Psychology Exam 1

mental processes and behaviors + scientific method (content and process)

What connects all areas of psychology?

brain, individual, group

What are the 3 levels of analysis?

Brain Level

brain cell activity as the brain transmits and stores info

Individual Level

content of mental processes (personality, motivation, etc.)

Group Level

humans are shaped by social environments (these environments can change)

describe, explain, predict, control

What are the 4 goals of psychology?

describe

describe the very specific things that happened (what happened? -> establishing fact)

explain

answer the question "why?" (theory = abstract)

predict

predict the circumstances under which specific behaviors are likely (what next? -> hypothesis = concrete)

control

limit or increase certain behaviors or mental processes (how?)

structuralism

an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind

introspection

"looking inward" (belongs to structuralism)

Functionalism

study of the functions of the mental events and behaviors (studies could include animals, children, persons with mental disorders)

Gestalt Psychology

we have an inborn tendency to impose structure on what we see (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts)

perception

recognition and identification of stimuli that come through our senses (belongs to gestalt psychology)

Psychoanalysis

mental processes are influenced by the competition between conscious and unconscious forces

Behaviorism

theory that focuses primarily on stimuli and an individuals' response (leaves out mental processes and only focuses on behavior)

Cognitive Psychology

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

information processing

the means by which info is stored and operates internally

applied, academic, clinical/counseling

What are the 3 branches of psychology?

deductive reasoning

a logical process in which a conclusion is drawn from a set of premises (theory -> hypothesis) (if, then logic)

inductive reasoning

independent variable

the variable the researcher manipulates

dependent variable

the variable the researcher is measuring

operational definition

develop precise definitions of the independent and dependent variables that allow you to measure and test them

correlation coefficient

stat expressing the strength and nature of a relationship between two variables

positive correlation

relationship in which the scores of 2 variables increase together

negative correlation

relationship in which scores on 1 variable increase while the other decreases

perfect correlation

one in which 2 variables are exactly related

experimental analyses

statistical analysis in which you calculate the mean and standard deviation

manipulation of IV, random assignment, control group

necessary components of an experiment

Institutional Review Board (IRB)

research oversight groups that evaluate research to protect the rights of participants in the study

population

entire group that is of interest to researchers

sample

a portion of any population that's selected for a study

random selection (best)

randomly choosing a sample from a population

sampling biases

choosing a sample that does not represent your population

steps to protect participants

obtain informed consent, protect participants from harm and discomfort, protect confidentiality, provide complete debriefing

both human and animal welfare

animal studies should improve...

advance knowledge of behavior and neuropsychological function

animal studies must...

qualitative shifts

when individuals make developmental jumps that cause them to be different than they were before

quantitative shifts

development comes from continuously acquiring new information and new experiences

nature

behavior is fixed and cannot be changed - it's genetic

nurture

behavior depends on experience and the environment that you experienced

cross-sectional design

research comparisons of groups of different-aged people to one another

longitudinal design

research following the same people over a period of time

discreet trait

the product of a single gene pair

polygenic trait

involve the impact of multiple genes

teratogens

environmental agents that can interfere with a fetus's development during gestation

proximodistal

growth and development proceed from the center to the extremities

cephalocaudal

growth and development proceed from top to bottom

taste, smell, touch

infant's senses that are highly developed at birth

rooting

touch corner of infant's mouth/cheek, infant turns towards and starts sucking

grasping

press finger against infant's palm, infant grasps finger and holds on

Moro

let infant's head lose support, flings arms out then in

Babinski

stroke sole of infant's foot, toes spread apart

increase in synapses, synaptic pruning, myelination

3 major processes of infant brain development

schema

mental frameworks for organizing information

assimilation

putting new info into existing schema

accommodation

creating new schema for new information or altering existing schema

equilibrium

all information is organized into schemata

sensorimotor, pre operational, concrete operational, formal operational

correct order of the stages of Piaget's theory

sensorimotor stage

we learn through our senses and our motor actions

object permanence

understanding that objects are still there even if they cannot be seen

preoperational stage

children have mental representations of objects but cannot mentally manipulate them yet

conservation

the awareness that physical quantities do not change in amount when they are altered in appearance

egocentrism

the failure to understand that one's own thoughts are not shared by everyone

theory of mind

the branch of cognitive science that investigates how we ascribe mental states to other persons and how we use the states to explain and predict the actions of those other persons

irreversibility

a cognitive inability to think in reverse order while manipulating objects and symbols

concrete operational stage

children use inductive reasoning but are limited to concrete ideas

formal operational stage

can reason abstractly and use deductive logic

secure attachment

infant uses mom as secure base from which to explore and as support

anxious/avoidant attachment

unresponsive with mother and is indifferent when she leaves/returns

anxious/ambivalent attachment

reacts the mom leaves, mixed emotions when she returns

disorganized attachment

infant displays confused and contradictory behavior when mother returns

authoritative

warm and nurturing, makes reasonable demands, and encourages autonomy

authoritarian

cold and rejecting, coercive demands, frequently critical

permissive

warm and accepting, overindulgent and inattentive

uninvolved

emotionally detached/depressed, little time or energy for the child

zone of proximal development

gap between what a child can accomplish alone and what they can accomplish with the help from an adult

scaffolding

developmental adjustments adults make to give children help that they need, but not so they fail to move forward

it doesn't take emotions into account

What is the major issue with Kohlberg's theory of moral development?

preconventional

morality centers on what you can get away with

conventional

morality centers on avoiding others' disapproval and obeying society's rules

postconventional

morality is determined by abstract ethical principles

Haidt's Social Institutions Model of Morality

moral judgment is primarily given rise to by intuition, with reasoning playing a smaller role in most of our moral decision-making

autopsy tissue, brain damage patients, EEG, neuroimaging

How do scientists study the nervous system?

cell body (soma)

contains nucleus that provides energy for the neuron

dendrites

receive messages from other neurons

axon

carries information away from the cell body

axon terminals

transmit signals to the dendrite

myelin sheath

a substance that speeds up the firing of the neuron

nodes of ranvier

gaps on the neuron with no myelin

resting potential

the electrical charge of a neuron when it is at rest (-70V inside, + outside)

ion channels

pores in the cell membrane that open and close to allow certain ions in and out of the cell

action potential

a sudden positive change in the electrical charge of a neuron's axon (a.k.a. a spike/firing that rapidly transmits an excitatory charge down the axon)

absolute refractory period

after an action potential when a neuron can't fire again

relative refractory period

after absolute refractory period when a neuron can only fire if the stimulus is stronger than usual

neurotransmitters

specialized chemicals that travel across synapses

synapses

tiny spaces between the axon terminal of one neuron and the next

receptors

proteins in the membranes of neurons that bind to neurotransmitters