PSY 2012 EXAM 1 (CHAPTERS 1-4) QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSY 2012 EXAM 1 (CHAPTERS 1-4) QUESTIONS WELL ANSWERED LATEST UPDATE 2026 Psychology - Answers The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior ABC's of Psychology - Answers Affect- What we feel Behavior- What we do Cognitions- What we think Structuralism - Answers Wundt and Titchener Identify basic elements of the conscious experience through introspection However, important aspects of human psychology occur outside of conscious experience Functionalism - Answers William James Understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics and why it has caused us to be able to survive Natural selection (Darwin)- survival and reproduction Behaviorism - Answers Watson, Skinner, and Thorndike Uncover the laws of learning by looking at observable behavior and being able to take measurements and collect date -conditioning -rewards and punishments Cognitivism - Answers Piaget Thinking affects behavior Interpretation of rewards and punishments determines behavior Ex: Would you run up and dow the aisle in front class for $1 vs $100? Ex: Teaching children what to do and what not to do Psychoanalysis - Answers Freud Internal psychological processes of which were unaware Ex: Someone says red and another word automatically pops into your head (like apple) The role of childhood experiences shape your responses Clinical psychologist - Answers Perform assessments, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders Counseling - Answers Work with people experiencing temporary of self-contained problems Ex: Marital or occupational difficulties School psychologist - Answers Assess and develop intervention programs Developmental psychologist - Answers Study why and how people change over time -Most work with infants and children Experimental psychologist (social/cognitive) - Answers Use sophisticated research methods to study memory language thinking and social behavior of humans Bio-psychologist - Answers Examine physiological bases of behavior Forensics psychologist - Answers Assess, diagnose, and assist with rehabilitation and treatment of prison inmates Basic research - Answers Acquisition of knowledge for knowledge sake Increase understanding of fundamental principles Applied research - Answers Answers specific questions aimed at solving practical problems Common sense is useful in psychology - Answers Serves as a mental shortcut Learn when to and when not to trust your common sense Levels of analysis - Answers Molecular (smallest element)(Bottom rung) Neurochemical Physiological Mental Behavioral Social (largest element) (Top rung) Levels of analysis - Answers -Psychology spans multiple levels of analysis -Like rungs on a ladder -Lower levels tied to biological influences -Higher levels tied to social influences -We can't just examine one level- you must use them all -Each level tells something different Challenge: Human behavior is difficult to predict - Answers Actions are produced by many factors We should be skeptical of attempts to explain complex behaviors with a single casual factor Challenge: psychological influences are rarely independent of each other - Answers Ex: Anorexia Nervosa, anxiety, compulsive exercise, perfectionism, excessive concern with body image, TV exposure to programs that feature thin models Challenge: People display individual differences in thinking, emotion, and personality - Answers Variations among people in their thinking, emotions, personality, or behavior Help explain why people respond differently to the same situation Challenge: People influence one another - Answers Reciprocal Determinism- we mutually influence each other's behavior Challenge: Behavior is shaped by culture - Answers Cultural differences can limit conclusions scientists can draw about human nature Pseudoscience - Answers A set of claims that seem scientific but aren't Lacks the safeguards against confirmation bias and belief perseverance Warning signs of pseudoscience - Answers -Over-reliance on anecdotes -Personal stories -Exaggerated claims -Absence of connection to other research -Lack of peer review -Failure to self-correct when contrary evidence is presented -Uses fancy scientific language that doesn't make sense -Talks about "proof" instead of evidence Why should we care about pseudoscience? - Answers 1. Opportunity cost -People may choose to get a treatment that does not work instead of one that could have helped them 2. Direct harm - Ex: rebirthing therapy 3. Inability to think scientifically - Scientific thinking skills apply to all areas of our lives- need t think critically to move society forward Scientific theory - Answers General explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis - Answers Specific, testable prediction derived from a scientific theory Naive realism - Answers The belief that we see the world precisely as it actually is in truth "seeing is believing" -The earth "seems" flat Confirmation bias - Answers Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and neglect or distort contradicting evidence "Mother of all biases" Belief perseverance - Answers Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them The "don't confuse me with the facts" bias -Ex: Birthers Scientific skeptical - Answers Does not mean being close-minded Evaluate claims with an open mind, but insist on persuasive evidence Critical thinking - Answers Systematically questions and evaluates information using well supported evidence Critical thinking principal 1 - Answers Ruling out rival hypotheses -Have important alternate explanations for the finding been considered? Most psychological findings have multiple explanations C.T. Principal 2 - Answers Correlations doesn't prove causation -Can we be sure A causes B? C.T. Principal 3 - Answers Falsifiability Falsifiable does not equal false Can the claim be disproven? A theory that accounts for every possible outcome explains nothing C.T. Principal 4 - Answers Replicability Can the results be duplicated in other studies? IF results cannot be duplicated, the the results may be due to chance We don't want to put too much belief in a finding until it is replicated C.T. Principal 5 - Answers Extraordinary claims Require extraordinary evidence C.T. Principal 6 - Answers Occam's razor Principal of parsimony (logical simplicity) Does a similar explanation fit the data just as well? Two great debates that shaped psychology - Answers !!!!1. The nature-nurture debate, examines whether our behaviors are attributable mostly to our genes (nature) or to our rearing environments (nurture). 2. Free will versus determinism and examines the extent to which our behaviors are freely selected rather than caused by factors outside of our control. !!!Monism for dualism- Monism is the belief that ultimately the mind and the brain are the same thing. Dualism, the view that the mind and body function separately. Heuristic - Answers -General rule that is usually correct -Only try alternatives that are most likely to produce a solution (ignore others) -Allows for quick answers, but they can lead us astray Representativeness Heuristic - Answers -Judging the likelihood of something based on how well it matches a certain population -Usually an efficient and fairly accurate heuristic Availability heuristic - Answers A mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method or decision Conjunction rule - Answers The probability of the conjunction of two events cannot be larger than the probability of either of its constituent events -P(A&B) ≤ P(B) This rule is violated in favor of a conclusion that is mathematically impossible, revealing the sway of the representativeness heuristic -Detail/assumptions seem for plausible but less probable (PROBABLY WON'T BE TESTED ON) Base-rate neglect - Answers When we focus of whether a description is representative of a category's members, we often ignore useful base rate information (PROBABLY WON'T BE TESTED ON) Pros of heuristics - Answers Quick: They are "fast and frugal" They help us escape "analysis paralysis" Cons of heuristics - Answers Ignoring of relevant information Overestimating frequency of occurrence The scientific method - Answers 1. State a clear theory 2. Form hypotheses 3. Make observations or measurements 4. Draw conclusions/evaluate the theory 5. Share the results 6. Repeat the process A good theory must: - Answers 1. Explain through an integrated set of principles 2. Organize observations 3. Predict behavior or events Naturalistic Observation - Answers Observing and describing behavior in naturally occurring situations Does NOT involve manipulating or controlling the situation Case Studies - Answers Fairly extensive study of one person or a small group of people Helpful for: -existence proofs -rare phenomena -insights/new questions Self report measures and surveys - Answers May provide useful descriptive data, but -are they based on a representative sample? -was random selection used? -is it safe to generalize the findings? Random Selection - Answers Any person should be equally likely to be selected to participate Needed to have a successful representative sample Correlational designs - Answers Identify relationships between variables so that one may be used to predict another Three types: -Positive -Negative -No correlation Positive correlation - Answers A higher value of variable predicts a higher value of the second variable Negative correlation - Answers A higher value of one variable predicts a lower value of the second variable No correlation - Answers The value of one variable has no relationship to the value of the second variable Correlation does not imply causation - Answers Just because A and B are related, we can't say what causes what Correlation coefficient - Answers Indicates direction and strength of relationship - Zero (0) correlation - 1 and -1 are just as strong, but one is negative the other is positive correlation Spurious correlation - Answers things can be correlated, but the correlation is due to a third variable that you DON'T KNOW ABOUT Illusory correlation - Answers Perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists To be a causal variable - Answers 1. Cause must come BEFORE the effect 2. There MUST be a correlation 3. The causal relationship must be NONSPURIOUS Experimental research - Answers Manipulates the level of one variable, and observe its effect on another variable, while controlling other factors Independent Variable - Answers The variable that you change -Ex: Room temp, lighting in a room, amount of food available, the tasks participant keeps, etc. Control Variable - Answers Variable(s) that you keep the same Dependent Variable - Answers The outcome variable that changes due to the independent variable Random Assignment - Answers Goal: Give each person an equal chance of being in experimental or control group Minimizes pre-existing differences Control group - Answers Goal: To be able to compare experimental group to a group that varies from them only in terms of the independent variable Statistical reasoning - Answers A measure of how likely it is that the difference between the groups occurred by chance Determined: considers mean and standard deviation Measures of central tendency - Answers Mean Median Mode (Where data tends to cluster) Measures of variability - Answers Range Standard Deviation (How loosely or tightly bunched scores are) Internal Validity - Answers Enhanced by: Did the independent variable have an effect of the dependent variable? -Experimental control over independent variable -Random assignment External Validity - Answers Can we generalize? Does being rejected in lab differ from being rejected in real life? What if we used a different measure of pain sensitivity? Would we get the same results if we used a different age-group? Reliability - Answers Same number given everytime or same set of data given each time Across items (Inter-item) -"How aggressive are you?" -"How violent are you?" -"How much do you want to hurt me?" Across time (Test-retest) Across raters (Inter-rater) The Ethical Standard - Answers Researchers must balance the potential benefits of their study against the potential risks -Benefits are greater than or equal to the risks Researchers must get informed consent from their participants beforehand -Ethics committees oversee all research Neuron - Answers Billions of interconnected cells that live to communicate and send messages through the body -Nerve cells specialized for communication Three types of neurons - Answers -Sensory: skin and eyes (send to the CNS) -Motor: sends to muscles and glands from CNS -Interneurons- Carry messages between neurons Steps of neural communication - Answers -Dendrites receive info (electrochemical messages) -Chemical between neuron at synapse -Electrical within neurons -Cell body (Soma)- manufactures cell components -Information travels down Axon -Myelin sheath accelerate information (helper cells) -Terminal Branches release information Action potential - Answers A neural impulse. A brief electrical charge travels down the axon and to the terminal branches