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Psych Exam 1
chap. 1-2
54
Psychology
Undergraduate 1
01/26/2013

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Term
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
Definition
Studied atoms of the mind by conducting experiments at Leipzig, Germany in 1879. Considered the birth of psychology.
Term
Who was Edward Titchener?
Definition
One of Wilhelm's first students, coined the term Structuralism and brought this school of thought to Cornell.
Term
Who is William James?
Definition
American philosopher, suggested the used of Functionalism (study of the function of the mind) instead of structuralism (thinking about your own thinking... problem being that it was not objective)
Term
Who was Sigmund Freud?
Definition
emphsized importance of unconcious mind and its effects on human behavior.
(parallel processing)
Term
Who was Ivan Pavlov?
Definition
discovered classical conditioning, a type of learning based on associations of things with responses (dogs)
Term
Who was John B. Watson?
Definition
studied classical conditioning in humans. said we should only study stuff that can be onserved (overt behavior, no emotions) this idea held back psychology from the 1920's-1960's
Term
Who was B.F. Skinner?
Definition
studied Operant conditioning- how organism operate within their environment (response/consequence)
Term
Who were Maslow and Rogers?
Definition
focused on "the self". emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance.
Term
What is Critical thinking?
Definition
more careful style of forming/evaluating knowledge than just using intuition
Term
What is the hindsight bias?
Definition
looking back on things and thinking you "knew it all along"
Term
What is the overconfidence error?
Definition
might help us lead other people, builds more confidence in followers than accuracy.
Term
What is percieving order?
Definition
helps us make predictions
Term
What is the scientific method?
Definition
Test, observe, analyze, modify ideas.
Term
What are the three scientific attitudes?
Definition
1) Curiosity: always asking new questions
2)Skepticism: not accepting "fact" as true without challenging it.
3)Humility:seeking the truth rather than trying to be right
Term
What is a theory?
Definition
a set of principles built of observations and other verifiable facts that explains some phenominon and predicts its future behavior
Term
What is a hypothesis?
Definition
a testable prediction consistent with a theory.
Term
What is replication?
Definition
trying a test again using the exact same proceedures to see if you get the same result
Term
What is the research process?
Definition
Theories lead to hypothesis, test hypothesis with research and observation
Term
What is a case study?
Definition
Examining one individual in depth. can be a source of ideas about human nature in general
Term
What is a survey?
Definition
a method of gathering info about many people's thought or behaviors through self-report rather than observation. important to have a random sample so every person in a popluation has an equal chance of being in the sample
Term
What is naturalistic observation?
Definition
watching, taking notes, and trying not to change anything.
Term
What is a correlation and a correlation coefficient?
Definition
Correlation: observation that two traits or attributes are related to each other
C.c.- number representing the strength and direction of correlation
Term
what does a correlation tell us about causation?
Definition
correlation never tells about causation
Term
What is the differece between a random sample and random assignment?
Definition
Sample: how you get a pool of research participants that represents the population you're trying to learn about
assignment: randomly assigning participants to control or experimental groups
Term
What is a double blind procedure?
Definition
groups and experimenters dont know who is getting the placebo and who isnt
Term
What is a placebo and the placebo effect?
Definition
placebo: looks exactly like the real thing but has no effect
placebo effect: effects caused by expectations about intervention
Term
What are the experimental and control groups?
Definition
Experimental: group getting the experimental test (dependent variable)
control group: group that gets the placebo (independent variable)
Term
What are mode, mean, median?
Definition
mode: most common level/number/score
mean: avg. (sum divided by total number)
median: middle person's score (50th percentile)
Term
What are range and standard deviation?
Definition
range: difference between highest and lowest
s.d.: calculation of the average distance of scores from the mean
Term
What are the parts of a neuron?
Definition
dendrites, axon, myelin sheath, terminal branches, neurotransmitters
Term
What are dendrites?
Definition
recieve chemical info from other neurons
Term
What is the axon?
Definition
passes messages from cell body to other neurons through terminal branches
Term
what is myelin sheath?
Definition
covers axon (insulates, makes action potential move faster)
Term
what are terminal branches?
Definition
forms junctions with other neurons
Term
what are neurtransmitters?
Definition
chemicals (sodium) released by terminal branches to communicate with other cells
Term
What is an action potential?
Definition
neural impulse that travels down an axon like a wave
Term
Describe the process of neural communication.
Definition
Dendrites recieve chem. messages (neurotranmitters) from other cells, chemicals converted to electrical signal (action potential)which, if it reaches threshold, opens gates in axon that sodium goes into, potassium comes out and continues down axon to terminal branches (synapses) where neurotransmitters are released and caught by other cell's dendrites, then immediately re-uptaken by pre-synaptic membrane (recycled)
Term
What are agonists and antagonists?
Definition
Agonist: mimics neurotransmitter closely enough to activate receptor
antagonist: prevents receptor from being turned on
Term
What are the different types of neurons?
Definition
sensory (senses), motor (movement), interneurons (skin receptors, reflexes)
Term
What are nerves?
Definition
transmits impulses of sensation to the brain or spinal cord
Term
What is a neural net?
Definition
house memories- complex webs of interconnected neurons
Term
What does the somatic nervous system do?
Definition
controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles
Term
What is the autonomic nervous system?
Definition
controls self regulated actions of internal organs and glands

sympathetic n.s: arousal-fight, flight, fright, fuck. (conserves energy)
parasympathetic n.s.- oppostie of sympathetic, engages when calm (uses energy)
Term
What is the endocrine system?
Definition
controls glands, hormones.
Pituitary- master gland, controls all other glands
hypothalamus (in brain) controls pituitary
Thyroid- metabolism
adrenal- fight or flight
pancreas- regultes blood sugar
testies/ovaries
Term
What are some ways to study the brain using machines?
Definition
EEG- electroencephalogram
PET- positron emission tomography
MRI- magnetic resonance imaging
fMRI-functional MRI
Term
What are the parts of the brain stem, what do they do?
Definition
Medulla- major life support- controls breathing, heart rate, blood pressure
Pons- controls movement
Thalamus- major sensory relay area- recieves signals from senses and sends to other parts of brain for interpretation
Reticular formation- arousal- causes brain to feel activated, ready to do stuff
Term
What does the cerebellum do?
Definition
involved with muscle memory (well learned movement)
Term
What are the parts/ functions of parts in limbic system?
Definition
Hippocampus: stores memories
Amygdala- fear/ anger
hypothalamus- controls pituitary gland
Term
What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?
Definition
Frontal- movement, brocha's area (speech)
Parietal-what you feel (hot, cold, pressure)
Occipital- vision
Temporal- hearing (wenicke's area- understanding language)
Term
What is the motor cortex?
Definition
axons send motor signals to body
in frontal cortex
Term
What is the sensory cortex?
Definition
axons send sensory info to cortex (parietal)
Term
What is the association cortex?
Definition
lets us put different info together, integrates info
Term
What is plasticity?
Definition
brain can't repair damaged neurons, but can restore some functions and form new connections/ reassign different networks
Term
What are the differences between the right and left hemispheres?
Definition
Left- thoughts/ logic, details, language, calculation, pieces
Right- feelings/intuition, big picture, language (tone, inflection, context), perceptions, wholes
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