10/9/2024

Exam 1 Study Guide

Chapters 1 + 2

Major Perspectives in Psychology ( KNOW ALL FIVE !!!)

• Behavioral: Observable, external behavior that can be objectively
measured
• Cognitive: Influence of thinking on behavior
• Psychodynamic: Unconscious inner forces AND conflicts we have little
awareness or control of
• Neuroscience: Biological components of behavior (universal principles)
• Humanistic: Free will and personal growth (individual differences)
• Evolutionary: Genetic inheritance influence

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Specializations in Psychology (KNOW THESE!!!)

Areas of concentration/focus of specialty:

• Developmental: Growth and change throughout life

• Personality: Individual traits that distinguish one from another
• Experimental: Processes of sensing, perceiving, learning, and
thinking about the world
• Social: Aggression, relationships, persuasion, conformity

Roots of Psychology
• STRUCURALISM:
• A focus on uncovering the fundamental mental attributes/components of
consciousness, thinking, and other kinds of mental states and activities
• Developed by Wilhelm Wundt

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Challenges of Diversity in Psychology

• Majority of psychologists in the United States are white.
• Only 16% of active psychologists are members of racial minority
groups.
• Consequences to the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic
minorities among psychologists:
• The field is diminished by a lack of diverse perspectives and talents.
• Underrepresentation deters minorities from entering the field.
• Because people tend to prefer to receive therapy from their own ethnic group, minorities are
underserved.
• The dominance of psychologists in the United States causes scientific journals to
disproportionately publish U.S. authors.

Scientific Method in Psychology

• Psychologists rely on scientific method to study the mind and
behavior of people
• Importance of objectivity
• Use of empirical evidence
• Systematic observation and measurement

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Research Methods
• Experimental: Manipulating variables for cause-effect
• Correlational: Examining relationships between variables (NOT CAUSALITY)
• Descriptive: (offer insights/patterns, NOT CAUSALITY)
• Naturalistic Observation - investigator observes some naturally occurring
behavior and does not make a change in the situation.
• Survey Research - people chosen to represent a larger population are asked a
series of questions about their behavior, thoughts, or attitudes.
• Archival Research - existing data are examined to test a hypothesis.
• Inexpensive to conduct
• Case Study

CASE STUDY:
• Case study: an in-depth, intensive investigation of an individual or a small
group of people.
• Might include psychological testing, where a carefully designed set of
questions is used to gain some insight into the personality of the
individual or group.

Advantage: provides a thorough, in-depth understanding of participants.

Disadvantage: small samples or unique individuals make it impossible to

make valid generalizations about a larger population.

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Key Research Concepts

• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Experimental and Control Groups
• Confounding Variables and Bias
• Correlation (positive, negative, zero)
• Positive: as the value of one variable increases, so will the value of the other
variable.
• Negative: as the value of one variable increases, value of the other variable
will decrease.
• Zero: Lack of a relationship would be indicated by a value close to 0.
• Double-blind Procedure
• both the experimenter and the participant are “blind” to the nature of the
substance being administered.
• Researchers and participants DO NOT KNOW who is receiving the
treatment and who is receiving the placebo

Experimental Groups and Control Groups

Treatment: the manipulation implemented by the experimenter.
Experimental group: any group participating in an experiment that
receives a treatment.
Control group: a group participating in an experiment that receives
NO treatment.
By employing both experimental and control groups, researchers are
able to rule out the possibility that something other than the
experimental manipulation produced the results.

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Threats to Experimental Validity:

• Experimental bias: factors that distort the way the independent
variable affects the dependent variable in an experiment.
• An experimenter’s expectations can produce the expected result
when the researcher unintentionally transmits cues to participants.
• Participant expectations about appropriate behavior can also affect
results by developing their own ideas about the purpose of the research

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Ethics in Psychological Research

• Informed Consent:
• Educate a patient about the potential risks, benefits, and alternatives of a
given procedure or intervention.
• The patient must be competent to make a voluntary decision about
whether to undergo the procedure or intervention
• Protecting Participants from Harm
• Confidentiality
• Debriefing

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Studying the Brain’s Structure

• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• Electrical activity in a tiny region of the brain is interrupted by bombarding
it with a strong magnetic field, and researchers note the effects on brain
functioning.
• Can create a virtual/temporary lesion in the brain similar if the brain area
was physically cut

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The Nervous System

• Central Nervous System (CNS): Brain and Spinal Cord
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS):
• Somatic Nervous System – control of voluntary movements and the
communication of information to and from the sense organs
• Autonomic Nervous System – involuntary control of heart, glands,
and lungs and other organs
• Sympathetic Division (fight or flight): prepare body for action in stressful situation
• Parasympathetic Division (rest and digest): acts to calm the body after a stressful
situation

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Neuron Structure and Function

• Parts of a Neuron (about 1 trillion):
• Dendrites
• Soma
• Axon
• Terminal Buttons
• Synapse: space between two neurons where the axon of a sending neuron
communicates with the dendrites or a receiving neuron by chemical
messages

• All-or-None Law: RULES OF NEURONS EITHER ON OR OFF. ( an action

potential or no action potential)

• NOTE:
• Electrical messages travel through the neuron (signal travel down the axon)
• Chemical messages travel in between neurons (neurotransmitters release in synaptic
gaps)
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Mirror Neurons
• Mirror neurons: specialized neurons that fire
not only when a person enacts a particular
behavior but also when they simply observe
another individual carrying out the same
behavior.
• The discovery of mirror neurons suggests that
humans’ capacity to imitate others may be an
inborn behavior.

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Brain Structure and Function

• Hindbrain: Medulla (breathing and heartbeat), Pons, Cerebellum
• Midbrain: Reticular Formation
• Forebrain:
• Cerebral Cortex
• New Brain; recently evolved structure. Most sophisticated information processing in the brain
• LOBES: Frontal (motor area), Parietal, Temporal, Occipital
• Limbic System
• Thalamus – integrate info from higher parts of the brain, sorting it out so that it can be
sent to the cerebellum and medulla
• Hypothalamus – regulates behavior critical to basic survival. Eating, drinking, and
sexual behavior
• Lateralization and Corpus Callosum
• Split brain patient- when corpus callosum in injured or severed and information is no
longer transferred from one hemisphere to the other

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Association Areas of Cortex

• one of the major regions of the cerebral cortex; the site of the
higher mental processes, such as thought, language, memory,
speech, higher order concepts, and planning like setting goals.

• Injuries to the association areas can produce aphasia, problems

with language.
• Broca’s aphasia: difficulty speaking.
• Wernicke’s aphasia: difficulty understanding others’ speech and in
producing language.

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Endocrine System
• Hormones: chemicals that circulate through the blood and
regulate the functioning or growth of the body.
• Testosterone: adds muscle wight and increase strength
• Pituitary gland (Master Gland): the major component of the
endocrine system.
• Manages the other glands, controls growth, affects emotional
reactions, sexual urges, and energy levels.

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Genetic Influence on Behavior

• Behavioral Genetics: the study of the effects of heredity on
behavior.
• Evolutionary Psychology: the branch of psychology that seeks to
identify behavior patterns that are a result of our genetic
inheritance from our ancestors.

• Nature vs. Nurture debate

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Key Figures in Psychology

• Charles Darwin:
• Theory of Evolution - species can change over time, that new species
come from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common
ancestor
• Natural Selection – traits develops to enable adaptation of the species to
their environment
• Bibb Latane and John Darley:
• Diffusion of Responsibility Theory:
• Failure of bystanders to intervene in the murder of Kitty Genovese.
• the greater the number of bystanders, the more the responsibility to help is
perceived as shared, and the SMALLER the share of the responsibility each person
feels

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