Midterm Flashcards
What does psychology study scientifically?
behavior and mental processes
What is critical thinking and why is it important?
we shouldn’t just accept or assume what we hear is true.
What two research perspectives emphasize internal factors and how do these two perspectives differ?
The Biological Perspective (nature) -physiology -genetics -evolutionary The Cognitive Perspective -perception -thinking
What two research perspectives emphasize external factors and how do these two perspectives differ?
The Behavioral Perspective (nurture) - conditioning (classical) (operant) The Sociocultural Perspective - culture - other people
What is the nature-nurture issue and why is it considered psychology’s biggest question?
nature: - biology - genetics nurture: - environmental - experimental
What is the main purpose of descriptive methods of research?
to provide objective and detailed descriptions of behavior and mental processes
How do naturalistic observation and participant observation differ?
naturalistic observation: a descriptive research method in which behavior is observed in its natural setting, without the researcher interfering.
participant observation: the observer becomes part of the group being observed
What is a case study?
a researcher studies an individual over a extended period of time
What are some examples of survey research?
- bias research
- population
- sample
- random sampling
- representative sample
What is the difference between a population and a sample?
population: the entire group of people
sample: subset of people in a population
How should a sample be selected and why should it be selected this way?
random sampling because each individual in the population has an equal opportunity of being in the sample so the research is not biased.
What do correlational studies tell us and what do they not tell us?
They tell us excellent predictability but they do not allow us to draw cause-effect conclusions.
What two things does a correlation coefficient indicate?
type and strength of the relationship between two variables
Give an example of a positive correlation.
Relationship between height and weight:
higher height = higher weight
shorter height = lower weight
Give an example of a negative correlation.
The more kids watch TV the worst their grades get in school.
What is the third variable problem and what is an examples of it?
another variable that may be responsible for the relationship observed between two variables.
Example: ice cream sales go up when murder rates go up
What does an experimenter do to the independent variable?
variable thats manipulated
What is the dependent variable?
variable that is constant to measure
What is the difference between the experimental group and the control group?
Experimental Group: group exposed to the independent variable
Control Group: group not exposed to the independent variable
How are participants assigned to different groups in experimental research and why are they assigned this way?
Randomly assigned so the results will not be biased.
What is the placebo effect?
improvement due to the expectation of improving because of receiving treatment.
What are three different measures of central tendency, how are they calculated, and why do we need all three?
mean, median, & mode
mean: numerical average
median: the score in the middle after being arranged in least to greatest order.
mode: number that occurs the most often
We need all 3 because each one can be distorted in particular cases.
What can the two different measures of variability tell us about research scores?
the range and standard deviation determine how spread out research scores are
What does a normal distribution look like and why does it look like it looks?
bell shaped it look likes this because the percentages hold regardless of the size of the standard deviation.
What are the different parts of a neuron and their functions?
cell body: contains nucleus of the cell and the other biological machinery that keeps the cells alive.
axon: the long singular fiber leaving the cell body
dendrites: receives information
myelin sheath: speeds up neural impulses
How do neurons communicate?
electrical, chemical, and neurotransmitters
What is the difference between the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system and what are the functions of the neurons they contain?
Central Nervous System: the brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System: the part of the nervous system that links the CNS with the body’s sensory receptors, muscles, and glands
Give an example of a spinal reflex.
knee jerk reflex
What are the functions of the somatic nervous and the autonomic nervous system?
Somatic Nervous System: carries sensory input from receptors to the CNS and relays commands from the CNS to skeletal muscles to control their movements.
Autonomic Nervous System: regulates the functioning of our internal enviroment
What is the difference between the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system?
sympathetic: in control when we are highly aroused like in an emergency to prepare for defensive actions.
parasympathetic: returns the body to its normal state after having been highly aroused.
How does the endocrine glandular system differ from the nervous system?
very slow and uses hormones and sends them through our bloodstream (reason it’s so slow)
What are the three components of an emotion?
- inward
- outward
- cognitive
How did James and Lange explain emotion?
Stimulus-> arousal -> emotion
How did Cannon and Bard explain emotion?
Stimulus
arousal __l__ emotion
(simultaneously)
How did Schachter and Singer explain emotion?
Stimulus
arousal __l__ cognitive label
l
emotions
What is the function of the cerebral cortex?
control and information processing center for the nervous system
Name the four different lobes of the cerebral cortex and their primary function.
Frontal Lobe: personality, speaking, movement, and judgement
Parental Lobe: touch
Occipital Lobe: visual information
Temporal Lobe: What we Hear
Name the three different cortexes and their functions.
Cerebral Cortex: Allows your right & left brain to communicate
Motor Cortex: in charge of movement
Somatosensory Cortex: Allows us to since temperature, pressure, and pain
What is the corpus callous and what does it do?
cortical bridge between the two hemispheres and helps them communicate to each other
How do psychologists define consciousness?
a person’s subjective awareness of his inner thinking and feeling as well as his immediate surroundings
What is REM sleep?
Rapid Eye Movement which is your deepest sleep where most of your dreams occur
What is the absolute threshold?
the minimum amount of energy in a sensory stimulus detected 50% of the time.
What is the signal detection theory and how does it differ from the concept of absolute threshold?
our ability to detect a faint sensory signal is a decision making process that depends upon a person’s decision making criterion which is based on non sensory factors such as personality traits, expectations, alertness, and motivation.
What is the difference threshold?
the minimum difference between two stimuli detected 50% of the time
What is Weber’s Law and how does it relate to the concept of difference threshold?
the difference thresholds and the standard stimulus intensities use to measure them have a very lawful relationship
What is Stevens’ power law?
The perceived magnitude of a stimulus is equal to its actual physical intensity raised to some constant power.
What is sensory adaptation and how might it affect each of our five senses?
our sensitivity to unchanging and repetitious stimuli disappears over time.
How do lens accommodation, the retina, and rods and cones work together when we see?
- Light waves are transducer by the rods and cones at the back of the retina, generating neural impulses about the visual image.
- The rods and cones send the information about the visual image to the bipolar cells, which then pass it on to ganglion cells.
- The axons of the ganglion cells, bundled together, converge to form the optic nerve. The optic nerve carries the visual image information to the visual cortex in the occipital lobe.
What is blindsight?
a condition in which a blind person has some spared visual capacities in the absence of any visual awareness.
How do hair cells help us hear?
the vibrations of the oval window displace fluid within the cochlea which causes movement of the basilar membrane and thus movement of the hair cells in the membrane
What is the difference between bottom-up processing and top-down processing?
bottom-up: processing incoming information as it travels up to the brain
top-down: use of knowledge, beliefs, and expectations to interpret sensory information.
How can perceptual set and the contextual effect influence our interpretation of sensory information?
Perceptual set: includes our past experiences in how we perceive things.
Contextual Effect: uses present context
How can perceptual organization influence how we interpret sensory information?
organizes the incoming info into whole shapes and forms
What is perceptual constancy?
perceptual stability of the size, shape, brightness, and color for familiar objects seen at varying distances, different angles, and under different lighting conditions.
What are some different ways we perceive depth?
retinal disparity, linear perspective, and interposition
Thorndike discovered what?
law of effect- satisfying consequences tend to be repeated
