AP Psych Unit 1

Unit 1 Study Guide

(sensation info not included on test and is not on this guide)


Interaction of Heredity and Environment

Nature and nurture

  • Traits and behaviors arising from an interaction of nature + nurture

  • Nature : when your traits/behaviors are influenced more by genetics 

    • Before egg and sperm meet 

  • Nurture : when your traits/behaviors are influenced more by environment

    • Includes in the womb

Genetic predisposition

  • Increased chance of developing a disease due to genetic variations 

    • Change in DNA (mutation) 

Evolutionary perspective

  • Study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection (cavemen)

Eugenics

  • Choose which traits you want to be expressed in society

Twin studies

  • Twins who grow up separately still act similarly

  • Epigenetics: certain genes are turned on and off 

    • In twin studies, they showed that different environments will turn on different genes 

  • Nature vs. Nurture, because the twins share similar traits but can have different personalities due to their environment.


Overview of the Nervous System

Nervous System- A Speedy communication system between the peripheral and central nervous systems

Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord)

  • All the cells that communicate between the brain and other parts of the body

Peripheral nervous system

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

Somatic nervous system

  • Also known as skeletal nervous system

  • Communication from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and bones

  • Motor neurons in the brain send messages to bones and muscles, telling us to move 

Autonomic nervous system

  • maintains homeostasis (making sure heart rate doesn’t go too high up, maintaining peace)

  • 2 parts 

    • Sympathetic 

      • Fight or flight response

    • Parasympathetic (paracute) 

      • What calms you down when in fight or flight


Glial cell

  • Non nural cells that protect other cells 

  • All the other cells in the nervous system which provide support and protection for neurons

    • Creates the myelin sheath

Neurons

  • Nerve cells (basic building block for the nervous system)

  • Parts of the neuron 

    • Dendrites 

      • The hairs (receives messages)

    • Soma 

      • Cell body (decides if this message is important enough to send)

    • Axon 

      • Passes the message through (the long stick)

    • Mylein Sheith 

      • Protects the axon and helps the message go through smoothly (the piece “wrapped around” the long stick) 


Reflex arc

  • Simple response that causes reflexes

  • Hitting knee and it moving

Sensory neurons

  • Carries info from muscle/bones to the brain 

  • When you break your leg your brain tells you that you are in pain

Motor neurons

  • Takes messages from the brain and makes you express them through muscles

Interneurons

  • Communication between motor and sensory neurons

Neural transmission

  • Process of neurons communicating with each other → one message through multiple neurons 

All or nothing principle

  • Message will either send (to all neurons) or not (not all)

Action potential

  • Electrical charge that goes down axon

Depolarization

  • Leading up to sending the action potential

Refractory period

  • The period directly after a message gets sent (neuron taking a break) 

Resting potential

  • Resting state after the message is sent (Nothing is happening)

Reuptake

  • The sending neuron reabsorbs its message (Not sending it any further/takes it back)


Firing threshold

  • Happens in the cell body

  • Is the message strong enough to send/needs to pass certain threshold to send

Multiple sclerosis

  • Occurs when the myelin sheath starts to break apart

Myasthenia gravis

Neurotransmitters: excitatory or inhibitory

  • Type of messages

Dopamine: the rush you get → motivational and reward system 

Serotonin: affects mood, hunger, and sleep.

Norepinephrine: alertness and arousal 

Glutamate: excitatory → gets things moving

GABA: one that slows you down and reduces stress (Nikki’s dog takes gabapentin because she has anxiety, and it slows her down)

Endorphins: hides pain with adrenaline

Substance P: creates pain → what makes you feel pain

Acetylcholine: muscle action, learning and memory

Hormones

  • In the bloodstream

Adrenaline

  • In the moment keeps you going (jumping off a cliff)

Melatonin

  • sleepy 

Endocrine System

  • Slow communication of hormones (opposite of the nervous system)

Agonist v antagonist

  • Agonist: tells the neurotransmitter to go

  • Antagonist: blocking neurotransmitter  from moving (not necessarily bad)

Reuptake inhibitors

  • Prevents the messages from being sent back

Psychoactive drugs

  • Substances that alter the brain

Stimulants 

  • Speed up the body functions (s = speed)

  • Ex. caffeine, nicotine, ecstasy, cocaine 

Depressants

  • Slows down neural activity 

  • Ex. alcohol, heroin, oxycontin, morphine, pentanyl 

Hallucinogens

  • creates a false reality/makes you hallucinate

  • Ex. LSD, Marijuana 

Opioids

  • Depress neural activity and temporarily  lessen pain + anxiety  

Tolerance

  • Take more because you don't feel as much as you used to

addiction/dependence

  • Dependence: physical, and you have withdrawals

  • Addiction: Having a mental component, your brain thinks you need. 

Withdrawal symptoms

  • Discomfort when stopping the use of drugs. 


The Brain

Brainstem

  • The central core of the brain where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull

  • Responsible for automatic survival functions 

Medulla

  • The hindbrain structure thats the brain stems base controls heartbeat and breathing

Pons

  • Helps with sleep (pons=pillow)

Midbrain (HALLWAY → connects everything)

  • Connects all the parts, hindbrain with the forebrain and controls some motor movement as well as auditory and visual information

Hindbrain (BASEMENT → supports house)

  • Directs essential survival functions (breathing)

  • Consist of medulla, pons, cerebellum

Forebrain (LIVING ROOM → socializing/activities/planning/decision making)

  • Consist of cerebral cortex, thalamus, and hypothalamus

  • Where most of thinking and higher functions happen (planning and decisions)

Reticular activating system

  • nerve network that travels through the brain stem into thalamus

  • Filters info and plays a role in controlling arousal 

Reward center

Cerebellum

  • Rear of the brainstem 

  • Includes processing sensory input, coordinating movement and balance

Cerebral cortex

  • Connection between neurons that covers the forebrain(living room)

  • Body ultimate control and information center

Hemispheres

  • Two hemispheres covered by the cerebral cortex (all of those interconnected neurons)

  • 4 lobes in the 2 hemispheres (4 total lobes)

Limbic system

  • Neural system located in the forebrain

  • Below the hemispheres and includes amygdala, hypothalamus, and hippocampus

  • Associated with emotions

Thalamus

  • Forebrain sensory control center

  • Located at the top of the brainstem

  • Receives and directs messages to the cerebellum and medulla

Hypothalamus

  • Part of limbic system below the thalamus

  • In charge of eating, drinking, and body temperature

  • Helps govern the endocrine system + linked to emotion and reward

Pituitary gland

  • Produces hormones

Amygdala

  • 2 lima bean sized neural clusters

  • Linked to emotion

Hippocampus

  • Neural center that helps process memories for storage

Corpus callosum

  • Neural fibers that connect the two hemispheres and carries messages

Lobes of the cortex

Occipital lobe

  • VISION LOBE

Frontal lobes (prefrontal cortex/motor cortex)

  • Speaking and muscle movement

  • Judging and decision making (develops later) 

Temporal lobes

  • Includes auditory areas and receiving information from opposite ears

Parietal lobes (somatosensory cortex, association areas)

  • Sensory input for touch and body position (brain tells you that you are being touched)

Split-brain research

  • A condition that results from surgery 

  • Separates the brain's two hemispheres fibers get cut, BUT DOES NOT cut the optic nerve.

Specialization of right/left hemispheres

  • Right : facial recognition, spatial reasoning, and self awareness

Left : Logical reasoning, mathematical processing and reasoning, speech

Broca’s area

  • Production of speech, located in the frontal lobe

  • Damage causes Broca's aphasia - disrupted speech 

Wernicke’s area

  • Language comprehension/processing, located in the left temporal lobe

Aphasia

  • Language disorder that affects peoples ability to communicate, occurs from damage of brain that deals with language processing

Test with split-brain patients

  • Brains don't communicate with each other

  • Brains have different answers

Contralateral organization

  • How the brain controls and processes information from the opposite side. (The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.)

Plasticity

  • Brains ability to change 

  • Creation of new pathways 

  • Especially happens during childhood 

EEG

  • Recording of the waves of electrical activity across the brain’s surfaces 

  • Many people with seizures have them 

fMRI

  • Uses magnetic fields and radio waves 

  • Shows activity pattern and structure of various brain areas 

  • Colors of fire to show what parts of the brain are active 

Lesioning procedure

  • Deconstruction of tissue 

  • Used to rebuild after damage or build new pathways 

Sleep

Varying levels of consciousness

  • Spontaneous

  • Psychological

  • Physiological

Circadian rhythm

  • Our biological clock

  • At 1 year old, we start talking. At 13 years old, we hit puberty. 

Stages of sleep

  • 1. Awake

  • 2. NREM 1 

  • 3. NREM  2 

  • 4. NREM  3 

  • 5. REM

EEG patterns for each stage

NREM 1 2 3 

  • 1. A brief stage during which a person experiences hallucinations and hypnagogic sensations

  • 2. 20 minutes long, and sleep spindles appear on the EEG

  • 3. Deep sleep, marked by delta waves, and difficult to wake someone up during this stage.

REM (paradoxical sleep)

  • Rapid eye movement → a recurring sleep stage where dreams commonly occur (known as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed)

Hypnogogic sensations

Bizarre experiences such as jerking while transitioning to sleep