MCAT Psychology and Sociology Flashcards
What are effects do opiates have on withdrawl symptoms?
Understanding that opiates decrease withdrawl symptoms
What does operationalization mean in the context of designing an experiment?
Operationalization is the process of making a variable measurable.
What are some possible purposes of a positive control group?
Positive control groups can provide a basis for comparing outcomes of an experimental treatment and validate the experimental procedure by ruling out that any negative results were the result of technical errors.
What is a case-control study?
A case-control study, is a study in which people with an outcome of interest (cases) are compared to those without that outcome (controls).
What are some prerequisites that are needed in order to gain a study approval?
-Ensure a favorable risk/benefit ratio, have informed consent, show respect to participating parties, have scientific validity.
What type of study does publication bias effect the most?
Publication bias effects all studies, regardless of the design.
Describe a single blinded study.
A single blided study is when the observer is blinded, but the participant is not.
Describe a retrospective study.
A study that looks back to analyze previously compiled medical records, “backward-looking” design.
What is construct validity?
This refers to the degree of which items measure what the researchers intended for them to measure.
What type of study is considered to be the source for the strongest scientific evidence?
The meta-analyses, because they can synthesize results from multiple randomized controlled trials.
What functions would be affected if damage was to be sustianed to the midbrian?
Visual and auditory processing. The midbrain contains the superior and inferior colliculi. The superior colliculus is involved in visual processing, while the inferior colliculus is involved in the auditory relay.
What is the name of the reflex that occurs in infants in response to a suddent noise in which a abby extends their arms and legs, pulls them back in, throws back their head and cries?
The Moro reflex
What effect does an inhibitory neurotransmitter have on other neurons?
Hyperpolarization
Proprioreceptors detect what?
Proprioceptors are responsible for detecting the position of the body in three dimensions.
What is a moderating variable?
It modifies the strenght of a pre-existing relationship
What is the function of the semi-circular canals?
The semicircular canals are filled with endolymph, and the movement of this fluid against hair cells detects angular acceleration. Pouring cold water into one ear will generate opposite convective currents, leading to reduced ability to interpret angular acceleration, which is initiated when turning the head.
What is “feature detection”?
Feature detection is a phenomenon in which external visual stimuli are filtered and processed by relevance. The stimulus is detected first depends largely on the context of the situation.
What is physiological zero?
Physiological zero is the temperature that we perceive as neither hot nor col It roughly corresponds to the temperature of the skin at our peripheries, which is 29°C-32°C or 85°F-90°F – that is, slightly cooler than core body temperature.
What are magnocellular cells?
Magnocellular cells have low spatial resolution but high temporal resolution, allowing them to form a basis for our detection of objects in motion.
What is top-down processing?
Top-down processing is driven by previous experiences. It is used to recognize something familiar without needing to look at it in detail.
What is proprioception?
Proprioception is our sense of where our own body parts are in space.
What is top-down processing?
Top-down processing refers to perception that is driven by cognition. Your brain applies what it knows and what it expects to perceive and fills in the blanks, so to speak.
What is psychophysics?
Psychophysics is the scientific study of the relationship between stimuli (quantified in physical terms) and the sensations and perceptions evoked by these stimuli.
During what stage of sleep does a person experience cataplexy, or the partial of total loss of muscle control?
REM sleep is characterized by paralysis, swift eye movements, and dreaming. Patients with narcolepsy enter directly into REM sleep.
Sleep spindles are seen on an EEG reading in a person who is in what stage of sleep?
Sleep spindles, or high-frequency oscillations, would be found on the EEG of a patient in stage 2 sleep.
Drug addiction is reinforced by _________(hormone/neurotransmitter) release in the mesolimbic pathway, which includes the nucleus accumbens.
Dopamine
What class of chemical/substances are most likely to cause short-term memory loss?
Depressants, which includes opiates, alcohol, barbituates, and benziodiazpines
What term is used to describe that unattended-to information is attenuated, or reduced in intensity. But, it is not discarded entirely. For example, when infomation like out name appearing in a background conversation, might jump out to us from our current conversation.
This is called Treisman’s attenuation model. When you overhear your name in a background conversation, this is called the cocktail party effect.
What are dyssomnias? Give three examples.
Dyssomnias are sleep-wake disorders. Ex: insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea.
What are Gardner’s 7 intelligences?
- Musical intelligence 2. Bodily-kinesthetic 3. Interpersonal 4. Intrapersonal 5. Visual-spatial 6. Logical-mathematical 7. Linguistic intelligence.
What is the theory developed by Noam Chomsky, which states that language is innate to all human beings?
The Nativist Theory
Wernicke’s area, which is located in the temporal lobe, is responsible for what?
Wernicke’s area is responsible for language comprehension
In Noam Chomsky’s Nativist Theory, what does the term language acquisition device mean?
The term is used in theory’s explanation for the fact that nearly all typical humans learn language at a young age
What is the gestalt principle?
It is the concept that the human mind sees patterns in incomplete representations of objects or concepts and is able to deduct the nature of the whole from these patterns
What is amodal perception?
Amodal perception refers to humans tending to view objects that are partly occluded as whole objects,
If someone had severe damage to their left parietal lobe, what impact would this have on their cognitive abilities?
Someone with left parietal lobe damage would have difficulty recreating details, such as exact lines of overlap or intersection in a drawing.
What is reification?
Reification is when we percieve more information that is actually there, our brain fills in the blanks of an image.
What is are more sensitive in low light, rods or cones?
In low light, rods are more sensitive. This leads to images being percieved as more washed out.
What is theory is described by the following: argues that humans are pre-programmed with the innate ability to develop language, utilizing what is known as the language acquisition device in their brain?
The innatist or also known as the nativist theory.
What emotion response theory postulates that emotional state and physiological response develope independently of eachother?
These findings suggest that subjective emotional state and physiological response to a stimulus develop independently of one another. This is consistent with the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion.
Which of the following hormones would most likely NOT be present in elevated concentrations in the serum of chronically stressed animals? A. Cortisol B. Epinephrine C. Growth hormone D. Glucagon
C is correct. Stress induces the release of corticosteroids and catecholamines. Stress also induces the release of glucagon, which facilitates the elevation of blood glucose to provide readily available energy. Secretion of growth hormone is not a component of the stress response. In fact, chronically stressed children exhibit reduced growth hormone secretion and smaller stature.
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement occurs when an unpleasant or aversive stimulus is removed if the subject performs the desired behavior. Example: the electrified floor is deactivated if the mouse pulls the lever.
What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning involves the pairing of reinforcement with a learned behavior. Example, the reinforcement is praise and the behavior is speaking.
What is opponent-process theory?
The opponent-process theory of motivation states that at least some processes (actions) promote opposite physiological responses. For example, a drug user may consume a stimulant, which speeds up his heart rate and keeps him awake. In response, his body will attempt to slow down his heart rate and promote sedative processes.
In Erikson’s stages of development, what stage (or age range) is associated with the conflict of initiative vs. guilt?
Age range 3 to 6, with a central question of: Is it acceptatble for me to take initiative? Resolution: Purpose
The Freudian defense mechanism of displacement involves what?
In Freudian psychology, displacement refers to taking stress out on someone else.
What disease is the result of inadequate production of CNS dopamine? Some symptoms of the disease are: bradykinesia, tremors, and unsteady gait.
Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder resulting from inadequate production of CNS dopamine, resulting in bradykinesia, tremors, and an unsteady gait. This disease is caused by the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra.
What cognitive disease involves the abnormal activation of dopaminergic pathways?
Schizophrenia is thought to involve the abnormal activation of dopaminergic pathways. Newer antipsychotic medications have largely replaced chlorpromazine, but many of them still function as inhibitors of dopaminergic activity. Some antipsychotics have the side effect of causing Parkinsonian movements by antagonizing dopaminergic pathways.
Is bipolar disorder considered a mood disorder or a personality disorder?
Bipolar disorder is considered a mood disorder, rather than a personality disorder.
What type of psychological disorder is characterized by physical symptoms that cause significant stress to a patient, but have no clear physical cause?
These are called somatic disorders
What is described as immutable convictions held by people despite clear evidence that disproves these convictions?
These are delusions. Religious or cultural beliefs are an exception to this definition and are not considered delusions. Example fo delusion: a person believes his thoughts are being read and his mind controlled.
Participants in a study were queried a month later about some of the names they were tested on. This type of recall from memory primarily involves what part of the brain?
The area of the brain primarliry assocaited with memory retrieval and encoding is the hippocampus
What is the term used to describe the brain’s ability to form multiple synaptic connections about some information?
This refers to neuroplasticity.
A person tends to prefer a dispositional atribution for one’s good outcomes, but a situational attribution for poor outcomes, this describes what social psychological term?
The self-serving bias
What are the different kinds of motivations that are postited by the instinct theory of motivation?
The instinct theory of motivation views biological programming as the cause of motivation. The following are the differing types of motivation: unlearned, uniform in expression, universal in the species, unmodifiable, irresistible, automatic, and do not require training.
What does the term valence mean in terms of psychology?
Valence refers to the value that a person sets on the reinforcements or rewards. These values are usually based on an individual’s values, needs, goals, and intrinsic or extrinsic sources of motivation.
What type of study design is conducted when past records are examined?
Retrospective study design
What type of variable explains the relationship between two other variables?
Mediating variable. Example: Consider the relation between social status and frequency of testicular self-exams. Education might be a mediator variable in that it explains why there is a relation between self-exam and social status. This would mean when we remove the effect of education, the relation between the two variables disappears.
Opoids which mimic the efect of endorphins inhibit pain. Where are these hormones produced?
Endorphins are produced in the anterior pituitary gland. (LH, FSH, and GH are all produced here as well)
A drive-reduction and cognitive theorist suggest that depression stems from a reduction of what ?
A deficiency in arousal can cause depression and lead to a decline in sustaining behaviors
Abnormal functioning of which brain region(s) plays a role in the development of depression?
I. Frontal lobe
II. Limbic system structures
III. Hypothalamus
All three could produce symptoms similar to depression.
What is the difference between incidence and prevelance?
Incidence descrinbes the number of new cases of a disease. Prevelance rates note how common a disease may be.
What does the term attrition bias refer to?
Attrition bias occurs when participants drop out of a long term experiment or study.
What is eustress?
Eustress is a positive type of stress that happens when you perceive a situation as challenging, but motivating.
What is group polarization?
Group polarization refers to the tendency to adopt extreme views when in a group
What are the three core components of emotion?
- Physiological arousal - your body reacting to emotions 2. Expressive display - you expressing emotion 3. Subjective experiences - you interpreting your emotions
What does the Schachter-Singer theory state?
The Schachter-Singer theory states that emotion processing has 3 distinct steps: 1. Physiological arousal 2. Cognitive interpretation 3. Experience of the emotion
What is the difference between vriable-ratio and variable-interval reinforcement schedules?
Variable-ratio: behavior is reinforced after an average, but unpredictible, number of responses. (Ex: Casinos) Variable-interval: behavior is reinforced after an average, but unpredictible, amount of time has passed.
What is the Stroop Effect?
The Stroop effect describes why it is harder to reconcile different pieces of information relating to colors than to reconcile pieces of information.
What is criterion validity?
Criterion validity refers to whether a variable is able to predict a certain outcome.
What is conflict theory?
Conflict theory refers to conflcit within a social class.
What is symbolic interactionism?
Symbolic interactionism is the view that an individual’s experience influences his or her perceptions.
What is ethocentrism?
Ethocentrism is the tendency to view one’s group and it’s cultural expectations and norms as right, proper, and superior to others.
What is negative reinforcement?
Negative reinforcement is reinforcing behavior by removing a negative stimulus, like chores.
What is compliance?
Compliance is superficial, a public change in behavior in response to group pressure.
What is cognitive dissonance theory?
Cognitive dissonance theory states that people desire consistencey in their life and seeks to explain the justifications used for actions that do not align with their values and evoke cognitive dissonance.
What is double approach-avoidant conflict?
Double approach-avoidant conflict consists of two options with both appealing and negative characteristics. Ex: Jury dilemma could be punishing a criminal (approach) or punishing an innocent (avoidant).
Participants in a study were queried a month later about some of the names they were tested on. This type of recall from memory primarily involves what part of the brain?
The area of the brain primarliry assocaited with memory retrieval and encoding is the hippocampus
What is the term used to describe the brain’s ability to form multiple synaptic connections about some information?
This refers to neuroplasticity.
A person tends to prefer a dispositional atribution for one’s good outcomes, but a situational attribution for poor outcomes, this describes what social psychological term?
The self-serving bias
What are the different kinds of motivations that are postited by the instinct theory of motivation?
The instinct theory of motivation views biological programming as the cause of motivation. The following are the differing types of motivation: unlearned, uniform in expression, universal in the species, unmodifiable, irresistible, automatic, and do not require training.
What does the term valence mean in terms of psychology?
Valence refers to the value that a person sets on the reinforcements or rewards. These values are usually based on an individual’s values, needs, goals, and intrinsic or extrinsic sources of motivation.
What type of study design is conducted when past records are examined?
Retrospective study design
What type of variable explains the relationship between two other variables?
Mediating variable. Example: Consider the relation between social status and frequency of testicular self-exams. Education might be a mediator variable in that it explains why there is a relation between self-exam and social status. This would mean when we remove the effect of education, the relation between the two variables disappears.
Opoids which mimic the efect of endorphins inhibit pain. Where are these hormones produced?
Endorphins are produced in the anterior pituitary gland. (LH, FSH, and GH are all produced here as well)
A drive-reduction and cognitive theorist suggest that depression stems from a reduction of what ?
A deficiency in arousal can cause depression and lead to a decline in sustaining behaviors
Abnormal functioning of which brain region(s) plays a role in the development of depression?
I. Frontal lobe
II. Limbic system structures
III. Hypothalamus
All three could produce symptoms similar to depression.
What is the difference between incidence and prevelance?
Incidence descrinbes the number of new cases of a disease. Prevelance rates note how common a disease may be.
What does the term attrition bias refer to?
Attrition bias occurs when participants drop out of a long term experiment or study.
What is eustress?
Eustress is a positive type of stress that happens when you perceive a situation as challenging, but motivating.
