Introduction To PsychologyDr. HawkinsPSY 301Exam 1 Study Guide Chapter 1:Behaviorism (4)Humanistic Psychology (4)Biopsychosocial approach (6)Psychology perspectives table (7)Hindsight bias (10)Overconfidence (11)The scientific method (12)Research methods (example, the case study) (16-17)Correlation and illusionary correlation (18-20)Chapter 2: The neuron (36-37)- How it works- Parts of neuronNeurotransmitters and functions (38-39)Divisions of the nervous system (41)Brainstem (46)Brain imaging techniques (46-47)Sensory cortex (54)Functions of the cortex (53-54)Chapter 3: The split brain (59)DNA and genes (67-68)Fraternal and identical twins (68-69)Personality traits and heredity (70-71)Evolutionary psychology (76)- and human sexuality- and natural selectionVariations across cultures (83)Testosterone (90)Gender roles (91)Social learning theory (92)Gender schema theory (92)Chapter 4:Piaget’s theory and stages of cognitive development (105-108)Stages of prenatal development (99-101)TeratogensAttachment and familiarity (111-112)Accommodation and assimilation Brain development, pruning, and maturation (102)Child-rearing practices and parenting styles (114-115)Review the lecture power points A few questions from the videosJ. Black’s (guest lecturer) slides on newborn developmentStudy Guide for Dr. Callaway’s lectures on Chapters 2 and 3.Chapter 2:In the late 1800s neuroscientists were unsure if the nervous system was comprised of individual cells like most of the rest of the body. Part of the difficulty in solving this dilemma was the inability of techniques used at that time to stain and make clear observations of neural tissue microscopically. Using the Golgi stain (the best available atthe time), it was impossible to separate visually which axons were attached to which cell bodies. Many scientists at that time thought that neural tissue was a continuous flow through neural vessels similar to the way blood circulates. Santiago Ramon y Cajal, a Spanish physician and anatomist, compared the visual image of slides of stained neural tissue to a dense forest where it was impossible to distinguish which branches were attached to which trunks. He concluded that to differentiate between branches of different trees in a forest, he would observe a “young” forest before the branches became dense and tangled. In this way, he would watch as the forest grew. This comparison gaveCajal the idea to look at slides of stained neural tissue from embryos, fetuses, and infants rather than adult neural tissue. He was able to easily see entire neurons before the neurons became too entangled to discriminate one neuron from the other. That the nervous system is made of individual cells (later labeled neurons) became known as the Neuron Doctrine. Cajal and Golgi (inventor of the best neural tissue stain in those days) jointly won a Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology in 1903. Santiago Ramon y Cajalbecame known as the Father of Scientist to many colleagues.Some brain structures and associated major functions:Medulla: Maintains vegetative functions such as heartbeat and breathing.Cerebellum: Regulates motor coordination. This structure is affected by ethanol ingestion, causing the cerebellum not to function adequately. Subsequently, inebriated individuals stagger and have difficulty maintaining their balance and coordination.Limbic system: A group of subcortical areas involved in basic emotions.Lobes of the cortex:Parietal lobe: Higher level somatic sensory and motor function.Temporal lobe: Hearing and language Occipital lobe: VisionPrefrontal lobe: Higher level complex reasoning, controls impulsiveness and aggression.Hypothalamus: Involved in several drives such as hunger, thirst, and sleep. Regulates body temperature.Hippocampus: Involved in memory consolidation. It is NOT the ‘memory center’ and does NOT ‘store’ memories in the structure.Thalamus: Acts as a relay hub between the cortex and all other parts of the brain.Methods used to study brain function:Lesioning:Advantages: Can help eliminate the possibility of the structure being involved in a specific behavior if behavior remains the same before and after the lesioning.Disadvantages: Cannot ultimately determine the particular locus of a behavioral correlate because other brain areas and structures NOT lesioned cannot be eliminated as possible locations involved if those areas are not addressed. If a particular behavior changes following lesioning, it only means that a neuron or tract found in that structure was cut. This structure may have only been the location of part of a neural pathway involved in the behavior.PET scans (positronic emission tomography)Advantages: This utilizes metabolic brain mapping which is the most accurate way to tract the location and activation intensity of neural pathways correlated with a particular behavior or disease state. Disadvantages: It is invasive because a radio-labeled substance must be injected to monitor areas of metabolic activity. It is expensive and unfortunately is used mostly in research.CT scans:Advantages: It is not as expensive or invasive as PET. It utilizes X-rays to form a pictorial diagram of various planes of the structure being scanned. It is accurate in the location of structures.MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonsnce imaging): Advantages: It is not as invasive, but is expensive and requires much instrumentation. Can be useful in tracking changes in brain structures across various treatments or conditions.Disadvantages: Does not actually capture an image of the brain, but measures signals as they exit the outer surface of the head. It is not good at locating a very specificlocation of a brain change. The accuracy of finding the location producing the signal is only as good as the strength of the magnet used (measured in Teslas), and computer program used to obtain the results, and the expertise of the investigator’s interpretation. EEG (electroencephalogram)Advantages: Can identify very definite electrical waveforms which are correlated with different stages of sleep and arousal and also of various disease states such as narcolepsy and epilepsy.Disadvantages: Only measures gross electrical activity in the brain measured at the surface of the brain. Is not good at determining the location of a specific activity or problem.Neurotransmitters:Neurotransmitters bind to receptors (in the synapse) and
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