FINAL EXAM PRACTICE ?S

Question 1

What are the two social support hypotheses?

Answer 1

1) Buffering hypothesis – social support helps buffer or reduce stress
2) Direct effects hypothesis- even if you don’t experience stress, social support is good for you and your health

Question 2

What are the motivational and emotional states associated with approach oriented brain structure (List 4)

Answer 2

1) Hypothalamus- pleasurable feeling associated with feeding, drinking, and mating
2) Medial forebrain bundle- pleasure, reinforcement
3) Orbitofrontal cortex- learning incentive value of events
4) Sepital area- pleasure center associated with sexuality and sociability

Question 3

What are the three avoidance oriented behavior structures?

Answer 3

o Right prefrontal cerebral cortex- withdraw motivated and emotional tendencies
o Amygdala- detecting and responding to danger
o Hippocampus- behavior inhibition system during unexpected events

Question 4

What are the three contemporary understanding of emotion?

Answer 4

1) Arousal affects emotion
2) Behavior can affect emotion (facial feedback hypothesis)
3) Cognition can affect emotion (even before arousal occurs)

Question 5

How does Asch (1956) study show the impact of social factors on behavior? List the background and methods and the findings

Answer 5

o Asch study involved three trials that included all white male participants. The study was done on groups of three people. There was 1 actual participant and 3 confederates. The trial involved pointing out which line in the trial box matched the line in the reference box. During the 1st trial, all the confederates gave the correct answer, as did the participant. In the second trial, all the confederates gave an incorrect answer and a 3rd of the time, the participants conformed to the group. The participants were also tested by themselves, which served as a control group. 70% yielded to the group at leats once

Question 6

Is this an example of normative conformity or informational conformity

Answer 6

o This is an example of normative conformity because the participants knew what the correct answer was but conformed to the group because they did not want to be the odd one out or get embarrassed

Question 7

45. What are the three main executive functioning abilities?

Answer 7

1) Working memory
o Relatively short lived, necessary for getting everyday tasks done
o Ability to hold and manipulate info over short periods of time
o Ex. From everyday life, remembering phone numbers
2) Behavioral inhibition

o Ability to resist temptation/ distraction
o Ability to think before you react
o Ex from everyday life- controlling emotions

3) Cognitive flexibility
o Ability to adjust to changing demands and priorities
o Ability to apply different rules in different settings
o Ex from everyday life- trying strategies to resolve conflict
*Prior to age 3, executive functions are still very limited

Question 8

What is temperament and what are the different characteristics?

Answer 8

o	Temperament is a stable individual differences in quality and intensity of emotional reactions
o	The different characteristics are:
o	Activity level
o	Irritability 
o	Persistence and attention span
o	Adaptability 
o	Sociability

Question 9

47. According to Thomas & Chess there are 3 different temperament types based on 9 dimensions. List and describe each.

Answer 9

1)	Easy/ flexible – 40%
o	Positive to new stimuli, adaptive to change
o	Mild/moderate mood
o	Usually positive
o	Regular schedule

2) Difficult/ feisty (10%)
o Negative to new stimuli
o Intense/ more negative mood
o Difficulty establishing regular schedule

3) Slow to warm up/ fearful (15%)
o Mildly negative to new stimuli
o More withdrawn
o Cautious

Question 10

What are two important attachment related mechanism?

Answer 10

o Secure attachment
o Kids come to feel that they feel will always have someone to run to in distress ex. Parent
o Internal working models
o Product of exchange or interactions between child and care giver
 Start to have a sense of what they can expect from others
 Understand themselves

Question 11

What is empathy? What are the five key dimensions? Why is empathy important? What are the factors contributing to the development of empathy?

Answer 11

o A multidimensional construct
o Peoples ability to emphasize with the distress of others
-Five key dimensions:
1) Affect
2) Empathetic concern- experience of feeling as another person does
3) Behavior
4) Cognition
5) Physiology
-Why is empathy important?
o Empathy is associated with prosocial behavior and altruism
o Is there a difference between prosocial behavior and altruism?
o Yes
o Motivational explanation for this difference
o Altruistic behavior- prosocial behavior that is done to benefit other people

-The factors contributing to the development of empathy
o Socialization
o Biology- temperament and mirror neuron system
o Cognitive development- theory of mind

Question 12

50. What is the importance of mirror neurons? What does it have to do with temperament?

Answer 12

o	Some people appear to be hard wired to respond more intensely to the distress of others
o	Mirror neurons are a subclass of neurons found in the CNS
o	Mirror neurons are responsible for feeling for what others do/actions/ emotions
o	Help us connect with others emotionally
Ex. sports fans tensing up during important moment in game.

Question 13

51. What is bystander apathy? What are the factors influencing whether people will help others in need?

Answer 13

o An individuals likelihood of helping other is decreased when passive bystanders are present
o It is more pronounced when: the number of bystander’s increases and situations are seen as ambiguous.

Question 14

52. What is motivation?

Answer 14

o Psychological feature that arouses an organism to action (drives, goals, needs)
o Reason for action
o Involves initiation, intensity, and persistence

Question 15

53. In conflict between mastery needs and survival needs, who wins?

Answer 15

o Survival
o By knowing what events in the environment arouse survival, the brain can better understand why people act the way they di
o Mastery needs- improving upon something already learned
o Survival needs- necessary skills/objects/ possessions
54. Co

Question 16

54. Compare and contrast intrinsic and extrinsic reward. What is the negative side to extrinsic reward?

Answer 16

o Intrinsic
o Internal
o Reward comes from mastering and developing competence
o Extrinsic
o Motivation based on obvious external rewards and/ or obligations
o Extrinsic rewards can/ are distracting and take away the ability to enjoy or be passionate about something

Question 17

55. Describe the difference between expectancy value theory, social cognitive goal theories, and cognitive dissonance

Answer 17

o Expectancy value theory- picturing getting something
o Social cognitive goal theories (eg self efficacy and self worth)
o Cognitive dissonance- when your behavior does not match your thoughts or values

Question 18

What is good about the disease model?

Answer 18

What is good about working within the Disease Model? (4)

1. 14 disorders are treatable, 2 curable
2. Science developed of mental illness… ability to measure, classify, and understand causality.
3. Able to invent drug and psychological and drug treatments
4. Able to test treatments… find out what worked and what didn’t

Psychology can make miserable people less miserable….

Question 19

What is not good about the disease model?

Answer 19

What is not good about working within the Disease Model? (3)

1. Become victimologists and pathologists (moral- view of human nature changed… forgot responsibilities)
2. Forget about improving normal lives and high talent (forgot about improving normal lives… mission to make relatively untroubled people more fulfilled and more productive)
3. In rush to repair damage… never thought to develop positive interventions

Question 20

3. Describe the pro’s and con’s of physician assisted suicide. Provide five to ten examples for each and include evidence that backs up your decision.

Answer 20

Pro’s

o The patient’s tremendous amounts of pain and suffering will end (ex a young girl battling with brain cancer could be given peace by being able to die on her own terms)
o The patient’s die knowing that it was their choice
o The patients can die with dignity rather than as a shell of their former selves
o Health care costs can be reduced
o The nurse and doctor can move their focus to a patient that has the has a chance and desire to live, instead of helping a terminally ill patient
o Not having to experience the pain of watching a loved one die slowly and in deep pain could be benefit to the patients family

Con’s
o It would violate the doctor’s Hippocratic oath and decreases the value of human life
o Doctors and families may be prompted to give up on recovery to early. How can the doctor or government deems that this is the right decision, there could be new treatments available in the next few days that could save this persons life.
o The patient could not be truly confiding with the doctor why they want to die. (Could be high levels of depression and nothing to do with their illness)

o Many religions believe that if you commit suicide you are sent to hell. Therefore the death could be very hard on the families
o Government and insurance companies may put pressure on doctors to avoid treatment of palliative patients and recommend they take the PAS procedure
o PAS treatment could lead doctors to have to much power over a patients life
o What if a patient changes their mind, there is no take backs on such a straightforward, clean and quick decision. It is a dangerous law that actually deprives people of the possibility of having their dignity and having doctors who are willing to work to improve their quality of life

Question 21

a. What are the three basic psychological needs- autonomy, competence, and relatedness?

Answer 21

Autonomy
• Psychological need to experience self-direction and personal endorsement in the initiation and regulation of one’s behavior.
• Behavior is autonomous and self-determined when our interests, preferences, and wants guide our decisions

Perceived Autonomy – three subjective qualities within the experience of autonomy
• Internal- perceived locus of causality
• Volition- subjective feeling of freedom
• Perceived choice over one’s actions- objective

The Conundrum of Choice
• Not all choices promote autonomy
• “Either-or” choice offerings- choice among options offered by others

• True choice over people’s actions
• Meaningful choice that reflects people’s values & interest
o Enhance a sense of need-satisfying autonomy
o Enhance intrinsic motivation, effort, creativity, preference for challenge, and performance
• Key note- supporting autonomy is a key part of parenting… helicopter parenting does not support autonomy and prevents children from developing.

Question 22

4. What are two negative effects of having to much choice? What are the four reasons you could be less satisfied with you choice?

Answer 22

o You can’t decide and if you can’t decide your disappointed
o If you cant get past it, you are less satisfied with it
 Escalation of expectations- the second you find anything wrong, the more you see alternatives and your expectations continue to increase…
 Self-blame- blaming yourself if it your decision or blaming others because they forced you to do it
 Opportunity cost- even when you chose something that is wonderful, you always wonder ‘what if’.
 Regret- disappointed fully with your choice (displeasure with your choice)

Question 23

5. What are the different types of happiness or happy lives?

Answer 23

1. The pleasant life (PA)- having as many pleasures as possible, learning the skills to amplify them.
   The three drawbacks are:
   • Experience of positive emotion is heritable
   • Positive emotion habituates
   • Not particularly malleable
2. The good life (engagement)- knowing what your five highest strengths are and using them to build up your life. Recraft your life to use them as much as you possibly can (to work, love, and play), pleasure vs flow (time stops for you).
3. Meaningful life- knowing what your highest strengths are and using them to belong to and in the service of something larger then you are.

Question 24

6. What is self-handicapping and why do we do this?

Answer 24

o Giving an excuse to protect self esteem
o Procrastination because you are worried about the outcome and the lack of excuse
o We do this because…
o Giving an excuse to protect self esteem
o Procrastination because you are worried about the outcome and the lack of the excuse.

Question 25

7. What are the two types of discrepancy?

Answer 25

1. Discrepancy reduction
   - Corrective motivation
   - Reactive
2. Discrepancy Creation
   - Proactive
   - And more motivating

Question 26

8. What are the factors associated with goal acceptance?

Answer 26

o In order for people to accept goals or to achieve the affects of goal acceptance they must….
o Must believe they can obtain it
o Proximal in time
o Moderately difficult
o Incentives (partial reinforcement schedule)
o Getting input from the group or the individuals (involve them in the process)
o Who helps or gives the goal (parents or friend or teacher)

Question 27

9. Define halo effect, dehumanization, and moral group.

Answer 27

o Halo Effect- when our impression of someone is skewed by one positive trait, which is usually unconscious. It is usually because of physically attractiveness, which colors the impression of the entire person.
o Dehumanization- can happen unconsciously or consciously- when you strip human characteristics away from a human being. (Hitler dehumanizes people and people now dehumanize Hitler because of the acts that he was done)
o Moral group- when you identify someone as part of your group or similar to you. You will often try and protect them. As soon as someone or if someone is not part of your group, you psychological distance them and have less protective feelings towards them

Question 28

11. Define the three C’s: critical thinking, communication, and collaboration

Answer 28

• Critical thinking is the most important skill that you are supposed to get out of your degree
  o Ability to research, synthesize information, reflect, and apply information.
  o Be able to recognize what you know and what you don’t know.
• Communication is another important skill that you are supposed to get out of your degree

o What are communication skills? Reading, writing, speaking, listening, read and understand non-verbal cues. Speak or write clearly.
o Important to be able to receive information well. To be an attentive listener and read cues.
- Collaboration (team work) is the third most important skill that you are supposed to get out of your degree.
o What are collaborative skills? working well with others, being resourceful, being open to suggestion, taking advantage of or recognizing the different strengths of the team members, being responsible, setting time lines..
o The two T’s- individual task work vs team work.

Question 29

12. What is the fundamental attribution error? How does this relate to power stances (*remember grays anatomy power stance before big brain surgery)

Answer 29

o Attribution- a cause that you assign for a behavior (reason for John Travolta kissing Scarlett Johansson, the ‘why’)

o Fundamental attribution error: when you assign internal causes (character judgment) for someone else’s behavior.

o Failing to look at the context that the behavior is coming in (situational dependent)

o Power stances: The act of taking a posture of confidence, even when you don’t feel so confident, to make yourself more dominant.

o When people do this power stances, we attribute or think that person is confident and assertive. We can also feel more powerful and confident in ourselves.

o For example, research shows that even people born blind raise their arms in a V shape and lift their chins slightly when they competition. This shows how the power stances is a natural posture that people do when they feel confident.

o Power posing produces significant and immediate changes in your body’s chemistry. After just two minutes in a high-power pose, your testosterone levels — the “dominance” hormone — can skyrocket 20%. It will also cause your cortisol levels — the “stress” hormone — to fall sharply. When cortisol levels drop, people are better able to handle stressful situations.

Question 30

Define hedonic treadmill and psychodynamic symptoms

Answer 30

o Hedonic treadmill- we place much more importance on future events then the true impact they really have.
o Psychosymatic symptoms- does not mean ‘faking’, the person does not know they are causing them, symptoms are real.

Question 31

What is the theory of mind? What tasks do psychologists use to test the theory of mind? When does the theory of mind develop? Why do we need the theory of mind?
o The

Answer 31

o The theory of mind involves children thinking about other people and their circumstances
o A child’s ability to understand that other people have thoughts that are different then their own and that other people will act on those feelings and beliefs (regardless on whether or not they are correct.
o Psychologists test the theory of mind using the false belief task. The key elements of any false belief task are representational change task and Sally Ann task.
o These tasks put children in a situation which requires that they think about the world from another persons point of view
o The theory of mind develops around age 4, as late as 5.
o We need the theory of mind to understand deception and to enable us to see the world from other peoples point of view.

Question 32

What are the 3 parts of the mind?

Answer 32

o	ID
o	Unconscious mind
o	“If it feels good, do it”
o	Ego
o	“If it feels good, do it, as long as it does not cause harm to you”
o	Selfish
o	Superego
o	Completely conscious, it is learned (angel on your shoulder)

Question 33

16. What are the two fundamental concepts of motivation?

Answer 33

1) Arousal
o Arousal system in brain
o Optimal levels of arousal
o Curvilinear relationships
o Optimal level of arousal is indicated to achieve best performance
2) Incentive
o Is like a reward
o External event that energizes and directs behavior
o Various objects have incentive values that pull us towards them
o Want to increase/ maintain contact with attractive stimuli and not reduce drive
o Incentive is different then reward because it is preformed before behavior

Question 34

Instinct Theory

Answer 34

o Developed by Sigmund Freud
o Biological side of humans provides energy or impulse behavior
o Freud argues that all our behavior is based on immediate reaction (instinctual behavior)
o It is no longer used by psychologists because it is not useful in predicting new behaviors and instinct is a loaded term (can mean many things to many different people)
o Cause lead to implanting false memories and repression

Question 35

Drive Theory

Answer 35

o Source of drive (ex. Body deficits off balance, snoopy yawns)
o Impetus for drive (the drive itself, snoopy is tired)
o Object of drive (the goal object that remedies psychological discomfort, sleep)
o Aim of drive (to get back to original state, sleep for a couple hours)

Question 36

Need Theory

Answer 36

Grew from the ideas that energy direction and persistence of behavior are due to existence of needs.
o Born with limited amount of needs, needs can be modified through learning
o Popular example is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
o Believes physiological, social, safety, and esteem needs are basic.
o Highest level is self actualization, which few people get to and can only be achieved when all basic needs are met

Question 37

Define emotions and what they orchestrate (List 4)

Answer 37

o Emotions are short lived, subjective, adaptive, physiological functional, expressive

o Feelings
o Subjective, verbal descriptions of emotional experience
o Expression
o How we communicate our emotional experience publicly with others
o Physiological preparedness
o How our body mobilizes itself to meet situational demands
o Function
o What we want to specifically accomplish at that moment.

Question 38

Milgram (1963) and Burger (2009) both studied obedience. Describe the methods and findings of both of their studies. What is the ethical issue with milgram’s study?

Answer 38

Milgrams study
o Milgram wanted to see if people would do anything if ordered. The main purpose of his study was to test group behavior and blind obedience to authority. He tested this by getting a group of participants from Yale university to be learners (people being fake shocked) and a group of participants were selected to be teachers. Their job was to shock the learners when they got a question wrong.
o Findings, 65% of participant went all the way to the top of the switch board (450)
o People kept going because they felt a responsibility of the injury or death of the learners would be given to the experimenter
o Not 1 participant did not go up to dangerous levels of shock
Burger study
o Did a change to the method of milgrams study
o Participants were only allowed to go up to 150 V
o Experimenter would have to stop them if they wanted to go further
o Participants also had to go through screening before study

• The ethical issue with Milgrams study is that the participants did not have informed consent, they were deceived

Question 39

20. Define proxemics and what Hall (1966) developed in relation to it.

Answer 39

o Study of personal space
o Hall developed
o Public distance- formal 12 ft or more
o Social distance- impersonal/ casual- 4-12 ft
o Personal distance- 18 inches to 4 ft
o Intimate distance- private/ exclusive- skin to 18 inches`

Question 40

How do we evaluate theories? What do theories do for us?

Answer 40

We identify theories by…
o Identifying and critically considering assumptions
o Evaluating internal logic
o Looking for evidence
o Is it theoretically falsifiable (testable)
o Is there missing information
o Is it useful
o Is it missing key information
Theories…
o Bring order to chaos by reducing information and by telling us what is important
o Help us generalize our knowledge
o Help us predict future events
o Help us refine our knowledge through testing prediction

Question 41

What are the five traits in the Big Five Ocean Traits Theory

Answer 41

1. Openness to experience- (creativity, imagination, and insight)
2. Conscientiousness- (high level of thinking things through, orderly, high on goal directed behavior)
3. Extraversion- (sociable, talkative, assertiveness)
4. Agreeableness- (trustworthy, altruistic)
5. Neuroticism – people who are high in this emotionally unstable, moody, and irritable, and sad.

Question 42

**Characteristics of Abnormal Psychology

Answer 42

1. Deviance (uncommon, not normal, not all is bad, deviance alone doesn’t make a disorder, cultural norms)
2. Maladaptive (interferes with like, anxiety is most costly, bulimia and anorexia)
3. Distress (painful upsetting feelings, pressure, strength, anxiety, sometimes psysical and emotional stress instead of mental, same label doesn’t always mean same feelings)

EXAM- Is not a matter or degree, it is not either-or, it is a continuum

Question 43

*** Symptom Categories of Schizopgrenia

Answer 43

1. Positive (addition of something ex. hallucinations, delusions)
2. Negative (abesnece of something ex. flat emotions, alogia (difficulty holding conversation fluently), asocial, apathetic, anhedonic (inability to experience pleasure)
3. Disorganized (disorganization of speech, catatonic behaviour, mimicking movements for no reason, copying speech

Question 44

what are the types of avoidant situations

Answer 44

find in textbook

Question 45

Freud Stages of Development (5)

Answer 45

1. Oral (infancy)- pleasure from mouth stimulation
2. Anal (1-3), anal-retentive (stingy, clean, orderly), anal-expulsive (disorderly, cruel, messy)
3. Phallic (3-6)- vanity, exhibitionism, narcissism, pride, Oedipus, electra,
4. Latency (6-puberty)- sexually dormant
5. Genital (Puberty)- activates previous unresolved conflicts, , ends with mature capacity for love and realization of full adult sexuality

Question 46

Eriksen’s Stages (8)

Answer 46

1. Trust v. Mistrust (infancy)- feeding
2. Autonomy v Shame/Doubt (2-3 years)- toilet training
3. Initiative v Guilt (3-5)- exploration
4. Industry v. Inferiority (6-11)- school
5. Identity v Role Confusion (12-18) Social Relationships
6. Intimacy v Isolation (19-40)- relationships
7. Generativity v Stagnation (40-65) Work and parenthood.
8. Ego v Despair (65+) reflection on life