Psych Semester 1

Organisms, Motivations, Behaviors, Cognition, Competence

Are people born with the ability to change who they are or will that stay the same their entire lives.

Are we bound for success or failure?

Are we inherently good or bad?

Are genetics or your environment the reason you are the way you are?

The idea that knowledge must be found through experience and senses.

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

The examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes (self-reflection).

Structure is more important than function and divided up the mind in to mental parts.

Function is more important than structure and divided up the mind by function.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Focuses on the brain as a whole.

Created the first psych lab in Germany.

“Everything is a penis.” Austrian Neurologist who founded psychoanalysis. Developed the concept of the unconscious

Russian psychologist who studied classical conditioning. Did the dog experiments.

First American psychologist, he established functionalism as a school of thought in psych.

American psychologist who founded Behaviorism

Medical approach to psychology

Behavior is dictated by a drive to survive and pass along our genes.

Nature vs. Nurture

Freud, the unconscious, trauma.

What we do/observable responses.

How we think and memorize.

Surrounding environments and cultures and how they influence us.

Self-Actualization (focuses on the good)

REsearch for future study or to be applied to solve problems, help people make money, etc.

“I knew that” Phenomenon.

Thinking you know more than you do.

Searching for data that only confirms your POV and ignoring the rest.

1. Theory

2. Hypotheses (Testable prediction)

3. Replication (Copy or reproduce)

4. Operational Definitions (Clearly defined variable used to properly replicate an experiment)

One or a few subjects in great depth (Pro: Easy to conduct on small group, Con: Tough to generalize)

Little bits of info from many people (Pro: info from many people, Con: surface level info)

A small percentage of the population

Everyone in the group has an equal chance of being chosen (More accurate in estimating whole population)

We hang around people who agree with us/ share our beliefs, so we overestimate how many people agree with us.

Stalking

(Pos: as x increases, y increases)

(Neg: as x increases, y decreases)(Inverse)

(ill: No actual correlation

How you establish causation. (Pro: Provides evidence, Con: Prone to human error.

Exp:Receives the possible “cause” (the “test” group).

Con: Doesn’t get the possible “cause” (baseline group).

Placebo: Blank or empty factor

Double Blind: The Scientists and participants don’t know who is in which condition.

No group is biased one way or another.

Independent: The manipulated factor

Dependent: The studied factor

Mean: Average

Median: Middle number

Mode: Most common result

Picture

Difference is enough to mean something

Moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity

1. Informed consent: Subjects agree to participate

2. Protection from harm of subjects

3. Ability to stop/leave the study

4. Confidentiality

Dendrite: Receiving fiber

Axon: Transmitting fiber

Soma: Cell body, triggers action

Terminal Branches: allows messages to be sent in different directions

Terminal Buttons: hold synaptic vesicles which hold neurotransmitters

Myelin Sheath: cover on the axon to accelerate speed of neural impulses

Synapse: Space in between neurons

AP: Firing of a neuron

RP: Time it takes for a neuron to reset

The process by which neurotransmitter molecules that have been released at a synapse are reabsorbed by the presynaptic neuron that released them

Acetylcholine(ACH): Muscle contraction and general brain activity

Dopamine: Learning, emotion, attention, movement, and pleasure

Endorphins: Natural Opiates

Serotonin

CNS: Brain and Spinal Cord

PNS: Links the CNS w/ everything else

Controls voluntary movements

Controls “automatic” bodily functions

SNS: Fight or flight

PsNS: Returns us to homeostasis

S: Receive external stimuli and send to CNS

M: Carry info from CNS to body to carry out actions

I: Processing neuron in the CNS

Clusters of neurons working together

Glands and Hormones

Adrenal Gland: Release epinephrine (adrenaline)

Pituitary Gland: “Master Gland” (puberty, hormone release, controlled by thalamus)

Chemical messengers that are released in the bloodstream

Brain wave recording (levels of electrical activity traced)

Radioactive glucose used to create picture

X-rays of the brain

1. Magnets used to make the clearest picture of the brain

2. Multiple MRI’s strung together to make a video

Base of the spine that controls the left-right crossover with many parts:

Medula: “Primal” involuntary actions (breathing, heart rate)

Pons: Bladder control, coordinates movement, and sleep paralysis

Reticular Formation: Wakefulness (injured causes coma)

Egg-shaped structure at the top of brainstem that acts as a sensory switchboard that receives and sorts incoming and outgoing information (except smell)

Lower back of the brain (behind brainstem) coordinates voluntary movement and balance

Core system of memory, emotions, and motivation

Amygdala: Almond shaped on the ends of the Hippocampus, it deals with aggression and fear

Hypothalamus: (Below Thalamus) Monitors/controls hormones (is the autonomic nervous system)

Hippocampus: Deals with memory (processes into long-term)

The surface level of the Brain that contain billion of neuron and glial cells

Vital (Glue) cells that help with neural communication

Large chunk of association areas, it’s responsible for judging, planning, and decision making (“woah tiger” part of the brain)

Areas at sides of head concerned with sensory reception and correlation

Rearmost part of brain concerned with vision

Parts of brain under temple concerned with hearing

In back of the frontal lobe that stretches ear to ear, it has a section designated to each body part (parts are in the opposite side of the body part they’re designated towards)

Majority of the frontal cortex, it’s not designated for one purpose, it’s the part of the brain that thinks

Aphasia: Impaired use of language

Broca’s Area: (Left frontal lobe) Formation of words

Wernicke’s Area: Comprehension (Written and spoken language)

Angular Gyrus: Processing written words into auditory code (rear left parietal lobe)

Left: Deals with right side of body, so deals with the right field of vision (is more active than right side so is easier to study)

Right: Left side of body and left field of vision (Less active, but still crucial)

Band of fibers that connect the two brain hemispheres allowing them to communicate

(Injury to this area can cause epilepsy)

BP: The brain has the ability to reorganize/rewire to some extent

Ngen: Brain does, at a very slow rate, produce new brain cells that can help out

Detecting stimuli and encoding neural signals (feeling/sensing it)

Stimuli/energy must be converted into neural messages so the brain can understand it

Organizing and processing sensations (how we understand them)

BU: Sensory info to the brain and then processed (new sensations)

TD: Preconceived notions in the brain begin processing

At any one time we focus conscious awareness on select stimuli, generally at the expense of other stimuli

(Cocktail Party Effect)

Minimum stimulation needed for detection about 50% of the time

Detection depends on the individual as well as the stimulus

Messages that are below the threshold

Minimum difference needed to detect the difference between two stimuli about 50% of the time

JND= Proportion of the stimulus (a ratio 1/10 = 10/100)

Decreasing sensitivity to a constant stimulus

1. Pulses of electromagnetic energy/waves

2. Determines the hue (color we experience)

3. Height of the wave (high amplitude = more energy = brighter light/colors)

Changing curvature of focus (lack of accommodation can lead to vision problems)

Cornea: Outer covering, protection for the eyeball

Pupil: Opening of the eyeball (the black part)

Iris: Colored muscle in the eye, controls the pupil (how much light enters the eye)

Lens: Focuses light rays onto the retina

Retina: Surface lining of back of the eyeball (light sensitive “screen” where lens focuses light) (receives images upside down)

Optic Nerve: Axons of ganglion cells (one million per)

Blindspot/Optic Disc: Where the optic nerve leaves the eye

Fovea: Area of central focus on the retina (only cones)

1. Transduce light energy

Rods: Black and white, outlines of objects (share bipolar cells)

Cones: Color, detail (may have their own bipolar cells)

2. Rods and Cones then activate Bipolar Cells

3. Bipolar cells activate Ganglion Cells

Some cells in the visual cortex of the brain respond to specific visual features

Primary colors are: red, green, and blue

(Colorblind= dichromatic/monochromatic)

(Men are more often colorblind than women)

Thalamus cells responsible for seeing one of two color (Teeter-Totter of color vision)

Afterimages: See the “opponent” color after looking at a color long enough

1. Molecules of air bumping each other (ripples)

2. Measure of sound energy

3. Loudness

4. Pitch (long waves = low frequency)

What you can see:

Auditory Canal: Passageway into the ear

Eardrum/Tympanic Membrane: Membrane that vibrates

Transmits sound from eardrum to inner ear

Pinston/Ossicles: Consists of 3 delicate bones

Hammer, Anvil, Stirrup (I HAS a piston)

Cochlea: Snail shaped tube with fluid that vibrates

Oval Window: Cochlea’s membrane

1. Stirrup vibrates the oval window

2. Oval window vibrates the fluid in the Cochlea

Basilar Membrane: Runs through the middle of the Cochlea

Hair Cells: Line the Basilar Membrane (bend and transduce sound) (The louder the sound = more hairs bend, and bend further)

Auditory Nerve: Carries info from Cochlea into brain

PT: Different pitch= activity at different places along the basilar membrane (Only explains medium to high pitches)

FT: Basilar membrane vibrates with the same speed as a sound wave (Only explains low to medium pitch)

VP: Combines Place and Frequency Theories

CD: Damage to the outer or middle ear caused by physical damage such as a pebble to the ear (Can be helped via hearing aids which amplify sounds)

SD: Damage to the Cochlea/Hair Cells caused by age and/or prolonged exposure to loud sound (unable to be completely fixed)