Summary Psyc 1101 Exam 2 study guide

Psych Exam 2 Study Guide
Chapter 5:
 Sex: biologically determined by chromosomes XX (female) XY (male) out of 46 human
chromosomes 45 are unisex.
 Gender: psychologically determined identity of yourself as male or female.
 Gender schema: how each gender should behave
 Gender roles: societies perception of how male and female should behave and how you express
your gender in everyday life
 Gender stereotype: how persons should behave based on their gender
 Androgyny: displaying both traditional masculine and feminine psychological characteristics
 Transgender: gender identity differs from biological sex
 Sexual orientation: sexual attraction to one’s own or opposite gender or both
 Females begin puberty around age 12 menarche (start of menstrual cycle indicates they
can reproduce)
 Males begin puberty around age 11 spermarche (first ejaculation)
 Primary sex characteristics: reproductive sexual traits: ovaries, uterus, testes, vagina,
penis
 Secondary sex characteristics: non- reproductive sexual traits: breast, hips, body hair

Chapter 6:
Sensation: the process of how our sensory receptors and nervous system receive energies from our
environment

Perception: the process by which our brain organizes and interprets sensory input

 Bottom-up processing: starts at the sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of
processing such as our brain (sensation)
 Top-down processing: creates meaning from higher levels of processing (brain) by drawing from
our experience or expectations (perception)

Transduction: Process of converting from one energy to another that out brain can use

All of our senses:

1. Receive sensory stimulation
2. Transform stimulation into neural impulses
3. Deliver the neural information to our brain



Absolute threshold is the minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus (such as the sound
of an approaching bike on the sidewalk behind us) 50 percent of the time.

, Subliminal stimulation happens when, without our awareness, our sensory system processes a stimulus
(when it is below our absolute threshold).
Difference threshold is the minimum difference needed to distinguish between two stimuli (such as the
sound of a bike versus a runner coming up behind you).

 Weber’s Law: the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a
constant minimum percentage
 Signal Detection Theory: theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint
stimulus and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation
and alertness.

Sensory adaption allows us to focus on changing stimuli/ our sensitivity to particular stimuli diminishes
as we get used to it

Perpetual set: top down processing) mental predisposition of seeing one thing There
and not the other ex: Are Two
Context Effects: stimuli can trigger different perceptions because of differing Errors in The
perceptual set or context of stimuli The Title Of
This Book
Vision: transforms light energy into neural signals

Parts of the Retina:
Rods:

 More sensitive
 Function in dim light
 Detect black & white vision but no colors

Cones:

 Densely packed near center of retina (fovea)
 Function in bright or day light
 Detect fine detail
 Enable color perception

Trichromatic Theory:

- 1st scientific theory of color vision
- Proposed by Herman von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
- 3 types of cones sensitive to different wave length of light
Red: long wavelengths
Green: medium wavelengths
Blue: short wavelengths

Opponent Process Theory:
- Explains the color after image that occurs after the initial stimulus is gone
- Four basic colors divided into sets of color sensitive neurons: redgreen, blue yellow