Psychology 301 Final
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mallorysargent on December 8, 2011
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171 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Psychoanalytic Perspective | seeks to understand behavior in terms of the interaction between three putative components of the personality. The psychoanalytic perspective was founded by Sigmund Freud who place central importance on psychological conflicts between the components of personality taking place unconsciously. |
| Conscious | akin to what we've called "working memory"; basically the current contents of your conscious awareness. |
| Preconscious | consists of items that are not in your consciousness at the moment but can easily be brought to mind; akin to the idea of "long term memory". |
| Unconscious | contains elements that by definition cannot be brought into conscious awareness due to active processes which keep these contents out of awareness. |
| Id | operates on the pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants to feel good all the time and not feel badly, without regard for anything or anyone else; loosely speaking, "if it feels good, do it." The only concern for the id is that its needs get met to its satisfaction. |
| Ego | operates on the reality principle. The ego understands that the needs and desires of others also have to be met and dealt with. The role of the ego is to meet the id's needs with the bounds of practicality and the consideration of others. |
| Superego | operates on the ideal principle. It is the moral part of us and arises from moral and ethical considerations placed on us by our parents and society; loosely speaking it's our conscience. |
| Ego Defense Mechanisms | used by the ego to reduce the conflict between the id and superego serve a useful protective function, but they usually involve a degree of self-deception and distortion of reality. Ego defense mechanisms are usually learned during early childhood help the ego deal with inner the inner unconscious conflicts between the id and superego. |
| Denial | Ego Defense Mechanism; barring an anxiety provoking external stimulus from awareness |
| Repression | Ego Defense Mechanism; barring an anxiety provoking internal stimulus from awareness |
| Projection | Ego Defense Mechanism; placing unacceptable thoughts or impulses in yourself onto someone else |
| Displacement | Ego Defense Mechanism; taking out impulses on a safer substitute |
| Sumblimiation | Ego Defense Mechanism; channeling unacceptable impulses in a socially acceptable way; Viewed as the only healthy outlet. |
| Reaction Formation; | Ego Defense Mechanism; converting the unacceptable impulse into its opposite |
| Rationalization | Ego Defense Mechanism; supplying a logical or rational excuse for a shortcoming |
| Regresstion | Ego Defense Mechanism; returning to a previous more childish stage of development |
| Oral Stage | (birth to 18 months) the child is focused on the mouth as a way of seeking pleasure because of its requirement for nursing. If the child's weaning is traumatic, in later life any unresolved conflicts may manifest as a preoccupation with oral activities such as smoking, drinking, eating or bite his or her nails or chew pencils and pens. |
| Anal Stage | (18 months to three years) is a time in which pleasure is based on eliminating and retaining bowel movements and gaining control over them. In terms of conflicts during this stage, the end result can be an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control (anal retentive) or they may become messy and disorganized slobs (anal expulsive). |
| Phallic Stage | (ages three to six) the attention witches to the genitals as boys and girls learn that they are differences between the genders and become aware of the similarities and differences between them and their parents. conflicts were suppose to resolve by the child identifying with the same-sex parent instead of competing with them and adopt their gender-appropriate sexual identities. Unresolved conflicts would be expected to possible manifest as adult overindulging or avoidance of sexual activity or a weak or confused sexual identity. |
| Oedipus Complex | stage in which boys develop unconscious sexual desires for their mothers and come to see their fathers as rivals for her attention and affection. He also believed that boys develop a fear that their father will punish them for these feelings, such as by castrating them. |
| Electra Complex | Oedipus Complex for girls toward their fathers. Girls were also thought to develop penis envy over not having male genitalia |
| Latency Stage | (age six to puberty). It's during this time that sexual interest is repressed and children interact and play mostly with their same sex peers, until puberty. |
| Genital Stage | (puberty on) sexual urges are awakened. Through the prior resolution of conflicts learned during the previous stages, Freud said that healthy adolescents are then to direct their sexual urges onto opposite sex peers, with the primary focus of pleasure being the genitals. |
| Critics of Freud | his evidence, his techniques, and even the basic definitions of psychoanalysis. For instance, Freud's case study interviews were an unrepresentative sample, consisting of unmarried upper class women from Vienna, Austria with mental disorders. Additionally, he did not write notes during the interview but after some time, sometimes days, had passed. The definitions of psychoanalysis also are untestable. Conflicts occur in the unconscious mind, but since they are barred from awareness it is, by definition, to know with any certainty the variables which may generate or reduce the conflicts since they would also have to operate on the unconscious level. |
| Behavioristic Perspective | explain the consistent behavior across situations in terms of learned reactions to external stimuli. That cross-situational behavior is seen as guided by learned expectations about the world, especially those about other people. |
| Albert Bandura and reciprocal determinism | there is a three-way interaction between a person, their behavior and their environment. A given person's behavior is both influenced by and is influencing a person's internal factors (their skills, feelings, ideas, genetics) and the environmental situation (other people's skills, feelings, ideas, and behaviors) around them. Each of the three can impact and be impacted by the other. For example, you might hate your job (that's an internal factor of you as a person). You go to work but nobody knows you hate it there. A co-worker you find annoying says something criticizing your performance (that's an environmental situation, an external factor). You argue with the co-worker and loudly say that you don't like them and you hate working there (your behavior). Because of what you said, the consequences of you behavior are that more people criticize your performance (environment) which makes you more angry and dissatisfied (your personal internal factor). And the three way interaction of reciprocal determinism goes on and on. |
| Internal Locus of Control | Individual's sense that what happens in their life is because of their behaviors/selves. Those with an internal locus tend to be achievement oriented. (Not always) |
| External Locus of Control | Individual's sense that what happens in their life is because of external factors. |
| Competencies | Walter Mischel's view on personality was one of cognitive social learning theory; a wide variety of skilled, adaptive behaviors, including both actions and mental activities |
| Encoding Strategies | Walter Mischel's view on personality was one of cognitive social learning theory; the perception and interpretation of events via selective attention and personal constructs which can be thought of as useful concepts through which we view events in the world, guide perceptions and behaviors and filter perceptions, memories, and expectations |
| Expectancies | Walter Mischel's view on personality was one of cognitive social learning theory; thoughts and ideas concerning and predicting the outcomes of environmental events and personal behaviors |
| Subjective Values | Walter Mischel's view on personality was one of cognitive social learning theory; the weighted preferences of our desired or expected outcomes |
| Self-Regulatory Systems | (self-imposed goals and consequences which govern behavior in the absence or in spite of social or situational constraints |
| Walter Mischel's View on Personality | Basically, in any given situation behaviors will be determined by how we each, as an individual, answer the following questions that we put to ourselves: What can I do? How do I see this? What will happen? What is it worth to me? How can I achieve this? place an emphasis on cognitive reasoning in varying situations to explain what is often termed as the consistency paradox in personality research |
| Aggregation Solution | which holds that the apparent inconsistencies of behavior are due to an incomplete determination of the personality traits because of too few testing measurements taken over too little time. |
| Person-Centered Solution | offers that individual people are consistent and the fault lies in the explanations or conceptions of the traits themselves used to describe personality as being too simplistic or incomplete. |
| Interactional Solution | it's not so much that situation determines behavior and personality. Rather, it's that our personality traits influence and determine the sorts of situations we find ourselves in. |
| Reactional Interaction | Given those situations, as individuals we will all react differently to those situations |
| Evocative Interaction | evoke different responses from the elements in our environments |
| Proactive Interaction | choose and construct different further situations to place ourselves in |
| Phenomenological/Humanistic Perspective | emphasizes people's conscious minds and free will determine how they behave. This view was first developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. |
| Postitive Regard | Innate need/drive; the need for love, affection, and respect from other people |
| Self Actualization | Innate need/drive; reaching their full potential and have becoming all that they can be |
| Self Concept | How someone sees themselves |
| Ideal Self | who they'd like to be or feel they ought to be |
| Real Self | who they actually are |
| Self Discrepency | Difference between our self concept and our ideal selves; the greater the self-discrepancy, the greater the risk of psychological and emotional problems |
| Heirarchy of Needs | The basic idea is the lower, more basic needs must be fulfilled before higher needs can be satisfied. At the top level is self-actualization. As those basic needs are met and we meet the needs of the higher levels, personal growth forces us upward in the hierarchy. From lowest to highest the needs are: Physiological needs (basic needs such as air, food, water, warmth and shelter take the highest priority and form the base of the hierarchy), Safety needs (includes physical security as well that of our resources, possessions), Love & Belonging needs (includes friendship, intimacy, sex, family or social community group), Esteem needs (need for respect, self-respect and respect of others), Cognitive needs( need to learn, explore, discover, create, understand of the surrounding world), Aesthetic needs (need for beauty or something aesthetically pleasing to refresh ), and lastly, self actualization. Only after all the needs of the lower levels have been mastered can a person reach self-actualization |
| The Big Five Traits | Through empirical psychometric testing over the years a descriptive model of personality traits has emerged which focuses on five dimensions or factors. Further subtle distinctions of these traits can be made. It's also important to note that the Big Five are considered dimensions (i.e., broad factors) and aren't rated as either being simply present or absent but as a continuum along which people possess more or less of the traits. Also, where there are sub-traits described (like tense and moody), the sub-traits are not necessarily obligatorily linked. |
| Openness | includes having wide interests, and being imaginative and insightful |
| Conscientiousness | Tend to be organized, thorough, and planning |
| Extraversion | encompasses such more specific traits as talkative, energetic, and assertive |
| Agreeableness | includes traits like sympathetic, kind, and affectionate |
| Neuroticism | characterized by traits like tense, moody, and anxious |
| Personality Inventories | The psychometric approach to measuring personality traits is based on personality tests and questionnaires |
| Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) | one of the most frequently used personality tests. However, the MMPI was designed to help identify problems in psychiatric patients. The test results are intended to be used to diagnose and guide treatment planning for patients. However, in some cases, the test (or portions of it) has also been used, and inappropriately so, for job screening and other non-clinical uses, which is controversial and in some cases illegal. However, when the MMPI is administered clinically AND considered along with the patient's background information and clinical interviews to put test results into appropriate context, it can be a powerful tool for psychological assessment and treatment.The current version of the MMPI, the MMPI-2 has 14 scales, 10 which measure psychological traits and 4 which measure the validity of the test (to detect attempts at deception and defensive responses, for instance) and the full version, designed or patients 18 and older, consists of 567 questions. There a re also shorter versions as well a version fro adolescents. |
| Projective Tests | such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Rorschach inkblot test in which the subject responds to vague or ambiguous images, presumably projecting hidden emotions, attitudes and conflicts onto their descriptions of the images. |
| Sensory Thresholds | determined by presenting a series of stimuli, both ascending and descending in intensity from below and above the level of the threshold for that sensory modality. The test subjects are asked if they detected each stimulus after they have been presented. The point of intensity where the likelihood of detecting the stimulus is 50% is called the absolute threshold. Below the threshold the chance of a stimulus being detected is less than a 50-50 random chance. Above the threshold the probability of detecting the stimulus is greater than a 50-50 random chance. |
| Sensory Coding | In all cases if a sensory event doesn't activate the sensory cells, there is no sensation or perception of that event. For example radio waves are electromagnetic radiation, just like light but they are unable to activate the photoreceptors of the retina. If they could, we could see radio or television transmissions as some sort of pattern of colors floating in the air. But they don't, so we can't. Just because we can't detect a sensory stimulus doesnÕt necessarily mean it's not there. It just means that for whatever reason, our sensory cells weren't activated. |
| Transconduction | The sensory event must be converted into an electrochemical nerve impulse for it to be processed by the nervous system.; Conversion of other forms of energy into an electrochemical nerve impulse. done for each sensory modality by specialized sensory cells. |
| Photoreceptors | Specialized sensory cells for vision found in the retina of the eye |
| Hair Cells | Specialized sensory cells for hearing found in the cochlea of the inner ear |
| Pacinian, Ruffini's and Meissner's corpuscles, Merkel's disks and free nerve endings | Specialized sensory cells found in the skin; The three forms of corpuscles and Merkel's provide varying forms of information about pressure, stretch, vibration, and pain. Free nerve endings provide the sense of heat and cold. |
| The Nature of Light | electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the eye. Wavelenghts from 400 to 700 nanometers. Violet is 400-450 while red is 610-700. Ultraviolet light has shorter wavelengths than violet and Infrared has longer wavelengths than red. When we see and object, we are seeing light coming from it. |
| The Eyes | Our visual organs. |
| Sclera | The white, tough outer wall of the eye. Along with the pressure of the eyes' internal fluid (the vitreous humor) , it keeps the eyes' shape and protects its internal delicate structures |
| Cornea | A clear, rounded surface made of a transparent protein sheet that covers the front of the eye. It is the first and most powerful lens in the eye's optical system. To ensure its transparency the cornea is without blood vessels. It is nourished by the tears over it and fluid called the aqueous humor in a chamber behind it.. The cornea can be damaged by accidents, infections, and genetic defects and in these cases the person can receive a corneal transplant. |
| Iris | Colored part of the eye. It is a ring of muscle fibers located behind the cornea and in front of the lens. It contracts and expands, opening and closing the pupil, in response to the brightness of surrounding light. |
| Pupil | The (apparently) black hole in the center of the iris that light passes through. |
| Lens | Kind of like the adjustable lens in a camera. However, it is not made of glass. Like the cornea it is also a transparent protein structure. Positioned just behind the cornea, it is responsible for keeping images in focus on the retina. It is adjustable for distance and close work. |
| Ciliary Muscles | Relax to flatten the lens for distance vision and contract, rounding out the lens, for near vision. As we age, the ciliary muscles and the lens lose their elasticity and as such the ciliary isn't as good at adjusting the lens for near vision. This is why most people need reading glasses by their 40's. |
| Aqueous Humor | A water-like fluid that fills the front of the eye between the lens and cornea and provides the cornea and lens with oxygen and nutrients |
| Vitreous Humor | a jelly-like liquid that fills of the eye, from the lens to the retina As we age it changes from a gel to a liquid and gradually shrinks separating from the retina. This is when most people start seeing floaters, dark specks floating in their in their field of vision. However, people of all ages can see them. They are usually nothing to worry about. They are just occasional cells that slough off from the inner surface of the eye. However in the cases of some eye injuries or degenerative diseases the incidence of floaters will increase. |
| Retina | The layered sheet-like structure lining the back of the eye. It converts light into electrochemical nerve impulses and sends them to the brain through the optic nerve. The lateral sides of the retina are responsible for our peripheral vision. |
| Fovea | Center area of the retina; used for our fine central detailed vision and color vision |
| Photoreceptors | At the very back of the retina; the sensory cells which do the transduction of light into electrochemical nerve impulses. |
| Cone Cells | Give us our fine detail color daytime vision. There are 6 million of them in each human eye. Most of them are located in the fovea area. There are three types of cone cells: one sensitive to red light, another to green light, and the third sensitive to blue light. They require bright light to activate their frequency specific photopigments. |
| Rod Cells | About 500 times more sensitive to light then cone cells. They give us our dim light or night vision (largely black and white/grayscale vision with a tinge of purplish-blue response) and they are also more sensitive to motion then cone cells. There are 120 million rod cells in the human eye, most located in our peripheral or side vision. During bright light all their especially sensitive photopigments are essentially bleached out and are unable to function. |
| Dark Adaptation | A period of time in which the rod cell pigments are regenerated and dim-light vision returns. |
| Bipolar Cells | Sitting in front of the photoreceptor layer; receive the initial input from the photoreceptors and begin the process of processing the visual signal and pass the information to the first true axon-possessing nerve cells in the retina the ganglion cells. |
| Horizontal Cells | Link adjacent bipolar cells close to where the bipolars make contact with the photoreceptors |
| Amacrine Cells | Link adjacent bipolar cells where the bipolars and retinal ganglion cells make contact. There are about 1 million ganglion cells in the eye. |
| Ganglion Cells | The front-most cell in the retina. They compare signals from many different photoreceptors. His comparison across many other photoreceptors is possible because of the horizontal and amacrine cells. But even though they may compare the input from many photoreceptors, in the fovea area the ratio of photoreceptor cell to bipolar cell to ganglion cell is 1:1:1. In the sides of the retina, each ganglion cell will be responsible for the inputs from many photoreceptors. |
| Optic Nerve | Formed by the axons of the ganglion cells coming together; has about 1.2 million nerve fibers, connecting the eye to the brain |
| Optic Disk | Also called the blind spot; the spot on the retina where the optic nerve leaves the eye. There are no sensory cells here, hence creating a blind spot. The brain fills in the missing information by a process of approximation and by comparing what sort of stimuli surrounded the blind spot and "filling in" the missing information |
| Optic Chiasm | Where the optic nerve enters the brain. Each eye takes a slightly different picture of the world. At the optic chiasm each picture is divided in half. The outer left and right halves continue back toward the visual cortex. The inner left and right halves cross over to the other side of the brain then continue back toward the visual cortex. In this way, the left side of the external visual world is processed entirely by the right side of the brain and the right side of the external visual world is processed entirely by the left side of the brain. |
| Optic Tract | As it enters the brain, the optic nerve is now known as this; connects the optic chiasm to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus |
| Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) | Acts as a relay station doing only preliminary decoding visual information from the optic tract before sending it to the visual cortex for final processing. |
| Optic Tectum | Some inputs are sent to the optic tectum (in particular the superior colliculus) to help in guiding eye movements and tracking moving objects with the eyes. |
| Visual Cortex | Takes up most of the occipital lobe of the brain and processes and combines visual information and converts it into sight. There are several levels of visual cortex each which different jobs. |
| Primary visual cortex (V1) | Does the most basic and general processing of the visual world, each column of cells responsible for a small "pixel"-like element of the visual scene. Damage to the primary visual cortex results in a condition called cortical blindness. |
| V2 | Responsible for complex patterns generated from the simpler patterns processed by V1. |
| V3 | Does some more detailed processing of color than V1 and also processes movement. |
| V4 | Also process color and form such as geometric shapes (think of "form" as even more complex patterns than V2). |
| V5 | involved in the processing of form and motion |
| Dorsal Stream | The summed activity of Vs 1-5 are further processed there; Extends from the occipital lobe to the parietal and allows us to understand where objects are in space or where they are in relation to where our bodies in space. |
| Ventral Stream | The activity of visual cortex is also sent to there which extends from the occipital lobe along the lower (i.e., inferior) parts of the temporal lobe. The ventral stream is involved in determining what an object is. Here specific faces, hands and specific objects are represented |
| Audition | The sense of hearing; Two parts: The behavior of the mechanical apparatus and the neurological processing of the information acquired. The mechanics of the outer, middle and inner ears are straightforward and well understood, but the processes the brain uses to interpret sounds is still a matter of dispute among researchers. |
| Outer Ear | Consists of the external ear, called the pinna or auricle, and the ear canal, structures which serve to protect the more delicate parts inside. However, the shape of the auricle does help concentrate and funnel sound into the ear canal which provides some small amplification of sound. |
| Eardrum | The outer boundary of the middle ear (which essentially a hollow chamber); a thin membrane which vibrates because of sound vibrations entering the ear canal. The eardrum's vibrations are transferred across the middle ear via three small bones named the hammer, anvil, and stirrup (also called the malleus, incus and stapes, respectively). These bones are supported by small muscles which normally allow free movement but can tense up and reduce their movement when sounds are extremely loud. The ear drum's vibrations are very efficiently transmitted. |
| Eustachian tube | Connects from the chamber of the middle ear to the back of the pharynx, (throat). |
| Oval Window | Boudary of the inner eara thin membrane structure of the coiled structure called the cochlea, which is contact with the stirrup. The snail shell-like cochlea also contains several tubes which wind in various ways within the skull. |
| Semicircular Canals | Tubes which wind in various ways within the skull; contribute to our senses of balance and motion in space. They contain fluid that spins when we are in motion. The fluid displaces small stone like crystals called otoliths. When the stirrup transfers the sound vibrations to the oval window, the vibrations are then transferred to the fluid which fills the cochlea which is divided in two the long way by the basilar membrane. |
| Basilar Membrane | Supported by the sides of the cochlea but is not tightly stretched. Sound vibrations introduced into the cochlear fluid flex the basilar membrane and sets up traveling waves along its length. The basilar membrane is tapered in such a way the vibrations in the fluid set up traveling waves in the membrane that are not of even height along the entire distance of the membrane, but grow in height to a certain point and then quickly fade out. The point of maximum height depends on the frequency of the sound wave and the tapered thickness on the membrane. |
| Hair Cells | Tiny structures that cover the basilar membrane.; (the sensory cell for the sense of hearing), look like little bulb-like structures with bristly hair-like projections coming from them. The base of the hair cells connected to a bundle of nerves. Motion of the basilar membrane bends the hairs which in turn excite the associated nerve fibers. These fibers will come together to form the auditory nerve which will carry the sound information to the brain. The location of the hair cells along the basilar membrane is associated is highly correlated with the frequency (pitch) of the sound. A complex sound will produce a series of active areas along the basilar membrane that accurately matches the complex frequencies of the sound. |
| Cochlear Nucleus | The first relay of the auditory nerve after it enters the spinal cord. |
| Gustation | Sense of taste; Scientists generally refer to four basic classifications for taste: salty, sweet, bitter and sour. However, researchers in Japan have identified a fifth taste classification called umami, which translates as "savory" or "meaty" and is sensitive to the amino acids found in proteins, especially the amino acid glutamate |
| Papillae | Small projections containing the taste buds; Where the sensory cells are found |
| Gustation Process | These nerves synapse in the gustatory nucleus in the dorsal medulla. Neurons from the gustatory nucleus synapse upon neurons in the ventral posterior medial nucleus (VPM) of the thalamus. From there, the VPM sends sensory information to the primary gustatory cortex in the ventral parietal lobe |
| Olfaction | Sense of smell; Olfactory cues seem to be especially important for learning and memory, which may be a reflection of the olfactory system's closeness, literally and figuratively to the hippocampus. There are direct projections from the primary olfactory cortex to the hippocampus. |
| Olfactory Epithelium | The olfactory system originates in the nasal cavity's olfactory epithelium which contains three main cell types: the olfactory receptor cells, supporting cells and basal cells |
| Olfactory Receptor Cells | Are neurons, and send axons directly (not via the thalamus) to the olfactory bulb in the central nervous system; send cilia-like dendrites up to the mucus layer. Chemicals in the air (odorants) become dissolved in the mucus lining the nasal cavity where these chemicals bind to the surface of the dendrites and activate the olfactory receptor cells. |
| Supporing Cells | Do not participate directly in sensory transduction, but do produce mucus |
| Basal Cells | the source of new olfactory receptor cells, which grow, die and regenerate over a period of 4 - 8 weeks. |
| Dermis | Bottom layer of our skin in which the sense of touch originates. is filled with the various sensory cells we talked about earlier (Pacinian corpuscles and the others) which activate nerve fibers which carry the information to the spinal cord, which sends messages to the brain where the sensation is registered. Some areas of the body are more sensitive than others because they have more nerve endings per area of skin than other areas. |
| Dorsal Root Ganglions | When these nerve endings are activated by their sensory cells, they activate their cell bodies which are in the dorsal root ganglions of the nerves exiting the spinal cord. These dorsal root ganglion cells project into the CNS contacting neurons in either the grey matter of the spinal cord or brainstem. These neurons project in turn to the ventro-posterior nucleus (VPN) of the thalamus which in turn projects to the primary somatosensory cortex |
| Pain | Its technical name is nociception which means the perception of damage or injury. There are specialized fibers to carry only pain information. They are called Ad fibers and C fibers. They differ in size and speed of transmission. |
| Ad Fibers | Myelinated (fast conduction velocity) and carry sharp intense pain like a burn or a needle poke. |
| C Fibers | Unmyelinated (slow conduction velocity) and carry duller, throbbing pain. |
| Aa and Ab Fibers | carry other somatosensory modalities but when they fire intensely enough, their signals can also be interpreted as painful. |
| Histamine and Prostaglandin | Chemicals which produce inflammation released when injured tissue is damaged. These chemicals sensitize nerve ending and lower their threshold to fire. This is why an injury is often especially sensitive to even the slightest touch or sensory disturbance. These chemicals have made it far easier for stimuli to cause pain fibers to fire when they normally would not have. |
| Agonists | Drugs that facilitate neruotransmitter activity |
| Antagonists | Drugs that impair neurotransmitter activity. |
| Acetylcholine (ACh) | Dhemically known as a biogenic amine and is the single transmitter that depends on enzymatic degradation (done by acetylcholinesterase) in the synaptic cleft to terminate its signal. It is found in the brain, the parasympathetic nervous system as well as the nerve-muscle junction. It has important roles in regulating the processing of sensory information learning, memory and wakefulness. |
| Dopamine (DA) | A biogenic amine, but is further subcategorized chemically as a catecholamine. It is important in controlling voluntary motor movements, attention, behavioral control, reward, pleasure, learning, memory and hormonal responses. |
| Norepinephrine (NE) | A biogenic amine and catecholamine and is important in attention and arousal, mood, and wakefulness. |
| Serotonin (5HT) | A biogenic amine but it is not a catecholamine. It is an indolamine. It plays roles in mood, aggression, wakefulness, feeding, sexual desire, attention, body temperature and blood pressure. |
| Glutamate (GLU) | An amino acid and is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain. As such glutamate is, at some level, involved in every brain function. It is especially important in learning and memory, specifically, and in any long-term synaptic signaling changes in the brain, in general. |
| GABA | Also an amino acid but it is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain and because of that, it also is at some level involved in almost every brain function, but it is especially important in regulating learning and memory and fear or anxiety. |
| Basal Forebrain | The chief source of the brain's ACh particularly for the cortex and limbic system structures like the hippocampus and amygdala. However, the BF is not one structure but a small group of related structures that work together to produce and distribute ACh. Those structures include the nucleus basalis, the medial septum, the diagonal band of Broca and the substantia innominata (Latin for the unnamed substance). |
| Substantia Nigra | One of two main sources for the Forebrain's DA. Delivers its DA exclusively to the motor system, most notably the Basal Ganglia. got its name because, as an individual grows older, it accumulates a dark pigment that gradually changes its appearance to black. |
| Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) | One of two main sources for the Forebrain's DA. exclusively provides its DA to the limbic system and cortex, especially the prefrontal cortex. |
| Locus Ceruleus | Latin for the blue spot; is the brain's (as well as the spinal cord's) source for NE and is part of the reticular activating system involved in arousal and attending to novel stimuli or sudden changes in the environment. |
| Dorsal Raphe | Raphe is Latin for seam; is the brain's main source of 5HT and is also part of the reticular activating system and as such is also involved in arousal, novelty and motivation. |
| Alzheimer's disease (AD) | Attacks brain regions that are involved memory, reasoning and language. Estimates are that as many as 5 million Americans suffer from AD. The disease usually begins after age 60. Plaques and tangles in the brain are now considered the definitive signs of AD |
| Dementia | The loss of mental functions such as reasoning, memory, attention and behavioral control. |
| Schizophrenia | Disorder characterized by disturbances of thought, attention, perception, and emotion accompanied by motor impairments and a withdrawal from reality that are severe enough to substantially impair ability to function normally and take care of one's self. results consistent with brain damage and DA overactivity (particularly from the VTA). Much larger ventricles; Also, long-term use of drugs which stimulate DA release and slow down its reuptake, like amphetamine and cocaine, can induce a schizophrenic-like psychosis that is virtually indistinguishable from schizophrenia. Heritable but also infulenced by external/environmental factors. |
| Parkinson's Disease | Results from of the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells in the SN. Symptoms of PD are tremor (trembling in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face), rigidity (stiffness of the limbs and torso), bradykinesia (slowness of movement) and postural instability (impaired balance and coordination). Early symptoms occur gradually but when the compensatory mechanisms are no longer able to make up for the loss of SN cells the symptoms of PD begin to appear. There is no cure but some medications provide relief of symptoms. (levodopa combined with carbidopa) |
| Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) | Results in persistent, upsetting thoughts (obsessions) in people who use rituals (compulsions) to reduce the anxiety these thoughts produce. PET scans show that the activity in brain regions involved in OCD return toward normal in those who improve after taking a serotonin medication or receiving cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy. |
| Tourette's Syndrome | a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. Tics can be either simple or complex; simple= sudden, brief, repetitive movements or repetitive throat-clearing, sniffing, or grunting sounds. complex= distinct, coordinated movements such as facial grimacing combined with a head twist and a shoulder shrug or words or phrases. Tics are also often worse with excitement or anxiety and better during calm, focused activities. Complex inheritive pattern. |
| coprolalia | Uttering swear words |
| echolalia | Repeating words or phrases of others |
| Depression | A multi-faceted disorder; studies of depression indicated that there were low levels of metabolites of the monoamines (DA, NE, 5HT) present in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients which led to the development of antidepressant medications. they do not increase the release of the transmitters they affect. They only increase available transmitter levels by blocking reuptake or in the case of MAOIs, preventing their degradation by MAO. electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is sometimes as a last resort. |
| Epilepsy | General term used for a group of disorders that cause disturbances in electrical signaling in the brain. Glutamate plays a key role. |
| Anxiety | Seem to reflect in some way a misappropriation of LTP, but the culprit may be an under active GABA system, particularly in the limbic areas involved in emotion and especially in the amygdala. Chemical or electrical stimulation of the amygdala has been shown to trigger fear and anxiety. It is thought that under normal conditions natural benzodiazepine-like compounds in the brain help to reduce the sensations and expressions of fear by increasing GABA activity in places like the amygdala. However, if GABA activity is under active in the amygdala and other limbic structures, the belief is that LTP may occur and strengthen the feelings of general fear, anxiety in dread in anxiety disorders such generalized anxiety disorder or panic attacks. In the case of phobias it's thought that the under active GABA system may lead to inadvertent LTP to form an unwarranted or unnecessary fear association to an object, person, place or event. |
| Genetic sexual differentiation | The most basic and molecular way of differentiating between the sexes is at the level of the sex chromosomes, the X and the Y. (The 23rd pair) Y chrom. determines "maleness" |
| Gonadal tissue | The same tissue in the developing embryo becomes either male gonads (testes) or female gonads (ovaries). |
| Internal Sex Organs | each embryo has both male and female internal sexual organs but during development one system develops and the other system deteriorates and disappears. The male system is the Wolffian system which consists of epididymis, vas deferens, and seminal vesicles. The female system is the Mullerian system which consists of the uterus, fallopian tubes, and inner one third of the vaginal canal. |
| Secondary Sex Traits | body hair, breast development, muscle mass, fat deposition, that proceed later in life during puberty. |
| Sex Hormones | Are steroid hormones and are structurally related to other steroid hormones produced by the body. Testes are the main source of the primary male sex hormone, testosterone and the ovaries are main source for the primary female sex hormone, estrogen. |
| testes determining factor (TDF) | Causes the primordial gonad, the undifferentiated gonadal tissue, to become testes. Without TDF, the gonad would have become ovaries by default. |
| Mullerian inhibiting factor (MIF) | Actively causes the Mullerian system to deteriorate. |
| alpha-fetoprotein | Estrogen binding protein which captures any estrogens it comes in contact with. Testosterone is unaffected by alpha-fetoprotein. It enters the brain cells and is converted into estradiol within the neurons. As far as the body is concerned simple sexual differentiation is basically complete at this point. The secondary sex characteristics will be finalized during the sex hormone surges during puberty. |
| Klinefelter's syndrome | the individual is an XXY male (sometimes called 47-XXY). As children, Klinefelter's males may have reduced muscle strength, but they grow they catch up though they may have reduced muscular coordination. As they mature past puberty and into adulthood, they are often taller than average, but often thin, less muscular sometimes show breast development and are infertile. While they may seem to have slightly below normal intelligence this is likely due to an increased rate of language problems (both generating and processing language as well as reading problems) which make testing more difficult. |
| Turner's Syndrome | The individual has only one sex chromosome, an X and since there is no Y chromosome the individual is a female. Turner's women tend to be shorter than average and are usually infertile because of a lack of ovary function. These individuals also often have extra skin on the neck (webbed neck), a broad chest with widely spaced nipples, puffiness/swelling of the hands and feet, skeletal abnormalities, heart defects and kidney problems. They are of normal intelligence with good verbal skills and reading skills; however, many have problems with math, memory skills and fine-skilled finger movements. |
| Androgen Insensitivity syndrome | (AIS; sometimes referred to by the older term, testicular feminization) refers to a condition where a genetic XY male develops phenotypically (mostly) as a female due to inoperative testosterone receptors. However, the Y chromosome led to the development of testes which produce testosterone and MIF. While the body tissues do not respond to testosterone and develop as female by default, the MIF causes the Mullerian system to deteriorate and these individuals have no uterus, fallopian tubes and deepest third of the vaginal canal. Hence these individuals, while appearing externally to be normal females will be infertile. This disorder is typically not apparent until puberty because of a lack of menstruation and underarm and pubic hair. |
| 5-alpha-reductase deficiency | very rare condition (only reported in isolated populations in the Dominican Republic, New Guinea and Turkey) of genetic XY males with a poorly functioning enzyme which converts testosterone into the far more potent DHT. Individuals are often born with external genitals that look female and are raised as females. However, the massive surge of testosterone at puberty then triggers the final masculinization of the external genitalia and the descent of the testes. Hence, the common name given to the condition in the Dominican Republic, heuvodoces, which is Spanish for "eggs at twelve." These individuals are typically infertile and may need surgery to relocate the urethra. |
| Neuronal Survival | Before birth the brain has more neurons than it will have after birth. The survival of neurons is determined by their activity. It literally is a case of "use it or lose it." Neurons that make enough functional connections with other neurons are provided with growth factors, hormones that are trophic (sustaining health and vitality), by their target neurons. Neurons that do not make enough functional connections with other neurons go through a programmed cell death process called apoptosis. |
| stage theory of childhood cognitive development | Jean Piaget (1896-1980); children were not really learning like little adults. His conceptual breakthrough came while he was working for Binet and Simon on the development and refinement of intelligence testing. While grading them he noticed that young children consistently gave wrong answers to certain types of questions. They kept making kept making the same pattern of mistakes that were different than those of older children and those of adults. Piaget outlined several principles for building cognitive structures. During all developmental stages, the child experiences his or her environment using whatever mental constructs he or she has developed. If the experience is a familiar one or similar to a previous experience, it fits easily (is assimilated) into the child's cognitive framework without changing it. If the experience is different or new, the child alters his or her cognitive structural framework to accommodate the new information. This way, the child constructs more and more complex and accurate cognitive structures to explain and organize their experience of the world around them. |
| Sensorimotor stage | Piaget's Theory: (birth - 2 years old): The child interactions with the world and builds a set of concepts about it and how it works. This is the stage where a child does not know that physical objects remain in existence even when out of sight (object permanence). |
| Preoperational stage | Piaget's Theory: (ages 2-7): The child is not yet able to think abstractly and needs concrete examples and physical situations. The child also has difficulty taking the view point of others. Usually fails at conservation (the realization that the core properties objects or sets of objects stay the same even when they are superficially changed about or made to appear different). |
| Concrete operations | Piaget's Theory: (ages 7-11): As their experience grows, the child starts to conceptualize, creating logical structures that explain his or her world more completely. Conservation appears. Abstract problem solving is now possible at this stage. |
| Formal operations | Piaget's Theory: (beginning at age 11 and up): By this point, the child's cognitive structures are like those of an adult and include advanced conceptual reasoning. Abstract thinking is commonplace. |
| Temperment | The emotional traits that organize the child's view of the world. They are critical in the development of the child's personality. These traits also determine how the child goes about learning about the world around him. Temperament appears to be relatively stable from birth. While temperament is stable during childhood, especially the first five years of life, temperament changes do occur by adulthood. |
| Attachment | The ability to form emotional bondsSocial behaviors indicate the human need for attachment in the development of the the normal personality. |
| Protest | The first emotional reaction an infant goes through when separated from its mother. The infant cries and refuses to be consoled by others. |
| Despair | The second emotional reaction an infant goes through when separated from its mother. The infant is sad and unresponsive |
| Detachment | The third emotional reaction an infant goes through when separated from its mother. The infant intentionally disregards and avoids the parent if the parent returns |
| Sensitive Responding | By the parents to the infant's needs results in an infant who demonstrates secure attachment by the infant to the parents, which is usually demonstrated by the child's efforts to draw close to the parents or contact or at least greet the parent at a distance with a smile or wave. A lack of sensitive responding results in an insecure attachment by the infant. |
| Insecure attachment | There seems to be a split into two varieties, termed avoidant (in which the child avoids or ignores the parent) and resistant/ambivalent (in which the child either passively or actively show hostility toward the parent). The attachment style is often assessed in the procedure called the strange situation: |
| Strange Situation | 1. Parent and child are introduced to the toy-filled room. Parent does not participate while the child explores. 2. Stranger enters, converses with the parent, then approaches the child 3. First separation episode: The parent leaves inconspicuously. Stranger's behavior is geared toward the child. 4. First reunion episode: The parent greets and comforts child while the stranger leaves inconspicuously. 5. Second separation episode: The parent leaves again. The child is alone. 6. Continuation of second separation episode: Stranger enters and gears behavior towards the child. 7. Second reunion episode: The parent enters, greets child; stranger leaves inconspicuously. As assessed by this procedure 60-65% of American children are securely attached, approximately 20% are avoidant (~20%) and approximately 10% are resistant/ambivalent. However, a new category called disorganized (10-15% of children) has been proposed which includes children many of whom were mistreated and often had parents in psychiatric treatment. These children seem to lack any coherent or consistent coping style due to the erratic parenting they've received. |
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