Psyc 101 first exam

Intro (Week 1)

What is psychology?

Is the scientific study of bx (behavior) and mental processes

Psychology focuses on critical thinking

Psychology is used to help evaluate common beliefs and misconceptions with

Psychology’s Four Goals

Description: “what”

Explanation: “why” a bx or mental process occurs

Prediction: identifies conditions under which a future bx or mental process is likely to occur

Change: unwanted bx; goals.

Big issue in psychology

Nature vs Nurture

Nature: what you were born with

Nurture: Environment, what you grew up with

Wilhelm Wundt: “father of psychology”

Structuralism: sought to identify basic building blocks of the mind through introspection

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic Perspective: unconscious processes & unresolved past conflicts.

Created therapy, lacked in many things though (sexist, saw ppl as sick, didn’t use scientific)

Behavioral perspective: objective, observable environmental influences on over behavior. (Waston Pavlov. & Skinner were key figures)

Humanistic Perspective: free will, self-actualization, and a positive, growth-seeking human nature (Rogers & Maslow key figures.)

Both didn’t agree with Wilh

Cognitive thinking:

Neuroscience/Biopsychology perspective:

Evolutionary Perspective: natural selection, adaptation, and evolutions

Sociocultural Perspective: social interactions

Biopsychosocial: combines 7 majors perspectives: bio, psycho, social

Women in Psychology

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930) became a memory researcher and the 1st female president of the APA.

-She studied with

Margaret Floy Washburn(1871-1939) was the first female to earn a psychology PhD

The 2nd female APA president

Basic research: conducted to advance scientific knowledge

Applied research: designed to solve practical knowledge

Scientific method (pg 23)

Week 2 (Neuroscience,

and Biological Foundations)

Neuroscience: interdisciplinary field studying how biological processes relate to behavioral & mental processes

Our nervous system is consists of neurons

Cells responsible for receiving & transmitting electrochemical information

The structure of a Neuron

Dendrites: receives information from other neurons and sensory receptors

Cell body: receives information from dendrites & if enough stimulation is received the message is passed to the axon

Axon: carries neuron’s message to other body cells

Myelin sheath: covers axon of some neurons to insulate & help speed neural impulses

Terminal buttons of axon: form junctions with other cells & release chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Within a neuron, communication results from an action potential

Between neurons, communication occurs through transmission of neural information across a synapse by neurotransmitters.

Key Neurotransmitters

Serotonin

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Dopamine (DA)

Norepinephrine (NE)

Epinephrine (adrenaline)

GABA (gamma aminobutyric acid)

Endocrine system: collection of glands that manufacture & secrete hormones into the bloodstream

Neurotransmitters Vs Hormones, what’s the difference?

V V

Individual messages global messages

Nervous system Organization

Central nervous system: brain and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system: all nerves & neurons connecting to CNS to the rest of the body

PNS is subdivided into the somatic & autonomic nervous system

Autonomic nervous system subdivided into sympathetic & parasympathetic nervous system

Neuroplasticity: brain’s lifelong ability to reorganize & change it’s structure & function throughout the life span

Neurogenesis: process by which new neurons

Video notes

Sensory information:

Information brought in from spinal cord

Emotional response in the forebrain

Brainstem: 3 structures, medulla oblongata, pons, midbrain. What it does: basic needs; breathing circulation, digestion and to sort

Cerebellum: motor control, coordination, motor memories

Thalamus: router, sorting data and sending it were it needs to go

Hypothalamus; maintains body temperature, homeostasis

pituitary gland sends off hormones, water balance, oxytocin

Cerebrum: making sense of all the data

Brain has two hemispheres which is connected by the corpus callosum

Bellow are the basal ganglia: motor control

Left side is logical and mathematical reasonings

Right side facial recognition

Cerebral cortex,

Frontal lobe; boss, emotional control, critical thinking,

Parietal lobe; sensation, reactions to environment

Occipital lobe: vision

temporal lobe: language, hearing & memories (near your ears)

Somatosensory cortex dedicated to

Week 3 Stress

7 stressors: catastrophic, significant life changes,

Stress: The process of responding to specific events (stressors) as threatening or challenging; the physical and psychological reaction to stress, known as stress response

Stressor: a trigger or stimulus that induces stress; events or conditions that we view as challenging, threatening, or overwhelming

Appraisal refers to deciding whether to view something as a stressor

Stress reaction refers to any emotional and physical responses to the stressor

ex) elevated cortisol

Eustress: pleasant, desirable stress Destress: unpleasant, negative

ex) Field trip, group project, ex) death of loved one, losing jobs,

test and u know the material not getting into the school of ur choice

Christmas having to go to school,

Appraisal: choosing how to view a situation Response

-see stressors as a threat (stressed to distraction)

-see stressor as a challenge (aroused, focused)

Beneficial stress effects (

Catastrohpic /Cataclysmic events: a sudden event/challenge that effects many people at once

Signficant Life Changes: life events

Acute stress: A short-term state of arousal in response to a perceived threat or challenge that has a definite endpoint

Chronic stress: A continuous state of arousal in which demands are perceived as greater than inner and outer resources available for dealing with them

Look for anxiety vs stress in slides n textbook

Study guide questions

Week 4 Sensation & Perception

Sensation refers to the detection and basic sensory experience of environmental stimuli.

The brain receives input from the sensory organs

Perception is the process of integrating organizing and interpreting sensations in meaningful ways.

The brain makes sense of the output from sensory organs

Bottom-up processing Top-down processing

taking sensory using models, ideas, and expectations

information and to interpret sensory information

then assembling

and integrating it

Reception--the stimulation of sensory receptor cells by energy (sound, light, heat, etc)

Transduction- transforming this cell stimulation into neural impulses

Transmission-delivering this neural information to the brain to be processed

The absolute threshold: the minimum level of stimulus intensity needed to detect a stimulus half the time.

Anything below this

threshold is considered

“subliminal.”

Subliminal perception may occur but there’s little or no evidence of subliminal persuasion.

Signal detection theory refers to whether or not we detect a stimulus, especially amidst background noise.

When thresholds aren’t absolute

Depends not just on intensity of the stimulus but on psychological factors: the persons experience, expectations, motivations and alertness

Difference threshold: the minimum

difference (in color, pitch, weight,

temperature, etc) for a person to be able to

detect the difference half the time.