Psychology 1 Midterm

Psychology

The study of mind and behavior

Mind

private inner experiences

Behavior

Observable actions of a human being

Scientific Method

a set of principles and procedures for the pursuit of knowledge

Rene Descartes

Philosopher who argued for dualism

Dualism

The separation of mind and body

Thomas Hobbs

A proponent of materialism

Materialism

Belief that the mind is a part of the brain/ mind is what the brain does.

John Locke

English philosopher who an argued that there is a real world. (Realism)

Realism

Belief that our perceptions of the world is how the world is.

Immanuel Kant

Believed that perception is the interpretation of sensory organ information. (Idealism)

Empiricism

Belief that all knowledge is acquired through experience

Nativism

Belief that some knowledge is innate rather than acquired

Franciscus Donders

Performed cognitive experiment on reaction time.

Key note of Donders experiments

Mental processes can't be measured, only inferred.

Herman von Helmoltz

Used reaction time to measure the time it takes to transmit nerve impulses

Wilhem Wundt

Created the first psychological laboratory

Structuralism

The attempt to isolate and analyze the minds basic elements.

why structuralism failed

no one could agree on the basic elements

Charles Darwin

Found that features an organism develop are in order to increase its rate of survival and ability to reproduce (Natural Selection)

Sigmund Freud

Believed hysteria was caused by painful unconscious experiences.

Unconscious

Part of the mind that operates outside of awareness that influences thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Psychoanalytic theory

Human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes.

Psychoanalytic

Therapeutic process that focuses on being unconscious material to conscious awareness to understand psychological behavior.

William James

Developed functionalism

Functionalism

Study of the purpose of mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment

John B Watson

Believed that the mind was a useless topic to study. Proponent of behaviorism

Behaviorism

The study of behavior

Ivan Pavlov

Founded stimulus response theory (Behaviorism)

B.F. Skinner

Created the principles of reinforcement

Gestalt Psychology

A approach emphasizes how the mind creates perceptual experiences.

Fred Bartlett

Found that the mind replaces unfamiliar concepts with familiar concepts (Memory)

Kurt Lewin

Argued that behavior is not a function of the environment but the understanding of it. (Socialist)

Ego vs Id

rules are good for everyone vs what is good for yourself

Solomon Asch

Researched how people draw inferences about others

Jean Piaget

Believed that the mind has theories about how the mind works

Noam Chomsky

Argued against behaviorism. Used example of children saying things they've never heard.

Cognitive Science

uses computers to describe the physical information processing operations inside a machine

Paul Broca

Had insight that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function

Karl Lashley

Surgically altered rat brains and found that learning is not localized.

Cultural psychology

The study of how culture influences mental life

Ibn Al Haytham

Believed that the father away things are the longer for the eyes to perceive (Father of Optics)

Dogmatism

Tendency to stick to beliefs regardless of observations

Empiricism

Belief that observations contributes to knowledge

3 reasons why people are hard to study

complexity, variability, reactivity

Complexity

traits, behavior, feelings, abilities and neuronal connections

Variability

different reactions to the same event

Reactivity

acting different when being observed

Construct Validity

Extent to which what is being measured everyday characterizes the property

Reliability

The tendency to reproduce the same measurement when retested

Power

Ability to detect change

Demand characteristics

Causes people to act differently when people know they are being watched.

Observer Bias

Expectations of an observer that influence observations.

Ways bias can be avoided

Double-blind study, privacy of patient, unawareness & measurement of something involuntary.

Diminishing returns

Occurs when the number of people sampled increases beyond a necessary point

Correlation

Relationship between variables. Can be positive or negative.

R

strength variable for correlation. Between -1 & 1

Causation

a change in X affects Y

3 steps of experimentation

manipulate the independent variables, measure the depends variable and compare results between conditions

Self selection

Problem where participant picks their own experimental group

Random assignment

Patient are randomly assigned their treatments to reduce potential bias

.05

Acceptable percent of something occurring by chance

Validity

The degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure

non random sampling

representativeness of a sample doesn't always matter, representativeness is a starting point

Type 1 error

Says there is a relationship when there is not

Type 2 error

Says there isn't a relationship when there is.

Sir Francis Bacon

questioned if whole evidence tells the entire unbiased truth. (critical thinking)

Complexities in modern societal thinking.

Today's society is more complex, each person has different standards & internets things differently based on what we want to see and believe.

Operational

Description of a property in measurable terms

Detector

An instrument or device that can measure the property

Naturalistic Observation

The gathering os scientific information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments.

Population

Complete collection of people ( rarely measured)

Sample

Partial collection of people drawn from a population

Internal Validity

allows us to make inferences on causes

external validity

attribute of experiment were outside variables have been defined in a normal, typical, realist way.

Neuron

cells that communicate with one another to perform information

Sensory

This type of neuron receives information and carries it to the brain

Motor

This type of neuron sends information from the spinal cord to produce movements.

Inter

This type of neuron serve as connection point between other neurons.

Drugs

Play inside the nervous system

Agonist

Increase an action

Antagonist

Blocks a action

Nervous system

Network of neurons

Central nervous system

brain & spinal cord

Central nervous system

recieves sensory info, process & coordinates, commands skeletal and muscular systems

Brain

controls perceptions, cognition and emotions

Spinal Cord

responsible for sensory inputs, reflexes, and motor/gland outputs

Peripheral nervous system

Connects CNS to organs & muscles

Somatic

conveys info in & out of cells

autonomic

controls involuntary commands

sympathetic

prepares body for action

parasympathetic

returns body to natural state

Hindbrain

Controls basic functions of life, coordinates info into and out of the spinal cord

Midbrain

controls orientation and movement

forebrain

controls all higher level functions emotion, sensory and motor functions

Thalamus

Relays and transmits info from senses to the curable cortex( a part of the limbic system)

Hypothalamus

Regulates temperature, hunger thirst, and sexual behavior(a part of the limit system)

Limbic System

Group of forebrain structures helping motivation, emotion, learning and memory

Hippocampus

Critical for memory

Amygdala

helps emotional processes