General Psychology Midterm 1, Exams of Psychology

Download General Psychology Midterm 1 and more Exams Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! General Psychology, Midterm 1 1. What is psychol- ogy? the scientific study of thought, behavior and emotion 2. What contribu- tions did Wundt make to psychol- ogy? had the first psychological laboratory; introspection-break down focus on every thought 3. What are each of the modern psy- chological per- spectives? Biological/neuroscientific: How physical systems affect be- havior feelings and thoughts Evolutionary: natural selection of traits Behavior genetics: contribution of genes and environment to behavior Psychoanalytic/dynamic: unconscious dynamics within the person Behavioral: Learning via reinforcements and punishments Cognitive: How people reason, remember and interpret Sociocultural: How social and cultural forces shape peo- ples behaviors 4. What contribu- tions did Titchen- er make to psy- chology? structuralism-analysis of mental structures; what is the mind? what are thoughts? 5. What contribu- tions did James make to psychol- ogy? functionalism-the study of how the mind works; why do we have a mind? why is it important? 6. What is hindsight bias? when a person find out an outcome, and claims they would have known that 1 / 9 General Psychology, Midterm 1 7. What is the sci- entific method? tests ideas with the use of data- evidence (empiricism) 8. What are the steps in the re- search process? steps: formulate the research question, formulate the hy- pothesis, design the study to test the hypothesis, perform the study, interpret the data, communicate the findings 9. What is a hypoth- esis? a testable prediction 10. What is an opera- tional definition? statement about the procedures the researcher used to measure a variable 11. What is a case study? How is it limited? in depth analysis of one subject or more; ex: Phineas Gage 12. What is a natu- ralistic observa- tion? How is it limited? Describe and measure people and/or animals' behavior systematically; issue: can't assume, and people act differ- ently when they know they are being observed 13. What is the sur- vey method? asking people questions about their thoughts, feelings, desires and actions while recording their answers; very efficient 14. What are wording effects? survey method; people not going to answer truthfully at the risk of being judged 15. What is response bias? survey method; participants present themselves in a better way that isn't accurate, participants may not remember 16. What is random sampling? everyone in the population has an equal chance of being studied (name generator/picking names out of a hat) 17. What is the corre- lation method? examines strength and direction of relationship between two variables 18. (r) measure of the strength of the association between two variables (ranges from -1.00- +1.00) 2 / 9 General Psychology, Midterm 1 What is myelin sheath? specialized shells that are wrapped around the axon to help transmit message-makes the action potential go down the axon much quicker lack of myelin: multiple sclerosis 39. What is the ac- tion potential? electro-chemical impulse that travels from the cell body down to the end of the axon; gets message from another neuron when getting a sensation 40. What is thresh- old? the level of electric charge needed to stimulate action potential (level of sensation) 41. What is the all-or-none re- sponse? once the electric charge of the neuron reaches a certain threshold, it fires a certain action potential; either an action potential or nothing- no in between 42. What is a synapse? junction between 2 neurons that contains fluid 43. What are neuro- transmitters? chemical messengers that travel across the synapse from one neuron to receptors on the next cell; affect the way we feel in several different ways depending on what the neurotransmitter is (certain receptors for certain neuro- transmitters) 44. What is reuptake sending neruon, reabsorbs excess neurotransmitters; the neuron that releases the neurotransmitters sucks the extra back up 45. What are in- hibitory and exci- tatory signals? Inhibitory- not to release neurotransmitters to the next neuron Excitatory- increase likelihood that neurons will fire 46. Acetylcholine Type of neurotransmitter: muscle action, learning and memory; muscle contractions (what the motor neurons are releasing); blockage=paralysis too much= muscle convulsion and death low levels= Alzheimer's 5 / 9 General Psychology, Midterm 1 47. Endorphins Type of neurotransmitter: natural opiates; reduce pain and promote pleasure (exercise) 48. Dopamine Type of neurotransmitter: voluntary movement, reward, learning and memory 49. Serotonin Type of neurotransmitter: affects neurons involved in sleep, appetite, pain suppression, mood 50. GABA Type of neurotransmitter: inhibitory, calming; Anxiety; low levels Seizures; low levels 51. Epinephrine and Nor-epinephrine Type of neurotransmitter: involved in stress response, causes sympathetic nervous system reflexes, fight or flight response 52. Agonists bind to the same receptors that the neurotransmitter bind to and therefore have the same affect; or increase neuro- transmitter production; or block reuptake 53. Antagonists blocks the neurotransmitters from fitting into the receptors ex: Botox blocks acetylcholine neurotransmitters 54. Motor neurons carry signals from the brain or spinal cord to muscles, skin and glands 55. Sensory neurons carry messages from receptors to spinal cord and brain 56. Interneurons receive signals from sensory neurons and other interneu- rons and send impulses to other interneurons or motor neurons 57. What is the cen- tral nervous sys- tem? brain and spinal cord; responds to sensory info, sends messages to muscles, glands and organs 58. Spinal cord extension of the brain; handles both incoming and out- going messages, acts as bridge between brain and body below neck 6 / 9 General Psychology, Midterm 1 injury: cannot get communication to the motor neurons to get movement to parts of body 59. What are reflex- es? automatic responses that occur without any brain involve- ment; spinal cord sends to muscles, faster because mes- sage doesn't have to go to the brain ex: doctor tapping on knee and knee kicks out ex: touching something hot and pulling away 60. What is the pe- ripheral nervous system? All of the nervous system outside brain and spinal cord, al- lows communication between CNS and sensory systems 61. Somatic and au- tonomic nervous system Part of peripheral nervous system Somatic- voluntary; sensory and motor pathways Autonomic- automatic; sympathetic and parasympathetic NS 62. Sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system Sympathetic: increases physiological arousal and energy (fight or flight response) Parasympathetic: decreases arousal, calms the body 63. What is the en- docrine system? hormones, pituitary gland, adrenal gland 64. What are hor- mones? chemicals secreted by endrocrine glands into blood- stream 65. What is the pitu- itary gland? "master gland" growth hormone (children, muscle repair), oxytocin 66. What are the adrenal glands? important in mood, energy level, coping with stress, one on each kidney, epinephrine and nor epinephrine 67. How do we learn about the brain? Lesion method, EEG, fMRI 68. What is the Le- sion method? damaging or removing sections of the brain in order to study which sections of the brain are important for what functions 7 / 9