ch 1 psychology
what approach involves studying by observing behaviors instead of internal mental processes (ex. reward or punishment)?
behavioral approach
what methodology is the only one able to establish that one variable causes a change in another variable?
an experiment
the chemical messengers that travel across the synapse and are received by the next neuron are known as?
neurotransmitters
Lisa often has trouble finding her keys in the morning before leaving her house. In that moment, Lisa may be experiencing ____stress because of this daily hassle.
acute
scientific hypotheses are testable and ____
falsifiable
Which of the following does NOT use an empirical method?
chemistry
psychology
biology
philosophy
philosophy
in a study designed to test a new depression medication, the participants assigned to the ____ receive the medication and participants assigned to the ___ receive a placebo
experimental group, control group
what subdivision of the autonomic nervous system is most associated with returning the body to a resting state
parasympathetic nervous system
True/False: Stress can affect the entire body over time.
true
an excessive amount of the hormone ___ can cause us ti have distressing physical and psychological symptoms when we are stressed
cortisol
what did Wilhelm Wundt contribute to early psychology?
focus on breaking down experiences into different parts to understand the mind using introspection
in a correlational study, what does the positive or negative sign of a correlation coefficient indicate?
the direction of the relationship
axons are incased in layers of thick fat cells called
myelin sheath
Vanessa is unemployed and is having a very hard time finding a job. She has been applying to several jobs over several months and she has had a lot of worry and overwhelm. She is experiencing ______stress.
chronic
The endocrine system is controlled by the interaction between the hypothalamus and the ______in the brain.
pituitary gland
which figure in early psychology was part of establishing functional psychology?
William James
what type of study is used to determine the relationship between two variables that are NOT manipulated by the researcher?
correlational
The nervous system has two major divisions. The ____includes the brain and spinal cord, and the _______includes the somatic and autonomic nervous system.
central nervous system, peripheral nervous system
According to the learned helplessness theory, people who are exposed to a stressor over long periods of time have a lack of _____, causing them to endure the stressor without taking any action.
perceived control
When might using a quasi-experimental design make more sense than using an experimental design?
when it is impossible to randomly assign people into groups
which of the following best describes Sigmund Freud's main psychological theory?
unconscious thought and childhood experiences affect conscious behavior
in a study in which the experimental group of college students are given peppermint gum to see whether this treatment will improve their scores in a psychology exam, what is the dependent variable
students score on the psychology exam
The _____is the electric charge that an action potential needs to reach for a neuron to fire.
threshold of excitation
Martha tends to cope with stress by distracting herself with watching TV and engaging in hobbies to get her mind off of the stressor. Katie tends to cope with stress by making to-do lists of things she can do to reduce the stressor. Martha tends to engage in ______-focused coping, while Katie tends to engage in ______focused-coping.
emotion, problem
Dr. Smelter wants to conduct an experiment to observe if certain smells can cause people to feel angry. She explains all procedures in detail and asks for participants’ consent with the option to decline. She tells them that the purpose of the experiment is to test preferences for certain smells to make a new perfume. At the end of the experiment, she lets participants leave without telling them the real purpose of the experiment. Would this be ethical in psychological research?
no because she used deception without debriefing