Psych Exam 1
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Created by:
sarahfah11 on January 30, 2012
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99 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Pseudo | Means false psychology not based on scientific testing |
| phrenology | personality traits revealed by shape of skull and bumps on your head |
| palmistry | lines on your hands predict future and reveal personality |
| graphology | personality revealed by your handwriting |
| astrology | position of the stars and planets at birth determine your personality and affect your behavior |
| Barnum effect | tendency to consider personal descriptions accurate if stated in general terms |
| William Wundt | father of psychology |
| William James | wrote 1890 psych textbook |
| Mary Calkins | APA's first female president |
| Sigmund Freud | Austrian physician first study was with hysteria and nervous disorders thought all humans were bad unconscious mind |
| Watson and Skinner | Behaviorists thought psych should only evaluate behaviors(only things a person says, does, or feels) |
| Maslow and Rogers | emphasized effects of environment and need for love and acceptance; humanists believed people were good |
| psychology | scientific study of behavior and mental processes; way of asking and answering questions |
| Goals of Psychology | description of behaviors understanding prediction control |
| description of behaviors | naming and classifying various observable measurable behaviors |
| understanding | the causes of behavior |
| prediction | forecasting behavior accurately |
| control | altering conditions that affect behavior |
| neuroscience | how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences |
| evolutionary | how the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes |
| humanistic | self esteem, self worth |
| biblical | how does creation interact with creator; how does sin? |
| psychodynamic | how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts |
| behavioral | observable behaviors |
| behavior genetics | how genes influence behaviors |
| cognitive | how we encode, process, store and retrieve info; most commonly used |
| social-cultural | how behaviors and thinking very across situations and cultures |
| developmental | study changing abilities from womb to tomb |
| personality | investigate our persistent traits |
| clinical counseling | studies, assesses, treats people with psych disorders, helps cope with academic, voc, and marital challenges |
| educational | studies and helps individuals in school and educational settings |
| industrial/organizational | studies and advises on behavior in the work place |
| clinical psychologist | studies, assesses and treats troubled people with psychotherapy |
| psychiatrist | medical doctors who use treatments like drugs and psychotherapy to treat psychologically diseased patients |
| how do psychologists ask and answer questions | scientific method description correlation experimentation |
| theory | an explanation that integrates principles and organizes and predicts behavior or events |
| hypothesis | a testable prediction often prompted by a theory, to enable us to accept, reject or revise the theory |
| research | requires us to administer tests of self-esteem and depression |
| descriptive methods survey | a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people usually done by questioning a representative, random sample of people |
| wording effects | wording can change the results of a survey |
| random sampling | if each member of a population has an equal chance of inclusion into a sample, it is called a random sample. If the survey sample is biased, its results are not valid |
| naturalistic observation | observing and recording the behavior of animals |
| case study | a technique in which 1 person is studied in depth to reveal underlying behavioral principles |
| correlation | when 1 trait or behavior accompanies another |
| Illusory correlation | the perception of a relationship where no relationship actually exists |
| cause and effect | experimentation is the backbone of psychological research, experiments use experimental control to isolate causes and effects |
| experimental control | allows researchers to study the influence of 1 or 2 independent variables on a dependent variables while holding other influences constant |
| independent variable | factor manipulated by the experimenter effect of independent variable is focus of study |
| dependent variable | a factor that may change in response to an IV in psych it is a behavior or mental process |
| double blind procedure | the patients and the experiementer's assistants remain unaware of who receives the drug or placebo |
| random assignment | randomly assigning between placebo and real drug minimizes pre-existing differences between the two |
| Neurons | billions of interconnected cells |
| dendrites | receive messages |
| axon terminal | sends messages |
| action potential | a brief electrical charge that travels down and axon and is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon's membrane |
| all or none responses | strong stimulus can trigger more neurons to fire, and to fire more often, but it does not affect the action potential speed or strength |
| synapse | junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite of cell body of the receiving neuron. |
| re-uptake | neurotransmitters in the synapse are re absorbed into the sending neuron |
| neurotransmitter | chemicals released sending neuron travel across synapse and bind to receptor on receiving neuron |
| serotonin | pathway is fast acting and involved in mood regulation |
| dopamine | pathway involved with schizophrenia and parkinson's disease |
| nervous system | consists of all nerve cells. Body's speedy, electro-chemical communication system |
| central nervous system | brain and spinal cord |
| peripheral nervous system | sensory and motor neurons that connect the cns to the rest of the body |
| sensory neurons | carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the cns |
| motor neurons | carry outgoing information from the cns to muscles and glands. Interneurons connect the two neurons |
| brainstem | primary part of brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells and enters the skull. it is responsible for autonomic survival functions |
| medulla | base of the brainstem that controls heart beat and breathing |
| thalamus | is the brain's sensory switchboard located on top of the brainstem. It directs messages to the sensory areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla |
| reticular formation | a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal |
| frontal lobe | sense of self, motor control, and higher mental abilities such as reasoning and planning |
| parietal lobe | sensaion such as touch, temperature, and pressure |
| occipital lobe | vision |
| cerebellum | posture, coordination, muscle tone, and memory of skills and habits |
| temporal lobe | hearing and language |
| limbic system | hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and parts of thalamus |
| amygdala | consists of two lima bean-sized neural clusters linked to emotions of fear and anger |
| cerebral cortex | intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemisphere. It is the body's ultimate control and processing center |
| endocrine system | slow chemical communication system. communication is carried out by hormones synthesized by a set of glands |
| hormones | chemicals synthesized by glands that are secreted in the blood stream. hormones affect the brain and other body tissues |
| EEG | an amplified recording of the electrical waves sweeping across the brain's surface, measured by electrodes placed on the scalp |
| PET Scan | a visual display of brain activity that detects a radioactive form of glucose while the brain performs a given task |
| divided brain | our brain has 2 hemispheres. The left processes reading, writing, speaking, mathematics and comprehension skills |
| Characteristics passed on from parents | belief, faith, politics, abilities, intelligence, and health |
| chromosomes | contain dna are are situated in the nucleus of a cell. each cell contains 46 chromosomes. |
| genes | segments within dna that consist of genes that produce proteins to determine out development |
| twins and adoption studies | uses sets of twins to study the effects of heredity and environment |
| temperament | refers to a person's stable emotional reactivity and intensity. identical twins express similar temperaments suggesting heredity predisposes temperament |
| newborn temperaments | easy children difficult children slow-to-warm up children remaining children |
| authoritarian parents | enforce rigid rules and demand strict obedience to authority; children tend to be emotionally stiff and lacking in curiosity |
| overly permissive parents | give little guidance, allow too much freedom, or don't hold children accountable for their actions; children tend to be dependent and immature and frequently misbehave |
| african american families | emphasize loyalty, interdependence, perseverance, respect, and resourcefulness |
| hispanic families | stress family values, pride, loyalty, respect, and cooperation |
| asian-american families | stress group loyalty, interdependence, achievement, respect, and self-discipline |
| arab-american families | emphasize obedience, discipline, success, hospitality, hardwork, and achievement |
| zygote | a fertilized egg with 100 cells that become increasingly diverse |
| fetus | embryo turns into fetus at 9 weeks |
| teratogens | chemicals or viruses that can enter the placenta and harm the developing fetus |
| sensitive periods | a period of increased sensitivity to environmental influences. a time when certain events must occur for normal development to take place |
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