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