Kurt Hoffman Introductory Psychology Intro to Psychology EXAM 1 VT Virginia Tech

What psychology is

The scientific study of the causes of behavior.

What psychologists do

Seek to understand and explain thoughts, emotions, feelings and behavior.

Basic Psychology

Using the scientific method to gain knowledge for the sake of learning.

Applied psychology

Using knowledge to solve and prevent practical human problems

Aristotle

- emphasized the importance of observing and experiencing the world.

Descartes

believed all behavior is reflexive.

Wilhelm Wundt

- emphasized immediate conscious experiences.

William James

expressed functionalism, practical applications of psychology

Bias

Unreasoned judgement. Predetermined preference for something. Deviation from the expected value of a statistical estimate.

Psychodynamic

Focus on unconscious conflicts.

Behaviorist

- Focused on observable behavior.

Humanistic

- Focus on self-concept, realizing our full potential.

Cognitive

- Focus on what is happening in the mind.

Neuroscience

- Focus on the influence of the nervous system.

Social culture

- Focus on the influence of other people on behavior.

SQ3R

Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review

overconfidence

- We tend to be more confident than correct.

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Seeing patterns in random events

People have a natural eagerness to find order in randomness.

Bystander effect

- Diffusion of responsibility where everyone assumes that someone else will take responsibility.

OHDAC

Observation, Hypothesis, Design, Analyze, Conclusion

Empiricism

the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation

Tenancy

Willingness to accept ideas as valid because they are widely accepted

Intuition (common sense)

- Accepting ideas as valid because they feel true.

Authority

- Accepting ideas as valid because some respected authority asserts that they are true.

Rationalism (reason)

- A process that develops valid ideas using existing ideas and principles of logic. A is B and B is C, then A is C.

Empiricism

- Gaining knowledge by observing events around us.

Science

- Using rationalism to develop tentative statements.

Naturalistic observations

Records behavior in natural environments, can't try to manipulate or control the situations.

Correlational studies

- A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

IV

Manipulated factor in an experiment, the variable whose effect is being studied.

DV

The outcome that is measured, the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated.

Afferent

- Ascending pathways to the brain. (SENSORY)

Efferent

- Descending pathways from the brain. (MOTOR)

Interneurons

The link between sensory and motor neurons, found in the brain and the spinal cord.

Soma

cell body of a neuron

Dendrites

Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.

Myelin sheath

Fats that coat the Axon

Axon

- Inner nerve that transmits electrical charges.

Synaptic terminals

Store then release neural transmitters.

Serotonin

Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal

Dopamine

influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion

Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory

Glutamate

excitatory neurotransmitter

GABA

Depressant, relaxant

somatic nervous system

Voluntary actions, sensory and motor neurons.

autonomic nervous system

Automatic actions.

sympathetic nervous system

activates fight or flight response

Parasympathetic

Controls normal operations that calm the body.

Spinal Cord

Nerves that run up and down the length of the back and transmit most messages between the body and brain

Hindbrain

medulla, pons, cerebellum

Cerebellum

controls fine motor skills

Medulla, Pons, and Reticular formation

Heart rate, breathing and attention

Midbrain

Above the Pons, helps vision. Fixing vision while rotating your head.

Forebrain Structures

cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic, thalamus, hypothalamus

Thalamus

Relay that receives and sends information.

Hypothalamus

Keeps levels in balance such as external temperature.

Limbic System

Emotion center, includes hippocampus and amygdala.

occipital lobe

Vision

pariental lobe

Touch

Frontal lobes

thoughts, plans and language

Temporal lobes

Hearing, language

Sensation

Detection of stimuli

Perception

Organizes, interprets the sensation

Transduction

Process of converting energy from the environment into neural impulses.

Figure-ground

we see things within boundaries as objects, and naturally distinguish objects from background

Gestalt principles of perceptual organization

Belief that peoples sights and sounds are organized as wholes.

Monocular cues for depth perception

o Relative size

o Height in visual field

o Interposition

o Linear perspective

o Reduced clarity

o Light and shadows

Optical illusions and possible cultural explanation

Individuals who grew up around large buildings that force perspective have a harder time accurately assessing optical illusions.

The role of the retina in the eye

The image we see is projected onto it

Plasticity in the visual cortex; visual path from the retina in the eye to the visual cortex in the brain

Each eye projects images to the opposite side of the brain, crossing over at the optical chiasm.

bottom-up processing

- Brain processes small details before defining an object.

top-down processing

Brain looks at the whole picture before defining an object.