Psychology 121

What is Psychology

Study of behavior and mental processes

Scientific Method

1. Perceive

2. Hypothesize

3. Test

4. Draw Conclusions

5. Report, Revise, Replicate

Correlation

A measure of the relationship between two vaariables

Positive Correlation

Variables related in same direction

Negative Correlation

Variables related in opposite directions

psycho-dynamic perspective

unconscious, conscious ego

Behavioral

learning and conditioning

Humanistic Perspective

Free will, Self actulization

Cognitive Perspective

Think, problem solving

Sociocultural Perspective

Cultural and social

Biopsychological

Brain, neuron, neuron transmitter

Evolutionary Perspective

Survival

Independent Variable

Variable that is manipulated

Dependent Variable

response to manipulation of the independent variable

Experimental groups

group that receives the experimental manipulation

Control group

Did not receive the experimental manipulation

Placebo effect

when a person's physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a placebo or 'dummy' treatment.

E.G, Anxiety improves when using sugar pills but being told the pill is Xanax

Experimenter effect

Observer biased

Single Blind Participants

unaware of the treatment received

Double Blind

neither participant nor researcher know what treatment was given

Cause and effect

Correlation does not tell cause

Social Influence

how a person's behavior, thoughts and feelings are influence and are influenced by social group

Conformity

Change one's own behavior behavior to match that of other people

Compliance

Change behavior as a result of someone asking you to

Obedience

changing one's own behavior at the direct order of authority

Foot in the door

Small request as opener then more added to

door in the face

Large request comes first which is usually denied followed by a smaller request that usually gets compliance

Low-ball technique

once commitment is made, the cost of commitment increases

(water plants- take care of dog)

Milgram studies

Shock research

Evalution

• obey and disobey authority

4% were thought but 65% went all the way

Social cognition

attitudes , impression formation and attribution

attitudes

tendency to respond positively or negatively to a certain idea, person, object or situation

Developed through experiences

ABC model of attitudes

made of three components \n \n Affect- emotions or feelings \n I like \n \n Behavior- action that a person takes in regard to the person object or situation \n I download \n \n \n Cognitive- way a person thinks about the person, object or situation(thoughts) \n I think

Dispositional

Blame others like he is a careless driver, he never watches out for other cars

Situaltional

He probably got caught in some bad traffic and that's why he is late

Fundamental Attribution Error

Overestimate another's internal characteristic and underestimate external influence situation

Actor Observer Bias

a tendency to attribute one's own actions to extrernal causes, while attributing other people's behaviors to internal causes

Cognitive dissonance

When attitudes and behavior clash

Find yourself doing things that don't match their idea of themselves as smart, nice or moral

Reduce cognitive dissonance

1. Change conflicting behavior to make it match their attitude

2.Change their current conflicting cognition to justify their behavior

3. Form cog. to justify their behaviors

Social categorization

occurs when people meet someone new is the assignment of that person to same kind of category

Stereotypes

set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all member of a particular social category

Impression Formation

forming of the first knowledge a person has about another person

all about predictions

social cognitions

Prejudice

is an unjustified or incorrect attitude (usually negative) towards an individual based solely on the individual's membership of a social group. For example, a person may hold prejudiced views towards a certain race or gender etc. (e.g. sexist)

Discrimination

treating people differently because of prejudice toward the social group to which they belong

Interpersonal attraction

liking or having the desire for a relationship with someone else

Proximity

How close they are to you geographically

Similarity

how similar you are to them or what similarities are shared

Physical attraction

what attracts you to other people

Stereotype

A set of characteristics that people believe is shared by all members of a particular group

Agression

Zimbardo prison experiment \n \n When one person hurts or tries to destroy another person deliberately either with words or with physical behavior \n \n Frontal lobes, amygdala and other structures of the limbic systems have been shown to trigger aggressive responses when simulated

Realistic conflict theory

increasing prejudice and discrimination are closely tied to an increasing degree of conflict b/w in and out groups

Social identity

view's of one's self concept that includes the view of one's self in a group

Social comparison

comparing themselves favorably to others to improve their own self-esteem

Self fulfilling prophecy

effect that expectations can have on outcomes

Altruism

pro social behavior that is done with no expectation of reward and may involve the risk of harm to oneself

Diffusion of responsibility

phenomenon in which a person fails to take responsibility for either action or inaction because of the presence of other people who are seen to share the responsibility

bystander effect

5 steps

1. Notice what is happening

2. Interpret as emergency

3. Assuming personal responsibility

4. Knowledge to help

5. making decision to be involved

Three processes of memory

Encoding, storage and retrieval

Encoding

Take in

Storage

Store information

Retrieval

Ability to recall later

Information processing model

• Sensory (iconic and echoic)

• Short term memory

• long term memory

Sensory (iconic and echoic)

Lost with in a second

Elaborative Rehersal

a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Short term memory

Working memory - if you don't rehearse the information you will lose it in 15-30 seconds

Long term

seemingly infinite

Parallel Distributive

Take place at same time no phases

Levels of processing model

meaning leads to deeper processing

Proactive Interference

Old gets in the way of the new

Retroactive Interference

New gets in the way of old

Anterograde

no longer able to make new memories

Procedural

Skill memory

Semantic

Facts and general knowledge

• meanings of words

• concepts

• terms

• math skills

Declarative

a type of long-term memory that involves conscious recollection of particular facts and events.

episodic memory

Events experienced by a person

Retrieval cues

Recall and recognition

Recall

Type of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be "pulled" from memory with very few external cues

Recognition

ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact

Serial position effect

tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information

State dependent learning

mental state whatever you study in whatever mind set you recall info in that same state of mind

Organization of the nervous system

Central nervous system

• Brain and Spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System

• autonomic

• sympathetic and parasympathetic

Somatic

Central Nervous System

part of the nervous system consisting of brain and spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System

all nerves and neurons that are not contained in the brain or spinal cord but that run through the body itself

Autonomic

division of the PNS CONSISTING OF NERVES THAT CONTROL ALL INVOLUNTARY MUSCLES, ORGANS AND GLANDS

Sympathetic

Fight or Flight

part of the ANS that is responsible for reacting to stressful events and bodily arrousal

Parasympathetic

part of the ANS that restores the body to normal functioning after arousal and is responsible for the day-day functioning organs and glands

Somatic

Division of the PNS consisting of nerves that carry information from the senses to the CNS and from the CNS to voluntary muscles of the body

Structure of the neuron

• Dendrite

• cell body (soma)

• Axon

• Myelin

• Axon Terminal

Pons

involved in sleep, dreaming, left-right body coordination, arousal

Cerebellum

controls and coordinates involuntary, rapid, fine motor movement

Medulla

life-sustaining functions, like breathing, swallowing, heart rate

Reticular Fromation

General attention, alertness, arousal

Dendrites

Receives info

Axon

where information is sent to

Myelin sheath

protects axon and speeds up process

Synapse

microscopic fluid-filled space between the synaptic knob of one cell and the dendrites or surface of the next cell

Resting potential

the state of the neuron when not firing a neural impulse

action potential

the release of the neural impulse consisting of a reversal of the electrical charge within the axon

neurotransmitters

chemical found in the synaptic vesicles that, when released, has an effect on the next cell

role of interneurons

a neuron found in the center of the spinal cord that receives information from the afferent neurons and sends commands to the muscles through the efferent neurons. Inter-neurons also make up the bulk of the neurons in the brain

Antagonist

chemical substance that block or reduce a cell's response to the action of other chemicals or neurotransmitters