Psych100 Exam 1

Psychology

The study of the mind and behavior

Behavioral Neuroscience

Signals in the body impacting behaviors

Clinical Psychology

diagnosis, treatment

Cognitive Psychology

mental processing (thought patterns and memories)

Counseling Psychology

School counselors

Cross Cultural Psychology

Different cultures influence peoples behavior and thought

Developmental Psychology

studying growth and change across time

Forensic Psychology

The “why” and “how” behind crimes

Health Psychology

Why do we make the health choices we do?

Industrial Organization Psychology

workplace impact, most productive

Personality Psychology

Does personality change over time?

Positive Psychology

positivity and laughter help you learn better

Social Psychology

How we are impacted by other people (and vis versa)

Sports Psychology

Mental thoughts and behaviors in sports and athletes

Scientific Method

observation, hypothesis, experiment, data analysis, and conclusion

Empirical Method

based on observation and experiments

William Wundt and William James

Founders of Psychology

William Wundt

Introspection, german psychologist, father of psych

Introspection

describing your own mental processes, looking inside yourself

Edward Titchner

Student of Wundt, structuralism

Structuralism

looking at mental processes, breaking down to the smallest component

functionalsim

study of the whole, how all the pieces function together

William James

functionalism, Darwinsim (survival of the fittest)

Gestalt Psychology

The whole is more than the sum of its parts

Sigmuend Frued

studied the unconscious, NOT father of psych

Ivan Pavlov

Behavioralism, Pavlov’s dogs, conditioning

Humanistic Psychology

Be all that you can be, Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Behavioralism

observable, measureable

Nueroscience Perspective

Biological, brain chemistry

Psychodynamic

driven by forces that we aren’t aware of

Behavioral Perspective

Focuses on the observable and measurable

Humanistic Perspective

Humans want to be in control of their own lives

Cognitive perspective

inner thought processes

Nature vs nurture

biological vs environment, culture

Conscious vs unconscious

aware vs unaware

observable vs internal

actions vs thoughts

Free will vs determinism

freedom vs influenced behavior (by environment)

individual vs universal

unique vs patterns, commonalities

Double think

believing in something and its opposite at the same time

Hindsight bias

Thinking you knew something all along

Bystander effect

Someone else will do it, the more people around the less likely anyone will step up to do something

population

overall group of people researchers are interested in

sample

subset of people selected from the population

generalizability

how accurately a sample can be applied to the population

Archival Research

looking through archives, records, or information that has already been collected

Naturalistic Observation

observing someone/something in its natural environment - NO interference

Hawthorne effect

People change behavior when they think/know they’re being watched

Survey Research

list of questions, easy, inexpensive

Case studies

qualitative research to gain an in-depth understanding - focuses on one individual

correlation research

examines relationships between variables

experimental research

trying to find a cause and effect relationship

control group

group with NO manipulation

experimental group

manipulating factors to test theory

independent variable

the variable that you manipulate

dependent variable

the variable that you measure

Medulla

Heart beat, involuntary functions

Pons

sleep

Cerebellum

balance

Reticular Formation

arousal

Thalamus

Relay station

Hypothalamus

fight or flight

Amygdala

agression, sex drive, eating habits

Hippocampus

learning, memory

Frontal Lobe

decision making, problem solving

Parietal lobe

paying attention

Temporal lobe

auditory processing

Occipital Lobe

Visual Processing

Motor Cortex

motor functions

Somatosensory cortex

sensory information

Nueroplasticity

our brains change, adapt, and fill in over time

Neurogenesis

creation on new cells (allows for changes in personality over time)

Central Nervous System

Brain + Spinal Cord, reflexes

Peripheral Nervous System

all other nerves

somatic nervous system

conscious, voluntary movement

autonomic nervous system

involuntary/automatic movement

Sympathetic Nervous System

arousal, fight or slight

Parasympathetic nervous system

calm, base level functioning

endocrine system

produces chemical messages aka HORMONES

Axon terminal

SEND info from nueron

Dendrite

RECIEVES info in nueron

Myelin Sheath

protective coating, keeps electrical currents inside cells

action potential

electrical signal that moves from the cell body to the axon terminals

All or none law

axon is either firing or NOT (no inbetween)

Synapse

gap between neurons

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals of how we communicate

ezymes

break down neurotransmitters

reuptale

cells are brought back up into neurotransmitters

sensation

activation of the sense organ (nose, ears, mouth, eyes, etc)

perception

interpretation and integration of sensory info

Stimuli

something that excited orgamism into action

Absolute threshold

minimum intensity for detection of change

difference threshold

minimum change in intensity for detection of change (noticeable difference)

Noise

any background stimuli that make it harder to detect other stimuli

Desensitization/adaptaion

getting used to something, brain stops perceiving it

trichromatic theory

3 color cones, cannot explain after images

Opponent process theory

color pairs, explains after images

Retina

converts light into electrical signals that the brain can interpret

Cochlea

converts sound waves into electrical impulses that the brain can interpret as sound

vestibular system

balance system and coordination

Shepard tone

continuously descending/ascending tone that never actually changes