Psychology 110 Vocabulary For Test 1

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What is Psychology?

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The Study of Behavior and the Mind

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What types of Science does Psychology encompass?

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Psychology is a Social Science and a Natural Science

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The Mind

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Our private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings

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Behavior

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Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals (the things we do in the world by ouselves or with others)

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Psychological Processes...

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are said to be adaptive because the promote the welfare and reproduction of organisms

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Nativism

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The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn (Plato)

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Philosophical Empiricism

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The philosophical view that all knowledge is acquired through experience (Aristotle)

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Rene Descartes

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Argued that the mind and body are fundamentally different things (body is material and mind is spiritual)

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Dualism

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Reconciling how mental activity can be coordinated with physical behavior

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Thomas Hobbes

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The mind is what the brain does and thus they aren't different things

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Franz Joseph Gall

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Thought that the mind and the brain were linked by size rather than and developed theory of phrenology

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Phrenology

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A defunct theory that held that specific mental abilities and characteristics are localized in specific areas of the brain

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Paul Broca

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Physican who discovered Broca's area when studying a patient (an area of the brain located in the perietal lobe that facilitates language production)

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Broca's Area

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Language Production

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Werke's Area

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Language Comprehension

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Physiology

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The study of biological processes, especially in the human body

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Stimulus

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Sensory imput from the environment

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Reaction Time

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The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus

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Hermann von Helmholtz

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Discovered that mental processes do not occur instantaneously by studying neural response times

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Wilhelm Wundt

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Founded the first labortory for the study of Psychology based on consiousness and began the branch of Structuralism

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Consciousness

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A person's subjective experience of the world and the mind

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Structuralism

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The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind by breaking down consciousness into elemental sensations and feelings

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Introspection

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The subjective observation of one's own experience

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Edward Titchener

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Brought structuralism to America and focused on identifying the basic elements of consciousness

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William James

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Thought that consciousness could not be broken down into elemental pieces but believed that it acted more like a flowing stream than a bundle of seperate elements, founding the branch of functionalism

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Functionalism

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The study of the purpose that mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment

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Natural Selection

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Charles Darwin's theory that the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations

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G. Stanley Hall

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Founded the first psychological laboratory in North America at John Hopkins University and the American Psychological Association

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Illusions

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Errors of perception, memory, or judgement in which subjective experience differs from objective reality

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Gestalt Psychology

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A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often percieve the whole rather than the sum of the parts

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Max Wertheimer

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His findings and experiments led to the founding of Gestalt psychology

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

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A condition that involves the occurrence of two or more distinct identities within the same individual

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Hysteria

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A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences

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Sigmond Freud

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Theorized that many of his patients' problems could be traced to the effects of painful childhood experiences that they could not remember, causing him to develope the process of psychoanalysis

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Unconscious

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The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions

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Psychoanalytic Theory

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Sigmund Freud's approach to understanding human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

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Psychoanalysis

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A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders

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Humanistic Psychology

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An approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings

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Rogers and Maslow

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Pioneers of the humanistic view of psychology

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Behaviorism

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An approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable behavior

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John Watson

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Founder of Behaviorism who suggested that psychologists focus only on what people do rather than what they experience

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Response

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An action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus

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Reinforcement

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The consequences of a behavior that determine whether it will be more likely that the behavior will occur again

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B. F. Skinner

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Furthered the study of Behaviorism by stating that beings do not simply act on their environments but that they learn from them

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Cognitive Psychology

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The scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning

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Jean Piaget

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A Psychologist who studied the perceptual and cognitive errors of children in order to gain insight into the nature and developement of the human mind

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George Miller

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Discovered that humans can only hold about seven pieces of information in their minds at once

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Noam Chomsky

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Held that language relies on mental rules that allow people to understand and produce novel, new words and sentences, criticizing the Behavorist view point

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Behavioral Neuroscience

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An approach to psychology that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily functions

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Cognitive Neuroscience

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The field that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity

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Evolutionary Psychology

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A psychological approach that explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection

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Social Psychology

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A subfield of psychology that studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior

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Cultural Psychology

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The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members

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Social Behavior

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The product of internal forces (such as personality, goals, and beliefs) and external forces (such as social pressure and culture)

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Absolutism

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Holds that culture makes little or no difference for most psychological phenomena

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Relativism

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Holds that psychological phenomena are likely to vary considerably across cultures and should only be viewed in the context of a certain culture

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Empiricism

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Generally used to describe any attempt to aquire knowledge by observing objects or events

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Method

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A set of rules and techniques for observation that allow researchers to avoid the illusions, mistakes, and erroneous conclusions that simple observation can produce

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Three Things that make people difficult to study

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Complexity, Variability, and Reactivity

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Operational Definition

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A description of an abstract property in measurable terms

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Measure

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A device that can detect the events to which an operational definition refers

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Electromyograph (EEG)

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A device that measures muscle contractions under the surface of a person's skin

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Validity

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The characteristic of an observation that allows someone to draw accurate inferences from it

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Construct Validity

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The tendency for an operational definition and a property to have a clear conceptual relation

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Predictive Validity

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The tendency for an operational definition to be related to other operational definitions

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Reliability

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The tendency for a measure to produce the same result whenever it is used to measure the same thing

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Power

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The tendency for a measure to produce different results when it is used to measure different things

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Case Method

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A method of gathering scientific knowledge by studying a single individual

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Population

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The complete collection of participants who might possibly be measured

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Sample

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The partial collection of people who actually were measured in a study

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Law of Large Numbers

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A statistical law stating that as sample size increases, the attributes of a sample will more closely reflect the attributes of the population from which it was drawn

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Frequency Distribution

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A graphical representation of the measurements of a sample that are arranged by the number of times each measurement was observed

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Normal Distribution

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A frequency distribution in which most measurements are concentrated around the mean and fall off toward the tails, and the two sides of the distribution are symmetrical

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Mode

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The most frequent measurement in a frequency distribution

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Median

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The middle measurement in a frequency distribution with half the measurements above it and half below

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Range

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The numerical difference between the smallest and largest measurements in a frequency distribution

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Descriptive Statistics

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Brief summary statements that capture the essential information from a frequency distribution

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Demand Characteristics

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Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think an observer wants them to behave (form of Bias)

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Naturalistic Observation

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A method of gathering scientific knowledge by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments

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Double-Blind

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An observation whose true purpose is hidden from the researcher as well as the participant because expectations can influence observations and reality

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Variable

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A property whose value can vary or change

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Correlation

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The pattern of covariation between two variables, each of which has been measured several times and which can also help researchers predict the future

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Correlation Coefficient

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A statistical measure of the direction and strength of a correlation, ranging from -1 to1

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Natural Correlation

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A correlation observed between naturally occuring variables

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Correlation and Causation

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All variables that are causally related are correlated, but all variables that are correlated are not necessarily causally related (Correlation doesn't cause causation)

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Third-Variable Correlation

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The fact that two variables may be correlated only because they are both caused by a third variable

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Matched Samples

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Matching the average in the experimental and control groups in order to eliminate the possibility of a third variable

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Matched Pairs

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Matching each participant in the experimental and control groups in order to eliminate the possibility of a third variable

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Experiment

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A technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables

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Manipulation

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The creation of an artificial pattern of variation in a variable in order to determine its causal powers

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Independent Variable

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Variable that is manipulated

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Dependent Variable

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Variable that is measured

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Self-Selection

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When a participant's inclusion in the experimental group is determined by the participant

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Randomization

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A procedure to ensure that a participant's inclusion in the experimental or control group is not determined by a third variable

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Internal Validity

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The characteristic of an experiment that allows one to draw accurate inferences about the causal relationship between an independent and dependent variable

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External Validity

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A characteristic of an experiment in which the independent and dependent variables are operationally defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way

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Random Sampling

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A technique for choosing participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample (impossible to truely do)

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Basic Rights that Participants are entitled to

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Informed consent, Freedom from coercion, protection from harm, risk-benefit analysis, and debriefing

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Santiago Ramon y Cajal

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Discovered the shape, parts, and existance of neurons

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Sensory Neurons

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Recieve 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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Internuerons

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Nuerons that connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, and other neurons

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Resting Potential

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The difference in electric charge between the inside and outside of a nueron's cell membrane

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Two stages of communication between neurons

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Conduction and Transmission

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Action Potential

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An electric signal that is conducted along an axon to a synapse

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Nodes of Ranvier

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Small breaks in the myelin sheath over which the action potential must jump to continue

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Refractory Period

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The time following an action potential during which a new action potential cannot be initiated

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Acetylcholine

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Regulates voluntary motor control, attention, learning, memory, sleeping, and dreaming

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Dopamine

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Influences movement, motivation, emotional pleasure, and arousal

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Glutamate

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Influences learning and memory

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Norepinephrine

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Controls mood and arousal

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Serotonin

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Regulates hunger, sleep, arousal, and aggression

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Endorphins

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Chemicals that act within the pain pathways and emotion centers of the brain

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GABA

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The primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain

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Agonists

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Drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter (usually by mimicing them)

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Antagonists

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Drugs that block the function of a neurotransmitter

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Spinal Reflexes

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Simple pathways in the nervous system that rapidly generate muscle contractions

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Reticular Formation

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Regulates sleep, wakefulness, and arousal

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Tectum

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Part of the midbrain that orients an organism in the environment

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Tegmentum

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Part of the midbrain involved in movement and arousal

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Cerebral Cortex

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The outermost layer of the brain

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Thalmus

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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 the "Four Fs": fighting, feeding, fleeing, and mating

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Hippocampus

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Critical for creating memories and intergrating them into other memories

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Amygdala

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Plays a cental role in many emotional processes, especially the formation of memory

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Limbic System

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Involved in motivation, emotion, memory, and learning

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Basal Ganglia

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Directs intentional movements

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Corpus Callosum

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Nerve Fibers that connect the left and right hemispheres of the brain

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Synesthesia

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The perceptual experience of one sence that is evoked by another sense

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Sensation

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Simple awareness due to the stimulation of a sense organ

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Perception

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The organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order to form a mental representation

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Transduction

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Converting physical signals from the enviroment into neural signals in the central nervous system

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Psychophysics

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Methods that measure the strength of a stimulus and the observer's sensitivity to that stimulus (developed by Gustav Fechner and involves absolute thresholds)

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Signal Detection Theory

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The idea that individuals consider the sensations evoked be a stimulus and compare them to internal decision criterion

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Accomodation

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The process by which the eye maintains a clear image on the retina by flattening or curving the lens

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Structure of Sight

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Rods and Cones on the retina link to bipolar cells, which link to retinal ganglion cells, which form the optical nerve and travel into the brain

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Trichromatic Color Representation

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The Theory that three types of cones provide a unique code for each color

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Color-opponent System

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Theory that pairs of visual neurons work in opposition to produce colors (often associated with the color afterimage as evidence for existance)

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Ventral Stream

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Travels across the brain and tells what an object is (the what pathway)

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Dorsal Stream

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Travels along the top of the brain and tells where an object is located (the where pathway)

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Visual-form Agnosia

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The inability to recognize objects by sight

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Gestalt Principles of Perception

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Simplicity, Closure, Continuity, Similarity, Proximity, and Common Fate

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Monocular Depth Cues

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Can be percieved with only one eye, such as linear perspective, texture gradient, Interposition, and Relative height

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Pitch, loudness, and timbre

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A sound's frequency, intensity or amplitude, and it's quality (simple or complex)

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Haptic Perception

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The active exploration of the environment by touching and grasping objects with your hands

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Binet and Simon

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The pioneers of the IQ intelligence test to determine a child's aptitude instead of their achievement

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Ratio IQ

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IQ = (mental age/physical age) x 100
Used for Children

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Deviation IQ

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IQ = (test score/average test score of the same age group) x 100
Used for Adults

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Factor Analysis

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A statistical technique that explains a large number of correlations in terms of a small number of underlying factors (invented by Charles Spearman with the idea of general abilite called "g" and specific skills called "s")

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Two-Factor Theory of Intelligence

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Spearman's Theory of intelligence that states that every task requires a combination of a general ability and specific skills

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Fluid Intelligence

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The ability to process information

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Crystallized Intelligence

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The accuracy and amount of information available for processing

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Heritability Coefficient

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A statistic that describes the proportion of the difference between people's scores that can be esplained by differences in their genetic makeup

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Developemental Psychology

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The study of continuity and change across teh lifespan

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Teratogens

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Agents that damage the process of developement in babies, such as drugs and viruses

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Habituation

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The tendency for organisms to respond less intensely to a stimulus as the frequency of exposure to that stimulus increases

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Cephalocaudal Rule

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The top-to-bottom rule that describes the tendency for motor skills to emerge from head to foot

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Proximodistal Rule

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The inside-to-outside rule that describes the tendency for motoe skills to emerge from the center to the periphery

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Schemas

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Models about the way the world works and mental representations that children form as they grow up

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Assimilation

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The Process by which infants apply their schemas in novel situations

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Accommodation

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The process by which infants revise their schemas in light of new information

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Object Permanence

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The idea that objects continue to exist even when they are not visible

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Jean Piaget

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Discovered that children within similar age groups make similar mistakes, but was revolutionary because he claimed that children learn through active involvement in their environments

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Problems that Preoperational Children often run into

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Centration, Irreversibility, Egocentrism, and conservation - Children at this level do not realize that they have minds and that their minds contain mental representations of the world that can differ with different minds

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Theory of Mind

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The idea that human behavior is guided by mental representaion (world is not always as it looks and it looks different to different people)

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Lev Vygotsky

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Believed that a child's cognitive developement was largely the result of interactions with culture rather than with objects

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Harry Harlow

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Baby monkeys and wire verses cloth mothers experiment in which the importance of touch was discovered

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Konrad Lorenz

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Developed the idea of attachment from watching baby geese

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Attachment

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The emotional bond that forms between newborns and their primary caregivers

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Attachment Styles

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Respones that Mary Ainsworth quantified as a reaction to her strange situation experiment, which include secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized

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Lawrence Kohlberg

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Developed different stages of moral developement that people progress through as they age, including the preconventional (consequences), conventional (social rules), and postconventional (core values)

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Erik Erikson

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Characterized each stage of life by the major task or conflict facing the individual at that time