Psych Midterm

complete psych midterm

Constructs

ideas that cannot me seen or measured directly

Psychoanalysis

The school psychology founded by Sigmund Freud that emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts as determinants of human behavior.

Introspection

An examination of one's own thoughts and feelings.

Behaviorism

The school of psychology founded by John Watson that defines psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.

Functionalism

The school of psychology founded by William James that emphasizes the purposes of behavior and mental processes and what they accomplished for the individual.

Control Group

in an experiment, the group that does not receive the treatment

Experimental Group

in a study, the participants who receive the treatment

Independent Variable

the factor that is manipulated by the researcher to determine its effect on another variable

Dependent Variable

in an experiment, the factor that is being measured and that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

William Wundt

discovered the basic elements of consciousness, believed in objective sensations and subjective feelings, the "father of psychology"

developed the idea of structuralism

William James

focused on how mental processes help organisms adapt to their environment, studied the relationship between experience and behavior, found behavioral observation and introspection

developed the idea of functionalism

Sigmund Freud

emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts to understand human behavior, gained understanding through consultations, discovered psychodynamic thinking

developed the idea of psychoanalysis

John B. Watson

believed that no matter who you think you are, you can be totally conditioned by external events, emphasized observable/measurable events

developed the idea of behaviorism

B.F. Skinner

believed that when you are rewarded for an action, you're more likely to perform that action again, said it was unscientific to study personalities or feelings, studied external causes of behavior and the result of behavior

developed the idea of reinforcement

Gestalt School

interested in the ways context influenced people's interpretation of information (similarity [pattern] VS closure [shape])

developed the law of similarity and closure

APA and ethical guidelines

Psychologists cannot cause harm to people unless the results outweight the predicted harm caused. They can deceive people in the experiment, but must explain after the fact that they did and why. They must weigh the value of the results of the experiment to decide whether or not to cause any harm to people in the experiment. Harm avoidance means that they cannot cause harm without greater or more valuable results, so they outweigh harm done.

Research psychologists depend upon what to study behaviors?

the scientific method

What do you call a statement of underlying principles used to explain and predict some aspects of nature?

theory

What is included in the five major fields of psychology?

clinical, counselling, school, educational. developmental, personality, social, experimental

If the participant and the researcher are unaware of the study's purpose, what kind of study is it?

double-blind study

What is a naturalistic observation?

When the psychologist will observe the behaviors of participants in place where they feel comfortable.

When choosing participant, an experimenter should keep what in mind?

Participants should be a representation of the population.

The larger the population tested, the more accurate the information.

The participants should be chosen randomly.

What are applied fields of psychology?

industrial, community, forensic, health, rehabilitation, cross-cultural, organizational

What are the 2 goals of psychology?

Scientists seek to observe, describe, explain, predict, and control events that they study

Predicting and controlling

Central Nervous System

The part of the nervous system that consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Endocrine system

The glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Hormones

The chemicals produced by the endocrine glands that regulate specific body functions.

Neurons

a nerve cell; The basic building block of the nervous system.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messenger that carries impulses across the synaptic gaps between neurons.

Hypothalamus

The neural structure located below the thalamus that controls temperature, hunger, thirst, and various aspects of emotion.

Cerebral cortex

The bumpy, convoluted surface of the brain.The body's control and information processing center.

Lobes of the brain

frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal

What are the components of the nervous system?

The brain, spinal cord, and network of nerves throughout the body.

Psychiatric disorders are thought to the result of what?

abnormal chemical transmissions in the brain

What brain structure connects the two hemispheres of the cerebrum?

corpus callosum

This gland is sometimes called the "master gland" because it produces hormones that control other glands in the endocrine system.

pituitary

What causes Psychosocial Dwarfism?

deprivation, emotional stress and/or neglect

Explain how nerve cells communicate with each other.

by releasing specific molecules in the gap between them, the synapses. The sending neuron passes on messages through packets of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which are picked up by the receiving cell with the help of receptors on its surface.

Law of Closure

The tendency to perceive a complete or whole figure even when there are gaps in sensory information

Law of Proximity

the perceptual tendency to group together Visual and auditory events that are near each other

Law of Continuation

the perceptual tendency to group stimuli into continuous patterns

Color constancy

our ability to perceive colors as relatively constant over varying illuminations

Size constancy

the fact that our peceptions of the size of objects are relatively constant despite the fact that the size of objects on the retina vary greatly with distance.

Brightness constancy

the tendency to perceive a familiar object as having the same brightness under different conditions of illumination.

Shape constancy

the phenomenon in which the perception of the shape of a given object remains constant despite changes in the shape of the object's retinal image.

What is perception?

the psychological process of organizing and interpreting sensory stimulation

What are illusions?

a discrepancy between one's awareness and some stimulus.

Why is there no absolute way to perceive the world?

people perceive the world in different ways- colorblindness, hallucinations, deafness, and other differences cause different intake of the world

Meditation

a systematic narrowing of attention that slows the metabolism and helps produce feelings of relaxation

Biofeedback

a system for monitoring and feeding back information about certain biological processes, such as blood pressure

Hypnosis

a prediction or assumption about behavior that is tested through scientific research

Depressants

a drug that reduces neural activity and slows body functions

Stimulants

a drug that increases neural activity and speeds up body functions

Consciousness

awareness of oneself and one's environment

What does the term "unconscious" mean?

according to Freud, a reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories of which we are unaware but which influences our behavior

What is "circadian rhythm"?

a regular sequence of biological processes, such as temperature and sleep, that occurs every 24 hours

What are some examples of depressants?

alcohol, opioids, sleeping pills, barbiturates

Which drug slows the activity of the nervous system?

depressants

Which drugs increase the activity of the nervous system?

stimulants

What is a "biological clock"?

organisms' natural timing devices, regulating the cycle of circadian rhythms.

Name 5 altered states of consciousness.

dreams

hypnosis

daydreaming

meditation

hallucination

Name 5 of the sleep disorders.

sleep apnea

night terrors

narcolepsy

sleep paralysis

insomnia

Conditioning

A type of learning that involves stimulus-response connections, in which the response is conditioned on the stimulus.

Primary reinforcers

Stimuli, such as food or warmth, that have reinforcement value without learning.

Secondary reinforcers

Stimuli, that increases the probability of a response because of their association with a primary reinforcer.

Continuous reinforcement

The reinforcement of a desired response every time it occurs.

Partial reinforcement

A type of conditioned learning in which only some of the responses are reinforced.

Operant conditioning

Learning that is strengthened when behavior is followed by positive reinforcement.

In learning theory, what does "association" mean?

learning about the relationship between two separate stimuli

What is meant by "classical conditioning"?

Classical conditioning teaches the association of one stimulus with another. Because of it, the response to one stimulus is made in response to another stimulus.

What term means "the process of thinking, memory formation, learning, and problem solving, among others"?

cognition

What term refers to an event that encourages or discourages repetition of a behavior?

reinforcers

What is a stimulus?

an event or object that is linked to some action or behavior to encourage or discourage it

Give an example of negative reinforcement and punishment.

An example of negative reinforcement is when we get too cold outside, we either go inside or find a way to warm up (such as a jacket). An example of a punishment would be when a student gets in a fight, they get suspended for a short time.

Explain Pavlov's experiment with the dogs. What are the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR?

Pavlov studied dogs' salivation when eating food. He measured their saliva when eating. He tracked when salivation began, and found it was when they recognized the person with food's footsteps coming. He then tried using bells to signal that food was coming to the dogs. The unconditioned stimulus was the food, the unconditioned response was the salivation, the conditioned stimulus was the bell, and the conditioned response was the salivation associated with the bell.

Psychological disorder

A behavior pattern or mental process that causes serious personal suffering or interferes with a person's ability to cope with everyday life

Phobia

An excessive or irrational fear out of proportion to the actual danger.