Question | Answer |
define psychology | scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
developmental psych | study of how people grow/change physically, cognitively, emotionally, and socially from prenatal period through death |
psysiological psych | investigates biological basis of behavior |
experimental psych | investigates basic psychological processes such as sensation and perception, memory, intelligence, learning, and motivation |
personality psych | studies differences between individuals on such traits as sociability, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and self-esteem |
clinical and counseling psych | applies principles of psychology to mental health and adjustment. clinical focuses on diagnosis and treatment of disorders while counseling is more concerned with "normal" adjustment issues such as coping with a troubled relationship |
social psych | explores how society influences indivuals in their interpersonal attraction, persuasion, attitude formation, obedience, conformity, and group behavior |
industrial and organizational psych | applies principles of psychology to workplace focusing on practical issues of personnel selection and training, working conditions, workplace morale, and leadership |
what are five issues psychologists deal with in what it means to be human? | person/situation, nature/nurture, stability/change, diversity/universality, mind/body |
what are the three main stages the history of psychology can be divided into? | the emergence of a science of the mind, the behaviorist decades, and the "cognitive revolution" |
which psychologist was associated with memory, selective attention, and voluntarism? | Wundt |
which psychologist broke down consciousness into three basic elements: physical sensations, feelings, and images and developed the structuralism theory? | Titchener |
who challenged structuralism and had a functionalism theory? | James |
who developed the psychodynamic theory which laid the foundation for the study of personality and psychological disorders? (deals with unconscious actions) | sigmund freud |
who developed the behaviorism definition of psychology (psychology being the study of observable and measurable behavior and the result of conditioning) | Watson and Pavlov |
Gestalt psychology | refers to our tendency to see patterns, and to distinguish objects from a background |
humanistic psych | feelings and yearnings are key |
cognitive psych | study of our mental processes in the broadest sense: thinking, feeling,learning, and remembering |
evolutionary psych | focuses on origins of behavior patterns and mental processes, the adaptive value they have or had, and the functions they serve or served in our emergence as a distinct species |
positive psych | psychology should devote more attention to the good life: the study of subjective feelings of happiness and well being, the development of intimacy, integrity. leadership, wisdom, etc. that incourage individuals to flourish |
when did psychology become it's own separate divison? | late 1800s/ 19th century |
a group within a larger society that shares a certain set of values beliefs outlooks and norms of behavior | subculture |
naturalistic observation | studying human or animal behavior in natural context |
main drawback of naturalistic observation | observer bias- may not record things if they think it's irrelevant |
case study | detailed description of one person or a few individuals |
drawback of case study | can't draw general conclusions from one individual |
survey research | carefully selected group of people is asked a set of predetermined questions |
draw of survey research | people often go for the socially "correct" answer |
drawback of correlational research | doesn't explain cause and effect, no basis on drawing conclusions |
what kind of research allows psychologists to examine relationships between two or more variables without manipulating any variable | correlational |
the method of research best suited to explaining behavior is... | experimental |
to ensure results of a particular study apply to a larger population, research use... | random or representative samples |
what are the five main career paths for students majoring in psych? | psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, clinical psychologist, counseling psychologist, and social worker |
neurons that collect messages | sensory or afferent neurons |
neurons that transmit messages from cns to muscles and glands | motor or efferent neurons |
neurons that carry messages from one neuron to the other | interneurons or association neurons |
glial cells | hold neurons in place, provide nourishment, remove waste, prevent harmful substances from passing through blood into brain, and form myelin sheath |
all or none law | every firing of a particular neuron produces an impulse of the same strength |
resting potential/polarized | more negative ions inside the neuron than outside |
neural impulse/action potential | electrical charge, or depolarized neuron |
graded potential | a small temporary shift in electrical charge |
acetylcholine | involved in arousal, attention, memory, motivation, and movement. associated with muscle action |
dopamine | involved in wide variety of behaviors/emotions including pleasure and pain |
serotonin | involved in regulation of sleep, dreaing, mood, eating, pain, and aggressive behavior. associated with depression |
norepinephrine | affects arousal, wakefulness, learning, memory, and mood |
endorphins | involved in inhibition of pain, released during strenuous exercise (runners high) |
neural plasticity | brain changes in response to organisms experiences |
hippocampus | brain structure involved in forming memories |
neurogenesis | production of new brain cells |
somatic nervous system | transmits info about body movements and the external environment |
autonomic nervous system | transmits info to and from internal organs and glands |
medulla | controls breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure (is right above spinal cord in hindbrain) |
pons | produces chemicals that maintain our sleep-wake cycle(above medulla) |
cerebellum | contains more neurons than rest of brain, controls emotions, memory, attention, and coordination |
thalamus | relay station:all info passes through here |
hypothalamus | influence on motivation: hunger, thirst, sex drive, thus responsible for emotional behavior: rage, terror, pleasure |
reticular formation | netlike system of neurons that weave through all structure that send alert signals in response to incoming messages |
cerebral cortex | thin layer of gray matter that covers cerebrum and processes thought, vision, language, and emotions. takes up most of the room in skull |
prefrontal cortex | plays a crucial role in goal directed behavior, impulse control, and judgment |
frontal lobe | coordinates messages from other cerebral lobes; involved in complex problem solving |
primary motor cortex | part of frontal lobe, sends messages to muscles adn glands and plays key role in voluntary movement |
central fissure | separates primary somatosensory cortex from primary motor cortex |
primary somatosensory cortex | registers sensory messages from entire body |
parietal lobe | receives sensory info from sense receptors all over body, involved in spatial abilities |
temporal lobe | balance, emotion, understanding language, hearing |
occipital lobe | vision |
limibic system consists of.. | hippocampus and amygdala |
amygdala | governs emotions related to self-preservation |
corpus callosum | band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres |
which hemisphere is responsible for learning to read and processing language? | left |
which hemisphere deals with visual and spacial tasks including music, face recognition, perception of emotion and color | right |
aphasias | when strokes produce predictable language problems |
"expressive" aphasia is linked to... | Broca's area |
"receptive" aphasia is linked to... | Wernicke's area |
microelectrode techniques | used to study functions of individual neurons |
macroelectrode techniques | used to obtain a picture of the activity in a particular region of the brain |
structural imaging | family of techniques used to map structures in living brain |
functional imaging | family of techniques that image activity in brain as it responds to various stimuli |
what is the main difference between the nervous and endocrine system? | speed. hormones travel much slower than a nerve impulse |
pineal gland | secretes melanonin, regulates sleep-wake cycle |
pituitary gland | controlled by hypothalmus, regulates other glands, also involved in growth, uterine contractions, and milk production |
parathyroids | regulate calcium and phosphate levels, influencing excitability |
thyroid | secretes thyroxin which regulates metabolism |
pancreas | regulate blood sugar levels with hormones insulin and glucagon |
adrenal | adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla secretes hormones involved in stress and arousal when physically threatened |
ovaries | secrete estrogen |
testes | secrete testosterone |
transduction | the process of converting physical energy such as light or sound into electrochemical codes |
absolute threshold | the minimum intensity that physical energy reaching a receptor cell musch achieve to produce sensation |
sensory adaptation | senses automatically adjust to the overall |
difference threshold | smallest change in stimulation that you can detect 50% of the time (just noticeable difference). it varies according to the intensity of the stimulus |
Weber's law | theory that the difference threshold is a constant fraction or proportion of the original stimulus |
what converts energy into a neural signal | receptor cell |
perception of sensory info that is below the threshold of awareness | subliminal perception |
fovea | area of retina that is the center of the visual field |
rods | receptor cells in the retina responsible for night vision and perception of brightness |
cones | receptor cells in retina responsible for color vision |
which receptor cell is found mainly in fovea? | cones, no rods are found here |
bipolar cells | specialized neurons that rods and cones connect to which have only one axon and one dendrite |
ganglion cells | neurons that connect bipolar cells in the eyes to the brain |
blind spot | the place on the retina where the axons of all ganglion cells join to form the optic nerve. no receptor cells here |
optic chiasm | where fibers from each optic nerve cross/meet in the center of the brain |
trichromatic theory | 3 kinds of receptors in the retina (red, green, blue) |
opponent-process theory | 3 pairs of receptors in retina (yellow-blue, red-green, black-white) |
frequency | measured in cycles per second in unit called hertz |
pitch | how high or low frequency is |
amplitude | height of sound wave, determines loudness |
overtones | accompanying sound waves that are different multiples of the frequency of the basic tone |
timbre | texture of the sound |
oval window | membrane across the opening between the middle ear and inner ear that conducts vibrations to the cochlea |
cochlea | part of inner ear containing fluid that vibrates, which in turn causes basilar membrane to vibrate |
basilar membrane | vibrating membrane in cochlea, contains sense receptors for sound |
organ of Corti | on surface of basilar membrane, contains receptor cells for hearing |
auditory nerve | bundle of axons that carries signals from ears to brain |
place theory | pitch is determined by location of greatest vibration on basilar membrane |
frequency theory | pitch is determined by frequency with which hair cells in cochlea fire |
volley principle | receptors in ear fire in sequence, complete pattern of firing corresponds to frequency of sound wave |
kinesthetic senses | senses of muscle movement, posture, and strain on muscles and joints |
vestibular senses | orientation or position in space that hep determine which way is up and down |
gate-control theory | a neurological gate in the spinal cord controls the transmission of pain impulses to the brain |
biopsychosocial theory | pain sensations involve three interrelated phenomena:biological mechanisms, psychological mechanisms, and social mechanisms |
skin sensations include | pressure, temperature, and pain |
which senses provide awareness of our body's position? | kinesthetic |
perceptual constancy | tendency to perceive objects as relatively stable and unchanging despite changing sensory info |
monocular cues | visual message that one eye alone can trasnmit |
binocular cues | require both eyes |
interposition | deals with relative position, occurs when one objects partly blocks a second |
stereoscopic vision | combination of two retinal images to give a three-dimensional perceptual experience |
retinal disparity | binocular distance cue based on the difference between the images cast on the two retinas when both eyes are focused on the same object |
convergence | depth cue from muscles controlling eye movement as the eyes turn inward to view a nearby stimulus |
monaural cues | cues to sound location in one ear |
autokinetic illusion | perceived motion created by absense of visual cues surrounding a single stationary object |
stroboscopic motion | apparent motion created by a rapid series of still images |