ap pyche

Introspection (Wundt)

Introspection (Wundt)

a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts feelings. Wundt believed that by using introspection he could determine the basic elements of consciousness.

Behavioral School of Psychology (Skinner & Watson)

Seeks to explain animal and human behavior entirely in terms of observable and measurable responses to environmental stimuli. Use classical and operant conditioning

Humanist School of Psychology (Maslow, Rogers)

Focuses on the uniqueness of human beings and their capacity for choice, growth, and health; Believe that people have free will and are not controlled by the environment or their past

Psychoanalytic School of Psychology (Freud)

"believes that a lot of our personality and behaviors are controlled by our unconscious; another big factor guiding behavior is sex and aggression; Believed that we Defense Mechanisms to protect our conscious mind

Neurobiological School of Psychology

Emphasizes that all actions, feelings, and thoughts are associated with bodily events such as the firing of nerve cells in the brain or the release of hormones; This includes studying the brain, hormones and genes to explain behavior

Socio-cultural School of Psychology (AKA "Cross-cultural", etc.)

Studies the differences among cultures and the influences of culture on behavior; States that we have a tendency to use our own culture as a standard for judging other cultures (a term called ethnocentrism)

Evolutionary School of Psychology

theoretical approach to psychology that attempts to explain mental and psychological traits—such as memory, perception, or language—as adaptations, i.e., as the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection.

Cognitive School of Psychology

Focuses on the important role of mental processes in how people process information, develop language, solve problems and think. Interested in how people understand, diagnose, and solve problems

Clinical Psychologist

assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. These range from short-term crises, such as difficulties resulting from adolescent rebellion, to more severe, chronic conditions such as schizophrenia.

Counseling psychologist

help people recognize their strengths and resources to cope with their problems within families, marriages, and adjustment to new conditions. perform therapy, teaching, and scientific research with individuals of all ages, families, and organizations.

Cognitive and Perceptual Psychologists

study human perception, thinking, and memory; also study reasoning, judgment, and decision making.

Developmental Psychologist

study the psychological growth of the human being that takes place throughout life. Until recently, the primary focus was on childhood and adolescence, the most formative years. Recently expanded to all of life, especially older age.

Educational Psychologist

concentrate on how effective teaching and learning take place. They consider a variety of factors, such as human abilities, student motivation, and the effect on the classroom of the diversity of race, ethnicity, and culture that makes up America.

Engineering Psychologist

conduct research on how people work best with machines. EX: how can a computer be designed to prevent fatigue and eye strain? What arrangement of an assembly line makes production most efficient? What is a reasonable workload?

Evolutionary Psychologist

study how evolutionary principles such as mutation, adaptation, and selective fitness influence human thought, feeling, and behavior. Study mating, aggression, helping behavior, and communication.

Experimental Psychologist

are interested in a wide range of psychological phenomena, including cognitive processes, comparative psychology (cross-species comparisons), learning and conditioning. Often engage in basic research

Forensic Psychologist

apply psychological principles to legal issues. Their expertise is often essential in court. EX: help a judge decide which parent should have custody of a child or evaluate a defendant's mental competence to stand trial.

Health Psychologist

specialize in how biological, psychological, and social factors affect health and illness. They study how patients handle illness; why some people don't follow medical advice; and the most effective ways to control pain or to change poor health habits.

Industrial/Organizational Psychologist

apply psychology to the work place in the interest of improving productivity and the quality of work life. Many serve as human resources specialists, helping organizations with staffing, training, and employee development.

Neuropsychologist

explore the relationships between brain systems and behavior. EX: may study the way the brain creates and stores memories, or how various diseases and injuries of the brain affect emotion, perception, and behavior.

Quantitative and measurement psychologist

focus on methods and techniques for designing experiments and analyzing psychological data. They develop and evaluate mathematical models for psychological tests, among many other things

School Psychologist

work directly with public and private schools. They assess and counsel students, consult with parents and school staff, and conduct behavioral interventions when appropriate. Most school districts employ psychologists full time

Social Psychologist

study how a person's mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people. They are interested in all aspects of interpersonal relationships, including both individual and group influences. EX: study effects of prejudice

Sports Psychologist

help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, become more motivated, and learn to deal with the anxiety and fear of failure that often accompany competition.

Rehabilitation Psychologist

They deal with issues of personal adjustment, interpersonal relations, the work world, and pain management. work with stroke and accident victims, people with mental retardation, etc.

psychiatrist

they can prescribe drugs unlike psychologists. Begin their careers in medical school, unlike psychologists that get bachelors in psychology. After earning their MD, they go on to four years of residency training in mental health

basic research

has as its objective the advancement of knowledge. It is exploratory and often driven by the researcher's curiosity, interest, and intuition. It is conducted without any practical end in mind, though it may later have an application

applied research

research is designed to solve practical problems of the modern world, rather than to acquire knowledge for knowledge's sake. Often has a very particular end in mind. EX: Curing cancer

population

all of the individuals in the group to which the study applies

anchoring effect

the tendency to be influenced by a suggested reference point, pulling our response towards that point

actor-observer bias

tendency to focus on our own situations and the other person rather than his/her situation when interpreting behavior

hindsight bias

a tendency to falsely report, after the event, that we correctly predicted the outcome of the event.

overconfidence bias

the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments, which proves to be a hindrance in problem solving

confirmation bias

a tendency to search for and use information that supports our preconceptions and ignore information that refutes our ideas; often a hindrance to problem solving.

illusory correlation

the phenomenon of seeing the relationship one expects in a set of data even when no such relationship exists. EX: When people form false associations between membership in a statistical minority group and rare behaviors

false-consensus effect

the tendency of a person to perceive his or her own views as representative of a general consensus

case study

intensive investigation of the behavior and mental processes associated with a specific person or situation

survey

research method that obtains large samples of abilities, beliefs, or behaviors at a specific time and place through questionnaire or interview

random sample (AKA "random selection")

choosing of members of a population so that every individual has an equal chance of being chosen

naturalistic observation

research method that records behaviors of humans or other animals in real-life situations without intervention

Correlation Study

expresses the relationship between 2 variables; DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION

positive correlation

in correlation, the two factors are going in the same direction. EX: As the temperature goes up, more people buy snow cones

negative correlation

in correlation, the two factors are going in opposite directions. EX: As the temperature goes up, hot chocolate consumption goes down.

correlation coefficient

a statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data that ranges from -1 to +1. Little "r" represents. "r=.9" is a very strong positive correlation, whereas "r=.2" is a very weak positive correlation.

experimental method

the manipulation of an IV to understand its effect on a DV; Identifies Cause-effect

Control Condition

The condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment.

Experimental Condition

The condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable.

independent variable

the factor in an experiment that is manipulated by the experimenter and is given to the experimental group. It's the one thing that is different between the experimental group and the control group.

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor; the variable may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

Confounding Variable

any possible variable- other than the IV - that may cause the observed effect; thus making it impossible to determine the actual cause of the change in the DV.

Random assignment

random placement of subjects into experimental or control groups;

within-group design

A _____ study is an experiment where all subjects test (and respond to) all treatment combinations. _____ design is the opposite of a between-subjects design.

between-subjects design

each participant participates in one and only one group. The results from each group are then compared to each other to examine differences, and thus, effect of the IV.

single blind

Term used to described a study in which either the investigator or the participant, but not both of them, is unaware of the nature of the treatment the participant is receiving. Also called single-masked

double blind study

a study in which both the investigator or the participant are blind to (unaware of) the nature of the treatment the participant is receiving. Prevents expectations of researcher or participant from influencing results

Experimenter Bias

the phenomenon in experimental science by which the outcome of an experiment tends to be biased towards a result expected by the human experimenter.

placebo

A substance containing no medication and prescribed or given to reinforce a patient's expectation to get well; An inactive substance or preparation used as a control in an experiment or test to determine the effectiveness of a medicinal drug.

placebo effect

The beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.

meta-analyses

The process or technique of synthesizing research results by using various statistical methods to retrieve, select, and combine results from previous separate but related studies

variance

The square of the standard deviation. Whereas the mean is a way to describe the location of a distribution, this is a way to capture its scale or degree of being spread out.

Standard Deviation

a measure of variation (or variability) that indicates the typical distance between the scores of a distribution and the mean.

Statistical Significance

A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance. Numerically, 5% or (.05) is generally considered the cutoff.

three measures of central tendency

mean, mode, and the median. These measures tend to tell us something about the "center" of a set of statistics. On a curve of normal distribution, they all fall on the same point.

mode

most frequently occurring event

mean

average

median

midpoint

Operational Definition

A statement of the procedures (operations) used to define research variables.

null hypothesis

a hypothesis set up to be refuted in order to support an alternative hypothesis. When used, it is presumed true until statistical evidence indicates otherwise

confidentiality, no lasting harm, debriefing after the study, informed consent

list 4 ethical guidelines

biological psychology

a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior. (Some biological psychologists call themselves neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavior geneticists, physiological psychologists, or biopsychologists.)

neuron

a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system.

soma (AKA "cell body", "cyton")

the part of the neuron that contains cytoplasm and the nucleus, which directs synthesis of such substances as NTs

dendrite

branch-like structures on neurons that receive messages from the axons of other neurons and transmit them towards the cell body. Each neuron may have thousands of these structures.

axon

the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands.

myelin sheath

a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.

action potential

a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. The action potential is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane.

threshold

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

synapse

the junction between the axon top of the sending neuron and the dendrite of cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or cleft.

neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that traverse the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, they travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.

acetylcholine (ACh)

a neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction.

endorphins

"morphine within" natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.

Norepinephrine (AKA "noradrenaline")

Involved in making us feel alert (increases heartbeat and arousal); Also involved in learning and memory retrieval; EX: NE activates your bodies emergency response (heart rate up, sweat, blood pressure up)

Serotonin

Natural tranquilizer (deep dreamless sleep, reduces hunger, makes you calm, reduces pain); Also associated with moods and emotional states: Depression; We naturally get _____ from L-Tryptophan in our diet (ex: turkey)

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

Controls anxiety; Also involved in the area of our brain that controls daily sleep and wake cycles; EX: Most sedatives or tranquilizers (Valium and Xanax) increase _____, alcohol also increases; Overdose of this shuts down breathing

Dopamine

Important for movement control, attention, learning and pleasure/rewarding sensations; a deficiency is associated with Parkinson's disease, an excess may be associated with schizophrenia

nerves

neural "cables" containing many axons. These bundled axons, which are part of the peripheral nervous system, connect the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs.

sensory neurons

neurons that carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the central nervous system.

motor neurons

neurons that carry outgoing information from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands.

interneurons

central nervous system neurons that internally communicate and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs.

neural networks

interconnected neural cells. With experience, they can learn, as feedback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain results.

Nodes of Ranvier

the gaps between the myelin sheaths

Axon Terminal Buttons

Where neurotransmitters are started and released

Refractory Period

A time when the neuron is recharging and cannot fire

Resting Potential

Charged and ready, positive outside, negative inside

white matter

Parts of the nervous system that contain myelinated axons

multiple sclerosis (MS)

a disease of the central nervous system in which the myelin sheath that insulates axons is damaged or destroyed

350,000

How many people in America have MS?

ions

electrically charged chemical particles

resting potential

The electrical potential across the cell membrane of a neuron in its resting state.

-70 mV (millivolts)

Resting potential of a neuron