AP Psychology Unit 1 Quiz (

Excluding parts of the brain

What is Psychology

The scientific study of the mind and behavior

Evolutionary Psychology

Theory of Evolution : evolve certain characteristics to help the species survive, thrive, reproduce

Heredity

Mostly known as nature (biological)

Enviornment

Mostly known as nurture (surroundings)

Authoritarian Parenting

High expectations on children, rigid rules, no explanation

Permissive Parenting

Warm and nurturing, minimal expectations

Authoritative Parenting

Nurturing and supporting, yet sets firm limits for children

Neglectful Parenting

Lack of parental interest, lack of responsiveness

Epigenetics

environmental pressures can change the activity of ones genes (not the structure)

[changes can change metabolic processes and behavior. is NOT passed on to next generations]

Polygenetic

many genes

Diathesis

related to psychological disorders, many disorders might have genetic predisposition with enviornmental trigger

Maturationism

related to devlopment; all children follow the same pattern: sit up, crawl, walk. Genetic. When they do is influenced by their enviornment

Plasticity

the brain changes and arranges itself on the cellular level in response to what is going on in the environment

Epigenetics

Genes turn on or off, slow changes, important for the benefits of the species

Plasticity

brain structure changes, quickly changes, flexible brains are important

Nervous System

Our body’s speedy, electrochemical messaging system (splits to CNS and PNS)

CNS

brain and spinal cord (send messages quickly)

Reflex

automatic response created by a signal neural pathway in spinal cord

Spinal Cord

highway connecting the PNS and brain

PNS

All nerves and sensory structures outside of CNS (splits into somatic and autonomic)

Somatic Nervous

in charge of controlling voluntary movements

Autonomic Nervous

Controls all automatic functions in internal organs (heart, lungs, fight or flight) [broken down furhter into sympathetic and parasympathetic]

Sympathetic Nervous

our arousal :: fight or flight

Parasympathetic Nervous

returns us to a calm and neutral state :: rest and digest

Theory

Explanation of a phenomenon

Hypothesis

Explanation of relationship, testable

Opperational Definition

Precise parameters or qualification

Reliability

consistency

validity

accuracy

Replication

repeating of a study, considered scientific

Case study

small population, in depth, unique

PROS : details of subjects, unique situtation, unethical

CONS: no correlational data, no generalizability, time consuming

Survey

Questionnaires

PROS: type of data, inexpensive, simple, amount

CONS: cooperation, wording, self reporting (bias)

Naturalistic Observation

observing subjects in natural envriornment

PROS: natural enviornment, no hawthorn effect
CONS: no manipulation, no cause n effect

Hawthorne Effect

peoples ability to act differently when they are aware of being observed

Neurons

bodys nerve cell which makes up the nervous system

Action potential

“firing” of communication; a rapid electrical impulse that traveles along acon of neuron ; transmits a signal to other neurons

Repolarization

the process by which the cells membrane potential returns to its resting state

Refractory Period

the time following an action potential during which the neuron is unable to fire another action potential

Dendrite

Recieves information and transfers it to the cell body

Cell Body

the neurons support center

Axon

Passes messages to its terminal branches. The neural impulse goes through the axon and is an electrical signal

Myelin Sheath

A layer of tissue that covers the axon and speeds up neural impulses. No mylein = loss of muscle control

The Axon’s Terminal Branches

Pass on chemical messanges to other cells and parts of the body

DO NOT assist in the processing of information

Glial Cells

most abundent cells in the body. protects and provides nutrients for neurons

Soma

Cell body, contains the nucleus and other structures (help maintain health of neuron)

Axon

Carries information away from cell

Myelin Sheath

covers and protects the axon

Nodes of Ranvier

gaps between meylin sheath (helps promote action potential)

Axon terminal

located at the end of neuron, houses neurotransmitters

Synapse

space between axon terminals and adjunct dendrite

Neurotransmitters

Internal, excitatory, inhibatory

Drugs

external, agonist, antagonist

Excitatory

Neurotransmitter that excite the neuron n fire message

Inhibitory

block or prevent the chemical message from being passed

Agonist

enhances the effects of neurotransmitter

Antagonist

prevents the effect of a neurotransmitter

Reuptake inhibitor

enhances the effects of a neurotransmitter by preventing repuptake

Psychoactive drugs

any substance that alters our perceptions and moods

Tolerance

body becoming used to a substance, need more to reach same high

Depressants

drus that reduce or slow neural activity

Stimulants

excite neural activity and speed up body functions

Nicotine

highly addictive drug in tobacco

Dopamine/Seratonin

calm anxiety and reduce pain

Epinephrine/Norepinephrine

diminish appetite

Hallucinogens

distort perception and evoke snesory images without any sensory input

Split brain

Both hemispheres operate independently from one another :: corpus callosum severed to reduce neural feedbac

Left Hemisphere

• right handed + right side of the body

• spoke/written language

• mathematical and logical thought process, analysis

• reading

Right Hemisphere

• Left handed + left side of body

• nonverbal (visual) perception

• responsible for musical artistic processing

• emotional thought

Circadian Rhythm

Internal clock

• close to 25 hour cycles

• tired/sleepy

• reason for jet lag

  • light causes pineal gland to adjust melatonin production

EEG (electroenphalograms)

Measures brain waves

Beta waves

problem solving, focussed attention, engagement, cognitive thinking (faster)

Alpha waves

Light mediation, relaxation, creativity, information absorption (slower)

Delta waves

deep sleep, healing restoration (much slower)

Theta waves

deep mediatation, rem sleep, dreaming (more than delta, less than alpha)

NREM-1

falling into unconciousness, easily awakened (alpha)

NREM-2

deeper into sleep, bursts of brain activity // sleep spindles (theta)

Sleep splindles

random bursts of brain activity

NREM-3

Deepest sleep; characterized by deep and slow delta waves

REM

dreaming occurs, high brain activity, physical appearence of deep sleep

Narcolepsy

sudden unctrollable sleep attacks

Sleep apnea

stop breathing while asleep, frequently awaken

Night terrors

occur during NREM-3, most common in children, nightmares

Sensation

process where sensory receptors an dbrain interpret the stimulus energy around us from our enviornment

Bottom up processing

starts at sensory receptors, works up to brain (five senses)

Top down processing

constructs perception, interpreting what your senses detect

Sensory adaptation

decreasing responses to a stimulue due to constant stimulation

Sensory habituation

perception of sensation depending on much you focus on it

Vestibular senses

knowing where your body is positioned in relation to space

kinesthetic senses

knowing where your specific body parts are positioned and oriented

Sensory transduction

our sensory systems converting one form of energy into another form of energy

• recieve the sensory info

• transform it into neural impules

• deliver the ingo to our brain to be interpreted

Absolute threshold

the minimum stimulation needed to detect any stimuli 50% of the time (gustav fechner)

Subliminal

stimuli that are below absolute threshold

Signal detection theory

predicts when we detect a faunt stimulus in our surroundings

difference threshold

noticeable difference

Weber’s law

two perceive a different, two stimuli must differ by a constant amount

Energy Senses

• vision (rods, cones)

• hearing (cochlea)

• touch (pain, pressure, texture, temperature)

Chemical senses

• taste (gustation — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami)

• smell (olfacation — smell receptors)

Body Position senses

• vestibular sense (inner ear)

• kinesthetic sense (receptors in muscle and joints)

Proprioception

awareness of where the parts of your body are in relation to space around you

Sensory interaction

where our senses interact with one another and infelucne each other