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: redgreen, blue yellow
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