PSYCH Exam 1

Psychology is best described as the science of

Behavior and mental processes

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies observable human behavior without reference to mental processes is known as

Behaviorism

Consciousness contributes to all of the following EXCEPT

Being shocked by the present situation

Which of the following is NOT a biological influence on behavior or mental processes, according to the biopsychosocial approach?

Cognitive processing

After an experiment, research participants are told its purpose and about any deception they may have experienced. This is called

Debriefing

Dr. Santaniello conducts research on how children's moral thinking changes as they grow older. It is most likely that Dr. Santaniello is a(n) _______ psychologist.

Developmental

Which early psychologist aimed to discover the mind's structure?

Edward Titchener

Professor Crisman believes that most women prefer tall and physical strong partners because this preference promoted the survival of our ancestors' genes. This viewpoint best illustrates the _____ perspective.

Evolutionary

The hindsight bias refers to people's tendency to

Exaggerate their ability to have foreseen an outcome after the fact

What is NOT a descriptive method?

Experiment

In which type of research would an investigator manipulate at least one factor and observe its effect on some behavior or mental process?

Experimentation

Who first imagined using the "natural experiment" comparing identical twins and fraternal twins to estimate the role of nature and nurture in psychological differences?

Francis Galton

Although phrenology incorrectly suggested that bumps on the skull revealed a person's character traits, phrenology did succeed in focusing attention on

The localization of function

The cochlea consists of

a fluid-filled tube in the inner ear

Circadian rhythm refers to

a pattern of biological functioning that occurs on a roughly 24-hour cycle

A subliminal message is on that is presented

below one's absolute threshold for conscious aswareness

Basic automatic survival functions such as heartbeat and breathing are controlled by the

brainstem

During REM sleep, your skeletal muscles are relaxed because messages from the motor cortex are blocked by the

brainstem

Frontal lobes

involved in motor function, language, and memory, and executive functions- can alters someone's personality

Our sense of the position and movement of individual body parts is called

kinesthesia

A myelin sheath is a

layer of fatty tissue encasing the axons of some nerve cells

Simultaneously analyzing distinct subunits of information received by different areas of the brain is known as

parallel processing

Our inability to consciously process all the sensory information available to us at any single point in time best illustrates the need for

selective attention

Parietal lobes

sensations of touch, pain. and temperature (somatosensory cortex)

The two divisions of the peripheral nervous system are

somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system

An organism's ability to learn that one event signals the arrival of another event whereas another event does NOT is called:

stimulus discrimination

Intelligence (IQ) is

substantially heritable (50%-70%)

The sense of ______ is a so-called chemical sense.

taste

Auditory stimulation is processed in the ___ lobes

temporal

A hypothesis is a

testable prediction that gives direction to research

Who developed the first psychological laboratory

Wundt

_____ is a statistic that captures the degree of genetic influence on variation across people in a psychological trait.

heritability

Positive reinforcement _____ the likelihood of a behavior recurring.

increases

Neurons are best described as

nerve cells that function as the building blocks of the nervous system

Neuron-produced chemicals that carry messages to other neurons or to muscles and glands are called

neurotransmitters

Sensory receptors in our skin that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals are called

nociceptors

Luke shows an increase in aggressive behavior after playing violent video games with his friends. This is a possibly due to:

observational learning

Most psychologists define consciousness as

our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

Identical twins share 100% of their genes, whereas fraternal twins share only ______, on average.

50%

The branch of psychology that can be considered a marriage between the science of the mind and the science of the brain is called

Cognitive neruoscience

In classical conditioning, an event that is initially neutral for the organism but gains the potential to elicit some response is called the

Conditioned stimulus

Research participants drank either caffeinated or decaffeinated beverages in a study of the effects of caffeine on anxiety levels. Those who received the decaffeinated drinks were assigned to the ____ group.

Control

Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and strength of a relationship between two variables?

Correlation coefficient

The conclusion that "playing violent videogames leads to violent crime" has been refuted by the American Psychological Association. Why is this statement problematic?

Correlation does not imply causation

Which major force in psychology emphasized unconscious thought processes?

Freudian psychology

The wavelength of visible light determines its

Hue

Which psychologists are MOST likely to be involved in applied research

Industrial-organizational

In a research study in which participants were fitted with electronically activated recorders so that researchers could sample their everyday activities, researchers employed a scientific method known as

Naturalistic observation

A type of learning that occurs when an organism forms an association between a behavior and an outcome of that behavior is called

Operant conditioning

In a published report of a research study on social anxiety, psychologists included a 30-item questionnaire, which they had used to assess levels of social anxiety. The psychologists have thus provided their readers with a(n)

Operational definition

A theory is an explanation using an integrated set of principles that ____ observations and ____ behavior or events

Organizes; predicts

A representative sample is one that accurately reflects a larger

Population

EEG

Provides amplified tracings of waves of electrical activity in the brain

To help control for possible confounding variables, researchers assign research participants to different experimental groups using

Radom assignment

Rhonda insists that Dr. Phillips' theory of aggression be checked against observable evidence. She is demonstrating the scientific attitude of:

Skepticism

Dr. Renk is studying how people interact and react in the presence of others. She is examining the ______ influence on behavior and mental processes, according to the biopsychosocial perspective

Social-cultural

The central nervous system includes

The brain and the spinal cord

The increased risk of car accidents for drivers talking on a cell phone is

The same for those using handheld and those using hands-free phones

This psychologist pioneered the study of observational learning as a possible cause of violent behavior in children

albert bandura

The classic case of railroad worker Phineas Gage best illustrated that frontal lobe damage can

alter one's personality

The most extensive regions of the brain are involved in higher mental functions such as memory and reasoning. These regions are called the

association areas

This theorist developed principles of operant conditioning through research on animals such as rats and pigeons

b.f. skinner

The brain's thin surface layer, which serves as your body's ultimate information processing center is the

cerebral cortex

Medulla

controls heart rate and breathing

Sensation refers to the _____ of physical energy and perception refers to the _____ of resulting information

detection; interpretation

fMRI

detects the difference between oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin when exposed to magnetic pulses

Which portion of the cerebral cortex lies directly behind the forehead and is involved in speaking, muscle movements, and making plans?

frontal lobes

Biological psychology

link between biological activity and psychological events

Rods are

more light-sensitive and less color-sensitive than are cones.

The function of dendrites is to

receive incoming signals from other neurons

amygdala

regulates fear and aggression

Which cells for visual processing are located closest to the back of the retina?

rods and cones

A psychophysicist would be most directly concerned with

the relationship between wavelength of light and the experience of color

The process by which our sensory systems transform stimulus energy into neural impulses is called

transduction