gen p final exan t

developmental psychology

looks at human development across the life span

social psychology

focuses on interpersonal behavior and the role of social forces in governing behavior

educational psychology

studies how people learn and the best ways to teach them

health psychology

focuses on how psycholgical factors relate to the promotion and maintenance of physical health and the causation, prevention, and treatment of illness

physiological psychology

examines the influence of genetic factors on behavior and the role of the brain, nervous system, endocrine system, and bodily chemicals in the regulation of behavior

experimental psychology

encompasses the traditional core of topics that psychology focused on heavily in its first half-century as a science: sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation, and emotion

cognitive psychology

focuses on "higher" mental processes, such as memory, reasoning, information processing, language, problem solving, decision making, and creativity

psychometrics

is concerned with the measurement of behavior and capacities, usually through the development of psychological tests

personality

is interested in describing and understanding individuals' consistency in behavior, which represents their personality

clinical psychology

concerned with the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with psychological disorders, as well as treatment of less severe behavioral and emotional problems

counseling psychology

overlaps with clinical psychology in that speicalists in both areas engage in similar activities - interviewing, testing, and providing therapy

industrial and organizational psychology

perform a wide variety of tasks in the world of business and industry

school psychology

strive to promote the cognitive, emotional and social development of children in schools

study schedule

allocate definite times for studying

dedicated studying space

a key place where distractions are likely to be minimal

reward your studying

give yourself immediate, tangible rewards

reading improvement

preview reading assignments, actively process the information, identify key ideas and review

getting more out of lectures

active listening, read ahead, take notes in your own words, organize notes, revise notes

critical thinking

purposeful, reasoned, goal-directing thinking that involves solving problems, formulating inferences, working with probabilites, and making carefully though-out decisions

arguments agaisnt deception

Wrong to submit animals to harm or
pain for research.

Violates animals’ rights by subjecting
animals to unnecessary cruelty in
many trivial studies.

Results may not apply to humans.

PsycINFO

a computerized datase that is constantly updated with psychological research

shortcoming of anecdotal evidence

in language research designs the experiences of one family resemble a single case study

similar to self-report data

Inaccurate, embellished, hearsay

Sampling bias

lesioning

involves destroying a piece of the brain which allows an electrode to be inserted into a brain structure which passes a high-frequency electric current through it to burn the tissue and disable the structure

plasticity of the brain

research suggests that the brain's neural wiring is flexible and constantly evolving

split-brain research

data suggested that the two hemispheres are specialized, with each handling certain types of cognitive taks better than the other

adoption studies

hereditary influence is assessed by examining the resemblance between adopted children and both their adoptive parents

family studies

hereditary influence is assessed by examining blood relatives to see how much they resemble each other on a specific trait

twin studies

hereditary influence is assessed by comparing the resemblance of identical twins and fraternal twins with respect to a trait

heredity and environment interact

Specific genes’ effects can be dampened or silenced by chemical events at the
cellular level, leading to alterations in traits, health, and behavior.

These chemical events can be stimulated by environmental events, such as
poor nurturance when offspring are young, exposure to stress, or peculiarities in
diet.

These epigenetic marks that influence gene expression can be passed on to
successive generations.

culture influences sleep

some ethnic disparities in subjective estimates of individuals' sleep quality

napping practices also vary along cultural lines

hypnosis as role playing

people act out the role of a hypnotic subject and behave as they think hypnotized people are supposed to

hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness

Disassociation: A splitting of mental
processes into two separate,
simultaneous streams of awareness

narcotics

drugs derived from opium that are capable of relieving pain

hallucinogens

effects on mental and emotional functioning distorts sensation and perception

cannabis

the hemp plant from which marijuana, hashish, and THC are derived

alcohol

beverages with ethyl alcohol

physical dependence

exists when a person must continue to take a drug to avoid withdrawal illness

psychological dependence

exists when taking a drug to satisfy intense mental and emotional craving

positive reinforcement

occurs when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of rewarding stimlus

negative reinforcement

reponse is strengthened when followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus

Bandura's research

Decades of research agreed that media violence fosters increased aggression.

Media violence desensitizes people to the effects of aggression in the real
world.

Desensitization mutes reactions to real violence.

Long-term results show that the more violence children watch on TV, the more
aggressive they tend to be at home and at school.

attention

focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events

multitasking

switching their attention back and forth among taks, rather than processing them simultaneously

flashbulb memories

unusally vivid and detailed recolections of momentous events that become less detailed and complete with time and are often inaccurate

tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

a temporary inability to remember something you now, accompanies by a feelings that it's just out of reach

personality

an indivdual's unique set of consistent behavioral traits

personality trait

a durable disposition to behave in a particular way in a variety of situations

cross-cultural similarities and disparities in personality

big five personality traits surface when translated scales are administered and subjected to factor analysis

clear factor for the trait of openess to experience does not emerge in some cultures

variablity is seen when researches compare the average traith scores of samples form various cultural groups

medical model

the view that it is useful to think of abnormal behavior as a disease

criteria of abnormal behavior

deviance, maladaptive behavior, personal distress

diagnosis

distinguishing one illness from another

etiology

the apparent causation and developmental history of an illness

prognosis

a forecast about the probable course of an illnes

insanity

legal status indicating that a person cannot be held responsible for his or her actions because of mental illness

competency

fitness of a defendant's capacity to stand trail

insight therapies

involve talk therapy in the tradition of Freud's psychoanalysis

behavior therapies

involve efforts to alter problematic responses and maladaptive habits

biomedical therpaies

involve interventions into a person's biological functioning

electroconvulsice therapy

a biomedical treatment in which electric shock is used to produce a cortical seizure accompanies by convulsions

therapeutic effect and risks

effective treatment for major depression and many patients who do not benefit from antidepressant medication improve with ECT

memory loss, impaired attention, amnesia for autobiographical information, other cognitive deficits

Gestalt psychology

assumes that the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts

phi phenomenon

the illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession

figure and ground

a fundamental way in which people organize visual perceptions

proximity

things that are near one another seem to belong together

closure

grouping elements to create a sense of closure

similarity

people tend to group stimuli that are similar

simplicity

tendency to group elements that combine to form a good figure

continuity

tendency to follow in whatever direction they've been led

pain perception

Receptors are mostly free nerve endings in the skin where messages are transmitted to the brain via two pathways that pass through different areas in the thalamus. The fast pathway registers localize pain and relay it to the cortex in a fraction of a second. The slow pathway conveys the less localized, longer-lasting aching or burning pain that comes after the initial injury.

artists used various principles of visual perception

The goal of most early painters was to produce a believable picture of reality.

Painters who set out to re-create reality had to do so by creating an illusion of
three-dimensional reality

Renaissance artists manipulated the full range of pictorial depth cues, especially
linear perspective

personality factors, emotional reactions, and depression to coronary heart disease

the emotional dysfunction of depression may cause heart disease

depression roughly doubles one's chances of developing heart disease

relaxation

can sooth emotional turmoil and suppress problematic physiological arousal

David Wechsler

published first high-quality IQ test for adults called the WAIS which was less dependent on subject's verbal ability and used normal distribution

Sternberg's cognitive analysis of intelligence

emphasizes the need to understand how people use their intelligence

Harlow's attachment theory

an infant would form an attachment with a caregiver that provides food

Bowlby's attachment theory

children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others

Asch's reasoning of conformity

as groups grow larger, conformity increases and people tend to conform in certain situations

Milgram's studies on Obedience

argued that strong pressure from an authority figure can make decent people do indecent things to others