Critical Thinking

Curiosity

Skepticism

Objectivity

Careers in Psychology

(Top 4 in order)

1. Academic

2. Clinical

3. Private Practice

4. Industrial

Western Philosophy (main science; mother or all)

Biology and Physiology

Wilhelm Wundt

William James

Charles Darwin

Structuralsism

1. Who was it?

2. Definition

3. Two Facts about creator

Wilhem Wundt

• German Philosopher
• First Psycology Laboratory (founded basic building blocks or mental activity)

1. Identifies elements or structures of mental process
2. Introspection primary method of investigation
3. started with 5 senses

Functionalism

1. Who was it?

2. One fact about him

3. Definiton

4. Examples

William James

• American Psychologist and Philosopher

1. Identify purposes, or functions, of the mind
2. Why is human thought adaptive?
3. Natural flow of thought, or stream on consciousness
4. Ex. Why act sick? To get out of something? Sympathy?

Evolution and Natural Selection

1. Who was it?

2. One fact about him?

3. Defintion

Biological

Behavioral

Psychodynamic

Humanistic

Cognative

Evolutionary

Sociocultural

Notable Behavioralists (2)

John B. Watson

B.F. Skinner

Psychodynamic Approach

Empahsis on:

• Unconscious (sexual and aggresive) impulses
• Conflict between biological drives and society
• Childhood early family experiences
• Humans are animals
• Conflict of instinct vs. societal

Sigmund Freud

• neurologist
• Jewish

Emphasis on:

• Positive human qualities
• Capacity for positive growth
• Freedom to choose and destiny
• At the core humans are good they are just put into bad situations
• Create a place where humans feel safe and free

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Emphasis on mental processes involved in knowing and thinking 

How we:

Direct Attention

Perceive, remember, think

Solve problems

Use of evolutionary ideas:

Adaptation

Reproduction

Natural Selection

As basis for explaining specific human behaviors

• Ex. Men look for mate who is attractive; women look for resources
• Has to do with survival
• Commin charactersitics in humans

Examination of ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior

Focus on comparisons of behavior across

• Countries
• Ethnic and cultural groups within countries

Choose a varible

Develop a theory

Establish an operational definition

• Objective description of variable
• How will variable be measured

Types of Psycological Research 

(3)

Descriptive research

Correlational research

Experimental research

Describing some phenomemnon, without answering questions of how and why

• Observation
• Surveys and Interviews
• Case Studies

Longitudinal Designs

Obtaining measures of variables of interest in multiple waves over time

• can suggest relationship

Determining whether causual relationship exists between variables

Experiment

Random Assignment

Informed Consent 

Confidentiality

Debriefing

Deception

Characteristics of the Nervous System (4)

1. Complexity- the braina and nervous system are enourmously complex
2. Integration- on average each nerve cell communicates with 10,000 others (instantaneous)
3. Adaptability- Plasticity (brain's capacityfor change)
4. Electrochemical Transmission- is the means of  information-processing in the brain and nervous system

Sensory nerves

Information to brain and spinal chord

Motor nerves

Information out of brain and spinal chord

Contains >99% of all nerve cells in the body

Brain and Spinal Chord

Network of nerves connecting CNS to body

Two Subdivisions

1. Somatic Nervous System (sensory and motor nerves)
2. Autonomic Nervous System

Messages to and from internal organs

Two Subdivisions

1. Sympathetic Nervous System - arousing
2. Parasympathetic Nervous System- calming

allow us to focus our attention on what needs to be done now

Stress Hormones (adrenaline)

Eyes Dilate (see better)

Inhibits flow of Saliva (stops digestion)

Heart (Accelerates)

Dialtes bronchi (more O2)

Inhibits Digestion ( Get blood elsewhere)

Liver releases glycogen (energy)

Inhibits Bladder Contraction (Dont want to worry anout it)

Maintain normal function

Stressful situation ends

Nerve cells

Information Processing

Support

Nutritional Benefits

Stable, Negative charge of inactive neuron

-primarily negative

Brief, positive electrical charge, or firing

Abides by the all-or-nothing principle

• Stored in synaptic vesicles (sacs) within terminal buttons
• Chemical signals which allow electrical impulses to cross synaptic gaps

Acetycholine (ACh)

• Stimulating firing of neurons
• Involves in action of muscles, learning, memory
• Alzheimer disease: ACh deficiency

Gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA)

• Keeps many neurons from firing
• Anxiety: Low levels of GABA

• Inhibits firing of neurons in CNS
• Excites heart muscle, intestines, urogenital tract
• Depression:Too little norepinephrine
• Agitated, panic states: Too much norepinephrine

• Helps to control voluntary movement 
• AAffects sleep, mood, attention, learning, rewards, pleasure
• Parkinsons disease: low levels of dopamine
• Schizophrenia: High levels of dopamine

• Involves in regulation of sleep, mood, attention, and learning
• Depression: Lowered levels of serotonin

• Natural opiates that mainly stimulate firing of neurons
• Sheild body from pain
• Elevate feelings of pleasure
• Athletes

• Hormone and neurotransmitter
• Important role in experience of love and social bonding

• Controls vital functions, such as breathing and heart rate
• Regulates reflexes

• Includes much of hindbrain (but not cerebellum) and midbrain
• Determines alertness
• Regulates basic survival functions

Limbic System

Thalamus

Basal Ganglia

Hypothalamus

Cerebral Cortex

Involved in discrimination of objects necessary for survival

kinda like Homeland Security

• Monitors eating drinking sex and emotion stress and reward
• Helps direct endocrine system
• Regulator of body's internal state
• Involved in pleasurable feelings

Group of fibers that carries stimulation related to sleep and arousal through brain stem

sleep patterns

"Master" gland that regulatesother endocrine glands

sex organs

insulin

• Located at front of parietal lobes
• Processes information about body snesations

• Located just behind frontal lobes
• Processes information about voluntary movement

• Make up 75% of cerebral cortex
• Integrates information

• Large bundle of axons connecting brain's two hemispheres 
• Relays information between two sides

• Recieves information from right side of the body
• Language processing, such as speech and grammer

• Recieves information from left side of the body
• Processing non-verbal information, such as spatial perception, visual recognition, and emotion

Set of glands that regulate activities of certain organs

slower but longer lasting than neurotransmitters

Process of recieving stimulus energies from external environment

raw sensory information

Process of organizing and interpreting sensory information

sensation and interpretation

Information about External environment

Sensory Receptors -> Brain

Making sense of information

Selective

-Cocktail party affect

Shiftable

-Novelty, size, color, movement

Predispostion or readiness to perceive something a particular way (top-down processing)

Reading something one way because you assume you know what it says

Change in responsiveness of sensory system based on average level or surrounding stimulation

*adjusting to cold water in a pool*

Scientific study of ESP

Absence of empirical data for existence of ESP

White, outer part of the eye

Helps maintain shape of eye

Protects eye from injury

Opening in Center of Iris

Size Controlled by muscles in Iris

(like lens of a camera)

Clear membrane just in front of the eye

Cardiax

Transparent, somewhat flexible, disk-like structure

Loses flexibility with age

Mulitlayered, light-sensitive surface at back of the eye

Converts visual stimuli to neural impulses

Sensitive to Light

Not very useful for color vision

Function well under low illumination

Used for color perception

Require more light than rods

Initial acceptors

Tiny area in center of the retina at which vision is best

Contains only cones

PLace on Retina where there are no cones or rods

Where optic nerve leaves eye

red

blue

green

Sensations that remain after stimulus is removed

Not explained by trichromatic theory

Explained by opponent-process theory

School of thought interested in how people naturally organize perception according to certain patterns

Whole is different from sum of its parts

Combined images from two eyes

Disparity

Convergence (eyes converge when looking close up)

Available from image in one eye

Familiar size

Height in field of view

Linear perspectiveand relative size

Overlap

Shading 

Texture Gradient

Collects and Channels Sound

Pinna

Extternal Auditory Canal

Channels Sound to Inner Ear

Eardrum

Hammer, Anvil, and Stirrup

Converts sound into neural impulses

Oval Window

Cochlea

Basilar Membrane -> Hair Cells -> Tectorial Membrane

Each frequency produces vibrations at a particular spot on basilar membrane

But...theory explains high-frequency, not low frequency sounds

Perception of frequency depends on how often auditory nerve fires

But...single neurons have maximum firing rates (1,000/sec)

Modification of frequency theory

Clusters of nerve cells can fire neural impulses in rapid succession 

System based on returning echoes of sounds

Used by bats; humans less accurate

Warm and cold sensory nerve endings, or thermoreceptors

Bumps on surface of tongue

Contain taste buds, receptors for taste

bitter

salty

sweet

sour

Lines roof of nasal cavity

Superhighway to emotion and memory