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100 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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• What is psychology?
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Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and behaviors *Psyche: soul/spirit *Logia: study of |
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• What is the goal of psychology?
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To describe, classify, explain, and predict human behavior
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• What are the basic tenets of psychology?
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o That both animals and human beings be treated with dignity o Deception o Do the ends justify the means? |
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• Who is the father of modern psychology?
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Wilhelm Wundt
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• In what year was the first psychological laboratory established and in which country?
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University of Leipzig, Germany in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt |
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• What is natural selection by evolution and who is the founder?
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o Heritable and advantageous characteristics are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed on to next generations (are ‘selected for’ over time). o Charles Darwin |
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• What is a psychologist and what do they do?
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A psychologist is a scientist who studies the human brain and behavior, hoping to solve individual or societal issues, advance knowledge, etc. through scientific methods of experimentation.
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• Know the sub-disciplines of psychology Social Personality Developmental |
Social: examines interactions of individual psychology and group phenomena Developmental: studies the way thought, feeling, and behavior develop through the lifespan (from infancy to death) Personality: examines people's enduring ways of responding in different kinds of situations and the ways individuals differ in how they tend to think, feel, and behave |
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• What is Objective Instrospection?
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Studying the human mind and behaviors by taking into consideration and analyzing one's own emotions, thoughts, and feelings.
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• What is Evolutionary Psychology?
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Evolutionary psychology takes into consideration the theory that not only physical, but also behavioral and mental characteristics may be selected for by evolution.
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• What is Functionalism?
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Based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than solely its structure
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• What is Structuralism?
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Based on the belief that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related
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• What is Behaviorism?
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Based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior
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• What is Sociocultural Perspective?
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Emphasis on the environmental factors of society and cultureon behavior and the brain
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• What is ethnocentrism?
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The belief that your culture/group is superior
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• Independent/Dependent Variables?
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Independent: the variable that is manipulated for the experiment Dependent: the variable that is affected by the IV's manipulation |
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• Control vs. Experimental Groups?
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Control: left untreated or unexposed to some procedure and then compared with treated subjects in order to validate the results of the test Experimental: the subjects being given the procedure/treatment |
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• What is a Placebo Effect?
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A subject being exposed to a false treatment/procedure who expects it to be real, therefore tricking their mind into responding in the assumed manner
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• Ethics in Research?
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o Rules of scholarship o Treatment of research participants. Is deception excusable? Are you treating all subjects with dignity? |
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• Population vs Sample?
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Sample: the collection of participants selected for observation in an empirical study Population: much larger collection of individuals from which the sample is drawn the sample allows generalizations to be made about the population |
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• Sampling Bias?
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When a sample is not representative of the population from which it is drawn. This may be prevented by random sampling
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• Social Desirability Bias?
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When a subject shifts their answer/reaction to something in order to make them seem more desirable by society's standards
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• Experimenter Bias? |
When a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
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• Double Blind Study?
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Neither participants nor experimenters know which participants are in the experimental or control groups
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• Single Blind Study?
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Participants do not know if they are in the experimental or control groups (but the experimenter does know)
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• What is random assignment?
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When all participants have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition (control or experimental)
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• What’s a confound?
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When two variables are related in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects
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• Correlation vs Causation?
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Correlation: when variables are coexisting without being related Causation: when one variable directly affects another |
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• Positive and Negative Correlations?
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Positive: variables affect each other in the same way (high ACT scores and high SAT scores, or low ACT scores and low SAT scores) Negative: when one variable affects another but in the opposite way (more absences and lower grades) |
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• Hypothesis?
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A proposed explanation made on the basis of assumption or common sense as a starting point for further investigation (not always correct)
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• Theory?
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The analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another or a plausible/scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena
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• Occipital lobe?
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Processes visual information
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• Operational Definitions?
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Clarifies what exactly is meant by each variable
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• Forebrain?
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The limbic system, the thalamus, the cerebral cortex. Seat of thought, emotion, personality, memory, intelligence, language, and consciousness. Left and right, controls muscular movement and percieves sensory input. |
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• Midbrain?
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Relays audio/visual information from the spine to the forebrain, helps coordinate movement of head and eyes.
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• Hindbrain?
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Coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord and controls the basic/more primal functions of life like heart rate and respiration, and regulates needs like sleep, attention, and sex.
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Frontal lobe?
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Carries out higher mental processes such as thinking, decision making, and planning
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Parietallobe?
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Processes sensory information that had to do with taste, temperature, and touch
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Temporal lobe?
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Responsible for processing auditory information from the ears (hearing)
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• Cerebral Cortex?
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Interprets sensory information, controls voluntary movement, and is the home of higher cognitive processes. Occipital lobe: Processes visual information Parietal lobe: Processes information about touch Temporal lobe: Responsible for hearing and language Frontal lobe: Specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgment |
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• Corpus Callosum?
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Connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain
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• Contralateral Control?
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Left brain controls the right side of body Right brain controls left side of body |
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• Thalamus?
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Relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex |
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Hypothalamus?
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Regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sexual behavior; also part of the Limbic System
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Amygdala?
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Responsible for the response and memory of emotions, especially fear
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Pituitary Gland?
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Controls several other hormone glands, including the thyroid and adrenals, the ovaries and testicles, body growth, pregnancy the master gland |
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Hippocampus?
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Consolidates information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation
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Limbic System?
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A series of sub-structures that regulate mood, emotion, memory, and basic drives including hunger, thirst, and sex hippocampus, hypothalamus, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala |
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Sensory neurons?
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Receive information from the external world and convey this information to the brain via the spinal cord
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Motor neurons?
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Carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement
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Interneurons?
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Connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other interneurons to each other
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Mirror Neurons?
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Mirror neurons are a type of brain cell that respond equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action empathy |
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• Brain Plasticity?
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The brain is constantly evolving as we age and gain knowledge. It can also heal itself to a degree and use different neurons to replace damaged ones
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• Split Brain Studies?
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When a person has their brain halves severed, therefore allowing their left and right hemispheres to exist without communicating with one another
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• Somatosensory and Motor Cortices?
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Motor: controls fine and gross motor skills Sensory: controls touch and sensation |
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• Axons?
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Transmits information to other neurons, muscles, and glands
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• Dendrites?
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Relays information to the cell body
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• Terminal Buttons?
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Knoblike structures that branch out from an axon
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• Neurotransmitters?
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Agonists, Antagonists Reuptake, Binding |
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Agonists?
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Drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter
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Antagonists?
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Drugs that block the action of a neurotransmitter
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Reuptake?
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absorption by a presynaptic nerve ending of a neurotransmitter that it has secreted
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Binding?
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Antagonists bind to receptors in order to block the agonist from binding
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• Synapse?
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The space between one neuron's axon and another's dendrites or cell body
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• Myelin Sheath?
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Protects and insulates
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Glial cells?
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Support cells, found in the immune system
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• Resting Potential?
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Difference in electric charge between the inside and outside of a neuron’s cell membrane
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Action Potential?
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Electric signal that is conducted along a neuron’s axon to a synapse
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• Threshold of excitation?
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Level which must be caused by a stimulus to be transmitted as neural impulse (all or nothing)
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• Human Nervous System?
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The nervous system is organized into the peripheral and central nervous systems. The peripheral nervous system is further divided into the autonomic and somatic nervous systems. |
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• Spinal Reflexesvia. Central Nervous System?
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Spinal reflexes: Simple pathways in the nervous system that rapidly generate muscle contractions
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Central Nervous System?
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Comprised of the spinal cord and the brain which collaborate in complex tasks
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Peripheral?
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Connects the CNS to the body’s organs and muscles
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Somatic?
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Conveys information into and out of the CNS
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Autonomic?
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Carries involuntary and automatic commands that control blood vessels, body organs, and glands
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Sympathetic?
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Prepares the body for action in threatening situations
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Parasympathetic?
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Helps the body return to a normal resting state
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• Environmental Mismatch?
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When certain natural attributes are unnecessary or problematic in today's society
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• Gene-Environment interaction?
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when an experience affects people differently as a result of differences in their genotypes
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• Gene-Environmental correlation?
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correlation occurs when a person’s environment is somehow correlated with that person’s genotype
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Sex?
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In psychology, the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define males and females
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Gender?
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the physical, social, and behavioral characteristics that are culturally associated with male and female roles and identity
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• Genes, chromosomes, DNA?
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Genes: biochemical units of heredity that make up chromosomes, the threadlike coils of DNA Chromosomes: a threadlike structure of nucleic acids and protein found in the nucleus of most living cells, carrying genetic information in the form of genes. DNA: deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms |
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• Behavior Genetics?
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The study of the influences of genes and environments on individual differences in behavior
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• Genotype/Phenotype?
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Geno: the genetic constitution of an individual organism Pheno: the set of observable characteristics of an individual resulting from the interaction of its genotype with the environment |
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• Epigenetics?
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Studies heritable traits (or "phenotypes") that cannot be explained by changes in DNA sequence
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• Heritability?
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the proportion of variation among individuals that can be attributed to genes
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• Evolutionary Psychology and Psychologists?
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Evolutionary psychology is the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind using principles of natural selection Evolutionary psychologists focus mostly on what makes us so much alike as humans |
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• How does biology influence gender?
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Biology does not dictate gender, but it can influence it in two ways Genetically—amab people and afab people have differing sex chromosomes. Physiologically—amab (assigned male at birth) people and afab (assigned female at birth) people have differing concentrations of sex hormones. |
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• Which chromosome is the “sex” chromosome?
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X and Y Y is the chromosome that differentiates a "biological female" from a "biological male" |
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• Social Learning Theory?
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combines cognitive learning theory and behavioral learning theory
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• What is the Biopsychosocial Approach?
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takes into consideration social, biological, and psychological factors when making hypotheses about behavior and learning
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Three stages of prenatal development? • Germinal• Embryonic • Fetal |
Germinal: once a sperm penetrates the ovum's protective layers fertilization occurs.The nuclei of the sperm and ovum fuse, forming a zygote Embryonic: an embryo at 8 to 9 weeks (about the size of an olive) Fetal: about eight to nine weeks after conception the developing organism comes to be known as a fetus |
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• Infancy?
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From birth to about age one. Remarkable and rapid transformation occurs in brain development, motor skills, and social and cognitive capabilities. |
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o Motor development? o Reflexes? |
Motor development: Emergence of the ability to execute physical action Reflexes: Specific patterns of motor response that are triggered by specific patterns of sensory stimulation; innate |
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o Cephalocaudal rule? o Proximodistal rule? |
Cephalocaudal rule: ‘Top-to-bottom’ rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the head to the feetProximodistal rule: ‘Inside-to-outside’ rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge in sequence from the center to the periphery
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• Adulthood?
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Finishing school Leaving home Becoming financially independent Marrying Parenthood not really determinable |
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• Late Adulthood? o Death and Dying |
Most current theorists no longer believe that a person passes through specific psychological stages as part of the dying process Making peace Accepting fate |
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• Childhood? o Egocentrismo Theory of Mind |
Stage of development that begins at about 18-24 months and lasts until adolescence. Egocentrism: Failure to understand that the world appears differently to different observers; observed during preoperational stage Theory of mind: Recognize what others think and feel and can predict behaviors or events linked to behaviors |
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