Psychology Exam Chapters 1-3

The experimental research method is an important tool in psychology because it can give information about the cause and effect relationship between two phenomena of interest. For example, an experiment can give us information about whether lack of sleep can cause changes in the performance of memory tasks. Which of the following are NECESSARY ingredients in an experiment?

-One variable is controlled or manipulated -Participants are randomly assigned to different conditions

What are the advantages to experiments?

-They allow us to address the goals of explanation and change in psychology. -They allow for cause-and-effect conclusions

What are the disadvantages of experiments?

-They do not address the goals of description and prediction in psychology. -By observing behaviors, we may artificially alter them.

What is Psychology?

-Trying to understand and treat mental health issues -Trying to understand human behavior -Trying to understand how humans think

Define Limbic system

A system of structures that govern certain aspects of emotion, motivation and memory... it regulates basic emotional reactions.

What is the limbic system?

A system of structures that govern certain aspects of emotion, motivation, and memory.

What does it mean when people refer to psychology as being hegemonic?

Believed that psychology pertains to White supremacy.

What does the evolutionary perspective believe?

It proposes that natural selection is the is the processes that explains behavior -William James

Which of the following fields of psychology focuses the most on the biological factors that impact human psychology?

Neuroscience

What 2 nervous systems are included in the autonomic nervous system?

Parasympathetic nervous system Sympathetic Nervous System

Define hypothalamus

Part of the forebrain that plays a role in maintaining homeostasis in the body, involving sleep, body temperature, sexual behavior, thirst, hunger. The point where the nervous system intersects with the endocrine system.

What does the biological perspective study?

Physical causes of behaviors ex: genes, biochemical factors, nervous system structures etc. -Hippocrates -Vedas

What does the temporal lobe do?

Plays a role in the auditory cortex Wernickes area: responsible for comprehension of speech.

What is the role of the amygdala?

Plays a role in the emotions of fear and aggression Part of the emotional warning system that helps us avoid danger.

What does the occipital lobe do?

Plays a role in the visual cortex, processing visual information

What does the frontal lobe do?

Plays a role in thinking, planning, decision making, language and motor movement

What does the parietal lobe do?

Plays a role in touch and certain cognitive processes Sensations, such as pressure and pain

The psychological perspective that attempts to research the factors related to wellbeing and happiness is known as __________________.

Positive psychology

Phineas Gage who had a metal rod go through the front of his head had damage to what?

Prefrontal cortex

Which of the following is NOT one of the major goals of psychology outlined in Chapter 1?

Prove behavior

What is a correlation study?

Relationship between two variables. CANNOT show causation

What is the primary use of our central nervous system?

decision making

What does the forebrain do?

Takes up most of the top part of the skull, and is responsible for mental functions such as problem solving, thinking, remembering, and language.

What can impact one's hippocampus negatively or positively?

Taxi drivers being able to rewire their brains to remember certain routes. Stress hormones Meditation creates chance of making your hippocampus larger.

What are the basic structures of the forebrain that we need to know? (4)

Thalamus Hypothalamus Cortex Limbic System

What does the central nervous system consist of?

The brain and spinal cord

What is the sympathetic nervous system?

The branch of the nervous system most active during times of danger or stress. ex: heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, blood goes to muscles Fight or flight

What is the parasympathetic nervous system?

The branch of the nervous system most active during times of normal functioning such as keeping our heart rate, blood pressure at normal levels.

"views ethnic minorities as having predetermined deficits which are used to relegate minorities to inferior status." What was this approach called?

The deficit approach

Define cerebral cortex

The most advanced and proportionately the largest structure.

What are WEIRD samples and what does it stand for?

Weird samples are the most common studies in psychology coming from the top journals. The results mainly included: W: Western E: Educated I: Industrial R: Rich D: Democratic

What is a case study?

When a researcher gathers a lot of information about one or very few cases or people (typically in unusual circumstances)

What is a naturalistic observation?

When behaviors are studied and monitored in their normal or usual setting.

Who is the father of psychology?

William James 1842-1910

In an experiment how many groups of people do you have and what are the 2 requirements needed?

You have 2 groups: The control group that does not receive the manipulation, and the experimental who receives the manipulation. For experiments participants must be randomly assigned to conditions and both groups must be treated exactly the same except for the independent variable.

What is within the limbic system?

Your amygdala and hippocampus

What are cofounding variables?

a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment. ex: Age might effect one's memory.

What is an independent variable?

variable that is manipulated

What is a dependent variable?

variable that is measured

What are the steps in order when using the scientific method? (5)

1. Define and describe (predictions) 2. Make testable hypothesis 3. Choose research strategy 4. Conduct study 5. Analyze the results (5b=replication)

What are the 4 descriptive methods used by psychologists?

1. Naturalistic Observation 2. Case studies 3. Surveys 4. Correlational Studies

How many total lobes do we have in our brain?

8, 4 on the left side of our brain and four on the right side.

What is neuroscience?

A field of science that investigates the relationships between the nervous system and behavioral/mental processes.

What is the role of the hippocampus?

A part of the brain that plays a role in the transfer of information from short to long term memory ex: HM and his epilepsy london taxi drivers in relation to neuroplasticity

Imagine that the Zombie Apocalypse has occurred and we are all fighting to survive the massive numbers of zombies roaming Portland. You want to understand the motor skills (for example, ability to run and coordination) of zombies at different stages of infection with the zombie virus. You collect 2 groups of zombies: those recently infected and those with late stage infection. You then test their motor skills and compare the results between the two groups. This is an example of which kind of research study?

A quasi-experiment

What are experiments?

A research method that involves the ability of researchers to control the variables of interest.

What is a quasi-experiment?

A research study that is not a true experiment because participants are not randomly assigned to different conditions. These experiments use already existing groups that differ on some variable. Ex: Women who are pregnant and are smokers vs. women who are pregnant

What does behaviorist believe?

A school of thought that focuses on observable behaviors. - John B. Watson, B.F skinner, Rosalie Rayner

I am about to conduct a study to better understand issues of housing insecurity in rural towns. Which of the following would best be described as the population of interest in this study?

All rural towns everywhere

What is a survey?

Allows people to ask others about their thoughts, feelings, or positions on various topics. Surveys can gather a large amount of data with relatively little effort.

What is the deficit model?

An approach to psychological research that "views ethnic minorities as having predetermined deficiencies which are used to relegate minorities to an inferior status.

What is a nervous system defined?

An electrochemical system of communication within the body that uses cells called neurons to convey information.

Define thalamus

Apart of the forebrain that functions as sensory relay station, also responsible for REM sleep.. helps regulate the attention we pay to things that stimulate our senses

Much of the frontal lobe is what?

Association cortex

How was Phineas Gage affected?

Became more emotionally volatile and irresponsible

I decide to design a study conducting in-depth interviews with service providers, landlords, and town officials in one rural town with unusually high levels of eviction. Which of the following research methods BEST describes the design of my study?

Case study

What are the goals of psychology? (4)

Describe behavior, predict behavior, explain behavior, control or change behavior.

What happens if your amygdala was damaged?

Difficulty interpreting emotions in facial expressions especially fear and anger.

What does the hindbrain do?

Directly above the spinal cord, also known as the "primitive" part of the brain. Manages basic life sustaining functions (includes brain stem).

What does the Freudian Perspective believe?

Emphasized the role of the unconscious in understanding behavior -Freud -Psychoanalytic theory -Psychodynamic perspectives

What is population of interest?

Every individual you wish to say something about

What is a random sample?

Every member of a population has an equal chance of being selected to participate in the study.

What is the peripheral nervous system?

Everything else, responsible for gathering information and transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts.

Which type of method helps psychologists explain why a certain behavior is occurring?

Experiments

Best describe what a confounding variable is

Factors other than the independent variable that could also impact the dependent variable ex: Age

What do humanist believe?

Focuses on how an individual's view of themselves and the world can influence their behavior. -Carl Rogers -Maslow

What are the different lobes in the brain? (4)

Frontal lobe parietal lobe occipital lobe temporal lobe

Lateralized functions of the brain

Functions of the right and left lobes are somewhat different ex: Wernicke's area and Broca's area are language related and found on the left side of the brain.

Define association cortex

Higher order processes such as decision making that require integrating information

When thinking about the scientific method, an educated guess, phrased in a way that can be objectively measured is also called a __________.

Hypothesis

Which side of the brain works to perform complementary functions?

In reality, both sides work together to preform complementary functions.

Where can sensory and motor neurons be found?

In the peripheral nervous system

In the spinal cord how does information travel?

Information travels from sensory neurons to motor neurons. Ex: Touching a hot surface, your sensory neurons tell your motor neurons to move your hand away.

Define lateralization

Meaning that left and right hemispheres may each have more input into different functions.

Define contralateral fashion in the brain

Meaning that right side governs left side of the body and vice versa

What is cognition?

Mental processes such as reasoning and problem solving.

The last step of the scientific method as outlined in Chapter 1 is to analyze the results of your study. If your hypothesis was CONFIRMED, then you (or other researchers) would still want to redo the study with a different sample to be sure the results are consistent. This is known as _________.

Replication

What 4 things does psychology look at?

Scientific: uses scientific method; curious, skeptical, and humble. Behavior: Anything an organism does, and any action we can observe and record. Mental Processes: Internal, subjective experiences we can sometimes infer from behavior (sensations, perceptions, thoughts, beliefs, feelings)

What is the scientific method defined?

Self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis.

What is about 25% dedicated to in the cortex?

Sensori motor functioning

What does the sociocultural perspective believe?

Stress the social structures (race, class, gender) and cultural factors that influence behavior and mental processes. -Lev Vygotsky -Bronfenbrenner

What is a sample?

Subset of the population of interest that is the actual group selected for the study.

Adrian Carpusor and Willian Loges (2006) sent identically worded housing inquiries in an email to 1115 Los Angeles area landlords. • They varied the ethnic connotation of the sender's name. In other words, the potential rental applicant had one of the following three names: Patrick McDougall, Said Al-Rahaman, or Tyrell Jackson. • They tracked the percentage of positive replies from the landlords. Positive replies included things like invitations to view the apartment in person. Which variable is the INDEPENDENT variable in this example?

The name of the sender

What is neruoplasticity?

The nervous system's ability to rewire tis structures as a result of experience.

In the study described in Question 4 (Carpusor and Loges, 2006), which variable is the DEPENDENT variable?

The number of positive replies

What is unconscious defined?

The part of the mind that includes impulses, behaviors, and desires that we are not aware of but that influence our behavior.

What is the systematic process that psychology uses? and why do we use it?

The scientific method, to test ideas about behavior and mental processes.

What is psychology defined?

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

What 2 nervous systems are inside the peripheral nervous system?

The somatic nervous system The autonomic nervous system

What are sensory neurons?

They send information from your fingertips up your arm and to your spinal cord.

What are motor neurons?

They send information from your spinal cord to your arm muscles, signaling them to contract, jerking your arm away.

Define cortex

Thin, wrinkled layer of tissue that covers the outside of the 2 hemispheres of brain

What does the cognitive perspective believe?

focus on how mental processes influence behavior etc. memory, beliefs -Aaron Beck

What are the three parts of the brain?

forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain

What is the autonomic nervous system?

governs involuntary organ functioning and actions

What is the somatic nervous system?

governs sensory and voluntary motor action

What is a representative sample?

reflects the characteristics of the population

What does the mid brain do?

responsible for making connections between the basic functions of the hindbrain and the complex mental processes of the forebrain.

What is evolution?

the process by which, through a series of changes over time, humans have acquired behaviors and characteristics that distinguish them from other species

What does positive psychology believe?

the study of factors that contribute to happiness, positive emotions, and well-being. -Martin Seligman -Ed Diener