Psychology Exam #1 PDF

Chapter 3 Nervous system Cental nervous system - Brain and spinal cord Peripheral nervous system - Nerves that deliver info from the periphery to the CNS o Somatic nervous system - Nerves that gather sensory info from the body, neck and head, and deliver it to the...

Chapter 3 Nervous system Cental nervous system - Brain and spinal cord Peripheral nervous system - Nerves that deliver info from the periphery to the CNS o Somatic nervous system - Nerves that gather sensory info from the body, neck and head, and deliver it to the CNS - Send info about movement info from CNS to body o Automotic nervous system - Regulate involuntary processes (eg. Digestion heart rate, blood pressure) - Made up of: → Sympathetic nervous system: ‘fight or flight’, dilating pupils, fast heart rate, → Parasympathetic nervous system: resting/calm state, slow heart rate Neurons – send & receive signal from the brain and nervous system Afferent neuron - Sensory neuron - Carry signal from the PNS to CNS Efferent neuron - Motor sensory - CNS to PNS, muscles, and glands Interneuron - Connect A & E neurons within the CNS - allow reflex The spine – connect sensory and motor information Control muscle without the message reaching the brain first → Reflex Injuries - Spinal cord injuries – nerves that make up the spinal cord are damaged - Sometimes, spinal cord can function after the injury → But subsequent inflammation can permanently damage the spinal cord o Permanent DEFICITS (a lack of functioning or ability in a specific area) The brain Hind brain – basic life functions, closest to the spinal cord  - Medulla – regulates heartbeat, breathing, sneezing, and coughing - Pons – bridge between the medulla and other brain areas o Sleep and dreaming o Facial sensation and expression o Breathing, swallowing, eye movements - Cerebellum – motor coordination o Learning that involve movements (learning how to play the piano) - Reticular Formation – sleep-wake cycle o Wakefulness, arousal, and mood Midbrain - fluidity in movements - Substantia Nigra Forebrain – complex functions - Thalamus - relay station (traffic director) for sensory - Hypothalamus – regulates motivated behaviours, endocrine system - Pituitary gland – regulates hormones - The limbic system – motivation, emotion, and learning and memory o Amygdala – involved in processing fear o Hippocampus – important for learning and memory Basal ganglia - cognitive flexibility and voluntary movement control - Includes the nucleus accumbens – motivation and reward learning Cerebral cortex – complex functions (language, consciousness, and thought) - Make human most distinct from other animals - Sensory cortex - processes signals from afferent neurons, which carry sensory info to the CNS - Motor cortex - ends signals through efferent neurons to control muscle movements - Association cortex - a part of the brain that integrates and processes information from different sensory areas o complex functions like thinking, problem-solving, and planning o help us understand and respond to our environment - Occipital lobe – vision - Temporal lobe – process info about auditory stimuli and language o Recognizing complex visual stimuli (e.g. faces) o Wernicke’s area – language comprehension - Parietal lobe – processing sensory info - Frontal lobe – higher intellectual thinking o Broca’s area – speech production - Prefrontal lobe – memory, morality, mood, and planning How does the nervous system work? Structure of neurons - Dendrites: receive signals from other neurons - Cell Body: receives info from dendrites, if strong stimulation received, passed on to axon - Axon: carries electrical signals away from the cell body to other neurons or muscles. - Myelin Sheath: a fatty layer that covers the axon, speeding up the transmission of signals. - Terminal Buttons: the small structures at the end of the axon that release neurotransmitters to communicate with other neurons. Glia – make up the nervous system other than neurons - Astroglia – blood-brain barrier, influences communication between neurons, and helps heal the brain damage - Oligodendroglia – provides myelin to speed up transmission of neurons - Microglia – cleans up dead cells, prevent infection in the brain How do neurons work? Resting potential – neuron is at rest, negative charge inside Action potential – neuron fires a message - Ion channels open to let ions flow in and out of the neuron - The inside is positive - Shift in charges causes the axon terminals to release neurotransmitters All-or-None – either a neuron starts an action potential or nothing at all It cannot immediately fire again after it has fired – refractory period Communication across the Synapses Action potential triggers the release of neurotransmitters into synapse (the space between neurons) Neurotransmitter is contained in synaptic vesicles Neurotransmitters are taken by the neurotransmitter receptors (gate of the receiving neuron) Neurotransmitter receptors Postsynaptic potentials – a neurotransmitter binds to its receptor; the receptor is activated – letting ions flow through the receptor in/out of the neuron Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) - depolarize the neuron and increase the likelihood of an action potential  Inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs) - hyperonization the neuron and decrease the likelihood of an action potential Brain injuries Traumatic brain injury – concussions, spinal cord injuries Acquired brain injury – infections, exposure to toxins, tumors, degenerative diseases, strokes Corpus callosum Connects brain hemispheres Bundle of neuron fibres (axon) allow for communication of information from one side of the brain to the other Split-brain patients – the corpus callosum is removed due to severe epilepsy Neuroplasticity Brain ability to make new neural connections or to reorganize in response to injury or experience - Make up for the missing part, adaptability Evolutionary Psychology How the process of evolution has shaped the body and brain via the interaction of our genes and the environment to produce our thoughts and behaviours Evolution of Natural selection – most adaptive traits survived and pass on to the next generation - Fitness – an individual’s ability to grow maturity and have offspring Darwin's observations - Animal changed over time - Aspects of species that seem different had similarities underneath (human hand, bat’s wing, cat’s paw) - Selective breeding is the process of choosing specific animals to mate based on desired traits - Not all animals that born will survive to maturity and be able to reproduce Evolution of the Brain - Different size of cranium is for different size of brain Chapter 1 Psychology Scientific study of mental processes and behaviour - Mental processes: subconscious, what’s going on inside? - Behaviour: observable actions Goals: o Describe what they observe o Explain why o Predict certain outcomes based on certain inputs o Advice on how to control behaviour, help/guidance, alter/change Levels of analysis: o Brain level: neuronal activity, brain structure, genes o The person: emotions, ideas, thoughts o The group: friends, family, population, culture Philosophy Study of knowledge, reality, and nature meaning of life - How the human’s mind work? - How the body relates to the mind - Whether knowledge was inborn or learned form experience Philosophers (earliest – latest) o Hippocrates o Plato o Aristotle - They proposed problems and solutions Physiology and psychophysics (earliest to latest) Rene Descartes - believed that the meaning of the natural world should be understood through science and math Johannes Muller - advocated for scientists to study the relationship between physical stimuli and their psychological effects Herman von Helmholtz - Measure the speed of neural impulses Discovered that neural impulses were not instantaneous Early psychology Charles Darwin (1809-1882) o Theory of evolution – all life earth comes from common ancestors o Natural selection – chance variations in one’s behaviour are passed down from parents to children o Adaptive variations – some are more advantageous because they help an organism survive Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) o Father of experimental psychology o First psychology lab in 1879, Germany o Study through empirical-driven experiments o Study of consciousness o Voluntarism Structuralism Edward Titchener (1867-1927) o Structuralism, an attempt to identify all the elements of consciousness More about the description/ explanations Believed should focus on observable Focus on simple things as building blocks of complex concepts o Introspection – careful, reflective, and systematic observation of the details of mental processes o Goal: describe observable metal processes than explain, predict, or control o Rejected by other psychologists but some elements survived Observable events Simple elements (building blocks) Functionalism William James (1842-1910) o First psychological lab in US o Wrote first psychology textbook o Believed mental processes were fluid, not fixed elements (structuralism) Functions of the mind in adapting to a changing environment - Functionalist scientists used empirical methods, and focused on causes and consequences of behaviour - Also studied animals, children, and individuals with mental disorders Gestalt psychologist Consciousness cannot be broken down into elements  Said that we perceive things as a whole perceptual units The whole is greater than the sum of its parts Learning is tied to what we perceive -Kanzia illusion Psychoanalysis – Unconscious Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) o Peoples’ behaviours are based on their unconscious desires and conflicts o Developed on form of therapy – psychoanalysis Aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts Behaviourism – observable behaviour Edward Thorndike (1874-1949) o Proposed the study on animals could help explain human behaviour Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) o Dogs could learn to associate a bell with an automatic behaviour (eg. Salivating for food) o Classical conditioning John B. Watson o “Little Albert” experiment Children (people) can be classical conditioning B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) o Operant conditioning to shape behaviour o Used reinforcement to change the frequency of the expression of a behaviour o Positive reinforcement increases and punishment decreases the likelihood of a behaviour occurring Albert Bandura o Social observation in children We now know that this can be observed in other species of primates Humanistic Psychology Capacity for personal, positive growth in a person Has the freedom to choose his or her destiny Our subjective perceptions of the world are unique and are more important than the behaviour itself Carl Rogers o Client-centred therapy Client is an equal, her/his thoughts and feelings should be mirrored Atmosphere should have unconditional support and positive regard  Abraham Maslow o Theory of motivation that consists of-a hierarchy needs Cognitive psychology – study of the mind Ulric Neisser o Information processing o Language, problem solving, o Human mind = computer o Human minds work the same across any human Cultural psychology o Cognitive processes are different across populations due to different culture environments o Individuality is more important Cross-cultural psychology o Cognitive processes are universal regardless of culture Neuroscience/Psychobiology – origins of the Mind - Brain structure and activity – how this relates to/ controls behaviour Karl Lashley o Determined which areas of the brain are responsible for memory, learning and other functions Donald Hebb o Cell assembly Neurons develop networks of connections based on experiences as we develop and interact with our environments Subfields Behavioural genetics – gene expression on brain development and its control of human behaviour Sociobiologists – humans have a genetically innate concept of how social behaviour should be organized Evolutionary psychology – how the process of evolution has shaped our brain and expression of behaviour Psychology today: 3 main branches of psychology Clinical and counselling psychology Academic psychology Applied psychology Shared values  Theory-driven – using theories to explain behaviour Empirical – based on research Multi-level – brain, person, and group Contextual – psychological perspectives continue to evolve, which impacts work in psychology Current trends Growth in diversity o Women and minority groups working in psychology o Cultural psychology is more prominent Advances in technology o Computers and brain imaging techniques have led to new research in cognitive and social neuroscience Positive psychology o New psychological movement that studies human strength, fulfillment, and creativity Chapter 2 2 core beliefs of science The universe operates according to certain natural laws Such loss or discoverable and testable Reasoning types Deductive reasoning o Starts with a general theory and draws specific conclusionS that must logically follow Inductive reasoning o Starts with specific observations and forms a broader, generalization or theory, though the conclusion is not guaranteed Hypothetico-deductive reasoning o Begins with a hypothesis, conclude predictions, and tests them through experiments to support or refute the hypothesis The science of Psychology Psychology – using the scientific method to study human behaviour and mental process Pseudo psychology (pseudoscience) – no use of scientific method when commenting on human behaviour and mental processes o Examples: some types of hypnosis, crystal therapy - People do psychology in someway, but not all our grounded and scientific inquiry (example: astrology, tarot ) - Science helps avoid bias How do you psychologist conduct research? 1. Questions of interest o Example: “ does violin media make children violent?”, “does the media helps a person learn in language?” Literature review o That other conduct research of this topic yet? What conclusion that comes to? (Even doesn’t ask the same questions, someone has asked similar questions) 2. Develop testable hypothesis States your prediction in a way that it can be tested Is found to be true or false Make a prediction to test (eg. “ playing violent games will make kids violent”) Identify variable independent and dependent variable Independent variable (IV) – the variable that you manipulate  Dependent variable (DV) – the variable that you measure (or the variable that is changed by the IV) Operationalize How does researcher decide to measure our variables? -Transform variable (IV & DV) into something that can be measured -eg. To measure ‘shyness’ we can look at how many times one raises their hand in a classroom setting, or observe, body language, heart rate, etc. -could ask people to fill out self-report 3. Design Choose participants population the entire group that is of interest Sample – a part of population must represent the population - Disadvantage of sample: might not accurately described the entire population - Use random selection (everyone in the population of interest has an equal chance of being selected) to minimize sampling bias (selecting a group that is especially likely to confirm your hypothesis) 2 main types of research Descriptive o Describing things as they are o Case study – study of one person Advantages: develop early ideas about phenomena Disadvantages: research bias, cannot generalize your results to all people Eg. Rare illnesses –“playing a violent video game, make kids act out violently” Experimental - How, why one thing causes another? - This thing causes another - Causation - Naturalistic observation– of served people behaving as the normally do Advantages: more reflective of human behaviour Disadvantages: research bias, Hawthorne effect (act differently when being observed or studied) - Surveys – questionnaire interview Advantages: gather info from other methods, maybe able to measure relationship strength between variables Disadvantages: participant bias, direction of relationship between variables is unknown Experimental research How one variable causes another variable to change? o Advantages: establish an effect, eliminate outside influences o Disadvantages: may not be generalizable, sometimes unethical Experimental group – group that exposed to Ivy (eg. Group that played the violent game) Control group– group that isn’t exposed to Ivy, used to compare how the IV change the DV (eg. A group that doesn’t play the video game) Random assignment– the researcher randomly assigned who goes in which group, helps balanced the group Random selection – everyone in the population has an equal chance of being included Double-blind procedure – neither participant or researcher knows who is in which group 4. Analyze How do psychologists make sense of research results? Statistics– discrete and measure relationships between variables Descriptive research– correlation indicate if there is a relationship between the variables Experimental research– statistics indicate if the hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful difference between the groups Correlation describe relationships Show how to are more things are relative to each other Correlation coefficient– the strength and nature of the relationship (-1.00 to +1.00) Positive correlation – when one variable increases, the other increases Negative correlation – when one variable increases, the other one decreases -correlation is NOT causation (eg. Strong relation between trust and clinical depression, but correlation doesn’t tell us whether stress causes depression, depression, causes, stressful events, etc.) Spurious correlations – accidental/meaningless correlations Experimental analyses: cause an effect Descriptive statistics describe the data o Mean – average of all the scores o Standard deviation – how much the participants’ scores vary from one another  Inferential statistics – help to draw conclusion about the data o using t-tests or ANOVAs, to determine p-value (the probability that the result of your experiment are not due to chance) If the p-value is lower than.05, there is only a 5% chance slightly hood that your results occurred by chance 5. (And step 6) Conclusion of research Get other researchers to recognize and examine, give feedback to avoid bias Replication – repeated testing of a hypothesis to ensure results from one experiment are not due to chance Also, use different types of research (if findings are similar, confidence in research results increases) Allows theories and laws to be developed Share research findings through scientific journal articles Conducting research ethically Code of ethics – Canadian Psychological Association Research ethics boards (REBs): a research oversight group that evaluates resource to protect the rights of participants in the study Ethical is such guidelines psychologists follow – human research Ethical guidelines: o Obtain consent/permission from the participant after they know what the study involves and the risks and benefits of participating o Protect participants from harm and discomfort o Protect confidentiality o Participation must be voluntary - Always has the option to opt out anytime o Deception or incomplete disclosure - Depends, they may not tell the participants everything → But must do it after the research Ethical is such guidelines psychologists follow – animal research The Canadian Council on Animal Care oversees research involving animals as subjects o used only if the research promises significant benefit to humans or animals o if there is no other alternative o The smallest number of animals possible must be used o All pain and distress must be limited