AP Test Review Vocab

Structuralism

psychological disorders are due to structural problems in the brain

Functionalism

psychological disorders are due to functional problems in the brain

Psychodynamic

psychological disorders are due to unconscious pressures

Behaviorism

psychological disorders are due to wrong associations of stimulus and response

Biological

psychological disorders are due to biological problems in the brain

Cognitive

psychological disorders are due to choosing or using the wrong thoughts

Evolutionary

psychological disorders are due to being in the wrong environment

Humanistic

psychological disorders are due to barriers blocking natural growth

Socio-cultural

psychological disorders are due to conforming to the wrong social situation

APA Guidelines

Coercion, Informed Consent, anonymity, no risk/harm, careful with deception, debrief, conscious animal research/treatment

Validity

how well does a test measure what it says it measures

types: face, construct, criterion-related, predictive

Reliability

does a test produce consistent results

types: test-retest, parallel/alternative, inter-rater/grader, internal consistency

Epigenetics

the study of how the environment and a person’s behavior affect their genes and how they work

Central Nervous system

brain and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

connects CNS to the rest of the body

Sensory/afferent neurons

carry signals from the body’s sensory receptors to the brain

Motor/Efferent neurons

carry signals from the brain to the body

Peripheral divisions of the nervous system

Somatic (skeletal muscles), autonomic (automatic systems), sympathetic (responds to stressor), parasympathetic (calms down after stressor)

Spinal Cord reflex arc

sensory info enters the body → spinal cord intercepts signal and reacts → motor neurons receive commands from spinal cord → pain stimulants enter the brain

Endocrine system

a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream

Adrenal glands

near the kidneys, release fight or flight response (epinephrine)

Pituitary glands

release growth hormones and tell other glands to release sex and stress hormones

Gonads

the main reproductive organs, testes, and ovaries

Acetylcholine

memory

Dopamine

addiction

Serotonin

feel good

Norepinephrine

fight or flight

GABA

calm

Glutamate

excitement

glial cells

support, nourish, and protect neurons

Frontal Lobe

speaking, muscle movements, thinking, planning, judging, inhibiting behavior

Parietal lobe

processes physical touch, sense of body positions, facilitates language

Occipital

visual processing

Temporal

processes hearing, involved in facial recognition

motor cortex

rear of the frontal lobe

controls voluntary movements

somatosensory cortex

front of parietal lobes

registers and processes body touch and movement sensations

association areas

in cerebral cortex

involved in primary motor sensory functions

Medulla

base of brainstem

controls heartbeat and breathing

Pons

above medulla

damage causes coma

reticular formation

stretches from spinal cord through brainstem and thalamus

relay network where neurons cross and are responsible for arousal/attention

Thalamus

top of brainstem

sends signals to other parts of the brain

Hypothalamus

below thalamus

contains pleasure centers, responsible for fighting, fleeing, feeding, and mating

Cerebellum

behind brainstem

processes sensory inputs, enables motor coordination, associated with non-verbal learning

Amygdala

in the core

associated with emotion and aggression

Hippocampus

near thalamus

where memories are created and transfers them to long-term memory

ex. HM’s damage was here

Corpus Callosum

connects hemispheres

Motor cortex

rear of frontal lobes

controls voluntary big movements

Broca’s Area

rear of left frontal lobe

language production

Wernicke’s area

left temporal lobe

language comprehension

Agonists

chemicals that bind to NT receptor sites and activate a response

Antagonist

chemicals that bind to NT sites and block a response

Suprachiasmatic nucleus

a pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that control circadian rhythm

Depressants

alcohol, benzos, opioids

Stimulants

caffeine, cocaine, ecstacy, nicotine, methamphetamine

Hallucinogens

cannabis, LSD, SSRIs

Dream Theories

wish fulfillment, to remember, reverse learning, conditional activation, primitive instinct rehearsal, to heal, problem-solving, neural activation, cognitive development

Perceptual set

pre-conceived way of interpreting a stimulus that is usually culturally or socially reinforced

ex. sensor bleeps

cocktail party effect

ability to attend to only one voice among many while also being able to detect your own name in an unattended voice

Cornea

bends light rays to start focusing

Pupil

expands and contracts due to action of the iris

Lens

focuses incoming light rays onto retina

Retina

where images are focused; contains rods, cone, neurons

Rods

receptor cells that detect white, black, and grey

Cones

receptor cells that detect collor

Bipolar cells

activate in response to the rods and cones being stimulated

Ganglion cells

neurons that converge to form the optic nerve, which leave and go to the brain

Fovea

on the retina where the images are focused

Order of visual processing

cornea → anterior chamber → lens → retina

Gestalt principle

tendency to integrate pieces of info into meaningful wholes

Figure-ground

organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Grouping

perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Binocular cues

depth cues, such as retinal disparity

use both eyes

Monocular cues

depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective

use only one eye

Phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when 2 or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

embodied cognition

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgements

4 basic skin sensations

pressure, warmth, cold, pain

Nociceptors

sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressures, and chemicals

4 basic tastes

sweet, salty, sour, bitter

kinesthesia

your sense of the position and movement of your body parts

Vestibular sense

the sense of the body movement and position including the sense of balance

Parallel processing

the brain’s natural processing of vision

simultaneously process many different aspects of a stimulus

Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic theory

the cones are sensitive to either red, green, or blue and combinations of these allow us to see color

Opponent-Process theory

we have three opponent color pairs: red/green, yellow/blue, black/white

perceptual constancy

when our brains perceive objects as having consistency even when visual input differs

McGurk effect

when our sense of vision and hearing conflict with each other, vision wins

Von Restorff effect

the more something stands out from the crowd, the more likely it is to be seen

Habituation

an organisms decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it

Modeling

the process of observing and imitating a specific behvaior

Internal locus of control

the perception that chance or outside forces beyond our personal control determine our fate

Outcome simultaion

ex. imagining yourself getting an A on a test

Process simulation

ex. imagining yourself studying hard

Agraphia

the loss of the previous ability to write

Apraxia

difficulty getting your mouth to produce words, brain struggles to create words

Dyslexia

difficulty knowing what something is but can’t comprehen

Dysarthria

difficulty producing speech as a result from physical injuries in the face

Schizophasia

incoherent words that only make sense to the speaker

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Sensorimotor (object permanence), Pre-operational (language), concrete operational (think logically), formal operational (consider hypotheticals)

Erikson’s developmental theories

trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame and doubt, competence vs inferiority, identity vs role confusion, intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs stagnation, integrity vs despair

Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

pre-conventional (avoiding punishment and self-interest), conventional (good boy attitude and law and order morality), post-conventional (social contract and principle)