Psychology Semester Exam: Study Guide
Chemical messengers manufactured by a neuron.
Neurotransmitter
A disorder in which a person's life is dominated by repetitive obsessions and compulsions.
OCD
According to Freud, an adult who smokes, drinks, or overeats is fixated in the __________ stage of her psychosexual development.
Oral
Develops in response to an extreme psychological or physical trauma and most times when harm is being done by others.
PTSD
Diondre harbors the belief that spider eggs have been implanted underneath his fingernails. What kind of delusion is this?
Somatic
During ______ sleep, there is a mixture of alpha and theta brain waves
Stage 1 NREM
__________________ involves thoughts of death by suicide, thinking about or planning suicide, or making a suicide attempt.
Suicidal ideation
Controls autonomic functions such as breath and heart rate.
Sympathetic System
Egon can't pay attention in class. He is easily distracted, won't sit still, and displays poor impulse control. The school counselor suggested that his parents take him to a doctor to have him assessed for ______________.
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
Encoding information occurs through _____.
automatic processing and effortful processing.
You will see individuals increase their ability to think logically and problem solve as they go through the formal operational stage.
True
If I am looking at a snake and processing the fear caused by the snake, what part of the brain am I using?
amygdala
What was the main idea behind Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development?
an individual's personality develops throughout the lifespan
Complete the following sentence. Correlation does not necessarily mean ______. a. facts b. causation c. viability d. reliability
b. causation
In the documentary on Clive Wearing, he was unable to create new memories due to his amnesia. For example, forgetting his sitter visited just two minutes after she left. This is an example of _______.
anterograde amnesia
A panic disorder is a type of ____________ disorder characterized by panic attacks, along with at least one month of worry about panic attacks or self-defeating behavior related to the attacks.
anxiety
The part of the brain that is divided into two cerebral hemispheres
Cerebral Cortex
Most people are awake during the day and sleep at night because their _______ cycles are aligned with the outside world.
Circadian
________________ is a state of being in which our thoughts about our real and ideal selves are very similar.
Congruence
Ina can no longer read the street signs, but she refuses to admit that she needs glasses to drive. Which defense mechanism does this exemplify?
Denial
Branch of psychology that studies how humans change over the lifespan.
Development Psychology
Period of development from the third to eight weeks.
Embryonic period
Who developed the psychosocial theory of development?
Erik Erikson
How is an explicit memory is different from an implicit memory?
Explicit memories are memories we consciously try to remember and recall, while implicit memories are those that are not part of our consciousness.
Adolescence begins at age 12 and ends at age 20.
False
All babies, from birth to one-year-old, will hit the major developmental milestones at the exact same time.
False
During the preoperational stage, an infant will gain knowledge about his/her surroundings through their senses (taste, feel, smell, and sound).
False
In an infant's one-word stage of language development, production vocabulary is larger than his/her comprehension vocabulary.
False
Research has shown that the bond between an infant and his/her caregiver has no real impact on development later in life.
False
The average lifespan for women is 75 years and 80 years for men.
False
Period of development from the ninth week until birth.
Fetal period
The traits openness conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism are key components of the ____________________.
Five Factor Model
This theory stresses how behavior can be a direct result of people adapting to their environment.
Functionalism
Which of the following is common of all anxiety disorders? a. above-average number of phobias b. excessive, persistent fear and anxiety c. inability to control the body's reaction to fear d. sporadic, intense panic attacks
b. excessive, persistent fear and anxiety
Which of the following is a symptom of REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD)? a. crying while sleeping b. kicking and punching while sleeping c. snoring while sleeping d. talking while sleeping
b. kicking and punching while sleeping
Identify the compulsion in the following example. Demarco can't stop thinking about his book collection, which includes hundreds of first editions. He wants it to be in a particular order. He spends hours every day organizing his books alphabetically by author, then by color, then by size. a. having hundreds of first editions in his book collection b. organizing the books c. thinking about the books all of the time d. thinking about the order of the books all the time
b. organizing the books
Which is NOT a risk factor for suicide? a. alcohol dependence b. popular music that promotes suicide c. history of previous suicide attempts d. substance abuse
b. popular music that promotes suicide
Which of the following senses is NOT routed through the thalamus? a. audition b. smell c. taste d. vision
b. smell
Which of the following was one of Alfred Adler's main contributions to personality theory? a. advocating for analytic psychology b. suggesting that out birth order shapes our personality c. the idea that men have womb envy d. The theory that our personality develops in psychosocial stages
b. suggesting that our birth order shapes our personality
If a person's cerebellum was damaged in an accident, you would expect the person to have a problem with
balance and muscle coordination
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the ______ include food, water, and shelter.
basic survival needs
Psychologists who study how behavior is acquired or modified by environmental causes use which lens?
behavioral
Penelope studies how the structure and function of the nervous system are related to behavior. She is a ______.
biopsychologist
A disorder that involves periods of depression alternating with manic episodes.
bipolar disorder
Adam has suddenly become euphoric and energetic, sleeping only a few hours a night. He talks constantly about his farfetched plans for making massive amounts of money. Adam most likely has ______.
bipolar disorder
The memory error in which you know the information, but you cannot bring yourself to remember it is called ________.
blocking
Phyllis cannot be alone. Her moods and behaviors are unstable, as are her relationships with other people. She often displays inappropriate and intense anger. Recently Phyllis wrote a suicide note and offered to show it to her husband. Which of the following diagnoses accounts for her personality?
borderline personality disorder
The Central Nervous System is made up of the
brain and spinal cord
Which of the following is an example of a variable ratio reinforcement schedule? a. Bill traveling to Mrytle Beach for vacation every June b. Jeremy checking YouTube every morning before work c. Joyce playing scratch-off lottery tickets d. Nikita taking her dog to the vet once a year
c. Joyce playing scratch-off lottery tickets
All of the following are functions of the autonomic nervous system except ______. a. breathing b. heartbeat c. golf swing d. blinking
c. golf swing
Nathan has an overinflated and unjustified sense of self-importance. He is preoccupied with fantasies of success and believes that he is entitled to special treatment from others. Which of the following diagnoses accounts for Nathan's personality? a. borderline personality disorder b. histrionic personality disorder c. narcissistic personality disorder d. schizotypal personality disorder
c. narcissistic personality disorder
Which of the following defines a hypothesis? a. idea that proves a theory b. means of explaining a social phenomenon c. tentative explanation d. way of looking at the world
c. tentative explanation
Which part of the brain is most involved in creating implicit memories?
cerebellum
Composed of twisted strands of DNA, and found in the nucleus of the cell.
chromosomes
Human eggs and sperm each contain 23 ______, which are composed of long strands of ________.
chromosomes, DNA
Pain perceptions and positive emotions
endorphins
What does nurture refer to in nature vs. nurture debate?
environment and culture
Two subcategories of explicit memories are ______.
episodic and semantic
Which psychological perspective might advance the argument that our sleep patterns evolved as an adaptive response to predatory risks, which are higher during periods of darkness?
evolutionary
Which of the following is the decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer presented with the conditioned stimulus?
extinction
Gus receives a paycheck every week. Which reinforcement schedule is this?
fixed interval
Many individuals created _______ memories of the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, and can be described as vivid, specific details of that day 16 years later.
flashbulb
The hypothalamus is located within the
forebrain
Being absent-minded means we are not encoding information, like the name of the person we just met. When we do not store information in long-term memory, it is due to _____.
forgetting error
The basic unit of heredity.
gene
Miguel worries excessively about things beyond his control, and his worries often interfere with his life. He avoids driving because he worries about car accidents. He calls his parents twice a day because he worries they are dead. He checks his credit card statement three times a day because he worries about identity theft. Miguel probably suffers from ________.
generalized anxiety disorder
The genetic makeup of an individual organism such as recessive or dominant genes.
genotype
The first two weeks of prenatal development.
germinal period
In _____ conditioning, an established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus.
higher-order
Cataplexy is a symptom associated with ________.
narcolepsy
Samek was driving to work when he suddenly felt paralyzed and couldn't resist falling asleep. Samek may have _____.
narcolepsy
Tayla smokes marijuana. At first, just a few inhalations were enough to cloud her mind. Over time, she needs to smoke more and more to achieve the same effect. This is an example of ________.
tolerance
Correlation in which two factors vary in opposite directions or one-factor increases as the other decreases are ________.
negative
Daves boss told him that he doesn't have to attend the company picnic (which everyone dislikes) if Dave meets his sales quota this month. Dave's boss is using _____.
negative reinforcement
In operant conditioning, ______ is when something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior.
negative reinforcement
After Omar falls asleep he feels a sense of panic, screams, and attempts to escape from his room. Which parasomnia does Omar have?
night terrors
Heart and alertness
norepinephrine
Which brain regions are believed to play a critical role in OCD?
orbitofrontal cortex
Self-efficacy is __________________.
our perceived level of confidence in our own abilities
Sleepwalking and night terrors are examples of ______.
parasomnias
Demitris is in a car accident and has no sensation in his legs and feet. Which lobe was injured?
parietal
Which division of the nervous system is made up of the neurons that branch from the brain and spinal cord?
peripheral
Chuck was in a car accident and has dreams about it every night. When he sees a car, he remembers how he felt that day. Which category of memory failure is exemplified?
persistence
When experiencing ______ amnesia, you experience loss of memory for events that occurred prior to the trauma, When experiencing ______ amnesia you cannot remember new information
retrograde; anterograde
Alexis experiences the symptoms of major depressive disorder, but only during midwinter. What kind of depression does Alexis have?
seasonal pattern
According to Abraham Maslow, the highest need is ______________.
self-actualization
Ben is asked to memorize the words canine, feline, and avian. He remembers the words by associating them with their synonyms: dog, cat, bird. This is an example ______ encoding.
semantic
Memories that help us remember general knowledge including facts, names, definitions, and ideas are called _____.
semantic
Our _______ memory registers a great deal of information from the environment and holds it for less than 3 seconds.
sensory
Sleep and emotional states
serotonin
Your _______ temporarily holds all the information you are consciously aware of.
short-term memory
Victoria has accumulated large sleep debt. This means that she ______.
suffers from chronic sleep deprivation
The _________ nervous system is responsible for responses such as pupil dilation, increased heart rate and increases respiration.
sympathetic
The space between two neurons is called the ______.
synapse
The somatosensory cortex is responsible for processing
temperature, touch, pain
Psychology is a social science discipline. Psychologists scientifically study ________.
the behavior and mind
Individuals undergoing hypnosis __________.
usually have clear memories of the hypnotic experience and are in control of their own behaviors
Bert and Ernie catch fish throughout the day at unpredictable intervals. Which reinforcement schedule is this?
variable interval
The brief memory of an image, or icon, is called ______ memory.
visual
Baddeley's model of working memory outlines three main components: central executive, phonological loop, and _______.
visuospatial notepad
The single-cell formed at conception from the union of a single egg and sperm cell.
zygote
________ involves observing behavior in individual in their natural environments.
Naturalistic observation
The closes the results are to _____ the more confident we can be in our data.
1
What stage of sleep are you most likely experiencing if an EEC of your brain activity showed sleep spindles and K-complexes?
2
What occurs during stage 1 sleep?
Both our respiration and heartbeat slow down
Which perspective within psychology emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans.
Humanism
A view of personality that emphasizes human potential, self-awareness, and free will
Humanistic
Abraham Maslow was another important contributor to this personality theory
Humanistic
Incongruence with a child's self-concept can be avoided through unconditional positive regard from a parent of caregivers
Humanistic
Theory founded by Carl Rogers and states a human's motivation is their self-concept
Humanistic
The structure that filters and routes messages to the different areas of the brain
Hypothalamus
Ingrid is energized by being alone, speaks slowly and softly, and avoids attention. Jung would call her a(an) ____________.
Introvert
_________ is known for using Little Albert in his studies on human emotion.
John B. Watson
What was the main point of Ivan Pavlov's experiment with dogs?
Learning can occur when a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Negative emotions, extreme pessimism, and thoughts of suicide are characteristics of this disorder.
Major depression
Thuan, a Vietnamese refugee, cannot stop thinking about the horrors he experienced while fleeing his country by boat. He sleeps poorly and is often awakened by terrifying nightmares. He also avoids any body of water or boat during the summertime. Which psychological disorder does Thuan have?
PTSD
The system that helps us return to homeostasis.
Parasympathetic system
______ reinforcers have innate reinforcing qualities.
Primary
A person uses ego defense mechanisms, such as denial and rationalization, to reduce anxiety and resolve conflict
Psychoanalytic
Adult personality is established in the first five years of life as the child progresses through the oral, anal, and phallic stages.
Psychoanalytic
The theory looks at the behavior differences of introverts and extraverts
Psychoanalytic
Mohammed is sleeping. His eyelids are quivering because his eyes are darting around. Mohammed is probably experiencing _____ sleep?
REM
After Mike does not get the job he interviewed for, he moves back in with his parents and spends his days playing video games. Which defense mechanism does this exemplify?
Regression
The operant conditioning chamber (aka ______ box) is a device used to study the principles of operant conditioning.
Skinner
Emphasizes the role in learning, especially observational learning.
Social Cognitive
The theory that explains how our thoughts, behaviors, and environment relate to and influence each other
Social Cognitive
The five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
True
This has four basic steps.
The scientific method
Why can amphetamines be used to treat ADHD in children?
They increase neurotransmitter activity within certain areas of the brain associated with impulse control.
What do structuralism, Gestalt theory, and Sigmund Freud all have in common?
They were all concerned with describing and understanding the inner experience.
Each factor explains behavior in terms of source traits that are measured on a range between two extremes.
Trait
Theorizes that the essential building blocks of personality can be described with The Big Five
Trait
According to Erik Erikson, an adolescent's psychosocial conflict is identity formation.
True
An infant is born with innate reflexes that help it to survive: rooting, grasping, and suckling.
True
At the end of the sensorimotor stage, an infant gains the skill of object permanence or the understanding that a hidden object continues to exist even though it can't be seen.
True
During puberty, an adolescent will experience changes in both primary and secondary sex characteristics.
True
Generativity can be described as an adult wanting to contribute to future generations through their career or other meaningful activities.
True
In late adulthood, we may look back to see if our life has been meaningful or we may experience ego integrity.
True
Piaget found that children progress through four distinct cognitive stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, operational, and formal operational.
True
Mary had a stroke about a year ago and now she cannot understand what people are saying to her. Which area of the brain was likely damaged by a stroke?
Wernicke's area
What is comorbidity?
a co-occurrence of two disorders
The psychoanalytic theory focuses on ______ and early childhood experiences.
a person's consciousness
Which of the following areas is located in the frontal lobe of the brain? a. Bronca's area b. hippocampus c. thalamus d. Wernicke's area
a. Bronca's area
Dr. Griffiths diagnosed Manuel with the major depressive disorder because he ____________. a. appears tearful to others and spends weeks at a time feeling sad, empty, and hopeless. b. exhibits three separate personalities, each distinct from the other c. hates being outside the home alone. d. refuses to leave his room due to anxiety over what might happen during the day.
a. appears tearful to others and spends weeks at a time feeling sad, empty, and hopeless.
Muscle action and memory
acetylcholine
Pam finds it difficult to learn the alphabet until she hears the alphabet song. Then she can easily remember it. This is an example of ______ encoding.
acoustic
A brief electrical impulse that travels down the axon of the nerve
action potential
One of the forms of a gene
allele
The lens of Psychology that focuses on how the brain functions or process information like developing language, solving problems, and thinking is
cognitive
A psychological disorder is a ___________.
condition characterized by abnormal thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
In classical conditioning, the association that is learned is between a ______.
conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned response
Ali is aware of his feelings, emotions, and thoughts. He is also aware of his surroundings, the warmth of the sun, and the sound of nearby traffic. Ali is in a state of
conscious
The formation of new memories is sometimes called _______, and the process of bringing up old memories is called ______.
construction; reconstruction
The structure that allows communication between the two cerebral hemispheres is called the
corpus callosum
Which classification system is used by most mental health professionals in the United States of America? a. International Classification of Diseases b. Determinants of Social Mental Disorders c. Determining Statistical Manifestation of Disorders d. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
d. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
All of these are steps of the Scientific Method EXCEPT: a. formulate a hypothesis b. analyze date c. report findings d. establish correlations
d. establish correlations
Which of the following is an example of a reflex: an unlearned, automatic response by an organism to a stimulus in the environment? a. becoming angry at your friend for rating his voice b. becoming bored at a wedding c. sitting very still in the classroom d. the pupil of your eye contracting in the presence of bright light
d. the pupil of your eye contracting in the presence of bright light
Due to Dan's obsessive-compulsive disorder, he may _________. a. exhibit an extreme fear of water b. insists that he is hearing voices c. refuses to leave his bed due to anxiety over what might happen during the day. d. wash his hands every 10 minutes throughout the day.
d. wash his hands every 10 minutes throughout the day
Melatonin release from the pineal gland is stimulated by ______ and inhibited by ______.
darkness, light
Alcohol is considered a ______ because it tends to suppress central nervous system activity.
depressant
Exhibiting a personality that ___________________ is a common characteristic of all personality disorders.
differs markedly from the expectations of one's culture
Movement and pleasure
dopamine
Sigmund Freud believed that personality develops
during early childhood
Your mom tells you to come to dinner as you are studying for your psychology final. At first, you do not register what your mom says, but then "hear" it a few seconds later. This is an example of using your _____ memory.
echoic
Which part of my brain is probably damaged if I am unable to recognize basic objects around my house?
hippocampus
When people say you never forget how to ride a bike, they are referring to ______ memory, also called non-declarative memory
implicit
The major limitation to case studies is _______.
in the inability to generalize the findings from this approach to the larger population
Birds migrating and sea turtles moving toward the ocean immediately after birth are both examples of _______.
instincts
During which period are sexual feelings dormant as children focus on other pursuits, such as school, friendships, hobbies, and sports
latency
In Freud's model of a dream, the hidden meaning of a dream is called the ______ content.
latent
Behaviorists study ________.
learned behavior
What do psychologists call a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from the experience?
learning
Randolf is walking down the street of his hometown, after being away for several years, when he smells the pies being baked in the local bakery. He suddenly has vivid memories of walking down this street as a child with his parents and feeling happy. This is because of the sense of smell projects directly to the _______, which is responsible for _______ memories.
limbic system, emotional
In order for memory to go into storage (i.e. long-term memory), it has to pass through three distinct stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and _______ memory.
long-term
The _______ is the deep groove that separates the brain into two halves.
longitudinal fissure
What is the set of processes used to encode, store, and retrieve information over different periods of time?
memory
You can find the procedures or the steps researchers took to execute their experiment in which section of the research article?
methods
The _______ is located deep within the brain, and it includes structures such as the substantial nigra and reticular formation.
midbrain
Observable traits of an organism such as the color of hair or eyes.
phenotype
The gland that is often considered the master gland is the
pituitary
Cordelia, an active duty marine, served in Afghanistan. While she was on patrol with her friend, an IED went off, killing her friend and injuring her. In the two months since her friend died, Cordelia has been jumpy, irritable, avoids talking about her friend, and once every few days experiences a flashback to the explosion. Cordelia is experiencing a ________ disorder.
post-traumatic stress
Tariq depends on cigarettes to relieve his stress, though he smokes so frequently that he experiences no significant, noticeable physical symptoms when he is not smoking. What does this exemplify?
psychological dependence
In operant conditioning, what describes adding something to decrease the likelihood of a behavior.
punishment
In order to remember his lines for the play, Guy repeats his lines over and over again. This process is called ________.
rehearsal