Psych/Soc Flashcards
What is positive punishment?
Positive punishment = behavior is exhibited -> negative consequence
If the children in a follow-up study included both 4-year-olds and 8-year-olds, researchers would likely observe:
More examples of parallel play among the 4-year-olds
The music children listen to conveys certain typical social situations and the expected emotional reaction to those situations in a simple, repetitive way that allows children and adolescents to more easily internalize. This process of internalizing the expected reactions to life situations is:
A normal part of the socialization process
What is a statement that accurately describes a major assumption of the functionalist theory of social stratification?
Social stratification is necessary and results from the need for those with special intelligence, knowledge, and skills to be a part of the most important professions and occupations
What is conflict theory?
The struggle for limited resources results in conflicts between groups, which shapes societal structures (example: relationship between housing complex owner and tenant = some harmony, some struggle)
What are mores?
Norms that are deemed highly necessary to the welfare of a society and have consequences if violated (cheating on a test, wearing inappropriate dress to church)
What is social desirability bias?
A bias where participants would want to answer in the most socially acceptable way
What is test-retest bias?
Participants take the same exam over and over again, which affects their responses
What is researcher bias?
The scientists conducting the study change the results
What is attrition bias?
When participants drop out of a study over time, which affects the results
What were some findings by Harry Harlow in his experiments with rhesus monkeys and “Wire Mother” vs. “Cloth Mother”?
Monkeys paired with Wire Mothers and Cloth Mothers drank similar amounts of milk and grew at comparable rates, monkeys paired with a Wire Mother sought soothing at less rates than Cloth Mothers, monkeys spent more time with Cloth Mothers
What is anomie?
Society feeling fragmented and lacking cohesiveness (characteristics include rapid changes in society, low levels of income, and high heterogeneity) - Durkheim (the lack of rules and clarity resulted in psychological status of worthlessness, frustration, lack of purpose, and despair)
What is neural plasticity?
The ability of neurons of the brain to “rewire” and strengthen connections over time
What does the prefrontal cortex do?
Executive decision-making, such as considering risk and making choices
What are some cultural factors that impact adolescent risky behavior?
Culturally-based expectations, cultural response to onset of puberty, and cultural taboos regarding alcohol use
What is face validity?
The extent to which a study appears to assess what it is intended to assess
What is content validity?
Whether a study comprehensively accounts for all of the relevant facets of the phenomenon it is intended to investigate
What does functional MRI do?
Manages brain activity by using blood flow (different from MRI: MRI = structure, fMRI = function)
What is a moderating variable?
One that decreases or increases the strength of an association
What is a mediating variable?
One that provides a causal link between two variables that show a statistical relationship
What is a confounding variable?
One that affects two variables that show a relationship
What is role strain?
A problem fitting into an existing role
What is role conflict?
Two roles coming into contact
How does altruistic behavior improve inclusive fitness?
An animal behaving in ways that ensure the propagation of its genes (ex. an animal making noise to alert its brood that there is a predator)
What are the stages in the Kubler-Ross model?
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance (Death Always Brings Definite Acceptance)
What is primary aging?
Aging related to biological factors and the physical body, like molecular changes
How could a study be changed to assess operant conditioning?
Present a reward after participants rate the stimuli and then have them rate the stimuli again
What is the house money effect?
The tendency of investors and traders to take on greater risk when reinvesting profit earned via stocks, bonds, futures or options than they would when investing their savings or a portion of their wages.
What is gambler’s fallacy?
The mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future
What is prisoner’s dilemma?
An example from a game theory that shows why two completely “rational” individuals might not cooperate, even if it appears that it is in their best interests to do so
What would be a possible ratio level measure of religiosity?
The number of times a person has been to church in the month (range of quantitative responses, ordered at equally-spaced intervals including 0)
What would be a possible binary nominal level measure of religiosity?
Whether or not a person believes in God (Yes or No)
What would be a possible nominal level measure of religiosity?
The type of religion with which a person identifies
What would be a possible ordinal/interval level measure of religiosity?
The degree of one’s belief in afterlife (without the possiblity of 0)
What is general strain theory?
Individuals who have experienced negative events feel negative emotions, which lead to negative behaviors
What is anomie theory?
Individuals who experience weakened social values are less likely to behave in ways that are helpful to that society
What is deprivation theory?
Individuals who perceive themselves as having less resources than others will often act in ways to obtain these resources
What is the ego?
Your ego is your conscious mind, the part of your identity that you consider your “self.”
What is the superego?
Forms the organized part of the personality structure, is mostly unconscious (represses the id and gets the ego to be more moralistic)
What is the id?
Includes basic human instinctual drives, unconscious
What is reciprocal determinism?
A person’s behavior both influences and is influenced by personal factors and the environment
What is deindividuation?
People feeling less responsibility/identity when in groups (ex. cults, gangs)
What is social cognitive theory?
People learn by watching others, and if they see someone is rewarded for a behavior, they are more likely to behave that way too
What is an ideal bureaucracy?
A system characterized by division of labour, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships
What is a manifest function?
Actions that are intended to help some part of the system
What is a latent function?
Unintended, unstated, or unrecognized positive consequences of these actions on society
What is functionalism?
Each part of society serves a function, when these functions work together correctly, society overall can function normally
What is conflict theory?
Power differentials are created when groups compete for economic, social, and political resources; these differentials contribute to the maintenance of social order
What is symbolic interactionalism?
Humans communicate through words, gestures, and other symbols to which we attach meaning
What is social constructionism?
Individuals and groups make decisions to agree upon a given social reality
What is rational choice theory?
Individuals will make decisions that maximize potential benefit and minimize potential harm
What is feminist theory?
Explores the way in which one gender can be subordinated, minimized, or devalued compared to the other
What are the four key tenets of American medical ethics?
Beneficence, Nonmaleficence, Respect for Autonomy, and Justice
What is symbolic culture?
The ideas and principles that belong to a particular group
What is the difference between race and ethnicity?
Race = based on phenotypic differences between groups of people; Ethnicity = based on common language, religion, nationality, or other cultural factors
What is symbolic ethnicity?
Recognition of an ethnic identity on special occasions or in specific circumstances, but not during everyday life
What is fertility rate?
The average number of children a woman has during her lifetime
What are the two types of social movements?
Proactive social movements (in favor of a specific social change) and reactive social movements (run against a specific social change)
A patient who resides in the United States says, “I love you,” and hugs his doctor after every routine visit. This behavior violates:
Social norms
A young adult male claims to have had sexual relationships mostly with other men, although he has been attracted to women at times. What would be his most likely score on the Kinsey scale?
5
What is the looking glass self?
A social psychological concept stating that a person’s self grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others
What is egocentric bias?
The tendency to overstress changes between the past and present in order to make oneself appear more worthy or competent than one actually is
What is attributional bias?
Bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own or others’ behaviors
What is framing?
A set of concepts and theoretical perspectives on how individuals, groups, and societies organize, perceive, and communicate about reality
What is automation bias?
The tendency to excessively depend on automated systems, which can lead to erroneous automated information overriding correct decisions
What is self-serving bias?
The tendency to attribute good outcomes with internal factors and ascribe bad outcomes to external factors
Those who assume abuses in institutions are done by those with dispositional propensities to violence have committed an error of what type?
Fundamental attribution
What is ecological validity?
How findings from an experimental setting can be generalized to the environmental considerations in the real world
A projective personality assessment requires that:
The participant responds, and then the response was assessed for meaning
What is an example of something that contradicts Weber’s law?
A non-linear relationship between the intensity of a stimulus and an individual’s ability to detect it
What is differential association theory?
When individuals engage in criminal choices because they are exposed to it, while individuals who don’t commit crimes have not been exposed to this type of behavior
To decrease someone’s self efficacy:
You can use the external locus of control, which would increase self-esteem and decrease self-efficacy
The r squared value is used to express:
The strength of a correlation
An individual with Wernicke’s aphasia would likely have difficult with what part of communication?
Expressing meaning
What is referent power?
Someone who exerts control by appealing to others’ desire to belong to a group
What is recall?
Retrieval of information from memory without recognition cues
What is a function of testosterone?
Causes the Sertoli cells in the seminiferous tubules to produce sperm, is produced by cells of Leydig
What is a function of estrogen?
Inhibits bone resorption
What are implicit/explicit attitudes?
Implicit = unconscious, explicit = conscious
What is status quo bias?
The tendency to avoid situations or actions that may produce change, instead preferring to choose action that will keep normalcy/the status quo
What is exchange-rational theory?
Patterns of behavior in societies reflect the choices made by individuals as they try to maximize their benefits and minimize their costs
What objections would not be raised by an ethics committee?
Potentially harmful medication should not be given to otherwise healthy subjects, necessary medication should not be denied to patients for the sake of research, and patients suffering from schizophrenia were unable to provide informed consent for this experimental protocol
If an Arab IMG received an unflattering nickname from coworkers due to his tendency to forget English medical terms, this would be an example of:
Positive punishment (punishment/reinforcement = what is the result? it is encouraging or discouraging a certain result?), positive or negative = whether a behavior was added or removed
What is surround suppression?
Perceiving tactile information while ignoring stimuli immediately surrounding it
Behaviorists would assert that self-defeating behaviors are maintained by immediate reinforcement in the form of:
Relief from anxiety (people that have low self-esteem often times are susceptible to having anxiety/emotional distress)
What is general paresis?
General paralysis of the insane or paralytic dementia, a neuropsychiatric disorder affecting the brain, caused by late-stage syphilis
What is delirium tremens?
An acute episode of delirium that is usually caused by withdrawal from alcohol
What is schizotypal personality disorder?
A personality disorder characterized by a need for social isolation, anxiety in social situations, odd behavior and thinking, and often unconvential beliefs
What is a paired samples t-test?
A test conducted when researchers wish to compare mean values of the same participants
What is an independent samples t-test?
A test conducted when researchers wish to compare mean values of two groups
A person with intact mirror neurons would be expected to perform similar to a person with mirror neuron dysfunction on:
An assessment of tactile perception (does not require observation and understanding of others)
Which of the following theories would provide the best support to the idea that mirror neurons are involved in language acquisition?
Vygotsky’s social learning theory (stresses the role of people and interactions in language acquisition)
It was discovered that in those whose stress levels are significantly elevated by traumatic events, the incidence of bedwetting was increased. During which stage of sleep is bedwetting most likely to occur?
4
Emotion represents what kind of variable relating warmth and competence group and behavior?
A mediating variable
A research subject is shown the following list of the following words: wing, engine, tail, and window. When later presented with and asked to recall whether the presented word was on the original list, the participant identifies “runway” as having been on the list. This is an example of:
A false alarm
What are some reasons for the development of intersectionality from feminism?
Feminism did not address how combinations of cultural identities influence individuals, and intersectionality articulates a number of specific types of identities
What is least likely to influence epigenetics?
Inhibited DNA transcription
George Mead’s social theory presents the part of the self which is called the “me” as the:
Collection of attitudes taken from society
What is one part of the brain closely tied to the “limbic system”?
Hypothalamus
In which portions of the mind would Sigmund Freud argue that the ego functions in these individuals?
Conscious, unconscios, and preconscious mind
Some people believe that school success should be based on hard work, but in actuality ther are a number of extraneous factors that contribute to student success. These are examples of:
Prescriptive meritocracy and descriptive meritocracy, respectively
What is a core nation?
Well-developed, wealthy capitalist nations that control many resources, have powerful militaries, and strong state institutions
What experiment demonstrated that learning takes place in the cerebellum?
HM being asked to learn to draw a star
What is groupthink?
A phenomenon when group members are pressured to make decisions
What collective group behavior or phenomenon do anti-vaccination groups hope to promote when they share false sensational information that links vaccines to cancer?
Mass hysteria (a collective delusional belief that something is threatening)
What is anomie?
A breakdown of social norms and involves discarding usual ethical and moral standards
A sociologist is evaluating the interactions between clients and personal injury attorneys. She examines relations between rich, successful, white attorneys and clients who are poor and from immigrant families. The sociologist seeks to focus her analysis on the difficulties that arise as a result of the differing levels of wealth and status possessed by the attorneys and clients. This analysis could best be described by which sociological framework?
Conflict theory
What are characteristiccs of groupthink and NOT characteristics of confirmation bias?
An individual distorts his opinion to match the group’s opinion, and individual opinions and group opinions become more similar
What is a crossover design?
When participants participate in each group in a study
A researcher from the study works together with others on a daily basis. The individuals he interacts with at this job most likely form what kind of social group with him?
Secondary group
Walking down a city sidewalk, a woman carrying several large shopping bags slips on some ice and drops her things. In which of the following situations is the woman most likely to receive help?
The sidewalk is otherwise deserted, with only a single person walking towards the woman when she slipped
What is observed in this scenario: a college campus on which students are required to make such extensive use of technology that the level of normal face-to-face interaction drops precipitously below the norm at other college campuses.
Anomie
An undergrad premedical honor society is choosing its new members for the fall semester. Though one potential member, Anna, has a poor grade in organic chemistry, the application committee concludes that this is not her fault because everyone fails that course. To make this attribution, the committee is using:
Consensus cue
The concept of using consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency cues to make attributions was originally outlined in:
Kelley’s covariation model
What is the defensive attribution hypothesis?
The human fear that terrible consequences might happen to us simply due to chance
What is optimism bias?
A person’s belief that bad things are less likely to happen to him than to others
What is the just-world hypothesis?
The idea that people “get what they deserve”, whether good or bad
What is an example of Fisherian selection?
Male peacocks have developed ornamentation that is both elaborate and a physical hindrance, due to females’ mating preferences
Female cats are more attracted to, and reproduce more often with, male cats that have shiny and clean coats. This tendency exemplifies:
An indicator trait
Which properly matches the type of formal organization with an example of that type?
A normative organization - volunteers who build homes for underprivileged residents
What would effectively increase the power of the study?
Increasing the sample size of the study
How do the cognitive and emotional aspects of prejudice differ?
The cognitive aspect relates to an unjustified belief about an individual or group, while the emotional aspect relates to the affective response to that belief
As shown in the cases of SARS and avian flu, there is always a risk that a new epidemic might develop and begin killing people around the world. The response to such a disease would likely be slowest, however, if which of the following lifestyle factors contributed to its transmission?
Promiscuous sexual activity
What are some examples of institutional discrimination?
Drawing school district boundaries to concentrate minority students in one district, and black men receiving longer sentences for the same crimes as white men
Knowledge of the effects of stress on human cognitive function would most likely lead researchers to implement what additional component to a program aimed at improving stress management?
Frequent review of material to aid in recall of learned skills
Strong religiosity is associated with:
More acceptance and greater use of emotion-focused strategies to manage reactions to events
What is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs from bottom to top?
Physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, esteem needs, self-actualization
What is a reference group?
A group one is likely to mentally compare oneself to
What is gender schema?
A cognitive theory of how individuals acquire and understand elements of gender and sex-linked characteristics from their surrounding culture and how those characteristics are transmitted intergenerationally
What is a gender role?
The set of normative behaviors viewed as acceptable (or desirable), for members of a given sex within a culture
What does a continuous reinforcement schedule mean?
There is one reward per task
What is stimulus discrimination?
A process in conditioning in which the response comes to be paired with more specific stimuli
What is overgeneralization?
When a specific stimulus comes to be paired with similar stimuli
What is a potential limitation of this study?
Doctors who discuss smoking cessation, but make no formal prescriptions, may view such a conversation in a more casual light that does not merit inclusion in medical records
What is social proof?
Also known as informational social influence, a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation
What occurred during John B. Watson’s Little Albert experiment?
It examined fear conditioning (a previously unafraid baby was conditioned to be afraid of a rat)
What occurred during Philip Zimbardo’s prison study?
It examined how people conform to different roles, especially when placed in positions of authority
What occurred during Soloman Asch’s conformity experiment?
It looked at how and why people adopt majority group decisions
What occurred during Stanley Milgram’s electric shock study?
It examined factors related to obedience to authority and identification with obedient roles
What are Erikson’s 7 stages of psychosocial development?
trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair.
What is impression management?
The process by which individuals attempt to influence the perceptions of observers by controlling what information they present to others during social interaction
What is reaction formation?
A defensive process in which anxiety-inducing impulses are minimized by displaying outwardly the exact opposite thought, feeling, or tendency
What is the difference between peripheral vs. central route in the elaboration likelihood model?
Central = persuason will result from a person’s careful consideration of the merits of persuasive information ; peripheral = persuasion results from a person’s association with positive or negative cues such as the attractiveness of the message source and its related presentation
What is illusion of invulnerability?
Group members believe they are invulnerable to any obstacle
What is a rationalization?
When somebody comes up with a reason for why they did something
Stereotypes deal with:
Expectations rather than reality
Stage 4 of the demographic transition corresponds to:
A slowly-growing or shrinking population associated with low mortality and fertility rates
Evolutionary psychologists have postulated that depression developed through endowing individuals with certain benefits that outweigh the social and biological repercussions of the condition. This most closely resembles the ideas of:
Charles Darwin
The Cannon-Bard theory of emotion discusses how:
We have a stimuli -> subcortical brain activity -> emotion (autonomic arousal)
Is cilia part of the auditory system?
YES
How is the law of effect different from classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning involves involuntary responses, while the law of effect involves voluntary actions
What is social control?
The ways in which society can prevent and sanction behavior that violates social norms
What stage of sleep is alpha waves in?
Awake, fatigued and less than alert
What stage of sleep is beta waves in?
Awake and fully alert
What stages of sleep is theta waves in?
Stages 1 and 2
What stages of sleep is theta waves in?
Stages 3 and 4
What is deviant?
Behaving in a way that violates social norms
What are the stages of the demographic transition model?
Stage 1 - high fertility and mortality; stage 2 - fertility remains high, mortality drops; stage 3 - mortality is low, fertility drops; stage 4 - fertility and mortality are low
What is a confounding variable?
A variable that affects or correlates with both the independent and dependent variables
What is a moderating variable?
One that affects the intensity between an independent and dependent variable
What is a mediating variable?
Provides an explanatory link between the independent and dependent variable
In a caste system:
Social status is determined hereditarily
What are symptoms of PTSD?
Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive memories; dissociative reactions, and increased startle and physiological response
What is achieved status?
A social role that is obtained through voluntary action or achievement
What is ascribed status?
A status that can’t be voluntarily changed (or that one is both with), like sex or age
How should a parent positively reinforce a behavior that a child is already intrinsically motivated to do?
Do not provide any reinforcement to the behavior
The dopamine circulating throughout the mesolimbic pathway is largely produced in which brain location?
Ventral tegmental area
What is serotonin signaling within the hypothalamus involved in?
It is the key pathway which appetite and satiation signaling is conducted
What is acetylcholine involved with?
The neuromuscular junction
What is oxytocin involved in?
Mood, bonding and intimacy interactions
What is glutamate involved in?
It is the main excitatory neurotransmitter and is not involved in appetite satiation
What is culture shock?
A sense of disorientation as a person experiences an unfamiliar culture
How long must a patient experience symptoms of depression before he or she can be diagnosed with major depressive disorder?
2 weeks
Which of the following best exhibits how diffusion of education could help low-socioeconomic-status (SES) status?
High-SES school systems could expose them to new ways of learning
What is the most likely reason supplemental tryptophan can be used to treat MDD, while artificial serotonin cannot?
Tryptophan, unlike serotonin, is transported across the blood-brain barrier
A conflict theorist would say that medicine is:
A part of the superstructure, brought about for reasons of economics, power, or status for one or more groups of people
The philosopher Peter Singer has called for the killing of people with disabilities because they cost too much for the state to support. This statement is most likely based on:
Rational choice theory
Which psychologist would most likely subscribe to the theory that believing in the supernatural is a non-cardinal personality trait?
Gordon Allport
What is the pathway for a stimulus to reach conscious perception?
Sensory receptor -> afferent neuron -> sensory ganglion -> spinal cord -> brain (projection areas)
What is absolute threshold?
The minimum stimulus that can evoke an action potential in a sensory receptor
What is threshold of conscious perception?
The minimum stimulus that can evoke enough action potentials for a long enough time that the brain perceives the stimulus
What is difference threshold?
The minimum difference between 2 stimuli that can be detected by the brain
What is the cornea?
Gathers and focuses the incoming light
What is the pupil?
Allows passage of light from the anterior to posterior chamber
What is the iris?
Controls the size of the pupil
What is the ciliary body?
Produces aqueous humor; accomodates the lens
What is the Canal of Schlemm?
Drains aqueous humor
What is the lens?
Refracts the incoming light to focus it on the retina
What is the retina?
Detects images
What is the sclera?
Provides structural support, white outer layer of the eyeball
List the structures in the visual pathway.
Cornea -> pupil -> lens -> vitreous -> retina (rods and cones -> bipolar cells -> ganglion cells) -> optic nerve -> optic chiasm -> optic tract -> LGN of thalamus -> radiations through parietal and temporal lobes -> visual cortex (occipital lobe)
What is parallel processing?
The ability to simultaneously analyze color, shape, and motion of an object and to integrate this information to create a cohesive image of the world, also calls on memory systems to compare a visual stimulus to past experiences to help determine the object’s identity
What structures are used to detect linear acceleration and rotational acceleration?
Linear acceleration = utricle and saccule; rotational acceleration = semicircular canals
List the structures in the auditory pathway.
Pinna -> external auditory canal -> tympanic membrane -> malleus -> incus -> stapes -> oval window -> perilymph in cochlea -> basilar membrane -> hair cells -> vestibulocochlear nerve -> brainstem -> MGN of thalamus -> auditory cortex (temporal lobe)
How does the organization of the cochlea indicate the pitch of an incoming sound?
Basilar membrane is tonotropically organized (high-pitch sounds = vibrations at base of cochlea; low-pitch sounds = vibrations at apex of cochlea)
List the structures in the olfactory pathway, from where odor molecules enter the nose to where olfactory signals project in the brain.
Nostril -> nasal cavity -> olfactory chemoreceptors -> olfactory epithelium -> olfactory bulb -> olfactory tract -> higher-order brain regions
Both smell and taste are sensitive to chemicals. What is different about the types of chemicals each one can sense?
Smell is sensitive to volatile or aerosolized compounds, taste is sensitive to dissolved compounds
What are the four main modalities of somatosensation?
Pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature
What is the difference between bottom-up and top-down processing?
Bottom-up processing = each component of an object to be interpreted through parallel processing the integrated into one cohesive whole; top-down processing = starts with the whole object, then creates expectations for the components of the object
What is the Gestalt principle of good continuation?
Components that appear to folllow in the same pathway tend to be grouped together; abrupt changes in form are less likely than continuation of the same pattern (strings continue, not viewed as 2 separate strings)
What is the Gestalt principle of subjective contours?
Edges or shapes that are not actually present can be implied by the surrounding objects (especially if good continuation is present)
What is the difference between endolymph and perilymph?
Endolymph is found in the membranous labyrinth, while perilymph is found in the bony labyrinth
A patient comes in with a tumor of the pituitary gland which has grown upward into the optic chiasm and caused a visual field defect. The most likely defect from compression of the optic chiasm is:
Loss of the temporal visual fields in both eyes
List the three modes in which information can be encoded, from strongest to weakest.
Semantic > acoustic > visual
In what ways is maintenance rehearsal different from elaborative rehearsal?
Maintenance rehearsal = repetition of information to keep it within short-term memory for near immediate use; elaborative rehearsal = association of information to other stored knowledge, and is a more effective way to move information from short-term memory to long-term memory
What are some factors that might cause eyewitnesss courtroom testimony to be unreliable?
Manner in which the questions are asked, the nature of information shared with the witness by police, misinformation effect, source-monitoring error, amount of time elapsed between event and trial
What is pruning?
Removing weak neural connections
Which process would increase the likelihood of a behavior?
Avoidance learning
What is true of teaching an animal a complicated, multistage behavior?
The individual parts of the behavior should not run counter to the animal’s natural instincts
A researcher uses a partial-report procedure after presenting participants with an array of nine numbers for a fraction of a second. Which of the following is the most likely result of this procedure?
The participants will be able to recall any of the rows or columns in great detail but only immediately after presentation
The three steps in the information processing model are:
Encoding, storage, and retrieval
An elderly man is taken to his doctor by his daughter. His daughter says that during the past two days, he has been speaking to his wife who has been deceased for four years. Prior to that, he was completely normal. The elderly man most likely has:
Delirium
List Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development, and the key features of each.
Sensorimotor = manipulating environment for phyiscal needs, circular reactions, ends with object permanence; preoperational = symbolic thinking, egocentrism, centration; concrete operational = conservation, feelings of others, can manipulate concrete objects logically; formal operational = abstract thinking, problem solving
A child plays with a tool set, noting that a nail can only be hit with a hammer. When a friend suggests that the handle of a screwdriver can be used to hit a nail, the child passionately objects. This is an example of:
Functional fixedness
A doctor uses a flow chart to treat a patient with sepsis. Given its use in problem solving, a flowchart is an example of an:
Algorithm
A patient in a mental facility believes that the sky is pink. Despite several trips outside, the patient still declares the sky is pink. Which psychological principle does this represent?
Belief perserverance
What is the difference between availability and representativeness heuristic?
Availability heuristic = used for making decisions based on how easily similar instances can be imagined; representativeness heuristic = used for making decisions based on how much a particular item or situation fits a given prototype/stereotype
For each sleep stage, list its EEG waveforms and main features
Awake = beta and alpha waves; stage 1 = theta waves; stage 2 = theta waves, sleep spindles and K complexes; stages 3 and 4= delta waves, slow-wave sleep, dreams, sleep disorders occur here; REM = mostly beta, body is paralyzed
Which two hormones are most associated with maintaning circadian rhythms?
Melatonin and cortisol
What is the difference between a dyssomnia and a parasomnia? Provide an example of each.
Dyssomnia = duration of timing of sleep is disturbed (insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea); parasomnia = abnormal behaviors occur (night terrors and sleepwalking AKA somnambulism)
Which four drugs (or drug classes) are known to increase GABA activity in the brain?
Alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, marijuana
Which three drugs (or drug classes) are known to increase dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin activity in the brain?
Amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy (MDMA)
What are the three main structures in the mesolimbic pathway? What is this pathway’s primary neurotransmitter?
Nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle, ventral tegmental area; primary neurotransmitter = dopamine
Compare and contrast controlled (effortful) processing and automatic processing.
Controlled (effortful) processing = maintaining undivided attention; automatic processing = used for less critical stimuli in divided attention
Briefly describe the function of the “filter” used in selective attention.
Permits us to focus on one set of stimuli while scanning other stimuli in the background for important information (such as our name or a significant change in the environment)
What are the milestones for a child that is 9-12 months?
Babbling
What are the milestones for a child that is 12-18 months?
Increase of about one word per month
What are the milestones for a child that is 18-20 months?
“Explosion of language” and combining words (two-word sentences)
What are the milestones for a child that is 2-3 years?
Longer sentences of three or more words
What are the milestones for a child that is 5 years?
Language rules largely mastered
What is the nativist (biological) theory of language acquisition?
Innate ability to pick up language via the language acquisition device
What is the learning (behavioral) theory of language acquisition?
Operant conditioning with reinforcement by parents and caregivers in order to pick up language
What is the social interactionist theory of language acquisition?
A desire to communicate and act socially in order to pick up language
What is conduction aphasia?
Where the patient is unable to repeat something that has been said because the connection between these two regions has been lost
A student is volunteering in a hospital with a stroke center. When asked what he believes is the prevalence of stroke among those greater than 65 years old, the student states that is probably about 40% even though data analysis indicates that it is significantly greater. What accounts for this error?
Base rate fallacy
Which language theory states that language development occurs due to preferential reinforcement of certain phonemes by parents and caregivers?
Learning theory
During which of the following stages does dreaming occur?
Stage 3, Stage 4, and REM
Assuming that the children studied are 6-7 years old and are in the normal stage of Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, which of the following would most likely be observed among these subjects?
A high degree of symbolic play
What are some examples of mores?
Seeking help for an acute medical illness
What are some examples of folkways?
Holding a door open
What are some examples of taboos?
Cannibalism, incest
What is an example of kinship of affinity?
A husband and wife merging their children from a previous marriage
What is biological factor that could contribute to risky behavior in adolescence?
Undeveloped prefrontal cortex
What is the difference between fMRI and MRI?
fMRI = structure and function of brain area; MRI = structure of brain area
What is the cognitive appraisal theory?
Individuals make different interpretations about stimuli, such as interpreting stigma negatively or non-negatively
A public health advocacy group has developed a program to encourage adherence to a Truvada medication regimen using operant conditioning principles. An example of the group using thinning in the program is:
Reducing the frequency of rewards for medication compliance
What are strategies people use in impression management?
Complimenting coworkers on their clothing, bragging about one’s financial success while on a date, and matching the behavior of a boss (attempt to influence the perceptions of other people)
What are examples of conflict theory in society?
A trade union forming to promote workers’ rights at the cost of company owners, and a company maximizing profits for shareholders at the expense of its middle- and lowest-tier employees
If a psychologist were to claim that the ideomotor effect is unconscious, Freudian psychologists could argue this effect resides in which components of the psychic apparatus?
Id, ego, and superego
What makes social cognitive theory different from operant conditioning theory?
In social cognitive theory, it is about how people learn by watching others, and they will behave like that person if they see that they are rewarded (operant = about rewards and punishments, not necessarily about other people)
Which of the following steps could an organization take to make itself into a more ideal bureaucracy?
Evaluating how decisions impact stock price to promote value for stockholders in accordance with the company’s mission
What is protectionism?
A country rejecting trade and being isolative, which is inversely proportional to globalization
Median vs. mode.
“O” in mode = most “O”ften number, median = number in the middle when you list the numbers out
During the study discussed in the passage, different-sized circles were displayed before a shock was delivered to the participants. The shock and the resulting fear are examples of which aspects of classical conditioning, respectively?
Unconditioned stimuli and unconditioned response
Devic’s syndrome is a condition involving the demyelination of the optic nerve and the spinal cord. What are some direct results of Devic’s syndrome?
Decreased protection of the neuron, decreased velocity of impulse propagation, and decreased electrical insulation
What is expectation bias?
When expectations influence attitudes or behavior
What are some examples of strategies to induce compliance?
A dress code at an organization, referring to military recruits by their miltary number, and hazing rituals at a club involving humiliation (groups that view themselves as similar)
What is one of the symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome?
Confabulation (creating vivid but fabricated memories)
The finding that Korsakoff’s syndrome impairs declarative memory is most consistent with the fact that:
It is usually associated with lesions that can affect the functioning of the hippocampus
Which of the following changes to the experimental design would increase the statistical power of the study?
Increasing the number of subjects
What is paraphilia?
The experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, or individuals
What is sexual dysfunction?
Difficulty experienced by an individual or a couple during any stage of sexual activity, including physical pleasure, desire, preference, arousal or orgasm
What is an example of availability heuristic bias?
Hearing about a particularly violent crime in the newspaper and concluding that there is greater crime overall
What is rater bias?
A tendency for raters to rate in the middle of a scale
What part of the brain produces melatonin?
Pineal gland
What is the somatic nervous system?
Part of the peripheral nervous system associated with the voluntary control of body movements via skeletal muscles
What is the limbic system?
Supports a variety of functions, including adrenaline flow, emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory, and smell
What does the pancreas do?
Is a dual-function gland, having features of endocrine and exogrine glands
What are the 3 W’s of personality disorders?
Weird, Wild, and Worried
What are the personatliy disorders in Cluster 1 (Weird)?
Paranoid, Schizoid, Schizotypal
What are the personatliy disorders in Cluster 2 (Wild)?
Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic
What are the personatliy disorders in Cluster 3 (Worried)?
Avoidant, Dependent, Obsessive-Compulsive
What is an example of negative punishment?
A child losing time from an enjoyable activity for not eating his vegetables
What is affect heuristic?
The process of making a judgment based on emotions that are evoked
What is anchoring?
The act of relying too much on the first information encountered
What is the humanistic perspective?
Centered on the use of free will and how to best apply it
What is the behaviorist perspective?
Related to external stimuli experienced by the person
What is the biological perspective?
Based on biological inheritance
Zoologists discover a new species of lizard with a low degree of sexual dimorphism. Which of the following behaviors would the researchers most expect to find exhibited by members of this species?
Repetitive mating between monogamous pairs of lizards
What is a stimulus motive?
A motive that appears to be unlearned but causes an increase in stimulation, such as curiosity
What is informative pressure?
It occurs when an individual conforms his or her behavior to match that of the rest of a group out of the belief that the group is better informed and knows more than the individual
What is normative pressure?
A subtype of conformity pressure in which the individual knows that the others are incorrect, but still feels pressure to not dissent from the rest of the group
Some studies of depressed and non-depressed individuals show that both populations can have similar physiological reactions to an emotion-provoking stimulus, but that depressed patients are more likely to contexualize the stimulus in a harmful way. This suggests that depressed patients experience an emotional imbalance based on which theory of emotion?
Schachter-Singer
What are aspects of groupthink that contributes to mob violence?
Feeling that all members will act similarly, feelings of invincibility in the mob, and feeling that the mob is right
What is self-monitoring?
A long-term strategy that usually involves self-reflection and taking regular notes on your behavior, thoughts, and attitudes over time
What is psychoeducation?
Providing knowledge about a topic
What is relapse prevention?
Is often used when the target barrier carries with it high risk for relapse or a maladaptive coping mechanism
What is a mimetic organization?
An organization that just attempts to copy another organization
What is a coercive organization?
An organization in which members are forced to join
What is sublimation?
Occurs when a person channels unacceptable urges, like a craving to smoke, into something more acceptable
What is intellectualization?
The use of cognitive processes to separate oneself from the real problem and avoid emotions and impulses that may arise
An object viewed in full sunlight can be seen to have several shades, running from light blue on the left side of the object through teal to light green on the right side of the object. Viewed in moonlight, the same object appears a uniform grey. This is due to:
The decreased light sensitivity of cones relative to rods
What is Hans Eysenck noted for?
PEN model of personality (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism)
Both narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and BPD are classified as Cluster B personality disorders in the DSM-5. Carl Rogers would argue from the humanistic perspective that NPD results from incongruence between:
Self-concept and reality
What is projection?
Involves a person taking their feelings about themselves and projecting them onto an external source
What is an Oedipal complex?
Relates to how a boy perceives his relationship with his mother
What is repression?
An ego-defense mechanism in which a person simply chooses not to think about a painful topic
What is transference?
The inappropriate transferring of feelings about one relationship to another
What is the main reward neurotransmitter?
Dopamine
What is anchoring/adjustment heuristic?
Tying impressions to earlier perceptions of people
Prevalence vs. morbidity
Morbidity = number of ill people, prevalence = number of ill people in a certain area
What does not increase groupthink?
A lone dissenter
What is a cross-sectional design?
Involves the measurement of a group of people at a particular time
What are the descriptions of Kohlberg’s 3 stages?
Preconventional = concern for rewards and punishments, conventional = conformity and authority, postconventional = social contract, universal principles
What is associated with the frontal lobe?
Executive function, motivation, and attention
What is kin selection?
Acting in a way that promotes the health and well-being of family members
What is altruism?
A choice made to benefit the greater good, or the community as a whole
What is a phenomenological study?
It focuses on subjective elements of an experience by trying to understand individuals’ perceptions, perspectives and understanding of a particular situation or event
What is a meta analysis?
The aggregation of smaller studies pertaining to a certain research question in order to draw a conclusion that is statistically stronger than those of the individual studies
What is an observational study?
Draws inferences from a sample regarding the effects of an independent variable on a population, but where the independent variable is not specifically manipulated by the researcher
What is gender conditioning?
How gender roles are established, stems from societal reinforcements and punishments of gender-related behaviors
What is the difference between alogia and avolition?
Alogia = inability to speak, avolition = a lack of interest in goal-directed behavior
What are the stages of the transtheoretical model of change/stage of change model?
Precontemplation -> contemplation -> preparation -> action -> (relapse) -> maintenance
What does the anterior cingulate gyrus do?
Regulating autonomic processes in the body
What is dualism?
The idea that the mind and body are two separate entities
What is cognitive distortion?
A phenomenon in which our mind convinces us that something is true when it isn’t
What is conformity?
A change in a person’s attitudes or behavior in response to pressure from others in a group
In which neuronal location will selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) have the greatest effect?
The synaptic cleft
What is social facilitation?
The tendency to perform better when others are around
What is Thorndike’s law of effect?
Responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation (ex. get a job and get rewarded by a salary = more likely to stay at job)
What is the law of diminshing returns?
Lessened results gained from some action over time
