Psychology - Ch. 1-3

What is the nature/nurture debate in psychology?

Whether psychological characteristics are biologically innate or they are acquired through education, experience, and culture

How do modern psychologists view the nature/nurture debate?

As a mixture of both factors

What is pseudo-science?

Claims presented as evidence that are not supported by evidence obtained with the scientific method

What is an amiable skeptic?

Remains open to new ideas, but remains wary, systematically questioning & evaluating information

What’s the scientific method?

The procedures by which scientists conduct research

What’s a theory and hypothesis?

A specific, informed, and testable predication that is falsifiable & parsimonious

What does it mean if a theory/hypothesis is parsimonious and replicable?

It has the simplest explanation with the least amount of assumptions that need to be made to come to that conclusion

What is a variable?

A characteristic that changes or “varies” (measured & manipulated by the psychologist)

What is a population & what samples might a psychologist employ for their research?

A population is the group of people we want to study

A convenience sample is a group chosen because it can be easily studied

A representative sample is one that sufficiently resembles the entire population from which we wish to generalize our results

A random sample is one in which every individual in the population has the same chance of being selected

What is descriptive research?

Observes behavior to describe that behavior objectively & systematically

What types of descriptive studies are there?

Case study - psychologist observes one person (or group) intensely over a long period of time

Naturalistic observation - researcher unobtrusively observes & records behavior in the real world

Qualitative research - data gathered from open-ended & unstructured answers, rather than quantitative or numeric answers

Survey research - collects information using any kind of numeric and quantifiable scale, often with limited response options

Why might a psychologist use a correlational research approach? What does a correlation tell us?

Examines how variables are naturally related in the real world (is there an association between variables?)

What are the differences among a positive, negative, and zero correlation?

Positive - variables increase together

Negative - one variable increases when another decreases

Zero - no pattern

What is an experiment?

Tests causal hypotheses by measuring & manipulating variables

(Independent variable - manipulated; Dependent variable - measured)

A true experiment will use random assignment to groups

What is a quasi-experiment?

Cannot use random assignment for a variable

What are the main branches/divisions of the nervous system?

Central nervous system (CNS)

Peripheral nervous system (PNS) - Somatic (arousing) & Parasympathetic (calming)

What roles do the main branches/divisions of the nervous system play in behavior?

CNS - Brain & spinal cord

PNS - Penetrates the entire body

—Contains the Sympathetic (fight or flight) & Parasympathetic (calming) nervous systems

What is the Neuron Doctrine?

The nervous system is not random; it follows consistent & predictable communication

Describe the functions of glia (glial cells).

Provide structure, support, & protection

Regulate chemicals

Aid communication

“Repar” damage

What are the main structures of the neuron and how do they contribute to neural communication?

Dendrites - receive information

Soma/cell body - contains nucleus, ribosomes, etc.; integrate information from dendrites

Axon - covered by myelin sheath; speed up & facilitate communication

Axon terminal / Terminal button - electrochemical communication

How do neurons communicate within themselves and between neurons?

Within themselves - electrically

Between each other - chemically, via neurotransmitters

What is membrane polarization and how does it contribute to neural communication?

Resting membrane potential for a live neuron is 70mV

Depolarization = getting closer to zero

Hyperpolarization = getting further away from zero

What are key regions located in the central nervous system?

Parietal lobe; frontal lobe; occipital lobe; temporal lobe

Hind brain (brain stem/medulla, pons, cerebellum, mid-brain)

Fore-brain (hypothalamus, cingulate gyrus, thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus)

What are the functions of the lobes located in the central nervous system?

Parietal - sensation & perception of touch

Frontal - personality, decision making, higher cognition, & planning

Occipital - processing vision

Temporal - memory & hearing; perception/generation of language

What are the functions of the hind brain structures located in the central nervous system?

Brain stem/medulla

Pons - regulates breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, internal functions, reflexes; transports information

Cerebellum - body movement, balance, coordination, fine-tuning of motor skills & some cognitive abilities

Mid-brain

What are the functions of the fore-brain structures located in the central nervous system?

Hypothalamus - regulates almost all of our major drives & motivations (ex. hunger & thirst); controls the pituitary gland; biological clock

Cingulate gyrus

Thalamus - majority of our sense; sensory information

Amygdala - fight/flight response; emotional responses (negative); recognize emotions of others

Hippocampus - long-term memory; explicit memory (not motor memory); recalling information

What creates the resting membrane potential?

An uneven distribution of sodium (Na) & potassium (K)

More potassium inside of the cell; more sodium outside of the cell

How does the action potential allow a neuron to talk to itself?

Sodium goes into the cell & potassium goes out, all the way down the axon

Why is the myelin sheath important for neuronal communication & what happens to it in multiple scelerosis?

It covers the axon & speeds up communication dramatically because it allows the action potential to travel extremely quickly by skipping down the axon

In multiple sclerosis, the immune system attacks the myelin sheath & disrupts neural communication by stripping it away

What are the processes that lead to neurotransmitter release?

Action potential reaches the terminal buttons

Which are the important neurotransmitters and how do they contribute to behavior?

Acetylcholine (Ach) - slows ANS activity; eating, drinking, & neuromuscular junction; involved in learning, memory, sleeping, & dreaming

Dopamine - arousal, mood; voluntary muscle control; correlates with schizophrenia

Epinephrine - increases ANS activity; fight-or-flight response

Norepinephrine - affects CNS activity; increases alertness & attention

Serotonin - mood, sleep, eating, temperature regulation; correlates with anxiety & depression

GABA - inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain; slows CNS function; correlates with anxiety & intoxication

Glutamate - excitatory neurotransmitter; learning & memory; correlates with schizophrenia

Neuropeptides - small strings of amino acids

What are the symptoms of and treatments for Parkinson’s disease?

Slow movements, stiffness, tremors, & balance issues

Dopamine replacement & therapy

How do drugs change neurotransmitter communication?

Disrupting normal communication & therefore changing behavior

How do we study the living human brain? What are the different approaches?

Electroencephalograph (EEG) - measures the brain’s electrical activity; patterns in neuron communication & frequency

Positron emission tomography (PET) - scans the brain’s metabolic activity (injected with radioactive glucose)

Functional magnetic resonance imagine (fMRI) - assess the blood’s oxygen level in the brain (moment-to-moment data)

What is the corpus callosum?

An optic chiasm that connects visual fields & hemispheres; contains a large amount of myelinated axons

What do we observe in an individual with split brain?

Makes it difficult to interpret information correctly because the hemispheres aren’t connected to each other (left - language & interpretation; right - visual information)