AP Psych Semester 1 Final

nature

the influence of our inherited characteristics on our personality

nurture

the influence of our environment on our personality

biological perspective

explainations of human behaviors solely regarding on the individual's physical and biological processes

psychodynamic perspective

emphasizes the role of the unconscious mind (habits like nail biting swearing etc)

evolutionary perspective

perspective that focuses on the biological bases and evolutionary biology in humans

behavioral perspective

people and animals are controlled by their environment though conditioning and reinforcement

sociocultural perspective

perspective that focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture and how it shapes our behavior and cognition

cognitive perspective

Perspective that focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, and problem solving (processes of the mind) influencing behavior

humanistic perspective

perspective of psychology that emphasized the human capacity for choice and growth

biopsychosocial perspective

perspective overarching medical approach, links between genetics and environment

negative correlation

as one variable increases, the other decreases

positive correlation

both variables increase or decrease together

ethical guidelines

confidentiality, informed consent, debriefing, and deception must be warranted

strength of correlation coefficent

close to 1 or -1 = strong
close to 0 = weak

independant variable

The factor that is manipulated; variable whose effect is being studied

dependant variable

what is being measured, whats changing because of the independant variable

case study

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

naturalistic observation

observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

correlation

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

survey

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group

experiment

A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process

reliability

production of consistant results when administered repeatedly with similar circumstances

validity

extent of a research study or measurement tool accuratley measures what it intends to

median

middle value of a data set

mean

average value of a data set

mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a data set

range

different between the highest and lowest value

operational definition

a statement of the procedures used to define research variables

occipital lobe

lobe primarily responsible for processing visual information recieved from eyes

parietal lobe

lobe primarily responsible for processing sensory information from the body

sympathetic nervous system

responsible for activating the body's flight or fight response in times of danger

parasympathetic nervous system

respinsible for promoting relaxing and restoring the body's calm state

acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction

dopamine

neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in regulating mood, reward, motivation, and movement
- too much can cause schizophrenia
- too little can cause parkinsons disease

wernicke's area

controls lagnuage comprehension and understanding

broca's area

responsible for speech production, and landguage processing

ghrelin

A hunger-arousing hormone

leptin

hormone produced by fat cells to regulate energy balance and appitite

frontal lobe

lobe primarily responsible for higher level cognitive functions

oxytocin

a hormone and neurotransmitter that plays an important role in the experience of love and social bonding

hypothalmas

hypo the llamas
regulating various essential bodily functinos (hunger, thirst, etc)

hippocampus

responsible for forming and consolidating new memories

refactory period

a period of inactivity after a neuron has fired

corpus callosum

thick band of nerve fibers that connect the left and right brain hemisphere facilitating communication and info sharing

central nervous system

brain and spinal cord
command center for body, connections and commands

periheral nervous system

consists of nerves and ganglia
COMMUNICATION

antagonist

blocks neurotransmitter

multiple sclerosis

chronic autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system (command and communcation)

temporal lobe

lobe responsible for processing auditory information, language comprehension, and memory formation

GABA

neurotransmitter that is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter

cerebellum

responsible for coordinating movement, balence, and posture

percpetion

the mental process of interpreting sensory signals

sensation

the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

kinesthesis

the sense of body movement and positive (touching your face blindfolded)

order light passes through the eye

cornea, pupil, lens, retina
Corny ants prefer lovely violet roses

closure

the tendency to complete figures that are incomplete

continuity

we perceive smooth, continuous patterns rather than discontinuous ones

vestibular sense

the sense of body orientation and movement, relies on the ear receptors to detect change

just noticable difference

the smallest amount of change in intensity of a stimulus that is necessary to produce a change in sensation

opponent processs theory

our ability to percieve color is controlled by 3 receptor complexes with oposing actions

trichromatic theory

there are 3 receptors in the retina responsible for the perception of color

prosopagnosia

inability to recognize faces

synesthesia

a condition in which 2 senses are sensed at the same time

cocktail party effect

our ability to focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment whike tuning out other stimuli

selective attention

we center our attention on certain important elements of our environments while other things blend

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

memory construction

Memories are updated with new information and experiences.

framing

how information is presented influences decisions and perciption

availibility heurisitc

a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a person's mind

represensative heuristic

cognitive shortcuts where individuals make judgements about the probability based off of how much it resembles/represents

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

forgetting curve

graphs retention and forgetting over time

gambler's fallacy

the belief that the odds of a chance event increase if the event hasn't occurred recently

working memory

an active system that processes the information present in short-term memory

prototypes

a mental image or best example of a category

proactive infererence

occurs when old information or knowledge interferes with the learning of new information

retroactive interferance

occurs when newinformation or knowledge interferes with the learning of new information

assimilation

taking in new information from the world and applying it to existing schemas

accomidation

new information or experiences cause you to modify your existing schemas