Mid-Year Exam (Units 1,2,3,4,5,6,9) Flashcards
Mirror Neurons
- Frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so
- The brain’s mirroring of another’s action may enable imitation and empathy
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
- A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythms
- In response to light, causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness
Self-control
-The ability to control impulses and delay short-term gratification for greater long-term rewards
Mary Ainsworth
- Did “strange situation” experiment to study attachment types (secure vs insecure)
- 60% of infants display secure attachment
- Observed mother-infant pairs whose child was 6 months old, then observed at 1 year in strange situation
Assimulation
-Interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas
Y Chromosome
- The sex chromosome found only in males
- When paired with an X chromosome from the mother produces a male child
Generalization
-The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses
Naturalistic Observation
- Observation of people or animals in their natural environments without interference from observer
- Behavior is not artificial (how they behavior in real world situations)
Carl Rogers
- First humanistic psychologist
- Behaviorism and Freudian psych= too limiting
- Drew attention to ways that current environmental influences can nurture or limit potential growth, and the importance of having our needs of love and acceptance satisfied
Functionalism
- Early school of thought promoted by William James (founder) and Charles Darwin
- Explored how mental and behavioral processes function
- How they enable the organism to flourish, adapt, and survive
Epigenetics
-The study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change
Random Assignment
- Seen in experimentation
- How we allocate people to control or experimental group
- Done to avoid two drastically different groups (therefore we can predict if differences are from variables)
Neurotransmitters
- Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons
- When released by a sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron
- influence whether a neuron will generate a neural impulse
Zygote
- The fertilized egg
- Enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo
Sensorimotor Stage
- Piaget’s Theory
- The stage from birth to about 2 years
- Infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activites
Alcohol Use Disorder
- Alcoholism
- Alcohol use marked by tolerance, withdrawal, and a drive to continue problematic use
Control Group
- Normal group
- Used as comparison to experimental group (Nothing done to it)
Law of Effect
-Thorndike’s principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely
Fetus
-The developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception to birth
AIDS
- A life-threatening, sexually transmitted infection caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- Depletes the immune system, leaving the person vulnerable to infections
Testing Effect
- Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information
- Sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning
Maturation
-Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Attachment
- An emotional tie with another person
- Shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation
Object Permanence
- The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived
- Sensorimotor Stage
Psychology
- The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
- Behavior: anything an organism does (yelling, smiling, laughing)
- Mental processes: Internal (sensations, thoughts, dreams)
Cognitive Psychology
-The Scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
MRI
- Shows what the brain looks like (soft tissue only)
- Does not show what it is doing/function
Conditioned Reinforcer
- A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer
- also know as a secondary reinforcer
Margaret Harlow
- Bred monkeys for attachment experimentation w/ husband
* Info on his card*
Peripheral Nervous System
- Carry info to and from Central Nervous System
- Made up of sensory (Afferent) and motor (efferent) neurons
- Carries out commands from CNS
Higher-order learning
- A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus
- Ex: an animal that have leaned that a tone predicts food night then learn that a light predicts the tone and begin responding to the light alone
- Second-order conditioning
Gender role
-A set of expected behaviors for males or for females
Natural Selection
- The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to the succeeding generations
- Created by Charles Darwin (believed it also shaped behaviors as well as bodies)
John Garcia
- Studied taste aversion
- Why do we avoid foods?
- Usually taste
- Challenged the idea that all associations can be learned equally well
- Radiation made rats not want to drink the water in their radiation chambers
- Rats avoided tastes, sounds, or other sensations when associated with nausea
- Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
- APA’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award
Conditioned Stimulus
-In classical conditioning , an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (US) comes to trigger a conditioned response
Humanistic Psychology
-A historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people
Psychometrics
-The scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits
Insight
-A sudden realization of a problem’s solution
Critical period
-An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development
Hallucinations
-False sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus
Positive Pyschology
- The scientific study of human functioning
- Has the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities thrive
Imprinting
-The process by which certain animals form strong attachments during an early life critical period
Occipital Lobe
- Very important!!
- Complex visual processing
Limbic System
- Emotion(fear, aggression, happiness), memory
- Mammalian brain (pets: dogs, cats)
- Stuck between straight survival and advanced thinking)
Edward Thorndike
- Puzzle boxes
- Placed cats inside and they would learn from behavior, get better at solving once placed in many time
- Built foundation for operant conditioning
- Known for his studies on if animals could learn based on consequences
Intimacy
- In Erikson’s theory
- The ability to form close, loving relationships
- A primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood
Brainstem
- Oldest part of the brain
- Innermost part
- Survival functions
- Keeps you alive (breathing, heart beating)
- No complex thought
- Part of the reptilian brain (snakes)
- Where info streams into the brain
- Cross-wiring point
Reinforcement Schedule
-A pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced
Schema
-A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information
Robert Rescorla
- Said animals can learn the predictability of events
- If a shock was preceded by a tone which is preceded by a light, animals would be afraid of the tone because they knew the shock was coming (better predictor than light)
Evolutionary Psychology
- The study of the evolution of behavior and mind
- Uses principles of natural selection
Replication
- repeating the essence of a research study
- usually with different participants in different situations
- To see whether the basic finding extends to other participants or circumstances
Motor (Efferent) Neurons
- Efferent
- Sends responses from brain and spinal chord to tissues and organs
Testosterone
- The most important of the male sex hormones
- Both males and female have it, but the additional testosterone in males stimulates the growth of the male sex organs in the fetus and the development o the male sex characteristics during puberty
Harry Harlow
- Attachment theorist
- Studied what causes attachment and what makes it so strong
- Created an experiment to show why we attach
- For food or comfort?
- Monkey spent 17 to 18 hours with comfy mother, 1 with feeding mother (contact comfort= more important)
- When scared, baby went to cloth mother
NREM Sleep
- Non-rapid eye movement sleep
- Encompasses all sleep stages except for REM sleep
Accomodation
-Adapting our current understandings (schemas) to incorperate new information
Dream
- A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind
- notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamers delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it
Nerves
-Bundled axons that form neural “cables” connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs
Fixed Ratio Schedule
-In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses
Formal Operational Stage
- Piaget’s theory
- Beginning at 12
- people begin to think logically about abstract concepts
Eric Erikson
- Created the stages of social development
- Each stage of life is associated with a psychosocial task that needs resolution
Discrimination
-In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus
Reflex
-A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response
Experimental Psychology
-The study of behavior and thinking using the experimental method
Psychiatry
- A branch of medicine dealing with psychology disorders
- Practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy
Amygdala
- -Fear and aggression center
- Anxiety (active during anxiety)
- Experience, express, interpret (in other people)
- Memory (cements horrific experience in memory)
- Ex: PTSD
Narcolepsy
- a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks
- The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times
Operational Definition
- Carefully worded definition of your variables in a research study
- Ex: when talking about how stress relates to sleep, you have to define quantities of sleep
X Chromosome
- The sex chromosome found in both men and women
- Females have two , males have one
- One from each parent produces a female child
Experimental Group
-Manipulated group (tweaked)
Teratogens
- “monster maker”
- Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm
Menopause
- The time of natural cessation of menstruation
- Refers to the biological changes a woman experiences as her ability to reproduce declines
Spontaneous Recovery
-The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response
Paul Broca
- French Physician
- Discovered Broca’s area in frontal lobe: production of speech
Dependent Variable
- Happens because of the independent variable
- Measured
Axon
- Neuron extension
- Sends message across the neuron through its branches (axon terminals) to other neurons or muscles/glands
- Electro-impulse
Puberty
-The period of sexual maturation during which a person becomes capable of reproducing
Theory
-An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events
Community Psychology
- A branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments
- how social institutions affect individuals and groups
Statistical Significance
- A statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance
- Lower than 5% is insignificant
Albert Bandura
- Bobo doll experiment
- Stated that children can learn from aggression
- Kids watching aggression video were more likely to use objects in room in aggressive/creative ways
- Disproved catharsis: viewing aggressive model releases a person’s aggression
- We imitate people we:
- Believe are successful
- Admire
- Are similar to
THC
- The major active ingredient in marijuana
- Triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations
Hypothalamus
- -Bodily maintenance
- Homeostasis
- Drives (hunger, thirst)
- Controls ES (endocrine system, works with pituitary gland)
- Reward center
- Sends out feel-good messages when you maintain homeostasis
- Olas and Milner
- Hooked rat’s part up to electrodes
- Stimulated it and the rat kept wanting it stimulated
PET Scan
- Uses radioactive glucose to see how the brain is functioning
- Sees when the glucose is being consumed
- Allows us to see what parts of the brain are the most active (where the most glucose is being consumed)
Alpha Waves
-The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
Basic Research
- Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
- Ex: Developmental, educational, personality, etc.
Longitudinal Study
-Research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period of time
Variable Ratio Schedule
-In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses
Amphetamines
-Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
Culture
- The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people
- Transmitted from one generation to the next
Critical Thinking
- Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
- Examines assumptions, assesses the source, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
Measures of Central Tendency
- Mode: most frequently occurring score(s)
- Mean: average
- Median: middle score
Carol Gilligan
- Androcentric
- Did male research
- Ethics of Caring= female
- Ethics of Justice= males
- Women are less concerned with being viewed as an individual, and more with making connections
- Females= more interdependent than males
- Boys form larger groups in children’s play & more competitive play
- Girls= smaller groups, less competitive, more
Adolescence
-The transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to independence
Endocrine System
- The body’s “slow” chemical communication system
- set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
- Reason why it is slow
- influences growth, reproduction, metabolism, mood
- works hand-in-hand with nervous system
Case Study
- Tries to find something universal (Not good at it)
- Looks at 1 individual, group or event IN DEPTH
- Uses rare or abnormal cases
- Generates ideas for future research
- Cannot determine cause (No control of variables)
- Can’t generalize to a larger population
Sampling Bias
-A flawed sampling process that produces an unrepresentative sample
Cerebral Cortex
- Higher thought
- Humans only
- Outer Covering of the brain (thin)
- Where synaptic connections happen, where the neurons communicate
Temporal Lobe
- Located near temples, extends past ears
- Where auditory processing happens
- Maintains balance and equilibrium
- Handles language comprehension
Environment
–Every external influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us
Glial Cells
- -Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons
- May also play a role in learning and thinking
Night Terrors
- A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified
- Unlike nightmares, they NREM-3 sleep with 2 to 3 hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered
Corpus Callosum
- -Connect the two hemispheres
- How the two hemispheres communicate
- Allows information to be processes by both sides of the brain
- Made up of a band of neural fibers
Unconditioned Response
-In classical conditioning, an unlearned, naturally occurring response (salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (food)
Insomnia
-Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep
Social Psychology
-The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another
BF Skinner
- Modern behaviorist (controversial)
- studied operant conditioning using an operant chamber
- Consequences shape behavior
- Worked with animals to teach them to do “non animal” type things
Barbiturates
-Drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement
G Stanley Hall
- First president of the APA
- Storm vs Stress
- established the first formal United States psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University
Cerebellum
- -“Little brain” located at the rear of the brainstem
- Coordinates voluntary movement (somatic)
- Balance and coordination
- Impacted by alcohol
Cocaine
-A powerful and addictive stimulant, derived from the coca plant, producing temporarily increased alertness and euphoria
Skewed Distribution
-A representation of scores that lack symmetry around their average value
Molecular genetics
-The subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and function of genes
Correlation
- Finds the relationship between variables
- Tells us how strong the relationship and what direction
- Types:
- Positive (direct relationship) and Negative (inverse relationship)
Emotion-Focused Coping
-Attempting to alleviate stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and attending to emotional needs related to one’s stress reaction
Survey
- Asks a lot of people a good amount of questions
- A random sample of population that represents the whole (reflect wider population)
Illusory Correlation
-The perception of a relationship where none exists
Michael Gazzaniga
- Asked people w/ split brain to stare at a dot while he flashed HEART on the screen
- Would say they saw ART (seen with right visual field), but when asked to point, pointed with their left hand at HE
- Concluded left hemisphere is interpreter
Depressants
-Drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions
Fixed Interval Schedule
-In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed
Somatosensory Cortex
- Areas of the front of the parietal lobes
- Register and process body touch and movement sensations
Discriminative Stimulus
-In operant conditioning, a stimulus that elicits a response after association wth reinforcement (in contrast to related stimuli not associated with reinforcement)
Conditioned Response
-In classical conditioning, a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus
Cognitive Map
- A mental representation of the layout of one’s environment
- Ex: rats in maze act as if they have learned it
Sympathetic Nervous System
- Works with parasympathetic
- Responds to stressors
- Diverts energy away from areas that don’t need it
- Fight or flight response (adrenaline)
- Ex: Sweating, raised heart rate
- Spends energy
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Physical and cognitive abnormalities in children caused by a pregnant woman’s heavy drinking
- In severe cases,signs include a small, out-of-proportion head and abnormal facial features
Educational Psychology
-The study of how psychological processes affect and enhance learning and teaching
Transgender
-An umbrella term describing people whose gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex
Post-Hypnotic Suggestion
-A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors
Methamphetamine
- A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
- Over time appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels
Range
- Measure of Variation
- Highest score minus lowest score
Independent Variable
- Changed/ manipulated
- Used on experimental group
Nature-Nurture Issue
- The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experiences make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors
- Today, science sees traits and behaviors arising from interaction of nature and nurture
Threshold
-The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse
Concrete Operational Stage
- Piaget’s theory
- Stage of cognitive development (starting at 6/7 to 11)
- children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Self-concept
-All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question “who am I”
Gender
-The socially constructed roles and characteristics by which a culture defines male and female
Lawrence Kohlberg
- Created the stages of moral reasoning by asking people of all ages moral dilemmas
- Work reflected individualistic culture and emphasized thinking over acting
- Preconventional, conventional, postconventional form a moral ladder (begin at the bottom rung and ascend)
Biopsychosocial Approach
-An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis
Human Factors Psychology
- an I/O psychology subfield that explores how people and machines interact
- how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use
Ernest Hilgard
- Famed researcher
- Believed that hypnosis involved social influence and but also the dissociation
- Vivid form of everyday mind-splits
- When people are hypnotized to put arm in ice bath, they are separated from the pain (cold but not painful)
Population
- All those in a group being studied
- From which samples may be drawn (except in natural studies)
- Does not refer to a country’s whole population
Debriefing
- Ethics of Experimentation created by the APA
- At the end of experiment
- Made aware of deception/ purpose of experiment
CT Scan
-series of X-Ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice of the brain’s structure
Synapse
-The junction between the axon terminals of the sending neuron and the dendrite of the cell body of the receiving neuron
SQ3R
-Study method incorporating 5 steps: survey, question, read, retrieve, review
Hormones
- Chemical messengers that travel through the bloodstream (slow)
- Help with growth and development
- Changes occur in a longer period of time (hormones build up, which causes change)
Thalamus
- -Sensory Switchboard
- Relays sense info to high brain destination for processing
- Vision, taste, hearing, balance
- All senses except for smell
- Relays sense info to high brain destination for processing