Psych 1 Midterm 1

Front 1

Introspection

Back 1

Personal observation of one's own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

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2 Major roots of Psychology

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Philosophy and natural sciences

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Structuralism

Back 3

The mind can be broken into smaller elements

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Gestalt Psychology

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the mind is more than the sum of its parts

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Functionalism

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Behaviors have a purpose, usually reflected in survival (William James)

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Psychodynamic perspective

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Considers existence of one's own unconscious mind, people are inherently evil when born (Sigmund Freud)

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Humanistic Psychology / Positive Psychology

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People are motivated to be good and improve, behaviors are formed through experience (Abraham Maslow)

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Behaviorism

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Focuses on observable, measurable behavior (Ivan Pavlov, John Watson)

Behaviors resulting in positive outcomes will occur more, as well as the opposite (Thorndike)

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Client-centered therapy

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Carl Rogers - Treats people as clients rather than patients, reflects equal standing

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Types of Contemporary Psychology Subfields

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Biological, cognitive, social, developmental, clinical, personality

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Biological Psychology

Back 11

Focuses on relationships between mind and behavior and their underlying bio processes (genetics, biochem, anatomy, physiology)

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Evolutionary psychology

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Biological subfield, how our physical structure and behavior have been shaped by their contributions to our species' survival

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Cognitive psychology

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Process of thinking, processing information

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Social Psychology

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Effects of social environment, including culture, on behavior of individuals

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Developmental Psychology

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Normal changes in behavior that occur across the life span

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Clinical Psychology

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Seeks to explain, define, and treat psychological disorders

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Personality Psychology

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Individual differences perspective, all varieties of behavior

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3 Characteristics of Psychology

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Objectivity, systematic, repeated observations

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Objectivity

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Conclusions based on facts, without influence of personal emotions or biases

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Critical Thinkking

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Ability to think clearly, rationally, and independently

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Theories

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Sets of facts and relationships between facts that explain/predict phenomena

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Scientific Process

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Hypothesize, Operationalize, Measure, Evaluate, Revise/Replicate/wRite

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Hypothesis

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An educated guess or inference based on prior evidence

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Peer review

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Scrutiny of results by scientists who are experts in the same area

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Replication

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Reproducable results

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Descriptive methods

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Case studies, naturalistic observations, surveys

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Case study

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In-depth analysis of the behavior of one person or small number of people

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Naturalistic observation

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In-depth study of a phenomenon in its natural setting

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Surveys, sample, population

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Questionnaires that allow us to ask large numbers of people about attitudes/behavior, sample = subset of population studied, pop = entire group from which a sample is taken

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Correlations

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Measures direction and strength of the relationship between two variables

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Measure

Back 31

"How much" a variable we have observed

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Third variable

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A variable responsible for the correlation between the two other variables

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Experiment

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Most powerful tool for drawing conclusions, great deal of control over the situation

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Independent Variable

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Variable being manipulated by experimenter

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Dependent variable

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Variable that changes as a result of the independent variable, measures effect of independent variable

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Control group

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Group that experiences no change in the independent variable in order to compare

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Experiment groups

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Those who experience different values of the IV

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Random assignment

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Each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any group in an experiment

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Confounding variable

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Variables that are irrelevant to the hypothesis being tested that can distort/alter our conclusions

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Operationalization

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Process of translating abstract variables into measurable forms

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Meta-analysis

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statistical analysis of many previous experiments of the same topic

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Double-blind procedure

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Process where the participants cannot tell if they have taken the placebo or the real, active substance, and where the researchers do not know whether a participant has been given the real substance or placebo until after the experiment.

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Reliability

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Consistency of a measure

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Validity

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Measure that leads to valid conclusions, or measures the concept it is designed to measure

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Informed consent

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Provides details on purpose of the study and what will occur

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Research ethics - animals/humans

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Researchers held accountable for their actions,

voluntary participation, confidentiality, anonymity

Front 47

Neuroscience

Back 47

Biological psychology, combines methods and theories of psychology w/bio, physiology, biochem, etc

Focuses on links between observed behaviors and genetic factors, biochem factors, nervous system

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Central Nervous System (CNS)

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Brain and spinal cord, forms one continuous unit of tissue

Nerves branch out from CNS to all areas of the body, encased in bone

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Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

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Consists of nerves branched outside the CNS, nerves not encased in bone

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Meninges (membranes)

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Membranes under the bone that protect the CNS

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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

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Clear, plasmalike fluid that cushions the brain and "floats" it

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Spinal Cord

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Major conduit for information flowing to and from the brain, carries nerve fibers that provide sensory info, many reflexes (pulling from pain, knee-jerk, movement)

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Neurons

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Nerve cells, 100 billion, consists of cell body

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Sensory Neurons

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Information from external environment to the brain

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Motor Neurons

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Carries commands from CNS to muscles, glands

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Interneurons

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Forms bridges between sensory and motor neurons

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Brainstem

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Has cranal nerves, performs same functions as spinal nerves for the head/neck

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Medulla

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Merges with spinal cord, contains bundles of nerve fibers travelling to/from higher levels of the brain, controls heart rate and blood pressure

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Pons

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Above medulla, management of sleep, arousal, facial expressions, serves as a bridge between higher/lower portions of the brain, connects cerebellum to rest of the brain

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Cerebellum

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Responsible for balance, coordination, affected by alcohol, contains the most number of nerve cells, damage can cause issues with language, sensory, social behaviors, cognition, perception

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Midbrain

Back 61

Structures involved in sensory reflexes, movement, pain, contains endorphins

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Reticular formation

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Controls mood, arousal, sleep, neurons are major sources of serotonin and norepinephrine, able to respond differently to the world as a function of our state of arousal

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Nucleus Accumbens

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Reward and pleasure circuitry, related to social inclusions,

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Subcortical Structures (7)

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Thalamus, Basal ganglia, Hypothalamus, Hippocampus, Cingulate Cortex, Amygdala, Nucleus accumbens

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Thalamus

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Located at center of brain, role in sensation, gets input from vision, touch, taste, hearing systems, also involved in memory and states of consciousness, damage results in memory loss and seizures

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Basal Ganglia

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Involved in voluntary movement, receives input from cerebral cortex and motor structures in brainstem, degeneration results in Parkinson's, where initiation of movement is extremely difficult, also OCD

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Hypothalamus

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Involved with motivation and homeostasis, contributes to 4 "F's", feeding, fleeing, fighting, fornication, directs hormones in the autonomic nervous system and endocrine system

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Hippocampus

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Essential for long-term memories, damage causes impairment in forming new memories

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Cingulate cortex

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Two parts, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), ACC helps control autonomic nervous system and plays role in decision making, emotion, anticipation of reward, and empathy, PCC participates in memory and visual processing

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Amygdala

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Role in identifying, remembering, and responding to fear and aggression, becomes more active when looking at pictures of fearful expressions, damage can cause inability to feel fear

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Cerebral cortex

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Thin layer of neurons covering outer surface of cerebral hemispheres, divided in 4 lobes, occipital, parietal, frontal, temporal

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Occipital Lobe

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Back of brain, contains primary visual cortex, interprets info from eyes and movement of objects

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Plasticity

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Brain's ability to reshape itself depending on needs

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Parietal lobe

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Top of brain, contains somatosensory cortex, involved in proprioception (touch and movement), body temperature, language

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Contralateral

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Perception of something on the right is using your left part of the brain, and vice versa

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Hemineglect

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Ignoring one side of the body as a result of issues with the parietal lobe

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Temporal lobe

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bottom side of brain, associated with hearing (auditory cortex), processes sound and higher level visual tasks

Issues include wernicke's asphasia, causes speech defects, unable to say something properly despite having coherent thoughts

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Frontal lobe

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involved in planning behavior, attention, judgment, subdivided many more times, emotions

Broca's aphasia: know what one wants to say, but speech is broken

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Somatic Nervous System

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Part of PNS that transmits commands for voluntary movement from CNS to muscles, brings back sensory input to CNS

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Autonomic Nervous System

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Controls tissues other than skeletal muscle (organs, glands), controls heart beat, breathing

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Sympathetic nervous system

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Prepares body for situations requiring expenditure of energy, increases heart rate, stresses us

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Parasympathetic nervous system

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Directs storage of energy, calms us down, allows storage of nutrients, repairing body, return internal activity to baseline levels

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Enteric nervous system

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Nerve cells embedded in gastrointestinal system, "second brain", communicates with endocrine system, functions result in perception of gastrointestinal pain, hunger, satiety, source of 95% of body's serotonin

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Endocrine system

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Made of number of glands that release hormones into the blood, involved with arousal, metabolism, growth, sex, responds to input from nervous system and hypothalamus

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Axons

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Carry information to other neurons

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Dendrites

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Branches, receive input from other neurons

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Myelin

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Layer of insulation for axons, makes neural signaling fast and energy efficient

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Glia

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Provides structural matrix for neurons, keeps them in place

Front 89

Action Potential

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An electric signal generated by a neuron, travels length of the axon from its junction with the cell body to its terminal, then arrival of action potential at axon terminal of first neuron signals release of chemical messengers

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Resting potential

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The reading of the distance between the interior axon and external fluid when a cell is at rest

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Synapse

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Point of communication between two neurons, do not touch each other physically, separated by tiny gaps filled with extracellular fluid

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Neurotransmitters

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Chemical messengers sent by neurons, contacts receptors

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Receptors

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Contacts neurotrasmitters, works like a lock and key, only the right shape neurotransmitter can attach itself

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Reuptake

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When neurotransmitter molecules drift away from the receptor binding site, broken down by enzymes, or return to axon terminal from which they were released - repackaged for later use