Upgrade to remove ads

Only $35.99/year

Introduction to Psychology

Terms in this set (173)

What is the definition of psychology?

The prediction and control of behavior

Which perspective of psychology includes a struggle between the inner desire of a person and the sense of duty prescribed by society?

Psychodynamic perspective

The ______________________ attempts to explain human behavior through a focus on behaviors required for survival and adaptions to environmental pressures.

Evolutionary perspective

Which research method includes an in-depth study of one individual or a small group of individuals?

A correlation coefficient represents two things: ________ and _________.

The strength, direction of the relationship

In conducting an experiment, a precisely worded, educated guess is called a __________.

Which of the following represents the strongest correlation?

a. 0.34
b. -0.28
c. 1.14
d. 0.90

Barney is a participant in a study investigating the effectiveness of Ritalin in treating ADHD. Barney has been randomly assigned to the group that received the placebo (sugar pills) instead of Ritalin. Barney is in the _____________ group.

Name the parts of the neuron:

The little "branches" are the dendrites. The thing the "branches" are surrounding is the cell body. The coating of the axon is the myelin sheath. The middle of the neuron in the axon. The "tentacles" are the axon terminus.

Neurons are able to communicate in which two ways?

Electrically, Chemically

The _______________ is space between two neurons where neurotransmitters are released.

______________________ is a main excitatory neurotransmitter, also involved in learning thought and emotion.

____________________ is a neurotransmitter that facilitates neural inhibition in the central nervous system.

The ___________________ nervous system conserves energy, also known as the "rest and digest" portion of the nervous system.

Parasympathetic

The ___________________ nervous system manages deliberate movement through the control of skeletal muscles.

Which of the following statements about spinal cord reflexes is/are true?

a. We learn them from a very young age
b. They bypass the brain
c. They allow for very quick responses
d. They are automatic

This part of the nervous system is responsible for controlling kidney and liver function on a general basis.

Lisa is walking down the street and sees a zombie stagger around the corner of a building. The zombie sees Lisa and begins to give chase. At first Lisa does not believe her eyes, given she has been studying for 21 straight hours to ace her first psychology exam. After a few disbelieving moments, Lisa finds herself running from a massive mob of brain-eating zombies, looking for a heavy object to defend herself with. Lisa's __________ nervous system just kicked into high gear.

The corpus callosum allows _______________________

The left and right sides of the brain to communicate to each other.

In the bran, Broca's area is focused on:

The production of speech sounds

In the brain, Wernike's area is focused on:

The understanding of language, comprehension of speech.

The _________________ receives auditory information while the _______________ interprets touch, pressure, and temperature.

Temporal lobe, Parietal lobe

This lobe of the brain is responsible for fine motor skills, metacognition, and executive processing.

The long bundle of neurons that carries messages to and from the body to the brain and is responsible for fast, life-saving reflexes is called the _____________

________ is the capturing of information from our environment while ______ is the interpretation of that information

Sensation, Perception

When the information taken through the senses is organized and interpreted, the process is referred to as _________

Sensation and perception are _________________

An interactive process

Scientists arbitrarily set the limit for _______________ as situation that can be detected 50% or more of the time.

The absolute threshold

As Maggie is sitting in her bedroom listening to the radio, she notices that it suddenly seems louder. She looks and is not surprised to find her little sister turning up the volume. How could Maggie tell that the radio became louder before she saw what her sister was doing?

It exceeded her difference threshold

The receptor cells for vision are located in the _____________ and are called __________________ and ________________

Retina, rods, and cones

The receptor cells that allow us to see color and fine detail in adequate light are the ________________

Henry has always been able to see a wide variety of vibrant colors, but he has not been so fortunate when it comes to seeing at night or in otherwise dim lighting. Henry speculates that his color vision is far superior to his night vision. Based on his speculation, which of the following might be true?

c. Henry has cones that function very well, but rods that are not as effective as they could be

When you look directly at an object, the image of the object focuses on a spot where many receptor cells called cones are packed together. This spot, which also gives us our sharpest vision, is the __________________

The nerve fibers from the _________ half of each retina go to the _____________ hemisphere of the brain

The blind spot in each of our eyes exists due to the placement of the _____________

The _____________ theory is the theory of color vision that suggests three types of cones in the retina each make a maximal chemical response to one of three colors: blue, green, or red.

The negative afterimage we see after staring at an image and then looking at a blank space provides support for the ______ theory of color vision.

Opponent-process

The two parts of the outer ear:

Pinna, Auditory canal

The three bones in the middle ear:

Malleus, Incus, Stapes

The "snail" in the inner ear:

Gestalt psychologists would agree that _____________

The whole is more important than the sum of the parts

The tendency to perceive things that look similar as part of the same group is known as ______________

Closure is the tendency to _______________________

Complete figures that are incomplete

Homer drove his wife, Marge, to the airport so she could attend her business trip. What explains his understanding that the actual place is not getting smaller and smaller as he sees the plane take off and fly high into the sky?

Visual and depth cues are cues that require both eyes are called ________________

The fact that, when we look at an object, each one of our two eyes receives a slightly different image of the object, is known as _______________

Retinal disparity

______________ is our awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensations, and perceptions of one's environment

The human circadian rhythm is ___________

A set of low and high points (of both physical and mental activity) during a 24-hour cycle

What is the most significant environmental cue that influences circadian rhythm?

How many stages of sleep are there?

How long does one sleep cycle last?

Slow-wave sleep begins in stage _____________, when an EEG shows less than 50% of the brain waves are _______________ waves

Which of the following best describes REM sleep?

Sleep in which the brain becomes more active but muscle activity is blocked

Which of the following sleep disorders is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and uncontrollable attacks of REM sleep that usually last 10 - 20 minutes?

Which of the following sleep disorders is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and where a person stops breathing numerous times throughout the night?

What two categories of dream content did Sigmund Freud describe?

Latent and manifest

Last night I dreamed I saw an alien spacecraft gleaming in a field of flowers in the fog. It was a vivid, colorful dream I was in ___________ sleep.

If you are reading a person's EEG while they are sleeping and the EEG starts to show sleep spindles, what stage of sleep is that person in?

We accrue sleep debt in a 1 to 1 ratio. This means that when we miss 1 hour of sleep, our brain and body operate at a slightly lower capacity. When we continue t miss one hour of sleep each night over a week, we accrue a sleep debt. How do we pay off a sleep debt?

By gaining a very good night's sleep, we pay off the whole sleep debt

Michael is dreaming an exciting dream. He nearly wakes up, but then realizes that he is dreaming and begins to exert control over the dream. What kind of dreaming is he now experiencing?

What lengths of naps are recommended to ensure a refreshed feeling upon awakening?

90 minutes, 10 minutes

Hypnosis is a form of consciousness where ____________

We are most susceptible to suggestions

Which of the following is classified as a depressant?

What is the most abused drug in the United States?

Which of the following is classified as a stimulant?

_______________ is a sustained change in behavior

The type of learning in which an organism pairs one stimulus with another is called ___________________

Classical conditioning

In the case of the dogs that Ivan Pavlov observed, the _________ was the neitral stimulus and the _________ was the unconditioned response

Bell, salivation

A puff of air in the eye naturally causes an eye blink response. The puff of air is the _______________ and the eye blink is the ___________

Unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response

Jennifer trained her rat to press a bar in its cage to receive a food pellet. Jennifer's rat pressed the bar a lot. However, later when the mechanism ran out of food pellets, her rat eventually stopped pressing the bar. What had happened?

What was learned in the case of Little Albert?

Fear can be learned via operant conditioning and can be generalized to other stimuli

Operant conditioning uses ___________ to shape behavior and takes place __________ the behavior

Punishments & rewards, after

Taking something away that hurts or bothers someone is called ___________ reinforcement

A student worked very hard to achieve a good grade on an exam. Her effort worked! The good grade is an example of ___________

Positive reinforcement

Learning that occurs but is not immediately demonstrated is called ________

Latent learning

Which of the following is the best example of observational learning?

Jennifer swam poorly until she noticed the efficient strike of the man in the next lane; now her swimming is greatly improved.

_________is/are a memory strategy that involves grouping or organizing bits of information into larger units, which are easier to remember

Linda just finished her psychology exam in which she was given 50 questions. Her professor also supplied 50 responses l; all Linda had to do was pick the right answer from the answer bank. Linda psychology professor tested her _________

Imagine you are trying to remember a list of words. Having a better memory for items at the beginning of a list demonstrates the ________, whereas having a better memory for items at the ends of a list demonstrates the __________

Primacy effect; recency effect

__________ occurs when a person remembers portions of an event and then fills in the gaps with what he/she generally believes to be true

Lorraine feels she will not forget the emotions she felt upon hearing of the attacks of America inSeptember 11th. She remembers very vividly what she was wearing, who she was with, what she said, and what emotions she experienced. Lorraine has a _____ for that tragic event.

Flashbulb memory

__________occurs when information never made it into the long-term memory in the first place

Encoding failure

___________ results when, due to some type of brain injury or insult, a person is no longer able to create long-term memories.

Anterograde amnesia

What systematic problem-solving method guarantees a solution, provided that one exists?

Algorithmic method

A general "rule of thumb", or an educated guess, is this method of problem solving.

Heuristic method

Everyone at lunch was talking about how awful it is that so many criminals try to get off by pleading insanity. Since less than 1% of violent felons actually submit a plea for insanity, something other than the truth must be at play. It is probably the ____________ because of a recent criminal trial that has been in the news lately.

Availability heuristic

____________ is the ability to understand ideas, adapt to the environment, learn from experience, engage in reasoning, and overcome obstacles through mental effort.

What term do psychologists use to describe our tendency to search for evidence that supports our belief and to ignore that might disprove it?

Confirmation bias

The concept of mental age was first tested and published using a sample of French school children to identify the high-potential students. What was the formula for IQ that Alfred Binet originally published?

(mental age / chronological age) x 100

What is the average IQ for the general population?

Most psychologists now agree that intelligence is __________

Determined by nature and nurture interacting

Spearman's theory "little g" is a _____________ view of intelligence whereas Gardner's multiple intelligences is a ______ view of intelligence.

Global, faceted

Which of the following names the three categories of Sternberg's Triarchtic Theory of Intelligence?

Analytical, Creative, Practical

_____________ is the study of how humans grow and change throughout their lifespan

Developmental psychology

According to Jean Piaget, a schema is

A plan of action, based on experience, to be used in similar circumstances

According to Jean Piaget, assimilation is

The modification of current schemas to allow for new experiences

Jean Piaget has ___________ number of stages in his theory of Cognitive Development

The ____________________ stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development includes hypothetical-deductive reasoning

Formal operational stage

Billy is 20 months old and enjoys playing hide and seek with his grandfather. However, when his grandfather hides himself, sometimes he believes that his grandpa is truly gone. This is an example of ____________

Object permanence

Vito Cornelius struggles with conversation - understanding that the quantitative properties of an object remain the same despite changes in appearance. This is a hallmark of which stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

Concrete operational stage

Six month old Hanna is in the _________ stage of cognitive development, whereas her 5 year old brother is likely in the ___________ stage of development.

Sensorimotor, preoperational

Kohlberg's stages of moral development includes three levels. The first is preconventional which emphasizes _________________

Avoiding punishment and looking our for one's own needs

Kohlberg's stages of moral development includes three levels. The second is conventional morality which emphasizes _______________

Social rules and laws

Nelson Mandela's passing on December 5th, 2013 reminds us that few in our society reach Kohlberg's third level of moral development. Onw key difference between the fifth and sixth stage within the third level of moral development is _______________-

Including civil disobedience to further human rights

Harry Harlow is famous for his experimentation with monkeys. Specifically, he notes that monkeys valued the bodily contact and comfort of a terry cloth surrogate over feeding from a mesh-wire mother. This is an example of the role contact comfort plays in an infant's ______________ process.

Mary Ainsworth developed the strange situation which helps evaluate

_______________ is indicated by an infant seeking closeness to the mother and not exploring his or her surroundings

Insecure-avoidant attachment

What percentage of children are securely attached to their caregivers?

The process that initiates, directs, and sustains behavior is called

Which of the components of motivation involves staying on task and putting forth continues effort, even when you are tired or bored, in order to achieve a goal?

Which of the following would be considered a primary drive?

Hunger motivation

When individuals engage in a particular behavior because they find it pleasurable in and of itself, they are said to be

Intrinsically motivated

The drive-reduction theory rests on the idea that our bodies strive to maintain _______________

Leeloo was so hungry that she found herself unable to concentrate on her studies. The only thing she could think about was food, which made it impossible to learn the material in her textbook. She decided to leave the library and eat dinner before returning to study again. Which of the following theories best describes Leeloo's motivation to go eat dinner?

The drive-reduction theory

The ___________ implies that the primary reason for motivation is to maintain just the right level of mental and physical activity and alertness - not being too bored or too overwhelmed.

The Yerkes-Dodson law links ___________ with ______________

Arousal, performance

According to the Yerkes - Dodson law, successful performance on a simple task requires ____________

Ruby Rhod is a gymnast and is preparing to compete in a very difficult and challenging meet. His friend and fellow gymnast Jean-Baptist Emanuel Zorg suggests that Ruby relax and take his high arousal down a notch to a lower point. However, his coach tries to get him all revved up and excited to compete in the meet. Which of the following will likely be true based on the arousal theory?

Ruby should listen to his friend, lowering his arousal, in order to perform at his best level.

______________ is best known for his hierarchy of needs theory

Prior to working on self esteem, which of the following needs did Maslow indicate must be met first?

Physiological needs, safety needs, belonging and love needs

According to Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, in what stage do infants learn that the world is a safe place and people can be trusted?

Trust vs. mistrust

Leeloo comes home from middle school one day and is upset. Her mom asks her what is wrong and Jessica responds "All the kids at school make fun of me and say that I am chunky and big-bones. I just watnt to be thin like the rest of the girls!" Leeloo's mom retorts with "Honey, don't worry wat the other kids say. You don't have to be very thin like some of those other girls, just make sure you are healthy. Besides, we are all genetically preprogrammed to carry around a certain amount of body weight. This is just how we were made." Leeloo's mom is clearly referring to the ____________

Set-point theory

Leeloo was at her doctor's office for her yearly checkup. She knew she had been experiencing some weight gain and had good intentions over the last year to get that under control. However, she was shocked and appalled to find her body mass index was 32.5. What will the doctor say about her current weight?

The doctor will classify her as being obese

Having a distorted perception of one's own body, weighing less than one should based on height and weight, and having an intense fear of becoming overweight, are symptoms of ___________ whereas the acting of bingeing and purging are symptoms of ____________

Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa

Which of the following is correct regarding the order of the sexual response cycle?

Excitement phase, plateau phase, orgasm, resolution phase

Based on research by Leitenberg and Henning (1995), _________ of males report having sexual fantasies; __________ of women report having sexual fantasies.

A state involving physiological arousal, a cognitive appraisal of the situation that produces the state, and an outward behavior expressing the state, defines ______

Korben Dallas is sitting in class when suddenly his heart begins to pound, he begins to sweat, and his hands begin to feel clammy. Next, fear and nervousness set in as he walks to the front of the class for his oral presentation. What theory of emotion best fits this situation?

James-Lange theory

Which of the following theories of emotion suggests that the physiological response occurs simultaneously with the emotion?

Cannon-Bard theory

Which of the following is not a universally recognized emotion?

What type of parenting includes a "my way or the highway" mentality?

_____ consists of a person's characteristic patterns of behaving, thinking, and feeling.

The central idea of Freud's psychoanalytic theory is that _____

Unconscious forces and desires shape human thought and behavior.

A summation of Freud's philosophy might be:

Duty vs. Desire

The Oedipus Complex is a conflict in which the boy child is attracted to the ______ and feels hostility toward the _____.

According to the psychosexual stages of development, initial sexual curiosity occurs during the _____ stage of psychosexual development.

Miracle Max is at the stage of his life in which he is interested in male friends and playing soccer. He also has taken interest in his science class because he thinks the teacher lets the students do cool experiments. According to the psychosexual stages of development, Miracle Max is in the _____ stage.

Twenty-nine-year-old Buttercup and Wesley are seriously committed to one another and have discussed the possibility of marriage. According to Freud, in which of the psychosexual stages are they?

In what psychosexual stage does a child have to navigate toilet training?

In what psychosexual stage does a child experience the Oedipal / Elektra complex?

According to Freud's psychosexual stages of development, if a child does not navigate weaning during the first few years of life, what might be the outcome?

Gullible optimism

What problematic adult traits manifest if one does not navigate the Latency stage effectively?

Calling someone "anal retentive" in modern language harkens a conflict when a Freudian psychosexual stage is not appropriately traversed. What stage does it refer to?

According to Freud, the thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories of which a person is aware at any given moment define the _____.

Imagine you were engaged in a conversation about politics. Information to answer the question "What color is your vehicle?" would be located in the _____ according to the psychoanalytic theory.

The unconscious system of the personality, which contains the life and death instincts and operates on the pleasure principle, defines the _____.

In Freud's theory, the logical, rational, and largely conscious system of personality is the _____.

According to Freud, the three levels of awareness are ___.

Preconscious, conscious, unconscious

Which of the following defense mechanisms involves rechanneling sexual and aggressive energy into accomplishments that society considers acceptable or even admirable?

Which of the following defense mechanisms involves expressing ideas and emotions that are opposite of the disturbing, unconscious impulses or desires?

Reaction formation

Valerie just gave birth to her first child. Unfortunately, the baby was born with significant heart, lung, and kidney damage and is in the neonatal intensive care unit. Though the baby is only surviving because of all of the life support machines he is hooked up to, Valerie refuses to acknowledge the severity of the situation and instead talks about what outfits the baby can wear and whether he'll like his nursery at home. Which of the following defense mechanisms may best explain Valerie's refusal to acknowledge how ill her newborn son really is?

Abraham Maslow emphasized the importance of self-actualization, by which he meant _____.

our idealized sense of who and what we should be

According to Maslow, the need to _____ must be met before _____

feel competent and gain respect from others; one can begin to self-actualize

A personal characteristic that is stable across situations and is used to describe or explain personality defines _____.

Prince Humperdink has been described by his classmates as unfriendly, argumentative, and unpleasant to be around. If these characteristics had to be summed up in one of the factors of the Big Five, which would it be?

Which of the following factors is NOT considered as one of the Big Five personality traits?

Dependability and reliability describe two aspects of the _____ factor of the five-factor model.

Contentiousness

Which of the following Big Five personality factors has been found to be a requirement for creative accomplishment?

Openness to experience

A projective personality test uses ______________________ to allow the test taker to respond with his or her own perceptions.

Ambiguous stimuli

Which of the following terms refers to a measure of a culture's emphasis on individual achievement?

Vizzini believes that what happens to him is based on fate, luck, or chance, and his philosophy of life is "whatever will be, will be." Vizzini has a(n) _____ locus of control.

Wesley, Inigo, and Fezzik were carpooling to work. As they were driving through heavy traffic, they were almost hit by a car that was driving on the shoulder. Wesley immediately assumed it was a rebellious, reckless teenager who clearly was choosing not to follow the rules of the road. Inigo assumed it was an impatient, hostile guy in his thirties not wanting to wait with everyone else on the road. Fezzik immediately said, "Hey you two, what if the person driving was trying to get a pregnant, laboring woman to the hospital in time for the delivery?" Who did NOT fall prey to the fundamental attribution error?

The tendency to put forth less effort when working with others on a common task than when working alone is known as _____

The tendency for members of a tightly knit group to be more concerned with preserving group solidarity and uniformity than with objectively evaluating all alternatives in a decision is characteristic of __________

In the social psychological process of _____, individuals lose their sense of personal identity as a result of identification with a group.

Deindividuation

The bystander effect suggests that as the number of individuals _____, the likelihood that someone will help _____.

Increases, decreases

Grandpa holds the viewpoint that a female physician will not be as effective as a male physician because females are too emotional in nature. Grandpa's way of thinking about this situation can best be described as _____

When he was sixteen, the Six-Fingered Man was frustrated to have to move and leave a high school he really liked. At his old school, he had many friends and the support of his teachers. He found his new school much different and had difficulty finding his place there. Though the Six-Fingered Man was an excellent student at his old school, he quickly learned that he would have to abandon that to fit in with the new group of friends that appeared to be accepting him. Because he felt his need for friends and acceptance was greater than his need for good grades, he let his grades slide. Which of the following concepts best explains why the Six-Fingered Man put forth little effort in his school work at his new school?

Audrey has been offered a free, four-day cruise for two just for filling out an online survey. She is thrilled because she and her husband were just saying how badly they needed a vacation. As she and her husband board the cruise liner and leave the shore, all those on board are told that the cruise was really a way to get an audience of people together to hear about a new, fundamentalist religion. Audrey was on the receiving end of _____.

The-foot-in-the-door technique

Research on attraction suggests that you will be most attracted to someone who is

According to research, which of the following factors does NOT increase the risk for aggression?

Salam is a college student who lives on campus. While riding his bike to class the other day, he witnessed a bike accident between two other students. Both were hurt pretty badly. Salam stopped to offer help, knowing that he might be late or even miss his class. The two students involved in the accident were grateful for his assistance. Salam demonstrated _____ in this situation.

Prosocial behavior

Cynthia recently began a career with a Jewish-based agency. Up until this point in her life, she had not had any interaction with anyone who was Jewish. Based on the individuals she works with, she finds them to be a close-knit group that cares for their own in the community. Additionally, she finds them to be well-educated and assertive. Cynthia now holds the view that all Jewish people are the same: educated, close-knit within their own group, assertive, and caring toward other Jewish folks who need help. Cynthia's view represents _____.

Recommended textbook explanations

Psychology

10th EditionCarolyn Seefer, Mary Ellen Guffey

180 explanations

Psychology: Principles in Practice

1st EditionSpencer A. Rathus

1,024 explanations

Cognitive Psychology

4th EditionE Bruce Goldstein

300 explanations

Cognitive Psychology

3rd EditionE Bruce Goldstein, Robert Hershberger

150 explanations

Other Quizlet sets

Ch. 8: Fluency Disorders

41 terms

Art History II Exam 3

106 terms

AMLIT COMPARATIVE QUOTES

21 terms

CLP

25 terms