PSY 2012 UF MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSY 2012 UF MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS ANSWERED CORRECTLY LATEST UPDATE 2026 psychology - Answers scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior levels of analysis - Answers rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied more closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences multiply determined - Answers caused by many factors individual differences - Answers variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior naive realism - Answers belief that we see the world exactly how it is scientific theory - Answers explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world hypothesis - Answers testable prediction derived from a scientific theory confirmation bias - Answers tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypotheses and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them pseudoscience - Answers set of claims that seems scientific but isn't ad hoc immunizing hypothesis - Answers escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification patternicity - Answers the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli terror management theory - Answers theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews scientific skeptism - Answers approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them critical thinking - Answers set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion correlation-causation fallacy - Answers error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other variable - Answers anything that can vary Occam's Razor - Answers simple explanation is most likely the correct one falsifiable - Answers capable of being disproved replicability - Answers when a study's findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators decline effect - Answers fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time introspection - Answers method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences structuralism - Answers uses introspection to identify basic elements or structures of experience functionalism - Answers to understand the functions or adaptive purposes of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors Behaviorism - Answers uncover the general principles of learning that explain all behaviors; focus is largely on observable behavior cognitivism - Answers to examine the role of mental processes on behavior psychoanalysis - Answers uncover the role of unconscious psychological processes and early life experiences in behavior natural selection - Answers principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at higher rate than d other organisms cognitive psychology - Answers school of psychology that proposes ht thinking is central to understanding behvior cognitive neuroscience - Answers relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking evolutionary psychology - Answers discipline that applies Darwin's theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior basic research - Answers research examining how the mind works applied research - Answers research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems prefrontal lobotomy - Answers surgical procedure that severs fibers connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus heuristic - Answers mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world naturalistic observation - Answers watching behavior in real-world settings without trying to manipulate the situation external validity - Answers extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings internal validity - Answers extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study case study - Answers research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period existence proof - Answers demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur random selection - Answers procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate reliability - Answers consistency of measurement vallidity - Answers extent to which measure assesses what it purports to measure response set - Answers tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items correlational design - Answers research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated scatterplot - Answers grouping of points on a two-dimensional graph in which each dot represents single person's data illusory correlation - Answers perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists experiment - Answers research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable random assignment - Answers randomly sorting participants into two groups experimental group - Answers in an experiment the group of participants that doesn't receive the manipulation control group - Answers in an experiment the group of participants that doesnt receive the manipulation independent variable - Answers variable that experimenter manipulates dependent variable - Answers variable that an experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation has an effect operational definition - Answers a working definition of what a researcher is measuring placebo effect - Answers improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement blind - Answers unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group experimental expectancy effect - Answers phenomenon in which researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study double-blind - Answers when neither the researcher nor participants are aware of who's in the experimental or control group informed consent - Answers informing research participants of what is involved in a study before asking them to participate statistics - Answers application of mathematics to describing and analyzing data descriptive statistics - Answers numerical characterizations that describe data central tendency - Answers measure of the "central" scores in a data set or where the group tends to cluster mean - Answers average median - Answers middle score in a data set mode - Answers most frequent score in a data set variability - Answers measure of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are range - Answers difference between the highest and lowest scores standard deviation - Answers measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean inferential statistics - Answers mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population neuron - Answers nerve cell specialized for communication dendrite - Answers portion of neuron that receives signals axon - Answers portion of neuron that sends signals synaptic vesicle - Answers spherical sac containing neurotransmitters neurotransmitter - Answers chemical messenger specialized for communication from neuron to neuron synapse - Answers space between two connecting neurons through which messages are transmitted chemically synaptic cleft - Answers a gap into which neurotransmitters are released from the axon terminal glial cell - Answers cell in nervous system that plays a role in the formation of myelin and the blood brain barrier, responds to injury, removes debris, and enhances learning and memory myelin sheath - Answers glial cells wrapped around axons that act as insulators of the neuron's signal resting potential - Answers electrical charge difference (-60 millivolts) across the neuronal membrane, when the neuron is not being stimulated or inhibited threshold - Answers membrane potential necessary to trigger an action potential action potential - Answers electrical impulse that travels down the axon triggering the release of neurotransmiters absolute refractory period - Answers time during which another action potential is impossible; limits maximal firing rate receptor site - Answers location that uniquely recognizes a neurotransmitter reuptake - Answers recycling neurotransmitters endorphin - Answers chemical in the brain that plays a specialized role in pain reduction acetylcholine - Answers plays roles in arousal selecive attention sleep and memoy plasticity - Answers ability of the nervous system to change neurogenesis - Answers creation of new neurons in the adult brain stem cells - Answers cell, often originating in embryos, having the capacity to differentiate into a more specialized cell central nervous system - Answers part of the nervous system containing the brain and spinal chord that controls the mind and behavior peripheral nervous system - Answers nerves in the body that extend outside the CNS cerebral ventricles - Answers pockets in the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid, which provide the brain with nutrients and cushion against injury cerebral cortex - Answers outermost part of the forebrain, responsible for analyzing sensory processing and higher brain functions forebrain - Answers forward part of the brain that allows advanced intellectual abilities cerebral hemispheres - Answers two halves of the cerebral cortex, each of which serve distinct yet highly integrated functions corpus callosum - Answers large band of fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres frontal lobes - Answers forward part of cerebral cortex responsible for motor function, language, memory, and planning motor cortex - Answers part of the frontal lobe responsible for body movement prefrontal cortex - Answers part of the frontal lobe responsible for thinking planning and language Broca's area - Answers language area in prefrontal cortex that helps control speech production parietal lobe - Answers upper middle part of the cerebral cortex lying behind the frontal lobe that is specialized for touch and perception temporal lobe - Answers lower part of cerebral cortex that plays roles in hearing understanding language and memory Wernicke's area - Answers parts of the temporal lobe involved in understanding speech occipital lobe - Answers back part of cerebral cortex specialized for vision primary sensory cortex - Answers regions of the cerebral cortex that initially process information from the senses association cortex - Answers regions of the cerebral cortex that integrate simpler functions to perform more complex functions basal ganglia - Answers structures in the forebrain that help to control movement limbic system - Answers emotional center of brain that also plays roles in smell motivation and memory thalamus - Answers gateway from the sense organs to the primary sensory cortex hypothalamus - Answers part of the brain responsible for maintaining a constant internal state amygdala - Answers part of the limbic system that plays a key part in fear, excitement, and arousal hippocampus - Answers plays a role in spacial memory cerebellum - Answers responsible for balance (and movement, balance skills, spacial and linguistic abilities) brain stem - Answers between spinal chord and cerebral cortex. Contains midbrain, pons, and medulla midbrain - Answers part of the brain stem that contributes to movement, tracking of visual stimuli, and reflexes triggered by sound reticular activating system - Answers brain area that play's a key role in arousal hindbrain - Answers region below the midbrain that contains the cerebellum, pons, medulla pons - Answers part of the brain stem that connects the cortex with the cerebellum, crucial role in dreams medulla - Answers part of brain stem invovled in basic functions like heartbeat and breathing spinal chord - Answers thick bundle of nerves that conveys signals between the brain and body interneuron - Answers neuron that sends messages to other neurons nearby reflex - Answers an automatic motor response to a sensory stimulus somatic nervous system - Answers part of the nervous system that conveys information between the CNS and the body controlling and coordination voluntary movement autonomic nervous system - Answers control involuntary actions of internal organs and glands sympathetic nervous system - Answers division of autonomic nervous system engaged during a crisis endocrine system - Answers glands and hormones that control secretion of blood borne chemical messangers hormone - Answers chemical released into bloodstream that influences particular organs and glands pituitary gland - Answers master gland that, under the control of the hypothalamus directs the other glands of the body electroencehalograph - Answers recording of brains electrical activity at the surface of the skull computed tomography - Answers a scanning technique using multiple Xrays to construct 3d images magnetic resonance imaging - Answers uses magnetic fields to indirectly visualize brain structure positron emission tomography - Answers imaging technique that measures consumption of glucose-like molecules yeilding a picture of neural activity in different regions of the brain functional MRI - Answers uses magnetic fields to visualize brain activity using changes in blood oxygen levels tanscranial magnetic stimulation - Answers applies strong and quickly changing magnetic fields to the surface of the skull that can either enhance or interrupt brain function magnetoencephalography - Answers technique that measures brain activity by detecting tiny magnetic fields generated by the brain