Psychology and Research Methods Quiz

Psychology and Scientific Thinking

• Psychology is more than just common sense.
• Psychology provides deeper insights into human behavior, considering multiple levels of analysis.
• Naive realism: The belief that we see the world precisely as it is.

Research Methods

• Naturalistic observation: Observing behavior in real-world settings without manipulating the situation.
• Case study: In-depth examination of one person or a small group, often over time.
• Correlational design: Examining the association between two variables, not implying causation.
• Experiment: Characterized by random assignment to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable.
• Independent variable: The manipulated variable.
• Dependent variable: The outcome variable being measured.
• Control group: The group that does not receive the independent variable.
• Experimental group: The group that receives the independent variable.

Biological Psychology

• Glutamate: Neurotransmitter associated with memory enhancement and learning.
• Acetylcholine: Neurotransmitter associated with arousal, selective attention, memory, and sleep.
• Norepinephrine and serotonin: Neurochemicals that influence consciousness, arousal, and movement.
• Dopamine: Neurotransmitter associated with motivation and rewarding experiences.

Brain Structures and Functions

• Lobes:
  • Frontal: Executive functions, motor planning, language, decision-making.
  • Parietal: Processes touch, integrates senses.
  • Temporal: Processes auditory information, language, long-term memory.
  • Occipital: Processes visuals.
• Basal ganglia: Controls movement, motor planning, skill, and habit learning.
• Limbic system:
  • Thalamus: Conveys sensory information to the cortex, integrates senses.
  • Hypothalamus: Oversees hormone release and the autonomic nervous system.
  • Amygdala: Modulates emotional learning and memory, particularly fear and aggression.
  • Hippocampus: Enables formation of new long-term memories, spatial navigation, and vivid remembering. It has a direct connection to the olfactory cortex, which might explain why smells evoke emotional memories.
• Cerebellum: Controls balance and coordinates fine or precise movements.

Motivation and Emotion

• Two-Factor theory: Combines encounter and attribution of emotion to its source.
• Intrinsic motivation: Driven by internal goals.
• Extrinsic motivation: Driven by external goals.

Nonverbal Communication

• Manipulators: Gestures involving one body part touching or stroking another.
• Illustrators: Gestures that highlight or accentuate speech.
• Emblems: Gestures with conventional meanings recognized culturally.
• Display rules: Societal guidelines for expressing emotions.

Scientific Principles

• Replicability: Conducting an experiment multiple times to see if similar results are obtained.
• Falsifiability: Designing a study in a way that allows the hypothesis to be proven wrong.
• Ruling out rival hypotheses: Considering and eliminating alternative explanations for observations.
• Correlation vs. causation: Recognizing that correlation does not imply causation.
• Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence: Requiring strong evidence for claims exceeding normal expectations.

Reinforcement and Punishment

• Positive reinforcement: Adding a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior.
• Negative reinforcement: Removing a stimulus to increase the probability of a behavior.
• Positive punishment: Adding a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior.
• Negative punishment: Removing a stimulus to decrease the probability of a behavior.

Consciousness and Altered States

• Selective attention: Focusing on one channel of information while ignoring others.
• Inattentional blindness: Failing to notice stimuli in plain sight when attention is elsewhere.
• Hallucinations: Sensory experiences without external stimuli.
• Mystical experience: Feelings of unity or oneness with the world, often with spiritual overtones.
• Out-of-body experience (OBE): The feeling of consciousness leaving the body.
• Near-death experience (NDE): An OBE reported by individuals near death.
• Déjà vu: The feeling that a present experience is already familiar.

Visual Perception

• Lens: Accommodates to focus on objects near and far by changing shape.
• Retina: Contains rods and cones, converting light into neural activity.
• Rods: Light-sensitive receptor cells for low-light vision.
• Cones: Light-sensitive receptor cells for color vision.
• Optic nerve: Carries visual information from the retina to the brain.
• Blind spot: Region of the retina lacking rods and cones, resulting in no visual perception.
• Feature detector cells: Specialized cells that detect lines and edges.

Theories of Dreaming

• Activation-synthesis theory: Dreams reflect random neural activity in the brain during REM sleep.
• Neurocognitive theory: Dreams are meaningful products of our cognitive capabilities.
• Dream continuity hypothesis: Existing continuities between sleeping and waking experiences, with dreams potentially reflecting daily thoughts, concerns, and experiences.

Test your understanding of foundational concepts in psychology, including scientific thinking, research methods, and biological psychology. This quiz covers key terms and principles essential for studying human behavior and conducting psychological research.