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PSY 102 > MIDTERM > Flashcards

MIDTERM Flashcards

1
Q

Patternicity

A

the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in their absence

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2
Q

What is psychology?

A

the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior

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3
Q

Level of analysis

A

rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower, levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences

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4
Q

What makes psychology distinctive?

A

1) Human behaviour is exceedingly difficult to predict
2) Psychology influences are rarely independent of each other, making it difficult to pin down which cause of causes are operating
3) People differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour
4) People often influence each other, making it difficult to pin down precisely what causes what
5) Peoples behaviour is often shaped in powerful ways by culture

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5
Q

What is naive realism?

A

Belief that we see the world precisely as it is

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6
Q

What is pseudoscience?

A

set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t

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7
Q

Wha are the 5 warning signs of pseudoscience?

A
  1. Over-reliance on anecdotes
  2. Meaningless psychobabble
  3. lack of self-correction
  4. talk of ‘proof’ instead of ‘evidence’
  5. ad hoc immunizing
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8
Q

What are individual differences?

A

variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour

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9
Q

What is reciprocal determinism?

A

the fact that we mutually influence each other’s behaviour

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10
Q

What is a hypothesis?

A

testable prediction derived from a scientific theory

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11
Q

What is a scientific theory?

A

An explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world, including the psychological world

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12
Q

What is the difference between theories and hypothesis?

A

Theories are general explanations; Hypothesis are specific predictions derived from those explanations

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13
Q

What is confirmation bias?

A

Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them

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14
Q

What is belief perseverance?

A

Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

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15
Q

What is a metaphysical claim?

A

Assertion about the world that’s not testable

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16
Q

What is terror management theory?

A

theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews

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17
Q

What are logical fallacies?

A

traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions

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18
Q

Emotional Reasoning Fallacy

A

Error of using our emotions as guides for evaluating the validity of a claim

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19
Q

Bandwagon Fallacy

A

Error of assuming that a claim is correct just because many people believe it

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20
Q

Not Me Fallacy

A

Error of believing that we’re immune from errors in thinking that afflict other people

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21
Q

Name the 3 dangers of pseudoscience

A

Opportunity costs, direct harm, and inability to think scientifically as citizens

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22
Q

What is scientific skepticism?

A

approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them

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23
Q

Name the 6 principles of scientific thinking

A
  1. ruling out rival hypotheses
  2. correlation vs causation
  3. falsifiability
  4. replicability
  5. extraordinary claims
  6. parsimony (occam’s razor)
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24
Q

What is replicability?

A

when a study’s findings are duplicated, ideally by independent investigators

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25
Q

What is the decline effect?

A

fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears shrinking over time

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26
Q

What are the 2 modes of thinking?

A
  1. Malcolm Gladwell
    - our first impressions, especially of other people, can sometimes be surprisingly accurate.
    - System 1 thinking - snap judgements
  2. Daniel Kahneman -
    - System 2 thinking (aka analytical thinking)
    - Slow and reflective, takes mental effort
    - Allows us to override intuitive thinking and reject our gut hunches when they seem to be wrong
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27
Q

Define heuristic

A

mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of the world

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28
Q

What is naturalistic observation?

A

watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate the situation

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29
Q

What is external validity?

A

extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings

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30
Q

What is internal validity?

A

Extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a study

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31
Q

What is a case study?

A

research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period

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32
Q

What is existence proof?

A

demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur

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33
Q

What is a self-report measure?

A

used to assess a variety of characteristics, such as personality traits, mental illnesses, and interests

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34
Q

What is a survey?

A

used to measure peoples opinions and attitudes

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35
Q

What is random selection?

A

procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate

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36
Q

What is an advantage to self report measures?

A

easy and cheap to administer

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37
Q

What is a disadvantage to self report measures?

A

Typically assume that respondents possess enough insight into their personality characteristics to report on them accurately

Typically assume participants are honest in their responses

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38
Q

What is a response set?

A

tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items

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39
Q

What is correlational design?

A

research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated

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40
Q

What is a scatterplot?

A

grouping points on a two-dimensional graph in which each dot represents a single person’s data

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41
Q

What is illusory correlation?

A

perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists

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42
Q

What is an experimental design?

A

researchers manipulate variables to see whether these manipulations produce differences in participants’ behaviour

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43
Q

What is a correlational design?

A

the differences among participants are measured, but in experimental designs they’re created

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44
Q

What makes a study an experiment?

A

1) Random assignment of participants to conditions

2) Manipulation of an independent variable

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45
Q

What is random assignment?

A

randomly sorting participants into two groups

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46
Q

What is an experimental group?

A

in an experiment, the groups of participants that receives the manipulation

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47
Q

What is a control group?

A

in an experiment, the group of participants that does not receive the manipulation

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48
Q

What is an independent variable?

A

variable that an experimenter manipulates

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49
Q

What is a dependent variable?

A

variable that an experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation produces an effect

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50
Q

Opperational definition

A

a working definition of what a researcher is measuring

51
Q

What is the placebo effect?

A

improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement

52
Q

What is the “blind” effect?

A

unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group

53
Q

What is the nocebo effect?

A

is harm resulting from the mere expectation of harm

54
Q

What is the experimenter expectancy bias?

A

phenomenon in which researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study

55
Q

What is the double-blind effect?

A

when neither researchers nor participants are aware of who’s in the experimental or control group

56
Q

Define mean

A

average; total score / number of people

57
Q

Define median

A

middle score in data set; line up scores in order and find the middle one

58
Q

Define mode

A

most frequent score in a data set

59
Q

What is a demand characteristic?

A

cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researcher’s hypothesis

60
Q

How do you combat demand characteristics?

A
  • cover story

- “distractor” tasks or “filler” items

61
Q

What is informed consent?

A

informing research participants of what’s involved in a study before asking them to participate

62
Q

What is debriefing?

A

process whereby researchers inform participants what the study was about

63
Q

What is descriptive statistics?

A

numerical characterizations that describe data

64
Q

What is central tendency?

A

measure of the “central” scores in a data set, or where the group tends to cluster

65
Q

What are the 3 measures of central tendency?

A

Mean, median, and mode

66
Q

What are the 2 major types of descriptive statistics?

A

Central tendency and variability

67
Q

What is variability?

A

measure of how loosely or tightly bunches scores are

68
Q

What are the 2 ways to measure variability?

A

Range or standard deviation

69
Q

What is the difference between range and standard deviation?

A

Rage measures the difference between the highest and lowest score

Standard deviation measures how far each data point is from the mean

70
Q

What is a scientific theory?

A

used to generate predictions (hypotheses) about how some aspect of the world works

71
Q

What is a neuron?

A

cells in the nervous system that receive and transmit information

72
Q

What is a dendrite?

A

branch-like fibres in a neuron that receive information from other neurons

73
Q

What is an axon?

A

tail-like part of a neuron that sends information to other neurons

74
Q

What is axon potential?

A

where an electrical signal quickly travels down the axon (300km/h)

75
Q

What is the myelin sheath?

A

around the axon of some neurons is a fatty substance that acts as insulation, speeding up transmission along the axon

76
Q

Where are terminal buttons located?

A

are located at the end of the axon

77
Q

What is the synapse?

A

where the terminal buttons meet the dendrites of another neuron

78
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A

chemicals that transmit information from one neuron to another

79
Q

What is the difference between antagonist and agonist drugs?

A

Antagonist is a drug that blocks neurotransmitter activity

Agonist drugs mimic neurotransmitter activity

80
Q

What is plasticity?

A

nervous system’s ability to change

81
Q

What are the 2 types of plasticity?

A

Structural - forming new connections and getting rid of ones you are not using

Synaptic - strengthening of existing synaptic connections (potentiation)

82
Q

What are nerves?

A

bundles of axons (tracts or bundles)

83
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system?

A

nerves that lie outside the brain and spinal cord

84
Q

What are the 2 systems within the peripheral nervous system?

A

Somatic and autonomic nervous systems

85
Q

What is the Somatic Nervous System?

A

nerves that connect to and from voluntary muscles and sensory receptors

86
Q

What is the autonomic nervous system?

A

nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, [involuntary] muscles, and glands

87
Q

What are Efferent Nerves?

A

OUTGOING; carry motor commands from the central nervous system to the muscles

88
Q

What are Afferent Nerves?

A

INCOMING; carry information from sensory receptors in the skin, muscles, and joints to the central nervous system

89
Q

What does the sympathetic division do?

A

mobilizes the body for emergencies

90
Q

What does the parasympathetic division do?

A

conserves the body’s resources

91
Q

What is the central nervous system?

A

brain and spinal cord

92
Q

What is the function of the central nervous system?

A

carries motor commands from the brain to body; sensations from body to brain

93
Q

What are the 3 divisions of the brain?

A

Hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain

94
Q

What is the brain stem?

A

is the junction where spinal cord meets the brain

Includes hindbrain AND midbrain

95
Q

What is the purpose of the midbrain?

A

Receives auditory and visual input

Helps coordinate reflective movements

96
Q

What is the basal ganglia?

A

involved in control of voluntary movements

97
Q

What is the limbic system?

A

Brains emotional centre

98
Q

What are the 4 parts of the limbic system?

A

Thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala and hippocampus

99
Q

What is the thalamus?

A

acts as a “switchboard” for sensory input (sights, sounds, etc.)

100
Q

What is the hypothalamus?

A

Regulates and maintains constant internal body states, e.g., temperature

Sits underneath the thalamus (“hypo” = under

101
Q

What is the amygdala?

A

involved in fear response

102
Q

What is the hippocampus?

A

plays a central role in forming memories

103
Q

What are the 4 lobes?

A

Frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital

104
Q

What is the frontal lobe responsible for?

A

Planning and coordinating movements, decision making, speech production

105
Q

What are the key structures of the frontal lobe?

A

Motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area

106
Q

What is the parietal lobe responsible for?

A

Sensory information, spatial awareness, and number processing

107
Q

What are the key structures in the parietal lobe?

A

Somatosensory cortex

108
Q

What is the temporal lobe responsible for?

A

processing auditory information and speech comprehension

109
Q

What are the key structures of the temporal lobe?

A

Auditory cortex and Wernicke’s area

110
Q

What is the occipital lobe responsible for?

A

Visual information

111
Q

What is the key structure of the occipital lobe?

A

visual cortex

112
Q

What is phrenology?

A

Popular in the 19th century - early pseudoscience attempt at understanding the brain

113
Q

What is a lesion?

A

damage to a part of the brain

114
Q

What is an electroencephalograph (EEG)?

A

device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain over time by means of recording electrodes attached to the surface of the scalp

115
Q

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?

A

temporary excitement or deactivation of activity in a specific part of the brain

116
Q

What is adrenaline?

A

boosts energy production in muscles

117
Q

What is cortisol?

A

regulates blood pressure and cardiovascular function

118
Q

What are genes?

A

segments of DNA

119
Q

How many chromosomes are contained in each cell in our bodies?

A

46 chromosomes except sex cells (sperm and egg contain 23)

120
Q

What is a chromosome?

A

strands of DNA

121
Q

What is a genotype?

A

genetic information inherited from the parents

122
Q

What is a phenotype?

A

a person’s observable characteristics

123
Q

Define concordance

A

probability that a pair of individuals will both have a certain trait, given that one of the pair has the trait

PSY 102 (1 decks)

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