Brain, Psychotherapy, Social Behavior Flashcards

Flashcards based on lecture notes about the brain, psychotherapy, social behavior

What are the three parts of the brain?

Hindbrain, Midbrain, Forebrain

What are the three parts of the Hindbrain?

Cerebellum, Medulla, Pons

What is the function of the cerebellum?

Controls posture, balance, and voluntary movements

What is the function of the medulla?

Controls breathing, heart rate, and reflexes

What is the function of the pons?

Functions as a bridge between the spinal cord and the brain; involved in producing chemicals for sleep

What is the function of the midbrain?

Arouses the brain, integrates sensory information, and relays it upward

What three parts of the brain compose the brain stem?

Medulla, pons, and midbrain

What is the function of the reticular activating system (RAS)?

Alerts the rest of the brain to incoming signals and is involved in the sleep/wake cycle

What is the function of the thalamus?

Integrates sensory input and is a relay station for information to and from the cortex

What is the function of the hypothalamus?

Controls hunger, thirst, sexual behavior, and the body’s reaction to temperature changes

What gives you the ability to learn and store complex information and project your thinking into the future?

Cerebral cortex

What is the function of the limbic system?

Regulates our emotions and motivations

Which parts of the brain does the limbic system include?

Hypothalamus, amygdala, thalamus, hippocampus

What is the function of the amygdala?

Controls violent emotions, such as rage and fear

What is the function of the hippocampus?

Important in the formation of memories

What connects the cerebral hemispheres?

Corpus callosum

What is the function of the occipital lobe?

Processes visual signals

What is the function of the parietal lobe?

Concerned with information from the senses all over the body

What is the function of the temporal lobe?

Concerned with hearing, memory, emotion, and speaking

What is the function of the frontal lobe?

Concerned with organization, planning, and creative thinking

What is the function of the somatosensory cortex?

Receives information from touch sensors

What is the function of the motor cortex?

Sends information to control body movement

What is the function of the association areas?

Mediate between the other areas and do most of the synthesizing of information

What is the function of the left hemisphere of the brain?

Controls the movements of the right side of the body and is specialized for speech, mathematical ability, calculation, and logic (for most people)

What is the function of the right hemisphere of the brain?

Controls the left side of the body and is more adept at visual and spatial relations, pattern recognition, music and art appreciation, creativity, and intuition

What involves massive uncontrolled electrical activity that begins in either hemisphere and spreads across both?

Epileptic seizure

What occurs as a result of a split-brain operation?

The corpus callosum is severed, so there can no longer be any communication between the hemispheres

What are electrodes?

Wires that can be inserted into the brain to record electrical activity

What is used to record the electrical activity of whole areas of the brain?

Electroencephalograph (EEG)

Who is Wilder Penfield?

Brain surgeon who stimulated the brains of his patients during surgery to determine what functions the various parts of the brain perform

What are lesions?

Scientists create them by cutting or destroying part of an animal’s brain to observe behavioral changes

What did psychologists Hanna and Antonio Damasio find in their examination of Phineas Gage’s skull?

Reported that the tamping iron had caused damage to parts of the frontal cortex, preventing censoring of thoughts and ideas

What did researchers discover about Dr. Paul Broca’s patient?

The left side of the cortex, which is involved with the production of speech, was damaged

What is Wernicke aphasia?

Occurs from damage of the temporal lobe, causing trouble understanding spoken language

What is synesthesia?

Disorder in which senses become confused and are given the impression of being other senses

What is prosopagnosia?

Disorder where a person cannot recognize familiar faces

Name some brain imaging techniques

CT scans, PET scans, MRI, fMRI

What is psychotherapy?

Treatment of behavioral, bodily, or psychological disorders

What are the three things involved in psychotherapy?

Verbal interaction, development of a supportive relationship, and analysis of the client’s problems

Who is Philippe Pinel?

He unchained mental patients who were shackled to the walls, changing society’s view of people with psychological disturbances.

What type of therapy did Sigmund Freud create?

Psychoanalysis

What is a main function of Psychotherapy?

To help people realize that they are responsible for their own problems and are the only ones who can really solve them

What are the different types of psychotherapy?

Psychoanalysis, humanistic, cognitive, behavioral, and biological approaches

What is a primary goal of psychotherapy?

To strengthen the patient's control over his or her life

What is the placebo effect?

The influence that a patient’s hopes and expectations have on his improvement

What are the three characteristics found in effective therapists?

Psychologically healthy, empathy, and experienced

What is group therapy?

The patient is in the company of other patients

What is family therapy?

The focus is on interactions among family members

What are self-help groups?

These voluntary groups, composed of people who share a particular problem, are often conducted without the active involvement of a professional therapist

Purpose of AA

To carry the AA message to the sick alcoholic who wants it

What are the main techniques of psychoanalysis?

Free association, dream analysis, transference

What are the main goals of psychoanalysis?

Reduce anxiety and guilt from unconscious urges

What is resistance?

Behavior that impedes the course of therapy

Freud’s term for what you remember about your dream is called what?

Manifest content

Freud’s term for the hidden meanings represented symbolically in the dream that the therapist interprets from the manifest content is called what?

Latent content

What is transference?

The patient may begin feeling toward the analyst the way she feels toward some other important figure in her life

Humanistic psychology has given rise to several approaches to psychotherapy, known collectively as what?

Client-centered therapy

What promotes an equal relationship between the therapist and the individual seeking help?

Rogers' 3 therapuetic components positive regard, empathy, and genuineness.

What is active listening?

A communication technique where the therapist tries to extract the main points from the client’s hesitant or rambling explanations and then repeat these points

What is unconditional positive regard?

The therapist never offers an opinion about the clients or what they have to say, showing the clients that anything said is accepted without embarrassment, reservation, or anger

What are the three principles followed by cognitive therapy?

Disconfirmation, reconceptualization, and insight

Who developed rational-emotive therapy (RET)?

Albert Ellis

What are the ABCs of rational-emotive therapy?

A refers to the Activating event, B is the person’s Belief system, C refers to the Consequences

What stems from unreasonable attitudes, false premises, and rigid roles for behaviors?

Faulty thinking

Who introduced another form of cognitive therapy that is similar to Ellis’s rational-emotive therapy?

Aaron T. Beck

What is the primary difference in Beck’s therapy?

The focus on illogical thought processes

What is used to systematically change how a person acts and feels in behavior therapy?

Behavior modification

What pairs the stimulus that triggers an unwanted behavior with a new, more desirable behavior?

Counterconditioning

What is systematic desensitization?

Counterconditioning technique used to overcome irrational fears and anxieties the client has learned

What is flooding?

Exposure therapy exposing clients to feared stimuli

What occurs via Modeling?

Teach a client to do something by watching someone else do it

What is aversive conditioning?

Goal is to make certain acts unpleasant so that they will be avoided

What occurs via Contingency management?

Arrangements are made for the old behavior to go unrewarded and for the desired behavior to be positively reinforced

What are token economies?

Systems of rewards

What is cognitive-behavior therapy?

Focuses on setting goals for changing a client’s behavior and then, unlike other behavior therapies, placing more emphasis on changing the client’s interpretation of his or her situation

What is an in-group?

When a group’s members identify with their group

What is an out-group?

Includes everyone who is not a member of the in-group

What is a primary group?

A group of people who interact face-to-face daily

What is a secondary group?

A larger group of people with whom you might have more impersonal relationships

What is a group?

Collection of people who interact, share common goals, and influence how members think and act

What is interdependence?

When any action by one member will affect or influence the other members

Why is communication crucial to the functions of a group?

Direct communication aids members’ feelings of belonging, encourages debate among members regarding individual goals, and increases members’ feelings of commitment to group goals

What are the two general functions of a group?

Task functions and social functions

What increases the group’s cohesiveness?

Shared attitudes and standards and the group’s commitment to them

What are norms?

Usually unwritten rules that govern the behavior and attitudes of group members

What must occur for a group to be cohesive?

Members must share the same values

What is social facilitation?

The tendency to perform better in the presence of a group

Why do social facilitation & social inhibition occur?

Occurs because the presence of a crowd increases one’s drive or arousal

What is the study of group structure?

The study of the roles various members play in the group and how these roles are interrelated

What is a role?

Behavior expected of an individual because of his or her membership in a particular group

What occurs when the opinions of a group discussing an issue push the members of the majority to a more extreme view than they held before the discussion occurred?

Group polarization

What is groupthink?

When groups stick together and fail to adequately appraise alternative courses of action

What is the most useful type of organization for task and social groups?

A centralized organization seems more useful for task-oriented groups, whereas a decentralized network is more useful in socially oriented groups

How do social online forums help foster social networking?

They provide an opportunity to communicate with others who share similar interests, allowing the users to ask advice, share information, and compare experiences

What is a leader?

A leader embodies the norms and ideals of the group and represents the group to outsiders

What increases individual commitment to a group?

Requires personal sacrifice, participation, and responsiveness to the norms, ideology, and prepared sacrifices for membership

What is transformational leadership?

This leadership produces large-scale organizational change by changing the goals of group members and deepening their commitment

What is the key trait of leadership as defined by one psychologist?

Ability to get people to comply

What is transformational leadership?

This leadership produces large-scale organizational change by changing the goals of group members and deepening their commitment

What is charisma?

Persuasive powers and popularity