75 terms - UMD Intro Psychology Exam 1

What is Psychology?

The study of mind and behavior.

What is Nativism (Nature)?

Nativism is the theory that knowledge is innate and inborn. Our biological endowment makes up who we are.

What is Empiricism (Nurture)?

Empiricism is the idea that we gain knowledge through experience and surroundings. Our environment makes up who we are.

Plato

He believes in the philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate and inborn (nativism/nature).

Aristotle

He believes in philosophical empiricism which states that knowledge is gained through experience.

Wilhelm Wundt

He believes in the idea of structuralism. Structuralism is when you analyze the brain by breaking it down to its main components.

William James

He believes in the idea of functionalism. Functionalism is when you see how someone functions or adapts to new aspects in their environment.

John Watson

He believed that psychology and the mind was not able to be studied through scientific inquiry. Instead, he was a behaviorist who focused more so the actions of humans to explain their train of thought.

B.F. Skinner

He was another behaviorist that believed in Pavlov's experiments and Watson's theories. He studied how behavior was learned according to circumstance.

Sigmund Freud

He came up with psychoanalytic theory which is very much so used today. Psychoanalysis is the study of unconscious mind and how it affects a person's thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Behaviorism

an approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study objectively observable behavior

Cognitive Psychology

the scientific study of mental processes including perception, thought, memory, and experience

Evolutionary Psychology

a psychological approach that explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection (Influenced by Darwin, James, and EO Wilson)

Humanistic Psychology

an approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings

Social Psychology

A subfield of psychology that studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal studies

Cultural Psychology

Study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members

Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

It became a thing when Max Wertheimer began to study illusions and errors when it came to the mind. He came up with the Gestalt theory that states that we rather perceive the "sum" over the "parts". Kurt Lewin believed that we saw the world as we saw it and not at all how it actually was. The invention of computers made most psychologists ignore this and see psychology objectively.

Operational Definition

It is the description of a property in concrete, measurable terms. For example, you can operationally define happiness as the amount of times that someone smiles.

Dependent variable

A variable whose value depends on another variable

Independent variable

A variable who is manipulated for an experiment, but does not depend on another

Reliability

It is the tendency for an instrument to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.

Power

An instrument's ability to detect change in the property.

Validity

The goodness with which a concrete event defines a property

Demand Characteristics

The aspects of an observational setting that caused people to behave as they think they should

What is a correlation?

They are two variable that are said to be correlated when variation of one variable is synchronized with the variation in the value of another. However, correlation does not equate to causation.

What is the third variable problem (confounding variable)?

It is the chance that two variable are only related because of each are causally related to a third one.

What is observer bias?

Observer bias is expectations can influence observation and influence the perception of reality.

What is a double blind experiment?

In order to avoid observer bias, scientists use a double blind to ensure that the observer and the person being observed are unaware of the experiment.

Mean, Mode, Range?

Mean= Average of data set, Mode= most recurring value, Range= highest value - lowest value

Experimental Group

The group who experience a stimulus

Control Group

The group who does not experience a stimulus

Case study

A method of gathering scientific knowledge through studying an individual.

Nuremberg Code of 1947

The code made after Nazi doctors would perform unethical experiments of people to protect individuals against unjust experimenting.

Informed consent

Participants may not take part in a psychological study without a written agreement to participate in a study by an adult who has been informed of all risks of participation.

No coercion

Each participant has the right to confirm or deny participation in a study without being forced or threatened

Protection from Harm

Psychologists must take every possible precaution to protect their research participants from any harm.

Risk-Benefit ratio

Participants may be asked to accept small forms of pain, such as low wattage shocks. However, they must NOT even be asked to endure more any pain. Psychologist should also demonstrate that social benefits can be made through the knowledge gained from the study.

Deception

Psychologists may only use deception if it is justified by the study's scientific, educational, and applied value and that alternative procedures can not be used

Debriefing

A verbal description of a study describing its nature and purpose if the participant is deceived

Confidentiality

Psychologists are obligated to keep private and personal information obtained during a study confidential

Neurons

They are cells in the nervous system that communicate with one another to perform information-processing tasks

Name each part of a neuron and how it processes information?

The dendrites receive information and relays it to the cell body. A cell body coordinates the information and keeps the cell alive. The axon carries this information to other neurons, muscles, or glands. The myelin sheath is a fatty layer covering the axon to insulate it. It is composed of glial cells which is used to support the nervous system. Lastly, the action potential reaches the terminal button, or presynaptic gap to be released into it. This gap between this axon and the dendrites of another is called the synapse.

Sensory Neurons

It receives information from the outside world and relays it to the spinal cord and brain

Interneurons

It connects sensory and motor neuron

Motor Neurons

It receives information from the spinal cord and relays it to the muscle to produce movement

Mirror Neurons

Neurons that fire when someone you see is performing an action and you are able to empathize similarly to it.

Synapse

It is the area in which axons are allowed to communicate with one another

How does a neuron enter and leave a synapse?

It enters through a sodium-potassium pump. It can leave by either being taken up by the post-synaptic cell, it can be broken down by enzymes, through reuptake, and by auto receptors.

Acetylcholine

It is involved with voluntary motor control. (Alzheimers)

Dopamine

It is involved with motor behavior, pleasure, and emotional arousal. (Parkinson's disease & Schizophrenia)

Glutamate

It is the major excitatory neurotransmitter which means that it enhances the transmission of information between neurons

GABA

It is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter which means it is involved with stopping the firing of neurons

Norepinephrine

It influences mood and arousal, vigilance, and awareness.

Seratonin

It is involved with wakefulness, sleeping, eating, and regulation of sleep.

Endorphins

They act as pain pathways and emotion centers of the brain (Runner's high)

Peripheral Nervous System

It connects CNS to the body's organs and muscles

Somatic & Autonomic Nervous System

PNS:
Somatic is the set of nerves that convey information between voluntary muscles. Autonomic is the set of nerves that convey information between involuntary muscles.

Autonomic Subdivisions

ANS:
Sympathetic are the group of nerves that prepares the body for action in threatening situations. Parasympathetic helps the body return to normal settings.

Central Nervous System

It is composed of the brain and the spinal cord

Different Lobes of the Brain and their functions?

Frontal: movement, abstract thinking, planning, memory, and judgement
Temporal: Responsible for hearing and language
Parietal: Information about Touch
Occipital Lobe: Responsible for visual information

Other areas of the brain and their main functions?

Amygdala: It plays a role in emotional processes and memories, particularly fear
Cerebellum: It controls fine motor skills and balance
Hippocampus: Critical for creating new memories and inputting them into a storage for long-term memory
Medulla: extension of spinal cord that regulates heart rate, circulation, and respiration
Thalamus: Relays and filters information from the senses and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex

Phineas Gage

A 3-foot, 13 lbs. iron rod struck his head high speed and went through lower left jaw and exited the middle of his frontal lobe. Before the accident, he was quiet mannered and nice. After, he became irritable and rude.

Consciousness

A person's subjective experience to the outside world and mind

Four properties of consciousness

Unity: Resistance to division
Intentionality: The quality of being directed towards an object
Selectivity: The capacity to include some objects, but not others
Transcience: The tendency to change

What is "the problem of other minds"?

The fundamental difficulty we have of perceiving the consciousness of others. How do you know if someone is conscience? Just because they tell you they are? And how can you tell if another person's experience is anything like yours?

What is the "mind/body problem"?

How is the mind related to the brain and body? Descartes is famous for believing that the mind and body are two separate entities. However; Your brain is getting started to do before you can even think about it.

Levels of Consciousness: Minimal? Full? Self-consciousness?

Minimal: Low level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behavior
Full: A consciousness in which you know and are able to report your mental state
Self-Consciousness: A distinct level of consciousness in which a person's attention is drawn to itself as an object

Change blindness

The phenomenon that people are unable to keep track of all information in a complex scene

Default Network

A network of brain regions that are active even when the individual is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest

Freud and the Unconscious Mind

Dynamic Unconscious: an active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the deepest instincts and desires, and the struggle to control them. With repression, these memories are held in the reccesses of the dynamic unconscious
Cognitive (Modern) Unconscious: All aspects of a person's mental processes giving rise to thoughts, actions, feelings, even though they are not being experienced by the person

Thought suppression and the rebound effect of thought suppression? And ironic processes of mental control?

Suppression is the conscious decision to avoid a thought. The rebound effect is the tendency for a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression. The ironic processes of mental control is the ironic errors that occur when trying not to produce them

Stages of sleep

Awake (Alpha-beta waves)
Stage 1 (Theta waves; low frequency waves)
Stage 2 (Sleep spindles, k complex)
Stage 3 (Delta Waves; low frequency)
Stage 4 (Delta Waves; low frequency)
REM (saw-tooth waves; high frequency)