PSYCH 101 - Exam 1 PREP

Wilhelm Wundt

Created the first psychology lab. Wanted independent discipline from physiology. He thought we are supposed to be studying consciousness. He wants to analyze how the mind works in a structured way like legit break down consciousness. STRUCTURALIST.

G Stanley Hall

First American Psychologist. Degree from John Hopkins university. First President of APA. Very interested in child development and evolutionary theory.

Mary Whiton Calkins

Paired associations technique. APA first women president. Harvard only let her take classes as a guest.

Margaret Washburn

First phd WOMAN in psych. 2nd apa president who's a woman.

Leta Hollingworth

Work on adolescent development. talks about gifted children and slower kids.

FIRST TWO MAJOR SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

Structurialism and functionalism.

Structuralism

The goal is to break down and analyze consciousness. so identifying fundamental components

Functionalism

Based on Darwinism theory of evolution. consciousness must serve a purpose. we care about the purpose and function of it not necessarily the structure. WILLIAM JAMES. (THIS ONE TURNS INTO MODERN PSYCHOLOGY) There is a continuous flow of thoughts (stream of consciousness) which is important because that means you can’t break it down. Freud was a functionalist.

Sigmund Freud

Total weirdo. He wanted to treat people who were mentally ill. He discovers the unconscious. Says that there are all these things below that impact behaviors. Freudian Slip.

Psychoanalytic theory

explains personality

Behaviorism (JAMES B WATSON)

He says we gotta abandon studying consciousness. we gotta observe behavior. You cant verify stuff that is unconscious. the only things you can verify are behaviors.

BF skinner

Stars studying reinforcement and punishment

Humanism (CARL ROGERS)

Basically they think humans are unique. the masters of their own destinies. they need self actualization. People do stuff to fulfill their dreams and all that. And because they have a sense of self.

Reliability

Independent measurements of a given behavior are consistent. basically if you repeated the experiment/observation would you get the same result?

Inter-rater reliability

Do two or more people who observe the same people agree on what they’re seeing?

Test-retest reliability

If the same test is administered twice will the results be similar?

Validity

Does the test measure what it intends to measure? If so it is valid.

Internal validity

results in experiments can be attributed to the variables that the researcher manipulated intentionally.

External validity

results can be generalized beyond a single research investigation

Structured interviews

everybody in the study gets the exact same questions

Clinical

questions are adjusted based on what answers the interviewee gives.

Drawbacks of interviews

Interviews are self reports

Statistical Surveys

You collect quantitative information about items in a population. You call them questionnaires if they are in written form

Advantages of surveys

Control over environment where the survey is administered. It doesn't take a lot of time. High response rates.

Drawbacks of surveys

People sometimes stop halfway through. Respondents can read the whole thing before answering questions so their answer to one could impact their answer to another. Respondents can't ask for clarification because that could influence their answer.

Naturalistic Observation

Examination of how people behave in their own environments. E.g. watching kids play on a playground

Structured Observation

When you present people with an identical situation and record what happens

Correlational designs

Determine how variables are related to one another but not proving causation. Correlation is the association between two variables. (r) is the correlation coefficient closer to either 1 or -1

Direction of causation problem

How do you know which thing causes which? Does A cause B or does B cause A?

Third-variable problem

Correlation between two variables may be because of a hidden third variable. Ex. kids who grow up in households with lots of books do better in school do they do better because of the books in their home or is there a third variable

Experiments

this is how you prove causation

Random assignment

randomly assign individuals to experimental and control group

Experimental group

exposed to treatment

Control group

gets a placebo/no treatment

Independent variable

factor that researchers deliberately manipulate

Dependent variable

Behavior that is measured to see if it’s affected by the independent variable

Case Study

study of one person or group very intensely.

Advantages

uses intense investigation. allows investigating rare phenomena

Disadvantages

time consuming. difficulty generalizing

Ethics

Institutional review boards: Group of people who evaluate research proposals to make sure they abide by ethical guidelines.

Participants have these rights

To be fully informed. To give informed and voluntary consent (informed consent) To not be harmed in any way. TO withdraw voluntarily. To be informed of the results of the research. To confidentiality. To full compensation. To beneficial treatment

Biology

Nature vs. Nature. Lowk they work together.

Gilbert Bottlie: bidirectional influences between environment behavior neural activity genetic activity. Think you might choose to move to India in that case your behavior impacted your environment.

Parent’s genotype -> Child’s genotype

So basically the parent’s DNA to the child’s DNA. Chromosomes that come from each parent go into the kid. half total genetic inheritance from each parent.

Child’s genotype -> Child’s phenotype

How is genetic makeup influencing observable characteristics. Gene’s only influence development/behavior only when they are on or off. Switching on/off is controlled by regulator genes. People can inheritance two of the same alleles and be homozygous for a trait

Or two diff alleles and be heterozygous.

Child’s environment -> Child’s phenotype

Any given genotype develops differently based on the environment. Ex. nourishment can change gene expression. Research has shown use of marijuana in adolescents can lead to schizophrenia in those that have a predisposition to schizophrenia.

Child’s phenotype -> Child’s environment

The activity level of a child gets differing responses from adults.

Behavioral geneticists

think that all behaviors can be heritable and that all behavioral traits are multifactorial (so they are impacted by a ton of different things genetic and environmental)

Adoption studies

similar to twin studies. If adopted kids are more similar to their bio parents than their adoptive parents the thing is biological. If they are more similar to their adoptive it is environmental.

Glial cells

Supportive functions for the neurons to help nourish them & remove waste.

Neurons

Specialized cells that are the basic units of the brain’s information system. You got about 100 billion of them.

Soma

the cell body. center of the neuron. biologically keeps it working

Dendrites

the fingers

Axon

carries electrical signals over distance. away from the soma toward other things

Synapse

the space in which neurotransmitters and doin stuff.

Axon Terminal

Little knobs that secrete neurotransmitters to communicate in the synapse between one neuron and another.

Muelin Sheath

speeds stuff up as it goes down the dang axon. Insulates the axon.

Neurotransmitters

Chemicals that communicate info between neurons

Acetylcholine (ACh)

how you move your mucles. important to dang memory as well. Lack/damage to ACh will result in dang alzheimers.

Dopamine

pleasure chemical involved in reward center & decision making etc. Lack of dopamine is Parkinson's.

Norepinephrine

increasing arousal & alertness & attention & impacts sleep/wake cycles.

Serotonin

Hormone also regulates appetite & sleep & mood. Called the “calming chemical”.

GABA

Essential for regulating anxiety & balancing moods & emotions. Low levels of GABA might lead to anxiety.

Endorphins

morphine-like substances. Reduce pain & cause euphoria/pleasure

Cerebral hemispheres

two halves of the brain that communicate through the corpus callosum

Cerebral lateralizatio

two hemispheres do different stuff

Lobes

major areas of the cortex that are associated with different categories of behavior

Occipital lobe

responsible for visual processing

Temporal lobe

primarily involved in memory & visual recognition & processing emotion and auditory information

Parietal lobe

governs our spatial processing & integrates sensory input with visual info

Frontal lobe

inhibits behavior & helps you with thinking and stuff.

Light

Visual spectrum very small part of the actual light spectrum. Light is a wave btw.

Lens

Crystal structure behind the dang cornea & fine-tunes a focus onto the retina.

Retina

like a camera sensor. Receives light. Image is flipped upside down and has to be flipped by the brain. Has sensory receptor cells called rods and cones.

Fovea

tiny spot in the center of the retina that only contains cones. This is where your vision is the sharpest

Cones

play a key role in daylight and color vision. Provide better sharpness and precision than rods.

Rods

key role in nighttime and peripheral vision. 100x more sensitiv ethan cones to dim light.

Nearsightedness

close objects are chill

Farsightedness

far objects are fine & close are bad. Eyes are a little short. Focus of light lands behind the retina.

Trichromatic theory

young von helmholz. There are 3 receptors in the retina & one sensitive to green & one to red & one to blue.

Opponent process theory

brain groups colors into opposing pairs & red vs green & blue vs yellow

Bottom up processing

take tiny details and then you realize what the bigger picture is

Top down

you realize what the bigger picture is & then check that hypothesis and recognize the stimulus.

Gestalt theory

There are wholes & the behavior of which is not determined by that of their individual elements.

Proximity

stuff that is close gets grouped together.

Closure

viewers tend to supply missing elements to complete a familiar figure

Similarity

similar elements get grouped together

Supertasters

less fond of sweets & consume less high fat foods & react more negatively to alcohol & mostly women

Nontasters

have less tastebuds per square centimeter as supertasters

Hearing

wavelength of sound are described in hz. Higher Hz is higher pitch. We hear from 20 to 20000. More amplitude = more sound amplitude measured in decibels.

Gray’s model of consciousness

Basically consciousness is for threat detection & basically the brain predicts what happens next and consciousness is like the stuff that is unexpected and crap. So like when you’re driving you dont really know whats goin on until a deer comes in the road then you lock in.

Beta

normal waking thought & alert problem solving & very alert. Beta levels associated with stress and anxiety. Arousal

Alpha

deep relaxation & blank mind & meditation & daydreaming. Associated with creativity. Non-arousal

Theta

light sleep or suuuuper deep meditation. Sluggish & scattered. Imagine like a quick nap and you wake up you feel sluggish.

Delta

deep sleep thats dreamless. Healing & regeneration & repair.

Some people are awake and experience delta

this occurs from like brain damage which messes up the EEG.

Biological clocks

repeated variations in our physiological functionings

Circadian rhythms

24 hour biological cycles found in humans and many other species. Mostly impacted by light/sunlight. Tells your clock what time it is. Ignoring circadian rhythms or getting out of sleep makes your rest suck. Like jet lag.

1st stage/ light sleep

theta waves and stuff. Lasts 10-12 mins per cycle. If you wake up in stage 1 you might say “I wasn’t even asleep brah” cus you dont even realize. This is when you get the jerks. 5% of total sleep. It's a transitional state