2024 Major Field Test in Psychology (Questions and Answers)

Introspection - ANSWER Focusing on inner sensations, images and feelings. Wundt used this approach as did James with the stream of consciousness. Behaviorists - ANSWER John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior. Humanistic Psychology - ANSWER Rebelled against both Behaviorism and Freudian psychology. Pioneers Carl Rogers and Maslow emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential. Psychology - ANSWER Science of behavior and mental processes. Nature-nurture issue - ANSWER The controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience to the development of our traits and behaviors. Biopsychosocial approach - ANSWER Considers the influences of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors. Applied research - ANSWER practical research- industrial organizational psychologists Hindsight bias - ANSWER The tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it. The I knew it all along phenomenon) Overconfidence - ANSWER Humans tend to think they know more than they do. Theory - ANSWER An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events Hypothesis - ANSWER Testable prediction Case study - ANSWER Examines one individual in depth in hope of revealing things true of us all Naturalistic observation - ANSWER Observing and recording behavior in a naturally occurring situation without trying to manipulate or control the situation Correlation - ANSWER the extent to which two factors vary together. Positive/negative ranges from -1 to 1. Correlation does not imply causation. Experiment - ANSWER Enable to the researcher to focus on the possible effects of one or more factors by 1) manipulating the factors of interest and 2) holding constant other factors Experimental group - ANSWER receives a treatment Control group - ANSWER receives a pseudotreatment double-blind procedure - ANSWER neither the participants nor the research assistants collecting the data will know which group is receiving the treatment Dendrite - ANSWER the neurons busy branching extensions that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body Axon - ANSWER The neurons extension that passes messages through its branching terminal fibers that form junctions with other neurons Action potential - ANSWER short electrical charge that travels down its axon Synapse - ANSWER the meeting point between neurons neurotransmitters - ANSWER chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gap between neurons. will travel across the synapse and bind to the receiving neuron Somatic nervous system - ANSWER Enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles Autonomic nervous system - ANSWER controls our glands and the muscles of our internal organs Sympathetic nervous system - ANSWER arouses and expends energy. will accelerate your heartbeat, etc. Parasympathetic nervous system - ANSWER produces opposite effects it conserves the energy as it calms you by decreasing your heart beat and lowering your heart beat. Adrenal glands - ANSWER on top of the kidneys and release epinephrine and norepinephrine. Pituitary gland - ANSWER located in the center of the brain and is controlled by the hypothalamus: master gland. brainstem - ANSWER the oldest part and central core of the brain: is responsible for autonomic survival medulla - ANSWER the base of the brainstem controls your heartbeat and breathing pons - ANSWER helps coordinate movements thalamus - ANSWER brains sensory switchboard: it receives information from all of the senses except for smell and routes it to higher brain regions reticular formation - ANSWER filters incoming stimuli and relays important information to other areas of the brain cerebellum - ANSWER "little brain" coordinating movement output and balance limbic system - ANSWER neural system located below the cerebral hemispheres associated with emotions and drives amygdala - ANSWER influence aggression and fear hypothalamus - ANSWER important link in the chain of command governing bodily maintenance: hunger, thirst, body temperature, sexual behavior. linked to emotion and reward cerebral cortex - ANSWER a thin surface layer of interconnected neural cells aphasia - ANSWER impaired use of language Broca's area - ANSWER damage to this area disrupts speaking Wernicke's area - ANSWER damage to this area disrupts understanding plasticity - ANSWER the brains ability to modify itself after some types of damage corpus callosum - ANSWER the wide band of axon fibers connecting the two hemispheres and carries messages between them selective attention - ANSWER your conscious awareness focuses like a flashlight on a very limited aspect of your experience cocktail party effect - ANSWER your ability to attend to only one voice among many