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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

  • 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

  • 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

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

  • 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

  • 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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