Senior Exit Exam: Psychology

What are some basic elements of a real-world experiment?

- An experiment studying the effect of negative stereotypes on text performance of athletes found that exposure to negative stereotypes prior to taking a test resulted in poorer performance by athletes than the performance of athletes whose exposure came after the test.

How are case studies and surveys used to describe behavior, and what are some drawbacks to each of these methods?

- Case studies are detailed investigations of one subject, whereas surveys involve asking standardized questions of large groups of people that represent a sample of the population of interest. - Information gained from case studies cannot be applied to other cases. People responding to surveys may not always tell the truth or remember information correctly.

What is the correlational technique, and what does it tell researchers about relationships?

- Correlation is a statistical technique that allows researchers to discover and predict relationships between variables of interest. - Positive correlations exist when increases in one variable are matched by increases in the other variable, whereas negative correlations exist when increases in one variable are matched by decreases in the other variable. - Correlations cannot be used to prove cause and effect relationships.

What are the basic principles of critical thinking, and how can critical thinking be useful in everyday life?

- Critical thinking is the ability to make reasoned judgements. The four basic criteria of critical thinking are that there are few concepts that do not need to be tested, evidence can vary in quality, claims by experts and authorities do not automatically make something true, and keeping an open mind is important.

What are some ethical concerns that can occur when conducting research with people and animals?

- Ethical guidelines for doing research with human beings include the protection of rights and well being of participants, informed consent, justification when deception is used, the right of participants to withdraw at any time, protections of participants from physical or psychological harm, confidentiality, and debriefing of participants at the end of the study. Researchers are also responsible for correcting any undesirable consequences that may result from the study. - Animals in psychological research make useful models because they are easier to control than humans, they have simpler behavior, and they can be used in ways that are not permissible with humans.

How are operational definitions, independent and dependent variables, experimental and control groups, and random assignment used in designing an experiment?

- Experiments are tightly controlled manipulations of variables that allow researchers to determine cause and effect relationships. - The independent variable in an experiment is the variable that is deliberately manipulated by the experimenter to see if related changes occur in the behavior or responses of the participants and is given to the experimental group. - The dependent variable in an experiment is the measured behavior or responses of the participants. - The control group receives either a placebo treatment or nothing. - Random assignment of participants to experimental groups helps to control for individual differences both within and between the groups that might otherwise interfere with the experiments outcome.

How to the placebo and experimenter effects cause problems in an experiment, and how can single-blind and double-blind studies control for these effects?

- Experiments in which the subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or control groups are single-blind studies, whereas experiments in which neither the experimenters nor the subjects know this information are called double-blind studies.

How did structuralism and functionalism differ, and who were the important people in those early fields?

- In 1879 psychology began as a science of its own in Germany with the establishment of Wundt's psychology laboratory. He developed the technique of objective introspection. - Titchener, a student of Wundt, brought psychology in the form of structuralism to America. Structuralism died out in the early twentieth century. Margaret F. Washburn, Titcheners student, was the first woman to receive a Ph. D in psychology in 1894 and published The Animal Mind. William James proposed a countering point of view called functionalism, that stressed the way the mind allows us to adapt. - Many of psychology's early pioneers were minorities such as the African American who, despite prejudice and racism, made important contributions to the study of human and animal behavior. - Functionalism influenced the modern fields of educational psychology, evolutionary psychology, and industrial organization psychology.

What are the basic ideas behind the seven modern perspectives, and what were the important contributions of Skinner, Maslow, and Rogers?

- Modern Freudians such as Anna Freud, Jung, and Adler changed the emphasis in Freud's original theory into a kind of neo-Freudianism - Skinner's operant conditioning of voluntary behavior became a major force in the twentieth century. He introduced the concept of reinforcement to behaviorism. - Humanism, which focuses on free will and the human potential for growth, was developed by Maslow and Rogers, among others, as a reaction the the deterministic nature of behaviorism and psychoanalysis. - Cognitive psychology is the study of learning, memory, language, and problem solving, and includes the field of cognitive neuroscience. - Biopsychology emerged as the study of the biological bases of behavior, such as hormones, heredity, chemicals in the nervous system, structural defects in the brain, and the effects of physical diseases. - The principles of evolution and the knowledge we currently have about evolution are used in this perspective to look at the way the mind works and why it works as it does. Behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival value.

How are naturalistic and laboratory settings used to describe behavior, and what are some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with these settings?

- Naturalistic observations involve watching animals or people in their natural environments but have the disadvantage of lack of control. - Laboratory observations involve watching animals or people in an artificial but controlled situation, such as a laboratory.

How does a psychologist differ from a psychiatrist, and what are the other types of professionals who work in the various areas of psychology?

- Psychologists have academic degrees and can do counseling, teaching, and research and may specialize in any one of a large number of areas within psychology. - There are many different areas of specialization in psychology, including clinical, counseling, developmental, social, and personality as areas of work or study. - Psychiatrists are medical doctors who provide diagnosis and therapy for persons with mental disorders. - Psychiatric social workers are social workers with special training in the influences of the environment on mental illness.

How do neurons use neurotransmitters to communicate with each other and with the body?

- The brain is made up of two types of cells, neurons and glial cells. - Neurons have dendrites, which receive input, a soma or cell body, and axons that carry the neural message to other cells. - Glial cells separate, support, and insulate the neurons from each other and make up 90 percent of the brain. - Myelin insulates and protects the axons of neurons that travel in the body. These axons bundle together in cables called nerves. Myelin also speeds up the neural message. - Neurons in the peripheral nervous system are also coated with neurilemma, which allows the nerves to repair themselves. - A neuron contains charged particles called ions. When at rest, the neuron is negatively charged on the inside and positively charged on the outside. When stimulated, this reverses the charge by allowing positive sodium ions to enter the cell. This is called action potential. - Neurons fire in an all or nothing matter. - Synaptic vesicles in the end of the axon terminal release neurotransmitter chemicals into the synapse, or gap, between one ce

What are the nervous system, neurons, and nerves, and how do they relate to one another?

- The nervous system is a complex network of cells that carries information to and from all parts of the body.

Why is psychology considered a science, and what are the steps in using the scientific method?

- The scientific method is a way to determine facts and control the possibilities or error and bias when observing behavior. The five steps are perceiving the question, forming a hypothesis, testing the hypothesis, drawing conclusions, and reporting the results.

What were the basic ideas and who were the important people behind the early approaches known as Gestalt, psychoanalysis, and behaviorism?

- Wertheimer and others studied sensation and perception, calling the new perspective Gestalt (an organized whole) psychology. - Freud proposed that the unconscious mind controls much of our conscious behavior in his theory of psychoanalysis. - Watson proposed a science of behavior called behaviorism, which focused only on the study of observable stimuli and responses. - Watson and Rayner demonstrated that a phobia could be learned by conditioning a baby to be afraid of a white rat. - Mary Cover Jones, one of Watson's more famous students in behaviorism and child development, later demonstrated that a learned phobia could be counterconditioned.

What perspective would a researcher be taking if she were studying the way children learn through reinforcement of their actions?

Behaviorism

What pairs represent the oldest of todays psychological perspectives?

Behaviorism and Psychodynamics

Wesley was behaving oddly and showing signs of memory problems and odd behavior. Doctors found that an earlier fall had created fluid pressure on his brain, causing the odd symptoms. What perspective explains Wesleys disordered behavior?

Biopsychology

The use of ___ helps to control for the effect of observer bias

Blind observers

Which perspective looks at perception, learning, and memory?

Cognitive Psychology

Dr. Edwards designs a special behavior program for helping children diagnosed with autism to learn to communicate with others. Dr. Edwards is most interested in the goal of ____.

Control

In a __ study, neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group.

Double-Blind

Who among the early African American psychologists eventually became president of two universities?

Dr. Robert Prentiss Daniel

Which perspective emphasizes the biological bases for shared, universal mental characteristics?

Evolutionary perspective

In the scientific method, forming an educated guess is called...

Forming a hypothesis

The main disadvantage of a case study is that it is not...

Generalizable to other similar conditions

Which early perspective would have been LEAST likely to agree with the structuralists?

Gestalt

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" is a statement associated with the perspective of...

Gestalt psychology

Which perspective isn known as the "third force" in psychology?

Humanism

Behavior

Includes all of our outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, and movement.

In the definition of psychology, the term mental processes means...

Internal, covert processes

Description

Involves observing a behavior and noting everything about it: what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it seems to happen.

Who was denied a Ph. D. despite completing all the requirements for earning the degree?

Mary Whiton Calkins

Who was the first woman president of the American Psychological Association?

Mary Whiton Calkins

___ was(were) the focus on Watson's behaviorism

Observable experiences

In a naturalistic observation, the phenomenon in which the behavior of the subjects being observed changes because they are being watched is called?

Observer effect

In the definition of psychology, behavior means...

Outward or overt actions and reactions

In the scientific method, the first step is...

Perceiving a question

The entire group that a researcher is interested in it called a

Population

It's common knowledge that the more you study, the higher your grade will be. What kind of correlation is this relationship?

Positive

Psychologists who give potential employees tests that determine what kind of job those employees might best fit are interested in the goal of...

Prediction

Which professionals in psychology focuses more on the environmental conditions that affect mental disorders?

Psychiatric social worker

Which of the following professionals in psychology has the broadest area of interest and functions?

Psychologist

What defines psychology as a field of study, and what are psychology's four primary goals?

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. The four goals of psychology are description, explanation, prediction, and control.

Critical thinking means making judgements based on

Reason and logical evaluation

Mental Processes

Refers to all the internal, covert activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering.

In a ___ study, only the experimenter knows who is in the control group an who is in the experimental group

Single-Blind

The main advantage of a case study is...

The amount of detail it provides about an individual.

The main advantage of laboratory observation is

The degree of control it allows the observer

Psychology's Goals

The goals specifically aimed at uncovering the mysteries of human and animal behavior are description, explanation, prediction, and control.

Double-Blind studies control for

The placebo effect and the experimenter effect

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Scientific Method

What is used to study psychology.

Explantation

Why is it happening?

Which early theorist developed his perspective on psychology by basing it on Darwin's "survival of the fittest" doctrine?

William James

Which psychologist would have been most likely to agree with the statement "The study of the mind should focus on how it allows us to adapt to our surroundings"?

William James

Who is most associated with the technique of introspection?

Wundt

What is a best example of a representative sample?

You choose people randomly from the telephone book to respond to your survey.

A psychologist is interested in finding out why identical twins have different personalities. This psychologist is most interested in the goal of...

explanation

Cheryan et al. (2009) tested for the reason why there are so few women in the computer science field. This study most clearly illustrates the goal of __

explanation

Which perspective focuses on free will and self actualization?

humanism