Behavioral Sciences
Gestalts principle of similarity
A persons tendency to group together objects that share similar features.
Generalized Anxiety disorder
Anxiety disorder characterized by excessive uncontrollable worry about a range of events. People with GAD may experience muscle tension, difficulty concentrating or sleeping and restlessness, fatigue, or irritability.
Raional choice theory and Social exchange theory
Assumes that people are rational decision makers attempting to maximu8mze gain and minimize loss. Social exchange theory assumes human behavior is based on decisions about the costs and benefits involved in a relationship. Both theories view society from a micro-level (individuals interactions) perspective.
Visual Field
Broken into two categories: Central (foveal) and Peripheral. Central vision are sensitive to certain wavelengths (colors) and high-intensity (bright) light. Cones are more densely packed at the focea, the central portion of the retina that receives information from the central visual field, producing the highest visual acuity. The peripheral vision are rods, present primarily in the periphery of the retina. These are much more sensitive to light than cones. Rods do not transmit information about color but are well suited to detect motion and low-intensity (dim) light, producing high visual sensitivity.
Hypothalamus
Command center of the endocrine system. It produces hormons that regulate many body functions, such as growth, metabolism, blodd presure, core body temperature, sleep, and appetite. The hypothalamus has several nuclei that have specialized functions; one of these nuclei is the suprachiasmatic nucelus, which regulates circadian pacemaker that controls circadian rhythms. Light levels impact neurons in the supradchiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus, which regulates melatonin release that esablishes the body's 24-hour cycle.
Confirmation BIas
Common cognitive bias that occures when we tend to favor information confirming beliefs and ignore, diregard, or refute information contradicting those beliefs.
Self-serving bias
Common type of attributional bias in which an individual attributes success to internal factors but blames failure onh external factors.
Error Bars can represent
Confidence intervals, standard deviations, or standard errors. Confidence intervals represent a measure of uncertainty in a reported value by indicating how far the value reported might be from the true value. If the confidence interval bar for two experimental groups are shown to overlap, we say that there may or may not be statistically signifcant from one another. Nonoverlapping confidence intervals always imply a statistical significant difference between groups.
What are the circadian biomarkers
Cortisol, Melatonin, and core body temperature. When sleeping our body releases lost of melatonin, and we have a significant decrease in core body temperature. Right when we wake up, there is an increase in cortisol levels and a decrease in Melatonin levels. Body temperature slowly rises thorughout the day,
Elaboration likelihood model
Describes a message's persuasiveness based on how deeply or superficially it is processed and the characteristics of the audience (eg. motivation)
Hawthorne effect
Describes research subjects acting differently as a result of knowing that they are being observed.
Hindsight Bias
Describes the tendency to perceive an event as being likely after it has occurred, even if it was unlikely (eg, after getting into a minor car accident, an individual states that she "just knew" she should have stayed home). Hindsight bias does not account for misattributing information to the wrong source.
The availability heuristic
Estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common. Tendency to judge how common or likely something is based on how easily it is recalled.
Group identification
Extent to which an individual perceives him/herself as a member of a larger collective. For example, identifying as a pre-med student associates an individual with a larger group of people who are studying for the MCAT and applying to medical school.
Functions of each lobe of cerebrum?
Frontal: Thinking, speaking, emotions Parietal: Perception (temp, pain, touch) Temporal: Hearing, memory (with hippocampus) Occipital: Vision
Positron emission tomography (PET scan)
Functional imaging technique that measures the emission of positrons that result from the metabolism of a radioactive tracer (injected prior to the scan). To measure brain activity, a radiolabeled form of flucose is used as the trracer, because glucose is metabolized more quickly by active brain regions, which are represented as hypermetabolic regions by the PET scanner. If neuroimaging studies show auditoy hallucinations are associated with increased activity in the speech production area, then PET scans should demosntrat increased uptake of radioactive tracer-labeled glucose in Broca area.
Social identity
How one's self-concept is shaped by group membership. The major social identities are sex/gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, family status, and occupation. Social identities define individuals in relation to others and allow for social groupings.
Negative primring
Impaired processing (i.e. slower response or reduced accuracy) that occurs when a stimulus is initially ignored and then later attended to (eg, first being asked to pick a pred pen and ignore other colored pens in a cup, and then when asked to pick a blue pen, response time is slower). Negative priming does not account for misattributing information to the wrong source.
DIfferent types of sociological groups
In-group: Group to which an individual identifies & belongs. Out-group: Group to which an individual does not identify or belong. Reference group: Comparison group to which an individual compares self. Primary grou: Group of individuals who are emotionally close Secondary group: Group of individuals who come together to accomplish something.
Top-Down Processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations Beliefs, ideas, expectations guide perception A mental association between objects that usually make sound, such as a telephone, may cause subject to mistakenly believe they hear a tone even when none is present. Perceiving the world around us by drawing from what we already know in order to interpret new information. Example: If you see the chair you have stubbed your toe on before and you avoid it to make sure it does not happen again.
Bottom up Processing
Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations. Sensory input guides perception. Exampl - Stubbing you toe on a chair, the pain receptors detect pain and send this information to the brain where it is processed.
Absolute threshold
Intensity value at which an individual is able to detect the stimulus 50% of the time.
As research studies become more tightly controlled and confounding variables are limited, ...
Internal validity tends to increase but external validity tends to decrease. Internal validity is mostly concerned with causality, or the extent to which changes in the dependent variable can be attributed to changes in the independent variable. The presence of confounding variables, which are additional variables that might influence results or outcomes, decreases internal validity by introducing the possibility that results are attributable to a confounding variable and not to the independent variable of interest. External validity is mostly concerned with generalizability or the extent to which results can be applied to other situations or beyond the sample to the larger population. In scientific resesarch, to operationalize a variable means that a variable is not directly measurable (i.e. fatigue, depression) is defined in such a way that ican be measured for the purposes of testing/assessment. The independent variable is manipulated/controlled by the research to determine if and to what degree changes to what variable impact the dpeendent variable, which is the outcome measured by the researcher. Changes to the dependent variable determine whether the researcher hypothesis is confirmed.
Language Centers of the Brain
Language functions in the brain tend to be lateralized to the left hemisphere. Two important language centers located in the left hemisphere are Broca and Wernick areas. Broca area (prefrontal cortex) is associated with the production of expressive language (both spoken and written). Lesions in this area result in difficulty producing fluent speech (Broca aphasia), although the ability to understand spojen and written language is largely retained. Wernicke's area is associated with language comprehension, not speech production. It suports a critical component of speech production, in which the phonemes to be articulated, and their temporal order, are represented mentally. (Comprehension and speech sounds)
Sleep is divided into two categories
NON-RAPID EYE MOVEMENT (NREM): - Contains 4 stages RAPID EYE MOVEMENT: -Brain activityu during this category resembles an awake, alert state but with the body functionally paralyzed, except for the muscles controlling respiration and eye movement.
Institutional discrimination
Occurs when social institutions have systematic policies and procedures that result in unfair treatment of individuals based on their group membership. Example: In the surgical resideny program that does not allow maternity leave, a female resident becomes pregnant and takes three weeks off to have her baby. A male resident misses a similar amount of time due to an accident. Later, only the female resident is required to make up the time missed. This is an example of institutional discrimination becasue the policy disadvanrtages females but does not apply to males in similar situations.
Group Polarization
Occurs when the views of individuals within a group become more extreme after a group discussion with like-minded members. Opinions can be polarized in either direction (extremely positive or negative)
Memory Construction
Process of recreating a memory each time it is recalled. Rather than being stored and recalled as a copy of exact events that occurred, memories appear to be reconstructed upon recall, which can result in alterations to the memory. Source monitoring erros - occur when a memory is attributed to the wrong source. Memory involes encoding, the transfer of information into long-term memory; storage ; and retrieval. Some information is processed automatically wityh little effort, but to encode information ,attention and effortful processing are often required.
McDonaldization
Process whereby efficiency reduces individuality, calculability, reduces quality, predictability reduces uniqueness, and control reduces the need for a skilled workforce. In sociology, bureaucracy is defined as the most efficient and rational way to organize human behavior. A critical perspective of bureaurcracy, McDonalidization describes the process by which extreme efficiency and rationalization produce negative consequences.
Signal Detection THeory
Quantifies how judgments or decisions are made under uncertain conditions amid "noise".
Class Conciousness
Recognition of class strucutre and identification with one's own social status. False conciousness - refers to individuals from lower classes adopting misleading messages from the upper class.
Social Mobility
Refers to the change or movement of individuals, groups, or families between or within status categories in society. Social mobility can be horizontal (same social class) or vertical (up or down in social status) and is related to a multitude of other factors, such as educational achievement, job loss, career advancement, marriage, and institutionalized discrimination.
Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement is used to encourage certain behaviors, and punishment is used to discourage unwanted behaviors. The most effective way of encouraging a certain behavior is providing continuous reinforcement. Schedules are often used to train or maintain learned behaviors through reinforcement or punishment. Continuous schedules provide a reqrd or punishment after every behvaior , which produces the fastes learning useign reinforcement and si the most effective way to stop unwanted behavior using punishment. Partial reinforcement schedules are most often used to maintain learned behaviors, and include" -Fixed ratio: Behavior reqreded after a consistent number of responses. For example, a customer loyalty program awards a free coffee after ten coffee purchases. -Variable ratio: Behavior rewarded after an inconsistent number of responses, usually aftter the some average number of responses. -Fixed interval: Behavior rewarded after a consistent amount of time, regardless of how many behaviors have occurred. -Variable interval: Behavior rewarded after an incosistent amount of time, regardless of how many behaviors have occured. Reinforcers ecourage behavior whereas punishers discourage behavior. Reinforces and punishers can be primary (innate) or secondary (learned). Primary reinforces fulfill biological urge and aree natrurally rewarding (i.e. food, water). Secondary reinforces are not inherently rewarding but are conditioned to be desirable through associative learning (i.e. money). Primary punishers are naturally undesirable and cause negative emotions (i.e. electric shock or loud nouse). Secondary punishers are not inherently negative but are conditioned to be undesirable through associative learning (i.e. child bringing home bad grades, parent may punish this behavior with scolding so the child feels bad. Child then associates feeling bad with bad grades, resulting in grades becoming a secondary punisher).
Educational system
Social institution that meets society's need to transfer knowledge and skills, composed of both formal and hidden curriculum. The formal curriculum includes the explicit, official content taught to students (eg how to solve algebra equations). The hidden curriculum includes the implied, informal mechanisms by which certain values and behaviors are promoted; for example, an algrebra teacher who calls mainly on male students is reinforcing a stereotype that boys are better at math than girls.
Place theory
States that specific wavelength frequences generate vibrations at specific loci on the basilar membrane of the cochlea. Hair cells located at the base of the basilar membrane are activated by high frequency sounds, and hair cells located at the apex of the basilar membrane are activated by low frequency sounds.
Fundamental attribution error
Tendency to blame others' behavior on their internal (eg. "she is stupid") instead of external (eg "the test was hard") factors.
Absolute Threshold
The intensity at which a stimulus is detected approximately 50% of the time. To determine the absolute threshold, researchers must vary the intensity of the simulus and then measure how often the stimulus is detected.
Signal to Response
When a signal is correctly perceived as present, it is a correct detection, or a "hit". When a signal is not detected even though it is present, it is a false negative, or a "miss". When a signal is absent but a perception is erroneously reported, this is a false positive, and when the signal is acurrately judged absent, this is a correct rejection.
Psychoactive Drugs
chemicals that affect the central nervous system and alter activity in the brain Among the most common classification are the following: Narcotics Analgesics (i.e. coceine, morphine, heroin) : Lessen sensation of pain Stimulants (Amphetamines and cocaine) : Speed up CNS function Depressants (i.e. Alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines) : Slows down CNS function Hallucinogens (i.e. LSD) : Triggers mind-altering effects
Piget's Theory of Cognitive Development
consisted of four stages called, sensorimotor stage, pre operational stage, concrete stage, and formal stage.
Incentive theory
motivation suggesting that organisms are motivated to act in order to obtain external rewards . For example, a student might spend many hours studying for an exam not because she is interested in the matierial (an internal factor), but because she wants to get a good grade (an external reward).
