Ap Psch Exam

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Behavior

Anything an organism does, and can be observed and recorded

Mental processes

Internal, subjective experiences, we perceive from behavior

Socrates and Plato

Mind is separable from the body, and the mind continued after death, which results in knowledge being born with us

Aristotle

The soul is not separable from the body, and knowledge is not born within us, knowledge comes from experiences

John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

The mind at birth is a blank slate, experiences, write on that slate, which is learning

Wilhelm Wundt

Created the first psychological lab in Germany

Edward Bradford Titchener

Used introspection, looking inward, to explore the structure of the mind and taught people how to report self reflection

William James

Introduced functionalism, wrote the first American psychology textbook

Functionalism

The function of parts of the body related to the brain

Mary Calkins

Would become the first female president of the American psychological association

Margaret Floy, Washburn

First woman to get a Psychology PhD

Charles Darwin

His theories of adaptation and evolution were used for years by psychologists, focused on the traits that allowed an organism to survive

Sigmund Freud

Develop the perspective of psychoanalysis and believed that all of our psychological issues came from earlier repressed memories

Biological/neuroscience

The body and brain are the dominant influences of behavior and thinking

Evolutionary

How the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one's genes

Humanistic

Environmental influences, especially love and acceptance, determine what we become in life

Psychodynamic

How behavior comes from unconscious drives and conflicts

Behavioral

How we learn observable responses

Cognitive

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information

Sociocultural

How behavior and thinking very across situation and cultures

Biological psychologist

Explores the links between the brain and the mind

Developmental psychologist

Study the changes in our abilities along different stages in our life

Industrial/organizational psychologist

Studies and advise on behavior in the workplace and they use applied research which attempt to solve practical problems

Psychiatrist

Are medical doctors who are licensed to prescribe drugs, and otherwise treat physical causes of psychological disorders

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it, "i knew it all along"

Hypothesis

Allows the researcher to give a prediction that they can test

Replicating an experiment is important to validity

If the experiment can be replicated, buy another researcher in the results of the experiment will have more validity

Case study

Psychologist studying one individual in great depth

Laboratory study

Takes place in a laboratory and is an artificial setting, which may not reflect the real world

Field study

Allows for a more natural setting for experiments and it's tough to control all variables

Survey method

Asking questions to a selected group of people

Double blind study

Neither the researcher or subject knows who the control group is, and it keeps experimenter bias out of the experiment

The placebo effect

Fake treatments

Independent variable

The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

Dependent variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.

Correlation

How well factors predict each other, and is usually shown on scatter plot

illusory correlation

perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists

Mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

Mean

average

Median

the middle score in a distribution

Standard deviation

Scores are packed together, or widely dispersed

Ethical principles

Subjects in a decline participation at any time in a study, subjects and experimenters, must be honest, obtain information must remain confidential, and the experimenter must make sure that the experiment is safe

Animal experimentation

Is used with animals that are similar to our behaviors

Phrenology (Franz Gall)

Claimed bumps on the skull, can reveal our mental abilities and our character traits

Nervous system

Uses chemicals and electrical process that convey info and consists of neurons

glial cells

Insulate and perform clean up tasks

Dendrites

Receive electrical chemical information and transmit it to the cell body

The cell body

Except the incoming messages and will send it to the axon

Axon

How long to Blake structure that carries information away from the cell body

Myelin sheath

Fatty coating around the axons that insulate neural impulses

Terminal buttons

Located near the end of the axon and release chemicals called Neurotransmitters

Neuronal communication

includes electrical conduction (action potential) along the axon and chemical transmission via neurotransmitter release at the synapse

Electro chemical

Production, release, and reuptake of neurotransmitters that increase electrical activity

All or nothing response

a neuron's reaction of either firing or not firing

threshold of excitation

level of charge in the membrane that causes the neuron to become active

Firing of the neuron

The first bit of the axon is depolarized and electrical impulses travel down to the axon

Nerotransmitters

chemicals that are stored in sacs in the axon terminals

excitatory message

Causes the next neuron to fire

Inhibitory message

Prevents the next neuron firing

Reuptake

process by which neurotransmitters are taken back into the synaptic vesicles

Agonists

chemical substances that mimic or enhance the effects of a neurotransmitter on the receptor sites of the next cell,

Antagonists

drugs that block the function of a neurotransmitter

Central nervous system

Consists of the spinal cord and the brain

Spinal cord

A neuron highway that connects the peripheral nervous system to the brain and controls reflexes

peripheral nervous system

Links the central nervous system, with the body, sense, receptors, muscles, and glands. Consists of the somatic and autonomic nervous system.

Somatic nervous system

Enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles

Autonomic nervous system

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms.

Sympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations (speed heartbeat, raising blood pressure, etc)

Parasympathetic system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

Sensory neurons

Send information from the body tissue and sensory organs inward to the central nervous system

Motor neurons

Carry information from the central nervous system to the bodies tissue

Interneurons

neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

Endocrine system

Consists of glands that control many of the body's activities by producing hormones.

Adrenal glands

a pair of endocrine glands just above the kidneys. the adrenals secrete the hormones epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline), which help to arouse the body in times of stress.

Pituitary gland

endocrine gland at the base of the brain, releases, hormones, that influence the growth and influences the release of hormones from other glands

EEG

electroencephalogram, records, the waves of electrical activity across the brain

PET scan

Measures the glucose that is used by neurons and shows that consumption

MRI

Create images of the soft tissues in the brain to see the structures

Brain plasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

Split brain

The corpus collosum must be severed

Left hemisphere

Controls our thinking, and decision making

Right hemisphere

Undertake a simple, request, perceives objects, and make quick decisions

Brainstem

Responsible for all survival functions

Medulla

Controls, heartbeat and breathing

Reticular formation

Plays a role in controlling arousal and relays information to the brain

Thalamus

the brain's sensory control center, located on top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Cerebellum

Processes sensory input and coordinates movement and balance

Limbic system

Consists of the hippocampus, amygdala's, and hypothalamus

Hippocampus

Processing memories

Amygalda

part of the brain that plays a role in emotional learning and with fear

Hypothalamus

a neural structure lying below the thalamus; directs eating, drinking, body temperature

Cerebral cortex

The outer layer of the brain and is the control and information processing center

Frontal lobe

Involved in speaking and muscle movements, and in making plans and judgments

parietal lobe

Receives sensory input for touch and body position

occipital lobe

visual processing

Temporal lobe

Hearing

Motor cortex

Voluntary movement

Brokas area

Controls speech by directing the muscles involved in speech

Wernicke's area

Controls, language, comprehension, and expression