Psychology Prologue Chapter Quiz

Prologue Chapter

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
• Positive psychology focuses on positive qualities, happiness, well-being, and thriving.
• Counseling psychology addresses problems in general living, such as school, relationships, and work.
• Clinical psychology deals with psychological disorders.
• Psychiatrists treat psychological disorders with medical treatments, including medication and therapy.
• Community psychologists study how social environments, like schools and neighborhoods, impact individuals.
• Cognitive psychology focuses on information processing, attention, memory, problem-solving, and language.
• Biopsychology/neuropsychology examines the biological underpinnings of behavior.
• Developmental psychology studies development across the lifespan.
• Experimental psychology investigates basic processes like learning, senses, perception, and motivation.
• Industrial-organizational psychology focuses on behavior in the workplace, including satisfaction, productivity, leadership, and teamwork.
• Personality psychology explores core personality traits and their impact.
• Social psychology studies thoughts, feelings, and behaviors related to social groups, attitudes, relationships, and altruism.
• Evolutionary psychology applies principles of natural selection to understand the evolution of behavior.
• The empirical approach uses evidence-based methods, involving observation and experimentation.
• Critical thinking involves examining assumptions, evaluating evidence, and assessing conclusions.
• Cognitive neuroscience examines the relationship between brain activity and cognition.
• Behavior genetics investigates the relative importance of genes and environment in shaping behavior.
• Culture influences behaviors, ideas, and traditions across generations.
• The nature-nurture issue explores the contribution of genes and experiences to psychological traits and behaviors.

Chapter 9: Thinking

• Thinking (cognition) involves mental activities like remembering, communicating, creating concepts, solving problems, and making decisions.
• Concepts are mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas, or people.
• Prototypes are mental images or best examples associated with a category/concept.
• Problem-solving strategies include trial and error, algorithms, heuristics (mental shortcuts/rules of thumb), and insight (sudden realizations).
• Algorithms produce correct solutions but may not be the most effective use of time.
• Heuristics are faster but more prone to errors.
• Insight is sudden understanding but not easily explained or repeated consistently.
• Factors like fixation, mental set, and imposing constraints can hinder problem-solving abilities.
• Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out and interpret information that supports existing beliefs.
• Mental set is approaching a problem in a specific way that has worked in the past, even if less efficient in the current situation.
• Imposing constraints is setting unnecessary limitations.
• Representative heuristic is judging the likelihood of an event based on how similar it is to a prototype.
• Availability heuristic is making judgments based on how easily instances of an event come to mind.
• Conjunction fallacy occurs when people think the probability of two events occurring together is higher than the probability of either event occurring independently.
• Framing is describing a situation or issue to influence how people feel and react to it.
• Nudges are subtle changes to the choices people face that lead them toward beneficial decisions without restricting choices.
• Creativity is generating new and valuable ideas.
• Convergent thinking is narrowing choices to the best or most suitable solution.
• Divergent thinking is expanding potential problem or solution choices.
• Overconfidence is overestimating the accuracy of one's beliefs or judgments.
• Belief perseverance is clinging to initial conceptions after evidence is disproven.
• Language is important to thoughts and communication through spoken, written, or signed words.

Brain and Language

• Damage to specific brain areas (like Broca's and Wernicke's areas) can impair language.
• Aphasia is language impairment caused by brain damage.
• Broca's area is involved in speech production.
• Wernicke's area is associated with speech comprehension.

Other Topics (from the provided OCR text)

• Natural selection: Species adapt to their environment or compete with others.
• Testing effect: Enhancing memory by retrieving information.
• SQ3R: Study method for reading (Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review).
• Structuralism: Understanding the basic structures of the mind.
• Introspection: Analyzing one's own thoughts and feelings.
• Physiology: Study of the functions of living organisms.
• Functionalism: Studying the functions of the mind/behavior to enable an organism to adapt.
• Biopsychosocial approach: Combining biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis to understand behavior/mental processes.
• Humanistic psychologists: Focus on human growth and potential.
• Behaviorism: An approach that focuses on observable behaviors and ignores mental processes.
• Methods Used in Psychology: Examples of those cited are: observational studies/interviews/case studies/experiments/correlational studies/surveys