PSYC 101 EXAM 1

• Psychology is the study of thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
• psychological science is the study through research of mind, brain, and behavior
• mind refers to mental activity
• behavior decribes the totality of observable human/animal actions
• psychological science teaches critical thinking
• caring for errors and biases in thinking is important because false beliefs can sometimes lead to dangerous actions
• functionalism is the mind came into existence over the course of human evolution
• 3 primary goals of science is description, prediction, and explanation
• scientific method is an interaction among research, theories, and hypothesis
• step one - find good theory to research
• step two - educate yourself about the theory and research
• step three - form hypothesis
• step 4- design a study
• step 5- conduct study
• step 6 - analyze the data
• step 7 - report results
• good research reflects the cyclical process
• replication = repeating to see if results are similar
• false positive occurs when hypothesis under investigation is false but study produces trustworthy result
• meta-analysis = study of analysis of multiple analyses
• experiments can demonstrate relationship btwn variables
• ethical research is research that is conducted in a way that is fair to participants and respects their rights
• measures of central tendency and variability are used to describe data
• mean is the arithmetic average
• median is middle value
• mode most common value
• human nervous system is divided into 2 basic units: central nervous and peripheral
• central nervous consists of brain and spinal cord
• peripheral consists of all other nerve cells
• all neurons have basic structure
• firing is the communication w/in neurons
• electrocardiograms, PET, MRI, fMRI, and TMS are used to collect data from bodies
• lobes of cortex play specific roles in vision, touch, hearing, and movement
• insula plays big part in pyschological
• plasticity is brain's capacity to change in response to person's environment
• human behavior is influenced by genes
• genes and environmental contexts interact in ways that influence the development of a person's personality