Psych 111 Final Exam p. 1

I might pass away

Wilhelm Wundt

Father of psychology. (focused on experimental psychology

Edward Titchener

Brought structuralism to America

William James

Studied functionalism

Margaret F. Washburn

First woman to receive a PhD in psychology

Francis Cecil Sumner

First African American to receive a PhD in psychology

Sigmund Freud

Neurologist turned psychologist. He developed psychoanalysis/psychodynamic psychology

B.F. Skinner & Watson

Behaviorism

Pavlov

Operant conditioning

John Locke

Promoted empiricism (role of human observer is vital)

G Stanley Hall

First functionalist. He studied adaptation and human development. He had the first psych lab and journal in America and founded the APA.

Helen Thompson Woolley & Leta S. Hollingworth

Some of the first to go into the psychology of sex differences. Their findings helped dispel stigmas around women.

Structuralism

What the mind consists of (emotions and sensations). Early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener, used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

Functionalism

What the mind does rather than what its made of. What does the mind enable us to do?

Gestalt psychology

Looking at the human experience as a whole. (Jews in Nazi Germany). You process information simultaneously so you shouldn't break it down.

Psychodynamic

How conscious behavior is influenced by the unconscious mind

Behaviorism

Study of behavior. You focused on what you can see/observe instead of what you can't see. Includes conditional and Operant conditioning.

Humanism

Why people do what they do and why people try to improve themselves

Cognitive psychology

The study of mental processes. How people think, learn, remember, and memorize.

Sociocultural psychology

Cultural/social norms, values, and expectations

Evolutionary psychology

The study of biologically same characteristics among humans. Reasons behind things like lying or mate selection.

Biopsychosocial

Combination of biological, psychological, and social forces.

Null hypothesis vs. alternative hypothesis

Null hypothesis assumes there is no relationship between variables. You test this against the alternative hypothesis, which claims that there is a relationship.

Empirical/empiricism

Knowledge comes from observation and the ability to verify that claim

Falsifiability

Whether or not something is testable. (Karl Popper and Russel's teapot in space)

Inductive vs. deductive reasoning

Inductive reasoning would be: drawing general conclusions from specific observations. Scientists may observe a situation or experiment, and draw a general conclusion based on the results. In day-to-day life, one might see that there are clouds outside, and the air feels humid. You could make the inductive conclusion that it’s going to rain.
Deductive reasoning is proof-based, the exact opposite of inductive. It starts with a face or premise, and if the data lines up with this premise, then the conclusion is true.

P-value & significance testing

Probability Value: Probability that results occurred by chance and are not correlated. It sets a threshold for type i/ii errors to help determine if data is good or not.
Significance testing is a set of procedures used to figure out whether the differences between two groups/models are statistically significant.

Objective vs. subjective

Objective is unbiased facts. Subjective is biased and opinionated.

Type I error vs. Type II error

Type I error is a false positive (you tell a man he's pregnant).
Type II error is a false negative (you tell a pregnant woman she's not pregnant).

Correlation coefficient r

Shows the strength of a relationship. The correlation between two variables is considered strong if the absolute value of r is greater than 0.75.

Longitudinal design

A study that follows the same group of people over time. (Attrition can happen here, where people drop out over time)

Cross sectional

Looking at data at a single point in time. Looking at a whole bunch of groups in the present. A snapshot of one moment.

Experimenter effect

Any influence a researcher may have on the results of their research.

What are the 5 guidelines in the code of ethics?

1. Informed consent (people agree to it)
2. Confidentiality (information learned about an individual is not made public without their consent)
3. Privacy (shouldn't invade people's privacy like trying to watch people in their bedrooms or obtain confidential info)
4. Benefits (benefits should outweigh the cost)
5. Deception (if deception is necessary, the experimenter must debrief the participant)

Internal vs. external validity

Controlled factors. Internal validity: How well my study does internally to establish a relationship between my variables and not be unsure because of confounding or extraneous variables.
External Validity: The degree to which my findings generalize from my specific sample out to the broader population. Would the same results apply to other populations?

“Real-world” vs laboratory research

Laboratory research is good in that you can control many variables. All conditions are set up by you. This is good for internal validity. Real-world research is great with helping to find generalized data, but there are a lot of uncontrolled factors. It's harder to replicate. Great for external validity though.

Cohort effect

The concept that having been born in a certain time, region, or period OR having experienced the same life experience has on the development/perceptions of a particular group.

Random assignment vs random sampling

Random sampling is where you randomly select members of a select population to participate in your study.
Random assignment is how you place those participants into groups.

Attrition

Loss of study participants over time. People dropping out.

Independent vs. Dependent variables

Independent is the thing that you change that effects the dependent variable. We measure the dependent variable.

Correlation

Correlation means there is a relationship between two or more variables. It means that when one variable changes, so does the other. It's how two variables are related, positive or negative, ranges from -1 to +1

Exact replication/replication crisis

Exact replication is just being able to exactly replicate a study to test the results. The replication crisis is people are finding inconsistent results. Only 36% of published studies are replicated.

Conceptual replication

Using new methods to test ideas/findings of previous studies. It's like a reboot.

Open science replication rate

Only 36% of studies are successfully replicated.

What are some potential solutions to the replication crisis?

Publish findings that were not significant too
Published replication attempts no matter what
Open data/access journals

Behavioral genetics

The study of the effect of nature and nurture on behavior.

Monozygotic vs. Dizygotic twins

Fraternal twins. Develop from 2 zygotes, and share only 50% of their DNA.
Identical Twins. The result of a single zygote that splits into two halves to create 2 embryos. They have identical DNA, can be in the same amniotic sac. They’re basically clones.

Adoption studies

It explores how environment vs. genetics affects development

Heritability coefficient

Ranges from 0-10 to measure genetics' influence on traits.

What are the pitfalls of heritability coefficients?

It divides traits determinants into two portions--genes and environment.

Hindbrain

Medulla, pons, reticular formation, cerebellum

Limbic system

Thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala

The Cortex

Occipital lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe

Medulla

Life-sustaining. Medulla=MEDICAL. Breathing, swallowing, heart rate

Pons

Sleep, dreaming, left-right body coordination, arousal

Reticular formation

Attention, alertness, arousal

Cerebellum

Involuntary, rapid, and fine motor movements. Also balance!

Thalamus

Sensory center for hearing, sight, touch and taste

Hypothalamus

Motivational behavior (sleep, hunger, thirst, sex, stress)

Hippocampus

Long term declarative memories

Amygdala

Fear responses and memory of fear/anger

Cingulate cortex

Emotional and cognitive processing, selective attention

Occipital lobe

Visual processing

Parietal lobes

Somatosensory (touch, temp, body position, attention).

Temporal lobe

Auditory processing, language, hearing, speech

Parietal lobe

Houses the somatosensory (body sensations). Processes all sensory info received.

Hindbrain

Pons, Medulla, cerebellum

FMRI

Functional MRI. Uses MRI to identify oxygen flow to brain religions, usually during specific tasks.

MRI

Magnetic resonance imagery. Records blood flow through oxygen levels in the blood. Using magnets and radio waves, we can get detailed imaging. Really good for spacial stuff, but is a little slower.

PET

positron emission tomography. You give the patient radioactive sugar, that gives color to active areas. Tracks blood flow to the brain.

CT

computed tomography, x-ray slice, images of brain

EEG

The little caps! It picks up surface level brain activity. Electrodes on the scalp for outer brain activity. It’s super super fast, but is only on the outer brain.

Central Nervous system

Brain and spinal cord. Controls most functions of body and mind.

Peripheral nervous system

Somatic, and autonomic. (nerves to and from CNS) This system carries sensory information from sensory organs to the CNS, and relays motor movement commands to muscles. It has 12 cranial nerves, and 31 spinal nerves.

Somatic

Voluntary, sense, muscles that you control.

Autonomic

Involuntary.

Sympathetic

Fight or flight.

Parasympathetic

Rest and digest.

What is action potential?

Action potential is a large reversal of polarity across the cell membrane. It's varying pulses sent out by nuerons.

What is resting potential?

The electrical potential of a neuron when not stimulated or sending an impulse.

Excitatory potential

Brings the neuron's potential closer to its firing threshold.

Inhibitory potential

Change the charge across the membrane to be further from the firing threshold.

What is equilibrium in a neuron?

When the concentration and electrical gradients are equal in strength and opposite direction.

Neurotransmitter

The little thingys that send messages to other neurons. They get spit out of the synapse.

General Adaption Syndrome

Alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Eustress

The stress effects of positive events. Is motivating.

Distress

The stress effects from unpleasant and undesirable stressors. Bad stress.

Health consequences of chronic stress

Weakened immune system
Increased risk of heart disease
Diabetes, cancer, obesity, ect.
Central adiposity.

What is the purpose of the HPA axis?

The physiological response of the body to stress.
Hypothalamus sends a message to the pituitary gland
The pituitary gland sends a message via ACTH to the adrenal glands.
Adrenal glands release either cortisol or epinephrine and norepinephrine.

What is the primary stress hormone, and how does it effect uf throughout the day?

Cortisol! Every day, when you wake up, your cortisol starts going. It peaks about 30 minutes after you wake up, and then drops throughout the day. Although cortisol is a stress hormone, it helps get you going in the morning. You don’t want cortisol to be too chronically high, or too chronically low.

Epinephrine and norepinephrine

Epinephrine relaxes airways and helps the heart pump. Norepinephrine has more of an effect on your blood vessels.

Generalized anxiety disorder

Excessive worry over everyday things, and you can’t turn off the worries. Worry that comes with side effects on the body. These worries do have side effects on the body.

Panic disorder

Temporary acute/intense anxiety. It’s defined as not just having the attack, but having lasting effects and intense anxiety about that issue for at least one month. It becomes a disorder if you’re having attacks more than once a month.

OCD

Intrusive thoughts, and the need to carry out actions associated with these thoughts. Mostly preventative actions.

Social anxiety disorder

Social interactions are difficult/trigger anxiety to the degree that relationships suffer. Like with any disorder, it has to be to the level that it’s hindering everyday life.

What are some vulnerabilities to anxiety related disorders?

Biological: There are specific biological factors that can make us more susceptible to anxiety disorders. Our genes don’t determine whether or not we have anxiety, but the way our brain works/processes may influence the development of anxiety.
Specific: how our experiences lead us to focus and channel our anxiety. Example: “If we learned that disapproval from others has negative, even dangerous consequences, such as being yelled at or severely punished for even the slightest offense, we might focus our anxiety on social evaluation."
Psychological: Learned behaviors or ideas. Our early childhood experiences that shape how we view the world. If you’re confronted with unpredictable stressors or trauma at a young age, you’re more likely to develop a disorder.

What are the gender differences in the stress response?

Women: Tend-and-befriend
Men: Fight-or-flight

Problem focused coping

Attack the stress by facing the problem head on

Emotion-focused coping

Dealing with the stress. Meditating, praying, journaling.

Mindfulness meditation

Person purposefully focuses attention on the present moment, without judgment or evaluation, focus on breathing, don’t worry if the mind wanders. It’s just focused on relaxing.

Progressive muscle relaxation

Tense your muscle groups and then relax them, usually working from your feet up. Flex for a minute, then let them go. It helps you feel the difference between relaxed and tensed muscles.