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Marina Florack
AP Psychology Mid-term Study Guide
Intro to Psychology
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Psychology: study of behavior and mental processes
Dualist: believe that the body and soul were separate
Monists: believe that the body and soul were one
William Wundt: 1879, 1st recognized psychological experiment
o Time lapse b/t hearing ball hit platform and pressing telegraph key
Structuralism
o Introspection: used to analyze the mind’s structural elements
Functionalism: consciousness developed as necessity of survival; how the mind
functions to help us adapt and survive
o Based on Darwin’s Natural Selection (evolution of mental processes through
natural selection)
Modern Psychology
o Neuroscience: body and brain’s influence on mental processes and behavior
o Evolutionary: evolution influences genetic development…
o Behavioral Genetics: genes and environment influence individual differences
o Psychodynamic: behavior springs from unconscious drives, conflicts
Psychological Research
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Hindsight bias: “I knew it all along”
Intuition: “Trust the Force within”
Overconfidence: Tend to be more confident than correct
Critical Thinking: Examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, and evaluates evidence
Research Strategies
o Theory: an explanations using an integrated set of principles that organizes and
predicts observations
o Hypothesis: a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
o Operational Definitions: A description of the specific procedure used to
determine the presence of a variable (a smile indicates happiness)
Correlational Methods
o Cause and effect relationship, not causation
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o Case Studies: observation technique, one person is studied in depth in the hope
of revealing universal principles
 Con: anecdotal cases
o Survey: self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, questioning a
representative, random sample of people
 Con: wording can impact the effectiveness of the survey
o Samples: the larger the sample size the more likely to represent the whole
 Random assignment- representative sampling which is equally available
to participants (ex. Computer generated list of every 5th person)
o Naturalistic Observation: observe subjects in their natural habitats w/o
interacting w/ them
 Con: control is sacrificed
o Experimenter Effects:
 Observer effect: changes in behavior due to awareness of a person or
animal being observed
 Observer Bias: observer sees what they expect to see or record only
selected details
 Anthropomorphic Fallacy: attributing human thoughts, feelings, or
motives to animals, especially as a way of explaining their behavior
 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: prediction that leads people to act in ways to
make the prediction come true
 False Consensus Effect: tendency to overestimate other’s agreement with
us
Experiment vs. Correlational Study
o Experiment: manipulates a factor to determine its effect
o Correlational Studies: uncover naturally occurring relationships
Experiments:
o Experimental Group: group that receives treatment
o Control Group: group that does not receive the treatment (placebo)
o Independent Variable: the factor manipulated (the cause)
o Dependant Variable: behavior or mental process that is measured in response to
the experiment (the effect)
o Confounding Variables: any difference b/t the experimental group and control
which affect the outcome (time, place, frequency, etc.)
o Controls:
 Placebos
 Double-blind procedure
 Random assigning
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Experiments aim to MANIPULATE an independent variable, MEASURE a dependent
variable, and CONTROL all other variables.
Good Research is…
o Valid: measures what the researcher set out to measure and is accurate
o Replication: measures reliability (ability to produce same results repeated times)
Statistics and Research
 Central Tendencies: a single score which represents a whole set of scores
o Mean:
 Average (most easily distorted by extreme scores)
o Median:
 Middle value
 Most representative
o Mode
 Most frequently occurring score
o Range
 Measure of variability
 Difference b/t the highest and lowest scores
o Standard Deviation
 Measure of variability
 How much values differ from the average score
 Bell curve
Neuroscience, Genetics and Behavior
 “Modern psychology views each individual as a biopsychosocial system.” Biological
states, and psychological states both affect, and the impact of your environment,
biological predispositions, and nurturing
 “Everything psychological is simultaneously biological.” Our thought processes,
emotions, behavior have a partial biological influence
 Neuron (nerve cell): basic unit info. Processing, building block of the brain (and nervous
system)
o Think, feel, move and breathe
 Dendrite: receives messages
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Axon: sends messages
Myelin Sheath: protects axon, speeds up transmission
o Wears out: Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis
Cell body: stores proteins to nourish transmission
Action Potential: neural impulse
o Stimulated when neuron receives signal of heat, pressure or light
o Generated by movement of positively charged atoms in and out of the axon’s
membrane
Threshold: all or nothing response in the action potential
Reuptake: extra neurotransmitters are sent back to the receptor site
Ions
o Neurons generate energy from them
o Resting potential
 Fluid inside axon is negatively charged
 Fluid outside axon is positively charged
o Axon’s surface is selectively permeable
Synapse: gap b/t the axon tip of sending neuron and dendrite or cell body of receiving
neuron
o Gap is called the synaptic gap
Neurtotransmitters: chemical messengers which cross synaptic gap b/t neurons
o Receptor sites: “lock and key”
o Acetylcholine: muscle action, learning and memory
 Alzheimer’s
o Dopamine: perceptual awareness, muscle control
 Schizophrenia
 Parkinson’s disease
o Serotonin: sleep, eating, mood
 Depression
 Prozac raises serotonin lvls
o Norepinephrine: mood
 Bipolar disorder, mania, depression
o Endorphins: pain control and pleasure
 “runners high”
 Natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters
Drugs:
o Agonists: excite, mimic neurotransmitter signal
o Antagonists: block, inhibit neurotransmitter signal
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Nervous System:
o Body’s electrochemical communication system
o Central Nervous System (CNS): brain and spinal cord
o Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): sensory and motor neurons connect the CNS
to the rest of the body
o Afferent Neurons: sensory, incoming info from sense receptors
o Efferent Neurons: motor, outgoing info from CNS to muscles and glands
o Interneurons: CNS neurons that internally communicate, process afferent and
efferent neurons (most complex)
Reflexes: don’t require the brain’s involvement
o Spinal reflex: autonomic, brain isn’t involved
o Pain reflex: simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus
Endocrine System
o Produces hormones
o Growth, mood, metabolism, reproduction
o Slower than CNS
o Pituitary Gland: growth, and release of hormones
o Adrenal Glands: heart rate, blood sugar, blood pressure
“Old Brain”
o Brainstem: automatic survival functions
o Medulla: heartbeat and breathing
o Reticular Formation: arousal and sleep
o Pons: coordinate movement
o Thalamus: sensory switchboard
o Cerebellum: coordinate voluntary movement and balance
Limbic System
o Emotions: fear and aggression, food and sex
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o Hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus
Hemispheres
o Right: spatial creative
o Left: language and logic
Cerebral Cortex: ultimate control and info. processing center
o Glial Cells: support, nourish and protect neurons
o Lobes:
 Frontal: speaking and muscle movement, judgment and logic
 Parietal: sensory cortex, touch
 Occipital: visual info. opposite visual field
 Temporal: hearing, auditory areas
o Motor Cortex: voluntary movement
o Sensory Cortex: registers and processes body sensations
o Broca’s Area: making speech
o Wernicke’s Area: language comprehension and expression
 Aphasia: language impairment
o Corpus Callosum: carries messages b/t hemispheres
o Split Brain:
 See what is in left hemisphere field of vision (right) verbalize
 Point to word in the right hemisphere field of vision (left)
Human Behavior
 Chromosomes are composed of DNA
o DNA are composed of Genes
o Gene Complexes: many genes acting in concert
o Genes: influence physical make-up, intelligence, aggressiveness, happiness
o Fraternal (dizygotic)
o Identical (monozygotic)
o Nurture Influences:
 Values, manners, faith/religion, political views, and social views
o Temperament remains consistent through life
o Evolutionary Psychology: natural selection shapes our behavior, and thinking
(over time)
o Pruning: neural connections, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”
o Influence Parents vs. Peers
 Parents: education, discipline, responsibility, orderliness, charitableness,
dealing with authority
 Peers: cooperation, popularity, styles of interaction
Developmental Psychology
 Zygote: fertilized egg
 Teratogens: toxic substances which can harm baby during prenatal development
 FAS: mental retardation, poor motor coordination, impaired attention, hyperactivity
 Newborn Reflexes:
o Rooting: open mouth when touched on cheek
o Grasping: grasp anything when put in hand
o Sucking: rhythmic sucking when mouth is touched
o Moro: if startled baby will making hugging motion
 Piaget’s COGNITIVE Development
o Schema: concepts which are developed over time
o Stages
o Sensorimotor:
 Assimilation: apply same concept to all things generally similar
 Accommodation: adapting schemas to incorporate new info.
o Preoperational:
 Theory of mind: understand another’s perspective, infer other’s feelings,
understand joke of tricks played on another
o Criticisms
 Stages more continuous
 Ages INACCURATE
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Harlow’s Monkeys
o Disproved attachment theory, nourishment is not the only way an infant
develops an attachment
o Secure attachment and insecure attachment
Parenting Styles:
o Authoritarian: impose rules and expect obedience, strict
o Permissive: few demands, little punishment
o Authoritative: demanding and responsive, provide explanations, open
discussions, and exceptions
Kohlberg’s MORAL Development
o Postconventional Level (self-defined morality)
 Morality of abstract principles; to affirm agreed-upon rights and personal
ethical principles
o Conventional Level (Early adolescence)
 Morality of law and social rules; to gain approval or avoid disapproval
o Preconventional Level (Up to age 9)
 Morality of self-interest; to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards
o Criticisms:
 Carol Gilligan: he only studied boys, women and men have different types
of morality
Erikson’s PsychoSOCIAL Development
Sensation and Perception
 Schema: first impression
 Sensation: what we sense and send to the brain
o Bottom-up Processing
 Perception: what the brain does with the sensory info.
o Top-Up Processing
 Prosopagnosia: “face blindness”
o Complete sensation but incomplete perception
 Absolute Threshold: min. stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time
 Difference Threshold: min. difference between two stimuli required for detection 50%
of the time (JND- just noticeable difference)
o Subliminal: stimulus below ones absolute threshold for conscious awarenesssubconscious
o Weber’s Law: two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage, AKA
different threshold is a ratio
 Sensory Adaptation: diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
 Vision:
o Transduction: conversion of one form of energy to another
o Accommodation: lens changes to help focus objects on the retina
o Optic Nerve: rope-like axons fro ganglion cells, carries info from eye to the brain
o Blind spot
o Fovea: central point in the retina, where the cones cluster
 Parallel Processing: simultaneous processing of several aspects of visual stimulus
(different parts of cortex integrate all info at once to form perception)
 Tri-chromatic Theory: red, green, blue
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Opponent Process Theory: opposing retinal processes enable color vision (“ON” &
“OFF”)
Audition
o Frequency: number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
o Pitch: High freq.= high pitch/ low=low
o Wave to Sound
 Outer Ear: Channels sounds wave through auditory canal to eardrum
 Middle Ear: Vibrations pass through piston (hammer, anvil, stirrup) piston
concentrates vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window
 Eardrum: basilar membrane converts wave to vibrations
 Inner Ear
 Cochlea: converts vibrations into neural activity (vibration =
ripples in basilar membrane fluid)
 Bending hair cells = auditory neural impulse
o Discerning Pitch
 Place Theory: specific places along basilar membrane match a tone with a
particular pitch
 Frequency Theory: rate of sound wave = rate of neural impulses to the
brain
o Conduction Hearing Loss: caused by damage to the mechanical system that
conducts sound wave to the cochlea
o Nerve Hearing Loss: damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory
nerve
o Tinnitus: damage to auditory ear (ring in ears)
o Cochlear Implants: stimulates sites on auditory nerve for those w/ nerve
deafness
Touch
o Pressure: only sensation identifiable w/ skin receptors
o Pain: “no brain, no pain”
 Gate-Control Theory: Small nerve fibers open gate, large nerve fibers
close gate
Taste
o Taste Sensations
 Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, Umami (meaty)
o Sensory Interaction: one sense may influence another
 Synaesthesia: joining of senses, one sense stimulates another
o Place theory outdate for tongue: Taste is comprehensive all over tongue
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Smell
o Olfaction
 Chemical sense
 Body Position and Movement (Sensorimotor Coordination)
o Kinesthesis: sensing position and movement of individual body parts
o Vestibular Sense: sense of balance
 Inner ear: semicircular canals, vestibular sacs = fluid = hair-like receptors
= impulse to cerebellum
States of Consciousness
 Stage 1
o Few minutes, only experience it once
o Theta waves
o “hallucinations”
 Stage 2
o More theta waves
o Sleep spindles, short bursts of rapid brain waves
 Stages 3 and 4
o 3: intro. To deep sleep
o Slow wave sleep
o Delta waves
o Restoring body’s growth hormones
o Genital arousal
 REM!!!
o Paradoxical sleep
o Very active brain
o Dreams usually occur in REM
o Essentially paralyzed
o Rapid heart rate and breathing
 Sleep Disorders
o Insomnia: persistent problems falling asleep
o Narcolepsy: Sleeplessness and may fall asleep at unpredictable or inappropriate
times, directly into REM
o Sleep Apnea: stops breathing while sleeping
o Night Terrors: wake up screaming and have no idea why
o Somnambulism: sleep walking (stage 4)
 Dreams
o Manifest Content: storyline
o Latent Content: underlying meaning
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o Activation-Synthesis Theory: cerebral cortex is trying to interpret random
electrical activity we have while sleeping
o Info.-Processing Theory: dreams are a way to deal with the stresses of everyday
life
Hypnosis
o Social interaction between one person who suggests to another that certain
perceptions, feelings, and thoughts will spontaneously occur
o Posthypnotic suggestion
o Posyhypnotic amnesia
o Role Theory vs. State Theory
 Role: not altered state of consciousness
 Social phenomenon
 State: is altered state of consciousness
 Dramatic health benefits
 Works best on pain
o Dissociation Theory: We voluntarily divide our consciousness up
Drugs:
o If a drug is used often enough a TOLERANCE is created
o Neuroadaptation: brain adapts chemistry to offset drug’s effect
Learning
 Pavlov: classical conditioning Stimuli
o US: unlearned (food)
o UR: (salivation)
o NS: bell paired with the food to form association
o CS: (bell)
o Acquisition: learning, respond to CS w/o US
o Extinction: to unlearn behavior, present CS w/o US
o Spontaneous Recovery: reappearance of CR upon presentation of CS
 Renewal effect: reappearance of CR after extinction when returning to
environment where acquisition took place
o Generalization: stimulus similar to CS elicits a CR
o Discrimination: distinguish b/t various stimuli
 Watson: aversive conditioning
o Second/higher order conditioning: CS elicits a CR, the CS can be used to
condition a response to a new stimulus (Bell paired w/ light)
 Skinner: operant conditioning Consequences
o Reinforcement: consequence that increase likelihood of behavior
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 Positive R = adds something pleasant
 Negative R = removes something unpleasant
Punishment: consequence that decreases likelihood of behavior
 Positive Punishment = adds something negative
 Negative Punishment (omission training) = removes something pleasant
Shaping: reinforcing the steps
Chaining: reinforcing a number of separate behaviors for a more complex activity
Primary reinforcers: natural reinforcers
Secondary reinforcers: learned to value
Reinforcement Schedules: pattern of reinforcing behavior
 Fixed Ration = reinforcement after set number of responses
 Variable Ratio = reinforcement after varied number of responses
 Fixed Interval = fixed amount of time set before reward for behavior
 Variable Interval = varied amount of time before reward
Observational Learning:
 Imitation
 Prosocial behavior: role modeling
 Antisocial behavior: bobo doll experiment
Latent learning (“hidden”)
 Learning that isn’t directly observable
 Rats and varied rewards
Insight Learning: “aha”
Abstract Learning: higher order thinking (inferring relationships, complex
problem solving)
Memory
 Three Stage Processing Model
o Sensory Memory (working memory)
o Short-Term Memory
o Long-Term Memory
 Sensory Memory: immediate initial recording of sensory info. in memory system
o Iconic (split second photograph)
o Echoic (split second sound(s))
 Encoding
o Automatic and Effortful
 Memories do NOT reside in a single specific spot of our brain