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Fondy AP Psych Mr. S's class 1
review for final
47
Psychology
12th Grade
01/12/2008

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
biological perspective
Definition
examines how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions, coping techniques, and other traits and abilities.

Term
cognitive approach
Definition
focuses on how we process, store, and use information and how this information influences what we attend to, perceive, learn, remember, believe, and feel.
Term
behavioral apprach
Definition
analyzes how organisms learn new behaviors or modify existing ones, depending on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviors
Term
psychoanalytic apprach
Definition
based on the belief that childhood experiences greatly influence the development of later personality traits and psychological problems.  It also stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, adn motivations on thoughts and behaviors
Term
humanistic apprach
Definition
emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future, a large capacity for achieving personal growth, a considerable amount of intrinsic worth, and enormous potential for self-fulfillment.
Term
cross-cultural approach
Definition
studies the influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on psychological and social functioning.
Term
Wilhelm Wundt
Definition
structuralism: study of the most basic  elements,  primarily sessations and percetptions, that make up our conscious mental experiences.

 

Intropsection: was a method of exploring conscious mental processes by asking subjects to look inward and report their sensations and perceptions

Term
William James
Definition
Functionalisim: study of the function rather than the structure of consciousness, was interested in how our minds adapt to our changing environment

Term
placebo effect
Definition
change in the patient's illness that is attributed to an imagined treatment rather than to a medical treatment
Term
correlation coefficient
Definition
number that indicates the stregth of a relationship between two or more events: the close the number is to -1.00 or +1.00, the greater is the strength of the relationship
Term
independent variable
Definition

is a treatment or something that the researcher controls or manipulates

 

Ex: Drug treatment

Term
dependent variable
Definition

is one or more of the subjects' behaviors that are used to measure the potential effects of the treatment or independent variable.

 

Ex: child's negative classroom behaviors

Term
action potential
Definition
tiny electric current that is generated when the positive sodium ions rush inside the axon.  The enormous increase of sodium ions inside the axon causes the inside of the axon to reverse its charge.  The inside becomes positive, while the outside becomes negative
Term
resting state
Definition
means that the axon has a charge, or ptential; it resembles a battery.  the charge, or potential, results from the axon membrane separating positive ions on the outside from negative ions on the inside.
Term
afferent or sensory neurons
Definition
carry information from the senses to the spinal cord
Term
efferent or motor neurons
Definition
carry information away from the spinal cord to produce responses in various muscles and organs through out the body.
Term
all or none law
Definition
says that, if anaction potential starts at the beginning of an axon, the action potential will continue at the same speed, segment by segment, to the very end of the axon
Term
MRI
Definition
involves passing nonharmful radio frequencies through the brain.  A computer measures how these signals interact with brain cells and transforms this interaction into an incredibly detialed image of the brain.  MRIs are used to study the structure of the brain
Term
fMRI
Definition
stands fro the functional and measures the activity of specific neurons that are functioning during cognitive tasks, such as thinking, listening, or reading
Term
PET scan
Definition
involves injecting a slightly radioactive solution in to the blood and then measuring the amount of radiation absorbed by brain cells called neurons.  Very active neurons absorb more radioactive solution than less active ones.
Term
broca's area
Definition
which is usually located in the left frontal lobe, is necessary for combining sounds into words and arranging words into meaningful sentences.  if injured a person cannot speak in fluent sentences but can understand written and spoken words
Term
Wernicke's area
Definition
located in the left temporal lobe, is necessary for speaking in coherent sentences and for understanding speech.  If damaged one cannot understand written or spoken words and has difficulties putting words into meaningful sentences
Term
Central Nervous System CNS
Definition
made up of the[image] brain and spinal cord.  From the bottom of the brian emerges the spinal cord, which is made up of neurons and bundles of axons and dendrites that carry information back and forth between the brain and the body.
Term
Peripheral Nervous System-PNS
Definition
includes all the nerves that extend from teh spinal cord and carry messages to and from various muscles, glands, and sesne organs located through out the body.
Term
cell body
Definition

egg shaped structure that provides fuel, manufactures chemicals, and maintians the entire neuron in working order

Term
dendrites
Definition
brachlike extensions that arise from the cell body; they receive signals from other neurons, muscles, or sense organs and pass these signals to the cell body
Term
axon
Definition
is a sinlge threadlike structure that extends from, and carries signals away from, the cell body to neighborin neurons, organs or muscles
Term
myelin sheath
Definition
looks like separate tubelike segments composed of fatty material that wraps around and insulates an axon.  the myelin sheath prevents interference from electrical signals generated in adjacent axons
Term
end bulbs
Definition
located at the end of the axon's braches.  Each end bulb is like a iniature container that stores chemicals called neurotransmitters, which are used to communicate with neighboring cells
Term
synapse
Definition
small space that exists between an end bulb and its adjacent body organ, muscles or cell body
Term
frontal lobe
Definition
involved with personality and emotions, performing voluntary motor movements, interpreting and performing emotional behaviors, behaving normally  in social situations, maintaining a healthy personality, paying attention involved in making decisions, planning, reasoning, and carrying out behaviors
Term

Parietal lobe

Definition

processes sensory information from body parts, wich includes touching, locating positions of limbs, and feeling temperature and pain, and carrying out several cognictive functions, such as attending to and perceiving objects.

 

somatosensory cortex is located here

Term
occipital lobe
Definition
involved with processing visual information, wich includes seeing colors and perceiving and recognizing objects, animals, and people.  Primary visual cortex and visual association area is located here.
Term
temporal lobe
Definition
involved in hearing, speaking and understanding verbal and written material.  Primary auditory cortex and auditory association areas are located here.
Term
limbic system
Definition
refres to a group  of interconnected structures that make up the core of the forebrain.  The limbic system's structures are involved with regulating many motivation behaviors such as obtaining food, drink, and sex; with organizing emotion behaviors such as fear, anger, and aggression; and with storing memories
Term
hypothalamus
Definition
regulates many motivational behaviors: eating, drinking and sexual responses, emotional behaviors flight and fright; secretion of hormones, such as occurs at puberty
Term
amygdala
Definition
receives input from all the senses.  plays a major role in evaluating the emotional significance of stimuli and facial expressions, especially those involving fear, distress, or threat
Term
thalamus
Definition
involved in receiving sensory info, doing initail processing, and then relaying the sensory info to areas of teh cortex.  Old school operator
Term
hippocampus
Definition
involved in saving many kinds of fleetin gmemories by putting them inpt permanent storage in various parts of the brain
Term
transduction
Definition
refers to the process in which a sense organ changes, or transforms, physical energy into electrical signals that become neural impulses, which may be sent to the brian for processing
Term
cones
Definition
see colors and clarity
Term
rods
Definition
see in black and white and grayscale
Term
fovea
Definition
location of the cones
Term
color blindness
Definition

monochromats: see the word in black and white

 

Dichromats: usualy have difficulty seeing the difference of red and green

Term
absolute threshold
Definition
the intensity level of a stimulus such that a person will have a 50% chance of detecting it.
Term
just noticeable difference- JND
Definition
refears to the smallest increase or decrease in the intensity of a stimulus that a person is able to detect
Term
Weber's law
Definition
states that the increase in intensity of a stimulus needed to produce a just noticeable difference grows in proportion to the intensity of the initial stimulus
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