Intro to Psychology Final Exam

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes for a psychology exam.

Psychology

The science of behavior and mental processes.

Rationalism

The belief that all knowledge is innate and present from birth.

Empiricism

The idea that knowledge comes from experience and observation.

Tabula Rasa

John Locke's concept of the 'blank state,' suggesting the mind is a blank slate at birth.

Abnormal Psychology

The field of psychology that deals with psychopathology and abnormal behavior.

Biopsychology

The field of psychology that analyzes how the brain and neurotransmitters influence our behaviors, thoughts, and feelings.

Clinical Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric problems.

Cognitive Psychology

The branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn.

Comparative Psychology

The branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior.

Counseling Psychology

Focuses on providing therapeutic treatments to clients who experience a wide variety of symptoms.

Developmental Psychology

The field of psychology that looks at development throughout the lifespan, from childhood to adulthood.

Educational Psychology

Involves the study of how people learn, including topics such as student outcomes and learning disabilities.

Experimental Psychology

An area of psychology that utilizes the scientific methods to research the mind and behavior.

Forensic Psychology

The intersection of psychology and the law.

Health Psychology

The field of health psychology is focused on promoting health as well as the prevention and treatment of disease and illness.

Human Factors Psychology

An area of psychology that focuses on a range of different topics, including ergonomics and workplace safety.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

A field of psychology that applies psychological theories and principles to organizations.

Personality Psychology

Looks at the patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behavior that make a person unique.

Social Psychology

The study of how we link, feel, and act when in the presence of others, whether they are real or imagined.

Sports Psychology

The study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise and physical activity.

Scientific Method

A way to ask and answer scientific questions by making observations and doing experiments.

Empirical Research

Research gained from experimentation or observation.

Qualitative Research

Gathers information that is not in numerical form.

Quantitative Research

Gathers data in numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement.

Independent Variable

The variable that is manipulated by the researcher.

Dependent Variable

The result of the change made by the researcher; it depends on the independent variable.

Descriptive/Observational Research

Centered around observing human behavior to determine trends and characteristics of a selected population.

Correlation Research

Research done to show a statistical relationship between two variables.

Classical Conditioning

People and animals will associate events with each other if they continue to repeatedly happen at the same time.

Bystander Effect

People are less likely to help another person in need if others are present in the area.

Obedience to Authority

If an authority figure asks an ordinary person to do a task, then the person will complete the task even if it is dangerous.

Conformity

People will purposely choose the incorrect answer to be in agreement with the group even though the group's answer is clearly wrong.

False Consensus

Humans tend to believe that the majority of population have the same opinions, beliefs, an behaviors as themselves.

Cognitive Dissonance

When something contradicts someone's personal beliefs, they may feel uneasy and attempt to make the beliefs and habits more consistent.

Wilhelm Wundt

The Father of Modern Psychology.

Structuralism

The school of psychology founded by Wundt, the process of organizing the mind.

Functionalism

Sought casual relationships between internal states and external behaviors.

Emotion

A subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states.

Feelings

Best understood as a subjective representation of emotions, private to the individual experiencing them.

Moods

Diffuse affective states that generally last for much longer durations than emotions and are also usually less intense than emotions.

Affect

Encompassing term used to describe the topics of emotion, feelings, and moods together.

Cognitive Appraisal

One of the five crucial elements to experience emotion.

Bodily Symptoms

One of the five crucial elements to experience emotion.

Action Tendencies

One of the five crucial elements to experience emotion.

Expression

One of the five crucial elements to experience emotion.

Feelings

One of the five crucial elements to experience emotion.

James-Lange Theory

An event causes physiological arousal first and then we interpret this arousal.

Cannon-Bard Theory

Arousal and emotions, happen at the same time without thinking.

Schachter-Singer Theory

An event causes arousal first, then you identify a reason, then you experience emotion.

Lazarus Theory

Thought first, then emotion of arousal comes secondly.

Facial Feedback Theory

Changes in our facial muscles that cue our brains and provide the basis of our emotions.

Mary Whiton Calkins

First women president of the APA who studied dreams scientifically.

Dream Journal

A journal where the keeper records every dream, in every rememberable detail, for weeks at a time.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

Dreams are the brains attempt to synthesize random neural activity.

Neurons

Nerve cells that send messages to other neurons and then to the brain.

Cell body

Part of the neuron that contains the cell's life support.

Dendrites

A neuron’s often bushy, branching extensions that receive and integrate messages.

Axon

The neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles and glands.

Myelin Sheath

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons, enables vastly greater transmission speed.

Action Potential

A neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon.

Synapse

A junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron.

Synaptic Gap

The space between neurons at a nerve synapse across which a nerve impulse is transmitted by a neurotransmitter.

All-or-None Response

A neuron’s reaction if either firing or not firing.

Presynaptic Neuron

The sending neuron.

Postsynaptic Neuron

The receiving neuron.

Neurotransmitter

A chemical messenger that cross the synaptic gap between neurons.

Broca's Area

A specific area in the left frontal lobe that governs our ability to produce meaningful sounds.

Broca's Aphasia

Damage to the left frontal lobe, Broca’s area.

Wernicke's Area

The place in the brain the deals with language comprehension.

Wernicke's Aphasia

The inability to comprehend spoken language, while still being able to comprehend written language.

Cerebral Cortex

The outermost layer of the brain that gives the brain its characteristic wrinkly appearance.

Corpus Callosum

Connects the two cerebral hemispheres.

Frontal Lobe

Where higher executive functions including emotional regulation, planning, reasoning and problem solving occur.

Parietal Lobe

Responsible for integrating sensory information, including touch, temperature, pressure, and pain.

Temporal Lobe

Contains regions dedicated to processing sensory information, particularly important for hearing, recognizing language, and forming memories.

Occipital Lobe

A major visual processing centre in the brain.

Motor Cortex

The region of the cerebral cortex involved in the planning, control, and execution of voluntary movements.

Psychological Disorder

A syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognitions, emotion, regulation, or behavior

Medical Model

The concept that diseases, in this case psychological disorders, have physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and in most cases, cured, often through treatment in the hospital.

Biopsychosocial Approach

The concept that the mind and body are inseparable, thus, disorders reflect genetic predispositions, psychological states, inner psychological dynamics, and social and cultural circumstances.

Stress Vulnerability Model

The idea that individual characteristics combine with environmental stressors to increase or decrease the likelihood of developing a psychological disorder.

Epigenetics

The study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

DSM-5

Is the most common tool for diagnosing psychological disorders is the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, fifth edition

Schizophrenia

A disorder characterized by delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and/or diminished, inappropriate emotional expression.

Psychotic Disorder

A group of disorders marked by irrational ideas, distorted perceptions, and a loss of contact with reality.

Positive Symptoms

Inappropriate behaviors are present.

Negative Symptoms

Appropriate behaviors are absent.

Hallucinations

False sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of external visual stimulus.

Delusions

False beliefs, often of grandeur and persecution, that may accompany psychotic disorders.

Selective Attention

People with schizophrenia have a difficulty with selective attention, they are often easily distracted by minor details or thoughts.

Word Salad

Jumbled ideas in the person’s head often come out of their mouths still jumbled.

Impaired Theory of Mind

They have difficulty perceiving facial expressions and reading others’ state of mind.

Catatonia

Motor behaviors ranging from a physical stupor to senseless compulsive actions, to severe and dangerous agitation.

Antipsychotic Drugs

Medical treatments that block the dopamine receptors.

Rationalist

Someone who uses logic to conclude that we are born with the knowledge we will acquire.

Empiricist

Someone who believes we acquire knowledge through the sensing of stimuli.

Reductionism

Believing consciousness could be broken down to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole.

Frontotemporal Dementia

A common cause of dementia and a type of the more general frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Gyri

A ridge on the cerebral cortex.

Sulci

A groove on the cerebral cortex.