Exam 1 Psychology

Question 1

What was Plato’s role in the history of psychology?

Answer 1

He pondered the relationship between the body and the mind. He was the first to ask how the mind is made up. He started the conversation and debate about the mind.

Question 2

What was Descartes’ role in the history of psychology? Where did he think consciousness was located?

Answer 2

He thought the consciousness was stored in the pineal gland.

Question 3

What is monism and dualism and who is associated with each?

Answer 3

Monism means the mind and body are one, and able to study. Dualism means the mind and body are separate, our minds are untouchable or non physical.

Question 4

What is structuralism and who established it?

Answer 4

Structuralism means the mind can be broken down to the most precise detail, it was very closely studied, he admired chemistry. Edward Titchner established it.

Question 5

What is functionalism and who established it?

Answer 5

Functionalism is when the parts of the mind are made up by what the mind can do not by what they are made up of. William James Established functionalism.

Question 6

What is the psychoanalytic approach and who established it?

Answer 6

The focus of the approach is the focus on the unconscious mind not the conscious, it’s built on the idea that your behavior is determined by experiences from your past. Sigmund Freud established the theory.

Question 7

What is behaviorism and who is associated with it?

Answer 7

Behaviorism is the study of our actions, it uses animals for this field of study often. Our behavior is learned, observable, and measurable. James B Watson established this idea.

Question 8

What is the humanistic perspective and who is associated with it?

Answer 8

The humanistic perspective was made by Abraham Maslow, and it involves a pyramid of things you need to be mentally happy and stable.

Question 9

What was the cognitive revolution?

Answer 9

The key idea is that our brain processes information and influences how we behave.

Question 10

Who gave the first lecture in psychology?

Answer 10

Wilhelm Wundt gave the first lecture.

Question 11

Who is the founder of psychology and who is the father of psychology?

Answer 11

The founder of psychology is Wihelm Wundt, and the father of psychology is William James.

Question 12

Introspection was established by what area of psychology?

Answer 12

Emotional Awareness.

Question 13

What is client centered therapy and who is it associated with?

Answer 13

Client centered therapy focuses on the person’s own perspective of his or her present circumstances and assists the person in identifying his or her own answers. Carl Rogers is associated with this type of therapy.

Question 14

Who can be credited with founding personality psychology?

Answer 14

Sigmund Freud and Gordon Allport

Question 15

What is the gestalt perspective and which view was it opposing? Who is associated with this?

Answer 15

To understand the mind and consciousness it must be studied as a whole not broken into pieces. It opposes structuralism.

Question 16

What are the levels of consciousness and how are they associated with memory (HW question)

Answer 16

There are five levels on consciousness, Higher level consciousness which involves processing which individuals actively focus their efforts, the second is lower level consciousness which involves automatic processing that involves little to no effort to execute, the third is Altered state of consciousness which is a state of consciousness that is warped either by drugs or trauma, hypnosis, or even sensory deprivation. The fourth is subconscious awareness, this can occur when people are awake and when they sleep and dream. The fifth is no awareness, Sigmund Freud believed that some unconscious thoughts are too laden with anxiety or other bad emotions keeping a blanket over your thoughts under the consciousness, the conscious tends to not speak about these thou

Question 17

Which neurotransmitter is likely involved in seizures?

Answer 17

GABA is the neurotransmitter involved with seizures.

Question 18

Know the different types of seizures and what they look like.

Answer 18

Partial (focal): originates in a specific area of the brain: usually comes with a premonition or a feeling like you are about to have a seizure
Generalized: Does not originate in one area instead is a result of an electrical disturbance across multiple areas of your brain. Two main types: absence and tonic clonic
Tonic-clonic seizures begin with a loss of consciousness, cessation of breathing, and intense muscular contraction. This phase usually gives way to violent, rhythmic contractions that may result in broken bones or other physical injuries. These phases are followed by a period of coma, lasting about five minutes.
In an absence seizure, the person briefly loses consciousness and awareness of his or her surroundings, and motor movements are limited to blinking, head turns, and eye movements.

Question 19

What are the stages of sleep?

Answer 19

The stages of sleep are Stage 1 which involves theda waves and is a light falling asleep phase, Stage 2 gives you sleep spindles, breathing heart rate and muscle tension all go down, stage 3 is when you experience delta waves they are very large and slow, stage 4 is a very deep sleep your body is the most relaxed during this stage and it produces growth hormone and is very important for growth. And then there is REM sleep. This is the most active stage of sleep, it’s where most of your dreams happen, and your muscles go into paralysis.

Question 20

What is the difference between rem and non rem sleep?

Answer 20

Your muscles are in paralysis and your brain waves rate rate and blood flow are the most active during this stage, your brain is awake and moving.

Question 21

What is your sleep circadian rhythm and what structures in the brain are responsible for it?

Answer 21

The circadian rhythm is a clock built into us telling our bodies if we should sleep or be awake. It comes from the SCN in the brain.

Question 22

What does each stage of sleep help us do?

Answer 22

Stage 2 helps with motor movements coordination and muscle repair, stage 3 is very important for growth hormones, stage 4 is a deep sleep and is very important for growth hormones as well, very important for pregnancy puberty, and body recovery.

Question 23

How much sleep do we need at each stage of life?

Answer 23

As we get older, the less sleep we need, babies need up to 18 hrs per day, toddlers need 10-12 hrs, teenagers need 8-10 hrs, and adults need 6-8hrs.

Question 24

What is the law of effect?

Answer 24

Behaviors that follow positive results are more likely to occur again and behaviors followed by negative results are less likely to happen again.

Question 25

What is an independent variable and a dependent variable?

Answer 25

The independent variable is what you can change, the dependent variable is what you are observing.

Question 26

Understand what positive and negative means in terms of correlations and be able to identify visually what the different kinds of correlations look like (i.e. perfect positive vs moderate positive, etc).

Answer 26

Positives are variables or something is being added to the experiment and negative is when something is being taken away, it doesn’t mean good or bad, it means something is being added and something is being taken away.

Question 27

Know the difference between extraneous variables and third variables.

Answer 27

Third variables are something outside of the experiment that can affect the results such as ice cream sales going up along side murder rates. The third variable would be the temperature.

Question 28

Study the example in the slides of the third variable.

Answer 28

The ice cream rate scenario is a great example as ice cream sales go up so do murder rates, this happend because of a third variable, the hot temperature.

Question 29

What are the three types of longitudinal designs?

Answer 29

Longitudinal: following the same group of people over time
Cross sectional: asking different age groups to complete your study to see if there is an effect over time.
Mixed longitudinal: using both a longitudinal and a cross sectional design.

Question 30

What is an agonist and an antagonist?

Answer 30

Agonists are types of drugs that bind to the synaptic receptors and increase the effect of the neurotransmitter.

Question 31

What is tolerance?

Answer 31

Tolerance is a build up of a resistance to a drug or alcohol, so it will require more of the drug or alcohol to get the same results.

Question 32

What is addiction?

Answer 32

Addiction is either having a physical or psychological dependence on something, and it can give some really bad symptoms like throwing up sickness, blacking out, and it makes you want to take more of what you are addicted to.

Question 33

What is activation synthesis theory? (HW question)

Answer 33

The activation synthesis theory is a theory about why we dream. The theory proposed that during REM sleep our brains get very active and that is part of why most of our dreams happen during REM sleep. It also states that the cerebral cortex has something to do with the processing of impulses that can be made into something that makes sense to us while we are asleep, and that makes dreams.

Question 34

Know the strength of a classically conditioned response at the acquisition stage, the extinction stage, and the spontaneous recovery stage.

Answer 34

In acquisition it isn’t very strong yet because the conditioned behavior hasn’t been fully learned yet, in generalization it is fairly strong seeing as the conditioned response can be triggered in the event of something just similar to the trigger of that response, so its very strong. A spontaneous recovery can keep the conditioned response at bay for a time so it is not very strong although after a spontaneous recovery reoccurs several times it begins to lose its effectiveness and the conditioned behavior might become more present.

Question 35

What is a case study?

Answer 35

A case study is an in depth study about one person, group, or event. Nearly every aspect of the subject’s life was documented, it’s very in depth.

Question 36

What areas of the brain are associated with the reward pathway and what is its role in addiction?

Answer 36

The prefrontal cortex, the midbrain, the nucleus accumbens, and medial forebrain.

Question 37

What are the APA guidelines for conducting ethical research?

Answer 37

Do no harm
Accurately describe risks
Ensure participation is optional
Minimize discomfort for patients
Maintain confidentiality
Do not unnecessarily invade privacy
Use deception only when absolutely necessary
Debrief all patients
Provide results to all patients
Treat participants with respect and dignity
Allow participants to withdraw at any time.

Question 38

What was the Tuskegee syphilis experiment an example of?

Answer 38

This is an example of an incredibly unethical experiment.

Question 39

What are the steps to the scientific method?

Answer 39

Number 1 Observe behavior or other phenomena Number 2 Formulate a research question. Number 3 Generate a testable prediction that addresses the question Number 4 Collect and analyze data. Number 5 Draw conclusions and use them to create/refine theories.

Question 40

What is an axon?

Answer 40

An axon passes information on and it always flows in one direction.

Question 41

What is a dendrite?

Answer 41

Dendrites are designed to receive information and communication from other cells

Question 42

What are the different neurotransmitters we discussed and what do they each do?

Answer 42

Dopamine is the first we talked about, it’s involved in controlling movement and posture, and pleasure. The second is GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter that contributes to motor control, vision, and other functions. The third is glutamate, a major excitatory neurotransmitter, associated with learning and memory. The fourth is norepinephrine, it involves attentiveness, emotions, sleeping, dreaming, and learning. The fifth is serotonin, it contributes to various functions, such as regulating body temperature, sleep, mood, appetite, and pain.

Question 43

Know the different classifications of drugs and what drugs fall under these classifications.

Answer 43

The drug classifications are stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and opiates, The stimulants increase alertness and mobility while decreasing reaction time. Depressants Slow down the activity of the nervous system, opiates are used to treat pain by mimicking pain inhibiting neurotransmitters. Hallucinogens are capable of producing false realities.

Question 44

Know the potential for overdose for the drugs we discussed.

Answer 44

Mixing depressants and stimulants can cause a pretty bad overdose, taking the same amount of drugs you have taken in your apartment in a new environment can cause an overdose.

Question 45

What is classical conditioning? (Who is associated with this).

Answer 45

Classical conditioning happens when we form associations between pairs of stimuli that occur sequentially in time. John Watson is associated with classical conditioning.

Question 46

What is operant conditioning (who is associated with this).

Answer 46

Operant conditioning is when we form associations between behaviors and their consequences unlike classical conditioning this is based upon a decision to act or not. B.F. Skinner is associated with this.

Question 47

Be able to identify the unconditioned response, the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response, and the conditioned stimulus in the little albert classical conditioning example

Answer 47

The unconditioned response is the fear of loud noises. The unconditioned stimulus is the hitting of the bell for the loud noise. The conditioned response is the fear of the white colored things he was presented with. The white rat was the conditioned stimulus.