social psychology exam 1

Pop Psychology

psychological ideas presented through media that may not be supported with scientific evidence

Parapsychology

Study of claims like Esp & telepathy; claims generally lack strong scientific evidence

Pseudoscience

something that looks like science but doesn't use reliable Scientific methods or evidence.

Monism

The mind & body are one system

Dualism

The mind & body are separate

Psychology participants are W.E.I.R.D. What does this mean.

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic

Cultural Specificity

behavior can be influenced by the culture and environment a person grows up in

Neuroscience

focuses on the brain, nervous system, hormones, & biological processes behind behavior

Operational definition

explains exactly how a variable will be measured or manipulated

Experiment

can show cause and effect

Correlation

shows a relationship, not cause and effect

Independent Variable

what the researchers change/manipulate

Dependent Variable

what the researcher measured to see if the independent variable has an effect

Control Group

used as a comparison that does not recieve the experimental treatment

Random Assignment

participants are randomly placed in groups

Experimenter Bias

the researchers expectations accidentally influence the results

Volunteer Bias

people who volunteer for studies may be different from people who do not volunteer

Ethnocentrism

judging other cultures using the standards af your own

Demand Characteristics

participants figure out what the researcher wants & changes their behavior to match it

Internal Validity

how confident we are that the experiment itself caused the results

External Validity

how well the results generalize to other people, situations, & settings

Naturalistic Observation

watching behavior in its natural environment without interfering

Case Study

an in depth study of one person, group, or unusual case

Survey

Asking people questions about attitudes, opinions, or behaviors

Correlational Study

Examining whether 2 variables are related

Genotype

body instruction manual (blueprint)

Phenotype

apperance

Epigenetic

environment & experience turn genes "on" & "off" (reductionistic)

Evolutionary Model

behavior is an inherited trait (reductionistic)

Holistic Model

no isolation, cannot look at things separately

Biopsychosocial Approach

take everything into account (holistic)

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain & Spinal Cord

sensory neurons

carry info from senses toward the CNS

visual sensory neurons

allows you to see

auditory sensory neurons

allows you to hear

olfactory sensory neurons

allows you to smell

motor senses

carry command from the CNS to muscles/glands

interneurons

connect neurons within the CNS

mirror neurons

respond when you perform an action or deserve someone else performing a similar action

neurons

specialized cells that send & receive information

dendrites

neuron receptors located, receives

Soma (cell body)

keeps the neuron alive & processes information

Axon

how the neuron sends forward

Myelin

speeds axon transmission

Action potential

sending information from axon

neuron impulse

the way the info travels down the axon

all or none law

potentials are always the same size

absolute period

time where a neuron cannot fire another impulse

synax

small space between the neuron sending info & the one receiving the info

neurotransmitters

chemical messages

astrocytes

regulate blood flow, provide nutrients

oligodendrocytes

form an insulation layer (myelin)

glial cells

support and protect neuron

symatic nervous system

control voluntary body movement

autonomic nervous system

controls things that you can’t

sympathetic

fight or flight response

parasympathetic

energy conservation system

CAT Scan, MRI (structure, function, or both)

structure

PET scan (structure, function, or both)

function

fMRI (structure, function, or both)

structure and function

basic survival and movement (hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain)

hindbrain

medulla, pans, cerebellum (hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain)

hindbrain

reticular activation system, substatia nigra (hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain)

midbrain

cortex, sub cortex (hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain)

forebrain

thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala

limbic system

supply blood to the front of the brain

internal colonic arteries

true or false: no pain receptors in the brain

true

sulci

bump in the brain

occipital lobe

visual cortex lobe

parietal lobe

sensory input & helps you understand your position in space

temporal lobe

hearing, memory, language, emotion

frontal lobe

controls thinking, personality, voluntary movement

left or right hemisphere: analytic, sequential

left

left or right hemisphere: controls emotions in the voice, visual imagination and patterns

right

contra lateral control

left hemisphere controls right side of body, right hemisphere controls left side of body

Corpus Callosum

how hemispheres communicate

Neuroplasticity

the brain changes over time