Gen Psych exam 1 Flashcards
Treppaning
surgical technique used to cut a hole into the skull of a patient. Evidence shows it was used as early as 10,000BCE.
Mesoamericans used to release evil spirits from the head.
Others used for heachache relief or to relieve brain swelling.
Who was believed to control human behaviors in the 15th century?
Witches
Malleus Maleficarum
Who wrote the book?
What was the book meant to do?
Written by Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger in 1487.
Attempted to make people aware of witches and the evil spirits they possessed.
Described the conditions that allow witchcraft to occur, treatments against witchcraft, and judicial proceedings to be used for witchcraft.
Paracelsus
What did he study?
What “effect” did he formulate?
He studied the beginnings of alchemy.
Used first treatments for syphillis in the New World.
Placebo effect
What constituted the majority of early biological and psychological research?
Anatomy
Descartes
What book did he write?
How did he believe the nervous system worked?
He wrote Treatise of Man.
He believed the nervous system was like a hyraulic system, and that the ventricles in the brain pushed pressurized fluid through the nerves to operate muscles.
Thought of the mind as a nonphysical entity.
Who attempted to verify Descartes hydraulic theory, but could not?
van Leewenhoek
Isaac Newton
What did he propose about the nervous system?
Based his theories on physics.
Suggested that nerves trasmit vibrations from the muscle to the brain and vice versa.
What are Leyden Jars?
What were they used for?
Early batteries used to electrocute the legs of paralyzed patients. Electrocuting them caused a jerk movement, which led to the belief that the electricity was unclogging nerves.
Kratzenstein
What did he find?
Found that electrocuting produced a tingling sensation in legs.
Tried to resucitate dead birds back to life through electrocution.
Galvani
What idea did he come up with?
Animal electricity: nerves are not hollow tubes filled wiht fluid, but that they conduct electricity.
Tocuhed electricity to dead frog’s leg.
Aldini
What did he do?
What medical condition did he attempt to treat, and how?
Attempted to resucitate executed criminals.
Tried to treat gout by putting the feet of sufferers in a bucket with electric eels so they could be shocked.
Electrocuted himself and felt sleepy.
Found that electroshock therapy cured melancholy (mild depression)
Ernst Muller
What did he come up with?
What did he believe and propose?
Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies
Cme up iwth the fact that each area of the brain functioned to produce different sensations.
Flourens
What did he develop?
What did he use it for?
He developed ablation.
He used it to map the outer surface of the brains in pigeons and rabbits.
Hitzig an Fritsch
What did they do?
When did they do this?
Instead of using ablation to destroy parts of the brain, they used electricity to stimulate different parts of the brain in live patients to see what areas controlled what.
1870’s
Darwin
What did he write?
What did he propose?
On the Origin of Species
Proposed underlying neuroanatomical similarities in various creatures due to common ancestry.
Weber and Fechner
What did they pioneer first experiments in?
What book did Weber publish?
Weber best known for work in what area?
First experiments in what we now call sensation and perception.
First book in psychophysics.
Best known for work in somatosensory systems
What are somatosensory systems?
the ability to distinguish between differently weighted objects.
Hemholtz
What was most of his work on?
What did his research give rise to?
What method did he come up with?
Most research in visual system.
His research gave rise to Thomas Young theory on color vision.
Accurately estimated neural signal speed by subtraction method.
About how long is the average neural signal speed? What method is used to determine this?
50m/s
Subtraction method.
How fast can the fastest neural signal travel?
120m/s
Donders
What experiments did he pioneer through his investigations? When?
What current procedures are used?
Investigated human reaction times in the 1860’s.
Proposed that reaction times to stimuli only require the observation of the stimulus and the reaction to it.
Subtraction method is still used.
Wundt
What field did he develop? Why?
What did he develop? When?
What is he known as?
Developed consciousness as a field in response to almost killing a patient.
Developed the first psychology lab in 1875.
Father of Psychology
What was used before modern technology to control experiments?
Electromechanical relay equiptment.
What 3 things played a role in the development of psychology (from the textbook)?
world wars, national ethical standards for research, and the civil rights movements.
What area of psychology are most new Ph.D’s in?
Clinical
What is the main problem with studying thoughts, feelings, and emotions?
They cannot be directly oberved or measured.
What is behavior?
What is the absense of behavior?
Behavior is basically muscular activity. Does not include sitting still or playing dead.
The absense of behavior in itself is not a behavior.
What two things are required to study psychology?
- You must identify what you want to measure.
- You must only count its occurances.
Who started behavioral psychology? Where?
Aristotle in Ancient Greece.
Watson
What did he define?
What did he formalize?
He defined psychology as the study of behavior.
He formalized the school of behavioral psychology.
Where did early 20th century clinical psychology theories come from?
From the belief that what people said and didn’t say in therapy described an internal mental life that controlled a person’s overt behavior.
Who is the father of behaviorism?
What did he believe?
Watson
Believed that the focus on mentalism in American psychology would stop the field from developing into an experimental science.
Skinner
What did he do?
Used more advanced lab equpitment to study lab animals, which allowed him to apply these findings to humans.
Behavioralese
We use components of thoughts and feelings without realizing that we use them. (realizing)
Casual descriptions of behavior involve mentalistic terminology general referring to the thoughts and feelings of the speaker.
What is reactivity in an experiment?
When the presence of an observer influences the subjects being observed.
Folk Psychology
What ideas are held?
Unjustified correlations that grow out of cultural stereotypes.
Untested ideas that have been passed through generations.
Phrases from this area frequently contradictory.
Illusory Correlations
What are they?
Inaccurately made correlations.
The belief that some things are associated, when they are not.
Stating that a correlation exists does not mean that it will be present in all cases.
Low Probability events
basic rule
the larger the population, the greater the total number of instances will exist in low probability ranges.
Descriptive methods
3 of them
Case Studies
Naturalistic observations
polls
What is the correlation method
Values for correlations?
Positive correlation?
Negative correlation?
Zero correlation?
Seeks to collect at least two forms of data from each subject. They can be physical or psychological. Correlation is then measured.
-1.0–>+1.0
Positive = when one goes up, the other goes up
Negative = go in opposite directions
Zero correlation is when there is no order = scatterplot
Correlation does not mean __?
What can induce a correlation that might be unexpected?
Causation
A third unknown variable may influence both variables being studied.
When is a confound present?
When one variable is changed, a second variable may change as a result, causing skewed results.
Experimental Method
Can there be confounds?
Are there controlled variables?
What must experiments include?
Controlling as many variables as possible.
No confounds may be present.
Must include random assignment
Random Assignment
subjects of groups are randomly assigned in an experiment
Population characteristics
Examples?
specific characteristics that a researcher wants subjects to have.
Ex: basic demographic information
Subject population
population characteristics of the subjects. Once subjects are selected for an experiment, they are randomized.
Benefit of randomization in experiments?
To prevent biases that may influence which conditions the subjects are exposed to during experiments.
Independent variable
what is being manipulated
Dependent variable
what is being measured - the data
What does the dependent variable depend on?
the independent variable - the manipulations the researcher makes
What is involved in a group design?
Two seperate conditions must be established where one group is exposed to the independent variable, and the other is not.
What is relevant about th subject’s expectation in an experiment?
The subjects expectation of what is being studied will influence their behavior and therefore modify the outcome of the research
Placebo
Inert substance used to contorl the act of taking a medication during an experiment.
What is a double blind procedure? What does it do?
When neither the researcher nor the subject knows which group is the control and which is the variable.
It controls for the researchers expectations rather than the subjects expectations.
Two goals of science.
Which is more important to have?
Prediction and control.
Control is more important.
What is prediction?
the ability to accurately predict future behavior
What is control?
The ability to control behavior.
Relationship between prediction and control
Control always comes with prediction, but prediction does not always come with control.
Three parts to an experiment
Hypothesis, experiment, theoryy
What is a hypothesis?
when the researcher decides how to ask a relevant question to study
What happens during the experimental portion of an experiment?
There is an attempt to address scientifically the presented hypothesis.
In experimentation, how is a theory formed?
A theory is formed based on whether the hypothesis was proven valid or invalid during the experiment.
What happens when a hypothesis is proven invalid?
The experimentation process must continue until the hypothesis is considered valid.
What does randomness refer to?
the fact that scientists can predict a general pattern of events despite the inability to control behaviors.
In a random process, what is being measured must be both ___ and ____ of other measures.
What do these mean?
Equal - equal probability of something occuring
Independent - inability of one aspect to influence another aspect of the study (confound)
What is the central limit theorum?
Does the size of error increase or decrease as the sample size gets smaller?
the greater number of subjects collected, the more likely the researcher will calculate the true mean of the population.
The size of error increases as the sample size gets smaller and smaller, relative to original population size.
What is normal distribution?
Why does it occur?
the bell curve
Because a single probability of the occurance of something measured over time results in a bell shaped curve
What theory states that as populations grow in size, they become more likely to produce low probability events?
Law of Large Numbers
Do creatures without nervous systems have a true memory?
Three basic factors controlling humans
genetics, learning history, environment
Do humans exhibit free will?
What is the building block of the nervous system?
3 basic parts of the neural cell
soma, dendrite, axon
Which parts of the neural cell are myelinated, and which are not?
Cell body and dendrite are not myelinated.
Axon is myelinated.
How is a signal produced in a neural cell?
an opening must occur so charged particles can coss the cell membrane and create a change in voltage.
What is an action potential?
electrical signal that travels along a neuron
What is meant by electrical activity in the nervous system?
little packets of energy that travel through neurons as charged particles grouped together.
Where do action potentials start?
two places
Axon hillock or dendrite
Resting potential of a neural cell?
-70mV
Sodium rushing into the cell membrane allows for the change in charge from -70mV to what?
+40mV
How can a new signal be produced?
If a new signal is produced, where does it start?
A 10mV charge must occur within 10m/s for a new signal to be produced.
New signal begins at the axon hillock
Dendrites
What do they do?
Where are they located?
How many connections do they have?
Are they myelinated or not?
Bring information into the neuron
Extends from the cell body and branches out, and divides as it gets farther (tree branches)
10,000 connections to other cells
Not myelinated
What are neurotransmitters?
Where are they released from?
Naturally occuring substances in the body that are receptors for things like medications.
Released from the end of the axon, cross the synapse, and reach the dendrite of the next neuron.
What controls ion channels?
What are they?
They only allow certains substances through them
Controlled by neurotransmitters designed to influence them
What is the exitatory postsynaptic potential?
production of a positive voltage changein a cell
What is the inhibitory postsynaptic potential?
reduction of a negative voltage charge in a cell
Where do action potentials from dendritic branches meet and integrate?
What is located or housed in the soma?
Nucleus that holds genetic material
exitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials are integrated here.
What is signal integration?
Where does it take place?
Where does a new signal start from?
What is the end of an axon called?
What affects the speed of an action potential?
determines whether a new action potential will be generated by a neuron.
Axon
axon hillock
axon terminal or terminal button
diameter of the axon, and the myelination affect speed
Are axons myelinated?
Yes
What produces myelin?
What is salutory conduction?
What are the tiny gaps between each oligodendrocyte called?
oligodendrocytes
how myelin speeds action potentials. Small gaps between pieces of myelin are where ionic exchanges occur.
Nodes of Ranvier
What happens at the terminal button?
Where are vesicles located? What are they?
Action potential terminates because it has nowhere else to go.
Vesicles are at the very end of the axon where it widens at the tip. They are fatty bubbles that are filled with neurotransmitters.
What is the synaptic gap?
Space between two axons - synapse.
What is it called when the receptors return to where they came from because they were influenced?
reuptake
What occurs during reuptake?
Any neurotransmitter unused is reabsorbed back into the axon. They will only be released again when another action potential eaches the axon terminal.
What is the primary function of the brain?
To control behavior.
What is the simplest form of intercellular communication?
Three types of neurons involved in a reflex are:
What do they do?
Sensory neuron - send action potential back to spinal cord
interneuron - connects with motor neuron
motor neuron - returns the signal to the muscle to modify it’s response (the reflex)
The brain and spinal cord are part of the ?
Central Nervous System
What is the Peripheral nervous system comprised of?
Everything except the brain and spinal cord
What is the 3 part system that protects the CNS?
blood brain barrier
Bone encasement of the CNS
Brain is in the skull
spinal cord is in the spinal foramen
What is cerebrospinal fluid?
What are endothelial cells?
Fluid fills space that surrounds entire CNS. Sandwiched between 3 layers
Cells make up capillaries in the brain. More tightly compacted to disallow things from crossing into the brain
3 layers of blood brain barrier that are seperated by cerebrospinal fluid:
dura mater - outermost
arachnoid membrane - middle
pia mater - inner later
What is the subarachnoid space?
What is the arachnoid trabeculae?
Subarachnoid space is between arachnoid and pia mater. Creates cavern for fluid to flow.
Trabeculae goes from arachnoid space to pia mater - allows fluid to flow through subarachnoid space.
Where is cerebrospinal fluid created in the body?
Brain in the ventricles.
Do neural cells in the CNS regenerate?
PNS?
What is neurogenesis?
Where does neurogenesis occur most often?
CNS no
PNS yes
The brains capacity to produce new neural cells
Hippocampus
Plasticity of the brain refers to what?
Ability of the brain to repair or rewire itself
What is the brain made of?
What is the surface composed of?
What is the interior composed of?
Neural cells and myelin
surface - cell bodies and dendritic connections
interior - myelinated axons
When during development does the CNS appear?
When does the brain appear?
How does the nervous system first develop?
18 days after conception
24 days after conception
In a tube
How does the brain grow? Why?
What happens when the brain stops growing?
From the outside because growing involves the division and migration of cells from the top of the spinal cord to the outer surface.
Will fold back on the end of the spinal cord from where it grew.
Where are life sustaining parts of the brain located for the most part?
How big is the brain after 20 weeks post conception?
What are the 3 parts of the brain?
near the spinal cord
2 inches long, has basic adult brain shape
forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain
Purpose of hindbrain?
Parts of the hindbrain?
Controls basic life functions
Medulla
Cerebellum
Pons
Medulla
in hindbrain
cardiovascular system, respiration, muscle tone
cerebellum
in hindbrain
conrols balance, coordination for gross motor activity
athletes more developed from plasticity
Pons
in hindbrain
reticular formation which controls sleep and arousal
Damage can cause coma
Basic motor activity
Where is the reticular formation?
What does it control?
Extends from hindbrain to midbrain
general arousal, attention, muscle movement, reflexes
integrates visual and auditory information
distributes sensory info to cortex
Where is the periaqueductal grey area, and what does it control?
reticular formation
controls pain perception and motor behaviors related to fighting and mating
Parts of forebrain?
Purpose of forebrain?
higher order intellectual functioning
thalamus
hypothalamus
limbic system
basal ganglia
four cortexes
What is the outer surface of the forebrain called?
What are subcortical areas?
outer surface called cortex
subcortical areas related to motor activity, sensory processing, and transfer of info from lower areas of brain to cerebral cortex
Thalamus
bottom of forebrain next to basal ganglia
receives sensory input from body then relays info to specific area of the brain (except for smell)
Damage results in widespread damaged sensory processing
Hypothalamus
right below thalamus in forebrain
influences endocrine system, fighting, feeding, fleeing, and mating.
influences anterior pituitary gland, which influences endocrine system also.
Limbic system
two parts?
Amygdala and hippocampus
hippocampus
part of limbic system
memory function
associated with formation, indexing, and retrieval of memories. Does not store memories.
Damage causes memory problems.
Amygdala
Associated with fear and aggression
Basal Ganglia
3 parts?
Involved in?
What disease causes deficits here?
subcortical nuclei in forebrain
globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, putamen
control of movement
Parkinson’s disease destroys dopamine neural cells, which results in motor behavior impairments.
Four cortex/lobe names
Where located?
Names of grooves in cortex?
frontal, occipital, parietal, temporal
Outer surface of brain.
mountains are gyrus
large valleys are fissures
small valleys are sulci
Frontal lobe/cortex
processes motor behaviors
Parietal lobe
analyzing somatosenses (touch)
Occipital lobe
vision is analyzed
Temporal lobe
hearing is analyzed
Where is the primary visual cortex?
The Primary auditory cortex?
visual - laterally across back of brain in occipital
auditory - strip along side of brain
What hemisphere is language located in in 90% of people?
Where is language spread across?
Left
frontal and temporal lobes
Which hemisphere analyzes sequenced events?
left hemisphere of brain
What is the area called where speech production is managed?
Where is it located?
Broca’s area
along frontal cortex
What area manages lanuage comprehension?
Where is it located?
Wernicke’s area
Posterior of temporal lobe
What gives the ability to detect faces?
What is the disorder where someone can not identify people by their face?
fusiform face area
prosopagnosia
What is it called when someone feels the presence of a limb that is not there?
What feelings may occur?
Phantom limb sensations
pain, pressure, temperature, wetness, itching
What are mirror neurons responsible for?
When is there activity reduced?
they allow one to duplicate the actions of others
reduced in autism
What is blindsight?
Person has ability to see, but is unaware of the ability to see.
How does a split brain occur?
Which hemisphere becomes dominant one?
What happens when split brain occurs?
Corpus callosum is severed.
Left
Eliminates cross-hemisphere signaling
Optic chiasma remains intact.
Left side of each eye send info to left hemisphere.
Right side of each eye sends info to right hemisphere
Side of eye closer to nose sends info to opposite hemisphere.
What is the function of the PNS?
sends information from sensory receptors to the brain and from the brain to the muscles
What are spinal nerves? Where are they?
What do they facilitate?
What are they the pathway for?
Nerve bundles that branch off spinal cord and into the trunk and limbs
primary pathway for how sensory receptors in the skin send information to the brain
main pathway for motor signals from the brain to muscles
Two branches of the PNS
which one has two more branches?
Autonomic and somatic
Somatic NS
part of PNS
relay of sensory information into the CNS and control of muscular movement
Autonomic NS
part of PNS
smooth muscle activity, heart, and glands
piloerection
divided into Sympatheitc and Parasympathetic
Sympathetic and parasympathetic NS
part of autonomic from PNS
sympathetic - prepatory response for excitement or stress
supports release of adrenaline and increases blood flow to skeletal muscle
parasympatheitc - controls internal organs during relaxation. Blood is moved away from limbs to internal organs
connects to spinal cord at upper and lower thirds
Where are genes located?
What are genes primary function?
In the soma, which houses the nucleus.
produce proteins
Shape of DNA?
What are chromosomes?
double helix
chromosomes are strands and bundles of DNA
Transcription and translation
transcription: unravel and copying of gene, occurs in nucelus. Gene splits apart after unraveling. Copy of gene is what will produce protein.
Copied set is called mRNA
Once mRNA created, strands reattach.
Copy exits nucleus through pore.
Translation: Copied gene is translated into the protein that is needed. Ribosomes attach to the gene, and a new protein is created. Protein then sent to proper location for use.
Three types of muscle and their functions
skeletal - controls actions needed to move us around - voluntary
cardiac - heart. not important for us
smooth - internal organs and glands
Skeletal muscle
What does it move?
Two types of fibers?
Moves muscles
extrafusal - served by output signals of alpha motor neurons. Extert control on muscle from brain
intrafusal - sensory organs provide feedback to brain. Axons attached send brain feedback about how much a muscle is stretched or contracted.
Smooth and Cardiac Muscle
Smooth - affected by hormonal activity and emotions. What lie-detector tests measure
Cardiac - pumps blood. Produces own pacemaker activity without any signal from the brain
Monosynaptic stretch reflex of the spinal cord
produces rapid response to simple stimulus
Postsynaptic reflexes of the spinal cord
Controls flexion and extension
Somatotopic organization refers to what?
distribution of body parts mapped across the motor cortex. There is a cluster of neural cells for each part that controls movement of that body part.
Two types of ablation:
Natural - brain damage from accidents or injury
lab experiments - non-human subjects
lab found wernicke’s and broca’s areas
What was the only form of brain scan until the 1960’s?
EEG
Static vs. functional techniques to measure brain
Which is more useful?
static provide snapshot
functional are longitudinal, more useful
Static measures of measuring the brain:
CT
MRI
DTI
CT scan
Static
3-d image created from many 2-d images surrounding single spot.
MRI
static measure
uses magnetic field and atomic spins in the brain. Sends radio wave and uses reflected signal to determine structure internally
DTI
static
Traces water pathway in the brain by diffusion
Functional measures to measure brain
EEG
PET
fMRI
MEG
EEG
functional
electrodes on scalp
reads electrical activity in brain
PET
functional
records where glucose is being used by the brain by using radioactive glucose
fMRI
functional
repeased measures over time.
Detects magnetic changes
MEG
functional
magnetic properties of blood traveling through the brain
What is the process that the measures the presence and concentration of chemicals in the brain? How does it work?
Microdialysis
tiny probe inserted into brain tissue - input and outtake drainage system
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
magnetic field sent into brain by device to stimulate area and induce activity, to see if damage has occured.
Are genes, physical maturation and biochemical components considered nature or nurture?
Are drugs, memories, and culture considered nature or nurture?
Nurture
Who coined phrase “nature vs. nurture”?
Debate is a false _____.
Francis Galton
dichotomy
When was eugenics first documented?
What is positive eugenics?
What is negative eugenics?
Which form did scholars promote, and which one was well funded in the US?
ancient Sparta in 500BCE
Positive = controlling reproduction through sterilization
Negative = killing sick people so they couldn’t reproduce
Positive, positive
How many states at one time funded positive eugenics?
How many sterilizations had been performed by late 1960’s?
Laws prohibiting interracial marriage were called?
33
60,000
antimiscegenation laws
Which US state had the first eugenics legislation? When?
What did it enforce?
Where and when was the last eugenics law in place until in the US?
Where was negative eugenics used?
Indiana in 1907
Sterilization of criminals, rapists, and feebleminded
Alabama until 2000
Europe during WWII - holocaust
What is the study of genetic change through generations?
What did Darwin theorize?
What is natural selection?
What was the germ plasm?
Evolution to explain how animals develop functional characteristics.
Traits that allow for reproduction are favored by nature in allowing species with those traits to reproduce.
Gene plasm was whatever was transferred during sexual reproduction down generations. Genes were unknown of at the time.
What causes differences across generations? What are their impact?
genetic mutations
Normally deleterious, but sometimes beneficial over time
Who bred domesticated foxes in Russia?
What is articial selection?
Belyaev
human controlled development of heritible characteristics. Usedon farms and in labs to test genetic theories.
What is the selection of consequences?
change in behavior that occurs over time because of the consequences obtained for behaving a certain way.
What is ontogeny?
occuring across the lifespan of a single individual
Are males or females normally more easily sexually aroused?
Which sex is more selective in choosing a mate? Why?
Across cultures, what do men tend to prefer in women?
What are females typically more attracted to across cultures?
Males
Females - evolutionary - parental investment
youthful appearance = greater fertility
males who show signs of strength and resources
How many chromosomes do all humans have?
How many pairs?
What are chromosomes composed of?
Can genes be broken down?
46
23 pairs
DNA - chains of proteins
no
What % of DNA is shared by all people?
How much do humans share with chimps?
- 9%
- 8%
What is the purpose of twin studies?
They analyze fraternal and identical twins to determine the effects of biology and genetics. They look at both raised together and seperately.
Why are adoption studies useful?
What do they show?
Allow for comparison between parents and sibling between same or different environments.
Biology is factor in determining personality much more strongly than environment. Adopted children are more like biological parents than adopted ones.
What is temperament?
How does it change over the lifetime?
a person’s emotional exitability.
relatively stable over lifetime
What is heritability?
How is it measured?
What % of variability in humans is biological?
likelihood that one can acquire a trait genetically
measured by proportion of variation
50%
What does it mean to say that genes are self-regulating?
they can change functions slightly based on environment at the time.
What does research show influences the behavior of children?
What is it called when learned behaviors are passed down generations?
Males that have XY chromosomal pattern but outwardly have physical characteristics of female have what syndrome?
androgen insensitivity syndrome
How many of our 46 chromosomes are unisex?
When does biological sex become noticible?
Females always contribute what chromosome?
Males contribute what chromosome?
Research suggests that what may influence sexual orientation and gender related behavior?
7 weeks after conception
females - always X
males - X or Y
prenatal horomones
What are the expectations of how males and females should act in society?
What refers to the sense of being male or female?
What is it called when a person expresed their gender?
gender roles
gender identity
gender typing
What theory states that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating others?
What suggests that all human behavior is the result of biology, personal history, and cultural influences?
Social learning theory
biopsychosocial model
When was the medical model of psychology established? What does it assume?
What was the first text dedicated to the field of behavioral endocrinology?
When was environment first acknowledged as being important?
Who wrote that medical model was not viable for medicine?
1800CE
Horomones and Behavior by Beach in 1948
1970’s
Engel in 1977
What is the largest cell in the body?
Ovum
Is DNA considered a cell, a molecule, or an atom?
Molecule
What is the process that produces genetically programmed changes with increasing age?
How many genetically different children can each human produce?
Maturation
70 trillion
How many cells does a zygote have after 3 days? What is it called?
This forms a tube, which then becomes ___.
60-70, blastocyst
more complex
A zygote becomes what after 2 weeks?
It becomes a what when all major body structures are present at 8 weeks?
embryo
fetus
When will you have all of the neurons that you will have your entire life?
What % of zygotes do not make it to embryonic stage?
Are more male or female embryos miscarried?
Ratio of babies born with obvious abnormality.
end of second trimester
30%
male
1:250
How many weeks until a fetus is sensitive to light and sound?
When can a fetus respond to external stimulation?
When can a fetus detect human speech?
When can a fetus respond to music?
25 weeks
28 weeks
25-34 weeks
33 weeks
Correlation between fetal heart rate and linguistic abilities as child
A varied fetal heart rate predicts a more linguistically able child with more forms of symbolic play
What are external agents that can cause damage to a zygote, embryo, or fetus?
Teratogen
There is a 50% chance or higher that a child will be mentally handicapped if the mother has what illness during the embryonic stage?
German measles
What can damage ocum before fertilization even occurs?
What is possible if mother drinks during pregnancy?
Can sperm be affected by drugs also?
alcohol
fetal alcohol syndrome
yes
What can excess caffeine lead to during pregnancy?
Smoking increases the chances of a baby dying from what, because autonomic NS is affected?
miscarriage
SIDS
What does a folic acid deficiency do?
What does excess folic acid do?
Deficiency - can be born without top of skull, or spina bifida
exess - increase chances for fraternal twins
What happens when a mother is even mildly stressed?
What kind of stress might be good for a developing fetus?
Fetal heart rate varies and fetus stops moving
mild stress
Does most brain development occur before or after birth?
Babies are born sensitive to what?
What sense is most developed at birth?
Babies prefer the scent of who?
After
frequency and pitch of women’s voices
Smell
A woman that is breastfeeding, even if being fed by bottle by that woman
When can infants pair information from different senses?
What is a reflex?
2 days old
automatic response to event that does not require thought.
Reflexes and when they go away
withdrawal
stepping
sucking
rooting
palmar grasp
moro
swimming
tonic neck
plantar
babibski
eye blink
withdrawal 10 days
stepping 2 months
sucking 3 months
rooting 4 months
palmar grasp 4 months
moro 5 months
swimming 6 months
tonic neck 7 months
plantar 12 months
babinski 12 months
eye blink present for life
Newborns that have a lower level of iron exhibit what behaviors?
A fast heart rate as a fetus will predict what in a child?
Greater EEG activity in babies at 9 months led to babies being what?
Negative emotion and less alert
inhibition and fearfulness
more inhibited
At 24 months, do fraternal or identical twins have more similar temperaments?
Identical
What is cephalocaudal development?
Proximodistal development?
head down to trunk, to arms, then legs
proximal body to distal body (trunk to limbs)
Back vs. stomach sleeping in babies
Does how a baby sleeps affect when a child will walk?
Back sleeping were slower to roll over, sit up, creep, crawl, and pull themselves to standing position.
No
When does the visual cliff start to affect babies?
Babies at how old can tell the depth difference?
What is habituation?
6 months
2 months - heart rate affected
Decreased interest in a stimulus from repeated exposure.
Babies at what age can not distinguish between real and pictures?
How old when they began to distinguish?
9 months
19 months
Auditory perception
infants focus on absolute pitches, and not __ (opposite of adults)
At what age does a child have similar perceptual abilities to an adult?
relations among pitches.
11 years
Infant explicit vs. implicit memory
What age can store information explicitly?
What length of time of priming is required to activate a memory?
3 months
7 seconds
Older children can recognize what better than adults?
Verbal reports are frozen in time with children, which means what?
color
memory reflects the language skill they had at the time of the event
Development of what leads to greater long-term memory into adulthood?
What is the gradual transition from infant to adult mental capacity?
Hippocampus
cognitive development
Piaget theorized that babies begin with innate schemas. What are schemas?
What process allows infants to use existing schemas to take new stimuli and respond accordingly?
What results in the schemas changing as necessary to adapt to a broad range of situations?
mental structures to organize perceptual input and connect it to an appropriate response.
Assimilation
Accomodation
Two ways that schemas develop
become more fully articulated and precise
become differentiated - one gives rise to others
Sensorimotor period
age range?
How do they perceive world?
When is object permenance in place?
What age allows infants to imitate?
birth-2
in terms of own perceptions and actions
by end of sensorimotor period
9 months
Preoperational
age range?
What kind of play is enabled?
Can form what, to imitate actions that previously occured?
Principles of mass or amount remain the same appears, called what?
Inability to take others point of view is what?
2-7
fantasy play
mental representations
conservation
egocentrism
Concrete operations
age range?
Able to do what with objects by properties?
Logic reason appears because of ability to undo or make transformation, known as?
7-11
classify objects
reversibility
Formal operations
age range?
what kind of thinking is possible?
11-16/adult
abstract thinking
What is it called when you can take the position to understand another’s mental state and point of view?
What can a parent do to develop a child’s theory of mind?
What does research show about formal operations?
theory of mind
talk about their mental state more often
Some don’t enter until HS, some never enter it at all
Young children have poor working memory, which is what?
Does working memory capacity increase or decrease with age?
What does an increased working memory allow a child to do?
ability to use information held in an active state
increases
increases number and types of strategies a child can use to solve problems
Siegler’s Wave Model is the idea of what?
What increases the weight of the brain over development?
cognitive development is like waves. Each wave crests at a different age, allowing more complexity.
Myelination
Who came up with the sociocultural theory?
What does it emphasize?
Once language is learned, what do children often use with themselves? When is it more often used?
Vygotsky
the role of social interaction during development
private speech, during difficult tasks
An emotional bond that leads us to want to be with someone and miss then is known as what?
When does this begin?
Attachment
infancy
What is the cupboard theory?
Harlow monkey experiments
Infants become attached because their caregiver feeds them, which gives positive feelings.
baby monkeys became more attached to model mother with nice texture and realistic face rather than mother that lacked these things, even though the latter one fed them.
Bowkby’s theory of attachment
Children go through phases of developing attachment.
Major shift between 6 months and 2 years introduces stranger anxiety and seperation anxiety.
Four types of attachment
secure
avoidant
resistant
disorganized
Secure attachment
60-70% US babies
Baby becomes upset if they venture away from mother, when she leaves. Calm down quick when she returns
Avoidant attachment
15-20% US babies
baby doesn’t seem to care much whether mother is present or absent. Comfortable with strangers. Doesn’t gravitate towards mother when she returns.
Resistant attachment
10-15% US babies
baby does not use mother as base of operations, but wants to stay close to her and becomes angry if she leaves, Some may hit mother when she returns. Not easily calmed.
Disorganized/disoriented attachment
5-10% US babies
Baby becomes depressed and unresponsible with spurts of sudden emotion at the end
What type of attachment tends to form when a mother was using cocaine or heroine during pregnancy?
Type of attachment determines how some what operate?
Disorganized/disoriented
Genes
Effect of daycare on developing child?
What has research shown about daycare and aggressive behavior?
Quality daycare can improve cognitive abilities.
Children who spend more time in nonmaternal care during first 4.5 years tend to become more defiant and aggressive.
What are the beliefs, desires, values, and attributes that define a person to themsevles known as?
At what age can children appreciate that they have a unique psychological profile?
At what age do children begin to use their psychological traits to describe themselves?
Self-concept
3 years
8-11 years
What is the belief that you are male or female?
Where does it come from
Gender identity
how you are raised, and the social context you grow up in
At what age can gender roles be perceived by children?
What did Freud theorize about gender roles in children?
What did Maccoby say about gender roles in children?
Maccoby says that gender segregation is caused by what?
2 years
Freud: identifying with same sex parent creates gender roles
Maccoby: identification with same sex parent is result of gender role development
biological and hormonal differences
Who came up with the moral development theory?
What are moral dilemmas?
What was the researcher interested in studying about morals?
How many levels of moral development are there? Names?
Kohlberg
situations where moral pros and cons are present for each possible action/behavior.
More interested in how child reached decision, not necessarily what the decision was
3: preconventional, conventional, postconventional
Kohlberg Preconventional moral development
good behaviors are rewarded and bad ones are punished
Kohlberg conventional moral development
rules maintain social order and allow people to get along
Kohlberg postconventional moral development
abstract principles develop that govern the decision to accept or reject specific rules
AKA principled level
What is flawed with Kohlbergs moral theory?
What does Gilligan say about the theory?
Difference between how males and females reason morally?
Levels not held valid in non-western cultures
Kohlberg’s theory n based on males, so it only applies to them. Believed females showed ethic of care (concern of well being for others)
No difference in how males and females reason moral issues, but different principles are emphasized.
When does adolescence begin?
What is puberty?
When does it end?
When does menarche occur?
White vs. AA vs overweight girls age of menarche?
What happens to boys during puberty?
At what age are girls heavier than boys? When is this reversed?
begins with puberty
puberty is when horomones cause sex organs to mature and secondary sex characteristics to develop
adolescence ends at end of teen years
Menarche +2 years after puberty - 12-13
overweight earlier, AA thin even eariler
boys shoulders widen, hips narrow (opposite for girls)
11, 14
What is the major cognitive development for adolescence?
Working memory development envokes what two kinds of thought?
What is not guided correctly because brain isn’t fully developed?
abstract thought
abstract and logical thought
emotions
What is the belief that adolescents view themselves as actors and everyone else is the audience, and leads to self consciousness?
What is the belief that the child is the star, and they are immune to consequences and have special abilities?
imaginary audience
personal fable
What did Anna Freud believe about teen angst?
Three normal problems of adolescents?
Angst is inevitable and normal.
3 problems:
conflict with parents, extreme mood swings, risk taking
What can having a positive relationship in adolescence contribute to in later life?
What trend emerges in friends of adolescents?
Positive intimate relationships
same-sex networks of friends
What is different about teens having sex in the US?
Trend in teen births in US?
Teen mothers tend to be from where?
Same amount of activity, less contraception effectively used
decrease slightly
low SES
Age 18-25 is known as what, and is marked by what trend?
emerging adulthood
positive perceptions in relationship with parents
When do body changes start to occur in adulthood after being stable for while?
What are two aspects of aging?
50
genes and envirionment
When does cognitive decline begin to start?
How does aging affect cognitive ability?
When does terminal decline in cognitive ability happen?
50
communication between neurons impaired
shortly before death
What almost always worsens with aging?
What occurs usually after 65 and requires surgery to correct?
Older people cannot classify what as well as younger?
Which sense does not decline with age?
When does hearing decline? Consistent problem for most?
Vision
cataracts
cannot classify identities of faces as easily
sense of taste
around 50. Trouble distinguishing between words varying in one consonant.
Production of what is impaired with age, which aids in function of hippocamus and memory?
What type of memory remains mostly intact? Memory of what?
Do elderly have good explicit or implicit memory?
What is it called when one forgets the source of a learned thing?
acetylcholine
semantic - facts, words, meanings
good implicit memory
source amnesia
Do genetic influences on age increase or decrease with age?
When do intelligence levels remain stable?
increase
11-78
Fluid vs. crystallized knowledge
What are they?
fluid - flexibility and reasoning, figure out novel solutions
crystallized - using knowledge a basis for reasoning - experience based
Do older people reason better or worse than younger people?
How can compensation occur for declining abilities?
What theory states that education either strengthens the brain itself, or helps people develop multiple strategies?
better
using other ones that are still intact
cerebral reserve hypothesis
What is it called when different parts of the brain become less specialized as one ages?
differentiation
Erikson’s 3 stages of psychosocial development, and when do they occur? What happens during them?
- intimacy vs. isolation - young adulthood - must develop deep intimate relationships and avoid social isolation
- generativity vs. self-absorption - middle adult - think about future and contributions to future children or society
- integrity vs. despair - late adult/old age - reflect back on life and feel that it was worthwhile
What did McAdams find with generativity (Erikson psychosocial development)
People more concerned with future generations tended to be more satisfied with their lives.
Levinson added one thing to Erikson’s theory, which was what. What did it say? When does it occur?
midlife transition
when a man begins to shift from thinking of his life marked by time passed since birth, to time left until death. Occurs between 40 and 45.
What theory states that older people come to focus on the limited time they have left, which alters their motivations?
socioemotional selectivity theory
What is the process of distress after the loss of loved one?
What isprocess of missing a loved one and longing for them?
grief
bereavement
3 phases of grieving
when do they occur? what happens in each?
- death-3 weeks after - state of shock. Emptiness, denial
- 3 weeks-1 year - emotional upheavals - anger/guilt, may see deceased in crowds
- 2nd year-rest of time - less grief. Stop thinking of deceased except on special occasions
What can stop the brain from becoming smaller in size in later life?
Education and consistent knowledge attainment
