Studyguide 01 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
What are the four goals of psychology?
are to describe, predict, explain, and control or influence behavior and mental processes.
Who is Sigmund Freud? What did he emphasize in the psychoanalytic perspective?
He was a psychologist. People called him the father of modern psychology. He emphasized the role of unconsciousness conflicts in determining behavior and personality.
What did behaviorists believe in and what did they reject
Behaviorism rejected the emphasis on consciousness and promoted by structuralism and functionalism. It also rejected Freudian notions about unconscious influences.
What did Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow emphasize in humanistic psychology?
School of psychology and theoretical viewpoint that emphasizes each person’s unique potential for psychological growth and self-direction
What did Maslow identify as human needs and in what order (i.e., now the pyramid!)?
Maslow needs are ordered as physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging, esteem, self-actualization.
Biological prospect
emphasizes studying the physical bases of human and animal behavior, including the nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.
Psychodynamic
they do tend to emphasize the importance of unconscious influences, early life experiences, and interpersonal relationships in explaining the underlying dynamics of behavior or in treating people with psychological problems.
Behavioral
School of psychology and theoretical viewpoint that emphasizes each person’s unique potential for psychological growth and self-direction.
Humanistic
focuses on the motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of interpersonal relationships on a person’s self-concept, and the importance of choice and self-direction in striving to reach one’s potential.
Positive
focusing on the study of positive emotions and psychological states, positive individual traits, and the social institutions that foster those qualities in individuals and communities
Cognitive
focused once again on the important role of mental processes in how people process and remember information, develop language, solve problems, and think.
What is the scientific method?
refers to a set of assumptions, attitudes, and procedures that guide researchers in creating questions to investigate, in generating evidence, and in drawing conclusions.
what are the four steps involved
- Formulate a specific question that can be tested.
- Design a study to collect relevant data.
- Analyze the data to arrive at conclusions.
- Report the results
empirical evidence
evidence that is the result of objective observation, measurement, and experimentation.
operational definition
defines the variable in very specific terms as to how it will be measured, manipulated, or changed.
statistically significant
it means that the results are not very likely to have occurred by chance.
Case studies
involve compiling a great deal of information from numerous sources to construct a detailed picture of the person.
Naturalistic observation
When psychologists systematically observe and record behaviors as they occur in their natural settings
Survey
people respond to a structured set of questions about their experiences, beliefs, behaviors, or attitudes.
Correlational studies
how to variables relate to each other
Descriptive research and example
designs include strategies for observing and describing behavior.
such as a person’s age, ethnic group, or educational level.
Cross- sectional design and example
studies a variable or set of variables among a group of participants at a single point in time. Often, the participants are of different ages or developmental stages. For example, to study the effect of aging on memory, developmental psychologists might compare memory abilities in participants aged 25, 45, and 55, looking for age-related differences.
longitudinal design
tracks a particular variable or set of variables in the same group of participants over time, sometimes for years. For example, a longitudinal study of the effect of college-readiness programs on academic achievement might compare the academic records of participants who enrolled in college-readiness programs versus participants who did not, following all the participants from high school through college graduation.
Confounding Variable variables
experiment could include unwanted variability in such factors as age, gender, ethnic background, race, health, occupation, personal habits, education, and so on.
demand characteristics
These are subtle cues or signals that can bias the outcome of the study by communicating the behavior or response that is expected of the participants.
double-blind technique
both the researchers and the researchers interacting with them are blind.
Single Blind
the participants do not know the full conditions of what the experiment outcome is going to be
Physiatrist
prescribes medicine
Neuron
A cell that communicates information in electrical and chemical form; a nerve cell.
Sensory (afferent Neuron):
Sends information to the brain from receptor cells in internal organs and sense organs.
• E.G from the skin to the brain
• Motor efferent Neurons: Signals muscles to move
•
Interneuron: Communicates information from one neuron to another
Glial Cells:
- supports cells assisting neurons
- provide structural support, nutrition, removal of cell wastes
- manufacture myelin sheath, wrapped around axons of some neurons, increasing their communication speed
Dendrites
receive messages from other neurons or specialized cells
Cell Body
contains structures that manufacture proteins and process nutrients, providing the energy the neuron needs to function.
axons
carry information from the neuron to other cells in the body, including other neurons, glands, and muscles.
myelin
helps insulate one axon from the axons of other neurons.
Terminal Branches:
• Branches at the end of the axon
Synapse
A communication point between two neurons separated by the synaptic gap/
Presynaptic:
Sending
Postsynaptic neuron
receiving
Synaptic transmission
The entire process of transmitting information at the synapse
Action potential
Movement of electrical impulse across membrane of a nerve cell
stimulus threshold
Minimum level of stimulation required to produce an action potential
Resting potential
State in which a neuron is prepared to produce an action potential if it receives significant stimulations; -70mv
Self-sustaining
Action potential is self sustaining and continues to the end of the axon; no such thing as partial action potential. (it will occur through the whole neuron.)
All-or-none law:
Either the neuron is sufficiently stimulated and an action potential occurs, or the neuron is not sufficiently stimulated and an action potential does not occur.
Repolarization
process reestablishes the resting potential conditions so that the neuron is capable of firing again
Hyperpolarization
It becomes more negative (-)
Depolarization:
: Cell becomes more positive
How does an action potential (generated in the presynaptic neuron) enable communication between neurons?
In general, messages are gathered by the dendrites and cell body and then transmitted along the axon in the form of a brief electrical impulse called an action potential. The action potential is produced by the movement of electrically charged particles, called ions, across the membrane of the axon. Some ions are negatively charged, while others are positively charged.
How do drugs affect synaptic transmission?
- any drugs work by interfering with the normal functioning of neurotransmitters in the synapse
- Increases or decreases amount of neurotransmitters released by neurons
what is an agonist and antagonist
- Blocking or reducing time of reuptake (antagonist)
* Mimicking Specific neurotransmitters (agonist)
What are the two main branches of the nervous system?
a. Central Nervous system: Brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous system: All other nerves outside CNS
• Somatic Nervous System
Communicates sensory information to CNS and motor information to CNS and motor information from CNS to muscles
• Autonomic nervous system:
Regulates fight for flight (Sympathetic, parasympathetic)
What brain region triggers the release of this chemical messenger of hormones
hypothalamus
Functional Plasticity:
The brain’s ability to shift functions from damaged to undamaged brain areas
Structural Plasticity
The brain’s ability to change its physical structure in response to learning, active practice or environmental influences
Neurogenesis What are the two brain regions involved?
The development of new neurons Limited to 2 brain regions: Olfactory bulb and hippocampus
Brainstem:
A region of the brain made up of the hindbrain and the midbrain
Medulla
Medulla: controls vital life functions such as breathing
Pons
helps coordinate movements on each side of the body
Cerebellum
Responsible for muscle coordination and maintaining posture and equilibrium.
Reticular Information
a very diverse structure that contains various nuclei along with numerous ascending and descending tracts
Midbrain:
Contains structures involved in processing visual and auditory information.
• Substantia Nigra
Motor control and contains dopamine producing neurons
prepares other brain regions initiate organized actions or movements
Cerebral Cortex
a. The wrinkled outer portion of the forebrain
b. Contains most sophisticated brain structures
c. Composed mainly of glial cells and neuron cell bodies
d. Gray matter/ white matter
e. Divided into two cerebral hemispheres
Corpus Callosum
Connects the two hemisphere
frontal lobe
voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions
parietal lobe
at the upper back area in the skull. It processes sensory information it receives from the outside world, mainly relating to touch, taste, and temperature.
temporal lobe
The temporal lobes are also believed to play an important role in processing affect/emotions, language, and certain aspects of visual perception.
Occipital lobe
The occipital lobes sit at the back of the head and are responsible for visual perception, including color, form and motion
• Where is Wernicke’s area located? What are some characteristics of patients diagnosed with Wernicke’s aphasia?
Wernicke’s Area: Found in the temporal lobe, important in the comprehension of written or spoken language
Damage to works Patients is able to speak, but have difficulty comprehending written or spoken communication
Specialty of left hemisphere
specialized for language abilities, speech, reading and writing
Specialty of right hemisphere
specialized for visual-spatial tasks and nonverbal communication
Hypothalamus
Regulates behavior related to survival
Regulates both division of the autonomic nervous system
Suprachiasmatic nucleus regulates sleep
Amygdala
a roughly almond-shaped mass of gray matter inside each cerebral hemisphere, involved with the experiencing of emotions.
Hippocampus
Involved in learning and forming new memories
Thalamus
Processes sensory information for all senses except smell
Diffusion MRI (dMRI)
is a new scanning method that tracks the movement of water molecules in the brain along the myelinated axons connecting one part of the brain to another.
Positron-emission tomography (PET)
is based on the fact that increased activity in a particular brain region is associated with increased blood flow and energy consumption in that region. A small amount of a relatively harmless radioactive substance is injected into the person’s bloodstream, and the PET scanner tracks how much of the radioactive substance is used in thousands of different brain regions. A computer analyzes the data, producing color-coded images of the brain’s activity.
Encoding:
Transforming info into a form that can enter and be stored by the memory system
b. Storage
keeping info in memory so that it can be used later
c. Retrieval
: Recovering stored information so that it can be used
What is sensory memory?
• Takes in a large amount of information from the environment for a very brief period.
- Function: Briefly store information related to the senses so that it overlaps slightly with one another - Tiny snapshots - Used to perceive the world as a continuous whole
What are the types of information stored in short-term memory?
temporarily hold all information that you are currently thinking about
What is the capacity of short-term memory?
20 seconds
Working memory
refers to active, conscious manipulation of information
-Reasoning, problem solving, mental comparison
Short term Memory
used for simpler tasks (ie, mental rehearsal)
• Explicit/declarativ
declarative memory is memory with awareness.
• -information or knowledge that can be consciously recollected
implicit/ nondeclarative memory
memory is memory without awareness.
motor skills actions
• Retrieval
process of accessing and retrieving stored information in long-term memory.
• In memory cases, the ability to retrieve stored info depends on having an appropriate
retrieval cue:
: a clue or prompt that can help trigger recall of a stored memory
Episodic memory
Memory of specific events or episodes
What do Dr. Loftus’s studies teach us about the accuracy of memories?
Psychological studies have shown that it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between a real memory and one that is a product of imagination or some other process.
Cued recall
-remembering an item of information in response to a retrieval cue
Recognition
-identifying correct information from a series of possible choices
recall
Retrieving memories without cues; also termed free recall
Series position effect
tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than items in the middle
Primacy effects
the tendency to recall the first items in a list
Regency effect
the tendency to recall the final items in a list
• What are context effects? Could you give an example?
Tendency to remember information more easily when retrieval occurs in the same setting in which you originally learned the information
You walk into a room, and you can’t remember why you are there
• What is retrieval cue failure?
occurs when there is an inability to recall long-term memories because of inadequate or missing retrieval cues.
• What is mood congruence?
Factors relating to mood or emotion
According to Decay Theory, why do we forget?
When new memory is formed, it creates a distinct structural or chemical change in the brain (memory trace). These memory traces fade away over time as a matter of normal brain processes.
According to Interference Theory, why do we forget?
NEW information interferes with remembering OLD information
Proactive interference
OLD memory interferes with remembering NEW information
What is the misinformation effect
Post-event can change eyewitness recollection of an original event. Our memory can be very faulty
Schemas:
Organized clusters of knowledge and information about topics.
Scripts:
Schemas that involve typical sequences of actions and behaviors at a common event.
mood congruency
the idea that a given mood tends to evoke memories that are consistent with that mood.
How are memories stored in the brain? Are memories contained in specific areas of the brain, spread across brain areas, or both? What structure is most involved in memory for emotional events?
There is an increase in the amount of the neurotransmitters produced by the neuron
The number of interconnecting branches between the neurons increases,
long-term potentiation
Retrograde amnesia
loss of memory caused by inability to remember past episodic information (backward-acting; common after head injury
Anterograde amnesia
loss of memory caused by the inability to store new memories (forward-acting), related to hippocampus damage
What is consciousness?
Awareness of internal states, which include thoughts, sensations and memories
Characteristics of consciousness
limited capacity
- selective - blind
Misdirection
Magicians exploit the selective nature of attention
Inattentional blindness
not noticing some significant object or event that is in clear field of vision
Multitasking
- involves the division of attention
- results in less attention for each task
- Is less likely to cause interference when one is engaged in two vastly different tasks
Rem (rapid eye movement)
Associated with dreaming and increased body and brain activity
NREM (Non-rapid eye movement or quite sleep
Occurs in three stages and is marked by decreased physiological activity (e.g., slower breathing, heart rate)
Sleep is important for
Clearing brain metabolic waste products Maintaining immune function learning and memory Regulatory mood Keeping us safe Sleep decreases as we get older
What happens when we are sleep deprived? That is, what impacts does it have on your body?
The sleep deprived brain reacts to negative and positive extremes
More prone to strong emotional reactions to negative stimuli
More likely to engage in risky behavior
Neurocognitive Theory of Dreaming
our interests and life effect our dreaming
what system is involved with emotion
lympic
activation–synthesis model of dreaming
maintains that dreaming is our subjective awareness of the brain’s internally generated signals during sleep
Insomnia
Diagnosed when people repeatedly:
Are dissatisfied with quality or duration of sleep
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA
when the person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep Be able to describe the following terms, and what happens during phases of sleep: NREM, REM, beta brain waves, alpha brain waves, sleep thinking, dreams, nightmares, sleep disorder
Narcolepsy
Sleep disorders characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and brief lapses into sleep throughout the day
Parasomnia
are undesired arousal or actions during sleep
A result of the overlap between awake and asleep
Depressants
drugs that depress, or inhibit, brain activity.
Opioids
drugs that are chemically similar to morphine and that relieve pain and produce euphoria.
Stimulants
drugs that stimulate, or excite, brain activity.
Psychedelic drugs
drugs that distort sensory perceptions.
physical dependence
when their body and brain chemistry have physically adapted to a drug.
drug tolerance,
which means that increasing amounts of the drug are needed to gain the original, desired effect.
withdrawal symptoms
unpleasant physical reactions to the lack of the drug, plus an intense craving for it.
drug rebound
include an intense craving for heroin, fever, chills, muscle cramps, and gastrointestinal problems.
Change in reward circuitry
Normally reinforcing experiences of everyday life are no longer satisfying or pleasurable
