test 1 Flashcards
Psyche
soul
Logos
to study
Wilhelm Wundt (1870s)
combines the disciplines of philosophy and physiology
Psychological Research
- Naturalistic
- observation
- Surveys
- Case Study
- Correlational
- Experimental
correlation
- a measure of association between two variables (-1 < r < +1)
- direction (positive vs. negative/inverse)
- strength
- perfect correlation (1.0)
- strong (0.6 to 0.8)
- moderately strong (0.3 to 0.5)
- no correlation (0)
- cannot tell us about causation
Correlational Research
- Establishes whether there is a relationship between two or more variables
- CANNOT INFER CAUSALITY
- Directionality problem
- Potential for a third variable (confound)
Correlational vs. Experimental Research
- Smoking is correlated with lung cancer
- High grades are correlated with successful careers
- Eating Frosted Flakes is correlated with lower cancer rates
- In Taiwan birth control use is correlated with number of household appliances
Experimental Research
- Considered the most powerful tool for determining causal relationships
- Random Assignment: ensures that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the conditions
- This minimizes the chance that a pre-existing difference between groups is the cause of the “experimental effect”
Experimental Research
- Considered the most powerful tool for determining causal relationships
- Random Assignment: ensures that every participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any of the conditions
- This minimizes the chance that a pre-existing difference between groups is the cause of the “experimental effect”
Bias in Research
- Sampling bias
- Placebo effects
- Social desirability bias
- Response sets
Experimenter bias:
- double blind procedure
Components of the Neuron
(Dendrites)
receive information from other neurons
Components of the Neuron
(cell body)
creates transmitter molecules
Components of the Neuron
(Axon)
- Myelin insulates the nerve cell, speeds up conduction of nerve messages
- Terminal buttons of the axon release transmitter
Graded Potentials
Stimulation of the nerve membrane can open ion channels in the membrane
Graded Potentials NA+
NA+ ions flowing in will depolarize the membrane (movement from -70 mV to say -60 mV
Graded Potentials K+
K+ ions flowing out of membrane will hyperpolarize the membrane (-70 mV to say -90 mV)
The Action Potential
Graded potentials:
- generated at the dendrites
-are conducted along the membrane to the axon hillock
- If summated activity at the axon hillock raises the membrane potential past threshold
- an action potential (AP) will occur
- During the AP, NA+ ions flow into the cell raising the membrane potential to +40 mV, producing the spike
- The restoration of the membrane potential to -70 mV is produced by an opening of channels to K+
- The AP is conducted along the axon toward the terminals
Neurotransmitters
- Acetylcholine (Ach)
- Monoamines:
- epinephrine and norepinephrine
- serotonin
- dopamine
- GABA
- Glutamate
Autonomic Nervous System
(two systems)
The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) has two divisions:
- Sympathetic: Emergency system
- Parasympathetic: Vegetative functions (e.g. digestion)
- The two systems often act in opposition (as in the control of heart rate)
- Can act in concert (as in the control of sexual reflexes)
Middle View of Human Brain
(Medulla)
Controls heart rate, respiration
Midline View of Human Brain
(Cerebellum)
Coordinates smooth movements, balance, and posture
Midline View of Human Brain
(Pons)
Involved in the control of sleep
Limbic System Functions
- Septal area is involved in pleasure and in relief from pain
- Amygdala is involved in learning and recognition of fear
- Hippocampus is involved in memory
Limbic System Functions
- Septal area is involved in pleasure and in relief from pain
- Amygdala is involved in learning and recognition of fear
- Hippocampus is involved in memory
Cerebral Cortex
Functions of cerebral cortex:
- Provides for flexible control of patterns of movement
- Permits subtle discrimination among complex sensory patterns
- Makes possible symbolic thinking
- Symbolic thought is the foundation of human thought and language
Frontal Lobe Damage and Personality
- Frontal lobes involve movement, attention, planning, memory, and personality.
- Frontal lobe function in personality is evident in the case of Phineas Gage:
Gage suffered frontal lobe damage after an accident involving a dynamite tamping rod
Gage was a railroad supervisor prior to the damage; after the damage he became childish and irreverent, could not control his impulses, and could not effectively plan.
Cerebral Lateralization
The structures of the cortex and sub-cortex appear to specialize in function:
- Hemispheric Specialization
- Left hemisphere is dominant for language, logic, and complex motor behavior.
- Right hemisphere is dominant for non-linguistic functions including recognition of faces, places, and sounds (music)
The hemispheric specializations are evident from studies of
- Damage to one hemisphere (I.e. Broca’s area)
- Split-brain subjects
The Split-Brain Study
- Information from the one visual field is usually transmitted to the opposite visual cortex
- The corpus callosum serves to integrate the two hemispheres
- Cutting the corpus callosum can result in information reaching only one hemisphere
- Language is a left-hemisphere function
- Information reaching the left hemisphere will be reported by the subject, but not information reaching the right hemisphere
The Endocrine System
- Glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream to help control bodily functioning
- Hypothalmus connected to pituitary gland (master gland)
- adrenal glands = fight or flight
- Gonads = secondary sex characteristics
Endocrine Systems
- Endocrine glands release hormones into blood stream
- Have effects at diffuse target sites throughout the body
- Hormones bind to receptors
- Hormones can have organizational effects (permanent change in structure and function)
- Hormones can have activational effects:
Lack of testosterone reduces sexual behaviour
psychology
the scientific study of behaviour and mental process
- the goal is to describe, predict and explain behaviour
behaviour
everything to do with what we directly observe
- two people kissing, a baby crying
mental process
the thoughts, feelings and motives that each of us experiences privately that cannot be seen directly
- thoughts and feelings
Scientific approach 4 attitudes:
- critical thinking
- skepticism
- objectivity
- curiosity
critical thinking
(scientific approach)
reduces likelihood that conclusions will be based on unreliable personal beliefs, opinions, biases and emotions
skepticism
people challenge whether a fact is really true
pseudoscience
information that is couched in scientific terminology but is not supported by scientific research
empirical method
gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data and logical reasoning
Sigmund Freud(1856-1939)
belived most human behaviour is casued by dark, unpleasant, unconscious impulses to show
- did not use trials or controlled experiamnts
positive psychology
emphasizes human strengths
- centers topics like hope, optimism, happiness, and grattitude
A psychologist who studies information processing and decision making would probably be considered a __________ psychologist.
A. physiological
B. developmental
C. social
D. cognitive
cognitive
Which of the following best characterizes people’s understanding of reality?
A. highly objective
B. highly subjective
C. genetically determined
D. a passive process
highly subjective
The first two major “schools” of psychology were
A. behaviorism and psychoanalysis
B. functionalism and behaviorism
C. structuralism and functionalism
D. behaviorism and Gestalt psychology
structuralism and functionalism
In the Featured Study on the use of subliminal self-help tapes, one of the independent variables was
A. the actual purpose of the tape (memory or self-esteem)
B. the group that the subject was assigned to (experimental or control)
C. the actual improvement in memory or self-esteem
D. the subject’s beliefs about their personal improvement
In the Featured Study on the use of subliminal self-help tapes, one of the independent variables was
Nature is to nurture as heredity is to
A. environment
B. instincts
C. genetics
D. maturation
environment
In a study designed to test the effects of a new drug developed to treat Alzheimer’s disease half the patients were given the actual drug while the other half of the patients were given a placebo (sugar pill). In this study, the experimental group is
A. the patients who show evidence of an improvement in their memory
B. the group who received the actual drug
C. the group who received the placebo
D. the patients who were not included in the study
the group who received the actual drug
Dr. Hackle has found that no matter how students score on the first midterm, all the students in her class tend to score between 75% and 80% on her final exam. This suggests that
A. the scores on the final exam and the first midterm are negatively correlated
B. the scores on the final exam and the first midterm are positively correlated
C. the scores on the final exam and the first midterm are not very highly correlated
D. Dr. Hackle should change the final so it is more fair to the students who are doing well in her course
the scores on the final exam and the first midterm are not very highly correlated
Theories permit researchers to move from
A. understanding to application
B. concept to description
C. application to control
D. description to understanding
application to control
a hormone is
A. a chemical secreted into the blood by a gland
B. a brain structure below the hypothalamus
C. a location in the brain where a specific memory is stored
D. none of these
a chemical secreted into the blood by a gland
We would expect the greatest degree of phenotypic similarity among
A. fraternal twins
B. identical twins
C. siblings
D. parents and their children
identical twins
If a key part of the __________ is destroyed, an animal will lose all interest in food and may well starve to death.
A. medulla
B. cerebellum
C. thalamus
D. hypothalamus
hypothalamus
In evolutionary theory, __________ refers to the reproductive success (number of descendants) of an individual organism relative to the average reproductive success in the population.
A. selection
B. fitness
C. mutation
D. adaptation
fitness
by definition, a population
A. is the group of people to whom the conclusion of the study will apply
B. is a subset of the sample
C. consists of those individuals who actually participate in the study
D. is any group that contains more than 100 people or animals
is the group of people to whom the conclusion of the study will apply
Empiricism refers to a
A. “school” of psychology
B. sub-field of psychology
C. position on how information should be acquired
D. theoretical orientation about life
position on how information should be acquired
Which of the following neurotransmitters is primarily involved in the activation of motor neurons controlling skeletal muscles?
A. GABA
B. dopamine
C. serotonin
D. acetylcholine
acetylcholine
The notion that all behavior is fully governed by external stimuli is most consistent with which of the following schools of thought?
A. behaviorism
B. humanism
C. structuralism
D. functionalism
behaviourism
For John B. Watson, the appropriate subject matter of psychology was
A. animal behavior
B. the unconscious
C. consciousness
D. human physiology
animal behaviour
The tendency to view one’s own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways is called
A. racism
B. egocentrism
C. ethnocentrism
D. functionalism
ethnocentrism
MRI scans of schizophrenic patients have indicated that
A. schizophrenic subjects have higher levels of dopamine than nonschizophrenic subjects
B. schizophrenic subjects have larger ventricles than nonschizophrenic subjects
C. schizophrenic subjects have lower levels of catecholamines than nonschizophrenic subjects
D. the amygdala of schizophrenic subjects is structurally defective relative to nonschizophrenic subjects
schizophrenic subjects have larger ventricles than nonschizophrenic subjects
Which of the following techniques is most likely to prove useful in determining why a particular child is afraid to go to school?
A. experiment
B. descriptive study
C. naturalistic observation
D. case study
case study
In computers, the keyboard receives input and passes that information along to the computer’s central processing unit (CPU). In comparing a computer to a neuron, the keyboard would be equivalent to
A. the soma
B. the axon
C. the dendrites
D. the terminal buttons
the dendrites
Strict behaviorists would be most sympathetic to which one of the following statements?
A. Human behavior is primarily caused by inherited factors.
B. Human behavior is primarily caused by environmental factors.
C. Human behavior is primarily caused by equal contributions of inherited and environmental factors.
D. No one really knows what the primary causes for human behavior are.
Human behaviour is primarily caused by environmental factors.
Experimenter bias occurs when
A. experimenters explicitly instruct the subjects to behave in a way that will be consistent with the hypothesis
B. experimenters desire to make a favorable impression on their subjects
C. experimenters’ beliefs in their own hypotheses affect either the subjects’ behavior or their observations of the subjects
D. experimenters conduct their studies in a completely objective manner
experimenters’ beliefs in their own hypotheses affect either the subjects’ behavior or their observations of the subjects
The brain structure that controls your ability to understand speech is
A. Wernicke’s area
B. the thalamus
C. the occipital lobe of the cerebral cortex
D. Broca’s area
Wernickes area
Which of the following is not true regarding commonsense analyses of behavior?
A. they tend to be vague and ambiguous
B. they often tolerate contradictory generalizations
C. they usually involve little effort to verify ideas or detect errors
D. they are typically based on precise definitions and hypotheses
D. they are typically based on precise definitions and hypotheses
Which of the following kinds of studies can truly demonstrate that specific traits are indeed inherited?
A. family studies
B. twin studies
C. adoption studies
D. none of the above
none of the above
If you were having problems with depression, which of the following kinds of psychologists would be the greatest help to you?
A. a developmental psychologist
B. a social psychologist
C. a clinical psychologist
D. an experimental psychologist
a clinical psychologist
The conservation of body resources, including blood pressure reduction and the promotion of digestion, is handled by the
A. somatic division
B. parasympathetic division
C. sympathetic division
D. unsympathetic division
parasympathetic division
Contemporary psychologists generally assume that human behavior is determined by
A. heredity
B. environment
C. heredity and environment acting jointly
D. heredity, environment, and free will
C. heredity and environment acting jointly
The branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders is called
A. counseling psychology
B. social psychology
C. developmental psychology
D. clinical psychology
clinical psychology
The area of the frontal lobe that plays an important role in the production of speech is called
A. Wernicke’s area
B. Broca’s area
C. Cannon’s area
D. Sperry’s area
Broca’s area
__________ receive information from other neurons; __________ transmit information to other neurons.
A. Axons; synapses
B. Dendrites; axons
C. Synapses; dendrites
D. Axons; dendrites
Dendrites; axons
A good analogy for the way in which a neurotransmitter binds to receptor sites is
A. the opening and closing of a window
B. a key fitting in the lock of a door
C. the lowering of a drawbridge
D. the pulling of the trigger of a gun
a key fitting in the lock of a door
The function of the hypothalamus is to regulate
A. hunger
B. thirst
C. body temperature
D. hunger, thirst, and body temperature
hunger, thurst, and body temperature
“Organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes, and they tend not to repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative outcomes.” These words would most likely have been said by which of the following individuals?
A. Wilhelm Wundt
B. William James
C. B. F. Skinner
D. Abraham Maslow
B.F. Skinner
A person’s current weight and height could be said to exemplify his or her
A. genotype
B. phenotype
C. both of the above
D. none of the above
phenotype
The endocrine system
A. connects the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain
B. secretes hormones
C. manufactures myelin
D. forms the basis of reflexive behaviors
secretes hormones
The fact that many times researchers unintentionally influence the outcome of their studies implies the existence of
A. experimenter bias
B. a placebo effect
C. sampling bias
D. social desirability
experimenter bias