Introduction to Psychology
Define psychology as a science
Study of human thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
What does the abbreviation 'NREM' stand for?
Non-Rapid Eye Movement
Give a brief definition of lucid dreaming
Name the branch of psychology that would research effective ways of learning in a classroom.
Educational Psychologist
How many hours of sleep per night does the average teenager need?
9 - 10 hours
Activation-Synthesis
Contrast the roles of a clinical psychologist with a forensic psychologist
Clinical Psychologist:
Focuses on mental illness/disorders
Forensic Psychologist:
Focuses on criminal behaviour in legal situations
Outline two physiological changes in the REM stage of sleep
Any 2 of:
Eye movements are rapid
Heart rate fluctuates
Breath rate fluctuates
Voluntary muscles below the neck are paralysed
Brain wave activity increases
Compare and Contrast Problem-Solving Theory with Freud's Psychoanalytic Dream Theory
Compare (Similarities)
Both state that dreams have some meaning
Contrast (Differences)
Problem-Solving states that dreams help resolve issues/unmade decisions & generate solutions.
Psychoanalytic theory states that dreams can reveal unconscious desires, fears, other contents of the unconscious mind
Compare and contrast a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
Differences
- psychologists must study ~6 years, whereas psychiatrists must study for ~11 years
- psychologists will rely on talk/behavioural therapy, whereas psychiatrists are able to prescribe medication
- psychologists tend to treat less severe cases, psychiatrists tend to treat cases of high severity
Similarities
- both study the brain and behaviour
- both provide mental health services
- both can diagnose disorders
Outline and explain one limitation of sleep laboratory studies.
Acceptable Responses:
- Sleep is interrupted
Participants are woken during REM to report their dreams. Dreams that follow this may be affected by this disturbance.
- Unfamiliar environment
Can interrupt usual sleep and dreaming patterns.
- Subjective data
Measurements rely on participants being honest about dream content
- Emotional dreams/nightmares rarely occur in sleep laboratories
- Dreams may be recorded inaccurately
Participants may not remember all details and researches may make errors in recording descriptions.
Outline Freud's Psychoanalytic theory and distinguish between manifest and latent content.
Psychoanalytic theory states that dreams have a hidden meanings behind them (often about an individual's unconscious/innate desires) and can be analysed.
Manifest content describe objects/symbols or events in the dream.
Latent content describes the meaning hidden behind/represented by the manifest content.
A researcher aims to test the effect of sleep deprivation on driving accidents. He recruits 40 university students as participants.
20 of them are allowed to sleep peacefully through a night. The other 20 are woken up every three hours throughout the night.
The participants are then taken to a Go-Kart course the following morning, and are instructed to drive-through it with minimal traffic or driving mistakes. The researchers count the number of driving mistakes made by each participant.
Identify the Independent and Dependent Variable, and suggest a variable that must be controlled
Independent Variable
Sleep quality (whether or not participants sleep was interrupted
Dependent Variable
Number of driving mistakes
Control Variable
Any of: Time participants slept for/were sent to bed, traffic course and its obstacles, Go-Kart quality, any other reasonable response
Mr Nguyen has recently started to experience interruptions to his sleep. Usually, he routinely falls asleep at around 11PM each night and wakes up at 6AM.
Recently, he would wake up unexpectedly at 3AM, taking an hour to fall back asleep, before waking up again at his usual time.
a) How long is a sleep cycle?
b) How many completed (non-interrupted) sleep cycles would Mr Nguyen experience, given his sleep interruptions?
a) 90 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes per cycle
b) 3 complete sleep cycles
11:00PM - 12:30AM = 1st complete cycle
12:30AM - 02:00AM = 2nd complete cycle
02:00AM - 03:00AM = incomplete cycle
03:00AM - 04:00AM = falling asleep
04:00AM - 05:30AM = 3rd complete cycle
05:30AM - 06:00AM = incomplete cycle
Sammy has a dream in which they are standing outside a cave before they begin walking through it.
Sammy tells this to their psychologist. Using Freud's Psychoanalysis, the psychologist states that the dream event of walking through the cave might communicate feelings of worry and a general fear of the unknown future.
Identify the Latent and Manifest content of Sammy's dream.
Manifest Content
Walking through a cave
Latent Content
Worry/fear of the unknown