Princeton Review AP Psychology Premium Prep, 2023_ 5 Practice Tests + Complete Content Review + Strategies & Techniques_ 5 Practice Tests + Complete Content Review + Strategies & Techniques

Chapter 5: Foundations: History

Pre-History and History of Psychology

  • Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind.
    • Behavior: Observable actions of a person or animal, subject to natural laws.
    • Mind: Sensations, memories, motives, emotions, thoughts, and other subjective phenomena not readily observed.
  • Psychology as a Science:
    • Uses systematic observation and data collection to answer questions about the mind, behavior, and their interactions.
    • Seeks to describe, predict, and explain behavior and underlying mental processes.
  • Theory Acceptance:
    • People accept a theory until sufficient inconsistent data is collected.
    • Prevailing theories are replaced or revised based on new data.
  • Influence of Ancient Greeks:
    • Socrates and Plato: Humans possess innate knowledge unobtainable through observation.
    • Aristotle: Truth is derived from the physical world; logic and systematic observation form the basis for empirical, scientific method.
  • Dualism:
    • Divides the world into body and spirit.
    • Prefigures current debates around the difference between the brain and the mind.
  • Post-Greek Era:
    • Little systematic investigation due to religious beliefs that the "spirit" could not be studied scientifically.
    • The study of the natural world was only useful for what it demonstrated about God.
  • Scientific Revolution (c. 1600–1700):
    • Discoveries in biology, astronomy, and other sciences.
    • Human nature became subject to scientific inquiry.
  • René Descartes (1596–1650):
    • Dualist view: physical world and creatures are like machines behaving predictably.
    • Humans are an exception because they possess a mind, which is not observable and not subject to natural laws.
    • Hypothesized mind-body interaction; the mind controls the body, and the body provides sensory input.
  • John Locke (1632–1704):
    • Empiricism: Acquisition of truth through observations and experiences.
    • Tabula Rasa: The mind of an infant is a “blank slate.”
    • Almost all knowledge we have must be learned; almost nothing is innate.
    • Emphasized nurture over nature, similarly to B.F. Skinner.
  • Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679):
    • Materialism: Only matter and energy exist.
    • Consciousness is a by-product of the brain's machinery.
    • Influenced behaviorism.
  • 19th Century and Natural Selection:
    • Charles Darwin (1809–1882): Theory of natural selection in On the Origin of Species (1859).
    • Evolution occurs due to naturally occurring variation; individuals best adapted to the environment survive and reproduce.
    • Evolutionary theory affected psychology by explaining differences between species and justifying animal studies to understand human behavior.
  • Darwin in a nutshell: Behavior evolves just like physiology: both function to help individuals survive.
  • Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920):
    • Founder of the science of psychology; opened a laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879 to study consciousness.
    • Applied physiological methods to study the mind.
  • Edward Titchener (1867–1927):
    • Student of Wundt; brought psychology to the U.S.
    • Structuralism: Identifying smallest elements of the mind to understand its greater structure.
    • Introspection: Interview process to illuminate patterns in thought.
  • William James (1842–1910):
    • Opposed structuralism; focused on the function of the mind.
    • Functionalism: Understanding how the mind fulfills its purpose, influenced by Darwin.
  • Historical Figures and Gender Biases:
    • Dorothea Dix: Advocated for the rights of mentally ill poor people and founded the first public mental hospital in the U.S.
    • Mary Whiton Calkins: First female graduate student in psychology; denied a PhD despite outscoring male students.
    • Margaret Floy Washburn: First female PhD in psychology and second female president of the APA.
    • G. Stanley Hall was the first president of the APA.
    • Washburn's thesis was the first foreign study published by Wilhelm Wundt, but she was not allowed to join the official organization of experimental psychologists because of her gender.
    • Today, about two-thirds of doctorates in psychology are held by women, and about half of the presidents of the Association for Psychological Science have been women.

Approaches

  • Modern psychology is built on the groundwork laid by historical theories.
1. Biological
  • Understands interactions between anatomy/physiology (especially the nervous system) and behavior.
  • Applies biological experimentation to psychological problems.
  • Techniques: CAT scans, MRIs, EEGs, PET scans.
2. Behavioral Genetics
  • Explores how behaviors are attributed to genetically based psychological characteristics.
  • Considers biological predispositions and environmental influence.
  • Investigates the extent to which traits like risk-taking are attributable to genetics.
3. Behavioralist
  • Psychology is the study of observable behavior; mental events are unimportant because they cannot be observed.
  • Classical Conditioning:
    • Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936): Behavior elicited by a formerly neutral stimulus.
    • John Watson (1878–1958) and Rosalie Rayner: Little Albert experiment.
  • Operant Conditioning:
    • B.F. Skinner (1904–1990): Associate behavior with an environmental outcome.
  • Behavior Modification:
    • Techniques consider psychological problems as learned habits that can be unlearned through behavioral methods.
4. Cognitive
  • To understand people’s behavior, we must understand how they construe their environment.
  • Combines structuralist and functionalist approaches.
  • Cognitive-Behavioral: Largely replaced purely behavioral approach.
5. Humanistic
  • Studies the roles of consciousness, free will, and awareness of the human condition.
  • Holistic study of personality developed in response to behaviorism.
  • Emphasizes personal values, goals, and their influence on behavior.
    • Abraham Maslow (1908–1970): Self-actualization, the need to reach full potential creatively.
    • Carl Rogers (1902–1987): Stressed unconditional positive regard and a positive self-concept.
6. Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic
  • Sigmund Freud (1856–1939): Theory of human behavior focused on individuals and their mental problems.
  • Conscious vs. Unconscious Mind:
    • Conscious: Mental state of awareness.
    • Unconscious: Mental processes that influence behavior, thoughts, and feelings without normal access.
  • Importance of early childhood experiences and parent-child relationships.
  • Therapy focuses on resolving unconscious conflicts by uncovering repressed information.
7. Sociocultural
  • Environment greatly affects behavior and how it is perceived.
  • Cultural values vary from society to society and must be considered to understand behavior.
8. Evolutionary
  • Behavior is best explained by how adaptive it is for survival.
  • Example: Fear is an adaptive evolutionary response.
9. Biopsychosocial
  • Investigates the interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors contributing to behavior or mental processes.

Domains

  • Broad areas of psychological research.
    • Biological: Effect of drugs on behavior.
    • Social: Relationships between drug users and families.
    • Clinical: Treatment options for drug addiction.
    • Cognitive: Thoughts justifying drug use.
    • Counseling: School counselor talking to a student about drugs.
    • Developmental: Ages susceptible to peer pressure.
    • Educational: Effectiveness of school-based programs.
    • Experimental: Experiments.
    • Industrial-Organizational: Workplaces.
    • Personality: Personality.
    • Psychometric: Measuring things in psychology.
    • Positive: Positive aspects and strengths of human behavior.

Chapter 6: Foundations: Methods and Approaches

Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research

Experiment
  • An investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect.
  • The experimenter changes a variable (cause) and measures how it changes another variable (effect).
  • The investigator tries to hold all other variables constant so she can attribute any changes to the manipulation.
    • Independent Variable: The manipulated variable.
    • Dependent Variable: What is measured.
    • Control Variable: Constant in all groups.
  • Conditions to be met:
    • Population: A specific group of interest to be studied is identified.
    • Representative Sample: A sample that reflects the diverse characteristics of the population.
    • Random Sampling: Ensures maximum representativeness.
    • Random Assignment: Subjects are randomly assigned into experimental and control groups to ensure that each group has minimal differences.
Experimental Group
  • The group receiving or reacting to the independent variable.
Control Group
  • Does not receive the independent variable but should be kept identical in all other respects.
  • Using two groups allows for a comparison to be made and causation to be determined.
Sampling Bias
  • Occurs when the sample is not representative of the population.
    • Bias of Selection from a Specific Real Area: Occurs when people are selected in a physical space.
    • Self-Selection Bias: Occurs when the people being studied have some control over whether or not to participate.
    • Pre-screening or Advertising Bias: How volunteers are screened or where advertising is placed might skew the sample.
    • Healthy User Bias: The study population tends to be in better shape than the general population.
Single- or Double-Blind Design
  • To avoid inadvertently influencing the results, as in the previous examples, researchers use a single- or double-blind design.
    • Single-Blind Design: Subjects do not know whether they are in the control or experimental group.
    • Double-Blind Design: Neither the subjects nor the researcher knows who is in the two groups. A third party has the appropriate records so that the data can be analyzed later.
      • Placebo: A seemingly therapeutic object or procedure, which causes the control group to believe they could be in the experimental group but actually contains none of the tested material.
Correlational Research
  • Involves assessing the degree of association between two or more variables or characteristics of interest that occur naturally.
  • Researchers do not directly manipulate variables but rather observe naturally occurring differences.
  • If the characteristics under consideration are related, they are correlated.
  • Correlation does not prove causation; correlation simply shows the strength of the relationship among variables.
    • Confounding Variable: An unknown factor that is playing a role.
  • Surveys: Using either questionnaires or interviews, one can accumulate a tremendous amount of data and study relationships among variables.
  • Correlational studies can be preferred to experiments because they are less expensive, not as time consuming, and easier to conduct.
  • Social Desirability Bias/Courtesy Bias: Responders may not be completely honest in their answers, especially when asked about controversial subjects.
Types of Research
  • Longitudinal Studies: Happen over long periods of time with the same subjects (e.g., studying the long-term effects of diet and exercise on heart disease).
  • Cross-Sectional Studies: Designed to test a wide array of subjects from different backgrounds to increase generalizability.
Clinical Research
  • Often takes the form of case studies.
  • Case Studies: Intensive psychological studies of single individuals. Frequent multiple case studies on similar cases are combined to draw inferences about issues.
  • Cannot lead to conclusions regarding causality.
  • Generalizable: Applicable to similar circumstances because of the predictable outcomes of repeated tests.
Experimental Design
  • Conceptual Definition: The theory or issue being studied.
  • Operational Definition: Refers to the way in which that theory or issue will be directly observed or measured in the study.
  • Internal Validity: The certainty with which the results of an experiment can be attributed to the manipulation of the independent variable rather than to some other, confounding variable.
  • External Validity: The extent to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other contexts in the “real world.”
  • Reliability: Whether or not the same results appear if the experiment is repeated under similar conditions.
  • Inter-rater Reliability: The degree to which different raters agree on their observations of the same data.

Other Types of Research

Naturalistic Observation
  • Researchers observe behavior outside of the lab.
  • Advantage: Allows the study of authentic real-world behaviors.
  • Disadvantage: Difficulty of controlling for the numerous extraneous variables present in real-world environments, which can limit the reliability of findings.

Statistics

  • Statistical methods can be divided into descriptive and inferential statistics.
  • Descriptive Statistics: Summarize data.
  • Inferential Statistics: Allow researchers to test hypotheses about data and determine how confident they can be in their inferences about the data.
Descriptive Statistics

  • Do just what their name implies—they describe data.

  • Mean: The arithmetic average of a set of numbers.

    • Mean=∑xin\text{Mean} = \frac{\sum x_i}{n}

  • Mode: The most frequently occurring value in the data set.

  • Median: The number that falls exactly in the middle of a distribution of numbers.

  • Range: The largest number minus the smallest number.

  • Variability: Refers to how much the numbers in the set differ from one another.

  • Standard Deviation: Measures a function of the average dispersion of numbers around the mean and is a commonly used measure of variability.

  • Typical Distribution of Numbers:

    • About 68 percent of all scores are within one standard deviation above or below the mean.
    • About 95 percent of all scores are within two standard deviations above or below the mean.

  • Percentile: Expresses the standing of one score relative to all other scores in a set of data.

  • Skewed Distributions: The median is a better indicator of central tendency than the mean.

    • Positive Skew: Means that most values are on the lower end, but there are some exceptionally large values.

  • Negative Skew: Means the opposite: most values are on the higher end, but there are some exceptionally small values.

  • Correlation Coefficient: A numerical value that indicates the degree and direction of the relationship between two variables.

    • Correlation coefficients range from +1.00+1.00 to −1.00-1.00.
    • The sign (++ or −−) indicates the direction of the correlation, and the number (0 to 1.00) indicates the strength of the relationship.

  • Pearson Correlation Coefficient: A specific type of correlation coefficient that describes how close to linear the relationship between two attributes is.

    • A correlation of 11 indicates a perfect positive correlation.
    • A correlation of −1-1 is a perfect negative correlation:
    • A correlation of 00 indicates that the attributes are not related.
Inferential Statistics
  • Used to determine our level of confidence in claiming that a given set of results would be extremely unlikely to occur if the result were only up to chance.
  • Sample: The small group of people in an experiment.
  • Population: The large group to whom the psychologist is trying to generalize.
  • Sample Size: Refers to the number of observations or individuals measured. The sample size is typically denoted by NN (the total number of subjects in the sample being studied) or nn (the total number of subjects in a subgroup of the sample being studied).
  • Null Hypothesis: States that a treatment had no effect in an experiment.
  • Alternative Hypothesis: That the treatment did have an effect.
  • Alpha: The accepted probability that the result of an experiment can be attributed to chance rather than the manipulation of the independent variable.
  • Type I Error: Refers to the conclusion that a difference exists when, in fact, this difference does not exist (“false positive”).
  • Type II Error: Refers to the conclusion that there is no difference when, in fact, there is a difference (“false negative”).
  • P-Value: The probability of making a Type I error. A p-value indicates that the results are statistically significant (not due only to chance).
  • If p=0.05p = 0.05, we have only a 5 percent chance of making a Type I error.

Ethics in Research

  • Deception: May be used if informing participants of the nature of the experiment might bias results.
  • Institutional Review Boards (IRBs): Assess research plans before the research is approved to ensure that it meets all ethical standards.
  • Informed Consent: Participants agree to participate in the study only after they have been told what their participation entails.
  • Debriefing: After the experiment is concluded, participants must receive a debriefing, in which they are told the exact purpose of their participation in the research and of any deception that may have been used in the process of experimentation.
  • Confidentiality: Many experiments involve collecting sensitive information about participants that the participants might not want to be revealed.

Chapter 7: Biological Bases: The Brain and Nervous System

Introduction to Biology and Behavior

  • Physiological psychology is the study of behavior as influenced by biology.

Imaging Techniques

  • Allow researchers to map the structure and/or activity of the brain and correlate this data with behavior.
    • EEG (Electroencephalogram): Measures subtle changes in brain electrical activity through electrodes placed on the head. EEG is especially useful in sleep studies, since different brain wave patterns are indicative of different stages of sleep.
    • CAT Scans (Computerized Axial Tomography Scans): Generate cross-sectional images of the brain using a series of X-ray pictures taken from different angles.
    • MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): Uses extremely powerful electromagnets and radio waves to get 3-D structural information from the brain.
    • Functional MRI (fMRI) and PET Scans (Positron Emission Tomography): Allow scientists to view the brain as it is working.

Functional Organization of the Nervous System

  • The nervous system can be divided into two distinct subsystems:
    • Central Nervous System (CNS): Comprising the brain and the spinal cord
    • Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Comprising all other nerves in the body.
  • The brain is located in the skull and is the central processing center for thoughts, motivations, and emotions.
  • The brain, as well as the rest of the nervous system, is made up of neurons, or nerve cells.
  • The neurons form a network that extends to the spinal cord, which is encased in the protective bones of the spine, or the vertebrae.
  • Both the brain and the spinal cord are bathed in a protective liquid called cerebrospinal fluid.
  • In the spinal cord, the neurons are bundled into strands of interconnected neurons known as nerves.
  • The nerves of the spine are responsible for conveying information to and from the brain and the PNS.
    • Sensory (or Afferent) Neurons: Nerves sending information to the brain.
    • Motor (or Efferent) Neurons: Those conveying information from the brain.
    • Reflexes: Quick and involuntary responses to environmental stimuli controlled by direct transmission from afferent to efferent cells at the level of the spinal cord.
      • The path of a reflex arc goes from sensory neurons to motor neurons.
  • The PNS comprises all of the nerve cells in the body with the exception of those in the CNS (the brain and spinal cord).
    • Somatic Nervous System: Responsible for voluntary movement of large skeletal muscles.
    • Autonomic Nervous System: Controls the nonskeletal or smooth muscles, such as those of the heart and digestive tract. These muscles are typically not under voluntary control.
  • The autonomic nervous system can be further divided into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
    • Sympathetic Nervous System: Associated with processes that burn energy. Responsible for the heightened state of physiological arousal known as the fight-or-flight reaction.
    • Parasympathetic Nervous System: Complementary system responsible for conserving energy. Returns the body to homeostasis.

Neuroanatomy

  • The brain is divided into three distinct regions that have evolved over time:
    • The hindbrain
    • The midbrain, and
    • The forebrain (limbic system and cerebral cortex).
The Hindbrain
  • The oldest part of the brain to develop, in evolutionary terms.
  • Composed of the cerebellum, medulla oblongata, reticular activating system (RAS), and pons.
    • Cerebellum: Controls muscle tone and balance.
    • Medulla Oblongata: Controls involuntary actions, such as breathing, digestion, heart rate, and swallowing (basic life functions).
    • Reticular Activating System (RAS): Controls arousal (wakefulness and alertness). Also known as the reticular formation.
    • Pons: A way station, passing neural information from one brain region to another. Also implicated in REM sleep.
The Midbrain
  • Major components of the midbrain are the tectum and the tegmentum
  • Act as the brain’s roof (tectum) and floor (tegmentum).
  • Govern visual and auditory reflexes, such as orienting to a sight or sound.
The Forebrain
  • Contains the limbic system, or emotional center of the brain.
  • The limbic system is composed of the thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus.
    • Thalamus: Relays sensory information; receives and directs sensory information from visual and auditory systems
    • Hippocampus: Involved in processing and integrating memories. Damage to the hippocampus does not eliminate existing memories, because memories are stored in the neocortex, but rather it prevents the formation of new memories (anterograde amnesia).
    • Amygdala: Implicated in the expression of anger, frustration, and fear.
    • Hypothalamus: Controls the temperature and water balance of the body; controls hunger and sex drives; orchestrates the activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system.
  • Also contains the cerebral cortex, or the wrinkled outer layer of the brain.
  • The cortex is involved in higher cognitive functions such as thinking, planning, language use, and fine motor control. This area receives sensory input (sensory cortex) and sends out motor information (motor cortex).
  • The cortex covers two symmetrical-looking sides of the brain known as the left and right cerebral hemispheres. These hemispheres are joined together by a band of connective nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.
    • Left Hemisphere: Typically specialized for language processing.Contains the Broca's area and the Wernicke's area.
      • Paul Broca, observed that brain damage to the left hemisphere in stroke patients resulted in expressive aphasia, or loss of the ability to speak. This area of the brain is known as Broca’s area.
      • Carl Wernicke, discovered an area in the left temporal lobe that, when damaged in stroke patients, resulted in receptive aphasia, or the inability to comprehend speech. This is called Wernicke’s area.
    • Right Hemisphere: Processes certain kinds of visual and spatial information.
  • Roger Sperry demonstrated that the two hemispheres of the brain can operate independently of each other. He did this by performing experiments on split-brain patients who had their corpus calllosums severed to control their epileptic seizures.
  • Much of the cerebral cortex is composed of association areas, which are responsible for associating information in the sensory and motor cortices (this is the plural of cortex!). Damage to these association areas can lead to a variety of dysfunctions, including apraxia, the inability to organize movement; agnosia, a difficulty processing sensory input; alexia, the inability to read; and agraphia, the inability to write.
Cortex Components
  • The cortex can be divided into four distinct lobes:
    • The frontal
    • The parietal
    • The temporal, and
    • The occipital.

Neural Transmission

  • A neuron, the basic unit of the nervous system comprises:
    • Soma: nucleated cell body.
    • Dendrites: receive input from other neurons through receptors on their surface.
    • Axon: A long, tube-like structure that responds to input from the dendrites and soma.
    • Myelin Sheath: A fatty coating serving as insulation for axons. The better insulated the myelin sheath, the faster and more efficient the sending of action potentials. The small gaps between the “beads” are known as the nodes of Ranvier (help speed up neural transmission).
    • Terminal Buttons: Axons end in terminal buttons, knobs on the branched end of the axon. A terminal button releases neurotransmitters, chemical messengers, across the synapse, where they bind with receptors on subsequent dendrites.
  • Neuronal communication occurs both within and between cells.
    • Resting Membrane Potential: exists an electric potential across the plasma membrane of approximately −70-70 millivolts (mVmV), in which the interior of the cell is negatively charged with respect to the exterior of the cell.
    • Na+/K+ATPaseNa^+/K^+ ATPase: Pumps three sodium ions out of the cell and two potassium ions into the cell, resulting in a sodium gradient with high sodium concentration outside of the cell and a potassium gradient with high potassium concentration inside the cell.
    • The combined loss of many positive ions through Na+/K+ATPasesNa^+/K^+ ATPases and the potassium leak channels leaves the interior of the cell with a net negative charge, approximately 70 mV more negative than the exterior of the cell; this difference is the resting membrane potential.
  • Cells can be described as polarized: negative on the inside and positive on the outside.
  • Action Potential: is a disturbance in this membrane potential. It can be thought of as a wave of depolarization of the plasma membrane that travels along an axon. (Depolarization is a change in the membrane potential from the resting membrane potential to a less negative, or even positive, potential.)
  • After depolarization, repolarization returns the membrane potential to normal.
  • After a neuron fires, it passes through an absolute refractory phase, during which no amount of stimulation can cause the neuron to fire again. The absolute refractory phase is followed by the relative refractory phase, in which the neuron needs much more stimulation than usual to fire again.
  • Communication between cells happens via neurotransmitters, which bind to receptors on the dendrites of the adjacent neurons.
    • Excitatory Neurotransmitters: Serve to excite the cell or cause the neuron to fire.
    • Inhibitory Neurotransmitters: Inhibit (or stop) cell firing.
    • Reuptake: After a neurotransmitter is released and has conducted the impulse to the next cell or cells, it is either broken down by enzymes or is absorbed back into the cell that released it.
Key Neurotransmitters
  • Acetylcholine: Affects memory function and muscle contraction, particularly in the heart.
  • Serotonin: Related to arousal, sleep, pain sensitivity, mood, and hunger regulation.
  • Dopamine: Associated with movement, attention, and reward. May play a role in Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.
  • GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid): An inhibitory neurotransmitter.
  • Glutamate: An excitatory neurotransmitter.
  • Norepinephrine: Affects levels of alertness and implicated in depression.
  • Endorphins: The body’s natural painkillers.
Neuroplasticity
  • The brain can reorganize itself by forming or severing neural connections throughout one’s life.

Endocrine System

  • Another way by which various parts of our bodies relay information to one another.
  • This system works through groups of cells known as glands, which release substances called hormones (affect cell growth and proliferation).
  • Pituitary Gland: Releases hormones that in turn control hormonal release by many other glands.
  • Hormones are different from neurotransmitters in many ways.
  • Stressful situations cause the pituitary to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which stimulates the adrenal glands, resulting in fight-or-flight reactions.
  • The adrenal glands secrete epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
  • The thyroid gland, located at the front of the neck, produces thyroxine, which is important for regulating cellular metabolism.

Heredity and Environment: Behavioral Genetics

  • Behavioral genetics is the application of the principles of evolutionary theory to the study of behavior.
  • Genes: The basic biological elements responsible for carrying information about traits between successive generations.
    • Dominant Trait: More likely to be expressed in offspring than is a recessive trait.
    • Recessive Trait: Less likely to be expressed in offspring than is a dominant trait.
  • Genotype: The genetic makeup of a cell or of an organism.
  • Phenotype: The expressed features of the cell or organism.
  • Whenever a dominant gene is paired with a recessive gene, the dominant one typically will be shown in the phenotype, the observable result.
  • Humans have 46 chromosomes, with one set of 23 inherited from each parent, so that half of our genetic makeup comes from each parent.
Genetic Abnormalities
  • Down Syndrome: Occurs when there are three copies of the 21st chromosome, which generally causes some degree of intellectual disability.
  • Huntington’s Chorea: A genetic disorder that results in muscle impairment that does not typically occur until after age 40.
Nature versus Nurture
  • The behavioral-genetics approach examines the ways in which we are different from one another.
  • Heritability: The degree of variance among individuals that can be attributed to genetic variations.
  • Environmentality: The degree to which a trait’s expression is caused by the environment in which an organism lives.
  • Genetic and environmental are interconnected and psychological issues are caused by the interaction of these two factors.

Chapter 8: Biological Bases: Consciousness

Consciousness

  • Defined as the awareness that we have of ourselves, our internal states, and the environment.
  • A state of consciousness enables us to evaluate the environment and to filter information from the environment through the mind, while being aware of the occurrence of this complex process.
  • Alertness and the associated state of arousal involve the ability to remain attentive to our surroundings.
  • Alertness and arousal are controlled by structures within the brainstem (reticular formation/reticular activating system, or RAS).
Unconcious level
  • Commonly refers to automatic processes, such as breathing or the beating of the heart.
  • Sigmund Freud referred to the unconscious as an area of mental life that has a huge impact on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but which is only indirectly accessible, through symptoms, slips of the tongue or physical accidents, and dreams, for example.
  • Consciousness is responsible for keeping track of ourselves, our environment, and our relationship with the environment. Additionally, consciousness serves a controlling role, planning our responses to the information gathered by this monitoring.
    • Preconscious Level: Contains information that is available to consciousness but is not always in consciousness. It can be retrieved when needed. This is where directions to frequently visited places might be stored. The preconscious is also where many automatic behaviors are stored.
  • Consciousness exists on a continuum:
    • Controlled Processing: In which we are very aware of what we are doing
    • Automatic Processing: In which we perform tasks mechanically, such as brushing our teeth
    • Daydreaming: A state in which we can regain consciousness in a moment
    • Meditation
    • Sleep and Dreaming and at the far end of the spectrum
    • Coma and Unconsciousness.

Sleep and Dreaming

  • Sleep is an altered state of consciousness.
  • Scientists still do not precisely understand the function of sleep.
  • One theory holds that sleep is necessary for restorative processes.
  • Researchers have discovered some neurochemicals, notably melatonin, that play a role in sleep, yet a definitive cause-and-effect relationship between a brain chemical and the control of sleep has not been demonstrated.
  • Our body temperature and other physiological markers follow a day-to-night pattern, known as a circadian rhythm.
  • Light, both natural and artificial, also influences the biological clock by activating light-sensitive photoreceptors in the retina. Photoreceptors send signals to the brain’s pineal gland, which is the region responsible for the production of melatonin.
  • External stimuli are important to setting our circadian rhythms. Rapidly changing these stimuli, such as in the case of traveling across time zones, can disturb circadian rhythms (jet lag).
  • Sleep itself is not a uniform process. Rather, sleep can be divided into stages based on brain-wave patterns. Brain waves are usually measured with electroencephalograms (EEGs), which provide a picture of the electrical activity of the brain.
    • Beta Wave: activity is happening (awake and focused).
    • Alpha Waves: While still awake but more relaxed.
    • Theta Wave: When we drift off to sleep.
    • Stage 2 Sleep: Sleep spindles appear.
    • Stages 3 and 4: Delta waves are most common (deep sleep).
    • Stages 3 and 4 are referred to collectively as NREM/non-REM sleep.
  • REM (Rapid Eye Movement) Sleep:
    • The eyes move vigorously during the REM stage.
    • This stage of sleep is typically associated with dreaming, although it is not the only stage of sleep in which dreaming occurs.
    • Brain waves are mostly theta and beta.
    • Referred to as paradoxical sleep.
  • Each sleep cycle is approximately 90 minutes long.
Dreams

  • Dreams, like sleep itself, are mysterious.

  • Freud hypothesized that dreams are the expression of unconscious wishes or desires.

  • Manifest Content: The storyline and imagery of the dream.

  • Latent Content: The emotional significance and underlying meaning of the dream.

  • Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis: Dreams are the product of our awareness of neural activity due to sensory input while we are sleeping.

  • Problem-Solving Theory: Dreams provide a chance for the mind to work out issues that occupy its attention during waking hours.

  • Nightmare: An elaborate dream sequence that produces a high level of anxiety or fear for the dreamer. These dreams are vivid and can often be elaborately described by the dreamer upon awakening and generally occur during REM sleep.

Dyssomnias
  • Are abnormalities in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep, and they include insomnia, narcolepsy, and sleep apnea.
    • Insomnia: the most common of the sleep disorders and represents the inability to fall asleep or to maintain