Topic 7A

Question 1

specialized motor control, learning, planning, and speech

Answer 1

frontal lobe

Question 2

controls somatic or voluntary sensory functions

Answer 2

parietal lobe

Question 3

controls vision

Answer 3

occipital lobe

Question 4

controls hearing and some other speech functions

Answer 4

temporal lobe

Question 5

cerebellum

Answer 5

located underneath the backside of the cerebrum, and governs balance and fine motor movements. Its main function is maintaining coordination throughout the body.

Question 6

brain stem

Answer 6

connected to the underside of the brain. It consists of the midbrain, pons, and medulla.

Question 7

midbrain

Answer 7

found in between the hindbrain and the forebrain. It regulates motor function and allows motor and sensory information to pass from the brain to the rest of the body.

Question 8

pons

Answer 8

houses the control centers for respiration and inhibitory functions.

Question 9

medulla

Answer 9

also helps regulate respiration, as well as cardiovascular and digestive functioning. Smaller, more specific regions within these larger areas have been shown to regulate specific functions.

The reticular activating area in the brainstem regulates alertness and consciousness.

Question 10

acetylcholine is the majority neurotransmitter in

Answer 10

many synapses of the body. It can lead to arousal and cognition

Question 11

dopamine as a neurotransmitter

Answer 11

increase pleasure receptors and also suppress appetite.

Question 12

Evocative gene-environment correlation

Answer 12

Happens when an individual’s (heritable) behavior evokes an environmental response. For example, the association between marital conflict and depression may reflect the tensions that arise when engaging with a depressed spouse rather than a causal effect of marital conflict on risk for depression.

Question 13

Active gene-environment correlation

Answer 13

The person’s genetic makeup may lead them to select particular environments. For example, a shy person is likely to choose quiet activities and less boisterous environments than an extroverted individual. He or she may be more likely to spend time at the library than at a dance club.

Question 14

Classical/Mendelian, genetics

Answer 14

examines how genes are passed from one generation to the next, as well as how the presence or absence of a gene can be determined via sexual reproduction. Gregor Mendel is known as the father of the field of genetics, and his work with plant hybridization (specifically pea plants) demonstrated that certain traits follow particular patterns. This is referred to as the law of Mendelian inheritance.

Question 15

Freedom versus determinism

Answer 15

How much, if any, of an individual’s personality is under their conscious control?

Question 16

Heredity versus environment:

Answer 16

Do internal (biological) or external (environmental) influences play a larger role in determining personality?

Question 17

Uniqueness versus universality:

Answer 17

Are individuals generally more alike (similar to each other) or different (unique) in nature?

Question 18

Active versus reactive

Answer 18

Is human behavior passively shaped by environmental factors, or are humans more active in this role?

Question 19

Optimistic versus pessimistic

Answer 19

Are humans integral in the changing of their own personalities (for instance, can they learn and change through human interaction and intervention)?

Question 20

Psychoanalytic theory

Answer 20

Originating with Sigmund Freud, psychoanalytic (or psychodynamic) theory posits that human behavior is the result of the interaction among various components of the mind (the id, ego, and superego) and that we act to reduce the unconscious conflicts (called drives or forces) between these components. Freud also posited that personality develops according to a series of psychosexual developmental stages.

Question 21

Humanistic perspective

Answer 21

Argues that an individual’s subjective free will is the most important determinant of behavior. Humanistic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers believed that people strive to become selfactualized—the “best version” of themselves or “ideal self”. The gap between the “ideal” self and the real self can cause discomfort and lead to defensive behaviors – this gap is called incongruence.

Question 22

Trait perspective

Answer 22

Believe personality can be conceptualized as a set of common traits, or characteristic ways of behaving, that every individual exhibits to some degree. In this view, such personality traits are different from person to person but within an individual are stable over time and place.

Question 23

Social cognitive perspective

Answer 23

Emphasizes cognitive processes, such as thinking and judging, in the development of personality. These cognitive processes contribute to learned behaviors that are central to one’s personality. By observing an admired role model, an individual may choose to adopt and emphasize particular traits and behaviors.

Question 24

Biological perspective

Answer 24

Approaches focus on the role of genetics and the brain in shaping personality. Related to this, evolutionary theories explore how variation in individual personality variance may be rooted in natural selection.

Question 25

Behaviorist perspective /learning perspective

Answer 25

Regards an individuals’ actions as ultimately being responses to external stimuli, driven by outcomes. A traditional behaviorist perspective sees outcomes, and not cognition, as the drive behind an individual’s choices and behaviors. Social learning theory believes that personality and behavior are determined by an individual’s cognition about the world around them.

Question 26

The Big Five model

Answer 26

or Five Factor model) of personality traits is based on a 16-point model originally created by Raymond Cattle. The Big Five model distills personality traits down to

◦ 5 major traits:

• openness to experience
• contentiousness (ie planning, responsibility)
• extroversion
• agreeableness
• neuroticism (ie insecurity, anxiety).

Question 27

Walter Mischel cognitive-affective model

Answer 27

person-situation debate, or “trait vs state.” both trait and situation are important in predicting behavior. This argument contradicted the fundamental tenet of trait theory that only internal traits, not external situations, should be taken into account.

Question 28

stress-diathesis model

Answer 28

posits that psychological disorders arise from the interaction of an inherent vulnerability (a diathesis) and environmental factors (a stress).

Question 29

Anxiety disorders

Answer 29

Anxiety disorders involve extreme reactions to anxiety-inducing situations, including excessive worry, uneasiness, apprehension, or fear. Anxiety is a normal human emotion that everyone experiences from time to time. People may feel anxious when facing problems, challenges, changes, or difficult decisions. Anxiety disorders develop as a result of the interaction of genetic (inherited) and environmental factors. One type of anxiety is panic disorder, in which people experience panic attacks consisting of sudden terror, accelerated heart rate, sweating, chest pain and other physical symptoms.

Question 30

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Answer 30

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is characterized by intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors aimed at reducing anxiety. It produces uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry, and by repetitive behaviors or rituals (compulsions) aimed at reducing the associated anxiety. People with OCD may have just the obsessions or a combination of obsessions and compulsions.

◦ Obsessions are characterized as persistent, unintentional, and unwanted thoughts and urges that are highly intrusive, unpleasant, and distressing.

◦ Compulsions are ritualistic behaviors that an individual performs in order to mitigate the anxiety that stems from obsessive thoughts.

Question 31

Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders

Answer 31

PTSD is a disorder that develops after exposure to a traumatic event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. In psychology, trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event. Trauma is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one’s ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience. A traumatic event can involve one experience or repeated events or experiences over time. Traumatizing, stressful events can have a long-term impact on mental and physical health. Situations, where an individual is exposed to a severely stressful experience involving the threat of death, injury, or sexual violence, can result in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). With this disorder, the trauma experienced is severe enough to cause stress responses for months or even years after the initial incident. The trauma overwhelms the victim’s ability to cope psychologically, and memories of the event trigger anxiety and physical stress responses, including the release of cortisol. People with PTSD may experience flashbacks, panic attacks and anxiety, and hypervigilance (extreme attunement to stimuli that remind them of the initial incident).

Question 32

Somatic symptom and related disorders

Answer 32

Somatic symptom disorders involve physical symptoms but lack physical evidence of illness or injury. A somatic symptom disorder is a category of mental disorder included in a number of diagnostic schemes of mental illness, including the recent DSM-5 section Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders. To meet the criteria for this diagnosis, a person must be experiencing physical symptoms that suggest physical illness or injury but that are not explained by medical test results or a diagnosed medical condition.

Question 33

Bipolar and related disorders

Answer 33

Bipolar disorders are debilitating mood disorders characterized by periods of mania/hypomania and periods of depression. Bipolar disorder (commonly referred to as manic-depression) is a mood disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression. The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypomania depending on the severity or whether there is psychosis. Both manic and depressive episodes are so intense that they interfere with everyday life. Between cycles of manic and depressive states, the individual will often experience normal functioning.

Question 34

Depressive disorders

Answer 34

Major depressive disorder (also called major depression and clinical depression) is a mood disorder characterized by a pervasive and persistent low mood that is accompanied by low self-esteem and by a loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. The symptoms interfere with a person’s ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy pleasurable activities. In order to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) in the DSM-5, a person must experience at least five listed symptoms over a two-week period.

Question 35

Schizophrenia

Answer 35

Schizophrenia is a disorder of psychosis in which the person’s thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors are out of contact with reality. Schizophrenia is a psychological disorder characterized by major disturbances in thought, perception, emotion, and behavior. Schizophrenia is considered a disorder of psychosis, or one in which the person’s thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors are impaired to the point where they are not able to function normally in life. In informal terms, one who suffers from a psychotic disorder (that is, has a psychosis) is disconnected from the world in which most of us live

Question 36

Dissociative disorders

Answer 36

Dissociative disorders involve a pathological separation from conscious awareness and range from mild to extreme. In psychology, the term dissociation describes a wide array of experiences from mild detachment from immediate surroundings to more severe detachment from physical and emotional experience.

Question 37

Personality disorders

Answer 37

According to the DSM-5, “personality disorder” refers to when an individual displays a personality style (i.e., patterns of cognition, behavior, and emotion) that differs significantly from the norms and expectations of their culture in two or more of the following areas: cognition, affect, interpersonal functioning, or impulse control and causes them and/or others around them “clinically significant” distress and impairment in important areas of functioning.

Question 38

Schizophrenia biological basis of disease

Answer 38

thought to involve malfunctioning dopaminergic neurons and may also involve problems with glutamate signaling. Treatment for the disease usually requires anti-psychotic medications that work by blocking dopamine receptors and decreasing dopamine neurotransmission in the brain. This decrease in dopamine can cause Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms in some patients.

Question 39

depression biological basis of disease

Answer 39

classic monoamine hypothesis— depression is caused by a decrease in norepinephrine and serotonin neurotransmission.

Question 40

Alzheimer’s disease— biological basis of disease

Answer 40

amyloid plaques, along with tangled brain fibers called neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and an overall shrinking of brain volume; Loss of neurons in the hippocampus is especially severe in advanced Alzheimer’s patients.

Question 40

Alzheimer’s disease— biological basis of disease

Answer 40

amyloid plaques, along with tangled brain fibers called neurofibrillary tangles. Amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and an overall shrinking of brain volume; Loss of neurons in the hippocampus is especially severe in advanced Alzheimer’s patients.

Question 41

Parkinson’s disease biological basis

Answer 41

loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra, a midbrain structure that regulates movement; hunched walk

Question 42

Drive reduction theory

Answer 42

humans are motivated to satisfy physiological needs in order to maintain homeostasis; Clark hull

Question 43

Incentive theory

Answer 43

behavior is primarily motivated by the incentive of extrinsic factors.

Question 44

Cognitive dissonance

Answer 44

ccurs when a person experiences conflict, contradiction, or inconsistency in their cognitions.

Question 45

Attitudes are thought to have three components

Answer 45

: an affective component (feelings), a behavioral component (the effect of the attitude on behavior), and a cognitive component (belief and knowledge).

Question 46

The foot-in-the-door phenomenon

Answer 46

occurs when a person is convinced to take a small step towards a larger goal, as that will likely lead to larger steps towards the same goal later.

Question 47

Daniel Katz uses four attitude classifications:

Answer 47

1. Utilitarian: Utilitarian refers to an individual’s attitude as derived from self or community interest. An example could be getting a raise. As a raise means more disposable income, employees will have a positive attitude about getting a raise, which may positively affect their behavior in some circumstances.

◦ 2. Knowledge: Logic, or rationalizing, is another means by which people form attitudes. When an organization appeals to people’s logic and explains why it is assigning tasks or pursuing a strategy, it can generate a more positive disposition towards that task or strategy (and vice versa, if the employee does not recognize why a task is logical).

◦ 3. Ego-defensive: People have a tendency to use attitudes to protect their ego, resulting in a common negative attitude. If a manager criticizes employees’ work without offering suggestions for improvement, employees may form a negative attitude and subsequently dismiss the manager as foolish in an effort to defend their work. Managers must, therefore, carefully manage criticism and offer solutions, not simply identify problems.

◦ 4. Value-expressive: People develop central values over time. These values are not always explicit or simple. Managers should always be aware of what is important to their employees from a values perspective (that is, what do they stand for? why do they do what they do?)—having such awareness can allow management to align organizational vision with individual values, thereby generating passion among the workforce.