Psychology Midterm Review

Front 1

What are the two major roots of the psychology family tree?

Back 1

• Philosophy
• Physical Sciences

Front 2

Who was the first person to use experimental methods to measure and understand human behavior? What was the name of his theory?

Back 2

Wilhelm Wundt, his theory was known as Structuralism

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Theory of Structuralism

Back 3

The study of human behavior by dissecting it and studying individual pieces.

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Who published the first Psychology textbook?

Back 4

Wilhelm Wundt

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Theory of Functionalism

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Leading member: William James

Viewed human behavior as purposeful for means of survival. This theory was influenced by Darwin's theory "survival of the fittest".

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Behaviorists Movement

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• Members include: Pavlov, John b Whatson, Edward Throndike
  
• Studied animal behavior in an effort to understand human learning
  

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Cognitive Psycholoists Movement

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• Members Include: Ulric Neisser
• Disagreed with the behaviorists, believed that we actually could measure mental processes further, they believed that these processes could be studied objectively.

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Psychodinamic Theory Movement

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• Members Include: Sigmund Freud
• Theory that states that many mental processes happen outside conscious awareness. These theorists studied the difference between the conscious and sub-conscious mind.

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Humanists Movement

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• Members Include: Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers
  
• Believed that human nature is inherently good and that people naturally seek to improve. This movement was started in the 50's, and was a pioneering force in Client Centered Theory (Therapy)

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Biological Psychology

Back 10

Perspective of psychology that takes a biological approach when studying our reactions to environmental stimuli, encompasses the basic concepts of neuroscience.

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Evolutionary Psychology

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Looks at human behavior with emphasis on how it changes or adapts throughout time. Also looks at changes in behavior in different environments.

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Clinical Psychology

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Deals with behavior disorders, maladaptive disorders, etc. This perspective is also involved with finding ways or therapies to help people overcome these disorders.

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Individual Differences (Personality) Perspective

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Study of individual differences and variations in personality. The exploration of abnormal thoughts, emotions, actions, that make an individual unique.

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Cognitive Psychology

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Focuses on the process of thinking and processing information. These psychologists have a lot to say about storage and retrieval aspects of the human brain.

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Social Psychology

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Deals with the ways humans interact with each other. Also studies the effects of a social environment or culture on an individual.

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Developmental Psychology

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Studies the normal changes in behavior that occur throughout our lifespan. They study how memory functions in people of different ages.

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Descriptive Methods

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Research methods designed for making careful, systematic observations. (Ex: Survey, Case Study)

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Reciprocity of Biology and Experience

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Refers to an external event eliciting a biological response.

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Reductionism:

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The act of scaling back or reducing our example or sample when studying the brain, due to its immense complexities.

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Neuron

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Cell of the nervous system that is specialized for sending and receiving neural messages.

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Axon

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Branch of a neuron that is usually responsible for transmitting information to other neurons.

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Dendrytes

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Branch from the neural cell body that usually receives input from other neurons.

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Axon Terminals

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Located at the end of axons, look like little branches off of the axon that have little openings which allow for chemical communication

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Glial Cells

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Hold neurons in place, and help transport nutrients to neurons as well as remove waste products.

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Myelin

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The insulating material covering some axons, also helps speed transmission of signals from one neuron to the other

(Adult brain has a lot more myelin than a young persons brain)

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Synaptic Pruning

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The removal of weaker axons allowing the others to be more robust.

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Acetylcholine

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Neurotransmitter involved in muscle movement, as well as organs that use muscles in order to function i.e. the heart

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Norepinephrine

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Neurotransmitter that upon release in the brain leads to arousal and vigilance.

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Dopamine

Back 29

Neurotransmitter that involves anticipation of rewards, motor control, and controlled cognition. This is the main focus for neuro-marketers

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Serotonin

Back 30

Neurotransmitter that regulates sleep cycles, mood, memory, and learning.

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Endorphins

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Neurotransmitter that regulates the perception of pain. This is released during physical activity, and modulates the senses of pain and pleasure, as well as feelings of "runner's high", and is released during sexual climax.

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Central Nervous System

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Consists of the brain and spinal chord, which are so important that both structures are completely encased in bone.

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Peripheral nervous system

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Divided into two parts:

1. Autonomic nervous system
2. Somatic nervous system

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Autonomic Nervous System

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Part of the peripheral nervous system that is involved in preservation of homeostasis, releases hormones, and salivation.

Further broken down into two parts:

1. Sympathetic
2. parasympathetic

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Somatic Nervous System

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Part of peripheral nervous system that is involved in voluntary movement as well as the processing of sensations.

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Sympathetic Nervous System

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Part of the autonomic nervous system associated with coordination of arousal.

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Parasympathetic Nervous System

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Part of the autonomic nervous system that is associated with rest, repair, and energy storage.

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Endocrine System

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Releases hormones into your system, regulates digestion, releases insulin, and stimulates the process of physical maturation.

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Neurotransmitters

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Chemical Messengers used in neuronal communication.

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Sensory adaptation

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The tendency for humans to ignore steady, unchanging, normal stimuli, and focus on different irregular stimuli.

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Bottom-up processing

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The perception of stimuli based upon simple signal input that are then transduced into neural signals.

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Top-down processing

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Perception of stimuli in which memory and other cognitive processes are required or used to interpret incoming sensory information.

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Absolute threshold

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The smallest amount of stimulus that can be detected.

Front 44

What is the role of the thalamus in processing visual information?

Back 44

It makes very rapid judgments about visual stimuli.

Front 45

Trichromacy Theory

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Theory of color vision that is based on the existence of different types of receptors for the detection of short, medium, and long wavelengths.

Front 46

According to Gestalt psychologists, we recognize objects by?

Back 46

dividing a scene into figure and ground.

Front 47

What are the four Gestalt principles that explain how we organize incoming sensory information?

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1. Gestalt principle of proximity
2. Gestalt principle of Similarity
3. Gestalt principle of Continuity
4. Gestalt principle of closure

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Somatosensation

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The body senses, including body position, touch, skin temperature, and pain.

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Olfaction

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The sense of smell

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Gustation

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The sense of taste

Front 51

Stage 1 Sleep

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• Theta waves occur in the brain
• Person begins to drift out of consciousness
• Brain begins to slow down
• Person is easily woken up in this stage

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Stage 2 Sleep

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• Brain activity transition from theta waves to alpha waves
• Brain waves show sleep spindle's and k complexes
• If person is woken up, he/she is grumpy or confused in response

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Stage 3 Sleep

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• Brain waves slow significantly called Delta waves
• Delta waves are interspersed with smaller faster waves
• Person is difficult to wake up

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Stage 4 Sleep

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• Delta waves dominate the brain activity
• No eye movement or muscle activity
• Stage 3 and four are known as "deep sleep"
• Very hard to wake individual from deep sleep

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REM Sleep

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• Start to see beta waves in brain activity
• Eyes move, muscles twitch, person may dream

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Night Terror

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Person is in stage 4 sleep and has an intense emotional episode, causing him to wake up suddenly.

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Narcolepsy

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Condition in which a person goes from a wakeful state to a sleep state instantaneously.

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Cataplexy

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Condition in which an individual is awake, but his/her body goes into the paralysis state that usually accompanies deep sleep. Typically triggered by strong emotion such as laughing, crying, or experiencing terror.

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Hallucinogens

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• Produce vivid hallucinations
  
• Ex: the amanita mushroom

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Stimulants

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• Can result in an increase in energy and alertness, are highly addictive and very common
• Ex: Caffeine

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Depressants

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• Usually the opposite of stimulants, however some substances such as alcohol act as both a stimulant and a depressant.

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Opiates

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• Opiates function to mimic the brains painkillers
• This depressant effect can be deadly in the event of an overdose

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Hypnosis

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• Process of relaxing an individual to the point where their brain is open to suggestion from the hypnotist

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Meditation

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• Person is so relaxed that the brain exhibits signs of stage 1 sleep (theta waves)

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Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

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Takes the humanist approach to motivation. Consists of things such as safety, love, esteem, self-actualization.

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Kenrick's Hierarchy of needs

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Takes the evolutionary psychologist approach to motivation. Consists of motivational factors such as mate acquisition, mate retention, and parenting.

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James Lange Theory of Emotion

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• Stimuli is encountered
• Immediate stress
• then physical response
• then subjective feeling

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Cannon Bard Theory

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• Stimuli is encountered
• Simultaneous physical and emotional response

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Schachter Singer Theory

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• Stimuli is encountered
• General arousal occurs
• then assessment of surroundings
• then subjective feelings occur

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Somatovisceral Afferance Model (Theory of Emotion)

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• States that different emotional states produce physical responses ranging from specific to ambiguous.
• Ambiguous responses require more appraisal than specific responses before a subjective feeling is identified.

Front 71

Interpersonal Relationships From a Biological Perspective:

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• Oxytocin levels directly correlate with ability for couples to support and love each other and express physical intimacy.
• However, this may be correlation rather than causation, perhaps a third variable such as strong childhood attachment to parents, leads to higher oxytocin levels, and better relationships.
• To establish whether oxytocin is responsible for better relationships, experiments were done involving oxytocin application through nasal spray, which was found to improve positive communication behaviors in couples engaged in verbal conflict.
• Oxytocin also reduced a hormone related to stress, known as cortisol.
• Additionally, an increase in oxytocin only helps reduce stress when in a group, an increase in a lone individual does nothing.

Front 72

Interpersonal Relationships From the Perspective of Sensation and Perception:

Back 72

• Attempts to answer if being in a close relationship actually can affect the way you feel pain.
• Answer appears to be yes. Physical contact with loved one can impact how the brain processes pain.
• The test included administering electric shock to women holding their husband's hand and women not holding their husband's hand, and then monitoring the brain activity.
• The results show that women holding their husband's hand had reduced activity in brain areas associated with emotional and arousing aspects of pain. They even experienced reduced activity when holding the hand of someone they didn't know.
• This reduction is directly correlated with the happiness of the relationship.

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Interpersonal Relationships From a Perspective of Consciousness:

Back 73

• Talks about the circumstances in which we mimic another person's behavior.
• One answer is to avoid or repair social exclusion. a test was conducted in which some participants were made to feel excluded from the group, and they were found to be more likely to copy other people's behavior.
• This shows that the copying of another persons behavior may have developed as an automatic behavior that we use to respond to threats for our social connectivity. Which would have been fatal for our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

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Interpersonal Relationships From the Perspective of Emotion:

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• John Gottman uses a mixture of heart rate, facial expression, and an analysis of the way couples talk about their relationships to each other and others to determine whether the relationship will last. (90% accuracy rate)
• One finding by Gottman is that happy couples make 5 times more positive comments about each other and their relationship during such discussions.
• Human mind is usually skewed to the negative, for survival reasons, so it is important to make an effort to notice the positive traits in our partners.