PSYC test one

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

Evolutionary

In which type of research would an investigator manipulate one factor in order to observe its effect on some behavior or mental process?

Experimentation

An action potential is generated by the movement of

Ions

To find out whether breast-milk feeding contributes to the intellectual development of children, psychologists used

Experiments

Circadian rhythm refers to

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

The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs is called the

autonomic nervous system.

Contemporary psychology is best defined as the science of

behavior and mental processes.

Which perspective studies the relative contributions of our genes and our environment on our individual differences?

behavior genetics

After flying from California to New York, Arthur experienced a restless, sleepless night. His problem was most likely caused by a disruption of his normal

circadian rhythm.

The function of dendrites is to

receive incoming signals from other neurons.

Research participants were asked to monitor and report their own immediate sensory reactions to differently colored objects. This research involved a technique known as

introspection.

In its early years, psychology focused on the study of ________, but from the 1920s into the 1960s, American psychologists emphasized the study of ________.

mental life; observable behavior

A slap on the back is more painful than a pat on the back because a slap triggers

more neurons to fire, and to fire more often.

A negative correlation between degree of wealth and likelihood of suffering from a psychological disorder would indicate that

people who are poor are more likely to have a psychological disorder than are wealthy people.

The hindsight bias refers to people's tendency to

? exaggerate their ability to have foreseen an outcome. ?

Assessing whether conclusions are warranted by the existing evidence best illustrates

Critical thinking

Three key attitudes of scientific inquiry are

curiosity, skepticism, and humility.

The survival of organisms best suited to a particular environment is known as

natural selection.

Efforts to discover whether the intelligence of children is more heavily influenced by their biology or by their home environments are most directly relevant to the debate regarding

nature vs nurture

Consciousness is

our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Rodesia insists that Dr. Phillip's theory of aggression be checked against observable evidence. She is demonstrating the scientific attitude of

skepticism.

you come home one night to find a burglar in your house. Your heart starts racing and you begin to perspire. These physical reactions are triggered by the

sympathetic nervous system.

Sir Charles Sherrington observed that impulses took an unexpectedly long time to travel a neural pathway. His observation provided evidence for the existence of

synaptic gaps.

The central nervous system consists of

the brain and the spinal cord.

Illusory correlation refers to

the perception of a relationship between two variables that does not exist.