Structuralism

Focused on breaking down the mind into basic parts (thoughts, feelings and emotion)

Strucuralism

Focused on breaking down the mind into basic parts (thoughts, feelings and emotion)

Functionalism

How the mind works and why we think, feel, and behave the way we do

Behaviorism

how we learn to act based on what happens around us. It says that all behavior is learned through interaction with the environment, mainly through rewards and punishments. Observable behavior

Cognitive revolution

made psychology focus on how the mind works, not just how people act. It challenged behaviorism by saying that studying only behavior wasn’t enough — we need to understand mental processes to. How we think, learn, remember, and solve problems. 

Objective

Results are based on observable facts, not what someone feels or thinks.

Subjective

Research follows clear steps

Cognitive revolution

If findings are real, repeating the study should give the same outcome. 

Confirmation bias

when someone only notices or believes things that support what they already think, and ignores the rest. 

Case study

In-depth on one case, Hard to generalize

Naturalistic Observation

Observing natural behavior, No control, can’t infer causation

Survey

questionnaires to many people, Biased samples, inaccurate responses 

Sample

Sample- A sample is the group of people you actually collect data from in a survey 

• Population = All teenagers 

• Sample = The smaller group of teens who actually take your survey 

• Representative sample: A group of students that also has 60% female and 40% male 

Positive correlation

(e.g., hours worked & tips): as one increases, so does the other. 

Negative correlation

(e.g., practice & recital errors): as one increases, the other decreases. 

Zero correlation

no relationship (e.g., shoe size & IQ)

causal conclusion

one thing causes another 

Random assignment

putting participants into different groups by chance, not by choice or preference. 

Reliability

Consistency, Does the test or experiment give the same results every time? 

Validity

Acuuracy, Does the test measure what it’s supposed to measure? 

Astrocytes  

tar shaped largest glial cell that provides nutrients to axon terminals, syncs action potentials

Oligodendrocytes

provide the myelin sheath (fatty tissue covering the axon of neurons).  

Microglia

smallest glial cell that acts as the immune system of the brain- removes bacteria/fungus/virus and dead/damaged neurons  

Radial glial

guide migration of neurons during nervous system development  

Ependymal cells

produce cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) 

Soma

(cell body)- contains nucleus, synthesize new cell components 

Dendrite

receives information from other cells  

Axon

send electrical signal (action potential) to receiving neurons  

Terminal buttons/axon terminal/axon bouton

end of axon which communicates with receiving neurons 

node of Ranvier

gaps between myelin sheath covering the axon 

Resting potential

• The neuron’s normal, inactive state. 

• Inside of the neuron is negatively charged compared to the outside. 

Threshold

• The minimum level of stimulation needed for the neuron to fire an action potential. 

• Usually around -55 mV. 

• If the neuron’s charge reaches this point, it triggers an action potential. 

All-or-none principle

• Neurons either fire completely or not at all. 

• Once the threshold is reached, the action potential happens fully — no partial firing. 

• If the threshold isn’t met, no action potential happens. 

Refratory period

the short time after a neuron fires an action potential when it can’t fire again immediately. 

Dopamine

involved in reward, motivation, and movement. 

Serotonin

affects mood, sleep, and appetite. 

Acetylcholine

important for muscle movement and memory. 

GABA

the main inhibitory neurotransmitter (calms the brain). 

Glutamate

the main excitatory neurotransmitter (stimulates the brain). 

Synaptic vesicles

are tiny bubble-like sacs inside the end of a neuron’s axon (called the axon terminal)- stroe neruotransmitters 

Hindbrain

first to develop, basic life support 

Medulla

Pons

Cerebellum

Medulla

Controls vital functions like breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. 

Pons

Helps with sleep, arousal, and connects different parts of the brain. 

Cerebellum

Coordinates balance, movement, and motor skills. 

Midbrain

• Supeirior colliculus- visual 

• Inferiro colliculus- auditory 

• Substantia nigra- It plays a big role in movement control by producing the neurotransmitter dopamine. (muscle movement) 
   

Substantia nigra

• It plays a big role in movement control by producing the neurotransmitter dopamine. (muscle movement) 
   

Forebrain

Thalmus and hypothalmus

largest, higher-level thinking, emotions, and voluntary actions. 

Thalmus

can send info to everyone but olfactory (smell) 

Hypothalmus

hunger, thirst, and body temperature, motivation, hormones, sleep, emotions, and stress responses and homeostasis 

Limbic system

• Hippocampus- memory 

• Amygdala- emotional 

Frontal

• Conscious movement (motor cortex) and executive functions  

• Higher-order/executive functions- problem solving, remembering, personality, long term planning, socialization 

• Prefrontal cortex- decison making 

Parietal

• involved in interpretation of how to interact with environment 

• Somatosensory cortex- topographically organized cortex, primary receiving area of touch information from body 

Occipital lobe 

• Primary receiving area for visual information  

• Striate/visual cortex- receive consciously available visual information  

-Damage= “blind sight”- no couscous awareness of what their seeing yet can interact with objects 

 

Temporal lobe

Primary receiving area for auditory information, language processing and understanding 

• Auditory cortex- receive consious auditory information from auditory pathway 

• Wernicke's area- Processing and understanding language 

Corpus callosum

band of white matter (myelinated axons) that serves as the majority of information reception from contralateral half of the brain