Psychology 100
Study Guide
Exam 1
History and Scope of Psychology—Module 1 1. What is the scientific method? 2. What features make psychology a science? 3. Distinguish between a psychologist and a psychiatrist. 4. What are some specialists in psychology and in what settings are they employed? 5. What (roughly) percentage of psychologists are clinicians/nonclinicians? 6. What were the contributions made by the following people: a. Ancient Greeks b. Wundt c. James d. Freud e. Watson and Skinner 7. What do mentalists believe? What is the problem with this approach? 8. What were the goals and methods of structuralism? 9. Name the psychologists who were structuralists. 10. Are there modern structuralists today? Why or why not? 11. What were the goals and methods of functionalism? 12. Who invented functionalism? 13. What were the goals and methods of behaviorism? 14. How were they different from earlier schools of thought? 15. Who’s your great grand-daddy? 16. What do behaviorists dismiss? 17. What were the goals and methods of psychoanalysis? 18. Who is the founder of this movement? 19. What were the goals and methods of humanism? 20. Who were the most famous humanists? 21. What is the focus of cognitive psychology? 22. How is modern cognitive psychology different from the mentalistic approaches of the past? 23. What are the major perspectives in psychology today? 24. What features does each approach to psychology emphasize?
Research Methods—Module 3 1. Describe the relationship between psychological theories and scientific research. 2. Distinguish between descriptive, correlational, and experimental approaches to studying behavior. 3. Describe each of the following research methods and their advantages and disadvantages: a. Case study b. Naturalistic observation c. Survey d. Correlational study e. Experiment
Psychology 100
Study Guide
Exam 1
4. Compare and contrast case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation. 5. Describe an example of a naturalistic observation. 6. When is a naturalistic observation the best method to use? 7. When is a case study the best method to use? 8. What is the danger of relying on the case study method? 9. When is the survey the best method to use? 10. Distinguish between a population and a sample. 11. Why is it important to have a random sample? 12. What are the advantages of the survey method? 13. What are some potential pitfalls when using survey methods? 14. What is correlational research most useful for? 15. What is a scatterplot? 16. What is a correlational coefficient? 17. Describe positive, negative, and zero correlations. 18. Explain how correlational measures aid the process of prediction. 19. Explain why correlational research fails to provide evidence of causeeffect relationships. 20. Explain how correlational measures can protect us from illusory perceptions of nonexistent relationships. 21. Discuss how people form illusory correlations and perceive order in random sequences. 22. Discuss the basic elements of an experiment. 23. Why is random assignment important? 24. Explain the value of artificially simplified laboratory conditions in learning about principles of behavior. 25. What is the difference between the independent and dependent variable? Be able to identify examples of each. 26. How do experimental and control groups differ? 27. How does experimental control contribute to causal explanations? 28. What is a confound? 29. What is the placebo effect, and what technique do researchers use to control for it? 30. What is experimenter bias, and how is it controlled? 31. Can researchers make cause-effect conclusions after doing a controlled experiment? 32. What are the ethical principles to which psychologists must adhere when conducting research?
Neurons and Neurotransmitters—Module 4
1. 2. 3. 4.
Explain why psychologists are concerned with human biology. What is a neuron and what are its 3 major parts? Draw the neuron’s 3 major parts. What is the resting potential?
Psychology 100
Study Guide
Exam 1
5. How are neural impulses generated? 6. What is the threshold? 7. What is the action potential? 8. What is the all-or-none law? 9. How do each of these concepts relate to a set of dominos? 10. What is a synapse? 11. Distinguish between a presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron. What portion of the presynaptic neuron communicates with what structure of the postsynaptic neuron? 12. Draw the synapse here: 13. Describe how nerve cells communicate. 14. What are neurotransmitters and what role do they play? 15. What are some of the ways in which neurotransmitters affect behavior? 16. Distinguish between agonists and antagonists. 17. What happens to neurotransmitters when they’ve finished sending their message? 18. What are some of the major neurotransmitters and their functions? 19. In general, how do drugs affect neural transmission? 20. Discuss the impact of neurotransmitters and drugs on human behavior. 21. Distinguish between agonists and antagonists. 22. Distinguish between the central and peripheral nervous system. 23. What are the roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system? 24. What is the role of the endocrine system and what are its major structures? Brain and Behavior—Module 5 1. Identify and describe several techniques for studying the brain. 2. What are the primary functions of the following structures a. brainstem b. cerebellum c. hypothalamus d. thalamus e. limbic system f. cerebral hemispheres g. frontal lobes h. parietal lobes i. temporal lobes j. occipital lobes k. somatosensory cortex l. Broca’s area m. Wernike’s area n. hippocampus o. corpus callosum p. the left hemisphere
Psychology 100
Study Guide
Exam 1
q. the right hemisphere 3. What are the parts of the brainstem and what are their functions? 4. What structures are located in the limbic system and what are their functions? 5. Identify the four lobes of the cerebral cortex and describe the sensory and motor functions of the cortex. 6. Discuss the importance of the association areas. 7. Describe research on the split brain, and discuss what it reveals regarding normal brain functioning. 8. What is the split-brain procedure, why is it used, and what are the results? 9. What happened to Phineas Gage? Which brain structures and chemical processes were affected? What behaviors did PG display? 10. Which hemisphere houses language areas? 11. What is an aphasia? 12. What are the two aphasias discussed in class, what brain areas are affected in each and what is the resulting language disturbance like?