Researchers, Experiments, Theories, & Other Important Info

AP Psych – Geraci 2014

AP Psychology Review

Researchers, Experiments, Theories, & Other Important Info

Perspectives

ü Structuralism – William Wundt & Edward Titchener

--attempted to determine the elemental structure of the mind

--trained people to use introspection to look inward and report elements of their experiences

ü Functionalism – William James (wrote The Principles of Psychology – still used today)

--focused on how mental & behavioral processes function

ü Behaviorism – Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson (established the first school of behaviorism), BF Skinner

--behavior mainly determined by an organism’s experiences and its environment rather than by genetics

ü Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Approach

--Concerned with how unconscious instincts, conflicts, motives, and defenses influence one’s

behavior.

--Sigmund Freud: Father of Psychoanalysis – treated patients with mental disorders by talking with them over long periods of time to reveal unconscious conflicts, motives, and defenses in order to enhance patients’ self-knowledge. He believed that early life experiences were important to personality development.

--Other well-known psychoanalysts include Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, and Heinz Kohur

ü Humanistic Approach

--Asserts humans have unique qualities different from other animals

--humanistic pioneers such as Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow emphasized that free will and the potential for personal growth influence human behavior and mental processes.

ü Biological Approach

--Concerned with the physiological and biological factors that determine behavior and mental processes.

ü Evolutionary Approach

--An offshoot of the biological approach; takes a Darwinian view and emphasizes how natural selection favored behaviors that contributed to survival and the spread of our ancestors’ genes.

ü Gestalt (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts)

-- Emphasizes the organization process in behavior. Focuses on problem of perception

Research

ü Types of Research

· Correlational Research

· Case Study

· Survey (questionnaires, interviews)

· Natural Observation (field studies)

· Experimental Method ( controlled experiment - cause and effect)

-- Independent Variable (IV): the factor that changes in the experiment.

--Dependent Variable (DV): the mental process or behavior that is being measured.

--Sample Size: should be random and large to minimize effects of genetic variations. This population should be randomly assigned to the experimental & control groups to minimize the effects of individual variations between the 2 groups

--Quasi Experimental Research: Similar to controlled experiments, however, participants are NOT randomly assigned. Due to confounding variables, results CANNOT establish cause and effect, but they can point researchers in the “right” direction.

· Descriptive Statistics

-- Frequency distribution: orderly arrangement of scores that reflect the frequency of a score or groups of scores usually illustrated in a histogram (bar graph of frequency distributions) or a frequency polygon (line graph)

--Nominal Scale: numbers used to name something

--Ordinal Scale: numbers than can be ranked (1st highest, 2nd highest etc…)

--Interval Scale: when there is a meaningful difference between each of the numbers

--Ratio Scale: a meaningful ratio can be made with two numbers (has a real or absolute zero)

--Measures of Central Tendency: median, mode, mean

--Frequency Distributions:

--Normal Distribution:

· Correlations (do NOT imply cause and effect)

-- Standard or z score: standardized score that indicates how many standard deviations a data point is from the mean.

-- Percentile Score: indicates the percentage of scores at or below a particular score

-- Correlation Coefficient (r): measures the degree of association between two sets of data.

range between -1 and + 1 where -1 = indirect relationship; +1= direct relationship;

0 = no relationship

--Scatterplots:

· Inferential Statistics: used to interpret data & draw conclusions

-- Statistical significance(p): measure of the likelihood that the difference between two

groups results from a real difference rather than just from chance where p < 0.05

Neuroscience and Behavior

ü Brain: housed in skull, protective covering – meninges, base connected to spinal cord, composed of interneurons

ü Spinal cord: starts at base of skull, protected by meninges & bony vertebrae of spinal column, composed of interneurons and glial cells

ü Glial cells: surround interneurons and hold them in place, supply nutrients and oxygen, form insulating sheaths that speed conduction, destroy and remove dead neurons

ü Structure of a neuron: impulses electrochemical in nature

--travel in one direction, from dendrites to terminal branches

--myelin sheath & nodes of Ranvier speed salutatory conduction of impulse down the axon

ü Conduction of an Impulse: --Resting Potential: the fluid interior of a resting neuron has an excess of negatively charged ions while the fluid on the outside of the axon has an excess of positively charged ions.

--Action Potential: a neural impulse (brief electrical charge that moves down the axon as a result of an exchange of ions)

--Threshold: the level of stimulation required to trigger an action potential

--Depolarization: More sodium gates open and sodium ions move into the interior of the axon. This part of the axon now has a greater positive charge inside the axon relative to the outside. This causes the next sodium gate to open, moving the impulse rapidly down the axon

--Repolarization: As the action potential moves swiftly down the axon, the potassium channels of the first section open, allowing K+ ions to move out of the cell. This causes a change in electrical charge back to the resting potential

--Refractory Period: time it takes for a neuron to regain resting potential and have the ability to fire again

--All-or-none response: either the neuron reaches threshold & fires or it does not

--Intensity of a stimulus : detected by MORE

neurons firing at once and firing MORE OFTEN

ü Terminal Buttons & Neurotransmitters

--At the end of terminal branches are terminal buttons,

which contain vesicles that manufacture neurotransmitters

that carry the impulse across the synapse, binding to

receptor sites on the dendrites of the adjacent neuron,

influencing whether this next neuron will fire or not.

--Reuptake: sending neuron reabsorbs excess

neurotransmitter molecules left in the synaptic gap.

--see handout for summary of common

neurotransmitters and functions

ü Neurotransmitters & Drugs

--Antagonists: inhibit or block the receptor sites preventing the neurotransmitters from binding to the receptor sites.

--Agonists: mimic neurotransmitters, binding to its receptor sites producing similar effects of the neurotransmitter.

ü Reflex Arc: sensory (afferent) neurons received the stimulus from your sensory receptors to the spinal cord which immediately responds with an inborn protective response to the motor (efferent) neurons to react.

--At the same time, the sensory receptors send the stimulus to the brain for further interpretation and response.

ü Neuron Networks: The brain is made up of clusters of neurons that connect with other neural networks to perform various tasks

ü Endocrine System: A second communication system made up of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream

--see summary chart handout of hormones and their functions

ü Triune Brain: One model of evolution with respect to the brain; 3 major divisions with overlapping layers; the most resent neural systems nearest the front and the top

--The reptilian brain: maintains homeostasis and instinctive behaviors, roughly corresponds to the brainstem (hindbrain).

--The old mammalian brain: corresponds to the limbic system, including the thalamus, hypothalamus, septum, hippocampus, amygdala, and the cingulate cortex

-- The new mammalian brain or neocortex (cerebral cortex): accounts for about 80% of the brain volume and associated with high functions of judgment, abstract thought, decision making, language and computing, foresight, insight, hindsight, sensation and perception.

ü Brainstem: medulla oblongata, pons, reticular formation (see brain function handout)

--oldest part of the brain, begins where the spinal cord enters the base of the skull

-- Responsible for automatic survival functions (smooth involuntary muscle action such as heart rate, pulse, digestion, diaphragm).

--crossover point where most nerves to/from brain connect with the opposite side of the body

ü Thalamus: receives messages from all the senses except for smell, routes them to the brain’s regions that deal with seeing, hearing, tasting, and touching. Also receives some of the cortex’s interpretations or replies and directs these messages to the cerebellum and medulla.

ü Cerebellum: Extends from the rear of the brainstem, ball-shaped, and wrinkled, coordinates voluntary movement and balance, storage of implicit memories, may also help us to judge time, modulate our emotions, and discriminate sounds and texture.

ü Limbic System: made up of the:

--Hippocampus: processing & storage of long-term memory

--Amygdala: 2 lima bean shaped clusters that influence fear & aggression as well as other emotions

--Hypothalamus: thirst, hunger, sex drive, temperature, pleasure center, inked to pleasurable awards. Also the only part of the brain that secretes hormones which influence the pituitary gland and its secretions.

ü Cerebral Hemispheres:

--Cerebral Cortex: protective covering the cerebrum

-- Frontal Lobes: lie just behind the forehead, involved in speaking, muscle movements, making plans, and judgments.

--Parietal Lobes: lie at the top of the head behind the frontal lobes; involved with sensory input for touch and body position

--Occipital Lobes: lie to the back of the head; includes visual areas, which receive visual information from the opposite visual field

--Temporal Lobes: lie roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each of which receives auditory information primarily from the opposite ear.

--Motor Cortex: the area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movement

§ Contralateral function: when tissue of the motor cortex is stimulated on the left hemisphere, the right body part responds (same for the right motor cortex)

§ In the motor cortex, the brain devotes more tissue area to sensitive body parts and to areas requiring precise control (also true for the sensory cortex)

--Sensory Cortex: the area in the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.

--Visual Cortex: receives visual input from the retina.

--Auditory Cortex: receives input from the ear on the opposite side of the brain.

ü Association Areas : involved in higher metal functions such as learning, remembering, thinking and speaking. Found in all four lobes:

-- frontal lobes: play and executive role in judgment, planning, & processing of new memories.

--parietal lobes: mathematical and spatial reasoning.

--temporal lobes: A small area on the underside is involved in the recognition of faces.

ü Left hemisphere: critical for speaking, writing, arithmetic reasoning, and understanding.

--Broca’s Area: controls language expression, located in the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere. Directs the muscle movements involved in speech

--Wernicke’s Area: controls language reception, usually located in the left temporal lobe. Involved in language comprehension and expression

--Angular Gyrus: near Wernicke’s area, receives information from the visual cortex and recodes it into an auditory form so

Wernicke’s area can decipher its meaning.

--Aphasia: impairment of language, usually in the left hemisphere.

§ Damage to the Broca’s area disrupts the ability to speak (but not necessarily singing)

§ Damage to the Wernicke’s area impairs understanding of language.

ü Corpus Callosum: a large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres that carries messages between them.

--Split Brain: a condition in which the two hemispheres of the brain are isolated by cutting the corpus callosum and other connecting fibers between them (usually done with severe epileptics

--Information from the left half of your field of vision goes to your right hemisphere and information from the right half of your field of vision goes to your left hemisphere.

The data received by either hemisphere is quickly transmitted to the other side via the corpus callosum.

--In a split brain patient (severed corpus callosum, this information sharing does not take place.

--Hemispheric Specialization: also known as lateralization.

--Split brain research confirms that the left hemisphere is more verbal and the right hemisphere excels in visual perceptions and the recognition of emotion.

Nature, Nurture, and Genetics

ü Heredity:

--DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): contains the genetic code in the sequence of its nitrogenous bases for the synthesis of proteins.

--Genes: composed of DNA and carry the genetic code for a specific trait or characteristic

--Chromosomes: threadlike structures made up of genes and proteins

--Genome: the complete genetic instructions of an organism, consists of all the genes and their genetic material found on the organism’s chromosomes.

--Trait: a genetically determined characteristic; controlled by a pair of genes (one from mom and one from dad)

--Gene Complexes: a group of genes which are responsible for the expression of a given trait.

--Heritability: the proportion of variation among s given group of individuals in a trait that is attributable to genetic factors.

--Human Sex Chromosomes: Male: XY – Female XX

--Gametes: sperm and egg each contain 23 chromosomes.

--Zygote: when a sperm fertilizes and egg, restoring the human chromosome number to 46.

--In the mother’s womb, the male fetus is exposed to testosterone which leads to the development of male genitalia. If low levels of testosterone are released in the uterus, the result is a female.

--MZ twins = monozygotic (identical ) twins, 1 egg, 1 sperm

--DZ twins = dizygotic (fraternal) twins, 2 eggs, 2 sperm

ü Adoption studies: Adoptees' traits bear more similarities to their biological parents than to their care-giving adoptive parents.

--However, research does indicate that adoptive parents do influence attitudes, values, faith, manners, & politics.

ü In a changing environment, sexual reproduction and mutations are the two sources of variations that can lead to genetic changes and alterations in inherited traits

--Males pass their genes to future generations by mating with multiple youthful and fertile

appearing females, where females look for maturity, dominance, affluence, and boldness in male mates.

ü Research Findings:

--young rats living in enriched environments develop a thicker and heavier brain cortex than those in impoverished environments.

--home influences account for less than 10 percent of siblings’ personality differences

ü Culture: the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.

--Individualistic Culture: nurtures an individual’s personal identity

--Collectivist Culture: the individual identity is the same as the group identity

ü Gender roles: our expectations of the way men and women should behave

ü Gender Identity: our sense of being male or female.

--Social learning theory: assumes that children learn gender-linked behaviors by observing and imitating

significant others and by being rewarded and punished.

--Gender schema theory: assumes that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be