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Abnormal Psycholgy
Chapter 1 - 7
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Psychology | The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. |
| 4 Goals of Psychology | description, explanation, prediction, influence |
| Theory | A general principle or set of principles that explains how a number of seperate facts are related to one another |
| Basic Research | Research conducted for the purpose of advance knowledge rather than for its practical application |
| Applied Research | Research conducted for the purpose of solving practical problems |
| Descriptive Research Methods | Research methods that yield descriptions of behaviour rather than explainations |
| Naturalistic Observation | A research method in which researchers observe and record behaviour without trying to influence or control it |
| case study | an in-depth study of one or a few people consisting of information gathered through observation, interviews and perhaps psychological testing |
| Survey | researchers use interviews and/or questionnares to gather information about the attitudes beliefs experiences or behaviours of a group of people |
| experimental method (cause-effect relationships) | researchers randomly assign participants to groups and control all conditions other then one or more independent variable, which are then manipulated to determine their effect on some behaviour measured (the dependent variable in the experiment) |
| representative sample | one that includes important subgroups in the same proportion as they are found in the larger population |
| Hypothesis | A prediction about the relationship between two or more variables |
| Independent Variable | the factor or condition that the researcher manipulated in order to determine its effect on another behaviour or condition |
| Dependent Variable | measured at the end of the experiment, and is presumed to vary as a result of the manipulations on the independent variable |
| experimental group | group of participants who are exposed to the independent variable or the treatment |
| control group | exposed to the same experimental environment as the "experimental group" but it is not given the independent variable/treatment |
| selection bias | participants are assigned to groups in such a way that systemic differences among the groups are present at the beginning of the experiment |
| random assignment | selecting participants through chance, such as drawing names out of a hat, to ensure that all have an equal probability of being assigned to any of the groups |
| placebo effect | response is due to the person's expectations rather than the treatment |
| placebo | i.e. Sugar Pill - given to the control group in an experiment as a control for the placebo effect |
| experimenter bias | occers when researchers preconceived notions or expectations cause them to find what they expect to find, (expectations are communicated to the participants some how) |
| double-blind technique | neither the participants nor the researchers know who is getting the treatment or who is in the control group |
| correlation method | used to establish the relationship between two characteristics |
| correlation coefficient | a numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables (+1.00 to -1.00) |
| reliability | consistency of a test |
| validity | the test's ability to measure what it is intended to measure |
| Why are animals used in research | 1)provide a simpler model 2)exercise more control 3)wider range of manipulations can be used 4)easier to study life cycle 5)cheaper |
| Wilhem Wundt | founder of psychology |
| Edward Bradford Titchner | introduced psychology to North America "structuralism" was his school of thought, analyzing the basic elements or the structure of concsious mental experience |
| Functionalism - William James | concerned with how mental processes function |
| Gestalt Psychology | emphasizes that individuals perceive objects and patterns as whole units and that the perceived whole is more than just the sum of it's parts |
| Behaviourism - Watson & Skinner | founded by John Watson, views observable, measurable behaviour as the appropriate subject matter |
| Psychoanalysis - Freud | the unconcious is the focus of this theory |
| humanistic psychology - Maslow & Rogers | focuses on the uniqueness of human beings and their capacityfor choice, growth, and psychological health |
| cognitive psychology | studies mental processes such as memory, problem solving, reasoning and decision making, language, perception, often uses the information-processing approach |
| biological perspective | emphasizes biological processes and heredity as the keys to understanding behaviour |
| sociocultural perspective | emphasizes cultural and social influences on human behaviour and stresses the imprtance of understanding those influences |
| Modern perspectives in Psychology | Biological, Psychanalytic, Behavioural, Cognitive, Humanistic, Evolutionary, Sociocultural |
| Neuron | a specialized cell that conducts impulses throught the nervous system and contains three major parts, cell body, dendrites and an axon |
| cell body | contains the nucleus carries out the life sustaining functions of the neuron |
| dendrites | primary receivers of signals from other neurons |
| axon | slender tail-like extension of the neuron that sprouts into many branches each ending in an axon terminal |
| glial cells | holds the neurons together, makes the brain more efficient, removes waste products such as dead neurons, makes the myelin coating for the axons, performs other manufacturing nourishing and clean up tasks |
| synapse | sending neuron communicates with receiving neuron across the synaptic cleft |
| resting potential | when at rest a neuron carries a negative electrical potential relative to the fluid outside the cell |
| action potential | the sudden reversal of the negative charge or resting potential when positive ions flow into the cell which initiates the firing of the neuron |
| myelin sheath | white faty coating, wrapped around some axons that acts as insulation and enables impulses to travel faster |
| Neurotransmitter | chemical that is released into the synaptic cleft from the axon terminal of the sending neuron, crosses the synapse, and binds to appropriate receptors on the dendrites or cell body of the receiving neuron, influencing the cell either to fire or not fire |
| receptors | sites on the dendrite or cell body of a neuron that will interact only with specific neurotransmitteas |
| Major Neurotransmitters | Acetylcholine, Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Epinephrine, Serotonin, GABA, Endorphins |
| central nervous system | spinal chord and the brain |
| spinal cord | extension of the brain, reaching from the base of the brain through the neck and spinal column, that transmits messages between the brain and the peripheral nervous system |
| brainstem | structure that begins at the point where the spinal cord enlarges as it enters the brain |
| medulla | part of the brain stem that controls heartbeat, blood pressure, breathing, coughing, and swallowing |
| reticular formation | structure in the brainstem that plays a crucial role in arousal and attention and screens sensory messages entering the brain |
| cerebrum | largest structure of the human brain |
| cerebral hemispheres | right and left halves of the cerebrum |
| corpus callosum | thick band of nerve fibres that connects the two hemispheres |
| cerebral cortex | grey convoluted covering of the cerebral hemispheres that is responsible for higher mental processes such as language, memory and thinking |
| frontal lobes | controls voluntary body movements, speech production, and such functions as thinking, motivation, planning for the future, impulse control, emotional responses |
| Paul Broca | Broca's area - damaged area of the brain responsible for speech |
| Aphasia | loss or impairment of the ability to produce or use language |
| Thalamus | The structure located above the brainstem that acts as a relay station for information flowing into or out of the higher brain centres |
| Hypothalamus | A small but influential brain structure that controls the pituitary gland and regulated hunger, thirst, sexual behaviour, body temperature, and a wide variety of emotional behaviours |
| cerebral hemispheres | The right and left halves of the cerebrum, covered by the cerebral cortex and connected by the corpus callosum. |
| corpus callosum | The thick band of nerve fibers that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and makes possible the transfer of information and the synchronization of activity between them |
| frontal lobes | the lobes that control voluntary body movement, speech production and such functions as thinking, motivation, planning for the future, impulse control and emotional responses |
| Broca's Area | The area in the frontal lobe usually in the left hemisphere that controls the production of speech sounds |
| Lateralization | The specialization of one of the cerebral hemispheres to handle a particular function |
| right hemisphere | specialized for visual-spatial perception and understanding non-verbal behaviour |
| left hemisphere | coordinates complex movements, and controls the production of speech and written language |
| sympathetic nervous system | under stress or faced with an emergency it automatically mobilizes the body's resources, preparing you for action "fight or flight" |
| parasympathetic nervous system | the division of the autonomic nervous system that is associated with relaxation and the conservation of eneregy and that brings the heightened bodily responses back to normal after an emergency |
| absolute threshold | The minimum amount of sensory stimulation that can be detected 50% of the time |
| difference threshold | the smallest increase or decrease in a physical stimulus required to produce a difference in sensation that is noticeable 50% of the time |
| sensation | the process through which the senses pick up visual, auditory, and other sensory stimuli and transmit them to the brain; sensory information that has registered in the brain but has not been interpreted |
| perception | the process by which sensory information is actively organized and processed by the brain |
| transduction | the process by which sensory receptors convert sensory stimulation - light, sound, odours, etc. - into neural impulses |
| rods | the light sensitive receptors in the retina that provide vision in dim light in black, white, and shades of grey. |
| cones | the receptor cells in the retina that enable us to see colour and fine detail in adequete light, but that do not function in dim light |
| hue | the property of light commonly refered to as "colour" (red, blue, green, and so on) determined primarily by the wavelength of light reflected from a surface |
| fovea | a small area of the retina that provides the clearest and sharpest vision because it has the largest concentration of cones |
| brightness | the dimension of visual sensation that is dependant on the intensity of light reflected from a surface and that corresponds to the amplitude of the light wave |
| trichomatic theory | the theory of colour vision suggesting that there are three types of cones, which are maximally sensitive to red, green or blue and that varying levels of activity in these receptors can produce all the colours |
| 5 primary taste sensations | sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami |
| papillae | small bumps on your tongue that contain taste buds, each taste bud is composed of 60 to 100 receptor cells, lifespan is only about 10 days |
| olfactory epithelium | a patch of tissue at the top of each nasal cavity, that contains about 10 million receptors for smell |
| figure-ground | a principle of perceptual organization whereby the visual field is perceived in terms of an object (figure) standing out against a background (ground) |
| seven monocular depth cues | interposition, linear perspective, relative size, texture gradient, atmospheric perspective, shadow or shading, motion parallax |
| conciousness | the continuous stream of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, or sensations of which we are aware from moment to moment |
| altered state of conciousness | a mental state other than ordinary waking conciousness, such as sleep, meditation, hypnosis, or a drug induced state |
| circadian rhythm | within each 24 hour period, the regular fluctuation from high to low points of a bodily function, such as sleep/wakefulness |
| NREM Sleep | Non rapid eye movement sleep, consisting of the four sleep stages and characterized by slow, regular respiration and heart rate, an absence of rapid eye movement and blood pressure and brain activity that are at a 24 hr low point |
| REM Sleep | sleep characterized by rapid eye movement, paralysis of large muscles, fast and irregular heart rate and respiration rate, increased brain-wave activity, and vivid dreams |
| microsleep | a momentary lapse from wakefulness into sleep usually occuring when one has been sleep-derived |
| sleep terror | a sleep disturbance in which a person partially awakens from stage 4 sleep with a scream, in a dazed, groggy and panicked state amd with a racing heart |
| classical conditioning | a response previously made only to a specific stimulus is made to another stimulus is made to another that has been paired repeatedly with the original stimulus |
| learning | a relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, capability, or attitude that is acquired through experience and cannot be attributed to illness, injury, or maturation |
| unconditioned response | it is elicited by the unconditioned stimulus without prior learning (food creates salivation) |
| unconditioned stimulus | elicits a specific response without prior learning |
| conditioned response | comes to be elicited by a conditioned stimulus as a result of it's repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus |
| conditioned stimulus | a neutral stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, becomes associated with it and elicits a conditioned response |
| extinction | the weakening and often eventual disappearance of alearned response |
| operant conditioning | a type of learning in which the consequences of behaviour tend to modify that behaviour in the future (behaviour that is reinforced tends to be repeated; behaviour that is ignored or punished is less likely to be repeated) |
| reinforcement | an event that follows a response and increases the strength of the response and/or the liklihood that it will be repeated |
| positive reinforcement | a reward or pleasant consequence that follows a response in order to increase the probability that the response will be repeated |
| negative reinforcement | the termination of an unpleasant stimulus after a response in order to increase the probability that the response will be repeated |
| learned helplessness | learned response of resigning oneself passively to aversive conditions, rather than taking action to change, escape or avoid them; learned through repeated exposure to inescapable or unavoidable aversive events |
| sensory memory | the memory system that holds information coming in theough the senses for a period ranging from a fraction of a second to several seconds |
| short-term memory | second stage of memory, which holds about seven items for less than 30 seconds without rehearsal; working memory, the mental workspace we use to keep in mind tasks we are thinking about at any given moment |
| long-term memory | the relatively permanent memory system with virtually unlimited capacity |
| g factor | Spearman's term for a general intellectual ability that underlies all mental operations to some degree |
| reliability | ability of a test to yield nearly the same score each time a person takes the test or an alternative form of the test |
| validity | ability of a test to measure what it is intended to measure |
| standardization | establishment of norms for comparing the scores of people who will take the test in the future; administering tests using a prescribed procedure |
| mental disability | subnormal intelligence reflected by an IQ below 70 and by adaptive functioning severely deficient for one's age |
| emotional intelligence | a type of intelligence that includes an awareness of and an ability to manage one's own emotions, the ability to motivate oneself, empathy, and the ability to handle relationships successfully |
| phonemes | the smallest units of sound in the spoken language |
| morphemes | the smallest units of meaning in a language |
| syntax | the aspect of grammar that specifies the rules for arranging and combining words to form phrases and sentences |
| semantics | the meaning or the study of meaning derived from morephemes, words and sentences |
| schedules of reinforcement | continuous, fixed interval, variable-ratio |
| 3 processes for remembering | encoding, storage, retrieval |
| punishment | adding a negative consequence |
| 3 methods to measure memory | recall, recognition, relearning |
| encoding failure | memory does not get into Long Term Memory |
| decay theory | if you don't use the information you lose it |
| amnesia | partial or complete memory loss due to trauma |
| 4 types of memory | episodic, semantic, explicit, implicit |
| serial position effect | recall of beginning and end items in a sequence |
| pons | plays a role in relaying motor messages between cerebellum and motor cortex; exerts influence on sleep and dreaming |
| Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences | linguistic, logical, musical, spatial-skills, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal |
| parietal lobes | the lobes that contain the somatosensory cortex (where touch, temperature, pressure and pain register) and other areas that are responsible for body awareness and spatial orientation |
| occipital lobes | the lobes that contain the primary visual cortex, and association areas involved in the interpretation of visual information |
| temporal lobes | the lobes that contain the primary auditory cortex, Wernicke's area, and association areas for interpreting auditory information |
| iris | coloured part of the eye, two muscles dilate and contract the pupil, thus regulating the amount of light entering the eye |
| lens | the transparent structure behind the iris that changes in shape as it focuses images on the retina |
| retina | the tissue at the back of they eye that contains the rods and cones onto which the retinal image is projected |
| pitch | the frequency of a sound wave, the number of cycles completed per second, determines the pitch of the sound |
| loudness | determined by amplitude, the energy or height of the sound wave |
| hue | the property of light commonly refered to as "colour" determined primarily by the wavelength of light reflected from a surface |
| narcolepsy | a serious sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden uncontrollable attacks of REM sleep |
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