Final Exam

• Dorothea Dix


  A reformer and pioneer in the movement to treat the insane as mentally ill, beginning in the 1820's, she was responsible for improving conditions in jails, poorhouses and insane asylums throughout the U.S. and Canada. She succeeded in persuading many states to assume responsibility for the care of the mentally ill. She served as the Superintendant of Nurses for the Union Army during the Civil War.
• Major psychological approaches


  Behavioral, Biological, Cognitive, Evolutionary, Humanistic, Pyschcodynamic, Social-cultural
• Behavioral approach


  Explore human thought and behavior through conditioning
• Biological approach


  an approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system, and the effect genes have on how we behave and act
• Cognitive approach


  An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.
• Evolutionary approach


  An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.
• Humanistic approach


  An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
• psychodynamic approach


  an approach that regards personality as formed by needs, strivings, and desires largely operating outside of awareness (Unconscious mind)-motives that can also produce emotional disorders
• Social-Cultural approach


  how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
• Nature vs Nurture


  Do genes (nature) or environmental factors (nurture) contribute more to a person's being?
• Random assignment/Random selection


  random assignment ensures that each participant has an equal chance of being placed into either the control or experimental group; random selection is randomly selecting a sample of participants for the study
• Normal Curve


  the symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many physical and psychological attributes. Most scores fall near the average, and fewer and fewer scores lie near the extremes, 34, 13.6, 2.1, 0.1
• Skewed distributions


  When the spread of data is not symmetrical meaning the data clusters to one end, right heavy, left skew, and vice versa.
• operational definitions


  a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study
• reliability v. validity


  consistency; accuracy
• mode/mean/range


  mode= mode common number in a data set

  mean= add all the data, divide by amount of data in data set
• generalizability


  a measure of how useful the results of a study are for a broader group of people or situations
• independent v. dependent variables

  independent variable- the experimental factor that is manipulated; the variable whose effect is being studied.

  
  

  dependent variable- the outcome factor; the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable.
• correlations


  observed associations between two variables
• standard deviation


  a measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean
• Plasticity


  The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience
• Important neurotransmitter


  Adrenaline, GABA, Noradrenaline, Acetycholine, Dopamine, Glutamate, Serotonin, Endorphins
• Adrenaline


  a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, increasing rates of blood circulation, breathing, and carbohydrate metabolism and preparing muscles for exertion.
• GABA


  High levels of GABA=High focus, Low levels equal anxiety
• Noradrenaline


  -concentration neurotransmitter

  -affects attention and responding actions in the brain, and involved in fight or flight response. contracts blood vessels, increasing blood flow
• Acetylcholine


  A neurotransmitter that enables learning and memory and also triggers muscle contraction
• Dopamine


  A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention and learning and the brain's pleasure and reward system.
• Glutamate


  A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory and learning
• Serotonin


  Affects mood, hunger, sleep and arousal. Undersupply linked to depression.
• Endorphins


  natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure; Euphoria
• Broca's v. Wernicke's area

  Controls Language and Speech

  
  

  Brocas: hearing and interpreting speech

  
  

  Wernickes's: writing and speaking
• Parts and functions of the Brain

  Hypothalamus= Is responsible for hormone reproduction and homeostasis

  
  

  Thalamus= Is responsible for our basic motor functions and help.

  
  

  Midbrain= the midbrain controls the eyes and ears

  
  

  Cerebellum=Balance and movement

  
  

  Cerebrum=Motor and voluntary actions

  
  

  Pons= autonomic functions (sleep, breathing etc.)

  
  

  Corpus Callosum= links both cerebral hemispheres to allow communication
• parts of neuron and functions

  -dendrites and axons

  -Dendrites carry impulses from other neurons TOWARD the body cell

  -The axon transmits the impulse into synapses, which transmit AWAY from the body cell

  -Myelin Sheath is fatty tissue surrounding the axon that makes the impulses go faster

  -Cell body in the middle of it all
• parts and functions of the nervous system

  Central Nervous System: Spine and Brain

  Peripheral nervous system:

  Sensory Nerves- Carry signals from your body parts to the brain

  Motor Nerves- Carry commands from the brain to body parts

  Autonomic commands- These nerves control all the automatic organ functions
• drug categories and effects on the nervous system

  Depressants; Slows down the body and brain

  Stimulants; Speeds up the body and brain

  Hallucinogenics; Change how to body perceives things
• Sleep stages


  relaxed stage (alpha waves)

  NREM 1 (early sleep) (hallucinations)

  NREM 2 (sleep spindles - bursts of activity) (sleep talk) light sleep

  NREM 3 (delta waves) (sleepwalk/talk + wet the bed) deep sleep

  REM (sensory-rich dreams) (paradoxical sleep)
• Parts and functions of the eye

  cornea: windshield of eye; light passes through

  pupil: opening can be dilated or constricted

  iris: network of muscles that control pupil movement

  lense: refracts light (upside down & inverted)

  Retina; Image plate

  Optic nerve; carries info to brain
• Parts and function of the ear

  External auditory canal; Connects the outer ear to the middle ear

  Tympanic membrane; Ear drum; Divides the external ear from the inner ear

  Ossicles; The Malleus(the hammer), Incus(the anvil), Stapes(the stirrups)

  Cochlea; Contains the nerves that hear

  Vestibule; Contains nerves for balance

  Semicircular canals; Contains nerves for balance
• Transduction


  The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity
• Habituation


  decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.