THE BEST AP PSYCHOLOGY CRAM SHEET

Psychology Foundations

  • Psychology is rooted in physiology (biology) and philosophy.

Early Approaches

  • Structuralism: Focused on identifying the basic structures of the mind using introspection (self-examination of mental experiences).
  • Functionalism: Emphasized the purpose of behavior and its adaptive significance.

Key Approaches in Psychology

  • Evolutionary: Emphasizes the role of genes in behavior.
  • Humanistic: Focuses on free will, choice, the ideal self, and self-actualization.
  • Biological: Examines the brain and neurotransmitters (NTs) in relation to behavior.
  • Cognitive: Focuses on perceptions and thoughts.
  • Behavioral: Emphasizes learning and reinforcement.
  • Psychoanalytic/dynamic: Focuses on the unconscious and childhood experiences.
  • Sociocultural: Focuses on the influence of society and culture.
  • Biopsychosocial: Combines biological, psychological, and social factors.

Key Figures in Psychology

  • Mary Calkins: First female president of the APA (American Psychological Association).
  • Charles Darwin: Known for natural selection and evolution.
  • Dorothea Dix: Reformed mental institutions in the U.S.
  • Stanley Hall: First president of the APA and established the first psychology journal.
  • William James: Father of American Psychology, a key figure in functionalism.
  • Wilhelm Wundt: Father of Modern Psychology, associated with structuralism.
  • Margaret Floy Washburn: First female to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.
  • Christine Ladd Franklin – 1st fem.

Experimental Methodology

  • Advantages: Establishes cause and effect relationships due to researcher control over variables.
  • Disadvantages: May be difficult to generalize findings to real-world settings.
  • Independent Variable (IV): Variable manipulated by the researcher.
    • Experimental Group: Receives the treatment (part of the IV).
    • Control Group: Receives a placebo or serves as a baseline (part of the IV).
    • Placebo Effect: Participants show behaviors associated with the experimental group even when receiving a placebo.
    • Double-Blind: Neither the participant nor the experimenter knows the condition to which participants are assigned.
  • Dependent Variable (DV): Variable being measured; its value depends on the independent variable.
  • Operational Definition: Clear, precise, and quantifiable definition of variables to allow for replication.
  • Confound: Error or flaw in the study.
  • Random Assignment: Assigning participants randomly to control or experimental groups to minimize bias and increase equal representation.
  • Random Sample: Method for selecting participants to minimize bias.
  • Validity: Accuracy of results.
  • Reliability: Consistency of results over time.

Observational Methods

  • Naturalistic Observation: Observing behavior in a natural setting.
    • Advantages: High real-world validity.
    • Disadvantages: Cannot establish cause and effect.

Correlational Studies

  • Advantages: Identifies relationships between two variables.
  • Disadvantages: Cannot establish cause and effect (correlation does not equal causation).
    • Positive Correlation: Variables vary in the same direction.
    • Negative Correlation: Variables vary in opposite directions.
    • The strength of the correlation is determined by the absolute value of the correlation coefficient.

Case Studies

  • Advantages: In-depth study of one person (usually) providing a lot of information.
  • Disadvantages: Cannot establish cause and effect.

Descriptive Statistics

  • Describes the shape of the data.
    • Measures of Central Tendency:
      • Mean: Average (use in normal distribution).
        • Mean = RAC{\sum x}{n}
      • Median: Middle number (use in skewed distribution).
      • Mode: Occurs most often.

Inferential Statistics

  • Establishes significance (meaningfulness) of results.
  • Significant results are NOT due to chance.
  • p < 0.05 is the required p-value to achieve statistical significance.

Ethical Guidelines (APA)

  • Confidentiality: Protecting participant data.
  • Informed Consent: Participants must be informed about the study and provide consent.
  • Debriefing: Explaining the study's purpose and any deception used after participation.
  • Deception must be warranted and justified.

Neurons and Neural Communication

  • Neuron: Basic cell of the nervous system.
    • Dendrites: Receive incoming signals.
    • Soma: Cell body (includes nucleus).
    • Axon: Transmits the action potential.
    • Myelin Sheath: Speeds up signal transmission down the axon.
    • Terminals: Release neurotransmitters (NTs) to send signals to the next neuron.
    • Synapse: Gap between neurons.
  • Action Potential: Electrical charge that travels down the axon involving the movement of sodium and potassium ions across a membrane.
    • All-or-None Law: Stimulus must trigger the action potential past its threshold; intensity of response is not increased if the stimulus is stronger (like flushing a toilet).
    • Refractory Period: Neuron must rest and reset before another action potential can be sent (like a toilet resetting).
  • Sensory Neurons: Receive signals.
  • Afferent neurons – Accept signals
  • Motor Neurons: Send signals.
  • Efferent Neurons: Signal Exits.

Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems

  • Central Nervous System (CNS): Brain and spinal cord.
  • Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Rest of the nervous system.
    • Somatic Nervous System: Voluntary movement.
    • Autonomic Nervous System: Involuntary functions (heart, lungs, etc.).
      • Sympathetic Nervous System: Arouses the body for fight/flight (generally activates).
      • Parasympathetic Nervous System: Establishes homeostasis after a sympathetic response (generally inhibits).

Neurotransmitters (NTs)

  • Chemicals released in the synaptic gap, received by neurons.
    • GABA: Major inhibitory NT.
    • Glutamate: Major excitatory NT.
    • Dopamine: Reward & movement.
    • Serotonin: Moods and emotion.
    • Acetylcholine (ACh): Memory.
    • Epinephrine & Norepinephrine: Sympathetic NS arousal.
    • Endorphins: Pain control, happiness.
    • Oxytocin: love and bonding
  • Agonist: Drug that mimics a NT.
  • Antagonist: Drug that blocks a NT.
  • Reuptake: Unused NTs are taken back up into the sending neuron. SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) block reuptake – treatment for depression.

Areas of the Brain

  • Hindbrain: Oldest part of the brain.
    • Cerebellum: Movement.
    • Medulla: Vital organs (heart rate, blood pressure).
    • Pons: Sleep/arousal.
  • Midbrain
    • Reticular Formation: Attention.
  • Forebrain: Higher thought processes.
    • Limbic System:
      • Amygdala: Emotions, fear.
      • Hippocampus: Memory.
    • Thalamus: Relay center.
    • Hypothalamus: Reward/pleasure center, eating behaviors.
    • Broca’s Area: Inability to produce speech (Broken speech).
    • Wernicke’s Area: Inability to comprehend speech.
    • Cerebral Cortex: Outer portion of the brain – higher order thought processes.
      • Occipital Lobe: Vision (back of the head).
      • Frontal Lobe: Decision making, planning, judgment, movement, personality.
      • Parietal Lobe: Sensations (top of the head).
      • Temporal Lobe: Hearing and face recognition (sides of the head).
      • Somatosensory Cortex: Map of our sensory receptors –in parietal lobe.
      • Motor Cortex: Map of our motor receptors – located in frontal lobe.
    • Corpus Callosum: Bundle of nerves connecting the two hemispheres – sometimes severed in patients with severe seizures – leads to “split-brain patients”.
      • Lateralization: The brain has some specialized features – language is processed in the L Hemisphere.
      • Split-brain experiments: Images shown to the right hemisphere will be processed in the left (& vice versa), patient can verbally identify what they saw.

Brain Plasticity

  • The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life.

Nature vs. Nurture

  • Both nature and nurture influence behavior.
    • Twin Studies: Identical twins (Monozygotic - MZ) vs. Fraternal twins (Dizygotic - DZ).
      • Genetics: MZ twins will have a higher percentage of also developing a disease.
      • Environment: MZ twins raised in different environments show differences.

Endocrine System

  • Sends hormones throughout the body.
    • Pituitary Gland: Controlled by hypothalamus; releases growth hormones.
    • Adrenal Glands: Related to sympathetic NS; releases adrenaline.

Sensation and Perception

  • Absolute Threshold: Detection of a signal 50% of the time.
  • Difference Threshold (Just Noticeable Difference - JND) & Weber's Law: Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum proportion to be perceived as different.
  • Signal Detection Theory: Predicts how and when someone will detect the presence of a stimulus amid background noise.
  • Sensory Adaptation: Diminished sensitivity as a result of constant stimulation.
  • Perceptual Set: Tendency to see something as part of a group – speeds up signal processing.
  • Inattentional Blindness: Failure to notice something because you're so focused on another task.
  • Cocktail Party Effect: Noticing your name across the room when spoken, when you weren’t previously paying attention.

Visual System

  • Pathway of vision: light → cornea → pupil/iris → lens → retina → rods/cones → bipolar cells → ganglion cells → optic nerve → optic chiasm → occipital lobe
    • Cornea: Protects the eye.
    • Pupil/iris: Controls amount of light entering the eye.
    • Lens: Focuses light on the retina.
    • Fovea: Area of best vision (cones here).
    • Rods: Black/white, dim light.
    • Cones: Color, bright light.
    • Bipolar cells: Connect rods/cones and ganglion cells.
    • Ganglion cells: Opponent-processing occurs here.
    • Blind spot: Occurs where the optic nerve leaves the eye.
    • Feature detectors: Specialized cells that see motion, shapes, lines, etc. (experiments by Hubel & Weisel).
  • Theories of Color Vision:
    • Trichromatic Theory: Three cones for receiving color (blue, red, green).
      • Explains color blindness - they are missing a cone type.
    • Opponent Process Theory: Complementary colors are processed in ganglion cells; explains why we see an afterimage.
  • Visual Capture: Visual system overwhelms all others.
  • Constancies: Recognize that objects do not physically change despite changes in sensory input (size, shape, brightness).
  • Phi Phenomenon: Adjacent lights blink on/off in succession – looks like movement (traffic signs with arrows).
  • Stroboscopic Movement: Motion produced by a rapid succession of slightly varying images (animations).
  • Monocular Cues: How we form a 3D image from a 2D image.
    * Interposition: Overlapping images appear closer.
    * Relative Size: 2 objects that are usually similar in size, the smaller one is further away.
    * Relative Clarity: Hazy objects appear further away.
    * Texture Gradient: Coarser objects are closer.
    * Relative Height: Things higher in our field of vision look further away.
    * Linear Perspective: Parallel lines converge with distance (think railroad tracks).
  • Binocular Cues: How both eyes make up a 3D image
    • Retinal Disparity: Image is cast slightly differently on each retinal, location of the image helps us determine depth.
    • Convergence: Eyes strain more (looking inward) as objects draw nearer.
  • Top-Down Processing: Whole → smaller parts.
  • Bottom-Up Processing: Smaller Parts → Whole.

Auditory System

  • Pathway of sound: sound → pinna → auditory canal → ear drum (tympanic membrane) → hammer, anvil, stirrup (HAS) → oval window → cochlea → auditory nerve → temporal lobes
    • Outer Ear: Pinna (ear), auditory canal.
    • Middle Ear: Ear drum, HAS (bones vibrate to send signal).
    • Inner Ear: Cochlea (sounds 1st processed here).
  • Theories of Hearing: Both occur in the cochlea.
    * Place theory: Location where hair cells bends determines sound (high pitches).
    * Frequency theory: Rate at which action potentials are sent determines sound (low pitches).

Other Senses

  • Touch: Mechanoreceptors → spinal cord → thalamus → somatosensory cortex
  • Pain: Gate-control theory: we have a “gate” to control how much pain is experienced.
  • Kinesthetic: Sense of body position.
  • Vestibular: Sense of balance (semicircular canals in the inner ear effect this).
  • Taste (Gustation): 5 taste receptors: bitter, salty, sweet, sour, umami (savory).
  • Smell (olfaction): Only sense that does NOT route through the thalamus 1st. Goes to temporal lobe and amygdala.

Gestalt Psychology

  • The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
  • Gestalt Principles:
    • Figure/ground: Organize information into figures objects (figures) that stand apart from surrounds (back ground).
    • Closure: Tendency to mentally fill in gaps.
    • Proximity: Tendency to group things together that appear near each other.
    • Similarity: Tendency to group things together based off of looks.
    • Continuity: Tendency to mentally form a continuous line.

States of Consciousness

  • Higher-Level: Controlled processes – totally aware.
  • Lower-Level: Automatic processing (daydreaming, phone numbers).
  • Altered States: Produced through drugs, fatigue, hypnosis.
  • Subconscious: Sleeping and dreaming.
  • No awareness: Knocked out.

Metacognition

  • Thinking about thinking.

Sleep

  • Beta Waves: Awake.
  • Alpha Waves: High amp., drowsy.
  • Stage 1: Light sleep.
  • Stage 2: Bursts of sleep spindles.
  • Stage 3 (Delta Waves): Deep sleep.
  • Stage 4: Extremely deep sleep.
  • Rapid Eye Movement (REM): Dreaming. Entire cycle takes 90 minutes; REM lasts longer throughout the night.

Circadian Rhythm

  • 24-hour biological clock
  • Body temperature and awareness change due to this.
  • Controlled by the Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain.
  • Explains jet lag.

Sleep Disorders

  • Insomnia: Inability to fall asleep (due to stress/anxiety).
  • Sleep walking: (due to fatigue, drugs, alcohol).
  • Night terrors: Extreme nightmares – NOT in REM sleep – typical in children.
  • Narcolepsy: Fall asleep out of nowhere (due to deficiency in orexin).
  • Sleep Apnea: Stop breathing suddenly while asleep (due to obesity usually).

Dream Theories

  • Freud’s Unconscious Wish Fulfillment: Dreaming is gratification of unconscious desires and needs.
    * Latent Content: hidden meaning of dreams
    * Manifest Content: obvious storyline of dream
  • Activation Synthesis: Brain produces random bursts of energy – stimulating lodged memories. Dreams start random then develop meaning.

Hypnosis

  • It Can: Reduce pain, help you relax.
  • It CANNOT: give you superhuman strength, make you regress, make you do things against your will.

Psychoactive Drugs

  • Triggers dopamine release in the brain.
    * Depressants: Alcohol, barbiturates, tranquilizers, opiates (narcotics). Decrease sympathetic NS activation, highly addictive.
    * Stimulants: Amphetamines, Cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy), Caffeine, Nicotine. Increase sympathetic NS activation, highly addictive.
    * Hallucinogens: LSD, Marijuana. Causes hallucinations, not very addictive.
  • Tolerance: Needing more of a drug to achieve the same effects.
  • Dependence: Become addicted to the drug – must have it to avoid withdrawal symptoms.
  • Withdrawal: Psychological and physiological symptoms associated with sudden stoppage. Unpleasant – can kill you.

Classical Conditioning: Pavlov

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Brings about a response without needing to be learned (food).
  • Unconditioned Response (UR): Response that naturally occurs without training (salivate).
  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): Stimulus that normally doesn’t evoke a response (bell).
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Once neutral stimulus that now brings about a response (bell).
  • Conditioned Response (CR): Response that, after conditioning, follows a CS (salivate).
  • Contiguity: Timing of the pairing, NS/CS must be presented immediately BEFORE the US.
  • Acquisition: Process of learning the response pairing.
  • Extinction: Previously conditioned response dies out over time.
  • Spontaneous Recovery: After a period of time the CR comes back out of nowhere.
  • Generalization: CR to like stimuli (similar sounding bell).
  • Discrimination: CR to ONLY the CS.

Contingency Model: Rescorla & Wagner

  • Classical conditioning involves cognitive processes.

Conditioned Taste Aversion (One-Trial Learning): John Garcia

  • Innate predispositions can allow classical conditioning to occur in one trial (food poisoning).

Counterconditioning: Little Albert and John Watson (father of behaviorism)

  • Conditioned a fear in a baby (only to countercondition – remove it- later on).

Operant Conditioning: Skinner

  • Law of Effect (Thorndike): Behaviors followed by pos. outcomes are strengthened, neg. outcomes weaken a behavior (cat in the puzzle box).
  • Principles of Operant Conditioning:
    * Pos. Reinforcement: Add something nice to increase a behavior (gold star for turning in HW).
    * Neg. Reinforcement: Take away something bad/annoying to increase a behavior (put on seatbelt to take away annoying car signal).
    * Pos. Punishment: Add something bad to decrease a behavior (spanking).
    * Neg. Punishment: Take away something good to decrease a behavior (take away car keys).
    * Primary Reinforcers: Innately satisfying (food and water).
    * Secondary Reinforcers: Everything else (stickers, high-fives). Token Reinforcer: type of secondary- can be exchanged for other stuff (game tokens or money)
    * Generalization: Respond to similar stimulus for reward.
    * Discrimination: Stimulus signals when behavior will or will not be reinforced (light on means response are accepted).
    * Extinction / Spontaneous Recovery: Same as classical conditioning.
    * Premack Principle: High probability activities reinforce low probability activities (get extra min at recess if you everyone turns in their HW).
    * Overjustification Effect: Reinforcing behaviors that are intrinsically motivating causes you to stop doing them (give a child 5$ for reading when they already like to read – they stop reading).
    * Shaping: Use successive approximations to train behavior (reward desired behaviors to teach a response – rat basketball).
    * Chaining: Tie together several behaviors.
    * Continuous Reinforcement schedule: Receive reward for every response.
    * Fixed Ratio schedule: Reward every X number of response (every 10 envelopes stuffed get ).
    * Fixed Interval schedule: Reward every X amount of time passed (every 2 weeks get a paycheck).
    * Variable Ratio schedule: Rewarded after a random number of responses (slot machine).
    * Variable Interval schedule: Rewarded after a random amount of time has passed (fishing).
    * Variable schedules are most resistant to extinction (how long will keep playing a slot machine before you think its broken?).

Social (Observational) Learning: Bandura

  • Modeling Behaviors: Children model (imitate) behaviors. Study used BoBo dolls to demonstrate the following.
    * Prosocial – helping behaviors
    * Antisocial – mean behaviors

Misc Learning Types

  • Latent learning (Tolman!): Learning is hidden until useful (rats in maze get reinforced half way through, performance improved Cognitive maps – mental representation of an area, allows navigation if blocked).
  • Insight learning (Kohler!): Some learning is through simple intuition (chimps with crates to get bananas).
  • Learned Helplessness (Seligman!): No matter what you do you never get a positive outcome so you just give up (word scrambles).

Encoding: Getting Info into Memory

  • Automatic encoding: requires no effort (what did you have for breakfast?).
  • Effortful encoding: requires attention (school work).
  • Shallow, intermediate, deep processing: the more emphasis on MEANING the deeper the processing, and the better remembered.
  • Imagery: attaching images to information makes it easier to remember (shoe w/ spaghetti laces).
  • Self-referent encoding: we better remember what we’re interested in (you’d remember someone’s phone number who you found extremely attractive).
  • Dual encoding: combining different types of encoding aids in memory.
  • Chunking: break info into smaller units to aid in memory (like a phone #).
  • Mnemonics: shortcuts to help us remember info easier
    * Acronyms – using letter to remember something (PEMDAS)
    * Method of loci – using locations to remember a list of items in order
  • Context dependent memory: where you learn the info you best remember the info (scuba divers testing).
  • State dependent memory: the physical state you were in when learning is the way you should be when testing (study high, test high).

Storage: Retaining Info Over Time

  • Information Processing Model – Sensory memory, short term memory, long term memory model
  • Sensory Memory: Stores all incoming stimuli that you receive (first you have to a pay attention)
    * Iconic Memory – visual memory, lasts 0.3 seconds
    * Echoic Memory – auditory memory, lasts 2-3 seconds
  • Short Term Memory: Info passes from sensory memory to STM – lasts 30 secs, and can remember 7 ± 2 items
    * Rehearsal (repeating the info) resets the clock
  • Working Memory Model splits STM into 2 – visual spatial memory (from iconic mem) and phonological loop (from echoic mem). A “central executive” puts it together before passing it to LTM.

Long term memory – lasts a life time

  • Explicit (Declarative): Conscious recollection
    * Episodic: events
    * Semantic: facts
  • Implicit (Nondeclarative): unconscious recollection
    * Classical conditioning
    * Priming: info that is seen earlier “primes” you to remember something later on
    * Procedural: skills
  • Memory organization
    * Hierarchies: memory is stored according to a hierarchy
    * Semantic networks: linked memories are stored together
    * Schemas: preexisting mental concept of how something should look (like a restaurant)
  • Memory storage
    * Acetylcholine neurons in the hippocampus for most memories
    * Cerebellum for procedural memories
    * Long-term potentiation: neural basis of memory – connections are strengthened over time with repeated stimulation (more firing of neurons)

Retrieval: Taking Info Out of Storage

  • Serial Position Effect: Tendency to remember the beginning and the end of the list best.
  • Recall: Remember what you’ve been told w/o cues (essays).
  • Recognition: Remember what you’ve been told w/ cues (MC).
  • Flashbulb memories: Particularly vivid memories for highly important events (9/11 attacks).
  • Repressed memories: Unconsciously buried memories – are unreliable.
  • Encoding failure: Forget info b/c you never encoded it (paid attention to it) in the first place (which is the real penny).
  • Encoding specificity principle: The more closely retrieval cues match the way we learned the info, the better we remember the info (like state dependent memory).
  • Forgetting curve: Recall decreases rapidly at first, then reaches a plateau after which little more is forgotten (EBBINGHAUS).
  • Proactive interference: Old info blocks new.
  • Retroactive interference: new info blocks old.
  • Misinformation effect: Distortion of memory by suggestion or misinformation.
  • Anterograde amnesia: Amnesia moves forward (forget new info).
  • Retrograde amnesia: Amnesia moves backwards (forget old info).
  • ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: caused by destruction of acetylcholine in hippocampus.

Language

  • Phonemes: Smallest unit of sound (ch sound in chat).
  • Morpheme: Smallest unit that caries meaning (syllable).
  • Grammar: Rules in a language that enable us to communicate.
  • Semantics: Set of rules by which we derive meaning (adding –ed makes something past tense).
  • Syntax: Rules for combining words into sentences (white house vs casa blanca).
  • Babbling stage: Infants babble 1st stage of speech.
  • One-word stage: duh.
  • Two-word stage: duh duh.
  • Theories of language development:
    • Imitation: Kids repeat what they hear – but they don’t do it perfectly.
      • Overregularization: grammar mistake where children over use certain morphemes (I go-ed to the park).
    • Operant conditioning: Reinforced for language use.
    • Inborn universal grammar: Theory comes from NOAM CHOMSKY – says that language is innate and we are predisposed to learn it.
    • Critical period: Period of time where something must be learned or else it cannot ever happen (language must be learned young – Genie the Wild Child).
    • Linguistic determinism: Language influences the way we think (Hopi people do not have words for the past, thus cannot easily think about the past) developed by WHORF.

Thinking

  • Concepts: Mental categories used to group objects, events, characteristics.
  • Prototypes: All instances of a concept are compared to an ideal example (what you first think of).
  • Algorithms: Step by step strategies that guarantee a solution (formula).
  • Heuristics: Short cut strategy (rule of thumb)
    • Representative Heuristic: make inferences based on your experience (like a stereotype) – assume someone must be a librarian b/c they’re quiet.
    • Availability heuristic: relying on availability to judge the frequency of something (over estimating death due to plane crashes due to recent events).
  • Functional Fixedness: Keep using one strategy – cannot think outside of the box.
  • Belief bias: Tendency of one’s preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning by making invalid conclusions.
  • Belief perseverance: Tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face on contrary evidence.
  • Inductive reasoning: Data driven decisions, general → specific.
  • Deductive reasoning: Driven by logic, specific → general.
  • Divergent thinking: Ability to think about many different things at once.

Theories of Motivation

  • INSTINCT: complex behaviors have fixed patterns and are not learned (explains animal motivation).
  • DRIVE REDUCTION: physiological need creates aroused tension (drive) that motivates you to satisfy the need (driven by homeostasis: equilibrium).
    • Primary drive: unlearned drive based on survival (hunger, thirst).
    • Secondary drive: learned drive (wealth or success).
  • OPTIMUM AROUSAL: humans aim to seek optimum levels of arousal –easier tasks requires more arousal, harder tasks need less
  • HIERARCHY OF NEEDS: theory derived by MASLOW – needs lower in the pyramid have priority over needs higher in the pyramid.
  • Intrinsic motivation: inner motivation – you do it b/c you like it.
  • Extrinsic motivation: motivation to obtain a reward (trophy).

Hunger

  • Signals of hunger:
    • Stomach contractions tell us we’re hungry.
    • Glucose (sugar) level is maintained by the pancreas (endocrine system).
    • Insulin decreases glucose. Too little glucose makes us hungry.
    • Orexin is released by the hypothalamus – telling us to eat.
    • Other chemicals include ghrelin, obestatin, and PPY
    • Lateral hypothalamus: when stimulated makes you hungry, when lesioned you will never eat again. (I’m LATE for lunch. I’m hungry. The LATEral hypothalamus makes you hungry.)
    • Ventromedial hypothalamus: when stimulated you feel full, when destroyed you eat eat eat eat (fat woman and cake).
    • Leptin: leptin signals the brain to reduce appetite.
  • Obesity:
    • Increased risk of heart attack, hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes
    • Can be genetic – adopted children resemble their biological parents
    • Set point: there is a control system that dictates how much fat you should carry – every person is different
  • Eating Disorders:
    • Anorexia: weight loss of at least 15% ideal weight, distorted body image Causes: overly critical parents, perfectionist tendencies, societal ideals
    • Bulimia: usually normal body weight, go through a binge-purge eating pattern (eat massive amounts, then throw up) Causes: same as anorexia

Sexuality

  • Biology of sex:
    • Hypothalamus: stimulation increases sexual behavior, destruction leads to sexual inhibition
    • Pituitary gland: monitors, initiates, and restricts hormones Males – testosterone Females - estrogen
    • Sexual Response Pattern: Excitement phase, plateau, orgasm, refractory period (resolution phase) (cannot “fire” again until you reset, guys only)
    • Alfred Kinsey: 1st researcher to conduct studies in sex, suggested that people were very promiscuous. Studies lacked a representative sample, created scale of homosexuality
    • Homosexuality: biological roots: differences in the brain, identical twins more likely to both be gay, later sons more likely to be (hormones from mom)

Theories of Emotions

  • JAMES-LANGE: stimulus →physiological arousal → emotion
  • CANNON-BARD: stimulus → physiological arousal & emotion simultaneously
  • SCHACTER TWO FACTOR: adds in cognitive labeling (bridge experiment) stimulus → arousal →interpret external cues → label emotion
  • Some stimuli are routed directly to the amygdala bypassing the frontal cortex (gut reaction to a cockroach)
  • Behavioral factors: there are SIX universal emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, surprise, disgust, feat) seen across ALL cultures
  • Non-verbal cues: gestures, duchenne smile (you can tell a real smile from a fake one)
  • Facial feedback hypothesis: being forced to smile will make you happier (facial expressions influence emotion)

Stress and Health

  • GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME (GAS): three phases of a stress response (SELYE came up w/ this)
    * Alarm: body/you freak out in response to stress
    * Resistance: body/you are dealing with stress
    * Exhaustion: body/you cannot take any more, give up
  • Type A Personality: rigid, stressful person, perfectionist. At risk for heart disease
  • Type B Personality: laid back, nonstressed

Industrial/Organizational Psych

  • Industrial / Organizational Psych: psychological of the workplace – focuses on employee recruitment, placement, training, satisfaction, productivity
  • Ergonomics / Human Factors: intersection of engineering and psych – focuses on safety and efficiency of human-machine interactions
  • Hawthorne effect: productivity increases when workers are made to feel important
  • Theory X management: manager controls employees, enforces rules. Good for lower level jobs
  • Theory Y management: manger gives employees responsibility, looks for input. Good for high level jobs
  • Employee Commitment:
    * Affective: emotional attachment (best type)
    * Continuance: stay due to costs of leaving
    * Normative: stay due to obligation (they paid for your school)
  • Meaning of Work:
    * Job – no training, just do it for . No happiness
    * Career – work for advancement. Some happiness
    * Calling – work because you love it. Lotsa happiness

Development

  • Prenatal Development:
    * Zygote: 0 – 14 days, cells are dividing
    * Embryo: until about 9 weeks, vital organs being formed
    * Fetus: 9 wks to birth, overall development
    * Teratogens: external agents that can cause abnormal prenatal development (alcohol, drugs, etc)
    * Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS): large amount of alcohol leads to FAS, causes deformities, mental retardation, death
  • Physical Development: