AP Psychology: AP Exam Guide

McGurk Effect

An error in perception that occurs when we misperceive sounds because the audio and visual parts of the speech are mismatched. -When sight and hearing mesh together

How do we acquire language?

An even blend of nature vs nurture: Nature: born with built-in predisposition to learn grammar rules (universal grammar) Nurture: children learn grammar as they discern patterns in the language they hear (learn from being educated)

Stressor

An event or situation that causes stress -Something that threatens or challenges us

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

An expectation that causes you to act in ways that make that expectation come true. -Belief that leads to its own fulfillment

Double-blind Procedure

An experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo -Commonly used in drug-evaluation studies -Can check a treatment's actual effects (lessens the effects of expectation)

Gate-Control Theory

An explanation for pain control that proposes we have a neural "gate" that can, under some circumstances, block incoming pain (stopped by endorphins) -Pain is sensed by two different sensory pathways, one moving very fast, one moving slower. -The level of pain one feels results from the combination of information from both pathways. -Pain signals are routed to the anterior cingulate cortex located along the fissure separating the frontal lobes.

Phi Phenomenon

An illusion of movement created when two or more adjacent lights blink on and off in quick succession

Ponzo Illusion

An illusion of size in which two objects of equal size that are positioned between two converging lines appear to be different in size. Also called the railroad track illusion.

Case Study (in psychology)

An in-depth analysis of an individual or group in the hope of revealing things true of us all Ex: brain damage, children's minds, animal intelligence -Often suggest directions for further study

Fixation

An inability to come to a fresh perspective -As a result of the confirmation bias

Anterograde Amnesia

An inability to form new memories -Can recall past memories only

Conduction Deafness

An inability to hear, resulting from damage to the structures of the middle or inner ear.

Long-term Potentiation (LTP)

An increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation -Believed to be a neural basis for learning and remembering associations

Primary Reinforcer

An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need -Are natural, they are unlearned, such as food or getting rid of pain (attributes to our physiological needs)

Shaping

An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior -Rewards desired behavior and directs the animal toward a desired behavior

Critical Period

An optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development -Best time for bonding (imprinting)

Bottom-Up Processing

Analysis that emphasizes the characteristics of the stimuli rather than our concepts and expectations.

Top-Down Processing

Analysis that emphasizes the perceiver's expectations, concept memories and other cognitive factors, rather than individual characteristics.

What emotion can people most readily detect through facial expressions?

Anger

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Anxious thoughts disappear as one's eyes darted about (EDMR) -Developed by Francine Shapiro -It's having your eyes dart to and fro and is supposed to relieve anxiety. -The person thinks of a traumatic experience, then darts his/her eyes back and forth. Shapiro reports 84% to 100% success.

Teratogen

Any factor that can cause a birth defect

Aggression

Any physical or verbal behavior intended to harm someone, whether done out of hostility or as a calculated means to an end -Emerges from the interaction of biology and experience

Punisher

Any stimulus or event that functions to decrease the likelihood of the behavior that led to it -Lessens the probability -Weaken behaviors

Attitudes

Are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose our reactions to objects, people, and events Ex: if we feel threatened, we may feel fear and anger towards a person and act defensively as a result -Attitudes affect our actions and our actions affect our attitudes

Fovea

Area of sharpest vision. -Has the highest concentration of rods and cones.

Gestalt Psychology

Argue that the brain forms a perceptual whole that is more than the mere sum of its sensory parts. -"The whole is more than the sum of its parts"

Noam Chomsky

Argued that language is nature's gift -An unlearned human trait, separate from other parts of human cognition

How do twin studies prove the biological perspective's reasoning behind why depression may occur?

As always with genetics, we turn to identical twin and adoption studies: -If one twin gets depression, the chances are 1 in 2 that the other will. -If one twin is bipolar, the chances are 7 in 10 that the other is. This is true even for identical twins reared apart. -Heritability is estimated at 35 - 40%. -Adopted people with depression usually have a biological relative with depression. The lesson here: genetics seem to matter with mood disorders.

Why are there differences in intelligence among different races?

As to why these differences occur, it goes back to nature vs. nurture. 1.) As to nature, there is no proof that one race is more or less intelligent than another. 2.) As to nurture, undoubtedly the environment affects one's education and results on IQ tests. The question is, how much? -Often, blacks and Hispanics grow up in less well-off circumstances (scarcity affect) -In Asian-American cultures, parents often push their children hard to do well in school.

Relative Motion

As we move, objects that are actually stable may appear to move

Survey (in psychology)

Asking people questions about their behavior or opinions to learn more about a certain topic/event -Wording the questions is extremely important (how the phrasing of a question might affect people's expressed opinions)

What is the cost of the just world hypothesis?

Assume people are good or bad based off of their circumstances -Stereotypes rationalize inequalities Ex: victim blaming sexual abuse survivors, justifying slavery

Self

Assumed to be the center of personality -The organizer of our thoughts, feelings, actions

Conversion Disorder

Assumes that anxiety is converted into physical symptoms. -A person might have a numb hand, but no physical cause for it to be numb.

Francis Gaton

At the end of the 19th century tried to measure intelligence. -Somewhat oddly, he measured physical traits and compared them to intelligence - not surprisingly, they didn't correlate. -His legacy was to give some measuring techniques, the term "nature and nurture", and the attempt to objectively measure intelligence.

What types of stimuli can evoke hostility?

Aversive Stimuli: -Hot temperatures -Physical pain -Personal insults -Foul odors -Cigarette smoke -Crowding

Why was B.F. Skinner's ideas controversial?

B. F. Skinner was a controversial figure in psychology, mainly due to his belief that we were nothing more than biological reactors to stimuli. -People were machines or robots. -He believed there was no cognition (simply reactions to stimuli)

Mental Sets

Barriers to problem solving that occur when we apply only methods that have worked in the past rather than trying new or different strategies

Freudian Psychology

Based on psychoanalytical psychology: -Introduced by Sigmund Freud -How our unconscious mind and childhood experiences affect our behavior

Do subliminal messages work?

Based on studies, some people do respond to stimuli below the absolute threshold, under some circumstances. -The problem is people behave different thresholds at different levels, so what could be subliminal (or below the threshold) for one person, may be supraliminal (above the threshold) for another person.

How do we know if a test is a good test?

Based on... 1.) Standardization 2.) Reliability 3.) Validity

Subliminal Persuasion

Behavior change induced by subliminal processing Ex: reading horoscopes Subliminal Processing: -Occurs when a stimulus is too weak to be perceived yet a person is influenced by it

Operant Behavior

Behavior that an organism produces that has some impact on the environment

Prosocial Behavior

Behavior that intends to help or benefit someone

Respondent Behavior

Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

What do different fields/perspectives of psychology focus on?

Behavioral: How we learn observable responses Biological: How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences (how our genes and our environment influence our individual differences) Cognitive: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information Evolutionary: How the natural selection of traits has promoted survival of genes Humanistic: How we achieve personal growth and self-fulfillment Psychoanalytical (psychodynamic): How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts Social-Cultural: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures

Mrs. Thompson believes that her son has become an excellent student because she consistently uses praise and affection to stimulate his learning efforts. Her belief best illustrates a ________ perspective.

Behavioral: using stimuli to spark a reaction -Not humanism because her son is relying on support from her mother

John Watson

Behaviorism; emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation; famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat

What do behaviorists believe in regards to therapy?

Behaviorists disagree that resolving unconscious conflicts or getting to know yourself will solve your mental issues. Behaviorists say you've learned these things through rewards and punishments. But, just as you've learned them, you can unlearn them too.

Culture

Behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next -Human nature seems designed for culture

What do humanists believe in regards to therapy?

Believe that people are good-at-heart and try to help people grow to reach their full potential. (1) Focuses on the present instead of the past (2) The conscious instead of the unconscious (3) Holds a person accountable for his actions instead of the unconscious (4) It promotes growth rather than a cure.

Lewis Terman

Believed we could place a number on intelligence: -Came up with the Stanford-Binet (refined the questions of Alfred Binet's intelligence test) -Coined the term IQ (and came up with a formula to measure one's intelligence)

Biopsychsocial Apporach

Believes ALL behavior comes from the interaction of the body/genetics and one's background/experiences as well as our thoughts. -The "bio" and the "social" parts of the name simply refer to nature and nurture. -The "psycho" part of the name is what we think about things. -All three dance together. -Different cultures tend to have different disorders.

Skewed Populations

Bell curves that do not represent a normal distribution (there are outliers present) -Positive skew: the tail end of the bell curve extends towards the right (the value of the mean decreases) -Negative skew: the tail end of the bell curve extends towards the left (the value of the mean increases)

What is cognitive therapy best for?

Best for depression and suicide issues.

What is behavioral therapy best for?

Best for specific problems, like phobias, bed-wetting, compulsions, and marital problems.

Electroconvulsive Therapy

Better known as "shock therapy" or "shock treatment." -The patient is given an anesthetic and muscle relaxant, then 30 to 60 seconds of electricity. They awaken 30 minutes later, remember nothing of the treatment. -ECT seems successful. -80% of depressed people who did not respond to drug therapy see significant improvement. -ECT reduces thoughts of suicide.

Maturation

Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience -Orderly sequence of biological development

What are some potential biological influences that encourage drug abuse?

Biological influences: This theory believes that some people are biologically and/or genetically inclined to use drugs. -Twin and adoption studies seem to support a link between drug use and heredity. -Excitable boys (a hereditary trait) are more likely to abuse drugs. -Genes have been identified that link to alcohol and tobacco abuse.

What influences antisocial personality disorder?

Both nature and nurture influence a person's antisocial behavior. -Men who were antisocial often had these characteristics as boys: they were impulsive, uninhibited, not concerned with social rewards, and had little worries. -An antisocial person's brain operates differently too. Their frontal lobes (which halt impulsive and aggressive behavior) show less activity on a PET scan than a normal person.

Gray Matter

Brain and spinal cord tissue that appears gray with the naked eye; consists mainly of neuronal cell bodies (nuclei) and lacks myelinated axons. -People with more gray matter have a slight positive correlation with being more intelligent

Theta Waves

Brain waves indicating the early stages of sleep -NREM Stage 1

The sequence of brain regions from the evolutionarily oldest to newest is?

Brainstem, limbic system, cerebral cortex

B.F. Skinner

Built on Thorndike's work and is likely the biggest name in operant conditioning. -Created "Skinner Boxes" (very famous work) -Used "shaping" to teach his subjects -Shunned anything cognitive - anything having to do with thinking or the mental. To him, even things going on inside your head are just more behaviors in response to stimuli.

Sleep Spindles

Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain-wave activity -Occur in NREM Stage 2

How do we learn?

By making associations: -Connecting events that occur one after another (can be good, like connecting the birthday song to eating cake, or bad like seeing a flash of lightning then hearing loud thunder)

Computed Tomography

CT Scan -A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by a computer into a composite representation of a slice through the body -Aka CAT scan

E.L. Thorndike

Came up with operant conditioning -Law of effect-the principle that behavior followed by favorable consequences becomes more likely and vice versa -If you do something then get a reward, you'll likely do it again

Collection Unconscious

Carl Jung's concept of a shared inherited reservoir of memory traces from our species' history -Explains why people in different cultures share certain myths and images -Is mostly a false theory however...psychologists today believe that our shared evolutionary history shaped some universal dispositions

What are Carl Roger's beliefs revolving therapy?

Carl Rogers- humanist psychologists 1.) Encouraged therapists to show genuineness, acceptance, and empathy. In other words, be real, don't judge, and feel their pain. 2.) Spoke of active listening where the listener echoes what's heard, restates it, then seeks clarification. 3.) Use unconditional positive regard - that they listen without judging

What are the detrimental effects of "expectation" in social experiments?

Causes results that the experimenter wanted in the first place (will not receive the true results) -Very important to peer review the experiment -Experiments fix errors from previous experiments (is a constant cycle)

Synaptic Transmission

Causes the ion channels to open, generating a postsynaptic potential (neurotransmitter binding) Falls into two categories: -Excitatory postsynaptic potentials -Inhibitory postsynaptic potentials

Glial Cells

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons -Play a role in learning, thinking, and memory

Evolution

Change in a kind of organism over time; process by which modern organisms have descended from ancient organisms.

Gated Ion Channels

Channels that open or close in response to stimuli -Stretch-Gated: open or close when the membrane is deformed -Ligan-Gated: open or close when a chemical binds to the channel; found along dendrite -Voltage-Gated: open or close when membrane potential changes; found along axon

How did Charles Darwin contribute to the ongoing nature vs nurture debate (is knowledge innate or learned from experiences)?

Charles Darwin proposed natural selection: "from among chance variations, nature selects traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment" (so some of our knowledge is innate) -Introduced evolutionary psychology (a field of psychology) -How are humans alike? How do we individually differ from each other? How does our home and community affect us?

Pheromones

Chemical signals released by an animal that communicate information and affect the behavior of other animals of the same species. -Animal communication

Hormone

Chemical signals that are formed in the endocrine glands, travel in body fluids and act on specific target cells

Psychoactive Drugs

Chemicals that affect the nervous system and result in altered consciousness

Evidence-Based Practice

Clinical decision making that integrates the best available research with clinical expertise and patient characteristics and preferences

Donald Meichenbaum

Cognitive therapist most associated with the concept of stress inoculation -Focused on the wording that people used. -Negative wording equates to negative thoughts and thus negative feelings. -His conclusion was that if you talk negatively to yourself, you feel badly. But, the more positively you talk to yourself, the better you feel.

How is color created if it does not exist (why do we see color)?

Color is created when the wavelength in a beam of light is recorded by the photoreceptors in the form of neural impulses. -It is then sent to specific regions of the brain for processing.

Opponent Processing Theory

Color perception is controlled by the activity of two opponent systems (three sets of color receptors); red-green or yellow-blue -There are some color combinations that we never see, such as reddish-green or yellowish-blue.

Hierarchies

Complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided into categories and subcategories -Information divided further and further into different categories -Grouping information together

Schemas

Concepts or mental frameworks that organize and interpret information. -For example, a child forms a schema for "dog" early on - it's a furry, four-legged animal. The child may latter confuse a cat with a dog, because a cat fits the furry, four-legged animal schema. -As we go through life, we accommodate our schemas meaning that we revise and refine them.

Borderline Personality Disorder

Condition marked by extreme instability in mood, identity, and impulse control

Brain Stem

Connection to spinal cord. Filters information flow between peripheral nervous system and the rest of the brain. -Thalamus -Midbrain -Hindbrain

Central Nervous System

Consists of the brain and the spinal cord -The body's decision maker -Our thinking, feeling, and acting

Overall, how does classical conditioning and operant conditioning differ?

Contrasting classical and operant conditioning: 1.) Classical conditioning: -Links two stimuli together through association. -Involves a natural, biological response. There is no decision made - Pavlov's dogs salivated naturally, biologically, with no decision of their own. 2.) Operant conditioning: -Links a behavior to its results. -There is a decision made here to do or not do a behavior. Behavior that gets reinforced is more likely to be repeated.

How does Freud's work contribute to our understanding of psychology today (which of Freud's theories do we accept)?

Contributed to big ideas that underlies today's psychodynamic thinking: -We have limited access to all that goes in our mind -We have a two-track mind (has a vast out-of-sight realm) -We are greatly influenced by our childhood -Accepted the reaction formation and projection defense mechanisms

Automatic Nervous System

Controls the glands and the internal organs -Influences involuntary actions (heartbeat, breathing, digestion, etc.) -Usually operates unconsciously

What is the structure of the eyes?

Cornea -The transparent protective coating over the front part of the eye. Pupil -small opening in the iris through which light enters the eye. Iris -colored part of the eye. Lens -transparent part of the eye inside the pupil that focuses light onto the retina. Retina -lining of the eye containing receptor cells that are sensitive to light. Transduction occurs here.

Charles Spearman

Creator of "g-factor", or general intelligence, concept

What are some criticisms of evolutionary psychology?

Criticized for being "narrow-minded" -It perceives people as acting under one, and only one, impulse - the desire to survive and pass on genes -Many wonder, "As human beings, isn't there something more to us than this animalistic drive?"

Social Scripts

Culturally provided mental files for how to act in certain situations -Imitate what we view

Genes

DNA segments that serve as the key functional units in hereditary transmission -Ours codes of life

What did David Watson conclude about our level of happiness throughout the day?

David Watson: studied happiness hourly -He determined that after waking, we quickly move into a good mood. It gets slightly better until 8 hours later then begins to slide. -After being up 13 or 14 hours, it drops fast. -The bottom line, we're happiest during the daytime hours, then saddest during the evening.

Habituation

Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.

Deduction vs Induction (in regards to science)?

Deduction: General idea to a specific idea (applying overall concepts to specific examples) Induction: Specific idea to a general idea (using specific examples to create overall concepts)

Basal Ganglia

Deep brain structures involved in motor movement -Facilitates formation of the procedural memories for skills -Receives information from the cortex (but does not send information back)

What do the social influence studies teach us about ourselves?

Demonstrated that strong social influences induce many people to conform to falsehoods or capitulate to cruelty -"Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process" -Become evil (for those who do so) gradually...step by step (the previous step justifies the following step and so on)

Action Potential (action potential)

Depolarization: The change in the membrane potential beyond threshold -Open voltage gated sodium channels so the inner neuron becomes more positive than the outside Repolarization: Voltage gated sodium channels close, but the voltage gated potassium gates open -Potassium flows out of the neuron resetting the membrane potential

Depression Cycle

Depression makes up a vicious cycle of feeling down, acting sluggish, performing poorly, getting poor reviews, withdrawal from others, etc. which returns to feeling down again. The cycle can be labeled as... 1.) Stressful experiences 2.) Negative explanatory style 3.) Depressed mood 4.) Cognitive and behavioral changes -The bottom line: negative thoughts make up a disease that feeds itself.

Monocular Cues

Depth cues, such as interposition and linear perspective, available to either eye alone -Allows us to see things at greater distances

MDMA (Ecstasy)

Designer drug that can have both stimulant and hallucinatory effects -It starts the release of dopamine, but also releases serotonin and blocks its reuptake. -Natural serotonin production can be permanently damaged which can lead to permanent depression.

Mary Ainsworth

Developmental psychology; compared effects of maternal separation, devised patterns of attachment; "The Strange Situation": observation of parent/child attachment

Robert Sternberg

Devised the Triarchic Theory of Intelligence 1.) Analytical intelligence (academic problem-solving) -These tests set up a specific problem with a single answer. -These tests predict school success well and vocational success fairly well. 2.) Creative intelligence -These tests measure how a person responds to a novel situation and how they create fresh ideas. 3.) Practical intelligence -These skills are used for everyday life, so the skills-set is rather wide open. The skills could include writing, speaking, interacting, motivating, etc. -Came up with the Rainbow Project test

Howard Gardner

Devised theory of multiple intelligences: logical-mathematic, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, naturalistic -Studied people with savant syndrome

Edward Tolman (and his rat experiment)

Did an experiment with rats in a maze showed latent learning. -There were two groups of rats - one was given a reward at each correct decision. They got to the end quickly. -Another group was given no reward until they finished the maze. Needless to say, they floundered around and it took them a long time. -After each group finally learned the maze, however, the second group was able to run the maze even quicker than the first group. They'd developed a "mental maze." This learning didn't become apparent until later. -Similarly, children learn things from parents and adults that they may not use until much later in life, perhaps when they become parents themselves. (proves latent learning)

Rosenhan's Experiment

Did study in which healthy patients were admitted to psychiatric hospitals and diagnoses with schizophrenia -Showed that once you are diagnosed with a disorder, the label, even when behavior indicates otherwise, is hard to overcome in a mental health setting -Why someone just out of prison or a mental hospital often have trouble getting a job -Self-fulfilling prophecy

Ivan Pavlov

Discovered classical conditioning; trained dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell -He noticed dogs salivated at the sight of food. This is a natural reaction. He wondered if he could associate something unnatural to salivation. 1.) Pavlov rang a bell, then fed the dog. The bell meant nothing to the dog. 2.) He repeated this over and over and over until, the bell did mean something - the bell meant food was coming! 3.) Eventually, the bell alone could cause the dog to salivate. 4.) He rigged tubes to the dog's neck to measure the salivation (and thus the response).

Projection

Disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others

Distributed Practice

Distributed practice is a learning strategy, where practice is broken up into a number of short sessions - over a longer period of time

Divergent Thinking vs Convergent Thinking

Divergent Thinking: the ability to consider many different options and to think in novel ways Convergent Thinking: narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution (diminishes creativity) Ex: the SAT test

Schizophrenia is most closely linked with excess receptor activity for which neurotransmitter?

Dopamine

The tremors of Parkinson's disease result from the death of nerve cells that produce which neurotransmitter?

Dopamine (a lack of dopamine)

Depressants

Drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Stimulants

Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, and Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions. -Speed up the body -Stimulants cause the pupils to dilate, one's pulse and breathing rates to increase, energy and confidence to increase, and appetite to drop. -Cutting out a stimulant result in fatigue, headaches, crankiness, or depression.

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress the activity of the central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment -Similar effects as alcohol

Antianxiety Drugs

Drugs used to control anxiety and agitation -Depress the central nervous system (as does alcohol). A common drug is Xanax. The good—the drug may aid the effects of exposure therapy and cut down on effects of PTSD and OCD. The bad—the drug can lead to psychologically dependence and physiological dependence. Then when the person stops taking it, symptoms can be even worse.

Antidepressant Drugs

Drugs used to treat depression -Boosts a person's mood by increasing neurotransmitters serotonin or norepinephrine. The good—Prozac blocks reuptake of the serotonin neurotransmitter molecule so more of them "stay in play" rather than get reabsorbed by the sending axon. The bad—side-effects can be dry mouth, weight gain, hypertension, or dizziness.

Antipsychotic Drugs

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia and other forms of severe thought disorder -The molecules of this drug were like the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Electroencephalogram

EEG -For recording the brain's electrical activity -An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface (measured by electrodes placed on the scalp)

What is the structure of the ear?

Ear canal - Also called the auditory canal, carries sound waves into the ear. Eardrum - A membrane at the end of the auditory canal. It vibrates due to sound waves. Hammer, anvil, stirrup - The three small bones in the middle ear that relay vibrations of the eardrum to the inner ear. Oval window - Membrane across the opening between the middle ear and inner ear that conducts vibrations to the cochlea. Round window - Membrane between the middle ear and inner ear that equalizes pressure in the inner ear. Cochlea - Part of the inner ear containing fluid that vibrates which in turn causes the basilar membrane to vibrate. For psychology, this may be the most important part of the ear because this is where sound waves are converted into neural impulses. Basilar membrane -Vibrating membrane in the cochlea of the inner ear; it contains sense receptors for sound. Organ of Corti -Structure on the surface of the basilar membrane that contains the receptors cells for hearing. Auditory nerve -The bundle of neurons that carries signals from each ear to the brain.

Telegraphic Speech

Early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram—"go car"—using mostly nouns and verbs -Can utter two-word sentences -Finally arranging words into sensible order -Gradually learning complex sentences

Deep-Brain Stimulation

Electrical stimulation applied through surgically implanted electrodes; used to treat some anxiety and mood disorders -8 in 12 people that tried this seemed to have positive results.

How do emotions affect our memory processing?

Emotions triggers stress hormones that influence memory formation -When triggered, make more glucose energy available to fuel brain activity -Significantly stressful events can form almost unforgettable memories

How did humanistic psychologists view personality?

Emphasized the ways people strive for self-determination and self-realization -People striving to essentially achieve "happiness"

Social-Cognitive Perspective

Emphasizes the interaction of traits with situations -Including thinking and their social context -What we learn from others and how do we think about situations -How we interact with our surrounding environment -"Behavior emerges from the interplay of external and internal influences" -Albert Bandura

Experiments (in psychology)

Enable researchers to isolate the effects of one or more factors by: -Manipulating the factors of interest -Holding constant other factors Lets psychologists re-create the exact behaviors of everyday life to test theoretical practices

Somatic Nervous System

Enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles -Reports to the brain the current state of the skeletal muscles and carries instructions back, then triggers a response

Effortful Processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort (coincides with explicit memories) -The use of learning -Effortful processing can become automatic Ex: driving, texting, speaking a new language, etc.

Thyroid Gland

Endocrine gland that surrounds the trachea in the neck -Produces thyroxine, which stimulates and maintains metabolic activities

The effects of opiates are similar to the effects of which neurotransmitter?

Endorphins

Charles Darwin

English natural scientist who formulated a theory of evolution by natural selection (1809-1882) His findings: 1.) A species has variations. 2.) Those variations sometimes help it to live and/or to reproduce. 3.) If it lives and reproduces, its genes get passed on to the next generation (those that did not live and reproduce, will not get passed on).

Testing Effect

Enhanced memory after retrieving (testing), rather than simply rereading, information -Retesting students on a certain material (the use of midterms and finals for example)

Diverse Environment Theory

Environment is the message of racism -One's environment affects how racist one turns out to be (correlational finding) -Not necessarily true

What are Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development?

Erikson believed that at each stage a person faced some type of a crisis. He or she needed to resolve that crisis before moving on to the next stage. Erikson's stages were... 1.) Trust vs. mistrust - Infancy - If an infants basic needs are met, they develop trust. 2.) Autonomy vs. shame/doubt - Toddlers - They wish to do things on their own, or they're ashamed. 3.) Initiative vs. guilt - Preschool - They make and carry out plans, or they're guilty for failing to do so. 4.) Industry vs. inferiority - Grade school - Kids feel good about being productive, or they feel inferior for failing to do so. 5.) Identity vs. role confusion - Adolescence - Teens test different roles, or they're confused about who they are. 6.) Intimacy vs. isolation - Young adults - They try to gain a close loved one, or they feel alone. 7.) Generatively vs. stagnation - Middle aged - They gain a sense of adding to the world through family and/or work, or they feel they've no purpose. 8.) Integrity vs. despair - Late adulthood - They look back on their lives and either see a sense of worth or failure.

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 -Based on mental availability (anything that makes information pop into mind can make it seem commonplace when it may not be) -Can distorts our judgement of other people -Makes us fear the wrong thing

When is having anxiety considered a disorder?

Everyone feels anxiety (worrying) at some point, like being nervous before giving a speech. But, for most people, anxiety is temporary. -If it's persistent, an anxiety disorder may be present. -Generalized anxiety disorder

Steve Pinker

Evolutionary psychologist who studied language as an evolved adaptation -"We sometimes sit for hours listening to other people make noise as they exhale, because those hisses and squeaks contain information" -"The jewel in the crown of cognition"

Narcissism

Excessive self-love and self-absorption -A potential result of the self-serving bias -Tend to lash out when their self-esteem is bruised -More materialistic, desire fame, have inflated expectations, gamble, cheat, forgive others less, engage in sexually forceful behavior

Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials

Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials The neurotransmitter binds to a type of channel where the sodium can diffuse through -Depolarizes the membrane and brings membrane potential towards the threshold -Makes it more likely for a postsynaptic neuron to generate an action potential

Ostracism

Exclusion from a group -This is usually in the form of the "silent treatment", turning away, or simply being ignored. -A person ostracized usually feels depression, tries to get accepted, then withdraws. -In the brain, this social pain behaves similarly to real pain (Any pain gets our attention and calls for action) Action might be constructive like seeking new friends or it can be mean-spirited or even drastic.

Placebo Effect

Experimental results caused by expectations alone -Any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which the recipient assumes is an active agent (assumes they are feeling better)

Theory

Explains behaviors or events by offering ideas that organize observations: -Organizes observations -Implies predictions -Stimulates further research that can lead to a revised theory that better organizes and predicts -Theories are never right!!

How do explicit and implicit prejudice differ?

Explicit: On the radar of our awareness -Mindfully making negative judgements Implicit: An unthinking knee-jerk response operating below the radar, leaving us unaware of how our attitudes are influencing our behavior

Peter Lewinshon and his facts on depression

Explored depression and summarized facts on it: 1.) Tend to be more pessimistic 2.) Depression is common. 3.) Women are twice as likely as men to become depressed. 4.) Causes for this are genes, child abuse, self-esteem, relationship issues. 5.) Major depressive conditions usually end on their own. 6.) Stress often comes before depression.

What is the psychology behind sexual arousal?

External stimuli affects sex-drive. In other words, what we see, hear, and the situation we're in can "get us in the mood.": -The brain is the most powerful sex organ

Choice Blindness

Failing to notice a change in a previously selected item -Unaware of the choices or preferences they make. -The brain justifying decisions that it did not make -Ex: Face Test

Change Blindness

Failing to notice change in the environment around us. -Ex: Card Trick video

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere. -Ex: Moon-walking Bear video

Hallucinations

False sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus -William Dement

Benjamin Lee Whorf

Famous for describing concept of "liguistic determinism" -"Language itself shapes a basic idea"

Lawrence Kohlberg

Famous for his theory of moral development in children; made use of moral dilemmas in assessment -Stages of cognitive development: 1.) Pre-conventional Morality 2.) Conventional Morality 3.) Post-conventional Morality

What are some common side effects of bipolar disorder?

Feeling euphoria and depression in short frequent intervals: During mania, a person might... -Talk a lot and not like it when interrupted. -Not sleep. -Be sexually promiscuous. -Not want to take advice from others, though they really need it for judgment, spending, and sex. -Basically, they're in a great mood, are going to "run with it", and just don't care what you say about it. -Bipolar is less common than major depressive disorder, but it seems more paralyzing and disruptive.

Estrogen

Female sex hormone (initiates sexual behavior for women) -Peaks during ovulation

What does cognitive psychology focus upon?

Focuses on how we perceive, process, and remember information -How thinking and emotions interact in anxiety, depression, and other disorders

What criticisms have social-cognitive theorists faced?

Focuses too much on the situation and not on the person's inner traits -Biologically influenced traits are very significant

Emerging Adulthood

For some people in modern cultures, a period from the late teens to mid-twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood

Angular Gyrus

Found in both hemispheres -Only supports language in the left hemisphere -Supports reading by translating written language into an auditory code

William James

Founder of functionalism; studied how humans use perception to function in our environment -Invented "stream of consciousness"

Philippe Pinel

French physician who worked to reform the treatment of people with mental disorder -One of the first psychologists who tried to replace brutality towards the mentally ill with better treatments

Defense Mechanisms (as described by Sigmund Freud)

Freud's belief that there are tactics that reduce or redirect anxiety by distorting reality (how the ego protects itself) -Repression -Reaction Formation -Projection -Rationalization -Displacement -Sublimation -Denial

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts -The techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions

Psychoanalysis

Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions -Not a fully accepted theory

Mirror Neurons

Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of another's action may enable imitation, language learning, and empathy.

Glutamate

Function: A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory Examples of malfunctions: Oversupply can overstimulate the brain, producing migraines or seizures

GABA (gama-aminobutyric acid)

Function: A major inhibitory neurotransmitter Examples of malfunctions: Undersupply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia

Serotonin

Function: Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal Examples of malfunctions: Undersupply linked to depression

Acetylcholine

Function: Enables muscle action, learning, and memory Examples of malfunctions: with Alzheimer's disease

Norepinephrine

Function: Helps control alertness and arousal Examples of malfunctions: Undersupply can depress mood

Endorphins

Function: Influence the perception of pain or pleasure Examples of malfunctions: Oversupply with opiate drugs can suppress the body's natural endorphin supply

Dopamine

Function: Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion Examples of malfunctions: Oversupply linked to schizophrenia, undersupply linked to tremors and decreased mobility in Parkinson's disease

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Gardner's intelligence theory that proposes that there are eight distinct spheres of intelligence 1.) Linguistic 2.) Logical-mathematical 3.) Musical 4.) Spatial 5.) Bodily-kinesthetic 6.) Intrapersonal (self) 7.) Interpersonal (others) 8.) Naturalist

How does gender play a role in one's intelligence?

Gender plays a role in differing intelligence scores: -Males and females are very similar in terms of intelligence. In one study, girls' average IQ was 100.6 and boys' was 100.5 Though there are minor intelligent differences among genders: 1.) Spelling - Females spell better. 2.) Verbal ability - Females are by far better than males. 3.) Nonverbal ability - Females are better at locating things and remembering pictures. 4.) Sensation - Females are more sensitive to touch, taste and smell. 5.) Emotion-detecting ability - Females are better at recognizing emotions of others. 6.) Math and spatial ability - The results are mixed (thought males usually outshine females) 7.) Ability to rotate a shape - boys are best in this spatial ability -These are not concrete differences (not every girl is better at spelling than every boy for example)

How do our parents and our early upbringings shape us into who we become (nature vs nurture on development)?

Genetics forms our physical makeup, but the environment (nutrition, love, interaction) fills in the spaces: -A study of rats had one group alone and in a blank environment. A second group had playmates and a stimulating environment. The second group's brain cells were considerably more developed. -The brain is like a muscle - when it's used, it grows, when it's not used, it's stunted.

Proximity

Geographic nearness-a friendship's most powerful predictor -Can provide opportunities for aggressions but also breeds liking -Mere exposure effect

Figure vs Ground

Gestalt Psychology divides perceptual experience into figure and ground. -Figure: The part of a pattern that commands attention...stands out. -Ground: The part of the pattern that does not command attention...background.

Collectivism

Giving priority to goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly -Take more pleasure in helping their close groups (friends and family) over themselves -Typically avoid direction confrontation and honesty -Typically are more shy when meeting strangers -Fitting in is their main priority -Accommodates to reality as a coping mechanism

Individualism

Giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attribute rather than group identifications -Very independent -Discover and express one's uniqueness -Changes to reality as a coping mechanism -Defined by the individual -Many casual relationships

How do our levels of happiness change with age?

Happiness is reported by about 80% of people over age 15. It dips a little bit in the middle years (35-50) then rises around age 60. Older folks seem less negative, more positive.

How does happiness and helpfulness intertwine?

Happy people are helpful people -We become more generous and more eager to help when happy -Happiness breeds helpfulness and helpfulness breeds happiness (helping those in need activates brain areas associated with reward)

Is psychotherapy effective? What is this based on?

Hard to measure...but measured by three main ways... 1.) How the patient feels about its success. -The patient, or client, almost always feels that psychotherapy is effective. 2.) How the therapist feels about its success. -Therapists, or clinicians, tend to report success too. 3.) How much the behavior has changed. -Need experimentation to measure this... --In one study, a group was "treated" with psychotherapy and a control group got nothing. Both groups healed. The lesson—time is a great healer.

How have humanistic theories influence psychology?

Have influenced counseling, education, child raising, and management -Influenced positive psychology -Larger focus on mental health and self-esteem present day

How does communication promote peace?

Help each party voice its viewpoint and understand the other's needs and goals -Can replace a competitive win-lose orientation with a cooperative win-win orientation

What is the goal of most psychological experiments?

Helps reveal general principles that explain many behaviors -Does not really focus on specific behaviors -May help predict behaviors for groups (however, more so faintly predict the behavior of an individual in any given situation)

James-Lange Theory

Henry James and Carl Lange built the James-Lange theory which says our bodies react first, then we experience the emotional feeling: For example, a baseball pitcher suddenly sees a batted ball coming for his face. He reacts and catches the ball. Then he feels a rush of fear/surprise/emotion. -Reaction comes before feeling (this theory says)

How heritable are the "big five" traits?

Heritability generally runs about 40% for each dimension -Many genes have small effects that combine to influence our traits

How did Freud describe conscious interactions with unconscious interactions?

His iceberg model: (ID vs Ego vs Superego) ID: Sexual and violent (works on the pleasure principle) Ego: Moderates between the ID, superego, and reality (rationality for keeping someone out of trouble) Superego: The conscious (adapting characteristics) -False Theory

Alzheimer's Diesease (AD)

Hits about 3% of people -Memory goes first, then reasoning -Later symptoms are loss of emotions, disorientation, no inhibitions, and incontinence. -Causes are the loss of brain cells, deteriorated neurons that no longer produce acetylcholine (a chemical messenger).

Compliance Effect

How faithful a participant is within their experiment -May not consume the right amount of medications every time they should -Affects results

Gender Type

How others see us in terms of male/female. Some boys show more "girlish" traits and vice-versa.

How does culture affect our behavior?

Human nature seems designed for culture -Makes us very social (better way of being social) -Supports survival and reproduction by transmitting learned behaviors that give a group an edge -Preservation of innovation (helps us advance) -Culture has changed humans very quickly (varies rapidly overtime)

How did humanistic psychology prove that behaviorism and freudian psychology are inaccurate?

Humanistic Psychologists found both behaviorism and freudian psychology too limiting -Focused on the potential for personal growth (rather than conditioning and unconscious thought/childhood memories) -Focused on free-will

How does context and expectations affect our perception overall?

Humans often use context to help interpret our sensations. Once you identify a context, you form expectations about what you are likely to experience. -Context is an enormously useful cue to identify ambiguous stimuli.

Hypnotic Induction

Hypnotist seeks to relax the subject and increase the subject's level of concentration

What is the formula Lewis Terman came up with determine one's intelligence numerically?

IQ = (mental age divided by chronological age) x 100 Ex: So, if a child is 12 years old and has the mental age of a 12 year old, 12 divided by 12 is 1.0, times 100 gives an IQ of 100. 100 is by definition an average IQ. -If that child is 12 but has a mental age of a 13 year old, 13 divided by 12 is 1.08, times 100 gives an IQ of 108.

Recognition (retention measure)

Identifying items previously learned -Multiple-choice question tests your recognition -Recognition speed is faster than our recall speed

Interposition

If one object partially blocks our view of another, we perceive it as closer

How do genetics play a role in schizophrenia?

If you have a family member who's had schizophrenia, your odds go up considerably: -If one identical twin has schizophrenia, the other has about a 1 in 2 chance of getting it. -For fraternal twins, it's much lower, at around a 15% chance. Lower, but still much higher than two random people. This also supports the impact of genetics.

Stroboscopic Effect

Images in a series of still pictures presented at a certain speed will appear to be moving

After Images

Images that occur when a visual sensation persists for a brief time even after the original stimulus is removed -Looking at a colored object then turning to a white wall and seeing reminiscence of the previous object

Social Facilitation

Improved performance on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others -When others observe us, we become aroused (amplifies our reactions) Ex: "home team advantage" in sports games (being aroused by a strong audience presence)

Neutral Stimulus

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning -But if that neutral stimulus repeatedly occurs just before the unconditioned stimulus, eventually the learner recognizes the connection between the two stimuli (becomes the conditioned stimulus)

Unconditioned Stimulus

In classical conditioning, a stimulus that unconditionally—naturally and automatically—triggers a response.

Conditioned Stimulus

In classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus, comes to trigger a conditioned response

Acquisition

In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response.

Discrimination

In classical conditioning, the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal an unconditioned stimulus -Drawing the line between responding to some stimuli, but not others

Unconditioned Response

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

Operant Chamber ("Skinner box")

In operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a Skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforcer; attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking. -Tests the affects of the different characteristics of operant conditioning on a rat with a level that administers food or a shock (or lack of)

Variable-Ratio Schedule

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses Ex: Think of pulling a slot machine handle, you never know which pull will win.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

In operant conditioning, a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses Ex: Think of being paid for every 10 units you make on an assembly line.

Reinforcer

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows -Raises the probability that the event will occur again

Free Association

In psychoanalysis, a method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says whatever comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

What are some minor differences in the physical body responses to different emotions?

In the body... -Finger temperature and hormone secretions are different for fear and anger. -Fear and joy perk different facial muscles In the brain the emotions show more differences... -EEG scans show that emotions "light up" different parts of the brain. -Depression shows up more in the right frontal lobe, positive moods in the left frontal. This may be due to lots of dopamine receptors in the left lobe. Essentially, right is cranky, left is happy.

When are we most likely to dream?

In the lighter stages of sleep: -REM -NREM 1

How does the visual cortex process information from our eyes?

In the visual cortex, the brain begins working by transforming neural impulses into visual sensations of color, form, boundary and movement. -This process is called parallel processing-the simultaneous processing of several aspects of a problem -Different parts of the visual cortex are used to identify different images

Possible Selves

Include your visions of the self you dream of becoming (rich, successful, loved, admired) -Also includes the self you fear becoming (unemployed, academically failed, lonely, unpopular)

Violence-Viewing Effect

Increased aggression and reduced prosocial behavior (helping an injured person) after viewing violence media -People imitate the behavior they see. -People become desensitized to violence - we're not as shocked if we see graphic violence. -Correlational studies have linked TV violence and real violence (When TV came to America in the mid-late 1950s, homicide rates rose dramatically)

How does a lack of sleep lead to weight gain?

Increases ghrelin, a hunger-arousing hormone, and decreases its hunger-suppressing partner, leptin -Decreases metabolic (energy use) rate -Increases production of cortisol, a stress hormone that stimulates the body to make fat. -Enhances limbic brain responses to the mere sight of food and decreases cortical responses that help us resist temptation

Positive Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by presenting positive stimuli, such as food -Strengthens the response. Ex: after a child does his chores, his mom gives him ice-cream (increases the likelihood that the child will do his chores again)

Negative Reinforcement

Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli, such as shock. A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that, when removed after a response, strengthens the response. (Note: negative reinforcement is not punishment.) Ex: a terrible sound stops after a person presses a button, increasing the likelihood that the person will press that button again

What are the flaws of studying individual cases?

Individual cases can suggest misleading ideas often (always have a larger sample size) -Some individual cases can be unusual examples/dramatic stories

Normative Social Influence

Influence resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval -Don't want to pay the price for being different -Want to respond to informational social influence

Informational Social Influence

Influence resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality

IQ Test

Intelligent Quotient Test: A test designed to measure intellectual aptitude, or ability to learn in school -But, it's wrong to say, "My IQ is 105." It's correct to say, "I scored 105 on an IQ test."

Amplitude

Intensity/height of the wave

Neural Networks

Interconnected neural cells -With experience, networks can learn, as feedback strengthens or inhibits connections that produce certain results.

Why did introspection failed as a method for understanding how the mind works?

Introspection (the study of looking into someone's mind) -Based off of structuralism -Results of peoples' feelings/sensations constantly varied and were not always clear (cannot connect a certain feeling to a certain straight forward idea) -There were not "elements" making up our mind and our feelings

What is the best way to judge one's competence and predict one's future?

Invite others' assessments -Ask what others think about a certain situation (from a non-biased, non-emotionally driven view)

Tardive Dyskinesia

Involuntary movements of the facial muscles, tongue, and limbs; a possible neurotoxic side effect of long-term use of antipsychotic drugs that target certain dopamine receptors

Phobia

Irrational fears that causes a person to avoid an object, activity, or situation -Some phobias have a natural cause, like fear of heights or snakes. -Other phobias have irrational causes, like fear of the number 13.

If correlation does not prove causation, then why do we use correlation?

It helps us predict causation -First step into exploring cause-effect relationships (helps determine if a situation is even worth investigating in the first place)

What is the relationship between language and thinking?

It is proven that language influences our thinking but does not control our thinking entirely -People think differently in different languages -To expand language is to expand our ability to think -Can think without language!!!

Why is it so difficult to classify whether something is a psychological disorder or not?

It is relatively abstract 1.) Deviant - This means the behavior strays from what is normal. The norms of a society are determined by different things... -Culture - one culture's norms may be another's deviance. -Time period - what used to be odd may now be normal, or vice versa. 2.) Distress - Just straying from the normal doesn't make a disorder. They must also be bothered by what they do or see it as problematic. 3.) Dysfunction - The abnormal behavior must also create problems in the person's life. Whereas distress is on the inside, dysfunction sees the problem carried out in real life.

How much credit or blame should parents get for a child's successes or failures?

It's popular to blame a person's failures on the parents' failures... -In essence, this is the easy way out. People are responsible for their own actions and to blame a parent decades earlier is to shirk self-responsibility. -Very little credit blamed on the parents (unless for severe circumstances)

Representativeness Heuristic

Judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes -May lead us to ignore other relevant information -May cause us to stereotype (misleading intuition)

Kinesthetic sense

Keeps track of body parts, relative to each other (receptors) -Provides constant sensory feedback about what the muscles in your body are doing. -Reside in joints, muscles and tendons. These receptors are usually automatic, unless the person is learning a new skill.

Selection Effect

Kids seek out peers with similar attitudes and interests

Erik Erikson

Known for his 8-stage theory of Psychosocial Development -Basic trust concept

Eric Kandel

Known for learning and memory studies on sea slugs; eventually mice and other mammals -Learned about serotonin

Which makes finding statistical significance more likely?

Large sample sizes (sample sizes that are more representative)

Observational Learning

Learning by observing others (without direct experience of our own) -In modeling, we learn by watching and mimicking others. -We have mirror neurons that "fire" in the brain when we watch someone else doing an action. It's as though we're actually doing it, but we're just observing it. -Mirror neurons improve our empathy for others. It helps us to feel others' pain.

Observational Learning

Learning by observing others; also called social learning -Can also play a part in our anxieties because we can learn worry or fear from watching others.

Relearning (retention measure)

Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time -When you study for a final exam, you will relearn the material more easily than you did initially -Indicates our memory strength -The more frequently something is studied on the first day, the less time it takes to relearn it another day

Elaborative Processing

Learning something new by using/applying previous knowledge/concepts -Similar to the process of working memory

Associative Learning

Learning that certain events occur together. The events may be two stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning).

Latent Learning

Learning that doesn't become apparent until later when it's needed. Until then, it remains latent (hidden). -In the absence of a reinforcement -This concept proves some of B.F. Skinner's theories wrong (not everything is as the result of a reinforcer/punisher)

How does the left brain and the right brain differ in overall functioning?

Left Brain: -Handles rational, logical thought, speech and words -Sees more details (sees the details in a face for example) -Controls the right side of the body Right Brain: -Handles images, emotions, intuition, and drawing inferences (our sense of self-who we are, how we look) -Sees the general picture (sees a face and not so much the features for example) -Controls the left side of the body

Secure-Self Esteem

Less fragile type of self-esteem -Self-acceptance for who we are (not what is expected from others)

How does bright light affect our sleep?

Light hits out retinas and activates the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) -As a result of lights in the modern world, many people get less sleep. Their bodies have taken on a 24-hour day (which throws off their night-day sleeping habits).

Photoreceptors

Light-sensitive cells (neurons) in the retina that convert light energy into neural energy.

What are each of our senses absolute threshold?

Light: A candle flame at 30 miles on a dark, clear night. Sound: The tick of a mechanical watch under quiet conditions at 20 feet. Taste: One teaspoon of sugar in two gallons of water. Smell: One drop of perfume diffused into the entire volume of a three-bedroom apartment. Touch: The wing of a bee falling on your cheek from a distance of one centimeter.

Psychophysiological Illness

Literally, "mind-body" illness; any stress-related physical illness, such as hypertension and some headaches

Motor Cortex

Located along the back edge of the frontal lobes -Involved in voluntary movement

Somatosensory Cortex

Located along the front edge of the parietal lobes -Registers sensations that arises from the skin and the inside of the body

Occipital Lobe

Located at the back and base of the brain -Contains the visual cortex which processes visual information

Frontal Lobe

Located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere just behind the forehead -Contains the motor cortex

Broca's Area

Located in the left frontal lobe -Involved in the motor ability to produce speech

Wernicke's Area

Located in the left temporal lobe -Involved in language comprehension

Visual Cortex

Located in the occipital lobes -Processes information from the eyes

Auditory Cortex

Located in the temporal lobes -Processes information from the ears

Temporal Lobe

Located on the side of the brain -Contains the auditory cortex which processes auditory information

Magnetic Reasoning Imaging

MRI -A technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue -The head is put in a strong magnetic field that lines up spinning atoms of brain molecules. A radio-wave pulse momentarily disorients the atom and when the atoms return to their normal spin, they release signals that provide a detailed picture of the brain's soft tissue

David Wechsler

Made today's most common intelligence test: There are two versions... 1.) The WAIS for adults (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale). 2.) The WISC for children (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children). -The Wechsler test has two main categories, verbal and performance, and is broken into 11 subtests. -Gives overall intelligence score

Magnetic Stimulation

Magnetic energy pulses are sent into the person's brain. They stimulate or dampen certain areas of the brain. -This is called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). -The person remains awake, it's painless, and there's no memory loss or side effects. -A double-blind study saw the rTMS group do 50% better than the placebo control group.

Why do people use cognitive shortcuts when stereotyping people?

Makes our world much simpler -Categorize people (if someone cannot be categorized, tend to be placed in their minority identity) -The other-race effect

What is the significance of making learned material meaningful?

Making learned material meaningful (relating material to our lives) helps us remember concepts better -Requires 1/10th the effort than learning non meaningful material -Remembering information in our own words (not how we learned it verbatim)

Testerone

Male sex hormone (initiates sexual behavior for men) -Has different functions as well

The Strange Situation Experiment

Mary Ainsworth experiment: -The "Strange Situation" had a mother and child at about 12 months playing in a room. -Another unknown adult entered, then the mother left the room, the child became distraught, then the mother returned. -Some parents responded consolingly to the child, other parents not-so-much. The children of responsive parents showed a more "secure attachment" than children of less-responsive parents. -Determined secure attachment

Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's pyramid of human needs, beginning at the base with physiological needs that must first be satisfied before higher-level safety needs and then psychological needs become active 1.) Physiological needs - hunger and thirst 2.) Safety needs - to feel the world is organized and predictable 3.) Belongingness and love needs - the need to love and be loved, to be accepted and avoid loneliness 4.) Esteem needs - we need self-esteem, achievement, competence, independence, recognition, respect from others 5.) Self-actualization needs - to live up to our full potential 6.) Self-transcendence needs - to find meaning beyond ourselves

Massed Practice vs Distributed Practice

Massed: cramming -Produces speedy short-term learning and a feeling of confidence Distributed: repeated studying over a period of time -Better long-term recall

Reliability

Means a test gives the same or very similar results every time. It's like a bathroom scale, one that is always within a pound or two is reliable. If it varies by 30 pounds, that's not reliable. -There are several ways to test reliability: 1.) Split-half correlation: scores of the same test must correlate with each other (the evens and odds for one example) 2.) Retest: if someone takes a test and then takes the same test a week later, the scores will not vary much

Validity

Means that a test measures what it's supposed to measure. -Ways to test validity: 1.) Predictive validity: the idea that aptitude tests can accurately predict future performance. 2.) It measures what it's supposed to measure and nothing else: the content on the test is appropriate for what it is measuring (it fulfills its purpose) 3.)Correlation with other similar tests: must have high (but not perfect correlation) with other tests that test the same thing

Standardization

Means that every student takes the same test under the same circumstances. If this is achieved, we can compare one person's results to everyone else's. -Usually, the group's results end up in a bell-shaped curve called a normal curve or a bell curve (with normal distributions and standard deviations)

Overall, how are memories processed?

Memory Processing: Automatic Processing → Implicit memories → processed in the cerebellum and basal ganglia → space, time, frequency; motor and cognitive skills; classical conditioning Effortful Processing → Explicit memories → processed in the hippocampus and frontal lobes → semantic memory; episodic memory

Mnemonics

Memory aids that use vivid imagery and organizational devices -Visual learning -Peg-word system -Using acronyms to remember information for example

What is the average age of marriage for men and women?

Men: 29 Women: 27

Concepts

Mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people -Simplify our thinking (concepts for everything)

It is 1965, and Professor B.F. Skinner is lecturing in your introductory course. He defines psychology as "the scientific study of __________________."

Mental life -Skinner was a behaviorist

Mental Age vs. Chronological Age

Mental shows intellectual level for a certain age while chronological is your actual physical age -Alfred Binet studied these differences with intelligence

Can anyone experience hypnosis?

Most people can to some degree. -The degree depends on their openness to suggestion. -About 20% are highly suggestible. They can be led to smell things, or ignore a smell, like a bottle of ammonia.

What are the stages of sleep?

NREM Stage 1 NREM Stage 2 NREM Stage 3 NREM Stage 2 NREM Stage 1 REM Sleep -This sleep cycle goes through itself about every 90 minutes. Thus in a normal-length night, we go through about 4 sleep cycles.

Chameleon Effect

Natural (unconscious) tendency to imitate other peoples speech, inflections & physical movements -Social contagion -Also take on emotional tones and grammar

Biological Predisposition

Naturally good at some things and bad at others. -Animals easily learn to associate things that help them to survive. -And, animals don't easily learn things that don't help them survive. For example, in one experiment, pigs were being taught to pick up wooden "dollars" then put them in a piggy bank as fast as possible. The natural urge of the pigs to root with their noses slowed down their time.

Light and Shadow

Nearby objects reflect more light to eyes. Given two identical objects, the dimmer one seems farther away

What are some flaws of Piaget's theories of child development?

New research suggests he may have underestimated logic among youngsters.

Which of Freud's theories is proven wrong by present day technology and knowledge?

New theories that contradict Freud's vvvv 1.) Development is lifelong (does not just occur in one's childhood) 2.) Peer influence is just as important as parental influence 3.) Gender identity and sexuality do not stem from the Oedipus/electra crisis 4.) Childhood sexual abuse cases do occur 5.) Defense mechanisms do not disguise sexual and aggressive impulses

Are long-term memories processed and stored in specific locations?

No -Our brain is not like a library -The brain networks encode, store, and retrieve the information to form complex memories

Can hypnosis force you do something you don't want to do?

No -The evidence suggests that when people follow a hypnotist, they're largely doing it to be "good subjects", not mindless robots.

Does color actually exist?

No :( Despite the way the world appears, color does not exist outside the brain, because color is a perception that the brain creates based on the wavelength of light striking our eyes.

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

No, it does not make a sound -Sound is a purely psychological sensation that requires an ear (and the rest of the auditory system) to produce it.

Are we "totally out of it" when we are asleep?

No: we are not totally unconscious when asleep -We respond to noises

Can hypnosis enhance recall of forgotten memories?

No; hypnosis doesn't enhance your memory. -The idea that "it's in there, I just can't get to it, but hypnosis helps," is wrong. -Hypnosis usually mixes fact with fiction, just like our regular memories.

Universal Grammar

Noam Chomsky's theory that all the world's languages share a similar underlying structure -A built-in predisposition to learn grammar rules

NREM Stage 1

Non-Rem Stage 1: You're awake, but very relaxed, then slip into sleep. -Breathing is slow and brain waves are irregular. -May experience hallucinations -Alpha waves are very short in amplitude and tight in frequency. Theta waves begin.

NREM Stage 2

Non-Rem Stage 2: An EEG shows sleep spindles which appear as very rapid, close flickers on the graph (theta waves). -This lasts about 20 minutes. -Sleeptalking may occur herebut it also may occur at any other sleep stage.

NREM Stage 3

Non-Rem Stage 3: -This last about 30 minutes and is deep sleep. -An EEG shows large, slow delta waves. -This is where you're "out of it" and may not hear loud noises like thunder. -Children may wet the bed or sleepwalk.

Does the body react differently to different emotions?

Not really (not in a major way): -When experiencing different emotions, there are no major physical differences shown by the body. -Put another way, by simply reading the body, a researcher can't tell the difference between fear, anger, and sexual arousal.

Central Route Persuasion

Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts -Trigger careful thinking (offers evidence and arguments) -More involved in the issue -Attitudes affecting action

Peripheral Route Persuasion

Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness -Attention-getting cues to trigger emotion-based snap judgements -Attitudes affecting action

Rationalization

Offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions

Vision

One of the five main senses: Vision is the most complex, best developed and most important sense for humans and other highly mobile creatures. -Think of the eye as the brain's camera. -Gathers light, focuses it, converts it to a neural signal and sends these signals on for further processing.

How does skin sensory work (touch)?

One of the five senses -Connected to the somatosensory cortex. -The skin's sensitivity to stimulation varies tremendously over the body, depending on the number of receptors in each area.

Taste (gustation)

One of the five senses -Human taste has four main qualities: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. -Specialized nerves carry nothing but the taste messages to the brain. There taste is realized on a specialized region of the parietal lobe's somatosensory cortex. -Taste receptors can be easily damaged by alcohol, smoke, acids or hot foods.

Hearing (audition)

One of the five senses -The vibrational energy of vibrating objects, such as guitar strings, transfer the surrounding medium-air-as the vibrating objects push the molecules of the medium back and forth. -In space, there is no air, so the sound wave would have no medium to push. Any explosion would be eerily without sound.

What are the key percentile indicators in a normal distribution graph?

One standard deviation below the mean: 16th percentile One standard deviation above the mean: 84th percentile Two standard deviations below the mean: 2.5th percentile Two standard deviations above the mean: 97.5th percentile -Z score transformation (the amount of standard deviations away from the mean) Example: IQ's Mean: 100 Standard Deviation: 15 At 85, it is at the 16th percentile

Why is it difficult to predict someone's personality in a situation?

One's personality can change drastically based on the current situation (makes predicting our personalities at any given situation extremely difficult) -Can predict people's average outgoingness, happiness, or carelessness over many situations

Self-Efficacy

One's sense of competence and effectiveness Benefits of having high self-efficacy: -More confidence they can achieve -Higher school achievement

Opiates

Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety -Cause one's pupils to dilate, slows breathing, and creates sluggishness.

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units (often occurs automatically) -Enables to recall more easily -Happens very naturally

Vestibular Sacs

Organs in the inner ear that connect the semicircular canals and the cochlea and contribute to the body's sense of balance

Attempts to control social behavior by using the punishing effects of isolation is an example of

Ostracism

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment -The process underlying the mental model we create of the world of which we are aware.

Feature Detectors

Our brains have specialized cells whose job it is to identify specific features of a stimuli.

Personality

Our characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting

What is intuition?

Our fast, automatic, unreasoned feelings and thoughts -Not based off of facts or experimental data

Self-Esteem

Our feelings of high or low self-worth

Gene-Environment Interaction

Our genetically influenced traits evoke certain responses from others, which may nudge us in one direction or another

Why do we not remember our dreams?

Our mind does not record and remember out dreams -We forget anything after the first five minutes we first wake up from sleep

Stress Reaction

Our physical and emotional responses to the stressors -How we view an event can determine whether it's a stressor. To some people, a job interview is a great opportunity. To others, it's very intimidating.

Identity

Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles

How do our senses change as we become older?

Our senses decline with age: -After age 70, our senses of sight, smell and hearing take a dramatic nosedive. -Also after age 65 or 70, fatal accidents tend to go up sharply.

On a basic level, how do our sensory organs all function in perceiving the world?

Our sensory organs are very much alike. -They all transform physical stimulation (such as light waves or sound waves) into the neural impulses what give us sensations (such as light and dark). -Convert incoming stimuli information into electrochemical signals—neural activity -Change detectors

Language

Our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning -Allows information to move from one mind to another

Belief Perseverance

Our tendency to cling to our beliefs in the face of contrary evidence Ex: the Julio scenario (from the first day of school) -A result of the overconfidence effect -Motivated by stereotypes -Tend to ignore the opposing argument

Serial Position Effect

Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list -Can recall the first items in a list efficiently (have been rehearsing them the longest) -Can recall the last items in a list efficiently (still in short term memory)

How does our two track mind work together to solve problems?

Our two track mind makes harmony as: -Smart, critical thinking works together with creative whispers of our vast unseen mind -Evaluates evidence, tests conclusions, plans for the future

Why use median vs the mean in some instances?

Outliers can affect the mean (not an accurate representation of the average) -In these cases, the median would better represent what the data means (does not get affected by the outliers)

What are some other theories that answer the question "why do we dream?"

Overall: 1.) For processing information/ enhancing cognitive processes 2.) Enhancing creativity Other theories: 1.) To file memories: This theory thinks of the brain like a computer - it needs to file away memories and experiences into their proper spots for future reference. While these memories are being "filed", they may flash into our minds and thus create dreams. 2.) To develop and preserve neural pathways: This theory holds that dreams give the brain stimulation while sleeping in order to develop neural networks. 3.) To make sense of neural static: This theory holds that we have neural activity originating in the brain stem while sleeping. Thoughts come into our brains in a rather random fashion. Our brain doesn't like things that don't make sense, so, our brains assemble the thoughts into a dream. 4.) To reflect cognitive development: This theory believes that dreams are simply the result of a maturing brain.

Spotlight Effect

Overestimating others' noticing and and evaluating our appearance, performance, and blunders (as if we presume a spotlight shines on us)

Planning Fallacy

Overestimating our future leisure time and income -Result of the overconfidence error

Positron Emission Tomography

PET Scan -A visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task (person drinks radioactive glucose)

Authoritative (parenting)

Parenting style characterized by emotional warmth, high standards for behavior, explanation and consistent enforcement of rules, and inclusion of children in decision making -Children of authoritative parents have better self-esteem, self-reliance, and interact better with others

Amygdala

Part of the limbic system -Involved in regulation of the emotions of fear and rage

Hippocampus

Part of the limbic system -Involved in learning and forming new memories

Hypothalamus

Part of the limbic system -Regulates hunger, thirst, and body temperature -Helps govern the endocrine system through the pituitary gland

Cut Corpus Callosum Brain Patients Experiment

Patients with severe epileptic seizures had their corpus callosum cut. The seizures stopped and the patients were very normal afterwards. These patients were then subject to experiments: -The patient stared at the center of a screen and words or images were sent displayed to each side and thus were sent to one half of their brain. For example... -HE x ART was flashed while staring at the center "x" -HE went to the right brain, ART to the left brain -When asked what he saw, he said "ART" (left brain talking). Then he pointed to HE with his left hand (right brain controlling).

Psychological Disorder

Patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are deviant, distressful, and dysfunctional.

When do individuals begin to develop an idea of the "self"?

People develop an idea of "self": -Babies start to gain "self awareness" at about age 6 months when babies begin to interact with themselves in a mirror. -Around 15-18 months, a baby with a spot on his/her nose in the mirror will reach for his/her own nose. -By grade-school age, a child identifies him or herself in terms of gender, group membership, personal characteristics, and they compare themselves to others. -By age 8 to 10, self-image is very much set. -By about age 12, most kids have a developed a self-concept - an idea of who you are as a person. Their "self-esteem" is how you feel about who you are.

Victim Blaming

People justifying their prejudices by blaming the victim -Fueled by the hindsight bias

Dichromats

People who can distinguish only two of the three basic colors.

Monochromats

People who cannot perceive any color, usually because their retinas lack cones.

How can a person's thinking of a situation influence them to be more susceptible to depression?

People who have a more external locus of control view of situations: 1.) Stable - "The situation is stable and won't change." 2.) Global - "It affects everything." 3.) Internal - "The problem is because of me." -Optimism can help fight against this view and lower depression

Trichromats

People who have normal color vision

Theory of Mind

People's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.

Feel-good, Do-good phenomenon

People's tendency to be helpful when already in a good mood

Color Constancy

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

Illusory Correlation

Perception of a relationship where none exists, or perception of a stronger relationship than actually exists -Feed an illusion of control (we falsely believe we have control over random events)

What are Carl Roger's theories of personality?

Person-Centerd Perspective: people are basically good and are endowed with self-actualizing tendencies Revolves around: -Acceptance (unconditional positive regard) -Genuineness (openness) -Empathy (connection)

How stable are the "big five" traits?

Personality continues to develop up until adulthood (becoming mature) -Eventually reach the maturity principal (become more conscientious and agreeable and less neurotic) -Personality stabilizes as we get older

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. -Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty. Significance: role playing can teach people to become torturers in the real world -How people respond to cruel environments without rules (dehumanization) -People will naturally conform (what makes us difference from apes)

Cones (eyes)

Photoreceptors that are especially sensitive to colors but not dim light. (7 mil/eye) -Responsible for our ability to "see" colors

Rods (eyes)

Photoreceptors that are especially sensitive to dim light, but not color. (125 mil/eye)

What makes us hungry?

Physical bodily responses and psychological responses -Stomach making contractions -Other hormones that are secreted (insulin, leptin, etc.) -Cravings dependent on mood -Natural cravings towards sweet and salty foods -Based on cultural norms -Situation we are currently in

The distributions of which of the following types of data are most likely to form a normal curve?

Physical measurements: -Heights -Shoe size, etc.

Aaron Beck

Pioneer in Cognitive Therapy. Suggested negative beliefs cause depression. -Beck's technique was to engage the patient in conversation, then gently reveal how irrational they were being. The hope was that the patient would see how irrational (stupid) they were being and change their outlook. -In essence, Beck and cognitive psychologists try to logically show patients their illogical thinking.

Albert Bandura

Pioneer in observational learning (AKA social learning), stated that people profit from the mistakes/successes of others Some of his main beliefs: -Believed we imitate based on reinforcements and punishments that we see others get (or don't get). -Will imitate people like us, who we see as successful, or who we see as admirable.

Optic Chiasm

Point at which optic nerve fibers cross in the brain

What is positive psychology?

Positive Psychology: a belief that happiness is a by-product of a pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life -Uses scientific method to explore the building of a good life (and meaningful life)

How does contact promote peace?

Positive contact (especially non-competitive) typically helps -Positive contact has positive correlations with positive attitudes Ex: -Benefits of cross-racial contact -Befriending people of different types -Friendly contact

Post-Traumatic Growth

Positive psychological changes as a result of struggling with extremely challenging circumstances and life crises -A new love or appreciation for things due to an extremely challenging situation. It's like the cancer patient who says he loves his family and friends even more, whereas before, he took them for granted.

Positive Herding

Positive ratings generate more positive ratings -Result of mood contagion

Pro-Social Behavior

Positive, constructive, helpful behavior. The opposite of antisocial behavior

Prejudice

Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience (Unjustifiable attitude towards a group and its members) 1.) Negative emotions 2.) Stereotypes 3.) A predisposition to discriminate

Aptitude Tests

Predict how you'll do in the future. -The SAT and ACT are examples of an aptitude test - they predict how a person will likely do his or her first year in college.

Law of Connectedness

Predicts that things that are joined or linked or grouped are perceived as connected

Rehearsal is to encoding as retrieval cues are to what?

Priming

Motivated Reasoning

Processing information in a way that allows consumers to reach the conclusion that they want to reach -Result of overconfidence distorting our judgements

What are Abraham Maslow's theories of personality?

Proposed we are motivated by a hierarchy of needs -If our physiological needs are met, we become concerned with safety, and then love, and then self-esteem -Contributed self-actualization and self-transcendence

What are the pros and cons of naturalistic observation (in psychology)?

Pros: -Basic information (good starting point) -Efficient (cheap and quick to gather data) -Behavior is real (the subjects are unaware of the study being done) Cons: -Observer bias -Based on perception (which is flawed) -Representation issues

What are the pros and cons of surveying (in psychology)?

Pros: -Generates more ideas -Efficient (cheap and quick) Cons: -Wording effects (changes the results) -Social desirability bias -Representation issues (not as troubling in this instance)

What are the pros and cons of case studies (in psychology)?

Pros: -Good starting point (good to find basic information about the situation Cons: -Representation issues -Observer bias (confirmation bias) -Relies on memory (which is flawed)

What are the pros and cons of the correlation coefficient?

Pros: -Predicts information about two variables (predicts causation?) -Generates more ideas Cons: -Not as efficient as descriptive experiments -CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN CAUSATION (does not always lead to a result of a cause-effect relationship)

What are the pros and cons of using schemas for learning new information?

Pros: -Helps us with recall -Organizes information for us Cons: -Makes us more prone to stereotype (have expectations)

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input

What are four early theories of understanding personality and what do they focus on?

Psychoanalytical Theory (Sigmund Freud): proposed that childhood sexual actions and unconscious motivations influence personality in adulthood Humanistic Theory: Focused on the inner capacities for growth and self-fulfillment Trait Theory: Examine characteristic patterns of behavior Social Cognitive Theory: Explores the interaction between people's traits and their social context

Personality Disorder

Psychological disorders characterized by inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning

What are some warning signs that infer schizophrenia in a person?

Psychological factors or "warning signs" seem to precede schizophrenia. They are... 1.) A mother with serious schizophrenia. 2.) Complications at birth, especially oxygen deprivation and low birth weight. 3.) Separation from parents. 4.) Short attention span and poor muscle coordination. 5.) Disruptive or withdrawn behavior. 6.) Emotionally unpredictable. 7.) Poor interactions with others.

L.L. Thurstone

Psychologist; proposed that intelligence consisted of 7 different primary mental abilities -Contradicted Charles Spearman (1) Word fluency (2) Verbal comprehension (3) Spatial ability (4) Perceptual speed (5) Numerical ability (6) Inductive reasoning (7) Memory

What are some arguments that support that dissociative identity disorder is real?

Psychologists say DID is indeed legit. They cite... 1.) Distinct brain activity with different identities. 2.) Handedness can switch (right & left handedness). 3.) Visual acuity and eye muscles can change. -Others debate the cause of DID... 1.) Psychoanalysts say it's to combat unacceptable impulses. 2.) Learning psychologists say it's been learned to reduce anxiety. 3.) Some say it's a response to traumatic experiences in the past.

PNI

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) -Describes how what's going on in our head impacts our nervous and endocrine systems and altogether affects our immune system. -Our immune system fights diseases. The main "warrior" is our lymphocytes or white blood cells that fight bacteria and viruses. -Under stress, our brains release stress-fighting hormones which suppress our lymphocytes. Thus, the bottom line: stress lowers our immune system and makes us more susceptible to disease.

Nicholas Spanos

Questioned whether dissociative identity disorder is realistic or not? -Hypnosis experiments

Jarod's muscles are relaxed, his body is basically paralyzed, and he is hard to awaken. Which sleep stage is Jarod probably experiencing?

REM stage of sleep

What are the two problems when dealing with participants in social experiments?

Random Selection: selecting a representative population for the experiment Random Assignment: assigning individuals to different control/experimental groups

How does random assignment play a role in psychological experiments?

Random assignment: refers to the use of chance procedures in psychology experiments to ensure that each participant has the same opportunity to be assigned to any given group -Study participants are randomly assigned to different groups (experimental group, or treatment group) -Minimize any preexisting differences between the two groups (removes confounding factors)

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement Sleep: -This is where your brain is the most active. -Oddly, whereas your body rests by doing little or nothing, your brain rests by working. -An EEG shows that your brain waves are very similar to when you're awake. -Your pulse increases, your breathing becomes rapid and irregular. Your eyes shoot back and forth quickly. -Your brain blocks messages to the motor cortex - you're paralyzed. -REM sleep brings on dreams that are very realistic, emotional, storylike, and vivid.

Ebbinghaus discovered that the rate at which we forget newly learned information is initially what?

Rapid and subsequently slows down.

Which test of memory typically provides the fewest retrieval cues?

Recall

Source Amnesia

Recalling something (but not sure where it came from) -Seeing a face but not knowing where you saw that face

Naturalistic Observation (in psychology)

Recording the natural behavior of many individuals in their natural environments Ex: watching chimpanzee societies in the jungle, videotaping and analyzing parent-child interactions in different cultures -"Small science" (minimalistic experiments) -Cannot explain behavior (describes it instead) -Observes the "what," not the "why"

Relative Deprivation

Refers to the idea that feelings of deprivation and discontent are related to a desired point of reference (i.e., reference groups). Feelings of relative deprivation arise when desires become legitimate expectations and those desires are blocked by society.

Actor-Observer

Refuse to blame themselves in fighting (blame context) -Refuse to make internal attributions

Denial

Refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities

Fixed Interval

Reinforcer is given after a set time period. Ex: Think of being paid every Friday.

Variable Interval

Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals Ex: Think of watching a bob-cork and waiting for a fish to bite.

Partial Reinforcement

Reinforcing a response only part of the time; results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction than does continuous reinforcement -Generally produces slower learning -But the behavior is more resistant to extinction -Is administered according to a ratio schedule or interval schedule

What is the significance of replication within psychological experiments?

Replicate: to repeat the original observations with different participants, materials, and circumstances -Similar results=more confidence in a hypothesis -"Replication is confirmation"

Konrad Lorenz

Researcher who focused on critical attachment periods in baby birds, a concept he called imprinting -When put in strange situations, children react differently.

Implicit Memories

Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations that are independent of conscious recollection -Cannot be consciously recalled Ex: if attacked by a dog in childhood, years later you may, without recalling the conditioned association, automatically tense up as a dog approaches

Repression

Retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where psychic energy remains fixated

Recall (retention measure)

Retrieving information that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time -A fill-in-the-blank questions tests your recall

Reinforcing Successive Approximations to the Goal

Rewarding (reinforcing) any slight behavioral change that is a step in the right direction, until you finally reach the terminal goal; steps in the wrong direction are ignored and thus not reinforced -Used in lab experiments, to train animals,

A picture of a cat is briefly flashed in the left visual field and a picture of a mouse is briefly flashed in the right visual field of a split-brain patient. What would the individual be able to see?

Right hand to indicate she saw a mouse.

Norms

Rules for expected and acceptable behavior -Behavior is contagious

The Biological Perspective

Says that our bodies may pre-dispose people to anxiety disorders. -Natural selection holds the theory that people naturally hold onto the fears that helped our ancestors survive. Things such as a fear of heights or spiders help keep us safe. -Genetics play a role too. Some people seem genetically prone to anxiety disorders. -Our brains play a role too. Anxiety disorders are overly active brain areas that deal with impulse control and habitual behavior. Brain scans show an active area among people with OCD while going through certain repetitive actions.

Adaption-Level Phenomenon

Says we judge things relative to a neutral level, which is defined by our past experience (everything is relative) -With music, we have a neutral volume level in our minds based on past listening experience. If we hear a song, we compare it to our neutral level then decide if it is loud or quiet. -The same is true with income. We have a neutral income level based on our income of past years. A raise of $100 a year to an adult would be almost nothing; to a child, it would make him/her feel like a king.

How are scatterplots used in psychology?

Scatterplot: a graph in which the values of two variables are plotted along two axes, the pattern of the resulting points revealing any correlation present -Represents the values of two variables -Helps determine whether two variables represent a perfect positive correlation (a constant rising slope...+1), perfect negative correlation (a constant declining slope...-1), or no relationship (no consistent slope...0)

Conventional Morality

Second level of Kohlberg's stages of moral development in which the child's behavior is governed by conforming to the society's norms of behavior -This takes place around age 9 to the mid-teen years. Things are done because there are rules and they are to be obeyed

Pineal Gland

Secretes melatonin -Helps regulate circadian rhythms (our sleep cycles)

Law of Closure

Seeing incomplete images as wholes by supplying the missing segments or filling in gaps. -Generally, humans have a natural tendency to perceive stimuli as complete and balanced even when the pieces are missing.

How does brain size correlate with intelligence?

Seems to correlate a little -Brain size and intelligence correlate at +0.33. This is a slightly positive correlation, meaning, to a small degree, larger brains mean smarter people. -Einstein's brain was rather normal in size, except that it was large in the lower parietal lobe which handles math and spatial info.

Stage Theory of Development

Sees development as a series of genetically predisposed stages/steps--> everyone passes through same ones in same order -Erik Erikson

Which gender has higher self-esteem?

Self-esteem scores differ slightly. Men are slightly higher in self-esteem scores than women (the exact reason is not exactly known) -It likely has something to do with the perceived expectations - the "general view" is that a woman is slender, young and attractive. If a woman feels she doesn't meet this view, she may score herself lower in self-esteem. -Women are also more often depressed, anxious, and have a 10 times greater chance of developing an eating disorder (this goes back to expectations). -Men are 4 times more likely to commit suicide or become alcoholics, and are more often autistic, color-blind, have ADHD, or are anti-social.

Well Being

Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life. Used along with measures of objective well-being (for example, physical and economic indicators) to evaluate people's quality of life.

General Adaption Syndrome

Selye's concept of the body's adaptive response to stress in three phases—alarm, resistance, exhaustion. -We respond to all different types of stressors the same way (evolution did not help us with this one :/ ) 1.) Alarm reaction: Your sympathetic nervous system kicks in. Pulse races, blood goes to your muscles, you get a faint feeling of shock, and you're ready to fight. 2.) Resistance: This is where you deal with the situation. It sees your temperature, blood pressure, and respiration stay high. Hormones are released. 3.) Exhaustion: This is when your body's "stress resources" are running low or gone. You're susceptible to illness and perhaps collapsing or death.

Signal Detection Theory

Sensation depends on the characteristics of the stimulus, the background stimulation and the detector. -A person is faced with a stimulus that is very faint or confusing -The person must make a decision, is the signal there or not (What makes this situation confusing and difficult is the presences of other mess that is similar to the signal) -The subject makes a decision, a cognitive act, as to whether the signal is present or not (This basic sensory act of determining if a stimulus occurred now is understood to have a cognitive component)

What increases a person's chances of becoming a criminal?

Several factors go into increasing a person's chances for becoming a violent criminal. These support the all-encompassing biopsychosocial approach... 1.) Genetics 2.) Risk factors at birth 3.) Poverty 4.) Childhood upbringing

A mother who wants her daughter to hit a baseball first praises her for holding a bat, then for swinging it, and then for hitting the ball. What is this an example of and why?

Shaping: rewarding small behaviors that contribute to an overall goal

Superordinate Goals

Shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation

Mood Linkage

Sharing ups and downs with the type of people around them -Result of mood contagion

Altered State

Shift in quality or pattern of mental activity -As a result of hypnosis

Displacement

Shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person

What are some physical properties of light waves?

Short wavelength=high frequency (bluish colors) Long wavelength=low frequency (reddish colors) Great amplitude (bright colors) Small amplitude (dull colors)

Why was most of Sigmund Freud's theories false?

Sigmund Freud did not use experimentation to test his theories -A lot of his work was built around introspection (proven to be an inaccurate method of obtaining information in the psychology field) -His main ideas are correct but not the details Main Idea: we are influenced by our childhood

Emotions

Signals that tell your mind and body how to react -Motivate us to make decisions relatively quickly

Binge-Eating Disorder

Significant binge-eating episodes, followed by distress, disgust, or guilt, but without the compensatory purging, fasting, or excessive exercise that marks bulimia nervosa

What is the psychological influence that encourage drug abuse?

Simply if a person feels their life is useless or are depressed, they're more likely to abuse drugs. -Mask their pain in drugs

Parietal Lobe

Situated between the frontal and occipital lobes at the top/rear of the head -Contains the somatosensory cortex

Does EDMR really work in regards to reducing anxiety?

Skeptics say the eye movement really does nothing except that it magnifies the placebo effect. -Thus, EMDR is effective. But, it could also be effective doing any other task that aids the placebo effect—it doesn't have to be eye movement.

William Dement

Sleep researcher who discovered and coined the phrase "rapid eye movement" (REM) sleep.

Why do we sleep?

Sleep... -Improves out concentration -Improves our moods -Makes us less hungry/obese -Strengthens our immune systems -Lowers our chances of accidents Not getting enough sleep means the opposite of those things listed above. Other results of sleep deficiency are poor studying, less productivity, mistakes, crankiness, and feeling tired In the U.S., adults sleep just over 8 hours per day. Without lights or distractions, adults will sleep about 9 hours. (Thus, we tend to have a sleep deficiency)

Phonemes

Small distinctive sound units in a language -Not the same as letters (869 phonemes in human speech) -No language uses all phonemes

Beta Waves

Smaller and faster brain waves, typically indicating mental activity -Awake and alert

What are some potential socio-cultural influences that encourage drug abuse?

Socio-cultural influences: -Teens usually drink because their peers are doing it (If friends do drugs, you're likely to as well.) -Different countries have different views on drug use. Some may say it's terrible, others may say it's not-so-bad. This affects a person's willingness to try the drug. -A person's religion also plays a large role, usually in NOT doing drugs. -Where you live - people in cities do more drugs than the country. -Happy families have kids less likely to do drugs.

What did Socrates and Plato contribute to psychology? How did this contradict Aristotle's contributions?

Socrates and Plato: Determined that the mind is separable from the body and continues after the body dies -Knowledge is innate (born within us) Aristotle: Knowledge is not preexisting (grows from experiences stored in our memories) -Derived principles from careful observations

How are sodium potassium pumps responsible in maintaining the membrane potential of a neuron?

Sodium Potassium pumps maintain membrane potential by pumping sodium into the membrane and potassium out of the membrane -Removing and then restoring the inner negative charge

What are some arguments that contradict that dissociative identity disorder is real?

Some psychologists question whether DID is legit or is made up. Nicholas Spanos led this research. 1.) They say we all act differently in different situations. That's normal. 2.) They point out that the frequency of DID cases has shot up since the DSM first recognized it in the 1980s. 3.) Other cultures have much less DID than America where it's a bit of a fad. 4.) The idea is that some psychologists actively seek out other personalities, and thus, they "find" them.

Localization of Function

Specialization of particular brain areas for particular functions

Schedules of Reinforcement

Specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced -Try to the answer questions like, "When should the reinforcement be given, every time? Some times?"

Singer-Schachter Two-Factor Theory

Stanley Schacter and Jerome Singer came up with the two-factor theory saying emotions are made up of (1) physical arousal and (2) a cognitive label (we must be actually aware of the physical arousal). -This one says that we feel our bodies react, we're aware of this reaction, then we feel the emotion associated with it (physical arousal before cognitive label)

What do cognitive therapists believe in regards to therapy?

Start with the belief that what we think influences what we feel. -In other words, what we think about a situation impacts what we feel in response to a situation. -If we blame ourselves for something bad, we're likely to feel depressed. If we think it through and see something else as the cause, we don't.

Identification (according to Freud)

Stemmed from the oedipus and electra concept: -Children's superegos gain strength as they incorporate many of the parents' values -Instead of competing with same sex parent for the love of the other parent, be more like them -Believed this attributed to one's gender identity and sexuality as an adult -False theory

Algorithms

Step by step procedures that guarantee a solution -Can be long and tedious

Retrieval Cues

Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior -One way of how memories are retrieved (through association)

Conditioned Association

Stimuli that triggers a certain action -A smell that triggers the memory of a favorite place -Form of an implicit memory

Resilience (psychological disorders)

Strength to deal with stress and recover from adversity and thus helps fend off psychological disorders. -The idea is to change the root causes of the disorders (rather than try to fix them).

Cortisol

Stress hormone -Responds by building fat (longer lasting than epinephrine)

Diana Baurmrind

Studied authoritative parenting and the effect on the children -Authoritarian -Permissive -Authoritative

Sexual Response Cycle

Studied by William Masters and Virginia Johnson in the 1960s. It has four stages: 1.) Excitement phase 2.) Plateau phase 3.) Orgasm - brain scans show no difference between men and women. 4.) Resolution phase - brings the body back to normal. Males enter a refractory period which is the "re-set time" or the time when he's incapable of orgasm

Jean Piaget

Studied how our ability to think develops -Believed that the human mind develops through a series of stages -Believes that our minds are always trying to make order out of what we take in through our senses -We build schemas

Norman Triplett

Studied social facilitation and social impairment -Did the fishing pole experiment -Explored how others' presence affects our behavior

Little Albert

Subject in John Watson's experiment, proved classical conditioning principles, especially the generalization of fear -Watson placed a white rat next to Albert. Albert wanted to touch the rat. As he reached out, Watson banged a hammer on metal just behind Albert. Albert was scared and cried. This was repeated over and over. -Finally, the white rat and banging sound were associated. Merely the sight of the rat caused Albert to cry. UCS = banging sound, UCR = crying CS = white rat, CR = crying

The Learning Perspective

Suggests that we learn to be anxious from past experiences. -It's likely that a person's anxiety has been conditioned to go along with an unpleasant (or traumatic) experience. -Based on Pavlov's concepts of learning... --"Stimulus generalization" is where we broaden things. A fierce dog can be generalized to a fear of all dogs. --"Reinforcement" is where our fear gets supported. Maybe we see a movie with a mean dog—this reinforces our fear of dogs

Psychosurgery

Surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in an effort to change behavior -Lobotomy

Reaction Formation

Switching unacceptable impulses into their opposite

Somatoform Disorders

Symptoms that take a physical or bodily form but without a physical cause - it's like thinking yourself sick.

Neurotransmitters are released from vesicles located on knoblike terminals at the end of the what?

Synapse

Nervous System

System of neurons -Transmits "electrical" signal and release neurotransmitters to target tissue -Fast, short-lasting response

Taste aversion studies lead researchers to which of the following conclusions?

Taste aversion is a universal survival mechanism

Overall, how do the three roadblocks of critical thinking affect us?

Tempt us to overestimate the value of common sense thinking: -Over confident on our basic knowledge

Instinctive Drift

Tendency for animals to return to innate behaviors following repeated reinforcement

Self-Reference Effect

Tendency to better remember information relevant to ourselves

Hypothesis

Testable predictions based off of a theory -What results would support a theory and what results disconfirm it

Solomon Asch Experiment

Tested the affects of conformity on college students -When five other college students stated the wrong answer to an obvious problem, less than one percent of the remaining college participants stated the right problem (would rather conform and be wrong than be the "odd man out")

Achievement Tests

Tests designed to assess what a person has learned. -Measure how much you've learned thus far. -Usually, a person must pass an achievement test to graduate from high school. This is the make sure he or she has "learned enough" to be a high school grad.

Latent learning is evidence for what?

That cognition plays an important role in operant conditioning.

What have researchers concluded based off of factor analysis-based tests?

That our personality and traits are broken down into two main subcategories: 1.) Extraverted vs Introverted 2.) Emotional stability vs emotional instability

Which traits seem to provide the most useful information about personality variation?

The "Big Five" Personality Factors: 1.) Conscientiousness 2.) Agreeableness 3.) Neuroticism 4.) Openness 5.) Extraversion -Introduced by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa

Dunning-Kruger Effect

The "ignorance of one's own competence" -Students who scored the lowest test scores tend to believe they scored the highest -How this phenomena produces overconfidence among political leaders

What are the pros and cons of the DSM?

The DSM gets good and bad marks... Pros: -The DSM has been praised for being rather reliable in diagnoses. Cons: -Too broad. -Almost any behavior could be stretched into being some type of "disorder."

Law of Continuity

The Gestalt principle that we prefer percepts of connected and continuous figures to disconnected and disjointed ones.

Law of Proximity

The Gestalt principle that we tend to group objects together when they are near each other.

Law of Similarity

The Gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together in our perceptions.

Law of Common Fate

The Gestalt principle that we tend to group similar objects together that share a common motion or destination. -Think a school of fish, a flock of seagulls, a murder of crows

Law of Pragnanz

The Gestalt principle which states that the simplest organization, requiring the least cognitive effort, will emerge as the figure. "A bird in the the bush"

What role does the Internet play in group polarization?

The Internet connects like-minded people and strengthen theirs ideas -Encourages people to isolate themselves from those with different opinions Ex: white supremacists become more racist, bullies become more abusive, militia members become more violence-prone

Peer Influence

The ability to influence individual behavior among members of a group based on group norms, a group sense of what is the right thing or right way to do things, and the need to be valued and accepted by the group -Parents and peers tend to split "responsibilities"... 1.) Parents are turned to for the long-term - discipline, order, education, stability and the future. 2.) Peers are turned to for the now - popularity, style and interaction.

Emotional Intelligence

The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions 1.) Perceive emotions - A person can pick up emotions from others. 2.) Understand emotions - A person can predict emotions and gets their impact. 3.) Manage emotions - A person can show emotions appropriately. 4.) Use emotions - A person can adapt emotions and use them creatively. -People with a high emotional intelligence, and the 4 skills above, are sound themselves and get along with others well.

Creativity

The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable

Perceptual Consistency

The ability to recognize the same object as remaining "constant" under changing conditions -Three examples of perceptual consistency: 1.) Size (different distances) 2.) Color (different lighting) 3.) Shape (different angles)

Depth Perception

The ability to see objects in three dimensions although the images that strike the retina are two-dimensional; allows us to judge distance

Receptive Languages

The ability to understand what is said and about them -Babies develop this eventually before learning grammar (and productive languages)

Crystalize Intelligence

The ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience. It does not equate to memory, but it does rely on accessing information from long-term memory.

Cognitive Learning

The acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

Self-Disclosure

The act of revealing intimate aspects of ourselves to others -Breeds liking

Priming

The activation of certain associations between memories, thus predisposing one's perception, memory, or response -"Wakening of associations" -An implicit, invisible memory (without conscious awareness) Ex: meeting someone who reminds us of a person we have previously met (but do not remember the previously person vividly)

Positive Punishment

The administration of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring Ex: a teen comes home three hours late, and her parents punish her (makes it less likely that she will come home late again)

Object Permanence

The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived

Prenatal Development

The baby's development during a pregnancy -At about 14 days, the zygote becomes an embryo, all of which are very similar. It's an embryo for two weeks, then cells begin to specialize and grow organs and a tiny heart. Organs begin to form and the heart begins to beat. -By the seventh week, we see sexual differences due to tiny testes. -By nine weeks, the embryo becomes a fetus and organs develop so the child can survive outside of the womb.

Just World Hypothesis

The belief that "good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people" -Supports "karma" -Makes us feel better about ourselves

Circadian Rhythm

The biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle -Regulates when we wake up, when we feel sleepy, etc.

Endocrine System

The body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream -Affects sex, hunger, and aggression -Acts slower than the nervous system -Some hormones are chemically identical to neurotransmitters

Basal Metabolic Rate

The body's resting rate of energy expenditure -The rate at which the body loses calories when resting

Why do we tend to forget jokes?

The brain can better store ideas that are represented in patterns (mnemonics) -A joke uses elements of the unexpected (tricking the brain...not patterns) -Diverts schemeas (an encoding device)

What proves that the brain's functioning may actually be predisposed to depression?

The brain may be pre-disposed to depression. -New technology reveals brain activity during manic and depressed moods. -The left-front lobe seems active when in a good mood. -The hippocampus, which deals with emotions, can be changed by stress and affect moods.

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience -Parts of the brain can adapt to perform other functions (because dendrites grow throughout our lives) -Younger brains are more plastic

Thalamus

The brain's sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem -Directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex -Transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla

Optic Nerve

The bundle of neurons that carries the visual information from the retina to the brain. -This is where the stimulus, once changed into a neural impulse, gets passed onto the brain.

Fluid Intelligence

The capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge.

Fear

The central nervous system's physiological and emotional response to a serious threat to one's well-being -Amygdala plays a large role -Two "paths" of processing fear: high road (sensory input (from say the eyes)→ thalamus→sensory cortex→prefrontal cortex→amygdala→creating a fear response) and low road (sensory input (from say the eyes)→amygdala→fear response. This is super-fast. It usually involves fear or likes/dislikes)

Cerebellum

The cerebellum is located at the back of the brainstem -Assists in movement and in timing functions of the brain -Part of the hindbrain

Membrane Potential

The charge difference (voltage) between a cell's cytoplasm and the extracellular fluid -Ion pumps and ion channels maintain the resting potential of a neuron

Coronary Heart Disease

The clogging of the vessels that nourish the heart muscle; the leading cause of death in many developed countries (the result of built up stress) -America's number one cause of death

Perceiving Order in Random Events

The concept that we do not tend to see random sequences as random (humans always try to find a pattern in random sequences/events) -Winning the lottery twice seems very unlikable to us (cannot accept that this is simply another random event that occurred) -If the sample size is large enough, any outrageous thing is likely to happen

Anxiety

The condition of feeling uneasy or worried about what may happen

Social Clock

The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement

Compassionate Love

The deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwined -Factor of oxytocin -Switch from passion to attachment

How is psychology a science?

The definition of science: a passion to explore and understand without misleading or being misled. -Can investigate and explore the workings of the human mind -Can apply the three elements of the scientific attitude (curiosity, skepticism, and humility)

Erotic Plasticity

The degree to which the sex drive can be shaped and altered by social, cultural, and situational forces -Baumeister

Phrenology

The detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

Extinction

The diminishing of a conditioned response; occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditioned stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioned stimulus (CS) -Occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced.

Sensory Adaptation

The diminishing responsiveness of our sensory systems to prolonged stimulation. -Unless it is quite intense or painful, stimulation that persists without change in intensity usually shifts to the background of our awareness.

Sympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations -Responsible in the "fight-or-flight" response

Sympathetic Nervous System (emotion)

The division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations (initiates the fight-or-flight response) 1.) Hormones are released (epinephrine AKA adrenaline, and norepenephrine). 2.) The liver shoots sugar into your blood. 3.) Respiration and pulse go up, digestion slows, blood moves to your muscles. 4.) Pupil dilate, perspiration starts to cool us.

Parasympathetic nervous system

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy -After a stressful situation is over

Parasympathetic Nervous System

The division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy (after a stressful situation is over)

Semantic Encoding

The encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words

Group Polarization

The enhancement of a group's prevailing inclinations through discussion within the group -Discussions with like-minded individuals tends to strengthen people's views -Social media greatly influences this (feeds into the confirmation bias) Ex: Discussion among like-minded high school students on prejudice strengthened their beliefs (made them either more or less prejudice)

Social-Responsbility Norm

The expectation that people will help those needing their help -Towards young children especially

Reciprocity Norm

The expectation that people will help; not hurt, those who have helped them -Compels us to give favors, gifts, social invitations about as much as we receive -Give what you get

Independent Variable

The experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

What is the present day result of the nature vs nurture debate?

"Nurture works on what nature provides" -Humans have an enormous capacity to learn and adapt (not all knowledge is innate) -However our innate knowledge does control portions of our characteristics

What is the significance with "The rat is always right"?

"The rat is always right" reveals that in scientific inquiry, the truth only matters -One's opinion does not matter -Facts revealed by an experiment matter only (despite how you feel about it)

Gestalt School of Psychology

"The whole is larger than the sum of its parts" (if you do not understand the overall significance of something, then knowing the individual parts is meaningless) -See the bigger picture -Trying to create a "periodic table" of the mind is useless (denied structuralism)

Outgroup

"Them" - those perceived as different or apart from our ingroup -People outside of our inner circle -Most susceptible to racism

Ingroup

"Us"—people with whom we share a common identity -Can be beneficial (defining who we are and our purpose) -A favoring of our own group

What are the five basic anxieties?

(1) Generalized anxiety disorder (2) Panic Disorder (3) Phobias (4) Obsessive-compulsive disorder (5) Post-traumatic stress disorder

What are some changes that take place as we become elderly?

-After about 65, our immune system weakens, but we've also built up many antibodies that ward off short-term things like colds -Older people take more time to process things mentally -Our brains also physically grow smaller, by about 5% by age 80. The frontal lobe atrophies and makes us less inhibited.

What cognitive strategies assist our problem solving?

-Algorithm -Heuristics

How does conciliation promote peace?

-Allows both parties to acknowledge mutual interests and its intent to reduce tensions -Tapping into the knowledge, the skills, and the arts that are each culture's legacy to the whole human race (acknowledging cultural sharing)

What are some criticisms of humanistic theories?

-Believed their concepts are vague and subjective -Not a representative population for their studies -Fails to appreciate the reality of our human capacity for evil

Is our intelligence the same all of our life?

-By age 4, a child's intelligence test scores begin to predict later intelligence scores. -After age 7, intelligence test scores grow stable. -By late adolescence, these scores are extremely stable. -Among 23,000 college students, their SAT scores (just before college) and their GRE scores (just before grad school) correlated at a very high +0.86.

What are some neuro-imaging techniques?

-CT Scan -PET Scan -MRI -fMRI

What are the affects of excessive optimism?

-Can blind us from real risks -Prevent us from preparing for difficult situations in the future (be underprepared for a test for example) -Can promote an unrealistic view -More prone to substance abuse (do not see the harmful effects of these substances)

What is the structure of a neuron?

-Cell Body: The cell's life support center -Dendrites: Branches on the cell body that receive signals from other neurons -Axon: A skinny long extension off of the cell body that transmits the signal to other cells through branches called the synaptic terminals (semi-permeable membrane) -Axon hillock: The area where the cell body and the axon meet (the location where the summation of signals received by the dendrites may or may not lead to the production of an action potential) -Synapse: The site of communication between the synaptic terminal of one cell and dendrites of another cell

How do the eyes work?

The eye transduces the characteristics of light into neural signals that the brain can process. -This transduction happens in the retina, the light sensitive layer of cells at the back of the eye. 1.) Light entering eye triggers photochemical reactions in rods and cones at back of retina 2.) Chemical reaction in turn activates bipolar cells 3.) Bipolar cells then activate the ganglion cells, the axons of which coverage to form the optic nerve. This nerve transmits information to the visual cortex in the brain's occipital lobe

Explicit Memories

The facts and experiences that we can consciously know and declare (can intentionally and consciously be recalled) -Also called declarative memory -Can encode memories through effortful processing

Hans Seyle

The father of "modern stress theory." Defined eustress and distress. Stated that stress is a mutual action of forces in the body. -General Adaptation Syndrome

Why do we become obese at the result of overeating (what's the biology behind obesity)?

-Fat cells are like balloons - they blow up to store energy/fat. But, they can also divide in two or tell nearby fat cells to divide and blow up. Once they divide, they can blow up, then shrink, but they never go away. -So, once a person has become obese, then lost weight, the fat cells are still there, just smaller. This makes it very easy to gain the weight again. -Once fat, it's tougher to burn it off because fat has a low metabolic rate. If you eat a lot then cut off the food, the body thinks it's being starved and slows metabolism.

Alfred Binet

The father of modern intelligence testing: -Binet started by assuming that people develop in a step-by-step manner. If one student is slow, he or she is just at a younger stage of development. -Thus, he was interested in the student's mental age as well as his or her chronological age. -Came up with an intelligent test that eventually developed into the SAT and ACT -His goal was to simply identify students with special needs in school

Stranger Anxiety

The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age

How does cognition influence our emotions?

-If we're in a state of arousal (hyped up from exercise or adrenaline) we might get different emotions depending on how we label a situation (tend to be more aggressive) -If we see the situation as joyful, we feel joy. If we see the situation as testy, we get testy (depends how we see as situation) -These facts supports the Two-factor theory that says arousal + a label = emotions.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons -Going off of the brain's plasticity

What are the affects of having low self-esteem?

-More likely to disparage others -Racist -More oversensitive and judgmental -More likely to build online profiles (safe havens in which to rebuild their self-worth)

How do genetics play a role in obesity?

-People who sit still generally store more fat than those who fidget. "Fidgetiness" might be inherited. -If a parent is obese, boys are 3 times as likely to become obese, girls 6 times.

What are some strategies that can break the depression cycle?

The good news: this cycle can be broken! Some tips... 1.) Move to a new environment (literally put yourself in a new place) 2.) Turn your attention from inside to outside (don't be so arrogant as to blame yourself for everything - you're frankly not that important!). 3.) Do something that you're good at, no matter how small. -Remember, many very famous and very successful people suffered from depression, and overcame it.

What are the cons of using elaborative processing?

-There are flaws in the long term memory (the previous knowledge may be wrong) -The connection between could be wrong -It takes time and effort to learn things this way -May not have previous knowledge to use

How does physical development change throughout early adulthood and midlife?

-Throughout adulthood of say ages 30 to 60, we continue to grow and change. -Physically, we peak in the early 20s in terms of strength and agility. Then a gradual decline begins. -At middle-age, after about age 40, the decline accelerates. -Women after age 35 are less likely to become pregnant. -Women usually reach menopause around age 50, when they stop menstruating. -Later adulthood begins at about age 60.

How do cultures vary in regards to child raising?

-Western cultures (U.S. and Europe) tend to value individual strength. -Asian and African cultures tend to be less individual-oriented and more group/family oriented. Anything that honors the individual honors the family; anything that shames the individual shames the family.

What is considered the high extreme of intelligence?

The high extreme of intelligence is above an IQ of 135. -Usually, these people do better in almost everything. Compared to others, they're healthier, well-adjusted, and academically successful.

How does sleep help memory consolidation?

The hippocampus processes memories for later retrieval -The brain replays the day's experiences as it transfers them to the cortex for long term storage -Proves the spacing effect

Learned Helplessness

The hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events Ex: This was seen in an experiment by Martin Seligman with caged dogs who were given shocks. They eventually cowered in fear. Even after the trap was "unlocked" and they could've escaped, they didn't try. A dog who had not learned the helplessness would quickly escape.

Driven-Reduction Theory

The idea that a physiological need creates an aroused tension state (a drive) that motivates an organism to satisfy the need -Focuses on how our internal and external motivations interact Ex: -the physical drive/need for water creates thirst and the desire to satisfy that thirst by drinking water. -For instance, we may not be physically hungry, but if we smell some hot cookies and see them, we want to eat them!

Encoding Specificity Principle

The idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it -How cues specific to an event or a person will most effectively trigger that memory (memories are context-dependent)

Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

The idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it -When emotionally aroused, we find other people more attractive (like to attribute our heightened emotions to something or someone)

Contact Theory

The idea that prejudice and negative stereotypes decrease and racial-ethnic relations improve when people from different racial-ethnic backgrounds, who are of equal status, interact frequently -Proven wrong in many studies In schools, ethnic groups segregate themselves in lunchrooms, in classrooms, and elsewhere on school grounds -The more diverse the school, the more segregated they are

Sensory Memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system -Feeds our active working memory -Records moments of scenes or echoes of sounds

What happens at the end of the axon?

The impulse has to jump the synapse: -Synapse: junction between two neurons -Has to jump quickly from one cell to the next (in order to send signals efficiently throughout the body)

Infantile Amnesia

The inability to remember events from early childhood (the first four years of life) Happens because: 1.) Create explicit memories with language that young children do not possess (do not understand and link information) 2.) The hippocampus is one of the last brain structures to mature (as it does, more information gets retained)

Hindsight Bias

The inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it. -The "I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon"

Reciprocal Determinism

The interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment -Person-environment interaction

Prescriber Effect

The interaction between certain doctors and some of their patients can exert a strong placebo effect. (Doctors involved in research tend to transmit their interest and enthusiasm) -Can make participants react to medications the way the doctor wants them to react

Cognitive Neuroscience

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

Cerebral Cortex

The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres -The body's ultimate control and information-processing center

Healthy-User Bias

The kind of subjects that voluntarily enroll in a clinical trial and actually follow the experimental regimen are not representative of the general population -Bias that effects random selection of participants -Individuals who volunteer for an experiment are generally more conscious about their well being (not a good representation of the general population)

Corpus Callosum

The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

Delta Waves

The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep

Forebrain

The largest and most complicated region of the brain, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system, and cerebrum. -Frontal lobe -Parietal lobe -Occipital lobe -Temporal lobe

Deindividuation

The loss of self-awareness and self-restraint occurring in group situations that foster arousal and anonymity -Become more responsive to group experience (bad or good) Ex: cyberbullying, mob, rock concerts,

What is considered low extreme intelligence?

The low extreme of intelligence is below an IQ of 70. -To be labeled as having an intellectual disability a person must meet two things: (1) have a low IQ and (2) have trouble to meeting the demands of taking care of one's self. -1% of Americans meet these criteria. There are 50% more males in this group

THC

The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

Heritability

The mathematical likelihood that differences between people is due to genetics -Shows the percent likelihood of variations among people based on genetics -Depends on how alike or unlike two people's environments are. -If two people grow up in an exactly similar environment, heritability is high (differences are likely due to genes) -If two people grow up in very different environments, heritability is low (differences may very well be due to the environment rather than genes)

Medulla

The medulla is the area of the brain right on top of the spinal cord -Helps regulate involuntary functions -Part of the hindbrain

Cognition

The mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating -Forming concepts

Just Noticeable Difference

The minimal amount of change in the signal that is still recognizable. Just noticeable difference, JND and difference threshold are used interchangeably.

Groupthink (Irving Janis)

The mode of thinking that occurs when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives -Fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization -Led to many historical fiascos in US history (not expecting Pearl Harbor, the escalation of the Vietnam War, the US Watergate cover-up, etc.) -Can also lead to good decisions too

Conception

The moment at which a female becomes pregnant -The female is born with all her eggs that she will have for the rest of her life. Men continuously produce sperm throughout their lives. -Conception is where the sperm fertilizes the outer coating of the egg. -The gender is determined by the 23rd chromosomal pair. -XX is female and XY is male. This is determined by the father.

Affiliation Need

The need to build relationships and to feel part of a group -A huge emphasis of needing to build close relationships -Humans are naturally social beings (competence and socialization has led to survival and progression) -"A socially connected life is a happy one"

Memory Consolidation

The neural storage of a long-term memory

Summation of Postsynaptic Potential

The neuron deciding upon whether to reach the action potential or not -Unlike action potential which are all or none, postsynaptic potentials are graded -The interplay between the excitatory responses and the inhibitory responses on the postsynaptic neuron will determine whether an action potential is triggered through the summation of signals

How does the nervous system interpret and respond to a signal from the environment?

1.) A sensor (touch, odor, taste, sound, vision) causes a transmission from a sensory neuron 2.) Sensory information is sent to the Central Nervous System 3.) Interneurons integrate the information 4.) Motor output leaves the Central Nervous System via motor neurons 5.) Communication with effector cells, leading to a response

What are some antisocial effects of observational learning?

1.) Abusive parents are more likely to turn out kids who turn into abusive parents. 2.) Men who beat their wives are more likely to turn out sons who beat their wives. 3.) Television takes up a lot of our time and can therefore be a powerful tool in observational learning.

What are the five main conditioning processes?

1.) Acquisition 2.) Extinction 3.) Spontaneous Recovery 4.) Generalization 5.) Discrimination

What are the steps of sending a signal from one neuron to the next?

1.) Action potential reaches pre-synaptic terminals 2.) Voltage-gated calcium channels open, allowing calcium into the terminal branch 3.) Calcium concentration in the terminal branch causes synaptic vesicles to release acetylcholine (a type of neurotransmitter) 4.) Acetylcholine is released from the terminal branch via exocytosis and diffuse across the synaptic cleft 5.) Acetylcholine binds to ligand-gated channels in the post-synaptic neuron and ion-gated channels open 6.) The acetylcholine is released from the terminal branches and jumps the synapse.

What are the three types of stress?

1.) Acute-stress: short-term stress 2.) Chronic physical crisis: long-term stress -Life threatening situation 3.) Psychological and social stress: -Stress about social pressures and situations -Can stress about an event in the future -Not actually life threatening (chess match, first date, etc.)

What are two main ways of remembering a certain idea/memory?

1.) Auditory Rehearsal (mentally repeating a song long enough to remember all of the lyrics) 2.) Visual-spatial Information (mentally rearranging furniture in a room) -Focuses the attention

What is the process of transduction?

1.) Begins with the detection by a sensory neuron of a physical stimulus. 2.) When the appropriate stimulus reaches the sense organ, it activates specialized neurons called receptors. 3.) The receptors respond by converting their excitation into a nerve signal. -Think of this as the way a bar-code reader converts a series of lines into an electrical signal that a computer can match with a price.

Overall, what three main influences lead to aggressive behavior?

1.) Biological Influence: -Genetic influences -Biochemical influences -Neural influences 2.) Psychological Influence: -Dominating behavior -Alcohol's influence -Aggressive role models -Rewards for aggressive behavior -Low self-control 3.) Social-Cultural Influence: -Deindividuation -Challenging environmental factors -Parental models of aggression -Rejection from a group -Minimal father involvement -Exposure to violent media

What are the two main theories that predict as to why depression occurs?

1.) Biological Perspective -This theory believes that some folks are genetically pre-disposed to depression -Brain may predisposed to depression -Chemical balance 2.) Social-Cognitive Perspective -There's more to depression than just biology. How we feel and think about it also matters. -A depressed person always has negative feelings and thoughts. -Based on learned-helplessness -External locus of control

What are the stages of development in the brain during an individual's new born years?

1.) Brain cells develop very fast in the womb. 2.) Neural networks grow very fast after birth. 3.) The frontal lobe booms next, then the association areas (thinking, memory, language). 4.) Motor skills develop in an orderly manner.

Why do we forget?

1.) Brain damage 2.) Encoding failures (not remembering the exact details of a penny or the Apple logo despite seeing these things every day) 3.) Storage decay (the forgetting curve) 4.) Retrieval failures (when somethings on the "tip of your tongue → it is stored in your brain, but you have a hard time accessing it) 5.) Interference (proactive and retroactive)

Overall, what research methods were used to investigate what components of personality?

1.) Case Study: in-depth study of one individual -Psychoanalytical and humanisitc 2.) Survey: systematic questioning of a random sample of the population -Trait, social-cognitive 3.) Projective Tests: ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of inner dynamics -Psychodynamic 4.) Personality Inventories: objectively scored groups of questions designed to identify personality dispositions -Trait 5.) Observation: studying how individuals react in different situations -Social-cognitive 6.) Experimentation: manipulate variables, with random assignment conditions -Social-cognitive

What are some effortful processing strategies that can help us remember new information?

1.) Chunking 2.) Mnemonics 3.) Hierarchies

What are the three main ways of learning?

1.) Classical Conditioning 2.) Operant Conditioning 3.) Observational Learning -Can also learn through language

How do we detect emotion?

1.) Communication 2.) People also communicate without words. "Body language" speaks volumes. 3.) Facial muscles tell our emotions, usually involuntarily. -Studies have shown that we can usually decode these things pretty easily. -The eyes and mouth are the most important for picking up the emotions.

What are the three main causes of prejudice?

1.) Competition (the more competition, the more prejudice) 2.) Frustration (scapegoat theory) 3.) Conformity (if our surrounding environment is very prejudice, we become more prejudice)

What do the "big five" personality traits reveal about you as a person?

1.) Conscientiousness: -Very (Organized, careful, disciplined) -Not at all (disorganized, careless, impulsive) 2.) Agreeableness -Very (soft-heated, trusting, helpful) -Not at all (ruthless, suspicious, uncooperative) 3.) Neuroticism -Very (anxious, insecure, self-pitying) -Not at all (calm, secure, self-satisfied) 4.) Openness -Very (imaginative, prefers variety, independent) -Not at all (practical, prefers routine, conforming) 5.) Extraversion -Very (sociable, fun-loving, affectionate) -Not at all (retiring, sober, reserved)

What four methods promote peace?

1.) Contact 2.) Cooperation 3.) Communication 4.) Conciliation

How, specifically, does crystallize and fluid intelligence change with age?

1.) Crystallized intelligence - our sum quantity of knowledge (like vocab words) - increases up to old age. 2.) Fluid intelligence - our reasoning speed and ability (like solving a puzzle) - decreases up to old age.

What are the three key elements of the scientific attitude?

1.) Curiosity: Does it work? (when put to the test, can its predictions be confirmed?) 2.) Skepticism: What do you mean; how do you know? (sifting reality from fantasy) 3.) Humility: The willingness to be surprised and accept/follow new ideas (an awareness of our own vulnerability to error)

What three factors affects our retrieval of memories?

1.) Current environments 2.) Expectations 3.) Retained information

What three components of our current environments affect our retrieval of memories?

1.) Current state: our current mood, emotion 2.) Current situation 3.) Hindsight/consistency: hindsight bias for example

Mood-Stabilizing Medications

1.) Depakote: Controlling manic episodes 2.) Lithium: Levels emotional highs and lows of bipolar disorder

What are the three major psychoactive drugs?

1.) Depressants 2.) Stimulants 3.) Hallucinogens

What are three methods to test our hypotheses and refine our theories?

1.) Descriptive: methods that describe behaviors, often by using case studies, surveys, or natural observations 2.) Correlational: methods that associate different factors, or variables 3.) Experimental: methods that manipulate variables to discover their effects

How are our views on mental illness changing the world of mental illness?

The number of categories of mental illness has increased from 60 in the 1950s to 400 today: -The number of people diagnosed with something has increased substantially. -What used to be the regular "ups and downs of life" is now "bipolar disorder." -What used to be sassiness is now "oppositional defiance disorder." -What used to be fidgety is now "ADHD."

Overall, what are the three methods of research for psychologists?

1.) Descriptive: to observe and record behavior -Case studies, observations, surveys -Nothing is manipulated (no control of variables) 2.) Correlational: to detect naturally occurring relationships (how one variable predicts another) -Collect data on two or more variables -Nothing is manipulated (cannot specify cause and effect) 3.) Experimental: to explore cause and effect -Manipulate one or more factors -Independent variables are manipulated

What are four methods that research offers to boost the creative process?

1.) Develop your expertise 2.) Allow time for incubation (allow yourself thinking time) 3.) Set aside time for the mind to roam freely (creativity springs from "defocused attention") 4.) Experience other cultures and ways of thinking

What are three specific ways in which individuals and environments interact?

1.) Different people chose different environments -The reading you do, the shows you watch, the music you listen to, the friends you associate with -We chose our environment and then it shapes us 2.) Our personalities shape how we interpret and react to events Ex: anxious people tend to attend and react strongly to relationship threats 3.) Our personalities help create situations to which we react -How we view and treat people influences how they then treat us

Frequency

The number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time

What are the three ways that schizophrenia appears in a person?

1.) Disorganized thinking -Thoughts and words come out in no logical order. -Schizophrenics cannot use "selective attention" - our normal ability to focus on the task-at-hand. 2.) Disturbed perceptions -Often hallucinate - sensory perception without sensory input (usually, this comes out with them speaking out loud to no one) -Delusions of grandeur 3.) Inappropriate emotions and actions -Often react emotionally in a totally wrong way. -Some schizophrenics go into a no-emotion state called the "flat affect." -Some schizophrenics go into "catatonia" where they remain motionless for hours, then they get agitated.

What are several lines of evidence that confirm that long-term potentiation (LTP) is a physical basis for memory?

1.) Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning 2.) Drugs that mimic what occurs during learning increase LTP 3.) Rats given a drug that enhanced LTP learned a maze with half the usual number of mistakes

What are the negativities of stereotyping?

1.) Emphasizes differences (wars, hate, inferiority, etc.) 2.) Sparks unfair judgement 3.) Not very accurate 4.) Formed from emotional bias (availability heuristic) 5.) Self-fulfilling (people can believe their stereotypes)

What are some therapies that are proven to not be helpful and should be avoided?

1.) Energy therapies - dealing with supposed invisible energy fields around a person. 2.) Recovered memory therapy - try to dig up supposed "suppressed memories." 3.) Rebirthing therapy - to re-enact the supposed trauma of birth. 4.) Facilitated communication - where an assistant touches the typing hand of an autistic child. 5.) Crisis debriefing - which forces people to re-live and verbalize traumatic events.

What fosters creativity?

1.) Expertise: the more we know, the more likely we are able to combine our knowledge in unique ways (to create new methods) 2.) Imaginative Thinking Skills: the ability to see things in novel ways (to recognize patterns, to make connections) 3.) A Venturesome Personality: seeks new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and perseveres in overcoming obstacles 4.) Intrinsic Motivation: the quality of being driven more by interest, satisfaction, and challenge than by external pressures 5.) A Creative Environment: sparks, supports, and refines creative ideas

What do infants recognize from the mother almost immediately?

1.) Face 2.) Voice 3.) Smell

What are the physical characteristics of sound?

1.) Frequency: The number of cycles completed by a wave in a given amount of time-determines pitch. 2.) Amplitude: The physical strength of a wave-the "volume" of the sound.

What are some characteristics of genes?

1.) Genes are either active or inactive, "expressed" or "repressed". 2.) People are remarkably similar genetically, regardless of race or ethnicity. 3.) Geneticists are interested in those few differences, however, that make us so different.

How does our biology influence aggression?

1.) Genetic Influence: -We have been bred for aggressiveness (for protection purposes) -"Y" chromosome is associated with aggressiveness (why males tend to be more aggressive than females) -Presence of the monoamine oxidase gene 2.) Neural Influence: -Neural systems that will either inhibit or facilitate aggression -Scientists can stimulate someone's aggression -Studies of violent criminals have revealed diminished activity in the frontal lobes (frontal lobes play an important role in controlling impulses) 3.) Biochemical Influence: -Our hormones can enhance our aggression (testosterone can stimulate aggression) -Alcohol stimulates aggression

How does our mind access information?

1.) Get information into our brain (encoding) 2.) Retain that information (storage) 3.) Later get the information back out (retrieval)

What are the six basic universal facial expressions?

1.) Happiness 2.) Surprise 3.) Fear 4.) Sadness 5.) Anger 6.) Disgust

What are the three roadblocks to critical thinking?

1.) Hindsight bias 2.) Overconfidence 3.) Perceiving Patterns in Random Events

What are some common trends across all fields of therapy?

1.) Hope for demoralized people. -Therapy can provide hope to someone who's going through a tough time 2.) A new perspective. -Therapy usually gives the patient some type of an explanation. The patient can then perhaps take this reasoning and go forward with a new outlook. 3.) A relationship that's trusting and caring. -The client-therapist relationship is called the "therapeutic alliance" and it's crucial to success. -The patient often simply needs someone who cares and shows empathy

How does the newborn develop?

1.) Infants begin to roll over. 2.) Then they sit unsupported, crawl, and walk 3.) Before age three and a half, we don't remember anything. We then can remember and learn, but generally more implicit memories, because explicit memories are more verbal (which is beyond an infant's ability).

What are the four main theories that describe motivation?

1.) Instinct Theory 2.) Drive-Reduction Theory 3.) Arousal Theory 4.) Hierarchy of Needs Theory

What hormones are responsible for regulating hunger in the body?

1.) Insulin - regulates blood sugar level. 2.) Leptin - causes brain to alter metabolism. 3.) Orexin - hunger hormone from hypothalamus. 4.) Ghrelin - "I'm empty" hormone from stomach. 5.) Obestatin - "I'm full" hormone from stomach. 6.) PYY - "I'm not hungry" hormone from intestines.

What are the effects of alcohol (why is it a depressant)?

1.) It lowers inhibitions (it's a "disinhibitor"). An "inhibition" is our common sense that tells us, "Maybe I shouldn't do that." Alcohol turns this common sense off. This means that when drinking, we'll do things that we normally would NOT do. 2.) It slows processing speed. We react slower, think slower, and speech is slurred. 3.) It disrupts memory and impairs judgment. 4.) It cuts self-awareness and self-control. This is why people who are "down in the dumps" (like they just got fired) often turn to alcohol - it takes their minds off of themselves. 5.) It's impacted by the person's expectations. This means that people have ideas about how people act while drinking (even if they only think they've been drinking). This expectation shapes their behavior. 6.) It correlates with risky sex. This means that drinking alcohol and risky sex go together - they co-relate.

What are suggestions to enhance learning?

1.) Learning in different settings 2.) Testing ourselves on information at least an hour after we have learned the material 3.) Always retest topics 4.) Learning topics randomly (not in groups)

What are the two main mood disorders?

1.) Major Depressive Disorder 2.) Bipolar Disorder

What are the three main goals of experiments?

1.) Manipulate the factor of interest 2.) Hold all other variables constant (the hardest part...avoid confounding factors) 3.) Measure the results (see if it adds to the practicality of the theory)

What are the properties of normal distributions?

1.) Mean, median, and mode are all equal 2.) The distribution is symmetrical when bisected at the 50th percentile 3.) Distribution of scores falls in regular patterns which allows us to make raw scores depending on what is known -68% of scores fall with 1 +/- standard deviation from the mean -95% of scores fall within 2 +/- standard deviation from the mean

How do we describe data using the three measures of central tendency?

1.) Mode: the most frequently occurring score or scores 2.) Mean: the arithmetic average 3.) Median: the midpoint (the 50th percentile) Each measure of central tendency tell different stories (can be affected by outliers, etc.)

How can we overcome bystander intervention?

1.) Notice the incident 2.) Interpret it as an emergency 3.) Assume responsibility for helping -At each step, the presence of others can turn us away from the path leads to helping

What is the function behind smelling?

1.) Odors first interact with receptor proteins associated with hairs in the nose. 2.) The hairs convey information to the brains olfactory bulbs, located on the underside of the brain. -In humans, olfaction has a close connection with memory. -Certain smells, such as a favorite perfume, can evoke emotion-laden memories.

What are Freud's psychosexual stages?

1.) Oral (0-2): Children get satisfaction via the mouth (breast feeding) 2.) Anal (3-5): Get satisfaction via the anus (potty training) 3.) Phallic (5-8): Get satisfaction via the genitals 4.) Latent (8-puberty): Sexual desire is put on hold 5.) Genital (puberty on): Sexual desire comes back -Whether parents are strict or lenient with restricting children from breast feeding, potty training, etc. determines that child's personality as an adult according to Freud -This theory is wrong

What are the five subtypes of schizophrenia?

1.) Paranoid schizophrenic - The person thinks there's some grand conspiracy going on. Often they think someone is "out to get them." 2.) Disorganized schizophrenic - The person's speech and behavior is disorganized, or their emotions are flat or inappropriate. 3.) Catatonic schizophrenic - The person remains motionless for long periods, is very negative, and speaks parrot-like. 4.) Undifferentiated schizophrenic - The person has many of these symptoms. 5.) Residual schizophrenic - The person just withdraws socially after delusions and hallucinations go away.

What are three pieces of evidence that prove that all humans are related somehow?

1.) People diagnosed with specific learning disorder exhibit the same brain malfunction whether they are Italian, French, or British 2.) All languages share deep principles of grammar, and people from opposite global hemispheres can communicate with a smile or a frown 3.) Loneliness is tied with the same emotions (shyness, low-self esteem, etc.) across all cultures

What are the four main sources where humans learn from (how do we know anything)?

1.) Perception (our senses and experiences) 2.) Memory 3.) Reasoning (processing information) 4.) Testimony (learning from other people/sources)

What are the flaws of each of the four sources of how humans learn (and know anything)?

1.) Perception: Everyone has a different perception, based on what we already know (our mind is guessing), some people may have handicaps 2.) Memory: you remember the last time your remembered that said memory, a memory is always prone to change every time you remember it 3.) Reasoning: based off of perception and memory (which are both flawed), may be swayed by emotional biases 4.) Testimony: based off of the other sources (which are all flawed), least reliable way to learn things

What are the structural components of a language?

1.) Phonemes 2.) Morphemes 3.) Grammar

Why are stereotypes important?

1.) Protects us (by categorizing things as dangerous) 2.) Makes life predictable (more comforting)

What factors causes us to form a liking or fall in love with someone?

1.) Proximity 2.) Physical attractiveness -Have much more of an influence than previously thought 3.) Similarity -Love lasts when the lovers love many things together, and not merely each other -We like people who like us

What are the four main approaches of psychotherapy?

1.) Psychoanalysis 2.) Humanism 3.) Behaviorism 4.) Cognitive

What is the relative usefulness of the two measures of variation?

1.) Range: The gap between the lowest and highest -Provides a crude estimation of variation 2.) Standard Deviation: How much scores deviate from each other -Average distance each score falls from the mean of the population -More useful standard of estimating variation (more accurate than range) -Most cases fall near the mean (creates the normal-curve)

What are the three retention measures?

1.) Recall 2.) Recognition 3.) Relearning

What are the milestones of learning language from birth?

1.) Receptive Language 2.) Productive Language 3.) Critical Periods

What is the brain's memory forming process?

1.) Record to-be-remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory 2.) Process information into short-term memory (where it is encoded and rehearsed) 3.) Information moves into long-term memory for later retrieval

What are the four steps of the action potential process in neurons?

1.) Resting State 2.) Initial Depolarization 3.) Action Potential 4.) Hyperpolarization

What are some prosocial effects of observational learning?

1.) Role models can have a very real positive impact on young people. 2.) Observational learning of morality starts at a very young age and is real. 3.) Parents who live by the "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality tend to raise kids that wind up doing what they do. Then they in turn tell their kids, "Do as I say, not as I do." Hypocrites beget hypocrites. -This shows, in a not-so-good way, the power of parental role models.

What are some differences in schizophrenics' brains than the brains of the healthy?

1.) Schizophrenics seem to have many more dopamine receptors in their brains. 2.) Schizophrenics may have abnormal brain activity and anatomy. 3.) While hallucinating, PET scans showed an increased action in... -The thalamus that handles incoming sensations. -The amygdala that handles fear. 4.) Schizophrenics' brains show signs of shrinkage in places.

What are Piaget's four stages of development?

1.) Sensorimotor 2.) Preoperational 3.) Concrete Operational 4.) Formal Operational

How does the duration of stress matter?

1.) Short-lived stress can be a good thing -It jolts our immune systems and gets us going to do great things. -For instance, an athlete might prep before a big game or a person might bounce back from losing a job to move on to a better one. 2.) Long-term stress hurts us, not only emotionally, but it can physically harm us.

What are some "sleep theories" that answer the question "why do we sleep?"

1.) Sleep protects - This theory has the idea that we're safer at night while asleep. We won't bang into dangerous things in the dark. 2.) Sleep helps us recuperate - Brain activity creates toxins as a byproduct called "free radicals". The idea is that sleep helps cleanse these from our brains by giving neurons a time to rest. 3.) Sleep helps with growth - The pituitary gland, the growth gland, secretes a growth hormone while in deep sleep. -Other theories are more associated with dreaming

If the self-serving bias is a truthful concept, then why do so many people seemingly feel worthless and unlovable?

1.) Sometimes self-directed putdowns are subtly strategic (can actually be perceived as positive but seemingly negative) 2.) Prepare us for failure 3.) Our negativity helps us learn from our mistakes and grow 4.) Frequently pertain's to one's old self (tend to despise past behaviors)

What does your mind automatically process without effort?

1.) Space (can visualize a location or arrangement of objects) 2.) Time (unintentionally note the sequence of events with in a period of time..."retracing your steps") 3.) Frequency (can keep track of how many times things happen)

What is psychology's first schools of thought?

1.) Structuralism 2.) Functionalism 3.) Behaviorism

What are psychologists two main theories into the cause of anxiety?

1.) The learning perspective 2.) The biological perspective

If the results of a study were statistically significant, what does that reveal about the study?

The obtained results occurred because of the change in the independent variable

What is the process of hearing?

1.) The middle ear transmits the eardrum's vibrations through a "piston" made of 3 small bones (the hammer, anvil and stirrup) to the cochlea (snail shaped tube). 2.) The incoming vibrations cause the cochlea's membrane (oval window) to vibrate, moving the fluid that fills the tube. This motion causes ripples in the basilar membrane (hair cells). 3.) The movement of cells triggers impulses in the adjacent nerve fibers which form the auditory nerve that connects via the thalamus to the temporal lobe.

When was obedience highest in Stanley Milgram's experiments?

1.) The person giving the orders to the participant was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure 2.) The authority figure was supported by a powerful or prestigious institution 3.) The victim was depersonalized or at a distance, even in another room 4.) There were no role models for defiance

Psychodynamic Therapist's Beliefs

1.) They agree that a person's childhood experiences are critical as well as the patient-therapist relationship. 2.) They agree that it's important to explore the patient's underlying thoughts and feelings. 3.) They differ from Freud in that they (a) may speak face-to-face, (b) meet less frequently, and (c) for a shorter time period.

What were some of behaviorists core beliefs about cognition?

1.) Underestimated cognitive processes (thinking, perceptions, and expectations) and biological constraints. 2.) Animals, to a behaviorist, are simply very complex machines. Animals go beyond just robotic, mechanical reactions though. They get into prediction, a mental process. BUT... -What goes on outside of us stimulates our behavior. -What goes on in our heads also affects our behavior.

Why do we value losing more (why do loses hurt more than wins/gains)?

1.) We fall in love with what we own almost immediately (become very attached) 2.) We focus on what we may lose rather than gain when selling items 3.) We assume other people to have the same perspectives on the value of items that we do

What factors exaggerate our fear of unlikely events?

1.) We fear what our ancestral history has prepared us to fear 2.) We fear what we cannot control 3.) We fear what is immediate 4.) Thanks to the availability heuristic, we fear what is most readily available to memory Ex: Americans fear flying more than driving even though many more Americans die from car related accidents every year

Dependent Variable

The outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable. -The outcome because of the independent variable

Insomnia

The persistent inability to sleep or to fall asleep. -It's not the occasional inability to sleep. -Insomnia can't be "fixed" with alcohol or sleeping pills. These only reduce REM sleep and make the person feel even more sluggish the next day.

What is the best predictor of future behavior?

The person's past behavior patterns in similar situations

Mere Exposure Effect

The phenomenon that repeated exposure to novel stimuli increases the liking of them -Likely had survival value for our ancestors -Evolution has taught us to like those who are similar to us and are the most exposed to us

What is considered "the birth of psychology"?

1879: -Professor Wilhelm Wundt conducted an experiment testing how fast it takes for humans to process sounds -Measured how long it took people to press a telegraph key after hearing a ball hit a platform

Set Point

The point at which an individual's "weight thermostat" is supposedly set. When the body falls below this weight, an increase in hunger and a lowered metabolic rate may act to restore the lost weight.

Blind Spot

The point where the optic nerve exits the eye and where there are no photoreceptors. -Any stimulus that falls on this area cannot be seen.

Pons

The pons is located in the brainstem -Controls breathing and heartbeat -Involved in movement, sleep and dreaming -Part of the hindbrain

Hyperpolarization (action potential)

The potassium voltage-gated channels take a while to close -Allows the cell to become even more negative than before -Prevents the impulse from going backwards (only want action potential going in one direction)

Threshold

The potential an excitable cell membrane must reach for an action potential to be initiated (all or none)

Minority Influence

The power of one or two individuals to sway majorities -Resist to social influence rather than conform (typically happens very early on in social conformity) -How the individual can be super powerful (leads to the majority to wonder why the minority is acting the way they are)

Operational Definition of Absolute Threshold

The presence or absence of a stimulus is detected correctly half the time over many trials.

Frustration-Aggression Principle

The principle that frustration- the blocking of an attempt to achieve some goal- creates anger which can generate aggression

Dual Processing

The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

Sensory Interaction

The principle that one sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste -Two or more senses working together

Yerkes-Dodson Law

The principle that performance increases with arousal only up to a point, beyond which performance decreases -This means that being under-aroused/alert yields low performance. Or, being over-hyped yields low performance. The trick is to be just right. Ex: For instance, a runner finds running easy (because it's been learned over and over). Having competition in a race would lead to a high state of arousal and force the runner to perform better and run faster. -If a task is difficult, you perform better if arousal is low.

Sensation

The process by which a stimulated receptor (eyes, ears...) creates a pattern of neural messages that represent the stimulus in the brain, giving rise to our initial experience of the stimulus.

Imprinting

The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life -Animals can sometimes bond with anything. Birds bond just after hatching to whatever's moving. Normally it's the mother, but they can be trained to bond with almost anything that moves, such as a dog or even a tin can dangling on a string.

Stress

The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events, called stressors, that we appraise as threatening or challenging -Bad stress can lead to higher risks of...heart disease, cancer, AIDs, and so on

Insight Learning

The process of learning how to solve a problem or do something new by applying what is already known -Learning that comes all at once

Biofeedback

The process of learning to control bodily states by monitoring the states actively

Modeling

The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

Catharsis

The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. -Supported with anger by most western countries

Parallel Processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously -The brain's natural mode of information processing for many functions, including vision -Contrasts with the step-by-step processing of most computers

Reinforcing

The property of a stimulus indicating that if made accidental the stimulus will increase future probability

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance, after a pause, of an extinguished conditioned response -Emerges after extinction -After a time lapse, the association between the UCS and the CS reappears -The association is not as strong as before

Long-term Memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Alpha Waves

The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

Negative Punishment

The removal of a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior's recurring Ex: when a child starts whining, the parent turns off the television show he was watching (makes him less likely to whine again)

What happens if a child does not develop an attachment to parents?

The result is that the person is usually withdrawn and frightened, like the experiments by the Harlows on monkeys "raised" by fake mental mothers. -These children grow up, have their own kids, then are abusive to their kids at a more frequent rate than is normal. -Abused children grow up bearing a laundry list of possible problems - brain/hormonal changes, nightmares, depression, increased substance abuse, binge eating, aggression, crime.

Reticular Formation

The reticular formation is a nerve network that runs through the center of the brainstem -Plays an important role in controlling alertness and attention

What is the present day definition of psychology?

The science of behavior and mental processes -Behavior: anything an organism does (any action we can observe and record) -Mental process: the internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior (sensations, dreams, etc.)

Social Psychology

The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another

Because Adeline is an extravert, she frequently goes to parties where she is encouraged to laugh and socialize with her friends. Because Wesley is an introvert, he frequently spends weekends in the library where it's easy to quietly reflect and study. Adeline and Wesley best illustrate what is meant by the what?

The self-reference phenomenon

Vestibular Sense

The sense of body orientation with respect to gravity -The receptors for this information are tiny hairs in the semicircular canal of the inner ear

Peripheral Nervous System

The sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body -Transmitting decisions to the rest of the body -Links the central nervous system to body's sensory receptors, muscles, and glands

Transduction

The sensory process that converts energy, such as light or sound waves, into the form of neural messages. -What sensory organs do -The neural impulse carries a code of the sensory event in a form that can be further processed by the brain.

Refractory Period

The short time immediately after an action potential in which the neuron cannot respond to another stimulus -Ensures that an action potential (impulse) moves along the axon in one direction

Fechner's Law

The size of the "Just Noticeable Difference" is proportional to the intensity of the stimulus -The "Just Noticeable Difference" is large when the intensity of the stimulus is high

What is the typical pattern of sleep?

The sleep cycles vary widely for the first two-three cycles before settling more into the first two stages of sleep -Deep sleep occurs in the first few hours of sleep

Difference Threshold

The smallest amount by which a stimulus can be changed and the difference be detected, half of the time.

Morphemes

The smallest language units that carry meaning -Typically combine two or more phonemes

Grief

The sorrow caused by the loss of a loved one -Typically an unexpected loss -There are no set-in-stone stages of grief, like denial, anger, yearning for the lost person. But, anger peaks around a month later, yearning about 4 months later.

Preparedness

The species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others.

Mood Contagion

The spillover of one's positive or negative moods onto others -Helps us become more empathetic -Ex: After Marilyn Monroe's suicide, the number of suicides in the United States exceeded the usual August count by about 22

Happiness

The state of being happy -People who are happy are more playful, creative, have better self-images, better relationships, and hopes for the future. -They have better marriages and make more money.

Self-Transcendence

The striving for identity, meaning, and purpose beyond the self -Maslow's theory

Sensory Psychology

The study of basic abilities to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the environment -How we perceive our environment (the interactions between brain and our perception)

Psychopharmacology

The study of how drugs affect the mind and behavior. -Drugs have been the most common "treatment" of mental illness

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection

REM Rebound

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)

Bystander Effect

The tendency for any given bystander to be less likely to give aid if other bystanders are present -The presence of others reduces brain activation in the motor cortex, singling that we don't need to take action

Spacing Effect

The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice -Spaced out studying is better than cramming essentially

Regression Towards the Mean

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores to fall back (regress) toward their average -After an unusual event, things tend to return toward their average level -Sometimes we mistake this regression for our actions (even though a regression towards the mean is completely normal) -When a fluctuating behavior returns to normal, fancy explanations for why it does so are probably wrong

Diffusion of Responsibility

The tendency for individuals to feel diminished responsibility for their actions when they are surrounded by others who are acting the same way -When more people share responsibility for helping, any single listener was less likely to help

Social Loafing

The tendency for people in a group to exert less effort when pooling their efforts towards attaining a common goal than when individually accountable Ex: UMass experiment that asked blindfolded students to pull as hard as they can on a rope -When they fooled the students into believing three others were also pulling behind them, students exerted only 82% as much effort as when they knew they were pulling alone

Foot-In-The-Door-Phenonomen

The tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger one -Used during the Korean War to change American soldiers' beliefs and trust communism

Facial Feedback Effect

The tendency of facial muscle states to trigger corresponding feelings such as fear, anger, or happiness -To increase empathy, let your face mimic the person you're with.

Learned-Helplessness

The tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past

Size Constancy

The tendency to interpret an object as always being the same actual size, regardless of its distance

Shape Constancy

The tendency to interpret the shape of an object as being constant, even when its shape changes on the retina

False Consensus Effect

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

Mood Congruent

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood (type of state-dependent memory)

The Other-Race Effect

The tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races -Example of a cognitive shortcut

Functional Fixedness

The tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions; an impediment to problem solving -Barrier to problem solving

Overconfidence

The tendency to think we know more than we actually do (more confident than correct) -Knowing the answers makes us overconfident

Generalization

The tendency, once a response has been conditioned, for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar responses -Pavlov's dogs may show similar responses to a buzzer as they would to the bell (similar stimuli)

Scarcity Theory

The theory that cognitive distractions can impede one's intelligence -Someone who is more distracted by at the moment distractions or mental distractions (such as financial difficulties, dieting, etc.) can affect their performance on certain tasks (which could diminish their intelligence) -Those who are lower on the socioeconomic spectrum tend to be more affected by this- they are typically more distracted by financial difficulties

Place Theory

The theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea's membrane is stimulated.

Social-Exchange Theory

The theory that our social behavior is an exchange process, the aim of which is to maxims benefits and minimize costs

Scapegoat Theory

The theory that prejudice offers an outlet for anger by providing someone to blame (displacement defense mechanism) Ex: following the 9/11 attacks, some outraged people lashed out at innocent Arab-Americans

Frequency Theory

The theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent -Leon Festinger -Proves we cannot directly control all of our feelings, but we can influence them by altering our behavior -Implicity and explicity believe we are smart, good, reasonable, and sound decision makers (can often lead to attitude/behavior change)

Social Learning Theory

The theory that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished -Reinforcing gender roles for example

Productive Languages

The time period when the ability for babies to produce words matures -Goes from babbling stage, to the one-word stage, to the two-word stage, to telegraphic speech

Why do we need statistics in psychology and in everyday life?

The tools that allow us to measure variables and then interpret results -To be educated is to be able to apply simple statistical principles to everyday reasoning (avoids misinformation and statistical illiteracy) -Avoids health scares

Action Potential

The type of signal that carries information along axons -A brief all or none depolarization of a neuron's plasma membrane

Paradoxical Sleep

The type of sleep encountered during REM when internally, the brain and body are active; while externally, the body appears calm and inactive

Self-Actualization

The ultimate psychological needs that arise after basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved -Motivation to fulfill one's potential -Maslow's theory

Automatic Processing

The unconscious encoding of incidental information (such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings) -Happens without our awareness -Produces implicit memories

Framing

The way we present an issue (a powerful tool of persuasion) -Wording greatly affects our framing Ex: 1.) people are more supportive of "gun safety" laws than "gun control" laws (the wording of the argument) 2.) 10% of people die from this surgery vs 90% of people survive from this surgery (different emotional meaning entirely)

What do school kids self-concept consist of?

Their gender, group memberships, psychological traits, and comparison with other kids

Trichromatic Theory

Theory of color vision that holds that all color perception derives from three different color receptors in the retina.

Biomedial Therapies

Therapies that involve medication

Group Therapy

Therapy conducted with groups rather than individuals, permitting therapeutic benefits from group interaction -It shows patients that they are not alone and that others share their problems.

Light Exposure Therapy

Therapy that involves a timed daily dose of intense light; used for SAD (seasonal affective disorder)

Family Therapy

Therapy that treats the family as a system. Views an individual's unwanted behaviors as influenced by, or directed at, other family members

What are the three major themes of developmental psychology?

There are 3 major themes in human development research... 1.) Nature and nurture - asks how human development is influenced by genetics vs. our experiences. 2.) Continuity and stages - asks if human development is a gradual, continuous process (like riding up an escalator) or if it goes through a sequence of separate stages (like climbing up the rungs on a ladder). 3.) Stability and change - asks if our early personality traits persist through life or if we become different people as we age.

How does race play a role in one's intelligence?

There are IQ score differences based on ethnicity and race: As groups in America, IQ scores are as follows: -Blacks average about 86. -Hispanics average about 88. -Whites average about 100. -Asians average about 105. They do very well on math and aptitude tests.

What are some trends of schizophrenia?

There are some trends in schizophrenia's beginnings... 1.) Schizophrenia often begins to emerge as adulthood comes on. 2.) It hits both genders, but slightly more so to men. 3.) It can come on gradually, and often hits lower socio-economic groups hardest.

Authoritarian (parenting)

These parents believe children need rules and must obey them.

Over time, what happens to unused neural connections?

They are weakened and eventually disappear

What did Friedman and Rosenman determine about people's personalities?

They identified two personality groups: 1.) Type A personalities are competitive, driven, impatient, time-conscious, motivated, verbally aggressive, and easily angered. 2.) Type B personalities are easygoing people. -Type B folks are much less prone to have a heart attack than Type A people. The #1 factor seemed to be the Type A person's anger.

Does scoring well on a standardized test predict future success?

They predict well enough (not great though) -Evidence does point that scoring well on an intelligence test that predicts graduate school success (the GRE) also suggests that person will later be successful in their careers -But, once you get there, excellence seems based more on good old-fashioned hard work. The "10 year rule" says to do well at anything requires 10 years of "intense, daily practice."

Heuristics

Thinking shortcuts (does not guarantee a solution) -Can reduce the number of options of an algorithm by grouping options together

Bulimia Nervosa

This also often starts as a diet. Bulimia typically sees binging and purging where the person eats a lot, then pukes it up. -Eating disorder 1.) Bulimia is usually seen in women in their late teens and early 20s. 2.) Depression is common, especially around binge time periods. 3.) A bulimic is often around their normal weight so identifying the disorder is difficult.

Formal Operational Stage

This begins at about age 12: -Thinking changes from being confined to the concrete to including the abstract. -Children here can use symbols and variables in their thinking. -Children can figure if-then statements. These are systematic or logical reasoning abilities.

Postconventional Morality

This begins at later adolescence and sees people doing things out of respect for others rights or human dignity or basic ethical beliefs. -A person here would explain that stealing is wrong because it violates another's right to property.

Divided Consciousness Theory of Hypnosis

This idea centers on the concept of dissociation. -Dissociation says we have split layers of consciousness (we're aware of more than one thing at any given time).

Subliminal Stimulation

This occurs when we're subjected to a stimulus, but we just aren't aware of it. For instance, an image might be flashed so quickly we don't even know we saw it.

Therapeutic Lifestyle Change

This simply means that to change the way you feel, change the way you live... 1.) Aerobic exercise - 30 minutes three times a week. 2.) Adequate sleep - about 7 to 8 hours per night. 3.) Light exposure - about 30 minutes each morning. 4.) Social connection - interact with others at least twice a week. 5.) Anti-rumination - don't dwell on negative thoughts. 6.) Nutritional supplements - including daily fish oil with omega-3 fatty acids.

Preconventional Morality

This takes place before age 9 and focuses on a child's self-interest. -Something is good if it helps the child (no matter that it might hurt someone else). -Rules are obeyed simply because doing so avoids punishment.

Preoperational Stage

This takes place from about age 2 to 6 or 7: -Children here are too young to do mental operations. -Cannot converse yet -Children at this stage are egocentric - they view the world through their own viewpoints and are unable to view a situation from another person's point-of-view. -A child here may cover his or her eyes thinking, if I can't see them, they can't see me. -At this stage, children can begin to understand why somebody did something. -Because they can understand intentions, they can formulate expectations about what will happen in a situation.

Concrete Operational Stage

This takes place from about age 6 or 7 to about 12: -Children in this stage can think with concrete, physical objects and understand conservation. -They cannot think in the abstract, however. In math, a child here will often use his or her fingers (physical things) to add or subtract.

Sensorimotor Stage

This takes place from birth to roughly age 2: -In this stage, babies "take in" the world through their senses and interactions. -Babies here do not have object permanence - the realization that things continue to exist even when they can't be seen (This explains why the game of Peek-a-Boo is so fun at this age. A hidden face is really gone, to the infant, then suddenly it's back! Wow!) -Object permanence tends to show up around 8 months of age. -There is some evidence to show babies do have some logic.

Social Influence Theory of Hypnosis

This theory says that a person being hypnotized is doing little more than playing the role of a hypnotized person. The person is acting like a "good subject". -The subject's thinking is, "I'm expected to be hypnotized and do what the hypnotist tells me, so, that's what I'll do.

Anorexia Nervosa (AN)

This usually starts as a weight-loss diet but turns into a monster. Even after losing about 15% below normal weight, a person with anorexia is often very thin yet still sees themselves as fat, even though they may be extremely skinny. -Eating disorder 1.) 3 out of 4 people with anorexia are female. 2.) ½ of anorexics use a "binge-purge" technique of eating-and-vomiting or the use of laxatives.

Law of Effect

Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

How does that surrounding environmental affects one's intelligence?

Though nature seems to win the nature-nurture battle for intelligence, the environment still matters Cases where nuture seems to matter significantly: -Adult interaction with kids -Socioeconomic situation -Quality of education -A person's attitude and motivation also matter to a large degree. People that view their life and abilities as changeable, rather than fixed, often push themselves harder and achieve more - effort matters!

Chromosomes

Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain the genes -A normal person has 46 chromosomes per cell, 23 from our mother and 23 from our father -Hold our genes which hold our DNA

Semicircular Canals

Three canals within the inner ear that contain specialized receptor cells that generate nerve impulses with body movement

Lesion

Tissue destruction -A naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue-tiny clusters of brain cells

Weber's Law

To be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a consistent amount). -Has to be at a constant difference: 10%

Sampling Bias

To generalize from a few vivid but unrepresentative cases -Prevents from obtaining a representative sample (from observing the whole group) -Large, representative samples are better than small ones

In science, what is the goal of research?

To prove yourself wrong... -To overcome confirmation bias Confirmation Bias: the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one's existing beliefs or theories

According to Sigmund Freud, why do we dream?

To satisfy our wishes. -We experience the "manifest content" and the "latent content" -In Freud's mind, dreams act as a safety-valve to let out our subconscious drives in a way that's not destructive.

Metacognition

To think about one's thinking -How did I get to that conclusion? -Avoiding biases

Sublimation

Transferring of unacceptable impulses into social valued motives

Neural Messages

Transmit electrical impulses -Messages that sensory organs pick up

Psychotherapy

Treatment involving psychological techniques; consists of interactions between a trained therapist and someone seeking to overcome psychological difficulties or achieve personal growth

How are theories proven to be true?

Trick question: theories are never true! -Always a level uncertainty -We experiment to increase our confidence of a theory (but not to prove it right)

What is the exact definition of intelligence?

Trick question: there is no exact definition (it's a concept not a concrete thing) -There are general definitions and some theories -One general definition: the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy

Tries to change the way people think and act. It's widely practiced. Its goals are to... -Recognize their negative thinking. -Change the negativity into positive thinking. -Act on the new positive thoughts. Techniques included... 1.) Relabeling the bad into something else. Instead of labeling the bad thing and then dwelling on it, they re-name it and move forward. 2.) Doing something else. This re-directs the brain into other areas. PET scans support that these techniques work.

Heritability (intelligence)

Tries to measure the variation of difference in a trait that's inherited genetically, in this case, the variation of intelligence between people that's inherited. -Intelligence is estimated to have a heritability rate of 50% (this does not mean 50% of intelligence is inherited) -It does mean that 50% of the difference in intelligence between people is due to heredity.

Molecular Genetics

Tries to single out how specific genes influence the body or behavior. -Examples might be genes that govern body weight or how outgoing a person is (is it nature or nurture?)

What two neurotransmitters influence our moods (are most likely responsible for depression)?

Two neurotransmitters are in play with moods... 1.) Norepinephrine - boosts arousal and mood - it's there when you're happy, absent when you're down. 2.) Serotonin - the "happy neurotransmitter" - is absent when you're down. -Drugs to combat depression, like Prozac, either block reuptake or prevent neurotransmitter breakdown. -Exercise, like jogging, can also boost serotonin and help stop depression.

Semantic vs Episodic Memories

Two types of explicit memories: Semantic: facts and general knowledge Episodic: experienced events

Echoic Memory

Type of Sensory Memory: -A brief (3-4 sec) perfect memory of sounds

Iconic Memory

Type of Sensory Memory: -Split-second perfect photograph of a scene -Fades away in four-tenths of a second

Hertz

Unit of frequency

Altruism

Unselfish regard for the welfare of others

Research on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) suggests that it may have limited value as a predictor of future job performance. Such criticisms question this assessment's what?

Validity: only suggests future job performance but is not 100% truthful

Psychodynamic Theory

Views human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind -Came from Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis

How do our senses relate to each other?

Vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, pain and body position are all similar for three reasons: 1.) They all transduce stimulus energy into neural impulses. 2.) They are all more sensitive to change than to constant stimulation. 3.) They all provide us with information about the environment we are in.

Hypnagogic Hallucinations

Vivid sensory phenomena that occur during the onset of sleep -William Dement

Cannon-Bard Theory

Walter Cannon and Philip Bard disagreed with the James-Lange Theory -Says our bodies reaction and our emotional feeling occur at the same time.

Stress Response System

Walter Cannon proposal: we have a naturally occurring stress response system -Fight-or-flight response; epinephrine and norepinephrine are released from the inner adrenal glands -Result: increasing heart and respiration rates, mobilizing sugar and fat, and dulling pain; -Sympathetic NC gets us ready for fight or flight response

Redelmeier and Tversky (1996) followed 18 patients with arthritis for 18 months. Patients were asked to record their pain and joint tenderness, while researchers documented changes in the weather. Nearly all patients believed that their condition was associated with weather changes, when the actual correlation was near zero. These participants need to be reminded of what?

We are likely to recall instances that confirm our beliefs.

What happens immediately after conception?

We become aware of ourselves and our surroundings. Our brain and our thinking gets better.

Attribution Theory

We can create the behavior to the person's stable, enduring traits, or we can attribute it to the situation -Fritz Heider

What did George Miller propose about memory in 1956?

We can store about seven pieces of information in short-term memory -The capacity of short term memory -Without the active processing of our working memory, short-term memories have a limited life

The Binding Problem

We do not know how the brain combines these features (feature detectors) to make a single percept. This problem is known as the binding problem.

Fundamental Attribution Error

We overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations -We judge people based off of one situation (need to base it off of several situations) -Down play context (blame on personality too much) -Strong bias to internal attributions

Lightness Constancy

We perceive an object as having a constant lightness even while its illumination varies

Relative Height

We perceive objects higher in our field of vision as farther away

Why are people more attached to physically attractive people?

We perceive them as healthier, happier, more sensitive, more successfully, and more socially skilled -Greatly influenced by culture (varies from person to person) -People are attracted to people who are perceived as kinder However... -People's attractiveness is surprisingly unrelated to their self-esteem and happiness

Reward Theory of Attraction

We will like those whose behavior is rewarding to us, including those who are both able and willing to help us achieve our goals -Close proximity: it requires less time and effort to develop the friendship and enjoy its friendship -Attractive: they are aesthetically pleasing and associating with them can be socially rewarding -Similar to us: they reward us by validating our beliefs

Can money actually buy happiness?

Wealth does tend to lead to happiness over basic needs. -Wealthy nations have healthier people - they don't have to deal with the stress of things like getting food. -But, the economics law of diminishing marginal utility applies here. It says each additional bit of something (in this case, money) gives less usefulness. -In other words, once you have enough money for the basics, adding money doesn't bring you much more happiness. For a billionaire, an extra $1,000/year means nothing. To a person on welfare, it means a lot. Money doesn't breed happiness, happiness breeds money!!!

The word "chimps" contains ________ phoneme(s) and ________ morpheme(s).

5;2 -Phonemes: Ch-i-m-p-s -Morphemes: Chi-mps

Interpersonal Psychotherapy

A 12-16 session treatment that has been successful with treating depression. -It tries to dig up the cause of their depression. But the real goal is to cut back the symptoms of depression. -Whereas a psychodynamic therapist focuses on finding the root cause of the problem, the interpersonal psychotherapist tries to do this too, but really wants a more real result. Often the real result is improving relationships with others.

Counterconditioning

A behavior therapy procedure that uses classical conditioning to evoke new responses to stimuli that are triggering unwanted behaviors; includes exposure therapies and aversive conditioning

Locus of Control

A belief about the amount of control a person has over situations in their life. -Internal vs external control

External Control (locus of control)

A belief that outside influences are solely in charge of someone's future -"Other people control my destiny"

Internal Control (locus of control)

A belief that people are solely in charge of their future (work over faith and luck) -"I am in charge of my future"

Biological Psychology

A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior -Field of psychology that allows us to continue to expand our understanding of sleep and dreams, depression and schizophrenia, hunger and sex, stress and disease

Development Psychology

A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span Interested in how people grow and change—physically, cognitively, and socially.

Trait

A characteristic pattern of behavior or a dispositions to feel and act in certain ways, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports

Flashbulb Memory

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event. -Are engrained into our long-term memory due to rehearsal (tend to tell the story of dramatic events more often) -These memories are very prone to error

Color Blindness

A color perception deficiency. -Very rare Many types: -Red-blind -Green-blind -Violet-blind -Total color-blindness

Instinct

A complex behavior that is rigidly patterned throughout a species and is unlearned -Ex: a salmon instinctually returns to its birthplace to spawn

Oedipus Crisis

A component of Freud's psychosexual theory: -Boys have sexual attractions to their mothers and are afraid of competition from the father (therefore identify with father more to avoid being hurt by father) -False theory

Electra Crisis

A component of Freud's psychosexual theory: -Girls have sexual attractions to their fathers and are in competition with their moms -Are not fearful of mom as guys are with their dads in the Oedipus crisis -Do not fully identify with their mother (superego is weaker) -False theory

Savant Syndrome

A condition in which a person otherwise limited in mental ability has an exceptional specific skill, such as in computation or drawing -Some savants are like human calculators, some can tell the day of week for any day/year, some can draw amazing works of art or compose terrific pieces of music. -Most famous was Kim Peek on whom Rain Man was based. -Was studied by Howard Gardner; where his theory of multiple intelligences derived from

Equity

A condition in which people receive from a relationship in proportion to what they give to it -Key to long lasting relationships -Mutually sharing one's self and possessions, making decisions together, giving and getting emotional support, promoting and caring about each other's welfare

Shallow Processing vs Deep Processing

A continuum of processing and understanding: Shallow: leads to a fragile memory trace that is susceptible to rapid decay (quickly forgotten) -Based on the structure and appearance of words Deep: results in a more durable memory trace (best retention) -Learning the meaning of a word

Intrinsic Motivation

A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake -Internally motivated (actually interested and curious) -It appears that offering rewards to something that's intrinsically motivated can actually decrease the motivation. It's as if the thinking becomes, "If they have to bribe me to do this, it must not really be worth doing."

Illness Anxiety Disorder

A disorder in which a person interprets normal physical sensations as symptoms of a disease -Occurs when people take small "symptoms" and imagine dreaded diseases. A person with this goes from doctor to doctor, symptom and disease to symptom and disease.

Narcolepsy

A disorder where the person (or animal) simply falls asleep suddenly, out of the blue. It can be a problem because the person may fall asleep at a very bad or unsafe moment.

Sleep Apnea

A disorder where the person stops breathing at night, awakens, then breathes again. -Most people don't even know they're waking, even though it can happen hundreds of times per night. -Overweight men are especially prone to apnea. -It can be treated by wearing a special mask.

The Limbic System

A doughnut-shaped neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres -Associated with emotions and drives -Includes the hippocampus, amygdala, and the hypothalamus

Delusions of Grandeur

A false belief that one is a famous person or a powerful or important person who has some great knowledge, ability, or authority.

Harlow's Monkeys

A famous experiment. -The Harlow couple raised monkeys with either a wire mesh "mother" or a wire mesh mother covered with a furry carpet. -The baby monkeys with the furry fake-mothers adjusted better. The physical contact seemed to make all the difference. -The monkeys with the metal "mothers" became panic-stricken with fear. -The conclusion was that physical contact is very important to healthy child-parent attachment. -Also preferred the "parents" with no feeding bottle -Mary Ainsworth studied the attachment of an infant and mother in her "Strange Situation."

Procedural Memory

A form of an implicit memory for automatic skills (such as how to ride a bike)

Chronic Schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia in which symptoms usually appear by late adolescence or early adulthood. As people age, psychotic episodes last longer and recovery periods shorten

Acute Schizophrenia

A form of schizophrenia that can begin at any age, frequently occurs in response to an emotionally traumatic event, and has extended recovery periods

Defensive Self-Esteem

A fragile type of self-esteem -Focuses on sustaining itself (makes failure and criticism feel threatening) -May respond to threats with aggression

Monoamine Oxidase

A gene which helps break down neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin -People who have low gene expression for this gene tend to behave aggressively when provoked

General Intelligence

A general intelligence factor that, according to Spearman and others, underlies specific mental abilities and is therefore measured by every task on an intelligence test -They all correlate with each other; intelligence is just one thing

Stereotype

A generalized (sometimes accurate but often overgeneralized) belief about a group of people

Schizophrenia

A group of severe disorders characterized by disorganized and delusional thinking, disturbed perceptions, and inappropriate emotions and actions -"Schizophrenia" literally means "split mind." (a split between reality and what a person thinks is real)

Client-Centered Therapy

A humanistic therapy based on Carl Roger's beliefs that an individual has an unlimited capacity for psychological growth and will continue to grow unless barriers are placed in the way. -Where the patient speaks and, through self-awareness, moves himself toward his own conclusion

Professor Raza suggests that because people are especially attracted to those who are good-looking, handsome men will be more successful than average-looking men in getting a job. The professor's prediction regarding employment success is an example of what?

A hypothesis

Nerve deafness (Sensorineural Deafness)

A inability to hear, linked to a deficit in the body's ability to transmit impulses from the cochlea to the brain.

Grammar

A language's set of rules that enable people to communicate -Guide us in deriving meaning from sounds and in ordering words into sentences

Cerebellum (memory)

A large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills -Plays a key role in forming and storing the implicit memories created by classical conditioning

Conditioned Response

A learned response to a previously neutral stimulus

Decibel

A logarithmic unit of sound intensity

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

A manual that attempts to classify and organize differing "psychological disorders" -The DSM-5 includes a diagnostic process and 16 clinical syndromes -It does not try to explain causes but tries to describe the disorder.

Variance

A measure of variability based on the squared deviations of the data values about the mean -Always larger than the standard deviation (if the variance is greater than one)...the standard deviation is the square root of the variance

Schemas

A memory aid using mental representations of events, objects, and people -Organizes experiences -Helps us make predictions

Imagination Inflation

A memory phenomenon in which vividly imagining an event markedly increases confidence that the event actually occurred

Prototypes

A mental image or best example of a category Ex: -People associate a crow with being a bird more than a penguin with being a bird (the crow fits the "prototype" of our mental image of a bird better) -Failing to recognize a whale as a mammal (does not fit our "mammal prototype")

Perceptual Set

A mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another -As a result of the confirmation bias

Perception

A mental process that elaborates and assigns meaning to the incoming sensory patterns. -Creates an interpretation of sensation. -Refers to the initial steps in the processing of a stimulus. -Brings meaning to sensation

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.

Free Association

A method of exploring the unconscious in which the person relaxes and says what're comes to mind, no matter how trivial or embarrassing

Caffeine

A mild stimulant found in coffee, tea, and several other plant-based substances -It usually lasts about 3-4 hours. -Regular use results in tolerance. Stopping it can result in withdrawal symptoms of fatigue and headaches.

Antagonist

A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, inhibits or blocks a response -Decreases neurotransmitter's actions by blocking production

Agonist

A molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response -Increase a neurotransmitter's actions

Linear Perspective

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the more parallel lines converge, the greater their perceived distance.

Relative Size

A monocular cue for perceiving depth; the smaller retinal image is farther away

Dysthymic Disorder

A mood disorder involving a pattern of comparatively mild depression that lasts for at least two years -Less severe but often leads to major depressive disorder

Medical Model

A movement that looks for biological causes of mental disorders. It believes: -Mental disorders are diagnosed based on their symptoms. -Mental disorders are cured through a therapy.

Motivation

A need or desire that energizes and directs behavior

Neurons

A nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system

Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potentials

A neurotransmitter that binds to the channels that are selective for opening potassium only -Causes hyperpolarizations -Makes it more difficult for a postsynaptic neuron to generate an action potential (never reaches thresholds in some instances)

Working Memory

A newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious (active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information) and of information retrieved from long-term memory -The "middle stage" between short-term memory and long-term memory -Links new information with previously learned information

Lobotomy

A now-rare psychosurgical procedure once used to calm uncontrollably emotional or violent patients. The procedure cut the nerves that connect the frontal lobes to the emotion-controlling centers of the inner brain. -It usually did cut down on the violent emotions. -It also often left the person lethargic, immature, and uncreative.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm. In response to light, the SCN causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness

Adrenal Glands

A pair of endocrine glands -Sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress -Increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar

Permissive (parenting)

A parenting style characterized by the placement of few limits on the child's behavior. -These parents believe children should make and learn from their own mistakes; they provide few rules.

Temperament

A person's genetic tendency as to how they react and how intensely they react to a situation -Even only weeks old, a person's temperament starts to show up as being reactive or calm, fidgety or relaxed, unpredictable or predictable. -As children, our temperaments, like being shy or outgoing, tend to persist as we grow older.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

A personality disorder in which the person (usually a man) exhibits a lack of conscience for wrongdoing, even toward friends and family members. May be aggressive and ruthless or a clever con artist. 1.) It's a person who cannot live within the bounds of normal rules of life, and doesn't care either. 2.) An antisocial person doesn't feel sorrow or any bit of remorse or wrongdoing. 3.) Have no sense of conscience—no sense of right and wrong.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A personality disturbance characterized by an exaggerated sense of self-importance -Narcissism is exaggerating your own importance. A narcissist thinks he/she has done great things, hates any criticism, wants to be in the limelight, is very arrogant, but has no empathy for others. It's me-first and me-only.

Projective Test

A personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one's inner dynamics -Presumed that any hopes, desires, and fears that people see are projections of their own inner feelings and conflicts

Marijuana

A plant whose leaves, buds, and flowers are usually smoked for their intoxicating effects -It acts like alcohol in that it relaxes, it's a disinhibitor (you do things you normally wouldn't), and can give a "high" feeling. -Marijuana increases sensations (sight, sound, etc.) -It impairs your judgment and your memory.

Cocaine

A powerful and addictive stimulant, derived from the coca plant, producing temporarily increased alertness and euphoria -The good feeling result from a rush of dopamine, serotonin, and epinephrine. Reuptake is blocked by the cocaine. Thus the neurons are left depleted which results in a "crash" (depression).

LSD

A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide) -LSD users sense extraordinary shapes, colors, etc. -It acts in the same way a subtype of serotonin acts. -These same "symptoms" are typical of people who experienced "near-death". (Oxygen deprivation yields these same results)

Higher Ordering Conditioning

A procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a neutral stimulus, creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus

Reuptake

A process in which neurotransmitters are sponged up from the synaptic cleft by the presynaptic membrane.

Personality Inventory

A questionnaire on which people respond to items designed to gauge a wide range of feelings and behaviors -Used to assess selected personality traits (assess several traits at once) Cons: -Does not guarantee validity -Social desirability bias

Mutations

A random error in gene replication that leads to a change -Random chance changes

Dissociative Identity Disorder

A rare dissociative disorder in which a person exhibits two or more distinct and alternating personalities. Also called multiple personality disorder. -The word "dissociative" means there is a break, split, or dissociation between two things. In psychology, dissociative disorders mean there's a break with a person's consciousness, memory, or identity. A person often can't tell what's real and what's not. 1.) The personalities are totally independent - they may have their own "flavor" and even their own accent when speaking. 2.) The person claims to be unaware of each one.

Perceptual Set

A readiness to detect a particular stimulus in a given situation—think of when you are afraid and staying home alone and you notice every noise and think it is a threat. -Ex: What is the last word in each line? FOX; OWL; SNAKE; TURKEY; SWAN; D?CK BOB; RAY; DAVE; BILL; TOM; D?CK

Self-Serving Bias

A readiness to perceive oneself favorably Ex: students who receive low grades tend to criticize the test or the teacher before themselves -Can lead us to avoid uncomfortable truths but also motivate us to approach difficult tasks with confidence rather than despair -Most people express self-esteem higher than average

Unconscious (as according to Sigmund Freud)

A recevoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories -Processing of information we are unaware of

Secure Attachment

A relationship in which an infant obtains both comfort and confidence from the presence of his or her caregiver -Attachment is aided early-on by physical contact. -We respond positively to softness, rocking, feeding, and patting. -Being social creatures, all through life we attach ourselves to others who will always "be there for us." -We also grow attached to what's familiar.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in an organism's behavior due to experience -Animals tend to live by an instinctive genetic code. For example, a salmon's life is pretty much hard-wired into its genes - birth, youth in the stream, adulthood in the ocean, then return to the stream to spawn and die. -Humans also have an instinctive genetic code, but we however, can adapt to our environment and learn new behaviors and make changes

Rite of Passage

A ritual marking the symbolic transition from one social position to another -Especially from childhood to adulthood

Behaviorism

A school of thought in the field of psychology: -Developed by John Watson and B.F. Skinner -What you cannot observe and measure, you cannot scientifically study (cannot observe a sensation or a feeling...structuralism and functionalism became an unreliable field of psychology) -Can observe peoples' behavior as they are conditioned

Scientific Method

A self-correcting process for evaluating ideas with observation and analysis -Puts theories to the test

Dreams

A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind -REM dreams are the most important. They are realistic, emotional, and often don't make sense.

Role

A set of expectations (norms) about a social position -Defining how those in the position ought to behave -When we adopt a new role, we strive to follow the social prescriptions -Every time we act like the people around us, we slightly change ourselves to be more like them, and less like who we used to be

Gender-Role

A set of expected behaviors for males or for females

Social Trap

A situation in which the conflicting parties, by each pursuing their self-interest rather than the good of the group become caught in mutually destructive behavior -In some situations, we harm our collective well-being by pursuing our personal interests -Challenge us to reconcile our right to pursue our personal well-being with our responsibility for the well-being of all

Night Terrors

A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during NREM stage 3 sleep, within two or three hours of falling asleep, and are seldom remembered

Midbrain

A small part of the brain above the pons that integrates sensory information and relays it upward -Part of brain stem -Controls breathing and heart beat -Plays a role in vision and audition

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur -Franz Mesmer

David Rosenhan

A social psychologist that did a study about "labeling patients" with their psychological disorder -Many say putting a label on a person is not right. It generates expectations for that person and puts him or her in a box.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other -One trait or behavior tends to coincide with another -Ranges from -1 to +1 -Suggests possible cause-effect relationships (does not prove causation of an event)

Factor Analysis (intelligence)

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score. -Feed into g-factor -Invented by Charles Spearman

Factor Analysis

A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of test items that tap basic components of a trait -Associates traits with our preferences Ex: outgoing people tend to like excitement and practical jokes more than quiet reading

T-Test

A statistical test used to evaluate the size and significance of the difference between two means -Did the difference occur by random occurrences? -The larger the difference, the less likely it was done by random chance

Nicotine

A stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco -It triggers the neurotransmitters epinephrine and norepinephrine.

Initial Depolarization (action potential)

A stimulus opens some sodium channels -Stimulus reaches the appropriate threshold to open the channels -Sodium flows in and depolarizes the membrane (removes the inner negative charge)

Discriminative Stimulus

A stimulus that an animal can distinguish from another. Ex: A pigeon might respond to a speaker making a "ding dong" sound in its box, but might not respond to a "whoop whoop" sound. -These discriminative stimuli enable us to determine things like, "Can a dog see colors?" (will they respond to one color but discriminate another). Can a baby do this?

Conditioned Reinforcer (secondary reinforcer)

A stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer -Get their power by attaching to a primary reinforcer. -This "attaching" must be learned. Ex: In a Skinner Box, rats learned that pulling the lever (conditioned reinforcer) gave some food (primary reinforce).

Anger

A strong feeling of displeasure -One of the most powerful feelings

Cost-Benefit Analysis

A study that compares the costs and benefits to society of providing a public good -The self-interest underlies all human interactions, that our constant goal is to maximize rewards and minimize costs -Also known as social-exchange theory

Stanley Milgram Experiment

A study that involved the role of a "teacher" who shocked a "learner" -Participants were to ask increasingly harder questions to the "learner" and every time the "learner" answered a question wrong, he or she was administer a shock (shocks became increasingly stronger) -Watched over and influenced by experimenters -The "learner" was in fact an actor/actress and the shocks were false -Every single person administered some shock to the learner, and about two-thirds of the participants, of all ages and from all walks of life, obeyed to the fullest extent -Gender, age, and ethnicity had no effect on the likelihood of obeying

Autonomic Nervous System

A subdivision of the peripheral nervous system. Controls involuntary activity of visceral muscles and internal organs and glands.

Insight

A sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

Panic Disorder

A sudden and paralyzing fear that something terrible is about to happen. -It strikes suddenly and out-of-the blue to about 1 in 75 people. It lasts minutes. -Symptoms include heart palpitations, shortness of breath, choking feelings, trembling, sweating, and dizziness.

Posthypnotic Suggestion

A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors

Meta-Analysis

A summary study of many studies to determine the bottom-linedetermined that the average treated person winds up being better-off than 80% of the non-treated group. T -he bottom line: people not getting treatment are likely to improve, but those who get treatment are more likely to improve.

Hippocampus (in memory formation)

A temporal-lobe neural center located in the limbic system -Functions in the formation and recall of explicit memories -The "loading dock" where the brain temporarily holds the "to-be-remembered" memories Left-hippcampus: storage of verbal information Right-hippocampus: visual designs and location

Anchoring Bias

A tendency to fixate on initial information, from which one then fails to adequately adjust for subsequent information -Tends to alter the results of a survey

Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence -A conflict in cognitive strategies to solve problems

Self-Concept

A theory believed by both Maslow and Roger -All of our thoughts and feelings we have in response to the question "Who am I?" -If positive: tend to act positively -If negative: tend to act negatively

Arousal Theory

A theory of motivation suggesting that people are motivated to maintain an optimal level of alertness and physical and mental activation. -Driven by curiosity Ex: For example, the young man who cut off his arm to live. Or the first man to climb Mt. Everest simply, "Because it is there."

Pitch

A tone's experienced highness or lowness; depends on frequency

A person who eats excessively and never seems to feel full may have which of the following conditions?

A tumor in the hypothalamus

Systematic Desensitization

A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing anxiety-triggering stimuli. Commonly used to treat phobias. -Says you can't be worried and relaxed at the same time. So, while relaxed, you "face your fears" in small baby steps and work up to the "big fear." -Trains you to use "progressive relaxation" to keep calm when you feel the first hints of anxiety. -The trick here is to take it very slowly, in baby steps.

Connectionism

A type of information-processing approach that emphasizes the simultaneous activity of numerous interconnected processing units

Continuous Reinforcement

A type of learning in which behavior is reinforced each time it occurs

Operant Conditioning

A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher -Learner forms a link between a particular behavior and the consequences following the behavior -"Positive" and "negative" consequences -Positive: refers to a consequence that begins something new -Negative: refers to a consequence that ends something that is already happening

Classical Conditioning

A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events -Learns to associate two stimulus together (the key is that classical conditioning is natural...a biological response) -Unconditioned stimulus produces the unconditioned response -Falls under behaviorism (explored by Pavlov's experiments)

What is memory?

A type of learning that persists over time -Information that has been acquired and stored and can be retrieved

Instinct Theory

A view that explains human behavior as motivated by automatic, involuntary, and unlearned responses. -Focuses on how genetics dictate behavior -Created from Charles Darwin's work

Operational Definitions

A way for psychologists to check their biases within an experiment (check their procedures and concepts) -Operationally defining the independent and dependent variable

What is the weakest stimulus that an organ can detect?

Absolute threshold: The level of stimulus necessary for a stimulus to be detected. -Not absolute all the time (there is a fuzzy line between detection and non detection) -It varies continually with our mental alertness and physical condition

Basic Trust

According to Erik Erikson, a sense that the world is predictable and trustworthy; said to be formed during infancy by appropriate experiences with responsive caregivers

Manifest Content

According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

Latent Content

According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

Short-term Memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Conformity

Adjusting our behavior or thinking toward some group standard -Suggestibility and mimicry are subtle types of conformity

Why is keeping the weight off after you have lost it the most difficult part?

After losing weight, the fat cells are shrunk in size, but still there. -The body below its set point, it thinks it's being starved so (1) metabolism slows and (2) the person constantly thinks of food. -A successful weight-loss strategy is to slowly, moderately, and realistically drop the weight. 10% loss in 6 months is a good time frame.

What did Rene Descartes contribute to psychology in the 1600s?

Agreed with Socrates and Plato: some knowledge is innate -How does the immaterial mind and body communicate? -Made claims about nerve paths connecting the mind and body (though his claims were pretty inaccurate)

Bobo Doll Experiment

Albert Bandura: -In this experiment, a child watched an adult beat up an inflatable clown. The adult yelled things like, "Take that!" in the process. -The children were then placed into a "play room" and mimicked the adult by beating up the Bobo doll with almost the exact same actions and words as the adult model. -Children who had not observed the adult were less aggressive to the doll.

Bipolar Disorder

Alternating between mania and depression. -Mania is simply being very, very happy. It's euphoric, hyper, and very optimistic. -Again, it's not uncommon to feel both mania and depression, but it is unusual to feel them often and frequently and with short intervals.

Dementia

An abnormal condition marked by multiple cognitive defects that include memory impairment. -Now referred as a neurocognitive disorder

Agoraphobia

An abnormal fear of open or public places

POEE

An acronym that represents the different difficulties of conducting psychological experiments (why the social sciences are harder than the physical sciences) Participants Operational Definitions Expectations Ethics

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

An anxiety disorder characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsession) and/ or actions (compulsions). -Everyone can become picky over certain things. But, with OCD, the pickiness begins to interfere with the person's life -OCD can become paralyzing to the point that normal living becomes impossible.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

An anxiety disorder in which a person is continually tense, apprehensive, and in a state of autonomic nervous system arousal -Worry that does not have a specific reason or a physical cause for the anxiety -The focus of the worry may change. The person cannot explain why he/she is so edgy.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

An anxiety disorder with haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpiness, and/or insomnia that lasts weeks after a traumatic experience. -Identical twin studies suggest that genetics can pre-dispose a person to PTSD. -Facing a traumatic event can also make a person stronger. Or, more exactly, it can show them how strong they can be.

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy

An anxiety treatment that progressively exposes people to simulations of their greatest fears, such as airplane flying, spiders, or public speaking

Eclectic Approach

An approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client's problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy -Use medication and talk therapy

Exposure Therapy

An approach to treatment that involves confronting an emotion-arousing stimulus directly and repeatedly, ultimately leading to a decrease in the emotional response -Exposing people to what they want to avoid

Hindbrain

An area of the brain that coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord -Part of brain stem Consists of the: -Medulla -Pons -Cerebellum

Passionate Love

An aroused state of intense positive absorption in another, usually present at the beginning of a romantic relationship -Mixes something new with something positive

Reflex

An automatic response to a stimuli -Fewer neurons, synapses involved in reflex arc, shorter distance for signal to travel (quick response time) -No integration with the brain (unconscious)

Structuralism

An early school of thought in the field of psychology: -Questioning sensations, images, and feelings (How did different feelings/sensations relate to one another?) -Influenced by chemistry -Proved to be an inaccurate field of psychology

Functionalism

An early school of thought in the field of psychology: -We adapt certain functions -Study of emotions, memories, will-power, habits, streams of consciousness -Proved to be an inaccurate field of psychology

Methamphetamine (meth)

An easily produced, relatively inexpensive stimulant that creates a strong feeling of euphoria in the user and is highly addictive -Meth stimulates the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which naturally improves your mood. -But, meth can permanently drop your natural dopamine levels. This leaves you depressed.

Myelin Sheath

An electrical insulator formed around the axons of some neurons -Myelinated neurons (white matter) send signals faster than unmyelinated neurons (grey signals)

Pituitary gland

An endocrine gland located at the base of the hypothalamus (controlled by the hypothalamus) -Sends hormones to other endocrine glands so that they can release more hormones (tropic hormones) -Also regulates growth and metabolism -Works in a feedback loop

State-dependent Memory

What we learn in one state of mine (i.e. drunk or sober) may be more easily recalled when we are again in that same state -States of moods is another example

How does social facilitation work for difficult situations and tasks?

What you normally find difficult may seem all but impossible when you are being watched -Typically do worse when being watched in these situations

Accommodation

When a child adapts his current understandings to incorporate his new experience

When is groupthink prevented?

When a leader... -Welcomes various opinions -Invites experts' critiques of developing plans -Assigns people to identify possible problems Varied perspectives often enable creative or superior outcomes

When is an observed difference in an experiment significant?

When averages from two samples are each reliable measures of their respective populations, then their difference is probably reliable as well -When the difference between the samples averages are large (more confidence in its significance)

When is conformity a good and a bad thing?

When conformity is good: -Encouraging people to be more generous after observing others acting generous -In some cultures, conforming and honoring family traditions is a positive thing When conformity is bad: -Leading people to agree with falsehoods -Going along with bullying -Fuels dictatorship

Misinformation Effect

When exposed to subtle misleading information, we may misremember -Can mis-determine the face of a perpetrator in a police lineup for example -Occurs because visualizing something and actually perceiving it active similar brain areas

When are attitudes likely to affect behavior?

When external influences are minimal and when the attitude is stable, specific to the behavior, and easily recalled

Retroactive Interference

When new learning disrupts recall of old information

Positive Transfer

When old information facilitates the learning of new information -Old information makes learning new information easier

Why does social loafing occur?

When people act as part of a group, they may... 1.) Feel less accountable and therefore worry less about what others think 2.) View their individual contributions as dispensable 3.) Overestimate their own contributions, downplaying others; actions 4.) Slack off

Proactive Interference

When prior learning disrupts your recall of new information -May mix up old passwords with new ones

Resting State (action potential)

When the membrane is resting -Sodium potassium pumps are closed -Typically around -70 v (or some negative value near that)

Statistical Significance

When the sample averages are reliable and the difference between them is relatively large -Means that the observed difference is probably not due to chance variation between the samples -Need proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a result

What scenarios as according to research are we likely to conform with?

When we are... 1.) Are made to feel incompetent or insecure 2.) Are in a group in which everyone else agreed 3.) Admire the group's status and attractiveness 4.) Have not made a prior commitment to any response 5.) Know that others in the group will observe our behavior 6.) Are from a culture that strongly encourages respect for social standards

Why do roles greatly shape our attitudes?

When we become aware that our attitudes and actions don't coincide, we experience mental tensions (cognitive dissonance) -To relieve the tension, we often bring our attitudes into line with our actions

Why are memories inaccurate?

When we replay a memory, we often replace the original with a slightly modified version -The memory gets progressively altered -Reconsolidation -To some degree, all memory is false

Illusion

When your mind interprets an image that is demonstrably incorrect -When your mind plays a trick on you and interprets a stimulus incorrectly.

Major Depressive Disorder

Where a person who has two or more weeks of significantly depressed moods or feelings and a lack of interest or pleasure in most activities. -It's being depressed for 2+ weeks. -Depression can be constructive. It stops us, makes us look inward, makes us assess what's important, and urges us to get back up and move forward.

Linguistic Determination

Whorf's hypothesis that language determines the way we think -Language comes first then our ideas when it comes to what the brain processes first in everyday situations -Not an entirely accurate concept

Personality Stability

With age, personality traits become more stable -Personality is influenced by genes and our social interactions

How do our senses differ from each other?

With the exception of pain, all the senses taps a different form of stimulus, and each sends the information it gathers to a different part of the brain. -Extracts different information -Sends it to its own specialized processing region of the brain Ex: Whether you hear a bell or see a bell depends ultimately on which part of the brain receives stimulation.

Linguistic Influence

Words influence, but do not determine, thinking

Can hypnosis reduce pain?

Yes -For example, a hypnotized person can often dunk their arm in ice-water and feel less pain than a non-hypnotized person.

Does the speed at which people process information affect one's intelligence?

Yes to a small degree: -The speed with which a person processes info also hints at intelligence. Speed and a score on an intelligence test correlate at about +0.30 to +0.50. -This correlation may not be due so much to speed, as to the fact that fast-processers may be able to take in more info.

Can hypnosis be therapeutic?

Yes: -Hypnosis can heal, such as headaches, asthma, stress-related skin disorders, and obesity. -Trying to get a person to respond after hypnosis, such as saying, "You will NOT want to order dessert," is called posthypnotic suggestion.

Does memory change with age? What have different studies show?

Yes: -Memory seems best around age 20. -Experiments seem to show that memory declines with age. A broader view of age's impact on intellect unfolded in stages... Phase 1 - Cross-sectional studies (across age groups) showed that intelligence test scores went down with age. Phase 2 - Longitudinal studies (follow the same people over many years) showed quite a bit of stability in intellect with age. Phase 3 - The results are mixed on the impact of age on intellect. Younger people think faster, but older folks have deeper understanding.

Functional MRI

fMRI -A technique for revealing bloodflow, and therefore brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans -Shows brain function by tracking the bloodflow in the brain seconds apart

Intimacy

in Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood -Often comes after a person has a good sense of his/her identity.

Egocentrism

in Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view