psy 2301 exam 1

What is psychology the study of ___ , ____

mind, behavior

Philosophical Empiricism

Knowledge comes from experience

Philosophical Nativism

Some Knowledge is innate (born with)

Philosophical Dualism

The mind and body are separate

Mind

Private events harder to understand

Body

In material easier to understand

Behavior

Set of public events

Philosophical Materialism

The mind is a result from physical activity in the brain

Structuralism

Isolate and break down elements that make up the mind

Wilhelm Wundt

Write the first psychology textbook and did the first lab, discovered structuralism

Introspection

A person presented with the stimulus asked to report their experiences with it, apart of structuralism

Problem with introspection?

How subjective it can get

Functionalism

Based on darwin’s Natural Selection, the purpose of mental processes is more important than the structure

natural selection

traits that help an organism survive and reproduce become more common in a population over generations

Psychoanalytic Theory

Emphasis on the influence of the unconscious on feelings/thoughts/behaviors like childhood trauma to hysteria

Founder of psychoanalytic theory

Sigmund Freud

Behaviorism

Scientific study of observable behavior from interactions (stimulus/response) learned through reinforcements + punishments

Behavior

Behaviors are driven by biology and are learned

principle of reinforcement

any behavior that is rewarded will be repeated, and any behavior that isn’t rewarded won’t be repeated

Cognitive Theory

Study of human information processing as how thoughts impact emotions/behaviors, expresses errors of processing (perception, memory, judgment)

Neuroscience

Broadened Study of the nervous system

Cognitive Neuroscience

Involves study of Brain and the Mind (human focused)

Behavioral Neuroscience

Involves Brain and Behavior (esp in non human animals); observation of animals

lifespan

full timeline of how much someone lives

life expectancy

average timeline of someone’s life

cultural psychology

how culture influences mental life, seperate field of research

Social Psychology

Study of causes and consequences of how society affects an individual (interpersonal behavior)

Psychologist Degree

Doctoral Degree (P.H.D or Psy.D)

Other psychology specialties

Clinical, indistrial/organizational for businesses, forensic (criminal court room or assesment for court), Experimental

Doctor of Philosophy

P.H.D - doctoral degree, takes longer - nothing to do with philosophy, really history - in psychology it goes into clinical work with heavy reserach/teaching

Doctor of psychology

Psy.D - doctoral degree, Focused on applied work and patient care (clinical and counseling, therapy is treatment)

Psychiatrist Degree

Medical Degree (M.D or D.O), they use medication as treatment and only they can prescribe meds

Counslers’s degree

Masters or P.H.D

LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker - Masters, Can be independent, For Individuals within social/environmental systems

LPC

Licensed Professional Counselor - Masters, Can be independent and have own practices, individual -first mental health coaching

MFT

Marriage And Family Therapist - Masters, Can be independent or family clinics

Neurons

(Nerve Cells) communicate together to perform information-processing tasks

How many never cells in brain

86 billion

Nerves

Bundles of neurons in the peripheral nervous system

Soma

Cell Body - Keeps the cell alive, coordinates information processing

Dendrite

The tree branches that receive information from other neurons and transmit it to the cell body

Axon

Long or varies substantially, carries information away from the cell body to other axons/muscles/gland

Myelin Sheath

Fatty material around the axon, it helps carry information more effectively and faster. made of glial cells

Glial cells

Digests parts of dead neurons while providing support and nutrition for neurons

Synapse

Area between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite/cell body of another

Longest Axon

Spine to foot

Sensory Neurons

Mostly in the peripheral nervous system, they receive information based on the environment (senses)

Central nervous system

located inside the skull and spinal column

Peripheral Nervous System

branches out through the rest of the body like skin,muscles, limbs

Motor Neurons

More in the central nervous system, from the spinal cord to the muscles specifically, creates movements of muscles

Interneurons

neurons within the central nervous system that connect sensory inputs and motor outputs and other interneurons for information processing

Who identified empiricism

Aristotle

Who Identified Nativism

Plato

Who identified Functionalism

William James

Nature Vs. Nurture

What causes the outcome of someone their enviornment or factors their born with

Evolutionary Psychology

Darwin, studies how evolution (like natural selection) shaped the human mind and behavior/why it even evolved

What percentage of PHD in psychology are by woman

70%

What percentage of PHD in psychology are by people of color

30%

Mind - Body Connection

The community between thoughts and feelings. Even though the mind is not physical, it can influence physical actions/feelings

2 ways to understand people

observation (what) and explanation (why)

observation

using ones senses/observations to learn about properties of an event or subject in the natural world

Operational Definition

A quantifiable way to measure the observation in strong measurable terms

Good measurement qualities (detector)

Validity, Reliability, Power

Construct Validity

Measures what it says it will

Reliability

Need to get around a similar score each time

Power

if it can notice any changes between tests

Demand characteristics

Factors that cause people to behave as they think someone else should

4 ways to avoid demand characteristics

1) Naturalistic Observation - observe them in their natural environment

2) Privacy - observe anonymously

3) Person’s behavior - observe things that can’t be impacted by behavior (pupils dilate)

4) Unawareness - them not knowing what is being studied

Observer-Bias

The observer wants the participant to answer a certain way (asking obv questions about depression test if they say they dont have symptoms)

Double-Blind

Minimizes observer bias and demand characteristics. The observer and participant dont know what the nature of the study is

Scientific method

How to use the empirical method to form steps (with theory and hypothesis (falsifiable))

Third variable problem

2 variables are naturally correlated by relation to a third variable, but that is causing a false/misleading correlation

Correlation vs. experiment

Correlation measures variables that naturally occur while an experiment manipulates a variable

Can a correlation establish causation

no

Causation

To determine a cause between 2 variables the researcher must have controlled the conditions (manipulate)

Independent vs defendant

Independent is manipulated so dependent gets affected by manipulation of independent

Self-selection

Something about the person determines which group they end up in, they choose

Experimenter effects

participants change their behavior because of some cues from the experimenter

Case study

studying a single person with a unique/rare characteristic

Random samples

ensure everyone has a fair chance of being in the sample

Ethics

1) Informed Consent → agreement made by an adult who was informed of all risks

2) Freedom from coercion → cannot force or persuade with anything

3) Protection from harm

4) Risk-benefit analysis → benefits must outweigh risks

5) Deception → lying about the experiment is allowed only when justified and must be debriefed afterward

6) Confidentiality

7) IRB → Institutional Review Board that reviews the ethics of study to approve or not

8) For Animal research - no animal cruelty

Control group

People not exposed to the same treatment of experiment

Oligodendrocytes

Create myelin sheath if its damaged

Astrocytes

Support neurons and maintain the brains chemical environment

Oligodendrocytes

Form the myelin around neurons in Central Nervous System

Schwann cells

Form the myelin around neurons in Peripheral Nervous System

Microglia

Act as immune cells, remove damaged cells and pathogens

Ependymal cells

Help produce and circulate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (fluid around brain and spinal cord as protection)

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Voluntary motor control, cognitive functions like attention, memory, dreaming

Dopamine

regulating motor behavior, motivation, and emotional arousal, associate actions with rewards for high dopamine

Serotonin

Sleep, Appetite, mood, (Anti-Depressant has more seratonin to elevate mood)

Norepinephrine

Regulating heart rate helps regulate alertness and energy,

What does low levels of seratonin and norepinephrine mean

linked to mood disorders / depression

Glutamate

gets neurons activated and communicating (Excitatory)

Endorphins

Dull pain and elevated mood → mimic opioid drugs

GABA

Gamma-aminobutyric acid, Inhibitory(slows down), Calms down anxiety/fear, reduces activity of neurons

Ending Action Methods

Ways the brain clears neurotransmitters from synapses

1) Reuptake → neurotransmitter gets taken back into the neurons to reabsorb then release (Cocane stops reuptake of dopamine, SSRIs stop reuptake of serotonin)

2) Enzymatic degradation → Enzymes break the neurotransmitter apart (ACH signals motor movements then ACHe breaks it down to stop movements)

3) Diffusion → Neurotransmitter drifts out of the synapse far enough to not be reactived

Autoreceptors

detects neurotransmitter been released and tells the neuron to stop releasing more

Somatic Nervous System

Voluntary Action

Autonomic Nervous System

Involuntary Action, inner spinal columns