PSYC 2010 Exam 1 Study Notes (Ch. 1-3)
CHAP. 1: WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
American Psychological Association (APA): The leading professional organization that defines psychology as the science that studies behavior and mental processes; sets ethical guidelines and standards for research and practice.
Significance: Establishes professional norms and credibility of the field.
Behavior: Observable actions or responses of organisms; what psychologists can directly study.
Significance: Often the primary focus of empirical research; behavior can be measured and quantified.
Behavioral approach: Emphasizes observable behavior and the effects of learning through conditioning; often de-emphasizes internal mental states.
Significance: Foundations for behavioral therapies and experimental methods.
Biological approach: Explores genetic, neurological, hormonal, and biological processes underlying behavior.
Significance: Connects psychology with neuroscience and medicine; informs pharmacological and medical treatments.
Cognitive approach: Focuses on mental processes such as perception, memory, thinking, problem-solving, and language.
Significance: Explains how people encode, store, and retrieve information; underpins cognitive therapies and education.
Consciousness: State of awareness of internal and external experiences; stream of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.
Significance: Central to research on attention, meditation, sleep, and disorders of awareness.
Critical thinking: Systematic evaluation of information, arguments, and evidence; questioning assumptions and sources.
Significance: Essential for scientific literacy and avoiding cognitive biases.
Empirical method: Knowledge acquired through observation, measurement, and experimentation.
Significance: Distinguishes science from opinion; underlies all psychological research.
Evolutionary approach: Examines how natural selection shapes behavior and mental processes for adaptation and reproduction.
Significance: Provides explanations for universal human tendencies (e.g., fear responses, mate preferences).
Functionalism: Early perspective focusing on the function and purpose of mental processes and how they help organisms adapt to their environment.
Significance: Influenced the development of applied psychology and pragmatic explanations of behavior.
Humanistic approach: Emphasizes personal growth, free will, and the pursuit of meaning; focuses on subjective experience and potential.
Significance: Influences counseling, education, and client-centered therapies.
Mary Whiton Calkins: Pioneering psychologist; conducted memory research; administered and mentored despite gender barriers; first female president of the APA.
Significance: Highlights historical barriers and progress in women’s contributions to psychology.
Mental processes: Internal experiences such as thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that cannot be directly observed.
Significance: Central to cognitive and clinical theories; studied indirectly via inferences.
Natural selection: Differential survival and reproduction shaping heritable traits over generations.
Significance: Core mechanism in evolutionary psychology.
Psychopathology: Study and characterization of mental disorders and maladaptive behaviors.
Significance: Grounds clinical psychology and psychiatric treatment.
Science: Systematic, evidence-based pursuit of knowledge through observation, measurement, and experimentation.
Significance: Foundation of credible psychological research.
Deception: Deliberate misleading participants in research when ethically justified and approved; requires careful debriefing.
Significance: Balances scientific value with respect for participants; guided by IRBs and ethics codes.
Debriefing: Post-study explanation of the research purpose, procedures, and any deception used; addresses participant concerns.
Significance: Ensures informed understanding and mitigates potential harm.
Sociocultural approach: Examines how social interactions, cultural norms, and societal structures influence behavior and mental processes.
Significance: Explains variations across cultures and social contexts; informs culturally sensitive practice.
Stream of consciousness: James’ concept describing continuous, flowing mental experiences.
Significance: Historical foundation for introspective methods and the study of subjective experience.
Structuralism: Early school that attempted to identify the basic elements of conscious experience using introspection.
Significance: Precursor to modern cognitive psychology; eventually supplanted by functionalism and behaviorism.
Wilhelm Wundt: Founder of experimental psychology; established the first psychology laboratory.
Significance: Marked psychology as a separate scientific discipline.
William James: Philosopher-psychologist; advocate of functionalism and pragmatic approaches to psychology.
Significance: Influenced applied psychology and education; emphasized adaptive function of mental processes.
CHAP. 2: PSYCHOLOGY'S SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Anonymity: Keeping participants' identities confidential in research.
Significance: Protects privacy and reduces bias or risk to participants.
Big Data: Large-scale data sets enabling new statistical analyses and insights.
Significance: Transforms questions and methods across psychology with high-powered analyses.
Case study / case history: In-depth examination of a single individual or small group.
Significance: Rich, qualitative insights; limited generalizability.
Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee: Historical ethical violation where treatment was withheld from participants.
Significance: Catalyst for stricter ethical standards and informed consent in research.
Confederate: In context, a variable or group label used in historical studies; underscores classification concerns in research.
Significance: Highlights importance of clear operational definitions and ethics.
Confidentiality: Assurance that data and identities are protected.
Significance: Core ethical requirement in research involving humans.
Dependent variable: Outcome measured to assess the effect of manipulations.
Significance: Central to evaluating hypotheses in experiments.
Descriptive research: Systematic observation and description of behavior without manipulating variables.
Significance: Builds foundational knowledge and informs further experimental work.
Experiment: A controlled procedure to test causal hypotheses by manipulating one or more independent variables.
Significance: Gold standard for causal inference in psychology.
Experimental group: Participants who receive the treatment or manipulation.
Significance: Contrast with control groups to infer effects.
External validity: Extent to which study findings generalize beyond the specific context or sample.
Significance: Determines practical applicability of results.
Hypothesis: Testable prediction about the relationship between variables.
Significance: Drives research design and analysis.
Independent variable: The manipulated factor believed to cause change in the dependent variable.
Significance: Core component of experimental design.
Inferential statistics: Methods for drawing conclusions about populations from sample data.
Significance: Determines whether observed effects are likely due to chance.
Informed consent: Voluntary agreement to participate after understanding procedures, risks, and benefits.
Significance: Ethical foundation of human research.
Institutional Review Board (IRB): Ethics committee that reviews research proposals to protect participants.
Significance: Enforces ethical standards and participant safety.
Internal validity: Confidence that observed effects are due to the manipulation rather than confounds.
Significance: Ensures causal conclusions are warranted.
Longitudinal design: Research design that follows the same participants over time.
Significance: Captures development, change, and long-term effects.
Mean: Arithmetic average of a set of scores.
Formula:
Median: Middle value when data are ordered; divides the distribution into two halves.
Cross-sectional design: Compares different groups at one point in time.
Significance: Quick snapshot; limited inference about development.
Correlational research: Examines relationships between variables without manipulating them.
Significance: Identifies associations; does not imply causation.
Positive psychology: Study of strengths, well-being, and optimal functioning.
Significance: Shifts focus toward flourishing and resilience.
Psychodynamic approach: Emphasizes unconscious processes and early experiences shaping behavior.
Significance: Influences clinical therapies, such as psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches.
Correlation coefficient: Statistic that measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables.
Formula:
Significance: r values indicate magnitude and direction of relationships.
placebo: Inactive substance or condition used as a control.
Significance: Controls for expectancy effects in experiments.
placebo effect: Improvement due to participants’ expectations rather than the treatment itself.
Significance: Demonstrates the power of belief in research outcomes.
population: Entire group to which study findings are intended to generalize.
Significance: Defines the scope of inference.
prediction: A forecast about a future outcome based on a theory or data.
random assignment: Each participant has an equal chance of being placed in any condition.
Significance: Minimizes selection bias; strengthens internal validity.
random sample: Participants selected randomly from a population.
Significance: Supports external validity and generalizability.
Broca's Area: Brain region in the frontal lobe associated with speech production.
Significance: Classic finding linking brain localization to language.
cell body (soma): Metabolic center of a neuron.
central nervous system (CNS): Brain and spinal cord; processes information.
cerebral cortex: Outer layer of the brain responsible for higher-order processing (thought, language, perception).
chromosomes: Structures carrying genetic material (DNA).
corpus callosum: Thick band of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.
dendrites: Tree-like extensions receiving neural signals.
nervous system: Network of nerve cells transmitting signals throughout the body.
neural networks: Interconnected neurons forming functional circuits.
neurons: Nerve cells; basic units of the nervous system.
neurotransmitters: Chemical messengers enabling synaptic communication.
norepinephrine: Neurotransmitter involved in arousal, alertness, and mood regulation.
occipital lobes: Regions at the back of the brain responsible for visual processing.
range: Difference between the maximum and minimum values in a data set.
replication: Repetition of a study or experiment to verify results.
sample: Subset of a population used in research.
standard deviation: Measure of data dispersion around the mean.
Formula:
statistical significance (p-value): Probability that observed results would occur if the null hypothesis were true; commonly thresholded at α (e.g., 0.05).
Formula idea:
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA): Molecular carrier of genetic information.
dominant-recessive genes: Patterns of genetic inheritance where one allele can mask another.
ovaries: Female gonads producing eggs and hormones.
pancreas: Endocrine and exocrine gland regulating digestion and blood sugar via hormones like insulin.
parasympathetic nervous system: Part of the autonomic system that promotes rest and digestion.
principle: A fundamental rule or proposition that guides actions or reasoning.
dopamine: Neurotransmitter involved in reward, motivation, and movement.
efferent (motor) nerves: Carry signals from CNS to muscles and glands.
parietal lobes: Involved in somatosensory processing and spatial reasoning.
peripheral nervous system (PNS): All nerves outside the CNS; connects the CNS to the body.
theory: A well-supported, testable explanation of phenomena.
electrical recording: Measuring electrical activity of neurons (e.g., EEG, single-unit recordings).
third variable problem: A confounding variable explains the association between two observed variables.
endocrine system: Glands that release hormones into the bloodstream.
phenotype: Observable physical and behavioral traits resulting from the interaction of genotype and environment.
(PNS): Abbreviation for Peripheral Nervous System; see above.
CHAP. 3: BIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF BEHAVIOR
Third variable problem: Reiterated here as a reminder that correlations may be spurious due to a confounding variable.
Variable: Any factor that can take on more than one value.
Significance: Variables are the building blocks of hypotheses and experiments.
Endocrine system: Glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream to regulate metabolism, growth, reproduction, and mood.
Significance: Interacts with the nervous system to influence behavior and physiology.
Forebrain: Anterior part of the brain encompassing the cerebrum and limbic system; involved in complex cognitive tasks.
Components include: Frontal lobes, parietal, temporal, occipital lobes; limbic system.
Frontal lobes: Brain region implicated in planning, decision-making, impulse control, and voluntary movement.
Significance: Critical for executive functions and social behavior.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid): The primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system.
Significance: Regulates neuronal excitability; imbalances linked to anxiety, epilepsy.
Genes: Units of heredity encoded in DNA; determine inherited traits.
Genotype: Genetic makeup of an individual.
Action potential: Rapid rise and fall in electrical charge across a neuron's membrane; the all-or-none signal.
Significance: Basis of neural communication.
adrenaline (epinephrine): Hormone and neurotransmitter involved in the fight-or-flight response.
Significance: Increases heart rate, energy mobilization.
adrenal glands: Glands atop the kidneys that secrete adrenaline and cortisol.
Significance: Part of the body's stress-response system.
afferent/sensory nerves: Nerves that carry sensory information toward the CNS.
amygdala: Almond-shaped structure in the limbic system; processes emotions, especially fear and threat.
autonomic nervous system: Regulates involuntary bodily functions; comprises sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions.
autonomies: [Note: likely meant Autopsies or autonomic; see separate entries below.]
autopsies: Post-mortem examinations to study the brain and body.
axon: Long projection of a neuron that transmits electrical impulses to other neurons or muscles.
brain stem: Central core of the brain; regulates vital functions (breathing, heart rate).
glands: Ductless organs that release hormones into the bloodstream.
glial cells/glia: Supporting cells that nourish, protect, and insulate neurons.
hindbrain: Includes cerebellum, pons, and medulla; controls basic life-sustaining functions.
hippocampus: Structure critical for memory formation and spatial navigation.
hormones: Chemical messengers released by endocrine glands.
hypothalamus: Regulates autonomic functions, temperature, hunger, thirst, and endocrine activity via the pituitary.
limbic system: Network involved in emotion, motivation, and memory (includes amygdala and hippocampus).
midbrain: Region involved in movement and certain sensory processes; acts as a relay in the brain.
phenotype: See Chap. 2; observable traits resulting from gene-environment interactions.
pituitary gland: Master gland secreting hormones that regulate other glands and many bodily functions.
plasticity: Brain's ability to change structurally and functionally in response to experience.
resting potential: Voltage difference across the neuron's membrane at rest.
reticular formation: Network in the brainstem involved in arousal and attention.
serotonin: Neurotransmitter involved in mood, appetite, and sleep.
somatic nervous system: Subdivision of the PNS that controls voluntary movements and transmits sensory information to the CNS.
sympathetic nervous system: Arm of the autonomic system that mediates the fight-or-flight response.
synapses: Gaps between neurons where neurotransmitters cross to convey signals.
temporal lobes: Regions involved in auditory processing and language comprehension.
testes: Male gonads producing sperm and testosterone.
terminal buttons: Ends of axons where neurotransmitters are released into the synapse.
thalamus: Relay station that routes sensory information to appropriate cortical areas.
Wernicke's Area: Region in the temporal lobe involved in language comprehension.
mirror neurons: Neurons that fire both when performing an action and when observing the same action in others; linked to imitation and social understanding.
Brain imaging (CAT/CT Scan; PET Scan; MRI; fMRI): Technologies for visualizing brain structure and activity.
CAT/CT Scan: Computed axial tomography using X-rays to create brain images.
PET Scan: Positron emission tomography measures metabolic activity via radioactive tracers.
MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging uses magnetic fields to produce high-resolution images of brain structure.
fMRI: Functional MRI detects changes in blood flow related to neural activity.
Myelin sheath: Insulating layer around many axons that increases the speed of nerve conduction.
Significance: Improves transmission efficiency; myelination patterns relate to development and neurological disorders.
These notes summarize the key terms across Chapters 1–3 with concise definitions and their significance. Where applicable, connections to ethical considerations (IRB, informed consent, deception/debriefing), methodological concepts (experimental vs. descriptive methods, validity types), and real-world relevance (clinical, educational, and technological applications) are noted within the relevant entries. For quick reference, important formulas related to statistics and measurement are included in-line using LaTeX delimiters, e.g., and