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Psychology
Scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Psychology requires -
Critical thinking: process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating evidence
Skepticism: Challenging whether a supposed fact is really true, questioning what everybody knows
Objectivity: being open to evidence
Curiosity: being observant and asking questions
Wundt’s Structuralism vs. James’ Functionalism
Structuralism: focus on identifying the structures of the human mind through introspection (“what”)
Functionalism: functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual’s adaptation to the environment (“why”)
Natural Selection
Evolutionary process in which organisms better adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring
Scientific Method
Observe
Hypothesize
Test
Conclusion
Evaluate
Types of Research
Descriptive
Correlational
Experimental
Quasi-experimental
Internal Validity
Rules out confounding variables, and confirms a cause-and-effect relationship
External Validity
Degree to which an experiment can be generalized to the real world
Research settings
Artificial world (laboratory)
Real world (natural)
Experimenter bias
Experimenter’s expectations affect the outcome of the research
Demand characteristic
Aspect of a study that communicates to participants how the experimenter wants them to behave
Research participant bias
Behavior of research participants is influenced by their own expectations of the experiment
Placebo Effect
Participant bias causes a particular outcome rather than the experimental treatment, often occurs when taking a placebo that doesn’t have an actual physiological effect
Brainstem
Connects spinal cord to midbrain, consists of:
Medulla: keeps breathing and heart beating automatically
Pons: coordinates movement, signals to the brain while dreaming
Thalamus
Involved in vision. hearing, taste, and touch (input/output), but not smell (hypothalamus)
Cerebellum (“little brain”)
Coordinates voluntary movement and balance, enables non-verbal memory (motor skills)
Limbic system
Subcortical neural structures between the brainstem and cerbral cortex, made up of:
Hypothalamus
Pituitary gland: endocrine gland that influences hormone levels
Amygdala
Hippocampus: involved in memory
Hypothalamus
Directs eating, drinking body temperature, sexual behavior, and sleep. Also processes emotions and rewards.
Amygdala
Almond-shaped neural clusters involved in fear and aggression, its size is positively correlated with the size of a person’s social network
Cerebral cortex
Surface layer of the brain, contains 21-25 billion neurons and 10x more glial cells.
Responsible for senses, motor functions, speech, reading, reasoning, math skills, and more (ultimate control and information center).
Glial cells
Provide support for neurons such as protection, nourishment, and information transmission
Occipital lobes
Back of the brain, have the visual cortex and auditory cortex. Language is processed in the left side, while music is processed on the right
Temporal lobes
Above the ears, involved in hearing, language processing, and memory
Frontal lobes
Portions of the cerebral cortex behind the forehead, involved in personality, intelligence, and the control of voluntary muscles
Parietal lobes
Located at the top rear of the head, responsible for registering spatial location, attention, and motor control (e.g. playing video games, solving puzzles)
Somatosensory cortex
Front of the parietal lobes, processes information of body sensations
Motor cortex
Rear of the frontal lobes, processes information about voluntary movement
Visual cortex
Rear of the occipital lobes, processes visual information
Auditory cortex
On the left and right sides of the temporal lobes, processes auditory infomation
Association areas
Uncommitted areas of the brain that allow for higher-level processing (e.g. reasoning, language), and coordinates integration of information from various areas.
Animals with higher intelligence have more association areas
Phineas Gage
Suffered damage to his left frontal lobe and its connections to the limbic system, causing his personality to change
Aphasia
Impairment of language use
Broca’s: struggle to form words due to damage to the Broca’s area
Wernicke’s: damage to the Wernicke’s area, patients are unable to comprehend language and speak meaningless words
Global: damage to more than one area related to speech
Neuron parts
Cell body: cell’s life support center
Dendrites: receive messages from other cells
Axon: passes messages from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, and glands
Myelin sheath: covers the axon, speeds up impulses
Terminal branches: connect with other neurons
Acetylcholine
Controls muscle action, learning, and memory. Lack of it is linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Dopamine
Movement, learning, attention, emotion. Excess is linked to schizophrenia, lack is linked to Parkinson’s.
Serotonin
Controls mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal. Low production or high reuptake is linked with depression
Norepinephrine
Controls alertness and arousal. Lack of it is linked with depressed mood
GABA
Inhibits neuron firing (“brake”). Lack of it is linked with anxiety, so it’s used in antiaxiety medication
Glutamate
Excites neurons (“accelerator”), involved in learning and memory. Excess leads to migraines.
Plasticity
Brain’s capacity for modification and repair, highest under the age of 5
Collateral sprouting: axons of healthy neurons adjacent to damaged cells grow new branches
Substitution of function: damaged region’s function is taken over by other brain areas
Neurogenesis: new neurons are generated
Action potential
Electrochemical process generated by movement of positively charged atoms in and out of the axon.
An action potential can’t be weak or strong, it either happens or it doesn’t.
Sensation vs. Perception
Sensation: detecting physical energy from the environment and encoding it as neural signals
Perception: constructing raw sensory information into experiences
Bottom-up processing
Initiated by sensory input (new experiences)
Top-down processing
Initiated by cognitive processing (expectations)
Absolute threshold
Minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time, different for each sense
Subliminal stimulus
Stimulus under the absolute threshold
Difference threshold
Minimum difference that can be detected between two stimuli 50% of the time
Signal Detection Theory
People make perceptions of stimuli under uncertain conditions. The absolute threshold of a stimulus changes with experience, expectations, fatigue, urgency, and our judgments about whether a false alarm or a miss is worse
Outer ear
Collects sounds and channels them into the rest of the ear. Consists of the pinna and the external auditory canal
Middle ear
Channels sounds through the eardrum, hammer, anvil, and stirrup, causing a vibration. This vibration transmits sound waves to the inner ear
Inner ear
Converts sound waves into neural impulses and send them to the brain
Theory of Mind
Ability to attribute different mental states (beliefs, intentions, desires, knowledge) to different people. Starts at 2 years old and develops at 3-4.5 years old
Stages of Sleep
Awake
W-alert: beta waves (high frequency, low amplitude)
W-relaxed: alpha waves (low frequency, high amplitude)
Light sleep
Stage N-1: theta waves (low frequency, low amplitude)
Stage N-2: sleep spindles, sudden frequency increases
Deep sleep
Stage N-3: lowest frequency, highest amplitude
Stage R: rapid eye movements, dreams
Sleep disorders
Insomnia
Sleep walking/talking/eating
Nightmares
Night terrors (screaming while asleep)
Narcolepsy (random onsets of sleep)
Sleep apnea (lack of breathing during sleep)
Psychoactive drugs
Alter consciousness, modify perception, and change mood
Tolerance
The need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect
Addiction
A physical and/or psychological dependence on a drug
Depressants
Slow down mental and physical activity
Alcohol
Barbiturates (former sleep aids)
Tranquilizers (anti-anxiety meds)
Opiates (painkillers)
Stimulants
Increase central nervous system activity
Caffeine
Nicotine
Amphetamines
Cocaine
MDMA (Ecstasy)
Hallucinogens
Modify perceptual experiences and produce visual images that aren’t real
Marijuana
LSD
Hypnosis
Altered attention and expectations
Distractions are minimized
Told to concentrate on something specific
Told what to expect
Certain events or feelings are suggested