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Psych as a Natl Sci
Question | Answer |
---|---|
The scientific study of behavior and the mind | Psychology |
actions and responses that we can directly observe | Behavior |
internal states and processes, such as thoughts and feelings, that cannot be seen directly and that must be inferred from observable, measurable responses | Mind |
The study and treatment of mental disorders | Clinical Psychology |
Specializes in the study of mental processes, especially from a model that views the mind as an information processor | Cognitive Psychology |
Focuses on the psychology of language | Psycholinguistics |
Focuses on the biological underpinnings of behavior | Biopsychology |
Examines human physical, psychological, and social development across the life span | Developmental Psychology |
Focuses on basic processes such as learning, sensory systems (vision, hearing), perception, and motivational states (sexual motivation, hunger, thirst). | Experimental Psychology |
Examines people's behavior in the workplace | Industrial-organizational Psychology |
Focuses on the study of human personality | Personality Psychology |
Examines people's thoughts, feelings, and behavior pertaining to the social world | Social Psychology |
gained through experience and observation | Empirical Evidence |
performed according to a system of rules or conditions | systematic |
assumptions about peoples personality based on things like appearance | mental shortcuts |
ignoring things that go against our opinions once they're formed | confirmation bias |
multiple people observing experiments, removing external factors, peer review, transparency. science is self-correcting | ways to minimize everyday pitfalls |
What exactly is this claim or assertion? Who is making the claim/is the source creditable and trustworthy? What is the evidence and how good is it? Are there other explanations possible/can I evaluate them? What is the most appropriate conclusion? | Critical Thinking questions |
Tea leaf and palm reading, astrologers, graphologists, etc. | Pseudoscience |
description, explanation, control, application | Central goals of psychology |
the quest for knowledge for its own sake | Basic research |
designed to solve specific, practical problems | Applied research |
analysis of internal and primarily unconscious psychological forces | psychoanalysis |
searches for the causes of behavior within in inner workings of our personality, emphasizing the role of unconscious processes | The psychodynamic perspective |
focuses on the role of the external environment in governing our action | The behavioral perspective |
emphasized free will, personal growth and the attempt to find meaning in one's existence | The humanistic perspective |
examines the nature of the mind and how mental processes influence behavior | The cognitive perspective |
examines how the social environment and cultural learning influence our behavior, thoughts, and feelings | The sociocultural perspective |
examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behavior | The biological perspective |
Identify a question of interest. Gather info and form a hypothesis. Test it through research. Analyze data, draw tentative conclusions, report findings. Build a body of knowledge. | Scientific process |
defines variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it | operational definition |
the tendency to respond in a socially acceptable manner rather than according to how one truly feels or behaves. We are subjective, interested participants in psychology. | social desirability bias |
records or documents that already exist | archival measures |
beneficence, responsibility, integrity, justice, respect | APA ethics |
before the study, people should be told about its purpose & procedures, its potential benefits, potential risks to the participants, the right to decline participation & withdraw sans penalty, if responses will be confidential/how privacy will be guarded | Informed consent |
seeks to identify how humans and other animals behave, particularly in natural settings | descriptive research |
researcher measures variable X, researcher also measures variable Y, the researcher statistically determines whether X and Y are related | correlational research |
Researcher manipulates one or more variables. Then measures whether this manipulation influences other variables. Then attempts to control extraneous factors that might influence the outcome of the experiment | experiments |
two variables are intertwined in such a way that we cannot determine which one has influenced a dependent variable | confounding of variables |
subtle and unintentional ways a researcher influences participants to respond in a manner that is consistent with the researcher's hypothesis | experimenter expectancy effects |
both the participant and he experimenter are kept blind as to which experimental condition the participant is in | double blind procedure |
the degree to which the results of a study can be generalized to other populations, settings and conditions | external validity |
allows us to summarize and describe the characteristics of a set (or distribution) of data | descriptive statistics |
difference between the highest and lowest number in a set of statistical data | range |
Most commonly occurring number in a set of statistical data | mode |
how much each number in a distribution differs from the mean | standard deviation |
how confident we can be in making inferences about a population based on findings obtained from a sample | inferential statistics |
a statistical procedure for combining the results of different studies that examine the same topic | meta-analysis |
tightly coiled double stranded DNA molecule | chromosome |
alternative forms of a gene that produce different characteristics (one for brown eyes, one for blue) | allele |
hoe behavior influences an organism's chances of survival and reproduction in its natural environment | adaptive significance |
an unlearned response automatically triggered by a particular stimulus | fixed action pattern |
Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness to Experience | Big 5 heritable personality traits |
for a genetically influenced trait, this is the range of possibilities (upper & lower limits) that the genetic code allows | reaction range |
It’s the study of us, how our minds work, how we come to make decisions and have opinions. We can’t trust our own ears. We’re not built to see everything as it is. Our brain is wired for survival. | Why do we need to study psych? |
Wundt. understand people by breaking down what they experience into its smallest parts. People trained to talk about their experiences. It’s not useful information, it didn’t go anywhere. | Structuralism |
William James. (getting into what people actually do) Best known for saying things really eloquently, writing first psych textbook | Functionalism |
Freud. Most influential historical figure in psych. Managed to penetrate out of psychology into the culture at large. Talked about influence of childhood. Emphasized importance of sexuality. Brought forth the importance of the unconscious mind. | Psychodynamic Theory |
the environment drives our behavior. Emphasis on reward and punishment. Not accurate when it comes into language acquisition. What happens in the mind is unimportant, only cared about stimulus and reaction. | Behaviorism |
People are good. Free will. We want to become our ideal versions of ourselves, good for society. Choice and responsibility. Personal growth, self worth of every human being. Partially responsible for 60s. invented the group hug. | Humanism |
uses quantitative scientific method developed by hard sciences. Collects and analyzes numerical data, uses that as evidence. Publish. Discuss. Numbers are at the core. Still some qualitative research | Modern Scientific Psychology |
Self-report (soc desirability bias), reports made by others, overt behavior (unobtrusive observation), archival methods (uncommon-like racist googling), psychological tests (like IQ), physiological methods (polygraphs and brain scans) | Types of dependent variables |
Each participant has an equal change of being assigned to any one group within an experiment | Random Assignment |
Experiment is when you’re in control and can draw conclusions about cause and effect. Smoking and cancer is not a true experiment because it’s not like you assign random people to smoke for 3 decades | Distinction between a study and an experiment |
when you’re not doing an experiments, you’re looking at how things coincide, like vaccinations and autism. You could tell a certain number of kids not to get vaccinated, but that’s unethical. | Correlational Research |
Direction and strength or relationship between two variables (positive, negative, none) | Correlational Coefficient |
a child's genetically influenced behaviors may evoke certain responses from others | evocative influence |
cultures may themselves be the product of biological mechanisms that evolved to meet specific adaptation challenges faced by specific groups of people in specific places at specific times | evoked culture |
mating strategies and preferences reflect inherited tendencies, shaped over the ages in response to different types of adaptive problems that men and women faced | sexual strategies theory |
men and women simply display mating preferences not because nature impels them to do so, but because society guides them into different social roles | social structure theory |
the idea that multiple (even contradictory) behavioral traits might be adaptive in certain environments and would therefore be maintained through natural selection | strategic pluralism |
dendrites, soma, nucleus - axon, myelin sheath - axon terminals | neuron structure |
the internal difference of ~70 millivolts in a neuron | resting potential |
electrical shift in a neuron which lasts 1/1000 of a second. also known as nerve impulse | action potential |
action potentials occur at a uniform and maximum intensity, or not at all | all-or-none law |
changes in the negative resting potential that do not reach the -50 millivolt action potential threshold | graded potentials |
chemical substances that carry messages across the synaptic space to other neurons, muscles or glands | neurotransmitters |
chambers within the axon terminals | synaptic vesicles |
large protein molecules embedded in the receiving neuron's cell membrane | receptor sites |
when the transmitter molecules are taken back into the presynaptic axon terminals | reuptake |
sensory (sense organs), motor (muscles and organs), inter-neurons (link input and output functions) | types of neurons |
sensory & motor neurons (voluntary movement) | somatic nervous system |
has an activation for arousal function, and it tends to act as a total unit. (controls fight or flight) | sympathetic nervous system |
Neuropsychological tests, destruction and simulation techniques, electrical recording, Brain Imaging | Ways of studying the brain |
lowest and most primitive level of the brain | Hindbrain |
supports vital life functions | Brainstem function |
plays an important role in vital body functions such as heart rate and breathing | Medulla function |
carries nerve impulses between higher and lower levels of the nervous system. helps regulate sleep & breathing. | Pons function |
mostly muscular movement, balance, and coordination, but also learning and memory | Cerebellum function |
contains clusters of sensory and motor neurons. your midbrain is like hey its really cold while you're arguing. Or lets you eavesdrop when youre talking to someone but hear your name in a crowded room | Midbrain |
alerts higher centers of the brain that messages are coming and then either blocks them or allows them to go forward. functions in consciousness, sleep and attention. Damage can cause comas. | Reticular formation function |
the brain's most advanced portion from an evolutionary standpoint | Forebrain |
2 hemispheres. controls higher functions | Cerebrum |
organizes inputs from sensory organs and routes them to the appropriate areas of the brain. controls balance and equilibrium. damage causes schizophrenia, hallucinations and confusion. | Thalamus functions |
plays a major role in motivation & emotion, including sexual behavior, temperature regulation, sleeping, eating, drinking, and aggression. Connection to the endocrine system. Relates to pleasure and pain as well. | Hypothalamus functions |
helps coordinate behaviors needed to satisfy motivational and emotional urges that arise in the hypothalamus. Also involved in memory. | limbic system |
involved in forming and retrieving memories. damage can result in memory impairment | hippocampus functions |
organizes motivational and emotional response patterns, particularly those linked to aggression and fear. unconscious emotional responses. maternal behavior | amygdala functions |
1/4 inch-thick sheet of gray (unmyelinated) cells that form the outermost layer of the human brain | cerebral cortex |
controls the 600 or more muscles involved in voluntary body movement | motor cortex functions |
body sensations - receives sensory input that gives rise to our sensations of heat, touch, and cold and to our senses of balance and body movement | somastic sensory cortex functions |
executive functions - judgement, goal setting, strategic planning, and impulse control. Damage results in people being oblivious to the consequences associated with their actions. Phineas Gage. | prefrontal cortex functions |
surrounded by higher-order auditory cortex (hearing) | primary auditory cortex functions |
speech formation | Broca's area functions |
speech understanding | Wernicke's area |
involved in many important mental functions such as perception, language and thought. Damage results in loss or disruption of speech, understanding, thinking and problem solving. | association cortex functions |
neural bridge that acts as a major communication link between the two hemispheres and allows them to function as a single unit. aphasia is when the two cant communicate. | Corpus Callosum |
the ability of neurons to change structure and function (part of your brain that controls touch, sound, hearing getting bigger when you lose sight) | neural plasticity |
roused to action by signals of potential reward and positive need gratification | behavioral activation system |
responds to stimuli that signal potential pain, non reinforcement, and punishment | behavioral inhibition system |
self-identity, sexual attraction, and actual sexual behavior | sexual orientation dimensions |
Obtain positive stimulation, receive emotional support, gain attention and permit social comparison | reasons humans affiliate |
focuses on the manner in which success is defined by both the individual and within the achievement itself (mastery orientation-personal improvement, ego orientation-outperforming others, motivational climate-external encouragement) | achievement goal theory |
If you have a broken window in a building and you don’t fix it, the other windows will be broken (if you tolerate any small crime, larger crimes will follow) | the broken window theory |
If it is spread through internet, the cause is communication and information. Along transportation routes - probably microbial. Like a fan from patient zero - probably an insect. Happens everywhere at once - probably a molecule. | If you want to understand an epidemic, you have to look at how it spreads. |
confusing correlation and causation, even with true experiments, you can have confounds (X and Y being tested, affected by Z), placebo effect, chance occurrence | Threats to Validity |
building blocks of brain and nervous system. Generate electricity that create nerve impulses. Transmit chemicals called neurotransmitters | Neurons |
muscle movement, memory | acetylcholine |
learning, memory, eating • too little, depression • too much, panic disorder | norepinephrine |
mood, sleep, eating, arousal • sleep disorders • OCD | serotonin |
voluntary movement • also to do with sense of self • expression of joy • “sleepy sickness” | dopamine |
inhibits motor function | GABA |
painkiller • responsible for runners high | endorphin |
• get people who has suffered from specific brain injuries • have them take tests | neuropsychological tests |
• destruction of parts of the brain done on animals • there is a board to protect rights/well being of research subjects • more of a cost/benefit weighing with animals | destroy or electrically stimulate |
• recording brain waves, like suction cups and plugs • you know the amount of brain activity, but that’s it | electrical activity recording – EEG |
• X rays • Looking for a tumor | CT scan (brain imaging structure) |
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging • Magnetic pulses to create a picture • Much more detail than CT • More expensive | MRI (brain imaging structure) |
• Inject radioactive glucose • Glucose is a tracer, so you can see the blood flow and neurotransmitter activity | PET scan (brain imaging activity) |
• functional MRI taking lots of MRI close together and making a brain movie | fMRI (brain imaging activity) |
pain and temperature | parietal lobe functions |
vision | occipital lobe functions |
sound | temporal lobe functions |
which side the stuff is going on. Left side is dominant size for right handed people. Its good to have a dominant side | Lateralization |
• language, math • positive emotions • top-down • assimilation • the interpreter, explains, constructs our reality | Left Brain |
• spatial, visual • negative emotions • bottom-up • accommodation • the anomaly detector | Right Brain |
• not an experiment, it’s a study • most twins reared apart are in contact. You can’t do a study on them without telling them they’re twins • grow up in different socioeconomic environments • Always have the same prenatal environment | Shortcomings of twins reared apart |
our genetics often determine how people treat us. Yao ming’s identical twin might also play basketball because he’d be tall | evocative influence |
changes in genetic expression based on environmental influences. There’s going to be blurring between the two | epigenetics |
the upper and lower limits that genetic code allows. Environment determines where upon this range. It’s possible that both your parents could be schizophrenic but you could not ever develop it (David Bowie) | reaction range |
• identical twins reared together .86 vs identical twins reared apart .75 • Genetics play a really large role. Between 50-70% of intelligence is genetics. | Genes and Intelligence |
Stimulating environment is important. Helicopter parenting is bad. Proper nutrition is vital. IQ is stable over lifetime. Between age 7-9, it becomes fixed. Rate of development doesn’t predict where you will end up. | Environmental Influences on Intelligence |
• things that help you survive long enough to pass on your genetic material • genetic codes expressing themselves in a way that is advantageous evolutionarily • most of our dating behavior is based on our desire to spread our genes | Sexual strategies theory |
There are genetic benefits to long-term commitment Avoiding STDs Avoiding competition with other men for mates Better degree of woman in a relationship Monogamy you know it’s your kid so you can invest in the children Men who commit cheat 25-70 perce | From an evolutionary perspective, why would men ever marry? |
technological term from 50s saying information processing doubles every 2 years (in terms of speed and capacity) We’re approaching the end of efficiency because we’re reaching the physical limits of our universe. | Moore’s law |
Hunger, Thirst, Sleep, Sex, Avoiding Pain | Basic Motivation (all animals, vertebrates) |
o Provides energy to the body o Fuel for the brain too, more direct than previously thought. Improves self-control o Example with parole board, most granted in morning and right after lunch | Hunger |
• Given something you want or taking away something you don’t want. Eating is both, giving good taste and taking away hunger | Positive reinforcement |
• Taking away something you want | Negative reinforcement |
• Related to weight. Your body wants to stay at a certain weight, so your body will slow metabolism if you get below a certain level. Set point isn’t a floor and a ceiling, it’s just a floor. | Set point |
something there to set balance. | Homeostatic mechanism |
we will eat habitually (in front of the TV) We have triggers and are conditioned | Habit |
learned from childhood. “You can’t get up until you’ve cleaned your plate” which is bad, separating them from their natural eating responses. We want to eat when we’re hungry and stop eating when we’re full. | Norms |
Low, eats based on the body’s cues. High, eats based on external cues (noon lunch, 6 dinner, eat this during football) | High restraint vs low restraint eaters |
literally there is a problem in the parietal cortex (internal thing that calculates our body image, separate from determining the size of everything else). Or obese people who come from an obese family see themselves of smaller. A matter of perspective. | Theories of obesity |
People who rarely eat, get down to dangerous (starving) weights. And its fatal, not just starving but if you get the flu you may die. Incredibly distorted body image. Literally see themselves heavier than they are. At the core is a need for control | Anorexia Nervosa |
• Concerned about body weight, but instead of starving, they binge and purge, which isn’t as effective as keeping calories out of their bodies • Tend to be average or slightly overweight | Bulimia |
A lot of unpleasantness comes not from pain but from our resistance to pain. We try to get past it and survive it. We have good painkillers, but stingy doctors. | Avoiding pain |
Watch tv show while you’re having a root canal | Dissociative pain |
The zen strategy. Pay attention to your pain and accept it and move past it. Strip pain down to the raw sensation, the nerve impulses (like hot, tingling) | Associative pain |
where we feel pain. Or rejection, or loss of someone you love. | Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex |
• women should be thin and childlike • look like they’re heroin addicts • odd poses and positioning • lesbian undertones • no wrinkles, freakishly long limbs | eating disorders and the media |
-animal sexual behavior driven by hormones (animals in heat when they’re fertile) -humans will attempt to build sexual desire (by thinking about it, looking at porn, doing things to get in the mood etc.) | Sex |
Our culture is more sexually active than in the recent past. 19 year olds in ’65 27% weren’t virgins, 72% in 2005. 17 is average age of first intercourse in US. Iceland is the youngest at 15.6. India and Malaysia is the latest at 23. | sex & culture |
o Excitement o Plateau o Orgasm o Resolution | Masters & Johnson Sexual response cycle |
Heredity (twins), Neurological, fraternal birth order effect. Gender nonconforming behavior as a child can predict | Determinants of sexual orientation |
o Homosexual urges when they’re repressed by fear or shame, can express themselves as homophobia. When you repress a feeling, you consciously hate the object of that feeling. | Theory of homophobia as repressed homosexual urges |
• Fairly consistent across states/regions • Percentage-wise, 8 of the top 10 percentages were in red states • Takes up close to half the spaces on the search bars | who pays for online porn? |
fetish, voyeurism, exhibitionism, frotteurism, pedophilia, transvitism, S | Atypical sexuality |
o sexually fixated on an object other than another person o leather, rubber, foot, spiked heels, crush | fetish |
o people who are being treated sexually without their knowledge o peeping toms o not illegal in most states, but are charged with trespassing and given heavy sentences for that | voyeurism |
o flashing o they want to shock and scare people o happens mostly during the day o laugh and disregard them to disappoint them (if you’re in a safe place where it wouldn’t be dangerous to provoke them) | exhibitionism |
o rubbing up against/groping unwilling people o rush hour on a subway, in line for a rock concert o is illegal | frotteurism |
o Around 25% are molested in their childhood o 2 ½ x more likely to be struck by lightning than abducted by a stranger in the US o scarring factor is the reaction of the parents, terrifies child and makes the kid feel horrible and guilty | pedophilia |
o get sexual pleasure from dressing in women’s clothing o most are heterosexual o 1/3 of them are married and of those, some keep it secret and some don’t | transvestism |
o sexually aroused by inflicting or receiving pain or humiliation o it’s consensual, otherwise it’s assault o 25% of heterosexual couples engage in this behavior o ritualized, scripted, planned | sadism & masochism |
Social interaction, exploration, learning, and achievement | High Order Motivations |
competence - to be good at doing things, to gain skills at thing they value autonomy - people don’t want to be told what to value - we want to pick what we’re trying to be good at. relatedness - forming meaningful bonds with other people | Self-Determination theory |