Unit: 1

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE OF

MIND AND BEHAVIOR
The word psychology was actually derived from the two Greek
words Psyche and Logos. Psyche meaning soul and logos
meaning discourse. Psychology is both an applied and academic
field that studies the human mind and behavior. Research in
psychology seeks to understand and explain how we think, act and
feel. As most people already realize, a large part of psychology is
devoted to the diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues, but
that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to applications for
psychology. In addition to mental health, psychology can be applied
to a variety of issues that impact health and daily life including
performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, motivation,
productivity, and much more.
Therefore, a generally accepted definition of psychology is "the
study of human behavior. Behavior can provide us with valuable
windows into a persons emotional and cognitive states, and if we
can understand the psychological influences on behavior, we can try
to better understand a persons inner experience.
Psychology can be roughly divided into two major sections:
1.

Research, which seeks to increase our knowledge base

2.

Practice, through which our knowledge is applied to

solving problems in the real world.

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AREAS/SUB-FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY: (Similarities and

Differences with other Sciences)
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology focuses on understanding the mental
processes of how people think.
Problem-solving, decision-making, language, intelligence,
and attention are just a few of the topics studied by
cognitive psychologists.
Developmental Psychology
Developmental

psychologists study

the

physical

and cognitive development that occurs over the course of

the lifespan.
These psychologists generally specialize in an area such as
infant, child, adolescent, or geriatric development, while
others may study the effects of developmental delays.
Experimental Psychology
Experimental psychologists utilize the scientific method
to study a while range of human behaviors and
psychological phenomena.
Experimental psychology is often viewed as a
distinct subfield within psychology, but experimental
techniques and methods are actually used extensively
throughout every subfield of psychology.

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 Some of the methods used in experimental

psychology include experiments, correlation studies,
case studies, and naturalistic observation.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Psychologists

in

this

field

apply

psychological

principles to research on workplace issues such as

productivity and behavior.
Some psychologists in this field work in areas such as
human factors, ergonomics, and human-computer
interaction.
Research

in

this

field

is

known

as applied

research because it seeks to solve real world problems.

Personality Psychology
Personality psychologists

study

the

characteristic

patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make

each person unique.
These psychologists often work in academic settings as
instructors or researchers.
Social Psychology

Social psychologists study social behaviors, including

how individual self-image and behavior is impacted by
interactions with others.

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 These psychologists often conduct research in academic

settings, but others work in such areas such as advertising
and government.
Other areas of related areas of psychology are Behavioral
Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology
Counseling,
Developmental, Developmental Psychology Forensic Psychology
Health Psychology, Neuropsychology Educational and School
Psychology Clinical-Personality
Social
Cluster.
Nature of psychology
1.

Study of experience

Psychologists study a variety of human experiences which are

mainly personal or private in nature. They may range from
experiences of dream, conscious experiences at different stages of
life and experiences when the consciousness is altered through
meditation or use of psychedelic drugs. The study of such
experiences helps the psychologist to understand the personal world
of the individual.
2.

Study of mental processes

Psychology as the study of mental processes tries to investigate the

activities happening in the brain which are primarily non
physiological in nature. These mental processes include perception,
learning, remembering and thinking. These are internal mental
activities which are not directly observed but inferred from the
behavioral activities of the person. For example, we can say that
somebody is thinking if he or she displays certain activities related
to finding solution to a mathematical problem assigned to him or
her.

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3.

Study of behavior

The range of behaviors studied in psychology is very broad. It

includes simple reflexes (e.g. eye blinking), common response
patterns such as talking to friends, verbal reports about feelings and
internal states and complex behaviors such as handling computers,
playing piano and addressing a crowd. These behaviors are either
observed directly through naked eyes or are measured through
instruments. They are generally exhibited verbally or nonverbally
(e.g. facial expression) when an individual reacts to a stimulus in a
given situation.
Thus in psychology the main unit of investigation is the individual
human being and his or her experiences, mental processes and
behaviours.

Mental processes
Other nature are helps in prediction the future development,
emphasizes on search of truth, beliefs in cause and effect
relationships.

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Some of the common definitions by different author are:

The science of the mind or of mental states and processes.

The science of human and animal behavior.
The sum or characteristics of the mental states and
processes of a person or a class of persons, or of the mental
states and processes involved in a field or activity.
General mental plays or strategy.
The mental makeup or structure of an individual that
causes him or her to think or act in the way he or she does.
Psychology studies the behavior of not only humans but
also animals.

Misconception of Psychology
Psychologists are mind readers
Authority of mental telepathy or fortune telling.
When I tell people Im studying Psychology, their first
response is generally so can you tell what Im thinking?
Some people also think that a psychologist is the same as a
psychiatrist, the type of people that lie you down on a sofa
and talk to you about your feelings.
Criminal profiling
Reinforcement (change in behavior)
Lie detector(heart rate/breathing)
Opposite attractive
Women talks more than men
It is better to vent your anger than to hold it.

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Common Sense and Psychology

Common Sense

Psychology

As a set of fundamental assumptions.

As a set of Maximums or shared belief.
As a shared way of thinking.
Naturally like instinct/critical thinking.
First hand Observation

Psychology backed b
proof.
Psychology is logical
It helps in predicting
Able to support unive

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology can be classified as
a.
b.
c.

The Early age of pre scientific psychology

The Modern age of Scientific psychology
The Recent trends in contemporary psychology

1878 - G. Stanley Hall becomes the first American to earn a Ph.D. in

psychology. Hall eventually founds the American Psychological
Association.
1879 Wilhelm Wundt founds the first experimental psychology
lab in Leipzig, Germany. The event is considered the starting point
of psychology as a separate science.
1881 --Wundt

forms

the

professional

journal Philosophische

Studien(Philosophical Studies)

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1883 - G. Stanley Hall opens the first experimental psychology

lab in the United States at John Hopkins University.
1885 - Herman Ebbinghaus published his famous ber das
Gedchtnis ("On Memory"), which was later translated to English
asMemory. A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. In the work,
he describes his learning and memory experiments that he
conducted on himself.
1886 Sigmund Freud begins providing therapy to patients in
Vienna, Austria.
1888 - James McKeen Cattell becomes the first professor of
psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
1890 -

James McKeen Cattell

publishes Mental

Tests and

Measurements, marking the beginning of the practice of

psychological assessment.
-William James publishes Principles of Psychology.
-Sir Francis Galton creates correlation technique to better
understand relationships between variable in intelligence studies.
1892 --G.

Stanley

Hall

forms

the American

Psychological

Association (APA), which initially has just 42 members.

- Wundts student Edward B. Titchener moves to America.
1894 - Margaret Floy Washburn completes her training under
Tichener.
1895 - Alfred Binet forms the first psychology lab devoted to
psychodiagnosis.
1898 - Edward Thorndike develops the Law of Effect.
1900 Sigmund Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams.
1901 - The British Psychological Society is formed.

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1905 - Mary Whiton Calkins is elected the first woman president of

the American Psychological Association.
- Alfred Binet publishes the intelligence test New Methods for the
Diagnosis of the Intellectual Level of Subnormals.
1906 - Ivan Pavlov publishes his findings on classical conditioning.
- Morton Prince founds the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
1907 Carl Jung publishes The Psychology of Dementia Praecox.
1909 - Calkins publishes A First Book in Psychology.
1912 - Edward Thorndike publishes Animal Intelligence. The article
leads to the development of the theory ofoperant conditioning.
- Max Wertheimer publishes Experimental Studies of the Perception
of Movement, leading to the development of Gestalt Psychology.
1913 Carl Jung begins to depart from Freudian views and
develops his own theories, which are eventually known as analytical
psychology.
- John B. Watson publishes Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.
The work helped establish behaviorism, which viewed human
behavior arising from conditioned responses.
1915 Sigmund Freud publishes work on repression.
1917 - Then president of the APA, Robert Yerkes writes the Alpha
and Beta Tests for the Army to test intelligence.
1919 - John B. Watson publishes Psychology, From the Standpoint
of a Behaviorist.
1920 - Watson and Rosalie Rayner publish research the classical
conditioning of fear with their subject,Little Albert.
1925 - Gestal Psychology is brought to America with the publication
of Wolfgang Kohlers Perception: An Introduction to the Gestalt
Theory.

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1932 - Jean Piaget becomes the foremost cognitive theorist with the
publication of his work The Moral Judgment of Children.
1935 - Henry Murray publishes the Thematic Appreception Test
(TAT).
1942 - Carl

Rogers developed client-centered

therapy and

publishes Counseling and Psychotherapy. His approach encourages

respect and positive regard for patients.
1952 - The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is
published.
1954 - Abraham Maslow publishes Motivation and Personality,
describing his theory of a hierarchy of needs.He also helps
found humanistic psychology.
1958 - Harry Harlow publishes The Nature of Love, which describe
his experiments with rhesus monkey'son the importance of
attachment and love.
1961 - Albert

Bandura conducts

his

now

famous Bobo

doll

experiment.
1963 - Albert Bandura first describes the concept of observational
learning to explain personality development.
1974 - Stanley Milgram publishes Obedience to Authority, which
presented the findings of his famousobedience experiments.
1980 - The DSM-III is published.
1990 - Noam Chomsky publishes On Nature, Use and Acquisition
of Language.
1991 - Steven Pinker publishes an article in Science introducing his
theory of how children acquire language, which he later details
further in his book The Language Instinct.
1994 - The DSM-IV is published.

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2000 - Genetic researchers finish mapping human genes. Scientists

hope to one day isolate the individual genes responsible for different
diseases.
2002 - Steven Pinker publishes The Blank Slate, arguing against the
concept of tabula rasa.
Summary
1.

Philosophical Stage
Aristotle (384 -322 BC) a study of mind/soul.
Plato (427 -347 BC) science of soul.

2.

Structural Stage (Consciousness)

Wilhelm Wundt (1832 -1920) father of experimental
psychology.
Wundt defined psychology as science of internal and
immediate experience i.e. As the science of
consciousness, He focused on inner sensation, feelings
and thoughts.
Edward Titcher (1867 -1927) structure of mind
(structuralism).
William James (1842-1910) Function of
consciousness (functionalism). Principle of
psychology.

3.

Behavioral stage (Behavior)

J.B. Watson (1878 -1958) B behavior
Charles Darwin (1809- 1882) origin of species.
Francis Galton (1822 1911) Hereditary Genius.
Watson science of observable behavior.
behaviorism
Stimulus mediation Response
Stimulus Response

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4.

Modern definition
The science of behavior and mental processes.
Psychology as a Empirical Science
Psychology Studies Behavior: Overt Behavior
Psychology Studies Mental Process: Covert Behavior

Who is the father of modern psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt. Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt (16 August 1832
31 August 1920) was a German physician, physiologist, philosopher,
and professor, known today as one of the founding figures of
modern psychology.
Who is considered the first modern psychologist?
German physician Wilhelm Wundt is credited with introducing
psychological discovery into a laboratory setting. Known as the
"father
of
experimental psychology",
he
founded
the first psychological laboratory, at Leipzig University, in 1879.

Perspectives of Psychology

Biological Perspective
Cognitive Perspective
Behavioral Perspective
Psychodynamic Perspective

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 Humanistic Perspective
Social cultural Perspective
Evolutionary Perspective
1. Bio-psychological Perspective:
The biological perspective is a broad scientific perspective that
assumes that human behavior and thought processes have a
biological basis. Biology includes investigations into
biochemistry of behavior associated with neurotransmitters
and

hormones,

genetics

and

heritability,

and

the

psychophysics of sensation and perception. Physiological

psychology, neuroscience,
psychopharmacology

are

psychoall

neuroimunology

part

of

and

the biological

perspective. Because the biological perspective relies on

scientific methods, its scope of investigation is limited to
variables that can be controlled. Research methods are
quantitative and seek to produce findings that can be
replicated and that are generalizable across populations.
Practical outcomes of biological psychology include the
booming trade in psycho-pharmaceuticals, an understanding
of mental illness that provides viable remedies for certain
very serious disorders, and diagnostic brain scanning tools
that are at the leading edge of neuroscience.
2.

Cognitive Perspective:

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In response to the empty organism theory of behaviorism, the

cognitive perspective developed explanations for human
behavior that suggest that human behavior is at times
thoughtful and can be controlled by thought processes.
Indeed, the cognitive perspective suggests that much of
human behavior is mediated by thought processes like
memory and attention, belief systems, attitudes and language.
Cognitivists believe that humans bring significant conscious
processes into the mix and that much of human behavior is
mediated by conscious processes. Belief systems, value
systems, thought processes, reason and intelligence have a
significant impact on why we do the things we do and act the
way we act. The cognitive perspective suggests that much of
human behavior is significantly influenced by cognitive
processes and is thus amenable to our thoughtful control.

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3.

Behavioral Perspective:
In an attempt to bring scientific method to bear on the
understanding of human behavior, John B. Watson, using
ideas he had gleaned from the likes of Ivan Pavlov and
others, decided to declare that psychology should only
concern itself with observable behavior. A science of
behavior was built on only observable behavior. Assumptions
about underlying psychological causes of behavior were not
admitted. The unconscious was declared fictitious and its
study, a waste of time. Serious psychology would focus on
observable,

controllable,

behavior.

The

behavioral

perspective gained great momentum in the 20th century

because it was a powerful tool in training, education, and

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industry. Critics claimed that behaviorism was dehumanizing.

John B. Watson and others conducted a thorough explication
of Classical Conditioning and B. F. Skinner, responding
somewhat to the critics of behaviorisms dehumanization,
explained and expertly defended the processes of Operant
Conditioning.

4.

Psychodynamic Perspective:
Consider behavior to be motivated by inner forces and
conflict about which we have little awareness and over
which we have little control.
Probably the approach that has been most popularly
associated with the discipline of psychology for the past

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century is the psychodynamic, psychoanalytic perspective.

Sigmund Freud, who was medically trained in neurology,
developed a theory of personality that made the assumption
that human motivation was propelled by conflicts between
instinctual, mostly unconscious, psychological forces. He
called these intra psychic elements the id, ego and superego.
This psychodynamic theory caught on like wild fire and due
to its explanatory power for human behavior, became very
popular over the following century. Freud's therapeutic
method, called psychoanalysis, was developed to identify the
underlying conflicts between intra-psychic structures and
resolve them by bringing them to consciousness. Insight
therapy was one term used to describe Freud's treatment
approach. Freud also contributed the first developmental
theory of human personality. It suggests that human
development progresses through psychosexual stages. Each
stage

is

characterized

by

specific

behavioral

and

psychodynamic developments and challenges.

Although Freud thought of himself as a scientist, and he was
indeed very thorough in recording his methods and outcomes,
he did not practice scientific methods. Psychoanalytic theory
was developed through case study analysis, a qualitative, not
scientific, method.
Other psychodynamic theories arose, like those of Carl Jung
and Alfred Adler, Margaret Mahler, and famous development

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lists like Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson, but all made the same
basic assumption: There is a dynamic mind, conscious and
unconscious, that influences the behavior of humans.
Elements of the unconscious psyche interact to produce
motives for behavior and thought processes.
Sigmund Freud (1856 -1939) He describes different ideas
about a) the world of unconscious, b) psychoanalytic method,
c) Structure of Psyche, d) Psycho Sexual Development.
Different phases of child psycho sexual development are a)
the oral stage, b) the anal stage, c) Genital Stage, d) the
Latency stage, e) the phallic Stage. Oedipus and Electra
phases Freud says that they are the results of the sexual
attraction or pleasure the children receive in the company of
the opposite sex parent.
5.

Humanistic/Existential Perspective:
The humanistic perspective arose in reaction to the
deterministic and pessimistic psychoanalytic view and the
mechanistic

behavioral

perspective,

to

support

more

optimistic views that humans are motivated by their potential

to be creative and productive in response to their social and
environmental conditions. The existential part of the
humanist view recognizes the reality of being in a world and
the opportunity that we have to choose a path for

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ourselves. Humanism is hopeful, focuses on subjective,

conscious experience, tries to solve human problems and
emphasizes the human potential to grow in a positive manner.
The humanist philosophy respects diversity and confronts
reality as it is, both the painful and pleasurable, the good and
the bad. Humanism assumes that people have choices about
their behavior and possess free will to act and also must
assume responsibility for choices and consequences. The
humanist perspective differs from the biological perspective
in that the assumptions about causes for behavior lie in
human self-efficacy, choice and free will as opposed to the
determinism of biological causes. Humanist and existential
philosophies are combined because they both emphasize free
will and responsibility as central to the nature of being.
6.

Socio-cultural Perspective:
The social/cultural perspective in psychology suggests that
human

behavior

is

influenced

by

social

context,

environmental cues, social pressures and cultural influences.

Anyone who has attended a football game will recognize that
human behavior is susceptible to influence of the crowd
mentality. We are all shaped by the context of our
environment and influenced by the perception of authority in
our social order. Social psychologists suggest that these

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forces are very powerful and explain a great deal about the
causes of human behavior and thought processes.
7.

Evolutionary Perspective:
The evolutionary perspective explains human behavior and
thought process as resulting from evolutionary processes. The
underlying assumption of biological evolution is survival of
the species. Human behavior is understood in the light of the
question: how does this behavior result from processes that
support the survival of the species?

Summary
Biological
Cause of behavior is your
brain.
To change behaviors, you
have to change the way the
brain functions
Behaviorism
How does the
environment impact the
way you behave?
Environmental conditions
like rewards/punishments
Cognitive
Based on mental process
(Speaking, Thinking etc.)

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 People act because they

think; People thin because
they are human
Humanistic
People are innately good and
capable of choice.
Main task of humans is to
grow and develop
Psychodynamic
Behavior is result of
unconscious dynamics, inner
forces.
Not based on observation
Socio-cultural
Behavior results from social
and cultural influences.
Ex: Kissing
Evolutionary
Mental abilities evolve over
millions of years
Ex: Vision

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Scientific Methods and Psychological Research

Psychology uses scientific methods for the systematic study of an
organisms behavior. The scientific methods are used to make
observations, form theories and the refine theories in the light of
new observation. Psychologists use these strategies to describe,
predict, and explain behavior and mental precision.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.

Descriptive methods
Case study method
Survey method
Naturalistic Observation method
Experimental method

Naturalistic Observation:

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Naturalistic Observation is also called objectives

observation, system observation or simply as observation
method. It can be divided into two categories as participant
observation and non- participant observation,
There are certain important steps involved in carrying out
the observation method which are as following: a)
Observation of behavior, b) Noting of behavior c)
Interpretation and analysis of behavior d) generalization.

Advantages
Disadvantag
i. The main virtue is directness; it makes iti. This method cannot legitim
possible to study behavior as it occurs.
relation between variables t
manipulated. Lack of con
replication more difficult.
ii. The researcher need not ask people about ii) This method is slow and
their behavior and interactions.
human observers / or costly
iii. Much richer information
iii) Internal experiences canno
ard activities, unless the exper
statements.
iv. Higher ecology validity
iv) There may be some errors
persons behavior. Biases ad p

2.

Experimental Research:
Experimental method is a research method in which
researcher systematically alters on or more independent
variable in order to determine whether such changes
influence some aspect of behavior.
i)
Raising a problem
ii)
Formulation of a hypothesis
iii)
To distinguish between dependent and independent
variable.

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iv)
v)
vi)

Controlling the environment or the situation.

Analysis of the result.
Verification of the hypothesis by the result of the
experiment.

Advantages
Testing casual relationship

Disadv
Artificial situation of the labo

ii) Replication (repeated)

ii) Difficult in attaining coop

subject.

iii) Control the environment

iv) Experimenter effects.

v) Limited field

3.

Survey Method:
Survey type research studies usually have larger samples where
investigators with the help of different printed questions ask
people to report their behavior or options. The questions are
based on the individual attitudes, values, habits or other
characteristics.

4.

Case Study:

Case study method is also known as case history, or clinical

method. It is one of the oldest research method used particularly
to reveal depths for the diagnosis and treatment of behavior
disorders in psychology.
5.

Descriptive research:
In this method the research naturally described the organism. In
everyday life all of us observe ad describe people, often

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forming different guesses about why they behave as they do.

Professional psychologists do the same but more objectively
and systematically. The main problem in descriptive method is
that the researcher should be a skilled and experienced person
free of bias or prejudice to understand the behavior of the
organism.

Revised Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Define psychology.
Introduce major sub-field of Psychology.
Mention any three misconception about psychology.
Differentiate common sense and psychology.
How Freud defines Oedipus and Electra complex.
What are the four stages of history of psychology?
Define cognitive Perspective.

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8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

What does psychodynamic perspectives talks about?

List limitation of experimental method.
What are the advantages of Naturalistic Observations?
Define Overt and Covert Behavior.
What are S-R and S O R paradigms?
Psychology is a science that studies human behavior and
mental process. Justify. (10)
14. How are behavior studies through experimental method?
What are its advantages and disadvantages? (10)

Unit: 2
Importance of Biology in Psychological understanding of
behavior,
The biological approach believes us to be as a consequence of our
genetics and physiology. It is the only approach in psychology that
examines thoughts, feelings, and behaviors from a biological and

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thus physical point of view. Therefore, all that is psychological is

first physiological. All thoughts, feeling & behaviour ultimately
have a biological cause.
A biological perspective is relevant to the study of psychology in
three ways:
1. Comparative method: different species of animal can be
studied and compared. This can help in the search to understand
human behavior.
2. Physiology: how the nervous system and hormones work,
how the brain functions, how changes in structure and/or
function can affect behavior. For example, we could ask how
prescribed drugs to treat depression affect behavior through
their interaction with the nervous system.
3. Investigation of inheritance: what an animal inherits from its
parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example, we
might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from
one generation to the next.
Each of these biological aspects, the comparative, the physiological
(i.e. the brain) and the genetic, can help explain human behavior.
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the
scientific study of mental functions and behaviors.

Psychologists

attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and

social behavior, while also exploring the psychological and
neurobiological processes that underlie certain functions and

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behaviors. For this reason, biology plays a very important role in the
study of psychology. Psychology determines what people perceive
to feel and behave, but underlying it all, ultimately determining the
way we act, feel and behave, is biology. A biological perspective is
relevant to psychology in the study of how the nervous system and
hormones work, how the brain functions and how changes in
structure and/or function can affect behavior
Neurons
Neurons are specialized cells that are the basic elements of
the nervous system that carry massages.
The basic unit of nervous system is nerve cell or neuron.
The most important feature of neurons is their ability to
communicate with other cells.
It is estimated that about two billion neurons exist in the
brain alone and the number of neural connections within
the brain to be one quadrillion.

Structure of Neurons
In playing the piano, driving a car, or throwing a ball to the basket,
different muscles are involved. The body system sends messages to
the muscles and coordinates these messages to produce successful
results. Such messages are passed through specialized cells called
neurons.
Components of neurons: the cell membrane, dendrites, the cell body,
the axon, myelin sheath and neurotransmitters.

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a.
b.

c.

d.

e.

Dendrites: They are cluster of fibers at one end of a neuron

that receives messages from other neurons.
Axon: It is a tube like long extension from the end of a
neuron that carries messages to other cells through the neuron.
The length of axons range from several millimeters to three
feet.
Terminal buttons: They are small branches at the end of an
axon that relay massages to other cells. Electrical messages
travel through neuron beginning with detection of messages by
dendrites, continue into the cell body(nucleus) and pass down
the axon.
Myelin sheath: It is the axons protective coating, made of fat
and protein. Its function is to prevent messages from short
circulating by insulating the axons.
Neurotransmitters: when a neuron receives a signal (heat,
pressure, light etc)from adjacent neurons or from sensory
receptors it fires or becomes active. This neural impulse is
called the action potential. It is a brief electrical change that
travels down the axon. When the action potential reaches the
knob like terminal buttons at an axons end, it triggers the
release to chemical messages called neurotransmitters.

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Structure of Neurons
Nervous system
The bodys speedy, electrochemical communication system consists
of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems.
It has two parts;

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain (hind brain, midbrain and forebrain) and Spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Automatic nervous system (parasympathetic system and

sympathetic) and somatic nervous system.

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Structure and function of central nervous system

The central nervous system (CNS) controls most functions of the

body and mind.

Controls the brain and spinal cord

The Braindirects mental
maintains basic life functions

processes

and

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 The Spinal Cordreceives sensory input, sends

information to the brain, responds with motor
output
It consists of two parts: the brain and the spinal cord. The
brain is the center of our thoughts, the interpreter of our
external environment, and the origin of control over body
movement.
Structure of Brain
Hindbrain
Controls many functions key to survival,
including keeping airway clear, heart beat,
breathing, reflexes, sleep, respiration, balance.
Midbrain
Coordinates motion, relays information to other
sites; targeting auditory and visual stimuli,
regulating body temperature.

Forebrain
Cortical and sub-cortical structures; intelligent
adaptive behavior.

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Peripheral Nervous System

Peripheral Nervous System is categorized as Autonomic Nervous
System and Somatic Nervous System.
System of nerves outside of the brain and spinal

cord

Send control to the glands and smooth muscles

Controls internal organs, usually not under

voluntary control.

Somatic Nervous system: the activities basically

related to muscles that control movements of the body are
regulated by somatic nervous system.

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a) Autonomic Nervous System

Automatic is categories into two parts as
i)
Parasympathetic System and
ii)
Sympathetic System

i) Sympathetic Nervous System:

Triggered when body temperature is too low
Revives up body activity to prepare for rigorous activity
Increased heart rate
Slowing down of peristalsis (rhythmic contractions of
intestines), so not using energy during digestion
Vasoconstriction: Contraction of skins capillaries

ii) Parasympathetic Nervous System

Triggered when bodys temperature is too high

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Restored bodys internal activities

Cardio slowing
Speeds up peristalsis
Vasolidation: Widening of skins capillaries
Stimulus
Body prepares for response
Body returns to normal

b) Somatic Nervous System:

The activities basically related to muscles that controls moments of
the body are regulated by somatic nervous system. It carries
information that receptors received from the environment to the
spinal cord, brain and nerves by affect nerves and passes back the
information from brain and spinal cord to the muscles through effect
nerves.

Endocrine system and its importance

The endocrine system is also essential to communication. This
system utilizes glands located throughout the body, which secrete
hormones that regulate a variety of things such as metabolism,
digestion, blood pressure and growth. While the endocrine system is
not directly linked to the nervous system, the two interact in a
number of ways.
Information travels through our bodies in two forms; as electrical
signals, or as chemical signals. The chemical signals are created and
carried throughout the body using the endocrine system. This system
works more slowly than the electrical signals, and is made up of

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glands that secret hormones (the carriers of the information) in the

bloodstream.
Endocrine system is a chemical communication network that sends
messages through the nervous system via the blood stream and
secretes hormones that affect body growth and functioning.
How are the endocrine and nervous system linked?
The brain structure known as the hypothalamus connects these two
important communication systems. The hypothalamus is a tiny
collection of nuclei that is responsible for controlling an astonishing
amount of behavior. Located at the base of the forebrain, the
hypothalamus regulates basic needs such as sleep, hunger, thirst and
sex in addition to emotional and stress responses. The hypothalamus
also controls the pituitary glands, which then controls the release of
hormones from other glands in the endocrine system.

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Major components of the endocrine system are:

Pituitary glands (base of the brain)
Although it is no bigger than a pea, the pituitary gland, located at
the base of the brain just beneath the hypothalamus, is considered
the most important part of the endocrine system.
It's often called the "master gland" because it makes hormones that
control several other endocrine glands.
Thyroid glands (Neck)
Adrenal glands (top of our kidney)

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Major functions of the endocrine glands are:

Regulate metabolism and growth;
Regulate absorption of nutrients;
Regulate fluid balance and ion concentration;
Regulates the bodys response to stress;
Regulates sexual characteristics, reproduction, birth and
Lactation (breast feeding)

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Revised Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

What is endocrine System?

How is memory related to brain?
What are the differences between sympathetic and
Parasympathetic nervous system?
What are neurons?
What are the two components of central nervous system?
What are the structures of brain?
How is biology important in shaping human behavior?
Neuron play major role in transforming information from body
to Bain centers and brain to the body. Explain with a diagram
the functions of Neurons. (10)
With structure explain the function of central nervous system.
(10)
What are the major function of sympathetic and Parasympathetic
nervous system? (10)
What is endocrine system? Explain its function in human body.
How does sense of vision transmit to the brain? What are
illusions? Give two examples. (10)
Explain the function of Spinal Cord?

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Unit 3
Sensation and Perception
10 hours
Sensation: Meaning
Activation of the sense organ by a source of physical energy. A
particular feeling or effect that your body experiences. A particular
feeling or experience that may not have a real causes. The ability to
feel things through your physical senses.
Examples of Sensation
I experienced a stinging sensation in my arm.
She felt a burning sensation in her throat.
She craved new experiences and sensations.
She had the strange sensation that someone was watching
her.
I couldn't quite shake the sensation that I'd been fooled.
Her injury left her with no sensation in her legs.

How sensation and Perception related?

1) Sensation occurs:
a) Sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus
in the environment.
b) Sensory receptors convert this energy into neural
impulses and send them to the brain.

2) Perception follows:
a) The brain organizes the information and translates it
into something meaningful.

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1.

2.
3.

Importance of Sensation
Sensations and perceptions are the basic means by which
people experience the world and build a worldview to
explain those experiences. Sensations are direct sensory
stimuli, such as seeing shapes and colors, hearing sounds
or feeling a touch.
Perceptions are the ways we interpret those sensations to
make sense of what we are sensing.
Sensations and perceptions shape the way humans see the
world. The ability to take in information from reality and
process it in meaningful ways allows people to form a
worldview that helps them to understand life and make
wise decisions. A lack or loss of sensations, such as
blindness or deafness, creates a gap in the experience and
makes it harder to understand events fully. A perception
failure leads to misinterpretation of life and an inability to
respond adequately to the current situation.

Sensory threshold
In discussion of sensation in the field of psychology, the absolute
threshold refers to the smallest perceptible stimulus that causes a
sensation. A light that is just barely bright enough to see or a touch
that is the lightest touch you can feel is at the absolute threshold of
sensation. The difference threshold refers to the smallest possible
change in a stimulus that will register in your sensations as a
difference. These thresholds are important because they define a
person's direct experience of the world. Threshold - a dividing line
between what has detectable energy and what does not.
For example - many classrooms have automatic light sensors.
When people have not been in a room for a while, the lights go out.

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However, once someone walks into the room, the lights go back on.
For this to happen, the sensor has a threshold for motion that must
be crossed before it turns the lights back on. So, dust floating in the
room should not make the lights go on, but a person walking in
should.
Difference Threshold - the minimum amount of stimulus intensity
change needed to produce a noticeable change. the greater the
intensity (ex., weight) of a stimulus, the greater the change needed
to produce a noticeable change.
For example, when you pick up a 5 lb weight, and then a 10 pound
weight, you can feel a big difference between the two. However,
when you pick up 100 lbs, and then 105 lbs, it is much more
difficult to feel the difference.
Webers law: A basic law of psychophysics stating that a just
noticeable difference is a constant proportion to the intensity of a
initial stimulus (rather than a constant amount).
Signal-Detection Theory - detection of a stimulus involves some
decision making process as well as a sensory process. Additionally,
both sensory and decision making processes are influenced by
many more factors than just intensity.
a) Noise - how much outside interference exists.
b) Criterion - the level of assurance that you decide must be met
before you take action. Involves higher mental processes. You set
criterion based on expectations and consequences of inaccuracy.
For example - at a party, you order a pizza...you need to pay
attention so that you will be able to detect the appropriate signal
(doorbell), especially since there is a lot of noise at the party. But
when you first order the pizza, you know it won't be there in 2
minutes, so you don't really pay attention for the doorbell. As the
time for the pizza to arrive approaches, however, your criterion

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changes...you become more focused on the doorbell and less on

extraneous noise
Habituation and adaptation
Sensory adaptation is the tendency of the sense organs to adjust to
continuous, unchanging stimulation by reducing their functioning
or sensitivity.
An adjustment in sensory capacity after prolonged exposure to
unchanging stimuli is adaptation.
Humans also have the ability to adapt their sensations to more
efficiently gather relevant information from their settings.
For example, when there are many overlapping or potentially
overwhelming stimuli, the human brain can use "signal detection"
to filter out noise and enhance perception of relevant details, as
when you hear your name spoken in a noisy room or glance around
a room for red objects.
Similarly, a constant sensation will become less vividly noticed
over time, such as when you stop noticing a background noise, to
make room for novel stimuli that may be more relevant.
Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated
presentations.
For example, a novel sound in your environment, such as a new
ring tone, may initially draw your attention or even become
distracting.
After you become accustomed to this sound, you pay less attention
to the noise and your response to the sound will diminish. This
diminished response is habituation.
Habituation is one of the simplest and most common forms of
learning.

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Characteristics of Habituation

If the habituation stimulus is not presented for a long

enough period of time before a sudden reintroduction, the
response will once again reappear at full-strength, a
phenomenon known as spontaneous recovery.
The more frequently a stimulus is presented, the faster
habituation will occur.
Very strong stimuli tend to result in slower habituation. In
some cases, such as very loud noises like a car alarm or a
siren, habituation will never occur.
Changing the intensity or duration of the stimulation may
result in a reoccurrence of the original response.
Habituation can generalize to similar stimuli.

Types of sensory experiences

We can divide easily the sensation process into five categories on
the basis of sense organs as:
Tactual Sensation: skin -touch

Taste Sensation: tongue -taste

Olfactory Sensation : nose -smell
Auditory Sensation: ear -hear
Visual Sensation : eye -sight
Types of sensation
Superficial sensation: touch, pain, temperature, and twopoint discrimination.
Deep sensation: muscle and joint position sense
(proprioception), deep muscle pain, and vibration sense.

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Visceral sensations: relayed by autonomic afferent fibers

and include hunger, nausea, and
visceral pain Special sensessmell, vision, hearing,
taste, and equilibrium

Structure and functions of Visual (Eye)

Is accomplished by the organ called the eye and the portions of the
brain associated with receiving and interpreting light waves
Our eyes and brain are only able to interpret a portion of the light
spectrum, which is why we can not see x-rays or infrared
light. Wavelength is the distance between any point in a wave and
the corresponding point on the next cycle.
The Eye has:
Cornea- how light get through and maintains the shape of
the eye
Lens- focuses the light
Pupil- controls the amount of light
Retina- is the back of the eye ball where the light waves
are focused
The rods are visual receptors that respond to brightness
they are important for seeing in dim light.
Cones- are visual receptors that respond to hue, or color
variations. They are most important for color vision in
bright light.
Optic nerve- transmits the information from the retina to
the brain [occipital lobe]. At the spot where the optic
nerve is there is a "blind spot" because there are no
receptors there.

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Structure of eye

Function of eye
Human vision is one of the most complex visual systems
among animals.
The main sensory organ of the visual system is the eye,
which takes in the physical stimuli of light rays and
transducer them into electrical and chemical signals that
can be interpreted by the brain to construct physical
images.
The eye has three main layers: the sclera, which includes
the cornea; the choroid, which includes the pupil, iris, and

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lens; and the retina, which includes receptor cells called

rods and cones.
The human visual system is capable of complex color perception,
which is initiated by cones in the retina and completed by impulse
integration in the brain. Depth perception is our ability to see in
three dimensions and relies on both binocular (two-eye)
and monocular (one-eye) cues.

Auditory sensation
The ear consists of three areas:
outer ear;
middle ear, and
inner ear.
The middle ear is the area we are most interested in when looking
at the cause and effects of OM.
Outer ear
The outer ear consists of the pinna, the part you can easily see and
feel, and the ear canal. The pinna helps to gather the sound waves
around us. These sound waves travel down the ear canal where they
strike the ear drum. The ear drum separates the outer and middle
ear.
Middle ear
When sound waves strike the ear drum they cause it to vibrate,
which in turn causes the three small bones in the middle ear to
move. These three small bones are collectively called the ossicles
or easily known as the middle ear bones. The ossicles consist of
the:
malleus (hammer);
incus (anvil), and
stapes (stirrup).

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The stirrup is connected to a tiny membrane on the inner ear called

the oval window.
Inner ear
The oval window forms the entrance to the inner ear or cochlea.
The cochlea is coiled and filled with fluid. If we magnify a section
of the cochlea, we can see that the inner cochlea is lined with tiny
hair cells.

Function of Hearing
Sound funnels through the pinna into the external auditory canal, a
short tube that ends at the eardrum (tympanic membrane). Sound
causes the eardrum and its tiny attached bones in the middle portion

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of the ear to vibrate, and the vibrations are conducted to the nearby
cochlea.

Motor and reflex effects: position of the eyes and head.

Maintaining balance.
Effects on higher functions: thought, memory, language,
body language, emotions.
Sensory effects: position and movement of the head.
Sensorial effects: perception of sound.
Effects
on
state
of
consciousness
and
vigilance: triggering of sleeping and waking phases.
Maintaining alertness.

Theories of Hearing
Hermonn von Helmhotz proposed the place theory of hearing in
1863. He suggested that the sensation of pitch is determined by the
place on the basilar membrane that is stimulated. The nerves
attached to basilar membrane are sensitive to different frequencies
and send out different impulses from different locations.
Von Bekesy [1960] expanded the place theory by suggesting the
traveling wave principle, which is sound waves traveling through
the cochlea move the basilar membrane at a location that vibrates at
the particular pitch. However, there are problems with both
theories and more research is needed.
Wernicke's area, of the brain is important in speech perception.
Damage to that area leads to aphasia, a disorder in which a person
loses the ability to understand speech. In most right handed people
Wernicke's area is located in the left hemisphere.

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Perception
Definition
The sorting out, interpretation, analysis and integration of stimuli
by the sense organs and brain.
The mental process of recognizing and interpreting an object throu
h one or more of the senses stimulated by a physical object.
Perception can be defined as our recognition and interpretation of
sensory information. Perception also includes how we respond to
the information. We can think of perception as a process where we
take in sensory information from our environment and use that
information in order to interact with our environment. Perception
allows us to take the sensory information in and make it into
something meaningful.
Characteristics of perception:
They are sensation, organization, interpretation, and categorization
of input according to past experiences.
The process of sensory perception takes place very quickly
in the human brain, usually within less than one second.
Different types of perception are possible through the
complex activity of the nervous system that receives input
from each of the five senses.
This input then converts to signals that travel to the brain
via the spinal cord as well as the peripheral nervous
system.
Each of the characteristics of perception is both a physical
process and a subjective experience according to different
personalities, biases, and backgrounds.

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Subliminal and Extrasensory perception

Extrasensory perception:
Extrasensory perception or ESP includes reception of information
not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with
the mind.
The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B. Rhine
to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy (mind readers),
clairaudience, and clairvoyance(perceive remote events) and their
trans-temporal operation as precognition(seeing events before they
happens) or retro cognition.
ESP is also sometimes referred to as a sixth sense. The term
implies acquisition of information by means external to the basic
limiting assumptions of science, such as those organisms can only
receive information from the past to the present.
Parapsychology is the study of paranormal psychic phenomena,
including ESP. Parapsychologists generally regard such tests as the
ganzfeld experiment as providing compelling evidence for the
existence of ESP.
The scientific community rejects ESP due to the absence of an
evidence base, the lack of a theory which would explain ESP, the
lack of experimental techniques which can provide reliably positive
results, and considers ESP a pseudoscience.

Subliminal perception: It refers to the perception of messages

about which we have no awareness. The stimulus could be a written
word, a sound, or even a smell that activates the sensory system but
that is not intense enough for a person to report having experienced

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it. In short we are able to perceive at least some king of

information of which we are unaware, theres little evidence that
subliminal message can change our attitude or behavior in
substantial ways.
Subliminal (or below the threshold) message for one person, may
be supraliminal (above the threshold) for another person.
Subliminal perception: When we detect stimuli that are below our
absolute threshold for conscious awareness.
(Pathways in Brain and top-down and bottom-up processing)

Top down Processing: Perception is constructed by cognition.

Bottom up Processing: Perception directs cognition.
Psychologist Richard Gregory argued that perception is a
constructive process which relies on top-down processing. For
Gregory (1970) perception is a hypothesis.
For Gregory, perception involves making inferences about what we
see and trying to make a best guess. Prior knowledge and past
experience, he argued, are crucial in perception.
When we look at something, we develop a perceptual hypothesis,
which is based on prior knowledge. The hypotheses we develop are
nearly always correct. However, on rare occasions, perceptual
hypotheses can be disconfirmed by the data we perceive.
Summary
A lot of information reaches the eye, but much is lost by
the time it reaches the brain (Gregory estimates about 90%
is lost).

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 Therefore, the brain has to guess what a person sees based

on past experiences. We actively construct our perception
of reality.
Richard Gregory proposed that perception involves a lot of
hypothesis testing to make sense of the information
presented to the sense organs.
Our perceptions of the world are hypotheses based on past
experiences and stored information.
Sensory receptors receive information from the
environment, which is then combined with previously
stored information about the world which we have built up
as a result of experience.
The formation of incorrect hypotheses will lead to errors
of perception (e.g. visual illusions like the Necker cube).

In the brain, top-down and bottom-up are not, actually, separate

processes. Theorists artificially separate them in order to talk about
them. In terms of cognition, a bottom-up process occurs when
something unexpected is moving in the corner of your eye and
catches your attention. This causes you to look over and react. The
signal causing this chain of events originated in the environment, at
the "bottom" of the sensory processing stream.
A top-down process is like trying to find Waldo in "Where's
Waldo? You start with an internal "high-level" goal, which
determines where you look next. You are looking "for" something,
so higher-level brain areas "prime" the low level visual areas to
detect that pattern. In terms of how it works in the brain, the easiest
way to think about it might be to make an analogy to
communication within a larger corporation.

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Theoretical explanation of perceptual organization (Gestalt

principles)
Gestalt principles, or gestalt laws, are rules of the organization of
perceptual scenes. When we look at the world, we usually perceive
complex scenes composed of many groups of objects on some
background, with the objects themselves consisting of parts, which
may be composed of smaller parts, etc. How do we accomplish
such a remarkable perceptual achievement, given that the visual
input is, in a sense, just a spatial distribution of variously colored
individual points? The beginnings and the direction of an answer
were provided by a group of researchers early in the twentieth
century, known as Gestalt psychologists. Gestalt is a German word
meaning 'shape' or 'form'. Gestalt principles aim to formulate the
regularities according to which the perceptual input is organized
into unitary forms, also referred to as (sub)wholes, groups,
groupings, or Gestalten (the plural form of Gestalt). These
principles mainly apply to vision, but there are also analogous
aspects in auditory and somatosensory perception. In visual
perception, such forms are the regions of the visual field whose
portions are perceived as grouped or joined together, and are thus
segregated from the rest of the visual field.
1.

Figure-ground - this is the fundamental way we organize

visual perceptions. When we look at an object, we see that
object (figure) and the background (ground) on which it sits.
For example, when I see a picture of a friend, I see my friends
face (figure) and the beautiful Sears brand backdrop behind my
friend (ground).

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2.

Simplicity/pragnanz (good form) - we group elements

that make a good form. However, the idea of "good form" is a
little vague and subjective. Most psychologists think good
form is what ever is easiest or most simple. For example, what
do you see here: : > ) do you see a smiling face? There are
simply 3 elements from my keyboard next to each other, but it
is "easy" to organize the elements into a shape that we are
familiar with.

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3.

Proximity - nearness=belongingness. Objects that are

close to each other in physical space are often perceived as
belonging together.

4.

Similarity - do I really need to explain this one? As you

probably guessed, this one states that objects that are similar
are perceived as going together. For example, if I ask you to
group the following objects: (* * # * # # #) into groups, you
would probably place the asterisks and the pound signs into
distinct groups.

5.

Continuity - we follow whatever direction we are led.

Dots in a smooth curve appear to go together more than jagged
angles. This principle really gets at just how lazy humans are
when it comes to perception.

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6.

7.

Common fate - elements that move together tend to be

grouped together. For example, when you see geese flying
south for the winter, they often appear to be in a "V"
shape.

Closure - we tend to complete a form when it has gaps.

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Perceptual ambiguity and distortion

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Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Grouping helps us understand the way

we perceive things by patterns. It is the "nature" of perception.
Learning-based inference is the "nurture" of perception. It is when
we use past experiences to help us perceive certain things.
Cognitive illusions are assumed to arise by interaction with
assumptions about the world, leading to "unconscious inferences",
an idea first suggested in the 19th century by the German physicist
and physician Hermann Helmholtz.
Cognitive illusions are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions,
distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.
Ambiguous illusions are pictures or objects that elicit a perceptual
"switch" between the alternative interpretations. The Necker cube is
a well-known example; another instance is the Rubin vase.

Paradox illusions are generated by objects that are paradoxical or

impossible,
such
as
the Penrose
triangle or impossible
staircase seen, for example, in M.C. Escher's Ascending and
Descending and Waterfall. The triangle is an illusion dependent on
a cognitive misunderstanding that adjacent edges must join.
Fictions are when a figure is perceived even though it is not in the
stimulus.

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Distorting or geometrical-optical illusions are characterized by

distortions of size, length, position or curvature. A striking example
is the Caf wall illusion. Other examples are the famous MllerLyer illusion and Ponzo illusion.

This is an example of two identical Necker cubes, the one on the

left showing an intermediate object (blue bar) going in "down from
the top" while the one on the right shows the object going in "up
from the bottom" which shows how the image can change its
perspective simply by changing which face (front or back) appears
behind the intervening object.

Social cognition and behavior: process of social cognition

Social cognition is the study of how people process social
information, especially its encoding, storage, retrieval, and
application to social situations.

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Social cognition has its roots in social psychology which attempts

"to understand and explain how the thoughts, feelings, and
behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or
implied presence of others" (Allport, 1985, p. 3). It studies the
individual within a social or cultural context and focuses on how
people perceive and interpret information they generate themselves
(intrapersonal) and from others (interpersonal) (Sternberg, 1994).
A variety of researchers who started out investigating phenomena
from other schools of thought have moved to this perspective. For
example, Albert Bandura (1986) initially studied learning from a
behavioral perspective (e.g., Bandura, 1965), while Jerome Bruner
(1990) initially studied learning from a cognitive perspective (e.g.,
Bruner, 1957).
Festinger's (1957) cognitive-dissonance theory, Bem's (1972) selfperception
theory (see Greenwald,
1975),
and
Weiner's
(1985) attribution theory are additional examples of how the
perspective of social cognition has been applied to the study of the
learning process. A major implication of this perspective is that
effective teaching must be grounded in an appropriate social
environment (e.g., Hannafin, 1997).
One of the most important concepts developed by Bandura (1986)
is that of reciprocal determinism. From this perspective, a person's
behavior is both influenced by and is influencing a person's
personal factors and the environment. Bandura accepts the
possibility of an individual's behavior being conditioned through
the use of consequences (Skinner, 1938). At the same time he
recognizes that a person's behavior can impact the environment
(Sternberg, 1988). The same is true of the relationship between
personal factors such as cognitive skills or attitudes and behavior or
the environment. Each can impact and be impacted by the other.

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WHY STUDY SOCIAL COGNITION?

Construal impact how people process and remember social
information differently.

Our judgments are rarely (if ever!) flawless.

Social cognition gives us useful information about the
strategies & rules that people follow to make judgments.
Mistakes often reveal a lot about how we think by
showing what our limitations are.
What mistakes do we make? Why do we make them?
Four core process:
Attention :Selecting information; What captures and holds
our attention depends on our goals and information
(restricted and unrestricted attention)

Interpretation: Giving information meaning; Our

interpretation of objects is influenced by our goals and
information.
Judgment: Using information to form impressions and
make decisions
Memory: storing information for later use

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Attitude
An attitude is "a relatively enduring organization of beliefs,
feelings, and behavioral tendencies towards socially significant
objects, groups, events or symbols" (Hogg, & Vaughan 2005, p.
150)
"..A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a
particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor" (Eagly, &
Chaiken, 1993, p. 1)
Attitudes structure can be described in terms of three components.
o Affective component: this involves a persons feelings /
emotions about the attitude object. For example: I am
scared of spiders.
o Behavioral (or conative) component: the way the attitude
we have influences how we act or behave. For example: I
will avoid spiders and scream if I see one.
o Cognitive component: this involves a persons belief /
knowledge about an attitude object. For example: I
believe spiders are dangerous.

Formation of Attitude
Friends
Media
Past experiences
Coaches teachers religion/culture
Family
Feedback can reinforce attitude
Attitude can create false perceptions known as prejudice

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Types of organizational Attitude

1.
2.

3.

Job Satisfaction A collection of positive and or negative

feelings that an individual holds toward his or her job.
Job Involvement Identifying with the job, actively
participating in it, and considering performance important
to self-worth.
Organizational Commitment Identifying with a
particular organization and its goals, and wishing to
maintain membership in the organization.

Social influence
Social influence occurs when one's emotions, opinions, or
behaviors are affected by others. Social influence takes many forms
and
can
be
seen
in conformity,
socialization, peer
pressure, obedience, and leadership, persuasion, sales and
marketing.
Social influence is defined as change in an individuals thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, or behaviors that results from interaction with
another individual or a group. Social influence is distinct from
conformity, power, and authority.
Conformity occurs when an individual expresses a particular
opinion or behavior in order to fit in to a given situation or to meet
the expectations of a given other, though he does not necessarily
hold that opinion or believe that the behavior is appropriate. Power
is the ability to force or coerce reticular way by controlling her

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outcomes. Authority is power that is believed to be legitimate

(rather than coercive) by those who are subjected to it. Social
influence, however, is the process by which individuals make real
changes to their feelings and behaviors as a result of interaction
with others who are perceived to be similar, desirable, or expert.
People adjust their beliefs with respect to others to whom they feel
similar in accordance with psychological principles such as
balance. Individuals are also influenced by the majority: when a
large portion of an individuals referent social group holds a
particular attitude, it is likely that the individual will adopt it as
well. Additionally, individuals may change an opinion under the
influence of another who is perceived to be an expert in the matter
at hand. French and Raven (1959) provided an early formalization
of the concept of social influence in their discussion of the bases of
social power. For French and Raven, agents of change included not
just individuals and groups, but also norms and roles. They viewed
social influence as the outcome of the exertion of social power
from one of five bases: reward power, coercive power, legitimate
power, expert power, or referent power. A change in reported
opinion or attitude (conformity) was considered an instance of
social influence whether or not it represented a true private change.
French and Ravens original research was concerned with
situations in which a supervisor influences a worker in a work
situation. Subsequent scholarship has examined a wide variety of
other social interactions, including families, classrooms, doctors
and their patients, salespeople and customers, political figures, and
dating couples. Work settings also continue to be a prominent topic
for studies of social influence. Since 1959, scholars have
distinguished true social influence from forced public acceptance
and from changes based on reward or coercive power. Social
researchers are still concerned with public compliance, reward

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power, and coercive power, but those concerns are differentiated

from social influence studies.
Current research on social influence generally uses experimental
methodology and tends to fall into five main areas:
Minority influence in group settings
Research on persuasion,
Dynamic social impact theory,

A structural approach to social influence, and

Social influence in expectation states theory. Each is
discussed below.

Social influence includes

Conformity: Conformity is the tendency to align your
attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors with those around you. It's
a powerful force that can take the form of overt social
pressure or subtler unconscious influence.
Compliance: Compliance is when an individual changes
his or her behavior in response to an explicit or implicit
request made by another person. Compliance is often
referred to as an active form of social influence in that it is
usually intentionally initiated by a person.
Intense Indoctrination: Indoctrination is the process
of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a
professional methodology (see doctrine).

Indoctrination is a critical component in the transfer of

cultures, customs, and traditions from one generation to
the next.

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Obedience: Obedience is compliance with commands

given by an authority figure. In the 1960s, the
social psychologist Stanley Milgram did a famous research
study called the obedience study. It showed that people
have a strong tendency to comply with authority figures.

Prejudice and Discrimination

Prejudice and Discrimination: by Saul McLeod published
2008.Prejudice is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually
negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual's
membership of a social group. For example, a person may
hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or gender etc. (e.g.
sexist).
Prejudice and Discrimination: Prejudice is a cultural attitude that
rests on negative stereotypes about individuals or groups because of
their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background.
Discrimination is the active denial of desired goals from a category
of persons. A category can be based on sex, ethnicity, nationality,
religion, language, or class. More recently, disadvantaged groups
now also include those based on gender, age, and physical
disabilities.
Prejudice and discrimination are deeply imbedded at both the
individual and societal levels. Attempts to eradicate prejudice and
discrimination must thus deal with prevailing beliefs or ideologies,
and social structure.
Some of the most well-known types of prejudice include:

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Racism
Sexism
Classicism
Homophobia
Nationalism
Religious prejudice
Agism

Other techniques that are used to reduce prejudice include:

Passing laws and regulations that require fair and

equal treatment for all groups of people.
Gaining public support and awareness for antiprejudice social norms.
Making people aware of the inconsistencies in
their own beliefs.
Increased contact with members of other social
groups.

Discrimination is the behavior or actions, usually negative,

towards an individual or group of people, especially on the basis of
sex/race/social class, etc. Some areas of discrimination are:

Racial discrimination
Age discrimination
Gender Discrimination

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Revised Questions
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Define sensory Threshold.

Mention the differences compliance and conformity.
What is social cognition and behavior, elaborate the process of
social cognition. Explain in brief: attitude, social influence,
prejudice and discrimination. (10)
Define conformity?
What is perpetual distortion?
Define attitude. Explain how attitudes are formed along its
types. (10)
What is social influence? How prejudices are organized? What
are the techniques that can reduce them? Explain. (10)
How does sense of vision transmit to the brain? What are
illusions? Give two examples. (10)

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9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.

What is Gestalts principle of organization? Explain with

suitable example. (10)
Distinguish Sensation and perception.
Define Habituation and Adaptation.
Explain Subliminal and Extrasensory perception.
Briefly explain the concept of perception. (10)

Perception Illusion

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Unit: 4
Learning
Learning is referred to as a relatively permanent change in behavior
(or behavior potential) that results from experience or practice.
Classical conditioning by Ivan Pavlov states that learning involves
forming association between two stimuli. The learner associates
previously neutral stimulus (CS) with a stimulus (UCS) that elicits a

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natural response (UCR). After conditioning the CS acquires the

capacity to elicit a response similar to the UCR.
Thorndike in his law of effect theorized that responses that satisfy
are more likely to be repeated while those that are not satisfying are
less likely to be repeated.
Operant conditioning explains how voluntary responses are
strengthened or weakened depending on positive or negative
consequences. In operant conditioning the organism performs a
behavior deliberately in order to produce a desirable outcome.
Consequences of behavior are termed as reinforcements. The types
of Reinforcement and the schedules of reinforcement will decide
how quickly a behavior is learnt and how long it would stay.
Albert Bandura who put forth the observational learning theory
says we learn by watching others. Those whose behavior is
observed are called Models. If the models behavior is rewarded
then the observer may imitate that behavior. On the other hand, if
the models behavior is not rewarded one may not imitate that
behavior.
The cognitive learning theorists argue that learning cannot be
reduced to mere forming of association as contented by Pavlovian
and Skinnerian psychologists. They hold that cognitive process like
perception, thinking and memory play key role in learning.
Insight Learning and Sign learning can be seen as instance of
cognitive theory in addition to Banduras theory.

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Wolfgang Kohler observed that animal forms a mental

representation of the problem until it hits on a solution, and then
enacts the solution in the real world. The solution will appear
sudden because the representation persists over time. The solution
is transferable because the representation is abstract enough to
cover more than the original situation.
Tolmans Sign Learning is also known as latent learning. It
suggests that learning occurs even in the absence of reinforcement.
However, for the behavior to occur overtly reinforcement is
requirement.
Nature of learning: Behavioral vs. cognitive
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology assumes that humans have the capacity to
process and organize information in their mind. It is concerned less
with visible behavior and more with the thought processes behind it.
Cognitive psychology tries to understand concepts such as memory
and decision making.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism only concerns itself with the behavior that can be
observed. It assumes that we learn by associating certain events with
certain consequences, and will behave in the way with the most
desirable consequences.
It also assumes that when events happen together, they become
associated and either event will have the same response. It does not
note any difference between animal behavior and human behavior.

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Both branches of psychology attempt to explain human

behavior. However, they are both theories have been replaced by
other approaches (such as cognitive behaviorism - which takes the
best of both theories - and social psychology- which looks at how
our interactions with others shape our behavior).

Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviorsthey occur naturally

and do not involve learning. In contrast, learning is a change in
behavior or knowledge that results from experience.
Instinct unlearned knowledge, involving complex patterns of
behavior; instincts are thought to be more prevalent in lower
animals than in humans
Complex forms of learning
One involves learning a connection between two stimulias when
a school child associates the 12 oclock bell with lunch.
And another occurs when we associate our actions with rewarding
and punishing consequences, such as praise or a reprimand from the
boss or an A or a D from a professor.
Classical condition learning and its Application
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that had a major
influence on the school of thought in psychology known as
behaviorism. Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov,
classical conditioning is a learning process that occurs through
associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally
occurring stimulus.

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Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs

through interactions with the environment.
Two other assumptions of this theory are that the environment
shapes behavior and that taking internal mental states such as
thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is useless in
explaining behavior.
It's important to note that classical conditioning involves placing a
neutral signal before a naturally occurring reflex. In Pavlov's classic
experiment with dogs, the neutral signal was the sound of a tone
and the naturally occurring reflex was salivating in response to
food. By associating the neutral stimulus with the environmental
stimulus (the presentation of food), the sound of the tone alone
could produce the salivation response.
In order to understand how more about how classical conditioning
works, it is important to be familiar with the basic principles of the
process.

The Classical Conditioning Process

Classical conditioning basically involves forming an association
between two stimuli resulting in a learned response. There are three
basic phases of this process:

Phase 1: Before Conditioning

Phase 2: During Conditioning

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Phase 3: After Conditioning

Application of learning

The beauty of classical conditioning is that it offers a

simple explanation for many behaviors, from cravings to
aversions.
But it offers more than an explanation: It also gives us the
tools for eliminating unwanted human behaviors

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although Pavlov never attempted any therapeutic

applications.
It fell to the American behaviorist, John Watson, to first
apply classical conditioning techniques to people.
Stimulus generalization The extension of a learned
response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned
stimulus.
Stimulus discrimination A change in responses to one
stimulus but not to stimuli that are similar.
Experimental neurosis A pattern of erratic behavior
resulting from a demanding discrimination learning task,
typically one that involves aversive stimuli.
John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conditioned Little Albert
to fear furry objects like this Santa Claus mask
(Discovering Psychology, 1990).
Taste-aversion learning A biological tendency in which an
organism learns, after a single experience, to avoid a food
with a certain taste, if eating it is followed by illness.

Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How

are they alike? How do they differ?

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Operant Conditioning Learning

Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it
is simply more productive to study observable behavior rather than

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internal mental events. He believed that the best way to understand

behavior is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences.
He called this approach operant conditioning.
Skinner's theory of operant conditioning was based on the work
of Thorndike (1905). Edward Thorndike studied learning in animals
using a puzzle box to propose the theory known as the 'Law of
Effect'. Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant Conditioning
Behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e.
strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or
be extinguished (i.e. weakened). Skinner (1948) studied operant
conditioning by conducting experiments using animals which he
placed in a 'Skinner Box' which was similar to Thorndikes puzzle
box.
B.F. Skinner (1938) coined the term operant conditioning; it means
roughly changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement which is
given after the desired response.

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Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can

follow behavior.
Neutral operant: responses from the environment that neither
increase nor decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.

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 Reinforces: Responses from the environment that increase the

probability of a behavior being repeated. Reinforces can be either
positive or negative.
Positive Reinforcement: A stimulus which increases the frequency
of a particular behavior using pleasant rewards. A doggy treat can
pleasantly coerce your new puppy to sit (positive reinforcement)
just as a pull to the choke collar can achieve the same affect
(negative reinforcement).
The difference is that the positive reinforce is pleasant, but make
sure you understand that both increase the frequency of the
behavior!

Negative Reinforcement: With negative reinforcement the

occurrence of a behavior is increased by removing an unpleasant
stimulus. For example, your dog can avoid being spanked when it
sits in response to your command. If the dog has been getting
spanked, not getting spanked is rewarding (removal of unpleasant
stimulus) so the frequency of the behavior will increase.
People confuse negative reinforcement with punishment--just
remember that with reinforcement you increase the occurrence of
the behavior but punishment extinguishes a behavior.
Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the
likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens
behavior.
For example, if when you were younger you tried smoking at
school, and the chief consequence was that you got in with the

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crowd you always wanted to hang out with, you would have been
positively reinforced (i.e. rewarded) and would be likely to repeat
the behavior. If, however, the main consequence was that you were
caught, caned, suspended from school and your parents became
involved you would most certainly have been punished, and you
would consequently be much less likely to smoke now.
Behavior Shaping
A further important contribution made by Skinner (1951) is the
notion of behaviour shaping through successive approximation.
Skinner argues that the principles of operant conditioning can be
used to produce extremely complex behaviour if rewards and
punishments are delivered in such a way as to encourage move an
organism closer and closer to the desired behaviour each time.
In order to do this, the conditions (or contingencies) required to
receive the reward should shift each time the organism moves a
step closer to the desired behaviour.
According to Skinner, most animal and human behaviour
(including language) can be explained as a product of this type of
successive approximation.

Behavior Modification
Behavior modification is a set of therapies / techniques based on
operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938, 1953). The main principle
comprises changing environmental events that are related to a

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person's behavior. For example, the reinforcement of desired

behaviors and ignoring or punishing undesired ones.
This is not as simple as it sounds always reinforcing desired
behavior, for example, is basically bribery.
There are different types of positive reinforcements. Primary
reinforcement is when a reward strengths a behavior by itself.
Secondary reinforcement is when something strengthens a behavior
because it leads to a primary reinforce.
Examples of behavior modification therapy include token economy
and behavior shaping
Cognitive learning
Observational learning extends the effective range of both
classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and
operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct
experience, observational learning is the process of watching others
and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans
and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an
idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings,
consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might
observation help Julian learn to surf, as opposed to learning by trial
and error alone? By watching his father, he can imitate the moves
that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure.
KOHLER insight Learning: Wolfgang Kohler Mental processes
had to be an essential component of learning, even though
behaviorists disagreed.

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Insight Learning: Problem solving occurs by suddenly perceiving

familiar objects in new forms or relationships. Example: chimp
stacks crates to reach food .This are a form of cognitive learning.
TOLMANS COGNITIVE MAP Edward Tolman Argued that it
was a cognitive map that accounted for a rat quickly selecting an
alternative route in a maze when the preferred path was blocked.
Cognitive Map: A mental image that an organism uses to navigate
through a familiar environment. Example: giving directions,
walking through your house in the dark
-Challenged the work of Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner --Claimed
learning was mental, not behavioral. Instead of learning a series of
left and right turns, he argued that they acquired a more abstract
mental representation of the mazes spatial layout
-Reinforcement is not needed (as behaviorists believed) in rats
solving the maze .Organisms learn the spatial layout of their
environments by exploration, even if they are not reinforced for
exploring (Evolutionary perspective: Animals foraging for food)

Memory:
Memory phenomenon

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Memory connotes the capacity of an individual to record, retain and

reproduce the same information.
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 - 1909) Frederic Bartlett (1886-1969)
we the first ones to use scientific techniques to study memory.
The three-stage information processing differentiates three distinct
stages of memory namely sensory memory, short-term memory, and
long-term memory. The stimuli that we first receive are
momentarily retained in sensory memory. Images that we see are
stored as Iconic memory and the auditory stimuli are stored as
Echoic memory.
Information from sensory memory that has been attended to are sent
to the STM where it stays for 20 seconds or less. If no effort is
taken to rehearse the information at STM it would fade away.
Information from the short-term memory, when repeatedly
rehearsed, reaches the long-term memory (LTM). Procedural
memory and Declarative memory are the two types of memory in
the LTM.
Basic processes (encoding, storage and retrieval)
Memory process includes encoding, storage and retrieval.

Encoding refers to getting information into the brain,

Storage refers to retaining the information and
Retrieval refers to getting back the information.

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Successful retrieval depends on organization of the information and

the context of encoding and retrieval. Forgetting or retention loss
connotes the apparent loss of information already encoded and
stored in an individual's long term memory. Few causes of
Forgetting that have been identified are the decay of memory trace,
problems with interfering materials, a break down in retrieval
process, emotional and motivational conditions, and organic factors.

Models of memory

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1.
2.
3.

Informational processing model

Parallel distributed processing model
Levels of processing model

Parallel Distributed Processing Model

PDP is a model of memory in which memory processes are
proposed to take place at the same time over a large network of
neural connections.
The PDP model has 3 basic principles: a.) the representation of
information is distributed (not local) b.) memory and knowledge for
specific things are not stored explicitly, but stored in the
connections between units. c.) learning can occur with gradual
changes in connection strength by experience.
"These models assume that information processing takes place
through interactions of large numbers of simple processing
elements called units, each sending excitatory and inhibitory signals
to other units." (McLelland, J., Rumelhart, D., & Hinton, G.,
1986,p.10)
Rumelhart, Hinton, and McClelland (1986) state that there are 8
major components of the PDP model framework:

a set of processing units

a state of activation
an output function for each unit
a pattern of connectivity among units
a propagation rule for propagating patterns of activities
through the network of connectivity's
an activation rule for combining the inputs impinging on a

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unit with the current state of that unit to produce a new

level of activation for the unit
a learning rule whereby patterns of connectivity are
modified by experience
an environment within which the system must operate

Information Processing Model

Models of memory that assume the processing of information for
memory storage in similar to the way a computer processes memory
in a series of three stages.
The first stage she went through was attending. In this stage, she
was listening and paying close attention to her grandmother's words
that she could do whatever she wanted if she believed in herself.

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When we attend or focus on an event or a conversation, we are

preparing ourselves to receive it.
The second stage Jessica went through was encoding. This is what
happened when she was taking in her grandmother's words. If she
was neither paying attention to them nor placing any importance on
them, she would not have encoded them.
The third stage was storing. In this stage, her grandmother's words
were entering her memory bank, ready to be called upon at some
other time.
The final stage was retrieving. This happened when Jessica went
through a tough time in college and looked back on her
grandmother's words, bringing them up to her conscious awareness.
She retrieved this information in order to use it.

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Retrieval (cues, recall,

automatic encoding)

recognition,

reconstruction,

and

In the 1980s, Endel Tulving proposed an alternative to the twostage theory, which he called the theory of encoding specificity.
This theory states that memory utilizes information both from the
specific memory trace as well as from the environment in which it
is retrieved.
Because of its focus on the retrieval environment or state, encoding
specificity takes into account context cues, and it also has some
advantages over the two-stage theory as it accounts for the fact that,
in practice, recognition is not actually always superior to recall.
Typically, recall is better when the environments are similar in both
the learning (encoding) and recall phases, suggesting that context

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cues are important.

Cues can facilitate recovery of memories that have been "lost." In
research, a process called cued recall is used to study these effects.
Cued recall occurs when a person is given a list to remember and is
then given cues during the testing phase to aid in the retrieval of
memories. The stronger the link between the cue and the testing
word, the better the participant will recall the words.
There are three main types of recall:
Free recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items
to remember and then is asked to recall them in any order (hence
the name free). This type of recall often displays evidence of
either the primacy effect (when the person recalls items presented at
the beginning of the list earlier and more often) or the recency
effect (when the person recalls items presented at the end of the list
earlier and more often), and also of thecontiguity effect (the marked
tendency for items from neighbouring positions in the list to be
recalled successively).
Cued recall is the process in which a person is given a list of items
to remember and is then tested with the use of cues or guides. When
cues are provided to a person, they tend to remember items on the
list that they did not originally recall without a cue, and which were
thought to be lost to memory. This can also take the form
of stimulus-response recall, as when words, pictures and numbers
are presented together in a pair, and the resulting associations
between the two items cues the recall of the second item in the pair.
Serial recall refers to our ability to recall items or events in the

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order in which they occurred, whether chronological events in our

autobiographical memories, or the order of the different parts of a
sentence (or phonemes in a word) in order to make sense of them.
Because of the way memories are encoded and stored, memory
recall is effectively an on-the-fly reconstruction of elements
scattered throughout various areas of our brains. Memories are not
stored in our brains like books on library shelves, or even as a
collection of self-contained recordings or pictures or video clips,
but may be better thought of as a kind of collage or a jigsaw puzzle,
involving different elements stored in disparate parts of
the brain linked together by associations and neural networks.
Recognition is the association of an event or physical object with
one previously experienced or encountered, and involves a process
of comparison of information with memory, e.g. recognizing a
known face, true/false or multiple choice questions, etc.
Automatic encoding is a process of memory where information is
taken in and encoded without deliberate effort.
This can be seen in how a person can learn and remember how
things are arranged in a house, or where to find particular items in a
grocery store.
These are things that don't take any particular study or effort, but
are just quickly learned through experience.
Forgetting:
Memory researchers certainly havent forgotten Hermann
Ebbinghaus, the first person to do scientific studies of forgetting,

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using himself as a subject. He spent a lot of time memorizing

endless lists of nonsense syllables and then testing himself to see
whether he remembered them. He found that he forgot most of what
he learned during the first few hours after learning it.
Forgetting refers to apparent loss or modification of information
already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It
is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are
unable to be recalled from memory storage.
Recall is remembering without any external cues. For example,
essay questions test recall of knowledge because nothing on a blank
sheet of paper will jog the memory.

Recognition is identifying learned information using external cues.

For example, true or false questions and multiple-choice questions
test recognition because the previously learned information is there
on the page, along with other options. In general, recognition is
easier than recall.
Causes of Forgetting
Everyone forgets things. There are six main reasons for forgetting:
ineffective encoding, decay, interference, retrieval failure,
motivated forgetting, and physical injury or trauma.
Ineffective Encoding
The way information is encoded affects the ability to remember it.
Processing information at a deeper level makes it harder to forget.

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If a student thinks about the meaning of the concepts in her

textbook rather than just reading them, shell remember them better
when the final exam comes around. If the information is not
encoded properlysuch as if the student simply skims over the
textbook while paying more attention to the TVit is more likely
to be forgotten.
Decay
According to decay theory, memory fades with time. Decay
explains the loss of memories from sensory and short-term
memory. However, loss of long-term memories does not seem to
depend on how much time has gone by since the information was
learned. People might easily remember their first day in junior high
school but completely forget what they learned in class last
Tuesday.
Interference
Interference theory has a better account of why people lose longterm memories. According to this theory, people forget information
because of interference from other learned information. There are
two types of interference: retroactive and proactive.

Retroactive interference happens when newly learned

information makes people forget old information.

Proactive interference happens when old information

makes people forget newly learned information.

Retrieval Failure

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Forgetting may also result from failure to retrieve information in

memory, such as if the wrong sort of retrieval cue is used. For
example, xara may not be able to remember the name of her fifthgrade teacher. However, the teachers name might suddenly pop
into xaras head if she visits her old grade school and sees her fifthgrade classroom. The classroom would then be acting as a context
cue for retrieving the memory of his teachers name.
Physical Injury or Trauma
Anterograde amnesia is the inability to remember events that
occur after an injury or traumatic event. Retrograde amnesia is the
inability to remember events that occurred before an injury or
traumatic event.

Ebbinghauss Forgetting Curve

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In order to test for new information, Ebbinghaus tested his memory

for periods of time ranging from 20 minutes to 31 days
His results, plotted in what is known as the Ebbinghaus forgetting
curve, revealed a relationship between forgetting and time.
Initially, information is often lost very quickly after it is learned.
Factors such as how the information was learned and how
frequently it was rehearsed play a role in how quickly these
memories are lost.
The forgetting curve also showed that forgetting does not continue
to decline until all of the information is lost. At a certain point, the
amount of forgetting levels off. What exactly does this mean? It

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indicates that information

surprisingly stable.

stored

in long-term

memory is

Memory and the brain

An early influential idea regarding localized representations of
memory in the brain suggested physical changes occur when we
learn something new. One popular idea was that connections grow
between areas of the brain.
Three Stages of Memory
Three stages of memory are: Sensory, short-term, and long-term
memory

Sensory memory

visual, auditory, and olfactory information

transfers to short-term memory

Short-term memory

stores seven single or chunked items for 30 seconds

without repetition

solves problems through reasoning process (example:

organizing facts into a coherent essay)

Long-term Memory
The ability to transfer information from short- to longterm memory is relevant to the learning process.

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People use attention, repetition, and association with

past learning to encode information.
Neurologically,
encoding
happens
when
information is repeatedly processed in the
hippocampus.

What part of the brain is responsible for memory?

Different areas and systems of the brain are responsible for
different
kinds
of memory.
The
hippocampus,
parahippocampal region, and areas of the cerebral cortex
(including the prefrontal cortex) work together to support
declarative, or cognitive, memory.
Where is the memory located in the brain?
The reason is that long-term memory is not located in just one
specific area of the brain. The hippocampus is the catalyst for longtermmemory, but the actual memory traces are encoded at various
places in the cortex.

Amnesia and false memories

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Amnesia is the loss of memory. Studies on amnesia help to clarify

the distinctions between and among different kinds of memories
and their mechanisms. Different areas of the hippocampus are
active during memory formation and retrieval.

Damage results in amnesia.

Patient HM is a famous case study in psychology who had
his hippocampus removed to prevent epileptic seizures.
Afterwards Patient HM had great difficulty forming new
long-term memories.
STM or working memory remained intact.
Suggested that the hippocampus is vital for the formation
of new long-term memories.

The main factors involved may be brain damage affecting frontal

control and executive systems (spontaneous confabulation), a weak
memory trace (momentary confabulation), anomalous processing of
input modulated by personal self-beliefs (delusional memories),
social coercion and source memory errors, usually in the context of
low self-esteem (false confession), and anomalous, biased, or
selective retrieval from autobiographical memory (pseudo logia
fantastica, fugue, multiple personality).
Some of these phenomena may result characteristically from a
combination of factors (e.g. the absence of rehearsal and a
particular social context in cases of apparently false or distorted
memories for child sexual abuse).
In others, an interaction between social and biological factors may
occasionally be important (the confabulations produced by brain
damaged patients in very stressful or extreme situations).

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Although all these phenomena can be described and characterized

within a general model of memory and executive function, provided
that social factors and some notion of self (called here a
personal semantic belief system) are introduced, different
components of the model have been highlighted in the generation of
particular instances of false memory.
It follows that these phenomena are probably best viewed as
different types of false memory, with varying underlying
mechanisms, and that the term confabulation is perhaps most
useful if confined to its current conventions (brain disease and
instances of momentary confabulation):
In particular, confabulations and delusions need to be kept
conceptually distinct. However, the relative dearth of
neuropsychological studies comparing false memory phenomena
means that the specific processes involved require further
investigation.
False memory is the psychological phenomenon in which a person
recalls a memory that did not actually occur. False memory is often
considered in legal cases regarding childhood sexual abuse.
This phenomenon was initially investigated by psychological
pioneers Pierre Janet and Sigmund Freud. Freud wrote The
Aetiology of Hysteria, where he discussed repressed memories of
childhood sexual trauma in their relation to hysteria.
Elizabeth Loftus has, since her debuting research project in
1974, been a lead researcher in memory recovery and false
memories. False memory syndrome recognizes false memory as a

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prevalent part of ones life in which it affects the persons mentality

and day-to-day life.
False memory syndrome differs from false memory in that the
syndrome is heavily influential in the orientation of a person's life,
while false memory can occur without this significant effect. The
syndrome takes effect because the person believes the influential
memory to be true. However, its research is controversial and the
syndrome is excluded from identification as a mental disorder and,
therefore, is also excluded from the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders. False memory is an important part of
psychological research because of the ties it has to a large number
of mental disorders, such as PTSD.[8]

Review Questions

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1.
2.
3.

What is retroactive interference?

How is memory related to brain?
Define learning and critically examine the conditioning
learning theory of Ivan Pavlov.(10)
4. What do you understand by memory? Explain memorizing
process and the causes of forgetting. (10)
5. What is operant conditioning learning? How can it be used
in strengthening and disadvantages? Explain.(10)
6. Define attitude. Explain how attitude are formed along its
types.(10)
7. What is insight learning? Explain the role of reinforcement
to promote business activities. (10)
8. Differentiate behavioral Vs Cognitive learning. (10)
9. Define and explain observation learning. (10)
10. What is classical conditioning? Explain with the
experiment of Pavlov. (10)
11. What is reinforcement? What are the implications of
schedule of reinforcement in business management?
Illustrate. (10)

Unit: V
Cognition (Thinking and Intelligence)

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Thinking: Definition and Nature

The mind is the idea while thinking processes of the brain involved
in processing information such as when we form concepts, engage
in problem solving, to reason and make decisions.
Some limit the definition of thinking is as follows:
1.
2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

Thinking is the activity of human reason as a process of

strengthening the relationship between stimulus and response.
Thinking is a reasonable working mengasosiasika various views
with the knowledge that has been stored in the mind long before
the emergence of new knowledge.
Thinking can be interpreted to remember something, and
questioned whether there is a relationship between what is
intended.
Thinking in exploring substantive Paing psychic awareness of
human nature.
Thinking is processing information mentally or cognitively by
rearranging the information from the environment and the
symbols are stored in the memory of his past.
Thinking is a symbolic representation of some event train of
ideas in a precise and careful that began with the problem.

Nature of Thinking
Thinking is perhaps one aspect of our mental activity which
continues even when we are asleep. The difference between what is
thinking and what is not thinking is just our awareness about the

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particular thinking process. Hence thinking is a complex mental

process which involves manipulation of information. Such
information is collected through our senses (such as vision, hearing,
smelling etc) from the environment, as well as the information
which is stored in our memory because of our encounter with many
events and situations in the past. Thinking is a constructive process
in the sense that it helps us to form a new representation of any
object or event by transforming available information. It involves a
number of mental activities, such as inferring, abstracting,
reasoning, imagining, judging, problem solving, and creative
thinking. Such activities take place in our mind and can be inferred
from our behaviours. Thinking is usually initiated by a problem and
goes through a sequence of steps such as judging, abstracting,
inferring, reasoning, imagining, and remembering. These steps are
often directed towards solution of the problem. The example given
below will help you to understand this in a better way. In order to
reach your new school on time suppose you are trying to find out the
shortest route from your home to your new school. Your choice will
be guided by many factors such as condition of the road, the density
of traffic during your school time, safety while walking on the road
etc. Finally you take a decision about the best possible shortest route
after considering all these factors. Thus, a simple problem like this
also requires thinking. The solution to this problem emerges after
processing information that is available to us from the environment
and our past experience. Thinking relies on a variety of mental
structures such as concepts and reasoning. We will briefly learn
about these mental structures.

Thinking is essential a cognitive activities.

Thinking is always directed to achieve some end or
purpose.
Thinking is described as problem solving behavior

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Thinking is symbolic activities.

Thinking can shift very rapidly, covering an expanse of
time and space.

Components of Thought/Elements/Tools
concepts, prototype) and Reasoning

(mental

images,

Mental Image:
Images: Mental Representation that stand for object or events and
have a picture like quality. Types of mental images:

Stored Image: Mental image kept in long-term memory

(LTM) and retrieved when appropriate
Created Image: Image that has been assembled or invented
rather than remembered
3-D, rotated in space, size may change.
Kinesthetic Image: Created from produced, remembered, or
imagined muscular sensations

A way to group or classify objects, events, animals, or people based

on some features, traits, or characteristics that they all share in
common is concept.

Functions of concepts

organize information
group things into categories an thus better organize and store
information in memory

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avoid relearning
can be used to classify and categorize things, you can easily
classify new things without having to relearn what that thing is

Contents of Concepts:

Classes or categories (dogs, books, etc.,)

Attributes or characteristics (red, tall, painful)

Abstractions or non-tangible ideas (love, hate)

Procedures or processes (how to do ____)

Goals or intentions (future plans)

Types of Concepts
1.

Natural:
Based on everyday experiences
Usually unanalyzed until we are asked to define the natural
concepts

2.

Artificial:
Usually based on formal set of experiences
Based on rules for inclusion/exclusion
Usually formed by intentional efforts to learn

The Process of Concept Formation

Concepts are formed in two ways - according to its defining
properties (classical model), and according to the typical
characteristics of its members (prototype model). The classical
model clearly defines a triangle as a geometric shape with three
sides and 180 degrees interior angles. The prototype model, on the

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other hand, defines a concept according to the general characteristics

of its members. The prototype model is particularly useful when not
all the members share the same characteristics, only similar ones.
For example, it is often difficult to think of whales and bats as
mammals because most mammals walk on land. However, all of
them have mammary glands, don't lay eggs, and have fur. The
prototype model was proposed by Eleanor Rosch (1993) when she
argued that membership in a concept is often graded according to
how the members meet the defining characteristics of the prototype.
The process of concept formation has three important
1.

2.

3.

Perception: Experiences or learning in any form is the

starting point of the process of concept formation. Our
perceptions or imaginary experiences, formal or informal
learning, provide opportunities for getting mental images of
the objects, persons or events.
Abstraction: The mind analyses the perceived images and
synthesizes what is common to all, neglecting what is
particular. This process of observing similarities and
commonness is named as abstraction.
Generalization: After making such observation in the form
of abstraction for a numbers of times the child is able to
generalize or form a general idea about the common
properties of some objects or events. On account of this
generalization, he will develop a concept about these things
or events.

Prototype theory
Form a concept by creating a mental image that is based on the
average characteristics of an object.

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Prototypes develop according to the exposure a person has to objects

in that category
A prototype is the BEST example or cognitive representation of
something within a certain category. Prototypes are used to enhance
memory and recall, since you can keep a prototype of something and
then match new, similar things to the prototype in order to identify,
categorize, or store this new thing. For example, if I ask you to
imagine a dog, what do you imagine? You may consider a German
Shepard your prototype for a dog by which you compare all other
dogs. So if you see another dog, you could say that other dog is
small (compared to your prototype), heavy, ugly, beautiful, etc.

Examples of prototypes

Production
Typicality Ratings
Picture Identification
Sentence Verification
Induction of Unfamiliar Properties
Making Up Sentences

Reasoning
Reasoning is used in logical thinking and problem solving. It is goal
directed, and the conclusions or judgments are drawn from a set of
facts. In reasoning, information from the environment and the stored
information in the mind are used following certain rules. There are
two types of reasoning: deductive and inductive. In deductive
reasoning we try to deduce or draw conclusion from a set of initial
assertions or premises; where as in inductive reasoning we start
from available evidence to generate a conclusion about the

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likelihood of something. Most cases of scientific reasoning are

inductive in nature. Scientists and even lay people consider a
number of instances and try to determine what general rule covers
them all. For example, the person is a priest, because he is wearing
plain cloth, prays and eats simple food.
Means thinking, is a mental process that involves using and
applying knowledge to solve problems, make plans or decisions, and
achieve goals.
1.

Deductive reasoning
Begins with making a general assumption that you know or believe
to be true and then drawing specific conclusions based on this
assumption.

2.

Inductive reasoning
Making particular observations that you then use to draw a broader
conclusion.
Types of Thinking
1.

2.

3.

Concrete thinking is literal thinking that is focused on the

physical world. It is the opposite of abstract thinking.
People engaged in concrete thinking are focused on facts
in the here and now, physical objects, and literal
definitions.
Abstract
reasoning is
often
compared
to
concrete reasoning, which involves looking at things on
the surface level and using this information to solve
problems in their most literal sense. Concrete thinkers
reason in terms of facts, events, objects, and specific
examples.
Reflective thinking helps learners develop higherorder thinking skills by prompting learners to a) relate new

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4.

knowledge to prior understanding, b) think in both abstract

and conceptual terms, c) apply specific strategies in novel
tasks, and d) understand their own thinking and learning
strategies and
Creative Thinking

Thought and Brain

Our Brains Control Our Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior. The
mental picture or images can stored, formed, reconstructed or put to
some use only through the functioning of the brain. Therefore what
happens in our thought process can simply be called a game,
function or product of the activities of our brain.
The mind is about mental processes, thought and consciousness. The
body is about the physical aspects of the brain-neurons and how the
brain is structured. The mind-body problem is about how these two
interact.
One of the central questions in psychology (and philosophy)
concerns the mind/body problem: is the mind part of the body, or the
body part of the mind? If they are distinct, then how do they
interact? And which of the two is in charge?
Many theories have been put forward to explain the relationship
between what we call your mind (defined as the conscious thinking
'you' which experiences your thoughts) and your brain (i.e. part of
your body). However, the most common explanation concerns the
question of whether the mind and body are separate or the same
thing.
Typically humans are characterized as having both a mind
(nonphysical) and body/brain (physical). This is known as dualism.
Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist as separate
entities.

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Materialism is the belief that nothing exists apart from the material
world (i.e. physical matter like the brain); materialist psychologists
generally agree that consciousness (the mind) is the function of the
brain. Mental processes can be identified with purely physical
processes in the central nervous system, and that human beings are
just complicated physiological organisms, no more than that.
Phenomenalism (also called Subjective Idealism) believes that
physical objects and events are reducible to mental objects,
properties, events. Ultimately, only mental objects (i.e. the mind)
exist. Bishop Berkeley claimed that what we think of as our body is
merely the perception of mind. Before you reject this too rapidly
consider the results of a recent study.

Problem solving and Decision Making/steps/stages in problem

solving (Preparation, Production and Judgment)
Problem solving is part and parcel of our daily life. Every day we
solve a number of problems ranging from simple to complex. Some
problems take little time where as some take much time to solve. We
look for alternative solutions if do not get the right kind of resources
to solve the problem in hand. In the case of solving any type of
problem our thinking becomes directed and focused and we try to
use all the resources, both internal (mind) and external (support and
help of others) to arrive at the right and appropriate decision. For
example if you want to score good marks in an exam, you study
hard, take the help of teachers, friends, and parents and finally you
score good marks. Thus problem solving is directed thinking
focused towards dealing with a specific problem. This thinking has
three elements: the problem, the goal, and the steps to reach the
goal. There are two methods which are used prominently in problem
solving. These are Means-end-analysis and Algorithms. In the
case of Means-end-analysis a specific step-by-step procedure is

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followed for solving certain types of problems. In the case of

heuristics the individual is free to go for any kind of possible rules
or ideas to reach the solution. It is also called rule of thumb.
Problem solving is aprocess of overcoming difficulties that appears
to interfere with tha attainment of a goal. It is a procedure of making
adjustment in spite of interferences. -Skinner
Decision Making: Decision- making is a kind of problem solving in
which we select an appropriate alternative out of a number of
alternatives available to us. For example, you have the option to
choose between History and Psychology courses in your eleventh
grade. You attend classes in both the subjects to decide upon the
course to choose. Suppose you find that the contents of psychology
are relevant, interesting and new and the teacher is intelligent,
friendly, knowledgeable, and having good verbal ability; all qualities
that you value in a teacher. So, on the basis of judgment about the
subject and qualities of the teacher you decide to choose the
psychology course.
According to Donald M. Johnson there are three stages in problem
solving.
1.

2.

3.

In the preparation stages the individual assess the

problem: he determines its nature, evaluate the information
available and considers the obstacles that may surface.
The production stages involve a search for possible
alternative solution. Most research concerned with simple
problem solving concentrates of the stages. The researchers
measures the time .a subject spends in solving the problem,
the length of the interval reflects the subjects involvement
in generating alternative solutions.
Judgment: Judgment is a process of forming opinions,
arriving at conclusions, and making critical evaluations
about objects, events and people on the basis of available

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information. The process of judgment is often automatic

and spontaneous. It does not require any prompting. Some
judgmental choices are habitual like need for going for a
morning walk before getting ready. Judgments involve
evaluating information about the world (objects, events,
persons, etc.), while decisions require making choices.
Scientific Methods of problem Solving

Problem awareness
Problem understanding
Collection of relevant information
Formation of hypotheses
Selection of a proper solution
Verification of conclusion solution or hypothesis

Obstacles in problem solving thinking and Decision Making

Of course, problem-solving is not a flawless process. There are a
number of different obstacles that can interfere with our ability to
solve a problem quickly and efficiently. Researchers have described
a number of these mental obstacles, which include functional
fixedness, irrelevant information and assumptions.

Functional Fixedness: This term refers to the tendency to

view problems only in their customary manner. Functional
fixedness prevents people from fully seeing all of the
different options that might be available to find a solution.

Irrelevant or Misleading Information: When you are

trying to solve a problem, it is important to distinguish
between information that is relevant to the issue and
irrelevant data that can lead to faulty solutions. When a

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problem is very complex, the easier it becomes to focus on

misleading or irrelevant information.

Assumptions: When dealing with a problem, people often

make assumptions about the constraints and obstacles that
prevent certain solutions.

Mental Set: Another common problem-solving obstacle is

known as a mental set, which is the tendency people have
to only use solutions that have worked in the past rather
than looking for alternative ideas. A mental set can often
work as a heuristic, making it a useful problem-solving
tool. However, mental sets can also lead to inflexibility,
making it more difficult to find effective solutions.

Problem-Solving Strategies

Algorithms: An algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that

will always produce a correct solution. A mathematical
formula is a good example of a problem-solving algorithm.
While an algorithm guarantees an accurate answer, it is not
always the best approach to problem solving. This strategy
is not practical for many situations because it can be so
time-consuming. For example, if you were trying to figure
out all of the possible number combinations to a lock using
an algorithm, it would take a very long time!

Heuristics: A heuristic is a mental rule-of-thumb strategy

that may or may not work in certain situations. Unlike
algorithms, heuristics do not always guarantee a correct
solution. However, using this problem-solving strategy
does allow people to simplify complex problems and
reduce the total number of possible solutions to a more
manageable set.

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Trial-and-Error: A trial-and-error approach to problemsolving involves trying a number of different solutions and
ruling out those that do not work. This approach can be a
good option if you have a very limited number of options
available. If there are many different choices, you are better
off narrowing down the possible options using another
problem-solving technique before attempting trial-anderror.

Insight: In some cases, the solution to a problem can

appear as a sudden insight. According to researchers,
insight can occur because you realize that the problem is
actually similar to something that you have dealt with in
the past, but in most cases the underlying mental processes
that lead to insight happen outside of awareness.

Thinking Creatively
Definition
The ability to produce original, appropriate, and valuable ideas
and/or solutions to problems.

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Divergent rather than convergent thinking (seeking

multiple possibilities)
High levels of knowledge and interest in the relevant
domain
Sees problems as potentially complex
Typically restructures problems
Simultaneously seeks interactions with other creative
individuals and reflects independent thinking
Intelligence and creativity relationship complex and not
direct

Stages of Creative Thinking: Graham Wallas , one of the leading

psychologists of early twentieth century stated that there are five
stages of creative thinking. These are Preparation, incubation,
illumination, evaluation, and revision. We briefly discuss these five
steps of creative thinking in the subsequent section.
1.

2.

Preparation: This is the first stage in which the thinker

formulates the problem and collects facts and materials
necessary for the solution. He/she finds that the problem cannot
be solved after days, weeks, or months of concentrated effort.
Unable to solve the problem the thinker deliberately or
involuntarily turns away from the problem, initiating stage two
i.e. incubation. At this stage of problem solving, it is important to
overcome negative consequences of mental set and any kind of
mental set or bias.
Incubation: This is a stage of no solution and involves a number
of emotional and cognitive complexities. However, the negative
effects of mental set, functional fixedness, and other ideas that
interfere with the solution tend to fade. Perhaps, fatigue and too
much of concern with the problem also mount up during this
period. Further, the unconscious thought processes involved in
creative thinking are at work during this stage.

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3.

Illumination: In this stage a potential solution to the problem

seems to be realized as if from nowhere. It is about having the
insight about the possible solution. Illumination occurs with its
aha experience when a sudden idea or solution appears into
consciousness.
4. Evaluation: In this stage the obtained solution is verified or
tested to see if it works. Frequently, the insight may turn out to
be unsatisfactory, and may need some modification in the
strategy of approaching the problem.
5. Revision: Revision is required in the case a solution which is not
satisfactory. It has been found that creative people are generally
talented (e.g. artists, musicians, mathematicians etc.), and have
specific abilities. Creative people have been found to have some
specific personality characteristics such as they are independent in
their judgments, self-assertive, dominant, impulsive, prefer
complexity, etc.
Intelligence: The ability to learn from ones experiences, acquires
knowledge, and use resources effectively in adapting to new
situations or solving problems.
According to Piaget, intelligence is not a quantitative object that can
be measured in units. Rather intelligence is manifested in an
individual ability to adopt to his environment. The success with
which individual deals with a situation reflect his intelligence.
According to Alfred Binet intelligence is the ability for judgment or
common sense. Thorndike defines intelligence as ones capacity to
deal effectively with situations. For Jean Piaget, intelligence is the
ability to adapt to ones surroundings. In the words of Cyril Burt,
Intelligence is the capacity of flexible adjustment. According to
David Wechsler (1977): The global capacity to think rationally, act
purposefully, and deal effectively with the environment.

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Intelligence is defined as mental capability that involves the ability

to reason, to plan, to solve problems, to think abstractly, to
comprehend complex ideas, to learn quickly and to learn from
experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill,
or test-taking smartness.
Nature of intelligence
Psychologists define intelligence in many different ways. If you
really think about it, who do we actually consider intelligent? Albert
Einstein, perhaps, but so are painters, writers, actors and actresses,
and dancers. Can we consider people who excel at sports as
intelligent? Psychologists have attempted many times to come up
with at least a simple definition that can make even a minority to
agree, but to no avail; although one thing is for sure - intelligence is
mainly about cognitive processes (that is, problem solving, the use
of higher-order mental processes, and memory).
Research about intelligence mainly focuses on two areas - individual
differences and assessment. Psychologists are concerned about the
relationship between intelligence and personality, the individual
attributes that could facilitate or compromise intelligence, and how
intelligence manifests in different kinds of people.
Assessment, on the other hand, is all about developing and refining
tests that measure intelligence. Today, psychologists are increasingly
becoming involved in these two areas. Some utilize assessments to
gain more insight about the individuality of intelligence, while
others draw from individual cases to develop and refine existing
intelligence assessments.
Intelligence is not acquired after sustained labour. It is a gift from
nature. Intelligence is not memory. An intelligent person may have
poor memory. Intelligence is not a skill which a worker acquires

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after planned practice. Intelligence is not a guarantee of a good

behaviour of the individual.
To understand the nature of intelligence we need to know the
classification intelligence as given by E.L. Thorndike and Garret:
1. Concrete Intelligence It is the ability of an individual to
comprehend actual situations and to react to them adequately. The
concrete intelligence is evident from various activities of daily life.
This type of intelligence is applicable when the individual is
handling concrete objects or medicines. Engineers, mechanics and
architects have this type of intelligence.
2. Abstract Intelligence It is the ability to respond to words,
numbers and symbols. Abstract intelligence is required in the
ordinary academic subjects in the school. This is acquired after an
intensive study of books and literature. Good teachers, lawyers,
doctors, philosophers etc. have this type of intelligence.
3. Social Intelligence It means the ability of an individual to react
to social situations of daily life. Adequate adjustment in social
situations is the index of social intelligence. Persons having this type
of intelligence know the art of winning friends and influencing
them. Leaders, ministers, members of diplomatic sources and social
workers have it.

The main features of Intelligence are the following:

1.

Intelligence is an innate natural endowment of the child.

2.

It helps the child in maximum learning in minimum period

of time.

3.

The child is able to foresee the future and plan accordingly.

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4.

The child is able to take advantage of his previous

experiences.

5.

The child faces the future with compliance.

6.

He develops a sense of discrimination between right or

wrong.

7.

The developmental period of intelligence is from birth to

adolescence.

8.

There is a minor difference in the development of

intelligence between boys and girls.

9.

There are individual differences with regard to the

intelligence between boys and girls.

10. Intelligence is mostly determined by heredity but a suitable

environment necessary to improve it.

Types/Tests of intelligence
Types and Examples of Psychological Tests
Intelligence tests are used to measure intelligence, or your ability to
understand your environment, interact with it and learn from it.
Intelligence tests include:

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (SB)

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Personality tests are used to measure personality style and traits.

Personality tests are commonly used in research or to assist with
clinical diagnoses. Examples of personality tests include:

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Rorschach, also known as the 'inkblot test'

Attitude tests, such as the Likert Scale or the Thurstone Scale, are
used to measure how an individual feels about a particular event,
place, person or object.
Achievement tests are used to measure how well you understand a
particular topic (i.e., mathematics achievement tests). Aptitude
tests are used to measure your abilities in a specific area (i.e. clerical
skills).
Achievement tests include:

Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT)

Peabody Individual Achievement Test ( PIAT)

Aptitude tests include:

Bloomberg Aptitude Test (BAT)

Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB)

Neuropsychological tests are used to detect impairments in your

cognitive functioning that are thought to be a result of brain damage.
For example, if you were to have a stroke, you might have a

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neuropsychological test to see if there is any resulting cognitive

damage (i.e., decreased ability to think due to damage in a brain
pathway). One example of a neuropsychological test is the HalsteadReitan Neuropsychological Test Battery. Other examples include:

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)

Benton Visual Retention Test (BVRT)

Determinants of intelligence
Today, nearly all psychologists recognize that both genetics and the
environment play a role in determining intelligence.
It now becomes matter of determining exactly how much of an
influence each factor has. First, it is important to note
that genetics and the environment interact to determine exactly how
inherited genes are expressed. For example, if a person has tall
parents, it is likely that the individual will also grow to be tall.
However, the exact height the person reaches can be influenced by
environmental factors such as nutrition and disease.
Evidence of genetic/hereditary influences:

Twin studies suggest that identical twins IQ's are more

similar than those of fraternal twins (Promin & Spinath,
2004).

Siblings reared together in the same home have IQ's that

are more similar than those of adopted children raised
together in the same environment (McGue & others, 1993).

Evidence of environmental influences:

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Identical twins reared apart have IQ's that are less similar
than identical twins reared in the same environment
(McGue & others, 1993).

School attendance has an impact on IQ scores (Ceci, 2001).

Children who are breastfed during the first three to five

months of life score higher on IQ tests at age 6 than sameage children who were not breastfed (Reinberg, 2008).

Some of the other factor that determines intelligence are:

Adoption studies
Prenatal Environment
Postnatal Environment
Home environment
Parent-Child interaction
Social and environmental deprivation
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Race and culture
Sex differences
Personality dispositions
Physiological conditions

Intelligence Tests and concepts of IQ

Intelligence quotient (IQ): a number representing a measure of
intelligence, resulting from the division of ones mental age by ones
chronological age and then multiplying that quotient by 100
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales yield an IQ score allows testers
to compare intelligence levels of people from different age groups.

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This is a mathematical formula that is supposed to be a measure of a

person's intelligence. When it was first created, it was defined as the
ratio of mental age (MA) to chronological age (CA) multiplied by
100 (thus IQ = MA/CA x 100). For example, if a 20 year old
answers the questions like a "typical" or "average" 20 year old
would, the person would have an IQ of 100 (20/20 x 100 = 100).
More recently psychologists decided that it's better look at relative
IQ score - how a person scores relative to other people the same age.
Now people get assigned an average score of 100 and then we
compare their actual scores on the series of intelligence tests to this
average score in terms of a standard deviation.
For example, if you score 2 standard deviations above the mean
(mean being 100), then you would score a 130 since each standard
deviation is 15 points (that's just the formula used).

Theories of Intelligence
Spearmans Theory

g factor: the ability to reason and solve problems; general

intelligence
s factor: the ability to excel in certain areas; specific
intelligence

Sternbergs triarchic theory of intelligence: there are three kinds

of intelligences
1.
2.
3.
1.

analytical,
creative
practical
Analytical intelligence: the ability to break problems
down into component parts, or analysis, for problem
solving.

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2.

3.

Creative intelligence: the ability to deal with new and

different concepts and to come up with new ways of
solving problems
Practical intelligence: the ability to use information to get
along in life and become successful; street smarts

Gardener Multiple intelligence

Visual-Spatial - think in terms of physical space, as do architects
and sailors. Very aware of their environments. They like to draw, do
jigsaw puzzles, read maps, daydream. They can be taught through
drawings, verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models,
graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, 3-D modeling, video,
videoconferencing,
television,
multimedia,
texts
with
pictures/charts/graphs.
Bodily-kinesthetic - use the body effectively, like a dancer or a
surgeon. Keen sense of body awareness. They like movement,
making things, touching. They communicate well through body
language and be taught through physical activity, hands-on learning,
acting out, role playing. Tools include equipment and real objects.
Musical - show sensitivity to rhythm and sound. They love music,
but they are also sensitive to sounds in their environments. They
may study better with music in the background. They can be taught
by turning lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, tapping out
time. Tools include musical instruments, music, radio, stereo, CDROM, multimedia.
Interpersonal - understanding, interacting with others. These
students learn through interaction. They have many friends, empathy
for others, street smarts. They can be taught through group
activities, seminars, dialogues. Tools include the telephone, audio
conferencing, time and attention from the instructor, video
conferencing, writing, computer conferencing, E-mail.

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Intrapersonal - understanding one's own interests, goals. These

learners tend to shy away from others. They're in tune with their
inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition and motivation, as well
as a strong will, confidence and opinions. They can be taught
through independent study and introspection. Tools include books,
creative materials, diaries, privacy and time. They are the most
independent of the learners.
Linguistic - using words effectively. These learners have highly
developed auditory skills and often think in words. They like
reading, playing word games, making up poetry or stories. They can
be taught by encouraging them to say and see words, read books
together. Tools include computers, games, multimedia, books, tape
recorders, and lecture.
Logical Mathematical - reasoning, calculating. Think conceptually,
abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships.
They like to experiment, solve puzzles, ask cosmic questions. They
can be taught through logic games, investigations, mysteries. They
need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.

Individual difference in Intelligence

Today, investigation into intelligence from the point of view of
psychology has returned to its practical roots. Like Binet, whose
first aim was to help identify children requiring special education,
intelligence theory and research are being applied in a number of
contexts today, whether in terms of cognitive decline, promoting
health, academic achievement or how to successfully promote
oneself intra- or interpersonally.

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IQ tests can be used to identify individuals who differ significant

from those of average intelligence. They are:

Giftedness:
Extreme geniuses may experience social and behavioral
adjustment issues as children.
Intellectual disability/development delay:
Condition in which person behavioral and cognitive skills
exist at an earlier development stage than the skills of
others who are the same chronological age, may also
referred to as developmentally delay. This condition was
formerly known as mental retardation.
Emotional intelligence

Review Questions
What is thinking? Explain different types of thinking. (10)
2. Classify the relationship between Mental age and chronological
age in determining a person intelligence Quotient (IQ).(10)
3. Explain steps of problem solving with appropriate examples.(10)
4. Define problem solving. Explain the various elements of thinking.
(10)
5. Describe the process of concept formation. (10)
6. Explain the scientific steps of problem solving. (10)
7. Define intelligence. Explain the major tests of intelligence.(10)
8. State individual differences in intelligence on the basis of IQ. (2)
9. Give two examples of prototype. (2)
10. What is IQ? (2)
1.

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11. Write components of thinking. (2)

12. Define creative thinking.(2)

CHAPTER: VI
Motivation, Emotion and Stress
Concepts of Motivation
Motivation plays an important role in directing human behaviour.
There are several characteristics of motivation. First, it pushes us to
reach the goals we have set for ourselves. In order to reach our goals
we need to be aroused or feel active. Too little arousal will make us
feel dull and relaxed, whereas, too much arousal may make us
withdraw from our goal. Hence we must be motivated to maintain a
balanced or optimum level of arousal. Second, people are motivated
to behave in certain ways because of the pleasing and pleasant
properties of external stimuli, such as, money, good grades, food,
which motivates the person to act in a purposeful/focused manner.
Third, motivation is the result of the persons thoughts and
expectations. It can be of two types: intrinsic motivation that

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comes from within the person, based on personal enjoyment of any

task, and extrinsic motivation which is based on external rewards
such as money, pay and grades. You will find that sometimes we
work hard and produce high quality work when motivation is
intrinsic rather than extrinsic. On the other hand, we are also
influenced by the external rewards. In life, both types of motivation
are important. Finally, motivational needs are ordered such that
basic needs such as hunger and thirst are satisfied first and then
other higher-needs, such as need for achievement and power are
fulfilled. Let us now learn about the hierarchy of needs.

Nature of motivation

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One motive may result in many different behaviors: The desire

for prestige may lead a person to give money away, get additional
educational training, run for political office, steal, join groups or
may
change
his
outward
appearance.
pool.
Motives are the energizing forces within us: These forces are
invisible and it is very difficult to measure them, because all of us
are different and the motives energizing us at a point differ from
time to time. Observing someone's behavior may indicate that a
certain need is present in this person which motivates him onwards.
The same behavior may result from many different
motives: Behavior may be caused by a number of different motives.
For example, the motives behind the purchase of a car may be: to
appear respectable; to satisfy economic values and to reinforce
company created status differentials; to appear younger and
attractive; to gain acceptance from others or to maintain the
acceptance already gained through a similar income level.
Therefore, it is wrong to asses that all behavior as coming from the
same motive. For different motives people do different things like
attend classes, get married, join unions or groups etc. Thus motives
cannot
be
identified
from
any
specific
behavior.
Motives may operate in harmony or in conflict: Behavior is
frequently the result of the interplay of several motives. These
motives may drive a person to one direction or in a number of other
directions. For example, an employ may desire an outstanding
performance and may also be sensitive to being outcast by his
fellow employees if he performs too well and receive too much of
appreciation from the employer. Therefore, behavior is the result of
many
forces
differing
in
direction
and
intent.
Behavior can be used as an estimate of an individual's
motives: It is possible to make an estimate of the cause of an

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individual's behavior by repeatedly observing his behavior. For

example, there is truth in the statement that some people always
seem to feel insecure and thus behave continuously in a manner
reflecting the insecurity of feeling. There are also people who
behave in a way that radiates confidence. They are confident in
many different social settings so that one finds a constant and
repeated behavior from which people probably estimate the motive
of the person. Obviously, if a person is at a state of near starvation,
most of his behaviour will be related to the need for food.
Motives come and go: Energy level of a motivation may differ in
different times. i.e. rarely we find the same energy level of
motivation for a long period like a year or 10 years. For example, a
young man who prefers to travel during vacation may give up the
idea during the tennis season because the joy of playing tennis takes
place the need of traveling. The girl who is overly concerned about
her hair and clothes during adolescence may turn her attention to
other things once she grows up. Humans are constantly growing and
the motive at one point in time will not be as intense as the motive at
another
point
in
time.
Motives interact with environment: The situation at a particular
point in time may trigger or suppress the action of a motive. You
probably have experienced situations where you did not realize the
intensity of need of a car till the traveling requirements of your
business are not developed. Similarly, many of these sociological
needs become stimulated when you are in a situation filled with the
sociological factors

Characteristics of motivation
Motivation is an Internal Feeling

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Motivation is a psychological phenomen on which generates in the

mind of an individual the feeling that he lacks certain things and
needs those things. Motivation is a force within an individual that
drives him to behave in a certain way.
Motivation is Related to Needs
Needs are deficiencies which are created whenever there is a
physiological or psychological imbalance. In order to motivate a
person, we have to understand his needs that call for satisfaction.
Motivation Produces Goal-Directed Behaviour
Goals are anything which will alleviate a need and reduce a drive.
An individual's behavior is directed to wards a goal.
Motivation can be either Positive or Negative
Positive or incentive motivation is generally based on reward.
According to Flippo -"positive motivation is a process of attempting
to influence others to do your will through the possibility of gain or
reward".
Negative or fear motivation is based on force and fear. Fear causes
persons to act in a certain way because they are afraid of the
consequences if they don't.
Motivation Is Personal and Psychological Concept
Motivation is a personal as well as psychological concept; hence,
the managers have to study the mental and psychological aspects
of individual.
Motivation Is A Process

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Motivation is a process of inspiring, energizing, reducing and

activating the employees for higher level of performance. This
process starts with unsatisfied needs, moves through tension, drives
and goal achievement, finally it ends with the reduction of tension
aroused by unsatisfied needs.
Motivation Is A Continuous Process
Motivation is continuous on-going process rather than one shot
affair. Because and individual has unlimited wants and needs. As
soon as the existing need is fulfilled, another will appear. Hence,
motivation should go continuously.

Motivation Is Goal Oriented

Motivation should be directed towards the achievement of stated
goals and objectives. From the view point of organization, the goal
is to achieve high productivity through better job performance.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
As individual can be motivated either by intrinsic factors or extrinsic
factors. The intrinsic factors include recognition, social status, selfesteem and self-actualization needs which are related to inner
aspects of individual. On the other hand, the extrinsic factors are
physiological and social needs such as food, shelter,
health, education, salary and benefits etc.

Instinct Theory of Motivation

The Instinct Theory of Motivation views biological or genetic
programming as the cause of motivation. This claim means that all

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humans have the same motivations due to our similar biological

programming. This theory says that the root of all motivations is
the motivation to survive.
Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud used a broad view of motivation and
suggested the human behavior was driven by two key forces: the life
and death instincts. Psychologist William James, on the other hand,
identified a number of instincts that he believed were essential for
survival. These included such things as fear, anger, love, shame, and
cleanliness.
Freud's Death (Thanatos) and Life (Eros) Drives
Freud stated that humans have two instinctual drives: life and death.
Each drive causes humans to behave in certain ways. Depending on
which drive is dominant, the person will act in a way to promote life
or death.
The life drive (Eros) causes us to engage in behaviors promoting
the preservation of life such as engaging in sex, eating to survive,
and exercising to maintain health.
The death drive (Thanatos) causes us to engage in risky or
aggressive behaviors such as doing stunts, starting fights, or driving
dangerously.

Drive-reduction Approach
In learning theory, drive reduction theory is a type of motivational
theory. Drive Reduction Theory, developed by Clark Hull in 1943,
was the first theory for motivation. According to such theorists as
Clark Hull and Kenneth Spence, drive reduction is a major cause of
learning and behavior.

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According to drive-reduction theory, humans are motivated

to satisfy physiological needs in order to maintain
homeostasis.
Drive-reduction theory, first proposed by Clark Hull in
1943, proposed that the purpose of biological drives is to
correct disturbances of homeostasis.
According to Hull, physiological needs result in
psychological drive states that direct behavior to meet the
needs and, ultimately, bring the system back to
homeostasis.
Primary drives are innate biological needs (e.g., thirst,
hunger, and desire for sex), whereas secondary drives are
associated withand indirectly satisfyprimary drives
(e.g., the desire for money, which helps pay for food and
shelter).
Drives are thought to underlie all behavior in that behaviors
are only conditioned, or learned, if they satisfy a drive.
Drive-reduction theory has been criticized for failing to
explain how secondary reinforces reduce drive or why
individuals engage in "pleasure-seeking" behaviors.
Homeostasis: The ability of a system or living organism to
adjust its internal environment to maintain a stable
equilibrium, such as the ability of warm-blooded animals to
maintain a constant temperature.

Arousal Approach
Rather than seeking some biologically based balance, the optimum
arousal theory says that people are motivated to reach an optimal
state of alertness or activation. Consistent with this perspective,
the Yerkes-Dodson theory predicts that people perform better at a
moderate level of arousal.

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The arousal theory of motivation suggests that people take certain

actions to either decrease or increase levels of arousal.
When arousal levels get too low, for example, a person might watch
an exciting movie or go for a jog. When arousal levels get too high,
on the other hand, a person would probably look for ways to relax
such as meditating or reading a book.
According to this theory, we are motivated to maintain an optimal
level of arousal, although this level can vary based on the individual
or the situation.

Arousal theory expands upon drive-reduction theory by

considering levels of arousal as potential motivators.
While drive-reduction theory focuses
primarily
on
biological needs as motivators, arousal theory examines the
influence of the neural transmitter dopamine as a motivator
in the body.
Arousal theory proposes that motivation is strongly linked
to biological factors that control reward sensitivity and
goal-driven behavior.
The
reward
system
in
the
human
body
spurs physiological arousal, which motivates individuals to
engage in whatever behavior is necessary to relieve their
arousal.
Research shows that there tends to be an optimal level of
arousal for peak performance; when arousal is very high or
very low, performance tends to suffer.
Traits like impulsivity and sensation-seeking predispose
people to engage in activities that they find physiologically
arousing.

Incentive Approach
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A theory that focuses on motivation and behaviour, the Incentive

Theory of Motivation involves the concepts of conditioning,
homeostasis and positive reinforcement. The theory is one of
themotivation theories that are promoted by behaviourists.
"According to this view, people are pulled toward behaviors that
offer positive incentives and pushed away from behaviors associated
with negative incentives. In other words, differences in behavior
from one person to another or from one situation to another can be
traced to the incentives available and the value a person places on
those incentives at the time."(Bernstein, 2011)

Incentives can be used to get people to engage in certain

behaviors, but they can also be used to get people
to stop performing certain actions.

Incentives only become powerful if the individual places

importance on the reward.

Rewards have to be obtainable in order to be motivating.

For example, a student will not be motivated to earn a top
grade on an exam if the assignment is so difficult that it is
not realistically achievable.

Motivations are commonly separated into two different

types based on the nature of the motivator: intrinsic (arising
from internal factors) or extrinsic (arising from external
factors).
Incentive theory argues that behavior is primarily
extrinsically motivated: people are more motivated to
perform activities if they receive a reward afterward, rather
than simply because they enjoy the activities themselves.
Intrinsically motivated behaviors are performed because of
the sense of personal satisfaction that they bring.

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Extrinsically motivated behaviors are performed in order

to receive something from otherssuch as a promotion,
praise, candy, money, or attention.
Studies have shown that intrinsic motivation will decrease
over time if extrinsic incentives are introduced for
behaviors that an individual already found motivating.
The efficacy of extrinsic motivators varies depending on
factors such as self-esteem, locus of control, self efficacy,
and neuroticism.

Incentive theories of motivation shift the emphasis from the

internal "pushes" to external "pulls." They state that motivation
acts by making goal objects more attractive. For example, brain
stimulation in the hypothalamus can turn cats that don't hunt into
hunters. This hunting is completely normal, so apparently the
stimulation activates the motivating brain circuits for the behaviors
that go into hunting, which were normally inactive in these nonhunting cats.
Cats' hunting behavior is quite stereotyped. A cat starts by prowling
around looking for prey. When it spots a mouse, it slowly slinks up
toward it. When close enough, it pounces, pins the mouse with a
batting movement of its paw, turns its head, opens its mouth and
bites the mouse on the back of its neck. Flynn (1969) and his coworkers showed that the brain stimulation that turns on hunting
makes the parts of the hunting behavior much easier to trigger.
During effective stimulation, the visual search, paw batting, head
turning, and biting reactions are triggered more easily by their

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natural stimuli. This illustrates the way incentive theories interpret

motivated behavior: Motivation makes a specific set of behaviors
much easier to elicit by their natural environmental stimuli.
Incentive motivation explains hunger this way: Hunger makes you
eat by making food and food-related stimuli more attractive. Instead
of emphasizing the internal push of motivation, this view
emphasizes the attractiveness of external stimuli related to
motivation. For example, when you are hungry, you find food
related stimuli more attractive and go find them.
The idea that hunger makes food-related stimuli more attractive
seems to be supported. For example, when they are hungry, people
will rate a sugar solution as both very sweet and very pleasant. After
they have eaten something, they still rate the sugar solution as very
sweet, but less pleasant than when they were hungry. The same kind
of effect appears with body temperature. When the body is warm,
people judge putting the hand in cool water as pleasant; if the body
is cool, the same water feels unpleasant (Cabanac, 1971) The same
effect occurs in rats (Cabanac & LaFrance, 1990). These data show
that the attractiveness of a stimulus changes when the related
motivational state changes, even though its sensory properties
remain the same.

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Cognitive Approach
The cognitive theories of motivation include the Expectancy Theory
and the Goal-Setting Theory. The Expectancy Theory of Motivation
explains why and how an individual chooses one behavioural option
over others. On the other hand, the Goal-Setting Theory states the
importance of creating goals in motivation a person.
Important
concepts
of cognitive
motivation
theory
include expectancy-value theory, attribution theory, cognitive
dissonance, self-perception, and self-actualization.

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According to expectancy-value theory, behaviour is a function of the

expectancies one has and the value of the goal toward which one is
working [expressed as B = f(E V)]. Such an approach predicts
that, when more than one behaviour is possible, the behaviour
chosen will be the one with the largest combination of expected
success and value. Expectancy-value theory has proved useful in the
explanation of social behaviours, achievement motivation, and work
motivation. Examination of its use in achievement motivation can
serve to represent the various types of expectancy-value
motivations.
A second major approach to achievement motivation rejects the
expectancy-value formulation and analyzes instead the attributions
that people make about achievement situations. In general,
attribution theory concerns how people make judgments about
someones (or their own) behaviourthat is, the causes to which
they attribute behaviour. Considerable research has found that
people typically attribute behaviour either to stable personality
characteristics, termed dispositions, or to the situations that were
present at the time the behaviour occurred.

Psychological Approach
Maslow wanted to understand what motivates people. He believed
that people possess a set of motivation systems unrelated to rewards
or unconscious desires. Maslow (1943) stated that people are
motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a
person seeks to fulfill the next one, and so on. The earliest and most
widespread version of Maslow's (1943, 1954) hierarchy of needs
includes five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical
levels within a pyramid.

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This five-stage model can be divided into basic (or deficiency)

needs (e.g. physiological, safety, love, and esteem) and growth
needs (self-actualization).

1.
2.
3.

4.

5.

Biological and Physiological needs - air, food, drink,

shelter, warmth, sleep.
Safety needs - protection from elements, security, order,
law, stability, freedom from fear.
Love and belongingness needs - friendship, intimacy,
affection and love, - from work group, family, friends,
romantic relationships.
Esteem needs - achievement, mastery, independence,
status, dominance, prestige, self-respect, respect from
others.
Self-Actualization needs - realizing personal potential, selffulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.

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Social
Psychological
achievement and power)

Motivation

(need

for

Traits of High-Need Achievers

Set moderately difficult goals and make moderately risky

decisions
Want immediate and specific performance feedback
Preoccupied with task
Assume personal responsibility

Traits of those with High Need for Power

Try to influence others

Seek position of leadership
Verbally fluent, talkative
Personal orientation dominate for sake of dominating
Institutionalized orientation more concerned with the
good of the organization.

Direction, level and persistence are the major constituents of

motivation

Direction: Whenever person prefer to seek out, approach

or avoid certain situation or behaviors.

Arousal Levels: The arousal theory of motivation suggests

that people are motivated to engage in behaviors that help
them maintain their optimal level of arousal. A person with
low arousal needs might pursue relaxing activities while
those with high arousal needs might be motivated to
engage in exciting, thrill-seeking behaviors.

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Persistence is the continued effort toward a goal even

though obstacles may exist. An example of persistence
would be taking more psychology courses in order to earn a
degree although it requires a significant investment of time,
energy and resources.

Emotion:
Merriam-Webster defines emotion as a conscious and subjective
mental reaction toward a particular event and is usually
accompanied by changes in the physiologic and behavioural aspects
of a person. From this definition, we can deduce that an emotion has
four components, namely: cognitive reactions, physiological
reactions, behavioural reactions and affect.
Cognitive reactions refer to a persons memory, thinking and
perception of an event.
Physiological reactions are primarily caused by changes in the
hormonal levels in the body. On the other hand, behavioural

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reactions comprise the active expression of the emotion. Lastly,

affect includes the positive or negative state of the emotion and is
what makes an emotion a conscious and subjective experience.

Nature of Emotion

Emotions are triggered by external or internal eliciting

stimuli.
Emotional responses result from our appraisal of these
stimuli,
Our bodies respond physiologically to our appraisals.
Emotions include behavior tendencies. Experimental
Psychology

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Types of Emotion
Emotions are classified as Primary Emotions and Secondary
emotions.
Primary Emotions: Happy, Sad, Surprise, Fear, Disgust and Anger
Primary emotions are those that we feel first, as a first response to a
situation. Thus, if we are threatened, we may feel fear. When we
hear of a death, we may feel sadness. They are unthinking,
instinctive responses that Humans have. One would typically see
these in animals also, which confirms the suspicion that they have
an evolutionary basis.
Secondary Emotions: Secondary emotions appear after primary
emotions. They trigger some other kind, for example where the fear
of a threat turns to anger that fuels the body for a fight reaction.
They may also come from more complex chains of thinking
Secondary emotions turn emotions into complex reactions. They
increase the intensity of your reactions. Differentiating between
primary and secondary emotions provides powerful coping skills
Some of these are triggered by thinking about what might happen,
what might have happened, what did not happen, etc., unlike
primary emotions which are triggered only by actual occurrences.
1.

Positive Emotions Secondary Emotions are divided into

Positive and Negative Emotions

. Positive Emotions are, Love Confidence Astonished

Gratitude Patience Appreciation Trust Enthusiasm
Optimistic Vitality E
2.

Negative Emotions are: Guilt Depression Pride Jealousy

Self Pity Anxiety Resentment Envy Frustration Shame
Denial Offended Regret Worry and

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General types of Emotions

In addition to understanding exactly what emotions are, researchers
have also tried to identify and classify the different types of
emotions. In 1972, psychologist Paul Eckman suggested that there
are six basic emotions that are universal throughout human cultures:
fear, disgust, anger, surprise, happiness, and sadness. In 1999, he
expanded this list to include a number of other basic emotions
including embarrassment, excitement, contempt, shame, pride,
satisfaction, and amusement.

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Function of Emotion

Emotions prepare us for action: When you see a person

with a gun coming towards you, the emotion of fear and the
accompanying bodily changes will help you run away from
the situation.
Emotions help arrange our activities and future behaviour
in some order: Emotions help us to gather information and
increase our chances of making the right response in the
future. When a person threatens us we will try to avoid
meeting that person out of fear. Positive emotions can act

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as reinforcement such as, wanting to repeat an action which

brought us praise and joy.
Emotions help us interact effectively with others: When we
show our emotions other people watching them may come
to be familiar with our way of behaving and know how we
are likely to act again in the future. Similarly, others
emotional expressions help us understand how to behave
with them.

James Lange Theory

The first one is the oldest of the four. It is known as the JamesLange theory. As you may have guessed, this theory originated
from two theorists called William James (1884) and Carl Lange
(1887). Even though they developed this theory independently from
each other, it is interesting that they came up with the same idea
around the same time (1884-1887). This theory says that emotion is
not directly caused by the perception of an event but rather by the
bodily response caused by the event. This means that, in order to
experience emotion, we must first experience the bodily response

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(e.g., fast breathing, racing heart, sweaty hands) that corresponds to

the emotion. Once we experience the bodily response we experience
the emotion. For example, if I see a big scary dog barking at me, my
heart begins to race. Noticing my heart race, my brain figures out
that I am experiencing fear.

The JamesLange theory of emotion asserts that emotions

arise as a result of physiological arousali.e., that the selfperception of changes in the body produces an emotional
experience.
According to the JamesLange theory, we experience
emotions (such as fear, sadness, and happiness)
only after physiological arousal (such as the fight-or-flight
response) has occurred.
One limitation of the JamesLange theory is that it is not
known exactly what causes the changes in the body, so it is
unclear whether they should be considered part of the
emotion itself.
Critics of the JamesLange theory doubt that there is
sufficient variation in physiological arousal to lead to the
wide variety of emotions that we experience.

Cannon Bard Theory

The CannonBard theory of emotion argues that physiological
arousal and emotional experience occur simultaneously but
independently.
The second theory is known as the Cannon-Bard theory. It began
with the work of Walter Cannon. He thought that the James-Lange
theory was flawed for a number of reasons (Cannon, 1927). In his
experiments, he found that in certain animals like cats, emotion

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occurs even if the brain was cut off from the information about
bodily responses. He also argued that the same bodily responses
accompany many different emotions. For example, when your heart
is racing, it may mean you are angry, but it may also mean you are
excited in a positive way. This means that our brain cannot just rely
on our bodily responses to know which emotion we are experiencing
( i.e., there must be something else that tells us whether we are
angry or excited). Philip Bard agreed with Cannon and continued
examining emotion in the brain. Through their research, Cannon and
Bard concluded the experience of an emotion does not depend on
input from the body and how it is responding. Both the experience
of the emotion and the bodily response occur at the same time
independently of each other.

The CannonBard theory of emotion was developed in

response to the James-Lange theory, which proposes that
emotions arise from physical arousal.
In
contrast,
the
CannonBard
theory
argues
that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur
simultaneously, yet independently.
According to the CannonBard theory, when you see a
venomous snake, you feel fear at exactly the same time that
your autonomic nervous system responds.
According to this theory, emotional expression results from
activation of the subcortical centers of the brain.

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Schechter Singer
The SchechterSinger theory views emotion as the result of the
interaction between two factors: physiological arousal and
cognition.

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Many years later, two psychologists called Stanley Schechter and

Jerome Singer proposed another theory. Their theory, known as
the Schechter-Singer theory, suggests that experiencing an emotion
requires both bodily response and an interpretation of the bodily
response by considering the particular situation the person is in at
the moment (Schechter & Singer, 1962). If my heart is racing and an
alligator is chasing me, I might interpret that as fear. If my heart is
racing and I am looking at the person I am in love with, I might
interpret that as excitement. Even though the bodily response is the
same, I might experience very different emotions depending on the
type of situation I am in.

According to the SchechterSinger theory of emotion (also

known as two-factor theory), emotions are the result of the
interaction
between
two
factors: physiological arousal and cognition.
According to the SchechterSinger theory, physiological
arousal is cognitively interpreted based on environmental
context; this process culminates in emotional experience.
For example, if you were to see a venomous snake in your
backyard, the SchechterSinger theory argues that the
snake would elicit a physiological response that would be
cognitively labeled as fear based on the context.

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Emotion and Health

Emotional health is expressing your emotion in a positive
nondestructive way.
Our emotional and physical health are inextricably linked. Whether
were happy or sad, our bodies respond physically to the way we
think, feel and act.
Emotions that are freely experienced and expressed without
judgment or attachment tend to flow fluidly. On the other hand,
repressed emotions (especially fearful or negative ones) can zap
mental energy and hope and lead to health problems, such as high
blood pressure or digestive disorders.
Therefore, it's important for us to recognize and identify our
thoughts and emotions, and to be aware of the impact they have
not only on each other, but also on our bodies, behavior,
and relationships. As our awareness increases, we find it easier to
recognize what we are thinking, how we are feeling, and our attitude
towards the experience. We can then choose to adjust our thoughts
and emotional responses.
There are three other areas of intervention that can reduce your
emotional response and the physical impact to your health:

change the stressor by changing your environment

(disease)

change the psychological response to the stressor by

becoming educated, and

Change the interpretation of the stressor by changing your

thoughts.

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Stress:
Stress is simply a reaction to a stimulus that disturbs our physical or
mental equilibrium. In other words, it's an omnipresent part of life.
A stressful event can trigger the fight-or-flight response, causing
hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol to surge through the body.
Stress is your bodys way of responding to any kind of demand or
threat. When you feel threatened, your nervous system responds by
releasing a flood of stress hormones, including adrenaline and
cortisol, which rouse the body for emergency action. Your heart
pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath
quickens, and your senses become sharper. These physical changes
increase your strength and stamina, speed your reaction time, and
enhance your focus.
This is known as the fight or flight stress response and is your
bodys way of protecting you. When working properly, stress helps
you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations,
stress can save your lifegiving you extra strength to defend
yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid
an accident.
Stress can also help you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps
you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your
concentration when youre attempting the game-winning free throw,
or drives you to study for an exam when you'd rather be watching
TV.
But beyond your comfort zone, stress stops being helpful and can
start causing major damage to your mind and body.

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Stressor and the cost of stress

A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental
condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an
organism. An event that triggers the stress response may include:
environmental stressors (hypo or hyper-thermic temperatures,
elevated sound levels, over-illumination, overcrowding)

Common stressor of everyday

Not having enough time:

When you are endlessly beating deadlines or running
errands, you will most likely feel exhausted at the end of
the day. What you need to do is to rank your priorities so
you will know which tasks to do first.

Practicing unhealthy habits:

Gorging on junk food, smoking, excessive drinking, and
not exercising are all factors that can contribute to physical
stress. This is because this kind of lifestyle prevents you
from being able to cope with hardships.

Getting more than you can handle:

Wanting to impress people is normal, especially in the
corporate arena. But taking in more than you chew is
bound for failure. So be honest with yourself and accept
only the tasks that you are confident in doing.

Expecting too much

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The five kinds of stressors are:

Acute time-limited
Brief naturalistic
Stressful events sequences
Chronic
Distant

Acute Time-Limited Stressors

Acute time-limited stressors are ones given in a controlled
environment such as a lab. If you are part of a study, the tech may
present you with a stimulus that causes some level of anxiety for
you. This could be presenting you with something that you have a
phobia of or making you do something you don't feel comfortable
doing. The stressor sparks intense stress but only for the time it
takes to illicit a response.
Brief Naturalistic Stressors
Brief naturalistic stressors are ones that occur naturally in your
environment such as taking a test. The stress you experience usually
only lasts for the time you are in the stressful situation.
Stressful Events Sequences
Stressful events sequences happen when there is a traumatic event
that causes additional stressors. An example of this is if you are a
victim of a natural disaster and then have to deal with the loss of
loved ones, belongings, and pulling your life back together.
Chronic Stressors

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Chronic stressors are situations that happen that force you to change
your identity or social roles. If you become disabled, you will need
to adjust your life to accommodate your disabilities.
Distant Stressors
Distant stressors are stress that happened a long time ago but
continue to affect your immune system negatively because of
emotional and cognitive issues. Some examples of distant stressors
include:

Child abuse
Prisoner of war
Loss of a loved one
War trauma

Examples of negative personal stressors include:

The death of a spouse

Filing for divorce
Losing contact with loved ones
The death of a family member
Hospitalization (oneself or a family member)
Injury or illness (oneself or a family member)

Examples of positive personal stressors include:

Receiving a promotion or raise at work

Starting a new job
Marriage
Buying a home
Having a child
Moving
Taking a vacation
Holiday seasons

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Retiring
Taking educational classes or learning a new hobby

General adaptation syndrome (GAS)

It is the predictable way the body responses to stress as described by
Hans Selye (1907-1982).
General adaptation syndrome, or GAS, is a term used to describe the
body's short-term and long-term reactions to stress.
Stressors in humans include such physical stressors as starvation, be
ing hit by a car, or suffering through severe weather. Additionally, h
umans cansuffer such emotional or mental stressors as the loss of a l
oved one, the inability to solve a problem, or even having a difficult
day at work.

Stage 1: alarm reaction (ar)

The first stage of the general adaptation stage, the alarm reaction, is
the immediate reaction to a stressor. In the initial phase of stress, hu
mansexhibit a "fight or flight" response, which prepares the body for
physical activity. However, this initial response can also decrease th
e effectiveness ofthe immune system, making persons more suscepti
ble to illness during this phase.
Stage 2: stage of resistance (sr)
Stage 2 might also be named the stage of adaptation, instead of the s
tage of resistance. During this phase, if the stress continues, the bod
y adapts tothe stressors it is exposed to. Changes at many levels take
place in order to reduce the effect of the stressor. For example, if the
stressor isstarvation (possibly due to anorexia), the person might exp

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erienced a reduced desire for physical activity to conserve energy, a

nd the absorption ofnutrients from food might be maximized.

Stage 3: stage of exhaustion (se)

At this stage, the stress has continued for some time. The body's resi
stance to the stress may gradually be reduced, or may collapse quick
ly.Generally, this means the immune system, and the body's ability t
o resist disease, may be almost totally eliminated. Patients who expe
rience long-term stress may succumb to heart attacks or severe infec
tion due to their reduced immunity. For example, a person with a str
essful job mayexperience long-term stress that might lead to high bl
ood pressure and an eventual heart attack.

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Stress, a useful reaction

The reader should note that Dr. Selye did not regard stress as a purel
y negative phenomenon; in fact, he frequently pointed out that stress
is not onlyan inevitable part of life but results from intense joy or pl
easure as well as fear or anxiety. "Stress is not even necessarily bad
for you; it is also thespice of life, for any emotion, any activity, caus
es stress." Some later researchers have coined the term "eustress" or
pleasant stress, to reflect thefact that such positive experiences as a j
ob promotion, completing a degree or training program, marriage, tr
avel, and many others are also stressful.
Selye also pointed out that human perception of and response to stre
ss is highly individualized; a job or sport that one person finds anxie
ty-provokingor exhausting might be quite appealing and enjoyable t
o someone else. Looking at one's responses to specific stressors can
contribute to betterunderstanding of one's particular physical, emoti
onal, and mental resources and limits.

Psychoneuroimmunology of stress
Psychoneuroimmunology, also known as PNI, is an important,
relatively new field that lends solid research to our understanding of
the mind-body connection. In a nutshell, PNI studies the connection
between psychological processes and the nervous and immune
systems of the body. A more detailed description of PNI was given
in an interview with Dr. Robert Ader, a Distinguished University
Professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and
Dentistry, and one of the pioneers of this rapidly growing branch of
research.
It reads as follows: Psychoneuroimmunology refers, most simply,
to the study of the interactions among behavioral, neural and

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endocrine (or neuroendocrine), and immunologic processes of

adaptation. Its central premise is that homeostasis is an integrated
process involving interactions among behavior and the nervous,
endocrine, and immune systems.
The field grew from the work of Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov
and his classical conditioning model. Pavlov was able to condition
dogs to salivate when they heard the ring of a bell by ringing a bell
when they were given food. Eventually, they came to automatically
associate the sound of the bell with the act of eating, so that when
the food was no longer given, the sound of the bell would
automatically cause them to salivate.
With PNI, Russian researchers conducted a series of experiments
that showed that the bodys other systems may be altered by
conditioning as well. Although their research does not live up to
todays rigorous standards, they were able to cause immunologic
reactions in animals in much the same way that Pavlov created
salivation in his dogs.
American researchers like Ader took the research further in the
United States, and we now know for certain that immune responses
can be enhanced or suppressed with a wide variety of conditioned
cues. We also have a deeper understanding of the placebo effect
some researchers are beginning to believe that it might be a
conditioned response as well.
Psychoneuroimmunology research sheds a great deal of light many
aspects of wellness, and provides important research on stress. PNI
studies have found may correlations between life events and health
effects. As PNI has gained greater acceptance in the scientific
community, the finding that emotional states can affect immunity
has been an important one, and research in this area helps us to gain
a clearer understanding of stress and its effects on health. We are
gaining a clearer understanding of the links between lifestyle and

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personality factors and immunity as research continues. The

following resources include studies that exemplify what we have
learned through the field of PNI.

Stress and Health Research

Childhood Poverty, Cancer, and Stress: Research On
Health
Stress and Health
Stress And Health Self-Assessment

Coping with Stress

Certain factors tend to go hand-in-hand with work-related stress.
Some common workplace stressors are:

Low salaries.
Excessive workloads.
Few opportunities for growth or advancement.
Work that isn't engaging or challenging.
Lack of social support.
Not having enough control over job-related decisions.
Conflicting demands or unclear performance expectations.

Taking Steps to Manage Stress

1.

Track your stressors. Keep a journal for a week or two to

identify which situations create the most stress and how
you respond to them. Record your thoughts, feelings and
information about the environment, including the people
and circumstances involved, the physical setting and how
you reacted. Did you raise your voice? Get a snack from
the vending machine? Go for a walk? Taking notes can
help you find patterns among your stressors and your
reactions to them.

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2.

3.

4.

5.

Develop healthy responses. Instead of attempting to fight

stress with fast food or alcohol, do your best to make
healthy choices when you feel the tension rise. Exercise is
a great stress-buster. Yoga can be an excellent choice, but
any form of physical activity is beneficial. Also make time
for hobbies and favorite activities. Whether it's reading a
novel, going to concerts or playing games with your family,
make sure to set aside time for the things that bring you
pleasure. Getting enough good-quality sleep is also
important for effective stress management. Build healthy
sleep habits by limiting your caffeine intake late in the day
and minimizing stimulating activities, such as computer
and television use, at night.
Establish boundaries. In today's digital world, it's easy to
feel pressure to be available 24 hours a day. Establish some
work-life boundaries for yourself. That might mean making
a rule not to check email from home in the evening, or not
answering the phone during dinner. Although people have
different preferences when it comes to how much they
blend their work and home life, creating some clear
boundaries between these realms can reduce the potential
for work-life conflict and the stress that goes with it.
Take time to recharge. To avoid the negative effects of
chronic stress and burnout, we need time to replenish and
return to our pre-stress level of functioning. This recovery
process requires switching off from work by having
periods of time when you are neither engaging in workrelated activities, nor thinking about work. That's why it's
critical that you disconnect from time to time, in a way that
fits your needs and preferences. Don't let your vacation
days go to waste. When possible, take time off to relax and
unwind, so you come back to work feeling reinvigorated
and ready to perform at your best. When you're not able to
take time off, get a quick boost by turning off your smart
phone and focusing your attention on non-work activities
for a while.
Learn how to relax. Techniques such as meditation, deep
breathing exercises and mindfulness (a state in which you

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6.

7.

actively observe present experiences and thoughts without

judging them) can help melt away stress. Start by taking a
few minutes each day to focus on a simple activity like
breathing, walking or enjoying a meal. The skill of being
able to focus purposefully on a single activity without
distraction will get stronger with practice and you'll find
that you can apply it to many different aspects of your life.
Talk to your supervisor. Healthy employees are typically
more productive, so your boss has an incentive to create a
work environment that promotes employee well-being.
Start by having an open conversation with your supervisor.
The purpose of this isn't to lay out a list of complaints, but
rather to come up with an effective plan for managing the
stressors you've identified, so you can perform at your best
on the job. While some parts of the plan may be designed
to help you improve your skills in areas such as time
management, other elements might include identifying
employer-sponsored wellness resources you can tap into,
clarifying what's expected of you, getting necessary
resources or support from colleagues, enriching your job to
include more challenging or meaningful tasks, or making
changes to your physical workspace to make it more
comfortable and reduce strain.
Get some support. Accepting help from trusted friends
and family members can improve your ability to manage
stress. Your employer may also have stress management
resources available through an employee assistance
program (EAP), including online information, available
counseling and referral to mental health professionals, if
needed. If you continue to feel overwhelmed by work
stress, you may want to talk to a psychologist, who can
help you better manage stress and change unhealthy
behavior.

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Style and learned helplessness

Coping Style: Hardy personality
Hardy persons are hypothesized to be resistant to stress-induced
illness, because of their adaptive cognitive style and a subsequently
reduced level of physiological arousal. We assessed the cognitive
and physiological responses of high and low hardy male
undergraduates to a challenging task under high and low evaluative
threat. As predicted, hardy subjects endorsed more positive selfstatements than did low hardy subjects in the high threat condition.
High hardy subjects also reported fewer

Kobasa (1979) describes hardiness as involving the three

Cs: a sense of control, commitment, and challenge

In contrast to the other personality types, hardiness is

characterized by resilience to stress and illness, and a
positive coping response

Research indicates hardiness has a buffering effect by

moderating the stress and illness link, but results are mixed
and the effect appears to be greater for men

Individual differences in cognitive appraisal seem to play a

role in hardiness, with non-hardy persons more prone to
negative beliefs

Methodological issues regarding hardiness concern the

predictive utility of the control and commitment
components

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Content items assessing hardiness also tap negative affect

which empirically inflates the link between hardiness and
adjustment.

Learned helplessness is behavior typical of an organism

(human or animal) that has endured repeated painful or otherwise
aversive stimuli which it was unable to escape or avoid. After such
experience, the organism often fails to learn escape or avoidance in
new situations where such behavior would be effective. In other
words, the organism seems to have learned that it is helpless in
aversive situations that it has lost control, and so it gives up trying.
Such an organism is said to have acquired learned
helplessness Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical
depression and related mental illnesses may result from such real or
perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.
Learned helplessness is state in which people conclude that
unpleasant or aversive stimuli cannot be controlled a view of the
world that become so ingrained that they cease trying to remedy the
aversive circumstances even if they actually can exert some
influences on the situation.
There are people who rely on learned helplessness as a means to
cope with negative events happening in their life. Keith Joseph
McKean points out that learned helplessness is based on three
things:

Internal blaming - "It's me!"

Global distortion - "It'll affect everything I do!"
Stability generalization - "It will last forever!"

Parents/caretakers play major roles in whether or not a child

develops learned helplessness. Learned helplessness can develop
early in one's life. Therefore, adults need to be aware of how their
type
of
criticism
they
use
will
affect
children.

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If adults are continually using negative criticism, the child will

eventually have low self-esteem and will come to a point to want to
give up trying. The type of reinforcement given to the child by the
caregiver can determine whether or not the child will develop
learned helplessness as a coping mechanism for everyday life
events. The child will eventually feel he/she has no control over
these events.
Heyman, Dweck and Cain confirm the influence of constant
negative criticism on children by revealing how young children in
their study assumed when they were receiving negative
criticism they must have been "bad" children. Therefore, the
children felt they were deserving of such negative criticism.

Social Support
Your support network Social engagement is the bodys most
evolved strategy for responding to stress so its no surprise that
people with a strong network of supportive friends and family
members are better able to cope with lifes stressors. On the flip
side, the more lonely and isolated you are, the less opportunity you
have to utilize social engagement and the greater your vulnerability
to stress.
Effective coping strategies:

Turn a threat into challenge.

Make a threatening situation less threatening.
Change your goal.
Take Physical action.

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Prepare for stress before it happens.

Review Questions
1.

What is emotion? What is its role in modifying human

behavior?(10)
2. Illustrate various conflict motivations.. Explain how frustration
and stress related with motivation?(10)
3. Define motivations and explain the importance of Push (drive)
and Pull (incentive) theories in organizational setting.(10)
4. Explain the nature and types of emotions. How does emotion
impact human behavior? Illustrate with appropriate examples.
(10)
5. Direction, level and persistence are the major constituents of
motivation. Justify. (10)
6. Explain differences between these theories of James Lange,
Cannon Bard and Schechter. (10)
7. Give any three Causes of Stress. (2)
8. Define Psychoneuronimmunology of stress.(2)
9. Discuss briefly emotion and its types. (2)
10. Define learned helplessness. (2)

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Unit: VII
Personality
The Meaning of Personality:
The term personality is derived from the Latin word persona
which means a mask. According to K. Young, Personality is a .
patterned body of habits, traits, attitudes and ideas of an individual,
as these are organised externally into roles and statuses, and as they
relate internally to motivation, goals, and various aspects of
selfhood. G. W. Allport defined it as a persons pattern of habits,
attitudes, and traits which determine his adjustment to his
environment.
According to Robert E. Park and Earnest W. Burgess, personality is
the sum and organisation of those traits which determine the role of
the individual in the group. Herbert A. Bloch defined it as the
characteristic organisation of the individuals habits, attitudes,
values, emotional characteristics. which imparts consistency to
the behaviour of the individual. According to Arnold W. Green,
personality is the sum of a persons values (the objects of his
striving, such as ideas, prestige, power and sex) plus his nonphysical traits (his habitual ways of acting and reacting). According
to Linton, personality embraces the total organised aggregate of
psychological processes and status pertaining to the individual.
Personality, as we understand it, says MacIver, is all that an
individual is and has experienced so far as this all can be
comprehended as unity. According to Lundberg and others, The
term personality refers to the habits, attitudes, and other social traits

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that are characteristic of a given individuals behaviour. By

personality Ogburn means the integration of the socio
psychological behaviour of the human being, represented by habits
of action and feeling, attitudes and opinions. Davis regards
personality a psychic phenomenon which is neither organic nor
social but an emergent from a combination of the two.
According to Anderson and Parker, Personality is the totality of
habits, attitudes, and traits that result from socialization and
characterizes us in our relationships with others. According to N.L.
Munn, Personality may be defined as the most characteristic
integration of an individuals structure modes of behaviour,
interests, attitudes, capacities, abilities and aptitudes. According to
Morton Prince, Personality is the sum total of all the biological
innate dispositions, impulses tendencies and instincts of the
individual, and the acquired disposition and tendencies acquired by
experience. According to Young, Personality is the totality of
behaviour of an individual with a given tendency system interacting
with a sequence of situations.
Lawrence A. Pewin has given a working definition of personality in
these words, Personality represents those structural and dynamic
properties of an individual or individuals as they reflect themselves
in characteristic responses to situations.

Nature of Personality

Personality can change: under certain circumstance

personalitys change. Like an individuals personality
may be altered by major life events, such as marriage, the
birth of a child, the death of a parent, or a change of
job/profession. Personality is changed also as part of a
gradual maturing process of body or age.

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Personality is dependable and continuing: Marketers

cannot change consumers personalities to conform to
their products, if they know which personality
characteristics influence specific consumer responses,
they can just attempt to appeal to the relevant traits
inherent in their target group of consumers.
Personality reflects individual differences: No two
individuals are exactly similar. However, many
individuals may be similar in terms of a single
personality characteristic but not in terms of others. Like
some have willing to accept the risk of buying new
launch product on the other hand some are afraid to buy
recently introduced products.

Determinants of Personality
1.

Environmental Factors of Personality:

The environment that an individual lives in has a major impact
on his personality. The culture and environment establish
attitudes, values, norms and perceptions in an individual. Based
on the cultures and traditions, different senses of right and wrong
are formed in individuals. These environmental factors also
include the neighborhood a person lives in, his school, college,
university and workplace. Moreover, it also counts the social
circle the individual has. Your friends, parents, colleagues, coworkers and bosses, everybody plays a role as the determinants
of your personality.

2.

Physical Factors of Personality:

Just as environmental factors, there are many physical factors as
well that determine your personality. These physical factors

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include the overall physical structure of a person: his height,

weight, colour, sex, beauty and body language, etc.
An individuals personality can change over time. Physical
factors are one of the major reasons of that. Most of the physical
structures change from time to time, and so does the personality.
With exercises, cosmetics and surgeries etc. many physical
features are changed, and therefore, the personality of the
individual also evolves.
3.

Situational Factors of Personality:

Although these factors do not literally create and shape up an
individuals personality, situational factors do alter a persons
behavior and response from time to time. The situational factors
can be commonly observed when a person behaves contrastingly
and exhibits different traits and characteristics. For example, a
persons behavior will be totally different when he is in his
office, in front of his boss, when compared to his hangout with
old friends in a bar.
In this way, situational factors impact a personality in a
significant way. They often bring out the traits of a person that
are not commonly seen.

4.

Heredity Factors of Personality:

Last, but not the least, the heredity factors play a very important
role as the major determinants and factors of personality.
Heredity factors are the ones that are determined at the time of
conception. These factors not only affect the physical features of
a person, but the intelligence level, attentiveness, gender,
temperament, various inherited diseases and energy level, all get
affected by them.

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The example of how heredity factors determine such a huge and

significant part of an individuals personality can easily be observed
in children. Many children behave exactly how their parents do.
Similarly, twin siblings also have a lot of things in common.

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Theories of personality:
Freuds Theory
Freud constructed his theory on the basis of patients recollections of
early childhood experiences, analysis of their dreams, and the
specific nature of their mental and physical adjustment problems.
This theory was built on the basis of unconscious needs or force,
especially for sexual and other natural drives, are at the heart of
human motivation and personalityFreudian Theory

Human personality consists of three interacting systems the

id, the superego, and the ego.
Id: Warehouse of ancient needs for which individual seeks
immediate satisfaction(thirst, hunger etc)
The superego role is to see that the individual satisfies
needs in a socially acceptable fashion or not.
Ego: It is Individuals conscious control that balances the
unstructured demands of the id and the socio-cultural
control of the superego.

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Trait Theory (Allport and Cattels)

Allport's, Cattell's, and trait theories propose that individuals possess
certain personality traits that partially determine their behavior.
Traits are characteristic ways of behaving, such as extraversion
introversion: an individual may fall along any point in the
continuum, and where they fall determines how they will respond in
various contexts. Gordon Allport organized traits into a hierarchy of
three levels: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits. Using
a statistical process known as factor analysis, Raymond Cattell
generated sixteen dimensions of human personality traits, known as
the 16PF.
"Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of
those psychophysical systems that determine his characteristics
behavior and though" (Allport, 1961, p. 28).

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Allport's theory of personality emphasizes the uniqueness of the

individual and the internal cognitive and motivational processes that
influence behavior. For example, intelligence, temperament, habits,
skills, attitudes, and traits.
Allport (1937) believes that personality is biologically determined at
birth, and shaped by a person's environmental experience.

Cardinal traits are characteristics that dominate your personality

and strongly influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Central traits are the characteristics people come to expect from

you on a daily basis. These are the traits others would typically use
to describe your personality.
Secondary traits are seen only in specific situations. Perhaps you
are a relatively calm individual. . . until someone threatens your
young child, and you attack like a mother bear.

Cattell (1965) disagreed with Eysencks view that personality can

be understood by looking at only two or three dimensions of
behavior.

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Instead, he argued that that is was necessary to look at a much larger

number of traits in order to get a complete picture of someones
personality.
Whereas Eysenck based his theory based on the responses of
hospitalized servicemen, Cattell collected data from a range of
people through three different sources of data.

L-data - this is life record data such as school grades,

absence from work etc.

Q-data - this was a questionnaire designed to rate an

individual's personality.

T-data - this is data from objective tests designed to 'tap'

into a personality construct.

Cattell analyzed the T-data and Q-data using a mathematical

technique called factor analysis to look at which types of behavior
tended to be grouped together in the same people. He identified 16
personality traits / factors common to all people.
Cattell made a distinction between source and surface traits. Surface
traits are very obvious and can be easily identified by other people,
whereas source traits are less visible to other people and appear to
underlie several different aspects of behavior. Cattell regarded
source traits are more important in describing personality than
surface traits.

Cattell produced a personality test similar to the EPI that measured

each of the sixteen traits. The 16PF (16 Personality Factors Test) has

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160 questions in total, 10 questions relating to each personality

factor.

The Big Five: Five-Factor Model

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As a result of a thorough research on Cattell's and Eysenck's

personality trait theories, the Big Five theory was formulated. This
model states that there are 5 core traits which collaborate in order to
form a single personality. These include:
1.

Extraversion - tendency to be active, sociable, personoriented, talkative, optimistic, empathetic

2.

Openness to Experience - tendency to be imaginative,

curious, creative and may have unconventional beliefs and
values.

3.

Agreeableness - tendency to be good-natured, kindhearted, helpful, altruistic and trusting.

4.

Conscientiousness - tendency to be hardworking, reliable,

ambitious, punctual and self-directed.

5.

Neuroticism - tendency to become emotionally unstable

and may even develop psychological distress

Banduras Social cognitive Theory

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The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become

perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development.
While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning
theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account
for all types of learning.
While the behavioral theories of learning suggested that all learning
was the result of associations formed by conditioning,
reinforcement, and punishment, Bandura's social learning theory
proposed that learning can also occur simply by observing the
actions of others.
His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new
information and behaviors by watching other people. Known
as observational learning (or modeling), this type of learning can be
used to explain a wide variety of behaviors.
Bandura explained:
"Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention
hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own
actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human
behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from
observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are
performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as
a guide for action."-Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory, 1977

Basic Social Learning Concepts

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There are three core concepts at the heart of social learning theory.
First is the idea that people can learn through observation. Next is
the notion that internal mental states are an essential part of this
process. Finally, this theory recognizes that just because something
has been learned, it does not mean that it will result in a change in
behavior.
Let's explore each of these concepts in greater depth.
1.

People can learn through observation.

Observational Learning
In his famous Bobo doll experiment, Bandura demonstrated that
children learn and imitate behaviors they have observed in other
people. The children in Banduras studies observed an adult acting
violently toward a Bobo doll. When the children were later allowed
to play in a room with the Bobo doll, they began to imitate the
aggressive actions they had previously observed.
Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning:

A live model, which involves an actual individual

demonstrating or acting out a behavior.
A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions
and explanations of a behavior.
A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional
characters displaying behaviors in books, films, television
programs, or online media.

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2.

Mental states are important to learning.

3.

Learning does not necessarily lead to a change in behavior.

While behaviorists believed that learning led to a
permanent change in behavior, observational learning
demonstrates that people can learn new information
without demonstrating new behaviors.
The Modeling Process
Not all observed behaviors are effectively learned. Factors
involving both the model and the learner can play a role in
whether social learning is successful. Certain requirements
and steps must also be followed. The following steps are
involved in the observational learning and modeling

process:
Attention:

In

order

to

learn,

you

need

to

be

paying attention. Anything that distracts your attention is

going to have a negative effect on observational learning. If
the model interesting or there is a novel aspect to the
situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full

attention to learning.
Retention: The ability to store information is also an
important part of the learning process. Retention can be
affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up
information later and act on it is vital to observational

learning.
Reproduction: Once you have paid attention to the model
and retained the information, it is time to actually perform
the behavior you observed. Further practice of the learned
behavior leads to improvement and skill advancement.

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Motivation: Finally, in order for observational learning to

be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the
behavior that has been modeled.

Reinforcement and punishment play an important role in

motivation. While experiencing these motivators can be
highly effective, so can observing other experience some
type of reinforcement or punishment. For example, if you
see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to
class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes
early each day.
Final Thoughts
In addition to influencing other psychologists, Bandura's social
learning theory has had important implication in the field of
eduction. Today, both teachers and parents recognize the importance
of modeling appropriate behaviors. Other classroom strategies such
as encouraging children and building self-efficacy are also rooted in
social learning theory.

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Humanistic Approach
Essentially, these terms refer the same approach in psychology.
Humanism is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study
of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human
behavior not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the
eyes of the person doing the behaving. Maslow's humanistic theory
of personality states that people achieve their full potential by
moving from basic needs to self-actualization.
The basic ideas behind humanistic psychology are simple, some
may say overly simple. Humanists hold the following beliefs:
1.

The present is the most important aspect of the person and

therefore humanists focus on the here and now rather than
looking at the past or trying to predict the future.

2.

Humanistic theory is reality based and to be

psychologically healthy people must take responsibility for
themselves, whether the persons actions are positive or
negative.

3.

The individual, merely by being human, posses an inherent

worth. Actions may not be positive but this does not negate
the value of the person.

4.

The goal of life should always be to achieve personal

growth and understanding. Only through self-improvement
and self-knowledge can one truly be happy.

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As a leader of humanistic psychology, Abraham Maslow

approached the study of personality by focusing
on subjective experiences,
free
will,
and
the innate drive toward self-actualization.
Maslow expanded the field of humanistic psychology to
include an explanation of how human needs change
throughout an individual's lifespan, and how these needs
influence the development of personality.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs ranks human needs from the
most basic physical needs to the most advanced needs of
self-actualization. A person must acquire and master each
level of need before proceeding to the next need.
Maslow studied the personalities of self-actualizers and
found they had many things in common; he believed selfactualizers indicate a coherent personality syndrome and
represent optimal psychological health and functioning.
Maslow's ideas have been criticized for their lack of
scientific rigor, as well as their Western cultural bias

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Critical Evaluation
The humanistic approach has been applied to relatively few areas of
psychology compared to the other approaches. Therefore, its
contributions
are
limited
to
areas
such
as therapy,
abnormality, motivation and personality.
A possible reasons for this lack of impact on academic psychology
perhaps lies with the fact that humanism deliberately adopts a nonscientific approach to studying humans. For example their belief
in free-will is in direct opposition to the deterministic laws of
science. Also, the areas investigated by humanism, such as
consciousness and emotion are very difficult to scientifically study.
The outcome of such scientific limitations means that there is a lack
of empirical evidence to support the key theories of the approach.
However, the flip side to this is that humanism can gain a better
insight into an individual's behavior through the use of qualitative
methods, such as unstructured interviews. The approach also helped
to provide a more holistic view of human behavior, in contrast to the
reductionist position of science.

Measurement of Personality
Psychologists measure personality through objective tests (such as
self-reports) and projective measures.

Psychologists seek to measure personality through a

number of methods, the most common of which are
objective tests and projective measures.
Objective tests, such as self-report measures, rely on an
individual's personal responses and are relatively free of
rater bias.
Some of the more widely used personality self-report
measures are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Neo Pi-R,

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MMPI/MMPI-2, 16 PF, and Eysenck Personality

Questionnaire.
Projective
measures
are
founded
in
psychoanalytic theories of personality and involve using
ambiguous stimuli to reveal inner aspects of an individual's
personality.

Projective measures, unlike objective tests, are sensitive to the

rater's or examiner's beliefs. Projective tests are based on Freudian
psychology (psychoanalysis) and seek to expose people's
unconscious perceptions by using ambiguous stimuli to reveal the
inner aspects of an individual's personality. Two of the most popular
projective measures are the Thematic Apperception Measure and the
Rorschach test.
The advantage of projective measures is that they purportedly
expose certain aspects of personality that are impossible to measure
by means of an objective test; for instance, they are more reliable at
uncovering unconscious personality traits or features. However, they
are criticized for having poor reliability and validity, lacking
scientific evidence, and relying too much on the subjective judgment
of a clinician.
The Rorchach test consists of ten inkblots, which were created by
Herman Rorschach dribbling ink on paper and then folding over the
paper to create a symmetrical design. During the test, participants
are shown the inkblots and asked what each one looks like. The test
administrator then asks questions about the responses, such as which
part of the inkblot was linked to each response. This test can be used
to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional
functioning, and is thought to measure unconscious attitudes
and motivations.

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Thematic Apperception Test

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) consists of 30 cards
(including one blank card) depicting ambiguous drawings. Testtakers are asked to tell a story about each picture, including the
background that led up to the story and the thoughts and feelings of
the characters. Like the Rorschach test, the results are thought to
indicate a person's personality characteristics and emotional
functioning.

Self-Report Measures
In psychology, a self-report test is any test, measure, or survey that
relies on the individual's own report of their symptoms, behaviors,
beliefs, attitudes, or other psychological variable. These tests are

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often

given

in

paper-and-pencil

or

electronic

format.

A self-report inventory is a type of psychological test often used in

personality assessment. This type of test is often presented in a
paper-and-pencil format or may even be administered on a
computer.

Self-Report Measures are any methods of data collection that rely on

the participant to report his or her own behaviors, thoughts, or
feelings. The advantage of this method is that the researcher can
obtain information that is not easily observable, but the disadvantage
is that participants report may not be accurate or reliable.
For example, if we asked students to report how many hours per
week they used Face book, students may under-report the time due
to embarrassment or not realizing how much time they spend on the
site.
However, independent observation of Face book use would be
difficult and costly to implement.

Behavioral Assessments provide a thorough assessment of an

identified behavior, including analysis of the interrelatedness of
antecedent triggers, components of the behavior itself, and
consequences of the behavior. Reinforcing factors are identified and
recommendations are made for behavior change.
Behavioral assessment generally falls within two broad categories:
clinical behavioral assessment, and functional behavioral
assessment.

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Clinical behavioral assessment is usually conducted for problems

exhibited in home, school, work, or other settings, and is usually
produced to provide a clear intervention plan for therapists, case
managers, family members, or others who work with the person
being evaluated. CEH clinicians are well-skilled to provide these
kinds of evaluations and plans.
Functional behavioral assessment, or FBA, is usually conducted
by a school system whenever there are concerns that a student with a
disability or who is suspected of having a disability is demonstrating
inappropriate behaviors. School districts are required by law to
produce FBAs under these circumstances as part of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. Beyond these legal
requirements, FBAs have many similarities to clinical behavioral
assessments, with the notable exceptions that FBAs are more limited
in scope, depth, and applicability. CEH clinicians are available as
consultants for the construction of FBAs, as well as expanding
behavioral assessments to areas and settings not addressed by the
FBA.
Functional Behavioral Assessment is generally considered to be a
problem-solving process for addressing student problem behavior.
It relies on a variety of techniques and strategies to identify the
purposes of specific behavior and to help IEP teams select
interventions to directly address the problem behavior.

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Review Questions
1.

Define Personality and Explain briefly the role of

Biological and environmental factors in development of
personality. (10)
2. Define Personality. Explain Freudian theory of personality.
(10)
3. How does culture influences the personality of an
individual? Explain. (10)
4. Explain Banduras Social cognitive Theory. (10)
5. Define Humanistic Approach. (2)
6. What is self report? (2)
7. What are the determinants of personality? (2)
8. What are the components of big five personality traits? (2)
9. What are the two tests under projective tests? (2)
10. What is Thematic Apperception Test? (2)

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