Term 3 Exam :)

Scientific Foundations

• Mean, mode, median

  • Mean: average; adding scores together and then dividing by the number of scores 

  • Mode: the most frequently occurring score(s) 

  • Median: the middle number

• Skewed data - what it means and how it is skewed

  • A presentation of scores that lack symmetry around the mean or average values 

    • Left skew = mean is less than the median

    • Right skew = mean is greater than median 

• The schools of psychology - what they emphasized and who led them

  • Rationalists = used logic to conclude that we are born with all the knowledge we need = Socrates and Plato 

  • Empirists = believe that knowledge comes from experience = Aristotle and John Locke 

  • Structuralism =  introspection can be used to reveal the structure of the human mind = Edward Bradford Tichner 

    • Introspection = process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe someone's psychological processes

  • Functionalism = explores mental and behavioral functions and how they enable organisms to survive = William James and Charles Darwin 

  • Behaviorism = view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes = John Watson and B.F Skinner 

  • Psychoanalytic = focuses on the unconscious mind throughout life’s development = Sigmund Freud 

  • Humanistic = focused on human growth through clint-centered therapy = Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow 

• Inferential statistics

  • Numerical Data allow one to generalize, and infer from sample data the probability of something being true of a population 

    • Conducted after an experiment has been completed and data was collected 

• Validity and reliability

  • Validity = the extent to which a test or experiment measures or predicts what it is supposed to 

    • Content validity = extent to which a test samples the behavior of interest 

    • Predictive validity = the success with which a test predicts the wanted behavior 

  • Reliability = the extent to which the results of an experiment can be replicated 

• Placebos

  • The experimental result caused by expectations alone 

• Types of research

  • Descriptive = 

  • Correlational = 

  • Experimental = 

• Operational definitions

  • The carefully worded statement of the extant procedures used in a research study 

• Independent and dependent variables

  • Independent = manipulated 

  • Dependent = the experimental group 

• Correlation and its drawbacks

  • Correlation = measure of the extent to which 2 factors vary together 

    • Causation doesn’t mean correlation 

  • Drawbacks = inability to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship

• Confounding variables

  • A factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study’s results 

Biological Basis

• Nature vs. Nurture

  • The argument about which has more influence, your genetics or the environment you’re in

• Action potential

  • When neurons send messages to another neuron and then to the brain, a neural impulse, a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon 

• Hemisphere lateralization - the concepts and specifics

  • Right = controls the left side of the body, excels in making inferences and being creative 

  • Left = controls the right side of the body, excels in math, logic, and language 

• Brain areas and what they do

  • Brain stem = oldest and central cord of the brain, responsible for automatic survival functions 

    • Medulla Oblongata = controls heartbeat and breathing 

    • Pons = controls sleep and coordinated movement 

    • Reticular formation = travels through the brainstem into the thalamus and important role in controlling arousal 

    • Thalamus = egg-shaped structure that sits on the brainstem and is the sensory control center 

  • Cerebellum = “little brain”, processing sensory input, coordinating movement output and balance, and enabling nonverbal learning and memory 

  • Amygdala = linked to emotions 

  • Hypothalamus = below the thalamus, responsible for the maintenance of basic body functions, receives stimuli input all over the body as it regulates the body 

  • Hippocampus = helps process the storage of explicit memories of facts and events 

  • Cerebrum = the two cerebral hemispheres

    • Cerebral cortex = fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres

  • Frontal lobe - portion lying behind the forehead, involved in speaking, muscle movement, making places and in judgment

    • Motor Corext = rear of the frontal lobe that controls voluntary movements (a movement that needs conscious thought) 

  • Paraital Lobe = 

    • Somatosensory cortex = at the front of the partial lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations (largely for sensory input related to touch and temp)

  • Occipital lobe = lying in the back of the head including areas that receive info from visual fields, associated with distance, depth perception, color determination, and object/face recognition  

  • Temporal lobe = roughly above the ears including auditory areas from the opposite ears 

  • Association areas = areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; involved in higher mental functions = learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking 

• Reuptake

  • When a neurotransmitter is reabsorbed back into the sending axon 

• Neurotransmitters - specific ones and general properties

  • ACh = enables muscle action, learning, and memory 

  • Dopamine = influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion 

  • Serotonin = affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal 

  • Norepinephrine = helps control alertness and arousal 

  • GABA = a major inhibitory NT 

  • Glutamate = a major excitatory NT, involved in memory 

• Parts of the neuron

  • Cell body = cell’s life support 

  • Dendrites = branches that are extensions that receive and integrate messages 

  • Axon = passes messages through its branch to other neurons, muscles, and glands 

  • Myelin Sheath = fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing axons of some neurons enables faster transmission 

  • Glial cells = cells that support nourish, and protect neurons

• The breakdown of the nervous system - what each system is responsible for

  • Central Nervous System (CNS) = brain and spinal cord 

  • Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) = everything else that connects to the CNS 

    • Sensory 

    • Motor 

      • Automatic: controls glands, muscles, and internal organs (unconsciously) 

        • Sympathetic: arouses the body, mobilizing energy (activity) 

        • Parasympathetic: calms the body, conserving energy (resting) 

      • Somatic: skeletal muscles (consciously)

• The Pleasure-Reward Pathway and dopamine

  • Rewards and pleasure are associated with the NT dopamine 

    • To stimulate the production of dopamine, people will do anything to receive awards 

Sensation & Perception

• Rods and cones

  • Rods = retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray, sensitive to movement (peripheral + twilight vision), more present around the outer retina, send weaker signals because the input is a lower intensity 

  • Cones =  retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina, function in daylight, fine details and rise to color sensations, concentrated near the optic nerve (direct line to the brain) only need a small number of cones to send signals to the brain 

• Circadian rhythm

  • Our biological alarm clock regulates our bodily rhythms that occur on our 24-hour cycle 

• Monocular vs. binocular cues - specific types

  • Monocular = a depth cue 

    • Interposition or linear perspective  = available to either eye alone 

  • Binocular = a depth cue 

    • Retinal disparity = depends on the use of the 2 eyes 

• Sensory interaction

• The role of the thalamus

  • Role = all senses go through the thalamus except first  for smell 

• Parts of the ear and eye and what they do

  • Ear

    • Middle ear = Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup 

    • Cochlea = a coiled bony fluid-filled tube in the middle ear 

  • Eye 

    • Pupil = the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters 

    • Cornea = the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye 

    • Iris = the ring of muscle tissue that forms the colored portion of the eye and controls the size of the pupil opening 

    • Lens = transparent structure being the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina 

    • Retina = the light-sensitive inner surface of the eye (contains the receptor rides and cones and layers of neurons that begin the process of visual information

    • Fovea = the central focal point in the retina around which the eye’s cones cluster 

    • Optiv Nerve = the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain 

• Sleep paralysis

  • Due to the gap in your mind becoming alert but you are unable to move 

• Sleep stages and what happens during each stage

  • NREM-1 = right after you fall asleep (light sleep, 10 minutes long)

  • NREM-2 = lasts from 30-60 minutes, muscles become more relaxed and may begin to have delta brain activity 

  • NREM-3 = deep sleep, lasts 20-40 minutes, delta brain activity increases and a person may have some bodu movement, very hard to wake someone 

  • REM = brain and muscles are active, where dreaming occurs (paradoxical sleep). The brain is highly aroused but the body is calm 

• Properties of sound and light

  • Intensity = the amount of energy in a light or sound wave (brightness or loudness) 

  • Wavelengths = horizontal distance between crests of the troughs of 2 adjacent waves

    • Sound 

      • Frequency = number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time (determines pitch) 

      • Pitch = a tone’s highness or lowness (depends on frequency) 

      • Decibels = a unit of measurement of loudness 

    • Light 

      • Hue = the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light (colors) 

• Future detectors (Hubel and Wiesel)

  • Nerve cells in the brain’s visual cortex respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, and movement 

• Kinesthetic sense

  • Our movement sense, our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts 

• Olfaction

  • The sense of smell and this process occurs every time we take an inhalation of breath (it does not go through the thalamus)

Developmental 

• Object permanence 

  • Infants develop this around 8 months, the awareness that things continue to exist when not perceived 

• Physiological changes with aging

• Baumrind and parenting styles

  • Authoritarian = parents are coercive, they impose rules and expect obedience

  • Permissive = parents are unrestrained, they make few demands and set few limits 

  • Negligent = parents are uninvolved, they are neither demanding nor responsive 

  • Authoritative = parents are confrontative, they are both demanding and responsive, they set rules but encourage discussion and allow for expectations

• Piaget’s stages of development 

  • Sensorimotor 

    • Birth - 2 years 

    • Know the world in terms of sensory impressions and motor abilities 

    • Develop object permanence

  • Preoperational 

    • 2 to 7 years 

    • Learn to use language 

    • Start to use words, vocally and written 

    • Lack of the concept of conservation 

    • Have egocentrism 

    • Theory of mind develops 

  • Concrete operational 

    • 7 to 11 

    • Gain the mental ability to think logically about concrete events 

    • Change in form does not mean change in quantity 

    • Comprehend math. Transformations and Conservation 

  • Formal Operational

    • 12 and so on 

    • Begin to think logically about abstract concepts

• Primary and secondary sex characteristics 

  • Primary = the genitals

  • Secondary = hips, hair, voice quality 

• Attachment

  • Emotional tie with another person 

    • Secure Attachment 

    • Insecure attachment 

      • Avoidant 

      • Anxious 

      • Disorganized 

• Kohlberg’s moral development

  • Preconvention 

    • Up to age nine 

    • Punishment vs Obedience & Instrumental Relativist 

  • Conventional 

    • Most adolescents and adults 

    • Interpersonal Concordance & Law and Order 

  • Postconventional 

    • 15% of anyone past 20 

    • Social Contract & Universal Ethical Principle 

• Erikson’s stages of development

• Harlow’s monkeys and their findings

  • Mother with a cloth-covered wire = a secure base could handle new situations and explore their environment 

  • Mother without the cloth = had no secure base and couldn’t handle new situations 

• Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

  • The zone between what the child can and cannot do and with the help from others like an adult they can bridge that gap 

Memory and Intelligence

• The Flynn effect

  • The idea that standardized intelligence test scores have risen since the test was developed in the 1930s 

• Types of memory

  • Recall = retrieving information learned earlier 

  • Recognition = Identify items previously learned 

  • Relearning = learning someone more clearly when you learn it a second time 

• The serial position effect

  • The tendency to recall best the last and first items on a list 

    • Primary = information that comes first (had time to rehearse)

    • Recency = information that comes last (most fresh in memory) 

• Encoding, storage, and retrieval reasons why people forget or misremember

  • Encoding failure = occurs when we fail to properly encode information during the consolidation stage

  • Storage decay = concept that information we encode into long-term memory becomes difficult to recall after time 

  • Retrieval failure = inability to retrieve encoded information properly 

• The information processing model

  • Encoding = process of making the memory 

  • Storage = retaining the encoded information

  • Retrieval = getting information out of memory storage 

• The working memory model 

  • Alen Baddeley = a new understanding of short-term memory

    • Central executive = links incoming visual and auditory information with motor responses 

    • Phonological loop = deals with auditory information

• Long-term potentiation 

  • An increase in the cell’s firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation (the neural basis for learning and memory) 

• Memory consolidation 

  • The neural storage of long-term memory (sleep helps with this) 

• Interference (proactive and retroactive)

  • Proactive = old learning impacts recall of new information 

  • Retroactive = new learning impacts recall of old information