Psych 104 midterm flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key historical figures, foundational perspectives, research methods, statistical concepts, ethical guidelines, and neural anatomy from Psych 104 notes.

Monism

The philosophical position that the mind and body are one unified system and represent the same thing.

Dualism

The philosophical view, associated with René Descartes, that the mind and body are separate entities.

Philosophical Materialism

The view that mental events are derived from and connected to physical processes.

Philosophical Realism

The view, associated with John Locke, that perception of the world is produced directly by information from sensory organs and that we see the world as it is.

Philosophical Idealism

The view, associated with Immanuel Kant, that perception of the world is produced from how the brain interprets incoming sensory information through a filter of built-in knowledge.

Philosophical Nativism

The belief that knowledge of the world is innate and present from birth.

Philosophical Empiricism

The belief that knowledge is gained entirely through experience.

Structuralism

An early approach to psychology led by Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener that focused on studying the basic elements and subjective experiences of the mind by combining smaller components.

Functionalism

An approach to psychology advocated by William James that focused on the adaptive significance, function, or purpose of consciousness based on Darwin's theory of evolution.

Introspection

A technique of looking within to study sensory processes and mental experiences.

Hysteria

A condition characterized by emotional problems expressed physically without any apparent physical cause.

Psychoanalysis

A therapeutic approach developed by Sigmund Freud aimed at giving patients insight into their unconscious mind and hidden influences on behavior.

Behaviorism

An approach pioneered by John B. Watson that restricts psychological study strictly to observable external behavior.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process in which an environmental stimulus comes to elicit a physical response through experience.

Operant Conditioning

A learning process described by B. F. Skinner in which an organism modifies its behavior based on the consequences of performing that behavior.

Gestalt Psychology

A perspective in psychology focusing on visual perception and illusions, emphasizing that the organized whole experience is more important than the sum of its parts.

Law of Parsimony

The principle that a scientific theory should be as simple as possible while still making sense.

Operational Definition

A precise and quantifiable description of how a term or variable will be measured in a study.

Construct Validity

The extent to which a measure accurately evaluates what it is intended to measure.

Reliability

The consistency of a scientific measure across repeated tests.

Reactivity

The tendency for subjects' behavior to change when they know they are being observed.

Demand Characteristics

Cues that cause participants to behave in ways they believe an observer wants or expects them to behave.

Masked Design

An experimental setup where the observer is kept unaware of which condition a participant has been assigned to.

Correlation Coefficient

A mathematical statistic that describes the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables, ranging from $-1.0$ to $+1.0$.

Internal Validity

The degree of confidence that changes in the dependent variable are caused specifically by the manipulation of the independent variable.

External Validity

The extent to which research findings can be generalized to other people, settings, times, and measures.

The 3 R's

Ethical standards in animal research consisting of Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction.

Neuron Structure

A biological nerve cell composed of dendrites, cell body, nucleus, axon hillock, axon wrapped in a myelin sheath, and terminals connected to target tissues.

Resting Potential

The stable electrical voltage difference across a neuronal cell membrane when the cell is at rest.

Action Potential

An electrical depolarization shift following the all-or-none law that allows neurons to communicate.

Absolute Refractory Period

The timeframe following an action potential during which sodium ion channels are unresponsive and a neuron cannot produce another action potential.

Myelin Sheath

An insulating layer formed from glial cells around an axon that accelerates signal transmission by forcing impulses to jump to the nodes of Ranvier.

Somatic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system responsible for voluntary muscles and sensory receptors.

Autonomic Nervous System

The division of the peripheral nervous system that regulates involuntary and automatic bodily functions.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The branch of the autonomic nervous system that controls the fight-or-flight response.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The branch of the autonomic nervous system that promotes rest and relaxation.

Afferent Neurons

Neurons that carry nerve signals towards the Central Nervous System.

Efferent Neurons

Neurons that carry nerve signals away from the Central Nervous System.