Prepare for the AP Psychology exam with these practice questions and answers. This comprehensive guide covers research methods, biological bases, sensation, perception, learning, cognition, and psychological disorders.
Q: Projective test
Answer: a personality test that provides ambiguous stimuli designed to trigger projection of one’s inner dynamics; rorschach inkblot test, TAT
Q: Gordon Allport’s Traits
Answer: a characteristic pattern of behavior or a disposition to feel and act, as assessed by self-report inventories and peer reports
Q: Freud’s Psychosexual Stages
Answer: OralAnal – Bladder elimination/Coping with demands for controlPhallic – Pleasure centers on the genitals and coping with sexual feelingsLatency – Dormant sexual feelingsGenital – Maturation of sexual interests
Q: Identification
Answer: the process by which, according to Freud, children incorporate their parents’ values into their developing superegos
Q: Fixation
Answer: according to Freud, a lingering focus of pleasure-seeking energies at an earlier psychosexual stage, in which conflicts were unresolved
Q: Freud’s Defense Mechanisms
Answer: In psychoanalytic theory, the ego’s protective methods of reducing anxiety by unconsciously distorting reality; repression underlies this
Q: Regression (Defense Mechanism)
Answer: Retreating to an infantile psychosexual stage where some energy remains fixated
Q: Intellectualization (Defense Mechanism)
Answer: Reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict
Q: Compensation/Overcompensation (Defense Mechanism)
Answer: People overachieve in one area to compensate for failures in another
Q: Sublimation (Defense Mechanism)
Answer: socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are unconsciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior
Q: Carl Jung’s Collective Unconscious
Answer: The psychodynamic concept of a shared, inherited reservoir of images/archetypes from our species’ history
Q: Carl Jung’s Individuation
Answer: The personal and collective unconscious are brought into consciousness to be assimilated into the personality and creating a state of inner harmony
Q: Freud’s “Penis Envy”
Answer: Women have weak superegos and are infantile/emotional creatures incapable of responsibility and independence
Q: Alfred Adler and Karen Horney (Neo-Freudians)
Answer: Both believed in childhood social tensions and the conscious mind’s role in interpreting experience and coping with the environment
Q: Adler’s Birth Order
Answer: First born children may feel inferior once their younger sibling arrives
Q: Adler’s Inferiority Complex
Answer: Our behavior is driven by efforts to conquer childhood inferiority feelings that trigger strivings for superiority and power
Q: Carl Roger’s Congruent Self
Answer: Self-actualization occurs when a person’s ideal self is congruent with their actual behavior (self-image)
Q: Eysenck Trait Theory
Answer: Extraversion vs. IntroversionEmotional stability vs. Instability
Q: Empirically derived test
Answer: a test developed by testing a pool of items and then selecting those that discriminate between groups
Q: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Answer: the most widely researched and clinically used of all personality tests. originally developed to identify emotional disorders, this test is now used for many other screening purposes
Q: The Big Five
Answer: Conscientiousness – organized, carefulAgreeablenessNeuroticism – anxietyOpenness – imaginative, independentExtraversion
Q: Bandura’s Social-Cognitive Perspective
Answer: views behavior as influenced by the interaction between people’s traits (including their thinking) and their social context
Q: Bandura’s Reciprocal Determinism
Answer: the interacting influences of behavior, internal cognition, and environment
Q: Mischel’s Person-Situation Controversy
Answer: whether the person or the situation is more influential in determining a person’s behavior; people do not act with predictable consistency
Q: Markus’s Possible Selves
Answer: ideal self and feared self; motivates us to work toward specific goals
Q: Self-serving bias
Answer: a readiness to perceive oneself favorably
Q: Freud’s Libido, Eros, and Thanatos
Answer: Libido – sexual impulse/energyEros – the drive of life, love, and sexualityThanatos – the drive of aggression, destruction, and death
Q: Raymond Cattell’s 16-P Factor
Answer: Using factor analysis, he generated sixteen dimensions of human personality traits
Q: Factor Analysis
Answer: A statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test
Q: Julian Rotter’s I-E Scale
Answer: Internal vs. External Locus of Control
Q: Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
Answer: A person will behave in a certain way due to what they expect the result of that selected behavior to be
Q: George Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory
Answer: People develop their own systems of personal constructs that come in pairs of opposites; Used to interpret the world which influences our behavior
Q: George Kelly’s Fundamental Postulate
Answer: People’s behavior is influenced by their cognitions and knowing how some people have behaved in the past, we can predict how they will act in the future
Q: Temperament
Answer: a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
Q: Thematic Apperception Test
Answer: a projective test in which people express their inner feelings and interests through the stories they make up about ambiguous scenes
Q: Hippocrates 4 Bodily Fluids of Personality
Answer: Blood/Sanguine – enthusiasticYellow bile/Choleric – short-temperedBlack bile/Melancholic – wisePhlegm/Phlegmatic – peaceful
Q: Sheldon’s Somatotypes of Personality
Answer: Endomorphs (fat): outgoingMesomorphs (muscular): confidentEctomorphs (thin): shy
Q: Incentive Theory
Answer: We are PULLED by positive or negative stimuli that motivate our behavior
Q: Arousal Theory
Answer: We seek an optimum level of excitement or arousal
Q: Over-justification Effect
Answer: An extrinsic reward is introduced after a behavior that a person is already intrinsically motivated to perform
Q: Yerkes-Dodson Law
Answer: There is an optimal level of arousal in which we perform the best
Q: Cognitive Consistency/Dissonance Theory
Answer: There is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions
Q: Motivational Cycle
Answer: Need (food)-Drive (hunger)-Response/Drive Reducing Behaviors (eating)-Goal
Q: Satiety
Answer: The absence of hunger, full
Q: Catharsis/Catharsis Hypothesis
Answer: Emotional release/Releasing aggressive energy through action or fantasy relieves aggressive urges
Q: Emotion
Answer: A response of the whole organism involving physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience
Q: Subjective Well-Being
Answer: Self-perceived happiness or satisfaction with life (used along with measures of objective well-being to evaluate people’s quality of life)
Q: Adaptation Level Phenomenon
Answer: Our tendency to form judgments relative to a “neutral” level defined by our prior experience (The excitement when you first purchased a new TV faded with time and it became normal)
Q: Relative Deprivation
Answer: The perception that one is worse off relative to those with whom one compares oneself
Q: Brain Lateralization
Answer: Different influences of the two brain hemisphere on various emotions. The left hemisphere apparently influences positive emotions, and the right hemisphere influences negative emotions.
Q: 7 Basic Emotions
Answer: Sad, fear, anger, disgust, contempt, happy, surprise
Q: Schachter-Singer Two-Factor Theory
Answer: To experience emotion one must be physically aroused and cognitively label the arousal
Q: Cannon-Bard Theory
Answer: An emotion-arousing stimulus simultaneously triggers physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion
Q: James Lange Theory
Answer: Our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli
Q: Display Rules
Answer: The permissible ways of displaying emotions in a particular society
Q: Kinesics
Answer: The study of communication through body movements, stances, gestures, and facial expressions
Q: Amygdala
Answer: Two lima-bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion
Q: Cerebral Cortex
Answer: The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body’s ultimate control and information processing center
Q: Brain’s Emotional Pathways
Answer: In the two-track mind, sensory input is routed a) to the cortex via the thalamus for analysis and transmission to the amygdala or b) directly to the amygdala via the thalamus for an instant emotional reaction
Q: Autonomic Nervous System
Answer: The sympathetic division mobilizes your body for action and directs adrenal glands to release the stress hormones epinephrine and norepinephrine; parasympathetic division calms and stress hormones leave the bloodstream
Q: Zajonc and LeDoux
Answer: Emotions are instant, before cognitive appraisal; unconscious/automatic thinking
Q: Lazarus
Answer: Emotions and sometimes unconscious appraisal of whether it is dangerous or not
Q: Carroll Izard’s 10 Basic Emotions
Answer: joy, interest-excitement, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame, and guilt; most present in infancy; other emotions are a combination of the 10
Q: Friedman and Rosenman’s Type B Personality
Answer: Easygoing, relaxed people
Q: Friedman and Rosenman’s Type A Personality
Answer: Competitive, hard-driving, impatient, verbally aggressive, and anger-prone people; prone to cardiovascular/coronary diseases
Q: Problem-Focused Coping
Answer: Alleviating stress directly by changing the stressor or the way we interact with it
Q: Emotion-Focused Coping
Answer: Alleviating stress by avoiding or ignoring a stressor and tending to emotional needs
Q: Lymphocytes (B & T)
Answer: Two types of white blood cells in the body’s immune system: B form in the bone marrow and release antibodies to fight infection; T form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances
Q: Macrophage
Answer: Identifies, pursues, and ingests harmful invaders and worn-out cells
Q: Natural Killer/NK Cells
Answer: Pursues diseased cells
Q: Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS)
Answer: The body’s adaptive response to stress in three phases: alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Q: Psychophysiological Illness
Answer: Mind-Body illness; stress-related physical illnesses such as hypertension and headaches
Q: Psychoneuroimmunology
Answer: The study of how psychological, neural, and endocrine processes affect the immune system and health
Q: Achievement Motivation
Answer: A desire for significant accomplishment; for mastery of skills or ideas; for rapidly attaining a high standard
Q: Affiliation Motivation (Belonging)
Answer: A need to belong/seek connections with others
Q: Ostracism
Answer: Social exclusion in natural and laboratory settings
Q: Industrial-Organizational/IO Psychology
Answer: The application of psychological concepts and methods to optimize human behavior in workplaces
Q: Personnel Psychology
Answer: Subfield of I/O psychology focusing on employee selection, placement, training, appraisal, and development
Q: Organizational Psychology
Answer: Subfield of I/O psychology examining organizational influences on worker satisfaction and productivity and facilitates organizational change
Q: Human Factors Psychology
Answer: Subfield of I/O psychology exploring how people and machines interact and how machines and physical environments can be made safe and easy to use
Q: Flow
Answer: A completely involved, focused state of consciousness with diminished awareness of self and time, resulting from optimal engagement of one’s skills
Q: Interviewer Illusion
Answer: Interviewers’ overestimating their ability to judge people
Q: Management Motivation Theory X
Answer: Manager believes employees will work for reward (benefits) or threatened by punishment
Q: Management Motivation Theory Y
Answer: Manager believes employees are internally motivated to do good work
Q: Task Leadership
Answer: Goal-oriented leadership that sets standards, organizes work, and focuses on goals
Q: Social Leadership
Answer: Group-oriented leadership that builds teamwork, mediates conflict, and offers support
Q: Hypothalamus
Answer: Performs body maintenance including hunger control; blood vessels supply it and enable it to respond to our blood chemistry and incoming neural info about the body’s state
Q: Lateral Hypothalamus
Answer: Brings on hunger with stimulation; When destroyed, it ceases hunger in an organism.
Q: Ventromedial Hypothalamus
Answer: Depresses hunger with stimulation; When destroyed, the organism eats excessively.
Q: Ghrelin (Appetite Hormone)
Answer: Secreted by an empty stomach and sends hungry signals to the brain
Q: Orexin (Appetite Hormone)
Answer: Secreted by the hypothalamus, also triggers hunger
Q: PYY (Appetite Hormone)
Answer: From the digestive tract, decreases hunger
Q: Leptin (Appetite Hormone)
Answer: Secreted by fat cells, decreases hunger
Q: Basal Metabolic Rate
Answer: The body’s resting rate of energy expenditure
Q: Set Point Theory
Answer: Manipulating the lateral and ventromedial hypothalamus alters the body’s set “weight thermostat.” When weight is lost, food intake increases to restore it, and vice versa.
Q: Settling Point Theory
Answer: The level at which a person’s weight settles in response to caloric intake and expenditure (influenced by environment and biology)
Q: External/Internal Cues
Answer: Motivated to eat by external food cues, like attractiveness or availability/Motivated to eat by internal hunger cues (empty stomach)
Q: Approach/approach conflict
Answer: According to Lewin, the result of simultaneous attraction to two appealing possibilities neither of which has any negative qualities
Q: Avoidance/avoidance conflict
Answer: According to Lewin, the result of facing a choice between two undesirable possibilities, neither of which has any positive qualities
Q: Approach/avoidance conflict
Answer: According Lewin, the result of being simultaneously attracted to and repelled by the same goal
Q: Multiple approach-avoidance conflicts
Answer: Situations involving several alternative courses of action that have both positive and negative aspects
Q: Kinsey Report
Answer: “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male & Female”; Scientific study by Alfred Kinsey; Challenged traditional beliefs about sex and marriage; High counts of homosexuality, masturbation, and extramarital affairs; Those who were interviewed about their sexual behaviors were not a representative sample
Q: Masters and Johnson’s Sexual Response Cycle
Answer: 1) Initial/Excitement 2) Plateau 3) Orgasm4) Resolution
Q: Sternberg’s Triangular Theory of Love
Answer: 1) Intimacy: feelings that promote closeness and connection 2) Passion: the intense desire for union with another 3) Commitment: the decision to maintain a relationship
Q: Socrates and Plato
Answer: Certain ideas are innate and we inherit character and intelligence
Q: Rene Descartes
Answer: Some ideas are innate
Q: John Locke
Answer: Tabula rasa: the mind is a blank slate written on by experience; Nurture
Q: Jean Jaques Rosseau
Answer: Children can discover how the world operates and how they should behave independently; Nature
Q: Aristotle
Answer: Knowledge comes from the senses
Q: Wilhelm Wundt
Answer: Measured the time it took to press a button when they heard a ball drop vs. the longer time it took to press a button when consciously aware
Q: Edward Titchener
Answer: Had people engage in introspection: self-reporting on sensations and other elements of experience in reaction to stimuli; Structuralism: study of the mind’s structure
Q: Konrad Lorenz
Answer: Studied imprinting: the process by which animals form attachments during a critical period early in life; Believed to be a built-in survival mechanism
Q: William James
Answer: Functionalism: exploration of emotions, memories, willpower, habits, and streams of consciousness; Considered the evolutionary/adaptive functions of our thoughts and feelings
Q: John Watson (Behaviorism)
Answer: Paired a bunny with a loud noise and taught Little Albert fear –> Classical Conditioning
Q: B.F. Skinner (Behaviorism)
Answer: Taught pigeons to do amazing things to get rewards –> Operant Conditioning
Q: Animal Research Code of Ethics
Answer: Clear scientific purpose, humane treatment, legal acquisition (purchase) of subjects, limit suffering to least feasible
Q: Human Research Code of Ethics
Answer: Informed consent, limit deception, no coercion, protect from farm, confidentiality, debrief afterwards
Q: Psychology
Answer: The science of behavior and mental processes
Q: Contemporary Psychologists
Answer: Study both overt (directly observable) behavior and covert (internal) thoughts
Q: Trephination
Answer: Surgical procedure known to release spirits
Q: Dualism
Answer: The presumption that mind and body are two distinct entities that interact
Q: Monism
Answer: The presumption that mind and body are different aspects of the same thing.
Q: Empiricism
Answer: View that knowledge comes from experience and science should rely on observation
Q: Eclectic Approach
Answer: An approach to psychotherapy that, depending on the client’s problems, uses techniques from various forms of therapy
Q: Biopsychology/Neuroscience Perspective
Answer: How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
Q: Evolutionary Perspective
Answer: How the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes
Q: Behavioral Perspective
Answer: How we learn observable responses
Q: Cognitive Perspective
Answer: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
Q: Social-Cultural
Answer: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
Q: Nature vs. Nurture
Answer: Genes vs. Experience make the development of psychological traits and behaviors
Q: Continuity vs. Stages
Answer: Development is a slow, continuous shaping process vs. a sequence of genetically predisposed stages or steps
Q: Stability vs. Change
Answer: The developmental psychology discussion about whether personality traits that are present at birth remain constant or change throughout the life span
Q: Diverse or Universal
Answer: Whether our understanding of human behavior applies equally to all human beings or not
Q: Mind or Body or Both
Answer: A problem with understanding the relationship between the mind and the body
Q: Developmental Psychology
Answer: A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span
Q: Behaviorism
Answer: The view that psychology 1) should be an objective science that 2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes
Q: Physiological Psychology
Answer: Studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brain
Q: Biological Psychology
Answer: The study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior
Q: Social Psychology
Answer: The branch of psychology that studies persons and their relationships with others and with groups and with society as a whole
Q: Psychometrics
Answer: A specialized branch of psychology dealing with psychological tests
Q: Hindsight Bias
Answer: The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would have foreseen it
Q: Overconfidence Effect
Answer: The tendency to be more confident than correct and overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs
Q: Barnum Effect
Answer: People’s tendency to believe that vague descriptions of personality actually fit themselves
Q: Hawthorne Effect
Answer: When people know that they are being observed, they change their behavior to what they think the observer expects or to make themselves look good
Q: Basic Research
Answer: Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
Q: Applied Research
Answer: Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
Q: Descriptive Research
Answer: To observe and record behavior
Q: Empirical Science
Answer: An approach to research that relies on sensory experience and observation as research data
Q: Operational Definition
Answer: A statement of the procedures used to define research variables
Q: Scientific Method
Answer: A five-step process for empirical investigation of a hypothesis under conditions designed to control biases and subjective judgements
Q: Theory
Answer: A testable explanation for a set of facts or observations
Q: Mean
Answer: The measure of central tendency most often used to describe a set of data
Q: Experimenter Bias
Answer: The unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis
Q: Participant/Response Bias
Answer: Subtle cues or signals expressed by the researcher communicate the expected response or behavior from the participant
Q: Social Desirability
Answer: The tendency to try to give answers that reflect well upon oneself
Q: Framing
Answer: The way an issue is posed; how an issue is framed can significantly affect decisions and judgments
Q: Case Study
Answer: An observation technique in which one person is studied in depth to reveal universal principles
Q: Ex Post Facto Study
Answer: Research in which we choose subjects based on a pre-existing condition
Q: Meta-Analysis
Answer: A procedure for statistically combining the results of many different research studies
Q: Correlation Coefficient
Answer: A number between -1 and +1 expressing the degree of relationship between two variables
Q: Descriptive Statistics
Answer: Statistical procedures used to describe characteristics and responses of groups of subjects
Q: Inferential Statistics
Answer: A researcher analyzes statistical/numerical data to determine whether the findings are reliable
Q: Frequency Distribution
Answer: A summary chart showing how frequently each of the various scores in a set of data occurs
Q: Central Tendency
Answer: A central or typical value for a probability distribution
Q: Normal Distribution
Answer: A bell-shaped curve, describing the spread of a characteristic throughout a population
Q: Standard Deviation
Answer: A measure of variability that indicates the average difference between the scores and their mean
Q: Outliers
Answer: Extreme scores that cause distributions to be skewed
Q: Frequency polygon/Line graph
Answer: Graph of a frequency distribution that shows the number of instances of obtained scores
Q: P Score
Answer: The probability level which forms basis for deciding if results are statistically significant; .05 or less
Q: Reliability
Answer: The extent to which a test yields consistent results
Q: Validity
Answer: The extent to which a test measures or predicts what it is supposed to
Q: 68-95-99 Rule
Answer: 68% scores fall within 1 SD, 95% of scores fall between 2 SD, 99% scores fall between 3 SD.
Q: Stratified Sample
Answer: Subgroups within a population are represented in proportion to their numbers in the general population
Q: Participant-Relevant Confounding Variable
Answer: Any differences amongst participants that may skew results
Q: Situation-Relevant Confounding Variable
Answer: Unequal group situations skew experiment results
Q: False Consensus Effect
Answer: The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
Q: Transfer-Appropriate Processing Model
Answer: A model of memory that suggests that a critical determinant of memory is how well the retrieval process matches the original encoding process
Q: Rosy Retrospection
Answer: Subjects later rate past events more positively than they had actually rated them when the event occurred
Q: Language Acquisition
Answer: Chomsky’s idea that acquiring language is innate and all languages are based on the same building blocks
Q: Telegraphic Speech
Answer: Speech during the two-word stage of language acquisition in children
Q: Language Acquisition Device
Answer: Instinctive mental capacity which enables an infant to acquire and produce language
Q: Receptive Language
Answer: Understanding speech; 0-4 months, associating sounds with facial movements and recognizing when sounds are broken into words
Q: Productive Language
Answer: Producing speech; 4 months, babbling in multilingual sounds and gestures, At 10 months the babbling sounds more like the parents’/household’s language
Q: Ebbinghaus
Answer: Learning Curve: Less time spent relearning nonsense syllables with rehearsal –> Forgetting Curve: rapid, then levels out
Q: Elaborative Rehearsal
Answer: Thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered
Q: Atkinson-Shiffrin’s 3 – Stage Processing Model
Answer: Process for how memory works. BRIEF. Sensory Memory -> STM-> LTM
Q: George Sperling’s Iconic Memory
Answer: A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second
Q: Echoic Memory
Answer: A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
Q: Long Term Potentiation
Answer: An increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation
Q: Self-Reference Effect
Answer: The tendency for individuals to have better memory for information that relates to oneself
Q: Aphasia
Answer: The inability to understand or express speech
Q: Agnosia
Answer: The inability to interpret sensations and recognize things
Q: Hindbrain
Answer: Cerebellum, Medulla, Pons
Q: Midbrain
Answer: Reticular formation
Q: Forebrain
Answer: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Thalamus
Q: Limbic System
Answer: Amygdala, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus
Q: Pons
Answer: Coordinates movement
Q: Gazzaniga
Answer: Split brain patients who could SAY one thing they had seen because of their left hemisphere and IDENTIFIED another thing because of their right hemisphere
Q: Resting Potential
Answer: The positive outside and negative inside fluid of an axon’s membrane
Q: Sodium/Potassium Pump
Answer: 1) If a neuron fires, the first section of the axon opens its gates2) Positively charged sodium ions flood into the cell membrane and depolarizes the first section of the axon, causing others to open3) During a refractory period, the neuron pumps the positively charged sodium ions back outside
Q: Threshold
Answer: The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse
Q: Selectively Permeable
Answer: The axon’s surface is selective about what it allows through its gates
Q: Rosenzweig
Answer: Raised rats in a lonely environment vs. an enriched/social environment –> Rats in the enriched environment developed more cerebral cortex
Q: Dendrite
Answer: Receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body/soma
Q: Axon
Answer: Passes messages from the dendrites to other neurons or to muscles or glands
Q: Synapse
Answer: The junction between the tip of the axon terminals of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron
Q: Terminal Button
Answer: The small knobs at the end of axon terminals that release neurotransmitters
Q: Thyroid Glands
Answer: Affects Metabolism
Q: Acetylcholine
Answer: Enables muscle action, learning, and memory; Decreases with Alzheimer’s
Q: Dopamine
Answer: Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion; Undersupply linked to Parkinson’s
Q: Norepinephrine
Answer: Controls alertness/arousal; Undersupply depresses mood
Q: Endorphins
Answer: “Morphine within,” natural opiate like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and pleasure
Q: GABA
Answer: Inhibitory neurotransmitter; Undersupply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia
Q: Glutamate
Answer: Excitatory neurotransmitter involved in memory; Oversupply can overstimulate brain
Q: Antagonists
Answer: Blocks a neurotransmitter’s functioning by binding to receptor sites; Curare (poison)
Q: Agonists
Answer: Mimics effects of neurotransmitters by binding to receptor sites; Opiates create a temporary high
Q: Lesion
Answer: Naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue
Q: Deep Brain Stimulation
Answer: A treatment approach involving an electrode being implanted in the brain and connected to a pulse generator so electrical currents can be delivered to brain tissue next to the electrode
Q: EEG
Answer: An amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain’s surface measured by electrodes placed on the scalp
Q: CT/CAT
Answer: A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles combined into a representation of a slice through the body
Q: MRI
Answer: Uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce images of soft tissue and brain anatomy
Q: fMRI
Answer: Reveals blood flow and brain activity by comparing MRI scans to show brain function
Q: PET
Answer: Visual of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a task
Q: Afferent/Sensory Neurons
Answer: Carries incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord
Q: Efferent/Motor Neurons
Answer: Carries outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to muscles and glands
Q: Interneurons
Answer: Neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs
Q: Glial Cells
Answer: Cells in the central nervous system that support, nourish, and protects neurons; May play a role in learning and thinking
Q: Central Nervous System
Answer: Brain and spinal cord
Q: Peripheral Nervous System
Answer: Sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system to the rest of the body
Q: Somatic Nervous System
Answer: Division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body’s skeletal muscles
Q: Turner’s Syndrome
Answer: Only a single X chromosome is present; Causes shortness, webbed necks, and differences in physical sexual development
Q: Klnefelter’s Syndrome
Answer: An extra X chromosome is present (XXY); Causes minimal sexual development and personality traits
Q: Down’s Syndrome
Answer: A extra chromosome is present; Causes mental retardation and varying physical characteristics
Q: Altering Consciousness
Answer: Mental states that differ from normal waking consciousness; Examples: daydreaming, meditation, hypnosis
Q: Mere-Exposure Effect
Answer: Repeated exposure to certain stimuli increases our liking of them
Q: Cocktail Party Effect
Answer: The ability to focus one’s listening attention on one voice among other conversations and background noise
Q: Blindsight
Answer: A person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
Q: SIDS
Answer: A disorder in which a sleeping baby stops breathing and dies
Q: Bruxism
Answer: Teeth grinding that is common among women
Q: Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
Answer: Triggered by light-sensitive retinal proteins; Causes the pineal gland to decrease sleep-inducing melatonin in the morning and increase it at night
Q: NREM Sleep Stages
Answer: Beta waves (Alert, awake)Alpha waves (Relaxed, awake)NREM 1- Hypnagogic imagesNREM 2- Sleep spindles, theta wavesNREM 3- Night terrors, sleepwalking and sleeptalking, delta wavesNREM 4NREM 3NREM 2REM/Paradoxical Sleep- Active brain, paralyzed body
Q: REM Rebound
Answer: REM sleep increases following sleep deprivation
Q: Mesmer
Answer: Credit for the popularity of hypnosis; Some of his patients experienced a trancelike state and felt better upon waking up
Q: Hilgard’s Dissociation/Divided Consciousness Theory of Hypnosis
Answer: One part of the mind is subject to hypnotic suggestion (to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized), and one part is a hidden observer (protects us from doing anything in hypnosis that we wouldn’t do normally)
Q: Role Theory of Hypnosis
Answer: Hypnosis is not an alternate state of consciousness because people who are easily hypnotized are imaginative and follow directions well
Q: State Theory of Hypnosis
Answer: Hypnosis meets some parts of the definitions for an altered state of consciousness
Q: Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman
Answer: Discovered REM sleep first in infants, then in adults with experimenting on them by waking them up during REM periods and having them recall vivid dreams
Q: Stanley Coren
Answer: Most will sleep 9 hours uninterrupted; More car accidents after the change to daylight savings
Q: William Dement
Answer: Opened the first sleep lab and helped discover REM sleep and its relationship with dreaming
Q: Albert Hofmann
Answer: First to synthesize, ingest, and learn of the psychedelic effects of LSD
Q: Nicholas Spanos
Answer: Movements are voluntary and patients roleplay during hypnosis
Q: Depressants
Answer: Drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions; Examples: alcohol, heroin
Q: Stimulants
Answer: Drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions; Examples: caffeine, meth, cocaine, nicotine, ecstasy
Q: Hallucinogens
Answer: Psychedelic drugs that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images; Examples: marijuana
Q: Information-Processing THeory
Answer: Dreams sort out the day’s events and consolidate our memories
Q: Activation-Synthesis Theory
Answer: Dreaming results from the brain’s attempt to make sense of neural activity (from pons and others) that takes place during sleep
Q: Cognitive Development
Answer: Dream content reflects dreamer’s knowledge and understanding
Q: Social Clock
Answer: The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement
Q: Harry Harlow
Answer: Rhesus monkeys became attached to cloth mothers because of comfort through contact that provided a secure base
Q: Baumrind’s Parenting Styles
Answer: Authoritarian, Permissive, Authoritative
Q: Butterworth’s Mirror/Rouge Test
Answer: At 6 months, children reach out to touch the mirror as if it was another child; At 15-18 months, children touch their own noses when they see the red spot in the mirror
Q: Disengagement Theory
Answer: Mutual withdrawal of elders from society
Q: Vaillant’s Additional Stages of Psychosocial Development
Answer: Career Consolidation and Keepers of Meaning: passing on information to the next generation
Q: Activity Theory
Answer: Elderly people who remain active and socially involved will be best adjusted
Q: Kubler-Ross’s Stages of Death and Dying/Grief
Answer: 1) Denial2) Anger3) Bargaining: struggling to find meaning, reaching out to others4) Depression5) Acceptance
Q: Egocentrism
Answer: The preoperational child’s difficulty taking another’s point of view
Q: Theory of Mind
Answer: People’s ideas about their own and others’ feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict
Q: Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
Answer: 1) Preconventional: Self-interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or get rewarded2) Conventional: Follow the laws/rules to gain social approval or order3) Postconventional: Actions reflect belief in basic rights and self-defined ethics
Q: Carol Gilligan
Answer: Köhlberg’s work differences between the moral judgments of boys and girls; girls focus more on relationships than laws and principles
Q: Jonathan Haidt’s Social/Moral Intuition Theory
Answer: Morality is rooted in intuitions: quick gut feelings
Q: Gender Typing
Answer: The learning and developing of a traditional masculine or feminine role
Q: Social Learning Theory
Answer: We learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by reward and punishment
Q: Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
Answer: 1) Trust vs. Mistrust2) Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt3) Initiative vs. Guilt4) Competence vs. Inferiority5) Identity vs. Role Confusion6) Intimacy vs. Isolation7) Generativity vs. Stagnation:8) Integrity vs. Despair
Q: Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Answer: 1) Sensorimotor; Object permanence, stranger anxiety2) Preoperational: learns to use language; Pretend play, egocentrism3) Concrete Operational: logical thinking about concrete events; Conservation, math4) Formal Operational: logical thinking about abstract concepts; Abstract logic, mature moral reasoning
Q: Assimilation
Answer: We take in new information or experiences and incorporate them into our existing ideas
Q: Accomodation
Answer: New information or experiences cause us to modify our existing schemas
Q: Vygotsky-Scaffolding
Answer: By mentoring children and giving them new words, parents provide a scaffold from which children can step to higher thinking
Q: Habituation
Answer: Decreasing responsiveness to a stimulus with repeated stimulation
Q: Prenatal Development
Answer: Zygote: fertilized egg that enters cell division –> Embryo –> Fetus
Q: Cephalocaudal
Answer: Sequence of physical maturation and growth that proceeds from the head (cephalic region) to the tail (caudal region)
Q: Proximodistal
Answer: Sequence of physical maturation and growth that proceeds from the center of the body (proximal region) to the hands and feet (distal regions)
Q: Fluid Intelligence
Answer: Ability to reason speedily and abstractly
Q: Crystallized Intelligence
Answer: Accumulated knowledge and verbal skills
Q: Prospective Memory
Answer: Memory of things that one plans to do in the future
Q: Sensation
Answer: The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
Q: Perception
Answer: The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
Q: Bottom-up Processing
Answer: Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
Q: Top-down Processing
Answer: Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations
Q: Prosopagnosia
Answer: Inability to recognize the faces of familiar people
Q: Absolute Threshold
Answer: The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
Q: Subliminal
Answer: Below one’s absolute threshold for conscious awareness
Q: Difference Threshold
Answer: The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time. We experience the this as a just noticeable difference.
Q: Psychophysics
Answer: The study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them
Q: Signal Detection Theory
Answer: A theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus (signal) amid background stimulation (noise). Assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigue
Q: Weber-Fechner Law
Answer: The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (rather than a constant amount)
Q: Sensory Adaptation
Answer: Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
Q: Transduction
Answer: Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, the transforming of stimulus energies, such as sights, sounds, and smells, into neural impulses our brains can interpret
Q: Nociceptors
Answer: Sensory receptors that experience and transmit various pain reactions to the brain
Q: Gate-control Theory
Answer: The spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain. The “gate” is opened by the activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers and is closed by activity in larger fibers or by information coming from the brain
Q: McGurk Effect
Answer: If what we see and hear is different, our brain creates a third sound
Q: Smell
Answer: Does not go through the thalamus; Direct route to limbic system
Q: Kinesthesis
Answer: The system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parts
Q: Transduction In the Ear
Answer: 1) Sound waves enter the outer ear2) The outer ear sends the waves via the auditory canal to the eardrum, causing it to vibrate3) In the middle ear, the ossicles pick up the vibrations and sends them to the cochlea in the inner ear4) The cochlea’s membrane/oval window vibrates, creating fluid waves5) Ripples in the basilar membrane bends its hair cells, triggering impulses in nerve cells6) The auditory nerve sends the messages via the thalamus to the auditory cortex in the brain’s temporal lobe
Q: Vestibular Sense
Answer: The sense of body movement and position, including the sense of balance
Q: Semicircular Canals
Answer: Three nearly circular tubes in the vestibular organ that inform the brain about tilts of the head and body
Q: Synaesthesia
Answer: Stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway
Q: Wavelength
Answer: Color/hue
Q: Intensity
Answer: Brightness
Q: Process of Perception
Answer: 1) Light entering the eye through the cornea passes through the pupil/iristriggers a reaction in rods and cones at the back of the retina2) This activates the bipolar cells3) Then the ganglion cells that form the optic nerve sends information to the visual cortex via the thalamus4) Feature detectors in the occipital lobe of the visual cortex receive this information
Q: Cornea
Answer: Protects the eye and bends light to provide focus
Q: Pupil
Answer: The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters
Q: Lens
Answer: The transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to accommodate/help focus images on the retina
Q: Retina
Answer: Transduction; The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information
Q: Rods
Answer: 120 million; Black and white; Dim lighting
Q: Cones
Answer: 6 million; Color; Bright lighting
Q: Fovea
Answer: The central focal point in the retina, around which the eye’s cones cluster
Q: Blind spot
Answer: The point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a “blind” spot because no receptor cells are located there
Q: Feature Detectors
Answer: Nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features of the stimulus, such as shape, angle, or movement
Q: Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic (Three Color) Theory
Answer: The theory that the retina contains three different color receptors – one most sensitive to red, one to green, one to blue – which, when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color
Q: Subtractive Color Mixing
Answer: Formation of colors by removing some wavelengths of light, leaving less light than was originally there
Q: Additive Color Mixing
Answer: Formation of colors by superimposing lights, putting more light in the mixture than exists in any one light by itself
Q: Afterimages
Answer: Occurs after prolonged intense exposure to a visual stimulus; Ex: stare at a yellow square and then its opponent color, blue, will appear when you look at a white piece of paper
Q: Outer Ear
Answer: Pinna, auditory canal
Q: Middle ear
Answer: The chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing the ossicles (hammer, anvil, and stirrup) that concentrate the vibrations of the eardrum on the cochlea’s oval window
Q: Inner ear
Answer: The innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs
Q: Place Theory
Answer: In hearing, the theory that links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated
Q: Frequency Theory
Answer: In hearing, the theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch
Q: Volley Principle
Answer: Relates the experience of pitch to the alternating firing of groups of neurons along the basilar membrane
Q: Sound Localization
Answer: The auditory system’s ability to locate the source of a sound
Q: Acquisition
Answer: In classical conditioning, the initial stage, when a person links an NS and an US so that the NS begins triggering the CR; In operant conditioning, the strengthening of a reinforced response
Q: Garcia Effect
Answer: Animals that ate a food resulting in drug/radiation induced nausea developed a taste aversion
Q: Instinctive Drift
Answer: When an animal’s biological predispositions interfere with the conditioning process
Q: Deci and Ryan
Answer: Developed the self-determination theory: Optimal functioning and growth can only occur if autonomy (control), competence, and relatedness are satisfied
Q: Rescorla and Wagner
Answer: Emphasized the importance of cognitive processes in classical conditioning: Organisms develop an expectation that the CS signals the US
Q: Rizzolatti
Answer: Frontal lobe neurons fire when performing certain actions or when observing others doing so; May enable imitation and empathy
Q: Partial/Intermittent Reinforcement
Answer: Learning is slower, but it is more resistant to extinction
Q: Continuous Reinforcement
Answer: Learning is rapid, but is more prone to extinction
Q: Associative Learning
Answer: Learning that certain events occur together; the events may be two stimuli (classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (operant conditioning)
Q: Respondent Behavior
Answer: Behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus
Q: Higher-Order Conditioning
Answer: The procedure in which the CS in one conditioning experience is paired with a new NS, creating a second, often weaker CS; a light preceding a CS such as a sound
Q: Generalized Reinforcer
Answer: A conditioned reinforcer that has obtained the reinforcing function by pairing with other reinforcers; Ex: Money is linked to many things
Q: Intracranial Self-Stimulation/Reinforcer
Answer: The operant conditioning method used to produce brain stimulation reward (pleasure by stimulation of specific brain regions) in an experimental setting
Q: Kohler’s Insight Learning
Answer: Experiments with chimpanzees; Occurs when one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem
Q: Tolman’s Latent Learning
Answer: Learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it
Q: Rescorla’s Contingency Theory
Answer: Conditioning depends on how well the CS predicts the US and the strength of the association
Q: Chaining Behaviors
Answer: Using operant conditioning to teach a complex response by linking together less complex skills
Q: Successive Approximations
Answer: Method used to shape behavior that involves reinforcing closer and closer approximations of the desired response
Q: Discriminative Stimulus
Answer: A stimulus that is used consistently to gain a specific response and increases the possibility that the desired response will occur
Q: Omission Training
Answer: In operant conditioning, when something the subject enjoys is taken away as punishment for undesired behavior
Q: Transfer-Appropriate Processing
Answer: A critical determinant of memory is how well the retrieval process matches the original encoding process
Q: Rosy Retrospection
Answer: Recalling the positive high points while forgetting the dull moments of an experience
Q: Phoneme
Answer: Smallest possible units of spoken language; Varies across different languages
Q: Morpheme
Answer: Smallest unit of language that has meaning
Q: Elaborative Rehearsal
Answer: Thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered
Q: Parts of the Brain Involved in Memory
Answer: Cerebellum, Amygdala, Hippocampus
Q: Short Term/Working Memory
Answer: Holds items briefly; Conscious, active processing of auditory and visual-spatial information as well as information retrieved from long-term memory
Q: LTP
Answer: An increase in a cell’s firing potential after stimulation; Basis for learning and memory
Q: Self-Reference Effect
Answer: The tendency for individuals to have better memory of information that relates to oneself
Q: False/Constructed Memory
Answer: May report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occured
Q: Loftus’s Misinformation Effect
Answer: Incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event
Q: Explicit/Declarative Memory
Answer: Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare”
Q: Implicit/Non-Declarative Memory
Answer: Retention independent of conscious recollection; Ex: Procedural memories like riding a bike
Q: Eidetic/Photographic Memory
Answer: Ability to vividly recall images from memory after only a few instances of exposure
Q: Method of Loci
Answer: A mnemonic based on linking items to be remembered with objects in familiar locations
Q: Reliability
Answer: Split-half, test-retest, equivalent form: correlation between performance on different forms of the test
Q: Validity
Answer: Face/Predictive: a measure of how representative a research project; Construct: how well a test or experiment measures up to its claims; Content/Criterion: whether a test reflects a certain set of abilities
Q: Terman’s Stanford-Binet
Answer: Revision of Binet’s original intelligence test based on his concept of mental age
Q: Deviation IQ
Answer: How well you did compared to everybody else who took the test at your age.Mean= 1001 Standard Deviation= 15; 68%2 Standard Deviations= 95%3 Standard Deviations= 99%
Q: Spearman’s G
Answer: A general intelligence factor that underlies specific mental abilities and is measured by every task on an intelligence test
Q: Thurstone
Answer: Proposed that intelligence consisted of 7 different primary mental abilities: word fluency, verbal comprehension, spatial ability, perceptual speed, numerical ability, inductive reasoning, and memory
Q: Gardner’s 8 Multiple Intelligences
Answer: Logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, intrapersonal, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, naturalistic
Q: Convergent Thinking
Answer: The ability to give the “correct” answer to standard questions that do not require significant creativity
Q: Divergent Thinking
Answer: A thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions
Q: Representative Heuristic
Answer: Making decisions about a sample according to the population that the sample appears to represent
Q: Flashbulb Memory
Answer: Clear memory of emotionally significant moment or event
Q: Visceral Feeling
Answer: An intuitive, gut feeling
Q: Glucocorticoids
Answer: Stress hormones released by the the outer part of the adrenal glands in response to orders from the cerebral cortex
Q: Parasympathetic Rebound
Answer: Excess activity in the parasympathetic nervous system following a period of intense emotion
Q: Problem-Solving Appraisal
Answer: A person’s self-appraisal of his or her problem-solving abilities and attitudes
Q: Emotional Appraisal
Answer: Our appraisal of a situation causes an emotional response that is based on that appraisal
Q: Emotional Set Point
Answer: Our level of subjective well-being is determined primarily by heredity and by personality traits
Q: Anxious Ambivalent Attachment
Answer: Children exist in a state of being suspicious and distrustful while at the same time acting clingy and desperate. They tend to focus intensely on their parent and are hyper-vigilant regarding the parent’s availability or unavailability. They vacillate between over-dependent clinging and angry rejection of their parent or caregiver.
Q: Calhoun’s Norway Rat Study
Answer: Societal collapse in behavior due to overcrowding
Q: Dollard’s Frustration-Aggression Theory
Answer: Frustration leads to aggression
Q: Farley’s Type T Personality
Answer: A need for stimulation due to an internal arousal deficit; “Thrill Seeking”
Q: Rahe’s Life Change Units/Social Readjustment Rating Scale
Answer: Instrument for measuring the amount of stress a person is experiencing as a result of life changes
Q: Asch’s Conformity Experiment
Answer: People conform to the rest of the group due to these two main reasons:1. the want to fit in with the group2. they believe that the group is better informed than they are