THE BEST AP PSYCHOLOGY CRAM SHEET

History and Approaches

  • Psychology is derived from physiology (biology) and philosophy.

  • Early Approaches

    • Structuralism: Uses introspection (act of looking inward to examine mental experience) to determine the underlying structures of the mind.

    • Functionalism: Analyzes the purpose of behavior.

Approaches Key Words

  • Evolutionary: Genes.

  • Humanistic: Free will, choice, ideal, actualization.

  • Biological: Brain, NTs.

  • Cognitive: Perceptions, thoughts.

  • Behavioral: Learned, reinforced.

  • Psychoanalytic/dynamic: Unconscious, childhood.

  • Sociocultural: Society.

  • Biopsychosocial: Combination of above.

People

  • Mary Calkins: First Female President of the APA.

  • Charles Darwin: Natural selection & evolution.

  • Dorothea Dix: Reformed mental institutions in the U.S.

  • Stanley Hall: 1st president of APA, 1st journal.

  • William James: Father of American Psychology - functionalist.

  • Wilhem Wundt: Father of Modern Psychology - structuralist.

  • Margaret Floy Washburn: 1st female PhD.

  • Christine Ladd Franklin: 1st female researcher.

Research Methods

  • Experiment:

    • Advantage: Researcher controls variables to establish cause and effect.

    • Disadvantage: Difficult to generalize.

    • Independent Variable: Manipulated by the researcher.

      • Experimental Group: Received the treatment (part of the IV).

      • Control Group: Placebo, baseline (part of the IV).

      • Placebo Effect: Showing behaviors associated with the experimental group when having received a placebo.

      • Double-Blind: Experiment where neither the participant nor the experimenter is aware of which condition people are assigned to.

    • Dependent Variable: Measured variable (is DEPENDENT on the independent variable).

  • Operational Definition: Clear, precise, typically quantifiable definition of your variables, allows replication.

  • Confound: Error/flaw in the study.

  • Random Assignment: Assigns participants to either the control or experimental group at random, minimizes bias, increases the chance of equal representation.

  • Random Sample: Method for choosing participants, minimizes bias.

  • Validity: Accurate results.

  • Reliability: Same results every time.

  • Naturalistic Observation:

    • Advantage: Real-world validity (observe people in their own setting).

    • Disadvantage: No cause and effect.

  • Correlation:

    • Advantage: Identify the relationship between two variables.

    • Disadvantage: No cause and effect (CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION).

      • Positive Correlation: Variables vary in the same direction.

      • Negative Correlation: Variables vary in opposite directions.

      • The stronger the # the stronger the relationship REGARDLESS of the pos/neg sign.

  • Case Study:

    • Advantage: Studies ONE person (usually) in great detail – lots of information.

    • Disadvantage: No cause and effect.

  • Descriptive Stats: Shape of the data.

    • Measures of Central Tendency:

      • Mean: Average (use in normal distribution).

      • Median: Middle # (use in skewed distribution).

      • Mode: Occurs most often.

  • Inferential Statistics: Establishes significance (meaningfulness). Significant results = NOT due to chance.

Ethical Guidelines (APA)

  • Confidentiality.

  • Informed Consent.

  • Debriefing.

  • Deception must be warranted.

Biological Basis

  • Neuron: Basic cell of the NS

    • Dendrites: Receive incoming signals.

    • Soma: Cell body (includes nucleus).

    • Axon: AP travels down this.

    • Myelin Sheath: Speeds up signal down axon.

    • Terminals: Release NTs – send signal onto the next neuron.

    • Synapse: Gap between neurons.

  • Action Potential: Movement of sodium and potassium ions across a membrane sends an electrical charge down the axon.

    • All or none law: Stimulus must trigger the AP past its threshold, but does not increase the intensity of the response.

    • Refractory period: Neuron must rest and reset before it can send another AP.

  • Sensory neurons: Receive signals

  • Afferent neurons: Accept signals.

  • Motor neurons: Send signals.

  • Efferent neurons: Signal Exits.

  • Central NS: Brain and spinal cord.

  • Peripheral NS: Rest of the NS.

    • Somatic NS: Voluntary movement.

    • Autonomic NS: Involuntary (heart, lungs, etc).

      • Sympathetic NS: Arouses the body for fight/flight (generally activates).

      • Parasympathetic NS: Established homeostasis after a sympathetic response (generally inhibits).

Neurotransmitters (NTS)

  • Chemicals released in 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 (HR, BP).

    • 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 (Broca – Broken speech).

    • Wernicke’s Area: Inability to comprehend speech (Wernicke’s what?).

    • Cerebral Cortex: Outer portion of the brain – higher-order thought processes

      • Occipital Lobe: Located in the back of the head - vision.

      • Frontal Lobe: Decision making, planning, judgment, movement, personality.

      • Parietal Lobe: Located on the top of the head - sensations.

      • Temporal Lobe: Located on the sides of the head (temples) – hearing and facial recognition.

      • 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 that connects the 2 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 Left Hemisphere.

      • Split-brain experiments: Done by Sperry & Gazzanaga.

        • 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 can “heal” itself.

  • Nature vs. Nurture: ANSWER IS BOTH.

    • Twin Studies:

      • Identical twins – Monozygotic (MZ).

      • Fraternal twins – Dizygotics (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 the hypothalamus; releases growth hormones.

    • Adrenal Glands: related to sympathetic NS: releases adrenaline.

Sensation & Perception

  • Absolute Threshold: Detection of a signal 50% of the time.

  • Difference Threshold (also called a just noticeable difference (JND) and follows Weber’s Law: Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum proportion.

  • Signal Detection Theory

  • 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: Notice your name across the room when it’s 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 the 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.

Theories of Color Vision

  • Trichromatic: Three cones for receiving color (blue, red, green).

    • Explains color blindness - they are missing a cone type.

  • Opponent Process: Complementary colors are processed in ganglion cells – explains why we see an afterimage.

  • Visual Capture: The visual system overwhelms all others (nauseous in an IMAX theater – vision trumps vestibular).

  • 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 different on each retinal, location of 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: Eardrum, 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 bend 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

  • Whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt Principles

*  **Figure/ground**: Organize information into figures objects (figures) that stand apart from surrounds (background).
*  **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

  • 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 occurs in between each cycle. REM lasts longer throughout the night.

  • Circadian Rhythm: 24-hour biological clock

    • Body temp 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).

  • Sleepwalking: (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: The 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.

Learning

  • Classical Conditioning: PAVLOV

    • Unconditioned Stimulus (US): Brings about response without needing to be learned (food).

    • Unconditioned Response (UR): Response that naturally occurs without training (salivate).

    • Neutral Response (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 positive outcomes are strengthened, negative outcomes weaken a behavior (cat in the puzzle box).

Principles of Operant Cond

  • Positive Reinforcement: Add something nice to increase a behavior (gold star for turning in HW).

  • Negative Reinforcement: Take away something bad/annoying to increase a behavior (put on seatbelt to take away annoying car signal).

  • Positive Punishment: Add something bad to decrease a behavior (spanking).

  • Negative 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.

Reinforcement Schedule

  • 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).

Cognition

  • 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: Breaks 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 pay attention).

      • Iconic Memory: Visual memory, lasts 0.3 seconds.

      • Echoic Memory: Auditory memory, lasts 2-3 seconds.

    • Short Term Memory: Information passes from sensory memory to STM – lasts 30 secs, and can remember 7 \pm 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 lifetime.

      • Explicit (Declarative): Conscious recollection

        • Episodic: events

        • Semantic: facts

      • Implicit (Nondeclarative): unconscious recollection

        • Classical conditioning

        • Priming: Information that is seen earlier “primes” you to remember something later on (octopus, assassin, climate, bogeyman).

        • 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 without cues (essays).

    • Recognition: Remember what you’ve been told with 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 because 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 (Loftus – lost in the mall, Disney land).

    • Anterograde amnesia: Amnesia moves forward (forget new info – 50 first dates).

    • Retrograde amnesia: Amnesia moves backwards (forget old info).

    • Alzheimer’s Disease: Caused by the destruction of acetylcholine in hippocampus.

Language

  • Phonemes: Smallest unit of sound (ch sound in chat).

  • Morpheme: Smallest unit that carries 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 overuse 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: Shortcut strategy (rule of thumb).

    • Representative Heuristic: Make inferences based on your experience (like a stereotype) – assume someone must be a librarian because 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: The 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 of contrary evidence.

  • Inductive reasoning: Data-driven decisions, general → specific.

  • Deductive reasoning: Driven by logic, specific → general.

  • Divergent thinking: The ability to think about many different things at once.

Motivation & Emotion

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 because 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: stimulus → arousal →interpret external cues → label emotion adds in cognitive labeling (bridge experiment)

    • 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, fear) 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 with 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 weeks 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