Lecture notes for chs. 1-4, 11

Question 1

5 types of coping with stress

Answer 1

behavioral control: problem-focused/active coping; cognitive control: top-down control over negative emotions (ie. being optimistic); Decisional Control: going through pros and cons; Informational control: try to get as much information as possible; emotional control: suppressing emotion

Question 2

Approach 1 of defining stress and measuring it

Answer 2

Stressor as a stimuli. Measured through the Social readjustment scale (SRS). This measurement assigns a value of life events, and the sum should be a measure of stress.

Question 3

Approach 2 of defining stress

Answer 3

Stress as a response.

Question 4

Approach 3 of defining stress

Answer 4

Stress as a transaction

Question 5

3 reasons it is hard to stop unhealthy habits

Answer 5

Personal Inertia, misestimating risk (ie. risk of death from heart disease vs. risk of death from plane crash), Feeling powerless.

Question 6

Sleep controlled by…

Answer 6

Thalamus and brainstem

Question 7

3 reasons why we sleep

Answer 7

Homeostasis: renormalize synaptic weights (the buildup of toxic chemicals between neurons during the day), Energy conservation: lowered metabolization and body temp good for nighttime when we can’t hunt (evolutionarily), Memory consolidation: reflecting on the day’s experiences and updating our understanding/model of the world.

Question 8

Episodic memory

Answer 8

rote memorization

Question 9

Emotional memory

Answer 9

helps remember things of emotional significance

Question 10

Systems consolidation

Answer 10

The ability to take a cue and recover information related to it

Question 11

Hippocampus replay

Answer 11

The hippocampus reinforces memories by “replaying” them while you sleep

Question 12

6 ways that consciousness can be altered

Answer 12

1) Hallucination, 2) Out of body experience, 3) Near death experience, 4) Deja-vu, 5) Mystical experience: feelings of unity or openness with the world, often with spiritual overtones, 6) Hypnosis

Question 13

Belief Perserverence

Answer 13

A bias that is similar to confirmation bias, but more extreme in that it is the inability to change beliefs in light of contradictory evidence

Question 14

How many neurons and connections between these neurons are there in the brain

Answer 14

There are about 85 Billion neurons, with about 160 Trillion connections between them

Question 15

Behavioral Genetics

Answer 15

the study of genetic and environmental influences on behavior

Question 16

Fan shaped interaction

Answer 16

There exists a baseline and an increase level of some trait is associated with a more adverse environment

Question 17

Cross-over interaction

Answer 17

differential susceptibility: the level of some trait varies for both better and worse for some genotypes