intro to psychology Flashcards
what is psychology?
the science of mental processes and behaviors
what is the historical approach of psychology?
to study mental processes and behavior emphasize different aspects
what is psychoanalytic?
someone being unaware of what they are doing, they could have learned it from others in their life
what did John b Walton create?
behavioral perspective
what is behavioral perspective?
the strict view that all behavior is determined by the environment
what did freud create?
psychoanalytic
what is cognitive perspective?
the attempt to understand how thinking work and how thinking changes through development
Who invented humanistic psychology?
Carol rogers
what is human psychology?
the counseling side of psychology and the importance of free will/ all humans have drive for self-actualization
what is cognitive?
trying to understand your thoughts and importance of understanding them
what is research?(teacher’s definition)
its a tool to collect information in a systematic and unbiased way to determine what is true
what are the two types of research?
correlational and experimental research
what is correlational research?
when two things are related, if they co-vary
what numbers are most commonly used in correlational research?
1 and -1 (correlation co-efficient)
what are the two things that could be involved in a correlational research? also the two things that don’t always cause each other to correlate.
- a third variable
- the direction of cause and effect could be reversed
what is a negative correlation?
when one goes up the other goes down
what is a positive correlation?
when they both go up together and down together
what are the two things you separate when doing research?
fact and conclusion/opinion
what does correlation not always aline with?
cause
what are some questions to ask to find the cause?
how important is fully establishing cause?
is it possible?
depends on the question
how do we determine cause and effect?
with experiments
what is the experimental method?
the only method to allow a casual statement to be made
what are the key parts of the experimental method?
independent variable, dependent variable, experimental group, and control group
what are the stages of behavioral perspective?
stimulus -> consider thought -> responses ( this is how your perspective on something determines the response)
(dont answer) just because two things are correlated…
it does NOT mean one thing is causing the other
what is the third variable?
its something that can cause both variables to vary
why is the direct of cause and effect that could be reversed important in correlational research
if you could switch it around, it could have a completely different outcome or meaning to the research
what is behaviorism?
the strict view that you act this way because of the environment you were raised in
what is humanistic?
the counseling side of psychology and on the importance of free will
what is the problem of causal direction?
make sure you know what correlates with what/don’t mix it up
what is the independent variable?
the hypothesized cause, what the research thinks might happen or have an effect on something else
what is the dependent variable?
the hypothesized effect, its the thing the research thinks might be influence by the IV
what is the experimental group?
the ones who get the IV
what is the control group?
the ones who get the DV
what is a variable?
anything that can vary
what is the operational definition of variable?
how it was measured in the study
what are blind research designs?
the people don’t know which experimental group they are in
what is a double blind research design?
the people and researcher don’t know who has what
what is the replication crisis?
people doing the same research again and the results are not the same
what is a survey research?
ask peoples opinions and writing it down and comparing it to others opinions
population vs sample
population refers to all member of group I am interested in
sample refers to those who participate in the research
what is a nueron?
a nerve cell
what does a neuron do?
allows you to respond effectively to your environment
what are axons?
the part of a neuron that sends info
what are dendrites?
the part of a neuron that receives info
note
research organization in Gallup are trained to avoid sample bias
what is synapse?
space or gap between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another
what is the electoral part in neurons?
positive charge regions moving down the length f the neuron
what is the chemistry part of a neuron?
neurotransmitters fitting into receptor cites
what is the positive charge that travels down the axon?
action potential
what are the select neurotransmitters?
serotonin
acetylenelcholine
dopamine
what is the cereal cortex?
its the outermost layer of the brain
what is the corpus collosum?
the two hemispheres that are collected my a band of neurons
just read, for normal people the left and right hemisphere act as one, exchanging information freely via the corpus collosum?
what happens when info is presented to the left hemisphere?
the patient can name the word or picture, can write the name( but only with the right hand)
what happens when info is presented to the right hemisphere?
the patient can NOT name the word or picture, can NOT write the name with either hand. if the picture is flashed, the patient can use the left hand to select the correct object, even while stating they do not know what the object is
just read, complex objects like faces are better recognized if they are presented to the right hemisphere
characteristics of the right hemisphere
more non-verbal
more pattern recognizing
voice intonation decoding
song melody
characteristics of the left hemisphere
more verbal
less pattern recognizing
what is hippocampus?
to make new memories
what is cortex?
grows around everything in the Brian
what is the frontal lobes?
its the front of the brain
what are the 4 lobes in the brain?
frontal lobe
parietal lobe
temporal lobe
occipital lobe
what is amygdala?
actives fight or flight move
what is evolutionary psychology?
understanding species wide tendencies
what are heritability estimates?
studying individual differences in genetic tendencies
what is Darwin’s insight
- if members of a species differ on a trait
- If any portion of the variation in trait is heritable
- If the trait is or becomes important to survival or reproduction
- If not all members of the species will survive to reproduce
what is the mismatch hypothesis?
a theory that suggest that differences between the environment in which humans evolved and current environment can cause disease
do genes have anything to do with individual differences?
not easy to know because somethings things are learned from their environment or inherited/ but can determined from kids that were adopted or with twins
what is concordance?
opposite of discord; agreeable
what is twin study?
this is a special term. it has a special meaning. it refers to a particular type of study
can environment influence gene expression?
yes, experiences, exposure, and environment can make genes turn on and off/ epigenetic
how do you determine if learning involves classical conditioning?
classical conditioning with involve responding to a previously neutral stimulus
how do you determine if learning involves operant conditioning?
with operant conditioning a behavior will become more or likely to happen again
what is classical conditioning?
- a stimulus causes a reaction as expected( being shocked makes you jump)
- a new stimulus is paired with the original one (there is a knock on the desk whenever a shock comes)
- the new stimulus now causes the original reaction (the knock makes you jump)
what are the types of stimulus and response?
unconditioned stimulus
unconditioned response
conditioned stimulus
conditioned response
what is operant conditioning?
change the frequency of a behavior
1. more often: reinforcement
2. less often: punishment
who created operant conditioning?
B.F. Skinner
what is extinction?
if a behavior that has been enforced stops being reinforced, it will eventually stop happening as often.
what is competing behavior?
a behavior that can not be done at the same time as another behavior is said to compete with it
what is modeling?
essentially copying what one sees another doing.
what is behavioral repertoire?
using modeling to introduce a behavior that is not in that behavior
just read, during extinction; behaviors get worse before they get better
what are ways to change behavioral problems?
extinction
shaping
competing behavior
modeling
what is shaping?
the selective reinforcement of successive approximations towards a target behavior
what is used in shaping?
selective reinforcement
successive reinforcement
target behavior
what are the two main things to focus on in shaping?
decrease the unwanted behavior or problem
increase the competing behavior
what are ways to decrease the undesirable behavior?
- stop any reinforcement of the problem
- if the behavior is occurring very often, something has been reinforcing it
- in the absence of reinforcement, a behavior will become extinct
- to make sure no reinforcement is occurring( the problem behavior should be ignored)
- note that the worst thing to do is to try to ignore the behavior, but then respond/ it will create the shaping to get worst
what are ways to reinforce a competing behavior?
- decide on a preferred behavior that can’t be done at the same time as the problem behavior you are seeking to eliminate
- choose you reinforcer well
whenever the desirable behavior occurs, reinforce it right then - if the behavior you are trying to establish is complex, you will need to start with small steps and use shaping techniques
- modeling can sometimes help “introduce a new behavior
