Psychology: Physiological Psychology: Relation of eye movements in sleep to dream activity

Psychology: Physiological Psychology: Relation of eye movements in sleep to dream activity

Author: Dement and Kleitman (1957)

Key terms: Sleep and dreaming

Background/Context:

• Scientific studies of sleep and dreaming increased after the invention of physiological techniques to measure brain activity which could indicate dreaming (EEG - Electro-encephalograph) and electrical recording of eye movement (EOG - Electro-oculogram).
• In 1953 Aserinsky identified REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement). There are 4 stages of NREM, with 1 being the lightest and 4 the deepest. 
• When we sleep, we alternate between REM and NREM sleep. 
• Previous studies show that people woken from REM sleep were more likely to report having a vivid dream than those in NREM. 
• This shows dreams most likely occur in REM sleep. 
• REM is similar to being awake as our brains are most active, and our eyes move behind their eyelids. However we are difficult to wake up during REM sleep and the brain releases signals to keep our muscles paralyzed so we do not move while dreaming.
• EEG (electro-encephalograph) detects and records tiny electrical changes associated with nerve and muscle activity, producing a chart that shows brain waves, which change with frequency and amplitude. 
• Brain waves during REM sleep are low voltage, high amplitude, whereas in NREM sleep they're high voltage and low amplitude.
• Nowadays EEGs are computerized, but in this study the graphs were drawn on continuous running paper. The faster the paper moved, the more detail could be recorded. Paper usually moved at 3mm - 6mm per second. 
• Same electrodes used for the EEG can be used to record eye movements when placed near the eyes. The output is called a EOG (electro-oculagram), which indicates the presence or absence of eye movements, the size and their direction. 

Sleep cycle graph

Aim/hypothesis:

1. Does dreaming occur in REM or NREM sleep?
2. Can participants accurately estimate the length of time they've been dreaming?
3. Do eye movement patterns match dream content?
   Sub-question:
4. Does duration of REM sleep correlate with number of words (description/narrative) in a reported dream?

Method:

• Aim 1, 3 and the sub-question (4) were naturalistic observations because REM and NREM sleep occurs naturally. 
• Aim 2 was a laboratory experiment because participants were woken up to see if they can estimate the time they were dreaming.

Variables:

• Aim 1: IV: REM and NREM sleep. DV: No. of dreams recalled in each state.
• Aim 2: IV: Woken after 5 minutes and woken after 15 minutes. DV: No. of correct dream length estimations. 
• Aim 3: IV: Direction of eye movement. DV: Description of dream (or no dream) when woken.
• Aim 4 (sub-question): DV: Total number of words used to describe a dream correlating with length of dream. 

Design: Repeated measures - All participants slept and woken up at various times.

Participants and sampling technique: 

• 9 adult participants in total: 7 male, 2 female.
• 5 main participants studied in detail
• 4 participants used to confirm data from main 5.
• Main 5 spent 6-17 nights in laboratory and were tested with 50-77 awakenings.
• 4 others spent 1-2 nights in laboratory and tested with 4-10 awakenings.
• Each patient identified with their initials.

Apparatus:

• Bed
• Electrodes connected to EEG
• Door bell
• Tape recorder

Controls:

• All participants asked not to drink alcohol (depressant) or caffeine (stimulant).
• All participants woken with a bell.
• All participants recorded their dream into a tape recorder.

Procedure:

1. During daytime participants ate normally, but didn't drink caffeine or alcohol.
2. Participants arrived at the laboratory before normal bedtime and were fitted with electrodes on the scalp (to record brain waves) and near the eyes (to record eye movements). 
3. They then went to a quiet, dark room and wires from the electrodes were gathered into a 'pony tail' from the person's head so they can move freely.
4. EEG and EOG would run continuously through the night to monitor participant's sleep stages and inform the experimenters when to wake the participant.
5. Participants were woken with a doorbell, so experimenters did not have to enter the room, therefore participants were all treated the same way.
6. Door bell would ring at various times during the night and when participants woke up they would say whether or not they had a dream, and if they did, they would describe their dream into a voice recorder. Descriptions were only considered a dream if it was a understandable, fairly detailed description. 

Participants had different conditions of REM and NREM wakenings, which were chosen by the experimenter:

• PM and KC were woken randomly to prevent possibility of unintentional pattern.
• WD also woken randomly, but told he would only be woken from dream (REM) sleep.
• DN woken in repeating pattern of 3 REM sleeps then 3 NREM sleeps.
• Waking of IR chosen by the experimenter.

Data:

• Quantitative: Instances of dream recall in each stage, dream length estimation and no. of words in dream description.
• Qualitative: Descriptions of dream.

Results

Aim 1: Dream recall in REM and NREM sleepResults from Aim 1's study

• Participants described dreams more often when woken from REM sleep and hardly in NREM sleep. 
• This was accurate for every participant. 
• WD's recalls were no less accurate despite being misled.
• DN was no more accurate even though he might have guessed the pattern of wakings.
• Recall of dreams during NREM sleep was much more likely if participant was awoken soon after end of REM sleep.
• Participants woken in NREM sleep described feelings such as anxiety or pleasantness but not specific dream content.

Aim 2: Estimation of dream length

• Asking participants to guess their dream time was too difficult, so instead they were asked whether they had been dreaming for 5 or 15 minutes, in which participants would respond more accurately.
• For participants who dreamt for 15 minutes, participants guessed right 88% of the time.
• For participants who dreamt for 5 minutes, participants guessed right 78% of the time.
• Only DN consistently underestimated dream length because he could only remember the end of his dream, making his 5 minute dream estimates accurate but not 15.

Aim 4 (sub-question - length of dream description correlating to duration of REM sleep):

• 152 dream narratives collected, but only 146 were able to be accurately transcripted. 
• 15-35 dreams per participant.
• Significant correlation between REM sleep and number of words, although affected by how expressive participant was.
• Dream descriptions for longer REM sleep were not much longer than dream descriptions for 15 minutes.

Aim 3: Eye movement patterns and dream content

• Participants were woken after 1 minute of continuous specific eye movement (vertical, horizontal, both of little movement).
• 3 out of 9 participants who had frequent vertical eye movements reported dreams about vertical movement.
• One participant dreamed about standing under a cliff, looking at various climbers on the cliff and down at his hoist machine. 
• A participant who showed horizontal eye movement had a dream about people throwing tomatoes at each other.
• The 10 times participants were woken after little or no eye movement reported having dreams of watching something in the distance or staring at a fixed object.
• In 2 cases participants had dreams about driving.
• The 21 wakings after mixed eye movement participants reported having dreams about looking at things or people nearby (instead of far away) eg. Fighting or talking to a group.
• Dement and Klietman also recorded participants eye movement when awake and discovered their waking eye movements when looking at nearby objects were similar to when dreaming of looking at nearby objects. 

Conclusions:

Aim 1: Vivid, visual dreams reported only from waking during or shortly after REM sleep. REM sleep is longer later in the night so dreaming is more likely at this time.

Aim 2: Dreams are not instantaneous events but actually happen in 'real time'.

Aim 4 (sub-question): The longer the duration of REM sleep, the more words are in the dream description.

Aim 3: Eye movements during REM sleep correlate to where and what the dreamer is looking at. Therefore eye movements are directly related to dream imagery and are similar to when we are awake.

Strengths:

• Laboratory experiment - High levels of control - No caffeine or alcohol, doorbell sound, EEG monitoring, different set waking for each participant - Easy to replicate to test for validity.
• Laboratory experiment - High levels of control - Easy to conclude IV directly affects DV (dream recall affected by stage of sleep).
• Physiological psychology - Most people are the same physiologically - Can be generalized to an extent.

Weaknesses:

• Laboratory experiment - Lacks mundane realism - Being woken multiple times and asked to verbally record your dream with electrodes on your head is not what usually happens in real life.
• Laboratory experiment - Lacks ecological validity - Sleeping in a laboratory with electrodes on your head is unnatural, therefore results can be invalid since they can be different in real life.
• Generalization - Only 5 participants were studied in detail, therefore the study cannot be generalized to the wider population.
• Reductionism - Findings based around biological reasons for dreams - Does not take into account psychological reasons that could affect dream content.

Psychology: Physiological psychology: Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional state

Psychology: Physiological psychology: Cognitive, social and physiological determinants of emotional state

Author: Schachter and Singer (1962)

Key term: Emotion

Background/context: 

• Earlier theories suggested that emotion was only based on physiological factors.
  Different theories of emotion.
• Two factor theory (cognitive labeling theory): Schachter believed that emotion is a result of both physiological and psychological (cognitive) components. This involves the individual giving reasoning to their physiological arousing and labelling it as a certain emotion.

Aim/Hypothesis: To test these 3 propositions:

1. When someone experiences a state of physiological arousal with no immediate explanation, they will label it depending on the physical cognitions available. So the same state of arousal (eg. Increased heartbeat) could receive different labels (eg. Joy/anger) depending on the physical aspects of the situation (eg. a scary animal or your boyfriend)
2. If someone experiences a state of physiological arousal for which they have an explanation for, they will label it appropriately and not be affected by other physical factors.
3. In the same circumstances, someone will describe their feelings as emotions, but only to the extent that they feel a state of physiological arousal.

Method: Laboratory experiment with observation and self-report.

Variables: 

Independent variables:

All participants were told they were being tested for the effect of Suproxin on vision, but Suproxin is a fictional made up drug and they were actually being injected with Epinephrine.

Epinephrine is a drug which almost always perfectly mimics stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system: increase in blood pressure, slight increase in heart rate,  slight increase in respiration. Major symptoms are palpitations, tremors and sometimes a flushed feeling. These effects usually begin 3-5 minutes after the injection and last for 15-20 minutes.

1. EPI INF (Epinephrine informed): Injected with epinephrine and told the real side effects (palpitations, tremors, warm feeling). Information was reinforced by a doctor.
2. EPI IGN (Epinephrine ignored): Injected with epinephrine and experimenter said nothing about side effects. Doctor said the injection was mild and harmless and would have no side effects.
3. EPI MIS (Epinephrine misinformed): Injected with epinephrine and told they would feel side effects from the Suproxin such as feet feeling numb, itchiness and a slight headache, that would last 15-20 minutes. None of these are the actual symptoms.
4. Placebo (control): Injected with Saline solution (salt solution) which have no side effects and were not told anything. 

Explanatory cognitions:

1. Euphoria: Immediately after injection experimenter left and the doctor returned with a stooge (actor), who he said was another participant. They were brought to a room and told they had to wait 20 minutes while the Suproxin kicked in, and the doctor apologized for the messy room. The stooge began acting according to a script consisting of 15 behaviors such as making paper airplanes, playing with the hula hoop, initiating a basketball game, etc).
2. Anger: Began the same way as the euphoric condition, but the participant and stooge were asked to spend the 20 minutes filling out a questionnaire. Before starting, stooge would state it was unfair to not be told about the injection beforehand. The 5 page questionnaire starts of innocent but grows more and more intrusive and personal. The stooge makes standardized comments about the questionnaire, becoming more argumentative and angry. Eventually, when he gets to the question asking about frequency of sexual intercourse, he rips up his paper and storms out the room.

Participants in EPI INF, EPI IGN and the placebo all experimented one of the two euphoric or anger conditions. EPI MIS participants only experienced the anger conditions, making 7 conditions. 

Participants were randomly allocated to 1 of the 7 conditions.

Dependent variable: Participants emotional state: 

• Observation through a one way mirror during the experiment - eg. Would participant join in the euphoric stooge's games?
• Self-report on various measures after the experiment before the debriefing - eg. Questions such as "How irritated would you say feel at the present?"

Design; Independent groups - If a participant was to repeat any condition they would know the real aim of the experiment and respond falsely.

Participants and sampling technique: 184 males from the University of Minnesota. All had volunteered to be in a subject pool. They received 2 extra points in the final exam for every hour they took part in the experiment. All participants were cleared by the student health service to make sure the injection would not be harmful to them. 1 participant refused the injection,  11 participants had been very suspicious after the experiment and in 5 participants the epinephrine had no effect at all. So only 167 participants data was used for the findings.

Apparatus:

• Private room with a one way mirror 
• 'Suproxin' ie. epinephrine (adrenaline)
• Placebo ie. Saline solution
• Euphoria condition: paper, rubber bands, hula hoop, waste paper basket. 
• Anger condition: Questionnaire with intrusive questions

Controls:

• All participants given an injection
• All participants in each condition followed the same procedure
• The stooge repeated the same behaviour for each condition, saying and doing the same things at the same time, following a standardized script.
• Observations were conducted by two observers (inter-rater agreement was high).

Procedure:

1. Each participant was taken to the private room and given an injection of either epinephrine or saline solution .They were told they were injected with suproxin to test vision. 
2. If participant agreed, a doctor would come into the room and administer the injection. 
3. Participants given 1 of 3 sets of instructions depending on their allocated condition: EPI INF, EPI MIS or EPI IGN/placebo. 
4. Participant was then taken to another room and told to wait with another participant (actually a stooge) and told to wait for 20 minutes while the suproxin was absorbed into their bloodstream.
5. The stooge would act accordingly depending on the condition: euphoric or angry. 
6. Experimenter enters room and hands out questionnaire for 'feedback on effect of suproxin' (self report).
7. Experimenter debriefs participants (11 of the participants data was discarded because participants admitted they were very suspicious of the experiment). 

Data: Quantitative data was collected

• Observation: Objective data collected through one-way mirror by two observers, coded into categories. 
• 4 euphoria categories: joins in activity, initiates new activity, ignores stooge and watches stooge.
• 6 anger categories: agrees, disagrees, neutral, initiates agreement/disagreement, watches, ignores.
• Self-report of the participants emotional state on a 5 point scale. 0 meaning they did not feel that emotion and 5 meaning they extremely felt that emotion. Eg. "On a scale of 0-5, how irritated are you right now?"
• Two questions on the participant's physiological state from a scale of 0-4 eg. "Did you feel any tremors?".

Findings:

• Physiological response: Participants in the EPI condition experienced more physiological arousal than those in the placebo. The difference was significant.
• Euphoria self-report: Participants in the EPI MIS and EPI IGN rated themselves more euphoric than EPI INF.
• Euphoria observations: Same results as the self-report. EPI MIS had the most euphoric activity (22.56) and EPI INF had the lowest (12.72).
• Anger observations: EPI IGN had the highest anger score of 2.28. EPI INF had the lowest at -0.18.

Conclusion:

For someone to feel a certain emotion, a cognitive (situational) factor is needed along with the physical arousal. The two factor theory was proven to be accurate.

Strengths:

• Laboratory experiment - Many controls (eg. Stooge's standardized script and activities, what the experimenter said during the injection, what was injected, how behaviours were categorized) - Easy to replicate to test for reliability.
• Laboratory experiment - Many controls - Confidence that the stimuli provided to participants directly affected their emotion.

Weaknesses:

• All male students - cannot be generalized, females have different body chemistry therefore may feel emotions differently. Older people may also feel emotions differently, as with people from different cultures.
• Participants in placebo condition had a higher euphoric and anger condition than that of EPI INF, which is not in line with the theory. This may be because the injection itself can cause physiological arousal.
• Getting an injection is a dramatic event which could be a cognitive explanation for whatever physiological arousal participants felt and could cause physiological arousal. This makes the stooge less of an influence on their emotion.
• Epinephrine does not affect everyone in the same way.
• Low mundane realism - It is abnormal to be randomly given an injection then asked to sit in a room with a stranger who starts acting up. Therefore this experiment may be invalid since participants may feel differently in real life. 
• Mood was not tested before the injection - participants may have already been happy or angry before being put in the experiment.

Ethics:

• Deception: Participants were told they were receiving suproxin to test for vision and they were told the stooge was another participant, which are all untrue. 
• Harm: Participants were given an injection which could cause physical pain. They were also put in situations to deliberately make them happy or angry, therefore they did not leave the experiment in the same psychological state as they entered.

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Factors influencing young children's use of motives and outcomes as moral criteria

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Factors influencing young children's use of motives and outcomes as moral criteria

Author: Nelson (1980)

Key term: Children's morals

Background/context:

• Piaget proposed that children go through 3 stages of moral development:
  -Pre-moral stage: No morals, just instinct, from birth to 4-6 years
  -Heteronomous morality: Moral is the rule, 6 - 10 years
  -Autonomous morality: Set of individual morals, 10+
• Morality: Ability to distinguish right from wrong.
• Piaget proposed that children under 10 based their judgement on the outcome (negative/positive) instead of intention (motives).
• However, Nelson suggests that in Piaget's study the children did not fully understand the story, and if the child understands the story (eg. by including pictures), then they can understand motive as well as outcome.

Aim/hypothesis: To prove that children as young as 3 years do take into account both motive and outcome when making moral judgements.

Method: Field experiment in school, involving an interview.

Study 1

Variables:

Independent variables:

1. Age: 3-4 years or 6-8 years
2. Motive (good or bad) and outcome (good or bad)
   Stories:
   -Boy playing with ball. Wants friend to join in (good motive). Boy throws ball to friend to start game of catch. Friend catches ball and game of catch begins (good outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Wants friend to join in (good motive). Boy throws ball to friend to start game of catch. Ball hits friend on head and makes him cry (bad outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Mad at friend, throws ball to hit him on the head (bad motive). Friend catches ball and game of catch begins (good outcome).
   -Boy playing with ball. Mad at friend, throws ball to hit him on the head (bad motive). Ball hits friend on head and makes him cry (bad outcome).
3. Mode of presentation:
   Verbal only: Stories described to each child verbally (as done by piaget).
   Motive implicit: Set of cartoon-like pictures with the positive and negative motives only implied by facial expressions.
   Motive explicit: Set of cartoon-like pictures with positive and negative motives shown explicitly by cartoon-like thought bubbles above the characters head showing his motive.

Motive explicit story board. Bad motive bad outcome story. 

Dependent variable: Judgement of whether the boy in the story was a 'good boy' or a 'bad boy' by the child. This was done by a scale of 7 faces, from a sad 'very bad' face to a happy 'very good' face. Both sets of good/bad smileys were 7.5cm (very good/bad), 6.5cm (good/bad) and 5.5cm (little bit bad/ little bit good). There was a 'neutral' 4.5cm face in the middle for 'just okay'.

Scale of smiley faces.

Design: Independent groups for age and mode of presentation. Motive and outcome were repeated measures because kids were shown all four stories.

Setting: Schools in and around Illinois, Chicago, USA.

Participants and sampling technique: Study 1: 60 preschool kids aged 3-4 (average age 3.4 years) and 30 kids aged 6-8 (average age 7.4 years). Half male half female. Parents gave consent for them to be in the experiment.

Apparatus: 4 stories of cartoon-like pictures. Pictures were 25 x 23 cm black and white line drawings.

• Motive implicit: Only facial expressions
• Motive explicit: Thought bubble showing character's intentions (motives).
• Verbal only: Just verbal description of story.

Controls:

• Each child had 4 stories.
• Same experimenter tested every child.
• Cartoons were all the same, in a standard format.
• Children told they would have to repeat the story later so they pay close attention to the story.

Procedure:

1. Children in each age group randomly assigned mode of presentation; verbal only, motive implicit and motive explicit. Split evenly - 20 kids in each verbal, motive implicit and motive explicit preschool group, and 10 kids in each for the older group. 
2. Children were each interviewed individually by experimenter and familiarized with the rating scale (7 smiley faces) by being given 2 practice stories. 
3. Children were told to listen to each story then point to which face that showed how good or bad the boy was. 
4. After the child made their judgement, pictures were removed in the picture condition groups and child was asked to repeat the story the experimenter told. If the motive or outcome was missing, the experimenter would ask specific questions such as "Why did the boy throw the ball?". 

Data: 

• Quantitative data: A number was allocated to each smiley face so the numbers in each IV condition could be calculated. 
• Qualitative data: Interviewer asked child to repeat the story. A second rater was used to check interviewer understanding - great inter-rater reliability: agreement of 97%. 

Significant results:

3-4 years old:

• Good motive: Good outcome: 6.55. Bad outcome: 4.17.
• Bad motive: Good outcome: 2.27. Bad outcome: 1.60.

6-8 years old:

• Good motive: Good outcome: 6.20. Bad outcome: 4.47.
• Bad motive: Good outcome: 3.46. Bad outcome: 1.56.

Outcome: Overall good: 4.7. Overall bad: 2.92.

Age: 40% of 3-4 year olds would rate the boy as bad once any mention of 'bad' was heard, ignoring any good information. 28% ignored outcome and rated solely on motive.

Findings:

• Outcomes greatly influenced a child's judgement as shown in overall outcome ratings - outcomes were very different from each other. 
• Bad motives influence judgement much more than good motive or outcome - children learn bad before good. 
• Only outcome judgement varied with mode of presentation, when it was expected that both motive and outcome would vary.
• When motive was explicit, outcomes would affect the child's judgement more than verbal only or explicit. 
• Younger children made more errors in recalling the story.
• Less errors in motive recall when pictures were shown (motive implicit and explicit). 
• Children want a story that is congruent (where both motive and aspects match each other - eg. all good or all bad). 
• When a story is incongruent, kids aged 3-4 have a harder time recalling the story, and tend to change the story so it is congruent.

Conclusion:

• Young children place more importance on the valence (positive/negative or good/bad) than the motive or outcome. 
• Children are more influenced by bad than good. This may show that children learn the concept of bad before good, as shown in the 3-4 age group.
• However, motive might affect the child's judgement because it is the first information they receive, as results show that children immediately rate a story as bad when motive was bad. Therefore there is a design flaw, so another study was done. 

Study 2

Participants and sampling: 27 pre-school kids aged 3-4 (mean age 3.8). Each child was randomly assigned a mode of presentation.

Procedure; Everything repeated the same way as study 1 except for order of presentation: in the stories outcome was presented before motive.

Storyboard used in Study 2. Bad motive and bad outcome story. 

Findings:

• Same as study 1, anything negative, motive or outcome, affected judgement more than anything positive.
• Outcome did not have a bigger affect in this study, although being presented first, which shows that motive is still taken into account and important. 

Conclusion:

• Children as young as 3-4 years old can understand the concept of good and bad and if they understand the story, their moral judgment will be based on both outcome and motive. 
• Mode of presentation has some effect on a child's judgement: in verbal only, children would rate the boy as bad when the mention of bad was heard, however, in picture presentations, the child understands the story more and bases judgement on both motive and outcome. 
• Younger children are better at recalling the story accurately if the story is congruent (all good or all bad eg. bad motive bad outcome). 

Strengths

• Quantitative data: Objective and easier to analyse - The data was numerical so it was easy to compare different scores in different age groups and story conditions and analyse the data collected.
  This makes it easier to draw conclusions because data can be averaged and the data is concrete and evidently supports/ doesn't support aim. 
• Field experiment: Ecological validity - Children were in a natural setting therefore may be more likely to act naturally, therefore the experiment is valid.

Weaknesses

• Quantitative data: Lacks valuable information - The child simply pointed at a face, but we don't know why they chose that face. We do not know the child's reasoning and whether they chose the face based on their moral judgement or because of another reason.
• Social desirability or demand characteristics: Children might have chosen the face based on the two pilot stories they heard instead of what they believed was the answer, because the experimenter showed them what they were supposed to answer in the pilot stories.
  This would affect the validity of the data.
• In study 1, children were told all four stories verbally. The children could have gotten bored or muddled the stories together, which would affect the judgements they made, especially for the last 2 stories. This could affect the validity of the data.

Ethics

• Use of children - cannot give informed consent.

Psychology: Developmental Psychology: Case study 3: Infant facial preference

Psychology: Developmental Psychology: Case study 3: Infant facial preference

Authors: Langlois et al. (1991)

Background/Context: Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Do we judge books (and people) by their cover?
Langlois believes that there is a universal standard of beauty that people judged facial attractiveness with, and both adults and infants judge attractive adults and infants more favorably, treating them better than those who are unattractive. 

Young infants have not yet been influenced by media or culture, so researching on infants would prove whether there is a universal standard of attractiveness.

Aim/hypothesis: 

• Study 1:
  -Replicate previous results (preference for attractive) with adult female faces.
  -See if adult male faces produce the same results (preference for attractive).
  -Investigate where order of presentation of male/female affects preferences.
• Study 2: See if same results are achieved with non-white faces.
• Study 3: See if same results are achieved with faces of babies.

Method: Laboratory experiment

Variables:

• Independent variables:Study 1-Attractive and unattractive white female faces-Attractive and unattractive white male faces-Infants who saw either of two conditions: All men then all women (or all women then all men) and alternating men and women.
  
  Study 2: Attractive and unattractive black female faces.
  
  Study 3: Attractive and unattractive male and female infant faces.

• Dependent variable: Fixation time (in seconds) - length of time an infant looks at a face. Each face was presented twice (once on the left, and once on the right of the screen) so the mean time for each face was calculated and agreement between the two observers could be checked.
• Attractiveness of faces judged by people on the 5-point Linkert scales.

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Analysis of a phobia of a 5 year old boy

Psychology: Developmental psychology: Analysis of a phobia of a 5 year old boy

Author: Freud (1909)

Key term: Little Hans

Approach: Development psychology; psychodynamic perspective

Method: Case study and longitudinal method

Freud's psychodynamic approach:

• Our behaviours and feelings when we grow up (including psychological problems) are caused by childhood experiences.
• All behaviour is determined.

Personalities are made up of 3 parts: The ID (instinctive drive), ego and superego

• ID: Biological aspects of the personality. Consists of two forces:
        Eros: Life force - Instinct that drives us to do biological things - sex drive, eating, etc. Mainly revolves around libido (sex drive).
        Thanatos: Death force- Instinct of self-destruction.
  ID is chaotic and totally unreasonable (we cannot randomly have sex with people when we feel like it).
• Ego: Mediates between unrealistic ID and external real world. Decision making component of personality. Works out realistic ways of satisfying ID.
  "Part of the ID which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world" - Freud.
  Similar to ID, seeks pleasure and avoids pain but using a realistic strategy.
• Superego: Values and morals of society by influence of parents or role models. Strive for perfection. Develops at around the age of 3-5 during phallic stage of psychosexual development. Two systems:
      Conscious: Punishes the ego through feelings of guilt.
      Ideal self: Imaginary picture of how you ought to be; career aspirations, how to treat other people and how to behave as a member of society.

•  The ego and superego are largely determined by parental values and how you were brought up.

Freud's psychosexual development theory:

• Freud believed life was built around tension and pressure, which was due to the libido.
• What develops is the way sexual energy accumulates and builds up and is discharged as we mature biologically. 
• Each psychosexual stage has a particular conflict that must be resolved before continuing to the next stage. Some people may not be able to leave one stage and continue on to the next. This can be because the needs of the stage have not been met, causing frustration, or the pleasure is so good they don't want to leave, called overindulgence. 

1. Oral - The mouth - sucking, swallowing, etc. Ego develops.
2. Anal - The anus - withholding or excreting feces. 
3. Phallic - The penis or clitoris - masturbation. Superego develops.
4. Latent - Little or no sexual motivation.
5. Genital - The penis or vagina - Sexual intercourse.

Freud's Oedipus complex

• Oedipus - Greek myth where Oedipus, a young man, kills his father and marries his mother.
• The Oedipus complex is when a 3 - 5 year old boy develops sexual feelings for his mother, and therefore wants to get rid of his father so he can have his mother all to himself.
• This is usually resolved by the boy imitating his father's masculine type behaviours, called identification.
• Happens during phallic stage.
• Fred states that every boy goes through this complex to a certain extent.

Little Han's phobia case study

• 5 year old Jewish boy from Vienna, Austria.
• Phobia of horses
• Primary aim was to treat the phobia.
• Freud did not work directly with Hans. his father gave Freud all the details of Hans behavior when he suspected Hans was suffering from the Oedipus complex.

• At 3, Hans was very obsessed with his 'widdler' (penis), and also those of other people. He once asked his mother "Mommy, do you also have a widdler?". He played with it regularly until his mother threatened to call the doctor to get it cut off, which made him get castration anxiety. 
• At the same time, Hans saw a horse collapse and die in the street, and was very upset.

• At 4, Hans developed a fear of horses, specifically a fear that a white horse would bite him. 
• At the same time a conflict developed between him and his father. Hans had developed a habit of getting in to his parents bed in the morning to cuddle his mother. However, his father began to object and banned him from continuing.  
• Hans phobia worsened to the point that he would not leave the family house and he also suffered attacks of generalised anxiety.
• The anxiety Hans had was actually castration anxiety triggered by his mothers threat to cut off his "widdler" and fear of his father caused by his banishment from the parental bed. 

• Hans reported having the following dream; "In the night there was a big giraffe in the room and a crumpled one: and the big one called out because I took the crumpled one away from it. Then it stopped calling out: and I sat on top of the crumpled one."
• The giraffes in Hans dream represent his parents. The large giraffe is his father, and him crying out represented him objecting Hans. It's erect neck could have also been a penis symbol. The crumpled giraffe was his mother, and the crumpling represented her genitals. 

• When Hans was 5 his phobia of horses lessened, initially becoming limited to only white horses with black nose bands, then disappearing altogether.

• The horses represented Hans father, especially white horses with black nose bands, because they looked like his moustached father. Horses also have large penises, which make a good father symbol.s

• The end of the phobia was marked by two fantasies:
• Hans fantasised that he had several children. When his father asked who their mother was Hans replied "Why Mummy, and you're the granddaddy"
• This children fantasy represents a friendly resolution of the Oedipus complex, where he replaces his father but still keeps him in the family with the role as grandfather.
• The next day, Hans fantasised that a plumber had come and removed his bottom and penis, replacing them with new and larger ones. 
• The plumber fantasy represents identification with the father. Hans can see himself growing a large penis like his fathers and becoming like him.

Conclusion

Hans had a phobia of horses because he was suffering from castration anxiety and was going through the Oedipus complex. Hans dreams and fantasies helped express this conflict and eventually he resolved his phobia and Oedipus complex by identification by fantasising of himself taking on his fathers role and placing his father in the role of grandfather.

Strengths

• Case study - Lots of data can be collected because it is the study of one boy, so it is more valid.
• Natural observation - Hans was in his own house and not in any artificial setting, so there is a high level of ecological validity and mundane realism.

Weaknesses

• Unscientific - Freud's theory is considered unscientific because there is no evidence to back his theory.
• Generalization - Since it is the study of only one boy, we cannot generalize the oedipus theory to every boy.
• Bias - Freud published his theory before doing this case study, therefore he could have been bias. Hans father was a fan of Freud and believed in his theory, therefore he could've only told details that correlated to the study.
• Invalid - There could be many other reasons Hans had a phobia of horses. For example, when he was 3 he saw a horse fall in the street and die.

Biology: Chapter 5: Mitotic Cell cycle: Mitosis

Biology: Chapter 5: Mitotic Cell cycle: Mitosis

• Part of a precisely controlled process called the cell cycle.
• Nuclear division: Splits the cell's nucleus into two daughter nuclei that are genetically identical and contain the same number of chromosomes as the parent cell.

Cell cycle

• Regular sequence of events between one cell division to the next.
• Three phases: Interphase, nuclear division (mitosis) and cell division (cytokinesis)

Interphase:

1. G1 phase (Gap 1): Cell grows to normal size after cell division. Carries out normal function eg. Protein synthesis. At the end of G1, the cell receives a signal telling it whether or not it will divide. If a cell receives the go signal to divide, it will continue into the S phase.
2. S phase (synthesis): DNA in the nucleus replicates - two sets of each chromatid that can form chromosomes.
3. G2 phase (Gap 2): Cell continues to grow and the new DNA is checked for any errors and are repaired. Preparations made for division eg. Increased production of Tubulin, which is used to make spindle.

Nuclear division (mitosis):

• Nucleus divides into two genetically identical daughter nuclei
• Growth temporarily stops.

Cell division (cytokinesis):

• After the two new nuclei move to the opposite poles of the cell, the cell splits into two by constricting the cytoplasm between the two nuclei. 
• Cleavage furrow: Constriction of the cytoplasm between two nuclei.
• Creates two new identical cells.
• In plant cells, vesicles carry building materials (eg. cellulose) from the golgi body and fuse together to form a cell plate between the two nuclei.

Cell cycle diagram

Mitosis

• Four phases: Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase and Telophase (PMAT)

Prophase:

• Chromatin coil up and chromosomes start to appear. 
• Nuclear envelope, nucleolus and organelles 'disappear' - break up into smaller vesicles
• Centrosomes replicate and start moving to opposite poles where they form the poles of the spindle fibre.

Metaphase:

• Centrosomes at opposite poles help organize production of spindle microtubules.
• Chromosomes line up across the middle of the spindle, attached by their centromeres.

Anaphase:

• Spindle fibre attached to the centromeres of the chromosomes pull the two chromatids to separate poles, centromere first.

Telophase:

• Chromatids reach the pole of their spindle and uncoil (each one contains 1 DNA molecule, which replicates itself during interphase for the next cell division)
• Nuclear envelope and nucleolus reform around the chromatin
• Remaining spindle fibre breaks down
• Cytokinesis starts 

Significance of mitosis

• Growth: Two daughter cells are identical and have the same number of chromosomes - allow for multicellular growth from a unicellular zygote. Can occur over the entire body or in specific regions.
• Repair and replacement of cells: Dead or faulty cells can be replaced by identical cells.
• Asexual reproduction: Production of new genetically identical individuals by a single parent organism. Can occur in unicellular organisms eg. Amoeba or in some plants (budding)
• Immune response

Biology: Chapter 5: Mitotic Cell cycle: Components of a cell cycle

Biology: Chapter 5: Mitotic Cell cycle: Components of a cell cycle

• Cells reproduce by dividing and passing on copies of their genes to 'daughter' cells. 
• This is done through nuclear and cell division.

Chromosomes

• Condensed form of chromatin that occurs only during mitosis. Chromatin during normal cell activity (interphase). Consist of 2 identical sister chromatids connected by a centromere. 
• Each chromatid contains 1 DNA molecule - chromatids in chromosomes are identical to one another.

Chromosome during Anaphase

• DNA: Molecule of inheritance. Made up of a series of genes. Only 2nm wide, but total length of the DNA in all the 46 chromosomes in an adult is approximately 1.8 meters. DNA is wound around histones precisely to keep them from being tangled. 
• Gene: 1 unit of inheritance. Codes for 1 polypeptide that is involved in a specific aspect of the functioning of the organism.
• Histone: Protein that DNA wounds around. Proteins are basic (alkali) which means they can easily interact with acidic DNA.
• Nucleosome: DNA wrapped around 8 histone molecules. Are like beads on a necklace. Each 'bead' is one nucleosome. Further coiled into chromatin.
• Chromatin: Coiling of DNA around histones (proteins). Makes up chromosomes; chromosomes are the condensed form of chromatin during nuclear division. Easily stained. Exists in two forms: Euchromatin (loosely coiled) and heterochromatin (tightly coiled). During normal cell activity (interphase) chromatin is mostly in the form of Euchromatin so the coding can easily be accessed.
• Double structure - two identical structures called chromatids joined together by a centromere.

From DNA to chromosomes

• Centromere: Narrow region of the chromosome that joins both chromatids together. Position of the centromere is a particular characteristic for each chromosome. The centromere can be found anywhere along the chromosome. Needed for separation of chromatids during mitosis. Site of attachment for spindle molecules.
• Kinetochore: Attached to centromere during metaphase chromosome, 1 for each chromatid. Made of protein molecules which bind specifically to DNA in the centromere and also to the microtubule spindles. Construction of kinetochore begins before nuclear division (interphase) and are lost after nuclear division.
• Spindle attached to kinetochore of chromosomes pulls the kinetochore, pulling apart the chromosome. This is done by the shortening of the microtubules from both the centrosome pole end and the kinetochore end.

• Centrosomes: Poles of the spindle. Help in the construction of the spindle microtubules, but do not produce the spindle fiber. Centrosomes consist of a pair of centrioles surrounded by large number of proteins that control production of the spindle (the centrioles are not involved in the Microtubule production). Plants do not have centrosomes.

Telomeres

• Telomeres: Made up of multiple DNA base repeat sequences (repeat of guanine (G) for one strand and cytosine (C) for another).
• Have no useful information, but allow enzymes to complete copying important DNA.
• Telomeres are attached to the ends of chromosomes to prevent the genes at the ends of the DNA strand being cut off during replication - if part of the DNA is not copied, the information is lost, which will eventually cause cell death when vital genes are lost.
• Prevents loss of genes during division and allow continued replication.
  Telomeres in cell division
• Telomerase: Enzyme that adds extra DNA to the telomeres.
• Some cells (mainly specialised cells) do not have telomerase, so with each division their telomeres get a little shorter until vital DNA is no longer protected and the cell dies.
• Could be a mechanism of aging.

Stem cells

• Cell that can divide an unlimited number of times by mitosis.
• Each time it divides, it has the potential to stay as a stem cell or develop into a specialized cell (eg. nerve cell).
• Potency: How many different cell types the stem cell can specialize into. 
• Totipotent: Stem cells that can produce any type of cell. Zygotes (fertilization of sperm and egg) and cells up to 16-stage development are totipotent,
• Pluripotent: Embryonic stem cells after some cells have specialized to form the placenta. The cells can no longer form a placenta, but can form every other cell that leads to the development of the embryo and later the adult.
• Multipotent: Stem cells that are only able to form a few types of cells eg. bone marrow cells can form red and white blood cells. Can replicate any number of times but can only produce those type of cells.
• The more cells specialize, the more they lose the ability to divide. In an adult most cells do not divide. 
• Stem cell therapy: Introduction of new adult stem cells into damaged tissue to treat disease or injury. Bone marrow transplantation is the only form of this therapy that has progressed passed experimental stage into routine medical practice. Experiments with growing new tissues or even organs from isolated stem cells in laboratories have been conducted.

Cancer

• Result of uncontrolled mitosis.
• Divide repeatedly and form a tumor
• Tumor: Irregular mass of cells, which usually show abnormal changes in shape. Typical tumor contains approximate 1000 million cancerous cells. 
• Thought to start when changes occur in the gene that cause cell division.
• Mutation: Change in any gene.
• Oncogene: Mutated gene that causes cancer. 'Onkos' means bulk or mass in greek.
• Mutations occur frequently and don't usually lead to cancer, usually getting destroyed by the immune system or getting affected in a way that leads to an early death, and get replaced by mitosis.
• Cancerous cells manage to bypass cell checkpoints in the interphase and cell death, leading to the cancerous cell replicating and passing on faulty genes to all of it's descendants.
• Carcinogen: Factor that causes cancer eg. pollution, radiation, UV light
• Not all tumors are cancerous 
• Benign tumors: Non-cancerous tumors - do not spread from site of origin eg. warts
• Malignant tumors: Spread through the body, invading other tissues and destroying them. Interfere with the normal functioning of the area where they started to grow; may block off intestines, lungs or blood vessels.
• Metastasis: Cells that break off and spread through the blood and lymphatic system (transport lymph) and form secondary growths.
  Most dangerous characteristic of cancer.
  Can be hard to find and remove secondary cancers.

Normal cell vs cancer cell