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Details Title: Psychology Description: test 1 Total Flash Cards: 63 Created: 02/13/2004 08:02:29	To study from this set of flash cards, or to create your own your own study flash cards, register HERE. If you are already a registered user, CLICK HERE.
Cards Term what's psychology? Definition the science of behavior & mental processes Term nature-nurture issue? Definition controversy over the genes and enviroment effecting your development of traits and behaviors Term what are the psychological perspectives? Definition Neuroscienc-focuses on how body & brain create emotions, memories, & sensory experiences evoluntionary perspective-how nature select traits that promote perpetuation of one's genes behavior genetics-how much our genes, & our environment, influence our ind diff. psychodynamic-how behavior springs from unconscious drives & conflicts behavioral-how we learn observable responses cognitive-how we encode, process, store, & retrieve info social-cultural-how behavior & thinking vary across situations & cultures Term what are the psychology's specialized subfields? Definition Clinical psychologists-studies, assesses, & treats people w/ psychological disorders Psychiatrists-deals w/ psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy Term what's basic research? Definition pure scientific science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base Term what's applied research? Definition scientific study that aims to solve practical problems Term What's hindsight bias? Definition tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it Term what attitudes characterize scientific inquiry? Definition Beings w/ an eagerness to skeptically scrutinzie competing ideas & an open-minded humility before nature. Putting ideas, even crazy-sounding ideas, to the test helps us winnow sense from nonsense Curiosity that drives us to test ideas & to expose their underlying assumptions carries into everyday life as critical thinking Term what's critical thinking? Definition thinking that doesn't blindly accept arguments & conclusions. It examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, & assesses conclusions Term what's a theory? Definition explanation using an intergrated set of principles that organizes & predicts observations Term hypothesis? Definition testable prediction, implied by a theory Term what's operational definition? Definition statement of the procedures used to define research variables Term what's replication? Definition repeating the essence of a research study, usually w/ diff participants in diff. situations, to see whether the basic finding generalizes to other participants & circumstances Term what's a case study? Definition an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth over time to reveal universal principles Term what's a survey? Definition questioning person, by random selections to take a self-reported assessment Term what's population? Definition all cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study Term what's random sample? Definition sample that fairly represents a population b/c each member has an equal chance of inclusion Term what's naturalisitc observation? Definition observing & recording behavior in a natural situation w/out trying to manipulate & control the outcome Term what's correlation coefficent? Definition statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, & how well each predicts other Term what's illusory correlation? Definition perception of a relationship where none exists Term what's placebo? Definition condition that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug to see if it triggers the effects believed to characterize the active agent Term what's double-blind procedure? Definition both the research partipants & research staff are ignorant about whether or not the participants have received the treatment or placebo Term what's placebo effect? Definition effect on behavior caused by the placebo Term what's experimental condition? Definition condition of experiment that exposes participant to the treatment, to one version of the independent variable Term what's control condition? Definition condition of experiment that contrasts w/ the experimental condition & serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment Term what's random assignment? Definition assigning participants to experimental & control conditions by chance Term what's independent variable? Definition experimental factor that is manipulated Term what's dependent variable? Definition experimental factor, in psychology, the behavior or mental process, that is being measured Term what's culture? Definition enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, & traditions shared by a large group of people & transmitted from one generation to next Term SQ3R Definition study method incorporating five steps: survey, question, read, rehearse, review Term what's phrenology? Definition an ill-fated theory that claimed bumps on the skull could reveal our mental abilities & our character traits Term what's biological psychology? Definition branch of psychology concerned w/ the links btwn biology & behavior Term what's a neuron? Definition a nerve cell, basic building block of nervous system Term what's a dendrite? Definition bushy, branching extensions of a neuron that receive messages & conduct impulses toward the cell body Term what's an axon? Definition extension of a neuron, ending in branching termial fibers, messages are sent to other neurons or muscle or glands Term what's a myelin sheath? Definition layer of fatty tissue segmentally encasing the fibers of many neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed of neural impulses as the impulse hops from one node to the next Term what's an action potential? Definition neural impulse, brief electrical charge that travels down an axon. generated by movement of positively charged atoms in & out of channels in the axon's membrane Term what's a threshold? Definition the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse Term what's a synapse? Definition the junction between axon tip of the sending neuron & dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. the tiny gap @ this junction called the synaptic gap Term what are neurotransmitters? Definition chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. when released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse & bind to the receptor sites on the receiving neuron Term what are endorphins? Definition "morphine w/in", natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control & pleasure Term what's the nervous system? Definition body's speedy, electrochemical communication system, consisting of all nerve cells of the peripheral & central nervous systems Term CNS? Definition brain & spinal cord Term PNS? Definition sensory & motor neurons that connect the central nervous system & the rest of the body Term what are nerves? Definition neural cables containing many axons. connect the cns w/ muscles, glands, & sense organs Term what are sensory neurons? Definition carry incoming info from sense receptors to cns Term what's are interneurons? Definition cns neurons that internally communicate & intervene btwn sensory inputs & motor outputs Term what are motor neurons? Definition neurons that carry outgoing info from the cns to the muscles & glands Term what't the somatic nervous system? Definition division of the pns that controls the body's skeletal muscles Term what's the autonomic nervous system? Definition part of the pns that controls the glands & the muscles of the internal organs sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions Term what's sympathetic nervous system? Definition division of autonomic n.s. that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations Term what's the parasympathetic nervous system? Definition divison of the autonomic n.s. that calms the body, conserving its energy Term what's a reflex? Definition simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, knee-jerk response Term what's the brainstem? Definition oldest part & central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord wells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions Term what's the medulla? Definition the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat & breathing Term what's the reticular formation? Definition a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal Term what's the thalamus? Definition brains sensory switchboard, located on top of the brainstem; directs messages to sensory receiving areas in the cortex & transmits replies to the cerebellum & medulla Term what's the cerebellum? Definition the "little brain" attached to the rear of the brainstem, helps coordinate voluntary movement & balance Term what's the limbic system? Definition doughnut-shaped system of neural structures at the border of the brainstem & cerebral hemispheres; associated w/ emotions(fear & agreesion) includes hippocampus, amygdala, & hypothalamus Term amygdala? Definition two almond shaped neural clusters that are components of the limbic system & are linked to emotion Term what's hypothalamus? Definition neural structure lying below the thalamus, directs eating, drinking, body temp, helps govern endocrine system via pit. gland, linked to emotion Term what's the cerebral cortex? Definition intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres; ultimate control & info-processing center Term what are the glial cells? Definition cells in the nervous system that are not neurons but support, nourish and protect neurons