psychology study guide 1,2,3

The _____ believed that consciousness developed in humans because it serves a useful purpose

functionalists

Which of the following is NOT a major area of interest in the positive psychology movement?

positive life events

Which of the following statements concerning anecdotal evidence is FALSE

Anecdotal evidence rarely influences a person's opinion or behavior.

A strict behaviorist would view nature as more important than nurture in determining an individual's observable responses to a given stimulus

False

A tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables is called a theory

False

Drugs that target the neurotransmitter GABA are often used to treat Alzheimer's disease.

False

Fraternal twins share more genetic kinship than identical twins

False

Functionalists relied heavily on the method of introspection to understand the nature and function of conscious processes.

False

Genes are composed of millions of strands of chromosomes

False

In an experiment, the control group consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable.

False

The fifth and final step in conducting scientific research is to analyze the data and draw conclusions

False

According to Wilhelm Wundt, psychology's primary focus should be the scientific study of mental processes.

True

One of the main criticisms raised concerning both behaviorism and psychoanalytic theory is that these views are dehumanizing.

True

Self-report methods are useful in psychology, but can be problematic due to the tendency for people to give socially appropriate answers

True

The best way to reduce the risk of experimenter bias is to use a double-blind research procedure.

True

The brain structure responsible for relaying sensory information to various locations in the brain is the thalamus

True

The cerebellum is involved in the coordination of movement and physical balance.

True

The parietal lobe contains the primary somatosensory cortex which is related to the sense of touch

True

Until the 1950s and 1960s the dominance of behaviorism discouraged the study of mental processes in psychology.

True

The notion that the subject matter of psychology should be the scientific study of conscious experience is MOST closely linked with

Wilhelm Wundt

The abstract of a journal article provides

a concise summary of the entire article.

The primary reason for the ethical dilemmas psychologists encounter regarding the use of deception in research reflects concerns

about the possibility of inflicting harm on human subjects

Which section of a journal article involving psychological research provides a brief summary of the research project?

abstract

The rewarding effects of electrical stimulation of the brain seem to be mediated by

activation of dopamine-releasing neurons

Sensory information is carried from your eyes to your brain by way of

afferent fibers

Which of the following is an example of an independent variable that can be manipulated

amount of exposure to caffeine

Lisa taught her son to buckle his seat belt in the car by only allowing him to play one of his tapes on the car stereo after he was buckled up. Lisa taught him by applying the principles of

behaviorism

Schizophrenia may be related to abnormalities in neurotransmitter activity, structural defects in the brain, and genetic vulnerabilities. These observations MOST directly relate to the text's unifying theme that

behavior is determined by multiple causes

Watson defined psychology as the scientific study of

behavior.

Which of the following is NOT a structure of the hindbrain?

cerebrum

Operational definitions are MOST closely associated with which major advantage of the scientific approach?

clarity and precision

Which pair of terms reflects the observation that "psychology returned to its roots" in the latter part of the 20th century?

cognitive perspective and biological perspective

In experimental research, subjects that do not receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable are the

control group

Scientific theories are MOST directly associated with which goal of science

understanding and prediction

The part of the neuron that has branched extensions that are specialized to receive information are the

dendrites

A researcher wants to see if a protein-enriched diet will enhance the maze-running performance of rats. One group of rats is fed the high-protein diet for the duration of the study; the other group continues to receive ordinary rat chow. In this experiment, the rats' maze-running performance is the

dependent variable

Which of the following areas of specializations in psychology is involved with the development of curricula and the training of teachers?

educational psychology

Results from family, twin, and adoption studies strongly suggest that

genetics and experience jointly influence human behavior.

One of the disadvantages of the experimental method is

he artificial, contrived situations in which experiments are often conducted

Insulation is to hot water pipes as the _____ is to an axon

myelin sheath

The groundbreaking research on critical periods in neural development was conducted in the 1960s on which of the following subjects?

newborn kittens

When an object is placed unseen in the left hand of a person who has had split-brain surgery, the person will

not be able to describe it

Dr. Redding has found a correlation of +0.65 between snoring and weight. This indicates that

overweight individuals tend to snore more than underweight individuals.

The "master gland" of the endocrine system is the

pituitary gland

Which of the following BEST describes the unifying theme that "psychology evolves in a socio-historical context"

psychology and society both influence each other

Generally speaking, the presynaptic receptor refers to the receptor located on the neuron that _____ the neurotransmitter, whereas the postsynaptic receptor refers to the receptor located on the neuron that _____ a neurotransmitter

releases, receives

The space between a terminal button and a dendrite is referred to as the

synaptic cleft

Theodore suffered a stroke recently, and now he finds he constantly hears a buzzing sound in his ears. In this case, it is likely that the stroke occurred in Theodore's

temporal lobe

A psychologist who specializes in psychometrics is MOST likely to be interested in

the development of psychological tests to measure intelligence or personality traits

The primary reason descriptive/correlational research cannot determine conclusively that variables have a cause-and-effect relationship is because in conducting research

the researcher cannot control events or manipulate variables

If A and B are highly correlated, which statement MOST accurately describes the relationship between A and B

the score on A can be used to predict the score on B