Exam 1 Flashcards
Describe the steps of the scientific method.
Step 1: Observe and theorize
Step 2: Formulate a hypothesis
-Making a specific prediction that can be tested empirically with data
Step 3: Design the study
Step 4: Collect data
-Do an experiment
-Make notes about observations
-People complete surveys
Step 5: Examine how study results relate to the hypothesis
Make inference about whether the evidence supports the hypothesis
- The study must be repeatable
Explain consciousness and its altered states.
Consciousness is everything in which we are aware at any giver time. Thoughts Feelings Sensations Perceptions about external environment Altered States: Sleep Meditation Hypnosis Drugs
Describe guidelines for ethical research with humans and animals.
Legality- Research must conform to applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
Institutional approval- Researchers must obtain approval from the institution involved in the study.
Informed Consent- Participants must be informed of the purpose of the study and it’s potential for harming them.
Deception- Deception is ethical the it is necessary to acquire data. (EX: placebo in testing for medicines.)
What are the goals of psychology?
Description: Identifying and classifying behaviors and mental processes as accurately as possible.
Explanation: Proposing reasons for behaviors and mental processes.
Prediction: Offering predictions (or hypotheses) about how a given condition or set of conditions will affect behaviors and mental processes.
Influence: Using the results for research to solve practical problems that involve behavior and mental processes.
Describe the processes of resting and action potential.
Resting potential: The slight negative electrical potential of the axon membrane of a neuron at rest, about -70 millivolts
Action potential: The sudden reversal of the resting potential, which initiates the firing of a neuron.
Neurotransmitters
Acetylcholine(Ach) Dopamine(DA) Norepinephrine(NE) Epinephrine Serotonin Glutamate GABA Endorphins
What is learning?
A relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge, capability, or attitude acquired through experience and cnnnot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation.
Why do we learn?
Learning is a survival mechanism.
Typically learning is a choice
sometimes organisms have no choice
Types of learning?
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Positive correlations
The factors work together.
Ex: As study time goes up so does test scores.
Negative correlations
The factors work against each other.
Ex: As TV time goes up grades goes down.
Independent Variables
A factor or condition that manipulated on purpose to determine if it causes any change in another behavior or condition
Dependent Variables
The factor or condition that is measured at the end of the experiment.
Sample population
A part of a population that is studied to reach conclusions about the entire population
Population
The entire group interested to researchers that they which to generalize their findings
Random Sampling
Selection participants for experimental and control groups by using a chance procedure to guarantee that each participant has an equal probability of being assigned to any of the groups
Describe the various methods of descriptive research.
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Naturalistic Observation:
Observation of behavior in its natural setting.
No attempt to influence behavior.
Ex: observing children’s behavior.
Laboratory Observation:
Studies behavior in a laboratory setting
Allows more control and more precise measurements of responses.
Ex: observing sleep habits in a lab
Disadvantage: Research can be biased
Case Study:
Studies a single individual or a small number of persons in depth.
Disadvantage: Takes a lot of time and study only relates to one person.
Survey Research:
Interviews and or questionnaires: Gathers information about attitudes beliefs, or behaviors of a group of people.
Correlational Method:
Measures degree of a relationship between two characteristics, events, or behaviors.
Three types:
Negative correlation: Increase in one variable are associated with low values in another variable.
Positive correlation:
Increases in one variable are associated with high values in another variable.
No correlation: variable are not related.
Correlations Method Advantages and Disadvantages:
Advantages: Information about one variable can be used to predict the other
Disadvantages: cannot be used to support the conclusion that one variable causes the other.
Survey Research Advantages and Disadvantages:
Advantage: Fast data collection Disadvantage: Not always reliable Surveys can be biased Not asking the right population
Case Study Advantages and Disadvantages:
Advantages:
Appropriate for studying rare psychological disorders or brain damage
Disadvantages:
Cannot identify the cause of behavior. Potential for bias. Results can lack generalizability.
Do correlations explain cause and effect? Explain. What is the best way to examine cause and effect
Correlation between two variables does not prove that a cause and effect relationship exists between them.
There is a correlation between stress and illness but that doesn’t mean that stress necessarily causes illness.
The best way to examine it is the experimental method.
Describe machines that allow us to study the electrical activity of the brain.
Electroencephalogram(EEG): Electrodes placed on the scalp.
Microelectrode:
Monitors or stimulates activity of a single neuron.
List and describe the components of a neural network
Cell Body:
The part of a neuron that contains the nucleus and carries out the metabolic functions of the neuron
Dendrites:
In a neuron, the branch-like extensions of the cell body that receive signals from other neurons
Axon:
The slender, trail-like extension of the neuron that transmits signals to the dendrites or cell body of other neurons and to muscles, glands, and other parts of the body.
Axon Terminal:
Bulbous end of the axon where signals move from the axon of one neuron to the dendrites or cell body of another.
Parts of the cells and their functions.
Axon terminal: Axon: Myellin heath Cell body: Dendrites:
How do we know psychology is an academic discipline?
Because psychology uses the scientific method to gain knowledge.
Explain the process of classical conditioning:
A neutral stimulus is presented due to this, there is an unconditional stimulus that happens that creates the unconditional response. The person being conditioned now has a learned stimulus and results in the learned response.
Ex: When Pavol teaches the dog to salivate to a chime because he conditioned it to think that the chime leads to food.
Explain genotype/phenotype. Explain how they are linked with psychology.
Genotype: An individual’s genetic makeup
Phenotype: An individual’s actual characteristics
They are linked to psychology because scientists use it to refer to a person’s traits and help distinguish genetic traits that are expressed from those that are not expressed. The disease is part of their genotype but not part of their phenotype.
Self-serving bias
The tendency to attribute one’s successes to dispositional causes and on’s failure to situational causes.
Explain the meaning of ‘psychological disorder’. Describe criteria for a disorder.
Mental processes and or behavior patterns that cause emotional distress and or substantial impairment in functioning. Maladaptive is behavior that is poorly suited to a particular situation or function.
Describe the circadian rhythm and its process, cues, mechanisms
The regular fluctuation from high to plow points of certain bodily functions and behaviors within a 24-hour cycle.It is controlled by a biological clock that is called the suprachiasmatic nucleus that controls the timing of our circadian rhythms.
Cues:
Sunlight
darkness
Describe five perspectives on the causes of disorders.
Biological Perspective: When a psychological disorder is a symptom of an underlying physical disorder caused by a structural or biochemical abnormality in the brain by genetic inheritance or by infection
Biopsychological perspective: results from a combination of biological, psychological, and social causes.
Psychodynamic perspective: Psychological disorders stem from early childhood experiences and unresolved, unconscious sexual or aggressive conflicts.
Learning perspective: Abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are learned and sustained like any other behaviors, or there is a failure to learn appropriate behaviors.
Cognitive perspective: Faulty thinking or distorted perceptions can cause psychological disorders.
Explain sleep cycles
A period of sleep lasting about 90 minutes and including one or more stages of NREM sleep, followed by REM sleep.
Explain sleep cycles lengths
The four NREM stages occupy the first 50 to 70 minutes of sleep, then in a matter of minutes the brain cycles back to smaller faster brain waves and the sleeper experiences the first episode of dreaming REM sleep which lasts 5 to 15 minutes
REM/NREM sleep
NREM: quite sleep where the bodies physiological functions and brain activity slow down.
REM: Active sleep heightened body and brain activity during which dreaming consistently occurs.
Purpose of sleep
To restore the body and mind and is also an evolutionary way of keeping us out of harms way during the night.
Function of Acetylcholine(Ach)
Affects movement, learning memory, REM sleep
Function of Dopamine(DA):
Affects movement, attention, learning, reinforcement, pleasure
Function of Norepinephrine(NE):
Affects eating, alertness, wakefulness
Function of Epinephrine:
Affects metabolism of glucose, energy release during exercise
Function of Serotonin:
Affects mood, sleep, appetite, impulsivity, aggression
Function of Glutamate:
Active in areas of the brain involved in learning, thoughts, and emotion
Function of GABA:
Facilitates neural inhibition in the central nervous system
Endorphins: Provide relief from pain and feelings of pleasure and well-beingNorepinephrine(NE): Affects eating, alertness, wakefulness
Function of Endorphins:
Provide relief from pain and feelings of pleasure and well-being
