Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is biological psychology?
Biological psych is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the biological bases of behavior
What is phrenology?
The belief that specific behaviors, feelings and personality traits were controlled by certain regions of the brain. Some believed that you could read a persons character by feeling the bumps on a person’s head (localization of function)
What are the three general research perspectives?
The 3 general research perspectives are correlation, somatic intervention and behavior intervention
Biological psychology is conducted at what?
Biological psychology is conducted at levels of analysis ranging from molecular events to the functioning of the entire brain and complex social systems.
What is dualism?
Dualism is an idea from Rene Descartes believing that the mind has an immaterial aspect that is separate from the body and brain
Who was responsible for the brain on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?
Michaelangelo in the Vatican
Who was responsible for the old drawings of the brain that showed fluid filled ventricles as a balloon connected to the eye?
Leonardo da Vinci
What is neuroscience?
Neuroscience is the study of the nervous system
What scientist believed that behavior resulted from “animal spirits” from the brain through the nerves?
The Father of Medicine, Galen
Explain the localization of function?
The concept that different brain regions specialize in specific behaviors
What scientist found that damage to specific regions of the brain cause predictable impairments–specifically that damage to the left side of the brain causes speech problems?
Paul Broca
What is ontogeny?
The process of growing up and growing old
What is a neuron?
The basic unit of the nervous system; also called a nerve cell
What is neuoplasticity?
the ability of the nervous systems to change in response to experience or environment
What is adult neurogenesis?
The creation of new neurons in the adult brain
What discipline uses the tools of neuroscience to discover how biological and social factors interact and affect each other and unfold?
Social neuroscience
What discipline believes how natural selection might have shaped our behavior?
Evolutionary psychology
What is epignetics?
focusing on factors that have a lasting effect on patters of gene expression. The turning off and on of specific genes
What are neuroeconomics?
brain imaging technology that identifies brain regions activated under differing decision making process
What is a somatic intervention?
finding relaions between body variables and behavioral variables that involves manipulating body structure or function
Define independent variable?
The factor that is manipulated
Define dependent variable?
The factor that the experimenter measures to monitor a change in response
Whats a control group?
They do not receive treatment or manipulation
What is within subjects?
the same individuals compared before and after
What is between subjects?
experimental subjects compared to another group of experimental subjects
What is a negative correlation?
two measures; ones up, the other goes down
What is a positive correlation?
two measures: increase together, decrease together
What is reductionism?
Breaking a system down to smaller parts
What is the level of analysis?
Scientist efforts to understand behavior by monitoring molecules, nerve cells, brain regions, or social environments.
