RAPID REVIEW CHP.1 HISTORY AND RESEARCH

▼RAPID REVIEW CHP.1 HISTORY AND RESEARCH
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The goals of psychology
are to describe, explain, predict, and control the behaviors and mental process of both humans
and animals. Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Germany in 1879,
using the method of objective introspection in an attempt to study human thought processes.
Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt’s, expanded Wundt’s ideas and brought the method of
introspection to the United States, calling his approach structuralism. William James was
focused on discovering how our mental processes help us to function in our daily lives and
began to promote his viewpoint known as functionalism. Gestalt psychologists were studying
how sensation and perception create a pattern that is greater than the sum of the individual
components. Sigmund Freud developed his theory of psychoanalysis, assigning a primary role
to the unconscious. John Watson expanded the findings of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, to
promote the perspective of behaviorism. Today eight major perspectives make up the field of
psychology: psychodynamic, behavioral, humanistic, biological, cognitive, sociocultural,
biopsychosocial, and evolutionary. The field of psychology offers a range of professional
opportunities, many based on direct practice. For example, psychiatrists, psychoanalysts, and
psychiatric social workers provide varying forms of mental health care with varying
specializations and training. Psychologists might also perform clinical work, but can specialize
in many other areas and work in many different settings.
Psychologists, like all scientists, use the scientific method. Specific research techniques
include naturalistic observation, participant observation, case studies, surveys, and
strategies that take a correlational approach. In an experiment, the researcher manipulates an
independent variable and measures some response from the participants on the dependent
variable. In order to accomplish this, the researcher usually observes two groups: an
experimental group and a control group. The researcher will most likely use random
assignment to determine which participants will go into which group. Often, the control group
receives a bogus treatment in order to control for the placebo effect. Normally, the participants
are not told which group they are in (single-blind study). In order to control for any
expectations the experimenter might have (the experimenter effect) the study might be
designed so that neither the participants nor the experimenter know who is in which group
(double-blind study). Relying on the scientific method can help foster a more general attitude
of critical thinking.
▼RAPID REVIEW CHP.2 BIOLOGICAL
The nervous system is composed of a complex network of cells throughout the body. The cells
in the nervous system that carry information are called neurons. Information enters at the
dendrites, flows through the cell body (or soma) and down the axon. Although neurons are the
cells that carry the information, most of the nervous system consists of glial cells, that provide
food, support, and insulation to the neuron cells. The insulation around the neuron is called
myelin and works in a way similar to the plastic coating on an electrical wire. Bundles of myelincoated axons are wrapped together in cable-like structures called nerves. The movement of an
electrical signal across a neuron is called an action potential. A neuron fires in an all-or-none
manner: The neuron either has an action potential or it does not. When the electrical signal
travels down the axon and reaches the other end of the neuron called the axon terminal, it
causes the neurotransmitters in the synaptic vesicles to be released into the fluid-filled
synapse between the two cells.
The central nervous system (CNS) is made up of the brain and the spinal cord. Afferent
(sensory) neurons send information from the senses to the spinal cord, whereas efferent
(motor) neurons send commands from the spinal cord to the muscles. Interneurons connect
sensory and motor neurons and help to coordinate the signals. The peripheral nervous
system (PNS) is made up of all the nerves and neurons that are NOT in the brain or spinal
cord, and is divided into two parts — the somatic nervous system and the autonomic
nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is in turn divided into two parts: the
sympathetic division and the parasympathetic division.
Two techniques used to study the brain involve either destroying a specific area of the brain
(lesioning) or stimulating a specific brain area (electrical stimulation of the brain or ESB) to
see the effect. Researchers have developed several methods to observe the structure and
activity of a living brain, such as CT scan, MRI, EEG, PET, fMRI, or TMS.
The brain can be roughly divided into three sections: the forebrain, the midbrain, and the
hindbrain. The many structures within each division are discussed, such as the brainstem,
medulla, reticular formation, limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus,
amygdala, cortex, cerebral hemispheres, corpus callosum, occipital lobes, parietal lobes,
temporal lobes, and frontal lobes. Association areas are the areas within each of the lobes
that are responsible for ―making sense‖ of all the incoming information. Broca’s area is located
in the left frontal lobe and Wernicke’s area is located in the left temporal lobe; both play a role
in language. The cerebrum is made up of the two cerebral hemispheres and the structures
connecting them. Split-brain research helped scientists understand that the two cerebral
hemispheres are not identical.
The endocrine glands represent a second communication system in the body. The endocrine
glands secrete chemicals called hormones directly into the bloodstream. The pituitary gland is
located in the brain and secretes the hormones that control milk production, salt levels, and the
activity of other glands. The pineal gland is also located in the brain and regulates the sleep
cycle through the secretion of melatonin. The thyroid gland is located in the neck and releases
a hormone that regulates metabolism. The pancreas controls the level of blood sugar in the
body, whereas the gonad sex glands—called the ovaries in females and the testes in males —
regulate sexual behavior and reproduction. The adrenal glands play a critical role in regulating
the body’s response to stress.
Mirror neurons, neurons that fire when we perform an action and also when we see someone
else perform that action, may explain a great deal of the social learning that takes place in
humans from infancy on.
▼RAPID REVIEW CHP.3 SENSATION AND PERCEPTION
Sensation allows us to receive information from the world around us. External stimuli activate
sensory receptors which convert the stimulus into an electrochemical message that our
nervous system can understand. This process is called sensory transduction. Ernst Weber and
Gustav Fechner were two pioneers in the study of sensory thresholds. Weber studied the
smallest difference between two stimuli that a person could detect 50 percent of the time; the
just noticeable difference (jnd). Fechner investigated the lowest level of a stimulus that a
person could detect 50 percent of the time; the absolute threshold. Habituation and sensory
adaptation are two methods our body uses to ignore unchanging information.
There are three psychological aspects to our experience of light: Brightness, color, and
saturation. Light travels through the vitreous humor in the middle of the eyeball to reach the
retina. The eye contains two types of sensory receptors, rods and cones. The place where the
information from the rods and cones leaves the eye is called the blind spot because there are
no visual receptors there to receive information. The trichromatic theory and the opponentprocess theory are two account of how color vision works.
Our sense of hearing is activated by the vibrations of molecules in the air. We respond to three
features of sound waves: pitch, volume, and timbre. Sound waves enter our auditory system
through the pinna, travel down the auditory canal, and then vibrate the eardrum which causes
the hammer, anvil, and stirrup to vibrate. The vibrations of the stirrup cause the oval window to
move back and forth which causes the fluid in the cochlea to vibrate. The fluid causes the
basilar membrane to vibrate which causes the organ of Corti to move up, and this causes the
hair cells to bend. The hair cells are the sensory receptors of the auditory system, and the
movement of the hair cells triggers an action potential. There are three theories that explain how
the brain receives information about pitch: place theory, frequency theory, and the volley
principle.
The sense of taste, or gustation, is activated by chemicals that dissolve in the mouth. The
sense of smell, or olfaction, is also a chemical sense. The sense of touch is actually composed
of several sensations and is more accurately referred to as the somesthetic senses; skin,
kinesthetic, and vestibular. The skin contains at least six different types of sensory receptors
and transmits information about touch, pressure, temperature, and pain. The currently accepted
theory about pain is called gate-control theory and suggests that pain information is regulated
by a number of factors in the brain and spinal cord.
Perception is the interpretation of sensation and seems to follow some basic principles, such
as perceptual constancies in size, shape, and brightness. Gestalt psychologists hold that
people interpret information according to certain expected patterns or rules, such as figureground relationships, closure, similarity, continuity, contiguity, proximity, and common
region. Depth perception appears to be present at a very early age. Visual cues for depth that
require the use of one eye are referred to as monocular cues and include linear perspective,
relative size, overlap or interposition, aerial perspective, texture gradient, motion parallax,
and accommodation. Visual cues that use two eyes are called binocular cues and include
convergence and binocular disparity. An illusion is a perception that does not correspond to
reality. Perceptions can be influenced by perceptual sets or expectancies.
▼RAPID REVIEW CHP. 4 CONSCIOUSNESS
Consciousness is defined as a person’s awareness of the world around him or her. Altered
states of consciousness describe a shift in the quality or pattern of a person’s awareness.
The sleep–wake cycle is a circadian rhythm, meaning one cycle takes about a day to
complete. The cycle is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) located in the
hypothalamus. Sleep deprivation results in an increase in microsleeps, concentration
problems, and an inability to perform simple tasks. Sleep has been divided into two different
types, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep. A large number of disorders
are associated with sleep, such as sleepwalking, night terrors, insomnia, sleep apnea, and
narcolepsy.
Several theories have been proposed to explain why dreams occur. Sigmund Freud believed that
dreams represented our unconscious thoughts and desires. He called the actual content of a dream
the manifest content and the real meaning of the dream the latent content. The activationsynthesis hypothesis was originally proposed by Hobson and McCarley and suggests that dreams
occur when the cerebral cortex attempts to fit together (or synthesize) random neural input from the
lower brain structures.
Hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which a person is especially susceptible to suggestion.
One theory of hypnosis proposed by Ernst Hilgard suggests that the hypnotized person is in a
state of dissociation with one part of the brain unaware of the activities happening under
hypnosis and another part aware and simply watching what is happening, much like a hidden
observer. The social-cognitive theory of hypnosis posits that people who are hypnotized are
not in an altered state but are simply playing the role they feel is expected of them in the
situation.
A psychoactive drug is any drug that alters a person’s thinking, perception, or memory.
Physical dependence on a drug occurs when the user’s body does not function normally
without the drug. Two signs of physical dependence are drug tolerance and symptoms of
withdrawal when deprived of the drug. Psychological dependence occurs when a drug is
needed to maintain a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being. Psychoactive drugs can
be classified into major categories including stimulants, depressants, narcotics, and
hallucinogens.
▼RAPID REVIEW CHP. 5 LEARNING
Learning is the process that allows us to adapt to the changing conditions of the environment. It
is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice. Ivan
Pavlov discovered one of the simplest forms of learning called classical conditioning, and
advanced our understanding of concepts such as the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR. Stimulus
acquisition, stimulus generalization, stimulus discrimination, extinction, spontaneous
recovery, and higher-order conditioning are other elements in classical conditioning. John
Watson demonstrated conditional emotional responses with Little Albert and his learned
phobia of white rats. Vicarious conditioning, conditioned taste aversions, biological
preparedness, and stimulus substitution are all nuanced elements of classical conditioning
that have been discovered since the initial investigations of this type of learning. Contemporary
psychologists adopt the cognitive perspective, which argues that the CS must provide some
information about the upcoming UCS, and that it is this expectancy that causes the association
to occur.
Operant conditioning is a type of learning more strongly associated with voluntary behavior
and is based on Edward Thorndike’s work with cats in a puzzle box. B.F. Skinner expanded on
Thorndike’s law of effect and coined the term operant conditioning for this type of learning.
Reinforcement is a consequence that is pleasurable and strengthens the response that came
before it. Primary reinforcers satisfy basic needs and don’t need to be learned. Secondary
reinforcers get their reinforcing power through prior associations with a primary reinforcer and
thus are learned. Continuous reinforcement occurs when a reinforcer is presented after every
response, whereas partial reinforcement occurs when a reinforcer is given after some, but not
all, of the correct responses. The timing of partial reinforcement is referred to as the schedule
of reinforcement. Punishment, on the other hand, decreases the likelihood of a response.
Typically punishment only temporarily suppresses the response. Shaping involves the use of
operant conditioning to reward successive approximations until the desired response is
obtained. Various types of behavior modification strategies have been applied to solving realworld problems.
Cognitive learning theorists focus on the mental processes that occur during learning. Latent
learning, learned helplessness, and insight are examples. Observational learning refers to
the learning of a new behavior by observing someone else who is performing that behavior.
Albert Bandura argued that four elements were needed for observational learning to occur:
attention, memory, imitation, and motivation.
▼RAPID REVIEW CHP. 10 STRESS AND HEALTH
Health psychology focuses on how physical activities, psychological traits, and social
relationships affect overall health. Stress is the physical, emotional, cognitive, and
behavioral responses to events that are perceived as threatening or challenging, and
can take the form of distress or eustress. The events that cause stress are called
stressors and can be either internal or external events, such as catastrophes,
hassles, pressure, uncontrollability, and frustration. Conflict is another source of
stress and occurs when a person feels pulled toward two or more goals but can only
achieve one of them. Approach-approach conflict occurs when an individual is
attempting to choose between two desirable goals. Avoidance-avoidance conflict
occurs when someone must choose between two undesirable goals. Approachavoidance conflict describes a single goal that has both desirable and undesirable
outcomes. An individual faced with two options in which each option has positive and
negative aspects is dealing with a double approach-avoidance conflict. If there are
more than two options, the conflict is called a multiple approach-avoidance conflict.
Hans Selye was a pioneer in the study of the physical consequences of exposure to
stressors, and proposed the general adaptation syndrome, consisting of alarm,
resistance, and exhaustion phases. Researchers in the field of
psychoneuroimmunology who study the effects of psychological factors on the
immune system, have found that stress causes an increase in the activity of the immune
system. High levels of stress have been linked to increased risk of heart disease. Also,
stress can decrease the amount of natural killer cells, which are the cells responsible
for fighting cancerous growths.
The cognitive-mediational theory of emotions proposed by Richard Lazarus states
that the way people think about and appraise a stressor is a major factor in their stress
response. Primary appraisal involves estimating the severity of the stressor and
classifying it as a threat, challenge, or loss, whereas secondary appraisal allows an
individual to determine what resources he or she has available for dealing with the
threat or loss. Type A personalities (people who are competitive, ambitious, hostile)
were more likely to develop heart disease than people with a Type B personality, due
primarily to the hostility dimension of the personality cluster. The Type C personality (in
which people hold in their emotions and tend to be pleasant) is currently being
investigated for its possible link with cancer rates. Hardy personality is associated with
decreased illness due to stress. Pessimists have been found to have significantly more
stress-related health problems than optimists.
Social factors also play a role in the amount of stress an individual experiences. Living
in poverty and job stress are two major sources of stress. A serious consequence of job
stress is burnout, or negative changes in thoughts, emotions, and behaviors as a result
of prolonged stress or frustration. Acculturative stress describes the stress an
individual experiences when having to adapt to a new culture. The method of adaptation
can affect the stress level. Some of the methods of adapting to a new culture include
integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization. The effects of negative social
factors on health can be minimized by a strong social support system.
Coping strategies are actions that people take to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize
the effects of stressors, and include both behavioral and psychological strategies.
Problem-focused coping occurs when a person tries to eliminate the source of stress
or reduce its impact by taking some action, whereas emotion-focused coping involves
a person changing the way she or he feels about or reacts to a stressor. Concentrative
meditation has also been found to be effective coping strategies. Culture and religion
can affect an individual’s level of stress as well as the strategies used to cope with that
stress.

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