Psychology 101 Final Exam Study Guide

Flashcards for vocabulary review.

Operational definition

Specific, clear description of how something is measured in a study

Case study

In depth study of one person or small group often unique or rare

Survey

Asking many people the same questions to collect data

Observation

Watching people or animals in their natural environment without interfering

Correlational method

Looking for relationships between two variables, without changing anything

Experimental method

The researcher manipulates one variable to see if it affects another

Random sampling

A way of picking participants where everyone in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Positive correlation

As one thing increases, the other increases

Negative correlation

As one thing decreases, the other decreases

Random assignment

After picking participants, randomly placing them into groups

Independent Variable (IV)

The thing that the researcher changes

Dependent Variable (DV)

Outcome you’re measuring in an experiment

Experimental control

Keeping all factors constant so only the IV is affecting the DV

Confound (confounding variable)

An outside variable

Generalizability

How well the results of a study apply to other people or situations outside the study

Myelin sheath

A fatty coating around some neurons that help messages travel faster

Action potential

The electrical signal that travels down a neuron when it fires

Synapse

The tiny gap between two neurons where messages are passed chemically

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that carry signals across the synapse

Endorphins

Reduce pain and boost pleasure (natural painkiller)

Dopamine

Affects reward, motivation, and movement

Serotonin

Helps regulate mood, sleep, and hunger

Epinephrine

Involved in stress response - increases heart rate and energy

Agonists

Drugs that mimic neurotransmitters

Antagonists

Drugs that block neurotransmitters

Sympathetic nervous system

Activates the fight or flight response (heart races, pupils widen)

Parasympathetic nervous system

Calms the body down (rest and digest system)

Endocrine system

The body’s slow chemical system, using hormones to send messages through the blood

Pituitary gland

The master gland - controls other glands and growth

Adrenal glands

Releases stress hormone like adrenaline

EEG (Electroencephalogram)

Measures brain waves using sensors on the head

fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

Shows brain activity by tracking blood flow

Brainstem

Controls basic life functions like breathing and heartbeat

Amygdala

Involved in emotion, especially fear and aggression

Hippocampus

Helps form new memories

Frontal lobe

Controls thinking, planning, and movement

Parietal lobe

Processes touch and body position

Temporal lobe

Handles hearing and language

Occipital lobe

Handles vision

Mirror neurons

Brain cells that fire when you do something or see someone else do it

Somatosensory cortex

Processes touch and body sensations

Motor cortex

Sends signals to move your muscles

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change and adapt

Inattentional blindness

Not noticing something right in front of you because you’re focused on something else

Change blindness

Failing to notice when something changes in a scene

SCN (Suprachiasmatic Nucleus)

The lights internal clock

REM sleep

The dreaming stage of sleep (body is paralyzed)

Stage 1 N-REM sleep

Light sleep

Stage 2 N-REM sleep

deeper sleep, body slows down

Stage 3 N-REM sleep

Deepest sleep, body repairs and growth hormone is released

Piaget’s approach to cognitive development

Children make constant mental adaptations to new observations and experiences

Assimilation

Fitting new information into present system of knowledge

Accommodation

As a result of new information change existing schema

Sensorimotor stage

Birth to 2 years (looking, sucking, touching)

Preoperational stage

Age 2-7 years - (children use words, images, and objects to represent things that are not physically present

Concrete operations stage

7-11 (can understand conservation, reversibility, and transitivity)

Formal operations stage

Age 11 to childhood (abstract and systematic reasoning/thinking about future possibilities)

Object permanence

Understanding that something continues to exist even when it cannot be seen

Egocentrism

Only using own frame of reference

Conservation

Understanding that physical properties do not change when appearance changes

Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development

Cognitive development results from guidance

Zone of proximal development

Level at which a child can perform a task independently

Scaffolding

Teacher adjusts amount of support to childs level of development

Theory of mind

Understanding how other people think

Erik Erikson’s stage theory of social development

Changes in interpersonal thought, feeling and behavior

Trust vs. mistrust

Babies learn if they can trust ppl to take care of them

Autonomy vs. shame/doubt

Little kids learn they can do things by themselves or they doubt their ability if they try

Initiative vs. guilt

Kids try new things. They either feel good about trying or guilty for messing up

Industry vs. inferiority

Kids work hard at school and activities they either feel proud or that they are not good enough

Identity vs. role confusion

Teens figure out “who am I” or feel very confused about it

Intimacy vs. isolation

Young adults try to form close friendships and relationships

Generativity vs. stagnation

Grown-ups want to help the next generation like mentoring kids or they feel stuck and selfish

Integrity vs. despair

Older people look back on life feeling proud of full of regret

Harlow’s studies of infant attachment

Love and comfort are just as important as food when growing up

Secure attachment

Baby gets upset when mom is gone but happy when she comes back

Insecure avoidant attachment

Baby doesn’t care much when mom leaves and doesn’t get excited upon her return

Insecure-anxious attachment

Baby is super upset when mom leaves and even when she comes back

Authoritarian parenting style

Very strict, lots of rules not much warmth

Permissive parenting style

Super easygoing, lots of love, not many rules

Uninvolved parenting style

Hardly pays attention not much love and no rules

Authoritative parenting style

Fair and caring

Preconventional moral development

You deo good things you get rewards and avoid punishment

Conventional moral development

You follow rules because its important to fit in and be seen as good

Post conventional moral development

You do whats right based on big ideas like fairness, even if it breaks the rules

Delay of gratification

Waiting for somethings better instead of grabbing what you want right away

Bottom-up processing

When your senses notice stuff first then your brain figures out what it is

Top-down processing

When your brain guesses what something is based on what it already knows

Absolute thresholds

The tiniest amount of something you can sense

Difference thresholds (the jnd)

The smallest change you can notice

Signal detection theory

Sensing things is tricky - you have to notice a real signal and ignore the noise

Sensory adaptation

When you get used to a smell or sound and stop noticing it

Gestalt approach

Your brain likes to see the whole picture instead of just little pieces

Perceptual constancy

Even when something looks different you know its the same thing

Classical conditioning

Learning by linking things together

Unconditioned response

The natural reaction

Unconditioned stimulus

The thing that naturally causes a reaction

Conditioned response

The new reaction to the new thing

Conditioned stimulus

A new thing that gets linked to the US

Generalization in classical conditioning

Reacting the same to things that are similar

Discrimination in classical conditioning

Learning the difference between similar things