Psychology a concise introduction 4th edition pdf download free

Language English 33 German 1 Undetermined 1. Displaying Editions 1 - 10 out of First Prev 1 2 3 Next Last. Print book. Psychology : a concise introduction by Richard A Griggs. Psychology A concise introduction by Richard A Griggs. Home About Help Search. She received her M. During her 31 years at Jacksonville University, she has won numerous faculty awards, including Professor of the Year, University Woman of the Year, University awards for Excellence in Teaching, Scholarship and Professional Feb 18, Richard Griggs' Psychology: A Concise Now in its fourth edition, Michael Domjan's classic textbook offers an introduction to learning and conditioning in a concise and accessible style, including the latest influential research findings and theoretical perspectives.

Upload a Thing! An asymmetric frequency distribution in which there are some unusually high scores that distort the mean to be greater than the median. Improvement due to the expectation of improving because of receiving treatment. A control measure in an experiment in which neither the experimenters nor the participants know which participants are in the experimental and control groups. An inverse relationship between two variables.

A control measure in an experiment in which participants are randomly assigned to groups in order to equalize participant characteristics across the various groups in the experiment. The percentage of scores below a specific score in a distribution of scores. A research perspective whose major explanatory focus is how the brain, nervous system, and other physiological mechanisms produce our behavior and mental processes. A description of the operations or procedures that a researcher uses to manipulate or measure a variable.

A visual depiction of correlational data in which each data point represents the scores on the two variables for each participant. The entire group of people that a researcher is studying. The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution of scores. Statistical analyses that allow researchers to draw conclusions about the results of a study by determining the probability the results are due to random variation chance.

Practice Test Questions The following are practice multiple-choice test questions on some of the chapter content. The answers are given after the Key Terms Exercise answers at the end of the chapter. If you guessed on a question or incorrectly answered a question, restudy the relevant section of the chapter. Which of the following major research perspectives focuses on conditioning by external environmental events as the major cause of our behavior?

Which of the following would be the best procedure for obtaining a representative sample of the students at your school? Which of the following research methods allow s the researcher to draw cause— effect conclusions? Height and weight are correlated; elevation and temperature are correlated. Manipulate is to measure as. This indicates that: a. In an experiment, the pants receive an inactive treatment but are told that the treatment will help them.

The most frequently occurring score in a , and the distribution of scores is the average score is the. In a left-skewed distribution, the mean is than the median; in a right-skewed distribution, the mean is than the median. Which of the following types of scatterplots depicts a weak, negative correlation?

For example, biological explanations will involve actual parts of the brain or chemicals in the brain. Cognitive explanations, however, will involve mental processes such as perception and memory without specifying the parts of the brain or chemicals involved in these processes. Thus, the biological and cognitive perspectives propose explanations at two different levels of internal factors, the actual physiological mechanisms and the mental processes resulting from these mechanisms, respectively.

The behavioral perspective emphasizes conditioning of our behavior by external environmental events while the sociocultural perspective emphasizes the impact of other people and our culture on our behavior and mental processing. Thus, these two perspectives emphasize different types of external causes. In addition, the behavioral perspective emphasizes the conditioning of observable behavior while the sociocultural perspective focuses just as much on mental processing as observable behavior and on other types of learning in addition to conditioning.

To generalize to a population, you need to include a representative sample of the population in the study. However, the results of a case study do allow the researcher to develop hypotheses about cause-effect relationships that can be tested in experimental research to see if they apply to the population. Random assignment is a control measure for assigning the members of a sample to groups or conditions in an experiment. Random sampling allows the researcher to generalize the results from the sample to the population; random assignment controls for individual characteristics across the groups in an experiment.

Random assignment is used only in experiments, but random sampling is used in experiments and some other research methods such as correlational studies and surveys. In addition, because they are strong correlations, there would not be much scatter.

Thus, the direction of the scatter would be different in the two scatterplots. According to the authors of the study, such variables would include increased television and video viewing, decreased vitamin D levels because of less exposure to sunlight, and increased exposure to household chemicals.

In addition, there may be chemicals in the atmosphere that are transported to the surface by the precipitation. All of these variables could serve as third variables and possibly account for the correlation. Thus, they cannot be told that they received a placebo.

Second, the experimenter must be blind in order to control for the effects of experimenter expectation for example, unintentionally judging the behavior of participants in the experimental and placebo groups differently because of knowing their group assignments. Measures of variability tell us how much the scores vary from one another, the variability between scores. The range is the difference between the highest and lowest scores, and the standard deviation is the average extent that the scores vary from the mean for the set of scores.

As the scores diverge from the mean, they become symmetrically less frequent, giving the distribution the shape of a bell. The opposite is true for the left-skewed distribution. The mean is less than the median because the unusually low scores in the distribution distort it. Answers to Key Terms Exercise 1. It is responsible for our perception, consciousness, memory, language, intelligence, and personality—everything that makes us human.

This would seem to be a daunting job for an organ that only weighs about three pounds. The brain, however, has been estimated to consist of about billion nerve cells, called neurons Thompson, Each neuron may receive information from thousands of other neurons; therefore, the number of possible communication connections between these billions of neurons is in the trillions!

In this chapter on neuroscience the scientific study of the brain and nervous system , we will first examine neurons, the building blocks of the nervous system.

We will look at how neurons transmit and integrate information, and how drugs and poisons interrupt these processes and change our behavior and mental processes. We will also consider how some diseases and disorders are related to transmission problems. We will also consider emotions and the role of the autonomic nervous system, a division of the peripheral nervous system, in explaining how our emotional experiences are generated.

Next, the major parts of the brain vast collections of neurons and their functions will be detailed. We will focus mainly on the cerebral cortex, the seat of higher mental functioning in humans. Last, we will consider what consciousness is and what brain activity during sleep a natural break from consciousness tells us about the five stages of sleep and the nature of dreaming.

Humans are biological organisms. To understand our behavior and mental processes, we need to understand their biological underpinnings, starting with the cellular level, the neuron. How we feel, learn, remember, and think all stem from neuronal activity. So, how a neuron works and how neurons communicate are crucial pieces of information in solving the puzzle of human behavior and mental processing. We have a fairly good understanding of how information is transmitted, but we do not have as good an understanding of exactly how these vast communication networks of neurons oversee what we do and make us what we are.

These more complex questions are the remaining key pieces of the puzzle to be solved. In this section, we will cover the part of the story that is best understood—how the building blocks of the nervous system, the neurons, work. The Structure of a Neuron The brain and the nervous system are composed of two types of cells—neurons and glial cells. Neurons are responsible for information transmission throughout the nervous system.

They receive, send, and integrate information within the brain and the rest of the nervous system. The number of neurons we have is impressive, but we have about 10 times more glial cells to support the work of billions of neurons.

Glial cells are only about one-tenth as large as neurons, so they take about the same amount of space as neurons Kalat, Recent research is questioning the idea that glial cells merely provide a support system for neurons Fields, , ; Koop, Glial cells also appear to influence the formation of synapses and to aid in determining which neuronal connections get stronger or weaker over time, which is essential to learning and to storing memories.

Whereas neuroscientists are excited by all of these possibilities and the prospect of doing research on these cells that have been largely ignored until recently, neurons are still viewed as the most important cells for communication within the human nervous system and thus will be the focus of our discussion. Neurons all have the same basic parts and structure, and they all operate the same way. The three tion within the nervous system. The dendrites receive information from other neurons and pass it along to the cell body.

The cell body decides whether the information should be passed on to other neurons. If it decides it should, then it does so by means of an electrical impulse that travels down the axon—the longer, thin fiber coming out of the cell body. The pictured neuron has a myelinated axon. Please note that there are periodic gaps where there is no myelin. The impulse jumps from one gap to the next down the axon. When the impulse reaches the axon terminals, it triggers chemical communication with other neurons.

Dendrites are the fibers that project out of the cell body like the branches of a tree. Their main function is to receive information from other neurons. The dendrites pass this information on to the cell body, which contains the nucleus of the cell and the other biological machinery that keeps the cell alive. The cell body also decides whether or not to pass the information from the dendrites on to other neurons.

If the cell body decides to pass along the information, it does so by way of the axon—the long, singular fiber leaving the cell body. The main function of the axon is to conduct inforis to receive information from other mation from the cell body to the axon terminals in order to neurons. How Neurons Communicate The first point to note in learning about how neurons communicate with each other and sometimes with muscles and glands is that the process is partly electrical and partly chemical.

Communication between neurons, however, is chemical. They are separated by a microscopic gap that chemical molecules travel across to carry their message. The electrical impulse. The electrical part of the story begins with the messages received by the dendrites from other neurons. These inputs are either excitatory telling the neuron to generate an electrical impulse or inhibitory telling the neuron not to generate an electrical impulse. The cell body decides whether or not to generate an impulse by continually calculating this input.

If the excitatory input outweighs the inhibitory input by a sufficient amount, then the cell body will generate an impulse. The impulse travels from the cell body down the axon to the axon terminals. This impulse is an all-or-nothing event, which means that there is either an impulse or there is not; and if there is an impulse, it always travels down the axon at the same speed regardless of the intensity of the stimulus input.

So, how are the varying intensities of stimuli for example, a gentle pat on the cheek versus a slap encoded? The answer is straightforward. The intensity of the stimulus determines how many neurons generate impulses and the number of impulses that are generated each second by the neurons.

Stronger stimuli a slap rather than a pat lead to more neurons generating impulses and generating those impulses more often. The impulses in different neurons travel down the axon at varying rates up to around miles per hour Dowling, This may seem fast, but it is much slower than the speed of electricity or computer processing.

A major factor determining the impulse speed for a particular neuron is whether or not its axon is encased in a myelin sheath—an insulating layer of a white fatty substance. With no myelin sheath, the impulse travels slowly down the axon in a continuous fashion, like a fuse burning down on a stick of dynamite.

The rate is faster in axons encased in myelin because the impulse can only be regenerated at the periodic gaps in the sheath where there is no myelin. A myelinated axon like the one in Figure 2. To understand why this is faster, think about walking across a room in a heel-to-toe fashion continuously touching the heel of your advancing foot to the toes of your lagging foot versus taking long strides to get to the other side.

Striding is clearly much faster. Damage to this myelin sheath will result in serious problems. For example, multiple sclerosis causes deterioration of the myelin sheath that encases neuronal axons.

This means that impulses can no longer leap down the axon, or eventually even travel down the axon, so information transmission is greatly slowed. People with multiple sclerosis experience incapacitating behavioral changes, such as difficulty in moving. Sadly, there is presently no cure for multiple sclerosis. Myelination creates a whitish appearance because of the white color of the myelin. Unmyelinated parts of a neuron appear grayish.

If we were able to look at the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain, they would appear grayish because we are mainly looking at the billions of cell bodies that make up their outside layer. What happens when the electrical impulse reaches the axon terminals? The answer is depicted in Figure 2. An electrical impulse travels down the axon to the axon terminals. Sending neuron Receiving neuron Electrical impulse Vesicle containing neurotransmitter molecules Synaptic gap Sending neuron Electrical impulse 2.

When the electrical impulse reaches an axon terminal, it causes the vesicles to open and the neurotransmitter molecules to be released into the synaptic gap. The molecules cross the synaptic gap and enter receptor sites on the dendrites of the receiving neuron. As explained in the figure, there are three steps. Reuptake 3. After carrying their message, the neurotransmitter molecules return to the synaptic gap, where some of them undergo reuptake and are taken back into the sending neuron.

Others are destroyed in the gap. In the axon terminals, there are tiny vesicles sacs containing a neurotransmitter, a naturally occurring chemical in our nervous system that specializes in transmitting information.

The neurotransmitter molecules cross the gap and enter receptor sites on the dendrites of other neurons. This is achieved by what is termed binding—neurotransmitter molecules fit into the dendrite receptor sites on the receiving neuron like a key fits into a lock. After delivering their message, the molecules go back into the gap.

Some are destroyed by enzymes in the gap, but others undergo reuptake—they are taken back into the axon terminals of the sending neuron to be used again. Brain scans. In order to carry out this essential communication work, neurons require oxygen and other nutrients like blood sugars. Without oxygen, neurons die within minutes. Neurons doing more work require even more oxygen and nutrients. This fact is the key to how various types of brain scans work. In positron emission tomography PET scans, a harmless dose of radioactive glucose sugar is introduced into the bloodstream.

The radioactive glucose moves to those areas that are more active, and when the glucose is metabolized by the neurons, it emits positrons atomic particles emitted by radioactive substances that are detected and measured by a computer. Active areas show up on the computer-generated image as brighter colors than less active areas. In this manner, PET scans are used to tell us which areas are most active, and thus more involved, while a person performs some task, such as reading or talking.

Another type of scan that has become popular, functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI , does not require radioactivity being introduced into the bloodstream, but rather focuses on the amount of oxygen brought to the various areas. The areas that are more active are provided with more oxygen through increased blood flow to them. The fMRI detects these areas with increased bloodflow and highlights them in its computerized image of brain activity.

Variations in bloodflow are depicted as variations in color in the image. Historically, we learned about brain function only by observation of brain-damaged individuals and postmortem comparisons of damaged and normal brains.

Neurotransmitters, Drugs, and Poisons Fifty to different chemicals in our nervous system function as neurotransmitters Valenstein, In this section, we will look at seven of them that we know quite a bit about—acetylcholine, dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA gamma-aminobutyric acid , glutamate, and endorphins.

In the discussions of drugs and poisons, we will use the agonist versus antagonist distinction. An agonist is a drug or poison that increases the activity of one or more neurotransmitters; an antagonist is a drug or poison that decreases the activity of one or more neurotransmitters.

Acetylcholine ACh is a neurotransmitter involved in learning, memory, and muscle movement. When it is located in the brain, it impacts learning and memory.

At muscle junctures throughout our body, ACh leads to muscle contractions, allowing us to move the various parts of our body. Its role in muscle movement shows how poisons work in agonistic or antagonistic ways to impact the normal level of neurotransmitter activity. There are several poisons that paralyze us prevent muscle movement by preventing ACh from fulfilling its movement function.

First, consider botulinum poison sometimes called botulin , a toxin involved in food poisoning. Botulinum poison is an antagonist that blocks the release of ACh at muscle junctures, leading to paralysis and, if not treated, death. The chest and diaphragm muscles become paralyzed, so the victim cannot breathe. An extremely mild form of this poison is what is used in the Botox treatment for facial wrinkling, where the facial muscles are temporarily paralyzed, thus smoothing them.

Like botulinum poison, cuneurotransmitters. Another poison, black widow spider venom, is decreases the activity of one or more an agonist for ACh, and can also lead to death by paralysis. This initial effect is agonistic, mitter involved in learning, memory, leading to uncontrollable convulsive movement due to the and muscle movement.

These movement problems stem from a scarcity of dopamine in the basal ganglia. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that impacts our arousal and mood states, thought processes, and physical movement, but in a very different way than ACh.

Actor Michael J. Fox and boxer Muhammad Ali substances access to the brain. This did not work, however, sors to dopamine so that once it is because dopamine could not get through the blood—brain in the brain, it will be converted to dopamine. It contains the precursors to dopamine, so once in the brain L-dopa is converted to dopamine. Thus, L-dopa functions as an agonist for dopamine by increasing its production. There are also side effects of L-dopa that resemble some of the symptoms of schizophrenia—a psychotic disorder in which a person loses touch with reality and suffers from perceptual and cognitive processing deficits, such as hallucinations, false beliefs, and deficits in attention.

This makes sense, however, because one of the main explanations for schizophrenia involves an excess of dopamine activity, and dopamine impacts our thought processes. In fact, traditional antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia work antagonistically by globally blocking receptor sites for dopamine so that dopamine cannot enter them, thereby reducing its level of activity. For example, amphetamines act as agonists for dopamine activity by continually stimulating the release of dopamine from axon terminals, thereby depleting it.

Similarly, cocaine creates an agonistic effect by blocking the reuptake of dopamine, which means dopamine accumulates in the synapse. Cocaine thus prolongs its effect on other neurons by forcing dopamine to deliver its message to these neurons repeatedly, thereby using it up. Other addictive drugs such as painkillers, caffeine, and nicotine also increase dopamine activity in these centers. Serotonin and norepinephrine. In addition to dopamine, cocaine blocks the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine—neurotransmitters involved in levels of arousal and mood, sleep, and eating.

These two neurotransmitters play a major role in mood disorders such as depression. The best known and most prescribed antidepressant drugs, such as Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft, are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIs —antidepressant drugs that achieve their agonistic effect by selectively blocking just the reuptake of serotonin. GABA and glutamate. GABA gamma-aminobutyric acid is the main in- hibitory neurotransmitter in the nervous system.

Thus, its primary role is to keep the brain from becoming too aroused. It works like the brakes on a car by preventing mental processes or behavior from going unchecked. For example, it lowers arousal and anxiety and helps regulate movement. Lack of GABA activity of arousal and mood, sleep, and may also contribute to epilepsy, a brain disorder leading to eating.

It is involved in memory storage and pain norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors perception. Excessive glutamate activity, however, can be SSNRIs Antidepressant drugs that achieve their agonistic effect dangerous, leading to the death of neurons. For example, on serotonin and norepinephrine by strokes lead to overstimulation of glutamate synapses and selectively blocking their reuptake.

Deficient glutamate activity can also cause The main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the nervous system. It is involved problems. Glutamate levels that drop too low can even in lowering arousal and anxiety and cause coma. Research has also found that abnormal levels of regulating movement.

Hence, antipsychotic rotransmitter in the nervous system. Endorphins are a group of neurotransmit- ters that are involved in pain relief and feelings of pleasure. When endorphins are released, we feel less pain and experience a sense of euphoria. Endorphins may also play a role in biologically explaining placebo effects on pain. Remember, as we discussed in Chapter 1, a placebo drug is an inert substance that has no pharmacological effect. The expectation of improvement created by taking the placebo may stimulate the reTable 2.

Neurotransmitter Involved in: Similarly, stimulation of enAcetylcholine Ach Learning, memory, muscle movement dorphins may partially explain how acupuncture, the Dopamine Arousal and mood states, thought Chinese medical practice of processes, physical movement inserting needles at specified Serotonin and Levels of arousal and mood, sleep, sites of the body, leads to pain Norepinephrine eating relief Pert, Lowering arousal and anxiety, All of the neurotransmitters GABA main inhibitory regulating movement neurotransmitter that we have discussed are summarized in Table 2.

All three parts of a neuron are involved. The dendrites receive the information from other neurons and pass it on to the cell body, which decides whether or not to pass the information on to other neurons. If the information is to be passed on, an electrical impulse is generated and travels down the axon.

When this impulse reaches the axon terminals, neurotransmitter molecules are released and travel across the synaptic gap, carrying the message to other neurons, and then are destroyed or return to the sending neuron to be used again. It is this chemical communication that allows the neurons to transmit and integrate information within the nervous system, giving us our perceptions, feelings, memories, and thoughts, as well as our ability to move. Glial cells aid in this information transmission process by serving as a support system for the neurons.

Acetylcholine ACh , dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, glutamate, and endorphins are seven major neurotransmitters that impact many important aspects of our behavior and mental processing. Some disorders and diseases stem from excessive activity or a deficit in activity for particular neurotransmitters. In addition, drugs and poisons achieve their effects by changing the activity level of particular neurotransmitters in either agonistic or antagonistic ways.

Agonists increase the level of neurotransmitter activity; antagonists decrease it. This neuronal chemistry is the source of all of our behavior and mental processes, but we are only aware of its products our behavior and mental processing and not the intercellular chemistry itself.

In the next section, we will consider the nervous system at a more global level by examining its major subdivisions—the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system. We will also discuss the three types of neurons in the nervous system. An overview diagram of the major subdivisions of the nervous system is given in Figure 2. Nervous system Central nervous system CNS Brain Control center for entire nervous system Spinal cord Connects brain and PNS and enables spinal reflexes Peripheral nervous system PNS Somatic nervous system Conduit for incoming sensory input and outgoing commands from brain to skeletal muscles Autonomic nervous system Regulates internal bodily environment e.

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