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Intro To Psychology Midterm

Terms

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Goals of Psychology
To understand, predict, and control (modify) behavior and mental processes
Psychology
The Scientific Study of Behavior and Mental Processes
Tools in Psychology (The Scientific Method)
Observation
Define the Problem
Propose a Hypothesis
Experimentation
Theory Formulation
(Hypothesis to test the theory)
Why Study Psychology?
Evaluatiing Face vs. Fiction

Learning how decisions are made in the behavioral sciences (statistics)

Citizen Quality (Ethics) ex. Stem Cell Research

Biological Bases of Behavior
Diffusion of Responsibility
People think that someone else will react so they don't have to

(Rape of Kitty Genovici)
Amaygdala
Fear/Anxiety
Wundt
First Psychologist (Lab)
The Dark Ages
Break in Science and Philosophy
How Knowledge Develops:
(Two Theories)
Personalistic Theory: "Great Person"

Naturalistic Theory: "A king is history's slave"
The Mind-Body Controversy (Soul)
Explaining Free Will

Philosophical Doctrines:
Monism-Mind and Body are the same, no seperate Soul (science a monistic approach)
Interactionism: Body and soul, when we need free will, the soul intervenes
Dualism: (Plato) Body and Mind Seperate
Hippocrates
Father of Medicine
Aristotle
Mind is Form that Substance Body Takes
Descartes
Interactionism
"Father of Psychophysiology"
Research Methods Outline
Psychology as a science
case history
test method
survery method
observational method
correlational method
experimental method
Reification
Most Common Way of Conducting Science
The Uncertainty Principle
Heisenberg
Unlike Einstein and Newton whose physics were based on certainty

1. You Can Speak with Certainty only about that which you have observed
2. The very act of observing changes that which is observed
Factual Statements
must be replicated, with control groups
Empirical Laws
How something behaves in a certain situation (empirical-based on observation)
Yerkes Dodson Law
medium level of arousal is best

performance is related to arousal in an inverted way
Arousal Theory
The Reticular Activating System (RAS)

arrows act as amplifiers
ABAB-Reversal Design
Associated with Naltrexone
More reversal proves casual trauma
Right Side Brain Disorder
Patients think thy don't have any problems, blame others
Correlational Method
researchers measure two variables and see if they are statistically related

postive correlation: high and high, low and low
negative correlation: high and low, low and high
Experimental Method
helps understand and influence behavior
The Neuronal Doctrine
Waldeyer said brain was made up of neurons
Neuron
Basic unit of nervous system
10-12 billion

cell body: dendrite "receptive"
axon hillock: "analytic"
axon button: "expressive"
Soma
Cell Body
Axon Hillock
whre decision to fire or not is made
Graded Potentials
How neurons communicate

EPSP: Excitatory post-synaptic potential, depolarize cell, increases voltage

IPSP: Inhibitory post-synaptic potential, hyperpolarize cell, decreases voltage
Acetylcholine
first neurotransmitter discovered
Neurotransmitters
On-Off System
ACh: ON
AChE: OFF
How Drugs Work
Storage
Release (Amphetamines)
Reuptake (Cocaine/Ritalin)
Block Receptor Site
Stimulate Receptor Site

(allows you to manipulate pyschopharmacology)
Curare
Blocks ACh receptors on muscle
Scopolamine
Blocks ACh receptors on brain (cholinergic drug)
Atropine
Blocks ACh receptors on glands
Botulism
Blocks ACh Release
Nerve Gas (DFP)
Blocks Ache
ACh
responsible for muscle contraction, without it, causes paralysis
Dopamine
a neurotransmitter substance used by neurons in the brain that control large muscle movement and by neurons in pleasure and reward systems in the brain
Seratonin
successful suicides
anti-depressants
SSRIs
important to mood
Endorphins (Neuropeptides)
identical to morphine/heroin
"runner's high"
Norepinephrine
a neurotransmitter believed to be involved with vigilence and attention, and released by sympathetic automatic neurons in the adrenal glands
Association Cortex
areas in between sensory projection areas
Left Brain
Control Right Side of Body
proximle space
Right Brain
Control Left Side of Body
the world
Left Sided Stroke
Catastrophic Reaction
self-awareness
self-critical concern
Right-Sided Stroke
Indifference
unaware of problems with self
"others are problem"
Front of the Brain
Organization
Planning
Sequencing
Regulatory Functions
Stress
Left Front Brain
Speech Output
Fluent
Stuttering
Right Front Brain
Emotional Output
Labile
Anger
Sadness
Fear
Back of the Brain
Reception and Comprehension
Vision
Audition
Taste
Body Sensation
Left Back
Speech Comprehension
Word Salad Speech
Right Back
Emotional Comprehension
Anger/Sad/Fear
Topographical Arrangement
Projection Areas
"cables" from sensors to muscles
vision
audition
body sensation
strength
Psychophysics
Sensation and Perception
Transduction
The translation of energy from one form to another
Adaptation
Occurs at receptor level

Reduction of Sensitivity of receptors
Absolute Threshold
smallest magnitude of stimulus that can be detected half the time
Difference Threshold
smallest difference between two stimuli that can be detected half the time
Calculating Thresholds
Using ascending Limits
increased frequency decreased limits
Gustation
Sense of taste
Thresholds
double every 20 years or so
Perception
The process of becoming aware of the external world through information gathered by the sense organs.

Thought to be influenced by experience or learning.
Nativists
"Born with it"
Descartes
Empiricists
Perception is entirely learned
an active process
Binocular Cues
Retinal Disparity
Monocular Cues
Superposition
Relative Size
Height in Plane
Gradient of Texture
Illusions
Misinterpretations of our perceptual world.
Child Psychology
Focuses on Childhood
Uses Human Children
How can we describe the behavior of children?
Developmental Psychology
Focuses on full lifespan
Childhood, Adolescense, Adulthood, Elderly, Nonhuman
Can we predict later life based on events earlier in Life?
If so, can we change the developmental outcome?
Cohort Effect
different age groups have different experience and backgrounds

9/11

Experiences effect performance
The Cross-Sectional Design
Allows for measure of the cohort effect
Empiricist (Nurture)
John Locke
Human Mind at birth is a "clean slate"
Learning
Development
(linear)
Rationalist (Nature)
Decartes, Kant
Human mind innates ideas, even at birth
Maturation
Development
Biological Changes/Stages
(steps)
Development
an interaction between maturation and experience

nature v. nurture play role
Maturation
A Biological Unfolding
Experience
Learning
Freud
Treated Anno O ("hysteric")
Linked Learning to maturation
Fixation occurs if needs aren't met at each stage
Early Experience Hypothesis
Freud's Stage Theory
Self gratification of pleasure
Basic Views of Human Nature
Oral, anal, phallic, latent, genital
ID
man born with animalistic instincts
need for gratification
innate instinctive impulses and primary processes
Superego
Part of a person's mind that acts as a self-critical conscience
reflects taught rules
Ego
Efficient pleasure seeking
Balances demands of ID and Superego
Part of mind that meditates between conscious and unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity
Piaget
human development, studied intellectual development from childhood to adulthood
Piaget's Four Stages of Cognitive Development
Sensorimotor
Preoperational
Concrete Operational
Formal Operational
Sensorimotor
Ages 0-2
marks the development of essential spaial abilities and understanding the world in six stages
1. reflexes (0-6 weeks)
2. development of habits (6 weeks-4 months)
3. visual coordination (4-9 months)
4. development of logic-means and ends (9-12 months)
5. discovery of new means to meet goals (12-18 months)
6. beginning of insight, true creativity
Preoperational Stage
2-7 Years
Inability to conserve (glasses)
Initiative Thought
Egocentrism
Concrete Operational
7-12
appropriate use of knowledge
Formal Operational
12-
onset of puberty
continues into adulthood
Contact Comfort
critical ingredient in motherly love
Uncertainty Principle
Principle of quantum mechanics, Heisenburg, measurement of one of two related observable quantities position of momentum or energy and time
Psychology originated from...
Aristotles "psyche" (life) and logos (the study of)

writings of ancient Greek philosophers
Causality
relation of cause and effect
Independent Variable
quantitative value is independently controlled by researcher
Dependent Variable
doesn't change, constant, quantitative value expected to depend on the independent variable
Biological
study ways in which nervous system and other organs provide basis for behavior
Sensation and Perception
concerned with how the sense organs operate and how we interpret incoming sensory info in the process of perception
Learning and Memory
ways in which we learn and remember new info, new skills, new habits, and new ways to relate to each other
Cognition
Concerned with intelligent action: thinking, perceiving, planning, imagining, creating, dreaming, speaking, listening, problem solving
Developmental
concerned with changing that takes place in people over a lifespan
Motivation and Emotion
Study needs and states that activate and guide behavior, hunger, thirst, sex, need for achievement, etc
Personality
ways of behaving that characterize our personalities
Social
Influences on other people and our behavior
Sociocultural
ethnic, culture identities, sexual orientation, etc
Sensory Receptor Cells
cells in sense organs that translate messages into neural impulses sent to the brain
Nature v. Nurture Controversy
both combine to influence our thoughts, actions, and feelings

nature: biological factors
nurture: psychological factors
Acetylcolene
a neurotransmitter used by somatic neurons that contract the body's large muscles, also plays a role in memory and is thought to regulate dreaming, primary transmitter for learning new things
Serotonin
a neurotransmitter used by systems of neurons believed to regulate sleep, dreaming, appetite, depression, and inhibition of violence
Endorphins
"endogeneous" (inside the body), any of a group of peptide hormones that bind to opiate receptors and are found mainly in the brain, reduce the sensation of pain and effect emotion
Naltrexone
given to heroin addicts, makes them experience immediate withdrawl, also used with opiates
Neurons
an individual nerve cell, most important unit of the nervous system

consists of cell body, dendrites, axons

transmits messages in the nervous system, neural transmission, synaptic transmission
Action Potential
a brief electrical signal that travels through the length of an axon
Graded Potential
important in neurons that lack action potential, depolarize the membrane
Frontal Lobe
occupies part of skull behind forehead and extends to middle/top of head, plays important role in thinking, decision making, working memory, organizing our behavior, predicting consequences of our actions, contains Broca's area (ability to speak language)
Parietal Lobe
behind frontal at top of skull, sense of touch and other body senses
Temporal Lobe
extend back from temples, middle area at base of brain beneath frontal and parietal lobes, contain auditory areas (wernicke's area)
Occipital Lobe
base of back of head, furthest from eyes, but is associated with vision
Sensation
process of receiving, translating, and transmitting messages from the outside world to the brain
Depolarization
the process during which positively charged ions flow into the axon, making it less negatively charged inside
Hyperpolarization
to increase the difference in electrical potential across a cell membrane
Monocular Cues to Depth
depth perception perceived to one eye, texture gradient, linear perspective, superpostioning, shadowing, speed of movement, aerial perspective, accommodation, vertical cues

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