General Psychology

James Few

General Psychology

Chapter 1- The Science of Psychology

• Psychology: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

• The Scientific Method: a systematic process used to test ideas about behavior

• Theory: an explanation of why and how a behavior occurs

• Pseudopsychology: ideas without research support

• Four Main goals of psychology

• –Describe behavior

• –Predict behavior

• –Explain behavior

• –Control or change behavior

• Predictive

• –Predicts relationships among variables

• –Based on observations only. Variables are not manipulated.

• –Cause and effect cannot be determined

• Causal

• –Predicts how one variable will influence another

• –Causal variable is manipulated

• –Cause and effect can be determined

• Population of interest

• Samples of convenience are common

• –College students

• –Online

• Random sampling done to avoid sampling bias and to make results generalizable

• Naturalistic Observation

• Studies done in the environment in which the behavior typically occurs

• Major Advantage:

• –Realistic picture of behavior

• Disadvantages:

• –Observer effect - tendency of people or animals to behave differently from normal when they know they are being observed

• Case Study

• Study of one individual in great detail

• Correlation

• A measure of the relationship between two variables

• Quasi - Experiment

• Researcher manipulates the variables of interest, but does not assign people to groups

• Ethics committees - IRB

• Rights and well-being of participants must be weighed against the studys value to science

• Deception must be justified

• Participants may leave at anytime

• The researcher must fix anything that they did to their people

• Structuralism

• Focused on the structure or basic elements of the mind

• Functionalism

• How the mind allows people to adapt, live, work, and play.

• Evolutionary perspective

• Focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share. Ie kissing

• Psychoanalysis

• The theory and therapy based on the work of sigmund freud

• Focused on the unconscious and early childhood experiences

• Modern version of psychoanalysis

• Behaviorism

• The science of behavior tha focuses on observable behavior only

• Must be directly seen and measured

• Proposed by John Watson “little albert” child and rat

• Sociocultural Perspective

• Focuses on the relationship between social behavior and culture

• Humanistic perspective

• Humanists held the view that people have free will, the freedom to choose their destiny

• Cognitive perspective

• Focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, and learning

Chapter 2 - Neuroscience

• Glial Cells

• Gray fatty cells that provide support for the neurons to grow on and around

• Produce myelin to coat axons

• Ions - charged particles

• Inside neuron - negatively charged

• Outside neuron Positively charged

• Resting potential -

• the state of the neuron when not firing a neural impulse

• Action potential

• The release of the neural impulse consisting of a reversal of the electrical charge within the axon when the threshold of excitation is reached

• All or none response

• Refractory period

• Brief time during which the neuron cannot fire another action potential

• Neuron communication

• Neurons must be turned on and off

• Excitatory neurotransmitter

• Neurotransmitter that causes the receiving cell to fire

• Inhibitory neurotransmitter

• Neurotransmitter that causes the receiving cell to stop firing

• Antagonists block neurotransmitters

• Acetylcholine (Ach)

• Enables muscle action, learning, awareness, and memory

• Alzheimers deteriorates these neurons

• Dopamine

• Movement, learning, attention, motivation, and some aspects of social interaction

• Schizophrenia and parkinson's disease

• Serotonin

• Mood regulation, sleep, pain perception, and appetite

• Too little is associated with depression

• Norepinephrine

• Helps control alertness and arousal

• Too little can depress mood

• GABA

• Major inhibitory neurotransmitter

• Regulates arousal

• Glutamate

• Major excitatory transmitter

• Involved in learning memory formation, and synaptic plasticity

• Endorphins

• Lessens pain and boosts mood

• Opiate medicines bind these sites and reduce natural production of this neurotransmitter

• The Nervous system

• Nervous system

• The bodies speedy, electrochemical communication system

• The central Nervous system (CNS)

• The brain and the spinal cord

• Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

• The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body

• Kinds of neurons

• Sensory (Afferent) Neurons

• Carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the CNS

• Motor (Effrent) Neurons

• Carry outgoing information from the CNS to muscles and glands

• The ForeBrain: The limbic system

• Amygdala inputs come from all senses

• Reads emotional significance of inputs

• Outputs influences such as functions as heart rate, adrenaline release

• Hippocampus

• Necessary for forming new memories

• Its destruction results in anterograde amnesia

• Mediators tend to have large ones, People with small ones more susceptible to PTSD

• Hypothalamus

• Directs several maintenance activities

• Eating, drinking, sexual drive, body temp

• Is linked to emotion

• Helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland

• Neuroplasticity

• The ability within the brain to constantly change both the structure and function of many cells in response to trauma

• The Endocrine System

• The body's slow chemical communication system

• Communication is carried out by hormones

• Chemical messengers, mostly those manufactured by the endocrine glands

• Technology for studying the brain

• CAT scan - x rays

• MRI - uses magnetic energy (uses blood flow)

• PET - Measures readoactive blood

• EEG - Measures Electrical waves using electrodes

Chapter 3 - Sensation and Perception

• Sensation

• Absolute threshold

• Least energy for correct stimulus detection 50% of the time

• Just noticeable difference

• Smallest difference detectable 50% of the time

• Weber's Law

• Two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage to be perceived as different [Light 8% wight 2% Tone 3%]

• Subliminal Threshold

• Stimuli just below level of conscious awareness

• ESP

• Acquiring information without the known senses

• Light energy

• Wavelength (Hue) - color

• Amplitude - Brightness

• Saturation - Purity of perceived color

• Eyes

• Cornea

• Transparent tissue where light enters the eye

• Iris

• Muscles that expands and contracts to change the size of the opening pupil

• The lens

• The eye lens changes shape to help focus near and far objects

• Retina

• Contains sensory receptors that process visual information and sends it to the brain

• Fovea

• Central point in the retina around which the eyes cones cluster

• Cones (color) day vision

• Trichromatic theory - Three types of cones, Blue red green

• Rods (black and white) night vision

• Contain photopigments

• Blind spot

• The Point where the optic nerve leaves the eye, there are no cell receptors there

• Color blindness

• Protanopia - lack of functioning red cones

• Deuteranopia - lack of functioning green cones

• Tritanopia - lack of functioning blue cones

• Visual processing for men and women

• Women are better at discriminating between bojects, preciving colors, processing facial expressions

• Men are better at processing moving objects

• Because of evolutionary forces and traditional gender roles

• Hearing

• Wavelength - Hertz - waves per second

• Noise can affect stress, learning. Aggression, and other aspects of psychology

• Volley Theory - proposes that pitch is decoded by firing frequency of hair cells on the basilar membrane

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• Tast (Gustation)

• The five basic taste

• Salty, Sour, Bitter, Sweet, Umami

• Why don't we all like the same foods

• Age, Culture, Bo\iological differences, SMell

• Smell (Olfaction)

• Lock and key theory

• Olfactory receptors may only be stimulated by certain odors

• Facilitates social interactions

• Pheromones

• Chemical released into the air and detected by others

• Some evidence that humans have that

• Powers attraction and Menstrual synchrony

• Touch

• The gate control theory of pain

• Tiny neural networks in the spinal cord block pain signals from a particular part of the body when they receive additional signals from intense tactile stimulation being applied to the same part of the body

• EX: rubbing a stubbed toe to diminish the pain

• Body position

• Kinesthesis - the sense of our body parts position and movement

• Vestibular Sense - monitors the heads position and movement

• Sense of balance

• Depth Perception

• Monocular cues

• Interposition

• Linear Perspective

• Relative size

• Texture Gradient

• Aerial Perspective

• Motion Parallax

• Perceptual Organization

• Gestalt

• An organized whole

• Tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

• Feature detection theory

• Neurons fire only in response to certain stimuli; they detect specific features of what we see

• However there are brain areas suited to detecting certain things in our environment

• Visual Illusions

• Muller Lyer and Ponzo

• Microsaccades

• The moving circle things

• Perceptual Set

• A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another, affected by knowledge, expectations and memory

UNIT 2

Chapter 4

• Manifest content - according to Freud, what the dreamer recalls on awakening
• Latent content - according to Freud, the symbolic meaning of a dream
• Response set theory of hypnosis - hypnosis is not an altered state of consciousness, but a cognitive set responding to suggestions
• Activation synthesis theory -  suggests that dreams are the by-product of the brain's random firing of neural impulses
• Sleep disorder - disturbance in the normal pattern of sleeping
• Insomnia - sleep disorder in which a person cannot get to sleep and/or stay asleep
• Night terror - Very frightening non-REM sleep episode
• Nightmare - brief scary REM dream that is often remembered
• Enuresis - condition in which a person over 5 shows an inability to control urination during sleep
• Hypnosis - state of heightened suggestibility
• Response set theory of hypnosis -
• Psychoactive drug - substance that influences the brain and thereby the individual's behavior
• Tolerance - condition in which more of a drug is needed to achieve the same effect
• Substance abuse disorder - condition in which a person cannot control his or her drug use
• Withdrawal symptom - physical or behavioral effect that occurs after a person stops using a drug
• Depressant - drug that inhibits or slows down normal neural functioning
• Opiate - Pain Killing drug that depresses some brian areas and excites others
• Stimulant - drug that speeds up normal brain functioning
• Hallucinogenic - drug that simultaneously excites and inhibits normal neural activity, thereby causing distortions in perception
• THC - active ingredient in marijuana that affects learning, short-term memory, coordination, emotion, and appetite
• Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) - group of cells signaling other areas when to be aroused and when to shut down

Chapter 5

• Motive - tendency to desire and seek out positive incentives or rewards and to avoid negative outcomes
• Instinct - innate impulse from within a person that directs or motivates behavior
• Drive reduction theory - theory of motivation that proposes that people seek to reduce internal levels of drive
• Drive - uncomfortable internal state that motivates us to reduce this discomfort through our behavior
• Primary drive - drive that motivates us to maintain homeostasis in certain biological processes in the body
• Negative Feedback - system of feedback in the body that monitors and adjusts motivation levels to maintain homeostasis
• Primary drive -
• Secondary drive - learned drive that is not directly related to biological needs
• Self determination theory - theory of motivation that proposes that we experience different types of motivation
• Hierarchy of needs - Maslow's theory that humans are driven by different motivators with some taking precedence over others
• Set point - particular weight that our body seeks to maintain
• Ghrelin - hunger-stimulating hormone produced by the stomach
• Glucose - form of sugar that the body burns as fuel
• Glycogen - starchy molecule that is produced from excess glucose in the body
• Insulin -  hormone that facilitates the movement of glucose from blood into the cells of the body
• Cholecystokinin - (CCK) hormone released by the small intestines that plays a role in hunger regulation
• Leptin - hormone released by fat cells in the body that plays a role in hunger regulation
• Lateral hypothalamus - region of the hypothalamus once thought to be the hunger center in the brain
• Neuropeptide y  - powerful hunger stimulant
• Ventromedial hypothalamus - region of the hypothalamus that plays an indirect role in creating a feeling of satiety
• Resting metabolic rate - degree to which we burn energy in our bodies when not active
• Libido - one's physical desire, or drive, to have sex
• Estrus - period of “heat” in which females are receptive to males' attempts to mate
• Erogenous zones - area of the skin that is sensitive to touch
• Excitement phase - first stage of sexual response cycle, where males get erections and females produce vaginal lubrication
• Plateau phase - second stage of the sexual response cycle, in which excitement peaks
• Orgasm Phase - third stage of the sexual response cycle, in which the pelvic and anal muscles contract
• Resolution Phase - final stage of the sexual response cycle, in which the body returns to homeostasis
• Affective component of emotion - subjective experience of what you are feeling during the emotion
• Mere exposure effect - idea that increased familiarity with something leads to increased liking for it
• Display rule - cultural guideline governing when it is and isn't appropriate to express certain emotions

Unit 3

Chapter 8

• Cognition - way in which we use and store information in memory
• Concept - mental category that contains related bits of information
• Prototype - our concept of the most typical member of a category
• Exemplar - mental representation of an actual instance of a member of a category
• Well structured problem - problem for which there is a clear pathway to the solution
• Algorithm - method of solving a particular problem that always leads to the correct solution
• Heuristic - rule of thumb that could lead to a correct solution to the problem
• Availability Heuristic - ease with which we can recall instances of an event to help estimate the frequency
• Representativeness - reliance on the degree of categorization to judge whether or not it belongs
• Functional Fixedness - being able to see objects only in their familiar roles
• Mental Set - tendency to habitually use methods of problem solving that have worked in the past
• Incubation - period of not thinking about a problem that helps to solve the problem
• Deductive reasoning - reasoning from the general to the specific
• Inductive reasoning - reasoning from the specific to the general
• Dialectical Reasoning or thinking - advanced type of reasoning that emerges, in part, from cultural influences
• Phoneme - smallest unit of sound in a language
• Morpheme - smallest unit of sound in a language that have meaning
• Overextension - when a child uses one word to symbolize all manner of similar instances
• Underextension - when a child inappropriately restricts the use of a word to a particular case
• Telegraphic speech - two-word sentences that children begin to utter at 20–26 months
• Pragmatics - Rules of conversation in a particular culture
• Whorfian hypothesis or The linguistic relativity hypothesis - theory that one's language can directly determine or influence one's thoughts
• Standardized tests - uses an established set of questions, procedures, and scoring methods for all takers
• Crystallized intelligence - abilities that rely on knowledge, expertise, and judgment
• Fluid Intelligence - abilities that rely on information-processing skills such as reaction time, attention, and working memory
• Multiple intelligences - idea that we possess different types of intelligence rather than a single level of intelligence
• Triarchic theory of intelligence - proposes that intelligence is composed of analytical, practical, and creative abilities for use in adaptation
• Genotype - inherited genetic pattern for a given trait
• Phenotype - actual characteristic that results from interaction of the genotype and environmental influences
• Interactionism - perspective that our genes and environmental influences work together to determine our characteristics

Chapter 9

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• Germinal Stage - time from conception to 14 days of prenatal development
• Embryonic stage - time between the 3rd through the 8th week of prenatal development
• Fetal stage - time between the 9th week through the 9th month of prenatal development
• Teratogen - environmental substance that has the potential to harm the developing organism
• Sensitive Period - time when genetic and environmental agents are most likely to cause birth defects
• Neonate - newborn during the first 28 days of life
• Fine motor skill - motor behaviors involving the small muscles of the body
• Assimilation - process by which an existing schema is used to understand something new in the environment
• Accommodation - process by which schema change in order to understand something new in the environment
• Object permanence - understanding that an item continues to exist even when it is not present
• Centration - act of focusing on only one aspect or feature of an object
• Conservation - understanding that an object retains its original properties even though it may look different
• Egocentrism - belief that everyone thinks as you do
• Private speech - describes the behavior of young children who talk to themselves to guide their own actions
• Zone of proximal development - gap between what a child is able to do and not yet capable of without help
• Temperament - person's general pattern of attention, arousal, and mood that is evident at birth
• Attachment - emotional bond between an infant and someone or something
• Authoritarian parent - parenting style characterized by high levels of control and low levels of affection
• Authoritative parent - parenting style characterized by moderate levels of control and affection
• Permissive parent - parenting style characterized by low levels of control or discipline
• Gender schema theory - states that roles are acquired through modeling and reinforcement that work together with a child's mental abilities
• Menarche - first menstruation of a female
• Imaginary audience - belief held by adolescents that everyone is watching what they do
• Penerinal fable - belief held by adolescents that they are unique and special
• Dualistic thinking - reasoning that divides situations and issues into right and wrong categories
• Relativistic thinking- idea that in many situations there is not necessarily one right or wrong answer
• Post formal thought - idea that a correct solution may vary, depending on the circumstances
• Emerging adulthood - transitional period when young people have left adolescence but have not yet assumed adult responsibilities

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