SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Even though it’s an age-old concept, there’s still significant disagreement when it comes to defining intelligence. Are high-achievers in the classroom more intelligent than high-achievers on the sports field? How about people who are hugely successful at business, but flunked all of their exams. Neisser et al. (1996) define intelligence as […]
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SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO How can you define a person? Such a question is pivotal in the study of Personality and Developmental Psychology. It’s also a question mooted by parents and relatives of small children, keen to notice tell-tale signs on the adult they will, in time, grow into. One such concept, which originates more […]
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Structure of the Human Nervous System The Human Nervous System can be divided into two main components: The Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System. Central Nervous System Two elements comprise the Central Nervous System: The Spinal Cord and Brain work to interpret messages sent from your body’s sensory receptors and […]
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO In 1969, American Psychologist Mary Ainsworth developed a new procedure for studying attachment types in infants. She called her procedure the Strange Situation Classification – known more commonly as just the Strange Situation. Ainsworth was a student of the leading Developmental Psychologist John Bowlby. As an adult you know when you’ve […]
Schaffer & Emerson (1964) conducted an observational study of 60 children in Glasgow, Scotland, to understand how babies form and develop attachments. They note that human infants take a significantly longer time to form a bond than newborn animals, such as ducks. Human infants’ attachments develop in four stages: 1) The Asocial Stage – usually […]
An Introduction to Classical Conditioning Classical Conditioning (also known as Pavlovian Conditioning) was discovered by accident. Ivan Pavlov – a Russian Physiologist, and the first Russian to win the Nobel Peace Prize for Physiology or Medicine – was studying the gastric system of dogs when he observed that the dogs began salivating in anticipation of […]
An Introduction to Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Conditioning) Operant conditioning, also known as Instrumental Conditioning, informs us of the interaction between environmental stimuli and our behaviours. The term ‘operant’ stems from the idea that the individual learns through responding, or operating on the environment. The basic premise of instrumental conditioning is when a particular action results […]
An Introduction to the Eysenck Theory of Three Factors (1947, 1966) Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) developed a very influential trait theory of personality, which has successful infiltrated the public mindset with regards to how we think about personality in day-to-day life. Using factor analysis to devise his theory, Eysenck (1947, 1966) identified three factors of personality: extroversion, neuroticism […]
Nomothetic and Idiographic: Two Approaches to Personality The Nomothetic and Idiographic approaches tackle Personality Psychology from opposing angles. Personality psychologists study something that is supposedly unique to each of us, yet also something we all have. So is Personality Psychology the psychological equivalent of studying fingerprints? Psychologists tend to fall into one of two camps when approaching personality: […]