Psychology 105 Exam 1

How did psychology change from prehistoric times to modern times?

Moved from a philosophical background to being more science based

Cognitive psychology

How poeple remember, think, speak, and solve problems

In behavioral genetics, what are the 4 research methods and what do they hope to answer ?

1. Complex connection between genes and behavior. 2. Polygenic influence on behavior. 3. Genes and the environment 4. Epigentics, how the environment change gene expression. They hope to understand how heredity affects behavior

What is diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM)?

A book used by clinicians and psychiatrists to diagnose mental illness. Non-theoretical, focuses mostly on describing symptoms/statistics

What are chromosomes and how many do you have?

A coiled up tread of dna and 23 chromosomes

Mode

Most often occuring in the data

What is a dominant gene? Will you always get a disorder if it is dominant?

A dominant gene is a gene that shows their phenotype even if there is only one allele for that trait.

What is a pseudoscience? Is religion a pseudoscience? literature?

A psuedoscience is something that appears and claims be science but is not supported by evidence provided by the scientific method. Religion and Literature are both not a psuedoscience

What is the importance of random assignment and receiving a representative sample?

A random assignment is exactly the way it sounds. For example, you randomly assign a drug to different people in your sample group. You do not tell the members of the group what they are getting. this is important because it allows you to get the most accurate observation of the substance your are issuing

What is a recessive gene? Will you always get a disorder if its recessive?

A recessive gene is a gene that shows their effect only when both alleles are the same. Not always, example anxiety, both genetic and environment plays a role in developing it

Mean

Average of all data

Why are twins used in psychological research?

Because it allows a researcher to study people with the same or close to the same genetic code. This allows the researcher to determine whether some conditions may be caused by nature or nurture.

Functionalism

Better to look at why the mind works; William James

Forensic psychology

Blend of psychology, law, and criminal justice

Midbrain

Brainstem, reticular formation

Structuralism

Breaking down experience into elements; Wilhelm Wundt

Hindbrain

Cerebellum, medulla, pons

What is the importance of a meta-analysis?

Combining all research together in one question and drawing a conclusion.

How is causation established in research?

Correlation does not imply causation. Causation implies that one thing causes another

What was the academically gifted students study and what were the major implications of it psychological research?

If a teacher think that a kid is "gifted", regardless of actual talent, the child wil become a higher acheiver in the class.

What are independent variables and dependent variables?

Independent variables are things that are purposefully manipulated, dependent variables are the outcomes.

What is informed consent and why is it important in research?

Informed consent is when a researcher lets the participant know what they are going to be studying. It is important because it is unethical to make a participant do something potentially emotionally damaging without them knowing the procedure and study that is being conducted.

Who is John Locke and what did empiricists believe?

John Locke is an 18th century English Philosopher who thought of the mind as a blank state, in which nurture taught you everything you knew. (empiricism=knowledge comes from personal experience)

Median

Middle of data

What are monoztgotic twins and dizygotic twins?

Monozygotic are identical twins, dizygotic is fraternal twins

What is the scientific method and what is its importance in psychology?

Observe, predict, test, interpret, communicate. It is important because it allows all research to be based on scientific method; which leads us to probabilities.

What is nurture?

Our behavior, thought process and personality are formed by our life experiences and our environment

Why do researchers not always use the mean as means of central tendency?

Outliers tend to mess with the data.

What are the 2 cells of the nervous systems and what do they do?

Peripheral nervouse system: comprises all the nerve cells in the body outside the central nervouse system. Somatic transmit sensory info to the central nervous system and those that transmit info from cns to the skeletal system

Self Report: Surverys and interviews

Pro: Inexpensive, reponse are limited, easy to use Cons: people aren't always the best sources of information about themselves, no way to know what the person is thinking

Behavioral measures: systematic observations of peoples actions

Pros: Get to see people in their natural environment Cons: Since people know they are being watched they might act differently

Physiological measures: provides data on bodily responses

Pros: Gives us specific brain reactions/enhanced understanding. Cons: requires specialized equipment training, very expensive

Sports psychology

Psychological factors and their role they may play in sports

Behaviorism

Psychology can only be a true science if it examines behavior, not internal forces (thoughts); John B. Jones

Why must all conditions be the same in the experimental group and the control group except the independent variable?

So the researchers can directly and better observe the reactions caused by their independent variable on the subjects without any outside interferences

Forebrain

Thalamus, limbic system, cerebrum, and cerebral cortex

What is the IRB and why is it so important in research?

The IRB is short for the industrial review board. They are in charge of reviewing research projects to make sure they are ethical or not.

Explain the difference between the experimental group and the control group?

The experimental is the group being given the substance or scenario. The control group is the group that is manipulated into thinking they are receiving the same thing as the experimental group, however, they are not.

What is the Perpheral Nervous system?

The part of the nervous system that comprises all the nerve cells in the body outside of the central nervous system.

What is the Central Nervous System?

The part of the nervous system that comprises the brain and spinal cord.

What is a polygenic transmission?

The process by which many genes interact to create a single characteristic

What is Psychology?

The scientific study of thought and behavior

How do researchers reduce confounding variables?

Variables that have influence on the dependent variable cannot be seperated from the independent variable being examined.

What is nature?

Who we are through our behavior, thought process and personality comes from out genetic traits and heredity.

What is the action potential and resting potential?

action: the impulse of positive charge that runs down an axon. Resting: the diff in electrical charge between the inside and the outside of the axon when the neuron is at rest.

Behavrioal neurscience

application of the principals of biological to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in human and non human animals.

Descriptive studies

defines a problem but doesn't form a hypothesis or try to control or manipulate anything; makes careful observations about the world

Clinical Psychology

diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

Experimental studies

experimental manipulation of a predicted cause and measure of the response.

Evolutionary psychology

focused on the fuctions of the human mind, how do humans evolve, emotions are behavioral adaptions

Social psychology

how living among others influence thoughts, feeling, and behavior

Educational psychology

how students learn, psychological aspects of teaching

Developmental psychology

how thought and behavior change/remain the same over time

Correlation studies

measures two or more variables and relationship between one another

Industrial/organizational psychology

psychological concepts applied to work settings

Health psychology

psychological factors in regards to health and illness

Biological Psychology

relationship between bodily systems and chemicals/influence on behavior and thoughts

Standard deviation

statistical measure of how much scores in a sample vary around the mean

Perceptual set

the effect of frame of mind on perception; a tendency to perceive stimuli in a certain manner.

weber's law

the finding that the size of a just noticeable difference is a constant fraction of the intensity of stimulus

difference threshold

the smallest amount of change between two stimulli that a person can detect half of the time.

Signal detection theory

the viewpoint that both stimulus intensity and decision making processes are involved in the detection of a stimulus

Personality psychology

what makes people unique/consistencies over time