Psychology Exam 1 Gitter Auburn University

What 3 things do psychologists study?

Behavior

The Mind

The Brain

How do psychologists study behavior?

interviews

questionnaires

laboratory tasks

specialized instruments

what is behavior?

any action that can be observed or recorded

What is "the mind?"

also known as mental processes; any conscious or unconscious activities

how do psychologists study the mind?

cant be directly observed; psychologists must make inferences about them based on measurements of behavior

what is the brain?

nerve cells

neurons

neurotransmitters

etc

how do psychologists study the brain?

the mind is what the brain does

what makes a science a science?

Not what is studied (subject matter), but how knowledge is obtained

what do we mean when we say that psychology is an "empirical science?"

we test whether a theory is wrong by comparing its predictions to actual data

in pre-scientific psychology, who had interests in the psychological processes?

aristotle

plato

confucius

in pre-scientific psychology, who did psychological testing?

Han Dynasty

in pre-scientific psychology, who did cognitive therapy?

Al Kindi

Who were the Structuralists?

Wilhem Wundt

Edward Titchener

What was the aim of the Structuralists?

tried to measure the building blocks of the mind; ex. "What is fear?"

Wilhelm Wundt

founded 1st psychology lab (1879) - university of leipzig

Pioneered introspection - researchers were trained to carefully reflect on thought processes

Edward Titchener

true father of structuralism

believed that experience could be broken down into constituent parts

who were the functionalists?

William James

what was the aim of the functionalists?

focused on the function of the mind; ex "what is the function of fear?"

William James

Founded 1st psychology lab in America (Harvard)

wrote "Principles of Psychology"

stream of consciousness

the flow of ones conscious experience into another

who were the Gestalt Psychologists?

Wertheimer and Kohler

what was the aim of Gestalt Psychology?

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; focus on the simpler aspects

what did Gestalt psychology focus on

perceptual experiences

the average persons experiences

Perception of objects is:

subjective and dependent on context

Sigmund Freud

developed a different approach to psychology that had a strong emphasis on the unconscious mind, he called this psychoanalysis

wrote Interpretation of Dreams

Psychoanalysis

treat mental illness by resolving unconscious conflicts

Behaviorism

Watson and Skinner

focus strictly on observable behavior

no inferences about mental processes

What are the limitations on human intuition?

the overconfidence bias

the confirmation bias

the hindsight bias

the overconfidence bias

tendency to believe that:

we know more than we actually do

we are more skilled than we actually are

more people agree with us than actually do

the confirmation bias

tendency to seek out evidence that confirms our theories and discount, discredit, or ignore disconfirming evidence

the hindsight bias

tendency to believe we already knew something, only after we have been told the answer

how does psychology avoid the limitations on human intuition?

applies the amiable skepticism/scientific attitude

applies the scientific method

amiable skepticism/scientific attitude

when presented with information as a fact ask questions like how?

requires humility:

accept ideas supported by evidence

remain skeptical of, but don't completely discount, those lacking evidence

scientific method

state a theory

design a study and form a hypothesis

perform a controlled test and analyze the results

evaluate the theory

share the results

start all over again

what is a correlation?

a mutual relationship or connection between two or more things

what 3 things do we need to establish causation?

covariation

temporal precedence

elimination of spuriousness

what is an independent variable?

a variable whose variation does not depend on another

what is a dependent variable?

a variable whose value does depend on another

what are the different parts of a neuron?

cell body

dendrites

axon

terminal fibers

myelin sheath

cell body

the cells life support center

dendrites

receive messages from other cells

axon

passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands

terminal fibers

form junctions with other cells

myelin sheath

covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses

how is information communicated within and between neurons?

synaptic transmission; Neuron A releases a neurotransmitter into the gap between the terminal branches of Neuron A and the receptors of Neuron B

synapse

gap between terminal branches of neurons A and dendrites of neuron B

neurotransmitters

chemical signals

central nervous system

includes:

brain

spinal cord

limbic system

cerebral cortex

afferent neurons (sensory neurons)

to the brain

efferent neurons (motor neurons)

away from the brain

peripheral nervous system

includes all of the nerves to the muscles, organs and sensory structures of the body

agonist

a drug that mimics the effects of a neurotransmitter or blocks its reuptake

antagonist

prevents a neurotransmitters action in the brain

autonomic system

a component of the peripheral nervous system; it transmits sensory signals and motor signals between the central nervous system and the body's glands and internal organs

somatic system

a component of the peripheral nervous system; it transmits sensory signals and motor signals between the central nervous system and the skin, muscles, and joints

sympathetic nervous system

a division of the autonomic nervous system; it prepares the body for action

parasympathetic nervous systems

a division of the autonomic nervous system; it returns the body to its resting state

brainstem

manages basic functions:

medulla

reticular formation

thalamus

medulla

heart rate

breathing

reticular formation

arousal & sleep

thalamus

sends incoming info to the proper location

cerebellum

coordination and voluntary movement

proprioception

our brains unconscious awareness of the relative position of our bodies

limbic system

hippocampus

amygdala

hypothalamus

hippocampus

formation of new memories

amygdala

basic emotions - fear, anger, sexual arousal, or hunger

hypothalamus

basic motivations - sex, hunger/thirst, body temp

what are the major lobes?

frontal

temporal

occipital

parietal

frontal lobe

higher order cognitive processes

language production

primary motor cortex

prefrontal cortex

directs and maintains attention

rational activity

social perception and interaction

our sense of "self"

mediated "social" emotions

parietal lobe

spatial relationships (Angular Gyrus)

touch (Somatosensory Cortex)

temporal lobe

auditory functions

fusiform face area

fusiform face area

prosopagnosia - inability to recognize the faces of familiar people, typically as a results of damage to the brain

auditory functions

primary auditory cortex (wernickes area) (aphasia)

occipital lobe

vision (primary visual cortex)

what are the ways of studying the psychological phenomenon in the brain?

Neuroimaging:

PET

MRI

fMRI

EEG

manipulating the brain

clinical observations

PET

shows where radiated glucose is being used

what is the brains energy source?

radiated glucose

MRI

shows structure (tissues)

fMRI

shows function (activity)

EEG

recording electrical activity

how are the 2 halves of the brain different?

left - speech/language

right - patterns/spatial relationships/faces

what connects the 2 hemispheres?

corpus callosum

covariation

correlation between A and B

temporal precedence

does A cause B or does B cause A

elimination of spuriousness

3rd variable