A pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.
Schemas
A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus ("signal") amid background stimulation ("noise"). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, an
Signal Detection Theory
A neurologically based condition in which a person experiences "crossed" responses to stimuli. It occurs when stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway (e.g., hearing) leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive path
Synesthesia
A measure of how rapidly a wave oscillates. The higher this value, the greater the amount of energy in the wave.
Wave Frequency
Depicts the intensity or force with which air strikes the ear
(loudness)
Wave Amplitude
Also known as pure light and are made up of waves of all one color
Monochromatic Light
Adapting or revising one's current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
Accommodation
A form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort.
e.g. applying an electric shock to a patient each time they attempt to drink alcohol
Aversion Therapy
The most basic and fundamental type of learning
Conditioning
Training of an organism to withdraw from an unpleasant stimulus before it starts
Avoidance conditioning
A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
e.g. Ivan Pavlov's dogs that salivate at the sound of a bell
In this example, salivating is a NORMAL (classical) response to food.
Classical Conditioning
*A response not normally associated with a given stimulus.
*In Pavlov's experiment, the dogs started salivating even if there was no food. Dogs do not normally salivate when a bell rings unless they knew from before that when a bell rings, food comes.
Conditioned Response
Ordinarily a neutral stimulus paired with a unconditioned stimulus to achieve a desired result and eventually produces the desired response in an organism when presented alone; in Pavlov's experiment, the bell
Conditioned Stimulus
A strategy that seeks to change behavior by modifying its consequences.
Contingency Management
Occurs when reinforcement is delivered after every single target behaviour
Continuous Reinforcement (CRF) Schedule
The ability to perceive and respond to differences among stimuli
Discrimination (Psychology)
When an aversive stimulus is presented, an animal responds by leaving the stimulus situation.
Escape Conditioning
The first of the four stages Piaget uses to define cognitive development. Piaget designated the first two years of an infants life. During this period, infants are busy discovering relationships between their bodies and the environment.
Sensorimotor Stage
In Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic
Preoperational Stage
in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events
Concrete Operational Stage
Piaget's fourth and final stage of cognitive development (ages 11 or 12 and beyond), which is characterized by the ability to apply logical thinking to abstract problems and hypothetical situations
Formal Operations Stage
The tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a tone of a particular pitch and loudness will also salivate with considerable regularity in response to tones of higher and lower pitc
Generalization
Process of conditioning a test subject
Habituation
The tendency of an animal to revert to instinctive behaviors that interfere with a conditioned response.
Instinctive Drift
Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it. For example, a child might learn how to complete a math problem in class, but this learning is not immediately obvious. Only when the child is offered some form of rei
Latent Learning
Escape from a painful situation is impossible because the subject has learned from a previous and similar situation
Learned Helplessness
The ability to become increasingly more effective in solving problems as more problems are solved.
Learning Set
A therapeutic technique in which the client learns appropriate behavior through imitation of someone else.
Modeling
Any event whose reduction or termination (taken away) increases the likelihood that ongoing behavior will recur.
*A child cleans her room to avoid her parents nagging
*Seat belt buzzer stops when the seat belt is fastened
Negative Reinforcer
Behavior that maintains or increases in frequency when reinforced and decreases when punished or not reinforced.
*Coined by B.F. Skinner
Operant
One's organized mental representations of the world
Schemas
A stimulus that increases the future probability of a response upon which its presentation is contingent.
Positive Reinforcer
An innately reinforcing stimulus, such as one that satisfies a biological need. (Natural, unlearned, and rooted in biology)
*Food, thirst, and shelter
Primary Reinforcer
A stimulus change that decreases the future frequency of behavior that immediately precedes it.
Punisher
A simple, automatic, inborn response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.
Reflex
Neural Stimuli that increases the rate of a response due to association with other reinforcers. Has an aquired reward or punishment value.
*"A" on a report card or a pat on the back. Money, praise, attention, approval, affection, and grades are all exampl
Secondary Reinforcer
An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
Shaping
Stimulus that produces a response even without conditioning
*Dogs automatically salivate in response to food
Unconditioned Stimulus
A methodical, logical rule or procedure that GUARANTEES solving a particular problem.
Algorithm
The recall one experiences through the process of grouping words together into categories even if they are presented in a random order--done through conceptual processes.
Category clustering
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, ideas, beliefs, and communicating.
Cognition
Inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions
(Conflicting ideas)
Cognitive Dissonance
A mental representation of the layout of one's environment. For example, after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it.
Cognitive Map
A mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
Concept
Narrowing down a list of alternatives to converge on a single correct answer
Convergent Thinking
One's accumulated knowledge and verbal skills; tends to increase with age
Crystallized Intelligence
A type of creative thinking in which one generates new solutions to problems. (Macgyver)
Divergent Thinking
Mental quality consisting of the ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.
Intelligence
Proposes three major levels of moral development, with two sub-stages for each level
*Criticized specifically for culture and gender and not being valid among all cultures and ethnicities.
Kohlberg's theory of moral development
Explanation for the fact that information that is more thoroughly connected to meaningful items in long-term memory (more "deeply" processed) will be remembered
*Though there is just one memory, information can be processed within that memory at different
Levels of Processing Model of Memory
The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences
Long-Term Memory
a tendency to approach a problem in a particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past
Mental Set
A condition of limited mental ability, indicated by an intelligence score of 70 or below and difficulty in adapting to the demands of life; varies from mild to profound.
*Begins during the developmental period
Mental Retardation
Implicit or explicit knowledge about memory abilities and effective memory strategies; cognition about memory
Metamemory
Any trick to aid in memorization
*e.g. acronyms, rhymes, or any other memory aid
Mnemonic Device
A basic unit of meaning in a language.
*words may contain more than one of these...
Morpheme
(linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language
Phoneme
Extracting information automatically or simultaneously across a large portion of the visual field because it stands out immediately (e.g. finding an unusual stimulus-white bird in a group of black birds); do not have to deliberately shift your attention
Pre-attentive Processing
A type of long-term memory of how to perform different actions and skills. Essentially, it is the memory of how to do certain things.
*Riding a bike, tying a neck tie, etc. Will usually last a life-time
Procedural Memory
Describes how context can affect the interpretation of communication.
e.g. Someone says "nice day" during a thunderstorm... BUT those within earshot know he was saying that sarcastically.
Pragmatics
The study of how language is acquired, perceived, understood, and produced.
Psycholinguistics
A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.
Recall
A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test
Recognition
A memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time
Relearning
-recovery of stored information
*allows past experiences to influence new decisions and associations
Retrieval
A network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world.
Semantic Memory
A study of the meaning of words and sentences
Semantics
A type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.
Sensory Memory
Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten
Short-term Memory
The process of holding encoded information in memory until time of retrieval
Storage
Sentence structure
Syntax
early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram--'go car'--using mostly nouns and verbs and omitting 'auxiliary' words
Telegraphic Speech
A person's consistently favorable or unfavorable evaluations, feelings, and tendencies toward an object or idea
Attitude
A diffuse apprehension that is vague in nature and is associated with feelings of uncertainty and helplessness
Anxiety
A source of stress in which some goals can be satisfied only at the expense of others
Conflict
In psychoanalytic theory, the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality.
Defense Mechanisms
Defense mechanism by which people refuse to believe or even to perceive painful realities.
*An atheist refusing to accept Christ because he is unwilling to let go of his sinful lifestyle so he chooses to hold to atheism as a crutch despite all the evidenc
Denial
Tension resulting from a need that arouses and directs a behavior.
*A state of activation that occurs as a response to a need or desire for something
Drive
The ability to perceive, understand, manage, and use emotions
Emotional Intelligence
A form of power that stems from having expertise in a particular area
Expert Power
An external, environmental process that exercises control over an individual's behavior or motivations.
*Influences a person's behavior by giving rewards and punishments
External Control
A belief about the amount of control a person has over situations in their life.
Locus of Control
When an individual refuses to accept responsibility for failure and blames it on someone else. (He is being a locust!)
External Locus of Control
When an individual takes blame for something that is not their fault. (He is not a locust, he is an Eeyore)
Internal Locus of Control
Triggered when a person desires a thing that is not driven at a biological level and there is no physical need for such a desire, yet the person still craves the thing psychologically.
External Psychological Cues
Internal, personal process that controls or motivates an individual's behavior.
Intrinsic Control
A family of mental exercises in which a conscious attempt is made to focus attention in a nonanalytical way.
Meditation
An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Personality
A kind of speaking or writing that is intended to influence people's actions.
Persuasion
The view that each person joining a social situation adds less influence than the previous person to join the group
Psychosocial Law
Internal Physiological cues that indicate that something is desired and is a result of a physical need
Psychological Cues
A defense mechanism that involves attributing one's own threatening feelings, motives, or impulses to another person or group.
e.g. sleeping in, getting stuck in traffic, and then blaming the other drivers when late to work
Projection
How you can affect someone else's behavior.
Persuasive Behavior
A return to a prior stage after a person has progressed through the various stages of development; caused by anxiety.
Regression
(psychiatry) the classical defense mechanism that protects you from impulses or ideas that would cause anxiety by preventing them from becoming conscious
Repression
A readiness to perceive oneself favorably
*Failure is blamed on others or circumstances
Self-Serving Bias
The tendency to attribute other people's behavior to internal causes while attributing our own behavior (especially errors and failures) to external causes.
Actor-Observer Bias
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress on separation.
Attachment
Parents who make arbitrary rules, expect unquestioned obedience from their children, punish misbehavior, and value obedience to authority.
Authoritarian Parents
Parents who set high but realistic and reasonable standards, enforce limits, and encourage open communication and independence
Authoritative Parents
Studies of monkeys raised with their mothers showed that they preferred a surrogate mother who provided comfort over one who provided food.
Comfort vs. Food
Conforming to a request or demand
Compliance
A change in one's behavior due to the real or imagined influence of other people
Conformity
A Freudian concept that refers to a tendency of individuals to harbor an unconscious wish to die or hurt themselves or others; accounts for the aggressive drive.
(Nonsense)
Death Instincts
A human genetic disorder resulting from the presence of an extra chromosome 21; characterized by heart and respiratory defects and varying degrees of mental retardation.
*Most common chromosome abnormality in humans
Down's Syndrome
self focused
*Proposed by Sigmund Freak (I meant Freud) :D
Ego
In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view
Egocentrism
Interactionist position that suggests that psychological characteristics are the result of neither heredity nor the environment working alone--organisms develop through the interaction of one's genetic programming and one's experiences in the environment.
Epigenetic Model
One's sense of being male or female
Gender Identity
Expectations about what is appropriate behavior for each sex.
Gender Roles
act proper and ideal as defined by parents and culture
Idealistic Principle
Reflexes, such as "rooting" or "grasping", found in newborns
Infant Reflexes
Instincts oriented toward growth, development, and creativity that serve the purpose of the survival of the individual and the human race.
Life Instincts
Biological growth processes that enable orderly changes in behavior, relatively uninfluenced by experience
Maturation
Is very important for the baby's future health
Mother's Diet
A newborn baby less than four weeks old
Neonate
A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority
Obedience
An individual's characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Personality
All our thoughts and feelings about ourselves, in answer to the question, "Who am I?
Self-Concept
One's feelings of high or low self-worth
Self-Esteem
Differences exist between the social behavior of the two genders.
Social Behaviors of Men and Women
(psychology) modifying the natural expression of an impulse or instinct (especially a sexual one) to one that is socially acceptable
Sublimation
(psychoanalysis) that part of the unconscious mind that acts as a conscience
Superego
ID, Ego, and Superego. (Coined by Sigmund Freak) Look at the pic...
Three parts of Human Personality
The scientific study of abnormal behavior in an effort to describe, predict, explain, and change abnormal patterns of functioning.
Abnormal Psychology
Most abused drug in the U.S
*Most do not consider it to be a drug but it meets the description and has the same negative effects as many other drugs.
Alcohol Addiction
Most frequently prescribed drug in the U.S
Anti-Anxiety Drugs
biological treatment option used to treat the severe psychological disorders, such as schizophrenia; effective for treating hallucinations; blocks dopamine receptors; Examples: thorazine, therazine, clozapine.
*Can be accompanied by unplesant side effects
Anti-psychotic drugs
A mood disorder in which the person alternates between the hopelessness and lethargy of depression and the overexcited state of happiness and mania. Also called manic-depressive disorder.
Bipolar Disorder
Stimulate or activate the nervous system
Chemical Stimulus
The differing areas in psychology are difficult for psychologists to label or classify.
*Many people are multi-symptomatic
Classification and labeling
The person's need to perform REPETITIVE BEHAVIORS like hand washing, ordering, checking, or mental acts like prayers, counting, repeated words, etc.
Compulsions
Drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.
*Opposite of stimulants
Depressants
A diverse group of drugs that have powerful effects on mental and emotional functioning, marked most prominently by distortions in sensory and perceptual experience. (Simply put, they make you go crazy)
Hallucinogens
A social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Hypnosis
A drug, often smoked, whose effects include euphoria, impairment of judgment and concentration and occasionally hallucinations.
Marijuana
played a big role in reducing the number of patients who have to be placed in institutions for the mentally ill.
New Drug Treatments
Chemicals that affect the nervous system and result in altered consciousness
Psychoactive Drugs
drugs that tend to produce excitement, alertness, elevated mood, decreased fatigue, and sometimes increased motor activity.
e.g. caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, and the coco.
Stimulant Drugs
A rare somatoform disorder in which a person experiences very specific genuine physical symptoms for which no physiological basis can be found
Conversion Disorder
When patients are released from mental institutions and return home to their home communities. (wow say that 5 times fast!)
*Happened regularly in the 1950's.
Deinstitutionalization
...
Incentives
Which of the following is the philosophical approach to studying human behavior that emphasizes the purpose or usefulness of behavior?
Functionalism
Which of the following approaches is used by psychologist who studies depression by examining levels of a certain neurotransmitter in the brains of depressed and non-depressed people?
Biological
Which of the following approaches is used by a psychologist who emphasizes the power of rewards and punishment to influence behavior?
Behavioral
A researcher wants to know whether failure at a task causes aggression. As part of her study, some subjects are told they have failed at a task, whereas others are told they have succeeded. Failing or not failing the task would be...
the independent variable
A researcher sits at a table in a restaurant all day and records what customers in adjoining booths are saying and doing. What type of research is this?
Naturalistic observation
Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest relationship between two variables?
-.81
Random assignment of subjects to experimental and control group ensures that...
prior to the experimental manipulation, the two groups of subjects would be equivalent with respect to the dependent variable.
Nature" is to "nurture" as ____ is to ____
genetics" is to "enviromnent
Which of the following areas of the brain, located at the top of the spinal cord, regulates breathing, waking, and heartbeat?
Medulla
The simplest cell of the nervous system is a...
Neuron
which of the following greatly speeds up the transmission of signals through a neuron?
A myelin sheath
The period during which the neuron cannot fire is described as which of the following?
Absolute refractory period
The somatic Nervous system is part of the....
peripheral nervous system
The site in the auditory cortex located where acoustical codes are decoded and interpreted is known as...
Wernicke's area
Which chemicals are responsible for the "runner's high" and important for controlling pleasure/pain properties?
Endorphins
Neurons stimulate nearby glands, muscles, or other neurons through chemicals released from their...
terminal buttons
The reticular formation...
helps control arousal
The nervous system's ability to detect and encode energy from stimuli is called...
sensation
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus half of the time it's presented is called..
the absolute threshold
Tina has a box of CD's that's twice as heavy as Gary's. Tina's box would have to have eight more CDs in it before it would feel heavier, whereas Gary's would have to have only four more CDs in it in order for it to feel heavier. This illustrates....
Weber's Law
By which process is stimulus energy converted into neural messages?
Transduction
Which type of cell allows us to distinguish different wavelengths of light?
Cones
Which of the following is a binocular cue for perceiving distance?
Convergence
The fact that parallel lines appear to converge as they get farther away is referred to as...
linear perspective
When a series of lights on a movie marquee are turned on and off, one after the other, in succession, it appears that a single light is moving around the marquee. This illustrates...
the phi phenomemon
A circadian rhythm is
any pattern of biological functioning that happens over (roughly) a 24-hour cycle.
If someone is awake, has his or her eyes closed, and is in a relaxed state, an EEG would most likely indicate the presence of...
Alpha Waves
During which stage of sleep are hynogogic sensations most likely to occur?
Stage 1
Among humans, the sleep cycle repeats itself every...
90 minutes
Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder involving...
uncontrollable attacks of intense sleepiness
The idea that the behavior of people who are hypnotized is controlled by normal, conscious processes is part of the theory that says hypnosis entails...
role playing
Which of the following is involved in classical conditioning and operant conditioning, respectively?
stimulus-stimulus pairings..stimulus-response pairings
Wally is allergic to cat fur and it makes him sneeze violently. Anita has a lot of cats and her clothes often have cat fur on them. After three dates with Anita, Wally has begun to sneeze violently as soon as he sees her.||What type of learning does this
Classical Conditioning
Wally is allergic to cat fur and it makes him sneeze violently. Anita has a lot of cats and her clothes often have cat fur on them. After three dates with Anita, Wally has begun to sneeze violently as soon as he sees her.||In this example, cat fur would b
Unconditioned stimulus
Wally is allergic to cat fur and it makes him sneeze violently. Anita has a lot of cats and her clothes often have cat fur on them. After three dates with Anita, Wally has begun to sneeze violently as soon as he sees her.||In this example, sneezing would
both an unconditioned and a conditioned response
Wally is allergic to cat fur and it makes him sneeze violently. Anita has a lot of cats and her clothes often have cat fur on them. After three dates with Anita, Wally has begun to sneeze violently as soon as he sees her.||If, after the learning took plac
Extinguish
Bob gets a dollar for every magazine subscription he sells. What type of operant-conditioning consequence is maintaining Bob's selling?
Positive reinforcement
Lori has a glass of wine when she comes home every night because it relieves her unpleasant feelings of stress. Which operant-conditioning technique is maintaining Lori's drinking?
Negative reinforcement
Jeff won money in the state lottery after buying five tickets, then after buying six more tickets, then four more tickets (that is, after every fifth ticket, on average). Which reinforcement schedule maintains Jeff's ticket-buying behavior?
Variable ratio
Lucy whines when she doesn't get her way. Last monday, her mother refused to give in to her whining for five minutes before finally giving Lucy what she was demanding. On tuesday, her mother reisisted for 10 minutes before giving in. On Wednesday, she res
shaping
Sally stopped hitting her brother when she saw a girl on a television show hit someone and then get in trouble for it. What type of learning on Sally's part does this illustrate?
Vicarious Learning
A rule of thumb strategy for solving problems is called a...
heuristic
After meeting Dave at a party, you decide he is shy. At several subsequent meeting, though, Dave is very outgoing. The idea that you're likely to continue believing Dave to be shy is called...
belief perseverance
A child saying "doll" while holding her hand out, as if expecting to be given the doll, would be an example of...
telegraphic speech
A child's ability to recognize speech sounds that aren't used in its language begins to dissapear during which stage of language development?
The babbling stage
Which of the following strategies should work best when studying for a test that's two weeks away?
Study for an hour every day for two weeks
Remembering how to get from your house to a friend's house, without consciously knowing how to do it, is an example of...
implicit memory
Lori is 10 years old and has done as well on an intelligence test as the average 8-year old. As originally calculated from the Stanford-Binet, what would Lori's IQ be?
80
Achievement tests...
measure learned skills or knowledge
Fixed and unlearned patterns of behavior that are characteristic of an entire species are called...
instincts
A need is...
a physiological condition that triggers motivation
All of the following are considered "Big Five" personality traiges EXCEPT
Cathexis (ones that are part- neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness)
The refractory period of the sexual response cycle...
is the time period following a male's orgasm during which he can be aroused to another orgasm.
According to the James-Lange theory of emotion...
one must be aware of one's physiological arousal in order to experience emotion.
After having three cups of strong coffee, you find that you're more angry than usual after being cut off in traffic, but you're also more scared than you would otherwise be when you hear someone walking behind you. Which theory of emotion explains why?
Two-factor theory
As a general rule, performance at a task is best when arousal is...
moderate
Charlie felt good about getting a C on his physics test until he found out that the average grade was a B. This change in the intensity of Charlie's happiness illustrates...
the relative-deprivation principle
Which of the following sequences of prenatal development stages is correct?
Zygote, embryo, fetus
Age being confounded with cohort will necessarily be a problem for which type of study?
Cross-sectional
Three year old Tim, who sees lots of horses on his family's farm, saw a zebra at the zoo and thought it was a horse. Which of the cognitive processes described by Piaget does this illustrate?
Assimilation
After Samantha's father sqashes the trash in the garbage can so that it takes up less space, Samantha thinks he's made the trash disappear. According to Piaget, why does she think so?
She isn't yet able to conserve mass
The emotional bond that infants feel toward caregivers is called...
attachment
According to Erikson, the primary task of adolescence is to....
develop an identity
A cashier gave Ken $10 too much in change, but Ken gave it back because he was afraid he might get caught and punished if he tried to keep it. Ken is in which of Kohlberg's moral stages?
Pre-conventional
When given a list of words to remember, older adults..
recall fewer, but recognize as many as younger adults.
The knowledge and verbal skills that one has acquired over one's life are referred to as...
crystallized intelligence
According to psychoanalytic theory, the part of your personality that steers you toward socially acceptable behavior, even if it doesn't satisfy any needs, is called...
Superego
Homer loves his wife deeply, but he also can't stand the fact that she leaves their car dirty whenever she drives in and he wants to tell her about his anger. According to psychoanalytic theory, which part of Homer's personality can help him resolve the c
Ego
If Darlene plays basketball as a way to vent her angry impulses in a socially acceptable way, which defense mechanism is being used?
Sublimation
Relatively unique patterns of behavior are...
traits
From Carl Rogers' humanistic perspective, the most important aspect of personality is...
the self
Laura is an outgoing woman, so she goes to lots of social events. Being at social events, she's encouraged by others to be outgoing. This pattern of expressing a trait and then having its expression reinforced by others, illustrates....
reciprocal determinism
Multiple-personality is a rare form of which category of psychological disorders?
Dissociative
Wally is 30 years old and lives at home with his parents. He frequently takes money out of his mother's purse, has killed a neighbor's cat for coming into his yard, and shoots at passing cars with a BB gun. He doesn't feel badly about any of this. Which p
Antisocial
Larry often feels nervous and anxious, but he doesn't know why. Occasionally, his heart will start pounding for no apparent reason and he'll break out in a cold sweat. Which disorder does Larry have?
Generalized anxiety
Lucy washes her hands every time she touches anything someone else has touched. She also runs dishes through the dishwasher several times in succession before putting them away. Which psychological disorder does Lucy have?
Obsessive-compulsive
Archie has been working at a car wash in Chicago for a month. He has a number of documents that say his real name is Luther Hunt and that he lives in Pittsburgh, has a wire and two kids, and has a job as a stockbroker. Archie remembers none of this. Which
Dissociative fugue
Dave's mother occasionally has outbursts of uncontrollable behavior, but usually sits motionless in a chair. Dave once tried to help his mother feed herself by lifting her hand up to her mouth, but when he let go her hand remained in mid-air. Which form o
Catatonic
Allison's parents fight constantly. They're loud and violent, and Allison hates it. One day she woke up to find that she could no longer hear. Which disorder does Allison have?
Conversion
Having a patient relax as much as possible and say whatever comes into his or her mind is central to the technique of...
free association
Tina wants desperately for her therapist to tell her that he'll take care of her and make sure she's always alright. These are things she wanted from her father, too, but was never able to tell him. Tina's fellings illustrate...
transference
Which therapeutic approach focuses on clients discovering their own ways to resolve their issues?
Client-centered
Systematic desensitization would involve...
associating relaxation with anxiety-arousing situations
Bill, who's depressed, recently succeeded in getting a job he very much wanted. A cognitive therapist would want Bill to attribute his success to..
Bill's own talent and ability
A first-grade teacher gives his students gold stars when they read on their own during classroom "free time". When they get 10 stars, they can spend their free time playing outside. What technique for behavior change is this teacher using?
A token economy
Which of these people is most likely to be prescribed Thorazine?
Gilda, who suffers from delusions of persecution
Karen insists that her boyfriend was late getting to her house because he never pays attention to what time it is. Karen's explanation of her boyfriend's behavior is an example of...
a dispositional attribution
The fundamental attribution error refers to the fact that people tend to underestimate the extent to which other's behavior is influenced by...
situational factors
Which of the following illustrates that our behavior can change our attitudes?
The foot-in-the-door phenomenon
When our behavior is inconsistent with our attitudes or values, we feel a tension called...
cognitive dissonance
Veronica is strongly in favor of serving liquor at the campus cafeteria. As part of a class debate on the topic, though, she freely generates arguments against serving liquor at the cafeteria. According to cognitive dissonance theory,....
Veronica will now be less in favor of serving liquor at the cafeteria
Individualistic cultures are likely to promote...
non-conformity
Social facilitation involves..
an individual performing better at a task when others are around.
Vera, Chuck, and Dave all think Paul is a relatively nice person. After talking together about why they think Paul is nice, though, they've all decided that Paul is so nice that he's one of the nicest persons on the planet. What is this phenomenon called?
Group polarization
High school kids often believe that their own high school is better than any of the neighboring high schools. This illustrates...
in-group bias
In a famous study, college freshmen were paired randomly with someone of the opposite sex for a "Welcome Week" dance. What determined most whether individuals like the person with whom they were paired?
Physical attractiveness
An aptitude test that is supposed to measure how well people will do in sales and marketing jobs successfully predicts how well those who take it will do as real estate agents. This test has a high degree of...
predictive validity
Each person who completed a 14-item personality test is given a total score for ratings of odd-numbered items, as well as a total score for even-numbered items. The correlation between those two sets of scores is then computed. This procedure would be use
split-half reliability
The most commonly occurring score in the distribution of scores is called..
the mode
In an experiment, the researcher manipulates teaching style in order to measure its effects on test scores for a biology class. It turns out that the average test score among subjects in the experimental group was 81 and the average score for subjects in
A difference as big as 6 points, or more, would be unlikely to happen by chance.
The correct answer is C.Physiological psychologists seek information about the structure and functioning of the brain�its influence on our nervous system and emotions, and our behavior.
A psychologist studies the effect of sex hormones on aggressive behavior. Another compares the brain waves of depressed persons with those of schizophrenics. A third studies the effects of brain surgery on the eating behavior of laboratory rats. Despite t
The correct answer is E.Social psychologists study the social conditions that influence human behavior.
If a psychologist is interested in why people help or fail to help during an emergency, that psychologist likely specializes in
A) health psychology.
B) environmental psychology.
C) forensic psychology.
D) clinical psychology.
E) social psychology.
The correct answer is D. A questionnaire is a set of written questions that can be answered by a large number of people, and then scored quickly
In order to gather data quickly from a large number of people, a researcher would use the
A) experimental method.
B) correlational method.
C) naturalistic observation.
D) questionnaire method.
E) case history method.
The correct answer is E.In random assignment, participants are assigned to different experimental groups at random (equally likely to be assigned to any given group). This reduces the probability that there will be systematic, pre-existing differences bet
Experiments use random assignment in order to
A) gather participants from a variety of sources.
B) eliminate the need for a control group.
C) increase the value of double-blind experiments.
D) prevent participants from guessing the true nature of the expe
The correct answer is B.Control groups are used to provide a point of comparison with members of the experimental group. The control group provides a baseline against which to compare the changes produced by the experimental intervention.
In an experiment designed to test the effect of alcohol on aggression, the randomly selected group that ingests soda instead of alcohol is called the
A) experimental group.
B) control group.
C) dependent group.
D) non-aggressive group.
E) independent grou
The correct answer is E.Freud became interested in patients suffering from hysteria, a disorder in which psychological factors cause physical symptoms.
Sigmund Freud turned his interests from medical to psychological processes after encountering patients suffering from
A) schizophrenia.
B) tuberculosis.
C) lung cancer.
D) severe depression.
E) hysterical conversion.
The correct answer is A.Humanistic theorists emphasize that the natural tendency for humans is towards healthy growth and self-actualization (fulfillment of potential).
The idea that human behavior is directed toward growth, self-expression, and fulfillment BEST characterizes
A) humanistic psychology.
B) cognitive psychology.
C) Freudian psychology.
D) behavioral psychology.
E) physiological psychology.
The correct answer is E.Cognitive psychologists study the ways in which we learn about our environment, store the knowledge in our memory, process that knowledge, and use it to act with forethought in novel situations.
Dr. Reisburg is studying the thinking process in infants. Her area of specialization is probably
A) introspection.
B) behaviorism.
C) sociology.
D) psychoanalysis.
E) cognitive psychology.
The correct answer is E.Ethical principles state that the participants must be protected from foreseeable harm, that they must not be coerced, and that they must be informed of all procedures in advance. In some research, participants could experience dis
Ethical guidelines for conducting experimental research require that psychologists must do all of the following EXCEPT
A) avoid violating the confidentiality of information provided by research subjects.
B) consider the dignity and welfare of research sub
The correct answer is D.Dendrites receive information from neurotransmitters, which are produced by other neurons to convey information.
The neuron receives messages from other neurons through its
A) axon.
B) nucleus.
C) cell body.
D) dendrites.
E) myelin.
The correct answer is A.The communication between neurons is a never-ending chain. Any point on the neuron could be considered the starting point as long as: a) dendrites always receive messages, b) the cell body always decodes information gathered by the
Which of the following represents the correct order of transmission of a neural impulse?
A) The message is received by the cell body, passed down the axon, where it jumps across the synaptic gap and activates the dendrite.
B) The message avoids axons alto
The correct answer is B.Neurons accumulate information and fire - or send a message - when they receive multiple messages from other neurons at one time or in quick succession.
A neuron usually fires when
A) it is malfunctioning.
B) it receives multiple messages at one time or in quick succession.
C) it receives a single message from another neuron.
D) messages arrive very slowly and are spaced far apart.
E) messages to inhibit
The correct answer is A.The surface of the cerebral cortex has many folds and creases; this effectively increases the total surface area of the cortex.
Folds and creases within the brain are most evident in the
A) cerebral cortex.
B) right hemisphere.
C) midbrain.
D) hypothalamus.
E) medulla.
The correct answer is B.EEG is short for electroencephalograph. It measures electrical activity in the brain.
Marvin's physician is looking at amplified tracings of his brain's electrical activity.
The device being used is called a(n)
A) EKG.
B) EEG.
C) CAT scan.
D) MRI.
E) PET scan.
The correct answer is B.The cerebellum is located at the bottom rear of the brain. Cerebellum means "little brain" and it assists with many of the tasks�particularly motor-based�that are performed by the four lobes of the cerebral cortex.
The cerebellum is
A) an extension of the front part of the cerebral cortex.
B) involved in the coordination of muscle movements.
C) the smallest lobe of the cerebral hemispheres.
D) a bundle of nerve fibers that allow the two hemispheres of the brain to c
The correct answer is C.The medulla controls breathing and heart rate.
Coordination of breathing and heart rate is controlled primarily in a part of the brain stem called the
A) reticular formation.
B) pons.
C) medulla.
D) cerebrum.
E) hypothalamus.
The correct answer is E.The association cortex controls higher intellectual functioning, while the sensory cortex monitors sensation and the motor cortex generates physical movement.
The association cortex
A) monitors sensations.
B) is located in the brainstem.
C) controls body movement.
D) controls protective reflexive reactions.
E) is the seat of intellectual processes.
The correct answer is D.Sensory adaptation is the tendency of sensory receptors to adjust to a stimulus and stop responding after a time.
Getting used to an obnoxious odor in a closed room is an example of
A) desensitization.
B) sensory decrement.
C) selective attention.
D) sensory adaptation.
E) lateral inhibition.
The correct answer is B.The optic nerve leaves the eye and travels to the brain. Information from the right and left fields of vision cross over to the other side of the brain at the optic chiasm; this crossing over creates a slight blind spot.
The optic nerve leaves the retina at the
A) fovea.
B) blind spot.
C) macula.
D) iris.
E) optic chiasm.
The correct answer is C.According to the opponent-process theory of color vision, our visual sensation of color results from three types of cones and rods. Each pair is turned on by one color and turned off by the opposite color. It is the particular patt
The opponent-process theory suggests that color vision is determined by
A) three color receptors in the retina.
B) rods and cones directly opposite each other on the retina.
C) cells for blue-yellow, red-green, and white-black in the thalamus.
D) the vari
The correct answer is C.Equilibrium is the sense of the position of our body, as well as our ability to maintain it in space. Equilibrium is maintained by a combination of gravity and the position of the fluid in the inner ear.
Jackie has an inner ear infection. The sense that she is MOST likely to notice because of its impairments is
A) selectivity.
B) hearing.
C) equilibrium.
D) kinesthesis.
E) adaptation.
The correct answer is C.Closure is our tendency to fill in the gaps if an image is incomplete.
A cartoonist sketches characters in brief outline, yet people recognize them. The perceptual process by which we fill in gaps in order to "see" a complete object is
A) convergence.
B) perceptual constancy.
C) closure.
D) proximation.
E) interposition.
The correct answer is A.Babies as young as nine months old are reluctant to crawl on a pane of glass that looks down over a cloth several feet below.
Visual cliff experiments on children suggest that depth perception is
A) at least partially an inborn ability.
B) related to the rule of closure.
C) learned at a very young age.
D) a function of both size and brightness constancy.
E) closely related to th
The correct answer is E. A prototype is a "best example" of a category, containing the main features of that category. Therefore, a robin is a good prototype of a bird (feathers, flight), and a penguin is not.
A prototype (or schema) of a giraffe would be a(n)
A) innate image of what a giraffe looks like.
B) photo of a particular giraffe.
C) idea of how a giraffe feeds.
D) a list of giraffe features.
E) generalized mental model of a giraffe.
The correct answer is C.Pheromones are odorous chemical secretions that are sexually attractive to members of the same species. They are important in animal sexual behavior but contribute little to human sexual behavior.
Pheromones are
A) receptor cells for vision.
B) receptor cells for taste and smell.
C) odor chemicals produced by animals.
D) devices for measuring sound loss in humans.
E) chemical substances that help neurons communicate.
The correct answer is B.REM sleep occurs towards the end of each sleep cycle. Each sleep cycle lasts approximately 90 minutes.
REM sleep typically begins approximately how long after one falls asleep?
A) within a half-hour
B) 70-90 minutes
C) 90-120 minutes
D) 120-180 minutes
E) anytime after 180 minutes
The correct answer is B.One sleep cycle is 90 minutes and most people sleep eight hours.
During a typical night's sleep, most people experience about _____ complete cycles of sleep.
A) two or three
B) four or five
C) seven or eight
D) ten or more
E) the number varies with each individual.
The correct answer is C.Babies sleep up to 18 hours per day.
Betty has just had a baby and wonders if her baby is sleeping too much. You could tell her that an infant sleeps as many as _____ hours a day.
A) 24
B) 22
C) 18
D) 9-10
E) 7-8
The correct answer is C.There is no one personality type that is associated with alcoholism.
Research into the causes of alcoholism has shown all of the following EXCEPT
A) people can become alcoholics even if they do not have a genetic predisposition towards alcoholism.
B) heredity apparently plays some role.
C) there is an alcoholic personality
The correct answer is A.Amphetamines are also known as stimulants.
Drugs that are used to boost energy, stay awake, or lose weight are called
A) amphetamines.
B) endorphins.
C) opiates.
D) hallucinogens
E) neurotoxins
The correct answer is D.An unconditioned response does not have to be learned. It reflexively occurs in the presence of an unconditioned stimulus. A dog does not need to learn to drool (UCR) when presented with meat (UCS).
In behavioral terms, a reflex action would be called a(n)
A) conditioned stimulus.
B) unconditioned stimulus.
C) conditioned response.
D) unconditioned response.
E) paired association
The correct answer is C. In classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus comes to have meaning (becomes a conditioned stimulus) only after repeated pairings with the unconditioned stimulus.
In classical conditioning, the stimulus that does NOT initially produce a conditioned response is the
A) unconditioned stimulus.
B) unlearned stimulus.
C) conditioned stimulus.
D) orienting stimulus.
E) positive reinforcer.
The correct answer is D.A conditioned response is a learned response. It occurs after exposure to the conditioned stimulus and mimics the unconditioned response. In Pavlov's experiment, the dogs learned to drool to the sound of the bell (CS) after the bel
If you salivate at the sight of McDonald's "Golden Arches," you are showing
A) an unconditioned response.
B) a reflex action.
C) a conditioned stimulus.
D) a conditioned response.
E) learned helplessness.
The correct answer is C.Stimulus generalization is the tendency to respond in the same way to any stimulus that is similar to the original stimulus.
In conditioning, when a stimulus that is similar but not identical to the conditioned stimulus also elicits the conditioned response, the phenomenon is called
A) paired association.
B) stimulus discrimination.
C) stimulus generalization.
D) response discr
The correct answer is E. An unconditioned response is a behavior that occurs automatically. People are reflexively afraid of loud noises.
In Watson's experiment with Albert, the unconditioned response was
A) fear of the rat.
B) fear of John Watson.
C) a loud noise.
D) a white rat.
E) fear of the loud noise.
The correct answer is B.Operant conditioning explains the role of reinforcement in learning. Shaping a behavior incrementally is a form of reinforcement. It does not have a comparable counterpart in classical conditioning.
A concept primarily related to operant but not to classical conditioning is
A) reinforcement.
B) shaping.
C) stimulus discrimination.
D) spontaneous recovery.
E) stimulus generalization.
The correct answer is E.Delayed rewards or punishments are ineffective reinforcers for animals or young children; they cannot make the connection between the event and the reinforcement because of the time lapse.
If, three hours after the event, a two-year-old child is rewarded for "going potty," this delayed reward will probably
A) extinguish all bowel behavior.
B) cause him not to mess his pants again.
C) cause him to expect a reward whenever he uses the toilet.
The correct answer is D.Fixed refers to an event that is predictable. Interval refers to the passage of time. This child is being rewarded on a fixed interval schedule.
A child is rewarded with candy after every 30 minutes that she behaves appropriately.
This procedure is called
A) shaping.
B) continuous reinforcement.
C) a variable interval schedule of reinforcement.
D) a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement.
E) a f
The correct answer is B. In a token economy, objects given as rewards can be accumulated and exchanged for other reinforcers. Reinforcement is central to operant conditioning.
Token economy programs involve principles of
A) punishment.
B) operant conditioning.
C) classical conditioning.
D) biofeedback.
E) latent learning.
The correct answer is C.Although punishment can decrease the frequency of behaviors, it tends only to suppress the unwanted behavior. Rewarding alternative positive behavior as well is more effective than utilizing punishment alone.
Punishment is
A) more effective than the use of rewards.
B) inconsistent with operant principles.
C) most effective when used with rewards.
D) totally inappropriate with babies and animals.
E) not able to produce a significant change in behavior.
The correct answer is A.Another term for observational learning is modeling.
Observational learning is often referred to as
A) modeling.
B) insight.
C) mimicry
D) alpha-conditioning.
E) higher-order conditioning.
The correct answer is B.Acoustic means "sound.
Sarah remembers things better when she hears them than when she reads them. Sarah's learning style favors _____ encoding.
A) semantic
B) acoustic
C) iconic
D) implicit
E) mnemonic
The correct answer is D.Episodic memory is memory of personal experiences.
Jennifer and Paneka both remember going to a party, but they disagree on who was there. They differ in their
A) procedural memory.
B) working memory.
C) semantic memory.
D) episodic memory.
E) implicit memory.
The correct answer is E.Interference theory states that when people forget it is not because the memories are actually lost, but because other information gets in the way of what a person is trying to remember. This tendency is increased when two items fr
Interference with memory is MOST LIKELY to occur when you are
A) in a positive emotional state.
B) in a negative emotional state.
C) anxious.
D) learning information dissimilar to earlier learning.
E) learning material similar to earlier learning.
The correct answer is B. A mnemonic device is a memory aid, particularly for straight memorization. It often involves chunking and/or elaboration.
If you think of "BEGS" to remember "butter, eggs, garbage bags, soap" at the grocery store, you are using
A) consolidation learning.
B) a mnemonic device.
C) the method of loci.
D) a memory chunk.
E) memory encoding transfer.
The correct answer is B.Syntax is the rules of grammar that relate to sentence structure.
Mary yelled at John" is different from "John yelled at Mary" because of
A) semantics.
B) syntax.
C) phonemes.
D) parapraxes.
E) heuristics.
The correct answer is B.Heuristics are "rules of thumb" or mental shortcuts.
Heuristics refers to
A) mathematical formulas and procedures.
B) "rules of thumb" that are likely to be successful in problem solving.
C) listening carefully to instructions from an experimenter.
D) a technique which, if followed, will always yield the co
The correct answer is B.An achievement test measures accumulated knowledge in a specific area or domain; aptitude tests measure what a person is likely to be good at without specific learning.
A test that measures how much one knows about U.S. history would be called a(n)
A) aptitude test.
B) achievement test.
C) intelligence test.
D) avocation test.
E) validity test.
The correct answer is B.Most psychologists agree that there is no biological basis for difference in IQ scores between different races. In this society, race is often entwined (confounded) with socioeconomic status, which in turn correlates with differenc
Which of the following does NOT explain the gap in IQ scores between blacks and whites?
A) environmental stressors in poor neighborhoods.
B) heredity and biologically-based differences.
C) differences in average levels of nutrition.
D) differences in soci
The correct answer is E. A standardized test requires participants to answer a series of questions that are identical for all participants (a and d). It should ideally be both valid, (B), and reliable, (C).
A standardized test is one that
A) has been pre-tested on a representative sample of the group for whom the test is intended.
B) should accurately measure what it claims to measure.
C) should produce consistent results when given at different times to the
The correct answer is E.The six main emotions appear to be universal; they are easily recognized by people from diverse cultures.
Evidence from research suggests that facial expressions associated with the basic emotions are NOT LIKELY to be
A) learned by imitation.
B) acquired from feedback.
C) classically conditioned responses.
D) programmed by heredity.
E) substantially different
The correct answer is B.The cognitive theory of emotion (also called the two-factor theory) maintains that many different emotions have similar types of physiological arousal. It is the context and the cognitive label used that differentiates one emotion
According to the cognitive theory of emotion, the experience of an emotion depends on
A) a conscious decision of whether or not to experience an emotion.
B) autonomic nervous system arousal and the cognitive interpretation of a situation.
C) the state of
The correct answer is D.The hypothalamus regulates basic survival needs: hunger, fight vs. flight, and reproductive behavior.
The area of the brain that seems MOST CLOSELY related to hunger is the
A) cerebral cortex.
B) amygdala.
C) corpus callosum.
D) hypothalamus.
E) medulla.
The correct answer is B.Endorphins are the body's naturally-produced pain killers.
People who are particularly sensitive to the experience of pain
A) may have overactive fast pathways.
B) may be deficient in endorphin production.
C) may have a malfunctioning gate-control mechanism.
D) may have an overproduction of prostaglandins.
E) may
The correct answer is A.Sexual orientation is the attraction felt towards persons of a given sex.
The direction taken by the motive for sex defines our
A) sexual orientation.
B) sexual attitudes.
C) lack of inhibition.
D) sexual energy.
E) erotophilia.
The correct answer is E.Transsexuals feel that they are in the wrong body.
The correct term for people who feel that their physical bodies are at odds with their psychological identity are called
A) heterosexual.
B) bisexual.
C) transvestites.
D) homosexual.
E) transsexual.
The correct answer is A.Self -actualizers - those who attempt to fulfill their maximum potential - are likely to be internally (intrinsically) motivated.
Self-actualization is most likely to be related to
A) intrinsic motivation.
B) extrinsic motivation.
C) drives.
D) emotions.
E) needs.
The correct answer is A.Females are genetically XX. They contribute an "X" chromosome to all of their offspring. Males are XY. They contribute an "X" to 50% of their children, on average, and a "Y" to the other 50%.
The sex of a child is determined by the genetic contribution of
A) the father.
B) the mother.
C) any ancestor.
D) either parent.
E) both parents.
The correct answer is E.Infants appear to be biologically preprogrammed to develop motor skills at about the same age, regardless of early experience.
Which is NOT true of early physical growth?
A) Newborn babies have all the muscle fibers they will ever possess.
B) The skeleton at birth is largely composed of cartilage that is softer and more pliable.
C) Some of the fibers of the nervous system develop
The correct answer is C.The correct order of development for Piaget's stages is sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational.
In Jean Piaget's theory, the order in which developmental stages occur is
A) sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational, preoperational.
B) preoperational, sensorimotor, concrete operational, formal operational.
C) sensorimotor, preoperational
The correct answer is D.Infants who are securely attached use the mother as a secure base from which to explore the environment and gradually develop independence.
Infants who are securely attached
A) fear strangers.
B) are indifferent to the presence of the mother.
C) becomes anxious when the mother leaves.
D) use the mother as a secure base.
E) are always in close contact with the mother.
The correct answer is A.Bulimics tend to binge and then purge, whereas anorexics severely restrict their caloric intake and are very underweight.
People with bulimia
A) are often normal weight.
B) are most often middle aged females.
C) use extreme dieting.
D) are more often male than female.
E) are more commonly black adolescents, while white adolescents tend toward anorexia.
The correct answer is B.People who are at the conventional level of moral development are concerned with social order and acceptance.
Of the following, the person who is MOST LIKELY to be at the conventional level of moral reasoning is
A) John, who decides not to steal a book because he might be punished.
B) Jerry, who decides to contribute to the building fund because he is afraid his
The correct answer is E. All of the choices are correct.
Women going through menopause
A) cease menstruating.
B) may have hot flashes.
C) may experience mood swings.
D) are, on average, in their early 50s.
E) all of the choices are correct.
The correct answer is D.Although there are individual differences, the MOST common order of occurrence of Kubler-Ross's stages of death and dying is denial - anger - bargaining - depression - acceptance.
Of the following, the MOST common order of occurrence of Kubler-Ross's stages of death and dying is
A) bargaining - anger - denial - acceptance - depression.
B) anger - denial - depression - bargaining - acceptance.
C) bargaining - anger - denial - depres
The correct answer is D.According to Freud, libido is a basic energy that is directed at satisfying needs. Although people today use the term to mean "sex drive," Freud's meaning is much broader than just sex.
According to Freud, libido is
A) a part of the phallic stage of development.
B) the sex drive.
C) the aggressive drive.
D) a basic energy that is directed at satisfying needs.
E) most strongly associated with the ego.
The correct answer is A.Regression is a Freudian defense mechanism where the individual under stress retreats to an earlier, safer time in development.
Retreating toward behavior that usually characterizes a lower level of maturity is called
A) regression.
B) repression.
C) reaction formation.
D) displacement.
E) projection.
The correct answer is E.Bandura expanded upon behaviorist principles to include the role of cognitive factors in personality. This is called social learning, or social cognitive theory.
Albert Bandura is MOST CLOSELY associated with
A) humanistic theory.
B) neopsychoanalytic thinking.
C) radical behaviorism.
D) Gestalt theory.
E) social cognitive theory.
The correct answer is D.Trait theorists assume that personality is made up of different combinations of traits or dispositions.
A personality theory that describes a person in terms of dominance, sensitivity, extroversion, and the like is a _____ theory.
A) psychoanalytic
B) humanistic
C) learning
D) trait
E) rational emotive
The correct answer is A.The Rorschach test is a projective test that is comprised of inkblots.
The Rorschach Test consists of a series of
A) inkblots.
B) photographs.
C) true-false items.
D) essay questions.
E) self-report questions.
The correct answer is C.According to Selye, in response to stress, the body goes through the stages of alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
Hans Selye's term "general adaptation syndrome" refers to
A) the degree to which psychological hardiness provides a buffer against stress.
B) the body's psychological response to stress.
C) a similar, physiological reaction to stress regardless of source.
The correct answer is C.Somatoform disorders are also called conversiondisorders or hysteria because psychological factors are converted to physical symptoms. Examples include "glove anesthesia" and hysterical blindness.
Which of the following statements is true of somatoform disorders?
A) There is no physical basis for these disorders, and persons suffering from them do not generally require medical attention.
B) They are a form of hypochondriasis.
C) They are physical d
The correct answer is E.Self-esteem, personal control, and extroversion are factors that researchers have found to be related to optimism and happiness.
Which of the following combinations is related to optimism and happiness?
A) self-esteem, enthusiasm, personal control
B) personal control, extroversion, self-efficacy
C) self-efficacy, personal control, and self-actualization
D) extroversion, self-actual
The correct answer is A.Bipolar disorder is characterized by periods of mania alternating with periods of depression.
Bipolar disorder has been referred to as
A) manic-depressive illness.
B) double depression.
C) schizophrenia.
D) histrionic depression.
E) anti-social personality disorder.
The correct answer is B.Anorexia nervosa is characterized by dramatic weight loss and by reduction in eating.
The eating disorder characterized by dramatic reduction in eating and loss of weight, as well as continual efforts to lose even more weight, is known as
A) obsessive consumption disorder.
B) anorexia nervosa.
C) bulimia.
D) neurotic eating disorder.
E) th
The correct answer is D.Anxiety with no identifiable cause is called generalized anxiety disorder. By contrast, phobias involve a fear of some specific, identifiable object.
Alice feels vaguely uneasy and tense much of the time, but she is unable to pinpoint the cause of her feelings of apprehension. Alice is suffering from
A) phobic disorder.
B) histrionic personality disorder.
C) obsessive-compulsive disorder.
D) generalize
The correct answer is D. A phobia is an irrational fear of an object or situation. Matt is afraid of a specific, identifiable event.
Matt has an extreme fear of being caught in a thunderstorm and is constantly anxious whenever there are clouds in the sky. Matt's intense, irrational fear is an example of a(n)
A) panic disorder.
B) generalized anxiety disorder.
C) dysthymic disorder
D) p
The correct answer is A.Defense mechanisms such as repression are used by the ego to protect against feelings of anxiety resulting from unacceptable impulses. When repressed impulses come to the surface during therapy, the client may become resistant to t
When repressed impulses reach a client's consciousness, the client is likely to show
A) resistance.
B) transference.
C) extinction.
D) aversion.
E) aggression
The correct answer is B.Person-centered therapists believe that humans have an innate drive toward self-actualization that is likely to be achieved in a warm, accepting, and supportive environment.
Person-centered therapy most emphasizes
A) re-organizing disordered thought processes.
B) warmth and acceptance by the therapist.
C) reinforcing desirable behavior.
D) gaining insight into the causes of one's disturbances.
E) a cognitive, problem-solving
The correct answer is A.Behavior therapists believe that behavior is maintained because of rewards and punishments in the person's past learning. By changing the reinforcements, one can change the behavior.
Behavior therapists generally give strong emphasis to
A) changing the person's reinforcement history.
B) identifying faulty thought patterns.
C) uncovering unconscious conflicts.
D) free will and personal responsibility.
E) self-acceptance and acceptance
The correct answer is D.According to behavior therapists, the symptom IS the problem; it is not necessary to delve into cognitive factors.
Tom tells his therapist that he believes his compulsive gambling is a symptom of his unconscious hostility toward his family. His therapist, however, says "No, Tom, your problem isn't unconscious hostility; your problem is gambling." Tom's therapist is pr
The correct answer is E.Cognition deals with thoughts. The main goal of cognitive therapists is to help the person identify and change irrational thought patterns that produce atypical behaviors.
A basic assumption underlying cognitive approaches to therapy is that
A) positive reinforcement is more effective than punishment in controlling abnormal behavior.
B) tokens that can later be traded for candy or privileges serve as effective reinforcers.
The correct answer is A.Placebos are given to control group participants in order to determine whether participants' expectations have unintentionally influenced the experimental results.
An ineffective substance (one with no effect on body mechanisms) is sometimes given to patients participating in studies on the therapeutic effectiveness of drugs. This ineffective substance given to control-condition subjects is called a(n)
A) placebo.
B
The correct answer is B.Anti-depressants such as Prozac and Paxil are called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.)
Antidepressant drugs are thought to work by
A) being acetylcholine agonists.
B) increasing the brain's supply of norepinephrine and serotonin.
C) decreasing the effects of dopamine on nerve synapses.
D) stimulating the pituitary gland.
E) altering the cog
The correct answer is A.Modern anti-psychotic drugs allowed many people to be deinstitutionalized. Unfortunately, many of them became "street people" because they were unable or unwilling to continue to take their medication.
Compared with the number of people with schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis living in public mental health hospitals, the number living in public shelters and on the street is
A) much greater.
B) about the same.
C) much fewer.
D) unknown.
E) curr
The correct answer is C.The $1.00 participants were unable to make an external attribution for their participation (I got paid a lot) and therefore made an internal attribution instead (I must like it).
In Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment on cognitive dissonance, the subjects who reported the greatest enjoyment of the boring task were the ones who
A) were of low intelligence.
B) were paid $20.00.
C) were paid $1.00.
D) were ordered to comply.
E) perf
The correct answer is D.An attribution is an attempt, either internally or externally-based, to explain behavior.
In psychological terms, attribution is the
A) analysis one does of the costs and benefits of a study before conducting it.
B) tendency to view all members of a particular group as being relatively the same.
C) beliefs, feelings, and typical behaviors a pe
The correct answer is D.Attributions can be either internal (dispositional) or external (situational). All of the choices except (D) are attributions about the situation. (D) is an attribution about the person.
If you fail an exam, a dispositional attribution of your failure would be
A) "I could have done better if I hadn't had a cold."
B) "The professor didn't explain the material very well."
C) "I had to work the night before the exam."
D) "I've never taken ex
The correct answer is A.Conformity involves changing in order to fit in. In Asch's experiment, the participant was not required or instructed to change his estimate (obedience).
Solomon Asch performed an experiment in which a group of people judged the length of lines, but only one person in the group was an actual subject. He was studying
A) conformity.
B) obedience.
C) cognitive dissonance.
D) group conflict.
E) prejudice.
The correct answer is B.The door-in-the-face technique of persuasion begins by making a large request that is likely to be rejected followed by a smaller request which will seem more acceptable by comparison.
Which of the following compliance techniques starts with a large request followed by a small request?
A) foot-in-the-door
B) door-in-the-face
C) lowballing
D) social comparison
E) social facilitation
The correct answer is C. In group think, critical decision-making is sacrificed in favor of maintaining group harmony.
The main reason why group think occurs is that people want to be
A) secure
B) right.
C) in agreement.
D) unique.
E) superior.
The correct answer is C.Phillip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment investigated the effect of role-playing on attitudes and behaviors.
Who conducted the mock prison experiment?
A) Asch
B) Milgram
C) Zimbardo
D) Zajonc
E) Sherif
The correct answer is A.Proximity means "close to.
Friendship that develops because people live near to each other is based on
A) proximity.
B) similarity.
C) familiarity.
D) attractiveness.
E) reinforcement.
The correct answer is B.Average scores of two variables are compared to determine whether they rise and fall together. Correlation is always at the level of the group, never the individual. Cause and effect cannot be determined from correlational data.
Correlation is a technique that
A) measures personality.
B) compares groups of scores.
C) focuses on individuals.
D) allows us to determine cause and effect.
E) provides proof of the existence of a trait.
The correct answer is C. In an experiment, one variable at a time is manipulated while all other variables are held constant. This is done in order to ensure that any results are due only to the variable being manipulated.
Cause and effect can BEST be determined through the
A) correlational method.
B) direct observation.
C) experimental method.
D) case history method.
E) questionnaire technique.
Set up the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.
Wilhelm Wundt
People that believe that consciousness is made up of basic elements that are combined in different ways to produce different perceptions.
Structuralists
People who focus on how mental experiences are adaptive.
Functionalists
An approach that believes thoughts, feelings, and behaviors stem from the interaction of innate drives, and society's restrictions on the expression of those drives. (specifically, sexual and aggressive drives)
Psychodynamic Approach
An approach that focuses on how people react to changes in environmental stimuli.
Behavioral Approach
An approach that focuses on how the physiological process might produce a psychological phenomena.
Biological Approach
An approach that explains behavior in terms of thoughts and feelings.
Cognitive Approach
An approach that states a human's behaviors are determined by a genetic code. They believe that people are "basically good".
Humanistic Approach
The variable in an experiment that causes a change in another variable.
Independent Variable
The variable in an experiment that is the result of another variable.
Dependent Variable
A _________ is a similarity between two things that describes the strength of the relationship.
Correlational Coefficient
Takes information from the body and transmits it to the brain.
Sensory Neurons
Sends information from the brain to the body.
Motor Neurons
Controls arousal and sleep. Low levels of ______ usually indicate depression.
Serotonin
Drugs that mimic a particular nerotransmitter or block it's signal.
Agonists
Includes the sensory and motor neurons that connect the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body.
Peripheral Nervous System
Carries information from your muscles and tissues to the central nervous system. Controls sensations of pressure, pain, and temperature.
Somatic Nervous System
Regulates the body's internal environment. Controls glands, organs, etc.
Autonomic Nervous System
Part of the Autonomic Nervous System. Prepares your body for action by quickening your heartbeat.
Sympathetic
Part of the Autonomic Nervous System. Makes it possible for you to relax.
Parasympathetic
Part of the brain. Controls breathing, and heartbeat.
Brainstem
Part of the brain. Controls touch, taste, and hearing.
Thalamus
Part of the brain. Controls arousal and sleep.
Reticular Formation
Part of the brain. Controls coordination of voluntary movement.
Cerebellum
Part of the brain. Processes memory
Hippocampus
Part of the brain. Influences fear and anger
Amygdala
Part of the brain. Controls urges of hunger, thirst, and sexual intercourse.
Hypothdamus
Part of the brain. Controls higher levels of thinking, such as planning and predicting the consequences of behaviors.
Frontal Lobes
Part of the brain. Controls sense and touch.
Parietal Lobes
Part of the brain. Controls hearing
Temporal Lobes
Part of the brain. Controls sight.
Occipital Lobes
An area of psychology that addresses the topic of sensation. How sensitive we are to changes in stimulation.
Psychophysics
The theory that our ability to notice a stimulus will vary due to psychological factors like motivation, past experience, and expectations.
Signal Detection Theory
The minimum stimulation needed for a given person to detect a given stimulus.
Absolute Threshold
The belief that any given difference is harder to notice with more intense, powerful stimuli than with weaker ones. (The difference of 20 watts seems greater between the 40-watt, and the 60-watt bulb, than a 90-watt and 70-watt.)
Weber's Law
_________ Predisposes us to attend to stimuli that matter to us, and ignore stimuli that doesn't.
Sensory Adaptation
These Psychologists formulated rules by which the brain pieces together meaningful experiences out of fragments of sensation.
Gestalt Psychologists
When an object partially blocks out another, so we think that the first object is closer.
Interposition
When a texture becomes finer and softer as it moves further away.
Texture Gradients
The apparent movement of stable objects as we ourselves move.
Motion parallax
A period where exposure to appropriate stimuli is required in order for the various perceptual skills to develop.
Critical Period
When the body gets into a sleep/wake rhythm
Circadian Rhythm
Uncontrollable attacks of sleep during waking hours.
Narcolepsy
According to Sigmund Freud, this content in dreams are images that actually appear to the dreamer.
Manifest Content
According to Sigmund Freud, this content in dreams is a wish that the dreamer would suppress if they were awake.
Latent Content
A theory about dreams that while asleep, the brain's neurons fire randomly, and as we awake, we construct a dream to make sense of those images.
Activation Synthesis Theory
The theory that dreams are a way to sort through the day's events and stamp them into our memory.
Information-Processing Theory
When a repeated presentation of a single stimulus produces an enduring change in behavior.
Non-Associative Learning
The process of learning the connection between two stimuli.
Associative Learning
A stimulus that produces a response without making connections first (such as the meat powder in Pavlov's experiment) .
Unconditioned Stimulus
A stimulus that is made to elicit the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (the ringing of the bell in Pavlov's experiment.)
Conditioned Stimulus
______ claimed that children are "pre-wired" to learn a language (The Language Acquisition Device)
Noam Chomsky
The first to develop a standardized intelligence test.
Alfred Binet
Part of a controversy as to which stimulus has more affect on a person's behavior. Our genetic code and heritage.
Nature
If you truly believe a movie is good, than you will ignore the bad /boring parts, and focus on the good parts to affirm your conclusion.
Confirmation Bias
Part of a controversy as to which stimulus has more affect on a person's behavior. The environmental effects on our development.
Nurture
Seeing a stimuli that had relevance to one's well being will generate arousal and emotions at the same time.
Cannon-Bard Theory
Seeing a stimuli that had relevance to one's well being will cause arousal, and THEN emotions
James-Lange Theory
The hypothesis that the activity of facial muscles tells us if we're happy or not.
Facial Feedback Hypothesis
People whose levels of arousal are increased through exercise, or other means, will become more insulted and angry than others.
Excitation Transfer
The label of the arousal you are feeling (the person who aroused you, and how they did) decides the emotion.
Two-Factor Theory
Comparing people of different ages at the same point in time.
Cross-Section Study
The study of people people of all different ages.
Cross-Sequential Study
Part of the three stage personality model created by Freud. The part of our personality that controls our built-in needs
ID
Part of the three stage personality model created by Freud. The rational, realistic part of our personalities.
Ego
Part of the three stage personality model created by Freud. Our moral center. Allows us to get along with other people in society.
Superego
Stages in one's life that the body is centered on overcoming an obstacle (potty-training, teething...).
Psychosexual Stages
A person is ______ when they need to have everything perfect.
Anal Retentive
A person is ______ when they are messy and rebellious.
Anal Explusive
The self-realization of one's own body.
Phallic Stage
Accepting who you are, and adjusting your ideals to fit who you are.
Self-Actualization
How the environment and the person's individual character react to influence their consistency of behavior.
Reciprocal Determinism
Senselessly repeating other people's movements
Echolalia
Helping an individual recognize their individual conflicts.
Psychoanalysis
If you behave in a way that you normally wouldn't, and there are consequences, you make up an explanation for it.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Getting somebody to do a small favor, and then asking them for a LARGE favor.
Foot-In-The Door Technique
Asking somebody for a LARGE favor, and when they refuse, asking them for a MUCH smaller favor.
Door-in-the-face technique
When an unpleasant response becomes associated with what would normally be a pleasant activity.
Aversive Conditioning
Conducted an experiment in order to test conformity.
Solomon Asch
Conducted an experiment in order to test obedience.
Stanley Milgram
The theory that anger is always the product of frustration.
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis
We feel obligated to help those who need our help.
Social Responsibility Norm
The belief that our goal in life is to maximize our rewards and minimize our costs.
Social Exchange Theory
We feel obligated to help those who have helped us.
Reciprocity Norm
The average correlation for every possible way of splitting the test in half.
Cronbach's Alpha
How widely scattered scores tend to be.
Standard Deviation
Whether scores are related.
Construct Validity
How well a test measures what it was meant to measure.
Validity
People don't contact the police when they witness a crime, because that way the responsibility is diffused for all of the people who have witnessed it.
Bystander Effect
The scientific study of observable behavior
behaviorism
Explains behavior through the interaction of biological, physiological, and social factors
biopsychosocial perspective
A type of descriptive research that closely examines one individual or small group
case study
A type of extraneous variable that changes in sync with the independent variable making it difficult to discern which one is causing changes in the dependent variable
confounding variale
The participants in an experiment who are not exposed to the treatment variable this is the comparison group
control group
An association or relationship between two or more variables
correlation
The statistical measure that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables
correlation coefficient
A type of descriptive research examining the relationship among variables
correlational method
The process of weighing various pieces of evidence synthesizing them and evaluating and determining the contributions of each
critical thinking
Share information with participants after their involvement in a study has ended including the purpose of the studying and deception used in it
debriefing
In an experimental design the characteristics or response that is measured to determine the effect of the researchers manipulation
dependent variable
Research methods that describe and explore behaviour although the findings cannot definitively state cause and effect relationship
descriptive research
Type of study and which neither the researchers who are administering the independent variable nor the participants know what type of treatment is being given
double-blind study
A controlled procedure that involves careful examination through the use of scientific observation and manipulation of variables
experiment
The members of an experiment who are exposed to the treatment variable on manipulation by the researcher represents the treatment group
experimental group
A type of research that manipulates a variable of interest to uncover cause and effect relationships
experimental method
Researchers expectations that influence the outcome of the study
experimenter bias
A variable in the environment or of the participants that could unintentionally influence the outcome of the studying
extraneous variable
An early school of psychology that focused on the function of thought processes, feelings, and behaviors and how they help us adapt to the environment
functionalism
An approach suggesting that human nature is by and large perspective and the human direction is towards growth
humanistic psychology
A statement that can be used to test predictions
hypothesis
In an experimental design the variable manipulated by the researcher to determine its effect on the independent variable
independent variable
Acknowledgement of study participants that they understand what their participation will entail
informed consent
A committee that reviews research proposals to protect the rights and welfare of all participants
institutional review board
The examination of one's own conscious activities
introspection
The process through which inherited traits is given a population either increase in frequency because they are adaptive or decrease in frequency because they are maladaptive
natural selection
A type of descriptive research that studies participants in their natural environment through systematic observation
naturalistic ovservation
Errors introduced into the recording of observations due to the researchers value system implications or attitudes
observer bias
The precise manner in which a variable of interest is defined and measured
operational definition
An inert substance given to members of the control group the fake treatment that has no benefit but is administered as if it does
placebo
All members of an identified group about which a researcher is interested in
population
An approach that focuses on the positive aspects of human beings seeking to understand their strengths and uncover the roots of happiness creativity humor and so on
positive psychology
An approach to explaining and predicting behavior in events that appear to be psychology, but has no empirical or objective evidence to support it
pseudopsychology
Scientists who study behavior and mental processes
psychologists
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
psychology
This process of appointing participants in a research study to the experimental or control groups ensuring that every person has an equal chance of being assigned to either
random assignment
A subset of the population chosen through a process that ensures all members of the population has an equally likely chance of being selected to participate in the study
random sample
To repeat an experiment generally with a new sample and or other changes to the procedures the goal of which is to provide further support for these findings of the first study
replicate
A subgroup of a population selected so that its members have characteristics that closely reflect those of the population of interest
representative sample
A subset of a population chosen for inclusion in an experiment
sample
The process scientists use to conduct research which includes a continuing cycle of exploration critical thinking and systematic observation
scientific method
An early school of psychology that used introspection to determine the structure and most basic elements of the mind
structuralism
A type of descriptive research that uses questionnaires or interviews to gather data
survey method
Synthesizes observations in order to explain phenomena and God predictions to be tested through research
theory
The an accounting for characteristic of participants or environment that explains changes in the variable of interest
third variable
Measurable characteristics that can vary over time or across people
variables
behavior, mental processes
psychology is the study of ________ and ________
theory
a ________ synthesizes observations to try to explain phenomena and we can use it to help make predictions
variables
psychology studies focus on __________ which are characteristics that vary or change over time or across people
descriptive research
__________ is primarily useful for studying new or unexplored topics.
positive correlation
the longer a miner has worked for a mining company the more money he makes. this is and example of a _____________
cause and effect relationship
the experimental method can provide findings on the ________ of variables
informed consent
_________ is the process through which research participants acknowledge their understanding of their role in a study
humanistic psychology
_______ suggest that human nature is by and large positive
critical thinking
psychology is driven by ________ but pseudopsychology is not
the scientific method
the goal of ________ is to provide empirical evidence or data based on systematic observation or emperimentation
inferential statistics
___________ allows us to make inferences and determine the probability of certain events occurring
an equally likely chance of being picked to participate
one way to pick a random sample is to make sure every member of the population has
relationships among variables
descriptive research is invaluable to psychologists at the beginning stages of a study, some forms of descriptive research can provide information on
case study
a researcher interested in learning more about the effect of isolation might choose the Chilean miners as a(n) __________ which is a type of descriptive research invaluable for studying rare events
independent, dependent
the _____ variable is what the researcher manipulates, and the ______ variable is the response the researcher measures
double-blinded
with a ______ study neither the researchers nor the participants know who is getting the treatment or who is getting the placebo
experimental group
the members of the _____ include those participants who receive the real treatment as opposed to a plocebo
mental events
old study of psychology
based on systematic observation
modern psychology
study basic processes to understand human behavior
physiologists use animals to
american psychologists, psychology is the science of mental life so study thinking, memory, perception
william james
describe, explain, predict, control behavior
scientific psychology
specific and concrete
descriptions of behavior should be
tested to find the right "one
many possible explanations of behavior must be
eliminating sugar should control it
if sugar causes children to act out then
cause A leads to behavior B
elimination
eliminate cause A predict it will control behavior B
to test explinations
5 great thinkers and ideas
clasical school of psychology
first psychological laboratory in Leipzig founded first school of structuralism
wundt
academics formed different schools
modern psychology started when
elemental sensations that combine to form human consciousness
wundt studied
basic sensations which make us see the picture
structuralist study
hue or color, brightness, saturation
wundt 3 basic visual sensations
find relationship of each group of sensations, find relationship producing each complex exeperience
wundt goal
founding psychology, first scientific psychology
wundt is credited for
fascinated by wundt's work, first american lab, 1st textbook, famous family- brother novelist henry james
william james- harvard university
study how mind works, focused on thinking, memory, and attention *not structure
james functionalism
evolution, survival of the fittest
darwin
focuses on simple sensations was wrons, melody isnt just a bunch of notes, melody is the pattern itself not individual notes
max wertheimer- germany
school for psychology (1910)
gestalt
transposed to another
a melody in 1 key can be
pattern or "organized whole" the whole is more than the sum of its parts
gestalt means
still objects can appear to move enough separate arrows and movement is smooth
wertheimer
raw sensations
you cant explain whats seen by
started behaviorism, first president- american psychology association in 1915
john b watson- american
consciousness is not important
radical behaviorism
more than any other school
behaviorism influenced american psychology
B.F. Skinner
most famous behaviorist
sugmund freud, patients reported symptoms but were not biologically ill
fifth school
patient believes they are ill but symptoms are imaginary
hysteria, somatoform disorder
emotional problems epressed as physical symptoms
somatoform disorder
represented bad childhood memories sexual and agressive urges
unconscious
motivated forgetting unconsciously doesnt work if you know you are doing it
repression
make unconscious conscious
psycho analysis is also a therapy
scientific psychology's 2nd goal is to explain, approaches are the major ways to explain behaviors
approaches
genes, endocrine system, brain and nervous system determine behavior
biological approaches
favor the biological approach
psychiatrists and physiologists
behaviors are learned through observation and reinforcement
learning approach
unconscious sexual and aggressive impulses conflict with morals
psychonanalytic or psychodynamic approach
focus on understanding troubled people
psychodynamic
understand the present through teh past to understand the adult study the child
psychoanalysis
thought causes behavior and emotions
cognitive approach
some behavior is uniquely human, isnt due to environment at all
humanistic approach
free will and responsibility
humanism emphasizes
much behavior is due to society and culture
sociocultural approach
eclectic
most psychologists are
clinical/counseling, developmental, personality, experimental, cognitive, physiological, and industrial
fields of psychology
specialize in psychotherapy and psychological testing
Clinical/counseling
medical doctors they have PhD's, PsyD's or EdD's
Clinicians are NOT
clinical psychologists
Not all therapists are
troubled people improve their mental health
Psychotherapy helps
mostly paper and pencil intelligence and personality tests
Psychology testing
a person's tendency to act the same way in different circumstances or environments, often described in traits
Personality
most used
MMPI
study maturation and learning in children and adults not a psychologists who treats children
Developmental psychology
counseling psychologists- provide advice and guidance, usually work in a school, usually help with adjustment problems, not the mentally ill
Clinical psychology
American Psychology Association
APA
therapy
psychology is often associated with
divisions with many subdiciplines
APA has 50+
Association for Psychological Sciences
ASP
Basic research, applied research
Psychologist study two major types of research
often occurs in university laboratories, focuses on collecting data to support or refute theories
basic research
gather knowledge for sake of knowledge
goal of basic research
exploration of human sensory abilities, trauma and memory
examples of basic research
Focuses on changing the Haviar's and outcomes, often leading to real world applications
Applied research
Sensory issues and autism, natural disaster response planning , as well as keyboard layout and improved typing performance
Applied research has generateed behavioral interventions for children with
Psychology is simply common sense
Common misconception
I knew it all along", constantly seeking to explain events, come up with plausible explanations
Hindsight bias
Based on casual observation
Common sense
Meticulous and methodical observation and data analysis
Psychology is based on
A systematic approach to gathering knowledge through careful observation and experimentation
Science
Sharing results and doing so in a manner that permit others to duplicate and verify
Science requires
The collective body of miss information about human nature
Psycho mythology
Describe, explain, predict and control behavior
Four main goals of psychology
Report what is observed, goal 1
Describe
Organize and understand observations of behavior, goal 2
Explain
Do you observed behavior patterns, make predictions about what will happen in the future, goal three
Predict
Use research findings to shape, modify and control behavior
Control
How we apply the findings of psychological research to shape and change behaviors in a beneficial way
Control behavior
Humans are born with some degree of innate knowledge
Plato believed that truth and knowledge exist in this so before birth meaning
The contribution of nature in the human capacity for cognition
Plato raised an important issue
Believe that we know reality through our perception which we learn through our sensory experiences, and approach now commonly referred to as empiricism
Aristotle - student of Plato
Laying the foundation for the approach to answering questions, including those pertaining to psychological concepts such as emotion, sensation, and perception
Aristotle has been credited with
The world through observation
Knowledge is a result of our experiences, Aristotle pave the way for scientist to study
Plato's belief that it is in born, the result of nature
The notion that experience or nurture plays a role in how we acquire knowledge contradicts
Nature versus nurture
Aristotle provided the opposing position
Central theme for psychology
Nature and nurture
Studies of heredity and environmental factors
Nature and nurture both play important roles, and current research explores the contributions of each through
I think, therefore I am", believed that most everything else was uncertain, including what he saw with his own eyes
Ren�e Descartes
And the mind has no physical substance
Descartes propose that the body is like a tangible machine
Two separate entities, a view known as dualism
The body and mind interact as
Thoughts, emotions, and other topics believed to be beyond the scope of study
Descartes work allowed for more scientific approach to examining
Realized he could "solve" The mind - body conundrum, by studying the physical ability to sense stimuli
Gustav t fechner- german psychiatrist
Founders of psychological psychology, made the groundwork for research on sensation and perception
Fechner is considered one of the
1879
No psychologist until
Meticulous accounts of his physiological experiments and methods providing details of this new study area
Wundt created an edited the first psychological journal and publish numerous books, including
Method used to examine one's own conscious activities
Introspection
Meaning free of opinions, beliefs, expectations and values
Objective
Effortful reflection on the sensations, feelings, and images experienced in response to a stimulus followed by reports that were objective
For wundt introspection involved
Complete 10,000 "introspective observations" prior to data collection
Wundt required all participants to
Student of wundt, develop structuralism at Cornell University
Edward titchener
Detailed reports of their subjective experiences
Titcheners patients provided
Conducted through observation and measurement
Titchner demonstrated that psychology studies could be
Offered first psychology class in the US at Harvard University and was granted $300 for laboratory and classroom demonstration equipment
William james
Charles Darwin
James was inspired by
It does serve a function, and it is important to study the purpose of thought processes, feelings, and behaviors
James believe because consciousness is an ever-changing "stream" of thoughts,
Educational psychology, studies of the motion, and comparative studies of animal behavior
Functionalism has continued to influence the practice of psychology as influenced by
Student of James, completed all the requirements for a PhD at Harvard like it was an all male college so she was denied
Mary w calkins
The first woman president of the American psychological Association
Calkins established her own laboratory at Wellesley College eventually becoming
Titcheners student, first female to learn PhD in psychology at Cornell
Margaret f washburn
First black woman to be awarded PhD in psychology from Columbia University
Mamie P Clark
Prejudice and discrimination on child development
Mamie and her husband bencrofts work examined the impact of
A child's self-esteem
Mamie explored how race recognition impacks
The northside Center for Child development in upper Manhattan
Mamie Clark became executive director of
Are women
3/4 of students earning master degrees and PhD in psychology
Focused much of his attention on the "abnormal" aspects
Sigmund freud
Occurs for the most part unconsciously or outside of awareness
Freud Believe behavior and personality are influenced by the conflict between one's inner desires and expectations of society a class that
Many of psychology subfields
This cycle analyst big perspective is used in
Studied canine digestion
Ivan pavalov
A type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events
classical conditioning
established behaviorism, building on Pavalov's conditioning experiments
john b watson
Studied the relationship between behaviors and their consequences
B.F. Skinner
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher.
operant conditioning
founded humanistic psychology
carl rogers and abrahm maslow-
are naturally inclined to grow and change for the better
the humanistic perspective suggests that human nature is essentially positive and that perople
reactions to what came before
new developments are often
examines mental processes that direct behavior, focusing on concepts such as thinking, memory and language
cognitive psychology
explores physiological exxplanations for mental processes, searching for connections between behavior and human nervous system especially the brain
cognitive neuroscience
behaviors and mental processes are shaped by forces of evolution
evolutionary perspective
theory of evolution, principals of natural selection
charles darwin
knowledge about underlying physiology to explain behavior and mental processes
biological perspective
suggest that we must examine the influences of social interactions and culture, including the roles we play
social culture perspective
proposed that we must examine how social and cultural features in childrens lives influence their cognative development
lev vygotsky
the presumed universal nature of no all races being the same
cross- culture research began to uncover differences that called into question
these factors are highly interactive
biopsychosocial perspective suggest that
the way they interact
its not just convergence of factors that matters but
an integrated approach to explain its origins
human behavior is complex and requires
picture in our minds what we seek to understand
sometimes it is necessary to create a model to help clarify a complex set of observations, as a model frequently allows us to
a master healer
numerologists consider the number 33
uses a chart of the heavens called a horoscope to predict everything from the weather to romantic relationships
astrology
astronomy and astrology
nearly half of college science majors could not tell the difference between
tendency to make assertions so broad and vague that they cannot be refuted
a tell tail feature of a pseudopsychology is its
to explain the pseudophychologies
critical thinking is absent from the pseudo theories used
making a decision on the validity of material
critical thinking requires one to consider the source of information and the quality of evidence before
thinking beyond definitions, focusing on underlying concepts and applications, and being open-minded and skeptical at the same time
critical thinking processes
by critical thinking
psychology is driven
data from systemattic observation or experiments
emperical evidence
must be objective
in the scientific method an observation
differ from one person to the next based on beliefs or opinions
observations that are truly objective do not
may take teh place of a formal hypothesis
hypotheses are difficult to generate for studies on new and unexplored topics, a general prediction
often rests on a sturdy foundation of scientific evidence
theory is a well-established body of principals that
which could arise from recording problems or biases from different environmental factors
gathering data must be don in a very controlled fashion to ensure there are errors
descriptive, inferential
two basic types of statistical analyses
goes beyond simply describing the data sheet, it is possible to make inferences and determine the probability of events occurring in the future
inferential statistics
notoriously meticulous, helps provide us with more certainty that findings from research can be trusted, but it isnt foolproof.
peer review processes
autism, 30% are not sure
18% of Americans believe vaccines cause
it allows other researchers to replicate the experiment
publishing an article is a crucial part in teh scientific process because
the result of a bias in one particular experiment
repetition is necessary to ensure that the inital findings were not just a fluke or
confidence we can have in those findings
the more a study is replicated and produces similar finding the more
collecting the most useful data
choosing the right research design or type of scientific study is crucial for
a variety of characteristics pertaining to humans and other organizations
in psychological experiments, researchers study
personality characteristics, cognitive characteristics, number of siblings in a family, gender, socioeconomic status
examples of variables
There precise descriptions and manners of measurement
Once the variables for a study are chosen, researchers must create operational definitions that offer
Ensure the highest degree of ethical standards
All experiments on humans and animals must be approved by the institutional review board to
New or unexplored topics when researchers might not have specific expectations about outcomes
Descriptive research is primarily concerned with describing, and is useful for studying
Cannot unearth cause and effect affect relationships
Descriptive research provides Kloost to the causes of behavior but
Naturalistic observation, case study, survey method, correlation Method
Four types of descriptive research
Researchers do not disturb the participants or their environment
Most important feature to naturalistic observation is that
Don't change their natural behaviors
It is important for researchers to be unobtrusive so participants
Pinned down with operational definitions
Naturalistic observation centers around variables in those variables must be
Including multiple observers and then determine how similarly they record the behaviors
One way to insure issues don't intrude on a study is to
Multiple avenues to gather information
Case studies typically involves collecting a vast amount of data on 1 foot secular person or group, Austin using
Provide a wealth of information from a variety of resources
The goal of a case study is to
Support or refute a hypothesis
A case study cannot be used to
The participants environment
A case study might require complete immersion in
Designing new studies on topics that may be relatively unexplored
The case study method can help develop theories but it can not provide answers to what's causing behaviors and offer guidance for
There are other explanations for behavior
Case studies do not allow us to compare conditions to determine if
On paper or face-to-face interviews via telephone or through a few mouse clicks
A survey is basically a series of questions that can be administered
Demographic data, psychological assessment, and other information
Survey findings often complete
Lead to bias responses
The wording of surveys can
They have to admit to things they are uncomfortable discussing face-to-face
Participants in a survey are not always forthright in their response is specially when
Skim the surface of peoples beliefs or attitudes, failing to tap into underlying responses
Another disadvantage to survey method is it tends to
Representative samples because their response rate falls short of ideal
Some surveys fail to achieve
A scale that indicates the degree to which they agree or disagree he, or the degree to which they have had experience
To obtain more precise responses, researchers often ask people to respond to statements using
These variables are related to each other in someway
When researchers collect data on many variables it can be useful to determine if
As one variable increases so does the other
Positive correlation
As one variable goes up the other goes down
Negative correlation
-1.00 to +1.00
Correlation coefficients range from
The weaker the relationship is
The closer r is to .00
There may be no relationship at all between the variables
When the correlation coefficient is very close to zero
That a casual link exist between them
Even if there is a very strong correlation between two variables this does not indicate
Prove a cause and Effect link
No matter how high the r value is or how logical the relationship seems it does not
Other types of experiments are unethical or impossible to do
Correlation research is used when
Help psychologist develop hypotheses and fine-tune their theories
Dad I gain from descriptive research Often fear the course for future studies and
Trained astronauts to cope with this stressful living conditions of outerspace
Albert holland
Some sort of manipulation or treatment done by the experimenter, these groups are equivalent
To identify a particular cause of an outcome we assign research participants to two or more groups and with the exception of
The possibility of some participant characteristics influencing the findings
Randomly choosing which treatment the participants receive reduces
A study to gather participants from a larger population
Random sampling is used at the onset of
Assigning participants to different groups
Random assignment comes into play late when you are
The results may be affected
If the groups are lopsided with respect to some variable,
Interference resulting from these types of characteristics
Random assignment helps reduce some of the
Believing they are being treated
Human beings frequently feel better simply as a result of
The variable the researchers or manipulating
The only difference between the experimental and control groups should be
Independent variable maybe use
Due to the complex nature of human behavior often more than one
What is being measured as a result of manipulation
Dependent variable
Variables that might unintentionally influence the dependent variable
Researchers have to carefully contemplate the different kinds of