PSYC 1101 Exam 1: Chapters 1-4

psychology

the science that studies behavior and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie behavior, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems; "the study of the mind"

consciousness

the awareness of immediate experience; flow of consciousness=stream of consciousness (term coined by James)

structuralism

1st major school of psychology founded by Titchener, the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements (sensations and feelings) and investigate how these elements are related

introspection

the careful, systematic self-observation of one's own conscious experience

functionalism

2nd school of psychology, psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its stucture

unconscious

according to Freud, it contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior

psychoanalytic theory

controversial theory that attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior

behaviorism

3rd school of psych, a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior

behavior

any overt (observable response or activity by an organism

nature (born) vs nurture (taught)

whether behavior is determined mainly by genetic inheritance or by environment and experience

humanism

4th school of psych/thought or "the 3rd force" (didn't want to be a school of psyc because they came after behaviorism), a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth ... and maintain that people are not pawns of either their animal heritage or environmental circumstances

"self-concept"

an individual's sense of self that governs human behavior according to Rogers (1951)

clinical psychology

the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders

cognition

refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge; thinking

evolutionary psychology

examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations

positive psychology

uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence and shift the field's focus away from negative experiences; made up of 3 areas of interest: positive subjective experiences (positive emotions), positive individual traits, and positive institutions and communities

9 major research areas in modern psychology

developmental psychology, social psychology, experimental psychology, physiological psychology, cognitive psychology, personality, psychometrics, educational psychology, and health psychology

four main professional specialties

clinical psychology (most widely practiced of all), counseling psychology, school psychology, and industrial/organizational psychology

psychiatry

a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders

empiricism psychology is empirical!

the premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation (rather than by theory/pure logic)

theory psychology is theoretically diverse!

a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations

multifactorial causation of behavior

behavior is governed by a complex network of interacting factors not single-cause explanations because they are usually incomplete

culture behavior is shaped byi cultural heritage

the widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations that exert considerable influence over our behavior

Wundt

1st psych lab in 1879, "Founder" of psych, defined psychology as the "scientific study of conscious experience"

Washburn

1st female Ph.D.

Plato

Nativist, brain is the seat of mental processes, ideas are innate

Rousseau

Nativist, wrote Emile, society is evil

Darwin

Nativist, wrote Origin of Species

Rogers

conditional vs unconditional positive regard

Calkins

1st female APA President

Maslow

hierarchy of human needs, theory of motivation

Hollingsworth

coined the term "gifted"

Pavlov

1st classical conditioning experiment (REINFORCEMENT)

Skinner

positive reinforcement, operant conditioning

Locke

Nurturist, wrote Tabula Rasa

Aristotle

Nurturist, heart is the center

James

functionalism, wrote Peinxiplwa od Payxholofy

Titchener

structuralism, concerned about structure of brain and what we think

Freud

founder of psychoanalytic psychology, id/pleasure principle, ego/reality, and superego/morality, and defense mechanisms (ex: repression/regression and denial)

Hall

Founded & 1st president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1883, started the American Journal of Psychology, first American psych research lab at Johns Hopkins

Watson

Nuturist, father of behaviorism, Little Albert and the little white rat experiment (fears aren't genetic)

Descartes

Nativist, reinforced Plato's original view: ideas are innate and proposed mind-body interactions

Galton

Nativist, wrote Hereditary Genius

Pyschosexual Stages

Freud, 1) oral- mouth is very important to a child, 2) anal- aka potty training, 3) phallic- cognitive ability to notice differences (especially sexual), 4) latency and genital

Hierarchy of Needs

pyramid:

self-actualization (strive to be at the top!)

esteem

love/belonging

safety

physiological (more people fall at the bottom)

independent variable

condition or event in an experiment that you directly change or manipulate with the expectation of it having some kind of effect; "free" to be varied by the experimenter

dependent variable

variable in an experiment that you measure and expect the independent variable to have an effect on; "depends" on the IV

experimental group

consists of subjects that recieve some special treatment in regard to the independent variable

control group

group of participants that serves as a reference point for the experimental group and therefore receives none of the independent variable

hypothesis

a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables

variables

any measurable conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study

theory

a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations; integrate apparently unrelated facts and principles into a coherent whole; permit psychologists to make the leap from the description of behavior to the understanding of it

naive realism

belie in one's own objectivity and opponents' subjectivity (based on/influenced by personal feelings/opinions)

operational definition

describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable; establish precisely what is meant by each variable in the context of a study

data collection techniques

procedures for making empirical observations and measurements (ex: direct observation, questionnaires, interviews, psychological tests, physiological recordings, examination of archival records, etc)

journal

a periodical that publishes reliable technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined area of inquiry

research methods

consist of differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies

experiment

a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result; detects cause-and-effect relationships; psychologists depend on this method more than any other

extraneous variables

any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study

cofounding of variables

occurs when two variables are linked in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects

random assignment

occurs when all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study and experimenters can be reasonably confident that the groups will be similar in most ways

descriptive/correlational research methods

a research method in which the researcher cannot manipulate the variables under study; permit investigators to see only whether there is a correlation (link/association) between the variables of interest

correlation coefficient

a statistic that summarizes the results of descriptive research; a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables and measures the strength of their association (a coefficient near 0 indicates no relationship between the variables while a correlation close to either -1.00 or +1.00 indicates a stronger relationship)

correlation

exists when two variables are related to each other but does not indicate causation

positive correlation

indicates that two variables co-vary (change together) in the same direction

negative correlation

indicates that two variables co-vary in the opposite direction

naturalistic observation

when a researcher engages in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects

reactivity

occurs when a subject's behavior is altered by the presence of an observer

case study

an in-depth investigation of an individual subject (ex: interviewing either the subjects or people who are close to them, direct observation of participants, examination of records, psychological testing, etc); highly subjective

case study research

typically involves investigators analyzing a collection of case studies to look for patterns that permit general conclusions

survey

when researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants' background, attitudes, beliefs, or behavior; often used to obtain information on aspects of behavior that are difficult to observe directly; depend on self-report data

replication

the repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated

meta-analysis

combines the statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and consistency of a variable's effects; allows researchers to test the generalizability of findings and the strength of a variable's effects across people, places, times, and variations in procedure in a relatively precise and objective way

sample

the collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study

population

the large collection of subjects (from which the sample is drawn) that researchers want to generalize about

sampling bias

exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn. A sample is representative if its composition (its demographic makeup in terms of age, sex, income, etc) is similar to the composition of the population

placebo

a substance that resembles a drub but has no actual pharmacological effect

placebo effects

occur when participants' expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment

self-report data

data made up of participants' verbal accounts of their behavior; take advantage of the fat that people have a unique opportunity to observe themselves full-time

social desirability bias

a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself

halo effect

occurs when someone's overall evaluation of a person, object, or institution spills over to influence more specific ratings; the rater is unable to judge specific evaluative dimensions independently

experimenter bias

occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained (researchers see what they want to see); may influence both researchers' observations and their subjects' behavior

double-blind procedure

a research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups

important guidelines for research with human participants

1) people's participation in research should always be voluntary and they should be allowed to withdraw from a study at any time, 2) participants should not be subjected to harmful or dangerous treatments, 3) if a study requires deception, participants should be debriefed (informed of the true nature and purpose the the research) as soon as possible, 4) participants' right to privacy should never be compromised

important guidelines for research with animals

1) harmful or painful procedures cannot be justified unless the potential benefits of the research are substantial, 2) research animals are entitled to decent living conditions

anecdotal evidence

consists of personal stories about specific incidents and experiences

neurons

individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information

soma

cell body that contains the cell nucleus and much of the chemical machinery common to most cells

dendrites

the parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information (each individual branch)

axon

a long, thin fiber that transmits signals away from the soma to other neurons or to muscles or glands

myelin sheath

insulating material that encases some axons and functions to speed up the transmission of signals that move along axons and ensures their effective transmission

terminal buttons

small knobs clustered at the end of the axons that secrete chemicals called neurotransmitters

neurotransmitters

chemicals that transmit information from one neuron to another and serve as messengers that activate neighboring neurons thats release is triggered by the arrival of an action potential at an axon's terminal buttons and when a vesicle fuses with the membrane of the presynaptic cell and its contents spill into the synaptic cleft

synapse

a junction (where the neurons interconnect) where information is transmitted from one neuron to another

glia

cells found throughout the nervous system that provide various types of support for neurons; they supply nourishment to neurons, help remove neurons' waste products, and provide insulation around many axons; play a complicated role in the development of the nervous system in the human embryo

neural impulse

signal a neuron fires when it is stimulated

ions

electrically charged atoms and molecules contained in fluid located both inside and outside the neuron; can be either positively charged (sodium and potassium) or negatively charged (chloride)

resting potential

a neuron's stable, negative charge when the cell is inactive (when there is a slightly higher concentration of negatively charged ions inside the cell)

action potential

a very brief shift in a neuron's electrical charge that ravels along an axon; created when a neuron is stimulated and channels in its cell membrane open briefly allowing positively charged sodium ions to rush in. For an instant, the neuron's charge is less negative and eventually positive.

absolute refractory period

the minimum length of time after an action potential during which another action potential cannot begin; after the firing of an action potential, the channels in the cell membrane that opened to let in sodium close up and some time is needed before they are ready to open again