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What is psychology?

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The scientific study of human behavior and the study of brain function

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Why is the study of psychology important?

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People are bias and we should learn why we do the things we do

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Why do we need a formal academic discipline to study psychology?

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Everyone has a bias, and they make unsystematic, informal strategies for observation

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Psychological science vs. folk wisdom, personal observations and common sense

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People get their knowledge from folk wisdom, which is word-of-mouth transmission of information. People contradict their logic if they try to use common sense (Ex. A couple moving away)

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How is psychology defined?

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Psychology is about understanding all the things we do

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Psychology's History: Early ; Modern

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Early: - Psychology became the scientific study of conscious experience - To explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior Modern: - Psychologists have shown a renewed interest in consciousness (now called "cognition") and the physiological bases of behavior

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Contemporary theoretical perspectives in psychology and the ideas associated with each

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***

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Recent interest in cognition ; physiology, cultural diversity, evolution, and positive psychology

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Cognition refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge; cognition involves thinking Advances in communication, travel, and international trade have "shrunk" the world and increased global interdependence, bringing more and more Americans and Europeans into contact with people from non-Western cultures Evolutionary psychology examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations Positive psychology uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence

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What are some of the major areas of study in psychology (research)?

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- Developmental psychology ~ Looks at human development across the lifespan - Social Psychology ~ Focuses on interpersonal behavior and the role of social forces in governing behavior - Educational psychology ~ Studies how people learn and the best ways to teach them - Health psychology ~ Focuses on how psychological factors relate to the promotion and maintenance of physical health and the causation, prevention, and treatment of illness - Physiological psychology ~ Examines the influence of genetic factors on behavior and the role of the brain, nervous system, endocrine system, and bodily chemicals in the regulation of behavior - Experimental psychology ~Encompasses the traditional core of topics that psychology focused on heavily in its first half-century as a science: sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation, and emotion - Cognitive psychology ~ Focuses on "higher" mental processes, such as memory, reasoning, information processing, language, problem solving, decision making, and creativity - Psychometrics ~ Concerned with the measurement of behavior and capacities, usually through the development of psychological tests - Personality ~ Interested in describing and understanding individuals' consistency in behavior, which represents their personality

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What are some of the specialty areas in the professional practice of psychology?

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- Clinical psychology ~ Concerned with the evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals with psychological disorders, as well as treatment of less severe behavioral and emotional problems - Counseling psychology ~ Counseling psychology overlaps with clinical psychology in that specialists in both areas engage in similar activities - interviewing, testing, and providing therapy. They often specialize in family, marital, or career counseling - School psychology ~ School psychologists strive to promote the cognitive, emotional, and social developments of children in schools - Industrial/organizational psychology ~ Perform a wide variety of tasks in the world of business and industry (working to improve staff morale and attitudes, etc.) - Clinical neuropsychology ~ Involved in the assessment and treatment of people who suffer from central nervous system dysfunctions due to head trauma, dementia, stroke, seizure disorders, etc. - Forensic psychology ~ Apply psychological principles to issue arising in the legal system, such as child custody decisions, hearing on competency to stand trial, violence risk assessments, etc.

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Weiten's seven unifying themes in psychology

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1. Psychology is empirical 2. Psychology is theoretically diverse 3. Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context 4. Behavior is determined by multiple causes 5. Behavior is shaped by cultural heritage 6. Hereditary and environment jointly influence behavior 7. People's experience for the world is highly subjective

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Improving Academic Performance

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1. Set up a schedule for studying 2. Find a place to study 3. Reward your studying 1. Preview reading assignments section by section 2. Work hard to actively process the meaning of the information 3. Strive to identify the key ideas of each paragraph 4. Carefully review said key ideas after each section 5. Only highlight the main ideas, supporting details, and technical terms 1. Focus full attention on the speaker 2. Write notes in your words 3. Tune in to hints 4. Asking questions are helpful 1. Set up a schedule for progressing through the test 2. Skip hard questions 3. Don't overcomplicate simple questions 4. Review test once you're done 5. Read the whole question

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Developing Critical Thinking Skills

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1. Is this enough information? 2. Are there alternative explanations for these results? 3. Are there contrary data?

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Advantages of the scientific approach

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Clarity and precision, Relative intolerance to error

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What is science?

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An approach to answering questions that is based on the systematic collection and logical analysis of objectively observable data

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What are the goals of the scientific enterprise?

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Measurement and Description, Understanding and Prediction, Application and Control

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What kinds of questions can science address? (Questions of value vs. questions of fact)

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-It it good? Is it right? (Ex. Is abortion right or wrong?) - Does this exist? (Ex.Does studying increase test scores?)

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Assumptions of science: Determinism & empricism

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Determinism - Cause and effect relationships exist Empiricism - Focuses on the "observable"

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Scientific attitudes: Skepticism & humility

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Skepticism - Scientists don't care about feelings; they care about the facts Humility - If a scientist's theory is proven wrong, they must accept that and change their viewpoint

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The principle of parsimony

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Simple explanations are preferred over unnecessarily complex ones

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What is a hypothesis?

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An educated guess for relationships

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What is a theory?

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An explanation

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How are hypothesis and theory related?

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A scientist uses a hypothesis to try and explain a theory

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Functions of a theory

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Organizational, Predictive, Generative function (Generate more ideas)

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Examining theories for quality

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- How? Testing? Proof? - Testing predictions - "Good" theories and usefulness

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Not all theories are equal

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- Not all are equally supported by evidence - Not all make specific predictions

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What is the process of scientific research?

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***

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Steps in a scientific investigation

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1. Formulate a testable hypothesis 2. Select the research method and design the study 3. Collect the data 4. Analyze the data and draw conclusions 5. Report the findings

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What are experimental and control groups?

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The experimental group receives some special treatment in regard to the independent variable and the control group doesn't

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Independent variable, dependent variable, and the extraneous variable

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Independent variable - A condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable Dependent variable - The variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable Extraneous variable - Any variable other than the independent variables that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study

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Variations in designing experiments

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Sometimes there's an advantage to use only one group of subjects who serve as their own control group It is possible to manipulate more than one independent variable in a single experiment It is also possible to use more than one dependent variable in a single study

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research

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Advantages - Permits conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships between variables Disadvantages - Experiments are often artificial, the experimental method can't be used to explore some research questions, manipulations of variables are difficult or impossible

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Experimental vs. Descriptive research

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Experimental - a fixed experiment Descriptive - Data collected from the real world

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What does it mean if we say that two variables are correlated?

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One variable affects the other

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Advantages /Disadvantages of Descriptive research

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Advantage - They give researchers a way to explore questions that could not be examined with experimental procedures Disadvantage - Investigators cannot control events to isolate cause and effect

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What is a correlation coefficient?

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A numerical index of the degree of a relationship between two variables

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Positive vs. Negative correlation

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Positive = two variables co-vary in the same direction Negative = opposite direction

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Finding and researching journal articles

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Journal articles represent the core of intellectual activity in any academic disciple. Go to PsycINFO and search for your topic

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Critical thinking: The Perils of anecdotal evidence

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Anecdotal evidence consists of personal stories about specific incidents and experiences. Can negatively influence data

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Neurons

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Individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information

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Neural impulse

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The signal using energy to send information

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Action potential

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A very brief shift in a neuron's electrical charge that travels along an axon

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How does an action potential work?

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When a neuron is stimulated, channels in its cell membrane open, briefly allowing positively charged sodium ions to rush in

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The All-or-None Law

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Either the neuron fires or it doesn't

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Dendrite

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Parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information

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Communication at the synapse

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One neuron sends a signal across the synaptic cleft (gap) and another neuron receives it

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The role of neurotransmitters

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To transmit information from one neuron to another

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Neurotransmitters and behavior

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Acetylcholine - enables muscle action, learning and memory Dopamine - Movement, learning, attention, and emotion Serotonin - Mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal Norepinephrine - Helps control alertness and arousal GABA - A major inhibitory neurotransmitter Glutamate - Involved in memory

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Central nervous system

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Contains of brain and spinal cord

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Peripheral nervous system

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System made up of all the nerves that lie outside the brain and spinal cord

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Somatic Nervous System

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Made up of nerves that connect to voluntary skeletal muscles and to sensory receptors. Lets you see and feel the world around you

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Autonomic Nervous System

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Made up of nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and glands. Controls automatic functions that people don't normally think about

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Sympathetic Division of the Autonomic Nervous System

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Mobilizes the body's resources for emergencies

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Parasympathetic Division of the Autonomic Nervous System

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Generally conserves bodily resources and allows body to save and store energy

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Hindbrain (Medulla, pons, cerebellum)

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Medulla - controls largely unconscious but vital functions Pons - Includes a bridge of fibers that connect the brainstem with the cerebellum Cerebellum - Basic motor skills

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Midbrain (Reticular formation)

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Vision and hearing, dopamine, performance of voluntary movements, and reticular formation (modulation of muscle reflexes, breathing, and pain perception, regulation of sleep and arousal)

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Forebrain (Limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus, and cerebrum)

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Limbic system - Involved in regulation of emotion, memory, and motivation Thalamus - Each cluster of cell bodies is concerned with the relaying sensory information to a particular part of the cortex Hypothalamus - Major role in regulation of basic biological drives related to survival Cerebrum - Learning, remembering, thinking, and consciousness

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4 lobes of cerebral cortex (Occipital, Parietal, Temporal, and Frontal)

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Occipital - Back of head; visual signals are sent and visual processing begins Parietal - Forward of occipital; Resigesters sense of touch Temporal - Below pariteal; auditory processing Frontal - Control movement of muscles

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Plasticity of brain

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Experience shapes brain structure

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Neurogenesis

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Formation of new neurons

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Corpus callosum and right brain/left brain

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Corpus callosum - split-brain surgery. Each hemisphere's primary connections are to the opposite side of the body

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Cerebral laterality

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Some neural functions, or cognitive processes tend to be more dominant in one hemisphere than the other

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Broca's area and Wernicke's are

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Broca's - Speech production Wenicke's - Language comprehension

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Hemispheric Specialization

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Left brain - Faster reactions with auditory functions Right brain - Faster reactions on visual-spatial tasks

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Endocrine system

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Glands that secrete chemicals into the bloodstream that help control bodily function

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Evaluating concept of "Two Minds in One"

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1. There is ample evidence that the right and left hemispheres are specialized to handle different types of cognitive tasks, but only to a degree The hemispheres don't work alone 2. The evidence for the idea that people have a separate stream of consciousness in each hemisphere is weak 3. Similarly, there is little direct evidence to support the notion that each hemisphere has its own mode of thinking, or cognitive style 4. The evidence on the assertion that some people are left-brained while others are right-brained is inconclusive at best

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Critical Thinking: Building Better Brains

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A critical period is a limited time span in the development of an organism when it is optimal for certain capacities to emerge because the organism is especially responsive to certain experiences Extrapolation occurs when an effect is estimated by extending beyond some known values and conditions

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Sensation

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Stimulation of sense organs

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Perception

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Selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory input

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Light

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Form of electromagnetic radiation that travels as a wave, moving at the speed of light

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Structure of the eye

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The eyes serve 2 main purposes: - Channel light to the neural tissue that receives it, called the retina - They house that tissue

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The Retina

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The neural tissue lining the inside back surface of the eye; it absorbs light, processes images, and sends visual information to the brain

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Rods and cones

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Rods - Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in night vision and peripheral vision Cones - Specialized visual receptors that play a key role in daylight vision and color vision

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Dark and light adaptation

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Dark adaptation - Process in which the eyes become more sensitive to light in low illumination Light adaptation - Process whereby the eyes become less sensitive to light in high illumination

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Information processing in the retina

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Axons carry visual information, encoded as a stream of neural impulses, to the brain

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Visual pathways to the brain

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Axons from ganglion cells leaving the back of each eye form the optic nerves, which travel to the optic chasm. After reaching the optic chasm, the optic nerve fibers diverge along two pathways

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Information processing in the visual cortex

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Individual cells in the primary visual cortex don't respond much to little spots - they are more sensitive to lines, edges, and other more complicated stimuli

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Theories of color vision

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Trichomatic - The human eye has 3 types of receptors with differing sensitivities to different light wavelengths Opponent Process - Color perception depends on receptors that make opposite responses to 3 pairs of colors

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Feature analysis

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The process of detecting specific elements in visual input and assembling them into a more complex form

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Bottom-up and top-down processing

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Bottom-up: individual elements to the whole/Top-down: opposite

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Perceptual hypotheses

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An inference about what form could be responsible for a pattern of sensory stimulation

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Depth perception

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Interpretation of visual cues that indicate how near or far away objects are

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Perceptual constancies

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Tendency to experience a stable perception in the face of continually changing sensory input

General Psychology Exam 1 (Chapters 1-4) – Flashcards

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