Psychology 101 Exam 1

Cognitive Metaphor

Brain like a computer

Social Psychology

Influence of real or imagined others influence on the individual

Clinical Psychology

Nature and treatment of psychological processes leading to emotional distress

Theory

Systematic way of organizing and explaining observations

Drawbacks to Naturalistic Observation

researcher bias, only descriptive so we can't know what causes what

Dendrites

receiving end of a neuron

GABA

inhibits neurons; important for anxiety regulation (neurotransmitter)

Pituitary Gland

master gland; releases hormones that stimulate other glands

Thyroid Gland

growth and metabolic hormones

Somatic Nervous System

regulates automatic behaviors; transmits signals to and from the PNS and CNS (nervous system)

Where did psychology branch out from?

Physiology and Philosophy

Functionalism

Focused on the function of the mind in helping people adapt to their environment (not identified with anymore)

Behaviorist Metaphor

People are like machines

Cognitive

Wundt; focuses on how people perceive, process and retrieve information (Perspective)

Personality Psychology

Enduring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior for types of people or individuals (sub-discipline)

Standardized Procedure

doing the same thing with each participant in the same way (e.g. how the procedure is explained)

Face Validity

does it look like it measures what it says it measures (sometimes psychologists want this to be low)

Random Sample

random people from your sample

Mean

average of scores

Hyperpolarization

outflow of K ions making the neuron less likely to fire

Neuroimaging Techniques

PET scans show active parts of brain; fMRI shows the brain as an individual solves tasks

Reticular Formation

sends signals to the CNS (maintains consciousness, regulates arousal and modulates activity of neurons in the CNS)

Amygdala

learning and remembering emotionally significant events; involved in recognizing others emotions

Frontal Lobes

movement, planning, abstract thinking, memory and some aspects of personality (lobe)

Corpus Callosum

connects the two hemispheres of the brain

Psychology

The scientific investigation of mental processes and behavior

Structuralism

Focused on the structure of consciousness and the mind (not identified with anymore)

2 Structuralists

Wundt and Titchener

2 Functionalists

Darwin and James

3 Broad ways of understanding psychological phenomena

Theoretical Propositions, Shared Metaphors, Accepted Methods of Observation

Modern Perspectives

Psychodynamic, Behaviorist, Cognitive, Evolutionary

Psychodynamic

started by Sigmund Freud; case studies, not easy to test or prove because of small sample size

Behaviorist

Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner; mental processes are byproducts of environmental events; experiment

Evolutionary

Darwin; behaviors have come about because they helped our ancestors survive

Evolutionary Metaphor

runners in a race

Biopsychology

Physical bases of psychological phenomena (sub-discipline)

Developmental psychology

How thought, feeling, and behavior develops through life span

Industrial/Organizational Psychology

Human behavior within an organization as well as organizational problems (sub-discipline)

Educational Psychology

Psychological processes in learning environments (sub-discipline)

Health Psychology

Psychological factors involved in health and disease

Cognitive Psychology

Nature of mental process such as thought, memory, language

Variable

changes across circumstance or varies among individuals

Hypothesis

a tentative belief or guess predicting or explaining the relationship between 2 or more variables

Continuous Variable

a variable rated from none to much (amount of variable)

Categorical Variable

a variable rated in groups or categories (definite answers like man/woman)

Population

the group you want to be able to generalize to

Sample

the group participating in the experiment

Generalizability

how much the findings apply to your population

Internal Validity

the methods are valid

External Validity

generalizable outside of the lab

Measure

a concrete way of assessing a variable

Reliability

produces consistent results

Test-Retest Reliability

being able to test the participants again over time and getting the same results

Internal Consistency (or reliability)

do all of the items in a test measure the same thing

Interrater Reliability

do different people rate the behaviors in the same way

Construct Validity

does it measure what it is supposed to

Criterion Validity

does it relate to other measures like it should

Error

the part of a score that is unrelated to the person's true score (some people are more inclined in certain things that could affect the experiment)

Descriptive Research types

Case Studies, Naturalistic Observation, Survey Research and Correlational

Case Study

in depth observation of a small group of participants (useful at beginning or end of a series of quantitative series)

Drawbacks to Case Studies

small sample, not very generalizable, researcher bias

Naturalistic Observation

in depth observation in the participant's natural setting, the researcher can be a covert participant or observer

Survey Research

large sample, uses interviews and questionnaires, focused on an attitude or behavior

Stratified Random Sample

decides how many people from each subgroup of the population there should be

Drawbacks of Survey Research

participants have to report truthfully and accurately

Hawthorne Effect

change in behavior because of the attention of being studied

Median

middle score

Mode

most common score

Range

lowest to highest score

Standard Deviation

amount that the average participant differs from the mean

Correlation

one number that shows the relationship between two variables (what happens to a variable as the other changes

Positive Correlation

variables increase together

Negative Correlation

variables have an inverse relationship

Nervous System

the interacting network of nerve cells that underlies all psychological activity

Neuron

fundamental unit of the nervous system (communicate with chemical and electrical signals)

Sensory (afferent) Neurons

carry information from the sensory cells to the brain

Motor (efferent ) Neurons

carry information from the brain to the muscles and organs

Interneurons

pass information between sensory and motor neurons

Cell Body

neuron part that processes information from dendrites

Axon

sends information out of a neuron

Myelin Sheath

lipid coating from glial cells (neruoglia) that surrounds most axons and enable faster signal transport

Resting Potential

charge when a neuron is not firing, the Na (outside) and K (inside) ions are balanced

Depolarization

influx of Na ions that makes the neuron more likely to fire

Action Potential (nerve impulse)

all or none triggering of nerve that passes along already created information

Neurotransmitter

chemical signal that travels through the synaptic cleft (fits with a particular receptor)

Synaptic Cleft

actual connection point between the axon and next dendrite

Excitatory Signals

increase action potential

Inhibitory Signal

decrease action potential

Glutamate

excites neurons; important in learning (neurotransmitter)

Dopamine

emotional arousal, pleasure, voluntary movement and attention (neurotransmitter)

Serotonin

inhibits neurons; mood, depression, emotional arousal (neurotransmitter)

Acetylcholine

learning and memory (neurotransmitter)

Endorphins

pain relief and elevation of mood (neurotransmitter)

Endocrine System

a collection of glands that secrete hormones into the blood stream (able to simultaneously stimulate numerous cells)

Adrenal Glands

release adrenalin; fight or flight response

Gonads

release hormones for sexual development and behavior

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

made of neurons in the rest of the body that transmit signals to and from the CNS (nervous system)

Autonomic Nervous System

serves internal body structures connected with basic life processes (automatic) (nervous system)

Sympathetic Nervous System

Fight or flight; responds to threats (increases heart rate, stops digestion etc.) (division of the nervous system)