Fyba Psychology Sem II Eng
Fyba Psychology Sem II Eng
Fyba Psychology Sem II Eng
F.Y.B.A.
PSYCHOLOGY PAPER - I
FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
SEMESTER - II
SUBJECT CODE : UBA 2.24
© UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
: Dr.Anita Kumar
Acharya and Marathe College,
Chembur, Mumbai
Published by : Director,
Institute of Distance and Open Learning ,
Universityof Mumbai,
Vidyanagari, Mumbai - 400 098.
SEMESTER - II
Module 1 Thinking, Language and Intelligence
1. Thinking, Language and Intelligence - I 01
2. Thinking, Language and Intelligence - II 16
3. Thinking, Language and Intelligence - III 31
Module 2 Motivation and Emotion
4. Motivation and Emotion - I 52
5. Motivation and Emotion - II 73
Module 3 Personality
6. Personality - I 97
7. Personality - II 119
Module 4 Statistics in Psychology: Understanding Data
8. Statistics in Psychology: Understanding Data 141
I
Fundamentals of Psychology
SEMESTER - II
Module 3: Personality
a) Psychodynamic Theories
b) Humanistic theories
c) Trait Theories
d) Social cognitive theories
e) Exploring the self
1
Unit -1
THINKING, LANGUAGE AND
INTELLIGENCE - I
Unit Structure :
1.0 Objectives
1.1. Introduction: Thinking
1.1.1. How People Think?
1.1.2. Thinking or Cognition
1.2. Concepts
1.2.1. Mental Imagery
1.2.2. Prototypes
1.3 Problem Solving Strategies and Obstacles
1.3.1. Problem Solving Strategies
1.3.2. Obstacles in Problem Solving
1.4 Forming Good and Bad Decisions and Judgments
1.5. Thinking Critically About the Fear Factor
1.5.1 Why We Fear the Wrong Things
1.6. Do Other Species Share Our Cognitive Skills?
1.7 Summary
1.8 Questions
1.9 References
1.0 OBJECTIVES
Most of our waking hours, and even when we are asleep and
dreaming, we are thinking. It is hard not to think. As you read these
words you are thinking, and even if you stop thinking about what
2
1.2 CONCEPTS
1) Superordinate Concept:
It is the most general type of a concept, such as “bird” or
“vegetable” or “fruit”.
3) Subordinate Concept:
It is the most specific type of a concept. Such as “Crackle
Cadbury chocolate” or the name of your dog or a “Kashmiri apple”,
etc.
4) Formal Concept:
Formal concepts refer to those concepts which have a strict
definition. These concepts are defined by specific rules or features
and are very rigid. Formal concepts are generally taught in schools
and colleges as a part of academic activity.
5) Natural Concept:
Natural concepts are those concepts which people form as a
result of their experiences in the real world. Unlike formal concepts,
natural concepts are not well defined. Is tomato a vegetable of
fruit? Is duck a mammal or a bird? What about whale, is it a fish or
a mammal? We form concepts about these as a result of our
4
1.2.2. Prototypes:
Prototype is another important element of thinking. It can be
defined as an example of a concept that closely matches the
defining characteristics of a concept. Prototypes can be defined as
mental models of the typical qualities of members of some group or
category. Concepts simplify our thinking. We can’t think of life
without concepts. Without concepts, we would need a different
name for every person, vents, objects and ideas. For example,
suppose we ask a child to “throw a ball”, a child will not understand
if he has no concept of ball or throw. So we can say that concepts
such as ball gives us much information with little cognitive efforts.
Geographical Region
Culture
Information and Knowledge
Experience
6
1) Algorithm:
An algorithm is a set of rules which, if followed correctly, will
guarantee a solution to a problem. For instance, if you are given
two numbers to multiply, you immediately start thinking of all the
rules for multiplication you have learned and you apply these
algorithm to the problem. If you follow the rules correctly, you will
solve the problem. Algorithm is a step-by-step procedure that
guarantees a solution. But it can be laborious and frustrating
experience.
2) Heuristics:
Heuristic are simpler thinking strategies, usually based on
our past experience with problems, that are likely to lead to a
solution but do not guarantee success. One common strategy, or
heuristic, is to break the problem down into smaller sub problems,
each a little closer to the end goal.
one thing after another till somehow the problem gets solved by
chance – an abrupt, true seeming and often satisfying solution.
Insight strikes suddenly with no prior sense of ‘getting warmer’ or
feeling close to a solution.
4) Insight:
This is another important method of solving a problem. For
some problems, solutions occur suddenly. Insight occurs when the
problem solver suddenly ‘sees’ the relations involved in a task and
is immediately able to solve the problem. It was Kohler who first
suggested that learning takes place by insight. An instance of
insight is found in the example of Archimedes who ran naked out of
his bathtub, shouting ‘Eureka’, when he found an answer to a
problem that had troubled him for a long time. Most creative
problems are solved through insight. When human beings solve the
problem through insight they experience a good feeling called as
‘aha’ experience. Thus, insight occurs when the learner ‘suddenly
sees’ the solution involved in a task and is immediately able to
solve the problem. When he suddenly gets the solution, he is said
to have got insight.
2. Mental Set:
Mental set is a tendency to adopt a certain framework,
strategy or procedure or more generally, to see things in certain
ways instead of others. Mental set is analogous to perceptual set,
the tendency to perceive an object or pattern in a certain way on
the basis of your immediate perceptual experience. Mental set is
one type of functional fixedness. Mental set directs the thinking
process to solving problems in the same way. When problem
solvers have mental set, they keep trying the same solution they
have used in previous problems, even though the problem could be
approached via other, easier ways. Mental sets involve a kind of
mindless rigidity that blocks effective problem solving (Langer,
1989).A mental set often works against us in our everyday
experiences too. A number of research studies have been carried
out to study how mental set effects problem-solving behavior. The
three major studies using different problems are as follows:
i)Luchin’s study using water Jar problem. ii) Nine-dot problem iii)
Six match stick problem. Luchin (1942) in one of the earliest studies
on mental set demonstrated that 75 percent of the students were
blind to easy solution and continued to solve the problem in the
same fashion as they did in the practice problem.
3. Confirmation bias:
Confirmation bias is one of the barriers to logical thinking.
Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one
tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to
ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts
one's beliefs. Confirmation bias is a phenomenon wherein decision
makers have been shown to actively seek out and assign more
weight to evidence that confirms their hypothesis, and ignore or
9
2) Representative Heuristics:
A mental shortcut that helps us make a decision by
comparing information to our mental prototypes. For example, if
someone was to describe an older woman as warm and caring with
a great love of children, most of us would assume that the older
woman is a grandmother. She fits our mental representation of a
grandmother, so we automatically classify her into that category.
10
Bad Decisions:
a.) Overconfidence: Sometimes our judgments and decisions go
wrong simply because we are more confident than correct. In many
tasks, people tend to overestimate their performance. For example,
many overconfident students expect to finish preparing for exam
ahead of schedule. In fact, the preparation takes more time than
what they predict. Similarly, many people do not realize that there
can be a potential for error in their thinking and believe that they will
have more money next year and merrily take loans and later on find
11
it difficult to pay back as they may not get as much pay raise as
they expected.
1.7 SUMMARY
1.8 QUESTIONS
a) What is thinking?
b) What is Mental Imagery?
c) What is Concepts?
d) What is Prototypes?
15
1.9 REFERENCES
th
Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013.
Feldman, R.S. (2013). Psychology and your life. Publications
2ndedi. New York: McGraw Hill
th
Feldman, R.S. (2013). Understanding Psychology. publications
11edi. New York: McGraw Hill
nd
King, L.A. (2013). Experience Psychology. publications 2edi.
New York: McGraw HillLahey, B. B. (2012). Psychology: An
Introduction. 11thedi. New York: McGraw-Hill Publications
16
Unit -2
THINKING, LANGUAGE AND
INTELLIGENCE - II
Unit Structure :
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction: Language
2.1.1 Language structure
2.1.2 Language development
2.1.3 Close Up: Living in a silent world:
2.1.4 The brain and language
2.1.5 Do other species have language?
2.2 Thinking and Language
2.2.1 Language influences thinking
2.2.2 Thinking in images
2.3 Summary
2.4 Questions
2.5 References
2.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit you should be able to:
Understand the Language structure
Know the nature of Language development
Study the relationship between thinking and language.
Study language and related topics
To know how Language influences thinking
Understand the concepts of emotional intelligence
Phoneme:
Speech sounds, or phonemes, are made by adjusting the
vocal cords and moving the tongue, lips, and mouth in wonderfully
precise ways to produce vibrations in the airflow from the lungs.
While hundreds of speech sound can be distinguished on the basis
of their frequency(the number of vibrations per second), their
intensity (the energy in the vibrations) and their pattern of vibrations
over time.
Morpheme:
In a language, the smallest unit that carries meaning; may
be a word or a part of a word (such as a prefix).Although syllables
are the unit of speech perception, and some syllables have
meanings, other language elements are the perceptual units
carrying the meaning of speech. These elements, morphemes, are
the smallest units of meaning in the speech perception. Consider
19
Semantics:
The set of rules by which we derive meaning from
morphemes, words, and sentences in a given language; also, the
study of meaning.
Syntax:
The rules for combining words into grammatically sensible
sentences in a given language.
Grammar:
In language, a system of rules that enables us to
communicate with and understand others. Words are combined by
the rules of grammar into clauses, and clauses are formed into
sentences. A clause consists of a verb and its associated nouns,
adjectives, and so on. Evidence indicates that clauses, and not
individual words or whole sentences, are the major units of
perceived meaning in speech. When we hear a sentence with more
than one clause, we tend to isolate the clauses, analysing the
meaning of each (Bever, 1973).
Productive Language:
Babies’ productive language is their ability to produce
words, matures after their receptive language.
2) One-word stage:
Beginning at about 12 months. The stage in speech
development, during which a child speaks mostly in single words.
They have already learnt that sounds carry meanings. They now
begin to use sounds - usually only one recognizable syllable such
as ma or da. But family members quickly learn to understand.
21
Across the world, baby’s first words are often nouns that label
objects or people. This one-word stage may equal a sentence.
Language communication:
A language is said to communicate when others understand
the meaning of our sentences, and we, in turn, understand their
communications, of course, this is not limited to language. We
convey much information to others nonverbally by gesture. When
we speak one of the thousands of languages of the world, we draw
on our underlining knowledge of the rules governing the use of
language. This knowledge about language, or linguistic
competence, as it is called, is used automatically and almost
effortlessly to generate and comprehend meaningful speech.
Linguistic competence seems to be universal human species-
typical ability.
Broca’s Aphasia:
Interest in localizing language function in the brain dates
back at least to the 1800s, when a French physician with interests
in anthropology and ethnography, Pierre Paul Broca, read a paper
in 1861 at the meeting of the society Anthropologist in Paris. The
paper reported on a patient, nicknamed “Tan” because he had lost
the ability to speak any word save for tan. Shortly after the patient
died, his brain was examined and found to have a lesion in the left
frontal lobe. The very next day, Broca reported this exciting (for
science, not for the patient or his family, probably) finding (Posner
&Raichle, 1994). The area of the brain, henceforth known as
Broca’s area, is shown in the figure 2.7.A. It is also called
expressive aphasia. A Broca’s aphasia appeared to leave language
reception and processing undisturbed. In 1865, Broca reported that
after damage to an area of the left frontal lobe a person would
struggle to speak words while still being able to sing familiar songs
and comprehend speech.
Wernicke’s Aphasia:
About 13 years later, in 1874, a German neurologist Carl
Wernicke identified another brain area that, if damaged by a small
lesion (often result of a stroke), left patients with extreme difficulty
in comprehending (but not producing) spoken language (Posner &
Raichle, 1994). (Not surprisingly, this area has come to be called
Wernicke’s area, and it is also shown in figure 2.7.A. It is also
called receptive aphasia. People could speak words and sentences
(although the language was often gibberish). Damage to
Wernicke’s area also disrupts understanding.
speaking thinkers can think about the concept of the “world view”
even if they do not have a convenient word for it. English speakers
can think about different kinds of snow, even have to use more
words to describe it.
east, then 1 mile north, and end up exactly where you began? Did
you use imagery in trying to solve this problem? If so, what was
your imagery like?
2.3 SUMMARY
2.4 QUESTIONS
2. 5 REFERENCES
th
1. Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International edition.
New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint 2013
31
Unit -3
THINKING, LANGUAGE AND
INTELLIGENCE – III
Unit Structure :
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Is intelligence one general ability or several specific abilities?
Is intelligence neurologically Measurable.
3.3 The origins of intelligence testing
3.4 Assessing Intelligence.
3.5 Modern Tests of Mental Abilities: Binet Mental Ability Test,
Stanford Binet and IQ, The Wechsler Tests.
3.6 Intelligence and creativity:
3.7 Emotional intelligence:
3.8 Principles of test construction:
3.9 Summary
3.10 Questions
3.11 References
3.0 OBJECTIVES
After studying this unit you should be able to:
Know the nature of intelligence and some important concepts of
intelligence.
Understand the origins of intelligence testing and Assessment of
Intelligence.
Understand the various tests that are used to measure
intelligence.
Understand the relationship between Intelligence and creativity
Understand the concepts of emotional intelligence.
Understand the Principles of test construction.
Definition:
Psychological notion of intelligence is quite different from the
common notion of intelligence. If you watch an intelligent person,
you are likely to see in her/him with attributes like mental alertness,
ready wit, quickness in learning and ability to understand
relationships. Intelligence is not a quality like height or weight,
which has the same meaning for everyone around the globe.
People assign the term intelligence to the qualities that enable
success in their own time and in their own culture. There are
different definitions of intelligence given by different psychologist,
some of which are given below.
Retardation:
One cause of mental retardation is Down syndrome, a
chromosomal disorder leading to mental retardation caused by the
presence of all or part of an extra 21st chromosome. The incidence
of Down syndrome is estimated at 1 per 800 to 1,000 births,
although its prevalence rises sharply in those born to older
mothers. People with Down syndrome typically exhibit a distinctive
pattern of physical features, including a flat nose, upwardly slanted
eyes, a protruding tongue, and a short neck.
Giftedness:
Having extremely high IQ is clearly less of a problem than
having extremely low IQ, but there may also be challenges to being
particularly smart. It is often assumed that schoolchildren who are
labeled as gifted may have adjustment problems that make it more
difficult for them to create social relationships. To study gifted
children, Lewis Terman and his colleagues (Terman & Oden, 1959)
selected about 1,500 high school students who scored in the top
1% on the Stanford-Binet and similar IQ tests (i.e., who had IQs of
about 135 or higher), and tracked them for more than seven
decades (the children became known as the termites and are still
being studied today). This study found, first, that these students
were not unhealthy or poorly adjusted but rather were above
average in physical health and were taller and heavier than
individuals in the general population. The students also had above
average social relationships for instance, being less likely to divorce
than the average person (Seagoe, 1975).
Racial Differences:
After discussing generic contribution to intelligence, it is
obvious that there are racial differences in intelligence. Because of
the recent issue on the question of whether blacks are innately less
intelligent than whites. In view of the heated controversy centered
on this issue and its significance for social policy, it is important that
we examine the available evidence. On standard intelligence tests
black Americans, as a group, score 10 to 15 IQ points lower than
while Americans, as a group. This fact is not a debate but revolves
around how to interpret the difference. Some possible explanations
should be apparent from what we have already said about the
nature of IQ tests and the influence of environmental factor on
tested intelligence. For example, most intelligence have been
standardized on white populations. Since black and whites
generally grow up in quite different environments and have different
experiences, the contents of such tests may not be appropriate for
blacks. And a black child may react differently to being tested
(particularly if he or she is being tested by a white examiner) than a
white child. Thus, the whole issue of estimating black intelligence is
complicated by the questions of whether the tests are appropriate
and whether the data obtained by white testers represent an
unbiased measure of IQ.
39
Standardization of Tests:
The number of questions you answer correctly on an
intelligence test would tell us almost nothing. To evaluate your
performance, we need a basis for comparing it with others’
performance. To enable meaningful comparisons, test-makers first
give the test to a representative sample of people. When you later
take the test following the same procedures, your scores can be
compared with the sample’s scores to determine your position
relative to others. This process of defining meaningful scores
relative to a pretested group is called standardization.
Standardization is basically concerned with uniformity. By a
standardized test we mean a test which is uniform and will remain
uniform for all the conditions and subjects. Uniformity should be in
the areas of administering, scoring and interpretation of a test.
Norms:
Norms are the scores from the standardization group. Norms
are standards (created by the scores of a large group of individuals)
used as the basis of comparison for scores on a test. Norms are
developed on the basis of empirical data by using a sample (called
as normative sample). Norms tell us what is a good or of poor
performance. Norms help us to set standards against which we
judge an individual’s performance on a given test.
3.3 SUMMARY
3.4 QUESTIONS
Short Notes:
a) Measuring Intelligence.
b) Neurologically Measurement of Intelligence.
c) Binet Mental Ability Test
d) Stanford Binet Test
e) The Wechsler Tests.
3.5 REFERENCES
th
1. Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology. 10 Edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013.
2.. KumarVipan (2008), General Psychology, Himalaya Publishing
House, Chapter 06.
3. Ciccarelli, S. K. & Meyer, G. E. (2008). Psychology(Indian sub-
continent adaptation). New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India)
pvt ltd.
4. Ciccarelli, S. K. & Meyer, G. E. (2008). Psychology. (Indian
subcontinent adaptation). New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley (India)
pvt. Ltd.
52
Unit -4
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION – I
Unit Structure :
4.0 Objective
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Motivation Concept
4.2.1 Instincts and evolutionary psychology
4.2.2 Drives and incentives
4.2.3 Optimum arousal
4.2.4 Hierarchy of motives
4.3 Hunger
4.3.1 The Physiology of Hunger
4.3.2 The psychology of Hunger
4.3.3 Obesity and weight control;
4.3.4 Close-up: Waist management
4.4 Summery
4.5 Questions
4.6 References
4.0 OBJECTIVES
After reading this unit you will be able to understand:
The concept of motivation.
Various approaches/theories related to the concept of
motivation.
How hunger motivates human beings
Why people become obese (fat) and how to control weight
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Definition of Motivation:
The word motivation comes from a Latin word ‘movere’
which means to move or to energize. Steers and Porter (1987)
believe that “When we discuss motivation, we are primarily
concerned with (1) what energizes human behavior; (2) what
directs or channels such behavior and (3) how this behavior is
maintained or sustained.”
54
Characteristics of Motivation:
On the basis of above mentioned definitions and explanation
we can deduce following characteristics of motivation.
Theories of Motivation
Instinct theory argued that people try to survive, and that any
quality that increases survival will eventually become genetically
based. Psychologists believed that people and animals are born
with preprogrammed set of behaviors that are necessary for their
survival. These instincts give them the energy that channels their
behavior in appropriate direction. For example, sex can be
explained as a response to an instinct for reproduction.
Drive:
A Drive is an internal state of tension/ an unpleasant state
that causes us /energizes behavior to do something to reduce or
remove that tension. A drive is an arousal that in order to fulfill
some need. For example, biological needs arising within our bodies
create unpleasant states of arousal – the feelings of hunger, thirst,
fatigue, etc. The moment this drive/ arousal or tension takes place,
we become active to reduce it or eliminate it.
Criticism:
1. Drive reduction theory works well to explain the actions people
take to reduce tension created by needs, but it does not explain all
human motivation. For example, it does not explain why we eat
even when they are not hungry?
Incentives:
Incentives are positive or negative stimuli that attract or repel
us. Incentives are influenced by an individual’s personal
experiences or learning in the past. Here we can see a move away
from biological influence toward the environment and its influence
on behavior. In incentive approach, behavior is explained in terms
of external stimulus and its rewarding or repelling properties. The
rewarding or repelling properties exist independently of any need or
level of arousal and can cause people to act only upon the
incentive. Thus incentive theory is actually based on the principle of
learning.
strongly driven. For instance, if you are hungry and you get the
aroma of freshly baked bread, you will feel strong hunger drive. The
aroma of baking bread becomes a compelling incentive. So, for
each motive, we can ask, “How is it pushed by our inborn
physiological needs and pulled by incentives in the environment?”
In other words, drive reduction theory accepted that our past
learning and environment also plays a major role along with
physical internal drives in motivating our behavior.
4.3 HUNGER
they feel satiated and stop eating. If your blood glucose level drops,
you may not consciously feel this change. But your brain, which is
automatically monitoring your body’s internal state, will trigger
hunger. This is the reason why dieticians ask a person to take low-
carbohydrate diet. Low carbohydrate will control the insulin reaction
and prevent hunger cravings.
Metabolism – the rate at which the body burns available energy for
maintaining basic body functions when the body is at rest. When
64
people don’t get enough food for a long time, to maintain their set
point, they reduce their energy expenditure, partly through inactivity
and partly by dropping basal metabolic rate. Metabolism and
exercise also play a part in the weight set point.
B) Memory:
Cognitive factors too play a part in eating behavior. For
example, Rozin et.al.(1998) conducted an experiment to show that
apart from internal cues from 9our bodies, memories about when
65
we last ate can influence whether we decide to eat and how much
we eat at a given time. For their experiment, they tested two
patients with amnesia, who could not remember recent events -
events occurring more than a minute ago. Both patients were
offered lunch at lunch time and after 20 minutes they were again
offered lunch, which they readily consumed. 20 minutes after their
second lunch they were again offered lunch, a third time. One of
them ate part of the third meal also. They were asked to rate their
hunger before and after the meal. Both of them had rated their
hunger less after having first meal than before it. Yet, in spite of not
being hungry, they went ahead and had second meal and partly the
third meal also because they could not remember that they had just
eaten.
C) Taste Preference:
Very often, you must have noticed that a person enjoying
dinner at a wedding party comments that he has over eaten and
now he cannot consume another morsel, but while passing in front
of dessert counter he gets tempted by the sight of his favorite ice-
cream and gulps down a large helping of that ice-cream. The
reason is that biological and cultural factors play a significant role in
our taste preference.
Before eating with others, they should decide how much they
wish to eat
Make sure to take small size portions of the food
Not to go for second helpings.
Food should be served with smaller bowls, plates and utensils.
Variety should be limited and
Appealing food should be kept out of sight.
1) Biological Factors:
2) Environmental Factors:
III. The Food and Activity Factor: People from developed as well
as developing countries are getting heavier and obesity has
reached an alarming proportion. One of the most important reason
70
C) Weight Control:
With set point, metabolism and genetic and environmental
factors always working in favor of obesity, it is not easy to lose
weight permanently. Many people lose weight successfully but it all
comes back with vengeance the moment they are not vigilant.
Researchers have offered some tips for managing your waist line.
1. Managing waist line requires being self- motivated and self-
disciplined. Permanent weight loss requires a lifelong change
in eating habits and increased exercise.
2. Minimize exposure to tempting food cues - keep tempting food
out of the house. Go for buying food items only when you have
eaten and your stomach is full. Avoid the counters where
sweets and chips or other fried items are kept.
3. Eat simple meals. If there is more variety, people consume
more.
4. Exercise empties fat cells, builds muscles, speeds up
metabolism and helps lower your settling point, especially
when supported by 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night.
5. Eat healthy food – Whole grain, fruits, vegetables and healthy
fats such as those found in olive oil and fish help regulate
appetite and artery clogging cholesterol.
6. Don’t starve all day and eat one big meal at night - It slows
down metabolism. Those who eat a balanced breakfast are by
late morning more alert and less fatigued.
7. Eat slowly that will lead to eating less. Don’t consciously
restrain your eating, drinking alcohol, and don’t feel anxious or
depressed about being overweight. This can trigger the urge to
eat.
71
4.4 SUMMARY
4.5 QUESTIONS
4.6 REFERENCES
th
1) Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013
73
Unit -5
MOTIVATION AND EMOTION-II
Unit Structure :
5.0 Objectives
5.1 The Need to Belong: Introduction
5.2 Cognition & Emotions
5.3 Embodied Emotions: The Physiology of Emotions
5.4 Summary
5.5 Questions
5.6 References
5.0 OBJECTIVES
behind your back. Williams & Zadro (2001) stated that being
shunned – given the cold shoulder or the silent treatment, with
others’ eyes avoiding yours- threatens one’s need to belong. This is
the meanest thing you can do to someone, especially when you
know that the other person can’t fight back. Even just being
linguistic outsider among people speaking a different language that
you can’t speak or understand must have made you feel excluded.
internet users, are 64% less likely to rely on neighbors for help
either for themselves or for their family members.
1. People may not have any close friends to whom they can
communicate face to face about their problems.
2. While disclosing our distress face to face, we are not sure how
the other person is going to react. We are vulnerable and self-
conscious. It makes us feel weak and hits our self-esteem. On
the other hand, while communicating electronically rather than
face-to-face, we often are less focused on others’ reactions, feel
less self-conscious and thus feel less inhibited. We become
more willing to share our joys, worries and vulnerabilities.
Sometimes, this disinhibition can take an extreme form. For
example, people indulge in sexting, teens send nude photos of
themselves to their internet friends, youth are “cyber-bullied” or
trolling takes place, hate groups post messages promoting
bigotry or crimes.
78
There are all sorts of people in virtual world just as they are
in real world. Some people are honest, loving good human beings
and some are cheats, criminals/ predators. Psychologists wondered
whether people reveal their true selves on internet. So the next
question is –Do Social Networking Profiles and Posts Reflect
People’s Actual Personalities?
1. Monitor your time: Keep a diary and see whether the way you
use your time reflects your priorities. Check whether the time
79
2. Monitor your Feelings: Check how you feel when you are not
online. If you feel anxious and restless, if you keep thinking
about social networking sites all the time even when you are in
class or at work, then you are getting addicted to social
networking sites and you need help.
has come down drastically. One patient reported that “Anger just
doesn’t have the heat to it that it used to…” But other emotions that
are expressed mostly in body above the neck were felt more
intensely, e.g., these patients reported increase in weeping, lumps
in the throat and getting choked up when saying good-bye,
worshipping or watching an emotional movie. This indicates that
our bodily responses feed our experienced emotions.
Lie Detection:
It is a common practice for researchers and crime detectors
to use lie detector- polygraph to detect the lies. The question arises
how effective and reliable is polygraph in detecting lies. The
polygraph works on the principle that certain emotion-linked bodily
changes, such as changes in breathing, cardiovascular activity and
perspiration changes take place when a person tells a lie, even if
that person can control his facial expressions. The tester/examiner
asks questions to the testee and observes these bodily changes
taking place in the testee while answering the questions. The tester
starts questioning with certain question that may make any person
nervous and polygraph will show signs of arousal. These are called
control questions. For example, a tester may ask in last 10 years
have you taken anything that does not belong to you? The arousal
level shown on a polygraph, in response to these control questions
serves as the base line. Then the tester will ask the critical
questions, e.g., have you stolen anything from your previous
employer? The arousal level shown on polygraph in response to
this question will indicate whether the person is telling the truth or
lying. For example, if the arousal level while answering the critical
question is weaker than the base line arousal determined before,
then we can say that person is telling the truth. On the other hand,
if the arousal shown in response to critical question is more than
base line arousal that means the person is telling the lie.
Anger:
Ancient wisdom describes anger as ‘a short madness’. It
says that anger ‘carries the mind away’ and can be ‘many times
more hurtful than the injury that caused it’. In other words, it is
trying to say that when we are angry, we can’t think rationally and
may do or say things that ultimately causes more misery to us.
However, Shakespeare held a different view and said that noble
anger makes a coward person brave and energizes us. Who is
correct? The answer is both are right. Anger can harm us. Studies
have shown that chronic hostility can cause heart disease, blood
pressure, lead to impaired social relationships and may even
shorten our lives.
The question arises can we get rid of our anger? If yes, then
how?
Gender Differences: A Gallup teen survey showed that there
are gender differences in dealing with anger. It reported that to get
rid of their anger, boys usually move away from the situation that is
causing them anger, they do lot of physical activities such as
exercising to get over their anger. On the other hand, girls cope
with their anger by talking to a friend, listening to music or writing
down in diary or journal.
Happiness:
Happiness is a state of mind or a feeling of contentment,
satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. ’Positive psychology, describes
happiness as a high ratio of positive to negative feelings or sense
of satisfaction with life.
Baas et.al. (2008) stated that when your mood is gloomy, life
as a whole seems depressing and meaningless, you are critical of
your surroundings and thinking is skeptical, in such a situation, if
you put in efforts to brighten your mood, your thinking will get
broadened and you will become more playful and creative. In other
words, you will get transferred from unhappy state to happy state.
When we are happy, our relationships, self-image, and hopes for
the future also seem more positive.
E) Predictors of Happiness:
Happy people share many characteristics such as they have
high esteem, are optimistic, outgoing and agreeable, have close
relationships or a satisfying marriage, have work and leisure that
engages their skills, have an active religious faith, sleep well and
exercise Research shows that age, gender, parenthood and
physical attractiveness has no link with happiness, but genes
matter.
8. Focus beyond Self: Reach out and help those who are in
need. Happiness increases helpfulness but doing good also makes
one feel good.
5.4 SUMMARY
5.5 QUESTIONS
5.6 REFERENCES
th
1) Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013
97
Unit -6
PERSONALITY - I
Unit Structure :
6.0 Objectives
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Psychodynamic Theories
6.2.1 Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective - exploring the
unconscious
6.2.2 The Neo-Freudian and psychodynamic theorists
6.2.3 Assessing unconscious processes
6.2.4 Evaluating Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective
6.2.5 Modern views of the unconscious
6.3 Humanistic theories
6.3.1 Abraham Maslow’s self-actualizing person
6.3.2 Carl Rogers’ person-centered perspective
6.3.3 Assessing the self
6.3.4 Evaluating humanistic theories
6.4 Summary
6.5 Questions
6.6 References
6.0 OBJECTIVES
6.1 INTRODUCTION
Personality Structure:
According to Freud, personality can be divided into three
parts. They dynamically interact with each other. They are: Id, Ego,
and Superego.
1) ID:
The first and primitive part of personality is Id. It is present
since infancy. It is completely unconscious and amoral. It contains
all the basic biological drives to survive, reproduce and aggress.
The id is the impulsive, child-like portion of the psyche that
operates on the “pleasure principle”. The pleasure principle states
that there should be immediate gratification of the needs without
caring about outside world’s restrictions or societal conventions of
civilized, standard, and moral behaviour. People dominated by ID
will concentrate on present pleasure rather than think about future
pleasure, e.g., they will enjoy parties, movies now rather than
sacrifice today’s pleasure for future success and happiness.
2) EGO:
This second part of personality is developed to handle the
reality. It is partially conscious part of mind that includes our higher
cognitive abilities, rationality, perceptions, thoughtfulness,
memories, learning, and logical processes. It provides buffer
between illogical, amoral impulses of id and societal restrictions.
The Ego works on reality principle, which means that the id’s drives
are satisfied in a realistic way that will avoid negative outcomes and
will bring long term pleasure. So, there are times when ego denies
the gratification of id’s drive because of possible negative
consequences. For example, if a very young kid is hungry, then he
picks up food from anybody’s plate, but slightly older kids will not do
that. Instead they would wait for their plate to come or make a
request in more formal ways. If they are at stranger’s place, then
they will prefer to stay hungry than asking for food. This is because
ego develops with the age.
101
3) SUPEREGO:
Freud believed that around the age of 4 or 5 our superego
starts developing and ego starts recognizing the demands of
superego. Superego represents our moral values imbibed from the
society. These are the rules and regulations about what is right and
wrong taught by parents, teachers, and important others. The
superego tells us how we ought to behave. It forces ego to consider
not only the real world but also the ideal world. In other worlds, it
tells ego to not only avoid punishment but also to strive for ideal
behavior. It strives for perfection. It prevents us from doing morally
incorrect things, by producing guilt (also called as moral anxiety). It
produces feeling of pride when we do morally correct things. A
person with very strong superego may be virtuous and yet guilt-
ridden, while another person with weak superego may be low in
using self-restraint and yet may not feel any guilt.
Fig. 6.1
1) Oral Stage:
The duration of first stage of psychosexual development,
namely Oral Stage, is from birth to 18 months. The erogenous zone
of oral stage is mouth. Children enjoy activities like sucking, biting,
mouthing, etc. The conflict that is experienced in this stage is
weaning the child from bottle or mother’s breast feed. The child will
get fixated in the oral stage if the child overindulges (continue to
breast/bottle feed for longer duration)or become frustrated (due to
early or abrupt weaning) with the oral gratification. This leads to
development of oral personality in adulthood. Aggressive-
pessimistic traits develop if oral needs are under gratified and
dependency-optimism develops if they are over gratified. If they are
over gratified, they may continue to seek oral gratification by
overeating, talking too much, smoking, etc. If they are weaned
away too early leading to under gratification they may act tough or
speak in “bitingly” sarcastic way, etc.
2) Anal Stage:
The duration of Anal Stage of psychosexual development is
from 18 months to 3 years. The erogenous zone of anal stage is
anus. Children at this stage derive pleasure by both withholding
and expulsion of fesses at will. In addition to physical pleasure,
child also derives pleasure from self-control and the praise from
parents. The conflict that is experienced in this stage is toilet
training. The child will get fixated in the anal stage if toilet training is
too harsh. The conflict leads to development of anal personality in
adulthood. They are of two types: anal expulsive personalities and
anal retentive personalities. Anal Expulsive Personality results from
child’s rebel against toilet training by parents. The adult would show
destructiveness, hostility, emotional outbursts, disorganization,
rebelliousness and carelessness. They could also become
extremely generous and indiscipline. Anal-Retentive Personality
develops due to fear of punishment. The child retains fesses and
refuses to go to toilet. They develop traits like excessive
orderliness, neatness, stubbornness, a compulsion for control and
have interest in collecting, holding, and retaining objects.
3) Phallic Stage:
The Phallic Stage is between 3 years to 6 years. The
genitals are erogenous zone during this stage. Child derives
pleasure by fondling genitals. They develop unconscious sexual
desires for their mother and jealousy and hatred for their fathers,
whom they consider as their rivals. Similarly, girls develop
unconscious sexual desire for their fathers. Boys experience
Oedipal Conflict and girls experience Electra Complex in this
phase. Father is perceived as powerful, and they develop castration
anxiety, a fear that their penis will be cut-off by their fathers, if
fathers come to know of their sexual attraction towards their
mothers. To resolve this anxiety boys Identify with their fathers and
104
Carl Jung:
Carl Gustav Jung differed from Freud on the nature of
unconscious and parted away from Freud. In addition to Personal
Unconscious, he developed the concept of Collective Unconscious.
It is the store house of our experiences as a species since ancient
ages. We are born with it and are not conscious of it. He called
these collective universal human memories as Archetypes, an
unlearned inclination to experience world in a particular way.
Among the many archetypes, Mother (our inner tendency to identify
a particular relationship of “mothering”),Anima/Animus (feminine
component within males/ masculine component within females),
Shadow (dark side of ego containing sex and life instincts), persona
(individuals public image) are important.
Alfred Adler:
Alfred Adler had struggled to overcome his own childhood
illnesses and accidents due to which he had suffered from
inferiority complex. So, while proposing the concept of inferiority
complex he stated that everybody experiences sense of inferiority,
weakness and helplessness as a child and struggle to overcome
the inadequacies by become superior and powerful adults. He
identified ‘striving for superiority’ as a thrust propelling thought,
feelings, and actions of humans. Two important concepts in his
theory are: Parenting and Birth Order. According to Adler, the order
in which person is born in the family innately influences persons
personality. The first born, experience crisis as the attention shifts
to younger sibling after their births and to overcome this they
become overachievers. Middle born children are not pampered but
get the attention and become more superior. After dethroning older
sibling, they have power over their younger siblings and engage in
healthy competition. The youngest children have the least amount
of power in family and are more pampered and protected. This
creates a sense that they cannot take responsibilities and feel
inferior to others.
10. It is also argued that Freud’s theory does not meet the criteria of
being scientific theory. A scientific theory must offer new
testable hypotheses and objective way of testing the existing
theory.
11. The most serious problem with Freud’s theory is that it offers
after-the-fact explanations of any characteristic but fails to
predict such behaviors and traits, e.g., according to his theory, if
you feel angry at your mother’s death, it is because your
unresolved childhood dependency needs are threatened. On
the other hand, if you do not feel angry, it is because you are
repressing your anger. Lindzey (1978) rightly commented that it
is like betting on a horse after the race is over.
12. Critics said that a good theory should give testable predictions
but Freud’s supporters said that Freud never claimed that
psychoanalysis was a predictive science. He merely claimed
that looking back, psychoanalyst could find meaning in our state
of mind.
13. His supporters further point out that some of Freud’s ideas are
everlasting, e.g., he drew attention to the idea of unconscious,
irrationality, self-protective defense mechanisms, importance of
sexuality, tension between our biological impulses and our
social well-being. He challenged our self-righteousness,
punctured our pretensions and reminded us of our potential for
evil.
Few friends: They have few close intimate friends rather than
many superficial relationships.
Just like Freud, Maslow and Carl Rogers also have had a
tremendous impact on other psychologists. Their ideas have
influenced counseling, education, child-rearing, and management.
Unintendedly, they have also influenced today’s popular
psychology. But there has been some criticism for humanistic
theories.
2. Critics are of the opinion that humanistic theories are vague and
subjective. For example, Maslow’s description of self-actualizing
people as open, spontaneous, loving, self-accepting and
productive is not a scientific description. This description is
merely a description of Maslow’s own values and ideals, an
impression of his personal heroes. However, if another theorist
has another set of heroes such as Napoleon or Margaret
Thatcher, he would probably describe self-actualizing people as
“undeterred by others’ needs and opinions”, “motivated to
achieve”, and “comfortable with power”. (M. Brewster
Smith,1978) . In other words, subjective ideas such as authentic
and real experiences are difficult to objectify; an experience that
is real for one individual may not be real for another person.
116
4. Critics also objected to the idea that put by Rogers that the only
thing that matters is the answer to a question, “Am I living in a
way which is deeply satisfying to me, and which truly expresses
me?” Critics said that this encouragement on individualism in
humanistic psychology can be detrimental. Emphasizing on
trusting and acting on one’s feelings, being true to oneself,
fulfilling oneself can lead to self-indulgence, selfishness, and an
erosion of moral restraints. Those who focus beyond
themselves are most likely to experience social support, enjoy
life and cope effectively with stress. However, humanistic
psychologists defended themselves by saying that a secure,
non defensive self-acceptance is the first step towards loving
others. If people don’t love themselves, how can they love
others.
5. There are those who believe humanistic theory falls short in its
ability to help those with more sever personality or mental health
pathology. While it may show positive benefits for a minor
issue, using the approach of Rogers to treat schizophrenia
would seem ludicrous.
6.4 SUMMARY
6.5 QUESTIONS
6.6 REFERENCES
th
1) Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013
119
Unit -7
PERSONALITY - II
Unit Structure :
7.0 Objectives
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Trait theories
7.2.1 Exploring and assessing traits
7.2.2 Thinking critically about: how to be a “successful”
astrologer or palm reader
7.2.3 The Big Five Factors
7.2.4 Evaluating Trait Theories
7.3 Social cognitive theories
7.3.1 Reciprocal influences
7.3.2 Personal control;
7.3.3 Close-up: Toward A More Positive Psychology
7.3.4 Assessing behaviour in situations
7.3.5 Evaluating social-cognitive theories
7.4 Exploring the self -
7.4.1 The benefits of self-esteem
7.4.2 Self-Serving Bias
7.5 Summery
7.6 Questions
7.7 References
7.0 OBJECTIVES
7.1 INTRODUCTION
Exploring traits:
Each of us are a unique combination of multiple traits. The
question arises which trait dimensions describe personality. Allport
and Odbert (1936) counted all the words in a dictionary with which
one could describe people. There were almost 18000 such words.
It was necessary for psychologists to condense this list to a
manageable number of basic traits. To achieve that they used a
statistical technique called factor analysis.
Fig.7.1
Biology and Personality: There are many traits and mental states
such as extraversion, intelligence, impulsivity, addictive cravings,
lying, sexual attraction, aggressiveness, empathy, spiritual
experiences, racial and political attitudes, etc. that can be studied
with brain-imaging procedures. For example, studies using brain
imaging indicate that extraverts seek stimulation because their
normal brain arousal is relatively low and frontal lobe area involved
in behavior inhibition is less active in them.
Assessing Traits:
Once it was established that stable traits influence our
behavior, the next question was how to measure these traits in
most reliable and valid way. Many trait assessment techniques
have been devised, such as personality inventories. Personality
inventories are longer questionnaires covering a wide range of
feelings and behaviors, i.e., they assess many traits at once. Some
of these personality inventories are -
122
3. Read: Astrologers keep their eyes open. They also use their
other senses to judge a client on the basis of clothing, jewelry,
mannerisms and speech. For example, if they see a lady dressed in
expensive clothes longingly looking at the calendar on the wall with
a happy child’s photo, the astrologer can judge that lady is rich but
does not have or has lost a child of her own.
4. Tell them what they want to hear: Astrologers start with some
safe sympathy statements such as “I sense you are having some
problems lately. You seem unsure what to do….” Then tell them
what they want to hear. They memorize some Barnum statements
from astrology manuals and use them liberally.
a.) How stable are these traits? Research shows that in adulthood,
these traits are quite stable, with some tendencies (such as
emotional instability, extraversion, and openness) decreasing or
even disappearing a bit during early and middle adulthood, and
some tendencies (such as agreeableness and conscientiousness)
rising. Conscientiousness increases most during people’s 20s while
agreeableness increases during people’s 30s and continues to
increase through their 60s (Srivastava et.al.2003)
c.) Another question that psychologists asked was, do the Big Five
traits predict other behavioral attributes? The answer is yes. For
example:
ii) Highly conscientious people earn better marks. They are also
more likely to be morning type persons, that is, they get up early in
the morning and are fully alert and full of energy in the morning.
Evening types are more likely to be extraverted.
iv) Big Five traits influence our written language use also. For
instance, in text messaging, extraverted people use more of
personal pronouns, people high on agreeableness use more of
positive emotion words, and those high on neuroticism (emotional
instability) use more of negative emotion words.
Fig.7.2
e) Excessive Optimism:
Though positive thinking is beneficial when we are faced
with difficulties in life, but realism is equally important. One should
not be overly optimistic. Realistic anxiety over possible failure can
lead us to put in more energetic efforts to avoid such a failure. A
student who is realistically anxious about upcoming exam will study
more and make sure that he passes the exam compared to a
student who is over confident and does not study much. Studies
have indicated that Asian American students show higher
pessimism than European-American students. That is why Asian
American students have higher academic achievements. To be
132
people who notice those blunders are far less than what we
assume. If you know about this tendency of spotlight effect, it can
empower you. For example, if a public speaker understands that
his nervousness is not obvious to his audience, his speaking
performance will improve.
7.5 SUMMARY
7.6 QUESTIONS
7.7 REFERENCES
th
1) Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013
141
Unit -8
STATISTICS IN PSYCHOLOGY:
UNDERSTANDING DATA
Unit Structure :
8.0 Objectives
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Why do Psychologists use Statistics?
8.3 Descriptive Statistics
8.3.1 Frequency Distributions
8.3.2 Histogram
8.3.3 Frequency Polygon
8.4 Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median, Mode
8.5 Measures of Variability: Range, SD
8.6 Z – Scores and the Normal Curve
8.7 The Correlation Coefficient
8.8 Inferential Statistics
8.9 Summary
8.10 Questions
8.11 References
8.0 OBJECTIVES
8.1 INTRODUCTION
91 84 80 77 75
72 75 93 73 81
81 91 64 92 82
62 94 84 71 87
62 77 94 89 83
93 83 86 88 84
82 90 86 88 84
83 91 84 92 94
8.3.2 Histogram:
Histogram is a graph that represents the class frequencies in
a frequency distribution by vertical adjacent rectangles. It is the
most widely used methods of a frequency distribution. The purpose
of a histogram is to show the frequencies within class graphically.
In a histogram, it is assumed that scores be spread uniformly over
their intervals. The frequencies within each class interval of a
histogram are represented by a rectangle. The base of which
equals the size of the class interval and the height of which equals
the number of scores (f) within that interval.
The histogram has following special features:
1. The area of the histogram corresponds to the total (N) of the
distribution
2. The area of each bar in a histogram corresponds to the
frequency within a given interval.
3. The class intervals shown at the x axis in histogram do not have
any gaps. They are continuous and always touch. For example,
if we want to draw a histogram of above table, then on x axis,
for class interval 50-59 we will begin with 49.5 -59.5, then 59.5 -
69.5 and so on.
4. The bars are always vertical.
To plot a histogram the first step is to create a frequency
table. Let us take an example to plot a histogram from the following
frequency table
Table No. 3 Frequency Table Histogram
Fig. 1
Table No. 4
Fig.2 Polygon
8.4.1 Mean:
Mean is also called as arithmetic mean or average. It is the
most commonly used measure of central tendency. It is simply the
sum of the numbers divided by the number of numbers. For example,
This formula is useful when the data is not too big and is not
grouped in frequency distribution. But if the data is too large and
needs to be grouped then we need another method of computing
the mean.
8.4.2 Median:
Median is that value of a variable which divides a series in
two equal parts in such a manner that the number of items below it
is equal to the number of items above it. The median is a positional
average referring to the place of a value in a series. Median is
influenced by the position of items in a series and not by the size of
the items like the mean.
150
(iii) The Median, is almost useful when the distribution has extreme
scores i.e.,
8.4.3 Mode:
Mode is defined as the most frequently occurring value in a
given data. There are many situations in which arithmetic mean and
median fail to reveal the true characteristic of data. For example,
when we take the common habitat, attitude, behaviour, etc., we
have in mind mode and not the mean or median. The mean does
not always provide an accurate reflection of the data due to the
presence of extreme items. Median may also prove to be quite
unrepresentative of the data owing to an uneven distribution of the
series. Both these shortcomings can be overcome by the use of the
mode which refers to the value which occurs most frequency in a
distribution. Mode is used under following conditions:
Example:
a) For individuals having the following ages — 18, 18, 19, 20,
20,20, 21, and 23, the mode is 20.
b) Problem: Find the mode from the following data: 7, 13, 18,24, 9,
3, 18
8.5.1 Range:
The Range is one of the crudest, simple and straight-forward
measures of variability which can be defined as the difference
152
between the value of the smallest item and the value of the largest
item included in the distribution. In other words, range is the
difference between the highest and the lowest scores in a
distribution. (See the first step in frequency distribution in table
no. 1)
It can be used when the data are too scant or too scattered to
justify the computation of a precise measure of variability or
when we just want to know the extreme scores of the total
spread.
SD =
Where
SD = the standard deviation of a sample
∑ = means sum of
X = each score in the data set
X = mean of all scores in the data set
N = number of scores in the data set
Table No. 5
SD = √4388/15 = 17.10
154
8.6.1 Z – Scores
Z - scores are one type of standard scores which represents
the differences between individual scores and the mean score
expressed in units of standard deviations. Z-scores are a
conversion or transformation of individual scores into a standard
form, where the transformation is based on knowledge about the
population’s mean and standard deviation.
Z – Score can be defined as a statistical measure which
indicates how far away from the mean a particular score is in terms
of the number of standard deviations which exists between the
mean and that score.
155
Z-scores take data of any form and put them into a standard
scale. High score in a distribution always has a positive z-score
and a low score in a distribution always has a negative z score.
z=X–X
SD
X = Raw score
X = Mean
SD = Standard Deviation
Let us take an example from table no. 4
Fig.3
6. The total interval from plus one standard deviation to minus one
standard deviation contains 68.26% of the cases. Similarly,
99.44% of the total area will be included between the mean
ordinate and an ordinate 2 standard deviation from the mean.
Similarly, 99.74% of the total area will be included between the
mean ordinate and a point 3 standard deviation away from the
mean.
Skewed Distribution:
It can be defined as a frequency distribution in which most of
the scores fall to one side of the distribution or the other side. The
word skewed means lacking symmetry or distorted.
Negatively Skewed
The mass of distributions is concentrated on the right end of
the figure and are spread out more gradually towards the left. The
left tail is the longest.
Positively Skewed
The mass of distribution is concentrated on the left of the
figure and are spread out more gradually towards the right. The
right tail is the longest. See Fig.4
158
Fig.4
Fig.5
Bimodal Distributions:
Some frequency polygons show two high points rather than
just one, such a distribution is called as bimodal distribution. A
bimodal distribution is a frequency distribution in which there are
two high points rather than one. In a bimodal distribution, there are
two peaks in occurrences, so you should see two humps or spikes.
For example, a bimodal distribution would look like figure 6
Fig.6
159
sea level and temperature. As the height above the sea level
increases, the temperature drops and it gets colder.
∑ ZxZy
Correlation coefficient = -----------------
N
Fig.7
162
Fig.8
Statistical Significance:
Inferential statistics allows researchers to determine how
much confidence they should have in the results of a particular
experiment. If inferential statistics indicates that the odds of a
particular finding occurring are considerably greater than mere
chance, we can conclude that our results are statistically significant.
Statistically significant results indicate that we can conclude with a
high degree of confidence that the manipulation of the independent
variable, rather than simply chance, is the reason for the results. In
other words, statistical significance is a way to test differences to
see how likely those differences are to be real and not just caused
by the random variations in behavior that exist in everything
animals and people do.
8.9 SUMMARY
8.10 QUESTIONS
8.11 REFERENCES
th
1. Myers, D. G. (2013).Psychology.10 edition; International
edition. New York: Worth Palgrave Macmillan, Indian reprint
2013
166