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i Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Science and Higher Education General Psycholo gy (Psyc 1011) Contributors Koye Kassa, Bahir Dar University Chapter One, Chapter Five, and Chapter Six Belay Tefera, Addis Ababa Unive rsity Chapter Two Aemero Asmamaw, University of Gondar Chapter Three, Chapter Four, and Chapter Seven Habtamu Disasa, Dilla University Chapter Eight, Chapter Nine, Chapter Ten, and Chapter Eleven Revised and Edited by Belay Tefera, Addis Ababa Uni versity September, 2019	General psychology.pdf
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Module Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 5 Module Objectives ................................................................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER ONE ...................................................................................................................................... 7 ESSENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY ............................................................................................................... 7 1. 1. Definition of Psychology and Related Concepts ............................................................................. 7 1. 2. Goals of Psychology ........................................................................................................................ 8 1. 3. Historical Background and Major Perspectives in Psychology ....................................................... 9 1. 3. 1. Early schools of psychology ................................................................................................. 10 1. 3. 2. Modern schools of psychology ............................................................................................. 13 1. 4. Branches/Sub Fields of Psychology .............................................................................................. 15 1. 5. Research Methods in Psychology .................................................................................................. 16 CHAPTER TWO .................................................................................................................................... 22 SENSATION AND PERCEPTION ....................................................................................................... 22 2. 1. The meanings of sensation and perception ..................................................................................... 23 2. 2. The sensory laws: Sensory thresholds and sensory adaption. ......................................................... 24 2. 3. Perception ....................................................................................................................................... 26 2. 3. 1. Selectivity of perception: Attention ....................................................................................... 27 2. 3. 2. From perception .................................................................................................................... 30 2. 3. 3. Depth perception ................................................................................................................... 33 2. 3. 4. Perceptual Constancies .......................................................................................................... 36 2. 3. 5. Perceptual Illusion ................................................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER Three ................................................................................................................................... 39 LEARNING AND THEORIES OF LEARNING .................................................................................. 39 3. 1. Definition, Characteristics and Principles of Learning .................................................................. 40 3. 1. 1. Definitions of learning .......................................................................................................... 40 3. 1. 2. Characteristics of learning .................................................................................................... 40 3. 1. 3. Principles of learning ............................................................................................................ 41 3. 2. Factors Influencing Learning ......................................................................................................... 42 3. 3. Theories of Learning and their Applications ................................................................................. 43 3. 3. 1. Behavioral Theory of Learning ............................................................................................ 43 3. 3. 2. Social Learning Theory (observati onal learning) theory ...................................................... 52 3. 3. 3. Cognitive Learning Theory .................................................................................................. 54 CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................................................. 56 MEMORY AND FORGETTING .......................................................................................................... 56 5. 1 Memory .......................................................................................................................................... 57 5. 1. 1 Meaning and Processes of Memory ....................................................................................... 58 5. 1. 2 Stages/Structure of Memory .................................................................................................. 59 5. 1. 3 Factors Affecting Memory .................................................................................................... 63 5. 2 Forgetting ....................................................................................................................................... 64	General psychology.pdf
iii 5. 2. 1 Meaning and Concepts of Forgetting .................................................................................... 64 5. 2. 2. Theories of Forgetting .......................................................................................................... 65 5. 3. Improving Memor y....................................................................................................................... 67 CHAPTER FIVE .................................................................................................................................... 69 MOTIVATION AND EMOTIONS ....................................................................................................... 69 5. 1. Motivation ..................................................................................................................................... 69 5. 1. 1. Definition and types of motivation ....................................................................................... 69 5. 1. 2. Approaches to motivation (theories of motivation) .............................................................. 70 5. 1. 3. Conflict of motives and frustration ....................................................................................... 74 5. 2. Emotions........................................................................................................................................ 75 5. 2. 1. Definition of emotion ........................................................................................................... 75 5. 2. 2. Theories of emotion .............................................................................................................. 76 CHAPTER SIX ...................................................................................................................................... 79 PERSONALITY..................................................................................................................................... 79 6. 1. Meaning of Personality ................................................................................................................. 79 6. 2. Theories of Personality .................................................................................................................. 80 6. 2. 1. The psychoanaly tic theory of personality ............................................................................. 80 6. 2. 2. The trait theory of personality .............................................................................................. 83 6. 2. 3. Humanistic theory of personality ......................................................................................... 84 CHAPTER SEVEN ................................................................................................................................ 88 PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDERS AND TREATMENT TECHNIQUES ........................................... 88 7. 1 Nature of Psych ological Disorders ................................................................................................. 89 7. 2. Causes of Psychological Disorders (Based on Perspectives) ......................................................... 90 7. 2. 1 The Biological Perspective .................................................................................................... 90 7. 2. 2 Psychological Perspectives .................................................................................................... 90 7. 3. Types of Psychological Disorders ................................................................................................. 91 7. 4 Treatment Techniques .................................................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER EIGHT ................................................................................................................................. 99 INTRODUCTION TO LIFE SKILLS .................................................................................................... 99 8. 1. Nature and Definition of Life skills ............................................................................................. 100 8. 3. Components of Life Skills ........................................................................................................... 100 8. 2. Goals of Life Skills ...................................................................................................................... 102 CHAPTER NINE ................................................................................................................................. 106 INTRA-PERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS................................................................... 106 9. 1. Self-Concept and S elf-Awareness ............................................................................................... 107 9. 2. Self-esteem and self-confidence .................................................................................................. 108 9. 3. Self-Control ................................................................................................................................. 110 9. 4. Anger Management ..................................................................................................................... 111 9. 5. Emotional Intelligence and Managing Emotion .......................................................................... 112 9. 6. Stress, Coping with Stress and Resili ence................................................................................... 113 9. 7. Critical and Creative Thinking .................................................................................................... 116 9. 8. Problem Solving and Decision Making ....................................................................................... 118	General psychology.pdf
iv CHAPTER TEN ................................................................................................................................... 121 ACADEMIC SKILLS .......................................................................................................................... 121 10. 1. Time Management ..................................................................................................................... 121 10. 2. Note-taking and Study Skills ..................................................................................................... 123 10. 3. Test-Taking Skill ....................................................................................................................... 125 10. 4. Test Anxiety and Overcoming Test Anxiety ............................................................................. 127 10. 5. Goal Setting ............................................................................................................................... 129 10. 6. Career Development Skill.......................................................................................................... 130 CHAPTER EL EVEN ........................................................................................................................... 132 SOCIAL SKILLS ................................................................................................................................. 132 11. 1. Understanding cultural Diversity ............................................................................................... 133 11. 2. Gender and Social Inclusion ...................................................................................................... 135 11. 3. Interpersonal Communication Skills ......................................................................................... 136 11. 4. Social Influences ....................................................................................................................... 137 11. 5. Peer Pressure ............................................................................................................................. 137 11. 6. Assertiveness ............................................................................................................................. 140 11. 7. Conflict and Conflict Resolution ............................................................................................... 141 11. 8. Team Work ................................................................................................................................ 143 11. 9. Overcoming Risky Behavior ..................................................................................................... 144 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 146	General psychology.pdf
5 Module Introduction You migh t have heard or used the term psychology before you start reading this module. Psychology is a science of human cognitive processes and behaviors. This module focuses on acquaintin g you with this science of mind and behavior. Chapter one introduces the field of psychology as a study of mind and behavior. The second chapter discusses the first step in building mind and behavior called sensation and perception. Points discussed in ch apter three are definition, principles and characteristics of learning, factors influencing learning, theories of learning and their applications, behavioral theory of learning, social learning theory and cognitive learning theory. Chapter f our of the mod ule teaches you about memory, meaning and process of memory, stages of memory, factors affecting memory, forgetting, meaning and concepts of forgetting, theories of forgetting and improving memory. In the fifth chapter concepts of motivation, definition an d types of motivation, theories of motivation and their applications, conflict of motives and frustration, emotions, definition of emotion, components of emotion and theories of emotion and their applications. In chapter six, concept of personality and its theories particularly psychoanalytic, t rait and humanistic theories are discussed. Psychological disorders and treatment techniques nature of psychological disorders such as causes of psychological disorders, types of psychological disorders and treatmen t techniques are discussed in chapter seven. Chapter s eight, nine, ten and eleven deal with life skills. In chapter eight, nature and definition, goals and components are discussed. Self-concept and self-awareness, self-esteem and self-confidence, self-control, emotional intelligence and managing emotion, resilience and coping with stress, anger management, critical and creative thinking and problem solving and decision making are discussed in chapter nine. In chapter ten, academic skills: time management, note-taking and study skills, test-taking skill, test anxiety and overcoming test, anxiety goal setting and career development skill are presented. Chapter eleven educates you about social skills understanding intercultural diversity and diversity manage ment, gender	General psychology.pdf
6 and social inclusion, interpersonal communication skills, social influences and peer pressure, assertiveness, conflict and conflict resolution, team work and overcoming risky behavior Module Objectives Up on the completion of this course, st udents will be able to: Describe basic psychological concepts; Compare and contrast the major theoretical perspectives in psychology; Discuss different aspects of human development; Compare and contrast different learning theories; Summarize motivation al and emotional processes; Demonstrate social and interpersonal skills in everyday life; Set an adaptive goal and plan for future; Apply knowledge of psychology in their life ; and Develop their life skills.	General psychology.pdf
7 CHAPTER ONE ESSENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY Chapter Overview This chapter tries to acquaint students with the concept of psychology. The specific contents addressed in the chapter are definition of psychology and related concepts, goals of psychology, historical background and major perspectives in psychology, branches/subfields of psychology, and research methods in psychology. Learning Appetizers A psychologist once asked a group of university freshmen to tell him who they thin k a psychologist is. Some say „someone who reads the palm of an individual and tells the behavior of a person‟, others said „someone who is a fortune teller‟, the rest said, „a person who can understand what someone is thinking about at a certain time. ‟ Wh at about you? You just explore these views as you proceed through the discussions in this chapter. Learning Outcomes At the end of this chapter, you will be able to: Define psychology Show historical roots of psychology as a science Point out the goals of psychology Identify early schools and modern perspectives of psychology Discuss the basis of differences among perspectives of psychology Identify subfields of psychology Differentiate the major research methods in psychology Explore the major steps of scientific research in psychology 1. 1. Definition of Psychology and Related Concepts Brainstorming Questions What comes to your mind when you hear about the word psychology? Have you ever heard about, read or listened to anything related to psychology? What wa s its content about? Did you appreciate it? Why? What do you expect from the course in psychology?	General psychology.pdf
8 The word "psychology" is derived from two Greek words 'psyche' and ‗ logos ‟. Psyche refers to mind, soul or sprit while logos means study, knowledge or dis course. Therefore, by combining the two Greek words the term "psychology" epistemologically refers to the study of the mind, soul, or sprit and it is often represented by the Greek letter ᴪ (psi) which is read as ("sy"). Psychologists define psychology differently based on their intentions, research findings, and background experiences. Nowadays, most of them agree on the following scientific definition of psychology. In the above defin ition, there are three aspects; science, behavior and mental processes: Science : psychology uses scientific methods to study behavior and mental processes in both humans and animals. This means psychologists do not study behavior with commonsense rather t hey follow scientific procedures and use empirical data to study behavior and mental processes. Behavior : refers to all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, movement, etc. There is also covert behavior which i s hidden, non-observable and generally considered as a mental process Mental processes : refer to all the internal, covert activities of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, remembering, etc. Reflection Dear student, how did you compare the definition o f psychology above with your previous conception? 1. 2. Goals of Psychology Brainstorming Questions Dear student, why do you think is psychology important? What do you think a psychologist is doing when studying behavior and mental processes? Have you list ed some? Fine, let us see the goals together below. As a science, psychology has four goals; description, explanation, prediction, and control. Description: Description involves observing the behavior and noticing everything about it. It is a search for answers for questions like ‗What is happening? ' ‗Where does it happen? ' ‗To whom does it happen? ' And ‗under what circumstances does it seem to happen?. For Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and the underlying mental processes.	General psychology.pdf
9 example, a teacher might notice that a young freshman girl in his/her general psychology classroom is behaving oddly. She is not turning to her homework, her results are slipping badly, and she seems to have a very negative attitude toward the course. Explanation : Why is it happening ? Explanation is about trying to find reasons for the observed behavior. This helps in the process of forming theories of behavior (A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts). For instance in the above example, to find out why the girl is doing all those things, the teacher would most likely ask her parents about her home background, her friends and the like and may come to an understanding that this girl was behaving the way she did because she was given attention (in a way reward) by other people when she used to behave oddly Prediction : prediction is about d etermining what will happen in the future. In the above example, the case of the freshman girl, the psychologist or counselor would predict (based on previous research into similar situations) that this girl may never be able to reach her full learning potential. Control : How can it be changed? Control or modify or change the behavior from undesirable one (such as failing in school) to a desirable one (such as academic success). In the example above, certain learning strategies can be used to hel p the girl so that she will be successful in her academic endeavor. Control can also be used in the sense that a psychologist tries to check out the effects of certain undesirable factors in examining the relationship between two or more behaviors. For exa mple, in studying the relationship between intelligence and academic performance in freshman courses, a psychologist needs to control the effect of socio-economic status of the family. Reflection Dear student, can you please reflect on the relationship an d difference between the four goals of psychology? 1. 3. Historical Background and Major Perspectives in Psychology Brainstorming Questions Dear student, can you imagine how long has psychology been around and where did it begin? [[ Have you tried? Very good,	General psychology.pdf
10 Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the sciences, only about 125 years old. It began as a science of its own in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany, with the establishment of a psychology laboratory in the University of Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt developed the technique of objective introspection to scientifically examine mental experiences. With such newer orientation to the study of human subjective experiences that were previously under the field of philosophy alone, psychology then begun as an independent field of study and with Wundt as its founder or "father of modern psychology. ‖ Once psychology begun to use the scientific method, it then went through successive developments in which different schools of thought emerged at different times. These schools of thought can be categorized as old and modern as described below. 1. 3. 1. Early schools of psychology Brainstorming Questions Dear student, what do you think is a school of thought ? Do you think we have schools of thought in psychology? If yes, like what, for example? A school of thought is a system of thinking about a certain issue, say, for example, about human behavior or mind. You may, for example, think that human behavior is all the result of inheritance, or you, may, instead, say i t is all the result of interaction with the environment. The first system of thinking t akes a biological approach and the later takes an environmental approach. But, what is common in both is there is a tendency to give general, systematized approach of ex plaining phenomena. Surly, psychology, as a discipline, is embedded in different systems of thought from its inception. These systems of though t were very broad in the early years of psychology and, therefore, we call them ‗sch ools of though t'. There a re five such early schools of psychology. Structuralism-structuralism views psychology as a study of structure of mind. It is an expansion of Wundt's ideas by his student named Edward Titchener (1867-1927). Titchener is the founder of structuralism. The goal of structuralists was to find out the units or elements, which make up the mind such as; sensations, images, and feelings. The best-known method used by them was introspection ―looking inward into our consciousness ‖. It is a procedure aimed at analyz ing the mental experience into three basic mental elements: images, feelings, and sensations.	General psychology.pdf
11 Analyzing mental structure alone was found to serve little purpose in helping humans deal with the environment. Hence, a new school of thought emerged to study th is functional value of human mind-functionalism. Functionalism-functionalism views psychology as a study of function of the mind. The founder of this school of thought is William James (1848-1910), who was the first American psychologist and the author of the first psychology textbook. Unlike Wundt and Titchener, James focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world; how people work, play, and adapt to their surroundings, a viewpoint he called functionalism. He developed many research m ethods other than introspection including questionnaires, mental tests and objective descriptions of behavior. Generally, according to functionalists, psychological processes are adaptive. They allow humans to survive and to adapt successfully to their sur roundings. Examining human mind in terms of its structural elements and functions were, however, found to be simplistic to understand the complex human being. It was believed that human mind is more than the sum of sensations as well as adaptive functions. Hence, a new school of thought was emerged to examine mind in a holistic manner-Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt psychology : Gestalt psychology views psychology as a study of the whole mind. Max Wertheimer and his colleagues founded this school of thought in Germany in the 20th century. Gestalt psychologists argued that the mind is not made up of combinations of elements. The German word "gestalt" refers to form, whole, configuration or pattern. According to them, the mind should be thought of as a result of the whole pattern of sensory activity and the relationships and organizations within their pattern. In brief, the gestalt psychologists acknowledge consciousness. They held that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Means mind is greater than i ts parts (images, sensations, and feelings). Generally what is common to all the three schools of though is the fact that they all try to examine the human mind; which is an internal, no-visible, and hidden experience of human beings. Although it could be useful to understand this experience, it was believed that this subjective, private experience can't be observable, measurable, and hence can't be studied scientifically. Hence, for psychology to become scientific, it needs to get rid of dealing with subje ctivity in all its forms and rather focus on studying behavior. This has led to the birth of a new paradigm of thought about psychology called behaviorism.	General psychology.pdf
12 Behaviorism: behaviorists view psychology as a study of observable and measurable behaviors. John B. Watson is the founder of behaviorism. Other proponents include E. Thorndike and F. Skinner. For Watson, psychology was the study of observable and measurable behavior and nothing more about hidden mental processes. According to Watson, we cannot define consciousness any better than we can define the soul; we cannot locate it or measure it and, therefore, it cannot be the object of scientific study. As to Watson, behaviorism had three other important characteristics in addition to its focus on behavior ; conditioned response as the elements or building blocks of behavior, learned rather than unlearned behaviors, and focus on animal behavior. He believed that all behaviors are learned but not inherited and learners are passive and reactive (they are not in itiating their learning but they respond when the environment stimulates them). All the four schools of thought discussed so far were focusing on human mind and behavior as conscious experiences. But, an opposition to this assertion came from a physician in Vienna who, after working with so many patients, realized that human functioning was basically explained by more powerful forces which were not accessible to our consciousness. Hence, this lead to the formulation of a new school of thought in psychology called Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis: psychology studies about the components of the unconscious part of the human mind. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is the founder of this school of thought. He was the most controversial and most popular in the study of be havior and mental processes. As a physician, Sigmund Freud became convinced that some of the physical illnesses of his patients didn't have medical or bodily causes; but non-physical or emotional causes. He called these kinds of illnesses as ‗hysteria' or conversion reaction to indicate the conversion of emotional problems into bodily problems. He also underscored that that conflicts and emotional traumas that had occurred in early childhood can be too threatening to be remembered consciously and therefore they become hidden or unconscious and then will remain to affect later behavior. Freud argued that conscious awareness is the tip of the mental iceberg beneath the visible tip lays the unconscious part of the mind. The unconscious which is the subject mat ter of psychoanalysis contains hidden wishes, passions, guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflict between desire and duty. We are not aware of our unconscious urges and thoughts	General psychology.pdf
13 and they make themselves known in dreams, slip of the tongue, appare nt accidents and even jokes. He used clinical case studies (hypnosis and Dream analysis) as a method. Reflection Dear student, can you briefly discuss how the old schools of psychology differ in terms of their object of study, their goal, and method of an alysis, please? Before concluding this section, h ow do you think the above five early schools of psychology generally differ one from the other? These schools basically differ in terms of three issues: object, goal, and methods of study: In their objec t of study, i. e. what they studied (conscious mind, unconscious mind, and overt behavior). In their goal (analyze the components of the mind or observing the effect of the environment on behavior). In their method (Introspection, observation, clinical case studies, etc... ). So, in the light of these three issues, now you compare and contrast the five schools of early psychology. 1. 3. 2. Modern schools of psychology The early schools of thought have generally laid the foundation for further development s in psycho logy as a science. They opened a door for taking multiple perspectives in explaining human behavior and mental processes. Brainstorming Questions Dear student, what lessons do you think were generally learned from the early schools of psychology in bette r understanding human behavior? Note that an important lesson learned from early psychological thoughts is that there are different ways of explaining the same behavior. Hence, modern psychologists tend to examine human behavior through several views. The views that predominate today are psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, biological, and sociocultural perspectives. These views reflect different questions about human behavior, different assumptions about	General psychology.pdf
14 how the mind works, and different k inds of explanations why people do and what they do. The schools are presented below. Psychodynamic perspective-It has its origins in Freud's theory of psychoanalysis, but many other psychodynamic theories exist. This perspective emphasizes the uncons cious dynamics within the individual such as inner forces, conflicts or instinctual energy. The psychodynamic approach emphasizes: The influence of unconscious mental behavior on everyd ay behavior The role of child hood experiences in shaping adult personal ity The role of intrapersonal conflict in determining human behavior Psychodynamic perspective tries to dig below the surface of a person's behavior to get into unconscious motives; psychodynamists think of themselves as archaeologists of the mind. Behav ioral Perspective-It emphasize s the role learning experiences play in shaping the behavior of an organism. It is concerned with how the environment affects the person's actions. Behaviorists focus on environmental conditions ( e. g. rewards, and punishment s) that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. The behavioral perspective is sometimes called the "black box" approach in psychology because it treats the mind as less useful in understanding human behavior and focus on what goes in to and out of the box, but not on the processes that take place inside This means, behaviorists are only interested in the effects of the environment (input) on behavior (output) but not in the process inside the box. Humanistic Perspective-According to this perspective, h uman behavior is not determined either by unconscious dynamics or the environment. Rather it emphasizes the uniqueness of human beings and focuses on human values and subjective experiences. This perspective places greater importance on the individual's fr ee will. The goal of humanistic psychology was helping people to express themselves creatively and achieve their full potential or self-actualization (developing the human potential to its fullest). Cognitive Perspective-it emphasizes what goes on in peo ple's heads; how people reason, remember, understand language, solve problems, explain experiences and form beliefs. This perspective is concerned about the mental processes. The most important contribution of this perspective has been to show how people's thoughts and explanations affect their actions, feelings, and choices. Techniques used to explore behavior from a cognitive perspective include electrical recording of brain activity, electrical stimulation and radioactive tracing of metabolic activity in the nervous system.	General psychology.pdf
15 Biological Perspective-it focuses on studying how bodily events or functioning of the body affect s behavior, feelings, and thoughts. It holds that the brain and the various brain chemicals affect psychological processes such as learn ing, performance, perception of reality, the experience of emotions, etc. This perspective underscores that biology and behavior interact in a complex way ; biology affecting behavior and behavior in turn affecting biology. It also emphasize s the idea that we are physical beings who evolved over a long time and that genetic heritage can predispose us to behav ing in a certain way. In a manner that our eyebrows evolved to protect our eyes, we may have evolved certain kinds of behavior patterns to protect our bodies and ensure the survival of our species. Socio-cultural Perspective-It focuses on the social and cultural factors that affects human behavior. As a fish cannot leave without water, human behavior cannot be understood without sociocultural context ( the social and cultural environment) that people "Swim" in every day. For instance, social psychologists examine how group membership affect s attitudes and behaviors, why authority and other people (like spouse, lovers, friends, bosses, parents, and strang ers) affect each of us. Cultural psychologists also examine how cultural rules and values (both explicit and unspoken) affect people's development, behavior, and feelings. This perspective holds that humans are both the products and the producers of cultu re, and our behavior always occurs in some cultural contexts. Reflection Dear student, can you make a comparison among modern perspectives of psychology? Do you think these modern perspectives are unrelated to the early schools of thought? Dear student ca n guess and list out areas of concern for psychologists? 1. 4. Branches/Sub Fields of Psychology Brainstorming Questions Dear student, can you tell where psychologists are employed to work after graduation? Have you tried? Very good! Let us see some fields of psychology together. The areas where psychologists join to work depend all on the type of field of study they pursue in a university. Accordingly, psychology has become a very diverse field today that there are different branches ( or sub fields) which psychologists can pursue to study. Below are some of the branches of psychology.	General psychology.pdf
16 Developmental psychology-It studies the physical, cognitive and psychological changes across the life span. It attempts to examine the major developmental milestones that o ccur at different stages of development. Personality Psychology-it focuses on the relatively enduring traits and characteristics of individuals. Personality psychologists study topics such as self-concept, aggression, moral development, etc. Social Psych ology-deals with people's social interactions, relationships, social perception, and attitudes. Cross-cultural Psychology -examines the role of culture in understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. It compares the nature of psychological processes in different cultures, with a special interest in whether or not psychological phenomena are universal or culture-specific. Industrial psychology -applies psychological principles in industries and organizations to increase the productivity of that organiza tion. Forensic psychology-applies psychological principles to improve the legal system (police, testimony, etc..). Educational Psychology-concerned with the application of psychological principles and theories in improving the educational process inc luding curriculum, teaching, and administration of academic programs. Health Psychology-applies psychological principles to the prevention and treatment of physical illness and diseases. Clinical Psychology:-is a field that applies psychological principl es to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of psychological disorders. Counseling Psychology:-is a field having the same concern as clinical psychology but helps individuals with less severe problems than those treated by clinical psychologists. Reflections Dear student, based on the above lists of subfields of psychology, prepare a brief report on how psychology is practically applied in the fields of health, education, medicine, business, law and other areas. 1. 5. Research Methods in Psychology A. Definit ion of terms Brainstorming Questions Dear student, can you please describe what science, and the scientific method in particular, is focused on?	General psychology.pdf
17 Before getting into research methods, it is important to start with discussion of scientific method. At the beginning of this chapter, we said that psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. This means, in psychology, researchers want to see only what is there, not what their biases might want them to see. Researchers do this by using the scientific method (a system for reducing bias and error in the measurement of data). Hence, before discussing the types of research methods; we try to see the following terms. Scientific method -a process of testing ideas through systematic observatio ns, experimentations, and statistical analysis. Theory-is an integrated set of principles about observed facts that is intended to describe and explain some aspects of experience. Hypotheses -is a tentative proposition about the relationship between tw o or more variables or phenomena. E. g. Males have high self-confidence in making decisions than females. B. Major types of research methods Brainstorming question Dear student, do you think that psychologists are doing exactly the same thing to achieve t he different goals? Although all psychologists pursue the same scientific method, there is, however, diversity in what psycholog ists do to achieve the different objectives and goals. Hence, there are three major types of research methods: descriptive, c orrelation al and experimental research methods. Descriptive research-in this type of research, the researcher simply records what she/he has systematically observed. Descriptive research methods include naturalistic observation, case studies, and survey s. i. Naturalistic observation : is a descriptive research method in which subjects are observed in their natural environment to get a real ( not artificial ) picture of how behavior occurs. Limitations of naturalistic observation are observer effect (animals or people who know they are being watched may behave artificially ) and observer bias (the researcher may not observe systematically or he/she may observe behaviors he/she wants to observe and ignores others). ii. Case study: is a descriptive technique in which a n individual is studied in great detail. Its advantage is that it provides tremendous amount of data about a single case or individual.	General psychology.pdf
18 The disadvantage of case study is that the researchers can't apply the results to other similar people, which means what researchers find in one case can't necessarily apply or generalize to others. iii. Survey: is a descriptive research method used to collect data from a very large group of people. It is useful to get information on private (covert) behaviors and it addresses hundreds of people with the same questions at the same time. Its disadvantage is that it needs a careful selection of a representative sample of the actual population. Correlation al research-is a research method that measures the relationship between two or more variables. A variable is anything that can change or vary-scores on a test, the temperature in a room, gender, and so on. For example, a researcher might be curious to know whether or not cigarette smoking is connected to life expectancy. Though correlation tells researchers if there is a relationship between variables, how strong the relationship is, and in what direction the relationship goes, it doesn't prove causation (which means it doesn't show the cause and effect relationship). This means, for example, that if there is a relationship between smoking and lung cancer, this doesn't mean that smoking causes lung cancer. Experimental Research: it is a research method that allow s researchers to study the cause and effect relationship between var iables. In experimental research, a carefully regulated procedure in which one or more factors believed to influence the behavior being studied are manipulated and all other factors are held constant. Experiments involve at least one independent variable a nd one dependent variable. The independent variable is the manipulated, influential, experimental factor. The dependent variable is the factor (behavior) that is measured in an experiment. It can change as the independent variable is manipulated. For exam ple, a researcher may need to know whether or not class size has an effect on students' academic performance and hypothesize s as ―do students in small class size have better academic performance than students in large class size?‖ In this question, the researcher has two variables: class size, which is the independent variable to be manipulated and students‟ performance which is the dependent variable to be measured while class size is changed. Experiments also involve randomly assigned experimental grou ps and control groups. An experimental group is a group whose experience is manipulated. In our example, the	General psychology.pdf
19 experimental group is students who are assigned in small class sizes. A control group is a comparison that is treated in every way like the experim ental group except for the manipulated factor (class size). The control group serves as a baseline against which the effects of the manipulated condition can be compared. In this example, the control group is the group of students who are assigned in large class sizes. Although experimental research is useful to discover causes of behavior s, such research must be done cautiously because expectations and biases on the part of both the researcher and participants can affect the results. C. Steps of scientific research Brainstorming Questions Dear student, can you think of the procedures to be followed to conduct scientific research, please? Did you try? Fantastic ! In scientific research, there are at least five major steps to be followed. Step one -Defini ng the Prob lem-noticing something attention catching in the surrounding for which one would like to have an explanation. For example, you may notice that children seem to get a little more aggressive with each other after watching practically violent children's cartoon videos. You wonder if the violence in the cartoon video could be creating aggressive behavior on the children. Hence, you may raise a research problem focusing on the effect of aggressive videos on children's behavior. Step two-Form ulati ng the Hypothesis-after having an observation on surroundings (perceiving the problem), you might form an educated guess about the explanation for your observations, putting it into the form of a statement that can be t ested in some way. For our example above, you might formulate a hypothesis ―children who watch violent cartoons will become more aggressive than those who watch non-violent cartoons ‖. Step three-Testing the Hypothesis-at this step, the researcher employs appropriate research method s and collects ample data (information) to accept or reject the proposed statement. For i nstance, in the above example, the data will be gathered from children who watch aggressive videos and from those who do not watch aggressive videos and make comparisons be tween the behaviors of the two groups to determine whether watching aggressive video makes children more aggressive..	General psychology.pdf
20 Step four-Drawing Conclusions-this is the step in which the researcher attempts to make generalizations or draw implications from tested relationship Step five-Reporting Result s-at this point, the researcher would want to write up exactly what she/he did, why she/he did, and what sh e/he found. So that, others can learn from what she/he has already accomplished, or failed to accomp lish. This allows others to predict and modify behavior based on the findings. Reflection Dear student can explain the three major types of research methods in psychology, and the ethical procedures to be followed, please? Summary [ Psychology is a scie nce of behavior and mental process. Psychologists aim at describing, explaining, predicting and controlling behaviors. Though Psychology as a scientific field began in 1879 in Germany, it has gone through different phases. The perspectives of psychology are generally classified as early and modern. Early psychology was considered schools of ―isms‖ which include structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, and, in fact, Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis. Modern perspectives of psychology have emerged fr om these early psychological thoughts. These modern perspectives that are used to describe and explain behavior and mind are..... (please list). The knowledge of Psychology can be applied in different contexts such as health, education, business, law, and th e like. Psychologists study behavior using three major types of research methods; descriptive, correlational, and experimental. In employing the different types of research methods, psychologists are expected to follow five basic steps in conducting resea rch. Discussion Questions 1. Compare and contrast the five early schools of thought in psychology. 2. Compare and contrast the modern psychological perspectives. 3. Please reflect on the relationship between the goals of psychology and the three types of research methods using examples. 4. Mention the steps of conducting research in psychology.	General psychology.pdf
21 5. A psychologist is interested in exploring the effect of tutorial support on students' academic performance and assign students into two groups. Students in group one get the tutorial support and th ose in group two do not. In this example, what is the a) Dependent variable b) Independent variable c) Control group d) Experimental group	General psychology.pdf
22 CHAPTER TWO SENSATION AND PERCEPTION Chapter Overview Before anything else, psychological life begins wit h the activity of knowing what is happening around. Sensation and perception are the first important dimensions of this intelligent life. That is, they are starting points for all of you r other psychological process es. They supply the data you use for lea rning and remembering, thinking and problem solving, communicating with others, and experiencing emotions and for being aware of yourself. Without access to the environment through sensation and perception, you would be like a person in a coma devoid of an y thoughts or feelings. This chapter discusses the nature of sensation and perception as the first form s of human's intelligent life. It attempts to discuss the meaning and relationship of sensation and perception, the principles explaining how they work, and other related topics. Learner Appetizer Once upon a time, there were couples in a village. They had a horse. One day they started a journey both of them sitting on the horse. When people see that, they get upset and criticized the couples as unkin d to animals. Then, the husband sat on the horse leaving his wife walking on foot. Looking at this, people started to criticize the husband as selfish and disrespectful of his wife. Following the critics, the husband left the horse for his wife and walked on foot. People started laughing at the husband and labeled him as foolish. Finally, both the husband and his wife started walking on foot leaving the horse free. As usual, people started joking at the couples and considered them as stupid guys because the y left the horse free. Dear student, what do you understand from this short story? Do people have same perception about what is right and wrong? In which scenario of the above story people's critics is right? How? Learning Outcomes At the end of this chapter, y ou are expected to understand the: meaning of sensation and perception difference and similarities of sensation and perception factors affecting sensation and perception	General psychology.pdf
23 principles of sensation and perception, and reasons for sensory and percep tual differences amount individuals. 2. 1. The meanings of sensation and perception Psychologists have traditionally differentiated between sensation and perception Brainstorming questions Have you heard of sayings like „you watch but you don‟t see‟; „yo u hear but you don‟t listen‟, „you touch but you don‟t grasp... ‟ What do these statements suggest to you? Which one do you think refers to sensation and which one refers to perception? What are the elements of learning? Sensation is the process whereby sti mulation of receptor cells in the eyes, ears, no se, mouth, and surface of the skin sends nerve impulses to the brain. Sensations are closely tied to what is happening in the sensory systems themselves. Color, brightness, t he pitch of tone or a bitter taste are examples of sensations. The starting of point of sensations is a stimulus. A form of energy (such as light waves or sound waves) that can affect sensory organs ( such as the eye or the ear). Sensation is therefore the process that detects the stimulus from one's body or from the environment. How different is sensation from perception? In real life, you seldom experience simple sensation s. Instead of simple sensations, p erceptual processes are constantly at work to modify sensory input into what are act ually experiences. Perception is the process that organize s sensations into meaningful patterns. It is the process whereby the brain interprets sensations, giving them order and meaning. Thus, hearing sounds and seeing colors is largely a sensory process, but forming a melody and detecting patterns and shapes is largely a perceptual process. Why do we say “largely” in the above expression? We say largely because in everyday life, it is almost impossible to separate sensation from perception. As soon as t he brain receives sensations, it automatically interprets or perceives them, and without sensations of some kind perception could not occur. Can you mention examples showing the difference between sensation and perception?	General psychology.pdf
24 Consider, for example, the blac k marks and letters in this page. Visual sensation lets you detect the black marks. Visual perception lets you organize the black marks into letters and works. For a real life example of the difference between sensation and perception consider a case study presented by neurologist Oliver Sacks (1985) one of his patients suffered from brain damage that caused him to develop prospagnosia, the inability to recognize human faces. The patient could recognize people by sound of their voices, but he could not rec ognize them by light. His disorder was so severe that he sometimes patted tire hydrants, thinking they were children's heads. He would even grab his wife's head mistaking it for a hat yet he was not nearsighted ; he could easily see a pin on the floor. Thus he had people's facial features, but he could not organize them into recognizable face (visual perceptions). Reflection Dear student, now show with examples how sensation is similar and different from perception. 2. 2. The sensory laws: Sensory threshold s and sensory adaption. There are certain sensory laws that explain how sensation works. Sensory threshold and sensory adaptation are the two general laws of sensation. Brainstorming questions How much intense must a sound be for you to detect it? How muc h changes in light intensity must occur for you to notice it? perception? What are the elements of learning? Sensory threshold is the minimum point of intensity a sound can be detected. There are t wo laws of sensory threshold: The law of absolute thresh old and the law of difference threshold. The absolute threshold The minimum amount of stimulation a person can detect is called the absolute threshold, or Limen, for example, a cup of coffee would require a certain amount of sugar before you could detect a sweet taste. Because the absolute threshold for a particular sensory experience varies, psychologists operationally define the absolute threshold as the minimum level of stimulation that can be detected 50 percent of the time when a stimulus is presente d over and over again. Thus, if you were presented with a low intensity sound 30 times and detected it 15 times, that level of intensity would be your absolute threshold for that stimulus.	General psychology.pdf
25 The absolute threshold is also affected by factors other than the intensity of the stimulus; Researchers assume that the de tection of a stimulus depends on both its intensity and the physical and psychological state of the individual. One of the most important psychological factors is the response bias-how ready the pers on is to report the presence of a particular stimulus. Imagine that you are waking down a street at night. Your predisposition to detect a sound depends, in part, on your estimate of the probability of being mugged, so you would be more likely to perceive the sound of footsteps on a neighborhood you believe to be dangerous than in a neighbor-hood you believe to be safe. The difference threshold In addition to detecting the presence of a stimulus, you also detect changes in the intensity of a stimulus. The minimum amount of change that can be detected is called difference threshold. For example, a cup of coffee would require a certain amount of additional sugar before you could detect an increase in its sweetness. Similarly, you would have to increase the intensity of the sound from your tape recorder a certain amount before you could detect a change in its volume. Like the absolute threshold, the difference threshold for a particular sensory experience varies from person to person and from occasion to occ asion. Therefore, psychologists formally define the difference threshold as the minimum change in stimulation that can be detected 50 percent of the time by a given person. This difference in threshold is called the just noticeable difference ( jnd). The am ount of change in intensity of stimulation needed to produce a jnd is a constant fraction of the original stimulus. This became known as Weber's law. For example, because the jnd for weight is about 2% and you held a 50 ounce for weight you would notice a change only if there was at least one ounce change in it. But a person ho lding a 100 ounce weight would require the addition or subtraction of at least 2 ounce to notice a change. Research findings indicate the weber's law holds better for stimuli of moder ate intensity than stimuli of extremely how or hi9gh intensity. Sensory Adaptation Brainstorming questions Given that each of your senses is constantly bombarded by stimulation, why do you notice only certain stimuli?	General psychology.pdf
26 One possible reason is that if a stimulus remains constant in intensity, you will gradually stop noticing it. For example, after diving into a swimming pool, you might shiver. Yet a few minutes later you might invite someone to join you saying, ―The water is fine‖ on entering a friend's dormitory room, you might be struck by the repugnant stench of month-old garbage. Yet a few minutes later you might not notice the odor at all, this tendency of our sensory receptors to have decreasing responsiveness to unchanging stimulus is called senso ry adaptation. Sensory adaptation lets you detect potentially important change in your environment while ignoring unchanging aspects of it. For example, when vibrations repeatedly stimulate your skin, you stop noticing them. Thus, if you were having a bum py train ride that made your seat vibrate against your bottom, you would initially notice the vibrations, but it would serve little purpose for you to continue noticing them. Likewise, once you have determined that the swimming pool water is cold or that y our friend's room smells, it would serve little purpose to continue noticing those stimuli-especially when more important change might be taking place elsewhere in your surroundings. Of course, you will not adapt completely to extremely intense sensations, such as severe pain or freezing cold. This is adaptive, because to ignore such stimuli might be harmful or even fatal. Reflection Dear student, reflect on the following questions ? 1. Indicate the three conditions under which you may not be able to sense a stimulus. 2. Consider the concepts ―Sensitization‖ and ―habituation‖ discussed in Section 1, Unit 2, and Module 2, to which of the three sensory laws do they relate? Why? 3. Indicate the conditions under which sensory difference occur among people. 4. Give at l east 5 major differences and similarities between sensation and perception. 5. What does sensing involve? 6. Compare and contrast ―Limen‖ and ―jnd‖ with examples 7. How does sensory adaptation occurs 2. 3. Perception	General psychology.pdf
27 You have seen earlier that perception is a meaning making process. Now you study more about this meaning making process of the human intelligent life. It helps you understand the major characteristics of the perceptual process : selectivity of perception, from perception, depth perception, perceptua l constancy, and perceptual illusion. 2. 3. 1. Selectivity of perception: Attention Note that at any given time, your sense organ is bombarded by many stimuli. Yet you perceive a few of them. Were you aware of, for example, the noise in your room until you read this sentence? You may not. Yet input from the environment was coming into your ears all the time. In fact you may be attending to one of such incoming in put ignoring the other noises. Such selective perception is called attention. Attention is the refore the term given to the perceptual process that selects certain inputs for inclusion in your conscious experience, or awareness, at any given time, ignoring others. What does this selectivity of perception imply? Brainstorming questions What does th is selectivity of perception imply? The selectivity of perception implies, among other things, that our field of experience is divided into what is known as ―Focus‖ and ―Margin. ‖ Events or stimuli that you perceive clearly are the focus of your experienc e and other items or stimuli that you perceive dimly or vaguely are in the margin of your attention. You may be aware of items in the marginal field but only vaguely or partially To illustrate focus and margin consider that your perceptual field is a foo tball game. While you are dimly aware of the tangle of players and the activity of the blockers during the play, it is the ball carrier and his movement that stands out clearly to you your attention is mainly focused on him. But at the same time, sensory i nputs are coming in from your cold feet, from your stomach as a result of the last uncomfortable food you ate, and from the fellow behind you whi is smoking a cigar. The crowd is also shouting. While the play is going on, you are probable not aware of any of these sensory inputs. Only when the play is finished or time is called that you perceive how cold your feet are, and how noisy the crowd is. The fact that you perceive how cold your feet are, and how noise the crowd is when the play is finished or time is called illustrates another characteristics of attention, that it is constantly shifting. Attention shifts constantly. What is in the focus of your attention one moment may be in margin; and what is in the margin may become in your focus.	General psychology.pdf
28 Brainstorming questions What factors do you think determine your attention? Why do you pay, in the above example, attention to the ball carrier ignoring others and why, at the end of the game, your attention shifted to the cold feeling you are experiencing in your feet ? What aspects of the environment get your attention at a given time? Paying attention is in general a function of two factors: factors external to the perceiver and factors internal to the perceiver. External factors refer to factors that are generall y found in the objects or stimuli to be perceived. Some of the external characteristics of objects that determine whether you are going to attend them or not are size and intensity, repetition, novelty (or newness), and movement. Other things being constan t, bigger and brighter stimuli are more likely to capture your attention than smaller and dimmer objects. That is why announcements and notice are written in big and block letters. In the same way, people who dress bright colored clothes tend to capture yo ur attention. Repetition is the second factor. You are more likely to attend to stimuli that repeatedly or frequently occur in your perceptual field. A misspelled word is more likely to be detected if it occurs many times in a paragraph than when it occu rs only once or twice. You are going to notice a person if he continuously follows you as compared to a person you meet only once or twice. That is, by the way, why slogans, advertisings, and announcement are repeated continuously to audiences and spectato rs. In a word, repetition is attention getting. However, no matter how big or bright a stimulus is, or else no matter how frequently it may occur, you may not give it attention as if it occurs in the same way all the time. This is basically because you are likely to adapt to it and then stop responding to it. This is called sensory adaptation or habituation. It is the tendency to ignore a stimulus that occurs continuously in the same way. Hence, the third factor of attention is novelty-the extent to which a stimulus creates a contrast with the rest objects in the environment. Novel or new objects create a sharp contrast with the environment and hence tend to capture your attention. Remember here why you are given a special attention as a guest, why first-born children get more attention from parents etc. The last but not the least external factor in attention getting is movement. Moving objects tend to get your attention more than non-moving or stagnant objects. Your eyes are involuntarily attracted to move ment the way butterflies are attracted to light. This is because	General psychology.pdf
29 moving objects are instinctually felt dangerous or threatening and you are reflexively responding to them to defend yourself. Moreover, moving objects bring with them changes in stimulation o r newness in their presentation. In general, stimuli in the environment that, are bigger and brighter, or more frequently occurring. Or newer or moving are likely to get your attention. Paying attention is not, however, determined only by these characte ristics of objects. Even when a stimulus is bigger, brighter, new frequent, or moving, you may not give it attention if you are not psychologically ready to attend to it. Hence, attention giving also depends on your psychological states as an observer. What are some of the internal psychological states of the observer that affect as to which stimulus on pays attention to or ignore? Psychologists have identified two important psychological factors: Set or expectancy and motives or needs. Set refers to th e idea that you may be ―ready‖ and ―Primed for‖ certain kinds of sensory input. Set, or expectancy, therefore, varies from person to person. It is important not only in the selection of sensory input for inclusion in the focus of your attention. It is also important in organizing the selected sensory input. To illustrate the role of set in attention, consider the husband who is expecting an important phone call. He will hear the telephone ring in the night while his wife does not. The wife, on the other han d, may more likely to hear the baby crying than the telephone ringing. Of course, if the wife is expecting an important cell, the reverse may be true. What other examples, do you think, illustrate the rol e of set or expectancy in perception? Motives an d needs are the second psychological factors influencing you as an observer. There are differences between you and your friend in what you select to perceive as a result of differences in your motives and needs. You and your friend attend to and organize t he sensory input in ways that match your respective needs. People who are hungry, thirst, or sexually aroused are likely to pay attention to events in the environment, which will satisfy these needs.	General psychology.pdf
30 Reflection Dear student, reflect on the following ques tions ? 1. You just give examples showing how motives and needs in the example mentioned previously about perceptions of a football game affect your attention. 2. Assume that you are in your room with your friend listening to music. But your friend is rather li stening to people talking outside. Why do you think you and your friend differed while you both were in the same place? 3. Look at the symbol 13 in the following two raw of symbols: a raw of letters and a raw of numbers. -A 13 C D E F G -12 13 14 15 16 17 18 4. 1 What does the symbol 13 refer to in the first r ow? 4. 2 What does the same symbol refer to in the second r ow? 4. 3 Why did you give a different meaning to the same symbol in the two rows? 4. Which factor of attention getting is/are explaining these p henomena? 2. 3. 2. From perception Visual sensations, as discussed under sensation, provide the raw materials that are to be organized into meaningful patterns, shapes, forms, and concepts or ideas or form perception. The meaningful shapes or patterns or ideas that are made perhaps out of meaningless and discrete or pieces and bites of sensations refer to form perception. To perceive forms (meaningful shapes or patterns), you need to distinguish a figure (an object) from its ground (or its surrounding). Le t us look at this idea further. Figure-Ground Perception Figure-ground perception is the perception of objects and forms of everyday experience as standing out from a background. Pictures (figure) hang on a wall (ground), words (figure) are seen on a pa ge (ground), and melody (figure) stands out from the repetitive chords in the	General psychology.pdf
31 musical background (ground), the pictures, words, and the melody are perceived as the figure, while the wall, the page, and the chords are the ground. The ability to distinguis h an object from its general background is basic to all form perception. And gestalt psychologists stress that form perception in an active, rather than a passive, process like selectivity of perception. Hence, there can be a shift in you perception of figure and ground such that the figure may become the ground and vice versa. Factors that determine your attention equally determine what should become the figure and what should become the ground. By the way, what helps you in general to separate the figur e from the general around in your visual perception? This will take you to the second feature of for m perception called contours. Contours in Form Perception You are able to separate forms from the general ground only because you can perceive contours. Contours are formed whenever a marked difference occurs in the brightness or color of the background. If you, for instance, look at a piece of paper that varies continuously in brightness from white at one border to black at the opposite border, you will perceive no contour. The paper will appear uniform, and if you are asked to say where the sheet stops being light and starts to become dark, you can only guess. On the other hand, if the change is marked rather than gradual-suppose several shades are skip ped-you will see the paper as divide d in to two parts. In perceiving the division at the place where the brightness gradient changes abruptly, you have perceived a contour. In general, contours give shape to the objects in our visual world because they mar k one object off from another or they mark an object off from the general ground. When contours are disrupted visually, as in camouflage, objects are difficult to distinguish from the background. Reflection Dear student, reflect on the following question s? 1. Consider a reptile named chameleon. Explain why this reptile changes its color accordingly to the environment it is found using the idea of contours in form perception. 2. Why are soldiers dressed in green uniforms in almost all countries? 3. What will ha ppen if you write with a charcoal on a blackboard? 4. What will again happen if you write with a pen or with white ink on a white piece of paper? 5. Do you advice a black man to dress a white cloth or a black cloth? Why? 6. What is the implication of all the abo ve questions?	General psychology.pdf
32 Organization in form Perception When several objects are present in the visual field, we tend to perceive them as organized into patterns or groupings. The Gestalt psychologists studied such organization intensively in the early part of t his century. They emphasized that organized perceptual experience has properties, which cannot be predicated from a simple analysis of the components. In other words, Gestalt psychologist said ―the whole is more than the sum of its parts. ‖ This simply mean s that what is perceived has its own new properties, properties that emerge from the organization, which takes place. Organization in perception partially explains our perception of complex patterns as unitary forms, or objects. We see objects as objects only because grouping processes operate in perception. Without them, the various objects and patterns we perceive-a face on a television screen, a car a tree, a book-would not ―hang together‖ as objects or patterns., they would merely be so many disconnec ted sensations-dots, lines or blotches, for example. What are some of the laws of perceptual organization? One organizing principle is proximity, or nearness. The laws of proximity says that items which are close together in space or time tend to be pe rceived as belonging together or forming an organized group. Another organizing principle of perception is similarity. Most people see one triangle formed by the dots with its apex at the top and another triangle formed by the rings with its apex at the b ottom. They perceive triangle because similar items such as, the rings and the dots, tend to be organized together. Otherwise, they would see a hexagon or a six-pointed star, where all the dots are the same. Grouping according t o similarity, however, doe s not always occur. A figure is more easily seen as a six-pointed star than as one figure composed of dots and another figure made up of rings. In this case, similarity is competing with the organizing principle of symmetry, or good figure. Neither the cir cle nor the dots by themselves from a symmetrical pattern. The law of good figure says that there is a tendency to organize things to make a balanced or symmetrical figure that includes all the parts. In this case, such a balanced figure can be	General psychology.pdf
33 achieved on ly by using all the dots and rings to perceive a six pointed star the law of good figure wins out over the law of similarity because the rings by themselves or the dots by themselves do not form symmetrical goods figures. Still another principle or organ ization is continuation, the tendency to perceive a line that starts in one way as continuing in the same way. For example, a line that starts out as a curve is seen as continuing on smoothly curved course. A straight line is seen as continuing on a straig ht course or, if it does change direction as forming an angle rather than a curve. We see the dots as several curved and straight lines. Even though the curved and straight lines cross and have dots in common, it is only with an effort that we can perceive a straight line suddenly becoming a curved line at one of these functions. Finally, the law of clo sure makes our perceived world or form more complete than the sensory stimulation that is presented. The law of closure refers to perceptual processes that organize the perceived world by filling in gaps in stimulation Reflection Dear student, reflect on the following questions ? 1. Try to give a pictorial representation of the laws of perceptual organization. 2. Compare and contrast these laws of organization 2. 3. 3. Depth perception If we live in a two-dimensional world, form perception would be sufficient. But because we live in a three-dimensional world, we have evolved depth perception-the ability to judge the distance of objects. Given that images on the r etina are two dimensional, how can we perceive depth? That is, how can we determine the distance of objects (the distal stimulus) from the pattern of stimulation on our retinas (the proximal stimulus)? Depth perception depends on the use binocular cues a nd monocular cues there are two kinds of binocular cues: retinal disparity and convergence. The two kinds of binocular cues require the interaction of both eyes. Retinal disparity is, the degree of difference between the image of an object that are focused on the two retinas. The closer the object, the greater is the retinal disparity. To demonstrate retinal disparity for yourself, point a forefinger vertically between	General psychology.pdf
34 your eyes. Look at the finger with one eye closed. Then look at it with the other closed. You will notice that the background shifts as you view the scene with different views of the same stimulus. The ―view master‖ device you might have used as a child creates the impression of visual depth by presenting slightly different image to the eyes a t the same time mimicking retinal disparity. Retinal disparity is greater when an object is near you than when it is farther away from you. Certain cells in visual cortex detect the degree of retinal disparity, which the brain uses to estimate the distance of an object focused on the retinas. The second binocular cue to depth is convergence, the degree to which the eyes turn inward to focus on an object. As you can confirm for yourself, the closer the objects are the greater the convergence of the eyes. H old a forefinger vertically in front of your face and move it toward your nose. You should notice an increase in ocular muscle tension as your finger approaches your nose. Neurons in the cerebral cortex translate the amount of muscle tension into an estima te of the distance of your finger. Not that convergence is associated with important everyday activities. For example, drinking alcohol impairs depth perception by disrupting the normal convergence of the eyes and using a computer terminal for hours induce eye fatigue caused by continues convergence. Binocular cues require two eyes, w hereas monocular cues require only one. Th is means that even people who have lost sight in one eye may still have good depth perception. One monocular is accommodation, which is the change in the shape of the lens that lets you focus the image of an object on the retina. Neuron in the rectum assume that the greate r the accommodation of the lens, t he closer the object. But prolonged accommodation can alter your depth perception. For example, if you stare at a near object for a long time and then look at a more distant object, the more distant object will look farther away than it is. This is attributable to the brain's overcompensation for the continuous accommodation of the len s while it was focused on the near object. A second monocular cue is motion parallax, the tendency to perceive ourselves as passing objects faster when they are closer to us than when they are farther away. You will notice this when you drive on a rural road. You perceive yourself passing nearby telephone poles faster than you are passing a farmhouse.	General psychology.pdf
35 The remaining monocular cues are called pictorial cues because artists use them to create depth in their drawings and paintings. Leonardo da Vinci formali zed pictorial cues 500 year ago in teaching his art students how to use them to make their paintings look more realistic. He noted that an object that overlaps another object will appear closer, a cue called interposition. Because your psychology professor overlaps the blackboard, you know that she or he is closer to you than the blackboard is. Comparing the relative size of objects also provides a cue to their distance. If two people are about the same height and one casts a smaller image on your retina. Y ou will perceive that person as farther away. You probably have noticed that parallel objects, such as railroad tracks, seem to get closer as the further away (and farther apart as they get closer). The pictorial cue, linear perspective, may even have pr actical application. During world War II, naval aviation cadets flying at night sometimes crashed into airplanes ahead of them, apparently because of failure to judge the distance of those plans. Taking advantage of linear perspective solved this problem. Two taillights set a standard distance apart replaced the traditional single taillight. As a result, when pilots noticed that the taillights of an airplane appeared to move farther apart, they realized that they were getting closer to it. An object's elevation provides another cue to its distance. Objects that are higher in your visual field seem to be farther away. If you paint a picture, you create depth by placing more distant objects higher on the Canvas. Shading patterns provide cues to distance bec ause areas that are in shadow tend to recede, while areas that are in light tend to stand out. Painters use shading to make balls, balloons, and organs appear round. Aerial perspective depends on the clarity of objects. Closer objects seem clearer than mor e distant ones. A distant mountain will look hazier than a near one. The final monocular cue, the texture gradient, affects depth perception because the nearer an object, the more details we can make out and the farther an object, the more details we can make out, and the farther an object, the fewer details we can make out. When you look across a field, you can see every blade of grass near you, but only an expanse of green far away from you. Even 7 month old infants respond to the texture gradient cue. When presented with drawings that use the texture gradient to make some objects appear to be in the foreground and others in the background, infants will reach for an object in the foreground.	General psychology.pdf
36 2. 3. 4. Perceptual Constancies The image of a given object fo cused on your retina may vary in size, shape, and brightness. Yet you will continue to perceive the object as stable in size, shape, and brightness because of perceptual constancy. This is adaptive, because it provides you with a more visually stable world, making it easier for you to function in it, as an object gets farther away from you, it produces a smaller image on your retina. If you know the actual size of an object, size constancy makes you interpret a change in its retinal size as a change in its distance rather than a change in its size. When you see a car a block away, it does not seem smaller than one that is half a block away, even though the more distant car produces a smaller image on your retina. Size constancy can be disrupted by alcohol. I n one study, young adults drank alcohol and were then asked to estimate the size of an object. The y tended to unde restimate its size. Disruption of size constancy might be one way that alcohol intoxication promotes automobile accidents. Shape constancy assures that an object of known shape will appear to maintain its normal shape regardless of the angle from which you view it. Close this book and hold it at various orientations relative to your line of sight. Unless you look directly at the cover when it is on a plane perpendicular to your line of vision, it will never cast a rectangular image on your retinas, yet you will continue to perceive it as rectangular. Shape constancy occurs because your brain compensates for the slant of an object relative to yo ur line of sight. Though the amount of light reflected from a given object can vary, we perceive the object as having a constant brightness, this is called brightness constancy. A white shirt appears equally bright in dim light or bright light. But brigh tness constancy is relative to other objects. If you look at a white shirt in dim light in the presence on nonwhite objects in the same light in the presence on nonwhite objects in the same light, it will maintain its brightness. But if you look at the whi te shirt by itself, perhaps by viewing a large area of it though a hollow tube, it will appear dully in dim light and brighter in sunlight. 2. 3. 5. Perceptual Illusion In Edgar Allen Poe's ―The sphinx,‖ a man looks out of his window and is horrified by w hat he perceives to be a monstrous animal on a distant mountain. He learns only later that the ―monster‖ was actually an insect on his window. Because he perceived the animal as far	General psychology.pdf
37 away, he assumed it was relatively large. And because he never had seen su ch a creature, he assumed that it was a monster. This shows how the misapplication of a visual cue, in this case perceived size constancy, can produce a visual illusion. Visual illusions provide clues to the processes involved in normal visual perception. For example, from ancient times to modern times, people have been mystified by the moon illusion illustrated in Figure in which the moon appears larger when it is at the horizon than when it is overhead. This is an illusion because the moon is the same dis tance from us at the horizon as when it is overhead. Thus, the retinal image it produces is the same size when it is at the horizon as when it is overhead. Perhaps Franz Muller-Lyer, developed the most widely studied illusion. Note in Fig 2/5 (A) that the vertical line at the bottom appears longer than the one at the top. But if you take a ruler and measure the lines, you will find that they are equal in length. Figs 5. 33 (B to D ) are variants of the Muller-Lyer illusion. Though no explanation has achie ved universal acceptance, a favored one relies on size constancy and the resemblance of the figure on the right to the inside corner of a room and the resemblance of the figure on the left to the outside corner of a building. Given that the lines project i mages of equal length on the retina, the lines that appear farther away will be perceived as longer. Because an inside corner of a room appears farther away than an outside corner of a building, the line on the right appears farther and, therefore, longer than the line on the left. In general, perception is the act of knowing through sensation. But, some people appear to have an ability to know other people, objects, and events without any sensory contact an experience called extra sensory perception (ESP ) or paranormal ability. Have you ever heard or experienced such phenomena? What specific type? Do you believe it is true? Do you think psychologists and scientists believe in ESP ? Why? Summary The act of knowing involves the complementary processes of sensation and perception. As discussed earlier, sensation is normally our first encounter (with the reality) in which receptor cells in the sensory organs recode the physical energy or stimulations in to a neural message a phenomenon called transduction.	General psychology.pdf
38 Psycho logists have long studied sensation and discovered the intensity of a stimulation receptor cells can detect (absolute threshold), the intensity of changes in stimulation required for receptors to notice it (difference threshold), and the conditions under which receptor cells may respond to one kind of stimulation ignoring others of a similar intensity (sensory adaptions). Following the discussion on sensation, you deal t with perception as a next process of meaning making from the otherwise meaningl ess sensory input. Further extending the selective nature of perception, this section examined the characteristics, determinates and principles of perception both in two dimensional (form perception and three-dimensional (depth perception) world along with other common characteristics of perception : i. e., perceptual illusion. In trying to make sense out of the surrounding, humans respond, in general, to certain stimulation ignoring others (selectivity of perceptions). Such selective perception divides the surrounding into a focus and a margin with the possibility that what is in the focus may shift into the margin and vice versa. Items of the surrounding which get into the focus are more likely to be: i. Bigger in s ize and brighter in in tensity, ii. Frequently occurring to the senses, iii. Novel enough to creating contrast with the one in the perceptual field and iv. Moving rather than stagnati ng. The psychological states of the perceiver (i. e. set or expectancy and needs) are also crucial in the selection process to gether with these stimulus characteristics. The focus stands out very clearly (or becomes a figure) from the margin/back ground (or the figure) because there is a sharp contrast between the two (i. e., there are contours). This figure-ground perception is called f orm perception because of contours. Organizing perception into a figure and a ground may take the law of closure, proximity, similarity, symmetry or continuation. Form perception applies only for a two-dimensional world. But we are living in a t hree dimensional world where by perception of distance is a matter of necessity. Such perception involves recognizing how distant objects are from the pattern of stimulation on our retinas.	General psychology.pdf
39 Perception of depth depends on binocular cues (or information from both eyes). While binocular cues rely inertial disparity and convergence, monocular cues involve accommodation. Motion parallax, and such pictorial cues as interposition, aerial perspective, linear perspective, texture gradient, elevation, and shading pat terns. In any case, this world is stable and known because our perception of it remains constant despite changes in the observer's location, distance and perspective. In fact, there are some exceptions to this in which perceptual illusions may occur, provi ding otherwise. CHAPTER Three LEARNING AND THEORIES OF LEARNING Chapter Overview In the previous chapter, you have learnt about personality and theories of personality. In this unit however, you will study the foundations of learning and explore the na ture of learning. The contents of this unit are presented in two sections. In the first section, you will explore the nature of learning and in the second you will focus on the theories of learning and their applications. Learner Appetizer Discuss over th e following facts. Almost all human behavior is learned. Imagine if you suddenly lost all you had ever learned. What could you do? You would be unable to read, write, or speak. You couldn‟t feed yourself, find your way home, and drive a car, play a game, or “party. ” Needless to say, you would be totally incapacitated. Learning is involved in almost every phenomenon psychologists study and occurs in many different ways. Every individual uses learning techniques and processes and directive unique thoughts and memories to perform day-to-day functions. Learning Outcomes After you have studied this chapter, you will be able to: Explain the general meaning, types, and factors of learning Identify the characteristics of learning Describe some of the theories designed to explain the characteristics of learning Differentiate the viewpoints of different theories of learning.	General psychology.pdf
40 Discuss the applications of theories of learning State techniques used to motivate and reinforce behavior. 3. 1. Definition, Characteristi cs and Principles of Learning 3. 1. 1. Definitions of learning Brainstorming questions What is the meaning of learning to you ? What are the elements of learning? There are many definitions of learning. However, the most widely accepted definition is the one given below. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a result of experience or practice. The above definition emphasizes four attributes of learning: Learning is a change in behavior This change in behavior is relatively permanent It does not include change due to illness, fatigue, maturation and use of intoxicant. This permanent change in behavior is not because of biological factors (like hormonal changes ) that bring permanent change s in behavior ; but because of experience, or practice The learning is not directly observable but manifests in the activities of the individual. Reflection Dear student, how do you get the definition of learning in line with your previous conception? 3. 1. 2. Characteristics o f learning Brainstorming question What are the characteristics of learning? Teachers and school administrative personnel need to have a good understanding of the general characteristics of learning in order to apply them in school learning situation. I f learning is a change in behavior as a result of experience, and then instruction must include a careful and systematic creation of those experiences that promote learning. This process can	General psychology.pdf
41 be quite complex because, among other things, an individual's bac kground strongly influences the way that person learns. Yoakman and Simpson (???) have described the following major important characteristics of learning : 1. Learning is continuous modification of behavior throughout life 2. Learning is pervasive, it reach es into all aspects of human life. 3. Learning involves the whole person, socially, emotionally & intellectually. 4. Learning is often a change in the organization of experiences. 5. Learning is responsive to incentives 6. Learning is an active process 7. Learning is purposeful 8. Learning depends on maturation, motivation and practice. 9. Learning is multifaceted Reflection What did you recognize about the characteristics of learning? 3. 1. 3. Principles of learning Brainstorming question What does it take for learning to take place effectively? There are important principles that help explain ing how learning occurs effectively. Some of these most important principles of learning are as follows: Individuals learn best when they are physically, mentally, and emotionall y ready to learn. Students learn best and retain information longer when they have meaningful practice and exercise Learning is strengthened when accompanied by a pleasant or satisfying feeling, and that learning is weakened when associated with an unpleas ant feeling. Things learned first create a strong impression in the mind that is difficult to erase. Things most recently learned are best remembered. The principle of intensity implies that a student will learn more from the real thing than from a subst itute. Individuals must have some abilities and skills that may help them to learn.	General psychology.pdf
42 Things freely learned are best learned-the greater the freedom enjoyed by individuals, the higher the intellectual and moral advancement. Reflection Do you feel that th e principles make a difference in learning? If so, how? 3. 2. Factors Influencing Learning Brainstorming question Dear student, what do you think are the factors the affect your learning? Some of the factors that affect learning are the following. 1. Moti vation: The learner's motivation matters the effectiveness of learning. The stronger and clearer the motives for learning, the g reater are the effort to learn. When the motives of learning are high, the learner becomes enthusiastic. 2. Maturation: Neuro-muscu lar coordination is important for learning a given task. Example, The child has to be mature before she/he is able to learn. 3. Health condition of the learner: The learner should be in a good health status to learn. Example-Sensory defects, malnutrition, to xic conditions of the body, loss of sleep and fatigue hinder effective learning. 4. Psychological wellbeing of the learner: individual's psychological states like worries, fears, feelings of loneliness and inferiority hinders learning. Whereas self-respect, s elf-reliance, and self-confidence are necessary for effective learning. 5. Good working conditions-absence or presence of fresh air, light, comfortable surroundings, moderate temperature, absence of distractions like noise and learning aids determine learni ng effectiveness. 6. Background experiences: having background experiences affect effectiveness of learning. All related facts and understandings from a previously learned course should be brought to new learning. 7. Length of the working period: Learning period s should neither be too short nor too long. Long learning time sets fatigue and reduces effectiveness in learning. Short learning time doesn't allow adequate practice needed to master a learning task. 8. Massed and distributed learning : Learning that spreads across time with reasonable time gaps brings better results compared with crammed learning that occurs at once or within short span of time.	General psychology.pdf
43 Reflection Do learning materials, teaching styles, teaching methods, and medium of instruction affects learning l ike the factors listed above ? 3. 3. Theories of Learning and their Applications Brainstorming Question What is theory and how it is related with learning? Here in this section, you will learn about theories of learning with their possible implications and applications. The theories discussed in the section are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational and cognitive learning theories. 3. 3. 1. Behavioral Theory of Learning Behavioral theory of learning believes that learning occurs as a result of stimulus-response associations. Behavioral theories emphasize observable behaviors, seek laws to govern all organisms, and provide explanations which focus on consequences. Behaviorists also differ among themselves with respect to their views about the role of reinforcement in learning. There are two major behavioral theories of learning. They are known as classical and operant Conditioning. 3. 3. 1. 1. Classical conditioning theory Brainstorming Question What do you expect/ feel when there i s thunder? “What does a child expect when he sees the mother coming back home? How do you respond to an unfamiliar person? What about meeting a person whom you mate? Each of the responses in these questions seem to illustrate the nature of what is called classical conditioning that you are to explore know now. Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of making involuntary emotional or physiological responses to stimuli that normally elicit no response; for example, s fear, increased heartbeat, s alivation or sweating at the sight of a hyena. Through the process of classical conditioning, human s and animals can be trained to act involuntarily to a stimulus that previously had no effect-or a very different effect-on them. The stimulus comes to	General psychology.pdf
44 elicit, modify the behavior of the learners in such a way as the responses originally connected with a particular stimulus comes to be aroused by a different stimulus. Classical conditioning involves what are known as conditioned reflexes. An example of t his is a ‗knee-jerk' reflex. This reflex isn't controlled by the brain, but by the spinal cord, and it is straight forward response to the stimulus. Another example of a reflex is the production of saliva in a response to food when you are hungry, and it was this response which Pavlov first investigated when he discovered classical conditioning. Therefore, in short Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus tha t naturally brings about that response. Basics of Classical Condition To demonstrate classical conditioning, we must first identify stimuli and responses. In addition, you must be well familiarized with the following basic terms of classical condition: Neutral stimulus: A stimulus that, before conditioning, does not naturally bring about the response of interest. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally brings about a particular response without having been learned. Unconditioned response (U CR): A response that is natural and needs no training (e. g., salivation at the smell of food). Conditioned stimulus (CS): A once neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus to bring about a response formerly caused only by the unco nditioned stimulus. Conditioned response (CR): A response that, after conditioning, follows a previously neutral stimulus (e. g., salivation at the ringing of a bell) Hence, the theory of classical conditioning represents a process in which a neutral stimu lus, by pairing with a natural stimulus, acquires all the characteristics of natural stimulus. It is also sometimes called substitution learning because it involves substituting a neutral stimulus in place of natural stimulus. The theory states that the re sponses originally made to unconditioned stimulus becomes associated with the conditioned stimulus and what is learned is a conditioned stimulus-conditioned response bond of some kind. To make this explanation clear, let us consider Pavlov's experiment.	General psychology.pdf
45 Figure. Pavlov‟s classical conditioning experiment In the above experiment the food wa s an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)-stimulus that automatically produces an emotional or physiological response-because no prior training or ―conditioning ― was needed to establish the natural connection between food and salvation. The salivation was an unconditioned response (UCR)-naturally occurring emotional or physiological response again because it occurred automatically, no conditioning required. Using these three elements-the food, the salivation, and the bell sound-Pavlov demonstrated that a dog could be conditioned to salivate after hearing the bell sound. He did this by contiguous pairing of the sound with food. At the beginning of the experiment, he sounded the bell and then quickly fed the dog. After Pavlov repeated this several times, the dog began to salivate after hearing the sound but before receiving the food. Now the sound had become a conditioned stimulus (CS )-stimulus that evokes an emotional or physiological response after conditioning-that could bring forth salivation by itsel f. The response of salivating after the tone was now a conditioned response (CR)-learned response to a previously neutral stimulus. Principles of Classical Condition The basic principles of classical conditioning include the role of stimulus generalizat ion, stimulus discriminations, extinction and spontaneous recovery. A. Stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination Stimulus generalization is a process in which, after a stimulus has been conditioned to produce a particular response, stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus begin to Stage 1. Before training Conditioned Stimulus (CS) (e. g. bell) No response Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) (e. g. meat) unconditioned Response (e. g. Salivation) Stage 2. During training CS UCR UCS Stage3. After training CS CR (The conditioned stimulus now produces a conditioned response. )	General psychology.pdf
46 produce the same responses. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a dinner bell (CS) might also salivate to a door bell, a telephone bell. Stimulus discrimination is the process of distinguishing two similar stimuli; the ability to differentiate between stimuli. Example, the dog salivates only in response to the dinner bell instead of the doorbell or the telephone bell. B. Extinction and spontaneous recovery In Pavlov's procedure, if a CS is repeatedly presented without presenting the UCS (meat), the CR will diminish and eventually stop occurring. This process is called extinction. A dog that has learned to salivate to a dinner bell (CS) will eventually stop doing so unless presentations of the dinner b ell are periodically followed by presentations of the UCS (meat). But extinction only inhibits the CR, it does not eliminate it. Spontaneous recovery is the reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest and with no further con ditioning. For example, suppose you produce extinction of the CR of salivation by no longer presenting the dog with meat after ringing the dinner bell. If you rang the dinner bell a few days later, the dog would again respond by salivating. In spontaneous recovery, however, the CR is weaker and extinguishes faster than it did originally. Reflection Suppose a one-year old child is playing with a toy near an electrical out-let. He sticks part of the toy into the outlet. He gets shocked, becomes frightened, and begins to cry. For several days after that experience, he shows fear when his mother gives him the toy and he refuses to play with it. What are the UCS? UCR? CS? CR? Show in diagram there association into three stages of processes? a) UCS_________ __________________________ b) UCR___________________________________ c) CS____________________________________ d) CR___________________________________ Could you please explain of something you learned through classical conditioning? [[ 3. 3. 1. 2. Operant/Instrumental conditioning Brainstorming Questions Why do you think a child cries when feeling hungry?Or why do you think a child learns to become aggressive? What is the role of reward and punishment in learning?? What are the types and schedul e of reinforcement? [	General psychology.pdf
47 Operant conditioning is learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened or weakened, depending on its favorable or unfavorable consequences. When we say that a response has been strengthened or weakened, we mean that it has been made more or less likely to recur regularly. An emphasis on environmental consequences is at the heart of Operant Conditioning (also called Instrumental Conditioning ). In operant conditioning, the organism's response operates or produces effects on th e environment. These effects, in turn, influence, whether the response will occur again. Unlike classical conditioning, in which the original behaviors are the natural, biological responses to the presence of a stimulus such as food, water, or pain, opera nt conditioning applies to voluntary responses, which an organism performs deliberately to produce a desirable outcome. The term operant emphasizes this point: The organism operates on its environment to produce a desirable result. Operant conditioning is at work when we learn that toiling industriously can bring about praise or that studying hard results in good grades. Besides, B. F Skinner, the very renowned proponent of operant conditioning, argued that to understand behavior we should focus on the exte rnal causes of an action and the action's consequences. To explain behavior, he said, we should look outside the individual, not inside. In Skinner's analysis, a response (―operant‖) can lead to three types of consequences: such as a) A neutral conseq uence b) A reinforcement or c) punishment. A neutral Consequence that does not alter the response. A reinforcement that strengthens the response or makes it more likely to recur. A reinforcer is any event that increases the probability that the behavior t hat precedes it will be repeated. There are two basic types of reinforcers or reinforcing stimuli: primary and secondary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers: Food, water, light, stroking of the skin, and a comfortable air temperature are naturally reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs. They are, therefore, known as primary reinforcers. Primary reinforcers, in general, have the ability to strengthen a behavior without prior learning. Secondary Reinforcers: Behaviors can be controlled by secondary r einforcers. They reinforce behavior because of their prior association with primary reinforcing stimuli. Money, praise, applause, good grades, awards, and gold stars are common secondary reinforcers.	General psychology.pdf
48 Both primary and secondary reinforcers can be positive or negative. Positive reinforcement is the process whereby presentation of a stimulus makes behavior more likely to occur again. Negative reinforcement is the process whereby termination of an aversive stimulus makes behavior more likely to occur. The ba sic principle of negative reinforcement is that eliminating something aversive can itself be a reinforcer or a reward. For example, if someone nags you all the time to study, but stops nagging when you comply, your studying is likely to increase-because you will then avoid the nagging. This can be an example of what is called escape learning. In escape learning animals learn to make a response that terminates/stops a noxious, painful or unpleasant stimulus. Another kind of learning, which is similar, but not the same as escape learning is Avoidance Learning, which refers to learning to avoid a painful, noxious stimulus prior to exposure. Schedules of reinforcement When a response is first acquired, learning is usually most rapid if the response is reinforced each time it occurs. This procedure is called continuous reinforcement. However, once a response has become reliable, it will be more resistant to extinction if it is rewarded on an intermittent (partial) schedule of reinforcement, which inv olves reinforcing only some responses, not all of them. There are four types of intermittent schedules. 1. Fixed-ratio schedules: A fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses. They produce high rate of responding. Employers often use fixed ratio schedules to increase productivity. An interesting feature of a fixed ratio schedule is that performance sometimes drops off just after reinforcement. 2. Variable-Ratio Schedule: A variable ratio schedule of reinforcement occurs after s ome average number of responses, but the number varies from reinforcement to reinforcement. A variable ratio schedule of produces extremely high steady rates of responding. The responses are more resistant to extinction than when a fixed ratio schedule is used. 3. Fixed Interval Schedule: A fixed interval schedule of reinforcement occurs only if a fixed amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer. 4. Variable Interval Schedule: A variable interval schedule of reinforcement occurs only if a variable amount of time has passed since the previous reinforcer. A basic principle of operant conditioning is that if you want a response to persist after it has been learned, you should reinforce it intermittently, not continuously. Because the change from cont inuous reinforcement to none at all will be so large that the animal or person will	General psychology.pdf
49 soon stop responding. But if you have been giving the reinforcement only every so often, the change will not be dramatic and the animal/ person will keep responding for a w hile. c) Punishment-is a stimulus that weakens the response or makes it less likely to recur. Punishers can be any aversive (unpleasant) stimuli that weaken responses or make them unlikely to recur. Like reinforcers, punishers can also be primary or seco ndary. Pain and extreme heat or cold are inherently punishing and are therefore known as primary punishers. Criticism, demerits, catcalls, scolding, fines, and bad grades are common secondary punishers. The positive-negative distinction can also be appl ied to punishment. Something unpleasant may occur following some behavior (positive punishment), or something pleasant may be removed (negative punishment). The Pros and Cons of Punishment Immediacy, consistency and intensity matter are important for ef fectiveness of punishment. Immediacy -When punishment follows immediately after the behavior to be punished. Consistency-when punishment is inconsistent the behavior being punished is intermittently reinforced and therefore becomes resistant to extinctio n. Intensity-In general terms severe punishments are more effective than mild ones. However, there are studies that indicate that even less intense punishments are effective provided that they are applied immediately and consistently. However, when pun ishment fails:	General psychology.pdf
50 1. People often administer punishment inappropriately or mindlessly. They swing in a blind rag or shout things they do not mean applying. Punishment is so broad that it covers all sorts of irrelevant behaviors. 2. The recipient of punishment ofte n responds with anxiety, fear or rage. Through a process of classical conditioning, these emotional side effects may then generalize to the entire situation in which the punishment occurs-the place, the person delivering the punishment, and the circumstan ces. These negative emotional reactions can create more problems than the punishment solves. For instance, a teenager who has been severely punished may strike back or run away. Being physically punished in childhood is a risk factor for depression, low se lf-esteem, violent behavior and many other problems. 3. The effectiveness of punishment is often temporary, depending heavily on the presence of the punishing person or circumstances 4. Most behavior is hard to punish immediately. 5. Punishment conveys little infor mation. An action intended to punish may instead be reinforcing because it brings attention. Shaping For a response to be reinforced, it must first occur. But, suppose you to train a child to use a knife and a fork prop erly. Such behaviors, and most others in everyday life, have almost no probability of appearing spontaneously. The operant solution for this is shaping. Shaping is an operant conditioning procedure in which successive approximations of a desired response are reinforced. In shaping you start by reinforcing a tendency in the right direction. Then you gradually require responses that are more and more similar to the final desired response. The responses that you reinforce on the way to the final one are calle d successive approximations. Brainstorming Question What implications do you think operant conditioning has in classroom learning? Application of the theory of operant conditioning: 1. Conditioning study behavior : Teaching is the arrangement of continge ncies of reinforcement, which expedite learning. For effective teaching, teacher s should arrange	General psychology.pdf
51 effective contingencies of reinforcement. Example: For Self-learning of a student teacher should reinforce student behavior through variety of incentives such as prize, medal, smile, praise, affectionate patting on the back or by giving higher marks. 2. Conditioning and classroom behavior : During a learning process, child ren can acquire unpleasant experiences. This unpleasantness becomes conditioned to the teac her, subject and the classroom and learner s begin to dislike the subject and the teacher. 3. Managing Problem Behavior : Operant conditioning is a behavior therapy technique that shape students behavior. To do this, teacher s should admit positive contingen cies like praise, encouragement etc. for learning. One should not admit negative contingencies. Example punishment (student will run away from the dull and dreary classes-escape stimulation. 4. Dealing with anxieties through conditioning : Through conditi oning, fear, anxieties, prejudices, attitudes, and perceptual meaning develops. Examples of anxiet ies that are acquired through conditioning are signals on the road, siren blown during wartime, child receiving painful injection from a doctor. Anxiety is a generalized fear response. To break the habits of fear, a teacher can use desensitization techniques. That is, a teacher can initially provide very weak form of conditioned stimulus. Gradually the strength of stimulus should be increased. 5. Conditioning group behavior : Conditioning can make an entire group learn and complete change in behavior with reinforcement. It breaks undesired and unsocial behavior too. Example: Putting questions or telling lie to teachers will make teachers annoyed. In such circums tances students learn to keep mum in the class. Asking questions, active participation in class discussion will make the teacher feel happy-interaction will increase and teaching learning process becomes more effective. 6. Conditioning and Cognitive Pr ocesses : Reinforcement is given in different form, for the progress of knowledge and in the feedback form. When response is correct, positive reinforcement is given. Example: A student who stands first in the class in the month of January is rewarded in th e month of December. To overcome this Program instruction is used. In this subject matter is broken down into steps. Organizing in logical sequence helps in learning. Each step is built upon the preceding step. Progress is seen in the process of learning. Immediate reinforcement is given at each step.	General psychology.pdf
52 7. Shaping Complex Behavior : Complex behavior exists in the form of a chain of small behavior. Control is required for such kind of behavior. This extended form of learning is shaping technique. 3. 3. 2. Soc ial Learning Theory (observational learning) theory Brainstorming Question Who is the person that you admire the most? Why do you aspire to become like him/her? What do you do to become one? What do you feel if you manage to become like your model?. According to psychologist Albert Bandura, a major part of human learning consists of observational learning, which is learning by watching the behavior of another person, or model. Because of its reliance on observation of others —a social phenomenon —the perspective taken by Bandura is often referred to as a social cognitive approach to learning (Bandura, 1999, 2004). Bandura identifies three forms of reinforcement that can encourage observational learning. First, of course, the observer may reproduce the beh aviors of the model and receive direct reinforcement. The reinforcement need not be direct-it may be vicarious reinforcement as well. As mentioned earlier, the observer may simply see others reinforced for a particular behavior and then increase his or h er production of that behavior. The final form of reinforcement is self-reinforcement, or controlling your reinforcers. This sort of reinforcement is important for both students and teachers. We want our students to improve not because it leads to external rewards but because the students value and enjoy their growing competence. But social cognitive theorists believe that in human beings, observational learning cannot be fully understood without taking into account the thought processes of the learner. Th ey emphasize the knowledge that results when a person sees a model-behaving in certain ways and experiencing the consequences. Many years ago, Albert Bandura and his colleagues showed just how important observational learning is, especially for children w ho are learning the rules of social behavior. Bandura mentions four conditions that are necessary before an individual can successfully model the behavior of someone else: 1. Attention : the person must first pay attention to the model.	General psychology.pdf
53 2. Retention : the observer must be able to remember the behavior that has been observed. One way of increasing this is using the technique of rehearsal. 3. Motor reproduction : the third condition is the ability to replicate the behavior that the model has just demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be able to replicate the action, which could be a problem with a learner who is not ready developmentally to replicate the action. For example, little children have difficulty doing complex physical motion. 4. Motivatio n: the final necessary ingredient for modeling to occur is motivation ; learners must want to demonstrate what they have learned. Remember that since these four conditions vary among individuals, different people will reproduce the same behavior differently. Educational Implications of Social Learning Theory What implications do you think social learning theory has in classroom learning? Social learning theory has numerous implications for classroom use. 1. Students often learn a great deal simply by obser ving other people. 2. Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve discussing with learners about the rewards and consequences of various behaviors. 3. Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviors. Instead of using shaping, which is operant conditioning; modeling can provide a faster, more efficient means for teaching new behavior. To promote effective modeling a teacher must make sure t hat the four essential conditions exist; attention, retention, motor reproduction, and motivation. 4. Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors and take care that they do not model inappropriate behaviors. 5. Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models. This technique is especially important to break down traditional stereotypes. 6. Students must believe that they are capable of accomplishing school tasks. Thus it is very important to develop a sense of self-efficacy for student s. Teachers can promote such self-efficacy by having students receive confidence-building messages, watch others be successful, and experience success on their own. 7. Teachers should help students set realistic expectations for their academic accomplishmen ts. In general, in my class, that means making sure that expectations are not set too low. I want to realistically challenge my students. However, sometimes the task is beyond a student's ability, example would be the cancer group.	General psychology.pdf
54 8. Self-regulation techn iques provide an effective method for improving student behavior. Reflection Does explain how the social learning theory can be applicable in a classroom setting with examples. 3. 3. 3. Cognitive Learning Theory Both classical and operant conditionings h ave traditionally been explained by the principle of contiguity i. e. the close association of events in time and space. Contiguity has been used to explain the association of a conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus in classical conditioning and t he association of a behavior and its consequences in operant conditioning. Cognitive learning may take two forms: 1. Latent learning 2. Insight learning (gestalt learning or perceptual learning) For half a century, most American learning theories held that learning could be explained by specifying the behavioral ―ABCs‖-Antecedents (events preceding behavior), Behaviors, and Consequences. In the 1940s, two social scientists proposed a modification they called social learning theory. Most human learning, th ey argued, is acquired by observing other people in social context, rather than through standard conditioning procedures. By 1960s and 1970s, social learning theory was full bloom, and a new element had been added: the human capacity for higher level of c ognitive process ing. Its proponents agreed with behaviorists that human beings, along with the rat and the rabbit, are subject to the laws of operant and classical conditioning. But, they opposed that human beings, unlike the rat and the rabbit, are full of attitudes, beliefs and expectations that affect the way they acquire information, make decisions, reason, and solve problems. These mental processes affect what individuals will do at any given moment and also, more generally the personality traits the y develop. Latent Learning „Latent' means hidden and thus latent learning is learning that occurs but is not evident in behavior until later, when conditions for its appearance are favorable. It is said to occur without reinforcement of particular response s and seems to involve changes in the way information is processed. In a classic experiment, Tolman and Honzic (1930) placed three groups of rats in mazes and observed their behavior each day for more than two weeks.	General psychology.pdf
55 The rats in Group 1 always found food at the end of the maze. Group 2 never found food. Group 3 found no food for ten days but then received food on the eleventh. The Group 1 rats quickly learned to head straight the end of the maze without going blind alleys, whereas Group 2 rats did not lear n to go to the end. But, Group 3 rats were different. For ten days they appeared to follow no particular route. Then, on the eleventh day they quickly learned to run to the end of the maze. By the next day, they were doing, as well as group one, which had been rewarded from the beginning. Group three rats had demonstrated latent learning, learning that is not immediately expressed. A great deal of human learning also remains latent until circumstances allow or require it to be expressed. Insight Learning It is a cognitive process whereby we reorganize our perception of a problem. It doesn't depend on conditioning of particular behaviors for its occurrence. Sometimes, for example, people even wake up from sleep with a solution to a problem that they had not been able to solve during the day. In a typical insight situation where a problem is posed, a period follows during which no apparent progress is made, and then the solution comes suddenly. What has been learned in insight learning can also be applied eas ily to other similar situations. Human beings who solve a problem insightfully usually experience a good feeling called an 'aha' experience. Reflection Explain the educational implications of each of the theor ies of learning. Summary Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior occurring as a result of experience or practice. Learning is characterized by different issues like modification of behavior, pervasive, active processes, purposeful, active processes, multifaceted, and the like. Learning has important principles that are categorized in to 8 different and valuable principles.	General psychology.pdf
56 Factors that affect learning of individuals include motivation, intelligence, maturation, physical condition of the learner, good working conditions, psychol ogical well being, background experience and length of the working period. In this unit, you have learned the viewpoints of different theories of learning that have been attempted to explain the behavioral changes are acquired through learning experiences. Classical Conditioning/Ivan Pavlov/:-Emphasis on experiences especially the association between stimulus and response Operant Conditioning/B. F. Skinner/:-Emphasis on experiences, especially reinforcement and punishment as determinants of learning and behavior Social Cognitive theories Social Cognitive/Albert Bandura/ : Emphasis on interaction of behavior, environment, and person (cognitive) factors as determinants of learning Cognitive theories: Include learning theories like latent and insight learning theories. CHAPTER F OUR MEMORY AND FORGETTING Chapter Overview The previous chapter (learning ) and this chapter (memory ) are closely related. The two terms often describe roughly the same processes. The term learning is often used to refer to processe s involved in the initial acquisition or encoding of information, whereas the term memory more often refers to later storage and retrieval of information. After all, information is learned so that it can be retrieved later, and retrieval cannot occur unles s information was learned. Thus, psychologists often refer to the learning/memory process as a means of incorporating all facets of encoding, storage, and retrieval. In this regard, this chapter will mainly focus in two sections. In the first part, you wil l learn about memory and in the subsequent part you will focus on forgetting, theories of forgetting, and on how to improve memory. Learner Appetizer Comment on the following points in groups before you start learning the lesson of the chapter. Better by far that you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.	General psychology.pdf
57 With a suitable reminder, you will find that you remember some events quite distinctly, even after a long delay. Other memories, however, are lost or distorted. Think back to your childhood and recall your earliest memory. Describe this memory in your own words. Memory is not like a tape recorder or a video camera: Memories change as they are stored and retrieved. Do you remember what you had for breakfast this morning? The la st friend you instant messaged? Or what happened on September 11, 2001? Of course you do. But how is it possible for us to so easily travel back in time? Let‟s begin with a look at basic memory systems. An interesting series of events must occur before we can say “I remember. ” Learning Outcomes At the end of this unit, you will be able to: Define memory and forgetting. Describe the stages and memory structures proposed by theory of memory. Explain the processes that are at work in memory functions. Ident ify how learned materials are organized in the long term memory. State the factors underlying on the persistence, and loss of memory. Explain different theories of forgetting. Brain storming Question What comes to your mind about memory? What is the mean ing of memory? What is the function of memory in your studying? Intelligent life does not exist without memory. Imagine what life could mean to a person who is unable to recall things that are already seen, tested, heard before. If you don't have a mem ory, you cannot remember whatever information you acquire that makes your life disorganized, confused and meaningless. Your memory provides the function that your life to have continuity in place and time, adapt to the new situations by using previous skil ls and information, enriches your emotional life by recoiling your positive and negative life experiences. 5. 1 Memory	General psychology.pdf
58 Brain storming Questions What is memory? Are there different kinds of memory? What are the biological bases of memory? 5. 1. 1 Mean ing and Processes of Memory Memory is the retention of information/what is learned earlier over time. It is the way in which we record the past for later use in the present. Memory is a blanket label for a large number of processes that form the bridges b etween our past and our present. To learn about the nature of memory, it is useful to separate the process from the structure. Processes of Memory Brainstorming Question How do you form the memory of events you sense? Memory process es are the menta l activities we perform to put information into memory, to keep it there, and to make use of it later. This involves three basic steps: a) Encoding: Take n from computer science, the term encoding refers to the form (i. e. the code) in which an item of informa tion is to be placed in memory. It is the process by which information is initially recorded in a form usable to memory. In encoding we transform a sensory input into a form or a memory code that can be further processed. b) Storage: To be remembered the enc oded experience must leave some record in the nervous system (the memory trace); it must be squirreled away and held in some more or less enduring form for later use. This is what memory specialists mean when they speak of placing information in storage. I t is the location in memory system in which material is saved. Storage is the persistence of information in memory.	General psychology.pdf
59 c) Retrieval: is the point at which one tries to remember to dredge up a particular memory trace from among all the others we have stored. In retrieval, material in memory storage is located, brought into awareness and used. Failure to remember can result from problems during any of the three phases of the memory process (see Figure). If, for example, you encode a new item of information only as a sound pattern, there would be no memory trace of its meaning. If both the sound and the meaning were encoded and held for the length of the retention interval, the item might have been misfiled in memory. If so, the item might be impossible to retrieve even though it is still stored in memory. Memory is the process by which information is encoded (phase1), stored (phase 2) and later retrieved (phase 3). Reflection How do you define memory? What is/are the a) memory processes proposed by stage mode l of memory? 5. 1. 2 Stages/Structure of Memory Memory structure is the nature of memory storage itself-how information is represented in memory and how long it lasts and how it is organized. Although people usually refer to memory as a single faculty, th e term memory actually covers a complex collection of abilities and processes. The cognitive perspective has dominated psychology's view of memory for the past years although, in recent years, it has become integrated with understanding of the neuro-psycho logy of memory. Many cognitive psychologists relate the mind to an information processor, along the lines of a digital computer that takes items of information in; processes them in steps or stages, and then produces an output. Consider how the computer w orks; First, it takes in information (for instance via keystrokes) and translates the information into an electronic language, then the computer permanently stores the information on a disc, and finally it retrieves the information (file) stored on a disc on to a working memory (which also receives new information from the keyboard) and the information is put on to the screen as part of the working memory.	General psychology.pdf
60 Models of memory based on this idea are Information processing theories. Like computer, we also store vast amounts of information in our memory storehouse. From this storehouse, we can retrieve some information onto a limited capacity of working memory, which also receives information from our current experience. Part of this working memory is displayed on the mental ―screen‖ we call consciousness. A number of such models of memory have been proposed. One of the most important and influential of these is the one developed by Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968). According to Atkinson and Shiffrin, memory has three structures: 1) Sensory Memory/Sensory Register: It is the entry way to memory. It is the first information storage area. Sensory memory acts as a holding bin, retaining information until we can select items for attention from the stream of stimuli bombarding our senses. It gives us a brief time to decide whether information is extraneous or important. Sensory memory includes a number of separate subsystems, as many as there are senses. It can hold virtually all the information reaching our senses for a brief time. For instance, visual images (Iconic memory) remain in the visual system for a maximum of one second. Auditory images (Echoic memory) remain in the auditory system for a slightly longer time, by most estimates up to two second or s o. The information stored sensory in memory is a fairly accurate representation of the environmental information but unprocessed. Most information briefly held in the sensory memory simply decays from the register. However, some of the information that has got attention and recognition pass on short-term memory for further processing. 2) Short-term Memory: is part of our memory that holds the contents of our attention. Unlike sensory memories, short-term memories are not brief replicas of the environmental message. Instead, they consist of the by-products or end results of perceptual analysis. STM is important in a variety of tasks such as thinking, reading, speaking, and problem solving. There are various terms used to refer to this stage of memory, inclu ding working memory, immediate memory, active memory, and primary memory. Brainstorming Question Why do we call STM as a working memory? Short term memory is distinguished by four characteristics:	General psychology.pdf
61 It is active-information remains in STM only so long as the person is consciously processing, examining, or manipulating it. People use STM as a ―workspace‖ to process new information and to call up relevant information from LTM. Rapid accessibility-Information in STM is readily available for use. In this r espect, the difference between STM and LTM is the difference between pulling a file from the top of a desk versus searching for it in a file drawer, or between searching for information in an open computer file versus file stored on the hard drive. Preserv es the temporal sequence of information-STM usually helps us to maintain the information in sequential manner for a temporary period of time. It keeps the information fresh until it goes to further analysis and stored in LTM in meaningful way. Limited cap acity-Years ago, George Miller (1956) estimated the capacity of STM to be ―the magic number seven plus or minus 2‖. That is, on the average, people can hold about seven pieces of information in STM at a time; with a normal range from five to nine items. Some researchers have questioned whether Miller's magical number is so magical after all. Everyone agrees, however, that the number of items that short-term memory can handle at any one time is small. According to most models of memory, we overcome this p roblem, by grouping small groups of information into larger units or chunks. Chunking is the grouping or ―packing‖ of information into higher order units that can be remembered as single units. Chunking expands working memory by making large amounts of inf ormation more manageable. The real capacity of short-term memory, therefore, is not a few bits of information but a few chunks. A chunk may be a word, a phrase, a sentence, or even a visual image, and it depends on previous experience. STM memory holds inf ormation (sounds, visual images, words, and sentences and so on) received from SM for up to about 30 seconds by most estimates. It is possible to prolong STM indefinitely by rehearsal-the conscious repetition of information. Material in STM is easily disp laced unless we do something to keep it there. 3. Long Term Memory It is a memory system used for the relatively permanent storage of meaningful information. The capacity of LTM seems to have no practical limits. The vast amount of information	General psychology.pdf
62 stored in LT M enables us to learn, get around in the environment, and build a sense of identity and personal history. LTM stores information for indefinite periods. It may last for days, months, years, or even a lifetime. Reflection Attempt to describe each type of information, its capacity and characteristics in the following tables. Type of memory Type of information Capacity Characteristics Duration 1. Sensory Memory 2. Short-term Memory 3. Long-term Memory The LTM is assumed to be comp osed of different sub systems: Declarative/ explicit memory-the conscious recollection of information such as specific facts or events that can be verbally communicated. It is further subdivided into semantic and episodic memories. Semantic memory-factu al knowledge like the meaning of words, concepts and our ability to do math. They are internal representations of the world, independent of any particular context. Episodic memory-memories for events and situations from personal experience. They are internal representations of personally experienced events. Non-declarative/ implicit memory-refers to a variety of phenomena of memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without that experience being consciously recollected. One of the most imp ortant kinds of implicit memory is procedural memory. It is the ―how to‖ knowledge of procedures or skills: Knowing how to comb your hair, use a pencil, or swim. Serial Position Effect The three-box model of memory is often invoked to explain interesting phenomenon called the serial position effect. If you are shown a list of items and are then asked immediately to recall them, your retention of any particular item will depend on its position in the list. That is, recall will be best for items at the begin ning of the list (the primacy effect ) and at the end of the list (the recency effect ). When retention of all the items is plotted, the result will be a U-shaped curve.	General psychology.pdf
63 A serial position effect occurs when you are introduced to a lot of people at a party an d find you can recall the names of the first few people you met and the last, but almost no one in between. According to the three-box model, the first few items on a list are remembered well because short-term memory was relatively ―empty‖ when they enter ed, so these items did not have to compete with others to make it into long term memory. They were thoroughly processed, so they remain memorable. The last few items are remembered for a different reason: At the time of recall, they are still sitting in S TM. The items in the middle of the list, however, are not so well retained because by the time they get into short-term memory, it is already crowded. As a result many of these items drop out of short-term memory before they can be stored in long-term memo ry. Reflection What account s for the serial-position effect? 5. 1. 3 Factors Affecting Memory Memory as stated already, is a process which includes learning, retention and remembering. As such all the three processes are important for good memory. Eleven Factors that Influence Memory Process in Humans are as follows: a. Ability to retain: This depends upon good memory traces left in the brain by past experiences. b. Good health: A person with good health can retain the learnt material better than a person with poor health. c. Age of the learner: Youngsters can remember better than the aged. d. Maturity: Very young children cannot retain and remember complex material. e. Will to remember: Willingness to remember helps for better retention. f. Intelligenc e: More intelligent person will have better memory than a dull person, g. Interest: If a person has more interest, he will learn and retain better. h. Over learning: Experiments have proved that over learning will lead to better memory. i. Speed of learnin g: Quicker learning leads to better retention, j. Meaningfulness of the material: Meaningful materials remain in our memory for longer period than for nonsense material,	General psychology.pdf
64 k. Sleep or rest: Sleep or rest immediately after learning strengthens connections in the brain and helps for clear memory. 5. 2 Forgetting Brainstorming Questions What is forgetting? How forgetting occur or what causes forgetting? Why do human beings forget information? In what way and how do we forgot that information? Is forgetting bad or good for us? 5. 2. 1 Meaning and Concepts of Forgetting Brainstorming Questions Dear students why do human beings forget information? In what way and how do we forgot that information? Is forgetting bad or good for us? From the store house of in formation, most of us forget the names of individuals, names of places and other information's. In our daily living, we encounter so much information. if we attempt to encode, store and recall all the information we face daily, we are in trouble. Hence, w e are selective in storing and forgetting information. Sometimes we are motivated to forgot something and recall what we want to remember. Psychologists call this phenomenon as motivated forgetting? Psychologists generally use the term forgetting to refer to the apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in the long-term memory. The first attempts to study forgetting were made by German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913). Using himself as his only subject, he memorized lists of three letter non-sense syllables-meaningless sets of two consonants with a vowel in between, such as FIW and BOZ. By measuring how easy it was to relearn a given list of words after varying periods of time from initial learning had passed, he found that forget ting occurred systematically. The most rapid forgetting occurs in the first hours, and particularly in the first hour. After nine hours, the rate of forgetting slows and declines little, even after the passage of many days. Ebbinghaus's research had an imp ortant influence on subsequent research, and his basic conclusions had been upheld. There is almost always a strong initial decline in memory, followed by a more gradual drop over time. Furthermore, relearning of previously mastered	General psychology.pdf
65 material is almost alwa ys faster than starting from a scratch, whether the material is academic information or a motor skill such as serving a tennis ball. 5. 2. 2. Theories of Forgetting Psychologists have proposed five mechanisms to account for forgetting: decay, replacement of old memories by new ones, interference, motivated forgetting, and cue dependent forgetting. 5. 2. 2. 1. The Decay Theory The decay theory holds that memory traces or engram fade with time if they are not ―accessed‖ now and then. This explanation assumes that when new material is learned a memory trace or engram-an actual physical change in the brain-occurs. In decay, the trace simply fades away with nothing left behind, because of the passage of time. We have already seen that decay occurs in sensory memory and that it occurs in short term memory as well, unless we rehearse the material. However, the mere passage of time does not account so well for forgetting in long-term memory. People commonly forget things that happened only yesterday while remembering ev ents from many years ago. Although there is evidence that decay does occur, it does not seem to be the complete explanation for forgetting. Memory specialists have proposed an additional mechanism: Interference. Brainstorming Question Is time a factor in forgetting? 5. 2. 2. 2. Interference Interference theory holds that forgetting occurs because similar items of information interfere with one another in either storage or retrieval. The information may get into memory, but it becomes confused with other information. There are two kinds of interference that influence forgetting: proactive and retroactive. In Proactive Interference, information learned earlier interferes with recall of newer material. If new information interferes with the ability to remem ber old information the interference is called Retroactive Interference. 5. 2. 2. 3. New Memory for Old/ Displacement Theory	General psychology.pdf
66 This theory holds that new information entering memory can wipe out old information, just as recording on an audio or videotape will obliterate/wipe out the original material. This theory is mostly associated with the STM, where the capacity for information is limited to seven plus or minus chunks. It cannot be associated with the LTM because of its virtually unlimited capacity. 5. 2. 2. 4. Motivated Forgetting Sigmund Freud maintained that people forget because they block from consciousness those memories that are two threatening or painful to live with, and he called this self-protective process Repression. Today many psychologists pref er to use a more general term, motivated forgetting. 5. 2. 2. 5. Cue Dependent Forgetting Often when we need to remember, we rely on retrieval cues, items of information that can help us find the specific information we're looking for. When we lack retrieva l cues, we may feel as if we have lost the call number for an entry in the mind's library. In long-term memory, this type of memory failure may be the most common type of all. Cues that were present when you learned a new fact or had an experience are apt to be especially useful later as retrieval aids. That may explain why remembering is often easier when you are in the same physical environment as you were when an event occurred: Cues in the present context match from the past. Cues present during the i nitial stage of learning help us to recall the content of the specific learning materials in an easy manner. Your mental or physical state may also act as a retrieval cue, evoking a state dependent memory. For example if you are intoxicated when something happens, you may remember it better when you once again have had a few drinks than when you are sober. Likewise, if your emotional arousal is specially high or low at the time of an event, you may remember that event best when you are once again in the sa me emotional state. Reflection How do you define forgetting? What are causes of forgetting? Why do we forget information? What are the major memory impairments?	General psychology.pdf
67 What environmental factors are important in loosing information from memory? 5. 3. Improvi ng Memory Brainstorming Question What causes difficulties and failures in remembering? Someday in the near future, drugs may be available to help people with memory deficiencies to increase normal memory performance. For the time being, however, those of us who hope to improve our memories must rely on mental strategies. Some simple mnemonics can be useful, but complicated ones are often more bothersome than they are worth. A better approach is to follow some general guidelines. Pay Attention: It seems ob vious, but often we fail to remember because we never encoded the information in the first place. When you do have something to remember, you will do better if you encode it. Encode information in more than one way: The more elaborate the encoding of infor mation, the more memorable it will be Add meaning: The more meaningful the material, the more likely it is to link up with information already in long-term memory. Take your time: If possible, minimize interference by using study breaks for rest or recrea tion. Sleep is the ultimate way to reduce interference. Over learn: Studying information even after you think you already know it-is one of the best ways to ensure that you'll remember it. Monitor your learning: By testing yourself frequently, rehearsing thoroughly, and reviewing periodically, you will have a better idea of how you are doing Reflection Define memory and forgetting in your own words. Describe the stage memory model proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin. Explain the typical characteristics of a ) sensory memory, b) short-term memory, and c) long-term memory. Discuss how learned information are organized in the long-term memory store. List down the theories of forgetting and elaborate the main ideas of each theory. Summary	General psychology.pdf
68 This unit was concerne d with the actual processes of memory and forgetting. In memory part of the lesson, you have learned: 1) meaning of memory; 2) stage model of memory that describes how the learned materials are processed and retained for later use; 3) the stages of memory involved in information processing (including sensory memory, short-term/working/ memory, and long-term memory); and 4) the different ways of organizing information in the memory store. In the other part of this unit, you have studied about forgetting or loss of memory and the possible causes of memory failures. Accordingly, some theories of forgetting that have been attempted to describe the causes of memory failure or forgetting have been discussed. Memory is a complex mental process that allows us to recognize friends and family as well as to do things such as drive, speak a language, and play an instrument. Psychologists have sought to understand memory and to find ways to improve it. There are three processes involved in memory: encoding, storage, a nd retrieval. During encoding, you use your senses to encode and establish a memory. Storage is the process by which information is maintained over a period of time. Retrieval occurs when information is brought to mind from storage. Stored memory can be re trieved by recognition, recall, and relearning. Forgetting can be the result of decay, interference, or repression. Memory can be improved through meaningfulness, association, lack of interference, and degree of original learning.	General psychology.pdf
69 CHAPTER FIVE MOTIVATION AND EMOTION S Chapter Overview This chapter introduces the concepts of motivation and emotion. In so doing, the chapter focuses on the definition and types of motivation, theories of motivation, conflict of motives, definition,and elements of emotion, and theories of emotion. Learner appetizer “It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually. ” Abraham Maslow Dear stude nt, based on the above quote, think about your behaviors for a while and reflect on the following questions. 1. What do you think are behind you r actions? 2. In most cases, w hat makes you unable to start doing things? 3. Have you ever faced with conflicts among yo ur ideas, interests and challenge to decide? If so, how did you resolve your conflicting ideas/interests? Learning Outcomes After successful completion of this chapter, you are expected to: Define what motivation is Identify the two types of motivation compare the different theories of motivation Explain the different types of conflicts of motives Define what emotion is Discuss the three elements of emotion Discuss the different theories of emotion 5. 1. Motivation 5. 1. 1. Definition an d types of motivation Brainstormi ng Questions Why do you join the university and regularly attend your classes? Do you think what pushes you to do what you do is something internal or external? Have you tried to answer the questions? Fine!	General psychology.pdf
70 Motivation is a factor by which activities are started, directed and continued so that physical or psychological needs or wants are met. The word itself comes from the Latin word ‗Mover ', which means ―to move‖. Motivation is what ―moves‖ people to do the things they do. For example, when a person is r elaxing in front of a television and begins to feel hungry, the physical need for food may cause the person to get up, go into the kitchen, and search for something to eat. If hunger is great enough, the person may even cook something. The physical need fo r hunger cause s the action (getting up), directs it (going to the kitchen), and sustain the search (finding or preparing something to eat). There are different types of motivation. But, it is possible to categorize them into two: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is a type of motivation in which a person acts because the act itself is rewarding or satisfying in some internal manner. Extrinsic motivation is a type of motivation in which individual s act because the action leads to an outcome that is external to a person. For example, giving a child money for every ‗A' on a report card, offering a bonus to an employee for increased performance. Reflection Dear student, which type of motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) do you have most of the time? 5. 1. 2. Approaches to motivation (theories of motivation) Brainstorming Questions Dear student, what is/are the source/s of your motivation? Can you mention some sources for different types of your behavior, please? The sources of motivation a re different according to the different theories of motivation. Some of the se theories are instinct, drive-reduction, arousal, incentive, cognitive, and humanistic. a) Instinct approaches to motivation One of the earliest theory of motivation that is focuse d on the biologically determined and innate patterns of both humans and animals behavior is called instincts. Just as animals are governed by their instincts to do things such as migrating, nest building, mating and protecting their territory, early resear chers proposed that human beings may also be governed by similar instincts. According to this instinct theor y, in humans, the instinct to reproduce is	General psychology.pdf
71 responsible for sexual behavior, and the instinct for territorial protection may be related to aggressive behavior. The early theorists and psychologists listed thousands of instincts in humans including curiosity, flight (running away), pugnacity (aggressiveness), and acquisition (gathering possessions). However, none of these theorists did more than give na mes to these instincts. Although there are plenty of descriptions, such as ―submissive people possess the instinct of submission‖, there was no attempt to explain why these instincts exist in humans. But these approaches accomplished one important thing by forcing psychologists to realize that some human behavior is controlled by hereditary factors. b) Drive-reduction approaches to motivation This approach involved the concepts of needs and drives. Dear student, what do you think is the relationship betwee n need and drive? Have you tried? Great! A need is a requirement of some material (such as food or water) that is essential for the survival of the organism. When an organism has a need, it leads to a psychological tension as well as physical arousal to fulfill the need and reduce the tension. This tension is called drive. Drive-reduction theory proposes just this connection between internal psychological states and outward behavior. In this theory, there are two kinds of drives; primary and secondary. Primary drives are those that involve survival needs of the body such as hunger and thirst, whereas acquired (secondary) drives are those that are learned through experience or conditioning, such as the need for money, social approval. This theory also incl udes the concept of homeostasis, or the tendency of the body to maintain a steady-state. One could think of homeostasis as the body's version of a thermostat- thermostats keep the temperature of a house at a constant level and homeostasis does the same thi ng for the body's functions. When there is a primary drive need, the body is in a state of imbalance. This stimulates behavior that brings the body back into balance or homeostasis. For example, if mister X's body needs food, he feels hunger and the state of tension (arousal associated with that need). He will seek to restore his homeostasis by eating something which is the behavior stimulated to reduce the hunger drive. ( see the figure below )	General psychology.pdf
72 Increased hunger Eat Raised glucose Lowered glucose Don‟t eat Diminished hunger Figure 1. Drive-reduction and homeostasis Although the d rive-reduction theory works well to explain the actions people take to reduce tension created by needs, it does not explain all human motivation. Why do people eat when they are not hungry? People do not always seek to reduce their inner arousal, either sometimes they seek to increase. c) Arousal approaches: beyond drive reduction Arousal approaches seek to explain behavior in which the goal is to maintain or increase excitement. According to arousal approaches to motivation, each person tries to maintain a certain level of stimulation and activity. As with the drive-reduction model, this approach suggests that if our stimulation and activity levels become too high, we try to reduce them. But, in contrast to the drive-reduction perspective, the arousal approach also suggests that if levels of stimulation and activity are too low, we will try to increase them by seeking stimulation. d) Incentive approaches: motivation‟s pull Incentive approaches to motivation suggest that motivation stems from the desire to attain external rewards, known as incentives. In this view, the desirable properties of external stimuli: whether grades, money, affection, food, or sex —account for a person's motivation. Many psychologists believe that the internal drives proposed by drive-reduction theory work in a cycle with the external incentives of incentive theory to ―push‖ and ―pull‖ behavior, respectively. Hence, at the same time that we seek to satisfy our underlying hunger needs (the push of drive-reduction theory), we are drawn to foo d that appears very appetizing (the pull of incentive theory). Rather than contradicting each other, then, drives and incentives may work together in motivating behavior. e) Cognitive Approaches: the thoughts behind motivation Cognitive approaches to motivati on suggest that motivation is a result of people's thoughts, beliefs, expectations, and goals. For instance, the degree to which people are motivated to	General psychology.pdf
73 study for a test is based on their expectation of how well studying will pay off in terms of a good gra de. Cognitive theories of motivation draw a key difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation causes us to participate in an activity for our enjoyment rather than for any actual or concrete reward that it will bring us. In co ntrast, extrinsic motivation causes us to do something for money, a grade, or some other actual, concrete reward. For example, when a teacher provides tutorial support for students in her extra time because she loves teaching, intrinsic motivation is promp ting her; if she provides tutorial support to make a lot of money, extrinsic motivation underlies her efforts. Similarly, if you study a lot because you love the subject matter, you are being guided by intrinsic motivation. On the other hand, if all you ca re about is the grade to get in the course, it is extrinsic motivation. f) Humanistic approaches to motivation The other approach to the study of motivation is the humanistic approach which is based on the work of Abraham Maslow. Maslow was one of the early humanistic psychologists who rejected the dominant theories of psychoanalysis and behaviorism in favor of a more positive view of human behavior. Maslow suggested that human behavior is influenced by a hierarchy, or ranking, of five classes of needs, or m otives. He said that needs at the lowest level of the hierarchy must be at least partially satisfied before people can be motivated by the ones at higher levels. Maslow's five Hierarchies of needs for motives from the bottom to the top are as follows: Phys iological needs-these are biological requirements for human survival, e. g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep. Safety needs-protection from elements, security, order, law, stability, freedom from fear. Love and belongingness needs-after physiological and safety needs have been fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social and involves feelings of belongingness. Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust, and acceptance, receiving and giving affection and love. Affiliating, be ing part of a group (family, friends, work). Esteem needs-the need to be respected as a useful, honorable individual; which Maslow classified into two categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity, achievement, mastery, and independence) and (ii) the desire for reputation or respect from others (e. g., status, prestige).	General psychology.pdf
74 Self-actualization needs-realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. A desire ―to become everything one is capable of becoming‖. The followi ng figure shows how our motivation progresses up the pyramid from the broadest, most fundamental biological needs to higher-order ones. Figure 2. Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs Reflections Dear student, among the theories discussed above, which one more e xplains your behavior as a student? How? Do you agree that lower-order needs must be satisfied before higher-order needs? 5. 1. 3. Conflict of motives and frustration Based on the sources of motivation and the importance of the decision, people usually face difficulty choos ing among the motives. These are just a few of the motives that may shape a trivial decision. When the decision is more important, the number and strength of motivational pushes and pulls are often greater, creating far more internal conflict a nd indecision. There are four basic types of motivational conflicts. Approach-approach conflicts-exist when we must choose only one of the two desirable activities. Example, going to a movie or a concert. Avoidance-avoidance conflicts-arise when we mus t select one of two undesirable alternatives. Someone forced either to sell the family home or to declare bankruptcy.	General psychology.pdf
75 Approach-avoidance conflicts-happen when a particular event or activity has both attractive and unattractive features, for example, a freshman student wants to start dating but she, at the same time, is worried that this may unduly consume her study time. Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts-exist when two or more alternatives each have both positive and negative features. Suppose you m ust choose between two jobs. One offers a high salary with a well-known company but requires long working hours and relocation to a miserable climate. The other boasts advancement opportunities, fringe benefits, and a better climate, but it doesn't pay as much and involves an unpredictable work schedule. Reflection Dear student, have you ever have faced any of these conflicts of motives? How did you resolve them? 5. 2. Emotion s 5. 2. 1. Definition of emotion Brainstorming Questions Dear student, what makes you emo tional? What symptoms are commonly observed when you are emotional? Have you tried? Thank you! The Latin word meaning ―to move‖ is the source of both words used in this chapter over and over again-motive and emotion. Emotion can be defined as the ―feelin g‖ aspect of consciousness, characterized by certain physical arousal, certain behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner awareness of feelings. Thus, from this short definition, we can understand that there are three elements of emotion: th e physiology, behavior and subjective experience. The pphysiology of emotion-when a person experiences an emotion, there is physical arousal created by the sympathetic nervous system. The heart rate increases, breathing becomes more rapid, the pupils of the eye dilate, and the moth may become dry. Think about the last time you were angry and then about the last time you were frightened. Weren't the physical symptoms pretty similar? Although facial expressions do differ between various emotional responses, emotions are difficult to distinguish from one another based on outward bodily reactions alone. It is quite easy to mistake a person who is afraid or angry as being	General psychology.pdf
76 aroused if the person's face is not visible, which can lead to much miscommunic ation and misunderstanding. The behavior of emotion-tells us how people behave in the grip of an emotion. There are facial expressions, body movements, and actions that indicate to others how a person feels. Frowns, smiles, and sad expressions combine wit h hand gestures, the turning of one's body, and spoken words to produce an understanding of emotion. People fight, run, kiss, and yell, along with countless other actions stemming from the emotions they feel. Facial expressions can vary across different cu ltures, although some aspects of facial expression seem to be universal. Subjective experience or labeling emotion is the third component of emotion and it involves interpreting the subjective feeling by giving it a label: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, shame, interest, surprise and so on. Another way of labeling this component is to call it the ―cognitive component,‖ because the labeling process is a matter of retrieving memories of previous similar experiences, perceiving the context of the emo tion, and coming up with a solution-a label. The label a person applies to a subjective feeling is at least in part a learned response influenced by that person's language and culture. Such labels may differ in people of different cultural backgrounds. 5. 2. 2. Theories of emotion I. James-Lang Theory of Emotion This theory of emotion is based on the work of William James (1884, 1890, 1894), who was also the founder of the functionalist perspective in the early history of psychology and a physiologist and psychologis t in Denmark, Carl Lang (1885), came up with an explanation of emotion so similar to that of James that the two names are used together to refer to the theory -the James-Lang theory of emotion. In this theory, a stimulus of some sort (for example, the la rge snarling dog) produces a physiological reaction. This reaction, which is the arousal of the ―fight-or-flight‖ sympathetic nervous system (wanting to run), produces bodily sensations such as increased heart rate, dry mouth, and rapid breathing. James an d Lang believed that physical arousal led to the labeling of the emotion (fear). Simply put, ―I am afraid because I am aroused,‖ ―I am embarrassed because my face is red, ―I am nervous because my stomach is fluttering,‖ and ―I am in love because of my hear t rate increases when I look at her or him. ‖	General psychology.pdf
77 Figure 2. James Lang Theory of Emotion II. Cannon-Bard theory of emotion Physiologists Walter Cannon and (1927) and Philip Bard (1934) theorized that t he emotion and the physiological arousal occur more or less at the same time. Cannon, an expert in sympathetic arousal mechanisms, did not feel that the physical changes aroused by different emotions were distinct enough to allow them to be perceived as di fferent emotions. Bard expanded on this idea by stating that the sensory information that comes into the brain is sent simultaneously (by the thalamus) to both the cortex and the organs of the sympathetic nervous system. The fear and the bodily reactions a re, therefore, experienced at the same time-not one after the other. ―I am afraid and running and aroused!‖ Figure 3. Cannon-Bard theory of emotion III. Schechter-Singer and Cognitive Arousal Theory The early theories talked a bout the emotion and the physical reaction, but what about the mental interpretation of those components? In their cognitive arousal theory, Schachter-Singer (1962) proposed that two things have to happen before emotion occurs: the physical arousal and lab eling of the arousal base on cues from the surrounding environment. These two things happen at the same time, resulting in the labeling of the emotion. For example, if a person comes across a snarling dog while taking a walk, the physical arousal (heart ra cing, eyes opening wide) is accompanied by the thought (cognition) that this must be fear. Then and only then will the person experience the fear of emotion. In other words, ―I am aroused in the presence of a scary dog; therefore, I must be afraid. ‖ Figure 4. Schachter-Singer theory of emotion Stimulus (e. g. snarling dog) Physiological arousal (High blood pressure, high heart rate, sweating) Emotion (fear) Stimulus (e. g. snarling dog) Physiological arou sal (High blood pressure, high heart rate, sweating) Emotion (fear) Sub-cortical brain-activity Stimulus (e. g. snarling dog) Physiological arousal (High blood pressure, high heart rate, sweating) Emotion (fear) Cognitive appraisal	General psychology.pdf
78 Reflection Dear student, among the three theories, which one explains your emotion? How? Summary Motivation refers to factors that influ ence the initiation, direction, intensity, an d persistence of behavior. Motivation is of two types intrinsic, and extrinsic. There are different approaches/theories of motivation such as instinct approach, drive reduction, arousal approach, incentive approach, cognitive approach and humanistic (hierarchy of needs). Emotion is the ―feeling‖ aspect of consciousness, characterized by certain physical arousal, certain behavior that reveals the feeling to the outside world, and an inner awareness of feelings. Emotion consists of three elements; th e phys iology, behavior and subjective experience. The source of emotion is different according to different theories. As to the James-Lange theory, emotions are created by awareness of specific patterns of peripheral (autonomic) responses. Cannon-Bard theory stated that the brain generates direct experiences of emotion. Based on the Schachter-Singer theory, cognitive interpretation of events and physiological reactions to them shapes emotional experiences. Discussion Questions 1. Explain the intrinsic and extrin sic types of motivation using relevant examples. 2. Your psychology professor tells you, ―Explaining behavior is easy! When we lack something, we are motivated to get it. ‖ Which approach to motivation does your professor subscribe to? 3. Among the three theories of emotion, which one best explains your emotion experience? Explain.	General psychology.pdf
79 CHAPTER SIX PERSONALITY Chapter Overview In the previous chapter, we have seen. This chapter focuses on the concept of personality and theories of personality. Among the different t heories of personality, this chapter addresses on the psychoanalytic, trait and humanistic ones. Learning Appetizer “One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself”. Shannon L. Alder Dear studen t, based on the above quote reflect on the following questions please? 1. What makes an individual different from others? 2. What do you think are the sources of personality difference among individuals? 3. Have you been asked to be a kind of person what others wou ld want you to be? 4. Is there a big difference between what you want to be and what others want you to be? Learning Outcomes After completion of this chapter, you will be able to: Define personality Discuss the natures of psychoanalytic theory Identify the s tructures of personality Explain psychological defense mechanisms Explain the essence of the trait theory of personality Discuss the five factor model of personality Explain the essence of humanistic theory of personality 6. 1. Meaning of Personality Brainst orming Questions Dear student, can you explain what personality is about? What do you think are the reasons behind our behavior? Dear student, have you tried to explain? Great! The word personality is derived from the word ‗ persona ', which has Greek and Latin roots and refers to the theatrical masks worn by Greek actors. Personality has been defined in many	General psychology.pdf
80 different ways, but psychologists generally view personality as the unique pattern of enduring thoughts, feelings, and actions that characterize a per son. Personality should not be confused with character, which refers to value judgments made about a person's morals or ethical behavior; nor should it be confused with temperament, the enduring characteristics with which each person is born, such as irrit ability or adaptability. However, both character and temperament are vital personalities. 6. 2. Theories of Personality Personality is an area of the still relatively young fields of psychology in which there are several ways in which the characteristic behav ior of human beings can be explained. Though there are different theories of personality, we will see at least the three ones; psychoanalytic, trait and humanistic. The specific questions psychologists ask and the methods they use to investigate personalit y often depend on the types of personality theories they take. Some of the theories of personality are: psychodynamic, trait, and humanistic. 6. 2. 1. The psychoanalytic theory of personality The psychoanalytic theory was formulated by the Austrian physician named Sigmund Fr eud. According to Freud, ppersonality is formed within ourselves, arising from basic inborn needs, drives, and characteristics. He argued that people are in constant conflict between their biological urges (drives) and the need to tame them. The psychoanalytic theory includes a theory of personality structure. In Freud's view, personality has three parts which serves a different function and develops at different times : the id, the ego, and the superego. According to Freud, the way these three p arts of personality interact with one another determines the personality of an individual. [ Id: If It Feels Good, Do It-The first and most primitive part of the personality in the infant is the id. The Id is a Latin word that means ―it ―. The id is a com pletely unconscious amoral part of the personality that exists at birth, containing all of the basic biological drives; hunger, thirst, sex, aggression, for example. When these drives are active, the person will feel an increase in not only physical tensio n but also in psychological tension that Freud called libido, the instinctual energy that may come into conflict with the demands a society's standards for behavior. When libidinal energy is high, it is unpleasant for the person, so the goal is to reduce l ibido by fulfilling the drive; Eat when hungry, drink when thirsty, and satisfy the sex when the need for pleasure is present. Freud called this need for satisfaction	General psychology.pdf
81 the pleasure principle, which can be defined as the desire for immediate satisfaction of needs with no regard for the consequences. The pleasure principle can be summed up simply as ―if it feels good, do it. ‖ Ego: The Executive Director-According to Freud, to deal with reality, the second part of personality develops called the ego. The ego, from the Latin word for ―I‖, is mostly conscious and is far more rational, logical and cunning than the id. The ego works on the reality principle, which is the need to satisfy the demands of the id and reduce libido only in ways that will not lead to nega tive consequences. This means that sometimes the ego decides to deny the id its drives because the consequence would be painful or too unpleasant. pry Here's a hypothetical example: If a 6-month-old child sees an object and wants it, she will reach out and grab it despite her parent's frantic cries of ―No, no!‖ The parent will have to pry the object out of the baby's hands, with the baby protesting mightily all the while. But if the same child is about 2 years old, when she reaches for the object and the pa rent shouts ―No!‖ she will most likely draw back her hand without grabbing the object because her ego has already begun to develop. In the first case, the infant has only the id to guide her behavior, and the id wants to grab the object and doesn't care wh at the parent says or does. But the 2 years old has an ego and that ego knows that the parent's ―No!‖ may very well be followed by punishment, an unpleasant consequence. The 2 years old child will make a more rational, more logical decision to wait until t he parent isn't looking and then grab the object and run. A simpler way of stating the reality principle is ―if it feels good, do it, but only if you can get away with it. ‖ Superego: The Moral Watchdog-Freud called the third and final part of the personali ty, the moral center of personality, the superego. The superego (also Latin, meaning ―over the self‖) develops as a preschool-aged child learns the rules, customs, and expectations of society. There are two parts to the superego: the ego ideal and the cons cience. The ego-ideal is a kind of measuring device. It is the sum of all the ideal or correct and acceptable behavior that the child has learned about from parents and others in the society. All behavior is held up to this standard and judged by the consc ience. The conscience is part of the personality that makes people pride when they do the right thing and guilt, or moral anxiety when they do the wrong thing.	General psychology.pdf
82 For Freud, our personality is the outcome of the continual battle for dominance among the id, the ego, and the superego. This constant conflict between them is managed by psychological defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are unconscious tactics that either prevent threatening material from surfacing or disguise it when it does. Some of the psych ological defense mechanisms are discussed below. Repression is a defense mechanism that involves banishing threatening thoughts, feelings, and memories into the unconscious mind. Example: an Ethiopian husband who is defeated by his wife will not remember/ talk it out again. Denial: is refusal to recognize or acknowledge a threatening situation. Example; Mr. Geremew is an alcoholic who denies/ doesn't accept being an alcoholic. Regression : involves reverting to immature behaviors that have relieved anxiety i n the past. Example: a girl/a boy who has just entered school may go back to sucking her/his thumb or wetting the bed. Rationalization : giving socially acceptable reasons for one's inappropriate behavior. Example: make bad grades but states the reason as being knowledge rather than grade oriented; and grades only showing superficial learning. Displacement : the defense mechanism that involves expressing feelings toward a person who is less threatening than the person who is the true target of those feelings. Example: Hating your boss but taking it out on family members. Projection : the defense mechanism that involves attributing one's undesirable feelings to other people. Example: a paranoid person uses projection to justify isolation and anger. Reaction form ation : a defense mechanism that involves a tendency to act in a manner opposite to one's true feelings. Example: a person who acts conservation but focuses on violence in their behavior. Sublimation : defense mechanism that involves expressing sexual or agg ressive behavior through indirect, socially acceptable outlets. Example: an aggressive person who loves playing football. Our use of defense mechanisms is not consider ed as inappropriate or unhealthy unless we rely on them to an extreme level. Remember tha t all of us use defense mechanisms to manage our conflict and stress. It may not be possible to get through life without such defenses. But, excessive use may create more stress than it alleviates.	General psychology.pdf
83 Reflection 6. 2. 2. The trait theory of personality Brainstorming Questions Dear student, do you think your personality is inherited or learned? Psychologists who t ake the trait approach see personality as a combination of stable internal characteristics that people display consistently over time and across situations. Trait theorists seek to measure the relative strength of the many personality characteristics that they believe are present in everyone. The trait approach to personality makes three main assumptions: 1. Personality traits are relatively stable, and therefore predictable, over time. So a gentle person tends to stay the same way across time. 2. Personality trai ts are relatively stable across situations, and they can explain why people act in predictable ways in many different situations. A person who is competitive at work will probably also be competitive on the tennis court or at a party. 3. People differ in how much of a particular personality trait they possess; no two people are exactly alike on all traits. The result is an endless variety of unique personalities. Though the history of the trait theory of personality has come through different stages, our atten tion here will be paid on the five-factor model or the Big Five theory. The five trait dimensions can be remembered by using the acronym OCEAN, in which each of the letters is the first letter of one of the five dimensions of personality. Openness can best be described as a person's willingness to try new things and be open to new experiences. People who try to maintain the status quo and who don't like to change things would score less on openness. Conscientiousness refers to a person's organization and mo tivation, with people who score high in the dimension being those who are careful about being in places on time and careful with belongings as well. Someone scoring low on this dimension, for example, might always be late to important social events or borr ow belongings and fail to return them or return in poor coordination. Dear learner, how do you see the strength and weakness of psychoanalytic theory of personality? Have you applied any of the defense mechanisms so far?	General psychology.pdf
84 Extraversion is a term first used by Carl Jung, who believed that all people could be divided into two personality types: extraverts and introverts. Extraverts are outgoing and sociabl e, whereas introverts are more solitary and dislike being the center of attention. Agreeableness refers to the basic emotional style of a person, who may be easygoing, friendly and pleasant (at the high end of the scale) or grumpy, crabby and hard to get along with (at the low end). Neuroticism refers to emotional instability or stability. People who are excessive ly worrie d, overanxious and moody would score high on this dimension, whereas those who are more even-tempered and calm could score low. Reflectio n Dear student, According to OCEAN theory, which trait is dominant in your personality? 6. 2. 3. Humanistic theory of personality Brainstorming Questions Dear student, what do you think is the focus of the humanistic theory of personality? Can you imagine its difference from the previous two theories? In the middle of the twentieth century, the pessimism of Freudian psychoanalysis with its emphasis on conflict and animalistic needs, together with the emphasis of behaviorism on external control of behavior, g ave rise to the third force in psychology: the humanistic perspective. Humanistic approaches to personality emphasize people's inherent goodness and their tendency to move toward higher levels of functioning instead of seeing people as controlled by the un conscious, unseen forces (psychodynamic approaches), and a set of stable traits (trait approaches). It is this conscious, self-motivated ability to change and improve, along with people's unique creative impulses, that humanistic theorists argue make up th e core of personality. Humanists such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow wanted psychology to focus on the things that make people uniquely human, such as subjective emotions and the freedom to choose one's destiny. As Maslow's theory will be discussed in C hapter Four, in this chapter the discussion of the humanistic view of personality will focus on the theory of Carl Rogers.	General psychology.pdf
85 Carl Rogers and Self-Cconcept Like Maslow, Rogers believed that human beings are always striving to fulfill their innate capacities and capabilities and to become everything that their genetic potential will allow them to become. This striving for fulfillment is called self-actualizing tendency. An important tool in human self-actualization is the development of an image of oneself or the self-concept. The self-concept is based on what people are told by others and how the sense of self is reflected in the words and actions of important people in one's life, such as parents, siblings, coworkers, friends, and teachers. Real and Ideal Se lf-Two important components of the self-concept are the real self (one's actual perception of characteristics, traits, and abilities that form the basis of the striving for self-actualization) and the ideal self (the perception of what one should be or w ould like to be). The ideal self primarily comes from those important, significant others in one's life, most often the parents. Rogers believed that when the real self and the ideal self are very close or similar to each other, people feel competent and c apable, but when there is a mismatch between the real and ideal selves, anxiety and neurotic behavior can be the result. The two halves of the self are more likely to match if they aren't that far apart at the start. When one has a realistic view of the re al self, and the ideal self is attainable, there usually isn't a problem of a mismatch. It is when a person's view of self is distorted or the ideal self is impossible to attain that problems arise. Once again, it is primarily how the important people (who can be either good or bad influences) in a person's life react to the person that determines the degree of agreement between real and ideal selves. Conditional and Unconditional Positive Regard-Rogers defined positive regard as warmth, affection, love, and respect that comes from the significant others (parents, admired adults, friends, and teachers) in people's experience. Positive is vital to people's ability to cope with stress and to strive to achieve self-actualization. Rogers believed that uncondit ioned positive regard, or love, affection and respect with no strings attached, is necessary for people to be able to explore fully all that they can achieve and become. Unfortunately, some parents, spouses, and friends give conditional positive regard, which is love, affection, respect and warmth that depend, or seem to depend, on doing what those people want.	General psychology.pdf
86 Here is an example: as a freshman Tirhas was thinking about becoming a math teacher, a computer programmer. Chalet, also a freshman, already knew t hat she was going to be a doctor. While Tirhas ‟ parents had told her that what she wanted to become was up to her and that they would love her no matter what, Chaltu ‟s parents had made it very clear to her as a small child that they expected her to become a doctor. She was under the very impression that if she tried to choose any other career, she will lose her parents‟ love and respect. Tirhas ‟ parents were giving her unconditional positive regard, but Chaltu ‟s parents were giving her conditional positive regard. Chaltu was not as free as Tirhas to explore potential abilities. For Rogers, a person who is in the process of self-actualizing, activity exploring potentials and abilities and experiencing a match between real and ideal selves is a fully functioni ng person. Fully functioning people are in touch with their feelings and abilities and can trust their innermost urges and intuitions. To become a fully functioning, a person needs unconditional positive regard. In Rogers's view, Chaltu would not have been a fully functioning person. Although self-actualization and ‗to be fully functioning ' are highly related concepts, there are some subtle differences. Self-actualization is a goal that people are always striving to reach, according to Maslow (1987). In Ro gers's view, only a person who is fully functioning is capable of reaching the goal of self-actualization. To be fully functioning is a necessary step in the process of self-actualization. Maslow (1987) listed several people that he considered to be self-actualized people: Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, and Eleanor Roosevelt, for example. These were people that Maslow found to have the self-actualized qualities of being creative, autonomous and unprejudiced, for example. We may add Nelson Mandela of South Africa to this list. In Roger's view, these same people would be seen as having trusted their true feelings and innermost needs rather than just going along with the crowd, a description that certainly seems to apply in these three cases. Reflection Dear student, how do you explain the importance of positive regard for personality development? Summary Personality is the unique pattern of enduring thoughts, feelings, and actions that characterize a person.	General psychology.pdf
87 The specific questions psychologists ask and t he methods they use to investigate personality often depend on the types of personality theories they take. According to the psychoanalytic theory of Freud, personality is formed within ourselves, arising from basic inborn needs, drives, and characteristi cs. The trait theorists see personality as a combination of stable internal characteristics that people display consistently over time and across situations. According to humanistic theorists, personality is conscious, self-motivated ability to change an d improve, along with people's unique creative impulses. Discussion Questions 1. Discuss the difference between personality, trait and temperament? 2. Explain defense mechanisms and provide your own examples. 3. Elaborate the concept of conditional and unconditiona l positive regards? 4. How do you judge the positive regards you get from your parents based on Rogers theory?	General psychology.pdf

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