Crabs in the bucket

I like this story i read from Yan's blog.

"Why don't you cover you bait so the crabs won't escape?"
"You don't understand."

"If there is a crab in the bucket it would surely crawl out very quickly."

"However, when there are many crabs in the bucket, if one tries crawl up the side, the others would grab hold of it and pull it back down so that it will share the same fate as the rest of them."

So is the real world. If we get better grades, improve ourselves, be outspoken, think ahead or dream big, others will try to drag us back down to share their faith.

Rapid Eye Movement & Dreaming

Dement & Kleitman's sleep lab experiment
woke up 9 participants attached to EEG & EOG
at interval during the night
to recall dream

1. REM sleeping correlated with dreaming
High incidence of dream recall during REM periods
opposite for NREM periods

2. Length of REM correlated with dream duration estimates
(5-15 mins) & number of words used to narrate dreams

3. Pattern of eye movement correlated with the dream content
i) Vertical movement: climb a ladder
ii) Horizontal movement: watch 2 people throw tomatoes
iii) Both above: observe close at people or object
iv) Little or no movement: look at things in the distance

20 minutes of dreams every 92 minutes on average

Validity Vs Reliability
Quantitative Vs Qualitative

Classical conditioning

E told S: "Got cake today, you know?"

"Go..t cake today ahh!!!!???
Run... ru...run, faster!", S responded.


A typical example of classical conditioning
students like Pavlov's dog salivated and
ran out of classroom when
bell rang.
It's a form of associative learning,
positively reinforced.

What determine emotion?

Happy or angry because you get physiological arousal or cognitive cues from environment.

Schachter & Singer validate the two-factor theory of emotion
(cognitive labelling theory) in a lab by injecting (physiological arousal)
adrenaline (called suproxin, a vitamin that test vision effects) on
Epi-informed, Epi-misinformed, Epi-ignorant and placebo groups of
184 male Psychology students
with the present of a euphoric or anger stooge that
provided environmental cues

Results shown
1. The happiness gradient in the euphoria condition was
Epi mis> Epi Mis> Placebo> Epi Mis Inf.
2. The opposite for anger condition
Epi Ign > Placebo > Epi Inf

Therefore, physiological arousal without appropriate explanation, emotion experience is influenced by cognitive/environmental/situational cue.

Why do people obey authority?

Dispositional/individual or situational explanation

Milgram carried out a lab experiment in Yale University
40 men chosen and paid to be 'teacher', a biology teacher as an 'experimenter' and an accountant as a 'learner'.
Shock generator and prods were used
Shocking findings:
26/40 participants gave the maximum 450 volts.
5 dropped out at 300 volts, 4 dropped out at 315 volts. 5 refused before the end.
(a total of 14 disobeyed completely)
Participants shown signs of extreme tension
Ethics: Consent, Debrief, Deception, Harm, Right to withdraw

Obedience is not innate, but learned in the situation.

The Guardian

There are stories. Incredible stories (Amanda)
What's it with you, huh? (Lulu)
There's a reason you are like you are. (Alvin)
Do you have a problem with what we're doing?(Kim)
You men sure will be boys. (Amanda)
You are a lot like your Dad. Anybody ever tell you that? (Henry)
I think you are putting on an act. (Amanda)
It didn't seem like you to do something so emotional. (Lulu)
Be smart, stay healthy. (Colin)
You sort of move through space, and nothing touches you. (Lulu)
Nick, you're a man now. (Burton to Nick)
I can't waste anymore time giving people second chances. (Nick)
You got one, didn't you! (Laurie)
Your honour, this is a joke. (Lulu)
~GuardianSpeak

Maternal deprivation and later attachment

Hodges & Tizard's longitudinal study about social and family relationships of
1. institutional and ex-institutional adolescents
2. adopted, restored and control groups of adolescents

Reexamine Bowlby's attachment theory

Attrition rate increased from 2, 4 ,8 to 16-year-old

Self-report measures used
1. Interview: a) adolescents; b) mother
2. Self-report questionnaire about 'social difficulties'
2. Postal questionnaire with teacher
3. Psychometric test: Rutter 'B' Scale

Together we can own

W : Own what?
(Query the tag line created by B while playing DotA)
B: Own the world!
W: Are there ideas for change?
(Thinking of Obama)
B:Togetherness causes ownership over
oneself! (Tact is for people who lack the wit for sarcasm)
DotA is the mastermind that
transforms the learning experiences of today's
generation Z.

Phobia of a 5-year-old boy & Oedipus Complex

Freud used a case study method to investigate Little Han's phobia

5 Psycho-sexual stages of child development
1. Oral stage (birth -15 months)
2. Anal stage (15 months - 3-year-old)
3. Phallic stage (3 - 5-year-old) : experiences Oedipus Complex
4. Latency stage (5-year-old - puberty)
5. Genital stage ( Puberty onwards)

Findings
1. 3-year-old Hans developed interest in his 'widdler'
2. Almost 5-year-old Hans had fear of horses, bitten by horses
3. A big giraffe and a crumpled giraffe dream
4. Fear of bath
5. Fantasy to marry his mother and be a father
6. Fantasy of a plumber providing larger widdler

Reductionism vs holism
Classical conditioning of phobias or attachment issues or
Psychoanalysis and theories

Lack of Conservation at Pre-Operational Stage

Do the quantity of an object remain the same despite the change of its appearance (Conservation)?

Younger children can cope better if they were asked only one question rather than two questions pre- and post-transformation.

Piaget may have underestimated what younger children can do because using two questions confused them.

Samuel & Bryant's partial replication of Piaget's experiment
3 conditions:
1. Standard condition -two questions (least errors)
2. One judgment condition - one question
3. Fixed array control (most errors)

3 types of conservation task
1. Conservation of volume (hardest)
2. Conservation of mass
3. Conservation of number (easiest)

252 children from Devon
5 (more errors), 6, 7, 8-year-olds (fewer errors)

Applications, validity & reliability issues

Mickey & Donald

Mickey was unpacking after his extended break.
Donald: You're back from Disneyland ah!
Mickey: What about you? (Sound annoyed duh)
Donald: Me too.
Are they friends or foes?

Learning aggression by imitation

Social Learning Theory by Bandura emphasises the role of observation and imitation of role model

In a lab experiment, children exposed to the aggressive model, non-aggressive model or the control group, subdivided into 4 gender groups.

3 phases of experiment
1. Modelling: Children watching a model playing with toys.
2. Aggression arousal: The children briefly played with attractive toys but then had to stop.
3. Delayed imitation: Children observed playing with toys.

3 measures of imitation obtained
1. Imitative physical aggression
2. Imitative verbal aggression
3. Imitative non-aggressive verbal responses

Effects of aggressive model and gender
Operant conditioning or Freud's identification with aggressor
Ecological validity and reliability of a snapshot study

Teaching American Sign Language to a Chimpanzee

Language learning ability is nature or nurture?

Gardner & Gardner's case study on Washoe.
Training methods used (IV): Imitation, shaping & reinforcement reward-tickling

3 observers, a sign had to appear at least once a day over a period of 15 consecutive days to be counted.

After 22 months, 30 signs had been learned (DV),
showed differentiation, transfer and combination,
demonstrated semanticity, generalisation, displacement and creaticity,
but structure-dependence.

Human Vs non-human animals ethical issues

Autistic child & Theory of Mind

'Triad of impairments' experienced by autistic children:
Impaired social interaction, social communication & imagination.


Can they represent the mental state of another person (T.O.M.)?

Baron-Cohen, Leslie & Frith's quasi-experiment.
Autistic, Down's syndrome & 'Normal' children were tested.


Test 1 Sally-Anne Test
1. Naming Question: Name the dolls
2. Reality Question: Where is the marble really?
3. Memory Question: Where was the marble at the beginning?
4. Belief Question: Where will Sally look for the marble?

Test 2 : Repeated Test 1 but the marble was put in the experimenter's pocket.

Control understanding, intelligence & maturation
Low ecological validity & Ethics