Psychology Exam 2
Discuss the effectiveness of aerobic exercise as a way to manage stress and improve well-being.
Aerobic exercise is sustained, oxygen-consuming activity that increases heart and lung fitness. It increases arousal, leads to muscle relaxation and sounder sleep, triggers the production of neurotransmitters, and enhances self-image. It can relieve depression and, in later life, is associated with better cognitive functioning and longer life.
Define the feel-good, do-good phenomenon, and describe the focus of positive psychology research.
A good mood brightens people's perceptions of the world. Subjective well-being is your perception of being happy or satisfied with life. Happy people tend to be healthy, energized, and satisfied with life. They also are more willing to help others (the feel-good, do-good phenomenon).Positive psychologists use scientific methods to study human flourishing, including topics such as positive emotions, positive health, positive neuroscience, and positive education. The three pillars of positive psychology are positive well-being; positive character; and positive groups, communities, and cultures.
Explain how a perceived lack of control can affect health.
A perceived lack of control provokes an outpouring of hormones that put people's health at risk. Being unable to avoid repeated aversive events can lead to learned helplessness. People who perceive an internal locus of control achieve more, enjoy better health, and are happier than those who perceive an external locus of control.
Define adolescence, and describe how physical changes affect developing teens.
Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence. Boys seem to benefit from 'early' maturation, girls from 'late' maturation. The brain's frontal lobes mature and myelin growth increases during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgement, impulse control and long-term planning.
Discuss the themes and influences that mark the social journey from early adulthood to death.
Adults do not progress through an orderly sequence of age-related social stages. Chance events can determine life choices. The social clock is a culture's preferred timing for social events such as marriage, parenthood and retirement. Adulthood's dominant themes are love and work, which Erikson called intimacy and generatively.
Describe how culture affects our behavior.
A culture is a set of behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group and transmitted from one generation to the next. Cultural norms are understood rules that inform members of a culture about accepted and expected behaviors. Cultures differ across time and space.
Identity the causes and consequences of anger.
Anger is most often evoked by misdeeds that we interpret as willful, unjustified, and avoidable. But smaller frustrations and blameless annoyances can also trigger anger. Chronic hostility is one of the negative emotions linked to heart disease. Emotional catharsis may be temporarily calming, but in the long run it does not reduce anger. Expressing anger can make us angrier. Controlled assertions of feelings may resolve conflicts, and forgiveness may rid us of angry feelings.
Explain how sex hormones influence prenatal and adolescent sexual development, and describe an intersex condition
Both sex chromosomes and sex hormones influence development.The twenty-third pair of chromosomes determines sex, with the mother contributing an X chromosome and the father contributing either an X chromosome (for a girl baby) or a Y chromosome (for a boy baby). A Y chromosome triggers additional testosterone release and the formation of male sex organs.During puberty, both primary and secondary sex characteristics develop. Sex-related genes and physiology influence behavioral and cognitive gender differences between males and females.Intersex individuals are born possessing biological sexual characteristics of both sexes.
Discuss the violence-viewing effect.
can occur when an individual viewing television or film witnesses a scenario in which a violent act is not punished (the person committing the violence faces no consequences), the pain of the victim is not shown, the violent act is portrayed as being justified
Summarize the key criticisms of evolutionary explanations of human sexuality, and describe how evolutionary psychologists respond.
Critics argue that evolutionary psychologists (1) start with an effect and work backward to an explanation, (2) do not recognize social and cultural influences, and (3) absolve people from taking responsibility for their sexual behavior. Evolutionary psychologists respond that understanding our predispositions can help us overcome them. They also cite the value of testable predictions based on evolutionary principles, as well as the coherence and explanatory power of those principles
Discuss how parents and peers influence adolescents.
During adolescence, parental influence diminishes and peer influence increases, in part because of the selection effect-the tendency to choose similar others. But adolescents also adopt their peers' ways of dressing, acting and communicating. Parents have more influence in religion, politics, college and career choices.
Describe some effortful processing strategies that can help us remember new information.
Effective effortful processing strategies include chunking, mnemonics, hierarchies, and distributed practice sessions. The testing effect is enhanced memory after consciously retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information.
Discuss how emotions affect our memory processing.
Emotional arousal causes an outpouring of stress hormones, which lead to activity in the brain's memory-forming areas. Significantly stressful events can trigger very clear flashbulb memories.
Describe how arousal, expressive behavior, and cognition interact in emotion.
Emotions are psychological responses of the whole organism involving an interplay among physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience.Theories of emotion generally address two major questions: (1) Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings, and (2) how do feeling and cognition interact? The James-Lange theory maintains that emotional feelings follow our body's response to emotion-inducing stimuli. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that our physiological response to an emotion-inducing stimulus occurs at the same time as our subjective feeling of the emotion (one does not cause the other).
Discuss whether different emotions activate different physiological and brain-pattern responses.
Emotions may be similarly arousing, but some subtle physiological responses, such as facial muscle movements, distinguish them. More meaningful differences have been found in activity in some brain pathways and cortical areas.
Describe the social tasks and challenges of adolescence.
Erikson theorized that each life stage has its own psychological task and that a chief task of adolescence is solidifying one's sense of self-one's identity. This often means trying out a number of different roles. Social identity is the part of the self-concept that comes from a person's group memberships.
Identify the information we process automatically.
In addition to skills and classically conditioned associations, we automatically process incidental information about space, time, and frequency.
Describe behaviorism's view of learning.
Ivan Pavlov's work on classical conditioning laid the foundation for behaviorism, the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes. The behaviorists believed that the basic laws of learning are the same for all species, including humans.
Define memory, and describe how it is measured.
Memory is learning that has persisted over time, through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. Evidence of memory may be recalling information, recognizing it, or relearning it more easily on a later attempt.
Describe how you can use memory research findings to do better in this and other courses.
Memory research findings suggest the following strategies for improving memory: Study repeatedly, make material meaningful, activate retrieval cues, use mnemonic devices, minimize interference, sleep more, and test yourself to be sure you can retrieve, as well as recognize, material.
Describe how we communicate nonverbally.
Much of our communication is through body movements, facial expressions, and voice tones. Even seconds-long filmed slices of behavior can reveal feelings.
Trace the development of children's self-concepts.
Self-concept emerges gradually. By 15 to 18 months, children recognize themselves in a mirror. By school age, they can describe many of their own traits and by age 8 or 10 their self-image is stable.
Discuss how our well-being changes across the life span.
Self-confidence tends to strengthen across the life span. Surveys show that life satisfaction is unrelated to age. Positive emotions increase after midlife and negative ones decrease.
Explain how sensory memory works.
Sensory memory feeds some information into working memory for active processing there. An iconic memory is a very brief (a few tenths of a second) sensory memory of visual stimuli; an echoic memory is a three- or four-second sensory memory of auditory stimuli.
Describe the capacity of our short-term memory.
Short-term memory capacity is about seven items, plus or minus two, but this information disappears from memory quickly without rehearsal. Working memory capacity varies, depending on age, intelligence level, and other factors.
Describe how social support promotes good health.
Social support promotes health by calming us, reducing blood pressure and stress hormones, and by fostering stronger immune functioning.
Identify some predictors of happiness, and discuss how we can be happier.
Some individuals, because of their genetic predispositions and personal histories, are happier than others. Cultures, which vary in the traits they value and the behaviors they expect and reward, also influence personal levels of happiness. Researchers have found that happy people tend to have high self-esteem (in individualist countries); be optimistic, outgoing, and agreeable; have close friendships or a satisfying marriage; have work and leisure that engage their skills; have an active religious faith (particularly in more religious cultures); and sleep well and exercise.
Describe how we respond and adapt to stress.
Stress is the process by which we appraise and respond to stressors (catastrophic events, significant life changes, and daily hassles) that challenge or threaten us. Walter Cannon viewed the stress response as a "fight-or-flight" system. Hans Selye proposed a general three-phase (alarm-resistance-exhaustion) general adaptation syndrome (GAS). Facing stress, women may have a tend-and-befriend response; men may withdraw socially, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive.
Describe how an optimistic outlook affects health and longevity.
Studies of people with an optimistic outlook show that their immune system is stronger, their blood pressure does not increase as sharply in response to stress, their recovery from heart bypass surgery is faster, and their life expectancy is longer, compared with their pessimistic counterparts.
Describe the faith factor, and offer some possible explanations for the link between faith and health.
The faith factor is the finding that religiously active people tend to live longer than those who are not religiously active. Possible explanations may include the effect of intervening variables, such as the healthy behaviors, social support, or positive emotions often found among people who regularly attend religious services.
Describe the roles played by the frontal lobes and hippocampus in memory processing.
The frontal lobes and hippocampus are parts of the brain network dedicated to explicit memory formation. Many brain regions send information to the frontal lobes for processing. The hippocampus, with the help of surrounding areas of cortex, registers and temporarily holds elements of explicit memories before moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage. The neural storage of long-term memories is called memory consolidation.
Distinguish between explicit and implicit memories.
The human brain processes information on dual tracks, consciously and unconsciously. Explicit (declarative) memories—our conscious memories of facts and experiences—form through effortful processing, which requires conscious effort and attention. Implicit (nondeclarative) memories—of skills and classically conditioned associations—happen without our awareness, through automatic processing.
Describe the course of prenatal development, and explain how teratogens affect that development.
The life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote. The zygote's inner cells become the embryo and the outer cells become the placenta. In the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function, and by 9 weeks, the fetus recognizably human. Teratogens are potentially harmful agents that can pass through the placental screen and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Discuss how gestures and facial expressions are understood within and across cultures.
The meaning of gestures varies with culture, but facial expressions, such as those of happiness and sadness, are common the world over. Cultures also differ in the amount of emotion they express.
Describe how time, wealth, adaptation, and comparison affect our happiness levels.
The moods triggered by good or bad events seldom last beyond that day. Even significant good events, such as sudden wealth, seldom increase happiness for long. Happiness is relative to our own experiences (the adaptation-level phenomenon) and to others' success (the relative deprivation principle).
Define emerging adulthood.
The transition from adolescence to adulthood is now taking longer. Emerging adulthood is the period from age 18 to the mid-twenties, when many young people are not yet fully independent. But observers note that this stage is found mostly in today's Western cultures.
Discuss whether stress causes illness.
We use problem-focused coping to change the stressor or the way we interact with it. We use emotion-focused coping to avoid or ignore stressors and attend to emotional needs related to stress reactions.
Identify two ways that people try to alleviate stress.
We use problem-focused coping to change the stressor or the way we interact with it. We use emotion-focused coping to avoid or ignore stressors and attend to emotional needs related to stress reactions.
Discuss how individualist and collectivist cultures differ in their values and goals.
Within any culture, the degree of individualism or collectivism varies from person to person. Cultures based on self-reliant individualism, like those found in North America and Western Europe, tend to value personal independence and individual achievement. They define identity in terms of self-esteem, personal goals and attributes, and personal rights and liberties. Cultures based on socially connected collectivism, like those in many parts of Asia and Africa, tend to value interdependence, tradition, and harmony, and they define identity in terms of group goals, commitments, and belonging to one's group.
Discuss how the genders differ in their ability to communicate nonverbally.
Women tend to read emotional cues more easily and to be more empathic. Their faces also express more emotion.
Explain how the different reinforcement schedules affect behavior.
A reinforcement schedule defines how often a response will be reinforced. In continuous reinforcement (reinforcing desired responses every time they occur), learning is rapid, but so is extinction if rewards cease. In partial (intermittent) reinforcement (reinforcing responses only sometimes), initial learning is slower, but the behavior is much more resistant to extinction. Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce behaviors after a set number of responses; variable-ratio schedules, after an unpredictable number. Fixed-interval schedules reinforce behaviors after set time periods; variable-interval schedules, after unpredictable time periods.
Explain why we forget.
Anterograde amnesia is an inability to form new memories. Retrograde amnesia is an inability to retrieve old memories. Normal forgetting can happen because we have never encoded information (encoding failure); because the physical trace has decayed (storage decay); or because we cannot retrieve what we have encoded and stored (retrieval failure). Retrieval problems may result from proactive (forward-acting) interference, as prior learning interferes with recall of new information, or from retroactive (backward-acting) interference, as new learning disrupts recall of old information. Some believe that motivated forgetting occurs, but researchers have found little evidence of repression.
Describe how memory changes with age.
As the years pass, recall begins to decline, especially for meaningless information, but recognition memory remains strong. Older adults rely more on time management and memory cues to remember time-based and habitual tasks. Developmental researchers study age-related changes such as in memory with cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. "Terminal decline" describes the cognitive decline in the final few years of life.
Describe how parent-infant attachment bonds form.
At about 8 months, soon after object permanence develops, children separated from their caregivers display stranger anxiety. Infants form attachments not simply because parents gratify biological needs but, more important, because they are comfortable, familiar and responsive. Many birds and other animals have a more rigid attachment process, called imprinting, that occurs during a critical period.
Describe how psychologists study attachment differences, and discuss what they have learned.
Attachment has been studied in strange situation experiments, which show that some children are securely attached and others are insecurely attached. Infants' differing attachment styles reflect both their individual temperament and the respoiveness of their parents and child-care providers. Adult relationships seen to reflect the attachment styles of early childhood, lending support to Erik Erikson's idea that basic trust is formed in infancy by our experiences with responsive caregivers.
Describe who Skinner was, and explain how operant behavior is reinforced and shaped.
B. F. Skinner was a college English major and aspiring writer who later entered psychology graduate school. He became modern behaviorism's most influential and controversial figure.Expanding on Edward Thorndike's law of effect, Skinner and others found that the behavior of rats or pigeons placed in an operant chamber (Skinner box) can be shaped by using reinforcers to guide closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior.
Describe some abilities of the newborn, noting how researchers explore infants' mental abilities.
Babies are born with sensory equipment and reflexes that facilitate their survival and their social interactions with adults. Researchers use techniques that test habituation to explore infants' abilities.
Name some of the basic emotions.
Carroll Izard's 10 basic emotions are joy, interest-excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt.Two dimensions that help differentiate emotions are positive-versus-negative valence and low-versus-high arousal.
Discuss the reliability of young children's eyewitness descriptions.
Children are susceptible to the misinformation effect, but if questioned in neutral words they understand, they can accurately recall events and people involved in them.
Describe how childhood neglect or abuse affects children's attachments.
Children are very resilient, but those who are severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments at an early age, may be artist for attachment problems.
Discuss the impact of prosocial modeling and of antisocial modeling.
Children tend to imitate what a model does and says, whether the behavior being modeled is prosocial (positive, constructive, and helpful) or antisocial. If a model's actions and words are inconsistent, children may imitate the hypocrisy they observe.
Explain how biological constraints affect classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning principles, we now know, are constrained by biological predispositions, so that learning some associations is easier than learning others. Learning is adaptive: Each species learns behaviors that aid its survival. Biological constraints also place limits on operant conditioning. Training that attempts to override biological constraints will probably not endure because animals will revert to predisposed patterns.
Identify some applications of Pavlov's work to human health and well-being, and describe how Watson applied Pavlov's principles to learned fears.
Classical conditioning techniques are used to improve human health and well-being in many areas, including behavioral therapy for some types of psychological disorders. The body's immune system may also respond to classical conditioning.Pavlov's work also provided a basis for Watson's idea that human emotions and behaviors, though biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of "Little Albert" to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned.
Explain why some of us are more prone than others to coronary heart disease.
Coronary heart disease, the United States' number one cause of death, has been linked with the reactive, anger-prone Type A personality. Compared with relaxed, easygoing Type B personalities, Type A people secrete more stress hormones. Chronic stress also contributes to persistent inflammation, which heightens the risk of clogged arteries and depression.
Discuss why Skinner's ideas provoked controversy, and identify how his operant conditioning principles might be applied at school, in sports, at work, in parenting, and for self-improvement.
Critics of Skinner's principles believed the approach dehumanized people by neglecting their personal freedom and seeking to control their actions. Skinner replied that people's actions are already controlled by external consequences, and that reinforcement is more humane than punishment as a means for controlling behavior.At school, teachers can use shaping techniques to guide students' behaviors, and they can use interactive software and websites to provide immediate feedback. In sports, coaches can build players' skills and self-confidence by rewarding small improvements. At work, managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding well-defined and achievable behaviors. At home, parents can reward desired behaviors but not undesirable ones. We can shape our own behaviors by stating our goals, monitoring the frequency of desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, and gradually reducing rewards as behaviors become habitual.
Identify the levels of processing, and describe how they affect encoding.
Depth of processing affects long-term retention. In shallow processing, we encode words based on their structure or appearance. Retention is best when we use deep processing, encoding words based on their meaning. We also more easily remember material that is personally meaningful—the self-reference effect.
Identify three issues that have engaged developmental psychologists.
Developmental psychologists study physical, mental and social changes throughout the life span. They focus on three issues: nature and nurture; continuity and stages; and stability and change.
How do evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behavior tendencies?
Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand how our traits and behavior tendencies are shaped by natural selection, as genetic variations increasing the odds of reproducing and surviving are most likely to be passed on to future generations. Some variations arise from mutations (random errors in gene replication), others from new gene combinations at conception. Humans share a genetic legacy and are predisposed to behave in ways that promoted our ancestors' surviving and reproducing. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is an organizing principle in biology. He anticipated today's application of evolutionary principles in psychology.
Explain why self-control is important, and describe how our self-control can be depleted.
Exercising willpower temporarily depletes the mental energy needed for self-control on other tasks. Self-control requires attention and energy, but it predicts good adjustment, better grades, and social success.
Describe how external cues, internal emotions, and order of appearance influence memory retrieval.
External cues activate associations that help us retrieve memories; this process may occur without our awareness, as it does in priming. The encoding specificity principle is the idea that cues and contexts specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it. Returning to the same physical context or emotional state (mood congruency) in which we formed a memory can help us retrieve it. The serial position effect accounts for our tendency to recall best the last items (which may still be in working memory) and the first items (which we've spent more time rehearsing) in a list.
Describe the four main parenting styles. Identify the outcomes associated with each parenting style.
Four parenting styles include authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and neglectful. Authoritarian parenting is when a parent strictly creates boundaries between them and their children, sets rules and are not very nurturing. There is not a very good communication system from child to parent. Long-term outcomes of authoritarian parenting leads to children being very conscientious and obedient but sometimes rebelling, unhappy and having internalized frustrations towards their parents. Authoritative parenting is when parents create rules and boundaries with their children but also are nurturing and flexible. This type of parenting style results in children being liked by teachers and peers and more happy with themselves. Permissive parenting is when parents are over-nurturing and do not set rules and boundaries with their children. This leads to children who have inadequate emotion regulation and are usually dependent on their parents in adulthood. Lastly, neglectful parenting is when parents neither set rules and nurture their children. This leads to children being immature, sad and at risk of abuse.
Explain how the meaning of gender differs from the meaning of sex.
Gender is referring to the social influence on the characteristics that people define men and women. sex refers to the biologically influenced characteristics by which people define male and female.
Describe some ways in which males and females tend to be alike and to differ.
Gender refers to the characteristics, whether biologically or socially influenced, by which people define male and female. We are more alike than different, thanks to our similar genetic makeup—we see, hear, learn, and remember similarly. Males and females do differ in body fat, muscle, height, age of onset of puberty, and life expectancy; in vulnerability to certain disorders; and in aggression, social power, and social connectedness.
Discuss how an evolutionary psychologist might explain male-female differences in sexuality and mating preferences?
Gender refers to the characteristics, whether biologically or socially influenced, by which people define male and female. We are more alike than different, thanks to our similar genetic makeup—we see, hear, learn, and remember similarly. Males and females do differ in body fat, muscle, height, age of onset of puberty, and life expectancy; in vulnerability to certain disorders; and in aggression, social power, and social connectedness.
Explain how gender roles and gender identity differ.
Gender roles describe how others expect us to act and vary depending on cultural expectations, which change over time and place.Social learning theory proposes that we learn our gender identity—our sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two—as we learn other things: through reinforcement, punishment, and observation. But critics argue that cognition also plays a role because modeling and rewards cannot explain variation in gender typing.Some children organize themselves into "boy worlds" and "girl worlds"; others prefer androgyny.Transgender people's gender identity or expression differs from that associated with their birth sex. Their sexual orientation may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual.
Describe how stress makes us more vulnerable to disease.
Health psychology is a subfield of psychology that provides psychology's contribution to behavioral medicine. Psychoneuroimmunologists study mind-body interactions, including stress-related physical illnesses, such as hypertension and some headaches. Stress diverts energy from the immune system, inhibiting the activities of its B and T lymphocytes, macrophages, and NK cells. Stress does not cause diseases such as AIDS and cancer, but by altering our immune functioning it may make us more vulnerable to them and influence their progression.
Summarize the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination in classical conditioning.
In classical conditioning, acquisition is associating an NS with the US so that the NS begins triggering the CR. Acquisition occurs most readily when the NS is presented just before (ideally, about a half-second before) a US, preparing the organism for the upcoming event. This finding supports the view that classical conditioning is biologically adaptive. Through higher-order conditioning, a new NS can become a new CS.Extinction is diminished responding when the CS no longer signals an impending US. Spontaneous recovery is the appearance of a formerly extinguished response, following a rest period. Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a CS. Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish bet
Explain how cognitive processes affect classical and operant conditioning.
In classical conditioning, animals may learn when to expect a US and may be aware of the link between stimuli and responses. In operant conditioning, cognitive mapping and latent learning research demonstrate the importance of cognitive processes in learning. Other research shows that excessive rewards (driving extrinsic motivation) can undermine intrinsic motivation.
Explain how misinformation, imagination, and source amnesia influence our memory construction, and describe how we decide whether a memory is real or false.
In experiments demonstrating the misinformation effect, people have formed false memories, incorporating misleading details, after receiving wrong information after an event, or after repeatedly imagining and rehearsing something that never happened. When we reassemble a memory during retrieval, we may attribute it to the wrong source (source amnesia). Source amnesia may help explain déjà vu. False memories feel like real memories and can be persistent but are usually limited to the gist of the event.
Describe how a child's mind develops from the perspectives of Piaget, Vygotsky, and today's researchers.
In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and acommmadtion. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two years, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the pre-operational stage, they develop a theory of the mind and are egocentric and unable to perform simple logical operations. They enter the concrete operational stage at age 7 and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation. By about age 12, children enter the formal operational stage. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed , but it also shows that young children are more capable and their development more continuous than he believed. Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of meaning.
Discuss how observational learning differs from associative learning, and explain how observational learning may be enabled by mirror neurons.
In observational learning, as we observe and imitate others we learn to anticipate a behavior's consequences because we experience vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment. In associative learning, we merely learn associations between different events.Our brain's frontal lobes have a demonstrated ability to mirror the activity of another's brain. Some psychologists believe mirror neurons enable this process. The same areas fire when we perform certain actions (such as responding to pain or moving our mouth to form words) as when we observe someone else performing those actions.
Describe how operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning.
In operant conditioning, an organism learns associations between its own behavior and resulting events; this form of conditioning involves operant behavior (behavior that operates on the environment, producing rewarding or punishing consequences). In classical conditioning, the organism forms associations between stimuli—events it does not control; this form of conditioning involves respondent behavior (automatic responses to some stimulus).
Define operant conditioning
In operant conditioning, behaviors followed by reinforcers increase; those followed by punishers often decrease.
Describe who Pavlov was, and identify the basic components of classical conditioning.
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, created novel experiments on learning. His early twentieth-century research over the last three decades of his life demonstrated that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning.Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. In classical conditioning, an NS is a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning. A UR is an event that occurs naturally (such as salivation), in response to some stimulus. A US is something that naturally and automatically (without learning) triggers the unlearned response (as food in the mouth triggers salivation). A CS is a previously neutral stimulus (such as a tone) that, after association with a US (such as food) comes to trigger a CR. A CR is the learned response (salivating) to the originally neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
Define learning, and identify some basic forms of learning.
Learning is the process of acquiring through experience new information or behaviors. In associative learning, we learn that certain events occur together. In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two or more stimuli (a stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a response). We associate stimuli that we do not control, and we respond automatically. This is called respondent behavior. In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response and its consequences. These associations produce operant behaviors. Through cognitive learning, we acquire mental information that guides our behavior. For example, in observational learning, we learn new behaviors by observing events and watching others.
Explain how changes at the synapse level affect our memory processing.
Long-term potentiation (LTP) appears to be the neural basis of learning. In LTP, neurons become more efficient at releasing and sensing the presence of neurotransmitters, and more connections develop between neurons.
Identify the physical changes that occur during middle and late adulthood.
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities and cardiac output begin to decline in the late twenties and continue to decline throughout middle and late adulthood. Women's fertility ends with menopause around age 50; men have no similar age-related drop in hormone levels or fertility. In late adulthood, the immune system weakens, increasing susceptibility of life-heartening illnesses. Chromosome tips wear down, reducing the chances of normal genetic replication. But for some, longevity-supporting genes, low stress and good health habits enable better health in later life.
Explain how neurocognitive disorders and Alzheimer's disease affect cognitive ability.
Neurocognitive disorders are acquired disorders marked by cognitive deficits, which are often related to Alzheimer's disease, brain injury or disease, or substance abuse. This damage to brain cells results in the erosion of mental abilities that is not typical of normal aging. Alzheimer's disease is marked by neural plaques, often with an onset after age 80, entailing a progressive decline in memory and other cognitive ability.
Describe the capacity of long-term memory, and discuss whether our long-term memories are processed and stored in specific locations.
Our long-term memory capacity is essentially unlimited. Memories are not stored intact in the brain in single spots. Many parts of the brain interact as we encode, store, and retrieve memories.
Describe the ways in which parents and peers shape children's development.
Parents influence their children in areas such as manners and political and religious beliefs, but not in other areas, such as personality. As children attempt to fit in with their peers, they tend to adopt their culture—styles, accents, slang, attitudes. By choosing their children's neighborhoods and schools, parents exert some influence over peer group culture.
Explain why Pavlov's work remains so important.
Pavlov taught us that significant psychological phenomena can be studied objectively, and that classical conditioning is a basic form of learning that applies to all species
Describe the range of reactions triggered by the death of a loved one.
People do not grieve in predictable stages, as was once supposed. Strong expressions of emotion do not purge grief and bereavement therapy is not significantly more effective than grieving without such aid. Erikson viewed the late-adulthood psychological task as developing a sense of integrity.
Describe adolescent cognitive and moral development, according to Piaget, Kohlberg, and later researchers.
Piaget theorized that adolescents develop a capacity for formal operations and that this development is the foundation for moral judgement. Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of mental reasoning, from a pre conventional morality of self-interest, to a conventional morality concerned with upholding laws and social rules, to a post conventional morality of universal ethical principles. Other researchers believe that morality lies in moral intuition and moral action as well as thinking. Some critics argue that Kohlberg's post conventional level represents morality from the perspective of the individualist, middle-class people.
Discuss the effectiveness of polygraphs in using body states to detect lies.
Polygraphs, which measure several physiological indicators of emotion, are not accurate enough to justify widespread use in business and law enforcement. The use of guilty knowledge questions and new forms of technology may produce better indications of lying.
Explain how psychologists describe the human memory system.
Psychologists use memory models to think and communicate about memory. Information-processing models involve three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Our agile brain processes many things simultaneously (some of them unconsciously) by means of parallel processing. The connectionism information-processing model focuses on this multitrack processing, viewing memories as products of interconnected neural networks. The three processing stages in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. This model has since been updated to include two important concepts: (1) working memory, to stress the active processing occurring in the second memory stage; and (2) automatic processing, to address the processing of information outside of conscious awareness.
Discuss how punishment and negative reinforcement differ, and explain how punishment affects behavior.
Punishment administers an undesirable consequence (such as spanking) or withdraws something desirable (such as taking away a favorite toy) in an attempt to decrease the frequency of a behavior (a child's disobedience). Negative reinforcement (taking an aspirin) removes an aversive stimulus (a headache). This desired consequence (freedom from pain) increases the likelihood that the behavior (taking aspirin to end pain) will be repeated.Punishment can have undesirable side effects, such as suppressing rather than changing unwanted behaviors; teaching aggression; creating fear; encouraging discrimination (so that the undesirable behavior appears when the punisher is not present); and fostering depression and feelings of helplessness.
Discuss the differences between positive and negative reinforcement, and identify the basic types of reinforcers.
Reinforcement is any consequence that strengthens behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior. Negative reinforcement removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior.Primary reinforcers (such as receiving food when hungry or having nausea end during an illness) are innately satisfying—no learning is required. Conditioned (or secondary) reinforcers (such as cash) are satisfying because we have learned to associate them with more basic rewards (such as the food or medicine we buy with them). Immediate reinforcers (such as a purchased treat) offer immediate payback; delayed reinforcers (such as a weekly paycheck) require the ability to delay gratification.
Describe the ways in which relaxation and meditation might influence stress and health.
Relaxation and meditation have been shown to reduce stress by relaxing muscles, lowering blood pressure, improving immune functioning, and lessening anxiety and depression. Massage therapy also relaxes muscles and reduces depression.
Describe how our facial expressions influence our feelings.
Research on the facial feedback effect shows that our facial expressions can trigger emotional feelings and signal our body to respond accordingly. We also mimic others' expressions, which helps us empathize. A similar behavior feedback effect is the tendency of behavior to influence our own and others' thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Explain whether we must consciously interpret and label emotions in order to experience them.
The Schachter-Singer two-factor theory holds that our emotions have two ingredients, physical arousal and a cognitive label, and the cognitive labels we put on our states of arousal are an essential ingredient of emotion. Lazarus agreed that many important emotions arise from our interpretations or inferences. Zajonc and LeDoux, however, believe that some simple emotional responses occur instantly, not only outside our conscious awareness, but before any cognitive processing occurs. This interplay between emotion and cognition illustrates our dual-track mind.
Describe the link between emotional arousal and the autonomic nervous system.
The arousal component of emotion is regulated by the autonomic nervous system's sympathetic (arousing) and parasympathetic (calming) divisions. In a crisis, the fight-or-flight response automatically mobilized your body for action.Arousal affects performance in different ways, depending on the task. Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks.
Describe how the brain and motor skills develop during infancy and childhood.
The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. As a child's brain develops, neural connections grow more numerous and complex. Experiences then trigger a pruning process, in which unused connections weaken and heavily used ones strengthen. This process continues until puberty. Early childhood is an important period for shaping the brain, but our brain modifies itself in response to our learning throughout life. In childhood, complex motor skills develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of the sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture. We have no conscious memories of events occurring before age 3 1/2. This infantile amnesia occurs in part because major brain areas have not yet matured.
Describe the roles played by the cerebellum and basal ganglia in memory processing.
The cerebellum and basal ganglia are parts of the brain network dedicated to implicit memory formation. The cerebellum is important for storing classically conditioned memories. The basal ganglia are involved in motor movement and help form procedural memories for skills. Many reactions and skills learned during our first three years continue into our adult lives, but we cannot consciously remember learning these associations and skills, a phenomenon psychologists call "infantile amnesia."
Explain why reports of repressed and recovered memories are so hotly debated.
The debate (between memory researchers and some well-meaning therapists) focuses on whether most memories of early childhood abuse are repressed and can be recovered during therapy using "memory work" techniques using leading questions or hypnosis. Psychologists now agree that (1) sexual abuse happens; (2) injustice happens; (3) forgetting happens; (4) recovered memories are commonplace; (5) memories of things that happened before age 3 are unreliable; (6) memories "recovered" under hypnosis or the influence of drugs are especially unreliable; and (7) memories, whether real or false, can be emotionally upsetting.
