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Clinical Psychology

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A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders

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Case Study

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An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles.

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Correlation

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A measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other.(Positive/Negative)

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False Consensus Effect

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The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

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Hypothesis

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A testable prediction, often implied by a theory

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Theory

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A hypothesis that has been tested with a significant amount of data

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Nature

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Socrates & Plato

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Nurture

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Aristotle & Locke

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Social-Cultural Perspective

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seek to understand how forces of society and culture influence individuals' thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

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Cognitive Perspective

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is the psychological viewpoint that the focuses on the how people (and other animals) process, store, and retrieve information and how this information is used to reason and solve problems.

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Behavioral Pespective

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The behavioral approach was founded by John B. Watson and originally rejected the study of mental processes in favor of the study of overt behavior (observable behavior) and external factors - study of observable events. The behaviorists believed all behavior was determined by stimuli in the environment. Today, this approach still stresses the importance of the environment on behavior, but also allows for inclusion of cognitive processes and feelings (early behaviorists rejected cognition in the study of behavior).

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Axon

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A threadlike extension of a neuron that carries nerve impulses away from the cell body.

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Dendrite

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Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information.

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Myelin Sheath

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A layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next.

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Reuptake

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refers to the process in the brain of neurons to retrieve chemicals that were not received by the next neuron.

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Schizophrenia

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too much dopamine

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Acetylcholine

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neurotransmitter

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Opiate Drugs

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endorphin's(Pain Killing Neurotransmitter)

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Endocrine System

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Information travels through our bodies in two forms; as electrical signals, or as chemical signals. The chemical signals are created and carried throughout the body using the endocrine system. This system works more slowly than the electrical signals, and is made up of glands that secret hormones (the carriers of the information) in the bloodstream.

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Epinephrine

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is a hormone and also known as adrenaline. It occurs naturally in the body (secreted by adrenal glands) and can also be synthetically made to be used as medication.

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Lesion

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-tissue destruction; a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue

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EEG

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An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp.

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Reticular Formation

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A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.

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Limbic System

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A doughnut-shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem and cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions such as fear and aggression and drives such as those for food and sex. Includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus.(Emotional Response)

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Hypothalamus

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A neural structure lying below the thalamus; it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature), helps govern the endocrine system via the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotion and reward.

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Broca's Area

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Controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.(Speaking)

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Corpus Callosum

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A thick band of axons that connects the two cerebral hemispheres and acts as a communication link between them.

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Gender Role

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Expectations about what is appropriate behavior for each sex.

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Gender Schema Theory

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A theory of gender development that combines social learning and cognitive learning theory. Thus, gender roles are formed in part by observing others and learning from how others act, and from accomplishing different cognitive tasks specific to cultures that are done by men and by women.

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Culture

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Beliefs, customs, and traditions of a specific group of people.

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Nurturing Enviroment

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More synapses/Brain connections

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"Tomboys"

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Exposed to testosterone during prenatal development

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Temperament

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A person's characteristic emotional re-activity and intensity.

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Stability

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The lack of motion and variation as applied to genetics, emotion and body position.The extent to which a person will maintain the same rank order in a test.

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Habituation

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An organism's decreasing response to a stimulus with repeated exposure to it

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Maturation

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Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience

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Schema

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A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

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Critical Period

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An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

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Harry Harlows Research

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isolation leads to inability to mate

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Adolescence

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stage that occurs from puberty to maturity, lasting from about ages 12 to 18.(puberty to independence)

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Authoritative Parenting Style

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parenting style that is child-centered, in that parents closely interact with their children, while maintaining high expectations for behavior and performance, as well as a firm adherence to schedules and discipline.

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Accomodartion

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the cognitive process of revising existing cognitive schemas, perceptions, and understanding so that new information can be incorporated. In order to make sense of some new information, you actual adjust information you already have (schemas you already have, etc.) to make room for this new information. This is related to assimilation.

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Early Puberty For Girls

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overweight/absent father

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Industrialized Societies

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Adolescence starts earlier and ends later

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Early Puberty In Girls

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Results in teasing

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Piaget

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Cognitive Development

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Formal Operational Thinking

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According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, when a person gets to be approximately age 12, they acquire the ability to think logically about abstract concepts. They can extrapolate about events that occurred at different times (does not have to be occurring right then and there), think about people that are not there

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Sensory Adaptation

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Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

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Transduction

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Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret.

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Prosopagnosia

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An inability to recognize the faces of familiar people, typically as a result of damage to the brain

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Personality Traits

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More stable for adults

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Opponent-Process Theory

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The theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision. For example, some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green

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Color Constancy

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Perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color, even if changing illumination alters the wavelengths reflected by the object

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Middle Ear

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The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing three tiny bones (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea's oval window.

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Cochlea

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A coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear through which sound waves trigger nerve impulses; SNAIL

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Place Theory

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In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated

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Volley Principle

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a modified or refined frequency theory; suggest that the auditory neurons fire in the sequence increasing to a rapid series of impulses; the complete pattern corresponds to the frequency of a sound wave

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Touch

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Pressure, Pain, Warm, and Cold

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Visual Capture

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The tendency for vision to dominate the other senses

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Gestalt

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An organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.

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Top-Down Processing

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Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations

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Figure-Ground

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a gestalt-like illusion; an illusion where a figure of merges from the background (ground) using perceptual cues.

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Retinal Disparity

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binocular distance cue; based on the overlay of two retinal fields when both eyes focus on one object.

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Convergence

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binoculars cue; visual depth cue; muscles controlling eye movement as the eyes turned inward to view a nearby stimulus.

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Perception

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the process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events.

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John Locke

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His theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as Hume, Rousseau, and Kant. Locke was the first to define the self through a continuity of consciousness. He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception.

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Consciousness

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Awareness of ourselves and our environment

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Circadian Rhythm

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A physiological cycle of about 24 hours that is present in all eukaryotic organisms and that persists even in the absence of external cues.

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REM Sleep

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Rapid Eye Movement sleep - most dreaming occurs here (Inhibited by drugs and alcohol)

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Latent Content

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According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

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Near Death Experiences

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Similar to drug induced hallucinations

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Amphetamines

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a synthetic, addictive, mood-altering drug, used illegally as a stimulant and legally as a prescription drug to treat children with ADD and adults with narcolepsy.

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Barbiturates

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drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment.

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Opiate Addiction

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Results in a decrease in endorphins

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Susceptibility to Hypnosis

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must believe in it and only about 10% are

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Classical Conditioning

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A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

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Operant Conditioning

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A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher

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Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

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A stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

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Unconditioned Response (UR)

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In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (US), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

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Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

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A previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

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Conditioned Response (CR)

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In classical conditioning, the learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS).

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Positive Reinforcer

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A stimulus that increases the future probability of a response upon which its presentation is contingent.

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Negative Reinforcer

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Any event whose reduction or termination increases the likelihood that ongoing behavior will recur.

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Observational Learning

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Learning by observing others

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Latent Learning

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Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

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