden solutions come from
seeing things in a new way
o Candle problem = subjects are given candle, book of matches and box of tacks and are
asked to attach candle to bulletin board in a way that the candle can be lit and will
burn properly > use box of tacks as a shelf
- Our tendency to see tools as designed for a specific purpose leads to functional fixedness,
but may also result in more efficient use of tools
- Insight often derives from abandoning a mental set [a habitual way of perceiving or thinking]
and paying attention to aspects of the problem and materials that might otherwise be
overlooked
- Design stance = readily assume that tools are designed for an intended function [by Daniel
Dennet]
- Insight may also be promoted by an incubation period [=taking some time off; helps with
insight, not with deduction] or by a happy or playful frame of mind
o Fredrickson; Broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions [= happy emotions
broaden one’s scope of perception and thought and increase creativity]
- Although mechanisms involved with insight learning remain ‘mysterious’, unconscious
priming is likely involved
Cross-cultural differences in perception and reasoning
There are cultural differences in perception and reasoning
- Non-Westerners who lack formal schooling apply rules of logic that are more closely tied to
everyday, practical function than to abstract concepts
3
, - East Asian subjects tend to focus on the entire context of a problem or situation, as do very
young children in both Western and East Asian cultures
The practice and theory of intelligence testing
Efforts to characterize and measure intelligence have both practical and theoretical goals
History and validity of intelligence testing
- Intelligence = variable capacity that underlies individual differences in reasoning, solving
problems, and acquiring new knowledge
- Binet regarded intelligence as a loose set of higher-order mental abilities that can be
increased by schooling. His tests used school-related questions and problems
- Binet-Simon Intelligence Scale > measured memory, vocabulary, common knowledge, use of
numbers, understanding of time, and ability to combine ideas
- Most modern intelligence tests are rooted in Binet’s approach and use a variety of verbal and
nonverbal subtests
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) =
- Norms:
- The complete test is taken by a random sample of a population
o E.g. all adult people in the Netherlands
- The average group-score by definition corresponds with an IQ score of 100
- The other scores follow a normal distribution with a SD of 15
- IQ scores corelate moderately well with school grades and job performance. Such
correlations are commonly used as indices of IQ validity
o Academic success> correlation coefficient ranges from 0.3 - 0.7
o Career success > correlation coefficient ranges from 0.2 - 0.6
Nature of general intelligence
- Spearman proposed that general intelligence, or g, is a single factor that contributes to all
types of mental performance
4
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