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Psychology Final Exam Review
Psychology Review
Definition of Psychology
Psychology is the study of the human mind and behavior. It encompasses areas such as human development, health, social behavior, and cognitive processes.
Schools of Thought
Structuralism focuses on the basic building blocks of mental life and how they combine to form experiences. Functionalism examines how mental and behavioral processes help organisms adapt to their environment. Empiricism is the idea that learning comes from experiences and observations. Introspection is the act of self-reporting conscious experiences.
Famous Psychologists
Sigmund Freud, Edward Titchener, William James, and B.F. Skinner are notable psychologists.
Biopsychosocial Model
The biopsychosocial model explains human health and behavior through biological, psychological, and social factors.
Research Methods
Naturalistic observation offers realism and affordability, detecting patterns, but lacks variable control and risks observer bias. Surveys are cost-effective for gathering large data quantities but may suffer from response bias and low response rates. Case studies provide in-depth analysis but are time- consuming and costly.
Action Potential
Dendrites receive signals, triggering an action potential in the axon. The myelin sheath speeds up the signal. Terminal branches release neurotransmitters to pass on the message.
Neurotransmitters
Norepinephrine plays a role in learning, dreaming, and waking from sleep. Epinephrine affects metabolism and emotional arousal. Dopamine
influences attention and movement. Serotonin impacts sensory perception, temperature regulation, and pain suppression. GABA provides neural inhibition in the CNS.
Nervous System
The central nervous system (CNS) comprises the brain and spine. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) includes nerves and muscles outside the brain and spine. The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activates the fight- or-flight response. The parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) calms the body.
Sensation vs. Perception
Sensation is the initial detection of physical stimuli by sensory receptor cells, sending a message to the brain. Perception is the brain's interpretation and assignment of meaning to what it senses.
Sensory Adaptation
Sensory adaptation occurs when a repeated stimulus becomes normal.
Endorphins
Endorphins are neurotransmitters produced by the pituitary gland and released by pain, stress, or joyful activities. They relieve pain, regulate mood, and reward positive survival behaviors.
Hearing Impairment
Conductive hearing loss results from issues in the outer and middle ear, preventing sound from reaching the inner ear. Sensorineural hearing loss is caused by damage to the cochlea or the auditory nerve.
Taste
The sense of taste helps us decide what is safe to eat; bitterness was associated with toxicity.
Hallucinations and Delusions
Hallucinations are false sensory perceptions. Delusions are false beliefs.
Altered State of Consciousness
An altered state of consciousness is a temporary mental state differing from the typical waking state, involving changes in perception and emotions. Examples include sleep, dreams, meditation, hypnosis, and psychoactive drug use.
becomes associated with a natural stimulus. The conditioned response (CR) is a learned response to the CS.
Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
A primary reinforcer is a biologically necessary reward such as food. A secondary reinforcer is a conditioned reward.
Generalization
Generalization is applying a learned rule or concept to new and similar situations or stimuli.
Reinforcement Examples
Positive reinforcement involves adding a desirable stimulus, such as taking a child out for ice cream for getting a good grade. Negative reinforcement involves removing an aversive stimulus, such as taking an aspirin for a headache to remove the pain.
Punishment Examples
Positive punishment involves adding an aversive stimulus, such as spanking a child. Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus, such as taking away recess for doing poorly on assignments.
Schedules of Reinforcement
Fixed ratio involves reinforcement after a set number of responses. Variable ratio involves reinforcement after a changing number of responses. Fixed interval involves reinforcement after a set time. Variable interval involves reinforcement after a changing time.
Observational Learning
Observational learning occurs by watching others.
Memory Processing
Encoding is the initial learning by receiving sensory input. Storage is maintaining information (short term or long term). Retrieval is accessing the stored information.
Long-Term Memory
Long term memory is a stage of memory processing.
Retrieval Cues
Retrieval cues are stimuli that assist us in bringing forgotten long-term memories back into our conscious awareness.
Amnesia
Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new memories. Retrograde amnesia is the inability to retrieve memories from the past.
Morphemes and Phonemes
A morpheme is the smallest unit of a word that provides a specific meaning to a group of letters. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that changes the meaning.
Developmental Psychology
Developmental psychology is the study of age-related behavior from conception to death.
Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal Studies
Cross-sectional studies are quicker and cheaper, studying multiple variables at once, but struggle to establish cause and effect. Longitudinal studies can establish cause and effect and identify long-term trends but are expensive, time-consuming, and prone to biased results if participants drop out.
Teratogens
Teratogens are environmental agents that can cause damage to a fetus during pregnancy, such as drugs or alcohol.
Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development
The sensorimotor stage involves learning the world with senses and motor skills, developing schemas. The preoperational stage (2-7 years) employs language, with egocentrism and animism. The concrete operational stage (7-11 years) ties thinking to concrete things but lacks conservation understanding. The formal operational stage (11+) applies operations to abstract concepts and hypothetical situations.
Parenting Styles
Authoritative parents set and enforce firm limits, are highly involved, and emotionally supportive. Authoritarian parents are rigid and punitive, low on warmth and responsiveness.
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a theory of the human mind and a therapeutic practice, studying the unconscious human mind and bringing unconscious thoughts into consciousness.
Transference
Transference involves redirecting feelings, desires, and expectations from significant people in their past onto a therapist or authority figure.
Cognitive Processes
Cognitive processes include perception, attention, memory, language, problem-solving, and decision-making.
Behavior Therapy
The main focus of behavior therapy is to identify behaviors that restrict development or the lack of behaviors that help development.
