Psychology: FINAL EXAM Study Guide - Ch. 4-16

Sensory Receptors of the Ear

About The Ear…

• The outer ear is the auditory canal (the collection and funnel sounds into the passage) and tympanic membrane (the eardrum).

• The middle ear is the hammer, anvil, and stirrup

• The inner ear has semicircular canals, an auditory nerve, a cochlea, and an oval window (a membrane that covers the inner ear).

Parts of the Ear:

Semicircular Canals - a structure of the inner ear involved in maintaining balance

Cochlea - a body tube of the inner ear, which is curled like a snail’s shell and filled with fluid 

• Basilar Membrane - a membrane that runs through the cochlea; contains the hair cells 

  • Hair Cells - inner ear sensory receptors for sound that transduce sound vibrations into neural impulses

Auditory Nerve - the nerve that receives action potentials from the hair cells and transmits auditory information to the brain

Top-down vs. Bottom-Up Processing

Top-Down Processing - perceiving things based on your prior experiences and knowledge

Bottom-Up Processing - when the brain processes sensory information and uses clues to understand stimuli

Chapter 5:

Attachment Theory

Attachment - the strong emotional connection that develops early in life between infants and their caregivers; means “connectedness” 

Attachment Theory

1. The first assumption is a responsive and accessible caregiver creates a secure base for the child, who needs to know that the caregiver is accessible and dependable.

   1. A bonding relationship serves the critical function of attaching the caregiver to the infant, thereby making the infant's survival, and ultimately the species, more likely.

2. The second assumption is that infants internalize the bonding relationship, which provides a mental model on which they build future friendships and love relationships

   1. An infant must be more than merely a passive receptor of the caregiver’s behavior for a bidirectional relationship–the infant and the caregiver respond to each other and influence each other’s behavior

Developmental Programming - refers to the ability of exposures during prenatal or early postnatal development to cause permanent changes to the physiology, metabolism, and epigenome of an individual which subsequently will affect health and increase the risk of disease

Sensitive Periods

Brain Development & Prenatal Exposures

• Cognitive development during adolescence, such as abstract reasoning and logical thinking, is linked to dramatic brain development.

  • The frontal lobes are the last areas of the brain to fully develop, and they continue to mature until late adolescence or early adulthood–-which involves planning, attention, working memory, abstract thought, and impulse control. 

• The development of formal operational thinking, young people begin to ask abstract philosophical, religious, and political questions, and form their own beliefs. 

Prenatal Programming - the process by which events in the womb alter the development of physical and psychological health

Stages of Prenatal Development

1. Germinal Stage - the first stage of development, which begins at conception and lasts 2 weeks

2. Embryonic Stage - the second prenatal stage, from 2 weeks to 8 weeks after conception, when all of the major organs form

3. Fetal Stage - the third prenatal stage, which begins with the formation of bone cells 8 weeks after conception and ends at birth

Neuronal Migration - the movement of neurons from one part of the fetal brain to their more permanent destination; occurs during 3-5 of the fetal stage

• Factors that interfere with normal neuronal migration, such as prenatal exposure to certain toxins or viruses, can increase the risk of psychological disorders 

• Stress and teratogens are substances that can cause permanent damage to the developing embryo or fetus.

• Pregnancy sickness is worst during the first 3 months when the fetus’s major organs develop and the embryo is most vulnerable to teratogens–substances that can disrupt normal prenatal development and cause lifelong deficits. It occurs most commonly with exposure to foods susceptible to molds (such as aged cheese) and to bitter substances (such as coffee), possibly because these foods can cause birth defects. 

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - a consequence of prenatal alcohol exposure that causes multiple problems, notably brain damage

Theory of Mind

Attachment Styles

Brain Maturation

Chapter 6:

Consciousness - an awareness of one’s surroundings and of what is in one’s mind at a given moment; includes aspects of being awake and aware

• Wakefulness - the degree of alertness reflecting whether a person is awake or asleep

• Awareness - monitoring of information from the environment and from one’s own thoughts

Global Workspace Theory (GWT) - Consciousness is a place where we temporarily attend to information that is at hand or deemed important; the “workspace” is a place where thoughts, memories, and feelings reside, available for conscious thought, but it is our attention that determines what element from that workspace we are consciously aware of at a particular moment 

Radical Plasticity Theory - It explains consciousness as a skill the brain acquires, not as an inherent property of the brain or a skill controlled by a particular brain region. 

Quantum Theory of Consciousness - states conscious experiences can emerge suddenly in discrete units to a moment of awareness

Coma -  a state of consciousness in which the eyes are closed and the person is unresponsive and unarousable

Vegetative State - a state of minimal consciousness in which the eyes might be open, but the person is otherwise unresponsive; “wakefulness without awareness” 

Minimally Conscious - a state in which a patient shows signs of intentional behavior (such as visually tracking a person), but can’t communicate 

Disorders of Consciousness - a diagnostic category that encompasses the variety of ways in which wakefulness and awareness might be compromised

Reticular Activating System - a bundle of nerves in the brain stem that is involved in wakefulness and the transition between wakefulness and sleep 

AIM - three biologically based dimensions of consciousness—activation (the amount of neural activation and ranges from low to high activation), input (refers to whether stimulation is internal or external), and mode (the mental states from logical/wakeful to loose-illogical/dreaming)

Sleep & Circadian Rhythm

Circadian Rhythms - the variation in physiological processes that cycle within approximately a 24-hour period, including the sleep-wake cycle 

• Many physiological systems, including the sleep-wake cycle, feeding, hormone production, and cellular regeneration, vary on a circadian basis, as do psychological processes, such as memory and mood. 

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) - quick movements of the eye that occur during sleep, thought to mark phases of dreaming 

Beta Waves - the pattern of brain activity when one is awake; rapid, low-energy waves

Alpha Waves - the pattern of brain activity when one is relaxed and drowsy; slower, higher-energy waves than beta waves  

Theta Waves - a pattern of brain activity during N1 sleep; slower, lower-energy waves than alpha waves

Delta Waves - a type of brain activity that dominates N3 sleep; higher energy than theta waves 

Non-REM - the form of sleep with few eye movements, which are slow rather than fast

Functions of sleep

• To help with metabolic cleanup in the brain

• To restore neural growth

• To consolidate memory

• To produce enzymes that protect against cellular damage

Sleep deprivation inhibits the growth of new neurons and impairs the production of the chemicals that make up the myelin sheath, which is crucial for the smooth and rapid conduction of neural impulses.

Drugs and the Neurotransmitters They Mimic

Psychoactive Drugs - naturally occurring or synthesized substances that, when ingested or otherwise taken into the body, reliably produce qualitative changes in conscious experience 

Depressants - substances that decrease or slow down central nervous system activity, such as alcohol, sedatives, opioids 

• Alcohol - this depressant causes relaxation, depressed brain activity, slowed behavior, and reduced inhibitions; risks accidents, brain damage, liver damage, blackouts, and birth defects

• Sedatives - this depressant causes relaxation and sleep; risks accidents, slowed heart rates, and possible death

• Opioids - this depressant causes euphoria, pain relief, and bodily relaxation; risks slowed heart rate and breathing, death

Stimulations - substances that activate the nervous system, such as caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy (MDMA)

• Caffeine - this stimulation causes alertness, nervousness, and increased heart rate; risks anxiety and insomnia

• Nicotine - this stimulation causes arousal, stimulation, and increased heart rate; risks cardiovascular disease, and lung cancer risk with smoking

• Cocaine - this stimulation causes exhilaration, euphoria, and irritability; risks insomnia, heart attack, and paranoia

• Amphetamines - this stimulation causes increased alertness, excitability, and difficulty concentrating; risks insomnia, paranoia, accelerated heart rate

• Ecstacy (MDMA) - this stimulation causes mild amphetamine and hallucinogenic effects, high body temperature, dehydration/sense of well-being and social connectedness; risks of depression, mental deficits, and cardiovascular problems

Hallucinogens - substances that create distorted perceptions of reality ranging from mild to extreme, such as cannabis, LSD, and psilocybin

• Cannabis - this hallucinogen causes euphoric feelings, relaxation, mild hallucinations, time distortion, attention and memory impairment, fatigue; risks memory problems, respiratory illness, immune system impairment

• Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) - this hallucinogen causes strong hallucinations, distorted time perception, and synesthesia–an unusual sensory experience in which a person experiences sensations in one sense when a different sense is stimulated; risks accidents and insomnia

• Psilocybin - this hallucinogen causes hallucinations, changes in mood, and possibly spiritual experiences; risks anxiety, impaired thinking, and nausea

Chapter 7:

Memory - the ability to take in (encode), solidify (consolidate), keep (store), and use (retrieve) information; also the store of what has been learned and remembered

• Encoding - the process by which the brain attends to, takes in, and integrates new information; the first stage of long-term memory formation

  • Automatic Processing - encoding of information that occurs with little effort or conscious attention to the task

  • Effortful Processing - encoding of information that occurs with careful attention and conscious effort

• Consolidation - the process of establishing, stabilizing, or solidifying a memory; the second stage of long-term memory formation

• Storage - the retention of memory over time; the third stage of long-term memory formation

• Retrieval - the recovery of information in memory; the fourth stage of long-term memory 

Associative Network - a chain of associations between related concepts

Mnemonic Device - a method devised to help us remember information, such as a rhyme or an acronym 

Long-term vs. Short-term memory

Three-Stage Model of Memory - the classification of memories based on duration as sensory, short-term, and long-term

• Sensory Memory - the part of memory that holds information in its original sensory form for a very brief period, usually about half a second or less

• Short-Term Memory - the part of memory that temporarily (for 2 to 30 seconds) stores a limited amount of information before it is either transferred to long-term storage or forgotten

  • Working Memory - the part of memory required to attend to and solve a problem at hand; consists of three distinct processes: attending to a stimulus, storing information about the stimulus, and rehearsing the stored process to help solve a problem

    • Rehearsal - the process of repeatedly practicing material, so that it enters long-term memory

  • Short-Term Memory Capacity - the number of items that can be held in short-term memory 

  • Chunking - breaking down a list of items to be remembered into a smaller set of meaningful units

  • Central Executive - to focus attention and selectively hone in on specific aspects of a stimulus

  • Episodic Buffer - provides temporary storage of information that will become long-term memories of specific events

  • Phonological Loop - assists the central executive by providing extra storage for a limited number of digits or words to 30 seconds at a time

  • Serial Position Effect - the tendency to have better recall for items in a list according to their position in the list

• Long-Term Memory - the part of memory that can store a vast amount of information for as little as 30 seconds and as long as a lifetime

  • Procedural Memory - a kind of memory made up of implicit knowledge for almost any behavior or physical skill we have learned 

  • Priming - a kind of implicit memory that arises when recall is improved by earlier exposure to the same or similar stimuli

  • Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM) - occurs when people can recall in considerable detail personal events from almost any day of their adolescent and adult life

  • Semantic Memory - a form of memory that recalls facts and general knowledge, such as what we learn in school

  • Episodic Memory - the form of memory that recalls the experiences we have has

    • Autobiographical Memory - a specific form of episodic memory that involves memories that we personally experienced

Long-Term Memory System - proposes procedural-implicit, emotional, and declarative-explicit

• Long-term memories begin when sensations are processed into output from cortical sensory association areas, such as the auditory or visual association areas.

Deep vs. Shallow processing

Levels of Processing Model of Memory & Recall/“Hierarchy” of Processing - the concept that the more deeply people encode information, the better they will recall it

1. Structural - low probability of recall, shallow level of processing

2. Phonemic

3. Semantic - high probability of recall, deep shallow level of processing

Implicit vs. Explicit memory

Implicit Memory - also known as non-declarative memory, a kind of memory made up of knowledge based on previous experience, such as skills that we perform automatically once we have mastered them; resides outside conscious awareness

• Stored in structures in the subcortex, specifically in the striatum (past of the basal ganglia), amygdala, and cerebellum

Explicit Memory - as known as declarative memory, knowledge that consists of the conscious recall of facts and events

• Stored in the cortex, specifically in the area where the original sensation was processed 

Alzheimer’s Disease, Dementia symptoms and risk factors

Alzheimer’s Disease - a severe form of age-related memory loss that occurs in the organic brain disease; a common form of dementia

• Strikes those in their 60s, 70s, and 80s; experiences are lost due to anterograde amnesia–the inability to remember events and experiences that occur after an injury or the onset of a disease, which can be caused by retroactive interference and absent-mindedness

Symptoms of Dementia

• Forgetting - the weakening or loss of memories over time

• Memory loss

• Reduced reasoning 

• Trouble paying attention

• Impaired judgment and problem-solving

• Visual perception issues that aren’t related to normal age-related changes

• Changes in personality and behavior

• Any other changes that interfere with a person’s normal daily functioning

Risk Factors of Dementia

• Older age

• Genes (inherited risk)

• Other long-term health conditions

• Lifestyle (for ex. Smoking and excessive alcohol use)

• Sex & Gender

• Cognitive Reserve - the brain’s ability to keep working despite having disease

Chapter 8:

Conditioning - a form of associative learning in which behaviors are triggered by associations with events in the environment

Classical conditioning vs. Operant conditioning

Classical Conditioning - a form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus to which one has an automatic, inborn response

• For example, Pavlov’s Dog 

  • Unconditioned Stimulus - the food

  • Unconditioned Response - the dog salivating when about to get food

  • Neutral Stimulus - the sound of a bell

  • Food + Bell = Salivating (unconditioned response)

  • Conditioned Stimulus - the sound of the bell

  • Conditioned Response - the dog salivating when the bell rings

Neutral Stimulus - an object or situation that when presented alone does not lead to an automatic (or unconditioned) response

Unconditioned Response (UCR) - the natural, automatic, inborn, and involuntary reaction to a stimulus 

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - the environmental input that always produces the same unlearned, involuntary response 

Conditioned Response (CR) - a behavior that an organism learns to perform when presented with a conditioned stimulus

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - a previously neutral input that an organism learns to associate with the unconditioned stimulus 

Stimulus Generalization - an extension of the association between unconditioned stimulus and conditioned stimulus to include a broad array of similar stimuli

Stimulus Discrimination - the restriction of a conditioned response (such as salivation) to only the exact conditioned stimulus to which it was conditioned

Extinction - the weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response in the absence of reinforcement

Operant Conditioning - the process of changing behavior by manipulating the consequences of that behavior (Ex. If a hungry animal does something that is filled by the presentation of food, then the animal is more likely to repeat the behavior that preceded the food presentation.)

Reward Schedules’ Effectiveness

Reforcer - an internal or external event that increases the frequency of a behavior

• Primary Reinforcers - innate, unlearned reinforcers that satisfy biological needs (such as food, water, or sex) 

  • Secondary (Conditioned) Reinforcers - reinforcers that are learned by association, usually via classical conditioning (such as money, grades, and peer approval)

Punishment - a stimulus that decreases the frequency of a behavior

Shaping - the reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behavior

Schedules of Reinforcement - patterns of intermittent reinforcement distinguished by whether reinforcement occurs after a set number of responses or after a certain amount of time has passed since the last reinforcement

Continuous Reinforcement - reinforcement of a behavior every time it occurs

Intermittent Reinforcement - reinforcement of a behavior–but not after every response

Chapter 9:

Proto-Human Language - very rudimentary language; also known as pre-language; used by earlier species of Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, & Homo sapiens

Language Development

Stages of Language Development

• Cooing - the first sounds humans make other than crying, consisting almost exclusively of vowels; occurs during the first 6 months of life 

• Babbling - sounds made as a result of the infant’s experimentation with a complex range of phonemes–the smallest unit of sound when speaking a language, which includes consonants as well as vowels; starts around 5-6 months of age (“da, buh, ma, wee”)

• One-Word Utterances - single-word communication (such as “mama,” “dada,” “more,” or no!”) that occurs around 12 months of age

• Two-Word Utterances - phrases children put together, starting around 18 months, such as “my ball,” “mo wawa,” or “go away”

• Sentence Phase - the stage when children begin speaking in fully grammatical sentences; usually age 2 ½ to 3

Sensitive Periods in Development

If children aren’t exposed to any human language before a certain age, their language abilities never fully develop; this sensitivity period, and optimal learning time for first language acquisition, begins in the first years of life and ends at about age 12.

Severe neglect and lack of exposure to language during this period caused permanent problems with language development.

Sensitivity periods end after neural pruning and neural wiring have reached their peak, at which point the plasticity of neural connections becomes less flexible. 

For example, think of the case of Genie.

Parentese - the unique way parents speak to their young children–higher-pitch voice, drawn-out vowels, and talking more musically.

• Parents all over the speak in essentially the same parentese, suggesting it has some kind of evolutionary and cross-cultural basis; the idea is that speaking this way facilitates language learning in babies by making it friendlier and easier to understand. 

Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area 

Broca’s Area - the area in the left frontal lobe responsible for the ability to produce speech

• Popel with aphasia–a deficit in the ability to speak or comprehend language–often have damage or lesions in the same region of the left frontal lobe

Wernicke’s Area - the area deep in the left temporal lobe responsible for the ability to speak in meaningful sentences and to comprehend the meaning of speech

• Wernicke’s aphasia, in contrast to Broca’s aphasia, results in fluent, grammatical streams of speech that lack meaning. 

• Between the ages of 5 and 11 years, the brain regions associated with language (Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area).

• Primate brains share the mirror-neuron system; it isn’t a coincidence that the mirror-neuron system in primates is located in the same area of the brain where language centers exist in humans (Broca’s Area).

• Nonhuman primates don’t have the same dedicated brain regions that humans have for speaking (Broca’s region) and understanding (Wernicke’s region). 

Chapter 10:

Intelligence - a set of cognitive skills that include abstract thinking, reasoning, problem-solving, and the ability to acquire knowledge

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence - Sternberg’s three-part model of intelligence, including analytic, creative, and practical intelligence

• Analytic Intelligence - involves judging, evaluating, or comparing and contrasting information; resembles the kind of academic intelligence that leads to high scores on tests of intelligence

• Creative Intelligence - involves coming up with fresh and useful ideas for solving problems

• Practical intelligence - the ability to solve problems of everyday life efficiently; plays a role in knowing how to do one’s job well and requires knowledge and skills that one learns “on the street” rather than in the classroom

Predictors & Environmental Contributions To Intelligence

Naturalistic Intelligence - the ability to recognize, classify, and understand the plants and animals in one’s environment 

• The general public may use the term bias to refer to the notion that group differences in IQ scores are caused by different cultural and educational environments, not by real differences in intelligence.

• Environmental deprivation, such as neglect and poor nutrition, is to blame for some causes of mild intellectual disability.

• Only part of the environmental influence on intelligence comes from being in the same household and sharing experiences 

• One such experience is the prenatal environment and what happens to the fetus during pregnancy.

Nature vs. Nurture of Human Intelligence

1. A person’s intelligence is determined almost completely by genetics

2. A person’s intelligence is determined almost completely by the environment in which they were raised 

Fluid vs. Crystalized intelligence

Fluid Intelligence - raw mental ability pattern recognition, and abstract reasoning that can be applied to a problem one has never confronted before

• Being “fluid” involves new problems and requires flexible solutions; fluid intelligence isn’t based on what you have already learned, and it is relatively uninfluenced by culture or the size of your vocabulary.

Crystallized Intelligence - the kind of knowledge that one gains from experience and learning, education, and practice

• Involves what we have already learned (acquired) knowledge, crystallized intelligence becomes more and more stable with time–much like a crystal 

• Crystallized intelligence is more influenced by culture, experience, and environment than fluid intelligence. 

The Flynn Effect - the observed rise over time in standardized intelligence test score

Different tests of intelligence

• Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test - requires fluid intelligence, pattern recognition (not prior acquired knowledge)

• Test of Intelligence - as known as an IQ test, is among the first psychological tests; numerous attempts to answer these questions over the years have been based on the way intelligence was understood at the time the tests were devised

• Standford-Biney Test - established national norms and adopted and applied the ratio score of MA/CA to widely used IQ test

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) - new intelligence tests to measure adult intelligence

• Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) - the first IQ test to be more systematically guided by theories of intelligence, in particular, Cattell and Horn’s concepts of fluid and crystallized intelligence and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development; measured several distinct aspects of intelligence more explicitly and in a more detailed manner than traditional measures of intelligence

Cultural Test Bias - the notion that group differences in IQ scores are caused by different cultural and educational backgrounds, not by real differences in intelligence

Chapter 11:

Motivation - the urge to move toward one’s goals; to accomplish tasks

Needs - inherently biological states of deficiency (cellular or bodily) that compel drives

Drives - the perceived states of tension that occur when our bodies are deficient in some need, creating an urge to relieve the tension

Incentive - any external object or event that motivates behavior

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation - motivation that comes from within a person and includes the elements of challenge, enjoyment, mastery, and autonomy

Extrinsic Motivation - motivation that comes from outside the person and usually involves reward and praise (Ex. when children get an allowance for cleaning their rooms and doing the dishes)

Hedonic Treadmill - known as hedonic adaptation, the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness (or sadness) despite major positive or negative events or life changes 

Motivation In The Brain

In Yerkes-Dodson Law, the optimal arousal model of motivation argues that humans are motivated to be in situations that are neither too nor not stimulating enough.

[Insert more…]

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

1. Self-Actualization - the inherent drive to realize one’s full potential

2. Esteem - the need to be liked, appreciated, and respected by other people, as well as oneself

3. Love & Belonging - affiliation; the desire for friendship, sex, a mate, and children, as well as the desire to belong to a family or social group 

4. Safety Needs - attaining physical security, stability, dependency, protection, & freedom from threats such as war, assault, and terrorism

5. Physiological Needs - food, water, oxygen, and adequate body temperature

Sexual Response Patterns

The Phases of Sexual Arousal 

1. Excitement Phase - vaginal lubrication in women and erection in men

2. Plateau Phase - For men, it might be rather short, but orgasm almost always follows. For women, it often lasts longer than in men but is not necessarily followed by orgasm. Some women stay in the plateau phase for a while, then pass to the resolution phase without achieving orgasm, 

3. Orgasm Phase 

4. Resolution Phase - Men always have a refractory period immediately following orgasm in which erection is lost and orgasm is not possible. 

Within the sexual response cycle in men and women…

1. A response pattern much like men’s, except that there is a possibility of multiple orgasms

2. Women who get aroused and stay at the plateau level, never reaching orgasm

3. Women get aroused and excited, skip the plateau phase, and have a quick resolution phase. In means, there is only one pattern, though a second orgasm can occur after a refractory period.

Emotions In The Brain

Emotions - brief, acute changes in conscious experience and physiology that occur in response to a personally meaningful situation

• Basic Emotions - the set of emotions that are common to all human beings

  • Anger, Disgust, Fear, Happiness, Sadness, & Surprise

• Self-Conscious Emotions - types of emotion that require a sense of self and the ability to reflect on actions; they occur as a function of meeting expectations (or not) and abiding (or not) by society’s rules

  • Embarrassment, Guilt, Humiliation, Pride, and Shame

[Review pg. 432 for “The Emotion Process”]

Chapter 12:

Stress - a response elicited when a situation overwhelms a person’s perceived ability to meet the demands of the situation

Stressors - events that trigger a stress response

Stress hormones

Homeostasis, the HPA-axis & Stress

Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis - a major neuroendocrine pathway relevant to the stress response involving the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands

The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) - plays a crucial role in the stress response 

• These systems include the circulatory system, which pumps blood to large muscle groups during times of emergency, and the respiratory system, which provides the oxygen that enables those muscles to function. 

• Hypothalamic neurons release chemicals that stimulate the release of hormones from the pituitary gland, which sits just beneath it and is connected to brain stem structures that control the ANS.

• The adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, release several stress-related hormones: the catecholamine, which controls ANS activation, and the glucocorticoids, which maintain the activation of physiological systems during emergencies

Catecholamines - chemicals released form the adrenal glands that function as hormones and as neurotransmitters to control ANS activation; they are involved in the “fight or flight” response. Major catecholamines include dopamine and norepinephrine.

Health Psychology - the study of the role psychological factors play in regard to health and illness

Chapter 13:

States vs. Traits 

Trait - a disposition to behave consistently in a particular way 

States (?)...

• The core idea behind positive psychology is a focus on positive states and experiences, such as hope, optimism, wisdom, creativity, spirituality, and positive emotions 

• Described temporary states–such as sad, angry, bored, or annoyed

The Big Five Personality Traits - a theory of personality that includes the following five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (acronym → OCEAN or CANOE)

(O) Openness - How interested in new experiences or new ideas is someone? How imaginative, original, and curious is he or she?

(C) Conscientiousness - How planned, organized, orderly, hard-working, controlled, persevering, punctual, and ambitious is someone?

(E) Extraversion - How sociable, talkative, active, outgoing, confident, and fun-loving is someone?

(A) Agreeableness - How friendly, warm, trusting, generous, and good-natured is someone?

(N) Neuroticism - How anxious, worrying, tense, emotional, and high-strung is someone?

Cortical arousal - the brain’s level of activity at a resting state and its sensitivity to stimulation

Chapter 14:

Attributions - inferences made about the causes of other people’s behavior

Dehumanization - a tendency to portray a group of people as unworthy of human rights and traits–intended to make them feel unworthy

Out-Group Homogeneity - the tendency to see all members of an out-group as the same

Human Evolutionary Heritage

The social nature of human beings stems from the importance of group living in our evolutionary history. 

This heritage explains why people work to preserve group membership and why they modify their behavior when in the presence of others. 

Conformity - the tendency of people to adjust their behavior to what others are doing or to adhere to the norms of their culture

Informational Social Influence - conformity to the behavior of others because one views them as a source of knowledge about what one is supposed to do 

Normative Social Influence - conformity to the behavior of others in order to be accepted by them

Minority Social Influence - when a small number of individuals in a larger group shifts majority opinion by presenting a consistent, unwavering massage 

Obedience - a type of social influence in which a person yields to the will of another person, complies with their demands

The Fundamental Attribution Error - the tendency to explain others’ behavior in dispositional rather than situational terms 

Illusory Truth - describes how when we hear the same false information repeated again and again; we often come to believe it is true

Mere Exposure - direct experience with an object, an idea, or a person, increases our overall preference for it; a psychological phenomenon in which people prefer things that they are familiar with

Chapter 15:

Defining psychological disorders

• Anxiety Disorders - characterized by motor tension, hyperactivity, and apprehensive expectations/thoughts–including generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, phobic disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder

• Somatic Symptom Disorders - occur when psychological symptoms take a physical form even though no physical causes can be found–including hypochondriasis and conversion disorder.

• Factitious Disorders - characterized by the individual’s deliberate fabrication of a medical or mental disorder to gain medical attention 

• Dissociative Disorders - involve a sudden loss of memory or change of identity

• Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic, & Other Cognitive Disorders - disorders involving problems in consciousness and cognition, such as substance-induced delirium or dementia related to Alzheimer’s disease

• Mood Disorders - characterized by a primary disturbance in mood; include depressive disorders and bipolar disorder (sometimes called manic depression)

• Schizophrenia & Other Psychotic Disorders - characterized by distorted thoughts and perceptions, odd communication, inappropriate emotion, and other unusual behaviors

• Substance-Related Disorders - characterized by abuse or dependence on drugs, such as alcohol, cocaine, and hallucinogens

• Sexual Disorders & Gender-Dysphoria - consist of three main types of disorders: gender-dysphoria (a person experiences an incongruence between their experienced or expressed gender and the gender assigned at birth), paraphilias (a person has a preference for unusual sexual acts to stimulate sexual arousal), and sexual dysfunctions (impairments in sexual functioning)

• Eating Disorders - include anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

• Sleep Disorders - consist of primary sleep disorders, such as insomnia and narcolepsy, and sleep disorders due to general medical conditions, such as sleep apnea

• Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified - include kleptomania, pyromania, and compulsive gambling

• Adjustment Disorders - characterized by distressing emotional or behavioral symptoms in response to an identifiable stressor

• Intellectual Disability - low intellectual functioning and an inability to adapt to everyday life

• Personality Disorders - develop when personality traits become inflexible and maladaptive 

• Other Conditions That May Be A Focus of Clinical Attention - include relational problems (with a partner, sibling, and so on), problems related to abuse or neglect (physical abuse of a child, for example), or additional conditions (such as bereavement, academic problems, and religious or spiritual problems)

Symptoms of psychological disorders

• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - symptoms of inattention (often does not give close attention to details or makes careless mistakes, can’t sustain attention, doesn’t listen when spoken to, doesn’t follow through on instructions), hyperactivity (fidgets with hands or feet, leaves seat in a classroom when sitting is expected, inappropriate and excessive running or climbing, talks excessively), and impulsivity (blurts out answers before the question is complete, can’t wait their turn, often intrudes or interrupts others) 

• Autism Spectrum Disorder - symptoms of impaired social interaction (has impaired eye-to-eye gaze and facial expressions, doesn’t develop peer relationships, lacks sharing interests), impaired communication (has impaired or severely delayed speech; language use is stereotypical or repetitive), and repetitive and stereotypical behaviors (shows preoccupation and repetitive interests or behaviors–such as finger or hand flapping, inflexible routines or rituals 

Causes of psychological disorders

Recent evidence from more than 60,000 people worldwide suggests that five major psychiatric disorders (autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia) have a common genetic cause. 

Personality disorders - patterns of cognition, emotion, and behavior that develop in late childhood or adolescence and are maladaptive and inflexible; they are more stable than clinical disorders

1. Odd-Eccentric

   1. Schizoid Personality Disorder - an odd-eccentric personality disorder characterized by a desire to avoid close relationships as well as by emotional aloofness, reclusivity, and a lack of humor

• Symptoms of Schizoid - lack of interest in social relationships, inappropriate or flat emotions, thoughts, and coldness 

2. Schizotypal Personality Disorder - an odd-eccentric personality disorder characterized by a desire to live an isolated and asocial life, but also by the presence of odd thoughts and belief

• Symptoms of Schizotypal - isolated, odd, and bizarre thoughts and beliefs 

3. Paranoid Personality Disorder - an odd-eccentric personality disorder characterized by extreme suspicions and mistrust of others in unwarranted and maladaptive ways 

• Symptoms of Paranoid - extreme, unwarranted, and maladaptive suspicion

2. Dramatic-Emotional 

   1. Histrionic Personality Disorder - a dramatic-emotional personality disorder characterized by the desire to be the center of attention and by dramatic, seductive, flamboyant, and exaggerated behaviors 

• Symptoms of Histrionic - wild, exaggerated behaviors, extreme need for attention, suicidal, seductive, unstable relationships, shifting moods

2. Borderline Personality Disorder - a dramatic-emotional personality disorder characterized by out-of-control emotions, fear of being abandoned by others, and vacillation between idealizing and despising people who are close to the person with the disorder

• Symptoms of borderline - shifting moods, dramatic, impulsive, self-injury (e.g., cutting) 

3. Narcissistic Personality Disorder - a dramatic-emotional personality disorder characterized by having an extremely positive and arrogant self-image and being extraordinarily self-centered; other symptoms are an exaggerated sense of self-importance and grandiosity

• Symptoms of Narcissistic - grandiose thoughts and sense of one’s importance, exploitative, arrogant, lack of concern for others 

4. Antisocial Personality - a dramatic-emotional personality disorder characterized by extremely impulsive, deceptive, violent, ruthless, and callous behaviors; a serious and potentially dangerous disorder 

• Symptoms of Antisocial - impulsive, violent, deceptive, and criminal behavior; no respect for social norms, ruthless 

3. Anxious-Fearful

   1. Symptoms of Avoidant - anxious and worrying, sense of inadequacy, fear of being criticized, nervousness, avoids social interaction

   2. Symptoms of Dependent - pervasive selflessness, need to be cared for, fear of rejection, total dependence on others

   3. Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) - anxious-fearful personality disorder characterized by rigid habits and extreme perfectionism; more general than obsessive-compulsive disorder

• Symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive - extreme perfectionism and anxiety over the minor disruption of routine, very rigid activities, and relationships, pervade most aspects of everyday life

Chapter 16:

Classes of Common Medications & Their Mechanism of Action

Medication side effects

Therapy Practices

• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) - the treatment of last resort for severe depression that involves passing an electrical current through a person’s brain in order to induce a seizure

• Psychotherapy - the use of psychological techniques to modify maladaptive behaviors or thought patterns, or both, and to help patients develop insight into their own behavior

• Psychoanalytic Therapy - Based on Freud’s ideas, a therapeutic approach oriented toward major personality change with a focus on uncovering unconscious motives, especially through dream interpretation

• Psychodynamic Therapy - the modern offshoot of Freud’s psychoanalysis and a form of talk therapy that confronts unconscious impulses, ideas, and wishes 

• Client-Centered Therapy - a form of humanistic therapy in which the therapist shows unconditional positive regard for the patient 

• Positive Psychotherapy - focuses explicitly on increasing a person’s happiness, well-being, and positive emotions

• Behavior Therapies - therapies that apply the principles of classical and operant conditioning in the treatment of psychological disorders

• Cognitive Therapy - a type of psychotherapy that works to restructure irrational thought patterns; structured and problem-oriented, with the primary goal of fixing erroneous thought patterns, as we will illustrate an example shortly

• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - an approach to treating psychological disorders that combines techniques for restructuring irrational thoughts with operant and classical conditioning techniques to shape desirable behaviors 

• Group Therapy - a therapeutic setting in which several people who share a common problem all meet regularly with a therapist to help themselves and one another 

• Technology-Based Therapies - therapies that make use of technology or the Internet to complement current therapies or to make psychotherapeutic techniques available to more people 

• Virtual Reality Therapies - therapies that use virtual (digital simulation) environments to create therapeutic situations that would be hard to create otherwise

• Integrative Therapy - an eclectic approach in which the therapist draws on different treatment approaches and uses those that seem most appropriate for the situation

  • Prolonged Exposure Therapy - an integrative treatment program for people who have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) - an approach that combines elements of cognitive behavior therapy with mindfulness meditation to help people with depression learn to recognize and restructure negative thought patterns

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) - treatment that integrates elements of cognitive-behavior therapy with exercises aimed at developing mindfulness without meditation and is used to treat borderline personality disorders

Surgical Treatments

Psychedelic Medicine - the controlled use of psychedelic drugs for the treatment of physical and mental disorders 

Miscellaneous:

Gene x Environment interaction

Heritability - the extent to which a characteristic is influenced by genetics 

• Genetic influence or heritability is strongest when adopted siblings–who have no genetic similarity–are still very much alike in traits when they are raised by the same family. 

Epigenetics - the study of changes in the way genes are expressed–that is, are activated (turned “on”) or deactivated (turned “off”)—without changing the sequence of DNA