Foundations
A psychologist believes people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are strongly influenced by unconscious conflicts from childhood. Another psychologist argues that people have free will and naturally strive to reach their full potential.
Which psychological perspective best fits the second psychologist?
Humanistic
A psychology student compares test scores between students who studied with flashcards and students who reviewed notes. She purposely decides which study method each participant uses.
What kind of research method is she conducting?
Experiment
A message travels from one neuron to another using chemicals released from tiny sacs at the end of the neuron.
What chemicals carry this message?
Neurotransmitters
Every time a child cleans their room, they receive praise from their parents. Over time, the child begins cleaning more often. What type of consequence is increasing the behavior?
Positive Reinforcement
A student reads a chapter, connects the ideas to previous knowledge, and later remembers the material during an exam. Which memory process allowed the information to enter long-term memory?
Encoding
A researcher wants to understand why people act differently in groups than they do alone. Rather than studying brain activity, she focuses on how thoughts influence behavior. Which major perspective is she using?
Cognitive
Researchers find that students who sleep longer tend to earn higher grades. They never manipulate anyone's sleep schedule.
Why can't they conclude that more sleep causes higher grades?
Correlation does not establish causation.
After a frightening car accident, someone has difficulty controlling emotional reactions but still remembers facts they learned in school.
Which brain structure is most involved in emotional processing?
Amygdala
A student studies hard to avoid failing an exam. The unpleasant possibility of failing motivates the studying.
Is this an example of reinforcement or punishment? Positive or Negative?
Negative Reinforcement
Someone clearly remembers where they were during a major national tragedy but cannot accurately recall every detail years later. What does this suggest about memory?
Memory is reconstructive.
A student says psychology is "just common sense." Another student disagrees and explains that psychologists test ideas using evidence before accepting them.
Why is psychology considered a science?
It relies on scientific research and evidence.
A researcher wants to know whether drinking coffee improves memory. She gives one group coffee and another group water before a memory test.
Identify the independent and dependent variables.
IV = drink; DV = memory score
Someone accidentally touches a hot stove. Their body quickly pulls their hand away before they consciously realize what happened.
Which division of the nervous system is helping coordinate this response?
Central nervous system
After hearing the dentist's drill several times during painful procedures, a child begins feeling anxious as soon as they hear the drill.
Which type of learning explains this?
Classical conditioning
A witness confidently identifies a suspect after repeatedly hearing misleading information from others. Which memory concept best explains this situation?
Misinformation effect
One psychologist wanted to understand the purpose of behavior, while another wanted to identify the basic elements of consciousness. Which early school focused on the function or purpose of behavior?
Functionalism
A researcher repeats a famous study from several years ago using a new group of participants to see if the findings occur again.
What important scientific principle is being demonstrated?
Replication
A person is about to give a speech. Their heart races, breathing speeds up, and digestion slows.
Which branch of the autonomic nervous system has become active?
Sympathetic nervous system
A teenager learns to skateboard by watching experienced skaters online and copying what they do. Which type of learning is demonstrated?
Observational learning
After a brain injury, a patient remembers childhood experiences but cannot create lasting memories of new events. What memory problem is this?
Anterograde amnesia
A therapist believes understanding unconscious motives is the best way to explain personality and behavior. Another therapist focuses instead on observable behaviors and environmental influences. Which approach would emphasize unconscious motives?
Psychoanalytic
A psychologist wants to learn about the experiences of one person who survived a rare brain injury. The goal is to gather detailed information rather than generalize to everyone.
Which research method is most appropriate?
Case Study
Following an injury, a person becomes impulsive, has poor judgment, and struggles to plan ahead, even though their memory is mostly intact. Which lobe was most likely damaged?
Frontal lobe
A casino rewards gamblers after an unpredictable number of plays. This schedule keeps many people playing for long periods. Which reinforcement schedule is being used?
Variable ratio
A student memorizes a long phone number by separating it into smaller groups instead of trying to remember every digit individually.
Which study strategy is being used?
Chunking