Chapter 4

Consciousness: Sleep, Dreams, and Hypnosis

Consciousness defines various levels of awareness. We can be fully
aware, as when we are paying attention to someone or something. We
can be partially aware of our surroundings, as when we are driving or
daydreaming. We are aware of the road, the lines, and hopefully other
cars. However, we may see for the first time a house that is near the
road. We have traveled this same road to school for the last 8 months,
yet never noticed the house. Sometimes we reach our destination and
realize that we do not remember crossing this road, or turning, etc.
However, we were still somewhat aware because we made it to our
final destination.
Consciousness can be an automatic or controlled process: automatic
processes do not require our full attention (ie., doing dishes, watching
television, driving); controlled processes require our full attention (ie,
learning how to drive, hitting a baseball with a bat, carrying on a
thought-provoking conversation). Our awareness of our surroundings
vary between these two extremes. Sleep, hypnosis, and drugs can
also cause varying levels of awareness.
Sleep
While sleeping, we may toss and turn in bed. However, we do not fall
out of bed. We may kick off or pull up the covers without being awake.
We can even carry on a conversation while asleep. We will sound
coherent, although we probably will remember very little of this
conversation in the morning.
Sleep is divided into five stages: 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM. Distinctions exist
between REM and non-REM (stages 1, 2, 3, and 4) sleep.
Non-REM sleep:
+ breathing rate decreases
+ bodies become relaxed
+ still able to move our bodies
+ brain activity decreases (fewer neurons are firing at this time
compared to wakefulness)
+ still able to process external information (alarm clock, telephone,
others' voices, end of the bed, where the furniture is placed)
+ experience hypnogogic hallucinations (stage 1) - During our
progression from wakefulness to sleep, we may perceive something
that is not really present. For example, you may awaken because you
felt someone touch you. However, no one is in the room. You may hear
your name being called, yet no one is around. If you have just fallen
asleep in your chair, you may feel a false sense of falling. These
experiences are hallucinations because no real stimulus (voice, tap on
shoulder) exists.
+ experience hypnik jerk - When you first fall asleep and your muscles
begin to relax, your arms or legs may jerk. In some cases, the jerk may
be strong enough to awaken you.
+ experience dreams - These dreams are likely to be less active,
colorful and memorable than dreams that are experienced in REM
sleep.
REM sleep:
+ brain activity increases (especially in the cerebral cortex)
+ heart rate increases
+ eyes begin to dart back and forth (rapid eye movement)
+ called paradoxical sleep because our internal bodies appear to be
awake, yet we cannotmove our bodies
+ vivid, colorful, active, and memorable dreams occur during this
stage of sleep

Sleep cycle
The typical sleep cycle moves from stages 1-2-3-4-3-2-REM. The sleep
cycle repeats every 90 minutes, with one exception. After the first
cycle, REM replaces stage 1. As the night progresses, deep sleep
(stage 3 and 4) decreases and REM increases. We need a balance of
REM and non-REM sleep to feel rested in the morning. If the sleep cycle
is disrupted, the quality of sleep is disrupted. We would then feel tired
in the morning, even if we slept the necessary eight hours.
The sleep cycle can be influenced by:
age- babies spend more time in REM sleep than older children and
adults
stress- increases REM sleep
depressants (ie., alcohol, cough syrup, medication for some mental
illnesses)- decreases both REM and non-REM sleep
sleeping pills- decreases REM (you get the quantity, not the quality of
sleep needed)
sleep deprivations- experience a REM rebound; once you do get to
sleep, you will quickly pass through non-REM sleep and spend most of
the night in REM sleep - you will still feel tired when you wake up
because the quality of sleep is still disrupted
Therefore, one could understand that since stress, depressants and sleeping pills disrupt
quality of sleep, a person experiencing or using any of these factors could feel sleepy
during wakeful periods.

Sleep problems
Insomnia- difficulty attaining or maintaining sleep - this problem is the
most diagnosed sleep disorder - treatments include sleeping pills (fast
and effective, yet can cause addiction, imbalance of sleep cycle
{decreases REM}, and rebound of insomnia when no longer taking the
sleeping pills), behavioral techniques (slower to treat but does not
create addiction, insomnia rebound, or decrease of REM) - behavioral
techniques include:
• go to bed only when sleepy
• do nothing else in the bedroom besides sleep (associate the bed
 with rest instead of stress of doing homework, excitement of the
television program, exercise or sex)
• if you cannot get to sleep within 20 minutes, get up and do an
activity that will make you sleepy- (read, watch tv, knit, crochet,
go for a ride {you, of course, are not the driver} - do not exercise
at this time)
• exercise before noon
• proper diet (decrease caffeine, sugar, fat and alcohol)
• establish a regular schedule (if you get up at 7:00 am and go to
bed at 11:00pm during the weekdays, you should follow this
schedule as best you can on the weekends - if you stay up until
2:00am on Friday, try to get up by 8:00 - 8:30 on Saturday - do
not sleep until noon - this late morning sleeping will catch up to
you on Sunday night when you want to go to bed by 11:00pm)
• do not nap
Narcolepsy- sudden bouts of REM sleep during wakefulness - A person
could be awake and then suddenly fall asleep. This person will skip
non-REM sleep and enter right into REM sleep during this episode.
Narcoleptic attacks may be brought on by stress or strong emotional
situations. This person will often feel tired during the day and may be
mis-diagnosed. Medication can be used to treat the symptoms.

Sleep apnea - episodes of not breathing while asleep - This individual may also feel tired
during the day. Individuals who snore and "snort" while sleeping should be checked for
apnea. The snorting may be an indication that the person is grasping for breath or just
beginning to breath again. The severity of the problem varies from person to person.
Treatments include surgery and/or receiving oxygen through a mask while sleeping.

Nightmares - bad dreams usually experienced during REM sleep

Night terrors - bouts or neurological panic attacks while asleep - This person may
appear to wake up screaming or swinging at objects or people. This individual is still
asleep. He most likely will not remember the episode upon wakening. Night terrors are
most diagnosed in young children and adolescents. Most people outgrow these
symptoms. Some theorists believe that night terrors are related to elevated stress levels.
Night terrors are not bad dreams; most people do not remember a dream during the
episode (if they remember the episode at all).

Somnambulism - sleep walking - Sleep walking can be dangerous if the person starts
playing with the steak knives or decides to take a walk outside. Most sleepwalking is
harmless. Special locks or bells may need to be placed on doors or kitchen draws. You
can safely wake up a sleep walker (although the person may be extremely disoriented,
therefore may swing at you). If the person is engaging in a harmless activity, you can let
the person go or guide her back to her bedroom. If the person is going outside, you
should seriously consider waking (from a distance) this person.
Dreams
Everyone dreams, even though a person may not remember the
dreams. An average person (sleeping eight hours) will experience a
vivid dream state four – five times per night. We dream in color,
although color is the first part of our dreams that we forget. Our
dreams are easier to recall right after the dream. For example, you
wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and you are
remembering the dream that you just had; in the morning you may not
remember that dream. We spend more time in REM closer to morning,
so we are more likely to remember the dreams that we had later in our
sleep period.
Dream content
Three most common themes of reported dreams include:
• falling
• being chased or attacked
• trying but failing to accomplish something

Two-thirds of reported dreams involve fear, sadness and anger. Aggression is more
common than friendliness (2:1) in our dreams.

Some researchers have found a gender difference in dream content.

Females are reported to dream more about indoors places, familiar
places and people. Males report dreaming about engaging in sex and
physical activity, being outside the home and interacting with
strangers.
Why do we dream?
Psychologists are still not sure why humans dream. There are three
theories that have been used to explain dreaming.
The most recognized theory of dreaming is Freud's psychoanalytic
wish fulfillment theory. Freud believed that dreams contain
information from our unconscious minds. As we dream, the
unconscious content leaks into awareness. He believed that we must
look for symbols or hidden meanings of our dreams. In other words, we
should not look at the face value of the dream, rather we need to
understand what it represents. He also believed that we dream about
things that are not socially acceptable, yet we still have the desire to
perform (ie., having sex at a football game, hitting your child's teacher
or ball coach). Freud believed that we have two basic drives that
motivate our behavior: sex and aggression. Since it is not socially
acceptable to engage in these behaviors in all circumstances, we will
dream about the activity. According to Freud, this is wish fulfillment.
Let's say for example, you are having problems with your parents
because of the strict discipline that they impose. You may dream about
a police officer (representing your parents) giving you a ticket
(representing discipline) and you respond by spitting in his face
(unacceptable action/wish fulfillment). Freud would interpret dreams
and look for symbolism and wish fulfillment.
A second theory of dreaming is the cognitive problem solving theory. According to
theorists, our dreams exist to help us solve problems. If we are having problems with our
parents, we will dream about our parents or the issue. If we just received a speeding
ticket, we may dream about the police officer and the anger felt or a trip to the bank to get
the money for the ticket. Remember that when we experience stress, we spend more time
in REM sleep. We need more time to deal with our stress, so we spend more time in
REM. We take our dreams at face value; no interpretation is necessary.

The third theory of dreaming is the biological activation-synthesis theory. According to

this theory, our dreams are random by-products of neurons firing in our brains. Activation
in the concept title represents the random firing, especially by the pons and reticular
formation. Synthesis represents the cortex's activity of trying to pull everything (random
firing) together into a coherent story. However, since the firing is random, many times
our dreams will not make sense.

Which theory best explains why we dream? Psychologists do not know. Much evidence
exists to support both the biological and cognitive theories, however many theorists and
practitioners believe the psychoanalytic theory. The answer may be that a combination of
all three theories best explain why we dream.

Hypnosis

Psychologists do not fully understand hypnosis. Hypnosis is believed to be a different

level of awareness. You can still process information in the environment and you have
control over what you do and say. Not everyone can be hypnotized. Desire and openness
to the experience must be present. Persons who can read a book, play a game, watch a
show and feel as if they are actually part of the scene represent better candidates for
hypnosis. The person devotes full attention to what he or she is doing. Better candidates
engage easily in fantasy, devote deeper attention to a task, and exhibit a higher level of
gullibility.

What can hypnosis achieve?

+ relaxation (great way to deal with stress)

+ increase pain tolerance (attention is directed away from the pain)
+ post-hypnotic suggestion (if a person wants to lose weight or stop
smoking, hypnotism may work - the underlying desire or motivation
must be there)
What hypnosis cannot achieve:
There is no scientific proof that hypnosis can do the following:
- regress to a previous life
- regress to an earlier age (you may start acting like you are three
years old, but the details that you describe are not likely to be true - a
schema may be activated to influence behavior while hypnotized)
- lose control (you still have the final say or control on what you do or
say while hypnotized)
Questionable:
Research is conflicting on the belief that hypnosis can improve your
memory. For example, if you were in a car wreck in which you were not
hurt but someone else was killed, you may block this information from
memory. Some psychologists have found that hypnosis may help you
retrieve this information; others have found hypnosis to be ineffective
as a memory aid.
"); }
SENSATION/PERCEPTION

This chapter addresses sensation and perception. We will talk about the type of
information that gets into our system and then how we interpret that information.

Sensation is the conversion of energy from the environment into a pattern of response by
the nervous system. Sensation includes the registration of information or the raw data
that we receive.

Perception involves making sense of or interpreting the information brought in from the
environment through the senses. Light rays striking your eyes or sound waves striking
your ears would be sensation. When you say such things as "I see my roommate" or "I
hear the bell ringing" you are expressing your perception of what those sensations mean.

We live in a world of stimuli- information expressed in energies that influence everything

that we do. Our eyes, ears, and other sensory organs are packed with receptors -
specialized cells that convert environmental energies into signals for the nervous system
(sensation). These receptors pick up the stimuli and we translate it into information that
we can express or store (perception).

Newborn abilities
From birth, infants' senses all operate to some degree and the sensory
capabilities develop rapidly over the first years of life.
TOUCH - infants' sensitivity to touch and pain increases during the first
5 days after birth. Many parents suffer as they watch their babies in
pain when going through such procedures as circumcision and heel
lancing (used to obtain blood samples). Doctors had shied away from
giving anesthesia because of a persistent belief that the neonate does
not feel pain and because of the known effects of the drugs. New
evidence differs, showing that when going through these procedures,
infants cry more, have higher heart rates and blood pressure, and
sweat more during the procedure. Infants will also pull their legs away
(more persistent than natural reflex) from the pin prick of the heel
lancing.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
1. changes in some neonatal surgical procedures and concern for safe
levels of pain medication;
2. reconsideration for routine circumcision
Development of touch - Haptic perception (exploring by touch)
increases during infancy, especially after fine motor (use of small
muscles) skills develop. Infants increase use of their fingers to explore
the world.

TASTE - Newborns can discriminate between tastes. They reject bad

tasting liquids and prefer sweet tastes over bitter ones. As the
substance becomes sweeter, infants will suck harder and drink more.
Researchers have discovered evidence that sugar water can be
soothing for infants' pains. Those infants with sugar laced pacifiers
cried less during surgical procedures than infants with plain pacifiers
and those without pacifiers. Although sugar can be initially soothing,
the substance should not be used as a consistent means to pacify an
infant. Parents must consider the infant's digestive system and the
ability to break down or handle sugary substances.
Babies can differentiate the four different types of tastes (sweet, sour,
bitter, salty).
SMELL - Facial expressions show that infants like the aroma of vanilla
and strawberries and do not like the odor of fish and rotten eggs.
When a baby’s cheek is touched by an ammonia cotton swab on one
side, the infant turns the head to the side without the ammonia.
During the first week of life, babies can discriminate between the smell
of his/her mothers nursing pad and another woman's nursing pad
(contains smell of breast milk).
HEARING - Infant audition is not as sensitive as adults’ audition. A
newborn hears as well as an adult with a head cold. Part of the reason
for this difference may be due to fluids that may have seeped into the
inner ear during the birth process. Infants, though sometimes
inaccurate, turn their heads in the direction of auditory stimuli. As
early as three days old infants can already tell new speech patterns
from those they have already heard. They stop responding to the
familiar but are attentive to the novel sounds.
Intensity, loudness and frequency are important variables when
determining what an infant can/cannot hear. Infants show adult like
hearing patterns with high frequencies (human voices), but are poorer
with low frequencies. Infants prefer to listen to sounds that fall within
the same frequency range of the human voice.
Studies have shown that 3 day old infants can discriminate and even
prefer their mother’s voice over that of a female stranger. Current
studies are linking these findings to fetal audition. Auditory learning
occurs before birth (recognize mother, prefers stories read
in uterocompared to novel ones). Evidence has also been found that
infants can discriminate or categorize components of language into
vowel and consonant categories. However, as they mature and begin
to acquire the language of their culture, they make finer distinctions of
the components of their language and lose the discriminative abilities
for sounds that are not used in native tongue. (THEY ARE BORN WITH
THIS ABILITY TO DISCRIMINATE SOUNDS THAT ARE NOT USED IN THEIR
CULTURAL SPEECH BUT EVENTUALLY LOSE IT).
MUSIC LISTENERS? Infants prefer music or rhythmic patterns over non
rhythmic noise. Actually infants can find noise quite aversive. Future
research can tell us whether infants prefer Mozart, Motown, Madonna
or Motley Crue..
VISION - Newborn babies blink at bright lights and shift their gaze to
follow a moving light or target. They turn their heads toward light, and
can distinguish light intensity. Babies tend to look longer at patterned
stimuli compared to unpatterned displays. Researchers found newborn
acuity to be 20/400 - 20/800 (normal is 20/20). By 3 months of age,
acuity is 20/100, and by 12 months acuity is at adult level.
PERIPHERAL VISION - Infants have a much smaller peripheral field than
adults. The field significantly increases by 3 months of age.
COLOR VISION Infants seem to have relatively mature color perception
within the first few months of life. Black and white contrasts are shown
to be the baby's first visual preference. At birth they can discriminate
between red and green. The cones are functioning for these two colors
(red and green) at birth. By the 2nd month of life, all of the color
receptors are working, which means the receptors for the color blue
are working. At 3 months babies prefer yellow and red over blue and
green.
CONTRASTS AND PATTERNS - Babies tend to look more at high contrast
patterns with many sharp boundaries between light and dark areas.
Very young infants (2 months) prefer to look at moderately complex
patterns (e.g., bull’s eye) rather than simpler ones (basic shapes or
solid colors) and at curvilinear rather than linear features. Infants are
very captivated by things that move. Infants will spend more time
looking at a rotating object than at a comparable one that is stationary.
Babies prefer to look at things that they see well and those things are
moderately complex, high contrast targets that move.

COMMON PROPERTIES OF SENSORY MODALITIES

I. Sensitivity. One of the most striking aspects about our sensory modalities is that they
are extremely sensitive at detecting changes in the environment. The most common way
to assess the sensitivity of a sensory modality is to determine the minimum magnitude of
a stimulus that can be reliably discriminated from no stimulus at all - for ie., the weakest
light that can be reliably discriminated from darkness.

The minimum magnitude is referred to as absolute threshold. Absolute threshold

defines the stimulus value above which the stimulus can be detected and below which it
cannot be detected. This threshold is not really absolute; it is a statistically determined
concept that specifies the probability that the stimulus will be detected on any given trial.
It is the minimum intensity at which a given individual can detect a stimulus 50% of the
time.

Approximate minimum stimuli for various senses.

Vision - Candle flame seen at 30 miles on a dark, clear night.

Hearing - Tick of a watch at 20 feet under quiet conditions
Taste - One tsp. of sugar in 2 gallons of water
Smell - One drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of SIX rooms.

Touch - The wing of a fly falling on your cheek from a distance of one centimeter.

Difference threshold. Another type of threshold or measure of sensitivity is the

difference threshold (or just noticeable difference), which defines the minimal change in
stimulation that can be reliably detected. That change is measured with respect to some
existing condition of stimulation. For example, if you are observing light, the investigator
will attempt to discover how much greater the intensity of that light must be before you
can say that it is brighter.

Sensory differences. There are many factors that could influence a person's sensory
sensitivity.

1. Individual differences. Within the human species there are receptor differences across
individuals. Some people have greater sensitivity to taste, some have difficulty hearing
sounds at particular frequencies, and some have problems distinguishing among different
colors.

2. Developmental differences. Some of the receptor differences are due to developmental

processes. Infants doe not have same visual acuity as adults until they are one-year-old.
As we reach older adulthood, our senses become dulled.

3. Situational factors. Even within the same person, receptor sensitivity differs from time
to time. For example, suppose you attend a concert in which the music is very loud.
Immediately after the concert, you may have trouble hearing what your friends are saying
and have to increase the volume of your radio for the sound level to seem normal.

4. Sensory adaptation. Another way in which receptor sensitivity can change is called
sensory adaptation. For example, you move to a new home where you find that the
water has a bad taste because it contains certain minerals or chemicals. Yet after a short
time you no longer notice the bad taste. You might perceive a horrible smell as you enter
a friend's house, yet find that after a short stay the smell seems to disappear. Sensory
adaptation is a loss of sensitivity that usually occurs at the receptor level in all sensory
systems when stimuli are unchanging.
Sensory adaptation is generally a useful process, and we are often grateful that our senses
act in this way. Nevertheless, when adapted, our receptors can be less sensitive to certain
stimuli, so that we might not be able to hear sounds or taste certain foods that we could
perceive when our receptors were in a more normal state of operation. Responsitivity
may also decrease at the neural level due to repeated stimulation. This repeated process is
called habituation. It differs from adaptation in that responsiveness can suddenly
reappear if the stimulation level is increase or decreased (dishabituation).

Sensory adaptation offers an important benefit: It enables us to focus our attention on

informative changes in our environment without being distracted by the uninformative,
constant stimulation of odor, noise, etc. Our sensory receptors are alert to novelty; bore
them with repetition and they free our attention for things more interesting and important.
SOOOOO, we perceive the world not exactly as it is, but as it is useful for us to perceive
it.

Two important variables that one must consider when determining thresholds or a
person's sensitivity are:

1. person characteristics;

2. condition of the environment in which the testing takes place.

PERCEPTUAL ORGANIZATION

How do we interpret or organize our sensations? The two main approaches used to study
this question include:

1. feature detection approach- in which scientists believe that there are cortical cells that
are specifically responsive to certain features of a stimulus (horizontal, vertical, diagonal,
etc.). Ultimately, the stimuli are represented by a combination of these elements. They are
basic building blocks of what we perceive. Other researchers believe that this approach is
too simplistic.

2. The second approach is the Gestalt approach. Early in 1900's, a group of psychologists
became interested with how the mind organizes sensations into perceptions. Given a
cluster of sensations, the human perceiver organizes them into a gestalt, a German word
meaning a "form" or a "whole". The Gestalt psychologists provided many compelling
demonstrations of this ability. Gestalt psychologists are fond of saying that the whole
may differ from the sum of its parts. There is far more to perception than meets the
senses. An example of this is the PHI PHENOMENON, the illusion of movement
created by the presentation of visual stimuli in rapid succession. We don't perceive the
individual lights, rather the form in movement (IE., neon signs). Gestalt psychologists
describe the principles by which we organize our sensations into perceptions. Our brains
do more than just register information about the world. Perception is not just opening a
shutter and letting a picture print itself on the brain. We always filter sensory information
and construct perceptions in ways that make sense to us.

Form perception.

1. Figure/ground: To begin perception of form, we must first perceive any object, called
the figure, as distinct from its surroundings, called the ground. Among all the voices that
you hear at a party, the one you attend to becomes the figure. All other voices are part of
the ground. When you read the test, the words are the figure whereas the white paper is
the ground. The figure-ground relationship continually reverses - but we always
organize the stimulus into a figure against ground.

2. Grouping. Having discriminated figure from ground, we must then organize the figure
into a meaningful form. Some basic features of a scene, such as color, movement, and
light-dark contrast are processed instantly and automatically. To bring order and form to
these basic sensations, our minds follow certain rules for grouping stimuli together. These
rules, identified by the Gestalt psychologists, illustrate their idea that the perceived whole
differs from the mere sum of its parts.

a. proximity - we group nearby figures together (86 trees are seen as woods, whereas 3
trees are seen as 3 trees)

b. similarity - if figures are similar to each other, we group them together

c. closure - if a figure has gaps, we complete it, filling in the gaps to create a complete
whole object

d. continuity - we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones.

e. connectedness - we perceive spots, lines, or areas as a single unit when uniform or

linked.

The grouping principles usually help us perceive reality, but sometimes they lead us
astray. Examples of these principles can be found on the resources page for this chapter.
Interactive links provide better demonstrations of the principles.

DEPTH PERCEPTION

Depth perception. From the two-dimensional images that fall on our retinas, we somehow
organize three-dimensional perceptions. The ability to see objects in three dimensions,
called depth perception, allows us to estimate their distance from us. At a glance, we
estimate the distance of an oncoming car or the height of a cliff.
How do we transform two-dimensional retinal images into three- dimensional
perceptions? Some of the cues that we use require both eyes (binocular cues). Other cues
are available to each eye separately (monocular cues).

Binocular cues.

1. Retinal disparity. Because our eyes are about 2 and 1/2 inches apart, our retinas receive
slightly different images of our world. When the brain compares these two images, their
retinal disparity (difference between two images) provides an important cue to distance.
When your finger is directly in front of your nose, your retinas receive quite different
views. At greater distance - say, when you hold your finger at arm's length - the disparity
is smaller. The creators of 3-D movies and viewmasters simulate retinal disparity by
photographing a scene with two cameras placed a few inches apart. When viewed
through spectacles or a device that allows the left eye to see only the image from the left
camera and the right eye the image from the right camera, the 3-D effect mimics normal
retinal disparity.

2. Convergence. This is a muscular cue that indicates the extent to which the eyes turn
inward when we look at an object. By noting the angle of convergence, the brain
determines whether you are focusing just past your nose, or on a printed paper, or on the
person across the room.

Monocular cues. We depend on binocular cues more for close distances, while we rely
on monocular cues for greater distances.

1. Relative size. If we assume that two objects are similar in size, we perceive the one that
casts the smaller image on the retina as farther away.

2. Overlap. If one object partially covers another, we perceive it as closer.

3. Linear perspective. We interpret the apparent convergence of parallel lines as a cue to

distance. The more they converge, the greater the perceived distance.

4. Relative height. We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away. This
may contribute to the illusion that vertical dimensions are longer than identical horizontal
dimensions (things appear taller than wider).

5. Relative brightness. Nearby objects reflect more light to our eyes. Thus, given two
identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away. Artists use these monocular cues to
convey depth on canvas.

Both monocular and binocular cues are manipulated to produce optical illusions. An
optical illusion occurs when there is a discrepancy between the appearance of a visual
stimulus and its reality. Interactive exercises/videos for optical illusions and depth
perception are found under the resource link for this chapter.
Subliminal Perception

Subliminal perception is the claim that a stimulus that we do not consciously attend to
can influence our behavior. Research supports that the messages/pictures prime our
perceptions. In other words, the subliminal messages prepare us to see or interpret a
particular image or message.

Research does not support:

1. Changes in behavior; the subliminal message seems to impact our mental processing
and judgments, but the primed thought does not necessarily change our behavior.

2. Understanding and behavior changes due to backward messages; uninformed people

often do not understand messages that are believed to be heard when records/tapes are
played backwards. If we inform a person about the perceived message or visual, they are
more likely to also perceive it. The messages, though, do not seem to impact our
behavior.

3. Influences of subliminal tapes. Should I use subliminal tapes while I sleep to improve
my memory? Does this process actually improve memory? A study was conducted in
which subjects were divided into two groups: self-esteem group and memory group.
During the research procedure, subjects in the self-esteem group were told that while they
slept, they would listen to self-esteem enhancing tapes; the memory group was told that
they were listening to memory enhancing tapes. In reality, the self-esteem group listened
to the memory tapes and the memory group listened to the self-esteem tapes. In the end,
the group that was told that they were listening to the self-esteem tapes but actually
listened to the memory tapes improved on self-esteem measures. Those who were told
that they were listening to the memory tapes improved on memory measures. The
subliminal messages on the tape did not impact their behavior; instead the directions or
what the subjects believed that they were listening to impacted their performance. The
findings of this study suggest a placebo effect - subjects' expecations, not the independent
variable, changed performance.

Effects that have been reported in other subliminal studies appear to be due to
uncontrolled random variables or the placebo effect.

Chapter 11
STRESS AND HEALTH
A new subfield of health psychology assumes that illness results
from the interaction of our biological, psychological, and social
systems. Basically, anything putting a demand on or challenge to our
body is considered stress. We then can distinguish between two types
of stress:
eustress- pleasant, desirable stress (getting married, graduating,
getting a new job)
distress - unpleasant, unwanted stress (getting divorced, being in an
accident, being stood up by a date)
Regardless of whether the stress is eustress or distress, the effects on the body are the
same.

According to some researchers, there are major sources of stress that should be
considered:
1. Frustration- occurs when a goal is blocked. For example, You may
be working on a paper that is due today - guests come over
unexpectedly, the telephone is ringing off of the hook, etc. Most
frustrations are short-lived and relatively insignificant. However, some
frustrations can create a significant amount of stress. ie., high
expectations and unrealistic goals
2. Conflict - occurs when two or more differing motivations compete
for expression.
One source of stress comes from everyday conflicts we face between
our different motives. Least stressful are the approach-
approach conflicts, in which two attractive but incompatible goals
pull at us - to go to sporting event or out for pizza, watch one of two
goods television shows on tv - of the three kinds of conflict, the
approach-approach tends to be less stressful.
Other times, we face an avoidance-avoidance conflict between two
undesirable alternatives. Your mother and father have both set you up
on a blind date with one of their co-worker's children. You do not want
to go on either date, but your parents are forcing you to be nice and go
on one date. Do you go on the blind date set up by your mother or
father?
In times of approach-avoidance conflict, we feel simultaneously
attracted and repelled. Some things you may adore about a person you
are dating, other things you dislike. Do you continue dating this
person? Stress multiplies when we face several approach-avoidance
conflicts simultaneously.
3. Change - anything that results in a readjustment of one's life - this
can be both positive (wedding, new job, entering college) and negative
(death of someone close, divorce, etc.) - little evidence to say that
change is destined to result in stress - the theory states that the more
change a person experiences in a one year period, the more likely
he/she will get sick (example stress assessment included in
powerpoint)
4. Pressure- compelling influence or constraining force - expectations
that we act/behave in a certain way - to always be nice, to teach your
children to behave properly in all situations, to study well to get an A,
etc
5. Personality types- person's individual response to stress; one way
to address personality is to determine if the person may be Type A or
Type B
Type A personality style includes characteristics such as competitive,
highly motivated, unable to relax, concerned with time, angered easily,
aggressive
Type B personality style includes characteristics such as being easy
going, relaxed, understanding, and able to enjoy leisure time
Type A personalities:
 • Have more stress
 • Maintain stress for longer periods of time
 • Are two times more likely to have a heart attacks, if they have strong
emotional responses to stressors
6. Hardiness - reaction to environment with commitment (stay with it
for the long haul), control (having power over the situation) and
challenge (this is an obstacle to overcome); if we are low in hardiness,
we are more likely to experience negative consequences in reaction to
stress.

7. Hassles and uplifts - everyday annoyances (dealing with a job you

don't like, cooking supper after a hard day at work) or positive events
(being greeted by a smiling coworker, getting along with your family
and friends). Hassles can lead to an increased level of stress, but
uplifts can counterbalance the effects of hassles.

8. Acculturative stress- Stress resulting from contact between two cultural groups
Assimilation - assuming identity/practices of the mainstream culture
Integration - maintain personal cultural identity while moving into new
mainstream culture
Separation - separating oneself from mainstream culture
Marginalization - rejected by both mainstream and personal cultures

Regardless of which of these four types of acculturative stress occurs, a person can have
great difficulty adjusting to a new culture.

Seyle's General Adaptation Syndrome

According to Seyle, regardless of the source of stress, the body can be

affected. He says that we could experience three different stages of
stress reactions if we do not deal with the stressor.

Stage 1: ALARM REACTION

 • immediate response to stress
 • body and mind in temporary state of shock
 • BP and heart rate increase, loss of muscle tone
 • arousal of sympathetic nervous system
 • if we do not cope/deal with stressors, then we move to stage 2 within days
 or weeks of the initial stressor
Stage 2: RESISTANCE
 • cope with, adapt to, or resist stress
 • bodily systems remain at high levels
 • sympathetic nervous system still aroused
 • if we do not cope/deal with stressors, then we move to stage 3 within
weeks or months of the initial stressor
Stage 3: EXHAUSTION
 • bodily resources begin to deplete themselves
 • parasympathetic nervous system kicks in to relax and calm the body
 • most prone to viruses, disease, tissue damage, or death
 • warning signs of exhaustion:
*prolonged fatigue
* insomnia
* lack of appetite
* indigestion
* loss of libido (sex drive)
* inability to concentrate
*feeling that your life is out of control

Many physical and psychological symptoms can result from or be exaggerated by

stress:

headaches
neck, shoulder and back pain
change in sleeping habits
change in eating habits
loss of interest in pleasurable activities
loss of sex drive
gastrointestinal problems (ie.,heartburn, gas, constipation, diarrhea,
ulcers)
heart problems
breathing problems (ie., exaggerate symptoms of asthma)
increase risk of illness (ie., germ magnet for colds and flus)
increased risk for accidents
inability to concentrate
memory difficulties
decrease effectiveness of other medical therapies (ie., for cancer)

This list represents a small sample of the possible influences of stress on a human being.
Each person will react to stressor in different ways.

Coping strategies

No strategy will work for all people in all situations- experiment to

 determine what techniques work best for you
Problem focused strategies - work on the problem or stressor at
hand
 • problem solving, brainstorming, rational thinking
 • cognitive restructuring - restructure negative thoughts about the situation
into positive thoughts or reactions
 • time management
 • assertiveness training - stick up for yourself without hurting others
 • change the environment

Emotion-focused strategies - work on your personal reaction to

the stressor, rather than the stressor itself
 • support - talk about it, express your feelings, and receive feedback if
desired
 • optimistic/positive thoughts
 • self-efficacy - belief that we are capable of handling the situation
 • relaxation techniques; mediation; hypnosis
 • use humor
 • take time for yourself/give yourself permission to relax
 • healthy practices (eat right, exercise, get plenty of rest, decrease use of
caffeine and drugs)
Many situations may require both problem and emotion focused strategies. Healthy
living is best maintained by dealing with our stress in a timely and effective manner.
Other coping strategies are presented in the stress handout.

Development Across the Lifespan

Development is simply defined as change associated with age. Age can

be defined as time or experiences since conception. There are four
basic controversies of development:

1. NATURE VS. NURTURE. This issue addresses whether development

is primarily due to biological and genetic factors or to environment
factors. Theorists such a Hall and Gesell believe that heredity plays a
larger role on development than does the environment. Other
theorists, like Watson, believe that the environment and learning
influence development more than heredity.
A good example of an area of development where this controversy
exists is gender development. Does the child act like a boy/girl
because of the testosterone level or because of the reinforcement from
parents and society for gender appropriate/inappropriate behavior?

2. ACTIVITY VS. PASSIVITY. Does the child participate in the

learning/ developmental process or does biology and society determine
the development? Some believe that the child is curious and
exploratory, thus controlling or influencing some of his/her
development.
Others believe that we sit back and take what comes to us. Biological
influences unfold, resulting in proper development. Environmental
situations that we encounter will affect us even if we do not do
anything.

3. CONTINUITY VS. DISCONTINUITY. This issue addresses whether

past development influences future development. Continuity theorists
believe that early development is connected to later development -
behaviors build upon each other. However discontinuity theorists
believe that early behavior may have nothing to do with later
development. Old behaviors are replaced rather than built upon.
4. UNIVERSAL OR PARTICULARISTIC. The last controversy centers
on whether development is universal (common to everyone) or
particularistic (different from person to person).

These four issues are important issues that are addressed differently
by various developmental theories. Each development theory
approaches these issues from a slightly different viewpoint. However,
these issues are not clear cut, nor are there definite answers to the
questions that the issues bring.
FIRST PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT
Three stages of prenatal development
1. Zygote (Germinal)
• first two weeks after conception
• implantation of zygote (fertilized egg) on uterine wall
• doctors believe that 1/5 of all pregnancies are spontaneously aborted at this time
- an egg would be fertilized but would not attach to the uterine wall; instead the
zygote is discharged without the woman even knowing that she was pregnant
2. Embryo
• 3rd to 8th week after conception
• structures (nose, feet, fingers), organs (heart, lungs, kidneys), and systems
(reproductive, circulatory, digestive) begin to develop
• outside influences (teratogens) can harm embryo
A few examples of teratogens include:
Alcohol - infant can be born with fetal alcohol syndrome (enlarged
forehead, small physical stature, mental retardation)

Smoking (nicotene) - risk for premature birth or stillbirth

Cocaine - addiction to the drug, cognitive deficits, mental retardation,

withdrawal
If ingested, these drugs put the baby at risk for development of these
defects. Conclusive causal conclusions cannot be drawn because
experimentation with these manipulations (exposing pregnant women
to these teragtogens) would be unethical. Other teratogens include
radiation, mother's age and diet, exposure to pollution and danger
chemicals, sexually transmitted diseases, and many other factors.

3. Fetus
• 9th through 40th week after conception
• growth and refinement of structures and systems
• outside influences (teratogens) can still harm fetus
Full term birth is usually between 37 - 42 weeks gestation.

Newborn abilities of a healthy baby (repeat from perception

lecture)
Vision
 • acuity not adult level until 2nd half of first year, born with approximately
20/400 - 20/800 acuity
 • cones not fully developed - color perception develops around 2 - 3
months; toys that are black and white are easier than colored toys to see for the
newborn - contrasts, as opposed to primary colors, are best seen in the first few
months of life
 • prefer complex stimuli after 2 months

Hearing

 • can detect sounds and their locations

 • sounds muffled due to amniotic fluid in canal

Taste

 • early months prefer sweet tastes, later in first year prefer salty tastes
Smell
 • differentiates between smells, and like adults, prefer pleasant smells

Touch
 • sensitive to pain - contrary to past beliefs, babies can intensely feel pain
during circumcisms, surgeries, heal lancings, etc.

EMOTIONS AND EARLY SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Clearly a baby's feelings serve a communicative function that is

likely to affect the behavior of caregivers. Infant emotions are adaptive
in that they promote social contact and help caregivers adjust their
behaviors to the infant's needs and goals. Thus early emotional
behavior promotes an interaction between child and caregiver.

Often you will find that the affective behavior of the infant will
determine the response by the parent and vice versa. For example, if
you have a parent who is stressed, always uptight, etc. as the main
caregiver, the baby is likely to be fussy, tense in posture and react in a
negative fashion.

Conversely, consider the colicky baby. This baby is always fussy with
little hope of calming the child when in this state. Parents might
respond to this fussiness by becoming tense, stressed, and at the end
of their ropes. Thus parent and child have a reciprocal relationship.

TEMPERAMENT

TEMPERAMENT is the characteristic of personality that shows the style of

approaching and reacting to people and situations. Temperament has been defined as
the how of behavior; not what people do or why, but rather how they go about doing it.

Three issues in debate: is temperament inherited, are the

characteristics stable over the life time, and is it evident early
in life? Answer: still in debate. The definition states that temperament
is a personality characteristic. This definition would imply a little bit of
nature and a little bit of nurture. This definition would also imply that
the trait should be somewhat stable, yet modifiable by experience. A
personality trait is also expected to be present early in life, yet the
infant may not have the capabilities to show the trait. Temperament
seems to be a topic that is largely in dispute. Different researchers
seem to focus on slightly different aspects of what they call
temperament.

We will look at the NEW YORK LONGITUDINAL STUDY (NYLS) for

the classification system of temperament. This system is the most
commonly used classification system of temperament. The longitudinal
study followed 133 people from early infancy into adulthood. The
researchers identified nine aspects or components of temperament
that showed up soon after birth. In many cases, these aspects
remained relatively stable, though some people did show considerable
change. These nine components are:

• Activity level
• Rhythmicity or regularity of biological processes
• Approach or withdrawal (how a person initially responds to a new stimulus, like
a new toy, food, or person)
• Adaptability
• Threshold of responsiveness (how much stimulation is needed to evoke a
response)
• Intensity of reaction (how energetically a person responds)
• Quality of mood (whether a person's behavior is predominantly pleasant, joyful,
or friendly; or unpleasant, unhappy, and unfriendly)
 • Distractability - how easily an irrelevant stimulus can alter or interfere with a
person's behavior
• Attention span and persistence - how long a person pursues an activity and
continues in the face of obstacles.
THREE PATTERNS OF TEMPERAMENT. Almost 2/3rds of the children
studied fit into one of three categories:
Easy (40 percent of sample) - this baby is generally happy, rhythmic in
biological functioning, and accepting of new experiences;

Difficult (10 percent) - more irritable, irregular in biological patterns,

and more intense in expressing emotion;

Slow-to-warm-up (15 %) - generally mild and slow to adapt to new

experiences.

Many children (35 %) of the NYLS did not fit neatly into any of the three
groups. A baby may have regular eating and sleeping habits, yet be
fearful of strangers. Some children may be easy on some days but not
others. A children may be slow-to-warm-up to new foods but adapt
very quickly to new babysitters. Not all children are going to fit neatly
into one of the three groups.

GOODNESS OF FIT- About 1/3 of the NYLS subjects

developed behavior problems at some time. Most were mild
disturbances that showed up between ages 3-5 and cleared up
by adolescence, but some remained or grew worse by
adulthood.
No temperamental style was immune to problems. Even easy children
had problems when their lives had too much stress. One kind of
stress experienced is being expected to act in ways contrary to
basic temperament. If a highly active child is confined to a small
apartment and expected to sit still for long periods of time, if a slow-to-
warm-up child is pushed to adjust to many new people and situations,
or if a persistent child is constantly taken away from absorbing
projects, trouble may result. The key to healthy adjustment
is "goodness of fit" between the children and the demands placed
upon them.

The goodness of fit between parent and child, the degree to which
parents feel comfortable with the child they have, is also important
because it affects parents' feelings toward their children. Thus
energetic, active parents may become impatient with a slow-moving,
not-a-care-in-the-world child, while more easy going parents might
welcome such a personality.
One of the most important things that a parent can do is accept the
child's temperament style and the behavior that coincides, instead of
trying to cast the child into a mold of the parent's design. Do not try to
make the child something that the child is not. Recognition of inborn
temperament style relieves parents of some heavy emotional baggage.
When parents understand that a child acts a certain way not of
willingness, laziness, or stupidity but because of inborn temperament,
they are less likely to feel guilty, anxious, or hostile, or to act rigid or
impatient. They can help the child use the temperament style as a
strength instead of a weakness.

ATTACHMENT

What is attachment? John Bowlby used the term to refer to the

strong affectional ties that bind two people together.
Attachment is an active, affectionate reciprocal relationship between
two people. According to Bowlby, people who are attached interact
often and will try to maintain proximity to each other. Cohen,
another researcher, suggests that attachments are selective in
character; the company of some people is more pleasing or
reassuring than that of others. For example, a 2 year-old girl who is
attached to her mother should prefer the mother's company to that of
a mere acquaintance whenever she is upset, discomforted, or afraid.

Some researchers believe in a sensitive period for emotional

bonding. They believe that caregivers can become emotionally
bonded to an infant during the first few hours after birth, provided
that they are given an opportunity to be with their baby. Specifically,
they argued that early skin-to-skin contact between mothers and
their babies would make mothers especially responsive to their infants
and promote the development of strong mother-to-infant emotional
bonds. The research reports that the first 6-12 hours are the sensitive
period for bonding. However, this sensitive period claim is in dispute.

Goldberg reviewed the literature and found that the sensitive period
may not be so important. In one well controlled study in which mothers
and neonates were carefully observed for a nine-day period, the
advantages of early contact steadily declined over the nine days. By
the ninth day after birth, early contact mothers were no more
affectionate or responsive toward their infants than mothers who had
no skin-to-skin contact with their babies for several hours after birth.
The delayed mothers showed a significant increase in the
responsiveness over the nine day period suggesting that the
hours immediately after birth are not so critical.

Most adoptive parents are quite satisfied with and will develop close
emotional ties to the adopted children, even though they have rarely
had any contact with the child during the neonatal period. The
likelihood that a mother and her infant will become securely attached
is just as high with adoptive families as in non-adoptive families.

The research tells us that parents can become highly involved with
their infants during the first few hours if they are permitted to touch,
hold, cuddle, and play with their babies. As a result many parents have
altered their routine practices to encourage these practices. However,
it appears that this early contact is neither crucial nor
sufficient for the development of strong parent-to-infant or
infant-to-parent attachments. Stable attachments between infants
and caregivers are not formed in a matter of minutes, days, or hours;
they build rather slowly from social interactions that take place over
many weeks and months. There is no reason for parents who have not
had early skin-to-skin contact with their infant to assume that they will
have problems establishing a warm and loving relationship with the
child.

THE FATHER'S ROLE

Many fathers form close bonds with their infants shortly after birth.
Proud new fathers admire their babies and feel drawn to pick them up.
This reaction, called engrossment is defined as a father's absorption
in, preoccupation with and interest in his infant. Babies develop bonds
with their fathers about the same time that they form bonds with their
mother. In one study, babies 1 year old or older protested about
equally against being separated from both mother and father, while
younger babies did not protest against either parent's departure. When
both parents were present, just over half were more likely to go to their
mothers. Another study found that although babies prefer both the
mother and the father over a stranger, they usually prefer their
mothers over their fathers when the baby is upset. This preference is
probably because mothers typically care for them more often than
fathers do. It will be interesting to see whether the nature of the father-
infant attachment changes in families in which the father is the
primary caregiver.

Cognitive development

PIAGETIAN THEORY

1. What is cognition? Cognition refers to the activity of knowing,

or the mental processes by which knowledge is acquired,
elaborated, stored, retrieved, or used to solve problems. Almost
everything we do while we are awake involves some kind of mental
activity (attending, perceiving, interpreting, comparing, etc.).

2. What is cognitive development? Cognitive development is

change that occurs in children's mental skills and abilities over
time.
BACKGROUND AND IMPORTANT FEATURES OF PIAGETIAN THEORY

Piaget takes a structural-functional approach: a model that

emphasizes the biological functions and the environment influences
that promote developmental changes in the organization or "structure"
of intellect.

PIAGET'S PERSONAL BACKGROUND (why he developed theory): He was

a zoologist who developed a strong interest in cognitive development
while standardizing intelligence tests. His job was to administer a large
number of precisely worded questions to his young test takers in order
to determine the age at which the majority of them could correctly
answer each of them. However, Piaget soon became interested in the
children's wrong answers when he discovered that children of roughly
the same age were making similar kinds of mistakes, errors that were
typically quite different from the incorrect responses of older and
younger children. Piaget thought that these age-related differences in
errors reflected developmental steps or stages. He began to suspect
that how children know is probably a much better indicator of their
cognitive abilities than what they may know.

METHOD OF RESEARCH: Many of Piaget's ideas about intelligence and

intellectual development during infancy are based on
naturalistic observations of his own children. He also used the clinical
method: a question and answer technique that he devised to measure
the ways children attacked various problems and thought about
everyday issues.

What is INTELLIGENCE? According to Piaget, it is a BASIC LIFE

FUNCTION THAT HELPS THE ORGANISM TO ADAPT TO ITS
ENVIRONMENT. He also says that intellectual activity is undertaken
with one goal in mind: to produce a balanced relationship between
one's thought processes and the environment.

Piaget stressed that children are ACTIVE and CURIOUS explorers who
constantly encounter objects and ideas that aren't understood. These
imbalances between what is known and what is experienced
(information that is not understood) would prompt the child to make
mental adjustments that would enable the child to cope with puzzling
new experiences and thereby restore cognitive equilibrium.
He described the child as a constructivist: if children are to know
something, they must construct that knowledge themselves. The child
acts on novel objects and events and thereby gains some
understanding of their essential features. The child's constructive
reality will depend on the knowledge available to him at that time. The
more immature the child's cognitive system, the more limited his
interpretation of an environmental event.

All individuals, regardless of age will construct knowledge using two

processes:

1. 1. ASSIMILATION is the PROCESS by which the individual tries to

interpret new experiences in terms of existing models of the
world - the schemes that he already possesses. (child receives a
new toy and shakes it the same way that he shook his old rattle;
calling a quarter a nickel because he has only previously seen a
nickel)

2. 2. ACCOMMODATION is the PROCESS of MODIFYING existing

structures in order to account for new experiences (learning that
a quarter is a quarter and not a nickel; changing the way he
plays with the new toy because it does not make sounds like the
rattle)

Every ASSIMILATION process ordinarily involves ACCOMMODATION to

that experience (how our knowledge base grows). The end product is
adaptation, a state of equilibrium between the child's cognitive
structure and the environment.
In sum, intellectual growth is an active process in which children are
repeatedly assimilating new experiences and accommodating their
cognitive structures.

According to Piaget, there are four stages of cognitive development:

(ages are approximate)

SENSORIMOTOR STAGE (BIRTH - 2 YRS.)

PREOPERATIONAL STAGE (2 - 7 YRS.)
CONCRETE OPERATIONS (7 - 11 YRS.)
FORMAL OPERATIONS (11 YRS. & BEYOND)

These stages of intellectual growth represent completely different

levels of cognitive functioning and according to Piaget, all children will
progress through the stages in precisely the same order, without ever
skipping a stage.
The ordering of stages and the belief that they are the same for
everyone reflects his view that biological maturation plays an
important role in determining how a child thinks. Stages can never be
skipped because each successive stage builds on the accomplishment
of all previous stages.

Piaget realized individual differences in children existed and that

environmental and cultural factors may accelerate or retard a childs
rate of intellectual growth. Any child can spend more or less time in a
particular stage than is indicated by the "norm".

1. SENSORIMOTOR STAGE: spans the first 2 years of life (or infancy).

In this stage, infants begin to coordinate their SENSORY input and
MOTOR responses in order to act on and get to know the environment.
During the first 2 years, infants evolve from reflexive creatures with
very limited knowledge into planful problem solvers who have already
learned a great deal about themselves and the world around them.

DEVELOPMENTS OF THIS STAGE:

Piaget believed that children learn to imitate during this stage. Infants
progressively learn to imitate simple behaviors (make faces) to
complex behaviors (picking up toys).

OBJECT PERMANENCE - the idea that objects continue to exist when

they are no longer visible or detectable through the other senses. At 4
- 8 months, infants will continue to search for an object that is partially
hidden. They will not search for objects that are completely hidden (out
of sight out of mind). At 8 -12 months, infants show something called
the AB error. When searching for a disappearing object, the 8-12-
month-old will look in the place where it was previously found rather
than the place where it was last seen.

PIAGET'S EXPLANATION: the child acts as if her behavior determines

where the object will be found; she does not treat the object as if it
exists independently of her own activity.

2. PREOPERATIONAL PERIOD (2 - 6 years) - children are becoming

increasingly proficient at using mental symbols (words and images) to
represent objects, situations, and events that they encounter. Evidence
for this development is object permanence, language, symbolic play (in
which the child can take one object and use for play as a different
object - ie., spoons for drumsticks and pots and pans for the drums.)

DEFICITS of the preoperational period:

- ANIMISM - a willingness to attribute life and lifelike qualities to
inanimate objects. (setting sun was alive, angry and hiding behind
mountain)

- EGOCENTRISM - tendency to view the world from one's own

perspective and to have difficulty recognizing another's point of view
(child talking on the telephone with Grandmother and asking if
Grandmother sees the puppy - puppy is at child's house, child believes
that Grandmother can see the puppy because this is what she, the
child, sees).

- Difficulty with the APPEARANCE/REALITY DISTINCTION - The child

sees an object and watches as you change the object. The child does
not understand that although you made some minor change, the
object is still the same ( Halloween: see dad put mask on but is still
scared of what appears to be a werewolf). During the late end (6 yrs.)
of this stage, children can make this distinction.

- CENTRATION - children focus on the most salient featrue of the

stimulus; they don't seem to consider all the aspects of a stimulus at
once.

- CLASS INCLUSION TASK - You have a set of wooden beads

with most of them brown and few white in color. If you ask the
child whether all are wooden beads, the child would "say yes".
When you ask whether there are more white than brown beads,
they "say brown". If you ask whether there are more brown than
wooden beads they "say brown". The child is focusing on the
color aspect of the beads and fails to recognize that they all are
included in a higher order class (wooden beads).

- CONSERVATION- preoperational children are incapable of

conservation; they fail to realize that certain properties of objects
(volume, mass, or number) remain unchanged when the object's
appearance is altered in some way. (Two children have the same size
pizza, yet you cut one child's piece into four smaller pieces - the other
child is upset because the first child has more pizza. Although both
have the same mass of pizza, the children believe that the one child
with four pieces has more pizza than the child who has one piece).

3. CONCRETE OPERATIONS - a person in this stage is now able to

conserve (no more little arguments over who has more pizza ... at least
when they are equal) -
This person is now able to logically think about concrete events or
topics. In other words, this individual should be able to plan a birthday
party (they have been to a party before or they can image what to
expect). If the topic or problem is not concrete, the issue cannot be
logically discussed by the person. For example, freedom is not concrete
- we cannot see or visually imagine freedom (or at least a universal
definition). Freedom is abstract and the person cannot yet logically
process this concept.

This person is now able to perform advanced math operations (basic

algebra, geometry, fractions, etc.)

4. FORMAL OPERATIONS - This person is now capable of logically

processing abstract concepts. Discussions about freedom and justice
will now make sense. This person is able to think like a scientist by
creating hypotheses and testing them.

Research has shown that not all individuals make it to the formal
operations stage.

ERIKSON'S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

To Erikson, the major drama of development is the formation of the ego

identity, an integrated, unique, and autonomous sense of self. The ego
identity is the product of psychosocial development. He believes that
children are active, adaptive explorers who seek to control their
environment rather than passive creatures who are slaves to biological
urges and moldings by their parents. He also believed that one must
understand the realities of the social world in order to adapt
successfully and show a normal pattern of personal growth.

Erikson outlines eight stages of psychosocial development. Every stage

involves an encounter with the environment. In each stage, there is a
conflict between an adaptive and a maladaptive way of handling the
encounter. Each conflict must be successfully resolved in the
period in which it predominates, before a person is fully
prepared to deal with the conflict that predominates
next. Successful resolution is relative and involves developing a
"favorable ratio" between the adaptive and maladaptive alternate (ie.,
individual must learn to trust others, while at the same time holding on
to some mistrust to prepare them for future dangers -but must have
more trust than mistrust).

The resolution of the conflict depends on the interaction of the

individuals' characteristics and the support provided by the social
environment. A favorable outcome results in positive outlooks and
feelings, which in turn makes it easier to cope with subsequent
challenges. An unfavorable outcome leaves a person troubled and at
a disadvantage in future stages and possible psychological disorders.
According to Erikson, conflict and challenge over each of the
psychosocial issues are needed for healthy growth and dev.

ERIKSON'S PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGES

Birth to 1 year BASIC TRUST VS. MISTRUST

Human life is a social endeavor that involves links and interactions
among people. Whether children come to trust or mistrust themselves
and other people depends on their early experiences. Infants must
learn to trust others to care for their basic needs. Infants whose needs
are met and who are cuddled and shown genuine affection evolve a
sense of the world as a safe and dependable place. In contrast, if
caregivers are rejecting or inconsistent in their care, the infant may
view the world as a dangerous place filled with untrustworthy or
unreliable people. Primary caregiver is the key social agent for this
conflict.

1 to 3 years AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT Children in this stage

must learn how to do things themselves (ie., groom, eat, etc.). As they
begin to explore and do things themselves, they must decide whether
and how much to assert themselves. When parents are patient,
cooperative and encouraging, children acquire a sense of
independence and competence. In contrast, when children are not
allowed such freedom and are overprotected, they develop an
excessive sense of shame and doubt. The child must develop a balance
of independence over doubt and shame. Failure to achieve this
independence may force the child to doubt his/her own abilities and
feel shameful. Parents are key social agents.

3-6 years INITIATIVE VS. GUILT Children in this stage are developing
cognitively and physically at an enormous rate. Parents who give their
children freedom in doing activities are allowing the children to develop
initiative. Parents who curtail this freedom are giving children a sense
of themselves as nuisances and inept intruders in an adult world.
Rather than actively and confidently shaping their own behaviors, such
children become passive recipients of whatever the environment
brings. Successful resolution of this crisis requires a balance: the child
must retain a sense of initiative and yet learn not to infringe on the
rights, privileges, or goals of others. Family is key social agent.

6-12 years INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY Children must master important

social and academic skills. Children must learn skills of the culture or
face feelings of inferiority. During the elementary years, a child
becomes concerned about how things work and how they are made. As
children move into the world of school, they gain a sense of industry by
winning recognition for their achievements. They may instead acquire
a sense of inadequacy and inferiority. Parents and teachers who
support, reward, and praise children are encouraging industry. Those
who criticize or ignore children's efforts are strengthening feelings of
inferiority. This stage is also a period when the child compares the self
with peers, so the significant social agents are peers, teachers, and
parents.

12-20 years. IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION This is a crossroad

between childhood and adolescence. They grapple with the question of
"who am I" - must establish basic social and occupational identities, or
become confused as which roles to play as an adult. Key social agent is
society of peers.

20-40 years INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION The goal is to form strong

friendships and to achieve a sense of love and companionship with
another person. Person seeks to make commitments to others.
Intimacy finds expression in deep friendships. Central to intimacy is the
ability to share with and care about another person without fear of
losing oneself in the process. If the person is unsuccessful, then
loneliness, isolation, or self absorption results. Key agents are lovers,
spouses, children, and cultural norms.

40-65 years. GENERATIVITY VS. ISOLATION By generativity, Erikson

means reaching out beyond one's own immediate concerns to embrace
the welfare of society and of future generations. Becoming productive
in their work, raising their families or looking after the needs of young
people can result in generativity. We are concerned with establishing
and guiding the next generation. Standards of "generativity" are
defined by one's culture. If one is unable or unwilling to assume these
responsibilities, he/she will become stagnant and/or self-centered.
Social agents are spouses, children, and cultural norms.

65 years to death EGO INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR Older adults will look
back on life, viewing it as either a meaningful, productive, and happy
experience or a major disappointment full of unfulfilled promises and
unrealized goals. One will either achieve a sense of acceptance of
one's own life, allowing the acceptance of death, or else fall into
despair. One's life experiences will determine the outcome of this final
life crisis.

Many developmental changes occur beyond childhood. Below is a

brief listing of accomplishments and experiences for
adolescents and adults.
Adolescence

puberty - physical changes resulting in sexual maturation (ability to

reproduce)

identity formation - deals with the question "Who am I"

adolescent egocentrism is a pattern of thought experienced by many

adolescents - This egocentrism is broken down into two different
thought processes: "it is not going to happen to me - I am unique"
(personal fable); "everyone is looking at me" (imaginary audience)

formal thought and abstract reasoning

independence

greater influence of peers compared to earlier ages

Adulthood

Early

 • cognitive peak - being at one's mental best (mid to late 20's)

 • interested in intimacy and family
 • may be career focused

Middle

 • productive in society
 • possible mid-life crisis (rare occurrence; equally likely to be experienced
by men and women)
 • children leaving home - most parents are not upset when the last child
leaves home, rather marital satisfaction is likely to increase
 • menopause (ceasation of menstration)
 • becoming grandparents

Late

 • problems with attention & subsequent short term memory

 • senses are less acute - taste buds are less sensitive, hearing loss (especially
of high pitched noises - voices), vision issues (night blindness, farsightedness,
glaucoma, etc.)
 • movement may be more difficult
 • maintain wisdom
 • retirement
 • issues of dying (our own and others around us)