Introductory Psychology: History, Research Methods, and Biological Bases of Behaviour

Comprehensive set of 100 vocabulary flashcards covering introductory psychology, scientific research methods, neuroanatomy, neural signaling, neuroimaging, and cerebral lateralization.

Psychosurgery

Brain surgery performed in the absence of obvious organ damage, used to treat severe mental health problems even when no identifiable physical brain lesion is present.

Moniz (1935)

Demonstrated that radical prefrontal lobotomy produced a calming effect on violent emotional behaviour in chimpanzees, establishing that prefrontal lobes regulate emotion separately from the rest of the brain.

Biological Factors

Physiological, neurological, and genetic determinants that influence how people think, feel, and behave.

Individual and Psychological Factors

Internal psychological influences, such as cognitive processes and learning history, that determine how individuals think, feel, and act.

Cultural and Environmental Factors

External socio-cultural influences, including societal norms and value systems, that shape thought, emotion, and behaviour.

Three-Factor Interaction Model

The framework demonstrating the bidirectional, dynamic influences among Cultural & Environmental Factors, Individual & Psychological Factors, and Biological Factors in determining behaviour.

Psychology

The scientific study of behaviour and the mind.

Functionalism

An early psychological perspective focusing on the function or significance of behaviour and investigating how behaviour and mental processes help organisms adapt to their environments.

Psychodynamic Perspective

A theoretical approach focusing on the unconscious mind and unresolved conflicts as the primary determinants of human personality.

Behaviourism

A school of thought that focuses strictly on observable behaviour while disregarding the mind, examining how behavioural patterns change under varied environmental conditions.

Gestalt Tradition

A perspective emphasizing perception and subjective experience, studying how people think and remember by considering stimuli as unified wholes in context. We understand things by looking at the whole picture, not just individual parts.

Humanistic Tradition

A psychological school focused on human values, personal agency, and conscious choice, dedicated to helping individuals fulfill their full potential.

Biological Tradition

A perspective focusing on the neural, anatomical, and chemical foundations of behaviour, positing that the mind is directly constructed by the brain.

Sociocultural Tradition

A framework viewing humans as fundamentally embedded within their culture, studying social norms, group processes, cross-cultural psychology, and developmental contexts.

Wilhelm Wundt

Regarded as the founding father of experimental psychology who established the first formal psychological laboratory.

William James

A key American pioneer of psychology instrumental in the development of functionalism.

Mary Calkins

An early psychological pioneer who completed doctoral requirements for a PhD in psychology and served as the first female president of the American Psychological Association.

Sigmund Freud

A physician and foundational figure who developed psychoanalysis, highlighting the role of unconscious drives and unresolved conflicts in mental disorders.

Carl Jung

A student of Freud who diverged from orthodox psychoanalysis to establish analytical psychology without focusing on sexual motivation.

#B.F. Skinner

A leading behaviourist who demonstrated that schedules of reward and punishment govern and produce observable behaviour.

Jean Piaget

A developmental psychologist renowned for his pioneering investigations into the development of cognitive thinking in children.

Wilder Penfield

A Canadian neurosurgeon who mapped the functional motor cortex of the human brain using direct electrical stimulation.

Psychology is Empirical

The core thematic principle stating that psychological knowledge must be acquired through objective observation, systematic measurement, and scientific experimentation.

Theoretical Diversity in Psychology

The core theme emphasizing that no single theory explains all of human behaviour, requiring multiple contemporary theoretical perspectives to understand the mind.

Multifactorial Causation

The core principle that human behaviour is complex and governed by multiple interacting causes rather than an isolated factor.

Heredity and Environment Interaction

The core theme establishing that genetic inheritance and environmental experiences jointly influence behaviour.

Subjectivity of Experience

The core psychological theme recognizing that individuals process and perceive reality through personal, subjective filters.

Socio-Cultural Historical Evolution

The core theme noting that psychological science continually evolves within and responds to its broader socio-cultural and historical context.

Independent Variable

In an experiment, the factor that is directly manipulated by the researcher to determine its causal effect.

Dependent Variable

In an experiment, the factor that is measured by the researcher and which presumably is influenced by changes in the independent variable.

Experimental Group

In an experiment, the group that receives a treatment or is exposed to an active level of the independent variable.

Control Group

In an experiment, the group that is not exposed to the experimental treatment, or which receives a zero level of the independent variable.

Between-Groups Design

an experimental setup where each participant experiences only one condition or treatment. Researchers compare the outcomes of these separate groups to see if the treatment caused a difference.

Random Assignment

A procedure in which each participant has an equal likelihood of being assigned to any one group within an experiment, minimizing pre-existing group differences. (such as an experimental treatment group or a control group) entirely by chance.

Within-Subjects Design

An experimental repeated-measures design in which each participant in the experiment is exposed to all conditions of an independent variable.

Counterbalancing

A procedure in which participants in an experiment are exposed to all conditions and the order of conditions is systematically varied so that no condition has an advantage relative to the others.

Validity

The extent to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure, or the degree to which a diagnostic system's categories permit differentiation among disorders.

Internal Validity

The degree to which an experiment produces clear causal conclusions, which is high when there is no confounding of variables. Can we be sure that the independent variable caused the change in the dependent variable, and not something else? did x actually cause y

Confounding of Variables

In an experiment, the intertwining of the independent variable with another, uncontrolled variable, preventing researchers from identifying which variable caused changes in the dependent variable. #Extra factors that can affect the results of an experiment, making it hard to know what actually caused the change.

Placebo

An inactive or inert substance that has no intrinsic medicinal value but is believed by a patient to be helpful.

Double-Blind Procedure

A research procedure in which both the participant and the experimenter are kept unaware of the research condition to which the participant has been assigned.

External Validity

Whether the results of a study can apply to other people, places, or situations outside the experiment.

Replication and Cross-Cultural Replication

Repeating a study to verify whether original findings are the same, and testing whether those findings generalize across distinct cultures.

Meta-Analysis

A statistical procedure for quantitatively combining the results of multiple independent studies that examine the same research topic. #A research method that combines the results of multiple studies to find an overall conclusion.

Hypothesis

A tentative statement about a specific relationship between two or more events or variables.

Scientific Theory

An integrated organizing system and collection of hypotheses that is more general and elaborate, serving to generate new testable predictions. #A well-supported explanation of how or why something happens, based on scientific evidence and research.

Observation Method

A descriptive research method involving the collection of information about behaviour without attempting to manipulate or change it, conducted via participant or non-participant observation.

Survey Method

A data collection strategy gathering self-reported information about behaviour and attitudes through questionnaires and surveys, constrained by the problem that respondents may lie.

Case Study Method

A descriptive research approach involving an intensive, in-depth investigation of a single individual.

Correlational Method

.#A research method that looks at whether two variables are related without changing or controlling them.

Experimental Method

A rigorous scientific method manipulating one or more independent variables under controlled conditions to determine their direct effect on a dependent variable.

Measures of Aggression

Experimental operationalizations of aggressive behaviour categorized into self-report, verbal attack, physical attack, and safe attack.

Placebo Effect

A change in behaviour or physiological reaction occurring entirely because of what the participant expects to happen.

Placebo Research Studies (Darragh, 2015; Kaptchuk, 2014)

Empirical studies demonstrating that itch was reduced when participants believed they took an antihistamine (Darragh, 2015), and migraine pain decreased even when taking a pill explicitly labeled 'placebo' (Kaptchuk, 2014).

Demand Characteristics

Cues within an experiment that inadvertently convey the researcher's hypothesis to participants, causing them to alter their behaviour to 'help' prove the hypothesis (Green and Berkowitz, 1967). #Participants try to act how they think they should.

Experimenter Expectancy Effect

The subtle, unintentional communication of an experimenter's hypothesis to participants, biasing experimental outcomes (Rosenthal and Fode, 1963).#Researcher unintentionally influences how participants act.

Semipermeable Membrane

The outer boundary of a neuron that selectively permits certain ions to pass through more easily than others.

Resting Membrane Potential

The baseline electrical polarization across a neuronal membrane maintained at approximately $-70\,\text{mV}$ due to unequal distributions of intracellular and extracellular ions.

Action Potential

A brief, rapid electrical nerve impulse resulting from the exchange of $\text{Na}^+$ and $\text{K}^+$ ions across the neuronal membrane.

All-or-None Law

The principle stating that neurons generate action potentials at full intensity or not at all once the excitation threshold is reached.

Neural Frequency Coding

The physiological coding mechanism whereby stimulus intensity is communicated throughout the nervous system by the frequency or rate of action potentials fired. #When the brain communicates how strong a stimulus is by changing how often neurons fire.

Blood-Brain Barrier

A specialized lining of cells in the brain's blood vessels that screens out foreign substances while letting essential nutrients pass through to neurons.

Synapse

Synapse: The tiny gap between two neurons where chemical messages are passed from one neuron to another.

Howitworks(3easysteps)

1. Action potential arrives: An electrical signal reaches the end of a neuron, triggering vesicles (tiny sacs) to release neurotransmitters.

2. Neurotransmitters cross the gap: Chemical messengers travel across the synapse.

3. Lock and key: Neurotransmitters attach to matching receptors on the next neuron, like a key fitting into a lock.

Lock-and-Key Model

The principle of neurotransmitter reception where neurotransmitter molecules fit exclusively into specific, matching receptor sites on the postsynaptic membrane.

Acetylcholine (ACh)

A primary neurotransmitter involved in motor control, memory functioning, and autonomic signaling.

Norepinephrine (NE)

A monoamine neurotransmitter involved in arousal, autonomic alertness, and mood regulation.

Dopamine (DA)

A monoamine neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation, and motor control, highlighted as directly related to many psychological disorders.

Serotonin (5-HT)

A monoamine neurotransmitter responsible for regulating mood, sleep, and emotional stability, strongly linked to affective disorders.

Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)

A major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that decreases neuronal excitability.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A psychoactive compound whose pharmacological mechanism blocks the reuptake(recycling) of serotonin in the brain.

Gross Brain Anatomy

The major visible anatomical structures of the human brain, including the cerebral cortex, corpus callosum, pons, cerebellum, and spinal cord.

Old Brain

The primitive brainstem structures comprising the thalamus, midbrain, pons, and medulla, dedicated to basic reflexes, vital signs, and nonconscious sensory processing.

Primitive brain structures: The oldest parts of the brain in evolutionary terms. They control basic functions needed to survive

Basal Ganglia and Cerebellum

Subcortical and hindbrain systems that coordinate motor commands, maintain postural equilibrium, and regulate procedural motor control.

Parts of the brain that help control movement, maintain balance and posture, and perform learned movements automatically.

Limbic System (Posterior View)

The posterior organization of the limbic system, illustrating the relationships among the putamen, caudate nucleus, amygdala, thalamus, and hippocampus.

Limbic System (Anterior View)

The anterior view of the limbic network, showing the positions of the pineal gland, thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus, putamen, and hippocampus.

Corpus Callosum

A thick, C-shaped bundle of nerve fibers that connects the left and right sides of the brain, allowing them to communicate and share information.

Easy way to remember: Corpus callosum = The bridge connecting the two halves of the brain.

Cerebral Lobes

The four anatomical divisions of the cerebral cortex: the Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, and Occipital Lobe, separated by landmarks such as the Central Fissure.

Primary Projection Areas

Specific areas of the brain's outer layer that process information from our senses and control body movements.

• Motor area: Controls voluntary movements.

• Somatosensory area: Processes touch, pressure, pain, and temperature.

• Visual area: Processes what we see.

• Auditory area: what we hear.

Motor Cortex Homunculus

The somatotopic arrangement along the precentral gyrus inside the central fissure, mapping specific body musculature from the toes and trunk down to the face, lips, tongue, and swallowing.

The motor cortex has different areas that control movements of specific body parts, such as the toes, legs, arms, face, lips, and tongue.

Contralateral Control

The organizational rule of the central nervous system where each cerebral hemisphere controls movements and processes sensory signals from the opposite side of the body.

Topographic Representation and Functional Cortical Mapping

The neuroanatomical mapping principle where external physical surfaces are mapped directly onto cortical space, with cortical territory assigned according to functional sensitivity rather than physical size.

he brain has a map of the body, where more sensitive body parts get more brain space, regardless of their actual size.

Example:

• Hands and lips: Take up more brain space because they are very sensitive.

• Back and legs: Take up less brain space because they are generally less sensitive.

Cerebral Angiogram

A brain imaging procedure using X-rays enhanced with dye to map the structure and routing of cerebral blood vessels.

CAT Scan

A neuroimaging modality that captures structural cross-sections of the brain by compiling X-rays taken from a $360^{\circ}$ rotation.

PET Scan

A functional brain scanning technique that maps metabolic neural activity by tracking the uptake of injected radioactive glucose.

A brain scan that shows which parts of the brain are most active by tracking how much radioactive glucose (sugar) they use.

Structural MRI

A high-resolution anatomical neuroimaging technique that exposes the brain to a strong magnetic field to produce detailed structural images.

Functional MRI (fMRI)

A functional neuroimaging technology that detects blood oxygenation changes to reveal where active neural processing takes place during cognitive tasks.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

A neuroimaging technology that maps neural white-matter pathways and structural connectivity by measuring the directional diffusion of water molecules.

Cortical Association Areas

Regions of the cerebral cortex that integrate, synthesize, and interpret information across primary sensory and motor projection areas, including the Somatosensory, Motor, Visual, and Auditory Association areas.

Apraxia

A neurological motor association disorder characterized by the inability to perform smooth, purposeful actions.

Agnosia

A sensory association deficit characterized by the inability to interpret or recognize sensory information despite intact sensory organs.

Prosopagnosia

A specific neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize or see human faces.

Broca's Aphasia

An expressive speech disorder resulting from frontal lobe damage, characterized by telegraphic speech and extreme difficulty stringing words together.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A receptive speech disorder resulting from temporal lobe damage, characterized by profound deficits in language comprehension accompanied by fluent but nonsensical speech.

Language Cortical Network

The left-hemisphere neural network comprising Broca's Area in the frontal lobe, Wernicke's Area in the temporal lobe, the Motor Cortex, and the Connecting Fibre Bundle linking them.

Hemispheric Lateralization

The specialized division of labor between cerebral hemispheres, where the Left hemisphere dominates verbal functions, language, reading, and logical thought, while the Right hemisphere dominates nonverbal functions, spatial processing, form synthesis, and emotion.

Split-Brain Surgery

A surgical procedure involving the complete severing of the corpus callosum, preventing interhemispheric communication and isolating the left and right hemispheres.

Optic Chiasm and Visual Field Pathway

The anatomical pathway where nerve fibers from the nasal hemiretinas decussate, routing information from the left visual field to the right visual cortex and information from the right visual field to the left visual cortex.

Split-Brain Right Visual Field Response

In a split-brain patient, an object (e.g., a ball) flashed to the right visual field projects to the left hemisphere; because language centers reside in the left hemisphere, the patient verbally responds: 'I see a ball.'

Split-Brain Left Visual Field Response

In a split-brain patient, an object (e.g., a hammer) flashed to the left visual field projects to the right hemisphere; because the severed corpus callosum blocks transfer to left-hemisphere speech centers, the patient verbally reports: 'I see nothing.'

Hemispatial Neglect

A neuropsychological syndrome resulting from damage or stroke to the right parietal and temporal lobes, causing patients to ignore the contralateral (left) spatial field; it is unique to humans because language development crowded spatial representation out of the left hemisphere.