Psychology

the science of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings)

• psychodynamics
• psychoanalysis
• behavorism
• cognitive/experimental

how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

• (evolved from) unconscious motivations (look at how childhood trauma affects adult behavior-sex motivation/aggression)
• Freud was one

• observation, alot of cause/ effect,learned experiences
• how fear is developed
• what brings about addiction

• born of expirements
• cognitive scientists obsessed with languages
• mental processes,memory, attention, problem solving

looking at expressions, raw animal behavior, evolutionary scientists study packs of wolves for alphas, "gazing"

how your behavior and thinking is affected by interaction with others, how crowds act vs. individuals

study variances in personalities

how it applies to different ethnicity, cultures, backgrounds, most common study is cultural born psychological disorders (american/western's is eating disorder-ex. annerexia, bolima; which affects mainly early adult women, w/ men its buffing up)

• biological psychologist and neuroscientists
• interested in brain how it enables emotions, behaviors, mental processing
• nervous system
• memory storage-like where is high school prom stored

how people grow up and how psychology is affected because of that

• population lives longer
• study old and young

• how surroundings impact someone
• ex. winter:depression

• pure research
• applied research

research conducted without concern for immediate applications, theoretical

• applying research to real-world situations
• industrial/organizational psychologists (lay people off)
• clinical psychologists: area that deals with psychological disorders
• counseling psychologists: deal with adjustment problems
• psychiatry: have medical degree and prescribe medications
• other subfeilds: sports psychology, legal psychology experts

Budda, Confucious, african/egyptian moral codes

• "innate" genes vs. "environment"
• Socrates/Plato thought we were born with everything we need
• Aristotle (learned from Plato) thought we need experience (start with blank slate)

• dualism (seperate) vs. monism (same)
• Socrates thought his body would die but mind would go on
• Aristotle thought both will go

mind tied to body, can study both

gathering/ collecting knowledge through experience

• (1832-1920)
• (german papa to psychology)
• interested in measuring reflex time
• mind has 3 basic elements -sensation, feelings, images -experience

elemental structure of human kind

describing your conscious experience

• (1842-1910)
• (american father to psychology)
• dynamic well liked teacher at Harvard
• brother of Henry James, cousin to Darwin

• (1863-1930)
• enrolled as a student in William James class' all other students dropped out
• she studied and finished college, but Harvard would not give her her PH.D
• went on to be first female president of APA

• Psychologist, like all scientist use the scientist method to construct theories that organize observations and imply testable hypthesis
• use to seperate "folk" knowledge from something that is scientifically verified

after learning an outcome, learn should have seen it coming

correlated with self esteem

• thinking that doesnt blindly accept arguements and conclusions (smart thinking)
• examines assumptions (like do opposites attract?)
• discerns hidden values
• evaluates evidence

• theory
• hypothesis
• replication

• an integrated set of facts or principles
• use that information to predict/ make judgements

• testable prediction
• ex. low self esteem feeds depression (incorrect) vs. people who score low on a self esteem scale will score high on depression symptomology (correct hypothesis)
• made up of operational definition

the more tested the more proven

• case study
• survey
• naturalistic observation
• correlation

• a psychologist will study with a single individual over great length and at great depth with hopes of finding understanding to whole population
• disadvatage-can't always take 1 person's information and apply it to whole population
• advantage-only having to work with one person, convenient
• can also test run for larger population

• technique for collecting attitudes of people
• typically a self-report
• random sample (sample thats representing population fairly)
• stratified sample
• population

trying to observe and record behavior in naturally occering situations

• coefficient
• correlation coefficient r=+.37 (.37 indicates strength of relationship and is week, + indicates direction of relationship (+ or -)
• illusionary correlation
• correlation does not equate to causation

• an investigator will manipulate a factor to see how they impact a behavior or mental process
• independent variable
• dependent variable
• experimental condition
• control condition
• blind procedures

the experimental factor that is being manipulated

the variable that depends on the independent variable

researchers are interested in

the one that is looked at but not interested in

• single blind- takers don't know which condition
• double blind- researchers and takers don't know

• measures of central tendency (mode, mean, median)
• measures of variation (range, standard variation)
• statistical significance- for something to be important in science, we can determine the difference statistically (95%)

• a need or desire that energizes and directs behavior
• includes need and drive

• happens automatically
• a complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned

• a boldly state of requirement/ depravation then it leads us to wanting something
• ex. deprived/ thirst

• feeling of thirst
• condition of arousal

directly tied to survival (thirst, hunger, sleep, pain)

• (money) gained through experience
• (social affiliation, social approval)

• Need>Drive>Drive-Reducing behaviors
• (food,water) (hunger, thirst) )(eating,drinking)

• "staying the same"
• incentive- goal, reward
• a tendency to maintaina balanced or constant internal state; the regulation of any aspect of body chemistry, such as blood glucose, around a particular level

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs: Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beggining at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active (physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, self-actualization needs, self-transcendence needs)

comes from with in (sports love with in)

push froms omeone else, environment

• task leadership
• social leadership
• theory x
• theory y

goal oriented, organized but only focused on goal

group-oriented, teamwork and support

unmotivation, lazy, here for money, no success

assumes given a chance/ oppurtunity, will prove succesful, make it on their own

• Anorexia Nervosa: perception of being overweight lends to strict diets until underweight
• Bulima Nervosa: binging leading to purging, starving, excessive excersize or laxative abuse

physiologically based motive like hunger/thirst, but is more affected by learning values, ethics, religion and beliefs

• (sexual response cycle)
• excitement
• plateau
• orgasm
• resolution/re-factory period

• (men are constantly excited)
• happens during foreplay or in preliminary actions that lead to sex

persons ready to have sex or act of sex plateau is happening

• men have one good wow orgasm moment
• women vary in the feeling, and may have multiple orgams

• drop off back to
• a resting period after orgasm, during which a man cannot achieve another orgasm

chemicals/hormones in the body will actually contribute to our sex drives (testosteron/estrogen)

• behavior itself, contributes toward mating patterns (in animals)
• psychological readiness, imagined stimuli, external stimuli; lead to sexual motivation

• stimulus
• sensory/memory register- idead that our mind is able to hold memory for a very short period of time, subconcious
• visual (iconic)
• auditory (echoic)

store of memory, limited and held in our consciousness

• the "magic #"
• 7 +/-2 units
• chunking

• (maps onto short term memory)
• allows for the manipulation of information in STM
• focuses on processing of briefly stored information
• limited capacity

• relatively long-lasting memory storage
• limitless storehouse
• LTM is not held in consciousness
• filing cabinet

• (knowledge)
• declarative memory
• procedural memory
• (retrieval)
• explicit memory
• implicit memory

• knowledge of facts and events
• semantic and episodic

memory for facts

remembering stories of an event

• knowledge of skills
• ex. tieing your shoe while talking and not looking (you just know it)

• requires conscious recollection
• recall
• recognition
• declarative memory

• memory without conscious recollection, relies on influence of prior experience
• nondeclarative memory
• priming-ex. product placement in movie, makes you subconsciously want it later

• encoding
• storage
• retrieval

get information and turn it into a useable form

process of maintaining information/memory over a long period of time

• maintenence rehearsal
• elaborative rehearsal

memorizing

conceptualizing/comprehending

• primary effect
• recency effect

• the ability to remember certain items better
• ex. repeat 1st word more than last

• remeber more recent word first
• ability to remember last items better than other presented items

hold on to it more closely (9/11 event)

• context-dependent memory
• mood-congruent memory

practice high/under H₂O, test better high/under H₂O

• the tendency tor ecall experiences that are conssitent with one's current good or bad mood
• if happy when learned will do better, be happy on test

• the inability to recall previously learned information
• Ebbinghav's forgetting curve

• decay
• interference
• motivation
• false memories

fading of "memory trace" (use it or lose it)

• memories are lost because replaced, or confused with others
• proactive or retroactive interference

old memories make new memories difficult to retrieve

new information interferes with retrieval of old information

• lack of/ or motivation to remember
• repression

• the exclusion of painful memories, from awareness
• not being able to acces it, it exists but access is painful
• can't scientifically prove it exists

rely on a hunch

• suggestibility (gulible)
• eyewitness memory
• "implanted" memory

• confidence and accuracy on the witness stand (confidence doesn't help)
• preschoolers as compared to older chidren or adults (not reliable)
• suggestible techniques and preschoolers
• are children credible witnesses (aviod suggestible techniques and yes they are)

• cerebal cortex
• amygdala
• hippocampus
• cerebellum

serves role of excecutive functioning

deals with emotions

responsible for creating new memories

involved in our procedural part of the brain

• anterograde amnesia
• retrograde amnesia
• alzhelimer's disease

inability to form new memories since injury/illness

cannot remember memories before injury/illness

• branch of psychology that deals with the relationship between pysiology and psychology
• includes biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists with Ph.D or medical degree

• a nerve cell, basic building block of the nervous system
• cell body
• dendrites
• axon
• action potential
• axon terminals
• myelin sheath

• action potential travels down the axon
• the extensionof a neuron, eding in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands

• neural impulse
• a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon

Terminal branches

• communication between neurons
• synapse
• synaptic cleft (gap)

junction between termianl branches and dendrites of seperate neurons

chemical messengers that exist within synaptic gap

• resting Potential (-70mV) (millovolts)
• action potential (-50mV to +40mV)

(-70mV) not communicating at resting potential

• when neuron fires/sends the impulse
• at -50mV threshold of excitation (when neuron fires)
• positive ions flow in, membrane potential quickly increases to +40mV
• positive ions flow out, decrease to -70mV
• goes into refractory period (resolution phase)

enables muscle action, learning and memory

involved with emotional arrousal (how body deals with pleasure and reward), influences movement, learning and attention

deals with fear (outside the brain calles adrenaline)

• "morphine within"
• natural, opiatlike neurotransmitters linked to pain and control and to pleasure linked to mood

linked to our moods, sleep and arousal (linked to depression)

outside agent, similar enough to lock into neurotransmitter molecule and will cause it to fire

enough for molecule to lock into place but neuron isnt fired at all (anesthetice)

inhibits muscle movement (antagonist)

brain and spinal cord

neurons that connect back to the CNS

controls our muscles (skeletal) (have control)

• involved with glands, muscles of our internal organ system such as heartbeat (automatic)
• sympathetic and parasympathetic

ramps the body up, body gets tense

calms the body down

• sensory neurons (touch, feeling of warmth/cold)
• carry information from outside body- the world into CNS
• Motor neurons-information coming from brain spinal cord to move body
• intereurons

a simple automatic response to a sensory, stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response

the body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hromones into the bloodstream

chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands, travel through the bloodstream, and affect other tissues

a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secret hormoness (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress

• the endocrine system's most influential gland
• under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

patient/case studies- phineas gage and spilt brain case

• responsible for many autmatic survival functions
• medulla
• reticular
• thalamus
• cerebellum

in control of heartbeat and breathing

important for arousal/awakedness (from forms of unconsciousness to consciousness)

a sensory switchboard (communicating info everywhere)

involved with controlling voluntary movement and balance

• involved with drive, deals with emotion like fear and aggression
• amydala
• hippocampus
• hypothalamus

linked to aggression and fear

• involved with creating new memory
• a neural center that is located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage

in charge of pituitary gland, associated with drives, controlling body temperature, controls endocrine system (referred to as pleasure/reward center)

• nerve cells
• glial cells
• frontal lobe
• parietal lobe
• occipital lobe
• temporal lobe

speaking and muscle movements, making plans and judgements

sensory cortex

visual

involved with auditory/hearing, understanding language

• people that potrayed themselves as scientists said they could describe the parts of the brain based on its shape
• Gall (around 1800)
• pseudoscience
• motor cortex
• somatosensory cortex
• visual cortex
• auditory cortex
• broca's area
• wernicke's area

creating voluntary movements

recieves information from the body

deals with vision

hearing

part of motor cortex that controls our facial muscles, deals with speech creation

deals with understanding/comprehending speech

• output motor cortex
• input somatosensory cortex
• corpus callosom

controls right side

receives from right side

• large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them
• lateralized- left:language, analytical, logical reasoning
• right:spatial abilities, music, art

change in behavior due to experience

• behavorism
• veiwed psychology as objective science
• recommended study of behavior alone, without reference to mental processes

• russian physician/neurophysiologist
• studied classical conditioning
• tied dog up and measured salvation by presenting food

the food presented to the dog

• the salvation for the food
• naturally occurs to UCS, unlearned

tuning fork, presented to the dog; dog has no reaction to noise

when tuning fork is presented with food to dog

• now dog presented with noise only makes dog salvate
• triggers a conditioned response, referred to as "neutral" before

a learned response to a previously neutral condition

initial stage in classical conditioning, where you associate

when conditioned stimulus and conditioned response are dissasociated

reappearence of a conditioned response after a rest period

• when you generalize the conditioned response to other similar stimuli
• ex. cats response to can opening

• not everything can be conditioned
• the conditioned stimulis must make sense
• some unconditioned responses are very strong

reaction to environment presented

• "Law of Effect"
• operants
• ex. cat put in box, learns how to escape, learns exact spot to escape, and a quicker escape each day to get food presented

• strengthen by reinforcement
• diminished followed by punishment
• behaviors followed by favored consequences become more liekely, behaviors followed by unfavored consequences become less likely (words of Thorndike)

• elaborated on Thorndike's ideas
• Skinner box-tested mouse

• any event that strengthens the behavior it follows
• can be negative/positive

getting a participant to accomplish a more complex goal, after you have reinforced a simple goal

• primary
• conditioned
• delayed

• continuous reinforcement
• intermittent reinforcement
• varying reinforcement

perform action, response happens everytime

perform action, response does not happen everytime

• person receives reinforcement after a specified # of responses
• ex. sell 5 cars, get payed, repeat

• where reinforcement is unpredictable
• ex. gambling-play to win, but don't know if you'll win
• addiction-don't know how high you'll get
• fishing-cast and will maybe catch a fish

get reinforcement only after time has elapsed

reinforcement comes at an unpredictable time interval

• decreases behavior
• adding stimulus-positive (addition)
• taking things away-negative (subtraction)

• + administer an adverse stimulus (spanking, a parking ticket)
• - withdraw a desirable stimulus (time-out, taking away priveleges, revoked driver's license)

• behavorists were ignored
• due to rise of technology-being able to examine the mental process

• Skinner;
• elaborated Thorndike's law of effect
• developed behavorial technology

• you need atleast two people
• still focused on individual but with the connection of the other person

Attributional Theory and Fundamental Attribution Error

• behavior is situational
• judge through disposition (behavior is them not situation)- Dispositional Theory

• culturally bound attributions to western cultures (US, European society)
• attrbution: why is ashley like a dimwit?
• situational: she's under pressure
• dispositional: "she's self involed and clueless"
• fundamental attribution error: person making judgement ignores influence of situation and over estimates influence of dispositional attribution

• people who have agreed to a small request tend to comply later to a larger request
• ex. when already buying a combo at BK, cashier asks to supersize?
• you'll probably say yes to an upgrade
• Freedman and Fraser (1966) signs in lawns

• signs in lawns
• when presented with a large sign to put in lawn, compliance was only 17%
• when presented with a small sign at 1st, then later brought a large sign instead, compliance was 76%
• charities and blood drives work the same

• ask for a larger deman and people say no
• when they say no, immediately ask for something more reasonable
• ex.give me $200; no
• okay how about $20?; ok

set of expectations about a social position

• attitude and behavior are inconsistent
• somethings got to give

• conformity
• normative social influence

someone adjusts behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard

actions are to gain or get acknowledgement from someone else

where you match the behaviors of others around you

Biological-Psychological-Social

evolution, individual genes, brain structure and chemistry

stress, trauma, learned helplessness, mood-related perceptions

roles, expectations, definitions of normality and disorder

idea that you have to diagnose, figure out different disorders

• DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
• Neurotic and Psychotic disorders

• distressing, but allows person to think rationall and act socially
• ex. anxiety, depression (still allow connection to other people, and function)

• a person looses contact with reality, disconnect with their conscious state and reality
• ideas become distorted and irrational
• ex.hearing voices, someone's after them..

• more common
• distressing and persistent worry, the behaviors do not reduce the anxiety either

• tense and apprehensive, constat state of stress
• level of alerness, tenseness is high (arousal)

• high level of anxiety that already exists but comes out in intense episodes (few minutes) during this they actually panic in terror
• end up changing behavior
• breathing may be affected
• ex. game at stadium-triggers attack, they then change behavior and no longer attend games
• then grocery store, etc. until person won't even leave house

agoraphobia: leaving the house, fear of open spaces

• obsessive compulsive disorder
• unwanted, repetitive thoughts-O
• the action to act on the thoughts-C
• becomes or is constant-D

stressful experiences-negative explanatory style-depression mood-cognitive and behavorial changes

• over excited emotional state
• irrational behavior
• engage in activities not normally engaged in

mood disorder where person alternates between hopeless feeling/feeling of worthlessness and manic episode state

• impact social functioning
• something inflexible about character or functioning
• usually presents with out anxiety

• person exhibits lack of conscious
• may engage in criminal behavior
• can exhibited as ruthlessnes or cleverness

• word translated as "split mind"
• not multiple personality disorder
• symptoms: disorganized and dillusional thinking (typically auditory, paranoid)
• hallucinations
• innapropriate emotions (more eratic than bipolar ones)
• positive (added) symtoms: presence of inapropriate behaviors
• hallucinations
• negative symptoms:absence of emotions (flat effect)

• person exhibits 2 or more distinct personalities
• as a child chronically or severly abused (how it develops)
• ex. sexual assault: personality might be defensive, tough to attacker, or might be promiscuous and accept behavior/attacker

an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind

a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavorial processes function-how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish

the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2)

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth

the interdisciplinary studay of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

the science of behavior and mental processes

• the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors
• today's science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture

the principle that, among the rande of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations

the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon

an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis

pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) an in achieving greater well-being

a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders;practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well a psychological therapy

survey, question, read, rehearse, review

the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next

• a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables
• ex. human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures

an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of a particular group, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of the group

all cases in a group being studied, from which samples may be drawn

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

• a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables
• the slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship between the two variables
• the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation (little scatter indicates high correlation)

the perception of a relationship where none exists

• aresearch method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variable) to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable)
• by random assignment of participants, the experimenter aims to ocntrol other relevant factors

assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

experimental results caused by expectations alone; any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent

a statistical statement of how likely it is that obtained result occured by chance

significant binge-eating followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the comensatory purging, fasting, or excessive excersize that marks bulimia nervosa

• sex hormones,such as estradiol, secreted in greater amounts by females than by males and contributing to female sex characterisics
• in nonhuman female mammals, estrogen levels peak during ovulation, promoting sexual receptivity

• the most important of the male sex hormones
• both males and females have it but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development of the male sex characteristics during puberty

an enduring sexual attraction toward members of either one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation)

a completely involved, focused state of consciousness, with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one's skills

the application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces

a subfeild of I/O psychology that focuseson employee recruitment, selection, placement, training appraisal, and development

a subfield of I/O pscyhology that examines organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and facilitates organizational change

interview process that asks the same job-relevant questions of all applicants, each of whom is rated on established scales

a desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of things, people, or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard

a response of the whole organism, involving (1) physiological arousal, (2) expressive behaviors, and (3) conscious experience

the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli

the theory that an emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneousy triggers (1) physiological responses and (2) the subjective experience of emotion

the SchachterSinger theory that to experience emotion one must (1) be physically aroused and (2) cognitively label the arousal

• emotional release
• in psychology, the catharsis hypothesis maintains that "releasing" aggressive energy (through action or fantasy) relieves aggressive urges

people's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

• self perceived happiness or satisfaction with life
• used along with measures of objective well-being
• ex. physical and economic indicators
• to evaluate people's quality of life

our tendencyto from judgements (of sounds, of lights, of income) relative to a neutral level defined by our prior experience

the perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares onself

unconscious encodingof incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

the conscious repitition ofinformation, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

the encoding of picture images

the encoding of sound, especially the sound of words

the encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words

mental pictures;a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with semantic encoding

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

• an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
• believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

the loss of memory

a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test

a measuree of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

• that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before"
• cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

incorporaation misleading information into one's memory of an event

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (also called source misattribution) source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories

an interdisciplinary field that integrates behaviorial and medical knowledge and applies that knowledge to health and disease

a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine

the process by which we percieve and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three places-alarm, resistance, exhaustion

the bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that recieve messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body

neurons that carry incoming information fromt he sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord

neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands

neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

a layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next

the level of stimulation requied to trigger a neural impulse

a neurotransmitter's reabsorbtion by the sending neuron

the body's speedy, electrochemical communication netwrok, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous system

• the division of th eperipheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles
• also called the skeletal nervous system

cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons

areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizating after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

the formation of new neurons

a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them

our awareness of ourselves and our environment

the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cogntion (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on seperate conscious and unconscious tracks

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed else where

failing to notice changes in the environment

the process by which our sensory recpetors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events

analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up the the brain's integration of sensory information

information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

the study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such ad their intesisty, and our psychological experience of them

• a theory predictinng how and when we detect presence of faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise)
• assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness

the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

below one's absolute threshold for conscious awareness

the activation, often unconsciously, of certain associations, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response

• the minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time
• we experience the difference threshold as just noticeable difference

the principle that, to be percieved as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constat stimulation

a chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods

the dminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect

the discomfort and sitress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug

a physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued

a psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions

compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences

drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

drugs that dpress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement

opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety

drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, and Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions

drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes

a powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels

• a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen
• produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition

psychedelic ("mind manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input

a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid

the major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

• a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
• ex. an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone

the tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses

in classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus

behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

behavior that operates on the environment, producing consequences

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

in operant conditioning research, a chamber (skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking

• a mental representation of the layout of one's environment
• ex. after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

a desire to performa behavior effectively for its own sake

a desire to perform a behavior to recieve promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment

feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in a particular way to objects, people, and events

occurs when interested people focus on the arguements and respond with favorable thoughts

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness

influence resulting from one's willingness to accept other's opnions about reality

stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in presence of others

the tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts toward attaining a common goal than when individually accountable

the loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occuring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity

the enhancement of a group's prevfailing inclinations through discussion within the group

the mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives

when five other participants say line 3 is equal to the stardard line, what does the last person say? in discomfort of disagreeing with the responses of otehr group members because the answer is incorrect