Year 10 Psychology Review

Key vocabulary and concepts covering the basics of Psychology, research methods, the nervous system, brain lobes, and neural structure based on the Year 10 Psychology curriculum.

Psychology

The scientific study of mental processes and behaviour.

Mental processes

Internal activities that happen inside your mind, such as thinking, remembering, learning, feeling emotions, and making decisions.

Behaviour

How you do or act, including observable actions such as talking, smiling, crying, studying, running, or avoiding something.

Psychologist

A professional who focuses on thoughts, emotions, and behaviour.

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor who focuses on mental health conditions and can prescribe medication, perform medical assessments, and admit patients to psychiatric hospitals.

Population

The entire group of people that a psychologist wants to study.

Sample

A smaller group taken from the population to actually participate in a study.

Experimental group

The participants in an experiment who are exposed to the Independent Variable (IV).

Control group

The participants in an experiment who are NOT exposed to the Independent Variable (IV).

Extraneous variable

Any variable other than the independent variable that could affect the results of an experiment.

Confounding variable

An extraneous variable that actually changes the results, making it difficult to determine if the independent variable caused the effect.

Somatic Nervous System (NS)

The subdivision of the nervous system that controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles and carries sensory information from the body to the brain and spinal cord.

Autonomic Nervous System (NS)

The subdivision of the nervous system that controls automatic or involuntary functions, such as heart rate, breathing, digestion, and sweating.

Fight-flight-freeze Response

The body’s automatic reaction to a perceived threat or danger, involving confronting the threat (fight), escaping (flight), or becoming unable to move (freeze).

Sympathetic Nervous System

The part of the autonomic nervous system that activates the fight-flight-freeze response, increasing heart rate and alertness while reducing digestion.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The part of the autonomic nervous system that helps the body calm down and return to normal after a threat has passed.

Frontal Lobe

The lobe of the brain that controls voluntary movement, planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and personality.

Occipital Lobe

The lobe of the brain that processes visual information such as colour, shape, motion, and depth.

Parietal Lobe

The lobe of the brain that processes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, and body position or spatial awareness.

Temporal Lobe

The lobe of the brain that processes hearing, language comprehension, memory, and the recognition of faces and objects.

Primary Motor Cortex

An area in the frontal lobe of the brain that controls voluntary movements in different parts of the body.

HM (Henry Molaison)

A patient who underwent brain surgery in 1953 to treat epilepsy; parts of his hippocampus were removed, leaving him unable to form new long-term memories.

Phineas Gage

A railway worker who survived an 1848 accident where an iron rod damaged his frontal lobe, leading to significant changes in his personality and behaviour.

Sensory neurons

Neurons that detect stimuli and carry information from the senses and body to the brain and spinal cord.

Motor neurons

Neurons that carry information from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands to produce a response.

Interneurons

Neurons that process and connect information within the brain and spinal cord, linking sensory neurons to motor neurons to coordinate a response.

Dendrites

The part of a neuron that receives signals from other neurons.

Myelin Sheath

A fatty layer surrounding the axon that helps speed up the transmission of neural impulses.

Cell Body

The part of the neuron that contains the nucleus and maintains its health.

Axon

The long part of the neuron that carries electrical impulses away from the cell body.

Axon Terminals

The branches at the end of an axon that release neurotransmitters to communicate with other neurons.