exam 1 Flashcards
3 baby temperments
easy babies: cheerful, relaxed, and predictable
difficult babies: irritable, cry a lot, unpredictable
slow-to-warm-up babies: shy away from new people
(unpredictable refers to feeding and sleep schedules)
3 factors of scientific attitude
curiosity, skepticism, humility
DNA
a complex molecule containing genetic info (make-up chromosomes)
Affects sleep patterns
-956 genes related to sleep patterns
-culturally and socially influenced
-bright light and blue light mess with circadian rhythm
Attentional Myopia
attentional system is short-sighted, can only focus on whats right in front of you, and feel only one emotion
-happens when drunk
availability of powerful examples
news places want $$, “if it bleeds, it leads”
-fear of car crashes vs. plane crashes
behavior genetics
study of relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior
belief perseverance
we want to believe what we think even w/ contradictory evidence,
leads to confirmation bias
blindsight
a condition where you can respond to visual stimuli but not consciously expreince it
e.g. blind person navigating through obstacles
case studies
in-depth analyses of individuals
-cannot be used to generalize
chromosomes
threadlike structures made of DNA molecules (containing the genes)
circadian rhythm
our bodies roughly sync up with the 24-hour day/night cycle
-a cycle of body temp, brain alertness
-peak times change with age
Cocktail party effect
ability to attend to only one voice within a sea of many as you chat with a party guest, but to be able to hear when someone says your name
collectivism (interdependent model)
a person is fundamentally connected to others
-group goals, group harmony > personal needs
-actions are guided by social norms and roles
-defined by societal roles
confounding variable
a factor other than the one being studied that could influence the results
sequential processing
processing one aspect of a stimulus or problem at a time
-requires focused attention on one thing at a time
-good for learning new things/solving new problems
Consciousness
subjective awareness of our environment and ourselves
correlation
behaviours or traits that often coincide with eachother
Correlational reserch
-detect naturally occurring relationships to assess how one variable predicts another
-collect data on two+ variable
-no manipulation
-cannot specify cause and effect
cross-cultural replication
examine weather findings generalize across different cultures
culture
enduring behaviors, attitudes, and traditions
e.g. practices, institutions, religion
dependent variable
the outcome that is measured
-can change depending on the independent variable
Descriptive research
-observe and record behaviors
-case studied, naturalistic observation, surveys
-no manipulation
double-blind procedure
neither staff or participants know who has placebo
dual processing
information is being processed simultaneously on separate conscious (effortful processing) and unconscious (automatic learned behaviors) tracks
e.g. we recognize a hummingbird but don’t actively process its size, shape, and colour to identify it
e.g. child is genetically hyperactive and restless, invoking an angry response from parents making a stressful environment. This leads the child to not create enough of the important chemical, leading to a depressed child
What is this an example of?
gene-environment interaction
echo-chambers and group identity
social media pages tend to be filled w/ people w/ similar political and social views as us
-confirms our biases, demonizes opposers
effects of poor sleep
-weight gain
-reduced strength and reaction time
-reduced processing functions
-high blood pressure, arthritis
-negative moods, depression, sucide
-heart diesase
environment
every non-genetic influence
environmental relatives
adoptive parents and siblings
epigenetics
studies molecular mechanisms that can be triggered or blocked by environment
Experimental research
-explores cause and effect
-manipulate 1+ factors
-not always feasible, may not generalize to other contexts, not always testable (unethical)
false/fake news
purposeful misinformation in a news format
-often spreads further, better remembered
dizygotic twins
Fraternal twins
-develop from two separate eggs
-same genetic similarities as normal siblings
Freud on dreams
manifest (remembered) content and latent (hidden meaning) content
gene-environment interaction
genes can influence traits that affect responses; the environment can affect gene variability
genes
biochemical units of heredity (small segments found on DNA)
genetic heritability
the percentage of diversity in a population that is due to genetics
genetic relatives
biological parents and siblings
genome
complete instructions for making an organism
Consists of all an organism’s genetic info
heredity
genetic transfer of characteristics fro parents to offspring
hindsight bias
no matter what the outcome is people will say it wasn’t a surprise
human battery life
16 hours
hypothesis
testable predictions formed from theories
illusory correlation
keeping track of, remembering events only thst confirm our beliefs
Inattentional blindness
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere
e.g. gorilla video
independent variable
the variable which effect is being studied
-what is changed
individualism (independent model)
a person is separate fundamentally from others
-personal needs > group goals
-actions are under personal control, guided by own needs and preferences
-defined by self
influences of drug use
biological: genetics, variation in neurotransmitter systems
psychological: lacking sense of purpose, significant stress. psychological disorders
social-cultural: difficult environment, cultural acceptance of drug use, negative peer influence
insomnia
ongoing difficulty sleeping
Korsakoff syndrome
can’t remember periods of day
-caused by lack pf B12, a direct result of drinking
meta-analysis
combining the results of a study that has been repeated many times on a small scale to fine the meta data
molecular behavior genetics
studies molecular structure and function of genes
Monozygotic twins
Identical twins
-develop from a single egg (genetically identical)
mutation
random error in gene replication that leads to a change
mutual constitution
creates us as we create it
e.g. culture
narcolepsy
sudden attacks of overwhelming sleepiness
naturalistic observation
recording the natural behavior of many individuals
-describes but doesn’t explain
negative correlation
two sets of scores relate inversely (↑↓)(↓↑)
-one goes up, the other down
night terrors
extreme nightmares
no correlation / no relationship
two sets of scores do not vary together at all
NREM 2
clearly asleep but easily wakened, bursts of rapid rhythmic brain activity (sleep spindles)
NREM 3 (delta waves)
Hard to awaken, large slow brain waves
NREM1
slip into sleep, hypnic jerks, hallucination(esqe) images
operational definition
carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study
-defines terms
-keeps you from your own biases
-allows others to replicate and check the study
Order of sleep stages
1) waking alpha waves
2) N1
3) N2
4) N3
5) REM
overconfidence
people tend to think we know more than we do, we tend to be more confident than correct
parallel processing
processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously
-enables the brain to take care of routine business
-faster than conscious sequential processing
perceiving order in random events
humans find patterns in random data
placebo effect
results caused by expectation alone
-effects of an assumed agent which is actually inert (placebo)
positive correlation
two sets of scores rise and fall together (↑↑)(↓↓)
post-truth
describes a world where people’s emotions and beliefs often override their acceptance of facts
e.g. crime rate stats vs. crime rate beliefs
postdiction
predicting it after it happens
e.g. risky plays w/ win vs. loss
Psychoactive drugs
chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood
random assignment
equal chance of being in the control or experiment group despite any differences
-helps negate 3rd variable issue
regression toward the mean
things almost always go back to normal, average results are more typical then extreme ones
REM
Rapid brain waves, raised heartbeat, fast irregular breathing, eyes darting, dreams
-active motor cortex but not brainstems blocks messages(paralyzed)
-Genital arousal
repetition
statements are more believable when repeated
-if enough people belive/remember something it essentially acts as a truth
Risks of desynchronized circadian rhythm
fatigue, stomach problems, heart disease and breast cancer
selection effect
we seek out peers with similar trait, attitudes and interests as us
Selective attention
Focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimuli
e.g. cocktail party effect
sexual over-perception bias
single men think women are more into them than they are
sleep apnea
stopping breathing repeatedly while sleeping
sleep debt
accumulation of poor sleeping habits
-brain keeps accurate track of sleep ‘owed’ for ~2 weeks
sleepwalking
happens in N3
social scripts
people act in ways that society has taught us
substance use disorder
continued substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and physical risk
surveys and interviews
asking people questions
-answers may not be completely honest,
-wording and random sampling but representative of population are very important
temperament
a persons characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
The 4 dream theories
1) Information processing: process days events, consolidate memories
2) Physiological function: brain stimulation to help develop and preserve neural pathways
3) Activation Synthesis: triggers neural activity and evokes random memories that our brain weaves into stories
4) Cognitive development: content reflects our cognitive levels, simulate what ifs of life
The 4 dream theories
1) Information processing: process days events, consolidate memories
2) Physiological function: brain stimulation to help develop and preserve neural pathways
3) Activation Synthesis: triggers neural activity and evokes random memories that our brain weaves into stories
4) Cognitive development: content reflects our cognitive levels, simulates what-ifs of life
The 5 Sleep theories
1) Sleep Protects: cavemen it was safer to be asleep when it was nighttime
2) Sleep helps us recoup: a chance for the brain and body to repair, re-wire and reorganize
3) Restore and rebuild memories: sleep moves recent experiences from the hippocampus (short term) to elsewhere in the cortex (long term)
4) Sleep feeds creative thinking: eureka moments/ sleeping on it
5) sleep supports growth: the growth hormone is released during NREM3
theory
explains behaviours or events by offering ideas that organize observations
tolerance
the more often you use the more you nee to have the desired effect
tricks to recall dreams
awakened directly after REM and tells/writes about dreams
truthiness
what you feel is true without any backup
e.g. people will be more inclined to say any fact paired with pictures is true compared to without them
W.E.I.R.D
White Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic
-majority of the participants in psych studies
waking alpha waves
awake but relaxed state
what happens to rats in impoverished environments vs rats in enriching environments?
impoverished rats have way smaller brain cells then the enriched rats
-gene-environment interaction (nature AND nurture)
use it or lose it
less traveled neural pathways weaken in disuse, the more a neural pathway is used the stronger it gets
epigenetic tags/markers
tags that turn on and off genes impacting the expression of a gene, but not the DNA sequence
causes of epigenic tags
diet, drugs, trauma, smoking, thoughts, lifestyle habits
can be inherited from parents or grandparents
epigenome
all the epigenetic tags that mark your DNA
