The Psychology of Seinfeld

Inspired by The Economics of Seinfeld

[psynfeld]

Rods and Cones

Season 8 Episode 8: The Chicken Roaster

What does Kramer mean when he says his rods and cones are all screwed up?  

Rods and cones are receptor cells located in the retina of the eye. 

Rods are highly light-sensitive (they require less light to be activated) and are associated with the chemical rhodopsin.  The retina contains more than 100 million rods, compared to only about 6 million cones.  Cones require more light to function than rods, but can detect color and detail.  Properly working cones might have saved Kramer from pouring tomato juice into his cereal instead of milk!

[psynfeld]

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Season 3 Episode 23: The Keys

Kramer yearns.  George craves.  What's the difference?  Psychologist Abraham Maslow might explain the difference in terms of motivation.  Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is divided into five levels.  Starting with the most basic motivators, they are:

Physiological (food, water, oxygen)

Safety (shelter, security, income)

Love and Belongingness (friends/family, social acceptance)

Esteem (both self-esteem and social status)

Self-actualization (reaching one's full potential)

Where does George fit in the hierarchy?  With no prospects, no woman, and no job,  he's stuck on level 2.  George is more driven to spend time and energy on satisfying his cravings (for money, love, acceptance, etc.) than yearning for something more like Kramer, who is probably a little closer to self-actualization.

[psynfeld]

Obstacles to Problem-Solving: Functional Fixedness

Season 7 Episode 17: The Doll

How many different uses for a conductor's baton can you think of?  

If conducting is all that comes to mind, you're experiencing what psychologists call functional fixedness.  In this clip, Kramer doesn't limit himself to the intended use of the conductor's baton.  Instead, he overcomes functional fixedness by using the baton as a mini cue stick.  

[psynfeld]

Hallucinations and Delusions

Season 9 Episode 1: The Butter Shave

Fill in the blank: In this clip, Newman experiences _________.

A. a delusion B. a hallucination C. both A and B

First of all, what's the difference between a delusion and a hallucination?  Although these words are used loosely in everyday language, psychologists have a specific definition for each term.  A delusion is a false belief and a hallucination is a false sensory perception.  Since Newman actually sees Kramer's head on a turkey and hears him say "Hey, buddy," the answer is B. a hallucination.

[psynfeld]

Reflexes: Nociception

Season 3 Episode 7: The Cafe

Kramer's automatic response to the hot napkin is an example of a nociceptive reflex - a reflex caused by a painful or threatening stimulus.

Here's what happens in that split second:

Sensory neurons carry the message (pain, heat) to Kramer's spinal cord.

Motor neurons carry a signal from the spinal cord to Kramer's muscles to move his hands away from the napkin.

Finally, Kramer perceives the pain of touching the hot napkin.

Reflex arcs (a type of neural pathway) allow a person to react to a dangerous stimulus before the sensory stimulation is processed in the brain.  That means that Kramer actually moved before he felt the burn!  

[psynfeld]

Absolute Thresholds

Season 5 Episode 2: The Puffy Shirt

Jerry and Elaine can't hear a word Leslie is saying - she might as well not be talking. 

This is a good example of an absolute threshold.  Leslie's voice is below the threshold (the weakest detectable level) for Jerry and Elaine.  But what about Kramer? The weird thing about absolute thresholds is that they aren't absolute. They vary from person to person and situation to situation.  Jerry, Elaine and Kramer are all presented with the same exact stimulus, but Kramer has a much lower threshold for sound (or at least for his girlfriend's voice) than his friends do.

[psynfeld]

Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

Season 2 Episode 6: The Statue

Did Kramer take his role as a policeman too far?  

In Philip Zimbardo's 1971 study, the so-called Stanford Prison Experiment, researchers set up a mock prison and randomly assigned student participants to two groups: "prisoners" and "guards."  What he found was that people took the labels seriously, quickly adapting to their assigned roles.  Disturbingly, those pretending to be guards began to abuse and torture those pretending to be prisoners, and soon after that the prisoners suffered mental breakdowns.  The study was cut short after just a few days.  

Kramer acted as a cop for all of one minute.  Imagine how the situation could escalate after an hour, a day, a week.  Social roles, real or not, are powerful in driving our behavior.  

[psynfeld]

Social Comparison: Upward vs. Downward

Season 8 Episode 1: The Foundation

Look at the difference in Kramer and Elaine in terms of self-esteem.  Kramer feels great, and Elaine is a mess. It could have something to do with Social Comparison Theory. 

Kramer "dominates the dojo," but he's in a karate class full of nine-year-olds.  He has the obvious advantage of being taller and stronger than his classmates, so it's easy for him to feel superior.  Since Kramer is comparing himself to people below him, this is downward social comparison. 

On the other hand, Elaine is comparing herself to people above her, like her more experienced boss, Peterman.  While at first she feels inferior, upward social comparison actually makes Elaine feel better about herself.  After Kramer helps her realize that she has the same capabilities as her boss, Elaine leaves with a new sense of confidence.

[psynfeld]

Personality: Nature vs. Nurture

Season 8 Episode 17: The English Patient

The Mandelbaums have a lot in common.  Why are they so alike?  The simple answer is because they're family.  Psychologists have another question to answer.  This is where the Nature vs. Nurture Debate comes in.  Are they alike because they share genes (nature)?  Or because they live in the same area and spend a lot of time together (nurture)? 

These are tough questions to answer, but twin studies and adoption studies give us an idea of how we develop certain traits.  By examining identical twins (who share very similar genes), or families with adopted children (who share an environment but have completely different genes), researchers study how these factors affect intelligence, temperament, personal interests, and more.

So, is it nature or nurture?  The answer is usually both.  In fact, nature and nurture actually work together to shape the way we look, think, and behave.

[psynfeld]

Intelligence: Spatial Reasoning

Season 3 Episode 6: The Parking Garage

Early intelligence tests like the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales focused on verbal and math skills and some modern aptitude tests (like the SAT) still do.  Psychologists today know that intelligence is much more complex.  For example, a person who scores low in reading and writing might be great at spatial reasoning, the ability to mentally move objects around - like imagining an upright map of the mall as flat on the ground and using it to navigate through the stores (unless you have Jerry's suction-cup shoes). 

Architects, mechanics, engineers, designers and artists all rely on spatial reasoning to make a living, and psychologists and educators now recognize its role in intelligence.  Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences includes spatial intelligence, and David Wechsler's WAIS (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) tests both verbal and spatial reasoning.

[psynfeld]

The Incubation Effect

Season 4 Episode 21: The Junior Mint

No matter how hard he tries - and even with a clue (rhymes with a female body part), Jerry just can't remember Dolores' name.

Of course, it comes to him moments after he gives up.  Jerry experiences the so-called incubation effect - he easily finds the solution to his problem after a period of not thinking about it.  For Jerry, it took a few seconds, but incubation can last hours or days (unfortunately for game show contestants and test-takers, the right answer often comes too late).

[psynfeld]

Superordinate Goals

Season 8 Episode 10: The Andrea Doria

For once, Jerry and Newman are cooperating – even getting along.  How is this possible?

Newman's job transfer from New York to Hawaii is what psychologists call a superordinate goal.  This goal is desirable to both Jerry and Newman, and they must work together to achieve it, forcing them to forget their differences.  With superordinate goals, families, businesses, and entire communities, too can overcome conflict, whether over a simple difference of opinions, scarce resources, or even deep-rooted racial prejudice. 

[psynfeld]

Transference

Season 8 Episode 15: The Susie

Sigmund Freud observed that during therapy, many clients develop strong feelings (both positive and negative) towards their therapists.  Freud's psychoanalytic theory emphasizes childhood experiences, which he used to explain this phenomenon.  According to Freud, transference occurs when a client transfers intense repressed emotions from other important relationships to a therapist, a little bit like the way George channels his feelings for Allison towards Kramer.  Transference can be positive and constructive, providing insight into a client's past and current relationships as well as a chance for the client to work through unresolved relationship problems in a safe and relaxed environment.

[psynfeld]

Perception and Processing

Season 5 Episode 3:  The Glasses

Two kinds of processing shape perception: bottom-up and top-down.  Bottom-up processing starts with basic sensory stimulation – raw information and details about the environment.  On the other hand, top-down processing starts with the "big picture," interpreting what we sense to fit our expectations.

With this in mind, how did George mistake an onion for an apple?  We could blame his poor vision, but there's more to it.  He's looking for an apple and expects to find one in the fridge, so even though he senses all the features of the onion (small, round, greenish), he still perceives an apple.  This mental predisposition is called a perceptual set, a product of top-down processing.

[psynfeld]

Classical Conditioning

Season 7 Episode 17: The Doll

 Consider this sequence of events:

George sees his mother. 

His mother criticizes him. 

George gets upset. 

Repeat.

Now, George automatically gets upset when he sees his mother – no step 2 required.  This is classical conditioning in action.  In the above clip, George experiences stimulus generalization, a byproduct of his conditioning.  In other words, George is upset not only by his actual mother, but by anyone/anything that resembles his mother (like a doll with red hair).

[psynfeld]

Motivational Conflicts: Decisions, Decisions

Season 9 Episode 2: The Voice

Jerry is facing an approach-avoidance conflict.  He would like to keep his girlfriend around, but he doesn't want to give up using "the voice."  This kind of conflict can be difficult to resolve, because a certain goal (in this case, having a girlfriend) has both advantages and disadvantages.

Approach-approach and avoidance-avoidance conflicts are generally easier to resolve.  Each involves a choice between two options, either both desirable or both undesirable.  Examples:

1.  Kramer is hungry and has two options for a snack: a mango or a mackinaw peach (both desirable, approach-approach). 

2.  George might not want to go to work everyday, but he doesn't want to get fired either (both undesirable, avoidance-avoidance). 

[psynfeld]

Operational Definitions

Season 6 Episode 6: The Gymnast

Did George eat garbage?  For Jerry and George, the definition of "garbage" is up for interpretation.  For research psychologists, it's a different story. 

Good research is clear and precise.  To avoid ambiguity, researchers use operational definitions.  What does it mean to be happy, to be hungry?  What is aggression?  What is depression?  In research, all of these terms require straightforward explanations. 

Example: According to Jerry, food must have certain measurable characteristics to qualify as garbage.  The eclair that George ate fits Jerry's operational definition of garbage because it was:

1.  In the receptacle

2.  Adjacent to refuse

3.  Partially eaten

If we agree with Jerry then yes, George ate garbage - clean and simple, black and white.