AP Psych: Unit 1 Flashcards

Nature and Nurture

The dispute over the relative contributions of heredity and constitutional factors (nature) and enviormental factors (nurture) to the development of an idividual.

Nature vs. nurture is the debate over whether a person’s traits are shaped more by genetics (nature) or by environment and experiences (nurture).

Natural Selection

The principle that, among range of inherited trait variations, those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations

Natural selection is the process where organisms with traits that help them survive and reproduce are more likely to pass those traits to the next generation.

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection

The study of how evolution shapes the way humans think, feel and behave

Behavior Genetics

The study of familial or hereditary behavior patterns and of the genetic mechanisms of behavior traits

The study of how genes influence behavior

Mutations

A random error in gene replication that leads to a change

Changes in DNA that can create new traits or variations in organisms

Fraternal Twins

Twins who develop from seperate fertilized eggs; no genetically closer than brothers and sisters, but they share a fetal enviorment

Twins that develop from two different eggs and two different sperm

Identical Twins

Twins who develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two,creating two gentically identical organisms

Twins that develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, making them genetically the same

Epigenetics

The study of enviormental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

The study oh how the enviorment can turn genes on/off without changing the DNA itself

Nervous System

The body’s speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerce cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems

The body’s network that sens and recieves messages to control actions, thoughts, and feelings

Central Nervous System (CNS)

The brain and the spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

The sensory and motor neurons that conenct the CNS to the rest of the body

Nerves

Bundled axons that forn nerual cables connection the CNS with the muscles, glands, and sense organs

Bundles of fiber that carry messages between  the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body

Sensory (afferent) Neurons

Neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

carry info from body’s senses to the brain and spinal cord

Motor (efferent) Neurons

Neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinalcord to the muscles and glands

Carry messages from the brain and spnal cord the muscles and glands

Interneurons

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that comminicate internally and inervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

Connect sensory and motor neurons and help the brain/spinal cord process information

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nersous syetem that controls the body skeletal muscles (skeletal nervous system)

Controls voluntary movement of the body’s muscles

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

The part of the peripheral nevous sytem that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs. Its sympathetic system arouses and parasythmpathetic calms

Controls automatic body functions such as heartbeat, breating and digestion

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses thebody, imbolizing its energy in stressful situations (if you get scared)

Prepares the body for flight or fight in stressful situations

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division fo the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy (your PARents come home and calm you down)

Calms the body and helps it rest and recover

Reflex

Simple, automatic responses to sensory stimuli, such as the knee jerk response

Automatic, fast responses to a stimulus that does not require thinking