Behavioral Sciences Flashcards
1
Q
What is General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)?
A
How the body reacts to stress, made up of the alarm stage, resistance stage and the exhaustion stage
2
Q
What is the alarm stage?
A
first few minutes of a response to stress (fight or flight)
3
Q
What is the resistance stage?
A
Lasts for hours or months. The body resisting the stressor and establishing a new equilibrium
4
Q
What is the Exhaustion stage?
A
Prolonged stress (depression, hypertension)
5
Q
What is interactionist theory?
A
language acquisition is the result of biological AND environmental/social factors
6
Q
What is the Cannon-Bard theory?
A
The experience and expression of emotion in the brain occur simultaneously
7
Q
What are vicarious emotions?
A
They occur when the emotions of one person are instinctually felt by another person
8
Q
What does the prefrontal cortex do?
A
Planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior
9
Q
What does the hypothalamus do?
A
Responsible for the physiological component of emotion (changes in heart rate, respiration rate).
Regulates the pituitary gland
10
Q
What is the hippocampus?
A
Responsible for forming new memories.
Essential for declarative or episodic memory
11
Q
What does the amygdala do?
A
It is specialized for input and processing of emotion
12
Q
What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?
A
Bodily changes come first and form the basis of an emotional experience.
You become happier when you smile, you are afraid because you run.
13
Q
What is the Schacter-Singer theory of emotion?
A
exposure to the stimulus, physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation of the situation, followed by the experience of the emotion
14
Q
What is master status?
A
An aspect of one’s life that dominates in social situations (an ex-felon)
15
Q
What is ascribed status?
A
A status that is socially assigned to a person (such as race)
16
Q
What is achieved status?
A
A status that has been attained (an occupation)
17
Q
What are positive symptoms of schizophrenia?
A
Hallucinations and disorganized speech
18
Q
What are negative symptoms of schizophrenia?
A
apathy, social withdrawal
19
Q
What is group polarization?
A
a group of a mostly likeminded people will often become more extreme in their beleifs
20
Q
What is structural functionalism?
A
The parts of society are interdependent and work together for the good of the whole.
21
Q
What is symbolic interactionism?
A
people respond to elements of their environments according to the subjective meanings they attach to those elements
Interpersonal interactions
22
Q
What is the elaboration likelihood model?
A
considers the variables of the attitude change approach—that is, features of the source of the persuasive message, contents of the message, and characteristics of the audience are used to determine when attitude change will occur.
23
Q
What is autonomic aurosal?
A
A disorder characterized by persistent or recurrent signs and symptoms mediated by the autonomic nervous system, excluding pain but including palpitation, hyperventilation, or nausea
24
Q
What is cultural relativism?
A
The view that ethical and social standards reflect the cultural context from which they are derived
25
What is stereotype threat?
refers to the anxiety experienced by an individual who feels judged based on a negative stereotype
26
What is dominant culture?
includes the established set of norms that define a society
27
What is a subculture?
group of individuals who are characteristically distinctive from the dominant culture in way
28
What is discrimination?
Negative Treatment of an individual based on the membership of a social group
29
What is prejudice?
Negative Feeling of an individual based on the membership of a social group
30
What is the mirror neuron system?
neuronal connections within the brain that inspire the mimicking of certain behaviors and emotions. Mirror neurons may serve to connect the sight and subsequent performance of behavior, such as yawning or smiling after another person does the same
31
What are the functions of the right side of the brain?
32
What is the function of the left side of the brain?
33
What is the bystander effect?
Occurs when an individual is less likely to receive help when more people are present.
34
Which drugs are depressents?
Alcohol and benzodiazepines
35
What is social stigma?
Social stigma is associated the social disapproval of deviant characteristics that do not conform to social expectations
36
What does a PET scan do?
measures changes in glucose metabolize in the brain over time (through radioactive glucose analog
37
What does a CT scan do?
gives detailed x ray images of internal structures within the body
38
What does an EEG do?
measures changes in voltage in the brain over time
39
What does an fMRI do?
measures changes in blood oxygenation through the different properties of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin
40
What is motion parallax?
objects in the foreground appear that they are moving faster than objects in the background
41
What is the Phi phenomenon?
known as the motion picture effect (still photos put together to make an optical illusion/movie)
42
What is convergence?
The extent to which eyes move inward (closer objects require more convergence)
43
What is the prefrontal cortex responsible for?
Responsible for executive functions. does not reach full maturity until 25
44
What is the central executive for the working memory?
responsible for performing and switching tasks
45
What is the visuospatial sketchpad for the working memory?
employed when manipulating visual information
46
What is the phonological loop of the working memory?
responsible for processing spoken and written manipulation
47
What is the episodic buffer of the working memory?
Responsible for understanding the timeline of events
48
What is drive-reduction thoery?
the motivation behind human behavior is to reduce "drives" ex) reducing hunger, stress, AROUSAL
49
What do the limbic system structures do?
Comprised of the hypothalamus, the amygdala, the thalamus, and the hippocampus.
Responsible for behavior and emotion
50
What does the longitudinal cohort design do?
A type of research study that follows large groups of people over a long time.
51
What does a cross-sectional design do?
examines a group of people at one point in time
52
What is Hans Eysenck's viewpoint?
He published a study on genetics of personality in 1951, which investigated the trait of neuroticism in identical (i.e., monozygotic) and fraternal (i.e., dizygotic) twins.
53
What is Abraham Maslow's viewpoint?
He was involved with the humanistic perspective of personality, where he formed the hierarchy of needs to describe the physiological and psychological needs humans require to be fulfilled.
54
What is B.F. Skinner's viewpoint?
He studied the behaviorist perspective of personality, where he studied the ability of operant conditioning to modify personality over time.
55
What is Gordon Allport's viewpoint?
Studied the trait perspective of personality. He argued that three key types of traits contribute to personality: cardinal traits, central traits, and secondary traits.
56
When does attrition bias occur?
when participants drop out of a a long-term study
57
What is cognitive dissonace?
the unpleasant feeling a person experiences when holding two contradictory beliefs at the same time
ex) A high school math teacher who encouraged his own son to skip college and focus on learning a trade to “save all that wasted tuition money”
58
What is fixed-ratio?
less effective than variable schedules
59
What is variable-ratio?
more effective... produces the highest response rates most resistant to extinction (casino slot machines)
60
What is a working memory?
refers to the mental operations performed on information in short-term memory.
61
what is explicit memory?
a type of long-term memory that refers to specific pieces of information, including recalling factual knowledge or specific events.
62
What is implicit memory?
long-term memory that reflects knowing how to do something (e.g., being able to ride a bike)
63
What is representative heuristic?
Reasoning about the probability of an event based on what is viewed as a prototypical example of a category.
It often corresponds to stereotypes and expected profiles of people in certain groups
64
What is availability heuristic?
Reasoning about the probability of an event based on how easily examples come to mind.
A classic example is when specific events are over-represented in the media and then influence perceptions of how common those events truly are.
65
What is confirmation bias?
occurs when people pay more attention to information that supports views they already hold.
66
What are in and out groups?
In-groups are categories that a person feels they belong to, and out-groups are groups that a person does not belong to and may feel animosity or superiority toward
67
what is hindsight bias?
Hindsight bias refers to the tendency to believe that past events were highly predictable, even though those events were not predictable before they occured.
68
What are informal norms?
In the absence of specific legal penalties, norms against behaviors are considered informal.
69
What are formal norms?
formal norms are those that are encoded by law, legislation introducing specific legal penalties for these behaviors can be implemented
70
What is Asch's study of conformity?
the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could influence a person to conform. Asch used confederates who were instructed to give clearly incorrect answers regarding the lengths of various lines. He then measured the number of times each unknowing participant conformed to the majority view. Asch’s study included 7 confederates who gave the same (incorrect or correct) response in each trial.
71
What is attribution thoery?
relates to an attempt by an individual to interpret actions by assigning causes to them
72
What is fundamental attribution error?
when an individual interprets another’s actions incorrectly by overemphasizing internal characteristics instead of external events
73
What is abraham maslow's self-actualization theory?
individuals must fulfill the lower needs (like physiological or safety needs) before being free to work toward fulfilling the higher needs, of which self-actualization is the highest.
74
What is Sigmund Freud's superego theory?
Freud’s superego is an aspect of the subconscious that emphasizes moral behavior.
75
What is BF Skinner's operant conditioning theory?
the theory is based on the idea that reward and punishment guide behavior.
76
What is Leon Festinger's cognitive dissonance theroy?
suggests that incongruence between beliefs and behaviors guides change in the inconsistent beliefs and/or behaviors.
77
What are folkways?
Norms that govern everyday behavior
78
What are mores?
norms that are deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society and have consequences if violated
79
What is a longitudinal cohort experimental design?
A group followed over a long period of time
80
What is a case control design?
compares individuals with a disease or characteristic of interest to similar individuals without that disease or characteristic.
81
What is kinship of affinity?
A kinship of affinity is one in which individuals are related by choice, such as through marriage, rather than through blood
82
What is anomie?
Anomie refers to society feeling fragmented and lacking cohesiveness
83
What is social desirability?
acting in way that makes one look favorable to other.
84
What is fMRI
Functional MRI
technique that would allow the researchers to assess the operation of brain regions, not only their structure
85
What is sMRI
structural MRI
scans image anatomical structure whereas FMRI image metabolic function. Thus, the images generated by MRI scans are like three dimensional pictures of anatomic structure.
86
What is a moderating variable?
A moderating variable is one that affects the strength of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable.
87
What is a mediating variable?
A mediating variable is one that provides a link and explains a relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable.
88
What is Erikson's stage of development about middle adulthood (40-65)
Generativity vs. stagnation
when individuals are trying to connect with others and find purpose.
89
What is Erikson's stage of development during young adulthood (19-40)?
intimacy vs isolation
when individuals need to form intimate relationships with other people.
90
What is Erikson's stage of development during maturity (65+)?
Integrity vs dispair
reflecting on their life.
91
What is Erikson's stage of development during adolescence (12-18)?
Identity vs role confusion
when teens are trying to find a sense of self or personal identity.
92
A dopamine agonist will reduce the symptoms of which disease?
Parkinson's disease
93
A dopamine agonist would enhance the symptoms of which disease?
Schizophrenia
94
An acetylcholine agonist would likely help with the treatment of which disease?
Alzheimers
95
What is implicit memory?
the ability to unconsciously recall memory or events (riding a bike)
96
What is assimilation of cultures
when one seeks to interact with a new culture and rejects a native culture
97
What is sigmund freud's model of the psyche
98
What is the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)?
a visual information relay center in the thalamus
detects information in the retina
99
What is the Parietal lobe?
Integrates multiple inputs of sensory information, from spatial sense and navigation (proprioception) to temperature (thermoreceptors) and touch (mechanoreceptors)
100
What is reciprocal determinism?
reciprocal determinism is is the theory that a person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the environment.
101
What is social cognitive theory?
It asserts that people learn by watching others, and if they see that someone is rewarded for a behavior, they are more likely to behave that way, too.
102
What is classical conditioning theory?
pairing two stimuli to produce a specific response
103
What process allows humans to detect motion, color, and shape?
feature detection
104
Conditioning example
the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus, a feeling of hunger in response to the smell is an unconditioned response, and the sound of a whistle when you smell the food is a conditioned stimulus
105
What is efferent?
going away from something (motor neurons)
106
What is afferent?
Going towards something (sensory neurons)
107
What is construct validity?
refers to whether or not measures actually assess the variables that they are intended to assess. For example, issues with how verbal abuse was defined in this study might pertain to construct validity.
108
What is Weber's law?
there is a linear relationship between the intensity of a stimulus and its detection.
109
What is Wernicke's aphasia?
People with it have difficulty connecting meaning to language. Wernicke’s area is thought to be involved in language comprehension; thus, impairments to this area may impair an individual’s ability to understand language or express meaning.
110
What is the temporal lobe?
It is responsible for interpreting sounds from the ears and plays a significant role in recognizing and using language. The temporal lobe also helps with object recognition and interacts with other structures to create new and long term memories.
111
What is the frontal lobe?
important for voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions.
112
What is confabulation?
Symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome indiuce confabulation – making up memories to fill in gaps and then believing that those memories are true.
113
What kind of cells produce sperm?
Sertoli cells of seminiferous tubes
114
What is Long Term Potentiation?
a process involving persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons.
115
What is Tonic Stimulus Response?
In the Peripheral Nervous System (not the brain)
adapts slowly to a stimulus and continues to produce action potentials over the duration of the stimulus.
116
What is Chomsky's language acquisition theory?
individuals have an innate language acquisition capacity
117
What is Vygotsky’s social learning theory?
It heavily stresses the role of people and interactions in the acquisition of cognitive skills such as language, which would involve mirror neurons.
118
What is the post-conventional stage of Kohlberg's moral development?
It is characterized by concern for morality and the good of society rather than social rules and laws
119
What is the pre-conventional stage of Kohlberg's moral development?
It is is characterized by more concern for rewards and punishments than social rules and laws
120
How long does an adult sleep cycle last?
90 minutes
121
How many stages of sleep are there?
1,2,3,4,REM
stage three is where the deepest sleep occurs
122
What is an affect heuristic?
the process of making a judgment based on emotions that are evoked.
123
What are stimulus motives?
a motive that appears to be unlearned but causes an increase in stimulation, such as curiosity. These motives are not necessary for survival.
124
What is Stanley Milgram's contribution to pyschology?
His obedience experiment, where he demonstrated that participants would follow the orders of a superior if instructed to go against their conscience.
125
What is normative social influence?
Describes when an individual conforms to FIT IN or AVOID REJECTION by others.
For example, a college freshman notices that everyone wears a wristband, so he wears one to fit in
126
What is informational influence?
Describes when an individual conforms to what others are doing because they don't know what to do and believe others do
127
What is group think and how can it be prevented?
when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives.
make group members state their own opinions
128
What is social loafing?
129
What is social constructionism?
Agreed upon, shared meanings
For example, the idea that pink is for girls and blue is for boys is an example of a social construct related to gender and the color of items.
130
What is functionalism?
A perspective that analyzes how how social structures work together to maintain equilibrium
131
What is the difference between a primary reinforcer/punisher and a secondary reinforcer/punisher?
Primary: Innate (praise, food, spanking, electric shock)
Secondary: Learned (money, good grades, bad grades, speeding ticket)
132
Are taste aversions long or short term?
Long term
133
What is a confounding variable?
a third variable that influences both the independent and dependent variables
In your caffeine study, for example, it is possible that the students who received caffeine also had more sleep than the control group. Or, the experimental group may have spent more time overall preparing for the exam.
134
What is spreading of activation theory?
when the representation of a concept is activated in memory, the activation spreads to concepts that are semantically or associatively related to it
135
What is Piaget's concrete development stage?
The development of organized and rational thinking. THe same amount of water in a tall beaker versus and wider/shorter beaker.
7-11 years old
136
Difference between the somatic vs autonomic nervous system?
The somatic nervous system consists of nerves that go to the skin and muscles and is involved in conscious activities. The autonomic nervous system consists of nerves that connect the CNS to the visceral organs such as the heart, stomach, and intestines. It mediates unconscious activities.
137
What is optimal arousal theory and how does it work?
Optimal arousal theory states that optimal performance requires optimal arousal and that arousal levels that are too high or too low will impede performance
138
Sympathetic vs parasympathetic responses
139
What is Seyle's GAS?
An organism's stress response always follows a similar course, regardless of the exact nature of the stressor
140
What is Chunking?
The recoding of smaller units of information into larger, familiar units. Chunking is often assumed to help bypassing the limited capacity of working memory (WM).
141
what is a reference group?
a group to which an individual or another group is compared, used by sociologists in reference to any group that is used by an individual as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.
142
Differences between dyadic and triadic groups?
larger groups (triads) are generally considered more stable but less intimate, whereas smaller groups (dyads) are usually considered less stable but more intimate.
the triadic group provides the advantage of added stability in group dynamics.
143
What are Neighborhood-level socioeconomic inequalities?
Closed networks and social boundaries that can exist across neighborhoods that will impact physician-patient interactions when the physician and patient have different experiences from living in distinct, and often very socially separated, neighborhoods.
144
Who is Paul Broca?
Demonstrated that specific functional impairments could be related to brain lesions in a certain area of the brain
145
Who is Pierre Flourens?
removed parts of brain to see how the brain functioned as a whole
146
Who is Franz Gall?
An increase in the size of the brain indicated that a trait was well developed in that area
147
Who is Sir Charles Sherrington?
First inferred the existence of Synapses
148
What is the hindbrain responsible for?
motor control and reflexes
149
What is the midbrain responsible for?
sensorimotor reflexes that promote survival (auditory, visual perception)
150
What is the forebrain responsible for?
Emotion, memory, higher order cognition
151
What is the main role of the temporal lobe?
responsible for interpreting sounds from the ears and plays a significant role in recognizing and using language.
152
What part of the brain deals with homeostasis and emotion?
The Hypothalamus
153
What part of the brain is responsible for maintaining posture and balance?
The cerebellum
154
What part of the brain is responsible for unconscious processes and jobs, such as your sleep-wake cycle and breathing?
The Pons
155
What part of the brain is responsible for the relay of sensory information?
The Thalamus
156
Which hemisphere is dominant?
The left hemisphere.
157
What are catecholamines?
Epinephrine, Norepinephrine, dopamine
"fight or flight response"
158
What does the adrenal cortex produce?
estrogen and testosterone
159
What does the pineal gland do?
Regulates melatonin and sleep cycles
