Rutgers General Psychology Exam 1

Biological Neuroscientific

How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences.

Example) Biological; cognitive, clinical

Evolutionary

Natural Science of Traits. How the the natural selection of trains has promoted the survival of genes

Example) Biological; developmental; social

Behavior Genetics

How our genes and our environment influence our individual differences

Example) Personality; developmental; legal/forensic

Psychoanalytic

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Example) Clinical; counseling; personality

Behavioral

How we learn observable responses

Example) Clinical; Counseling; industrial-organizational

Cognitive

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

Example) Cognitive neuroscience; clinical; counseling; industrial organization

Social-Cultural

How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

What contributions did Wundt, Titchener, and James make to psychology?

Wilhelm Wundt- First Psychological Laboratory(1879)

E.B Titchener- structuralism- the analysis of mental structures

William James-Functionalism- the study of how the mind works

What is introspection?

Introspection: is the examination of one's conscious thoughts and feelings.

What is structuralism?

Structuralism: early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

What is functionalism?

Functionalism: early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function-how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

What is hindsight bias?

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it.

What is the scientific method?

A design to study to test the hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

What is an operational definition?

Statement about the procedure the researcher used to measure a variable

What is a case study? How is it limited?

Descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

What is naturalistic observation? How is it limited?

A descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

What is the survey method?

Survey Method: asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions and recording their answers.

What are wording effects?

How the phrasing of question might affect people's expressed opinions.

What is response bias?

influence the response of participants away from an accurate or truthful response.

What is random sampling?

Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being studied

What is the correlational method?

a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.

What are positive and negative correlations?

a statistical index of the relationship between two things from (-1.00 to +1.00)

Does correlation indicate causation? What are the other alternatives?

Positive Correlation: indicates a direct relationship, meaning that two things increase together or decrease together.

For example) height and weight

Negative Correlation: indicates an inverse relationship. As on thing increases, the other decreases.

Example) hours of tv watched.

Correlation does not indicate causation because correlations do not come with built in cause-effect arrows.

What is experimentation?

What are IVs and DVs?

What are experimental and control conditions?

What is random assignment?

What is the placebo effect?

What is the expectancy effect?

What are double-blind procedures?

What is a confound?

What is experimental control?

Experimentation: researcher changes one variable in a controlled situation and observes the effects of that change on other aspects of the situation.

Independent Variable: Manipulated by experimenter. Effect is being studied.

Dependent Variable:

Outcome Variable. Outcome that is measures

Random Assignment- participants have an equal chance of being in every experiment group.

Placebo Effect:caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition; which the recipient assumes is in active agent

Expectancy Effect: a form of reactivity that occurs in scientific experiments or medical treatments when a research subject or patient expects a given result.

Double Blind Procedures: an experimental procedures in which both research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.

Cofound: A factor other than the factor being studied that might produce an effect

Experimental Control: group not exposed to the treatment.

What is generalizability?

Of an outcome to other groups and settings

What is replication?

Repetition of a study. Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic findings can be reproduced.

What are the mean, median, and mode?

Mean-Average of all Scores

Median-The middle Score

Mode- Most frequently Occurring Score

What is statistical significance?

Probability that results are due to chance

What are neurons?

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

What are dendrites, the cell body, and axons?

Dendrites: a neuron's often bushy, branching extensions that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

Cell Body: the spherical part of the neuron that contains the nucleus. It connects to the dendrites.

Axons: the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands

What are glial cells?

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in learning, thinking and memory.

What is myelin sheath?

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enable vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one node to the next.

What is the action potential

Electrochemical impulse that travels from the cell body down to the end of the axon

What is threshold?

level of electric charge needed to stimulate action potential

What is the all-or-none response?

once the electric charge of the neuron reaches a certain threshold, it fires an action potential.

What is a synapse?

Junction between 2 neurons

Impulses are transmitted across synapse via neurotransmitters.

What are neurotransmitters?

Chemical messengers that travel across synapse from one neuron to receptors on the next cell

What is reuptake?

Sending neuron reabsorbs excess neurotransmitters.

What are inhibitory and excitatory signals?

Inhibitory Signals: decrease likelihood that neuron will fire

Excitatory Signals:increases likelihood that neuron will fire

What are acetylcholine, endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, GABA, and epinephrine and norepinephrine?

Acetylcholine: affects neurons involved in muscle action, learning, memory

Endorphins: reduce pain and promote pleasure

Dopamine: affects neurons involved in voluntary movement, reward, learning, memory

Serotonin: affects neurons involved in sleep, appetite, mood

GABA: inhibitory- calms

Epinephrine: involved in stress response

Norepinephrine: involved in stress response

What are agonists and antagonists?

Agonists: bind to receptors

Antagonists: block to receptor

What are motor neurons, sensory neurons, and interneurons?

Motor Neurons: carry signals from brain or spinal cord to muscles, skin, and glands

Sensory Neurons: carry messages from receptors to spinal cord and brain

Interneurons: receives signals from sensory neurons and other interneurons and send impulses to other interneurons or motor neurons

What is the central nervous system?

the brain and spinal cord. Responds to sensory information. Sends messages to muscles, glands, organs

What are reflexes?

automatic responses that occur without any brain involvement.

What is the peripheral nervous system?

the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body

Somatic Nervous System

the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body skeletal muscles.

Autonomic Nervous System

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy

Parasympathetic Nervous System:

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

Hormones

chemicals secreted by endocrine glands into bloodstream

Pituitary Gland:

the endocrines systems most influential gland

Adrenal Gland

Important in mood, energy level, coping with stress

Lesion Method

damaging or removing sections of the brain

Electroencephalogram:

detect electrical activity of neurons in particular regions of brain

PET scan:

Records biochemical changes in brain as they are happening in different locations

MRI:

uses magnetic field to show picture of soft tissues

fMRI

measures relative activity of various brain area during tasks

What is the thalamus?

Relays messages between lower brain centers and cerebral cortex

Medulla

Controls heartbeat and breathing

Pons

helps coordinate movement and control sleep

What is the reticular formation

Helps Control Arousal

What is the cerebellum?

Coordinates voluntary movement and balance and supports learning and memories of such

Amygdala

linked to emotion

Hypothalamus

controls maintenance functions such as eating; helps govern endocrine system; linked to emotion and reward

Hippocampus

linked to conscious memory

What is the cerebral cortex?

Ultimate control and information-processing center

Where are each of the lobes located in the brain (be able to indicate the lobes in a picture)?

Purple Area: Frontal Lobe

Green Area: Parietal Lobe

Blue Area: Temporal Lobe

Red Area: Occipital Lobe

What are the frontal lobes?

Planning, creative thinking, personality

At front of brain

What is the motor cortex?

voluntary movement

Homunculus

map of motor cortex

Broca's Area

speech production

Broca's Aphasia

when a stroke injures the frontal regions of the left hemisphere, different kinds of language problems can occur

Mirror Neurons

fire when observing another person doing something

What are the parietal lobes?

At top of Brain.

Contain somatosensory cortex.

What is the sensory (somatosensory) cortex?

receives information about sensation

What are the occipital lobes?

in back of head

What is the visual cortex?

processes visual signals

What are the temporal lobes?

What is the auditory cortex?

What is Wernicke's area? What is Wernicke's aphasia?

Temporal Lobes- On side of head

Auditory Cortex: Processes sounds

Wernicke's Area: language comprehension

What are association areas?

Involved in executive functions

What is plasticity?

The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

What is neurogenesis?

The formation of new neurons

What is lateralization?

Hemispheric Specialization

What is the "nature/nurture debate?"

Nature View-Humans Enter the world with an inborn store of knowledge

Nurture View-Knowledge is acquired through experiences and interactions with the world.

What is a range of reaction?

Genetic makeup establishes range of possible developmental outcomes

Environment determines how person actually develops

What is a genotype-environment interaction?

Different characteristics result from different combinations of genes and environments

Define

Family studies

Adoption studies

Twin studies (monozygotic vs. dizygotic)

Adoption twin studies

Family Studies: measure degree to which biological relatives share certain traits

Adoption Studies: compare adopted children to adoptive families and biological families

Twin Studies: compare pairs of monozygotic and same sex dizygotic twins

Adoption Twin Studies: compare monozygotic twins separated in infancy and monozygotic twins reared apart

What is heritability?

Statistical estimate of contribution of heredity to individual differences.

What is a concordance rate?

Ranges from 0.0-1.0