Introducing Psychology

Question 1

What Is Psychology?

Answer 1

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior

Question 2

What is Dualism? Describe the Mind versus Body problem.

Answer 2

René Descartes believed that the physical body was a container for the nonphysical thing called the mind.

Thomas Hobbes Argued against Descartes; said the mind is what the brain does

Question 3

What is the Mind?

Answer 3

The Mind is: private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings.

Question 4

What is Behavior?

Answer 4

Behavior: is observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals

Question 5

What is Empiricism?

Answer 5

Something you can observe or experience for yourself through your senses. Belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation; essential element in scientific method

Question 6

What is Structuralism?

Answer 6

Structuralism is an: analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.

Question 7

What is Functionalism?

Answer 7

Functionalism is: the study of how mental processes enable people to adapt to their environments.

Question 8

Who are the main figures that contributed to Psychology emerging as a science?

Answer 8

William James (1842–1910): First to take scientific approach to study psychology; wrote The Principles of Psychology. Was inspired by Darwin and Natural Selection.

Question 9

What are the Scientific Methods associated with Psychology?

Answer 9

Set of principles about the appropriate relationship between ideas using empirical evidence

Question 10

What are the issues and problems related to studying human behavior?

Answer 10

People are difficult to study because of their complexity, variability, and reactivity.

Question 11

What is reliability, validity, and power?

Answer 11

Validity: Extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related

Reliability: Tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.

Power: Ability of a measure to detect the concrete conditions specified in the operational definition.

Question 12

What is Internal and External Validity?

Answer 12

Internal validity is an attribute of an experiment that allows it to establish causal relationships.

External validity is an attribute of an experiment in which variables have been defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way.

Question 13

What are the Ethical Practices and their issues?

Answer 13

APA Code of Ethics
Informed consent
Freedom from coercion
Protection from harm
Risk-benefit analysis
Deception
Debriefing
Confidentiality

Question 14

What is “Random Assignment?”

Answer 14

Random assignment: is a procedure that lets ‘chance’ assign participants to the experimental or control group

Question 15

What is “Random Sampling?”

Answer 15

Random sampling: is a technique for choosing participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample

Question 16

What elements need to included for a “true” experiment?

Answer 16

Experiments eliminate differences between groups by examining two key features:

1) Manipulation
2) Random assignment

Question 17

What are Neurons?

Answer 17

Cells in the nervous system that communicate with one another to perform information-processing tasks.

• Approximately 100 billion in the brain
• Process all thoughts, feelings, behaviors
• Take information and produce output

Question 18

What are the different types of Neurons?

Answer 18

1) Sensory neurons: Receive information from the external world; convey this information to the brain via the spinal cord
Receive signals for light, sound, touch, taste, and smell
2) Motor neurons: Carry signals from the spinal cord to the muscles to produce movement
Often have long axons that reach to muscles at our extremities
3) Interneurons: Connect sensory neurons, motor neurons, or other interneurons

Question 19

What is the correlation between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic portions of the Nervous System?

Answer 19

Sympathetic nervous system: Prepares the body for action in threatening situations

Parasympathetic nervous system: Helps the body return to a normal resting state

Question 20

What is CNS and PNS in relation to the Nervous System?

Answer 20

Central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Question 21

What is an Agonist? What is an Antagonist?

Answer 21

Agonists: Drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter

Antagonists: Drugs that block the function of a neurotransmitter

Question 22

Wilhelm Wundt’s brand of psychology focused on the study of ________, while John Watson’s brand of psychology focused on the study of ________.

Answer 22

consciousness; behavior.

Question 23

Emotions are complex in nature. Some philosophers have argued that emotions have evolved to help species adapt to their environment. This view of emotions is best illustrated by what approach?

Answer 23

functionalism

Question 24

Who was Phineas Gage? What happened to him?

Answer 24

Phineas Gage’s traumatic accident allowed researchers to investigate the functions of the frontal lobe and its connections with emotion centers in the subcortical structures.

Question 25

What are Mirror Neurons?

Answer 25

• Found in the frontal and parietal lobes and have been identified in other species in addition to humans
• Activated when an organism engages in a behavior or observes another engage in that behavior