PSY2013Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 2-5 (and his lecture notes he gave us)Lecture 2 (January 15) What is psychology? Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes. Wilheim Wundt and Edward Titchener together formed the idea of structuralism, or seeing things as they are in their most basic form. What is a theory? A theory is a relationship between variables that is not entirely proven, just supported.Know how to write an appropriate operational definition. Unacceptable: I am studying depression. Acceptable: I am studying the effects of sleep deprivation on depression levels in college students.Know the different ways of gathering data. Naturalistic observation: Nothing is modified. Strictly observing behaviors in a public place. Participant observer: becoming one with the test subjects to avoid the Hawthorne effect. After-effect observing: looking at outcomes. Survey/interview: Simply asking questions. The downfall is self-reporting.Lecture 3 (January 20)What is the difference between correlation and causation? Can you have one without the other?Correlation is only a relationship between variables. Causation means one variable depends on the other. Just because variables have a correlation does not mean there is causation in the experiment, but if there is causation there will be correlation as well. Know what positive/negative correlations mean and what the number means in regard to strength. (Positive – slopes of the trend lines of the data have the same sign +,-. Negative – slopes of the trend lines of the data have opposite signs.) (0-1, closer to one is stronger correlation.)Know bell curves. Central tendency is finding the center (3 M’s). Standard deviation is the average spread of the data around the MEAN. Two standard deviations on either side of the mean is equal to 95% of the population. Skew is caused by outliers.What are the requirements of the experimenter when conducting a study with human subjects? Consent (with the exception of naturalistic observation, but deception may be used here), protection (harm may not come to the participant during or due to the experiment), confidentiality (names and data are separated), and debriefing (revealing deception).Lecture 4 (January 22)What are behavioral genetics? What is the “big debate?” Nature v. nurture. What shapes behavior: genetics or environment/experiences? Study the twin studies.Who was Descartes? Descartes was a philosopher who thought up the “Mind-Body” problem, which says we don’t know what we are for sure or if anything is real – we just know that we are thinking things. Who was Franz Josef Gall? Gall was the founder of phrenology, or brain mapping. He believed bulges on the skull indicated larger (and therefore stronger) parts of the brain.Know the parts of a neuron. Lecture 5 (January 27)Know Table 2.1.Below are the things he stressed for each neurotransmitter. Acetylcholine – memoryDopamine – only produced in one part of the brain; don’t mess with it very much; it’s never alone (always with NDRP/SDRI)Seratonin – doesn’t affect other functions as much and keeps working; housewives take this themostNorepinephrine – less broad version of serotonin; opposite I epinephrine (aka adrenaline)GABA – causes neurotransmitters to shut off; lack of this causes seizures (neurotransmitters won’t stop firing)Glutamate – makes it easier for other neurotransmitters to fire (MSG – too much causes seizures)Know the difference between sympathetic and parasympathetic. Sympathetic is reflexes/fight orflight. It takes lots of energy, which is why we can’t stay here long. Parasympathetic is what brings us down from the sympathetic state.Know the lobes and what they are responsible for. Frontal lobe is responsible for decision-making,personality, and thinking. Temporal lobes are forlanguage, hearing, and short-term memory. Parietallobe is responsible for touch and movement. Occipitallobe is for vision.How do we study the brain? To do this, we have to takeit out and look at it. A hemispherectomy is removinghalf of the brain. The corpus callosum is what connectsthe two halves, allowing us as humans to becontralateral. We can examine the brain throughelectrical impulses (EEG/EKGs) and neuroimagery (MRI,PET scan, or CT scan.)Other material (January 29-February 3)What is a drug? A substance that has an effect on the nervous system.What are the three classifications? 1. Stimulant: caffeine, nicotine, Adderall. 2. Depressants: alcohol (not narcotics). 3. Hallucinogens: weed.Know the difference between an action and an effect. Action is a psychological mechanism by which the drugs work. Effect is what you perceive is happening and the behaviors caused by thedrug.How does the body build up tolerance? After extended usage, the body learns signals that trigger it to start fighting the drug before it ever enters your system. (This is why if you’re a daily coffee drinker, you are likely to wake up more tired because your body uses the signal of waking up to start preparing to fight the coffee.)Describe dependence. Dependence can be physical or psychological. When the substance is taken away, withdrawal occurs. (It has become accustomed to making extra “fighters” and without the substance to use them up, there is an imbalance in the opposite direction.) Alcohol has the worst withdrawal effect, heroine is second worst. Notes he sent us. (sent February 5)What is sensation? The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous systems receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.What is psychophysics? The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuliand our psychological experience of themKnow about vision and how we see. Transduction is the conversion of one form of energy into another. The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible electromagnetic radiation defined by wavelength and intensity. Wavelength determines hue; intensity, or amount of energy, determines how bright it is. The retinas are the light-sensitive inner surfaces of the eyes.They contain the receptor rods and cones along with layers of neurons. The rods detect black, white, and grey. They are used for night vision and peripheral vision. The cones detect fine detail and focus on central things and in daylight vision. The scotoma is the blind spot.Know about hearing and the two theories. Audition is the sense or act of hearing. We hear sound waves. The frequency is the