Exam 1 PSYCH 1030

How does cocaine affect the brain?

- Increases dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens - Blocks dopamine re-uptake - Can also increase norepinephrine

Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct

-Informed consent and voluntary participation -Students as research participants. -The use of deception -Confidentiality of information -Information about the study and debriefing

eye structure

1. Cornea 2. Lens 3. Fovea - highest visual activity 4. Retina - membrane lining bac of the eyeball

What are the 4 main structures of a neuron?

1. Dendrite 2. Nucleus 3. Axon 4. Myelin Sheath

Irrefutable (nonfalsifiable) claims

A claim that cannot be disproved or tested in any meaningful way.

positive correlation

A correlation where as one variable increases, the other also increases, or as one decreases so does the other. Both variables move in the same direction.

positive psychology

A field of psychological research and theory focusing on the study of positive emotions and psychological states, positive individual traits, and the social institutions that foster those qualities in individuals and communities.

Dopamine

A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention and learning and the brain's pleasure and reward system.

Mindfulness

A state of open, nonjudgmental awareness of current experience

Psychologists are guided by the basic scientific assumption that events are lawful. What does this mean to psychologists?

Behavior and mental processes follow consistent patters.

Prozac and cocaine mechanism of action

Both block the reuptake of certain neurotransmitters

Two key figured in the development of humanistic psychology

Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow

How does communication in the endocrine system differ from communication in the nervous system?

Communication in the endocrine system is much more slow than in the nervous system.

Attention is selective

Consumers decide what to focus on at any one time, choosing not to focus on or mentally process other stimuli.

The all-or-none law refers that

Either a neuron is sufficiently stimulated and an action potential occurs, or a neuron is not sufficiently stimulated and an action potential does not occur.

1. In contrast to collectivistic cultures, individualistic cultures tend to:

Emphasize the needs and goals of the individual over the needs/goals of the group

Recognizing a person but blanking on his or her name is a common experience. For most people, facial recognition is a _____ hemisphere task, while being able to name the person is a _____ hemisphere verbal memory task.

Facial recognition is a right hemisphere task. Left hemisphere verbal memory task.

Cognitive Psychology

Focuses on the important role of mental processes in how people process and remember information, develop language, solve problems, and think

humanistic psychology

Focuses on the motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of interpersonal relationships on a person's self-concept, and the importance of choice and self-direction in striving to reach one's potential.

The Brain's left hemisphere

For most people, language functions are in the left hemisphere. Controls the right side of the body

Who was the first African American to receive a Ph.D in psychology?

Francis C. Sumner

What are the structures of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex?

Frontal Lobe Parietal Lobe Occipital Lobe Temporal Lobe

common region principle

Gestalt grouping principle that refers to our tendency to perceive objects that are in a common area as being in the same group

Brain Key Structures

Hypothalamus - Links brain and endocrine system. Regulates hungry, thirst, sleep, and sexual behavior Thalamus - Processes and integrates sensory information; relays sensory information to the cerebral cortex Amygdala - Involved in memory and emotion, especially fear and anger Hippocampus - Involved in forming new memories

gate-control theory

Learning to exert conscious voluntary control over automatic body functions such as respiration, heartbeat, and skin temperature

cross-cultural psychology

Looking closer at how cultural factors influence patterns of behavior.

Which of the specialty areas in psychology is a medical specialty?

Mental Health Professionals - specifically Psychiatrists

Presynaptic neuron is to postsynaptic neuron as:

Message-sending to message-receiving

sequence of sleep stages

NREM : Stage 1 - gradual disaengage from world Stage 2 - sleep spindles, brief bursts of brain activity Stage 3 - Slow-wave sleeo REM: Stage 4 -

Proximity perception

Proximity affects the perception of an object because if looking at a group of objects and some of them seem smaller, this would make them appear farther away from you.

Ear structure

Semicircular canals Cochlea Eardrum Pinna

1. Pain begins when an intense stimulus activates sensory fibers called "_____" in the skin, muscles, or internal organs.

Sensory neurons

Maria's heightened physical arousal from being scared involved the activation of which subdivision of the nervous system?

The autonomic nervous system

What event do most historians consider to mark the formal beginning of psychology as a scientific discipline?

The establishment of the first psychology research lab (Wilhelm Wundt 1879)

independant variable

The factor that is manipulated; variable whose effect is being studied

behavioral psychology

The study on how behavior is acquired or modified by environmental causes.

The manager of a food store is trying to come up with ways of increasing sales of items that have a high profit margin. He decides that he is going to embed subliminal messages to buy certain items in the music that is playing in the store. What do you predict will happen to the sales of the items that are subliminally advertised?

There will be no increase in sales.

biological psychology

a branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior

ecstasy

a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition.

psychokinesis

ability to move objects with one's mind

manifest content

according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

latent content

according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

To be a critical thinker what must you constantly ask

actively questioning claims, rather than blindly accepting them

negative correlation

as one variable increases, the other decreases

Neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons

Biological processes that systematically vary over a 24-hour cycle are called _____ and are regulated by a cluster of neurons called the _____.

circadian rhythms; suprachiasmatic nucleus

change blindness

failing to notice changes in the environment

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

On Halloween night, Maria and some friends visited an abandoned house that was said to be haunted. Maria heard a strange noise and was convinced that she had heard the footsteps of a ghost. But Ariana, who also heard the sound, insisted that it was just a broken door rattling in the wind. Maria's interpretation probably reflects:

her perceptual set that the house was haunted.

imaginative suggestibility view

hypnosis is due to capacity to imagine and heightened suggestibility

psychodynamic therapy

interested in your dreams, blocked memories, and slips of the tongue; subconscious

How opioids work in the brain

mimicking the brain's own natural painkillers (endorphins). They occupy endorphin receptor sites in the brain.

telepathy

mind to mind communication

opponent-process theory

opposing retinal processes enable color vision 4 basic colors, devided into two pairs of color-sensitive neurons: red-green and blue-yellow. Does not explain afterimage.

precognition

perceiving future events

clairvoyance

perceiving remote events, such as sensing that a friend's house is on fire

Gestalt principles of perceptual organization

proximity, similarity, continuity, closure, illusory contours

Phrenology

pseudoscience founded in the 1800s that stated size/shape of skull reflects the individual differences in abilities, character, and personalities

Olfaction

sense of smell

Gustation

sense of taste

bottom-up processing

the analysis of the smaller features to build up to a complete perception

Plasticity

the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience

extrasensory perception (ESP)

the controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input; includes telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition

parasympathetic nervous system

the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy

figure-ground

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

Automic Nervous System

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs

placebo effect

the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior

parapsychology

the study of paranormal phenomena, including ESP and psychokinesis

evolutionary psychology

the study of the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection

drug tolerance

the tendency for larger doses of a drug to be required over time to achieve the same effect

perceptual set

the tendency to perceive objects or situations from a particular frame of reference.

Continuity

the tendency to perceive things as simply as possible with a continuous pattern rather than with a complex, broken-up pattern

similarity

the tendency to perceive things that look similar to each other as being part of the same group

top-down processing

the use of preexisting knowledge to organize individual features into a unified whole

trichromatic theory

theory of color vision that proposes three types of cones: red, blue, and green

psychodynamic therapy

therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that seeks to enhance self-insight

Color Vision Theories

trichromatic; opponent process

As you enter the locker room at the college gym, you notice the sharp, distinctive smell of chlorine from the adjacent swimming pool. The stimulation of special receptors in your nose by airborne molecules of chlorine is an example of _____, and your interpretation of the stimulation is an example of _____.

unipolar sensory neurons, Interneurons (association) neurons.

attention has a limited capacity

we have to choose where we put our attention because it is not unlimited

Reasons for using animals in psychological research?

when research can not feasibly be conducted on humans, to learn about memory, thinking, and language