Study Guide 1 Flashcards
Case Study
In depth detail about a person. One human being compared to the next are far more alike than they are different.
Weakness: We don’t know how the individuals relate or differ.
Little Hans’ extreme fear of horses.
Theory
An explanation using principles that organize observations and predict behaviors or events.
Ethical concerns with animal experiemtntation
Ethical placement of the well-being of humans above that of animals.
Survey
Easy way to collect data.
Weakness: Return rate is less than 50% (so a minority), and Acquiescing to the positive position (participants will answer how they think they should). Ego Ideal: the person you wish you were affects how you answer questions.
Correlation of Religious beliefs of Americans and their attitudes towards abortion.
Informed consent
Legal process that involves educating patients about what to expect from their treatment and relationship with psychologist.
Participants are told enough about an upcoming study to enable them to choose whether they widh to participate.
Operational definition
A carefully worded statement describing the exact procedures for measuring an anticipated experimental outcome
Experimentation
Random: (every individual has the opportunity to be in the study) people are divided into groups to make them equal.
Control: Different groups are given different things
manipulate one factor to observe its effects on the other.
John Watson and the Behaviorists - Did they use the scientific method
Behaviorism emphasizes studying observable behaviors, Skinner and Watson were the first to employ the scientific method.
study of conscious self awareness is an unscientific method
Blind Procedures
Used to prevent bias by withholding information from participants or researchers.
Single-blind study: participants are unaware
Double-blind study: both participants and researchers are unaware.
Participants are blind if they are uninformed about which experimental treatment they are receiving.
Positive psychology
The study of what makes people and groups thrive.
Human flourishing
Gender differences and similarites
Females: XX Males: XY
Equal aggression
SRY gene: sexually determining region on the Y chromosome that determines the sex of the baby at about 6 weeks.
Gender differences are no more common than gender similarities.
Confounding/Extraneous variables
Anything that can screw up a test (control experimentation). Ex. more males in one group than the other.
Dangers associated with studying psychology
Emotional weight, potential for self-analysis and overthinking, exposure to disturbing cases, applying psychology to personal situations.
Psychological knowledge can be used for destructive purposes.
Placebo Effect
When a persons health improves after a fake treatment.
Hindsight bias
One becomes convinced they accurately predicted an event before it occurred.
I could have told you that your investment plan would fail
Control group
Divided groups that are given different things (different doses of a drug to see if it gives depression).
Independent Variable: Manipulatable (the mg in the drug test).
Dependent variable: Relies on manipulations (did participants get depression?)
The experimental treatment is absent.
Neuroscience
Study of the nervous system
Effects of DST and accidents
May cause fatigue and darker mornings which could cause car accidents.
Accidents increase on both
Hippocampus
Primary aspect in storing new memories. Goes into right and left brain.
Memory storage
Dopamine
A neurotransmitter that aids with learning and pleasure
Animal research: general reward system related to the release of dopamine
Narcolepsy
Neurological disorder that impacts the brain’s ability to regulate sleep cycles. May cause people to feel very sleepy during the day.
Fighting and then sleeping
Endorphins
Neurotransmitters that aid with pain control
Lack of pain after a football game
Biological psychology
Scientific study of the links between biological and psychological processes.
Reuptake
Recycling a neurotransmitter after it has been released.
Reabsorption of excess neurotransmitter
Melatonin
Hormone that affects the brain sleep/wake cycle
unnatural constant illuminations can decrease the ability to sleep
Axon
Axon: Carries information from one part to the other.
Axon terminal: transmits information to the nerve.
Reticular formation
Responsible for consciousness. Transfers sensory signals.
Travels through the brainstem and into the thalamus
Pons
Regulates sleep (paralyses us when we are asleep). Sub-cortical part of brain.
Part of the brainstem that helps to coordinate movements
Divisions of the nervous system
- Central NS: Brain and Spinal Cord
- ## Peripheral NS: Somatic and Autonomic
- Somatic NS - voluntary movements
- Autonomic NS - involuntary movements
-Sympathetic NS - arousing (fear)
-Parasympathetic NS - calming
Sleep apnea
Disorder that causes breathing to stop during sleep. Brian fails to send signals to control breathing.
Hypothalamus
Body’s smart control coordinating center. Ex. Endocrine System: Master Gland - the pituitary gland is a master gland (whose own master is the hypothalamus) that releases a number of hormones.
Visual perception
Effects of sleep deprivation
Higher cancer risk, weight gain (your body craves sugar because you need choleric energy), skin damage, loss of body density, memory loss, much more.
Cortical anatomy (lobes)
Frontal lobe: makes us who we are, HOG (thinking, planning, humor), Impulse control, mood, personality, and motor strip (chosen action and movement, right controls left and left controls right).
Temporal lobe: language functions, memory, and emotional processing.
Occipital lobe: primitive visual processing (color, angles, and motion)
Parietal lobe: puts primitive visual processing into wholes (visuospatial).
Parietal lobe feels someone scratching your back.
Circadian rhythms
Body’s natural 24 hour cycle of changes that are influenced by light and dark (day and night).
Time change in flying to and from different countries.
Developmental motor mile stones
- Continuity & Stages: some things develop over time and some in stages
- Stability & Change: There should be a balance (shouldn’t become to stable with crawling).
Putting a baby on their back can cause a delay in crawling.
Epigenetic
Study of how behaviors and environment can affect how genes work.
Alcohol can cause an epigenetic effect on a fetus.
Infantile amnesia
Inability of adults to recall early memories.
Attachment styles
Secure and Insecure attachments to parents effects how a child acts and thinks of a caregiver.
Adult styles of relationship intimacy
Piaget’s stages
Sensorimotor (0-2 years): Take in the world through senses and actions.
Preoperational (until 6-7 years): Represent things with words and images, pretend play, but not understanding models.
Concrete operational (7 years): Grasp more complex concepts like math
Formal operational (12 years): Abstract thinking. If this then that. Control emotions.
egocentrism is to conservation as the preoperational stage is to the concrete operational stage.
Schemas: assimilations and accommodations
- Schemas: Mental frameworks that help people organize and interpret information.
- Assimilations: process of incorporating new information into existing schemas
- Accommodations: process of modifying existing schemas to fit new information
Interpreting new experiences in terms of existing schemas is called assimilation.
Moral judgment - Kohlberg’s Stages and Haidt
Kohlberg stages
Obedience and Punishment (behavior driven by avoiding punishment), Individual interest (driven by self-interest and rewards), Interpersonal (social approval), Authority (obeying authority and conforming to social order), Social contrast (balance of social order and individual rights), Universal ethics (internal moral principles)
Haidt believed in automatic gut feelings.
Mr. Lambert: postconventional morality
Resilience
The ability to adapt and cope with difficult life experiences.
Menopause
When the period stops for good (40-60 years old). Can cause depression, anxiety, etc.
the cessation of menstruation.
Types of play
Egocentrism: self consumed
Theory of Mind: the understanding that others have their own thoughts.
Findings from twin studies
Many psychological traits (personality, intelligence) have a significant genetic component. Identical twins who are raised apart are more similar than fraternal twins raised together.
Compared with identical twins, fraternal twins are less similar in abilities and interests
Adolescent identity development
The development of a strong and stable sense of self is a central task of adolescence.
In cultures that value individualism
Synapses
The space between the neurons that allow them to communicate. Pre and post-synaptic membrane.
nature and nurture.
Nature vs Nurture
Nature: Genetic code
Nurture: How ones environment effects them.
nature and nurture interact to sculpt our synapses
Zygote and placental development
- Zygote: fertilized egg that replicates genetic code
- Embryo: first couple weeks
- Fetus: by 9 weeks
Placenta develops from outer cells of the zygote
