Psychology Chapter 1 Quiz

Early History of Psychology

• Hippocrates' theory of humorism: a person's temperament depended on the balance of four bodily fluids (black bile, blood, yellow bile, phlegm)

• Rene Descartes: advocated substance dualism, believing mind and body are distinct entities.

• Wilhelm Wundt: established psychology as a separate discipline, opened first psych lab, and studied consciousness using introspection.

• Structuralism: focused on analyzing basic elements of consciousness.

• Functionalism: focused on the function of consciousness, not its structure.

• Psychoanalytical perspective: developed by Sigmund Freud, focused on unconscious processes to explain behavior.

• Behavioral perspective: pioneered by John B Watson, emphasized observable behavior over consciousness, and believed environment influences behavior.

Research Methods

• The scientific method: a systematic procedure to investigate and establish facts
• Identify research questions
• Gather information and form a hypothesis
• Design a study
• Analyze data
• Report findings
• Empirical evidence: observable and measurable data collected during research.
• Dogmatism vs. empiricism: accepting beliefs without evidence vs. knowing through observation.
• Inductive vs. deductive statements: drawing broad conclusions from specific observations vs. applying general rules to specific cases.
• Falsifiability: A hypothesis must be susceptible to being proven wrong for it to be useful and testable.

Measurements and Variables

• Operational definition: a precise description of how a variable will be measured in a study.
• Construct validity/reliability: How well a test measures what it's intend to measure and how consistent the results are.
• Descriptive statistics: includes mean, standard deviations, and mode.
• Central tendency: The central value in a dataset (mean, median, mode)
• Variability: extent to which data is spread out within a set. (standard deviation)

Research Methods (cont.)

• Descriptive research: Describing characteristics about a phenomenon without interference of the researcher.
• Correlational research: Identifying relationships between variables. (correlation doesnt equal causation)
• Experimental research: Manipulating variables under controlled conditions to determine cause-and-effect relationships.
• Naturalistic observation: observing behavior in natural settings without interference of the researcher.
• The importance of avoiding biases: using appropriate techniques to minimize bias in studies.

Biological Basis of Behavior

• Neurons: the fundamental units of the nervous system.
• Cell body (soma)
• Dendrites
• Axon
• Axon terminal
• Neural communication: action potentials, neurotransmitters & synapses
• Neural impulse (action potential)
• Types of neurotransmitters (ACh, monoamines, amino acids, neuropeptides)
• Nervous System Structure/Function (Brain, spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, sense organs)
• Sensory and motor systems
• Central vs. Peripheral Nervous system
• Localization of function in the brain

Research Ethics and Methods

• Ethical guidelines for research: Protecting participants' rights, benefits vs. risks considerations.
• Unethical research examples: Historical examples of unethical research.
• Institutional review boards (IRBs): Ethical oversight for research studies.
• Informed consent: obtaining approval from participants for participating in the study, and detailing possible risks.
• Deception vs. debriefing: misleading participants to keep the study's integrity intact.

Consciousness and States

• Consciousness (subjective/self-reflective awareness)
• Cognitive psychology and its relationship with consciousness.
• Circadian rhythms and sleep stages.
• Sleep disorders (insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea).
• Altered states of consciousness: hallucinations, hypnosis, effects of drugs.
• Theories about Altered states of Consciousness (activation synthesis theory)

Memory

• Memory Illusion: False memory
• Forgetting: deterioration of learned behavior following the delay of retention
• Sensory memory: Briefly storing incoming sensory information
• Short-term memory: Limited capacity storage (5-9 items).
• Encoding, storage, retrieval stages of memory.
• Primacy and recency effects
• Memory types (Semantic, episodic, procedural)
• Types of memory problems (amnesia)
• Types of long term memory storage

Motivation

• Drive reduction theory: Motivation as a process of reducing internal drive (hunger, thirst).
• Incentive theory: An external goal for a behavior.
• Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation.
• Maslow's hierarchy of needs: Hierarchy of needs in order (physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization)
• Physiological aspects of motivation: Relevant brain regions and neurochemistry.
• Psychology of hunger (biological and behavioral).

Emotion

• Components of emotion (cognitive, physiological, behavioral).
• Historical theories of emotion (James-Lange theory, Cannon-Bard theory, two-factor theory)
• Theories about emotion (cognitive appraisal theory)
• Emotions in society

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation: Initial detection of stimuli.
• Sensation receptors and transduction.
• Types of sense organs and receptors
• The Visual system: elements of vision
• Depth perception, binocular and monocular cues
• Color vision: theories (trichromatic, opponent)
• Visual abnormalities (color blindness)
• Perception: Interpretation of sensory information.
• Psychophysics: the relationship between physical stimuli and perceived characteristics. (absolute threshold, difference threshold).
• Gestalt principles: organizational principles in perception (similarity, proximity, continuity, closure)

Learning and Behavior

• Respondent Conditioning: The association between two stimuli, such as classical conditioning. (Pavlovian).
• Unconditional stimuli/responses vs. conditional stimuli/responses
• Temporal relationships, variables influencing conditioning
• Operant Conditioning: The effect of consequences on learned behavior.
• Reinforcement and Punishment (positive and negative).
• Schedules of reinforcement
• Shaping
• Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination