ap psych objective questions
Distinguish among different reinforcement schedules and describe how they affect behavior.
A reinforcement schedule defines how often a response will be reinforced. In continuous reinforcement (reinforcing desired responses every time they occur), learning is rapid, but so is extinction if rewards cease. In partial (intermittent) reinforcement (reinforcing responses only sometimes), initial learning is slower, but the behavior is much more resistant to extinction. Fixed-ratio schedules reinforce behaviors after a set number of responses; variable-ratio schedules, after an unpredictable number. Fixed-interval schedules reinforce behaviors after set time periods; variable-interval schedules, after unpredictable time periods.
Describe the roles of the id, ego and superego.
A reservoir of unconscious psychic energy that, according to Freud, strives to satisfy basic sexual and aggressive drives. The id operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. The largely conscious, "executive" part of personality that, according to Freud, mediates among the demands of the id, superego, and reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, satisfying the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. The part of personality that, according to Freud, represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgement (the conscience) and for future aspirations.
Describe how we differentiate between normal versus abnormal behavior
According to psychologists and psychiatrists, a psychological disorder is a syndrome marked by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual's cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior. Disordered thoughts, emotions, or behaviors are dysfunctional or maladaptive, interfering with normal daily life.
Explain achievement motivation and grit and why they are important in life.
Achievement motivation is a desire for significant accomplishment, for mastery of skills or ideas, for control, and for attaining a high standard. High achievement motivation leads to greater success, especially when combined with determined, persistent grit.
Describe key physical, cognitive, and social developments that occur in adolescence.
Adolescence is the transition period from childhood to adulthood, extending from puberty to social independence. For boys, early maturation has mixed effects; for girls, early maturation can be a challenge. The brain's frontal lobes mature and myelin growth increases during adolescence and the early twenties, enabling improved judgment, impulse control, and long-term planning. Erikson theorized that each life stage has its own psychosocial task, and that a chief task of adolescence is solidifying one's sense of self—one's identity. This often means "trying on" a number of different roles. Social identity is the part of the self-concept that comes from a person's group memberships. Erikson believed that adolescent identity formation is followed in young adulthood by a developing capacity for intimacy.
Describe the parts of the eye and explain the role each plays in helping us see.
After entering the eye through the cornea, passing through the pupil and iris, and being focused by the lens, light energy particles (from a thin slice of the broad spectrum of electromagnetic energy) strike the eye's inner surface, the retina. The retina's light-sensitive rods and color-sensitive cones convert light energy into neural impulses. Cones are found in and around the fovea. Many cones have a direct hotline to the brain, transmitting their message to a single bipolar cell that relates it to the visual cortex. Rods are found in the retina's outer regions. Several rods together transmit their energy to a single bipolar cell. Cones and rods each provide a special sensitivity—cones to detail and color, rods to faint light and peripheral motion. After processing by bipolar and ganglion cells in the eyes' retina, neural impulses travel through the optic nerve, to the thalamus, and on to the visual cortex.
Explain the social-cognitive perspective on personality and how different influences shape personality.
Albert Bandura first proposed the social-cognitive perspective, which views personality as the product of the interaction between a person's traits (including thinking) and the situation (the social world around us). The behavioral approach contributes an understanding that our personality development is affected by learned responses. Social-cognitive researchers apply principles of learning, as well as cognition and social behavior, to personality. Reciprocal determinism describes the interaction and mutual influence of behavior, internal personal factors, and environmental factors. Assessment situations involving simulated conditions exploit the principle that the best predictor of future behavior is a person's behavior patterns in similar situations. However, social-cognitive theorists do not take into account as much how biological influences can also shape personality.
Name the neo-Freudians and explain their contributions to theories of personality development.
Alfred Adler believed that much of our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger our strivings for superiority and power, creating the popular inferiority complex idea. Karen Horney said childhood anxiety triggers our desire for love and security. She also opposed Freud's assumptions that women have weak superegos and suffer "penis envy," and she attempted to balance his masculine bias. Carl Jung placed less emphasis on social factors and agreed with Freud that the unconscious exerts a powerful influence. But to Jung, the unconscious contains more than our repressed thoughts and feelings. He believed we also have a collective unconscious, a common reservoir of images, or archetypes, derived from our species' universal experiences. Jung said that the collective unconscious explains why, for many people, spiritual concerns are deeply rooted and why people in different cultures share certain myths and images.
Explain the relationship between thinking and language.
Although Benjamin Lee Whorf's linguistic determinism hypothesis suggested that language defines thought, it is more accurate to say that language influences thought (linguistic influence). Different languages embody different ways of thinking, and immersion in bilingual education can enhance thinking.
Discuss the cognitive processes and strategies we use, and explain how they help and/or hinder our problem solving.
An algorithm is a methodical, logical rule or procedure (such as a step-by-step description for evacuating a building during a fire) that guarantees a solution to a problem. A heuristic is a simple thinking strategy that is usually speedier than an algorithm but is also more error-prone. Insight is not a strategy-based solution, but rather a sudden flash of inspiration that solves a problem. Obstacles to problem solving include confirmation bias, which predisposes us to verify rather than challenge our hypotheses, and fixation, such as mental set, which may prevent us from taking the fresh perspective that would lead to a solution.
Explain how biological constraints and cognitive processes affect conditioning.
An animal's capacity for conditioning is limited by biological constraints, so that learning some associations is easier than learning others. Learning is adaptive: Each species learns behaviors that aid its survival—a phenomenon called preparedness. Those who readily learned taste aversions were unlikely to eat the same toxic food again and were more likely to survive and leave descendants. Nature constrains each species' capacity for both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Our preparedness to associate a CS with a US that follows predictably and immediately is often (but not always) adaptive. During operant training, animals may display instinctive drift by reverting to biologically predisposed patterns. In classical conditioning, animals may learn when to expect a US and may be aware of the link between stimuli and responses. In operant conditioning, cognitive mapping and latent learning research demonstrate the importance of cognitive processes in learning. Other research shows that some learning can occur after little or no systematic interaction with our environment (insight learning), and that excessive rewards (driving extrinsic motivation) can undermine intrinsic motivation.
Explain eating disorders and their psychological forces
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder are the three main eating disorders. Despite being significantly underweight, people with anorexia nervosa (usually adolescent females) continue to diet because they view themselves as fat. Those with bulimia nervosa (usually females in their late teens and twenties) secretly binge and then compensate by purging, fasting, or excessively exercising. Unlike anorexia, bulimia is marked by weight fluctuations within or above normal ranges. Those with binge-eating disorder binge but do not follow bingeing with purging, fasting, or exercise. Low self-esteem, perfectionism, concern with others' perceptions, and cultural pressure—which include body ideals that vary across time and place, often perpetuated through media—interact with stressful life experiences and genetics to produce eating disorders.
Explain the different anxiety disorders and mood disorders
Anxious feelings and behaviors are classified as an anxiety disorder when they form a pattern of distressing, persistent anxiety or maladaptive behaviors that reduce anxiety. People with generalized anxiety disorder feel persistently and uncontrollably tense and apprehensive for no apparent reason. In the more extreme panic disorder, anxiety escalates into periodic episodes of intense dread. Those with phobia may be irrationally afraid of a specific object, activity, or situation. Persistent and repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and behaviors (compulsions) characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jumpy anxiety, and sleep problems following some traumatic experience. A person with major depressive disorder experiences at least five symptoms of depression (including either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure) for two or more weeks. A person with persistent depressive disorder experiences a mildly depressed mood more often than not for at least two years as well as at least two symptoms of depression. A person with the less common condition of bipolar disorder experiences not only depression but also mania—episodes of hyperactive and wildly optimistic, impulsive behavior.
Explain how attitudes and social factors influence behavior
Attitudes are feelings, often influenced by our beliefs, that predispose us to respond in certain ways. Peripheral route persuasion uses incidental cues (such as celebrity endorsement) to try to produce fast but relatively thoughtless changes in attitudes. Central route persuasion offers evidence and arguments to trigger thoughtful responses. When other influences are minimal, attitudes that are stable, specific, and easily recalled can affect our actions. Actions can modify attitudes, as in the foot-in-the-door phenomenon (complying with a large request after having agreed to a small request) and role playing (acting a social part by following guidelines for expected behavior).
Describe biomedical therapy, electroconvulsive therapy and psychosurgery and why one would use each.
Biomedical therapy treats psychological disorders with medication or procedures that act directly on a patient's physiology. This can include lifestyle changes and drug therapies, which could be used to treat mild to moderate psychological disorders such as depression. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), in which a brief electric current is sent through the brain of an anesthetized patient, is an effective treatment for people with severe depression who have not responded to other therapy. Psychosurgery removes or destroys brain tissue in hopes of modifying behavior. Brain surgery is a last resort-treatment because its effects are irreversible.
Explain the effects of neglect, abuse and family disruption on development.
Children are very resilient, but those who are moved repeatedly, severely neglected by their parents, or otherwise prevented from forming attachments by an early age may be at risk for attachment problems. Extreme trauma in childhood may alter the brain, affecting our stress responses or leaving epigenetic marks.
Distinguish among the unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, and conditioned response in classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli and anticipate events. The process involves stimuli and responses: A UR is an event that occurs naturally (such as salivation), in response to some stimulus. A US is something that naturally and automatically (without learning) triggers the unlearned response (as food in the mouth triggers salivation). A CS is originally an NS (neutral stimulus, such as a tone) that, after association with a US (such as food) comes to trigger a CR. A CR is the learned response (salivating) to the originally neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus.
Describe the ways in which classical conditioning has been applied to other areas of psychology.
Classical conditioning techniques are used to improve human health and well-being in many areas, including therapy for those recovering from drug addiction and for some types of psychological disorders. The body's immune system may also respond to classical conditioning. Pavlov's work also provided a basis for Watson's idea that human emotions and behaviors, though biologically influenced, are mainly a bundle of conditioned responses. Watson applied classical conditioning principles in his studies of "Little Albert" to demonstrate how specific fears might be conditioned.
Describe the Big Five personality traits and how they are measured.
Conscientiousness is how responsible and dependable someone is, agreeableness is someone who is trusting, warm, giving, and tolerant, neuroticism is negative, anxious, and poor self-esteem, openness is creativity and adventure-seeking, and extraversion is outgoingness. These are measured through self-report personality tests such as the NEO test we took in class.
Describe the importance of the unconscious and how it is assessed through projective tests.
Contemporary psychodynamic theorists and therapists stress, with support from modern research findings, the view that much of our mental life is unconscious, and they believe that our childhood experiences influence our adult personality and attachment patterns. Many also believe that our species' shared evolutionary history shaped some universal predispositions. Projective tests attempt to assess personality by showing people ambiguous stimuli with many possible interpretations; answers reveal unconscious motives. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and the Rorschach inkblot test are two such tests. The TAT provides a valid and reliable roadmap of people's implicit motives, and responses have been shown to be consistent over time. The Rorschach has low reliability and validity, but some clinicians value it as a source of suggestive leads, an icebreaker, or a revealing interview technique.
Identify the different categories of drugs, describe their effects on the body, and give examples of specific drugs within each category.
Depressants, such as alcohol, barbiturates, and the opiates (which include narcotics), dampen neural activity and slow body functions. Alcohol disinhibits, increasing the likelihood that we will act on our impulses, whether harmful or helpful. It also impairs judgement by slowing neural processing, disrupts memory processes by suppressing REM sleep, and reduces self-awareness and self-control. User expectations strongly influence alcohol's behavioral effects. Stimulants—including caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, the amphetamines, methamphetamine, and Ecstasy—excite neural activity and speed up body functions, triggering energy and mood changes. All are highly addictive. Nicotine's effects make smoking a difficult habit to kick, yet repeated attempts to quit seem to pay off. Cocaine gives users a fast high, followed shortly by a crash. Its risks include cardiovascular stress and suspiciousness. Amphetamines stimulate neural activity. Use of methamphetamines may permanently reduce dopamine production. Ecstasy (MDMA) is a combined stimulant and mild hallucinogen that produces euphoria and feelings of intimacy. Its users risk immune system suppression, permanent damage to mood and memory, and (if taken during physical activity) dehydration and escalating body temperatures. Hallucinogens—such as LSD and marijuana—distort perceptions and evoke hallucinations (sensory images in the absence of sensory input), some of which resemble the altered consciousness of near-death experiences. The user's mood and expectations influence the effects of LSD, but common experiences are hallucinations and emotions varying from euphoria to panic. Marijuana's main ingredient, THC, may trigger feelings of disinhibition, euphoria, relaxation, relief from pain and chemotherapy-related nausea, and intense sensitivity to sensory stimuli. Marijuana use is predictive of increased risk of traffic accidents, chronic bronchitis, psychosis, social anxiety disorder, and suicidal thoughts; and likely contributes to impaired attention, learning, memory, and possibly to academic underachievement.
Explain how depth perception, cues, and perceptual constancies help us interpret what we see.
Depth perception is our ability to see objects in three dimensions and judge distance. The visual cliff and other research demonstrate that many species naturally perceive the world in three dimensions at, or very soon after, birth. Binocular cues, such as retinal disparity, are depth cues that rely on information from both eyes. Monocular cues (such as relative size, interposition, relative height, relative motion, linear perspective, and light and shadow) let us judge depth using information transmitted by only one eye. As objects move, we assume that shrinking objects are retreating and enlarging objects are approaching. A quick succession of images on the retina can create an illusion of movement, as in stroboscopic movement (experienced when viewing filmed images) and the phi phenomenon (when we perceive movement between blinking lights). Perceptual constancy enables us to perceive objects as stable despite the changing image they cast on our retinas. Color constancy is our ability to perceive consistent color in objects, even though the lighting and wavelengths shift. Brightness (or lightness) constancy is our ability to perceive an object as having a constant lightness even when its illumination—the light cast upon it—changes. Our brain constructs our experience of an object's color or brightness through comparisons with other surrounding objects. Shape constancy is our ability to perceive familiar objects (such as an opening door) as unchanging in shape. Size constancy is perceiving objects as unchanging in size despite their changing retinal images. Knowing an object's size gives us clues to its distance; knowing its distance gives clues about its size, but we sometimes misread monocular distance cues and reach the wrong conclusions, as in the Moon illusion.
Describe drive-reduction theory, arousal theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
Drive-reduction theory explores how physiological needs create aroused tension states (drives) that direct us to satisfy those needs. Environmental incentives can intensify drives, and we can be motivated intrinsically or extrinsically. Drive reduction's goal is homeostasis, maintaining a steady internal state. Optimal arousal theory proposes that some behaviors (such as those driven by curiosity) do not reduce physiological needs but rather are prompted by a search for an optimum level of arousal. The Yerkes-Dodson law states that performance increases with arousal, but only to a certain point, after which it decreases. Performance peaks at lower levels of arousal for difficult tasks, and at higher levels for easy or well-learned tasks. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs proposes a pyramid of human needs, from basic needs such as hunger and thirst up to higher-level needs such as self-actualization and self-transcendence.
Explain the factors that influence what we remember and what we forget.
Emotional arousal causes an outpouring of stress hormones, which lead to activity in the brain's memory-forming areas. Significantly emotional events can trigger very clear flashbulb memories. External cues activate associations that help us retrieve memories; this process may occur without our awareness, as it does in priming. Returning to the same physical context or emotional state (mood congruency) in which we formed a memory can help us retrieve it. The serial position effect accounts for our tendency to recall best the last items (which may still be in working memory) and the first items (which we've spent more time rehearsing) in a list. Anterograde amnesia is an inability to form new memories. Retrograde amnesia is an inability to retrieve old memories. Normal forgetting happens because we have encoded information, because the physical trace has decayed, or because we cannot retrieve what we have encoded and stored. Retrieval problems may result from proactive (forward-acting) interference, as prior learning interferes with recall of new information, or from retroactive (backward-acting) interference, as new learning disrupts recall of old information. Some believe that motivated forgetting occurs, but researchers have found little evidence of repression.
Explain the different theories of emotion.
Emotions are psychological responses of the whole organism involving an interplay among physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience. Theories of emotion generally address two major questions: Does physiological arousal come before or after emotional feelings, and how do cognition and feeling interact? The James-Lange theory maintains that emotional feelings follow our body's response to emotion-inducing stimuli. The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that our body responds to emotion at the same time that we experience the emotion (one does not cause the other). The Schachter-Singer two factor theory holds that our emotions have two ingredients, physical arousal and a cognitive label, and the cognitive labels we put on our states of arousal are an essential ingredient of emotion.
Describe Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.
Erikson believed in eight stages throughout a person's lifetime: trust vs. mistrust (0-1)—if needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust; autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-3)—toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities; initiative vs. guilt (3-6)—preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent; competence vs. inferiority (6-puberty)—children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior; identity vs. role confusion (teen-20s)—teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are; intimacy vs. isolation (20s-40s)—young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated; generativity vs. stagnation (40s-60s)—middle-aged people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose; and integrity vs. despair (late 60s+)—reflecting on their lives, older adults may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure.
Describe the stages of the human sexual arousal cycle.
Excitement is when the genital areas become engorged with blood, causing a woman's clitoris and a man's penis to swell. A woman's vagina expands and secretes lubricant; her breasts and nipples may enlarge. Plateau is when excitement peaks as breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates continue to increase. A man's penis becomes fully engorged—to an average length of 5.6 inches among 1661 men who measured themselves for condom fitting. Some fluid—frequently containing enough live sperm to enable conception—may appear at its tip. A woman's vaginal secretion continues to increase. Orgasm is when muscle contractions appear all over the body and are accompanied by further increases in breathing, pulse, and blood pressure rates. The pleasurable feeling of sexual release is much the same for both sexes. One panel of experts could not reliably distinguish between descriptions of orgasm written by men and those written by women. In another study, PET scans showed that the same subcortical brain regions were active in men and women during orgasm. Resolution is when the body gradually returns to its unaroused state as the genital blood vessels release their accumulated blood. This happens relatively quickly if orgasm has occurred, relatively slowly otherwise. Men then enter a refractory period that lasts from a few minutes to a day or more, during which they are incapable of another orgasm. A woman's much shorter refractory period may enable her, restimulated during or soon after resolution, to have more orgasms.
Differentiate between implicit and explicit memory. Give real life examples to illustrate each type
Explicit (declarative) memories—our conscious memories of facts and experiences—develop with effortful processing, which requires conscious effort and attention. An example of this would be taking effort to remember where you are leaving your keys so you don't lose them. Implicit (nondeclarative) memories—of skills and classically conditioned associations—happen without our awareness, through automatic processing. An example of this would be losing your keys and remembering where you were to retrace your steps despite not taking care to remember before.
Explain how internal and external stimuli influence sexual arousal.
External stimuli can trigger sexual arousal in both men and women. Viewing sexually coercive material can lead to increased acceptance of violence toward women. Viewing sexually explicit materials can cause people to perceive their partners as comparatively less appealing and to devalue their relationships. Imagined stimuli (dreams and fantasies) help trigger sexual arousal.
Explain the differences between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is motivation that originates from external reasons such as getting good grades and winning competitions, whereas intrinsic motivation comes from internal reasons such as doing a job of choice.
Explain the psychoanalytic approach to personality development.
Freud believed children pass through five psychosexual staged (oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital). According to this view, unresolved conflicts at any stage can leave a person's pleasure-seeking impulses fixated (stalled) at that stage. For Freud, anxiety was the product of tensions between the demands of the id and superego. The ego copes by using unconscious defense mechanisms, such as repression, which he viewed as the basic mechanism underlying and enabling all the others.
Describe the three clusters of personality disorders
Personality disorders are disruptive, inflexible, and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning. These disorders form clusters, based on three main characteristics: (1) anxiety; (2) eccentric or odd behaviors; and (3) dramatic or impulsive behaviors
Explain our understanding of the development of gender and sexual orientation.
Gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed expectations about what it means to be a boy, girl, man, or woman. Sex refers to our biological status as male or female, defined by our chromosomes and anatomy. We might say that our body defines our sex, while our mind defines our gender. Gender roles, the behaviors a culture expects from its men and women, vary across place and time. Social learning theory proposes that we learn gender identity—our personal sense of being male, female, or some combination of the two—as we learn other things: through reinforcement, punishment, and observation. Critics argue that cognition also plays a role, as gender typing varies between children. We seem to conform in ways that feel comfortable to us, whether that means taking on a male role, female role, or blend of the two (androgyny). Transgender people's gender identity differs from the behaviors or traits considered typical for their biological sex. Their sexual orientation may be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual. Sexual orientation is an enduring sexual attraction, usually toward members of one's own sex (homosexual orientation) or the other sex (heterosexual orientation). Variations include attraction toward both sexes (bisexual orientation). Today's psychologists view sexual orientation as neither willfully chosen nor willfully changed. There is no evidence that environmental influences determine sexual orientation. Evidence for biological influences includes the presence of same-sex attraction in many animal species, straight-gay differences in body and brain characteristics, higher rates of homosexuality in certain families and in identical twins, the effect of exposure to certain hormones during critical periods of prenatal development, and the fraternal birth-order effect.
Describe the Gestalt psychologists' understanding of perceptual organization, and explain how figure-ground and grouping principles contribute to our perceptions.
Gestalt psychologists searched for rules by which the brain organizes fragments of sensory data into gestalts (from the German word for "whole"), or meaningful forms. In pointing out that the whole may exceed the sum of its parts, they noted that we filter sensory information and construct our perceptions. To recognize an object, we must first perceive it (see it as a figure) as distinct from its surroundings (the ground). We bring order and form to stimuli by organizing them into meaningful groups, following such rules as proximity, continuity, and closure.
Describe the physiological and social factors related to hunger.
Hunger's pangs correspond to the stomach's contraction, but hunger also has other causes. Neural areas in the brain, some within the hypothalamus, monitor blood chemistry (including glucose level) and incoming information about the body's states. Appetite hormones include insulin (controls blood glucose), ghrelin (secreted by an empty stomach), leptin (secreted by fat cells), orexin (secreted by the hypothalamus), and PYY (secreted by the digestive tract). Basal metabolic rate is the body's resting rate of energy expenditure. The body may have a set point (a biologically fixed tendency to maintain an optimum weight) or a looser settling point (also influenced by the environment). Hunger also reflects our memory of when we last ate and our expectation of when we should eat again. Humans as species prefer certain tastes (such as sweet and salty), but our individual preferences are also influenced by conditioning, culture, and situation. Some taste preferences, such as the avoidance of new foods or of foods that have made us ill, have survival value.
Define hypnosis and describe its practical applications.
Hypnosis is a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur. Hypnosis does not enhance recall of forgotten events (it may even evoke false memories). It cannot force people to act against their will, though hypnotized people, like unhypnotized people, may perform unlikely acts. Posthypnotic suggestions have helped people harness their own healing powers but have not been effective in treating addiction. Hypnosis can help relieve pain.
Explain the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination in classical conditioning.
In classical conditioning, the first stage is acquisition, or associating an NS with the US so that the NS begins triggering the CR. Acquisition occurs most readily when the NS is presented just before (ideally, about a half-second before) a US, preparing the organism for the upcoming event. This finding supports the view that classical conditioning is biologically adaptive. Through higher-order conditioning, a new NS can become a new CS. Extinction is diminished responding, which occurs if the CS appears repeatedly by itself (without the US). Spontaneous recovery is the appearance of a formerly extinguished response, following a rest period. Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a CS. Discrimination is the learned ability to distinguish between a CS and other irrelevant stimuli.
Explain the difference between classical and operant conditioning, and give an example of each.
In classical conditioning, we learn to associate two or more stimuli (a stimulus is any event or situation that evokes a response). Automatically responding to stimuli we do not control is called respondent behavior. One example is when a dog learns to associate the sound of a bell with receiving food, so salivates at the sound of a bell. In operant conditioning, we learn to associate a response and its consequences. These associations produce operant behaviors. One example is when a child gets a cookie after saying please, so they learn that when they say please they get a cookie.
Describe Piaget's theory of cognitive development.
In his theory of cognitive development, Jean Piaget proposed that children actively construct and modify their understanding of the world through the processes of assimilation and accommodation. They form schemas that help them organize their experiences. Progressing from the simplicity of the sensorimotor stage of the first two year, in which they develop object permanence, children move to more complex ways of thinking. In the preoperational stage (about age 2 to about 6 or 7), they develop a theory of mind, but they are egocentric and are unable to perform simple logical operations. By age 7, they enter the concrete operational stage and are able to comprehend the principle of conservation. By age 12, children enter the formal operational stage and can reason systematically. Research supports the sequence Piaget proposed, but it also shows that young children and more capable, and their development is more continuous, than he believed.
Explain the role of defense mechanisms, and describe the different types of defense mechanisms.
In psychoanalytic theory, defense mechanisms are the ego's protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality. Regression is retreating to an earlier psychosexual stage, where some psychic energy remains fixated. Reaction formation is switching unacceptable impulses into their opposites. Projection is disguising one's own threatening impulses by attributing them to others. Rationalization is offering self-justifying explanations in place of the real, more threatening unconscious reasons for one's actions. Displacement is shifting sexual or aggressive impulses toward a more acceptable or less threatening object or person. Sublimation is transferring of unacceptable impulses into socially valued motives. Denial is refusing to believe or even perceive painful realities.
Explain the different biological, psychological and social factors that lead to aggressive behavior
In psychology's more specific meaning, aggression is any act intended to harm someone physically or emotionally. Biology influences our threshold for aggressive behaviors at three levels: genetic (inherited traits), neural (activity in key brain areas), and biochemical (such as alcohol or excess testosterone in the bloodstream). Aggression is a complex behavior resulting from the interaction of biology and experience. Frustration (the frustration-aggression principle), previous reinforcement for aggressive behavior, observing an aggressive role model, and poor self-control can all contribute to aggression. Media portrayals of violence provide social scripts that children learn to follow. Viewing sexual violence contributes to greater aggression toward women. Playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.
Explain how groups influence behavior
In social facilitation, the mere presence of others arouses us, improving our performance on easy or well-learned tasks but decreasing it on difficult ones. In social loafing, participating in a group project makes us feel less responsible, and we may free ride on others' efforts. When the presence of others both arouses us and makes us feel anonymous, we may experience deindividuation—loss of self-awareness and self-restraint. In group polarization, group discussions with like-minded others strengthen members' prevailing beliefs and attitudes. Internet communication magnifies the effect of connecting like-minded people, for better and for worse. People find support, which strengthens their ideas, but also often isolation from those with different opinions. Separation plus conversation may thus lead to group polarization. Groupthink is driven by a desire for harmony within a decision-making group, overriding realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group leaders can harness the benefits of group interactions by assigning people to identify possible problems, and by welcoming various opinions and expert critique. A culture is a set of behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group and transmitted from one generation to the next. Cultures differ across time and space.
Explain how Kohlberg described moral development.
Lawrence Kohlberg proposed a stage theory of moral reasoning, from a preconventional morality of self-interest, to a conventional morality concerned with upholding laws and social rules, to (in some people) a postconventional morality of universal ethical principles.
Explain Vygotsky's perspective on the mental development of the child.
Lev Vygotsky's studies of child development focused on the ways a child's mind grows by interacting with the social environment. In his view, parents and caretakers provide what we now call temporary scaffolds enabling children to step to higher levels of learning.
Discuss why some psychologists consider hypnosis to be a social phenomenon, and others consider it an example of divided consciousness.
Many psychologists believe that hypnosis is a form of normal social influence and that hypnotized people act out the role of "good subject" by following directions given by an authoritative person. Other psychologists view hypnosis as a dissociation - a split between normal sensations and conscious awareness. Selective attention may also contribute by blocking attention to certain stimuli.
Define memory, and describe the stages in the information processing model of memory.
Memory is learning that has persisted over time, through the storage and retrieval of information. Evidence of memory may be seen in an ability to recall information, recognize it, or relearn it more easily on a later attempt. Psychologists use memory models to think and communicate about memory. Information-processing models involve three processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval. Through parallel processing, the human brain processes many things simultaneously. The connectionism information-processing model views memories as products of interconnected neural networks. The three processing stages in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model are sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. More recent research has updated this model to include two important concepts: (1) working memory, to stress the active processing occurring in the second memory stage; and (2) automatic processing, to address the processing of information outside of conscious awareness
Describe the physical, cognitive, and social changes that occur in middle and late adulthood.
Muscular strength, reaction time, sensory abilities, and cardiac output begin to decline in the mid-twenties and continue to decline throughout middle and late adulthood. Women's period of fertility ends with menopause around age 50. Men experience a more gradual decline in fertility and sexual response. In late adulthood, the immune system weakens, increasing susceptibility to life-threatening illnesses. Chromosome tips (telomeres) wear down, reducing the chances of normal genetic replication. But for some, longevity-supporting genes, low stress, and good health habits enable better health in later life.
Compare the relative effectiveness of different types of therapies
No one type of psychotherapy is generally superior to all others. Therapy is most effective for those with clear-cut, specific problems. Some therapies—such as behavior conditioning for treating phobias and compulsions—are more effective for specific disorders. Psychodynamic therapy has helped treat depression and anxiety, and cognitive and cognitive-behavioral therapies have been effective in helping people cope with anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and depression. Evidence-based practice integrates the best available research with clinicians' expertise and patients' characteristics, preferences, and circumstances.
Explain how observational learning is different from associative learning, then give a few examples of studies illustrating observational learning in humans or animals.
Observational learning involves learning by watching and imitating, rather than learning associations between different events. We learn to anticipate a behavior's consequences, because we experience vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment. Our brain's frontal lobes have a demonstrated ability to mirror the activity of another's brain. The same areas fire when we perform certain actions (such as responding to pain or moving our mouth to form words), as when we observe someone else performing those actions. Some psychologists believe mirror neurons enable this process. (Others argue it may be more due to the brain's distributed brain networks.) A few examples of studies illustrating observational learning in humans or animals are Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, Erica van de Waal's experiment with monkeys learning to prefer different colors of food, and a study showing that European Christians who risked their lives to rescue Jews from the Nazis usually had a close relationship with at least one parent who modeled a strong moral or humanitarian concern.
Describe the difference between absolute thresholds and difference thresholds.
Our absolute threshold for any stimulus is the minimum stimulation necessary for us to be consciously aware of it 50 percent of the time. Signal detection theory predicts how and when we will detect a faint stimulus amid background noise. Individual absolute thresholds vary, depending on the strength of the signal and also on our experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness. Our difference threshold (also called just noticeable difference, or jnd) is the minimum stimulus difference we can discern 50 percent of the time. Weber's law states that two stimuli must differ by a constant percentage (not a constant amount) to be perceived as different.
Discuss the biological influences on our sleep patterns.
Our bodies have an internal biological clock, roughly synchronized with the 24-hour cycle of night and day. This circadian rhythm appears in our daily patterns of body temperature, arousal, sleeping, and waking. Age and experiences can alter these patterns, resetting our biological clock. Biology—our circadian rhythm as well as our age and our body's production of melatonin (influenced by the brain's suprachiasmatic nucleus)—interacts with cultural expectations and individual behaviors to determine our sleeping and waking patterns. Being bathed in (or deprived of) light disrupts our 24-hour biological clock. Night-shift workers may experience a chronic state of desynchronization.
Explain how we identify the loudness, pitch, and location of sounds.
Our brain interprets loudness from the number of activated hair cells (and louder sounds activate greater number of hair cells). Place theory explains how we hear high-pitched sounds, and frequency theory explains how we hear low-pitched sounds. A combination of the two theories explains how we hear pitches in the middle range. Place theory proposes that our brain interprets a particular pitch by decoding the place where a sound wave stimulates the cochlea's basilar membrane. Frequency theory proposes that the brain deciphers the frequency of the neural impulses traveling up the auditory nerve to the brain. By alternating their firing (the volleyball principle), neural cells enable us to sense sounds with frequencies that exceed the firing speed of an individual neuron. Sound waves strike one ear sooner and more intensely than the other. The brain analyzes the minute differences in the sounds received by the two ears and computes the sound's source.
Define affiliation need and explain the evolutionary perspective on why it might exist.
Our need to affiliate or belong—to feel connected and identified with others—had survival value for our ancestors, which may explain why humans in every society live in groups. Social bonds help us to be healthier and happier. Feeling loved activates brain regions associated with reward and safety systems. Ostracism is the deliberate exclusion of individuals or groups. People often respond to ostracism with initial efforts to restore their acceptance, with depressed moods, and finally with withdrawal. Social isolation can put us at risk mentally and physically. People suffer when socially excluded, and they may engage in self-defeating or antisocial behaviors.
Give several concrete research results that support our need to belong, as well as research results that illustrate what happens when we are socially excluded.
Our need to affiliate or belong—to feel connected and identified with others—had survival value for our ancestors, which may explain why humans in every society live in groups. Social bonds help us to be healthier and happier. Feeling loved activates brain regions associated with reward and safety systems. Ostracism is the deliberate exclusion of individuals or groups. People often respond to ostracism with initial efforts to restore their acceptance, with depressed moods, and finally with withdrawal. Social isolation can put us at risk mentally and physically. People suffer when socially excluded, and they may engage in self-defeating or antisocial behaviors.
Explain how wellbeing changes across the life span.
Our self-confidence and sense of identity tends to strengthen across the life span. Surveys show that life satisfaction is unrelated to age. Positive emotions increase after midlife and negative ones decrease. As we age, we experience fewer extremes of emotion and mood.
Describe the sense of touch, and explain the biological and psychological influences on our experience of pain.
Our sense of touch is actually several senses—pressure, warmth, cold, and pain—that combine to produce other sensations, such as hot. The biopsychosocial perspective views our perception of pain as the sum of biological, psychological, and socio-cultural influences. Pain reflects bottom-up sensations (such as input from nociceptors, the sensory receptors that detect hurtful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals) and top-down processes (such as experience, attention, and culture). The gate-control theory of pain is that a "gate" in the spinal cord either opens to permit pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers to reach the brain or closes to prevent their passage. The brain can also create pain, as it does in phantom limb sensations. (This phenomenon can affect the other senses as well.) Pain treatments often combine physical and psychological elements, including placebos and distractions. Placebos can diminish the central nervous system's attention and responses to painful experiences. Distraction can activate neural pathways that inhibit pain and increase pain tolerance.
Describe Schizophrenia and dissociative disorders
People with schizophrenia display symptoms that are positive (inappropriate behavior are present) or negative (appropriate behaviors are absent). Positive symptoms may include hallucinations, delusions, talking in a disorganized way, and inappropriate laughter, tears, or rage. Negative symptoms may include toneless voices, expressionless faces, or mute and rigid bodies. Dissociative disorders are conditions in which conscious awareness seems to become separated from previous memories, thoughts, and feelings.
Describe how assumptions, expectations, and contexts affect perception.
Perceptual set is a mental predisposition that functions as a lens through which we perceive the world. Our learned concepts (schemas) prime us to organize and interpret ambiguous stimuli in certain ways. Our motivation, as well as our physical and emotional context, can create expectations and color our interpretation of events and behaviors.
Explain the structural components of language, and discuss how children develop language.
Phonemes are a language's basic units of sounds. Morphemes are the elementary units of meaning. Grammar—the system of rules that enables us to communicate—includes semantics (rules for deriving meaning) and syntax (rules for ordering words into sentences). Language development's timing varies, but all children follow the same sequence. Receptive language (the ability to understand what is said to or about you) develops before productive language (the ability to produce words). At about 4 months of age, infants babble, making sounds found in languages from all over the world. By about 10 months, their babbling contains only the sounds found in their household language. Around 12 months of age, children begin to speak in single words. This one-word stage evolves into two-word (telegraphic) utterances before their second birthday, after which they begin speaking in full sentences. Childhood represents a critical period for language learning, and those who have not been exposed to a spoken or signed language by age 7 lose their ability to master any language. Deaf children born to hearing-nonsigning parents often demonstrate the impact of early language experiences.
Describe the rationale for preventive mental health programs
Preventive mental health programs are based on the idea that many psychological disorders could be prevented by changing oppressive, esteem-destroying environments into more benevolent, nurturing environments that foster growth, self-confidence, and resilience. Building resilience might prevent some disorders or even enable posttraumatic growth.
Describe the different factors that contribute to attraction
Proximity (geographical nearness) increases liking, in part because of the mere exposure effect—exposure to novel stimuli increases liking of those stimuli. Physical attractiveness increases social opportunities and improves the way we are perceived. Similarity of attitudes and interests greatly increases liking, especially as relationships develop. We also like those who like us.
Define tolerance and addiction, and explain when drug use is considered a disorder.
Psychoactive drugs may produce tolerance—requiring larger doses to achieve the desired effect—and withdrawal—significant discomfort, due to strong addictive cravings, accompanying efforts to quit. Addiction prompts users to crave the drug and to continue use despite known adverse consequences. Psychologists try to avoid overuse of "addiction" to label driven, excessive behaviors. However, there are some behavior addictions (such as gambling disorder) in which behaviors become compulsive and dysfunctional. Those with a substance use disorder experience continued substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and/or physical risk.
Explain Freud's views on personality.
Psychodynamic theories view personality from the perspective that behavior is a lively (dynamic) interaction between the conscious and unconscious mind. The theories trace their origin to Sigmund Freud's theory of psychoanalysis. Freud believed that personality results from conflict arising from the interaction among the mind's three systems: the id (pleasure-seeking impulses), ego (reality-oriented executive), and superego (internalized set of ideals, or conscience). In treating patients whose disorders had no clear physical explanation, Freud concluded that these problems reflected unacceptable thoughts and feelings, hidden away in the unconscious mind. To explore this hidden part of a patient's mind, Freud used free association and dream analysis.
Explain how psychological disorders are labeled
Psychological disorders are labeled using the DSM-V, which contains diagnostic labels and descriptions that provide a common language and shared concepts for communication and research.
Describe key research on attachment between children and parents.
Psychologists Harry Harlow and Margaret Harlow raised monkeys with two artificial mothers—one a bare wire cylinder with a wooden head and an attached feeding bottle, the other a cylinder with no bottle but covered with foam rubber and wrapped with terry cloth. The Harlows' discovery surprised many psychologists: The infants much preferred contact with the comfortable cloth mother, even while feeding from the wire nourishing mother. Mary Ainsworth designed the strange situation experiment. She observed mother-infant pairs at home during their first six months. Later she observed the 1-year-old infants in a strange situation (usually a laboratory playroom) with and without their mothers. Ainsworth and others found that sensitive, responsive mothers—those who noticed what their babies were doing and responded appropriately—had infants who exhibited secure attachment. Insensitive, unresponsive mothers—mothers who attended to their babies when they felt like doing so but ignored them at other times—often had infants who were insecurely attached.
Explain the difference among the following terms, and give an example of each: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, negative punishment.
Reinforcement is any consequence that strengthens behavior. Positive reinforcement adds a desirable stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior, such as feeding a dog when it sits. Negative reinforcement reduces or removes an aversive stimulus to increase the frequency of a behavior (such as putting on a jacket when it is cold). Positive punishment administers an undesirable consequence (such as spanking) whereas negative punishment withdraws something desirable (such as taking away a favorite toy), both in attempt to decrease the frequency of a behavior (such as a child's disobedience).
Explain how memory is constructive.
Repeatedly "replaying" memories may alter them, leading to the introduction of inaccuracies (a process called reconsolidation). In experiments demonstrating the misinformation effect, people have formed false memories by incorporating misleading details—either after receiving wrong information after an event, or after repeatedly imagining and rehearsing something that never happened. When we reassemble a memory during retrieval, we may attribute it to the wrong source (source amnesia). Source amnesia may help explain déjà vu. False memories feel like real memories and can be persistent but are usually limited to the main gist of the event.
Give several concrete research results on the impact of stress on health.
Research has found that surgical wounds heal more slowly in stressed people, stressed people are more vulnerable to colds, and that stress can hasten the course of disease.
What are the risk factors for suffering from a psychological disorder
Risk factors include academic failure, birth complications, caring for those who are chronically ill or who have a neurological disorder, child abuse and neglect, chronic insomnia, chronic pain, family disorganization or conflict, low birth weight, low socioeconomic status, medical illness, neurochemical imbalance, parental mental illness, parental substance abuse, personal loss and bereavement, poor work skills and habits, reading disabilities, sensory disabilities, social incompetence, stressful life events, substance abuse, and trauma experiences
Define the following terms, and give a real life example of each: sensation, perception, top-down processing, bottom-up processing.
Sensation is the process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. Perception is the process of organizing and interpreting information, enabling recognition of meaningful events. Sensation and perception are actually parts of one continuous process. One example is touching a hot object, which should be felt through sensation, and then realizing it is hot, which should be determined through perception. Bottom-up processing is sensory analysis that begins at the entry level, with information flowing from the sensory receptors to the brain. Top-down processing is information processing guided by high-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions by filtering information through our experience and expectations. An example of this is when identifying the location of a city, top-down processing was used for the initial interpretation of its location as a guess, and then bottom-down processing was used to focus of the smaller details of the location to build a conclusion from those sensory details.
Differentiate between sensory memory, short-term memory, working-memory, and long term memory. Give real life examples to illustrate each type.
Sensory memory feeds some information into working memory for active processing there. An iconic memory is a very brief (a few tenths of a second) sensory memory of visual stimuli; an echoic memory is a three- or four-second sensory memory of auditory stimuli. An example of this would be saying "what" but then remembering what you heard due to echoic memory. Short term memory capacity is about seven items, plus or minus two, but this information disappears from memory quickly without rehearsal. An example of this would be remembering a number from a phone book until using it, then forgetting it. Working memory capacity varies, depending on age, intelligence level, and other factors. An example of this would be remembering the phone number while typing it in. Long-term memory is the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory. An example of this would be the ability to recall a phone number even years after learning it.
Explain altruistic behavior in terms of social exchange theory
Since the social exchange theory is the view that we help others because it is in our own self-interest; in this view, the goal of social behavior is maximizing personal benefits and minimizing costs, meaning that altruistic behavior emerges from this idea as well.
Describe the effects of sleep deprivation, as well as the major sleep disorders.
Sleep deprivation causes fatigue and irritability, and it impairs concentration, productivity, and memory consolidation. It can also lead to depression, obesity, joint pain, a suppressed immune system, and slowed performance (with greater vulnerability to accidents). Sleep disorders include insomnia (recurring wakefulness), narcolepsy (sudden uncontrollable sleepiness or lapsing into REM sleep), sleep apnea (the stopping of breathing while asleep, associated with obesity, especially in men), night terrors (high arousal and the appearance of being terrified; NREM-3 disorder found mainly in children), sleepwalking (NREM-3 disorder also found mainly in children), and sleeptalking.
Discuss the five functions of sleep proposed by psychologists.
Sleep may have played a protective role in human evolution by keeping people safe during potentially dangerous periods. Sleep also helps restore and repair damaged neurons. Sleep consolidates our memories by replaying recent learning and strengthening neural connections. Sleep promotes creative problem solving the next day. During slow-wave sleep, the pituitary gland secretes a human growth hormone necessary for muscle development.
Describe Asch's experiments relating to conformity
Social contagion (the chameleon effect), our tendency to unconsciously imitate others' behavior, expressions, postures, inflections, and moods, is a form of conformity. Social networks serve as contagious pathways for moods, both good and bad. Solomon Asch and others have found that we are most likely to adjust our behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard when (a) we feel incompetent or insecure, (b) our group has at least three people, (c) everyone else agrees, (d) we admire the group's status and attractiveness, (e) we have not already committed to another response, (f) we know we are being observed, and (g) our culture encourages respect for social standards. We may conform to gain approval (normative social influence or because we are willing to accept others' opinions as new information (informational social influence).
Discuss predictors of happiness and how we can be happier.
Some individuals seem genetically predisposed to be happier than others. Cultures, which vary in the traits they value and the behaviors they expect and reward, also influence personal levels of happiness. Tips for increasing happiness levels: Take charge of your schedule, act happy, seek meaningful work and leisure, buy shared experiences rather than things, exercise, sleep enough, foster friendships, focus beyond the self, and nurture gratitude and spirituality.
Describe Milgram's experiments on obedience
Stanley Milgram's experiments—in which people obeyed orders even when they thought they were harming another person—demonstrated that strong social influences can make ordinary people conform to falsehoods or give in to cruelty. Obedience was highest when (a) the person giving orders was nearby and was perceived as a legitimate authority figure, (b) the research was supported by a prestigious institution, (c) the victim was depersonalized or at a distance, and (d) there were no role models for defiance.
Explain how we sense taste and smell.
Taste and smell are both chemical senses. Taste is a composite of five basic sensations—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami—and of the aromas that interact with information from the taste receptor cells of the taste buds. There are no basic sensation for smell. We have some 20 million olfactory receptor cells, with about 350 different receptor proteins. Odor molecules trigger combinations of receptors, in patterns that the olfactory cortex interprets. The receptor cells send messages to the brain's olfactory bulb, then to the temporal lobe, and to parts of the limbic system.
Describe the applications of operant conditioning.
Teachers can use shaping techniques to guide students' behaviors, and they can use interactive media to provide immediate feedback. In sports, where the accidental timing of rewards can produce superstitious behavior, coaches can nevertheless build player's skills and self-confidence by rewarding small improvements. Managers can boost productivity and morale by rewarding well-defined and achievable behaviors. Parents can reward desired behaviors but not undesirable ones. We can shape our own behaviors by stating our goals, monitoring the frequency of desired behaviors, reinforcing desired behaviors, and gradually reducing rewards as behaviors become habitual. We can learn from our bodily responses to manage stress; biofeedback is one studied method.
Describe the purpose of the DSM-V and issues with diagnostic labeling
The American Psychiatric Association's DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition) contains diagnostic labels and descriptions that provide a common language and shared concepts for communication and research. Classification help psychiatrists and psychologists to predict a disorder's future course, suggest treatment, and prompt research into its causes. Some critics believe the DSM casts too wide a net and may pathologize normal behaviors. Other critics view DSM diagnoses as arbitrary labels that create preconceptions that bias perceptions of the labeled person's past and present behavior.
Explain the Young-Helmholz and opponent-process theories of color vision.
The Young-Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory proposed that the retina contains three types of color receptors. Contemporary research has found three types of cones, each most sensitive to the wavelengths of one of the three primary colors of light (red, green, or blue). Hering's opponent-process theory proposed three additional color processes (red-versus-green, blue-versus-yellow, white-versus-black). Contemporary research has confirmed that, en route to the brain, neurons in the retina and the thalamus code the color-related information from the cones into pairs of opponent colors. These two theories, and the research supporting them, show that color processing occurs in two stages.
Describe key developmental changes in the brain and in motor skills during infancy and childhood.
The brain's nerve cells are sculpted by heredity and experience. Their interconnections multiply rapidly after birth, a process that continues until puberty, when a pruning process begins shutting down unused connections. Complex motor skills—sitting, standing, walking—develop in a predictable sequence, though the timing of that sequence is a function of individual maturation and culture.
Discuss the parts of the brain that are foundational to memory, and describe the role each part plays.
The frontal lobes and hippocampus are parts of the brain network dedicated to explicit memory formation. Many brain regions send information to the frontal lobes for memory processing. The hippocampus, with the help of surrounding areas of cortex, registers and temporarily holds elements of explicit memories before moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage (memory consolidation). The cerebellum and basal ganglia are parts of the brain network dedicated to implicit memory formation. The cerebellum is important for storing classically conditioned memories. The basal ganglia are involved in motor movement and help form procedural memories for skills.
Explain the humanistic influence on the study of personality.
The humanistic psychologists' view of personality focused on the potential for healthy personal growth and people's striving for self-determination and self-realization. Abraham Maslow proposed that human motivations form a hierarchy of needs; if basic needs are fulfilled, people will strive toward self-actualization and self-transcendence. Carl Rogers' person-centered perspective suggested that the ingredients of a growth-promoting environment are acceptance (including unconditional positive regard), genuineness, and empathy. Humanistic psychology helped renew interest in the concept of self, and also laid the groundwork for today's scientific subfield of positive psychology.
Discuss the course of prenatal development, and explain how teratogens affect development.
The life cycle begins at conception, when one sperm cell unites with an egg to form a zygote. The zygote's inner cells become the embryo, and in the next 6 weeks, body organs begin to form and function. By 9 weeks, the fetus is recognizably human. Teratogens are potentially harmful agents, such as viruses or drugs, that can pass through the placental screen and harm the developing embryo or fetus, as happens with fetal alcohol syndrome.
Explain different parenting styles and how children's traits relate to them.
The main parenting styles are authoritarian (coercive), permissive (unrestraining), negligent (uninvolved, and authoritative (confrontive). Authoritarian parenting is associated with lower self-esteem, less social skill, and a brain that overreacts to mistakes. Permissive parenting is associated with greater aggression and immaturity. Negligent parenting is associated with poor academic and social outcomes. Authoritative parenting is associated with greater self-esteem, self-reliance, self-regulation, and social competence.
Explain the differences between the medical and biopsychosocial models
The medical model assumes that psychological disorders are mental illnesses with physical causes that can be diagnosed, treated, and, in most cases, cured through therapy, sometimes in a hospital. The biopsychosocial approach assumes that three sets of influences—biological, psychological, and social-cultural—interact to produce specific psychological disorders. Culture-specific disorders, the vulnerability stress model, and epigenetics all provide insight into the ways in which biology and environment interact to make it more or less likely that a psychological disorder will develop.
Describe the parts of the ear and explain the role each plays in helping us hear.
The outer ear (the visible portion of the ear and the auditory canal) funnels sound to the middle ear (the chamber between the eardrum and cochlea). The inner ear consists of the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs. Sound waves traveling through the auditory canal cause tiny vibrations in the eardrum. The bones of the middle ear (the hammer, anvil, and stirrup) amplify the vibrations and relay them to the fluid-filled cochlea. Rippling of the basilar membrane, caused by pressure changes in the cochlear fluid, causes movement of the tiny hair cells, triggering neural messages to be sent (via the thalamus to be sent (via the thalamus) to the auditory cortex in the brain. Sensorineural hearing loss (or nerve deafness) results from damage to the cochlea's hair cells or their associated nerves. Conduction hearing loss results from damage to the mechanical system that transmits sound waves to the cochlea. Cochlear implants can restore hearing for some people.
Describe the social, emotional, and cognitive roots of prejudice
The social roots of prejudice include social inequalities and divisions. Higher-status groups often justify their privileged position with the just-world phenomenon. We tend to favor our own group (ingroup bias) as we divide ourselves into "us" (the ingroup) and "them" (the outgroup). Prejudice can also be a tool for protecting our emotional well-being, as when we focus our anger by blaming events on a scapegoat. The cognitive roots of prejudice grow from our natural ways of processing information: forming categories, remembering vivid cases, and believing that the world is just (and that our own and our group's ways of doing things are the right ways).
Explain how differences in culture and values influence therapy
Therapists differ in the values that influence their goals in therapy and their views of progress. These differences may create problems if therapists and clients differ in their cultural, gender, or religious perspectives.
Describe the ethical concerns surrounding Milgram's work
These experiments have demonstrated that strong social influences can make people conform to falsehoods or capitulate to cruelty. The power of the individual (personal control) and the power of the situation (social control) interact. A small minority that consistently expresses its views may sway the majority, as may even a single committed individual.
Describe how we sense our body's position and movement.
Through kinesthesia, we sense the position and movement of our body parts. We monitor our body's position and movement and maintain our balance with our vestibular sense, which relies on the semicircular canals and vestibular sacs to sense the tilt or rotation of our head.
Describe how modern research supports or contradicts various aspects of the psychoanalytic perspective on personality.
Today's psychologists give Freud credit for drawing attention to the vast unconscious, to the struggle to cope with anxiety and sexuality, and to the conflict between biological impulses and social restraints, and for some forms of defense mechanisms. But Freud's concept of repression, and his view of the unconscious as a collection of repressed and unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories, have not survived scientific scrutiny. Freud offered after-the-fact explanations, which are hard to test scientifically. And research does not support many of Freud's specific ideas, such as the view that development is fixed in childhood. (We now know it is lifelong.) Research confirms that we do not have full access to all that goes on in our mind, though today's science views the unconscious as a separate and parallel track of information processing that occurs outside our awareness. This processing includes schemas that control our perceptions, priming, implicit memories of learned skills, instantly activated emotions, and stereotypes that filter our information processing of others' traits and characteristics.
Describe how we respond to stress. Discuss both our body's physiological response, as well as our different behavioral responses.
Walter Cannon viewed the stress response as a "fight-or-flight" system. Later researchers identified an additional stress response system in which the adrenal glands secrete glucocorticoid stress hormones, such as cortisol. Hans Selye proposed a general three-phase (alarm-resistance-exhaustion) general adaptation syndrome. Prolonged stress can damage neurons, hastening cell death. Facing stress, women may have a tend-and-befriend response; men may withdraw socially, turn to alcohol, or become aggressive.
Describe the bystander effect and social exchange theory
We are least likely to help if other bystanders are present (the bystander effect). Social exchange theory is the view that we help others because it is in our own self-interest.
Describe the different stages of sleep.
We cycle through four distinct sleep stages about every 90 minutes: NREM-1 sleep is the brief, near-waking sleep with irregular brain waves we enter (after leaving the alpha waves of being awake and relaxed); hallucinations (sensations such as falling or floating) may occur. NREM-2 sleep, in which we spend about half our sleep time, with its characteristic sleep spindles (bursts of rhythmic brain waves). NREM-3 sleep is deep sleep, in which large, slow delta waves are emitted. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is described as a paradoxical sleep stage because of internal arousal but external calm (near paralysis). It includes most dreaming and lengthens as the night goes on. During a normal night's sleep, NREM-3 sleep shortens and REM and NREM-2 sleep lengthens.
Describe how one's sense of personal control influences behavior.
We may feel helpless, hopeless, and depressed when experiencing bad events beyond our personal control. Being unable to avoid repeated aversive events can lead to learned helplessness. People who perceive an internal locus of control achieve more, enjoy better health, and are happier than those who perceive an external locus of control. A perceived lack of control provokes an outpouring of hormones that put people's health at risk. Self-control requires attention and energy, but it predicts good health, higher income, and better school performance. Studies have shown self-control to be a better predictor of future academic and life success than intelligence test score. Self-control varies over time, and while researchers disagree about the factors influencing it, strengthening self-control can lead to a healthier, happier, and more successful life.
Describe what we dream and the different theories on why we dream.
We usually dream of ordinary events and everyday experiences, most involving some anxiety or misfortune. Fewer than 10 percent of dreams among men, and fewer still among women, have any sexual content. Most dreams occur during REM sleep; those that happen during NREM sleep tend to be vague, fleeting image. There are five major views of the function of dreams: Freud's wish fulfilment, which is that dreams provide a psychic "safety valve," with manifest content (story line) acting as a censored version of latent content (underlying meaning that gratifies our unconscious wishes). Information processing, which is that dreams help us sort out the day's events and consolidate them in memory. Physiological function, which is that regular brain stimulation may help develop and preserve neural pathways in the brain. Activation-synthesis, which is that the brain attempts to make sense of neural static by weaving it into a storyline. Cognitive development, which is that dreams reflect the dreamer's cognitive development—their knowledge and understanding.
Explain the importance of attribution in social behavior
When explaining others' behavior, we may—especially if we come from an individualist Western culture—commit the fundamental attribution error (underestimating the influence of the situation and overestimating the effects of stable, enduring traits). When explaining our own behavior, we more readily attribute it to the influence of the situation.
Explain cognitive dissonance theory
When our attitudes don't fit with our actions, cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we will reduce tension by changing our attitudes to match our actions