Approaches: Glossary Flashcards
Define genotype
The information in the DNA.
Define phenotype
The traits DNA gives us.
Define oxytocin
A hormone that acts on organs in the body and as a chemical messenger in the brain, controlling key aspects of the reproductive system, including childbirth and lactation, and aspects of human behaviour.
For example: Postnatal depression.
Define serotonin
An important chemical and neurotransmitter in the human body. It is believed to help regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function.
For example: Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
Define dopamine
A neurotransmitter, a chemical released by neurons to send signals to other nerve cells. The brain includes several distinct dopamine pathways, one of which plays a major role in the motivational component of reward-motivated behavior.
Define cortisol
A steroid hormone, in the glucocorticoid class of hormones. It is produced in humans by the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex within the adrenal gland. It is released in response to stress and low blood-glucose concentration.
Define temporal
Involved in primary auditory perception, such as hearing, and holds the primary auditory cortex. The primary auditory cortex receives sensory information from the ears and secondary areas process the information into meaningful units such as speech and words.
Define occipital
The visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex.
Define parietal
Can be divided into two functional regions. One involves sensation and perception and the other is concerned with integrating sensory input, primarily with the visual system. The first function integrates sensory information to form a single perception.
For example: Cognition.
Define frontal
Involved in motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation, judgement, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior.
Define introspection
The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Define knowledge
Acts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.
Define determinism
The doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes regarded as external to the will. Some philosophers have taken determinism to imply that individual human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.
Define mental processes
The things that individuals can do with their minds. These include perception, judgement, memory, thinking, volition, and emotion.
Define replicable
Something that can be copied or recreated.
Define theories
A supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something, especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.
Define empiricism
The theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.
Define objective
Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.
Define systematically
According to a fixed plan or system; methodically.
Define perception
The way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted.
Define positive reinforcement
The process of encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by offering reward when the behaviour is exhibited.
Define negative reinforcement
A response or behavior is strengthened by stopping, removing, or avoiding a negative outcome or aversive stimulus.
Define classical conditioning
The process of learning through behaviour. We learn that certain things lead to certain results, creating an association.
Define operant conditioning
Changing the conditioning relationship through reinforcement or punishment.
Define social learning theory
The theory that other people can influence our behaviour.
Define modelling/ imitation
The process of basing behaviour, style, attitude, etc. on someone we admire and want to emulate.
Define vicarious reinforcement
The strengthening of behaviour by learning from watching other people and their consequences.
Define observational learning
Learning by watching others.
Define role model
The person who we admire. We are inspired to copy their behaviour.
Define unconditioned stimulus
A stimulus that automatically leads to a particular response.
Define conditioned stimulus
A neutral stimulus that we have learned to pair with a response with a response that is not the original conditioned response.
Define structuralism
A method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of human cognition, behaviour, culture, and experience, which focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system.
Define introspection
The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes.
Define functionalism
A theory about the nature of mental states.
Define behaviouralism
The theory that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of conditioning, without considering thoughts or feelings.
Define cognitive neuroscience
An academic field that studies the influence of brain structures on mental processes using techniques such as brain scans.
Define computer models
Software simulations of internal mental processes that are created in collaboration with computer scientists.
Define concordance rate
The extent to which both twins share the same characteristic.
Define identification
Associating with a role model’s and adopting their behaviour because you want to be like them.
Define inference
Process of drawing conclusions about general patterns of behaviour.
Define information processing model
The idea that information flows through the cognitive system in a sequence of stages.
Define internal mental process
The operations both conscious and unconscious that occur during thinking. For example, perception and memory.
Define introspection
Observing and examining your own conscious thoughts and emotions.
Define learning
A relatively lasting change in behaviour that is the result of experience.
Define mediating cognitive factors
Internal mental processes that lie between the stimulus and the response.
Define punishment
Receiving something unpleasant when a behaviour is performed which decreases the chance the behaviour is repeated.
Define reciprocal determinism
The way a person is influenced by their environment but also influences their environment.
Define response
The reaction to a specific stimulus e.g. salivating when you see food.
Define schema
Mental frameworks of information that we use to organise past experience and to interpret and respond to new situations.
Define subjective
Affected by personal feelings, prejudices and interpretations.
Define theoretical models
Diagrammatic representations of the steps involved in internal mental processes, e.g. the information-processing model.
