Psychology 101 Exam Review

Flashcards for Psychology 101 Exam Review

What is an operational definition?

A statement about the procedures the researcher used to measure a variable

What is a case study?

An in-depth analysis of one subject or more

What is a survey?

Asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions and recording their answers

What is observation in research methods?

Describe and measure people and or animals’ behavior systematically

What is a correlational study?

Measures strength and direction of relationship between two variables

What is a positive correlation?

Variables change in the same direction

What is a negative correlation?

Variables change in opposite directions

How are correlation coefficients (rs) interpreted?

The strength of the relationship between two variables, from -1.00 to +1.00

Does correlation indicate causation? What are the other alternatives?

Correlation does not indicate causation; A can cause B, B can cause A, or C could cause A and B

What are third variables?

A variable that’s potentially responsible for the results, but is not the variable of interest

What are experimental methods?

Researcher changes one variable and measure the effects of that change on another variable. The only research design in which cause and effect can be inferred

What is random sampling?

Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being in the sample

What is random assignment?

Method used to place participants into experimental condition in which participants have an equal chance of being in every condition

What are IVs and DVs in experimental methods?

Independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV)

What is experimental control?

Researcher makes sure that no factors other than the IV are changing and thus could affect the DV

What is a confound (confounding variable)?

Variable that’s potentially responsible for the results, but is not the variable of interest

What is generalizability?

Can the results of this experiment apply to other situations

What is myelin sheath?

Specialized cells that are wrapped around the axon to help transmit messages

What is the action potential?

The electrical impulse that travels from the cell body down to the end of the axon (neural firing)

What is a synapse?

A junction between 2 neurons

What are neurotransmitters?

Chemical messengers that travel across synapse from sending neuron to receptors on receiving neuron

What are endorphins?

Reduce pain and promote pleasure

What is dopamine?

Involved in voluntary movement, reward, learning, memory

What is serotonin?

Involved in sleep, appetite, mood

What is epinephrine?

Involved in stress response

What are agonists?

Increase normal activity of a neurotransmitter

What are antagonists?

Decrease activity of a neurotransmitter

What is the sympathetic nervous system?

Increases physiological arousal; Fight or flight

What is the parasympathetic nervous system?

Decreases arousal; Rest and digest

What is the endocrine system?

System where Chemicals secreted by endocrine glands into bloodstream

What are the pituitary glands?

“Master gland”

What are the adrenal glands?

Important in mood, energy level, stress response

What are EEGs?

Detect electrical activity of neurons in particular regions of brain

What is fMRI?

Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Uses MRI to measure relative activity of various brain areas during tasks

What is the medulla?

Controls life-sustaining bodily functions

What is the pons?

Involved in sleep; connects cortex to lower brain regions

What is the amygdala?

Emotions - aggression, fear

What is the hippocampus?

“Gateway to memory”; Enables formation of new conscious memories

What are the 4 lobes of the cerebral cortex?

Occipital, parietal, temporal, frontal

What are mirror neurons?

Fire when observing another person doing something

What is the somatosensory cortex?

Receives info about touch sensation

What is the motor cortex?

Voluntary movement

What is plasticity?

Flexibility of brain structures; Can shift functions from damaged to undamaged brain areas

What is inattentional blindness?

Failing to detect available stimuli due to selective attention

What is change blindness?

Failing to detect changes in stimuli due to selective attention

How does light affect the SCN?

In hypothalamus - sensitive to changes in light

How is melatonin involved in our sleep-wake cycle?

Hormone that causes sleepiness. When dark → tells pineal gland to secrete melatonin. When its light → tells pineal gland to stop secreting melatonin

What is REM sleep?

Rapid eye movement, brain waves resemble wakefulness

What happens during REM sleep?

Eyes move back and forth, heart rate, blood pressure, breathing - rapid or irregular, sleep paralysis

What is N1 sleep?

Light sleep

What is N2 sleep?

True sleep. Brain activity slows; Reductions in heart rate and muscle tension

What is N3 sleep?

Deep sleep. Further slowing of brain activity

What was Piaget’s approach to cognitive development?

Theory of cognitive stages (infants). How does the mind structure its content and adapt to the environment

What are schemes/schema?

Mental categories

What is assimilation?

Fitting new info to present system of knowledge (schema)

What is accommodation?

As a result of new info, change existing schema

What are Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?

Sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

What is object permanence?

Understand that something continues to exist even when it can’t be seen

What is egocentrism?

Using their own frame of reference; Self-centered; Difficulty understanding other perspectives

What is conservation?

Understanding that physical properties don’t change when appearance changes

What is Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development?

Theory is on sociocultural influences; Cognitive development comes from guidance

What is the zone of proximal development?

Its what they can do if they were guided

What is scaffolding?

Teacher adjusts amount of support to child’s level of development

What is theory of mind?

Understanding how other people think

What is Erik Erikson’s stage theory of social development?

Changes in interpersonal thought, feeling, and behavior; Social development is lifelong

What is Trust (vs. mistrust)?

Allows formation of intimate relationships; Develops when caregiving is sensitive, responsive, and consistent

What is Autonomy (vs. shame and doubt)?

Independence, self-control

What were the results of Harlow’s studies of infant attachment?

Harlow believes that soft contact is important

What is secure attachment?

Children who are secure were visibly upset when their parents left and are happy when their parents come back

What is a secure base?

Adult as secure base from which to explore

What is Insecure-anxious/ambivalent attachment

Ambivalent or resistant attachment were upset when their parents left and didn’t get better even with a parents return and they might return to a stranger

What is Insecure-avoidant attachment

They didn’t give a fuck whether or not their parent left or not

What are Baumrind’s 4 parenting styles?

Warmth (responsiveness) and control (demandingness)

What are Kohlberg’s 3 stages of moral development?

Cognitive capabilities determine development of moral reasoning

What is delay of gratification?

Ability to forego smaller, immediate rewards for greater rewards later

What is bottom up processing?

Having no image in mind, building from nothing and trying to understand what it is

What is top down processing?

Looking at something with an image in mind

What are absolute thresholds?

How much of the stimulus does there have to be for us to sense it; Minimal amount of stimulation that can be detected half of the time

What are difference thresholds (the jnd)?

Just noticeable difference; Smallest difference between 2 stimuli that someone can detect

What is signal detection theory?

Do we detect a stimulus

What is response bias?

Person’s readiness to report detecting a stimulus

What is sensory adaptation?

When we are exposed to a constant stimulus, we gradually wont detect it anymore

What is the Gestalt approach?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

What is figure-ground perception?

Distinguishing an object and its background

What is Continuity?

Brain organizes stimuli into continuous lines or patterns

What is Closure?

We tend to perceive incomplete figures as complete

What is perceptual constancy?

Interpretation of changing sensations as perception that is relatively consistent

What is color constancy?

Consistent perception of color objects although the amount of light changes

What is Lightness constancy?

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

What is Shape constancy?

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

What is Size constancy?

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

What is classical conditioning?

Learning to respond to a new stimulus that has been associated with another stimulus that normally produces the response

How did Pavlov study classical conditioning?

Studied digestion. Dogs would salivate at the mere sight of a food dish

What is the unconditioned stimulus?

Stimulus that automatically elicits response without prior conditioning

What is the unconditioned response?

Innate response to unconditioned stimulus

What is the conditioned stimulus?

Previously neutral stimulus that now elicits a conditioned response due to its association with an unconditioned stimulus

What is the conditioned response?

Learned response to a stimulus that did not originally elicit the response

What is generalization in classical conditioning?

Conditioned response to stimuli that are not the conditioned stimulus (but are similar to the CS

What is extinction in classical conditioning?

Failure to exhibit the CR to the CS (because the CS no longer predicts the US

What was Watson and Raynor’s study with Little Albert?

Showed a baby a rat and a loud noise at the same time, albert generalized and is fearful toward any furry thing