Psychology 1-4

Front 1

Psychology

Back 1

the scientific study of thought and behavior

Front 2

cognitive psychology

Back 2

the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems

Front 3

developmental psychology

Back 3

the study of how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span

Front 4

behavioral neuroscience

Back 4

the study of the links among brain, mind and behavior

Front 5

biological psychology

Back 5

the study of the relationship between bodily system and chemicals and how they influence behavior and thought

Front 6

clinical psychology

Back 6

the study of the treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and the promotion of psychological health

Front 7

personality psychology

Back 7

the study of what makes people unique and the consistencies in people's behavoir across time and situations

Front 8

social psychology

Back 8

the study of how living among others influences thought feeling, and behavior

Front 9

health psychology

Back 9

the study of the role that psychological factors play in regard to physical health and illness

Front 10

educational psychology

Back 10

the study of how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology of schools, and the psychology of teaching

Front 11

sports psychology

Back 11

the study of psychological factors in sports and exercise

Front 12

industrial/ organizational psychology

Back 12

application of psychological concepts and questions to work settings

Front 13

forensic psychology

Back 13

field that blends psychology, law, and criminal justice

Front 14

shamans

Back 14

medicine men or women who treat people with mental problems by driving out their demons with elaborate rituals, such as exorcisms, incantations, and prayers

Front 15

asylums

Back 15

facilities for treating the mentally ill in Europe during the middle ages and into the 19th century

Front 16

moral treatment

Back 16

19th century approach to treating the mentally ill with dignity in a caring environment

Front 17

psychoanalysis

Back 17

a clinically based aproach to understanding and treating psychological disorders; assumes that the unconscious mind is the most powerful force behind thought and behavior (sigmund freud)

Front 18

empiricism

Back 18

the view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience (john locke-tabula rasa)

Front 19

psychophysics

Back 19

the first scientific form of psychology; laboratory studies of the subective experience of physical sensations. (ernst weber)

Front 20

Wilhelm Wundt

Back 20

Set up psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany (the birth place of experiemtnal psychology). gave psychology its independence from philosophy and physiology.

Front 21

William James

Back 21

learned from Wundt. Also studied with William james (founder of psychology in us)

Front 22

Structuralism

Back 22

19th century school of psychology that argued that breaking down experience into its elemental parts offers the best way to understand thought and behavior. method was introspection

Front 23

introspection

Back 23

the main method of investigation for structuralists; it involves looking into one's own mind for information about the nature of conscious experience.

Front 24

functionalism

Back 24

19th century school of psychology that argued it was better to look at why the mind works the way it does than to describe its parts

Front 25

behaviorism

Back 25

a school of psychology that proposed that psychology can be a true science only if it examines observable behavoir, not ideas, thoughts, feelings, or motives

Front 26

humanistic psychology

Back 26

a theory of psychology that focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way of reaching one's highest potential.

Front 27

positive psychology

Back 27

scientific approach to studying, understanding, and promoting healthy positive psychological functioning

Front 28

gestalt psychology

Back 28

a theory of psychology that maintains that we perceive things as wholes rather than as a compilation of parts

Front 29

Nature through nurture

Back 29

the position that the environment constantly interacts with biology to shape who we are and what we do

Front 30

evolution

Back 30

the change over time in the frequency with which specific genes occur within a breeding species

Front 31

natural selection

Back 31

a feedback process whereby nature favors one design over another because it has an impact on reproduction

Front 32

adaptations

Back 32

inherited solutions to ancestral problems that have been selected for because they contribute in some way to reproductive success

Front 33

evolutionary psychology

Back 33

the branch of psychology that studies human behavior by asking what adaptive problems it may have solved for our early ancestors

Front 34

scientific method

Back 34

the procedures by which scientists conduct research, consisting of five basic processes; observaion, prediction, testing, interpertation, and communication

Front 35

hypothesis

Back 35

a specific, informed, and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design

Front 36

theory

Back 36

a set of related assumptions from which scientists can make testable predictions

Front 37

replication

Back 37

the repetition of a study to confirm the results; essential to the scientific process

Front 38

pseudoscience

Back 38

claims presented as scientific that are not supported by evidence obtained with the scientific method

Front 39

research design

Back 39

plans of action for how to conduct a scientific study

Front 40

variable

Back 40

a characteristic that changes or "varies," such as age, gender, weight, intelligence, anxiety and exraversion

Front 41

population

Back 41

the entire group a researcher is interested in; for example, all humans, all adolescents, all boys, all girls, all college students

Front 42

samples

Back 42

subsets of the population studied in a research project

Front 43

social desirability bias

Back 43

the tendency toward favorable self-presentation that could lead to inaccurate selfreports

Front 44

descriptive designs

Back 44

study designs in which the researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything

Front 45

case study

Back 45

a study design in which a psychologyist, often a therapist, observes one person over a long period of time

Front 46

naturalistic observation

Back 46

a study in which the researcher unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world

Front 47

representative sample

Back 47

a research sample that accurately reflects the population of people one is studying

Front 48

correlation coefficient

Back 48

a statistic that ranges from -1.0 to +1.0 and assesses the strength and direction of association between two variables

Front 49

correlational designs

Back 49

studies that measure two or more variables and their relationship to one another; not designed to show causation

Front 50

experiment

Back 50

a research design that includes independent and dependent variables and random assignment of participants to control and experiemental groups or conditions

Front 51

independent variable

Back 51

a property that is manipulated by the experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it causes the predicted outcome of an experiment

Front 52

dependent variable

Back 52

in an experiment, the outcome or response to the experimental manipulation

Front 53

random assignment

Back 53

the method used to assign participants to different research conditions so that all participants have the same chance of being in any specific group

Front 54

control group

Back 54

a group of research participants who are treated in exactly the same manner as the experimental group, except that they do not receive the independent variable or treatment

Front 55

placebo

Back 55

a substance or treatment that appears identical to the actual treatment but lacks the active substance

Front 56

experimental group

Back 56

a group consisting of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior

Front 57

confounding variable

Back 57

variable whose influence on the dependent variable cannot be separated from the independent variable being examined

Front 58

single-blind studies

Back 58

studies in which participants do not know the experimental condition (group) to which they have been assigned

Front 59

experimenter expectancy effects

Back 59

result that occurs when the behavior of the participants is influenced by the experimenter's knowledge of who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group

Front 60

double blind studies

Back 60

studies in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been assigned to the experimental or control group

Front 61

self fulfilling prophecy

Back 61

a statement that affects events to cause the prediction to become true

Front 62

meta-analysis

Back 62

a research and statistical technique for combining all research results on one question and drawing a conclusion

Front 63

effect size

Back 63

a measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables or the magnitude of an experimental effect

Front 64

self-reports

Back 64

written or oral accounts of a person's thoughts, feelings, or actions

Front 65

behavioral measures

Back 65

measures based on systematic observation of people's actions either in their normal environment or in a laboratory setting

Front 66

physiological measures

Back 66

measures of bodily responses, such as blood pressure or heart rate, used to determine changes in psychological state

Front 67

multiple measurement

Back 67

the use of several measures to acquire data on one aspect of behavior

Front 68

mode

Back 68

a statistic that represents the most commonly occurring score or value

Front 69

statistics

Back 69

collection, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of numerical data

Front 70

descriptive statistics

Back 70

measures used to describe and summarize research data

Front 71

mean

Back 71

the arithmetic average of a series of numbers

Front 72

median

Back 72

the score that separates the lower half of scores from the upper half

Front 73

standard deviation

Back 73

a statistical measure of how much scores in a sample vary around the mean

Front 74

ethics

Back 74

the rules governing the conducts of a person or group in general or in a specific situation-or more simply, standards of right and wrong

Front 75

debriefing

Back 75

the explanation of the purposes of a study following data collection

Front 76

institutional review boards (irbs)

Back 76

organizations that evaluate research proposals to make sure research involving humans does not cause undue harm or distress

Front 77

chromosomes

Back 77

a coiled-up thread of DNA

Front 78

DNA

Back 78

deoxyribonucleic acid. a large molecule that contains genes

Front 79

genes

Back 79

small segments of dna that contain information for producing proteins

Front 80

genome

Back 80

all the genetic information in dna

Front 81

alleles

Back 81

different forms of a gene

Front 82

dominant genes

Back 82

genes that show their effect even if there is only one allele for that trait in the pair

Front 83

recessive genes

Back 83

genes that show their effects only when both alleles are the same

Front 84

behavioral genetics

Back 84

the scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior

Front 85

monogenic transmission

Back 85

the hereditary passing on of traits determined by a single gene

Front 86

polygenic transmission

Back 86

the process by which many genes interact to create a single characteristic

Front 87

twin studies

Back 87

research into hereditary influence comparing pairs of fraternal and identical twins

Front 88

adoption studies

Back 88

research into hereditary influence in which adopted people are compared to their biological and adoptive parents

Front 89

heritability

Back 89

the extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics

Front 90

fraternal twins

Back 90

twins that develop from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm

Front 91

identical twins

Back 91

twins that develop from a single fertilized egg that splits into two independent cells

Front 92

twin-adoption studies

Back 92

research into hereditary influence on twins both identical and fraternal, who were raised apart (adopted) and who were raised together

Front 93

gene-by-environment interaction research

Back 93

a method of studying heritability by comparing genetic markers that allows researchers to assess how genetic differences interact with environment to produce certain behaviors in some people but not in others

Front 94

epigenetics

Back 94

concerns changes in the way genes are turned on or off without a change in the sequence of DNA

Front 95

central nervous system

Back 95

cns. the part of the nervous system that comprises the brain and spinal cord

Front 96

peripheral nervous system

Back 96

pns. the part of the nervous system that comprises all the nerve cells in the body outside the central nervous system

Front 97

somatic nervous system

Back 97

nerve cells of the pns that transmit sensory info to the central nervous system and those that transmit information from the cns to the skeletal muscles

Front 98

autonomic nervous system

Back 98

ans. all the nerves of the peripheral nervous system that serve involuntary systems of the body, such as the internal organs and glands

Front 99

parasymphathetic nervous system

Back 99

the branch of the autonomic nervous system that usually relaxes or returns the body to a less active, restful state

Front 100

sympathetic nervous system

Back 100

the branch of the autonomic nervous system that activates bodily systems in times of emergency

Front 101

glial cells

Back 101

central nervous system cells that provide structural support, promote efficient communication between neurons, and serve as scavengers, removing cellular debris

Front 102

neurons

Back 102

the cells that process and transmit information in the nervous system

Front 103

neurotransmitters

Back 103

chemicals that transmit information between neurons

Front 104

soma

Back 104

the cell body of the neuron

Front 105

axon

Back 105

a long projection that extends from a neuron's soma; it transmits electrical impulses toward the adjacent neuron and stimulates the release of neurotransmitters

Front 106

dendrites

Back 106

fingerlike projections from a neuron's soma that receive incoming messages from other neurons

Front 107

terminal buttons

Back 107

axon terminals, little knobs at the end of the axon that contain tiny sacs of neurotransmiters

Front 108

sensory neurons

Back 108

nerve cells that receive incoming sensory information from the sense organs (eye, ear, skin, tongue, nose)

Front 109

myelin sheath

Back 109

the fatty substance wrapped around some axons, which insulates the axon, making the nerve impulse travel more efficiently

Front 110

synapse

Back 110

the junction between an axon and the adjacent neuron, where information is transmitted from one neuron to another

Front 111

motor neurons

Back 111

nerve cells that carry commands for movement from the brain to the muscles of the body

Front 112

action potential

Back 112

the impulse of positive charge that runs down an axon

Front 113

resting potential

Back 113

the difference in electrical charge between the inside and outside of the axon when the neuron is at rest

Front 114

mirror neurons

Back 114

nerve cells that are active when we observe others performing an action as well as when we are performing the same action

Front 115

interneurons

Back 115

neurons that communicate only with other neurons

Front 116

ions

Back 116

chemically charged paricles that predominate in bodily fluids; found both inside and outside cells

Front 117

refractory period

Back 117

the span of time, after an action potential has been generated, when the neuron is returning to its resting state and the neuron cannot generate an action potential

Front 118

all or none principle

Back 118

the idea that once the threshold has been crossed, an action potential either fires or it does not; there is no halfway

Front 119

synaptic vesicles

Back 119

tiny sacs in the terminal buttons that contain neurotransmitters

Front 120

reuptake

Back 120

a way of removing excess neurotransmitter from the synapse, in which excess neurotransmitter is returned to the sending, or presynaptic, neuron for storage in vesicles and future use

Front 121

reuptake

Back 121

a way of removing excess neurotransmitter from the synapse, in which excess neurotransmitter is returned to the sending or presynaptic, neuron for storage in vesicles and future use

Front 122

dopamine

Back 122

a neurotransmitter released in response to behaviors that feel good or are rewarding to the person or animal; also involved in voluntary motor control

Front 123

enzymatic degradation

Back 123

a way of removing excess neurotransmitter from the synapse, in which enzymes specific for that neurotransmitter bind with the neurotransmitter and destroy it

Front 124

graded potentials

Back 124

small changes in membrane potential that by themselves are insufficient to trigger an action potential

Front 125

acetylcholine (ach)

Back 125

a neurotransmitter that controls muscle movement and plays a role in mental processes such as learning, memory, attention, sleeping, and dreaming

Front 126

epinephrine

Back 126

also known as adrenaline, a neurotransmitter that arouses bodily systems (such as increasing heart rate)

Front 127

serotonin

Back 127

a neurotransmitter with wide ranging effects: involved in dreaming and in controlling emotional states, especially anger, anxiety and depression

Front 128

norepinephrine

Back 128

a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the sympathetic nervous system, energizing body systems and increasing mental arousal and alertness

Front 129

gaba

Back 129

gammaaminobutyric acid. a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tells postsynaptic neurons not to fire; it slows CNS activity and is necessary to regulate and control neural activity

Front 130

glutamate

Back 130

a majr excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain that increases the likelihood that a postsynaptic neuron will fire; important in learning, memory, neural processing, and brain development

Front 131

cerebellum

Back 131

a hindbrain structure involved in body movement, balance, coordination, fine-tuning motor skills, and cognitive activities such as learning and language

Front 132

medulla

Back 132

a hindbrain structure that extends directly from the spinal cord; regulates breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure

Front 133

reflexes

Back 133

inborn and involuntary behaviors, such as coughing swallowing, sneezing, or vomiting, that are elicited by very specific stimuli

Front 134

hypothalamus

Back 134

a limbic structre; the master regulator of almost all major drives and motives we have, such as hunger, thirst, temperature, and sexual behavior; also controls the pituitary gland

Front 135

amygdala

Back 135

a small, almond shaped structre located directly infront of the hippocampus; has connections with many important brain regions and is important for processing emotional information, especially that related to fear

Front 136

hippocampus

Back 136

a limbic structure that wraps itself around the thalamus; plays a vital role in learning and memory

Front 137

cerebrum

Back 137

each of the large halves of the brain that are covered with convolutions, or folds

Front 138

cingulate gyrus

Back 138

a beltlike structre in the middle of the brain that plays an important role in attention and cognitive control

Front 139

basal ganglia

Back 139

a collection of structures surrounding the thalamus involved in voluntary motor control

Front 140

cerebral cortex

Back 140

the thin outer layer of cerebrum, in wich much of human thought, planning, perception, and consciousness takes place

Front 141

wernicke's area

Back 141

an area deep in the left temporal lobe responsible for the abilty to speak in meaning ful sentences and to comprehend the meaning of speech

Front 142

insula

Back 142

a small structure inside the cerebrum that plays an important role in the perception of bodily sensations, emotional states, empathy, and addictive behavior

Front 143

corpus callosum

Back 143

the nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain

Front 144

aphasia

Back 144

deficit in the ability to speak or comprehend language

Front 145

broca's area

Back 145

an area in the left frontal lobe responsible for the ability to produce speech

Front 146

sensation

Back 146

a physical process: the stimulation of our sense organs by features of the outer world

Front 147

perception

Back 147

a psychological process: the act of organizing and interpreting sensory experience

Front 148

sensory adaptation

Back 148

the process by which our sensitivity diminishes when an object constantly stimulates our senses

Front 149

absolute threshold

Back 149

the lowest intensity level of a stimulus a person can detect half of the time

Front 150

transduction

Back 150

the conversion of physical into neural information

Front 151

psychophysics

Back 151

the study of how people psychologically perceive physical stimuli such as light, sounds waves, and touch

Front 152

different threshold

Back 152

the smallest amount of change between two stimuli that a person can detect half of the time

Front 153

signal detection theory

Back 153

the viewpoint that both stimulus intensity and decision-making processes are involved in the detection of a stimulus

Front 154

weber's law

Back 154

the finding that the size of a just noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the intesity of the stimulus

Front 155

perceptual set

Back 155

the frame of mind on perception; a tendency to perceive stimuli in a certain manner

Front 156

pupil

Back 156

the opening in the iris through which light enters the eye

Front 157

iris

Back 157

the muscle that forms the colored part of the eye; it adjusts the pupil to regulate the amount of light that enters the eye

Front 158

cornea

Back 158

the clear hard covering that protects the lens of the eye

Front 159

lens

Back 159

the structure that sits behind the pupil; it bends the light rays that enter the eyes to focus images on the retina

Front 160

accomodation

Back 160

the process by which the muscles control the shape of the lens to adjust to viewing objects at different distances

Front 161

photoreceptors

Back 161

cells in the retina (called rods and cones) that convert light energy into nerve energy; they are transducers

Front 162

retina

Back 162

the thin layer of nerve tissue that lines the back of the eye

Front 163

rods

Back 163

photoreceptors that function in low illumination and play a key role in night vision; responsive to dark and light contrast

Front 164

cones

Back 164

photoreceptors that are responsible for color vision and are most functional in conditions of bright light

Front 165

visual acuity

Back 165

the abilty to see clearly

Front 166

dark adaptation

Back 166

process of adjustment to seeing in the dark

Front 167

fovea

Back 167

spot on the back of the retina that contains the highest concentration of cones in the retina, place of clearest vision

Front 168

optic nerve

Back 168

structure composed of the axons of ganglion cells from the retina that carry visual information from the eye to the brain

Front 169

optic chiasm

Back 169

the point at which strands of the optic nerve from half of each eye cross over to the opposite side of the brain

Front 170

feature detectors

Back 170

neurons in the visual cortex that analyze the retinal image and respond to specific aspects of shapes, such as angles and movements

Front 171

perceptual constancy

Back 171

the ability of the brain to perserve perception of objects in spite of changes in retinal image when an object changes in position or distance from the viewer

Front 172

similarity

Back 172

the gestalt tendency to group like things together in visual perception

Front 173

continuity

Back 173

the gestalt tendency to see points or lines in such a way that they follow a continuous path

Front 174

proximity

Back 174

the gestalt tendency to group objects together that are near one another

Front 175

closure

Back 175

the gestalt tendency to see a whole object even when complete information isn't available

Front 176

bottom up processing

Back 176

assembling a perceptual experience

Front 177

top down processing

Back 177

perception of the whole based on our experience and expectations which guide our perception of smaller elemental features of a stimulus

Front 178

trichromatic color theory

Back 178

the theory that all color we experience results from a mixing of three colors of light (red, green, and blue)

Front 179

afterimages

Back 179

visual images that remain after removal of or looking away from the stimulus

Front 180

opponent process theory

Back 180

the theory that color vision results from cones linked together in three opposing pairs of colors so that activation of one member of the pair inhibits activity in the other

Front 181

olfactory sensory neurons

Back 181

the sensory receptors for smell that reside high up inside the nose

Front 182

olfactory bulb

Back 182

a forebrain structure that sends information either directly to the smell processing areas in the cortex or indirectly to the cortex by way of the thalamus

Front 183

papillae

Back 183

textured structures on the surface of the tongue that contain thousands of taste buds

Front 184

taste buds

Back 184

structures inside the papillae of the tonge that contain the taste receptor cels

Front 185

taste receptor cells

Back 185

sensory receptors for taste that reside in the taste buds