First PY test
Define Brain structures (you will not need to locate these in a diagram but you should know their function roughly) Brain Stem Cerebellum Thalamus Hypothalamus Hippocampus Amygdala Basal Ganglia Cerebral Cortex Corpus Callosum Occipital Lobes Parietal Lobes Temporal Lobes Frontal Lobes Prefrontal Cortex
Brain stem: contains the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the midbrain. Controls basic functions of survival: breathing, swallowing, heart rate, peeing, etc. also performs functions similar to the spinal cord Cerebellum: back of the brain stem. Important for motor function and motor memory; also involved in cognitive processes such as making plans, remembering events, using language, and experiencing emotions. Thalamus: sensory information passes through here, organizes it, and sends it to the cortex. EXCEPT FOR SMELL Hypothalamus: important for motivated behaviors, such as hunger, thirst, aggression, and lust. Also regulates body and its functions Hippocampus: important for memory Amygdala: processes emotions and generates emotional and behavioral reactions Basal Ganglia: plan and produce movements. Damage can lead to Parkinson's or Huntington's disease. Cerebral Cortex: outer layer of the brain and gives it that wrinkled look. each hemisphere has its own cortex. Corpus Callosum: connects the different lobes and allows information to flow between it Occipital Lobes: at the back of the head. Organizes visual information and processes its colors, forms, and motions. Parietal Lobes: devoted to tough. Left hemisphere receives information from the right and vice versa. Also deals with attention. Temporal Lobes: responsible for hearing. Can also identify objects and people. Frontal Lobes: essential for planning and movement Prefrontal Cortex: 30% of the human brain; direct and maintain attentions, keep ideas in mind despite distractions, develops and acts on plans. Understands what others are thinking, shows how to behave to cultural norms, and contemplates ones existence. Provides sense of self, empathy, and guilt.
What are the sections of empirical articles?
Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion.
What is a lobotomy?
A lobotomy, or leucotomy, is a form of psychosurgery, an outdated neurosurgical treatment of a mental disorder that involves severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex.
What is Hysteria?
A so-called psychological disorder (not now regarded as a single definite condition) whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms (somatization), selective amnesia, shallow volatile emotions, and overdramatic or attention-seeking behavior. The term was formerly falsely regarded as a disease specific to women.
Define the following terms (Neurotransmitters ): Acetylcholine Norepinephrine Serotonin Dopamine GABA Glutamate Endorphins
Acetylcholine: motor control over muscles; learning, memory, sleeping, and dreaming Norepinephrine: Arousal, vigilance, and attention Serotonin: emotional states and impulsiveness. dreaming. low levels lead to depression Dopamine: reward and motivation. motor control over voluntary movement. GABA: inhibition of action potentials. Reduces anxiety. Glutamate: enhancement of action potentials. learning and memory. Endorphins: Pain reduction and reward.
Define all the following learning principles? (Learning Principles - habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning)
Habituation: over time we get used to stimuli Classical conditioning: Association between stimuli (Little Albert study, Pavlov's dog); works best when one stimulus signals the other Operant conditioning: Voluntarily trying things to see if they work out.
What did Freud believe about personality structure?
He thinks that it consists of three structures: id, superego, and ego.
What are the modern assessment of Freud?
He's wacky and mostly inaccurate, but he helped us start to conceptualize the subconscious.
Explain the following: Observational research allows us to make frequency and association claims Survey research allows us to make frequency and association claims Only experimental research allows us to make causal or cause & effect claims
I DO NOT KNOW.
What is Neuron size?
I DON'T KNOW
Phineas Gage's story?
On September 13, 1848, the then 25-year-old Gage was working as the foreman of a crew preparing a railroad bed near Cavendish, Vermont. ... The rod penetrated Gage's left cheek, tore through his brain, and exited his skull before landing 80 feet away. He was able to get up immediately and returned to his hotel room, where he entered a coma. He physically recovered from the injury, but his personality changed so that he became hard to deal with and was unable to control sexual perversion.
What are All-or-none principle/ neuron's firing threshold?
Once a neuron reached the necessary positive charge (firing threshold) it will fire with the same strength every time.
What is the difference between consumers vs. producers of psychology?
Producers write and carry out studies and research; and then we are all consumers of the information they find.
What are some problems with observational research?
Reactivity: when people change their behavior in some way when they know that someone else is watching them Observer bias: when observers see what they expect to see • Graduate student or criminal? Observer effects/Expectancy Effects: When the observers actually causes change in the participant's behavior in line with their expectations Hard to scale up. Small sample sizes.
What is Neuronal plasticity/neurogenesis?
Neurogenesis is the production of new neurons. Plasticity: the ability to change in response to experience or injury is known as plasticity.
What is Sodium and potassium primary ions involved in action potentials?
Neuron depolarizes: sodium ions rush in and potassium rushes out. Action potential: potassium stops exiting and sodium stops entering.
What is observational, survey, & experimental research?
Observational: When a researcher watches people or animals and systematically records how they behave or what they are doing. Survey: getting participants to answer questions Experimental research: the most organized type of study; running experiments to draw conclusions.
What is Big Data Research? What did google have to do with the flu?
big data research allows us to look at trends and detect independent and dependent variables google used online searches to detect how many people were sick at a certain time as opposed to before when there would have to be in person recorded accounts
What Neuron structure (dendrites, cell body/soma, axon, terminal buttons, myelin sheath, synapse)?
dendrites look like short branches and detect chemical signals from nearby neurons. The cell body (soma in Greek) receives information from the dendrites and integrates it. The axon transmits electrical impulses down it from all the integrated information in the cell body. The smallest axon is a few millimeters big, while the longest axon stretches from the spinal cord to the big toe. Terminal buttons are knoblike structures at the end of the axon and they release chemicals through the neurotransmitters found within them. The myelin sheath holds and insulates axons in order to generate fast signals. A synapse is where chemical communication occurs between neurons. They send chemicals into the synapse (a tiny hap between the terminal buttons of the sending neuron and the dendrites of the receiving neuron)
What are some problems with survey research?
• Leading questions • How fast do you think the car was going when he hit the other car, or How fast do you think the car was going when he smashed into the other car? • Double-barreled questions • Do you enjoy swimming and wearing sunscreen? • Negatively worded questions • People who do not drive with a suspended license should never be punished. Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Agree • Question order & priming effects • Socially desirable responding • Faking good/Faking bad • Self-reporting "more than they can know" • After the fact explanations
What are Freud's five stages of development?
1- Oral: the mouth is associated with pleasure. 2- Anal: withholding or expelling feces. 3- Phallic: focus of pleasure shifts to genitals. 4- Latent: Little or no motivation/activity. 5- General: normally functioning adults.
What are 3 Core (and radical) ideas associated with Behaviorism?
1. Everything you are and know is based on experience. 2. Science must be observable. 3. No interesting differences between species.
What is peer review?
1. Psychologist conducts a study, writes a report & submits it to a journal 2. Editor of the journal sends the report ("blind") to experts in the field 3. The experts review and critique the study and recommend that the report be rejected, revised, or published 4. The editor makes a final decision: reject, revise & resubmit, or publish!!!!
What is the Stanford Prison Experiment?
24 men were chosen to be prisoners or guards. The experiment was to last 14 days and it lasted only 6 because of safety concerns. People took on the role seriously and forgot they were in the experiment in the first place. Even Zimbardo forgot that he took on the role. They all INTERNALIZED their roles. And that is what is shocking about the experiment.
What is Agonists & antagonists ?
Agonists: strengthen the effects of neurotransmitters. Antagonists: lessen or make the effects of neurotransmitters impossible.
What is Nature/nurture debate?
Are you born the way you are or do you become like the way you are?
What is biased thinking?
Confirmation Bias: Ignoring evidence. Seeing relationships that don't exist: creating relationship in events that do not exist. Hindsight bias: "Because people expect the world to make sense, they often come up with explanations for why events happen. They do so even when they have incomplete information." Taking mental shortcuts: having values to help us make decisions. They rules are Heuristics.
Define all kinds of variables: Independent variables, dependent variables, confounding variables, and control variables.
Confounding - third variable that affects an outcome. Control - variables controlled during the experiment. Independent - variable being manipulated. Dependent - measured variable.
What are the three criteria that must be met for making a causal claims?
Covariance- correlation Temporal- one thing comes before another Eliminate cofounds- can prevent by usung random samples in an experiment
Research claims scientists can make (descriptive, frequency, association, correlation, covariation, and causal)
Descriptive: this is what's going on Frequency: how often and how much a variable occurs. Association: arguing at least two variables are linked Correlation: test relationships between factors Causation: this causes that to happen
Explain the change in ethics in field of PY.
Do no harm. Trust. Integrity. Beneficial to humans. Anonymous. Informed consent.
What is Studying the brain (what technologies do we have at our fingertips?)?
EEG: electroencephalograph; measures electrical activity/patterns in the brain and event-related potential (ERP)--how fast a brain processes events. PET: positron emission tomography; scans most active areas of the brain using radioactive substance. MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; uses magnetic field to make an image of the parts of the brain which are releasing energy. fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging; uses the brain's bloodflow to map the brain and assess changing oxygen levels. TMS: transcranial magnetic stimulation; releases magnetic field to specific brain area to examine specific functions in specific areas.
What is excitatory and inhibitory signals (depolarize and polarize)?
Excitatory signals depolarize cell membrane (decrease negative charge inside the cell) and increase the likelihood that the neuron will fire. Inhibitory signals hyperpolarize the cell (increase negative charge) and decrease likelihood that the neuron will fire.
Explain falsifiability and replication/reproducibility.
Falsifiability is the idea that something can be proved wrong. Replication is making your experiment so that others can do it again to check you.
What is IRB board, informed consent, deception, debriefing APA?
IRB - Institutional Review Board and they must review research before any experiment begins. It is made up of 5 people: 1 professor from inside the science at the school, 1 professor outside of the science at the school, 1 must be from the committee, and the other 2 are just random people Informed Consent - tells participants everything they need to know about the experiment such as time duration, expectations, contact info, what will be going on, etc. in case they would like to change their mind about participating. Under Ethical Standard 8 Deception - lies told to the participant in order to prevent a change in behavior or possible bias in the study. Hard to get approval for from board. Under Ethical Standard 8 Debriefing - If using deception, the researchers must send out letters to the participants telling of what had actually happened, the true reason behind the experiment, why they did it, and it gives the option for the participant to possibly opt out. Under Ethical Standard 8 APA - The American Psychological Association Ethical Principles of Psychological Code of Conduct. They create a broad set of guidelines that covers the 3 most common roles of psychologists: research scientists, educators, and practitioners
Why is experimental research the gold standard?
It follows many regulations and has the biggest sample sizes and therefore accuracy; it is the only form of research that allows us to make causation claims.
What is Central nervous system?
It is the brain and spinal cord. It sends and receives messages through neurons to and from the PNS.
What is Milgram Obedience Studies?
It was a study done by Professor Milgram at Yale. He had participants shock actors at increasing intensities in another room every time they got a question wrong. He deceived the participants by saying it was a study looking for a possible relation between pain and memory. The true reason behind the the experiment was seeing if people would cause pain to others just cause someone in authority said to do it. It derived from his experience with the Holocaust, and how nazis would follow whatever their commanders said even if that meant harming the jews. The participant in the experiment experienced inflicted insight after they realized they could cause so much pain to someone just cause someone told them to. UNETHICAL.
Who is John Watson and what did he do?
John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism.
What is the resting membrane potential?
Resting neuron has different electrical charge outside and inside.
Explain the function of neurons (sensory, motor, intraneurons)?
Sensory neurons detect information from the physical world and pass it along to the brain through the spinal cord, i.e. putting your hand on a hot stove. Sensory nerves that receive info from the skin and muscles are somatosensory nerves. Motor neurons tell muscles to contract or relax, leading to movement. Works with sensory neurons to control movement, i.e. writing, motor neurons tell the finger muscles to contract and move while receptors in the skin and muscles use sensory neurons to tell how much pressure to use on the pen. Couldnt find interneuron?
Who is Freud?
Sigmund Freud was a 20th century physician who developed many ideas about personality by observing patients he was treating for psychological disturbances. He believed that unconscious forces determine behavior. Probably the most famous psychologist ever, he developed methods of psychoanalysis and hyponosis in his work.
Who is B.F. Skinner and what did he do?
Skinner was a behaviorist. And he is the one who came up with the idea that free will is an illusion and human action is dependent on consequences of previous actions. If the consequences are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger. Skinner called this the principle of reinforcement.
Explain every school of thought in history of PSY
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Titchener): Identify basic parts or structures of the conscious mind. Functionalism (William James & Charles Darwin): Describe how the conscious mind aids adaptation to an environment. Gestalt (Max Wertheimer & Wolfgang Koehler): Study subjective perceptions as a unified whole. . Humanism (Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers): Investigate how people become happier and more fulfilled; focus on the basic goodness of people. Cognitive Psychology (George Miller Ulric Neisser): Explore internal mental processes that influence behavior.
What is the little Albert study?
Study done by Skinner and Watson. They tried to get a baby to be scared of rabbits/fluffy animals by scaring him with a loud sound every time he pet a rabbit. Soon he would react negatively to rabbits without the presence of the sound.
What split brain studies?
Testing how a split brain patient reacts to different images and explaining his/her actions in relation to commands given to only one side of the brain.
What is the Id?
The "id" exists within the subconscious mind. And it is based on the principal of pleasure. That is, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain.
What is Unusual uses test (UUT)?
The Alternative Uses Test. Designed by J.P. Guilford in 1967, the Alternative Uses Test asks you to think of as many uses as possible for a simple object, like a brick or a shoe or a paperclip. ... Practicing this widely used divergent thinking test will help you develop your ability to think creatively.
What is the ego?
The ego mediates between the id and superego using defense mechanisms reduce anxiety due to conflicts between the id and superego.
Define Action potential/neural firing? And why it is important.
The electrical signal that passes along the axon and responds to other neurons.
What is the difference between Empirical vs. non Empirical articles?
The empirical articles are reliable because they follow a format, present original research, and go through a lot of checking before they get published. Non-empirical are nonoriginal or not presenting data; they can be literature reviews or chapters/textbooks, opinions/editorials.
What is the difference between Left vs. right brain?
The left brain controls the right side of the body and is mainly used for speech/language. The right brain controls the left side of the body and spatial awareness.
Explain the distinction between central and peripheral nervous system (somatic vs. autonomic)
The somatic nervous system is involved in voluntary behavior, such as reaching for an object. They send messages to the CNS through nerves. The CNS sends signals through the CNS to muscles, joints, and skin in order to move. The autonomic nervous system is responsible for non voluntary actions and regulating the body's internal environment, such as your heart beating, through stimulating glands and and maintaining internal organs. Nerves in the ANS also send somatosensory signals from the glands and internal organs to the CNS in order to show fullness or anxiety. The peripheral nervous system sends messages to the CNS, but can also receive messages from the CNS in order to adjust behaviors. The CNS contains the brain and spinal cord and a lot of neurons, The PNS consists of all the other nerves!
What is the superego?
The superego is moralistic and idealistic principles and internalized rules in the Freudian theory.
What are Modern assessment of Behaviorism?
There are still forms of behaviorism supported today, though it doesn't explain everything.
What are receptors?
They are cells that detect stimuli There are many different types e.g. taste and sound receptors
What is psychoanalysis?
This is a method that Freud developed to heal mental illness/disability patients. The therapist and patient work together to bring the contents of the patient's unconscious into his or her conscious awareness. Once the patient's unconscious conflicts are revealed, the therapist helps the patient deal with them constructively.
What are defense mechanisms?
Unconscious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself from distress; includes sublimation, displacement, projection, rationalization, and regression.
What are some benefits of survey research?
You can do it anywhere.
What are the levels of fields of study?
• Neural (brain as cause) • Physiological (internal chemical functions, such as hormones, as cause) • Genetic (genes as a cause) • Evolutionary (natural selection as a cause) • Learning (the individual's prior experience with the environment as a cause) • Cognitive (the individual's knowledge or beliefs as a cause) • Social (the influence of other people as a cause) • Cultural (the culture in which the person develops as a cause) • Developmental (age-related changes as a cause) • Personality (individual somewhat permanent differences among people as a cause)
What are new trends in Psychology?
• Progress in understanding brain chemistry. • Developments in neuroscience. • Advances in decoding the human genome.
What are some benefits of observational research?
• We can observe people/animals. • We can ask them questions. • We can put them in experiments.
