GR #1 Review

Endorphins

"natural morphine," linked to pain control and pleasure

Autonomic

, divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic

Tuskegee study

African American men with syphilis who were studied for research purposes from 1932-1972 and denied basic treatment and ethical consideration

Minimizing harm

Balance consideration of harm against telling the full truth

Three barriers to critical thinking

Hindsight bias, overconfidence, and perceiving patterns in random events

Reflect and apply

How might this be useful? What value is there in this process? Apply to specific instances

SOAR Model

Self-assessment, objective analysis, awareness of another/alternative perspective, reflect and apply perspective taking

Perspective Taking Related to USAFA

USAFA has an outcome related to Ethics and Respect for Human Dignity. Practicing perspective taking helps cadets understand their own backgrounds and how they influence their thinking/perceptions, demonstrate consideration of fair and equitable treatment of others and their basic human rights, understand the perspectives of others, and leverage the value of diversity and inclusion for mission accomplishment.

Causation

a cause and effect relationship in which one variable controls the changes in another variable

Traits

a characteristic that an organism can pass on to its offspring through its genes

Correlation

a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus of how well either factor predicts the other

All or nothing response

a neuron's reaction of either firing or not firing

Operational definition

a statement of the procedures used to define research variables

Hypothesis

a testable prediction, often implied by a theory

Important neurotransmitters

acetylcholine, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, glutamate, GABA, endorphins

Serotonin

affects hunger, sleep, arousal, and mood

High conscientiousness

ambitious, organized, reliable

Informed consent

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate

Personality

an individual's characteristic style of behaving, thinking, and feeling

Variation

any difference between individuals of the same species

Objective analysis

apply behavioral science facts/theories to objectively broaden your perspective on a topic

Random assignment

assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups

Dopamine

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

Psychology's Subfields

biological, cognitive, clinical, developmental, social, personality, legal/forensic, counseling, industrial-organizational, cognitive neuroscience

Psychology's Levels of Analysis

biological, psychological, social-cultural

Central nervous system

brain and spinal cord

Terminal branch

branched endings of an axon that transmit messages to other neurons

Dendrites

branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information

Theories- related to psychological science

broad explanations and predictions concerning phenomena of interest

Neurotransmitters

chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons

Nature vs. Nurture

controversy over the relative contributions of genes and experience on behavior and traits

Low openness

conventional, down-to-earth

High openness

creative, artistic, curious, imaginative, nonconforming

Scientific Attitude

curiosity, skepticism, humility

Experimental design

designs involving random assignment to groups and manipulation of the independent variable

System two thinking (Kahneman)

effortful, articulates judgement, makes informed choices, thinks critically, can be wrong or right depending on how hard it works

Neural transmission

electrochemical communication within and between neurons and the final destination

Acetylcholine

enables learning and memory, triggers muscle contraction

Availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind(perhaps due to vividness), we presume such events are common; like a gambler at a casino

Self-assessment

examine our biases, preconceived ideas and their sources

Critical Thinking

examines assumptions, appraises sources, discern hidden biases, evaluate evidence, and actively assess conclusions

Glutamate

excitatory neurotransmitter involved in memory

High agreeableness

good-natured, trusting, supportive

Trait theory

have certain stable and enduring characteristics, influenced by genetic predispositions

Norepinephrine

helps control alertness and arousal, under supply can depress mood; fight-or-flight response

Neurons

individual cells in the nervous system that receive, integrate, and transmit information

Ethics in research

informed consent, protection from harm and discomfort, confidentiality, debriefing

Representative heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes

Cell body

largest part of a typical neuron, contains the nucleus and much of the cytoplasm

Myelin sheath

layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons, enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from the one node to the next

GABA

major inhibitory neurotransmitter, under supply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia

Measures of central tendency

mean, median, mode

Prototype

mental image or best example of a category

Heuristic

mental shortcut; a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently; usually speedier but also more error-prone than algorithms

Algorithm

methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Psychology's Perspectives

neuroscience, evolutionary, behavior genetics, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, social-cultural

Belief perseverance

occurs when we cling to beliefs and ignore evidence that proves these are wrong; people who believe the earth is flat

Five-factor model of personality

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism

System one thinking (Kahneman)

operates effortlessly, jumps to conclusions regarding causality, influenced by heuristics, can be wrong but is more often right

Replication

repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances

Low extroversion

reserved, comfortable with being alone

Low agreeableness

rude, uncooperative, irritable, hostile, competitive

Perceiving patterns in random events

seeking to see patterns that don't actually exist

Correlational design

studies intended to indicate how two variables are related to each other

Descriptive designs

study designs in which the researcher defines a problem and variable of interest but makes no prediction and does not control or manipulate anything

Framing

sways decisions and judgement by influencing the way an issue is posed; it can also influence beneficial decisions

High extroversion

talkative, optimistic, social, affectionate

Confirmation bias

tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

Perspective Taking

the ability to mentally represent the complexity of another's experience (including their beliefs, desires, intentions, behaviors, emotions, etc.)

Confidentiality

the act of holding information in confidence, not to be released to unauthorized individuals

Nervous system

the body's electrochemical communication network, broken down into the peripheral and central

Plasticity

the brain's capacity for modification, as evident in brain reorganization following damage (especially in children) and in experiments on the effects of experience on brain development

Independent variable

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

Axon

the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands

Cognition

the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Concept

the mental groupings we make after thinking about the countless events, objects, and people in our world

Dependent variable

the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable

Debriefing

the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants

Heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes; the heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studied

Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Peripheral nervous system

the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body, divided into autonomic and somatic

Epigenetics

the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change

Overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct- to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs and judgement; drives stockbrokers to market their availability to outperform the stock market

Hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

Synapses

tiny gaps between dendrites and axons of different neurons

Low neuroticism

tranquil, calm

Low conscientiousness

unreliable, lazy, casual, spontaneous

Awareness of Another Perspective

willingly consider others' points of view distinct from our own

High neuroticism

worried, insecure, anxiety-prone