AP Psychology Unit 1 Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from Unit 1 of AP Psychology.

Nature

Refers to heredity, the passing on of physical and mental traits from one generation to another.

Nurture

Refers to environmental factors such as family life, social groups, education, and societal influences.

Evolutionary Approach

A psychological perspective based on Darwin's theory of evolution, emphasizing the role of heredity and environment in shaping behavior.

Natural Selection

Darwin's theory stating that beneficial individual traits survive and are passed on, while undesirable traits die off over time.

Eugenics

Belief in improving the genetic quality of the human population by selectively breeding for desirable traits and discouraging reproduction among those with undesirable traits; this practice has been discriminatory.

Epigenetics

The study of how the environment and a person's behavior can affect their genes and how they work by turning genes “on” or “off” due to environmental pressures.

Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart

A study that examines similarities and differences in identical twins separated at birth and raised in different environments to understand the impact of heredity and environment

COL Adoption Project

A longitudinal study that follows biological and adoptive families to gain insight into the influences that genetics and the environment play on cognitive abilities, personalities, and mental processes.

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change and adapt as a result of experience, generally involving the strengthening or weakening of neural connections.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Made up of the brain and spinal cord; this system sends out orders to the body.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Consists of nerves that branch off from the brain and spine, connecting the CNS to the body's organs and muscles.

Afferent Neurons

Also known as sensory neurons; send signals from the sensory receptors to the central nervous system.

Efferent Neurons

Also known as motor neurons; send signals from the central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system.

Somatic Nervous System

Also known as the skeletal nervous system, includes the five senses and skeletal muscle movements, which are conscious and voluntary.

Autonomic Nervous System

Controls involuntary activities such as heartbeat, digestion, and breathing.

Sympathetic System

Mobilizes the body and prepares it for action by increasing heart rate, dilating eyes, and increasing breathing (fight or flight response).

Parasympathetic System

Relaxes the body by slowing heart rate, increasing digestion, and focusing on saving and storing energy (rest and digest).

Glial Cells

Provide structure, insulation, communication, and waste transportation in the nervous system; support neurons through protection and nutrients but do not process information.

Neurons

Basic functional units of the nervous system that communicate using electrical impulses and chemical signals to send information.

Reflex Arc

A nerve pathway that allows the body to respond to a stimulus without thinking, involving sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons.

Action Potential

The point when a neuron fires and sends an impulse down the axon, requiring sufficient stimulation to meet the threshold, resulting in positively charged and negatively charged ions.

Resting Potential

When a neuron is not sending a signal and has more negative ions on the inside than the outside.

Depolarization

Occurs when an outside stimulus is strong enough to meet the threshold, causing the neuron to fire an action potential.

Repolarization

The process that brings the neuron back to resting potential after an action potential.

Refractory Period

A time period when the cell cannot fire and needs to wait until repolarization occurs and the cell goes back to resting potential.

Synapse

A small pocket of space between the axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of another, where signals are converted and sent.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that send messages through the nervous system across the chemical synapses.

Synaptic Gap

A narrow space between two neurons, specifically the presynaptic terminal of one neuron and the postsynaptic terminal of another neuron.

Reuptake

The process of taking excess neurotransmitters left in the synaptic gap, where the sending neuron reabsorbs the extra neurotransmitters.

Excitatory Neurotransmitters

Increase the likelihood that a neuron will fire an action potential through depolarization.

Inhibitory Neurotransmitters

Decrease the likelihood that a neuron will fire an action potential, leading to hyperpolarization.

Multiple Sclerosis

A neurological disorder caused by the damage of the myelin sheath, disrupting the transmission of electrical signals, leading to muscle weakness and coordination problems.

Myasthenia Gravis

An autoimmune disorder that affects the communication between nerves and muscles, where antibodies block or destroy acetylcholine receptors, preventing muscle contraction and causing muscle weakness.

Acetylcholine

Enables muscle action, learning, and helps with memory.

Substance P

Helps with transmitting pain signals from the sensory nerves to the CNS.

Dopamine

Helps with movement, learning, attention, and emotions.

Serotonin

Impacts an individual's hunger, sleep, arousal, and mood.

Endorphins

Help with pain control and impact an individual's pain tolerance.

Epinephrine

Helps with the body's response to high emotional situations and helps form memories.

Norepinephrine

Increases your blood pressure, heartbeat, and alertness; part of the body's fight or flight response.

Glutamate

Involved with long-term memory and learning.

GABA

Helps with sleep, movement, and slows down your nervous system.

Adrenaline

Helps with the body's response to high emotional situations; expands air passages in the lungs, redistributes blood to muscles, and is involved in the body's fight or flight response.

Leptin

Helps regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger, signaling to the brain that the body has enough stored fat.

Ghrelin

Signals to the brain that we are hungry and also helps promote the release of growth hormones.

Melatonin

Produced by the pineal gland in the brain and helps regulate the sleep-wake cycles, also known as circadian rhythms.

Oxytocin

Produced in the hypothalamus and released by the pituitary gland; promotes feelings of affection and emotional bonding.

Endocrine System

A slower-moving system that sends hormones throughout the body's blood to target larger areas of the body, all to help regulate different biological processes.

Agonist Drugs

Increase the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter.

Antagonist Drugs

Decrease the effectiveness of a neurotransmitter.

Psychoactive Drugs

Substances that purposely alter an individual's perception, consciousness, or mood.

Stimulants

Excite and promote neural activity giving an individual energy, reduce a person's appetite, and can cause them to become irritable.

Depressants

Drugs that reduce neural activity in an individual, causing drowsiness, muscle relaxation, lowered breathing, and if abused, possibly death.

Hallucinogens

Cause an individual to sense things that are not actually there and can also reduce an individual's motivation and can lead to an individual to panic.

Opioids

Function as a depressant but have their own category due to their addictive nature, giving an individual pain relief.

Tolerance

The ability to endure the continued use of psychoactive drugs even though they can lead a person to develop a higher tolerance, which would require more of the drug to be consumed to achieve the same effect.

Dependence

The state of relying on psychoactive drugs that can result in addiction and withdrawal symptoms.

Hindbrain

Located at the bottom of the brain and has structures such as the spinal cord, the brain stem, which includes the medulla, the pons, and the midbrain, the reticular activating system, and the cerebellum.

Midbrain

Located in the center of the brain sitting above the base of the brain and helps with processing visual and auditory information, motor control, and integrating sensory and motor pathways.

Forebrain

Located at the top of the brain and is most people visualize about the brain when thinking about it. It has the cerebrum made up of gray matter called the cerebral cortex ad white matter, and lobes.

Medulla Oblongata

Helps with the regulation of a person's cardiovascular and respiratory systems and also takes care of autonomic functions.

Pons

The bridge between different areas of the nervous system that connects the medulla with the cerebellum and helps with coordinating movement.

Reticular Activating System

A network of nerve cell bodies and fibers within the brain stem that is involved in the regulation of arousal, alertness, and sleep-wake cycles. It also helps stimulate other brain structures when something important happens that needs our immediate attention.

Cerebellum

Helps with coordinating voluntary movements, maintaining posture and balance, refining motor skills, and plays a role in cognitive functions.

Cerebrum

Deals with complex thoughts.

Cerebral Cortex

A thin outer layer of billions of nerve cells that cover the whole brain.

Corpus Callosum

A thick band of nerve fibers that connect the two cerebral hemispheres and allows your hemispheres to communicate with each other.

Frontal Lobe

Deals with higher-level thinking and is one of four different lobes. Has the prefrontal cortex and motor cortex.

Prefrontal Cortex

Deals with foresight, judgment, speech, and complex thought.

Motor Cortex

Deals with voluntary movement and is located in the back of the frontal lobe.

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization

Refers to the way in which the brain's hemispheres control opposite sides of the body and process sensory information.

Motor Homunculus

Shows a visual representation of the amount of brain area that is dedicated towards a specific body part.

Broca's Area

Crucial for language production, particularly in controlling the movements of the muscles involved in speech.

Broca's Aphasia

The loss of the ability to produce language.

Parietal Lobe

Receives sensory information that lets you understand things such as touch, pain, temperature, and spatial orientation.

Somatosensory Cortex

Responsibll for processing touch, pressure, temperature, and body position.

Sensory Homunculus

A visual dedicated towards specific body parts.

Temporal Lobe

Involved in processing auditory and linguistic information, recognizing faces, and assists with memory.

Hippocampus

Helps us learn and form memories, but remember it is not where memories are stored.

Amygdala

Where you get your emotional reactions from: fear, anxiety, and aggression.

Auditory Cortex

Processes the different sounds that you hear and allows you to recognize things like music and speech.

Wernicke's Area

Responsible for creating meaningful speech.

Wernicke's Aphasia

Losing the ability to create meaningful speech.

Occipital Lobe

Responsible for processing visual information.

Thalamus

Receives sensory information from your sensory organs for everything except for the sense of smell and relays information to the appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex for processing.

Limbic System

Made up of different brain structures whose main function is emotions, learning, memory, and some of our basic drives.

Hypothalamus

Helps keep your body balanced and allows you to have homeostasis and controls your drives, such as thirst, hunger, temperature, and sex.

Pituitary Gland

Often is referenced as the master gland because it produces and releases hormones that regulate many bodily functions and control other endocrine glands throughout the body.

Brain Lateralization

the differing functions of the left and right hemispheres. Essentially, it is the division of labor between the two hemispheres.

Hemispheric Specialization

we can see with the left hemisphere being better at recognizing words, letters, and interpreting language, while the right hemisphere is better at spatial concepts, facial recognition, and discerning direction.

Neuroplasticity

The human brain has the ability to change, modify itself, and even repair itself.

EEG

Uses electrodes that are placed on the individual's scalp allowing researchers to record electrical signals from neurons firing, which can help with sleep and seizure research.

fMRI

Similar to an MRI but shows metabolic functions that can help with better understanding brain activity.

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Wakefulness

When we are awake, we are typically aware of our surroundings and can think, feel, and react to events.

Sleep

Involves a lower level of awareness; the brains are still active and can process some information like sounds or sensations.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Studies how brain activity is linked with cognition.

Circadian Rhythm

Your biological clock that is about a 24-hour cycle and involves changing your blood pressure, internal temperature, hormones, and regulating your sleep-wake cycle.

Jet Lag

Causes an individual to feel tired, disoriented, and sluggish; as your internal clock will almost become out of sync with the local time.

Alpha Waves

Slower waves that have a high amplitude.