final Flashcards
what is developmental psych?
the study of how behaviour changes over the life span
what is gene- environment interaction?
the impact of genes on behaviour depends on the environment which the behaviour develops
e.g. of gene environment interaction
E.G. people who possess a gene that results in low production of an enzyme called monoamine oxidase are at a heightening risk of developing into violent criminals researchers discovered specifically children with both the low MAO gene and a history of maltreatment (e.g. abuse) were at heightened risk for antisocial behaviours like stealing, assualt and rape (children with only the low MAO gene were not at an increased risk
what i snature via nuture
genetic predispositoins can drive us to select and create particular environments, leading to the mistaken appearance of a pure effect of nature
what is gene expression?
= some genes ‘turn on’ only in response to specific environmental events
e.g. of gene expression
E.G. children with genes that predispose them to anxiety may never become anxious unless a highly stressful even triggers those genes to become active
what is epigenetics?
= whether genes are active is regulated by day-to-day and moment-to-moment environmental conditions
what is cross-sectional design?
a design in which researchers examine people who are of different ages at a single point in time
what is longitudinal design?
psychologists track the development of the same group of people over time
what is post hoc fallacy
= false assumption that because one event occurred before another event it must have caused that event, (A comes before B, A must cause B)
what are the 4 ways fetal development can be disrupted>
- premature birth
- low birth weight
- exposure to hazardous environmental influences
- biological influences resulting from genetic disorders or errors in genetic material
how do babies learn motor behaviours
trial and error
do heavier or lighter babies achieve milestones first?
heavier - more msucle to support weight
what is the benefits and issues with swaddling babies?
be- in China and Peru – infants are tightly swaddled in blankets that provide warmth and a sense of securiity but prevnet free movemnt of limbs
swaddled babies tend to fcry less and sleep more soundly – but swaddling slows the babies development
what is the benefits and issues with swaddling babies?
in China and Peru – infants are tightly swaddled in blankets that provide warmth and a sense of securiity but prevnet free movemnt of limbs
swaddled babies tend to fcry less and sleep more soundly – but swaddling slows the babies development
what is the piaget theory
how children construct htier worlds - first to pr4esent a comphresnsive accountof cognitive development
what did piaget attempt to do?
identify the stages that childern pass through on their way to adult like thinking
what was the greatest insight from piaget?
that children ae not minature adults
what is assimilation
the process of absorbing new experience into our current understanding
what occurs to a childs cognitive skills in assimilation?
during assimilation, the child’s cognitive skills and worldviews remain unchanged
what is accomodation
altering of the Childs beliefs about the world to make them more compatible with experience
what occurs inthe sensorimotor stage of development?
non though beyond immediate physical experience
what occurs in the preoperational stage of development?
Able to think beyond the here and now, but the egocentric and unable to perform mental transformations
what occurs in the concrete stage of development?
able to perform mental transformations but onl on concrete physical objects
what occurs in the formal operational stage of development?
able to perform hypothetical and abstract reasoning
object permance - in infants<8 months
out of sight, out of mind - no effort to retrace hidden objects
object permance - in infants 9-12 months
– search where last found – A not B effect – object does not exist independt of the child’s actions
object permance - in infants 12-18mnths
breakthrough – ubderstand not only that objects continue to exist (indeptdent of the childs interaction with them), bt they can be moved while out of sight – invisible displacements
what is the theory of mind?
- The appreciation that other people may think differently, and that what they think will guide their behaviour, rather than how things really are
who was the first attachment theorist?
bowlby
what percentage of people are securely attached
50-60%
characteristics of a securely attached person>
- protective - resilience
- better relations with peers
- more leadership
- better emotion regulation
- relate better to others
what percentage of people are insecure anxious ambivalent attached
15-20%
characteristics of insecure anxious ambivalent attached
extreme separation distress, not terminated by reunion, unable to resume exploration [C]
what percentage of people are insecure aavoidant
15-20
characteristics of insecure avoidant attqachment
limited separation distress, limited response to mother on reunion, exploration focus
percentage of disorganised attacment
5-10
How do individual differences in attachment come about?
- Nature and nurture (transactional)
o Parenting and attachment - parents differ in how they response to their infants
- infants differ in the what they bring to relationships temperament (evocative)
what type of aggression do girls become involved with?
relational aggresion
(i.e., manipulation of peer relationships):
Social exclusion
Rumour spreading
Talking behind their back
what are the three components of gender constancy?
- Gender identity - “are you a boy or a girl?”
- Gender stability - “when you grow up, will you be a mummy ora daddy?”
- Gender consistency - “if you played with dolls, what would you be?”
what is pre-conventional morality? (in kohlbergs theory?
: Focus on satisfying their own needs: avoiding punishment and obtaining personal awards
what is conventional morality? (in kohlbergs theory?
Focus on social approval: Right and wrong are defined by convention and by what people will say
what is post conventional morality? (in kohlbergs theory?
Focus on abstract ideals: Broad principles of justice and internalisation of personal moral principles
what is moral disengagement used to explain?
- A concept used to explain the mismatch between adopting moral standards and not behaving in accord with those standards
characteristics of authoritative parenting
high warmth, high control (but “democratic” control – perspective taking, reasoned discipline) most analogous to “sensitive responsive caretaking”
characteristics of authoritarian parenting
– low warmth, high control “I am the boss”, may become abusive
characteristics of permissive parenting
- Permissive – high warmth, low control parent like a peer
characteristics of uninvolved parenting
- Uninvolved (Maccoby & Martin, 1983) – low warmth, low control neglect
what is wellness?
more than the abscence of illness - positive health
what are characteristics of a stress response?
tension, discomfort, symptoms tht arrise following an experiene of a stressor
what is apprasial?
interpretation or evaluation of a situation
what is primary apprasial?
relevance/ssalience and valence
what is secondary apprasial?
coping
what is coping
behaviours and thoughts an individual engages in to deal with a stressful situation
For example:
- ― Reappraisal
- ― Acceptance
- ― Distraction
- ― Rumination
how does stress affect health physiologically?
― Increases blood pressure
― Changes blood composition
― Release of stress hormones
― Suppression of immune system
how does stress affect health behaviourally?
Less sleep / rest
― Less exercise
― Less healthy food eaten
― Increased physical tension
― Less social support
religiousity and health - compared to non relgious people, relgious people have:
- ― Longer life expectancy
- ― Improv ved immune system functioning
- ― Lower blood pressure
- ― Faster illness recovery
define pain
“unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage”
describe the process of pain
- Process of (most) pain:
― Stimulation at local tissue site (noxious stimulation)
― Chemicals released -> inflammation and activation of nerve endings
Nerves transmit message to spinal cord (via nociceptors), then to brain
― Travels through many brain regions - Pain is a construct of the brain
what does psychological therapy decrease (when treating GI)
― Catastrophizing
― GI-specific anxiety
― Visceral hypersensitivity
― Negative appraisal
― External locus of control
what is cognitive consistency
- Cognitive consistency: people try to maintain an internal consistency, order and agreement between their beliefs
what are implicit attidues
automatic, non-consous, diffculut to change
what are explicit attitudes
consiously controlled, easier to change
what are the 3 stages of attitude chnage according to message-learning (hovland)
.1 attend to the message,
- 2. comprehend the message, and
- 3. accept the message
what are the two routes to persuasion (in elaboration likelihood model) (ELM)
- Central route (able & motivated)
– Peripheral route (unable or unwilling)
what are nudges?
behavioural interventions that encourage desirable behaviour without restricting choice or changing economic incentives.
what is door in the face?
large request followed by a small request
what is scarcity
we want what we cant have
what is foot in the door?
a small request followed by a large request
what is a low ball technqiue
after intial agreement to a request hidden costs are revealed
what is conformitiy
Conformity: change in behaviour or belief in
accord with others
what is org psych
Organisational psychologists apply to the workplace, theories and methods from psychology, helping to solve problems and improve outcomes
what was the intention is hawthorne studies?
goal to test the relationship btw work productivity and light intensity
what is style of leadership goverened by?
Style of leadership is governed by the demands of the situation
how should leadership be evaluated?
in terms of a particular situation
what is goal setting theory?
having a consious specific goal in mind is the most important factor in explaining motivation
what are the implications of goal setting?
- Individuals must have the ability to perform the task, before goal-setting will be successful
- Material incentives may improve performance
- Participatory decision-making in goal-setting is no more effective than
assigned goals (Latham et al., 1988) - People who are confident in their ability to perform a task are more likely to be successful (self-efficacy)
what are pschological factors that contribute to occupational health and wellbeing?
- Workload
- Lack of Control
- Role Ambiguity
- Role Conflict
- Organisational Demands
Occupational Disease
Occupational Accidents
what does perception deal with?
- perception (also psychophysics) deals with the relationship btw psychical stimuli and their subjective or psychological correlates
what does perception determine ?
- perception determines what we believe is real and mediates everything we have ever learned
what percentage of the cortex is involved in visual processing?
50
e.g. of clinical psychology influened by perceptin
ED, body dysmorphia, despressives, austistics
e.g. of neuropsychology influened by perceptin
- Apperceptive/Associative Agnosia
– Inability to recognise objects
– Due to a perceptual problem, or higher (e.g. memory for object, memory for name)?
– See also agnosias in other senses (auditory, tactile, etc) - Phantom limbs/pain
- Rubber hand illusion
- Alien Hand Syndrome
– Alien Paw Syndromes
what does psychophysics refer to
study of the subjective experience of perception
where is otuch info converyed to
th somatosensroy cortex
what are the 5 confirmed tastes
salt
sweet
sour
bitter
umami
are tongue maps correct?
no
explain the pathway of smell
odours activate receptors in olfactory epitelium at top of nasal cavity, these receptors synapse directly onto the olfactory bulb (where it processes smells) smell bypasses the usual route of organ to brin via the thalamus
what are the two components of the vestibular system
semicircular canals, utricle and saccule
what info do semicircuilar canals provide
- Provide information about angular (rotational) accelerations of our head in all three dimensions.
- This allows us to maintain balance,
- as well as providing the signals to drive reflexive eye movements which keep the visual world stable
- despite movements of our head (e.g. when we walk or run).
what info do the utricle and saccule provide
- These provide information about linear accelerations, including the pull of gravity, which helps us to remain upright (as well as making our stomachs turn, if the accelerations are great enough).
if a sound has high amplitude - what loudness itensity is it?
high amplitude = loud
if a sound has high frequency what is its pitch
high freq = high pitch
in low freq sounds, where is the displacement?
at the end furthest from the stapes
in high freq sounds, where is the displacement ?
at the end closest to the stapes
how is conductive hearing loss caused
– Conductive deafness is caused by an impediment to the transmission of the sound wave to the basilar membrane
what causes sensorineural deafness
– Sensorineural deafness is caused by damage to some part of the neural apparatus of hearing
when do rods work best?
low light levels
wen do cones owrk the best/
high light levels
where is the blind spot in retina
where the optic n leaves the eye there are no photoreceptors - an image falling on this spot is invisible
what R ETHE TWO CONCENTRIC REGIONS OF THE RECEPTICVE FIELDS OF GANGLION CELLS
on centre
off surrond
when does excitation occur for ganglion cell
light falling on the central region
when does inhibiton occur for ganglion cell
light falling on the surrond
which wvelength is the red hue for
long
which wvelength is the violet hue for
short
what is sneosry memory
Preserves information briefly (.5 – 2 seconds) in its original sensory format
what does sensory memory allow
- Allows the sensory information to linger briefly after the sensory stimulation is over
Sensory memory decays rapidly: cannot be maintained by rehearsal
what is long term memoru
Memory that can be retrieved after attention has been diverted *
capacity of long term memory
- Capacity: unlimited Distinction between primary memory vs. secondary memory (William James, 1890)
what is chunking
Grouping (chunking) elements into meaningful units improves performance on short-term memory task
what is flash bulb memory
Extremely vivid and permanent memory of how one learned about a public event that produced high level of emotion/arousal (e.g., where they were; what they were doing; )
what is retrieval failure
- Not loss of information, but failure of access *
Due to mismatch in format between retrieval and encoding context - Recognition failure of person out of context
what is anterograde amnesia
- Impaired learning of information since onset of amnesia (vs. Retrograde amnesia: Loss of information learned prior to onset)
function of prefrontal vcortex
Strategic retrieval (
what is attention proposed to be?
a gate btw sesnory processing and awareness
what does the filter model of attention suggest
that information is selected based on early sensory properties
what are problems with the filter model
hearing ones own name willl grab attention - cocktil party phenomenon
partiiapnts shigt shadowing btw ears when it makes semantic sense
what is feature integration theory
- certain basic features are processed uickly in parallel (preattentively)
- attention serves to bind simple features toghet
- this binding process is slow and serial
what is early selection of attention
at what point does information get filtered out?
“early selection” – attention can filter information on the basis of physical features (e.g. colour or motion)
what is late selection of attention
“late selection: - attention can also filter information after additional procwsssing on the basis of meaning
what is bottom up attention
stimulus properties tht apture your attention (e.g. a flash of light, loud noise)
what is top down attention
– goal driven selection of infomaiton (e.g. finsinf youre leys on a clutered desk, serachign for wally)
