Psychology 101: Key Concepts and Research Methods, Exams of Psychology

Download Psychology 101: Key Concepts and Research Methods and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Psychology 101 Final Exam Variables - the events, characteristics, behaviors, or conditions that researchers measure and study. subject or participant - an individual person or animal a researcher studies. Sample - a collection of subjects researchers study. Researchers use samples because they cannot study the entire population. Population - the collection of people or animals from which researchers draw a sample. Researchers study the sample and generalize their results to the population. The Purpose of Research - -To find ways to measure and describe behavior -To understand why, when, and how events occur -To apply this knowledge to solving real-world problems The scientific method - a standardized way of making observations, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results. A theory - an explanation that organizes separate pieces of information in a coherent way. replicable - when others can repeat an experiment and get the same results. hypothesis - a testable prediction of what will happen given a certain set of conditions. naturalistic observation - researchers collect information about subjects by observing them unobtrusively, without interfering with them in any way. case study - The researcher collects data about the subject through interviews, direct observation, psychological testing, or examination of documents and records about the subject. survey - a way of getting information about a specific type of behavior, experience, or event. When using this method, researchers give people questionnaires or interview them to obtain information. experiment - a researcher manipulates or changes a particular variable under controlled conditions while observing resulting changes in another variable or variables. Occam's razor - maintains that researchers should apply the simplest explanation possible to any set of observations. correlation - measurement of the strength of the relationship between two variables reliability - if a test produces the same result when researchers administer it to the same group of people at different times, it has reliability. spinal cord - connects the brain to the rest of the body spinal reflexes - which are automatic behaviors that require no input from the brain. peripheral nervous system. - The peripheral nervous system has two parts: the somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system. somatic nervous system - consists of nerves that connect the central nervous system to voluntary skeletal muscles and sense organs. autonomic nervous system - consists of nerves that connect the central nervous system to the heart, blood vessels, glands, and smooth muscles Glial cells - make up the support structure of the nervous system, perform four functions: -Provide structural support to the neurons -Insulate neurons -Nourish neurons -Remove waste products neurons - the communicators of the nervous system. Neurons receive information, integrate it, and pass it along soma - Cell body of a neuron dendrite - receive information from other neurons or from sense organs. Axons - send information to other neurons, to muscle cells, or to gland cells myelin sheath - A fatty coating covering segments on the outside of an Axon synapse - The junction between an axon of one neuron and the cell body or dendrite of a neighboring neuron action potential - For a limited time, there are more positively charged ions inside than in the resting state. This creates an action potential, which is a short-lived change in electric charge inside the neuron. medulla - lies next to the spinal cord and controls functions outside conscious. thalamus - a sensory way station. All sensory information except smell-related data must go through the thalamus on the way to the cerebrum. hypothalamus - lies under the thalamus and helps to control the pituitary gland and the autonomic nervous system. limbic system - includes the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the septum cerebrum - the biggest part of the brain, controls complex processes such as abstract thought and learning. endocrine system - made up of hormone-secreting glands, also affects communication inside the body Hormones - chemicals that help to regulate bodily functions. Circadian rhythms - biological cycles that occur about every twenty-four hours. Sleep follows a circadian rhythm. Hormone secretion, blood pressure, body temperature, and urine production also have circadian rhythms. Sleep Stages - There are five distinct stages of sleep in each cycle: 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM sleep apnea - People who have sleep apnea stop breathing many times during a night's sleep, and each time they stop breathing, they wake up briefly and gasp for air. classical conditioning - also called "respondent conditioning" or "Pavlovian conditioning," a subject comes to respond to a neutral stimulus as he would to another, nonneutral stimulus by learning to associate the two stimuli. Extinction - focuses on what words look like. For instance, one might note whether words are long or short, in uppercase or lowercase, or handwritten or typed. Phonemic encoding - focuses on how words sound. Semantic encoding - focuses on the meaning of words. Sensory memory - stores incoming sensory information in detail but only for an instant. The capacity of sensory memory is very large, but the information in it is unprocessed. If a flashlight moves quickly in a circle inside a dark room, people will see a circle of light rather than the individual points through which the flashlight moved. iconic memory - Visual sensory memory echoic memory - auditory sensory memory short-term memory - has a limited capacity: it can store about seven pieces of information, plus or minus two pieces. Can be repeated to form long-term memory Chunking - combines small bits of information into bigger, familiar pieces. Long-term memory - information in long-term memory usually stays there for the duration of a person's life. Retrieval - the process of getting information out of memory. priming - recalling a particular word becomes easier if another, related word is recalled first. implicit memory - unconscious retention of information Explicit memory - conscious, intentional remembering of information. Declarative memory - recall of factual information such as dates, words, faces, events, and concepts. Procedural memory - recall of how to do things such as swimming or driving a car. Semantic memory - recall of general facts episodic memory - recall of personal facts Retention - is the proportion of learned information that is retained or remembered—the flip side of forgetting Recall - remembering without any external cues Recognition - identifying learned information using external cues. decay theory - memory fades with time. Interference theory - has a better account of why people lose long-term memories. According to this theory, people forget information because of interference from other learned information. Retroactive interference - happens when newly learned information makes people forget old information. Proactive interference - happens when old information makes people forget newly learned information. repression - pushing unpleasant or intolerable thoughts and feelings deep into their unconscious schema - a mental model of an object or event that includes knowledge as well as beliefs and expectations misinformation effect - occurs when people's recollections of events are distorted by information given to them after the event occurred. hindsight bias -