Chapter 1 & Chapter 2 Test Preperation

Chapter 1 1. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. 2. The Scientific Method consists of the orderly, systematic procedures that researchers follow as they identify a research problem, design a study to investigate the problem, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and communicate their findings. 3. A theory is a general principle or set of principles proposed to explain how a number of separate facts are related. 4. A hypothesis is a testable prediction about the conditions under which a particular behavior or mental process may occur. 5. Naturalistic observation is a descriptive research method in which researchers observe and record behavior in its natural setting, without attempting to influence or control it. 6. Descriptive research methods yield descriptions of behavior and Experimental method can be used to identify cause and effect relationships between two or more conditions or variables. 7. The correlational method is used to establish the degree of relationship (correlation) between two characteristics, events, or behaviors. 8. Correlation coefficient is a numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables; ranges from +1.00 (a perfect positive correlation) to –1.00 (a perfect negative correlation). 9. Structuralism is the first formal school of thought in psychology, aimed at analyzing the basic elements, or structure, of conscious mental experience. 10. Functionalism is an early school of psychology that was concerned with how humans and animals use mental process in adapting to their environment. 11. Behaviorism is the school of psychology that views observable, measurable behavior as the appropriate subject matter for psychology and emphasizes the key role of environment as a determinant of behavior. 12. Cognitive psychology is the school of psychology that sees humans as active participants in their environment; studies mental processes such as memory, decision making, perception, language, and other forms of cognition. 13. In an experiment, an independent variable is a factor or condition that is deliberately manipulated to determine whether it causes any change in t another behavior or condition. 14. In an experiment, a dependent variable is a factor or condition that is measured at the end of an experiment and is presumed to vary as a result of the manipulations of the independent variable(s). 15. Confounding Variables are factors of conditions other than the independent variable(s) that are not equivalent across groups and could cause differences among the groups with respect to the dependent variable. 16. The Placebo Effect is the phenomenon that occurs in an experiment when a participants response to a treatment is due to his or her expectations about the treatment rather that to the treatment itself. 17. A sample is a part of a population that is studied to reach conclusions about the entire population. (1) The Population Sample is the entire group of interest

to researchers, to which they wish to generalize their findings; the group from which a sample is selected. (2) The Representative Sample mirrors the population of interest; it includes important subgroups in the same proportions as they are found in that population. Chapter 2 1. Phineas Gage is a 25 year old foreman, who got a 3½ foot long, 13 pound metal rod lodged under his left cheekbone and out through the top of his skull. Before the accident, he was described as a hard worker who was polite, dependable, and well liked. But the new Phineas Gage, without part of his frontal lobe, was loud-mouthed and profane, rude and impulsive, and contemptuous of others. (He suffered damage to his frontal lobe.) 2. A Neurotransmitter is a chemical substance that is released into the synaptic cleft from the axon terminal of a sending neuron, crosses the synapse, and binds to appropriate receptor sites on the dendrites or cell body of a receiving neuron, influencing the cell either to fire or not to fire. 3. The Main Neurotransmitters are (1) Serotonin which plays an important role in regulating mood, sleep, impulsivity, aggression, and appetite. (2) Norepinephrine which affects eating, alertness, and sleep. (3) Acetylcholine plays a role in learning new information, causes the skeletal muscle fibers to contract, and keeps the heart from beating too rapidly. 4. The Central Nervous System is the part of the nervous system comprising the brain and the spinal cord. 5. The Peripheral Nervous System connects the central nervous system to all other parts of the body. 6. The Autonomic Nervous System operates without any conscious control or awareness on your part. It transmits messages between the CNS and the glands, the cardiac (heart) muscle, and the smooth muscles (such as those in the large arteries and the gastrointestinal system), which are not normally under voluntary control. 7. The Parietal Lobes contain the somatosensory cortex (where touch, pressure, temperature, and pain register) and other areas that are responsible for body awareness and spatial orientation. 8. The Right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body, music processing, emotional thinking, and perceiving visual-spatial relations. 9. The Left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body, spoken and written language, numerical skills, and reasoning (logic).