AP PSYCHOLOGY NOTES

-Cognitive dissonance

  • A psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person experiences discomfort/unease from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes, often leading to a motivation to reduce the inconsistency.

EX: someone smoking could believe it’s harmful but continues to do it anyway while actively downplaying the effects (or hypocrisy)

-Post decision dissonance: A type of cognitive dissonance that arises after making a choice, where an individual feels regret or anxious about their decision, often leading them to justify or rationalize the choice to reduce that discomfort.

-Lobes of the brain:

  • The brainstem: Responsible for controlling vital functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure, serving as a critical pathway for signals between the brain and the body. - controls left and right hemisphere — damage to it might result in loss of consciousness or death

  • Medulla: Part of the brainstem that controls automatic functions like breathing and heart rate, playing a vital role in maintaining homeostasis within the body. —- Damage to it will likely result in death.

  • Pons: A structure in the brainstem that connects the medulla to the upper parts of the brain, playing an essential role in regulating sleep, arousal, and communication between different regions of the brain. —- Damage to it will likely result in sleep disturbances within REM sleep

  • Midbrain: A portion of the brainstem that integrates sensory information and is involved in motor control, particularly important for processes such as vision and hearing, as well as the regulation of vital reflexes. Damage to the midbrain can lead to severe disruption in these functions and impact overall motor coordination. —

  • Reticular formation: A network of neurons located throughout the brainstem that is crucial for regulating alertness, attention, and sleep-wake cycles. Filters necessary and unnecessary stimuli. Damage to the reticular formation can result in significant disturbances in consciousness and an inability to maintain wakefulness.

  • RASeticular Activating System (RAS): A part of the reticular formation that plays a key role in regulating arousal and consciousness. It helps determine which stimuli are brought to our attention and is essential for maintaining alertness. Damage to the RAS can lead to issues such as prolonged sleep states or difficulty in transitioning between sleep and wakefulness.

  • Reward Center: The reward center elicits pleasure, motivation, reinforcement learning and/or dopamine.

  • Cerebellum: “little brain” - muscle movement, balance and posture, procedural learning (implicit memories—basal ganglia)--Damage to it will likely struggle with walking forward and coordination

  • LIMBIC SYSTEM: Thalamus, Hippocampus, Amygdala, Hypothalamus —- processes feelings

  • THALAMUS: guides incoming & outgoing messages to proper locations, “relay station between the brain”

  • HIPPOCAMPUS: stores short term memories in long term storage, recalls facts and events

  • AMYGDALA: processes emotions and survival responses — comes alive during potentially threatening situations

  • HYPOTHALAMUS: autonomic nervous system — pituitary gland: releases chemicals (oxycontin, ACTH, vasopressin)

  • Lateral Hypothalamus: initiation of hunger — damage to it will likely cause Aphagia (inability to eat)

  • Ventromedial Hypothalamus: feelings of fullness —- damage to it will likely cause Hyperphagia or eating disorders (bulimia)

  • LEFT HEMISPHERE

    -controls right side of the brain

    -reading, listening, speaking, writing

    -verbal memory & coming up w/ explanations

    -arithimitic & logic

    -detailed analysis

  • RIGHT HEMISPHERE

    -controls left side of the brain

    -passes information through corpus callosum

    -recognizes faces & inferences

    -interpret emotions, comprehending patterns, location of objects

    -sense of self

  • LEFT : LOGICAL, LINEAR, RIGHT : CREATIVE, GLOBAL, INTIUTIVE

  • WERNICKE’S AREA: Language comprehension

  • Broca’s Area: Language production

  • Motor cortex: voluntary movements — rear of frontal lobe

  • Somatosensory cortex: specified part of parietal

  • Occipital lobe: processing visual symbols, recognize lines, angles, shapes, shadows, movement

  • Temporal lobe: processing auditory info and memory, visual pattern recognition —- episodic memory

  • Parietal lobe: touch, pressure, temperature, pain

  • Frontal lobe: decision-making, problem-solving, reasoning, planning, personality, motivation, willpower — Phineas Gage

  • Disruption:

    -Epilepsy: disruption of communication pathways in the brain (out-of-control) — split-brain experiment

  • Hemispherectomy: controls seizure — “half a brain” — plasticity

  • CASE STUDIES & BRAIN SCANS

  • Drive-reduction theory: suggests behavior is motivated by the desire to reduce internal tension caused by unmet biological needs —

    Homeostasis: the body’s need to maintain a balanced—-drive: aroused state of tension b/c of a biological need (hunger, thirst)—-drive-reducing behavior: a behavior that reduces the drive —- motivation arises from the need to satisfy physiological needs

  • Arousal theory: suggests that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of arousal — level of alertness and mental/physical stimulation

  • Yerkes-Dodson Law: easy tasks - higher arousal improves performance, difficult tasks - lower arousal improves performance

  • Independent Variable: manipulated by the experimenter, “hours of sleep”

  • Dependent Variable: measured by the outcome, “test performance”

  • Operational definition: A specified statement about how a variable is measured or defined in a study —- turning concepts into measurable terms so it is replaceable

  • Normative social influence: Conforming to be accepted — motivated for social approval

  • Social facilitation: better/worse performance based on task difficulty in front of others —- arousal from audience

  • Groupthink: desire for harmony or conformity in a group results in poor decision-making

  • Agonist: mimics or enhances a neurotransmitter — activates receptor sites

  • EXAMPLE: Morphine (endorphins)

  • Antagonist: blocks or inhibits a neurotransmitter —- blocks receptor sites

  • EXAMPLE: Naloxone (opiods)

  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): persistent, excessive worry about various aspects of life — lasts for 6 months —- restlessness, fatigue, etc —- higher incidence in women

  • Panic disorder: recurrent and unexpected panic attacks —- sudden periods of intense fear or discomfort — rapid heartbeat, sweating, chills — begins in late adolescence or early adulthood (caused by trauma or other phobias)

  • Specific phobias: intense, irrational fear of a specific object or situation

  • Social anxiety disorder: extreme fear of social situations due to concerns about being judged or embarrassed

  • Agoraphobia: avoidance of places like crowded areas or public transportation

  • Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: unwanted, repetitive thoughts and behaviors performed to alleviate distress

  • PTSD: Exposure to traumatic event

  • Antipsychotics: Thorazine, Risperidone —- Schizophrenia —- neurotransmitter targeted: dopamine

  • Antianxiety: Xanax, Ativan —- Anxiety, Panic — neurotransmitter targeted: GABA

  • Antidepressants: Prozac, Zoloft — Depression, Anxiety, OCD —- neurotransmitter targeted: serotonin

  • Mood stabilizers: Lithium, Depakote —- bipolar disorder —- unclear

  • Stimulants: Ritalin, Adderall — ADHD —Dopamine, Norepinephrine

    STRUCTURE OF HUMAN EYE

  • Cornea: transparent outer layer that protects the eye, focuses incoming light

  • Pupil: adjustable opening in the center of the iris that allows light to enter eye

  • Iris: colored part of the eye surrounding the pupil

  • Lens: transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to focus images onto the retina

  • Retina: photoreceptor cells (rods and cones), back of the eyes, detects light and sends visual information to the brain

  • Rods: photoreceptor cells in the retina responsible for vision in low light conditions

  • Cones: fovea, detects color and fine detail in well lit conditions

  • Fovea: central point of the retina, eye cones—sharp central vision

Optic nerve: nerve that transmits visual information from the retina to the brain

-PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS OF THE EYE

  • Transduction: eye converts light energy into neural signals that the brain can interpret

  • Accommodation: eyes ability to change the shape of the lens to focus on objects at different distances

  • Visual acuity: sharpness of vision

  • Depth perception: ability to perceive the world in three dimensions

    ERIK ERIKSON’S 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development:

  • STAGE 1: TRUST VS MISTRUST —- infancy (0-1) yrs—- can i trust the world?

  • STAGE 2: AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT—-toddlerhood (1-3)yrs- can i do things myself?

  • STAGE 3; INITIATIVE VS GUILT—-preschool(3-6)yrs—can i try things?

  • STAGE 4: INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY—-Elementary (6-12)yrs—-can i keep up with others?

  • STAGE 5: IDENTITY VS ROLE CONFUSION—-Adolescence (12-18) yrs — who am i?

  • STAGE 6: INTIMACY VS ISOLATION —- young adulthood (20-40) yrs — can i form close relationships?

  • STAGE 7: GENERATIVITY VS STAGNATION — middle adulthood (40-60)—can i contribute to the world?

  • STAGE 8: INTEGRITY VS DESPAIR — late adulthood (50+)—- did i live a meaningful life?

JEAN PIAGET- Cognitive development

  • Sensorimotor-0-2yrs-object permanence (when objects out of their view no longer exist)

  • Preoperational-2-7yrs-egocentrism (world revolves around them), babbling, lack of conservation (skinny cup hols same amount of water as big cup)

  • Concrete operationsl-7-11yrs-logical thinking grasp of conversation and reversibility

  • Formal operational-12+yrs-abstract and hypothetical thinking

BIPOLAR DISORDERS

  • BIPOLAR I: manic episodes that last at least 7 days or depressive episodes that last 2 weeks

    -MANIA: elevated mood, impulsive behavior, reckless decision making

  • BIPOLAR II: hypomanic episodes, does not require hospitalization

    -HYPOMANIA: elevated mood but doed not disrupt relationships or daily life

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Dopamine—reward, pleasure, motor control—-schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, addiction, depression

Serotonin—-mood, sleep, appetite—depression, anxiety, OCD

Norepinephrine—arousal,flight or flight—-depression, anxiety, ADHD

Acetylcholine—muscle movement, learning—-Alzheimer’s disease, Myasthenia Gravis

GABA—inhibition of neural activity—Anxiety, seizure’s, sleep disorders

Endorphins—pain relief, pleasure—-pain relief, addiction, stress relief

Oxytocin—bonding, trust, empathy—postpartum depression, social disorders

EAR ANATOMY AND AUDITORY PATHWAY

  • OUTER EAR: Pinna: visible, external ear that captures sound waves from the environment

  • AUDITORY CANAL: Channels sound waves toward eardrum

  • TYMPANIC MEMBRANE (eardrum): vibrates in response to sound waves, hearing process

  • MIDDLE EAR:

  • OSSICLES: Three tiny bones, malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup)—amplifies vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear

  • Oval window: membrane covered opening that connects the middle ear to the cochlea in the inner ear

  • INNER EAR

  • COCHLEA: fluid-filled strucutr that contains basilar membranes and hair cells

  • BASILAR MEMBRANE: structure within the cochlea that supports hair cells—triggers neural impulses

  • HAIR CELLS: sensory receptors that convert vibrations into neural signals

  • Auditory nerve: transmits neural signals from the cochlea to the brain for processing

  • THEORIES

  • PLACE: different frequencies of sound activate specific locations along the basilar membrane, allowing the brain to perceive pitch based on the location

  • FREQUENCY: proposes that the rate at which neurons fire action potentials corresponds to the frequency of the sound wave, enabling pitch perception

MEMORY

  • Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading information into ones memory of an event

  • Source Amnesia: attirbuting the event to the wrong source

  • Decay theory: memory traces fade over time if not accessed

  • Interference: New information (retroactive interference) or old information (proactive interference) can disrupt memory retrieval

  • Effortful processing: requires conscious effort and attention, rehearsal and eleaboration

  • Automatic processing: occurs without conscious effort, routine information

  • implicit memories: unconscious memories and conditioned responses (skills and tasks)

  • explicit memories: conscious memories, episodic (personal) and semantic (generalized knowledge)

THEORIES OF VISION

  • Trichromatic theory: 3 cones for R/G/B light— basic color perception

  • Opponent process theory: opposing color pairs —afterimages, color blindness

BINOCULAR CUES & GESTALT

  • Retinal disparity:each eye receives a slightly different image because of the space between them

  • convergence: degree to which the eyes turn inward to focus on a close object

  • Figure-ground: separate objects from their background (seeing words on a page)

  • Proximity: group nearby objects together (three groups of dots)

  • Similarity; group similar looking objects together (rows of circles vs squares)

  • continuity: perceive smooth patterns not broken ones (wavy line crossing straight line)

  • closure: fill in gaps to create a whole object (seeing s full circle even if part is missing)

  • connectedness: linked objects as a single unit

BIASES

  • Confirmation bias; tendency to seek out and remember information that confirms one preexisting bias while being disproportionately less considerate to other possibilities

  • Hindsight Bias: inclination to see events as having been predictable after they have already occurred—overestimating others abilities

  • Anchoring bias: reliance on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions

  • representative heuristics; people judge the probability of an event based in how similar it is to a prototype (or a assumption of another b/c of past experience)

  • framing effect: the way information is presented can influence decision making and judgement

NERVOUS SYSTEM

  1. Central nervous system; Brain anf spinal cord, processes and interprets information

Peripheral nervous system: connects CNS to the rest of the body

-Somatic Nervous system: controls voluntary movements, relays messages to CNS

-Autonomic nervous system: involuntary functions (heartbeat)

  1. sympathetic nervous system: “fight or flight”

  2. parasympathetic mervous system: “rest and digest”

NEURON BODY

  • dendrites-receive messages from other neurons

  • soma (cell body)-contains nucleus, processes input

  • axon- sends signals away from the cell body to other neurons

  • myelin sheath-fat covering that speeds up neural impulses (damage = MS)

  • axon terminals-release neurotransmitters to send signals across the synapse

  • synapse: gap between neurons where neurotransmitters are released

CHEMICAL MESSENGERS

  • dopamine- too much: schizophrenia, too little: parkinsons

  • serotonin- too little: depression

  • ACH- lack; alzheimers

  • endorphins: released during exercise

  • norepinephrine—low:depression

  • GABA—low:anxiety, seizures

  • Glutamate—-too much; migraines, seizures

SENSATION PRINCIPLES

  • inattentional blindness: failing to see objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

  • change blindness: failing to notice changes in environment

  • absolute threshold: minimum stimulus energy to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

  • JND threshold; minimum difference

  • webers law: two stimulus must differ by a constant percentage

  • signal detection theory; predicting how snd when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus smid background stimulation

PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES

  • algorthims: step by step procedures

  • functional fixedness; tendency to see an object only in terms of its typical use

  • mental set: tendency to approach a problem in a way that has worked int he past