midterm review - ap psych

What are the three key elements of the scientific attitude?

Curiosity (does it work?)

Skepticism (how do you know)

Humility (people and others don’t always behave as our ideas predict)

Critical Thinking

thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions… rather, it examines assumptions, appraises, the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence and assesses conclusions.

Empiricism

the idea that knowledge comes from experience and that observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge

Structuralism

an early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind

Introspection

the process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe one’s own psychological processes

Functionalism

an early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

Behaviorism

the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes..

Humanistic Psychology

a historically significant perspective that emphasized human growth potential

Cognitive Psychology

psychological perspective concerned with how we receive, store and process information; think/reason; and use language

Psychology

science of behavior and mental processes

Natural Selection

favored behaviors that contributed to survival and spread of our ancestors’ gene

Evolutionary Psychology

psychological perspective concerned with how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and spread of our ancestors’ genes

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_______ psychologists take a Darwinian approach to the study of human behavior

Behavior Genetics

study of relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

Biopsychosocial Approach

an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural viewpoints

Behavioral Psychology

scientific study of observable behavior and its explanation by principles of learning

Biological Psychology

psychological perspective concerned with physiological and biochemical factors that determine behavior and mental processes

Psychodynamic psychology

psychological perspective concerned with physiological and biochemical factors that determine behavior and mental processes

Social-Cultural Approach

psychological perspective concerned with how cultural differences affect behavior

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply rereading information

SQ3R

Survey

Question

Read

Retrieve

Review

Psychometrics

the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits

Developmental (Developmental) Psychology

study psychological development throughout the lifespan; study how people develop intellectually, socially, emotionally, and morally; some specialize in one period of life - such as adolescents or geriatric

Educational Psychology

focus on how effective teaching and learning take place; concerned with how humans learn and study the various aspects of learning, with the goal to produce materials and strategies to assist and enhance the learning process

Industrial-Organizational psychologists

aim to improve productivity and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and methods to the workplace; focus on the management of organizational efficiency through the proper use of human resources

Counseling psychologists

help people adapt to change or make changes in their lifestyle; much like clinical psychologists but focus more on modifying a person’s behavior and lifestyle rather than those with psychological disorders

Neuropsychologists

explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior; also called biological psychologists or biopsychologists, behavioral geneticists, physiological psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists

Hindsight Bias

the tendency upon hearing about research finding (and many other things) to thinking that one knew it all along

Experimenter Bias

 a phenomenon that occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained

Demand Characteristics

clues participants discover about the purpose of the study that suggest how they should respond

Operational Defintion

a description of the specific procedure used to determine the presence of a variable

Replication

repetition of the methods used in a previous experiment to see whether the same methods will yield the same results

Case Study

descriptive technique in which one individual or group is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

Naturalistic Observation

descriptive technique of observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate or control situation

Sampling bias vs Random bias

sampling produces an unrepresentative sample whereas random bias fairly represents a population as every member had an equal chance of inclusion

Correlation Co-efficent

a statistical measure of the degree of relatedness or association between two sets of data that ranges from -1 to +1

Correlation

a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together ad tus of how well either factor predicts the other

Statistical Significance

how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance; statistical significance indicates a high probability that the independent variable caused the change in the dependent variable; it does NOT refer to how important the results are

Random Assignment

P-Value must be ____ for statistical significance to exist…

equal to or less than 0.5…

the lower the p-value, the more significant the results and the less likely they are caused by chance

Confounding Variable

factors other than the independent variable that may cause a result. Confounds often arise due to differences between the groups that exist before the independent variable is imposed!

Independent Variable

the factor the researcher manipulates in a controlled experiment (the cause)

Dependent Variable

the behavior or mental process that is measured in an experiment or quasi-experiment (the effect)

Correlational

___ research can indicate if there is a relationship or association between two variables but cannot demonstrate cause and effect

Standard Deviation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

Quasi-experiment

measurement of DV when random assignment to groups is not possible

Longitudinal Method

group of participants are observed at intervals over an extended period of time

Cross-Sectional Method

researchers compare differences and similarities among people in different age groups at a given time

APA Ethics Code

Informed consent, deception, protection from harm, freedom for coercion, privacy, debriefing, humane treatment of animals

Mary Whiton Calkins

First elected female president of the APA and studied psychology under William James

Darwin

Theory of evolution and his ideas of “natural selection” continue to influence the modern evolutionary perspective

Dorothea Dix

American activist who successfully pressured lawmakers to construct & fund asylums for the mentally ill

Freud

“Father of Psychoanalysis”

Carl

humanistic psychologist

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“Self-concept” is the cornerstone for personality

People are motivated to achieve their full potential (self-actualize)

Jean Piaget

studied cognitive development in children

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“Stage Theory of Development” describes how infants, children, and adolescents use different cognitive abilities

Wundt

founder of scientific psychology in Leipzig, Germany; studied consciousness using INTROSPECTION

Watson

Early American psychologist who focused on “observable behaviors” rather than subjective mental processes and one of the founders of behaviorism

Ivan Pavlov

* Russian physiologist
* 532 experiments devoted to studying and formulating the principles of “classical learning”
* ____’s dogs

Neuron

a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

Cell Body (SOMA)

Contains the nucleus and produces energy for the neuron

Dendrites

Receive chemical messages via neurotransmitters from other neurons and transports them to the cell body of the neuron

Axon

Sends the electrical message (ACTION POTENTIAL) away from the cell body of the neuron

Myelin Sheath

Fatty substance produced by glial cells that provides insulation and increases the SPEED of the electrical message (action potential)

Glial Cell

cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neuron; they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory

in transmitting sensory information to the brain, an electrical signals from the _____ of a single neuron

dendrites to the cell body to the axon

Threshold

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

Refractory Period

in neural processing, a brief resting pause that occurs after a neuron has fired; subsequent action potentials cannot occur until the axon returns to its resting state

Synapse

Extremely narrow space between the terminal button of the sending neuron and the receptor site of the receiving dendrite… where neurotransmission is located

Neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons

Reuptake

a neurotransmitter’s reabsorption by the sending neuron

ACh (Acetylcholine)

enables muscle action, learning, and memory

malfunction = alzheimer’s

Dopamine

influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion

malfunction: oversupply = schizophrenia

undersupply = tremors

Serotonin

affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal

malfunction: undersupply = depression

norephinephrine

helps control alertness and arousal

malfunction: undersupply = depress mood

GABA

a major inhibitory neurotransmitter

malfunction: undersupply = seizures

glutamate

major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory

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malfunction: oversupply = migraines or seizures

endorphins

neurotransmitters that influence the perception of pain or pleasure

malfunction: oversupply w/ opiate suppresses this neurotransmitter

Agonist

drugs that work by either blocking reuptake or mimicking the natural neurotransmitters by fitting into receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron

Antagonist

drugs that work by occupying receptor sites on the postsynaptic neuron and block the impact of neurotransmitters

Nervous System

manages and directs all the voluntary and involuntary actions that we make, as well as our thoughts

Central nervous system

brain and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

sensory and motor neurons that connect to CNS to rest of body

Sensory (AFFERENT) Neurons

neurons that carry incoming information from the body’s tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

Motor (EFFERENT) Neurons

neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

interneurons

relay neurons, or connectors, allowing for information to pass between neurons.

Somatic Nervous System

division of the peripheral nervous system that controls BODY’S SKELETAL muscles

Autonomic Nervous system

division of the peripheral nervous system that controls GLANDS and the MUSCLES of INTERNAL ORGANS

Sympathetic Nervous System

division of the autonomic nervous system that AROUSES body and mobilizes energy…SPEEDS UP HEARTBEAT

Parasympathetic Nervous System

division of the autonomic nervous system that CALMS the body, conserving its energy… PROMOTES DIGESTION

Endocrine System

body’s communication system (set of GLANDSa that secrete hormones into the bloodstream)

Adrenal Gland

controlled by the sympathetic nervous system’s flight-or-fight reaction, which increases heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels to respond to a threat.

Pituitary Gland

under influence of HYPOTHALAMUS, regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

EEG

measures electrical activity of the neurons below the electrodes placed on the scalp and is often used to show brain wave patterns of electrical activity during sleep stages and seizures

MEG

brain imaging technique that measures magnetic fields from the brain’s natural electrical activity

CT

series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice of brain’s structure

PET

visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of GLUCOSE goes while brain performs a given task

MRI

uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissues…shows BRAIN anatomy

fMRI

revealing BLOODFLOW and brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans.. show brain structure as well

Brainstem

OLDEST part and central core of brain and is responsible for automatic survival functions

Medulla

base of brainstem and controls heartbeat and breathing

Thalamus

brain’s sensory control center; all senses except for SMELL to specific brain areas