Psych 1

  1. Mental states, thoughts and feelings
    Mind
  2. enables the mind
    Brain
  3. any observable action
    behavior
  4. Psychology is an empirical science
    Nature and Nurture are inextricably intertwined
    The Brain and Mind are Inspererable
    A New Biological Rev. is energizing research
    The mind is adaptive
    Pscyhological science corssese levels of analysis
    We often are unaware of the multiple influences on how we think, feel and behave
    7 Themes of Psychological Science
  5. Biological
    Individual
    Social
    Cultural
    Levels of Analysis
  6. William Wundt (founder of modern experimental psychology), Edward Titchener
    conscious experience can be studied by examining its borken-down, underlaying components
    break down consciousness into its basic elements (like periodic table of elements)
    relied on introspection
    focused on perception and sensation
    Structuralism
  7. systemmatic examination of subjective mental experiences that requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts

    took years of practice, can only talk about things in "elemental" form, can't use stored knowledge
    introspection
  8. William James
    Based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
    the mind is too complex to be studied by breaking down into elements
    stream of consciousness could not be frozen in time like sturcturalists desired
    argued to studie the functions of the mind (the mind helps humans adapt)
    asked: what does the mind do? how is it adaptive? how does it create overt behavior?
    Primary Areas: social, practical everday higher order experience
    Functionalism
  9. the mind's continuous stream of ever changing thoughts
    stream of consciousness
  10. Max Wertheimer, Kohler
    anti-structuralism: the mind is greater than the sum of its elemental parts
    Theory: the whole of personal experience is different than the sum of its constitutent elements
    we cannot divorce experience from knowledge
    Known for optical illusions
    *perception of objects is subjective
    Primary Areas: sensation, perception
    Gestalt
  11. Sigmund Freud
    Theory: Behavior is determined by unconscious (below level of conscious awareness) drives and affected heavily by childhood
    Primary Areas: personality, development and psychopathology
    Psyhchoanalitic
  12. try to bring patient's unconscious into conscious awareness
    Through dream interpretation, also free association
    Psychoanalysis
  13. letting the patient talk for however long- the unconscious will eventually reveal itself
    free association
  14. John Watson, BF Skinner (elaborated), Ivan Pavlov
    If psychology was a science, it had to study things which could be proven (unlike Freud and subconscious)
    Theory: emphasizes environmental effects on behavior--> in battle of nature v. nurture, nuture only
    Influence of Pavlov: we learn or acquire all our behaviors through enviornment
    Studying behavior was end itself, rather than a means to infer mental processes

    According to Skinner- mental states nothing more than an illusion. behavior shaped by past results (reward, punishment), not on mental process (tabla rosa)

    Primary Areas: learning
    Behaviorism
  15. Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
    Theory: Humans determine their own fate through free will- everyone can reach full potential once Maslow's pyramid of needs is met (opposite of Freud- childhood shapes future)
    Oprah has a humanistic view- shape our own future
    Primary Areas- personality, therapy
    Humanistic
  16. I'm mad at you
    I'm hearing that you're mad at me...
    The person will gain insight into their thinking this way
    Rogerian Therapy
  17. George Miller
    Theory: Mental functions important to understanding beahvior (unlike behaviorism)
    Info processing more important, not behavior
    Brain-hardware, Mind-software

    Primary Area- memory, learning, cognitive psychology
    Cognitive Revolution
  18. The study of how people think, learn and remember
    Cognitive Psychology
  19. Kurt Lewin
    Led on by atrocities of WWII crimes
    Theory: Need to understand individual and social pressures to understand/predict behavior
    B=f(P,E)
    Behavior is a function of the person and the environment
    Primary Areas- social cultural
    Social Revolution
  20. Uses interactionalist perspective
    Crosses boundaries and schools of thought
    Modern Psychology
  21. 4 Canons of Science
    • 1. Determinism
    • 2. Empericism
    • 3. Parsimony
    • 4. Testability
  22. Scientific Method
    • 1. Observation--> theorize
    • 2. Hypothesis
    • 3. Translate Variables
    • 4. Choose Research Method
    • 5. Conduct Study
    • 6. Analyze Data--> support or refute hypothesis
    • 7. Further Inquiry
  23. To make variables concrete and measurable
    Operationalize
  24. In depth investigation of a single case
    Pros- real-life observation and rich description
    Cons- limited generalizability
    Used for rare phenomena or situations which ethically cannot be reproduced
    Case Study
  25. Questions many participants about phenomena of interest
    Pros- real-life, greater generalizability, wide variety of events
    Cons- self-report bias, lack of insight
    Survey
  26. People are unwilling to admit things about themselves or are unaware of a certain bias
    Self-report Bias
  27. Observational studies, observingand noting behavior to analyze it objectively
    Pros- valuable in early stages of research when trying to descern if phenomena exists, takes place in real world setting
    Cons- observer bias can lead to error in observation, observer's presence can change behavior of thngs being studied
    Descriptive Studies
  28. Type of Descriptive study in which the observer remains separated from situation and makes no attempt to change it
    Naturalistic Observation
  29. Type of Descriptive Study in which the researcher is involved in situation
    Participant Observation
  30. The phenomena when the presence of an observer changes the behavior of things being studied
    Reactivity
  31. Studies in which you observe and clarify developmental changes that occur in poeple over time, with or without observer intervention
    Pros- allow researchers to see developmental changes which gives info about effect of age on the SAME people
    Cons- costly, time intensive, lose participants over time
    Longitudenal Studies
  32. Study in which involves observing and classifying developmental changes that occur in different groups of people at the same time
    Pros- faster, less expensive
    Cons-unidentified variables could be involved
    Cross-sectional Studies
  33. the systematic errors in observation that occur becasue of an observer's expectations
    Observer Bias
  34. Actual change in the behavior of the people/things being observed due to observer's bias
    Experimenter Expectency Effect
  35. A research method that examines how variables are naturally related in the real world, without attempt by researchers to alter them
    Pros- Rely on naturally occuring relationship; in real-world
    Cons- can never tell us about causation, cannot determine causality because of direction and third variable problem
    Correlational Research
  36. Cannot be sure if A casues B or B causes A
    When researchers find a relationship between two variables in a correlational study, they cannot determine which variable casued the change in the other
    They can only say the two are correlated
    Directionality Problem
  37. Instead of A causing B, C could have caused B
    When the observer cannot manipulate the Ind. Var. and therefore cannot be confident that another unmeasured variable is not the actual cause of the change in the Dep. Var.
    Third Variable Problem
  38. A study that tests causal hypotheses by measuring and manipulating variables
    Pros- can determine causal relationships
    Cons- artificial, limited to certain topics
    Experimental Study
  39. Causal Variable
    The manipulated Variable
    Independent Variable
  40. The outcome
    The measured varaible
    Dependent Variable
  41. Hallmarks of Good Experiment
    • 1. Avoids confounds
    • 2. Avoids Bias (experimenter and participant
    • 3. Psychologically Real
    • 4. Uses reliable and valid measures
    • 5. Ethical
  42. Placing participants into conditions randomly--> this makes groups equivalent on average
    Random Assignment
  43. any alternative variable that could potentially explain differences between groups
    *anything beiseds the Ind. Variable that affects the dependent variable, unintentionaly varies and cannot be controlled
    Confound
  44. How to avoid confounds
    • Rigid Control
    • Randomly vary as many "nonessentials" as possible so differences will average out
  45. Ways an experimenter or participant could (even unconsciously) influence the results of the experiment to fit hypothesis
    Bias
  46. Observer- observer expectations alters the way one sees the behavior
    Experimenter Expectancy- subtle differences in treatement that could influence participant behavior
    Experimenter Bias
  47. The participant in the study changes their behavior because they want to "look good" ex.
    Participant Bias
  48. A procedure in which paticipants don't know the hypothesis and observers do not know which group they are observalbe
    Double-Blind Procedure
  49. How stable are the operations
    Replicability
  50. Operations are good and measure what they are believed to be measuring
    Construct Validity
  51. Lack of Confounds
    Internal Validity
  52. generalizability of findings, true outside of the study? in the real world?
    external validity
  53. The benefits of teh study must outweigh the costs to the participants
    Research Ethics
  54. they review all research done in the university settings
    Institutional Review BOards
  55. informed of what will happen to them (to a certain extent)
    Informed Consent
  56. measures the electrical activity in brain
    EEG (electroencephalogram)
  57. experimental techniques that make brain structures and activity visible, measure changes in rate or speed of blood flow
    Brain Imaging
  58. a method of brain imaging that assesses the metabolic activity by using a radioactive substance injected into the bloodstream
    Positron Emision Tomography (PET)
  59. Method of brain imagaing- produces high quality images by using a strong magnetic field
    Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
  60. uses brain's blood flow to map mental activity scanning the brains of participants as they perform tasks
    Measures changes in blood's oxygen level
    Funcional MRI (fMRI)
  61. uses strong magnets to briefly interupt normal brain activity in a specific region as a way to study brain regions
    Transcranial Magnetic Simulation (TMS)
  62. segments of DNA that guide the production of proteins to carry out specific tasks, they make up chromosomes
    a unit of heredity

    can be "on" or "off"
    genes
  63. actual genetic constitution
    genotype
  64. observable expression of characteristics

    results form both genetic and environmental influences
    pheontype
  65. a trait influenced by many genes
    polygenic
  66. identical twins, formed by 1 zygote spliting into two
    monozygotic
  67. fraternal twin siblings who results from 2 sperately fertilized eggs

    no more similar than family siblings
    diozygotic
  68. statistical estimate of the variation caused by differences in heredity, in trait with population
    Estimate of genetic protion of variation in specific trait
    if trait has less variation among family members it is said to be ______
    ex: height, weight, happiness
    Hereditability
  69. genetics and environment working in concert to support a trait

    can lead to inferential mistakes
    niche
  70. knocking out or disrupting a gene to see its effects on behavior/function
    knockout
  71. basic unit of the nervous system, operates through electrical impulses which communicate with other ________ through chemical signals
    neurons
  72. type of neuron that receives signals from outside the nervous system
    sensory neurons
  73. type of neurons which transmit signals to muscles to contract or relax to control movement
    motor neurons
  74. type of neurons that communicate with other neurons--> these are the most numerous

    generally in specific brain regions
    interneurons
  75. short, branchlike appendages that detect information form other neurons
    dendrites
  76. where information from thousands of neurons is collected and processed
    cell body
  77. a long narrow outgrowth by which information is transmitted to other neurons--> transmit electrical impulses
    axons
  78. small nodules at the end of axons

    they release chemical signals from the neuron to the synapse
    terminal buttons
  79. site for chemical communication between neurons, contains extracellular fluid

    area between neurons- neurons do not actual touch
    synapse, synaptic cleft
  80. a fatty material made up of glial cells, insulates the axon and allows for rapid movement of electrical impulses along the axon

    made of glial cells ("glue")
    myelin sheath
  81. small gaps of exposed axon between segmetns of myelin sheaths. Releases action potential

    ion channels allow negatively and positively charged ions to pass in and out of the cell as signals are transmitted down the axon
    nodes of Ranvier
  82. the electrical charge of a neuron when it is not active (resting)

    neuron is slightly negative on inside compared to outside (polarized)
    resting membrance potential
  83. the neural impulse that passes along the axon and subsequently causes the release of chemicals from the terminal buttons

    signals either inhibitory (hyperpolarize cell membrane) or excitatory (depolarize cell membrane, making it more likely to fire)
    if total amount of excitatory signals surpasses the neuron's threshold, an _________ is generated
    action potential
  84. firing of a neuron
    sodium channels--> sodium comes in giving it a slightly positive charge-->potasium channels open--> potasium rushes out --> sodium gates close--> potassium gates close-->repolarization
  85. absolute time of 1-2 milliseconds in which a neuron cannot fire following an action potential
    post-firing refractory periods
  86. a neuron can fire after being fired, but it has a higher threshold
    relative refractory period
  87. neuron either fires or doesn't
    all or none principal
  88. chemical substances that carry signals across synaptic cleft

    they bind and attach themselves to receptors that "match" them

    influence thoughts, emotions, behavior
    neurotransmitters
  89. specialized protein molecules, on the postsynaptic membrane where neurotransmitters bind themselves

    this causes an excitatory or inhibitory signal
    receptors
  90. process where a neurotransmitter is taken back into the presynaptic terminal buttons--> stopping its activity
    reuptake
  91. an enzyme destorys the transmitter substance in the synaptic cleft
    enzyme deactivation
  92. where neurotransmitters can reattach themselves to the presynaptic membrane to signal the neuron when to stop releasing neurotransmitters
    autoreceptors
  93. drugs which enhance neurotransmitters' actions
    agonist
  94. drugs that inhibit actions of a specific neurotransmitter
    antagonists


Author
mking_nu
ID
80497
Card Set
Psych 1
Description
Chapters 1 and 2
Updated