View
- Term
- Definition
- Both Sides
Study
- All (80)
Shortcut Show
Next
Prev
Flip
PSYC 107: EXAM 2
consciousness |
our awareness of ourselves and our environment |
dual processing |
the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks |
visual perception track |
enables us to recognize things and plan future actions |
visual action track |
guides moment-to-moment actions; (example of visual perception track and visual action track colliding is the hollow face illusion) |
unconscious parallel processing |
is like running on auto-pilot; frees your conscious mind to deal with new challenges (example: driving on a familiar route) |
serial conscious processing |
for solving new problems, requires focused attention (example: move right foot in counterclockwise circle, write #3 with right hand repeatedly at the same time) |
selective attention |
focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus (compared to flashlight beam) |
cocktail party effect |
demonstrates selective attention; ability to attend to only one voice/sound among many |
inattentional blindness |
failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere (ex: focusing so much on game that nobody saw the gorilla) |
change blindness |
failing to notice changes in the environment (ex: focusing on giving directions to someone and not noticing different shirt colors) |
Circadian rhythm |
biological clock; regular bodily thythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle (ex: body temperature and wakefulness) |
REM sleep |
"rapid eye movement"; recurring stage which vivid dreams commonly occur, aka "paradoxical sleep"; characteristics: heart rate rises, breathing becomes rapid/irregular, eyes move (mark beginning of a dream); occurs during stage 1; REM periods increase as night progresses |
Alpha waves |
relatively slow brain waves of relaxed, awake state; show as you're laying down (stage 1) |
sleep |
periodic, natural loss of consciousness |
Stage 1 sleep |
(entry to sleep)- hallucinations/hypanagogic sensations; |
hallucinations |
false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of external visual stimulus |
Hypanagogic sensations |
feeling of falling/floating |
Stage 2 sleep |
roughly 20 min; characterized by appearance of sleep spindles (rapid/rhythmic brain activity) |
Stage 3 sleep |
transitional to stage 4- begins to emit delta waves (roughly 30 min) |
delta waves |
large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep |
Stage 4 sleep |
more delta waves; last roughly 30 min; hard to awaken; (children sleepwalk or wet bed at end of stage 4); occurs early in the night |
effects of sleep loss |
body holds sleep debt; weight gain (increases hunger-arousing hormone ghrelin and decreases hunger-suppressing hormone leptin); more likely to get sick by suppression of immune cells; irritability, slowed performance, and impaired creativity, concentration & communication |
sleep theories |
Sleep protects (cavemen--dark is more dangerous), helps us recuperate (restores/repairs brain tissue), makes memories, feeds creative thinking, may play a role in growth process |
insomnia |
persistent problems in falling or staying asleep |
narcolepsy |
characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks; may lapse directly into REM sleep |
sleep apnea |
temporary cessations of breathing during sleep, repeated momentary awakenings; associated with old fat men, snoring can be a sign |
night terrors |
high arousal and appearance of being terrified; occur during stage 4 and seldom remembered |
dreams |
sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind; notable for hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for dreamer's delusional acceptance of the contintent and later difficulties remembering it |
Freud's wish fulfillment theory |
dreams provide a psychic safety valve that discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings; believed dreams to be traced back to erotic wishes |
manifest content |
remembered storyline, censored, symbolic version of latent content |
latent content |
unconscious drives/wishes that would be threatening if expressed directly |
REM rebound |
tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation |
theories for why we dream |
Freud's wish-fulfillment, information processing, development/preservation of neural pathways, to make sense of neural static (activation-synthesis theory), cognitive development, and REM rebound |
activation-synthesis theory |
neural activity is random, dreams are brain's attempt to make sense of it |
hypnosis |
social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur |
posthypnotic suggestion |
a suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; has helped with headaches, asthma, stress-related skin disorders, obesity, pain relief; doesn't work well with addictions |
social influence theory |
hypnotic phenomena are an extension of everyday social behavior |
dissociation |
split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts & behaviors to occur simultaneously with others |
unified account of hypnosis |
it's an extension of both normal principles of social influence and of everyday dissociations between our conscious awareness and our automatic behaviors |
psychoactive drugs |
chemicals that change perceptions and moods through their actions at the neural synapses |
tolerance |
diminishing effect of regular use of the same dose of a drug |
withdrawal |
discomfort/distress that follows the discontinuing use of a drug |
physical dependence |
physiological need for a drug |
psychological dependence |
psychological need to use drugs (to relieve negative emotions) |
addiction |
compulsive drug craving and use, despite consequences |
depressants |
drugs that calm neural activity and slow body functions (barbiturates and opiates) |
barbiturates |
depressant: (tranquilizers) depress activity of central nervous system, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement; mimic effects of alcohol (examples: Nembutal, Seconal, Amytal--prescribed for sleep or anxiety problems) |
opiates |
depressant: opium & its derivatives (morphine & heroin); depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain/anxiety |
stimulants |
drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions (increase heart/breathing rates, pupils dilate, appetite decreases due to blood sugar increase, energy and self-confidence are raised); amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy |
Amphetamines |
stimulate neural activity, causing sped-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes (adderall) |
methamphetamine |
powerfully addictive drug that stimulates CNS; over time reduces baseline dopamine levels (crystal meth, cocaine, heroin) |
Ecstasy |
(MDMA): synthetic stimulant/mild hallucinogen; produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and long-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition (dehydrating effect can lead to severe overheating; suppresses immune system, impairs memory, slows thought, disrupts sleep) |
Hallucinogensdistort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input; aka "psychedelics" = "mind-manifesting" |
distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input; aka "psychedelics" = "mind-manifesting" |
LSD |
Lysergic acid diethylamide; effects similar to those of near-death-experiences |
THC |
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol; main ingredient in weed; amp |
environment |
... |
behavior genetics |
the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior |
chromosomes |
threadlike structures of DNA molecules that contain the genes ("book chapters") |
DNA |
complex molecule containing genetic information that makes up chromosomes |
Genes |
biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing a protein ("words" in a chapter); you can have active (turned "on" by environmental events) and inactive |
identical twins |
same egg (monozygotic) that splits in 2 |
fraternal twins |
separate eggs |
temperament |
person's characteristic emotional reactivity & intensity |
gene-environment interaction |
genes are self-regulating, react to environment; people will react differently to Will Ferrell movie than Zac Efron movie |
evolutionary psychology |
study of the roots of behavior and mental processes, using the principles of natural selection |
mutations |
random errors in gene replication |
gender |
biologically and socially influenced characteristics by which people define male & female |
culture |
behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted to future generations |
norms |
rules for accepted/expected behavior |
individualism |
giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications |
collectivism |
giving priority to group goals (family/work) and defining one's identity occordingly |
aggression |
physical or verbal behavior intended to hurt someone |
x-chromosome |
sex chromosome in boys & girls; X from each parent = girl |
y-chromosome |
found only in boys |
testosterone |
most important male sex hormone; stimulates prenatal sex organ growth and male sex characteristics during puberty |
gender role |
set of expected behaviors for men/women |
gender identity |
sense of being male or female |
gender typing |
acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role |
social learning theory |
we learn social behavior by observing and imitating, and being rewarded or punished (big boys don't cry Alex!) |
... |
Definition |