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Psychology Test One Flashcards

1
Q

What is Psychology?

A

The scientific study of overt behavior and mental processes (covert behavior)

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2
Q

Research Method

A

A systematic approach to answering scientific questions

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3
Q

Name Goals of Psychology

A

Description, Understanding, Prediction, Control

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4
Q

Explain Description

A

(In scientific research, the process of naming and classifying) Answering psychological questions often begins with a description of behavior.

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5
Q

Explain Understanding

A

(In psychology, understanding is achieved when the causes of behavior can be stated).

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6
Q

Explain Prediction

A

(An ability to forecast behavior).

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7
Q

Explain Control

A

(altering conditions that influence behavior)

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8
Q

Pseudopsychology

A

Fake psychology. Any false and unscientific system of beliefs and practices that is offered as an explanation of behavior.

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9
Q

Examples of Pseudopsychology

A

phrenology (claims that shape of skull reveals personality traits), palmistry (claims lines on hand reveal personality traits and predict the future), graphology (claims that personality traits are revealed by handwriting), astrology (claims that the positions of the stars and planets at the time of one’s birth determine personality traits and affect behavior).

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10
Q

Research Ethics

A

do no harm, accurately describe risks to potential participants, ensure that participation is voluntary, minimize any discomfort to participants, maintain confidentiality, do not unnecessarily invade privacy, use deception only when absolutely necessary, remove any misconceptions caused by deception, provide results and interpretations to participants, and treat participants with dignity and respect.

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11
Q

History of Psychology / Schools of Thought

A

Functionalism, Structuralism, Behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, Psychoanalysis, Humanism, Cognitive behaviorism, Determinism

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12
Q

Functionalism

A

concerned with how behavior and mental abilities help people adapt to their environments.

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13
Q

Structuralism

A

concerned with analyzing sensations and personal experience experience into basic elements

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14
Q

Behaviorism

A

emphasizes the study of overt, observable behavior

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15
Q

Cognitive behaviorism

A

an approach that combines behavioral principles with cognition (perception, thinking, anticipation) to explain behavior.

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16
Q

Gestalt psychology

A

emphasizes the study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole units, not by analysis into parts.

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17
Q

Psychoanalysis

A

Freudian approach to psychotherapy that emphasizes exploring unconscious conflicts

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18
Q

Humanism

A

focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals.

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19
Q

Determinism

A

idea that all behavior has prior causes that would completely explain one’s choices and actions if all such causes were known.

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20
Q

Three Perspectives on Behavior

A

biological (the attempt to explain behavior in terms of underlying biological principles) psychological (view that behavior is shaped by psychological processes occurring at the level of the individual) sociocultural (focus on the importance of social and cultural contexts in influencing the behavior of individuals)

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21
Q

Independent & Dependent Variables

A

the independent variable is altered by the experiment, and it’s the condition being investigated as a possible cause of some change in behavior. The dependent variable measures the result of the experiment, and it’s the condition that is affected by the independent variable.

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22
Q

Groups of participants

A

The experimental group is the group of participants who get independent variable. The control group is the group of participants who do NOT get the independent variable.

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23
Q

Single / Double Blind studies

A

A single blind experiment is an arrangement in which participants remain unaware of whether they are in the experimental group or the control group. A double blind experiment is an arrangement in which both participants and experimenters are unaware whether participants are in the experimental group or the control group, including who might have been administered a drug or placebo.

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24
Q

Bias in experiments

A

participant bias is the changes in the behavior of research participants caused by the unintended influence of their own expectations. Researcher bias is the changes in participant’s behavior caused by the unintended influence of a researcher’s actions.

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25
Nonexperimental Research Methods
Naturalistic observation is observing behavior as it unfolds in natural settings. Correlation method is designed to measure the degree of relationship between two or more events, measures, or variables. Clinical method/case study is an in-depth focus on all aspects of a single person. A survey is a public polling technique used to answer psychological questions.
26
What are transducers?
Devices that convert one kind of energy into another | SENSE ORGANS
27
What are sensations?
Sensory impressions; the process of detecting physical energies with the sensory organs.
28
What are perceptions?
The mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns.
29
Absolute threshold vs. difference threshold
Absolute threshold is the minimum amount of physical energy necessary to produce a sensation, while difference threshold is the minimum difference between two stimuli that is detectable to an observer.
30
Sensory adaptation
A decrease in sensory response to an unchanging stimulus
31
What is sensory coding?
They code the sense organs use to transmit information to the brain.
32
Selective attention
Giving priority to a particular to a particular incoming sensory message.
33
Inattentional blindness
A failure to notice a stimulus because attention is focused elsewhere
34
Bottleneck
narrowing in the information channel linking the senses to perception
35
Visible spectrum for humans
dimensions of light and vision. 400-700 nanometers. ROYGBIV
36
Hue
color sensations/ basic color categories
37
Saturation
pure color/ intensity of a color
38
Brightness
a brighter more intense color.
39
What are photorecptors?
Light sensitive cells
40
What is accommodation?
Changes in the shape of the lens of the eye
41
Hyperopia
Difficulty focusing nearby objects (farsightedness)
42
Myopia
Difficulty focusing distant objects (nearsightedness)
43
Astigmatism
Defects in the cornea, lens, or eye that cause some areas of vision to be out of focus
44
Presbyopia
Farsightedness caused by aging
45
Cones
visual receptors for color and daylight visual acuity
46
Rods
visual receptors for dim light that produce only black and white sensations.
47
Peripheral vision
side vision. Vision at the edges of the visual field
48
Trichromatic theory
Theory of color vision based on three cone types: red, green, and blue.
49
Opponent process theory
Theory of color vision based on three coding systems (red or green, yellow or blue, black or white)
50
Color blindness / weakness
Color blindness is a total inability to perceive colors. Color weakness is an inability to distinguish some colors
51
What does the Ishihara test look for?
Tests for red-green color blindness or color weakness
52
Pinna
the visible, external outer part of the ear; the funnel for sound through the ear canal to the ear drum.
53
Tympanic membrane
eardrum.
54
Auditory ossicles
small bones
55
Malleus
hammer
56
Incus
anvil
57
Stapes
stirrup
58
Cochlea
snail-shaped organ that contains fluid; the inner ear.
59
Organ of Corti
inside the cochlea, has hair cells that move and generate nerve impulses, canals, and membrane.
60
Oval window
the ossicles are connected through the oval window to the cochlea.
61
different types of hearing loss
Conductive hearing loss: poor transfer of sounds from the eardrum to the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss: loss of hearing caused by damage to the inner ear hair cells or auditory nerve. Noise-induced hearing loss: Damage caused by exposing the hair cells to excessively loud sounds.
62
What is olfaction?
The sense of smell
63
What is anosmia?
The loss of the sense of smell, either total or partial
64
Lock and Key Theory
holds that odors are related to the shapes of chemical molecules.
65
What is gustation?
The sense of taste
66
What are the 5 taste sensations?
Sweet, salt, sour, bitter, and umami (brothy)
67
Taste buds
The receptor organs for taste
68
Somesthetic Senses
Sensations produced by the skin, muscles, joints, viscera, and organs of balance.
69
Pain
Pain receptors vary in distribution. Warning system: pain based on large nerve fibers; warns that bodily damage may be occurring. Reminding system: pain based on small nerve fibers; reminds the brain that the body has been injured.
70
Gate Control Theory
Proposes that pain messages pass through neutral “gates” in the spinal cord.
71
Perception
finding meaningful patterns in complex stimuli. The mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns.
72
Perceptual constructions
A mental model of external events.
73
Illusions vs hallucinations
An illusion is a misleading or misconstructed perception. A hallucination is an imaginary sensation---such as seeing, hearing, or smelling something that does not exist in the external world.
74
Reality testing
Obtaining additional information to check on the accuracy of perceptions.
75
Ames room
an example of an illusion. From the front, it looks normal; in reality, the right-hand corner is very short, and the left-hand corner is very tall. The left side of the room slants away from viewers. People appear to get bigger as they cross the room toward the nearer, shorter right corner.
76
Bottom-up vs Top-down processing
Bottom-up processing is organizing perceptions by beginning with low-level features; it starts with sensory units (features) and build up to complete perception. Top-down processing is applying higher-level knowledge to rapidly organize sensory information into a meaningful perception; it is pre-existing knowledge used to rapidly organize features into a meaningful whole.
77
Figure ground organization
Organizing a perception so that part of a stimulus appears to stand out as an object (figure) against a less prominent background (ground).
78
Reversible figures
a figure in which both figure and ground (background) can be switched.
79
Visual cliff
a glass-topped table. On one side, a checkered surface lies directly beneath the glass. On the other side, the checkered surface is 4 feet below the tabletop. This makes the glass look like a tabletop on one side, and a cliff (drop-off) on the other. This was used in testing for depth perception on 6 to 14 month old infants.
80
Difference between binocular and monocular depth cues
Binocular: perceptual features that impart information about distance and 3-D space which require two eyes. Monocular: perceptual features that impart information about distance and 3-D space which require just one eye.
81
Convergence
a second binocular depth cue. When you look at a distant object, the lines of vision from your eyes are parallel. EYES TURN INWARD TOWARDS NOSE
82
Know pictorial depth cues (def. and examples)
monocular depth cues found in paintings, drawings, and photographs that impart info about space, depth, and distance. Linear perspective, relative size, height in the picture plan, light and shadow, overlap, texture gradients, aerial perspective, relative motion.
83
Motion Paralax
When nearby objects appear to rush backward while you are traveling. Farther away objects will seem to move very little or not at all. Objects that are more remote will appear to move in the same direction you are traveling.
84
Perceptual learning
Changes in perception that can be attributed to prior experience; a result of changes in how the brain processes sensory information.
85
Perceptual habits
ingrained patterns of organization and attention
86
Being a better eyewitness
remember that perceptions are constructions of reality, break perceptual habits and interrupt habituation, seek out-of-the-ordinary experiences, beware of perceptual sets, be aware of the ways motives and emotions influence perceptions, make a habit of engaging in reality testing, and pay attention.
87
Weapon focus
The presence of a weapon impairs an eyewitness’s ability to identify the culprit’s face
88
Accuracy-confidence
An eyewitness’s confidence is not a good predictor of his or her accuracy.
89
Habituation
a decrease in perceptual response to a repeated stimulus
90
Dishabituation
a reversal of habituation

Psychology (1 decks)

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