Psychology Introduction

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Psychology

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Psychology is the scientific study of the behavior and mental process

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Main goals of psycholgoy research

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Describing behavior, Understanding (explaining) behavior, Predicting behavior, &Controlling behavior

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Father of psychology

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Wilhem Wundts Work

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School/perspectives of psychology.

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Psychodynamic Perspective, Behaviorists Perspective,Humanistic Perspective, Cognitive Perspective, Biological perspective, Evolutionary Perspective, Sociocultural perspective.

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Psychodynamic perspective

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behavior driven or motivated by powerful inner forms (principle motives developed Viennese physician Sigmund Freud)

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Behaviorist Perspectve

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Primarily concerned with observable behavior that can be objectively recorded and with the relationship of observable behavior to environmental stimul( pioneered by John Watson, extended influences B.F SKINNER)

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Humanistic Perspective

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is neither driven by powerful instinctive forces postulated by the freudians nor manipulated by their environments as proposed by the behaviorists ( patterns of people's life histories)

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Cognitive perspective

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Human thought and all the processes of knowing attending , thinking, remembering,and understanding ( people act because of thought)

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Biologival Perspective

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guides psychologists who search for the causes of behavior in the functioning of genes, brain , the nervous system, and the endocrine system.

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Evolutionary Perspective

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seeks to connect to a central ideas of the life sciences ( ex: organisms that are better sutited to their environments tend to produce offspring [ pass on their genes] more successfully than those ogranisms with poorer adaptations

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Sociocultural perspective

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cross cultural differences in the causes and consequences of behavior ( responds to the criticism that psychological research has too often based on)

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Independent variable

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the factor that the researcher manipulates (its function as the causal part of the realtionship)

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Dependent variable

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is what the experimental measures

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Confounding variable

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when something other than what an experimentar purposly introduces into a research setting changes a participants behavior and adds confusion to the interpretation of the data

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Robert Rosenthal's study

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his study shows a expectancy effects where rats were said they were smart to half the students and other rats where said they were dumb to the other half of the students. conclusion : the smart ones came to be smarter and the dumb ones were dumb

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Placebo effect

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occurs wwhen experimental participants change their behavior in the absence of anykind of experimental manipulation

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naturalistic observations

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naturally occuring behavior is viewed by a researcher, who makes no attempt to change or interfere with

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Case studies

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intensive observations of a particular individual or small group of individuals

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surveys

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written set of questions , ranging in content from questions of fact, to questions about past or present behavior, to questions about attitude and feelings

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Correlational methods ( studies)

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resarch methodolegies that determine to what extend two variables, traits , or attributes are related

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double-blind studies

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a experimental technique which biased expectations of experimenters are eliminated by keeping both participants and experimental assistant unaware of which participants have recieved treatment

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structuralism

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the study of the structure of the min and behavior ; the view that all human mental experiences can be understood as a combination of simple elements or events( Titchner, Wundt)

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Functionalism

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the perspective on mind and behavior that focuses on the examination of their function in an organism's interactions with the environment.

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central nervous system (CNS)

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composed of all the neurons in the brain and spinal cord

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Peripheral nervous system( PNS)

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is made up of all the neurons forming the nerve fibers that connect the CNS to the body

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Brain stems

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are structures involved primarily with autonomic processes such as heart rate, breathingm, swalliowing , and digestion

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limpic system

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involves with motivation , emotion, and memory processes

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validity

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the extent to which a test measures what it was intended to measure

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reliabilty

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refers to the consistency or dependabily of behavioral data resulting from psychological testing or experimental research ( when the subject or thing being measured does not change)

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Neuron

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a cell specialized to recieve , process, and transmit information to other cells within the body

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Dendrites

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branched fibers of neurons that recieve incoming signals

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soma ( cell body)

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contains the nucleus of the cell and the cytoplasm that sustains its life

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axon

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the extended fiber of a neuron through which nerve impulses travel from the soma to the terminal buttons

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terminal buttons

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is at the othe other end of the axons which are swollen, bulblike structures that contains vesicles with neurotransmitters

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neuro transmitters is

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th chemical messenger relased from neurons that cross the synapse from one neurons to another , stimulating the postsynaptic neuron

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Acetycholine , ( is , found, disorders/diseases, etc)

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Found: In both CNS, PNS
Diseases: Alzheimer( caused by deterioration of neurons that secrete acetycholine) Botulinium toxin ( found in food that has not been preserved well)
- It can cause junction between nerves and msucles, where it causes muscles to contract-

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GABA [is , found, disorders/diseases, etc]

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Found: Most coomon inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain .
Diseases/disorders: plays role in some psychopathology, anxiety disorders.
Drugs: Benzodiazepine drugs ( valium , xanax)

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Dompamine, Norepinephrine , Serotonin ( is , found, diseases/disorders, etc

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Are: Catcholamines - a class of chemical substanceds that included 2 importan transmitters
Diseases: Psychological disorders; mood disturbances, schizophrenia ( higher then normal Dopamine found)
Serotonin[all neurons that produce serotonin are located in the brain stem, which is involved in arousal and in many automonic process

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Endorphins( is, found, diseases/disorders, ETC)

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are: group of chemicals that are usually classified as neuromodulator
plays important role in the activites of the postsynaptic neuron

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Synaptic transmission

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the relaying information from one neuron to another across the synaptic gab

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absolute threshold

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the mininum amount of phsyical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience operationally defined as :the stimulus level at which a sensory signal experience is detected half time

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Gestalt psycholgy "laws"

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the law of similarity , the law of proximity , the law of good continuation, the law of closure , the law of common fate

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Bottom-up processing

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is taking sensory data in from the environment and sending it toward the braind for extraction and analysis of relevant information

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Topdown processing

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is when your expectation affect perception , the phenomenon. This process involves your past experiences knowledge motivations and cultural background in perceving the world

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Classical Conditioning

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a basic form of learning in which one stimulus or event predicts the occurence of another stimulus

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Albert Bandura's research

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subsequent studies showed that childre imitated such behaviors just from watching films sequences of models , even when the models were cartoon charcters , Bandura argued strongly that children who watch violent tv are at risk to become overy aggressive as adults

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Declartive memories

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Memory for information such as facts, and events

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Procedural memories

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Memory for how things get done ; the way perceptual , cognitive , and motor skills are required, retained , and used.

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Mnemoic devices

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strategies or devices that use familiar information to enhance subsequent acess to the information in memory

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algorithm

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a step by step procedure that always provided the right answer for a particular type of problem

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Noam Chomsky's theory

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children are born with mental structures that facilate the comprehension and production of language

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Motivation

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is the general term for all the processes involved in starting directing , and maintaining physical and psychological activities

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LH vs VMH

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lateral hypothalmus is considered to be the hunger center and the ventromedial hypothamalus the society center

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Maslow's theory

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formulated the theory that basic motives form a hierarchy of needs