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Psychology Terms and Ideas for chapter 2

Terms

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Everything________is simultaneously__________
psychological; biological
Discuss the impotance of "everthing psychological is simulatenously biological"
This is important because our biological makeup influences our psychological self; a doctor might be able to trace a psychological disorder through our past generations
What are some names/titles that some biological psychologists work under?
behavoiral neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavoir geneticists, physiological psychologists, biopsychologists
What receives information from sensory receptors or other neurons?
dendrites
What passes that the information that the dendrites receive along to other neurons?
axons
What is the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron?
synapse
What is a neurotransmitter?
chemical messengers that travese the synaptic gaps between neurons
What does dopamine affect?
movement, learning, attention, emotion
What psychological disorder is dopamine implicated in?
schitzophrenia
What does serotonin affect?
mood, hunger, sleep, arousal
Serotonin is implicated in which psychological disorder?
depression
________________serves inhibitory functions and is sometimes implicated in _______and _______ disorders
Gamma-aminobutric acid, eating, sleep
Which neurotransmitter helps control alertness and arousal?
Nurephinephrine
What is involved in muscle action, learning, and memory?
Acetylcholine
Discuss what happens in Alzheimer's Disease in realtion to Acetylcholine.
If the person has an undersupply of acetylcholine, alzheimers can result - the muscles shrivel, memory is lost
What is an endorphine and what is it linkedto?
It is "morphine within"; natural opiate-like neurotransmitters; linked to pain control and pleasure
Endorphin means?
"morphine within"
Discuss what happens to the body when opiate/opiate-like drugs are used and then discontinued.
If a person is using them, the body may stop producing its own. Then, when the person stops taking them they experience discomfort until the body resumes making its own or the person resumes the medication which is drug addiction
What are neural networks?
interrconnected neural cells
The endocrine system can best be described as the bodys...
"slow" chemical communication system
List a few examples of glands in the endocrine system
adrenal glands and the pituitary gland
What are the characteristics of hormones?
chemical messangers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands, that are produced in one tissue and affect another
Adrenal Glands are responsible for what?
arousing the body in times of stress
The pituitary gland regulates...
growth and controls other endocrine glands
Describe the refelx response
a simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus
A brain lesion is
tissue destruction
An EEG stands for and does what?
electroencephalogram; takes an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweeps across the brains surface
A CT scan stands for and does what?
computed tomograph; composite representation of the body
A PET scan stands for and does what?
position emission tomograph; visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task
A MRI stands for and does what?
magnetic resonance imaging; a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer generated images that distinguish among different types of soft tissue; allows us to see the structures in the brain
The Limbic System is associated with
emotions such as fear and aggression such as those for food and sex
The Hypothalamus directs and is linked to
several maintenance activities like eating, drinking, and body temperature; emotion
The Cerebral Cortex is the body's
ultimate control and information processing center
The frontal lobes are responsible for
speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements
The paritel lobes are responsible for
the sensory cortex
The occipital lobes are responsible for
the visual areas
The temporal lobes are responsible for
the auditory areas
The motor cortex is responsible for
the area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements
The sensory cortex is responsible for
the area at the fron of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body sensations
Discuss the importance of the size of the cerebral cortex.
The larger the cerebral cortex the more increased capacity for learning and thinking, enabling adaptability
Aphasia is
impairment of language, visually caused by left hemisphere damage
Discuss the result of damage to the Broca's area
The person would struggle to form words yet would often be able to sing familiar songs with ease
Discuss the result of damage to Wernicke's area
The person would only speak meaningless words and were unable to comprehend others' words
Discuss plasticity and brain reorganization
The brains capacity for modification as evident in brain reorganization following damage (especially in children)
The corpus collosum does what?
carries messages between the hemispheres
Describe the split brain procedure and note for which medical condition it is most often used
A condition in which the two hemispheres of the brain are isolated by cutting the connected fibers - eplilepsy
What are the results of the split brain procedure?
normal personality but the two brains act independently, and are unable to communicate
How has the definition of psychology changed over time and how have these changes impacted the field of psycholgy?
Up until the 1920's, psychology was defined as the science of mental life, from the 1920's until the 1960's it was the science of observable behavoir, now its both, they have impacted what has been studied and the conclusions that have been drawn.
What is the current definition of psychology?
It is the science of behavoir and mental processes
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
Neuroscience
How the brain and the body enable emotions, memories and sensory experiences
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
evolutionary
how the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one's genes
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
behavoir genetics
how much our genes and our enviroment influence our individual differences
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
psychodynamic
how behavoir springs from our unconscious drives and conflicts
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
behavoiral
how we learn observable responses
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
cognitive
how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
What are the current theoretical perspectives of psychological events? List the focus of each.
social-cultural
how behavoir and thinking vary across situations and cultures
What are the dynamics of viewing any psychological event from more than one prespective?
It can provide a more round answer for the psychological event, exploring the event from more than one perspective can enlighten the person with many different ways of reasoning, on some level the perspectives interconnect
Name and discuss the major issues in the field of psychology.
Stability vs. Change
do individual behavoirs persist or change?
Name and discuss the major issues in the field of psychology.
Human Rationality vs. Irrationality
human limitations, common sense, hindsight
Name and discuss the major issues in the field of psychology.
Nature vs. Nurture
How much do genetics or enviroment affect people?
What is the aim of basic research?
to increase the scientific knowledge base
List three cateragories of psychologists who work in basic research and an example of each
biological
exploring the links between brains and mind
List three cateragories of psychologists who work in basic research and an example of each
developmental
studying our changing abilities from womb to tomb
List three cateragories of psychologists who work in basic research and an example of each
cognitive problems
experimenting with how we perceive, think, and solve
What is applied research?
scientific study that aims to solve pracical problems
Discuss applications of applied research
Applied research takles practical problems - helping a company hire and train employees more effectively, to boost morale, to design products, etc.
When discussing psychological science, what does critically thinking mean?
thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
The hindsight bias is:
tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have forseen it
What is overconfidence and give an example
We tend to think that we know more than we do (tendency to be more confident than correct) EXAMPLE: the amount of time it would take us to unscramble WREAT
What is the purpose of a theory in relation to the scientific method?
provides an explaination using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations
How is a hypothesis important to research procedures?
It gives our research direction; they specify what results would support the theory what results would disconfirm it
Define operational definition and give an example
a statement of procedures used to define research variables EXAMPLE: intelligence is operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures; another researcher may use someone else's operational definition in their research to see if the previous results were accurate
Replication refers to:
repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances
What is the case study and note its limitations.
an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing univeral principles
LIMITATIONS:They may be misleading, one person may be atypical, they aren't always universally true
What is a survey and how is random sampling important in such a procedure?
technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes of behavoirs of people. Random sampling is important so that you can come to an accurate conclusion
What are wording effects?
phrasing of a question might affect the opinions of the respondents
Define fase consensus
tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behavoirs
What is the population in a research study?
all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study
What is the identifying feature of a naturalistic observation and give an example:
Naturalistic observations DESCRIBE behavoir EXAMPLE: watching chimpanzees stick a stick into a termite mound and eat the termites, proving not only humans use tools
A correlation coefficient measures what?
relationship: It measures the how closely two things vary together and how well either one perceives the other
Correlation does NOT equal fact. What does this mean?
Just because a relationship appears to be present does not mean it is the cause or that the correlation even exists
Define illusory correlation and give an example
the perception of a relationship where none exists EXAMPLE: infertile couples who adopt are more likely to become conceive
What is important to remember when looking at random sequences?
That random sequences don't often look random
What makes up an experiment?
manipulating the factors of interest and holding constant other factors
How does one control relevant factors during an experiment?
random assignment
The independent variable is:
the experimental factor that is manipulated - the variable whose effect is being studied
The dependent variable is:
the experimental factor that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable
What happens during random assignment?
subjects are assigned to experimental and control conditions by chance
Describe the double-blind procedure in research and give an example
both the subject and the reseach staff are ignorant about whether the subject has received the treatment or placebo EXAMPLE: drug evaluation studies
What is a placebo and why is it utilized in experiments?
an inert substance or condition that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug to see if it triggers the effects believed to cahracterize the active agent, it is utlized to see if the drug actually works
What is the experimental condition of an experiment and give an example
the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental treatment EXAMPLE: the actual drug
What is the control condition of an experiment and give an example
the condition of an experiment that contrats with the experimental treatment EXAMPLE: the placebo
What is the basic purpose of, how is it conducted, and what is manipulated in the descriptive research method?
To observe and record behavoir; do case studies, surveys, or naturalistic observations; NOTHING
What is the basic purpose of, how is it conducted, and what is manipulated in the correlational research method?
To detect naturally occuring relationships, to assess how well one variable predicts another; compute statistical association, sometimes among survey responses; NOTHING
What is the basic purpose of, how is it conducted, and what is manipulated in the experimental research method?
To explore cause and effect; manipulate one or more factors, use random assignment; the indepedent variable
What is a mean score and give an example?
mathematical average of the distribution EXAMPLE: arithmetic average
What is the mode of a distribution and give an example?
most frequently occuring score in the distribution EXAMPLE: 4 4 8 6 4
What is the median score of the distribution and give an example?
middle score of the distribution EXAMPLE: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Describe a skewed distribution of scores
average is thrown off by a few that are way under or way over
Discuss the standard deviation and its importance
It uses information from each score, better gauges whether scores are packed together or dispersed
What are three important factors to remember regarding making inferences?
- Representative samples are better than biased samples
- Less - variable observations are more relaible than those that are more variable
- More cases are better than fewer
Discuss the impact culture has on behavoir.
It influences our standards of promptness and frankness, our attitudes toward premarital sex and varying body shapes, our tendency to be casual or formal, etc.
What are four important factors in studying?
- distribut your study time
-learn to think critically
-in class, listen attentively
-overlearn

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