Psych test number 1
Terms
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- Psychology
- the scientific study of thought and behavior
- cognitive psychology
- the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak and solve problems
- someone who studies how people visualize objects in their mind is studying what type of psychology?
- cognitive psychology
- developmental psychology
- the study of how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the lifespan
- behavioral neuroscience
- the study of the links among brain, mind, and behavior
- biological psychology
- the study of the relationship between bodily systems and chemicals and how they influence behavior and thought
- the effects of stress on hormones and behavior is an example of what type of psychology?
- biological psychology
- brain functions involved in learning, emotion, social behavior, and mental illness are examples of what area of psychology?
- behavioral neuroscience
- social psychology
- the study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior
- prejudice and racism in terms of how a person of one group perceives and treats people in other groups is an example of what type of psychology?
- social psychology
- clinical psychology
- the study of the treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and the promotion of psychological health
- where do clinical psychologists work?
-
universities
medical settings
private practices - health psychology
- the study of the role that psychological factors play in regard to physical health and illness
- what area of psychology requires both clinical practice and research?
- health psychology
- educational psychology
- the study of how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology of schools and the psychology of teaching
- industrial / organizational psychology
- application of psychological concepts and questions to work settings
- research focus such as studying whether certain programs improve worker productivity and employment satisfaction is an example of what type of psychology?
- industrial / organizational psychology
- sports psychology
- the study of psychological factors in sports and exercise
- forensic psychology
- field that blends psychology, law, and criminal justice
- counseling psychology
-
similar to clinical psychology
tend to treat and assess relatively healthy people and assist them with career and vocational interests - where is counseling training most likely to occur?
- schools of education
- in prehistoric times what was the main psychological idea based upon?
-
shamans
medicine men and woman who treated people with mental problems by driving out demons with elaborate rituals and prayers - who were the first cultures to focus on natural and psychical explanations for disorders?
- Ancient Egyptians and Greeks
- what was a major use of the Egyptians?
- narcotics to treat pain
- who was the first Greek physician to write about a man suffering from a phobia of heights?
- Hippocrates
- which group moved away from supernatural explanations of psychological disorders?
- ancient chineese
- what were the views on psychological disorders in Europe during the middle ages?
-
psychological disorders were attributed to supernatural causes
people were possessed by demons, spirits and the devil - how did the catholic church distinguish between the good and the bad witchcraft?
-
prodded with metal poles and spears to test for pain
float test - asylums
- facilities for treating the mentally ill in Europe during the Middle Ages and into the 19th century
- moral treatment
- 19th - century approach to treating the mentally ill with dignity in a caring environment
- what were the modern views of psychological disorders?
- they are simply a form of illness and should be treated as all medical conditions are, with appropriate diagnosis and therapy
- who developed psychoanalysis?
- Sigmond Freud
- psychoanalysis
-
a clinically based approach to understanding and treating psychological disorders
assumed unconscious mind was most powerful behind thought and behavior (dreams) - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual -DSM
- classification system of diagnoses for more than 250 psychological disorders
- empiricism
- the view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience
- psychophysics
-
the first scientific form of psychology
lab studies of the subjective experience of physical sensations - who established the idea of empiricism?
- John Locke
- who were the scientists to first develop psychophysics?
-
Ernst Weber
Gustav Fechner
Hermann von Helmholts - did some of the first research in perception and laid the groundwork for what later became psychophysics
- Weber
-
made contributions to the study of memory, physiology and color vision, laws of conservation, music theory, meteorology and geometry
first to calculate speed of nerve impulse - Helmholtz
- this man is credited with giving psychology its independence from philosophy and physiology
- Wilhelm Wundt
- first american to earn a PhD in psychology
- Sumner
- first female president of APA
- Mary whiton Calkins
- structuralism
- 19th century school of psychology that argued that breaking down experience into its elemental parts offers the best way to understand thought and behavior
- introspection
-
the main method of investigation for structuralists
involves looking into ones own mind for information about the nature of conscious experience - functionalism
- 19 century school of psychology that argued it was better to look at why the mind works the way it does than to describe its parts
- behaviorism
- a school of psychology that proposed that psychology can be a true science only if it examines observable behavior, not ideas, thoughts feelings or motives
- positive psychology
- scientific approach to studying understanding and promoting healthy and positive psychological functioning
- Gestalt psychology
- a theory of psychology that maintains that we perceive things as wholes rather than as a compilation of parts
- who is the founder of behaviorism?
- John Watson
- who is responsible for making behaviorism the major approach in experimental psychology?
- B.F. Skinner
- who proposed humanistic psychology?
- Maslow Rogers
- what is word used for thought and mental processes?
- Cognition
- what are the three major ways of thinking about human experience?
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nature- nurture debate
mind- body problem
evolutionary theory - nature through nurture
- the position that the environment constantly interacts with biology to shape who we are and what we do
- the idea that the mind and the body are separate entities is called...
- mind- body dualism
- how are the body and mind perceived in eastern thought?
- they are seen as part of one whole rather than separate entities
- evolution
- the change over time in the frequency with which specific genes occur within a breeding species
- natural selection
- a feedback process by which nature favors one design over another because it has an impact on reproduction
- adaptation
- inherited solutions to ancestral problems that have been selected for because they contribute to some way to reproductive success
- why do adaptations evolve?
- to solve problems in past generations- not cure them
- evolutionary psychology
- the branch of psychology that studies human behavior by asking what adaptive problems it may have solved for our early ancestors
- what are evolutionary psychologist interested in?
- the functions of the human mind
- what are emotions?
-
behavioral adaptations
quick and ready response patterns that tell us whether something is good or bad for our well - being - by-products or exaptations
- structures of features that perform a function that did not arise through natural selection
- what are some examples of by-products?
-
feathers
language
science - scientific method
- the procedures by which scientists conduct research consisting of five basic processes
-
what are the steps of scientific method?
(OPTIC) -
observation
prediction
testing
interpretation
communication - hypothesis
- a specific, informed and testable prediction of the outcome of a particular set of conditions in a research design
- theory
- a set of related assumptions from which scientists can make testable predictions
- replication
- the repetition of a study to confirm the results
- pseudoscience
- claims presented as scientific that are not supported by evidence obtained with the scientific method
- research design
- plans of action for how to conduct a scientific study
- variable
- a characteristic that changes for "varies"
- what are some examples of variables?
-
age
gender
weight
intelligence
anxiety
extraversion - population
- the entire group a researcher is interested in
- what are some examples of populations?
-
all humans
all adolescents
all boys
all girls
all college students - social desirability bias
- the tendency toward favorable self-presentation that could lead to inaccurate self-reports
- samples
- subsets of the population studied in a research project
- descriptive designs
- study designs in which the researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything
- case study
- a study design in which a psychologist, often a therapist, observes one person over a long period of time
- naturalistic observation
- a study in which the researcher unobtrusively observes and records behavior in the real world
- representative sample
- a research sample that accurately reflects the population of people on is studying
- correlation coefficient
- a statistic that ranges form -1.0 to +1.0 and assesses the strength and direction of association between two variables
- correlation designs
-
studies that measure two or more variables and their relationship to one another
not designed to show causation - experiment
- a research design that included independent and dependent variables and random assignment of participants to control and experimental groups or conditions
- independent variable
- a property that is manipulated by the experimenter under controlled conditions to determine whether it causes the predicted outcome of an experiment
- dependent variable
- in an experiemtn, the outcome or response to the experimental manipulation
- random assignment
- the method used to assign participants to different research conditions so that all participants have the same chance of being in any specific group
- control group
- a group of research participants who are treated in exactly the same manners at the experimental group, except that hey do not receive the independent variable or treatment
- placebo
- a substance or treatment that appears identical to the actual treatment but lacks the active substance
- experimental group
- a group consisting of those participants who will receive the treatment or whatever is predicted to change behavior
- confounding variable
- variable whose influence on the dependent variable cannot be separated from the independent variable being examined
- single-blind studies
- studies in which participants do not know the experimental condition (group) to which they have been assigned
- double- blind studies
- studies in which neither the participants nor the researchers administering the treatment know who has been assigned to the experimental or control group
- self-fulfilling prophesy
- a statement that affects events to cause the prediction to become true
- meta-analysis
- a research and statistical technique for combining all research results on one question and drawing a conclusion
- effect size
- a measure of the strength of the relationship between two variables or the magnitude of an experimental effect
- physiological measures
- measures of bodily responses such as blood pressure, or heart rate, used to determine changes in psychological state
- multiple measurement
- the use of several measures to acquire data on one aspect of behavior
- statistics
- collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of numerical data
- descriptive statistics
- measures used to describe and summarize research data
- standard deviation
- a statistical measure of how much scores in a sample vary around the mean
- ethics
- the rules governing the conduct of a person or group in general or in a specific situation or more simply standards of right and wrong
- what are the 5 explicit guidelines for the ethical treatment of human subjects
-
1. informed consent
2. respect for persons
3. beneficence
4. privacy and confidentiality
5. justice - debriefing
- the explanation of the purposes of a study following data collection
- quasi-experimental design
-
research method similar to an experimental design except that it makes use of naturally occurring groups rather than randomly assigning subjects to groups
(ex. musicians) - chromosomes
-
a coiled-up thread of DNA
-
DNA
deoxyribonucleic acid - a large molecule that contains genes
- genes
- small segments of DNA that contain information for producing proteins
- genome
- all the genetic information in DNA
- alleles
- different forms of a gene
- dominant genes
- genes that show their effect even if there is only one allele for that trait in the pair
- recessive genes
- genes that show their effects only when both alleles are the same
- behavioral genetics
- the scientific study of the role of heredity in behavior
- monogenic transmission
- the hereditary passing on of traits determined by a single gene
- polygenic transmission
- the process by which many genes interact to create a single characteristic
- heritability
- the extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics
- fraternal twins
- twins that develop from two different eggs fertilized by two different sperm
- identical twins
- twins that develop from a single fertilized egg that splits into two independent cells
- twin studies
- research into hereditary influence comparing pairs of fraternal and identical twins
- adoption studies
- research into hereditary influence in which adopted people are compared to their biological and adoptive parents
- twin-adoption studies
- research into hereditary influence on twins both identical and fraternal who were raised apart (adopted) and who were raised together
- gene-by environment interaction research
- a method of studying heritability by comparing genetic markers that allows researchers to assess how genetic differences interact with environment to produce certain behaviors in some people but not in others
- epigenetics
- concerns changes in the way genes are turned on or off without a change in the sequence of DNA
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central nervous system
SNS - the part of the nervous system that comprises the brain and spinal cord
- peripheral nervous system
- the part of the nervous system that comprises all the nerve cells in the body outside the central nervous system
- somatic nervous system
- nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system that transmit sensory information to the central nervous system and those that transmit information from the central nervous system to the skeletal muscle
- cortisol
-
a hormone released by the adrenal glands
responsibly for maintaining the activation of bodily systems during prolonged stress - adrenal glands
- endocrine structures that release hormones important in regulating the tress response and emotions
- pituitary gland
- the master endocrine gland that controls the release of hormones from glands throughout the body
- hormones
- chemicals secreted by glands that travel int eh bloodstream and carry messages to tissues and organs all over the body
- endocrine system
- system of glands that secrete and regulate hormones in the body
- glutamate
-
a major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain that increases the likelihood that a posthypnotic neuron will fire
important in learning memory, neural processing and brain development -
GABA
Gammaaminobutyic acid -
a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain that tells post synaptic neurons not to fire
slows CNS activity and is necessary to regulate and control neural activity
- norepinephrine
- a neurotransmiter that plays an important role in the sympathetic nervous system, energizing bodily systems and increasing mental arousal and alertnesss
- epinephrine
- also known as adrenaline, a neurotransmitter that arouses bodily systems (such as increasing heart rate)
- serotonin
-
a neurotransmitter with wide-ranging effects
involved in dreaming and controlling emotional states especially anger, anxiety and depression - acetlcholine
- a neurotransmitter that controls muscle movement and plays a role in mental processes such as learning, memory, attention, sleeping and dreaming
- graded potentials
- small changes in membrane potential that by themselves are insufficient to trigger an action potential
- enzymatic degradation
- a way of removing excess neurotransmitter from the synapse, in which enzymes specific for that neurotransmitter bind with the neurotransmitter and destroy it
- dopamine
-
a neurotransmitter released in response to behaviors that feel good or are rewarding to the person or animal
also involved in voluntary motor control - reputake
- a way of removing excess neurotransmitter from the synapse in which excess neurotransmitter is returned to the sending pr presynaptic neuron for storage in vesicles and future use
- all -or - none principal
-
the idea that once the threshold has been crossed an action potential either fires or it does not
there is no halfway - refractory period
- the span of time after an action potential has been generated, when the neuron is returning to its resting state and the neuron cannot generate an action potential
- mirror neurons
- nerve cells that are active when we observe others performing an action as well as when we are performing the same action
- interneurons
- neurons that communicate only with other neurons
- resting potential
- the difference in electrical charge between the inside and outside of the axon when the neuron is at rest
- motor neurons
- nerve cells that carry commands for movement from the brain to the muscles of the body
- synapse
- the junction between an axon and the adjacent neuron, where information is transmitted from one neuron to another
- myelin sheath
- the fatty substance wrapped around some axons, which insulates the axon, making the nerve impulse travel more efficiently
- sensory neurons
- nerve cells that receive incoming sensory information from the sense organs (eye, ear, skin, tongue, nose)
- terminal buttons
- little knobs at the end of the axon that contain tiny sacs of neurotransmitters
- soma
- cell body of the neuron
- neuro-transmitters
- chemicals that transmit information between neurons
- neurons
- the cells that process and transmit information int he nervous system
- glial cells
- central nervous system cells that provide structural support, promote efficient communication between neurons and serve as scavengers removing cellular debris
- sympathetic nervous system
- the branch of the autonomic nervous system that activates bodily systems in time of emergency
- parasympathetic nervous system
- the branch of autonomic nervous system that usually relaxes or returns the body to a less active restful state
-
autonomic nervous system
ANS - all the nerves of the peripheral nervous system that serve involuntary systems of the body, such as the internal organs and glands
- what are the 4 principals of research design?
-
variable
population
samples
social