Test 1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
Greek: psyche (soul) logos (to study)
What is psychology according to the book?
The science of mind and behavior
What is psychology according to Mana?
The scientific investigation of the mind, brain, and behavior
What is the mind?
Unobservable, private, inner states, inferred from changes in brain or behavior processes like love, or reward
What is the brain?
the organ of mind and behavior. Processes sensory info, integrates this with internal states and previous experiences and generates behaviors that allow interactions with the environment
MIND IS WHAT BRAIN DOES
What is behavior?
observable, measurable actions. It allows the mind to interact with the external world.
What is nativism?
Who believed in this?
Plato-certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn
What did Aristotle believe?
He believed that we should trust our senses, as we learn through experience.
What is the “naive debate?”
behavior is a function of genetic potential (genome) allowed to be more or less expressed by environmental constraints (envirome) modulated by an organisms previous experiences and current needs. Behavior is due to nature AND nurture.
Who was Decartes?
He was a famous French philosopher. He concluded “I think, therefore I am,” while pondering what is true in the world. Free will. Proposed that the mind and the brain are separable. He was a dualist.
What is dualism?
It is how mental activity can be reconciled and coordinated with physical behavior
Who was William Wundt?
He was the Father of Scientific Psychology.
- established the 1st psychology lab in 1877
- he searched for simplest units of behavior to understand the structure of mind
- introspection
- initiated study of how culture affects mind and behavior, realized that psy. functions of non-western cultures can differ dramatically from our own
What is introspection?
asking a person what they were thinking
Who was Charles Darwin?
Theory of Evolution.
- argued that natural selection is critical to the evolution of species
- his ideas led to comparative psy., an important step in the development of biological psy./neuroscience
Who was William James?
- 1st American Psy
- believed the mind could not be studied in parts, but had to be looked at as a whole
- believed that psy. should move out of the lab and emphasize real-world situations and that the way a behavior helped an animal function in its environment was its most important feature
Who was Sigmund Freud?
He proposed that basis for much of adult thought and behavior is unconscious, influenced by early experience, and by painful or socially taboo experiences
Who was Abraham Maslow?
- discouraged by the darkness and negativism of psychoanalysis
- proposed a humanistic psy that focused on promoting positive behaviors and encouraging people to become “self-actualized,” or, all that they can be
What is Maslow’s pyramid of needs?
- Self-actualization
- Esteem needs
- belongingness needs
- safety needs
- physiological needs
J.B. Watson?
- environment is everything
- psy should be studying things based on behavior and interaction with the environment
- inspired by Pavlov
- likes scientific approach
- 1st to use word “behaviorist”
Tolman?
-we learn just because we learn
A BEHAVIORIST WHO USED MAZES TO STUDY COGNITIVE STRATEGIES IN NON-HUMAN SPECIES…BELIEVED EVEN RATS WERE CAPAPBLE OF MORE THAN SIMPLE OPERANT OR CLASSICAL CONDITIONING…
Hebb?
The father of Behavioral Neuroscience.
Behavioral Neuroscience?
also known as biological psy. Uses physiological, pharmacologic, surgical, genetic, and developmental tools to scientifically study the neural bases of behavior in human and non-human animals
Cognitive psy?
the study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, and thinking.
Developmental psy?
the scientific study of changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life. originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan
Social psy?
the scientific study of the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior…of how people’s thoughts, feeling, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.
Clinical psy?
the part of psy that deals with the individual’s psy conflicts, crises and life difficulties, Personality psy involves studies of the personality’s structure, function, and development, and also the importance of personality towards overall adjustment and health
What is the empirical method?
a formal set of rules for observing and measuring the phenomenon we are interested in
What are the seven steps in the scientific method?
- Specify problem; identify phenomenon of interest
- develop operational definitions; describes psy phenomenon in terms of a property that is measurable
3.form a hypothesis; identifies plausible relationship between variables. A hypothesis MUST be TESTABLE and FALSIFIABLE - design study; identify key variables like dependent and independent variables.
Eliminate or control possible confound variables - conduct a study to test hypothesis; gather data
results should be replicable
large sames are more representable - form a theory; based on results of experiment, provide a unifying explanation for observations and generate predictions to be tested in new studies
- test theory; with studies based on prediction
What are demand characteristics and why could they be a problem?
They exist when a subject behaves the way the THINK you want them to rather than how they normally do.
- can be avoided by naturalistic observation
- can be avoided by allowing subject anonymity
- can be avoided by studying behaviors that are hard to consciously control
What is a descriptive study?
-frequently used at the start of a research program, to get an idea of “what is”
-may/may not be hypothesis driven; might simply be an examination of a phenomenon without trying to control anything
Can Involve
- naturalistic observations
-case studies
-surveys
Positive correlation?
When one variable gets stronger, the other get stronger
Negative correlation?
When one variable gets stronger, the other gets weaker
Zero correlation?
There is no relationship between the 2 variables you are studying
WEIRD science?
Westernized Educated people from Industrialized Rich Democracies
Who is Santiago Ramon y Cajal?
The father of neuroscience.
Neurons are the fundamental info processing unit of the nervous system.
Draw and label a structure of a neuron.
Cell body dendrites nucleus axon myelin sheath neural impulse-electrical signal terminal branches of axon neurotransmitters-chemical signal
What do neurons do?
- communicate with one another and with other cell types, through a combination of electoral and chemical signaling
- info moves along a single neuron in the form of an electrical signal
- no physical continuity between neurons, info passes between neurons in the form of a chemical signal
- neurons release chemicals called neurotransmitters that allow them to communicate with other cells in the body
What are the 6 parts of a neuron?
- cell body(soma); contains nucleus
- cell membrane
- dendrites
- axon
- myelin
- terminal region
What are channels?
allow movement of electrical charges to cross neural membrane, key in electrical signals that neurons use to send info from one end to the other
What are receptors?
attach to neurotransmitters that allow communication between neurons; they open channels to create electrical signals in neurons
What is a cell membrane?
a skin-like fatty membrane; relativley impermeable except at proteins called channels embedded in membrane
Dendrites?
site of communication with other neurons; dendrites receive info and convey it to a cell body
Axon?
long, thin process that takes info away from the cell body carrying to targets of neuron
Myelin?
a type of glia covers many axons, speeds movement of electrical signals along axon
Terminal Region?
the end of the axon that establishes contact with other cells, this connection is called a synapse
Study drawing of synapse.
look at slides
3 main types of neurons, based on function?
Sensory
Interneurons
Motor
Sensory neurons?
carry info into CNS
Interneurons?
the bulk of neurons; everything between sensory and motor neurons; they process sensory into, integrate with existing memories, current needs, and produce motor commands that are sent to motor neurons in spinal cord
Motor neurons?
carry commands from CNS to muscles and glands
PSP?
Post synaptic potential
- PSP can be excitatory (positive) or inhibitory (negative)
- PSPs created all over the soma and dendrites travel along the neurons membrane towards the initial segment
- if enough excitatory PSPs arrive at the initial segment at the same time, they can cause the axon to produce a much larger electrical signal called an action potential
Process of Action Potentials?
- start when Na+ channels open and Na+ enters the neuron, making it more positive
- action potentials end when K+ channels open and K+ leaves the neuron, returning it to a negative state
- Na+ is returned outside the neuron, and K+ is returned inside the neuron, by the Na+/K+ pump
What happens when the Action Potentials reach the terminals?
It causes the release of neurotransmitters that move across the synaptic gap to attach to receptor proteins on the next neuron….and the process starts over
What is the difference between PSP and action potentials?
PSP’S ARE SMALLER, FOUND IN THE SOMATODENDRITIC REGION, REPRESENT THE RECEPTION OF INFORMATION IN THE FORM OF NEUROTRANSMITTER, ARE PRODUCED BY CHEMICALLY-GATED CHANNELS. THEY ARE SUMMATED AT THE INITIAL SEGMENT OF AN AXON BY VOLTAGE-GATED CHANNELS, WHICH PRODUCE THE LARGER, REGENERATED ACTION POTENTIAL THAT CARRIES “INFORMATION” THE LENGTH OF THE AXON TO THE TERMINAL BOUTONS, WHERE IT RESULTS IN THE RELEASE OF NEUROTRANSMITTER
What are the differences between external and internal validity?
EXTERNAL VALIDITY = THE VARIABLES ARE SIMILAR TO WHAT YOU WOULD FIND IN THE REAL WORLD. INTERNAL VALIDITY = THE THING DEPENDENT MEASURE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE CONSTRUCT WE ARE INTERESTED IN, AND THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE ACTUALLY IMPACTS THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE THE WAY WE THOUGHT IT WOULD (THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE WE ARE LOOKING AT A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP)
What is the difference between the structuralist and fundamentalist approaches?
STRUCTURALISTS WANT TO STUDY PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN THE MOST BASIC FORM (SIMPLEST PIECES); FUNCTIONALISTS WORRY MORE ABOUT HOW A BEHAVIOR HELPS AN ANIMAL ADAPT AND THRIVE IN THEIR ENVIRONMENT
What is an action potential?
AN ELECTRICAL SIGNAL THAT MOVES INFORMATION FROM THE SOMA TO THE TERMINAL BOUTONS…
What is the human brain?
First organ system to develop; neurogenesis proceeds at amazing rate in utero
What is microglia?
Where dead cells eliminate
Nervous system
Nervous System
Peripheral Central (brain&spinal cord)
Automatic Sonomatic
Sympathetic Para sympathetic
What is the peripheral nervous system?
includes the somatic nervous system (somatomotor and somatosensory) and the automatic nervous system
What is somatic?
Controls voluntary movement of skeletor muscles. involved in tough, pain, temperature, movement of limbs
What does automatic mean? (nervous system)
controls self-regulated action of internal organs and glands. involved in control of smooth muscles and glands; includes sympathetic (4-fs) and parasympathetic(rest’n’digest) systems
