Psych Exam 1 (Slides)

Psychology

The study of the mind or soul.

The scientific study of behavior and mind processes.

Basic research

Builds psychology’s knowledge base through research and training.

Applied research

Tackles practical problems in industrial or other institutional/organizational settings.

Scientific attitude

Go after your hypothesis with confidence but have humility.

Necessary because people tend to be illogical and biased in their thinking.

Self serving bias

Tendency to think that other people think and feel the same way you do

Delusory Correlations

See relationships where none exist.

Overconfidence bias

The tendency to think were correct quickly, instead of correct thinking.

Hindsight bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

Goals of psychology research

Describe, predict, explain.

Case study

One of the goals of description.

Observe one individual in depth. Usually extraordinary natural, circumstances. Can have limitations to things prior to that circumstance.

EX: The child who was locked up in the basement; parents said she was mental before.

Surveys

One of the goals of description.

Self-reports of attitudes or behaviors of groups of people. Not 100% accurate. Self-reported snapshots.

EX: Exercising twice a week

Natural observation

One of the goals of description.

Observing people in natural situation without trying to control it. Can go wrong by putting own interpretations on things.

EX: Girls vs boys on the playground.

Field study

One of the goals of description.

Researcher sets up situation, then observes what happens naturally. Not interacting.

EX: Wallet on the ground

Correlations

One of the goals of prediction.

Statistical measure of strength of a relationship between 2 variables.

• - Positive correlation: High scores tend to go with sigh scores, low scores with low score. EX:

• - Negative correlation: High scores go with low scores, low scores with high scores. EX:

How to predict

If you have a score on one variable, and you know the correlation coefficient, you can made a good guess about the score of the other variable.

Goals of explanation

Need to establish case-and-effect relationship through experiments.

Need variables.

Independent variable

The variable whose effect is being studied. The researcher controls this variable - the group they want to compare. “The effect of this on this”

EX: Mouse brains altered vs regualr.

Dependent variable

The factor that is being measured. The outcome: how the people actually score.

EX: How long it took the mice to get through the maze

Scientific method

1. 1. Theory - statement of causal mechanisms

2. 2. Hypothesis - a testable question/statement

3. 3. Obervations/research - The data you collect

4. 4. Revise theory - Make a new theory based on findings.

Correlation ____ ____ ____ Causation!

CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION

Rene Descartes

Thought that human movement was described in mechanistic terms. Thinks specific things excite the brain to do specific actions. (Coco clocks.)

• - Problem: People did not always react in the same way

• - Solution: “The soul acts as a switching mechanism”

• - Creation: Cartesian Dualism (A mind/body distinction. Soul acting vs mind acting)

Franz Joseph Gall

Developed Phrenology: Mental faculties located in different regions of the brain (honesty, intelligence etc.). Measuring skull formation could tell what skills that person had.

• Though that if one part of the brain was bigger, by measuring the skull, he could find out what skills that person had. Used scanners.

Neuron

Building block of nervous system.

• - Dendrites: Where info comes in

• - Cell body: contains nucleus

• - Axon: where info goes down. Contains some myelin.

• - Terminal branches of axon: Where info exits neuron.

Resting potential

Inside of nerve cell is negative, outside is positive. Chill and wait for something to happen

Action potential

When nerve is stimulated, polarity reverse, starts chain reaction. Inside is positive and outside is negative.

Threshold

Stimulation must exceed threshold for nerve to fire. Has to be enough of a touch for nervous system to react.

EX: You feel a punch more than a poke because more neurons fire with the penetration of a punch.

All or None response

More intense stimulation does not increase reaction

Action potential down axon

The action potential happens really fast. After it passes and the excitement leaves the neuron, it takes a little bit for the neurons to get back to its resting potential.

Sensory neurons

Carrying incoming information to the brain

Motor neuron

Carry outgoing message from the brain to the muscles and glands

Interneuron

(Brain and spinal cord) Processes information. In between sensory and motor.

Reflex

Reflexes need to happen quickly, so they are interpreted and processed in the spinal cord rather than the brain.

Neurotransmitters in synapse

Neurons send messages to each other through the use of neurotransmitters in synapses. Have 2 different reactions:

• - Excitation: causes neurons to fire, passes on impulse. Easy to see

• - Inhibition: Prevents excitiation. Stops impulses; weighs out options. Harder to see. EX: Praying mantis male mating and muscles (1 flex, 1 extend)

Effects of positions on acetylcholine

Anything that causes disruption and, more than likely, paralysis. (ALL CAN BE FATAL)

• - Curare: occupies receptor. Muscles cannot contract. On receiving neurons. (No signal is getting to the receiving neuron so muscles cant contract.)

• - Botulism: Blocks release from sending neurons. Muscles can’t contract.

• - Black widow spider bite: Flood synapse. All muscle contract because vesicles pop and causes convolutions.

Nervous system

Divided up into PSN and CNS

PSN

Nerves and ganglion.

- Autonomic: Controls organs

• - Sympathetic: Fight, flight, or freeze response. EX: Peeing pants

• - Parasympathetic: Rest and digest

- Somatic: Controls rest of body

• - Sensory input

• - Motor output

CNS

Brain and spinal cord

EEG (electroencephalogram)

Studies the brain’s function. Uses electrodes to see what lobes of the brain have issues. An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity across the brain’s surface. Done on all newborns in Indiana; play sounds to see if the brain is responding.

MEG (Magnetoencephalography)

Studies the brain’s function. Uses magnetic fields to see what parts of the brain light up during a specific function.

PET (position emission tomography)

Studies the brain’s function. Measures metabolism with radioactive glucose. Shows what parts of the brain are active by how much glucose its using

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

Studies the brain’s structure. Magnetic waves provide map of brain structure. See soft tissue.

fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

Studies the brain’s structure and function. Multiple, successful MRI scans show blood flow through structures. Shows what parts are lighting up during a specific test.

Brainstem

Regulates the basic functions of the body; consciousness, basic movement.

Limbic system

Emptions and motives; sex drive, hunger thirst

Cerebral cortex

Higher thought: planning speech, hearing, langugage

Medulla

Base of the brainstem. Controls heartbeat and breathing.

Pons

Apart of the brainstem. Helps coordinate movement.

EX: Cigarette and lighter out of order

Reticular formation

A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.

Thalamus

The brain’s sensory switchboard, located on the top of the brainstem. It directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla.

Cerebellum

The ‘little brain’ attached to the rear of the brain stem. It helps coordinate voluntary movements and balance. (Smooth movement)

Amygdala

Apart of limbic system. Linked to emotion, especially aggression and fear. Stimulated amygdala can result in negative emotions, thin skinned, anxious, etc.

EX: Cat getting mean and scared (Hiss, arch back, tail up, steps to the side)

Hippocampus

Apart of limbic system. Helps with forming memories. (If damaged, can’t form new memories for maybe longer than 30 min - 1 hr)

Nucleus Accumbens

Apart of limbic system. The pleasure center.

EX: Video where women have electrodes; hits sexy button.

EX: Rat runs across to get shocked for pleasure

Hypothalamus

Apart of limbic system. Directs several maintenance activities. (Eating, drinking, sexual behavior, body temp). Helps govern endocrine system via the pituitary gland. Linked to emotions. Adolescence and young adults feel these things the strongest and clearest.

EX: Switches in a rat when hungry and full.

EX: GLP1 make you fell full but also mess w body temp.

Cerebral cortex

Covers the cerebral hemispheres. The body’s ultimate control and information process center; of sense, higher level though. Made up of nerve cells and glial cells

Glial cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons (because they can’t do much on their own)

Motor cortex

A part of the cerebral cortex. Area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements. Close to sensory because info comes into the sensory and out of the motor cortex!

EX: Homunculus graft

Sensory cortex

Area at the front of the parietal lobes that register and process body sensation

EX: Touch partner in sensitive vs not so sensitive areas (Homunculus graft)

Association areas

More intelligent animals have increas “uncommitted” or association ares of the cortex.

EX: Rat - barely any association areas.

Cat _A little more than rat

Chimpanzee - Quite a lot

Himans - the most and biggest association areas.

Frontal lobe

Responsible for critical thinking, weighing out options, planning executive function, inhibiting impulses.

EX of Damage: Michael; married 3 women since accident. No rhyme to actions, can’t weigh out options, impulsive, can’t work thru a long-term goal, can’t decipher change.

Lawyer with a stroke; tinker toys and randomly tries to build a house but can’t.

Right vs Left hemispheres

Certain functions are localized in one hemisphere or the other.

Right = Visual-spatial information

Left = Language

Information travels from one hemisphere to the other through the corpus callosum.

EX: Girls tend to have a lot more information crossover than men do. Plus side; recover from strokes more quickly.

Boys tend to have less crossover. Down side; recover from strokes more slowly.

Corpus callosum

Large, thick band of neural fibers. Connects the 2 brain hemispheres. Carries messages between the hemispheres.

(Stuff that happens on the left side of the body gets processed on right side of brain; stuff happening on right side of body gets processed on left side of brain)

Our divided brain

Stuff that happens on the left visual field gets processed on the right side of the brain; stuff happening on the right visual field gets processed on the left side of the brain

Children with eye problems need to get it fixed right away because the connection from vision to the brain can get cut off; how it would in a blind person. (Use it or lose it)

Split brain

When the corpus callosum is surgically removed. (Mostly in result of bad seizures damaging the brain). Can live a normal life but when given specific tasks, they struggle. (Can see what’s on the right side of a screen but not the left. However, can draw the word they saw with their left hand)

EX: Vikki. Split brain and couldn’t pick out outfits for the first few weeks after surgery; would have a shirt in each hand. After a while, her brain adapted to everyday life.

EX: Joe. Could drive but couldn’t complete computer test correctly.

What side of the brain is considered free will?

Right side.