General Psychology Exam 2 Terms

Includes: Cerebral Cortex, Selective Attention, Sleep Cycles, Theories of Sleep, Theories of Dreaming, Primitive Reflexes, Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development, Vgotsky's Theory of Cognitive Development, Erikson's Stage Theory of Social Development, Attachment Styles, Parenting Styles, Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development, Sensation, Perception, Signal Detection Theory, Gestalt Approach, Perceptual Constancy

Cerebral Cortex

• Higher forms of thinking

• Split in two hemispheres (left and right)

• 4 lobes on each hemisphere

Frontal Lobes

• Front of brain

• Meant for planning, creative thinking, personality

• Contains

  • Motor cortex

  • Broca’s area

• Has mirror neurons (fire when observing another person doing something or when we imagine doing it/do it)

Motor Cortex

• Area in frontal lobes that control voluntary movement

  • Homunculus: Map of motor/sensory cortex

Broca’s Area

• Located in the LEFT frontal lobe

• Aids in speech production

• Aphasia in this area causes impairment in producing language, but does not interfere in processing

Parietal Lobes

• Top of brain

  • Contains somatosensory cortex

Somatosensory Cortex

• Part of parietal lobes

• Receives information about touch sensation

Occipital Lobes

• Back of head

• Contains visual cortex

Visual Cortex

• Located in occipital lobes

• Processes visual signals

Temporal Lobes

• Sides of head (beneath parietal lobes)

• Contains

  • Auditory cortex

  • Wernicke’s area

Auditory Cortex

• Located in temporal lobes

• Processes sound

Wernicke’s Area

• Located in temporal lobes (LEFT for most people)

• Aids in language comprehension

• Aphasia in this area results in an inability to understand speech while unaffected in the output of speech)

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to detect available stimuli due to selective attention

Change Blindness

Failing to detect changes in stimuli due to selective attention

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

• Structure in hypothalamus

• Sensitive to changes in light

• Controls pineal gland → secretes melatonin (hormone that causes sleepiness)

Non-Rapid Eye Movement (N-REM)

• Contains 3 stages before REM sleep

N1

• “Light Sleep” — Stage 1 of N-REM Sleep

• May have

  • Hypnic/hypnagogic jerk (a brief, sudden, involuntary muscle contraction that happens as you transition from wakefulness to sleep)

  • Hypnagogic hallucinations (brief, vivid sensory experiences that occur as you drift from wakefulness into sleep)

N2

• “True Sleep” — Stage 1 of N-REM Sleep

  • Not easy but also not hard to wake someone

• Brain activity slows

• Reductions in heart rate and muscle tension

N3

• “Deep Sleep” — Stage 3 of N-REM Sleep

  • Hard to awaken, may feel disoriented when awakened

• Further slowing of brain activity

• Growth hormones released from pituitary

• Longer in earlier parts of the night

Rapid Eye Movement (REM)

• Stage of sleep where brain waves resemble wakefulness, brain is really active (hard to tell if someone is awake or in REM when looking at electroencephalogram

  • Eyes move back and forth

  • Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing all rapid or irregular

• Sleep Paralysis: Cannot move body during this stage

• Dreams occur here

• Called “paradoxical sleep” because body inactive but mind very active

Evolutionary/Adaptive Theory of Sleep

Theory that sleep is used as a method of protection, prevents us in the past from going out and being vulnerable to predators in the dark since we do not have defensive traits like claws

Restorative Theory of Sleep

Theory that sleep supports growth and healing as GH is produced; sleep supports immune functioning (sleep deprivation → slower healing, reduced immune system activity)

Information Processing Theory of Sleep

Theory that sleep supports cognitive processes (i.e. learning, creative thinking); sleep restores and rebuilds memories (sleep deprivation → impairment of memory formation)

Freudian Theory of Dreaming

Theory that stem from unconscious thoughts; split into manifest content (actual images in dream) and latent content (unconscious thoughts, feelings, and wishes behind manifest content)

Activation Synthesis Theory of Dreaming

Theory that brain’s internally generated signals form dreams

Information Processing Theory of Dreaming

Theory that memories of events form dreams

Preserving Neural Pathways Theory of Dreaming

Theory that purpose of dreaming is to provide brain stimulation

Primitive Reflexes

Automatic responses to a specific stimulus that all people are born with and then disappear/lose → brain growth is HUGE during 0 y/o to 6 y/o (becomes around adult sized after that)

Sucking Reflex

Baby latches onto stuff; enables eating

Rooting Reflex

Baby turns head in the direction of something touching their cheek; enables eating

Moro Reflex

Startle reflex, almost like a jump where baby moves their arms outwards; enables survival by preventing baby from falling off mother’s back (theory)

Grasping Reflex

Baby just grabs onto items; enables survival by helping baby hold onto items and parents

Babinski

Stroking the sole of the baby’s foot causes baby to splay and curl out their toes as baby tilt their feet

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Stages

Children understand the world via schemes/schema (mental categories); children then make constant mental adaptations to new observations and experiences

Assimilation

Fitting new information into present system of knowledge; FITS INTO SCHEMA

Accomodation

Changing present system of knowledge as a result of new information; CHANGES EXISTING SCHEMA

Sensorimotor Stage

• Birth to 2 y/o

• Includes looking, sucking, touching everything → babies discovery via senses

• Develop object permanence

Object Permanence

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

Preoperational Stage

• 2 y/o to 7 y/o

• Children are egocentric and use animistic thinking

• Cannot grasp concept of conservation

Egocentric

Using only one’s own frame of reference

Animistic Thinking

Attributing life to objects

Conservation

Understanding that physical properties do not change when appearance changes

Concrete Operations Stage

• 7 y/o to 11 y/o

• Understands reversibility and transitivity

Reversibility

Idea that a stimulus that has been changed can return to its own original state

Transitivity

Understanding how components in a series are related (ie. if A>B and B>C, then A>C)

Formal Operations Stage

• Age 11 to adulthood

• Now has abstract and systematic reasoning

• Thinking about future possibilities

Vygotsky’s Theory of Sociocultural Influences

• Cognitive development results from guidance

• Zone of Proximal Development: Level at which a child can almost perform a task independently → difference/zone between what child can do alone and what they can’t do even with explanation

• Scaffolding: Teacher adjusts amount of support to child’s level of development

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

• Changes in interpersonal thought, feeling, and behavior is lifelong → occurs in 8 stages

Trust vs Mistrust

• Infancy to 1 y/o

• If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust

  • Develops when caregiving is sensitive, responsive, and consistent

  • Caregiver must respond to the needs of the child (ie. child cries of hunger → mother gives milk)

• Allows for formation of intimate relationships

Autonomy vs Shame & Self Doubt

• Toddlerhood (1 y/o to 3 y/o)

• Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves; OR they doubt their abilities

  • Autonomy: Independence, self-control

Initiative vs Guilt

• Preschool (3 y/o to 6 y/o)

• Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans; OR they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent

  • “Am I good or bad?”

Competence vs Inferiority

• Elementary School (6 y/o to puberty)

• Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks; OR they feel inferior

  • Sense of competence or inadequacy

Identity vs Role Confusion

• Adolescence (teen years into 20s)

• Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity; OR they become confused about who they are

  • Identity: Who am I? Where do I belong?

Intimacy vs Isolation

• Young Adulthood (20s to early 40s)

• Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love; OR they feel socially isolated

  • Establish enduring, committed relationships

Generativity vs Stagnation

• Middle Adulthood (40s to 60s)

• Middle-aged people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work; OR they may feel a lack or purpose

  • Generativity: Generate things that contribute to the future of society

  • Stagnation: See life as meaningless

Integrity vs Despair

• Late Adulthood (late 60s and up)

• Reflecting on their lives, older adults may feel a sense of satisfaction; OR failure

  • Ego Integrity: Feeling that one’s life has coherence and purpose

  • Despair: Disappointment, regret

Secure Attachment Style

• A relationship orientation characterized by trust, emotional regulation, comfort with both intimacy and independence, and the ability to communicate needs openly

  • Secure Base: An adult that is a safezone where a kid can explore their environment and always can return to secure base

• Example: A child is visibly upset when their mother left and was happy when their mother returned

Insecure-Anxious/Ambivalent (Resistant) Attachment Style

• An emotional pattern where a person deeply craves closeness and intimacy, but is constantly worried about being rejected, unloved, or abandoned

• Example: A child is anxious when the mother left and did not calm down even when the mother returned → Glad that the mother came back and were scared they would never come back

  • May also get mad that the mother left and may turn to a stranger

Insecure-Avoidant Attachment Style

• A way of relating to others where a person shies away from emotional intimacy, values extreme self-reliance, and feels uncomfortable with deep closeness

• Example: A child shows little reaction to their mother leaving and did not cry when parents left or came back

Baumrind’s Parenting Styles

• Categorized by 2 dimensions

  • Warmth/Responsiveness

  • Control/Demandingness

Authoritative

• High warmth, high control

• Not overly demanding or hostile; is child-centered

• Will set boundaries and explain them but will also respect the child

  • Higher grades, cooperative, MOST OPTIMAL

Authoritarian

• Low warmth, high control

• Controlling, demanding, high emphasis on obedience

• Very restrictive, lots of rules

  • Lower grades and low self-esteem

Permissive

• High warmth, low control

• Very few rules or restrictions

  • Kids easily frustrated with poor self control

Uninvolved/Neglectful

• Low warmth, low control

• Least effective, MOST DETRIMENTAL

  • Kids have low self-esteem and become emotionally detached

Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

• Development of the understanding between right and wrong → cognitive capabilities determine development of moral reasoning

  • Contains 3 stages

Preconventional Morality

• 4 y/o to 10 y/o

• Morality stems from the desire to avoid punishment or gain reward

Conventional Morality

• After 10 y/o

• Morals stem from the law or the perception of others on you

  • “Good Boy” Morality: Driven by the desire for social approval, maintaining interpersonal relationships, and being seen as “good” → conformity into roles and expectations of social circle

  • “Law and Order” Morality: Driven by the desire to stay within the confines of the law

Post Conventional Morality

• Early adolescence/young adulthood (depends on the person)

• Morals stem from individual principles, conscience, and higher order thinking

  • Focuses on abstract principles, social contracts, and universal ethics

Socioemotional Selectivity Theory

• Model of social activity

• As people age, they have smaller social networks

  • Very close relationships maintained while superficial ones are filtered out

Sensation

Process by which sensory organs obtain information about the environment and transmit it to the brain (what you literally see; ie. rings of blue, yellow, black, green, red)

Perception

Organization of sensations into interpretations (what you make out of what you see; ie. rings become symbol for the Olympics)

Transduction

Translation of physical energy into electrical signals

Bottom-Up Processing

Starts w/ raw sensory data that gets communicated to the brain (ie. eat a cookie → recognize it’s snickerdoodle)

Top-Down Processing

Starts w/ observer’s expectations and knowledge (ie. being told something is snickerdoodle before eating it)

Absolute Threshold

Minimal amount of stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time

Difference Threshold

• Aka Just Noticeable Difference (jnd)

• Smallest difference in intensity between 2 stimuli that a person can detect

Weber’s Law (Fraction)

For 2 stimuli to be perceived as different in intensity, the second must differ from the first by a constant proportion

Gestalt Approach

Perception of objects as whole rather than as a sum of individual parts

Figure-Ground Perception

Inherently distinguish between object and background

Proximity

Tend to group objects together that are close to one another

Similarity

Tend to group together objects that are similar to one another

Continuity

Brain organizes stimuli into continuous lines or patterns

Closure

Tend to perceive incomplete figures as complete

Depth Perception

• Integration of visual input to understand depth

  • Binocular Cues

    • Retinal (Binocular) Disparity: Image produce different images on each retina (greater disparity → less depth)

    • Convergence: Turning inward of eyes toward nearby object (closer object → greater convergence)

  • Monocular Cues

    • Relative Size (greater size → less depth)

    • Relative Clarity (greater clarity → less depth)

    • Linear Perspective

Perceptual Constancy

Interpretation of changing sensations as perception that is relatively consistent

Color Constancy

Consistent perception of color of objects although amount of light changes

Lightness Constancy

Consistent perception of shade of objects although the amount of light changes

Shape Constancy

Perception that object’s shape remains constant despite changing shape of retinal image

Size Constancy

Perception that size of objects remains constant despite different sizes of images on retina