Comprehensive Psychology: History, Theories, Methods, and Key Figures

who said "psychology is a field with a long history but a short past"?

Ebbinghaus

what is the mind-body problem?

it came from philosopher Rene Descartes who was interested in how the mind is connected to the body-how do concepts, experiences, emotions, memories get from being neuron clusters to experience?

what is psychology?

study of mind and behavior

who established the first formal lab for study of psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt in 1879

what is introspection?

process of someone examining their own conscious experiences as objectively as possible

what is structuralism?

is it reflected by breaking down experiences into basic elements

what is the history behind structuralism?

it was named by Edward Titchener who studied under Wundt, and was theorized during the industrial revolution era

what is functionalism?

function of purpose of consciousness and behavior, it focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment

what is the history of functionalism?

theorized by William James, asked what the function of human traits (The Origin of Species: Charles Darwin)

who was Sigmund Freud?

worked on talking cures for psychological problems and developed a form of therapy called psychoanalysis (this is mostly unscientific and has been refuted but remains influential)

freudianism

dominated therapy, and dominated the science of psychology

what is psychoanalytic theory?

focuses on the role of a person's unconscious and early childhood experiences

what is behaviorism?

proposes that psychology is the study of observable human behavior

who came up with the idea of behaviorism?

Ivan Pavlov, BF Skinner, John Watson

what is humanistic psychology?

focuses on personal growth, achieving potential, and the importance of unconditional positive regard

what is the history behind humanistic psychology?

following WWII, researches proposed a "third force" to restore focus to what's meaningful about being human, credited to Abraham Maslow (hierarchy of needs) and Carl Rogers, has little influence is scientific research but strong in therapy

what is cognitive psychology?

emphasizes perception, memory, language, thinking, and problem solving

name associated with cognitive psychology?

Ulric Neisser

what is feminist psychology?

looked at effects of social and gender inequities on gender relations and the sexes in general

name associated with feminist psychology?

Carol Gilligan, also led to multicultural/sociocultural psychology

what is biological psychology?

explores how biology influences our behavior (remember how the guy with the rod in his head was nice and then after his accident he was grouchy, because it went through a specific part of the brain)

what is the empirical method?

based on observation with experimentation rather than method based

what is the American Psychological Association (APA)?

professional organization of psychologists in the world and its mission is to advance and determine psychological knowledge for the betterment of people

what is developmental psychology?

scientific study of development across a lifespan

what is personality psychology?

focuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique (OCEAN acronym for the personality traits)

what is sport and exercise psychology?

study psychological aspects of sport performance

what is clinical psychology?

focuses on diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior

what is counseling psychology?

focuses on emotional, social vocational, and health related outcomes in people who are considered psychologically healthy

what is forensic psychology?

deals with questions of psychology as they arise in context of the justice system

what is evolutionary psychology?

discipline that studies how universal patterns of behavior and cognitive processes have evolved over time as a result of natural selection

what is the descriptive method?

describes what exists

what is the influential method?

we manipulate what exists in order to draw conclusions about cause and effect

what are examples of descriptive methods?

case study, survey/questionnaires, correlational studies, naturalistic observation

what is a case study?

it studies an individual in great depth, affords rich detail, and is hard to generalize

what is a study/questionnaire?

this is good gaining little information from a large group, gives a useful snapshot view of a population, but it is on a strict script where follow ups cannot be done and they can be lied on, require a random, representative sample

what is a correlation study?

it describes the extent to which 2 variable and vary together in the world, is an indicator of relationships but CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN CAUSATION

what is correlation coefficient?

it is a number from +1 to -1 that is an indication of strength and direction of the relationship between variables

what is naturalistic observation?

observing behavior in its natural environment can give a more ecologically valid picture of human nature, can't draw cause/effect conclusions, need operational definitions and control as many variables as possible, must be aware of experimenter effects and demand characteristics

what is an experiment?

where we manipulate a variable in order to observe changes in another variable, lets us draw conclusions about cause and effect (limits us in terms of what we can study)

what is the independent variable?

the one being manipulated

what is the dependent variable?

the one being measured

what is the confounding variable?

unanticipated outside factors that affect both variables of interest

what are research ethics?

right to self esteem, right to privacy and confidentiality, right to leave the study at any time, right to informed consent

what is fraud?

replication crisis, some examples: Marc Hauser, Dan Ariely, and Francesca Gina

what are facts?

observable realities

what are opinions?

personal judgements, conclusions, or attitudes that may or may not be accurate

what is deductive reasoning?

ideas tested in the real world

what is inductive reasoning?

real-world observations lead to new ideas

what is a theory?

well-developed set of ideas that purpose an explanation for observed phenomena

what is a hypothesis?

testable prediction (if-then statement)

what does it mean for something to be falsifiable?

capable of being shown to be incorrect

what does generalizing mean?

ability to apply the findings of a particular research project to larger segments of society

what is observer bias?

unconsciously messing with their data to fit their goals

what is inter-rater reliability?

measure of reliability that assesses consistency of observations by different observers

what is archival research?

use existing record to answer various research questions; no need to interact with people

what is longitudinal research?

data-gathering is administered repeatedly over an extended period of time

what is cross-sectional research?

compares multiple segments of the population at the same time

what are attrition rates?

reduction in the number of research participants due to dropouts

what are illusory correlations?

false correlations, occur when people believe that relationships exist between 2 things when it actually doesn't

what is confirmation bias?

we think something is true so we ignore evidence showing it to be false

what is a single-blind study?

one group is unaware as to which group they belong to

what is a double-blind study?

neither participants or researchers know group assignments

what is statistical analysis?

conducted to find out if there are meaningful differences between 2 groups

what is empirical?

tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again

simple facts about genetics:

the neonate is far from the tabula rosa, traits carried by 60-100,000 genes on 23 pairs of chromosomes (half from the mother and half from the father), all genes together comprise the genome

what are chromosomes?

ion strings of genetic material known as DNA

what are genes?

they control or partially control the number of visible characteristics and an allele is a specific version of a gene; some genes determine an absolute result (hazel eyes, blonde hair), some produce dispositions

what is disposition?

there's a greater likelihood that something will occur, but it is by no mean definitely going to happen (addiction)

what is genotype?

the underlying genetic code

what is phenotype?

how the genetic code is manifested

what is heritability?

statistic that measures how much variation in a trait is accounted for by genetics; apply narrowly to specific groups in specific environments, apply across groups, not to individuals, most traits can be modified by the environment

what are fraternal twins?

nonidentical twins, happens when there is fertilization of multiple ova

what are monozygotic twins?

identical twins, happens when the fertilized egg splits

genes can influence many things:

physiological (obesity), intelligence (via fast processing gene), personality (introversion)

what is genetic-environmental correlation?

the degree of bidirectional interaction between genes and environment

what is theory of evolution by natural selection?

organisms that are better suited for their environment will survive and reproduce but those in poorly suited will die

what is polygenic?

controlled by more than one gene

what is a mutation?

sudden, permanent change in a gene

what is range of reaction?

our genes set the boundaries within which we can operate and our environment interact with the genes to determine where in that range we fall

what is epigenetic?

looks beyond genotype itself.

two major parts of the nervous system

the peripheral nervous system and the central nervous system

basic cell types of the central nervous system

glial cells and neurons

foundational component of the central nervous system

the neuron, and they serve as interconnected information processors essential for tasks

dendrites

branches that receive info from other neurons

axon

branch that goes off to send info to other neurons and ends with multiple buttons; each neuron has hundreds or thousands of axons

cell body (soma)

this is the center of neuron, determines if it will fire or not

glial cells

provide scaffolding on which nervous system is built

synaptic cleft

this is the gap that the end of one axon and beginning of next dendrite meet, it is important site for communication between neurons occur

resting potential

this is when the neuron exists in a state of electrical charge in balance with the charge of the surrounding fluid

action potential

a change in electrical charge triggered by receiving neurotransmitters at a dendrite, this is an all-or-none phenomenon, when the neuron experiences this the axon send a neurotransmitter across the synaptic cleft to the receiving dendrite

neurotransmitters

chemical messengers of the nervous system

serotonin

a neurotransmitter involved in sleep, appetite, sensory perception, pain suppression, mood

dopamine

a neurotransmitter that is involved in voluntary movement, sleep, learning, memory, emotion

acetylcholine

a neurotransmitter that is involved in muscle action, cognition, memory, emotion

norepinephrine

a neurotransmitter related to stress, heart rate, alertness (fight or flight response)

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

this is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter

glutamate

this a major excitatory neurotransmitter

myelin sheath

this acts as an insulator, coats the axon, increases the speed at which the signal travels

Nodes of Ranvier

gaps in the myelin sheath

receptors

proteins on the cell surface where neurotransmitters attach and vary in shape