Exam 1 study guide
Module 1
● What is the definition of psychology today?
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior
● What is nature and what is nurture?
Nature: What we do by nature/traits we have without learning. Natural behavior.
Nurture: Knowledge comes from the senses. The mind is a blank slate written by
experience. Learned behavior.
● What are the three key attitudes of scientific inquiry?
Curiosity, Skepticism, and Humility
● What are the main psychological domains?
Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social, Mental/Physical Health
● What is the biopsychosocial model of psychology?
The three categories overlap and influence each other, rather than working
independently. For instance, a stressful event (social) can trigger anxious thoughts
(psychological), which might then affect sleep or appetite (biological). The model
helps psychologists and healthcare workers see the whole picture and create better,
more effective treatments for mental and physical health conditions.
In summary, the biopsychosocial model is about looking at the bigger picture:
understanding that health, illness, and well-being are shaped by a combination of
biology, mind, and social environment working together
● What do cognitive psychologists study?
Focuses not just on behavior, but also on mental processes and internal mental
states.
(how people perceive, think, remember, learn, solve problems, and use language.
Their work covers areas like attention, memory, perception, decision-making,
reasoning, and language processing)
● What do behaviorists study?
Focuses on observing and controlling behavior through what is observable. Puts an
emphasis on learning and conditioning.
(how people and animals learn through conditioning, reinforcement, and
punishment.)
● What do developmentalists study?
the scientific study of development across a lifespan
(how people grow, change, and develop from birth to old age)
Module 2
● What is a hypothesis?
A tentative and testable statement about the relationship between two or more
variables.
● What are the different types of research?
Descriptive, Correlational, Experimental, Clinical or case study, Naturalistic
observation, Survey, Archival research, Cross-sectional research, and Longitudinal
research.
● What do correlational studies look for?
tests whether a relationship exists between two or more variables
● What are independent variables?
Variable that changes.
● What are dependent variables?
Variables that changes based on what happens to independent variable.
● What does it mean when an experiment is reliable and valid?
Reliability: consistency and reproducibility of a given result
Validity: accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is
designed to measure
● What is a placebo?
the influence of people’s expectations or beliefs on their experience in a given situation.
(when a person has a response to a fake treatment)
Ex. Giving someone a water and telling them it’s medicine to make them feel better and
then they believe they feel better.
● What is descriptive research?
research studies that do not test specific relationships between variables; they are used to
describe general or specific behaviors and attributes that are observed and measured.
(answers questions like “what,” “where,” “when,” and “how,” instead of “why.”)
● What are the differences between longitudinal, cross-sectional, and cross sequential
designs?
• Archival research: method of research using past records or data sets to answer
various research questions, or to search for interesting patterns or relationships
• Cross-sectional research: compares multiple segments of a population at a single
time
• Longitudinal research: studies in which the same group of individuals is surveyed
or measured repeatedly over an extended period of time
Module 3
● What do dendrites do? Axons? Myelin sheath?
Dendrites: receive information from other neurons.
Axons: transmit information to other neurons, muscles, and glands
Myelin Sheath: Allows electrical messages to be transmitted faster within
the neuron.
● What is an action potential?
a neural impulse that travels down an axon like a wave
● What is a synapse?
A point between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrites or cell body of
the receiving neuron.
● What is reuptake?
After the neurotransmitters stimulate the receptors on the receiving neuron, the chemicals
are taken back up into the sending neuron to be used again.
● What are the two major divisions of the nervous system?
Peripheral nervous system (automatic actions in your body)
Central nervous system (your controlled actions)
● What does the central nervous system consist of?
Brain and spinal cord
● What are hormones?
Hormones are chemical messengers produced by glands in the body that travel through the
bloodstream to specific organs or tissues to regulate many vital processes, such as growth,
metabolism, reproduction, and mood.
● What is the endocrine system?
The set of glands that produce hormones.
● What are neurotransmitters?
naturally occurring chemicals in the nervous system that transmit information between
neurons.
● Which part of the limbic system is responsible for creating new memories?
Hippocampus
● What is plasticity?
Plasticity is the ability of the nervous system or brain to adapt and change its
structure or function in response to experience, learning, or injury.
● What is the sensory cortex? What is the motor cortex?
Sensory Cortex: The sensory cortex is a region of the brain responsible for
receiving, processing, and interpreting sensory information from the body, including touch,
pain, temperature, and position. (ex. Pulling hand away when stove is hot.)
Motor Cortex: in charge of planning, controlling, and executing voluntary
movements by sending signals to muscles throughout the body. (ex. Reaching to catch a
ball.)
● What is the corpus callosum?
a band of axons connecting the two sides of your brain.
● How many chromosomes are contained within a sperm cell?
23
● How are identical twins formed as opposed to fraternal twins?
Identical twins form when one fertilized egg splits into two embryos early in
development, resulting in two genetically identical babies.
Fraternal twins form when two separate eggs are fertilized by two different sperm,
producing genetically unique siblings born at the same time.
● What do evolutionary psychologists believe?
Human behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are products of natural selection,
evolving over generations to help ancestors survive and reproduce.
● What is homeostasis?
an organism's ability to maintain a stable internal environment, like temperature,
blood sugar, and fluid balance, despite changes in the external environment.
Module 4
● What is consciousness?
our awareness of ourselves and our environment
● What is selective attention?
What we focus on. What we notice.
● What is selective inattention?
What we aren’t focused on. What we don’t notice.
● What is intentional blindness?
the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object or event because attention
is focused elsewhere.
● What happens to your body during REM sleep?
Heart rate rises and breathing becomes rapid.
“Sleep paralysis” occurs when the brainstem blocks the motor cortex’s messages
and the muscles don’t move.
Genitals are aroused (not caused by dream content)
● Why is REM sleep also known as paradoxical sleep?
This is sometimes known as “paradoxical sleep”; the brain is active but the body is
immobile.
● In which stage of sleep do dreams take place? What about night-terrors and sleep
walking?
Dreams: REM
Night-terros and Sleep walking: NONREM-3
● Why are children more likely to sleep walk and night terrors?
Genetics
● What are psychoactive drugs?
substances that alter brain function, leading to changes in mood, perception,
awareness, cognition, and behavior
● What is tolerance?
Diminished effects of drugs after repeated use.
● What is withdrawal?
Painful symptoms of the body readjusting to the absence of the drug.
● What is the relationship between withdrawal and tolerance?
After the benefits of a substance wear off, especially after tolerance has developed,
drug
users may experience withdrawal.
● What are the different categories of psycho active drugs?
Depressants
Stimulants
Hallucinogens
● Which neurotransmitter is involved in addiction?
dopamine