PSY 1001 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Lectures 1 12 Chapter 1 Lecture 1 January 26 What is Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior What is the Scientific Theory The Scientific Theory is an explanation for large number of findings Explain Na ve realism It is the belief that we see the world precisely as it is Explain Confirmation bias The tendency to seek evidence that supports our beliefs and denies what contradicts What is Belief perseverance Belief perseverance refers to the tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them What are Metaphysical claims Assertions about the world that we can t test Define Pseudoscience and what are some warning signs Pseudoscience is set of claims that seem scientific but isn t Some warning signs are Ad hoc immunizing hypothesis loop hole that defends a theory to protect this theory from being disproven exaggerated claims overreliance on anecdotes doesn t connect to other research lack of review by others outside the lab meaningless terms proof not evidence Explain scientific skepticism It is an approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them Who was the psychologist is associated introspection Explain introspection Wundt Introspection is a method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiments Who was the psychologist is associated with structuralism Explain structuralism Titchener Structuralism is aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience Who was the psychologist is associated with functionalism Explain functionalism Darwin Functionalism is aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics Who was the psychologist associated with behaviorism Explain behaviorism Watson Behaviorism focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behavior Who was the psychologist associated with cognition Explain cognition Piaget Cognition is the mental processes involved in different aspects of thinking Pathways of the brain Who was the psychologist associated with psychoanalysis Explain psychoanalysis Freud Psychoanalysis internal psychological processes of which we re unaware Unconscious drives Chapter 2 Lecture 2 3 February 2 4 What are two different types of thinking Intuitive thinking which is quick and reflexive gut hunches Ex Meeting people Analytical thinking which is slow and reflective Ex Solving problems What is a Heuristic A mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to stream our thinking and make sense of our world Describe Naturalistic Observation Watching behavior in real world settings without trying to manipulate the situation What is the difference between external and internal validity External validity is an extent to which we can generalize findings to real world settings Internal validity is an extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a study Explain a case study A case study is research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth other over an extended time period What is existence proof Demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur Explain the difference between a response set malingering and the halo effect A Response set are tendencies to distort their answers to questions in a socially desirable way that paints them in a positive light Malingering is the tendency to make ourselves appear psychologically disturbed with the aim of achieving a clear cut personal goal The Halo effect is the tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to spill over to influence that ratings of other positive characteristics What is a Correlational design Research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated What are the two variables in an experiment The Independent variable which is manipulated and the dependent which is measured What is an operational definition A working definition of what a researcher is measuring What is the difference between the Placebo and Nocebo effect The Placebo effect is an improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement The Nocebo effect is harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm What is the experimenter expectancy effect When a researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias a study s outcome What are Demand characteristics Cues that participant s pickup from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researcher s hypotheses What is the difference between descriptive statistics and inferential statistics Descriptive statistics are numerical characterization that describe data and inferential statistics allow us to determine how much we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population Chapter 3Lecture 5 February 9 What are neurons The brains communicators nerve cell specialized for communication What are Neurotransmitters Name and explain some Chemical messenger specialized for communication from neuron to neuron 1 Glutamate excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system relay of sensory information and learning 2 GABA Main inhibitory in the nervous system 3 Acetylcholine muscle contraction cortical arousal 4 Norepinephrine brain arousal 5 Dopamine Motor function and reward 6 Serotonin mood and temp 7 Anadamide pain reduction appetite 8 Endorphins pain reduction What are glial cells Cells in nervous system that plays a role in the formation of myelin and the blood brain barrier responds to injury removes debris and enhances learning and memory What is the difference between Astrocytes and Oligodendrocytes Astrocytes are most abundant glial cells play an important role in embryo development Oligodendrocytes promote new connections among nerve cells and releases chemicals to aid in healing What does plasticity mean Ability of the nervous system to change What is Synaptogenesis The formation of new synapses What is Pruning The death of certain neurons and the retraction of axons to remove connections that aren t useful What is myelination The insulation of axons with a myelin sheath What is Neurogenesis Creation of new neurons in the adult brain What makes up the Central Nervous system What does it control Brain and spinal cord Controls the mind and behavior What does the Cerebral Cortex do Analyzes sensory information helping us to perform complex brain functions including reasoning and language What is the Corpus callosum Large