PSYC 2301 - EXAM 1 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS GRADED A+

3-part definition of psychology - Answer-1. How the brain takes information 2. How the brain processes the information 3. What behavior results from this process. How are academic and clinical psychologists different - Answer-Academic is solely based on teaching and research while clinician serve as counselors to help people with a multitude of personal challenges difference between applied versus basic research - Answer-Applied: focuses on discouraging bad behavior or promoting good behavior Basic: focuses on understanding behavior. operational definition and why are they important - Answer-when you are providing a description of your variables of concept. They are important because they help us operationally define our variables so that individuals can replicate or improve our research methods. difference between statistical and practical significance and how do you measure each type of significance - Answer-Statistical significance verifies the existence of an effect while practical significance helps us make better decisions on how we should apply research findings; Statistical significance is measure by p.05, findings can be attributed to luck by less than 5 percent. Practical Significance is measured by effect size. research methods used by psychologists - Answer-Naturalistic Observation, Case Studies, Survey Research, Correlations, and Experimental Research. difference between populations and samples - Answer-Population is the larger group we are interested in studying while Sample is smaller group, we pull from the population in order to study it. placebo effect - Answer-the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behaviorHow do we get a truly representative sample - Answer-By randomly selecting someone from the larger population sample of convenience - Answer-Most convenient sample at your disposal two pieces of information do correlations give you - Answer-Negative and Positive correlation data. benefit of experimental research - Answer-Causation difference between an independent and dependent variable - Answer-Independent Variable: controlled by the experimenter, Dependent Variable: measured by the experimenter (not controlled). 5 guidelines are enforced by the IRB - Answer-1 ) Participation is voluntary, and each participant must be provided with a consent form. 2) Researchers aim to minimize harm for those choosing to participate. 3) Deception is avoided as much as possible during researches and researchers cannot use deception that is unjustifiable or harmful 4) Participants are insured confidentiality. 5) Upon completion participants are fully debriefed-all deception is revealed, giving the participants the opportunity to question and learn more about the study. How do you know if there is a statistically significant effect - Answer-True effect What are spinal reflexes? Do they increase or decrease in frequency as we age - Answer-Decisions made by the spinal cord without any input of the brain, they decrease in frequency as we age. What are the 3 different types of neurons and their functions performed - Answer-Sensory: take sensory information and relay it to your central nervous system Interneuron: receive messages from the sensory neuron and decide what best course of action should be taken Motor Neuron: relay information from the brain to muscles and glands.What are mirror neurons - Answer-a kind of motor neuron that activates when you observe the behavior of others. What are glial cells and what functions do they perform - Answer-neural cells that provide support and maintenance for neurons. How does your body create electricity - Answer-Neurons create electricity by manipulating positively charged ions What is action potential? - Answer-The process of going from -70mv to -55mv to +30mv back to -70 mv charge of resting potential - Answer--70 mV