PSY 101 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Unit 1 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: The World of Psychology: An Overview, Subfields of Psychology,

Biological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology 1. Define psychology and explain what psychologists do and what they study. 2. What is positive psychology and what do positive psychologists focus on? 3. What is the subfield of biological or physiological psychology? Be able to recognize examples of

the work done by psychologists in this subfield. 4. What is the subfield of cognitive psychology? Be able to recognize examples of what cognitive

psychologists study. 5. What is the subfield of engineering psychology or human factors research? Be able to recognize

examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield. 6. What is the subfield of developmental psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work

done by psychologists in this subfield.

Learning Objective 2: Personality Psychology, Clinical, Counseling, Community, and Health Psychology

1. What is the subfield of personality psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.

2. Describe what clinical and counseling psychologists do and study. 3. What kind of work is done by community psychologists? 4. What do health psychologists study? How is their research is applied? 5. What educational backgrounds do clinical, counseling, community, and health psychologists have?

How do these differ from the training required to be a psychiatrist?

Learning Objective 3: Educational and School Psychology, Social Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Quantitative Psychology, Other Subfields

1. What is the subfield of educational psychology? Be able to recognize examples of how this subfield’s work is applied.

2. What type of work did school psychologists traditionally do, and what additional activities do they engage in today?

3. What is the subfield of social psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.

4. What is the subfield of industrial and organizational psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.

5. What is the subfield of quantitative psychology? Be able to recognize examples of the work done by psychologists in this subfield.

6. Recognize the subfields of sport psychology, forensic psychology, and environmental psychology.

Learning Objective 4: A Brief History of Psychology, William James and Functionalism, John B.

Watson and Behaviorism, Psychology Today 1. What is empiricism? Explain its importance to the field of psychology. 2. What is a tabula rasa? How does the idea of tabula rasa apply to psychology? 3. When was modern psychology officially born? Where and by whom? 4. What topics were of interest in early studies of psychophysics? 5. Define consciousness. 6. What is introspection? Be able to identify examples of someone using this method. 7. What is functionalism? Who was William James? 8. Explain what John Watson argued that psychology should be based on, and describe the basic

tenets of behaviorism. 9. What are some changes in psychology since the 1960s? 10. How has the idea of information processing influenced psychology?

Learning Objective 5: Approaches to the Science of Psychology, The Biological Approach, The Evolutionary Approach, The Psychodynamic Approach

1. What is meant by an approach to psychology? What does it mean to be eclectic? 2. What is the main assumption of the biological approach? Give examples of what biological

psychologists study. 3. Explain the idea of natural selection, and the role of genetic adaptations in this theory. 4. What is the primary assumption of the evolutionary approach to psychology? 5. Who is the main psychologist associated with psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic approach? 6. According to the psychodynamic approach, what are the primary causes of behavior and mental

disorder?

Learning Objective 6: The Behavioral Approach, The Cognitive Approach, The Humanistic Approach

1. What are the assumptions of the behavioral approach? 2. What is the cognitive approach and what mental processes do cognitive psychologists study? 3. What fields does cognitive science encompass, and what kinds of topics do cognitive scientists

study? 4. Describe the humanistic approach to psychology.

Learning Objective 7: Human Diversity and Psychology 1. How has the representation of women and minorities changed in the field of psychology? 2. What are sociocultural factors, and how can psychology take them into account? 3. What is culture? 4. Explain the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures, and identify the countries

and/or parts of the world associated with each type of culture. 5. What are subcultures? What does multicultural mean? 6. What is cross-cultural psychology?

Learning Objective 8: Research in Psychology, Thinking Critically About Psychology (or Anything Else)

1. What is the role of critical thinking in psychology? 2. What types of questions or problems can critical thinking can be applied to? 3. How is critical thinking defined? 4. Which five questions should be asked when applying critical thinking to better understand a topic?

Learning Objective 9: Critical Thinking and Scientific Research, Hypotheses and Variables 1. What is a hypothesis? What are some examples of hypotheses? 2. What are operational definitions? Be able to recognize examples. 3. What are research variables? What are some examples of research variables? 4. Distinguish between variables and the operational definitions that may be used to describe or

study them.

Learning Objective 10: Reliability and Validity of Data 1. Describe data, or data set, and be able to recognize examples of data. 2. What is statistical reliability? Be able to recognize examples of reliable data. 3. What is statistical validity? Be able to recognize examples of valid data. 4. What is replication, and what role does it play in assessing statistical reliability?

Learning Objective 11: The Role of Theories, The Goals of Science 1. Define theory. 2. Explain the relationship between theories, hypotheses, and research. 3. What is the law of parsimony, and how do psychologists use it? 4. What are the four main goals psychologists strive to achieve in their research? Be able to

recognize examples of each of these goals.

Learning Objective 12: Research Methods in Psychology, Observational Methods: Watching Behavior, Case Studies: Taking a Closer Look, Surveys: Looking at the Big Picture

1. Describe the observational method of naturalistic observation. 2. When is naturalistic observation a valuable research technique to use? Be able to recognize

examples. 3. What are some of the problems with naturalistic observation? Are there ways around some of

these problems? 4. Describe the research method of case studies. 5. Be able to recognize examples of case study research. 6. What are the limitations of case studies? 7. What are surveys? 8. Which factors can impact the validity of survey data? 9. What are some other limitations of surveys? What are the strengths of survey research?

Learning Objective 13: Correlational Studies: Looking for Relationships 1. What are correlational studies used to examine? What are some examples of correlations? 2. What are the three possible ways of explaining the causes underlying a correlation? 3. Why is it impossible for correlational research to identify the cause of a relationship?

Learning Objective 14: Experiments: Exploring Cause and Effect 1. What’s the best way of confirming cause-and-effect relationships? 2. What is an experiment? 3. What is the experimental group in an experiment, and what kind of treatment does it receive? 4. What is the control group in an experiment, and what is its purpose? 5. What is the independent variable in an experiment, and why is it called “independent”? Recognize

examples of independent variables. 6. What is the dependent variable in an experiment, and why is it called “dependent”? Recognize

examples of dependent variables. 7. What are confounds, and what impact do they have on experiments? What are some examples of

confounds?

Learning Objective 15: Random Variables, Participants’ Expectations: The Placebo Effect, Experimenter Bias

1. What are random variables? 2. How do experimenters control for the potential confounding effects of random variables? 3. What is random assignment, or randomizing? 4. What is the placebo effect? 5. How do experimenters control for the potential confounding effects of placebos? 6. What is experimenter bias? 7. What are the potential effects of experimenter bias? 8. How do experimenters control for the potential confounding effects of experimenter bias? 9. What is a double-blind design?

Learning Objective 16: Selecting Human Participants for Research 1. What is sampling? Why is it important? 2. What is representative sampling, and how can it be achieved? 3. What is random sampling? 4. What is biased sampling? 5. What are convenience samples? Why are they often used? 6. What cautions must psychologists take when using convenience samples?

Learning Objective 17: Psychological Research Methods and Behavioral Genetics 1. What is meant by nature? 2. What is meant by nurture? 3. Describe the field of behavioral genetics and some of the topics behavioral geneticists are

interested in. 4. What are family studies, and how are they conducted?

5. Why is it difficult to draw conclusions about the relative influence of nature and nature from family studies alone?

6. What are twin studies and how are they conducted? 7. What are adoption studies, and how are they conducted? 8. How is behavioral genetics limited in determining the relative contributions of nature and nurture

to an individual’s traits? 9. What is the Human Genome Project? 10. Define epigenetics. How does epigenetic change take place?

Learning Objective 18: Statistical Analysis of Research Results, Correlation and Correlation Coefficients

1. Define inferential statistics. How do descriptive statistics differ from inferential statistics? 2. What is a correlation? 3. What does a positive correlation mean? 4. What does a negative correlation mean? 5. What is the correlation coefficient? Within what range can it vary? 6. How can you tell how strong a correlation is? 7. What does the strength of the correlation mean?

Learning Objective 19: Inferential Statistics, Statistics and Research Methods as Tools in Critical Thinking

1. How are inferential statistics used by psychologists? 2. What is statistical significance? 3. How do psychologists apply critical thinking when analyzing the results of research data?

Learning Objective 20: Ethical Guidelines for Psychologists 1. Describe the ethical guideline of protection from harm. 2. Is deception ever warranted in psychological research? When and why? 3. What do psychologists have to do after they have deceived participants about the nature of a

research study? 4. What is the role of an Institutional Review Board or IRB? 5. Why are animals sometimes used in psychological research? 6. What precautions are taken when animals are used in psychological research? 7. Describe psychologists’ ethical responsibility to protect and promote the welfare of society in

general and of the people with whom they work. In practical terms, what does this mean?

Unit 2 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: Biological Psychology

1. Define biological psychology and be able to recognize examples of how biological processes affect behavior.

2. What does it mean to say that gene expression can be “experience dependent”? Be able to recognize examples.

3. What is the nervous system, and what does it consist of? 4. How is the nervous system like an information processing system? 5. What do the cells of the nervous system do?

Learning Objective 2: The Nervous System, Cells of the Nervous System, Common Features of Neurons, Special Features of Neurons

1. What are neurons? 2. What was the neuron doctrine? What is the current view with respect to the neuron doctrine? 3. What are glial cells? And what do they do? 4. Identify and describe the three features that neurons share with almost every other kind of cell in

the body. 5. What are axons and what role do they play in neuronal communication? 6. What are dendrites and what role do they play in neuronal communication? 7. What are synapses?

Learning Objective 3: Action Potentials 1. Describe the semipermeable membrane of a neuron, and the role it plays in neuronal

communication. 2. What is the resting potential, and what causes it? 3. What is the sequence of events in the firing of an action potential? 4. What is the all-or-none law? 5. Which factors determine the speed of an action potential? 6. What is myelin and what does it do? What can occur if myelin is destroyed? 7. What is the refractory period?

Learning Objective 4: Synapses and Communication Between Neurons, Neurotransmitters, Excitatory and Inhibitory Signals

1. What is the specific site of communication between one neuron and another? 2. What is the typical sequence of structures through which a signal is transmitted from neuron to

neuron? Are there alternatives? 3. What are neurotransmitters and where are they stored? 4. What is the sequence of steps that triggers neurotransmitters to be released and carry a message

from one neuron to another? 5. What are receptors and what role do they play in this process? 6. What is an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) and what does it do?

7. What is an inhibitory postsynaptic potential (IPSP) and what does it do? 8. What are the effects of combining multiple EPSPs and ISPSs?

Learning Objective 5: Organization and Functions of the Nervous System, The Peripheral Nervous System:, Keeping in Touch with the World, The Somatic Nervous System, The Autonomic Nervous System

1. What are neural networks and where are they found? 2. What do the senses or sensory systems do? 3. What do motor systems do? 4. What is the peripheral nervous system, and what does it do? 5. What is the central nervous system, and what structures is it comprised of? 6. What are the two components of the peripheral nervous system? 7. What does the somatic nervous system do? 8. What do sensory neurons do? 9. What do motor neurons do? 10. What is the autonomic nervous system, and what kinds of functions is it responsible for? Why is

“autonomic” an appropriate term for this system? 11. What are the two divisions of the autonomic nervous system? 12. What does the sympathetic nervous system do? 13. What is the fight-or-flight reaction? 14. What does the parasympathetic nervous system do?

Learning Objective 6: The Central Nervous System: Making Sense of the World, The Spinal Cord 1. What are neural network models, and what is their relationship to the brain? 2. What is parallel distributed processing, and what does it help to explain? 3. What are nuclei? What are fiber tracts or pathways? 4. What does the spinal cord do? 5. What are reflexes and how do they work? 6. What is a feedback system? Be able to recognize examples.

Learning Objective 7: The Brain, What Can fMRI Tell Us About Behavior and Mental Processes? 1. What does an electroencephalograph (EEG) measure? What can and can’t an EEG tell us about

brain activity? 2. How does a PET scan work? What can a PET scan tell us about brain functioning, and what are

its limitations? 3. How does MRI work? What are the strengths of MRI relative to PET scans? 4. What is fMRI, and what information does it provide? 5. What does TMS do? 6. Why do the results of fMRI scans need to be interpreted with caution?

Learning Objective 8: Subdivisions of the Brain, The Hindbrain, The Midbrain 1. Where is the hindbrain located? 2. What functions does the hindbrain control? 3. What is the medulla oblongata and what does it do? 4. What is the reticular formation and what does it do? 5. What is the locus coeruleus and what does it do? 6. What is the cerebellum and what does it do? 7. Where is the midbrain located? 8. What types of functions does the midbrain control? 9. What structures make up the brain stem?

Learning Objective 9: The Forebrain 1. Where is the forebrain located? 2. What are the major structures of the forebrain? 3. What is the function of the thalamus? 4. What types of functions does the hypothalamus regulate? 5. What are the suprachiasmatic nuclei and what do they do? 6. What structures make up the limbic system, and what does the limbic system regulate? 7. What does the amygdala do? 8. What does the hippocampus do?

Learning Objective 10: The Cerebral Cortex, Sensory Cortex, Motor Cortex 1. What are the two halves of the brain called? 2. Describe the anatomical features of the cerebral cortex. 3. What does the cerebral cortex do? 4. What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex? 5. Where are the three regions of the sensory cortex and what do they do? 6. How is the homunculus used to understand how the brain processes sensory information? 7. Where is the motor cortex, and what does it do?

Learning Objective 11: Association Cortex, Where Are the Brain’s Language Centers? 1. What types of tasks do areas of the association cortex do? 2. Define aphasia. 3. What is Broca’s Area? 4. Describe Broca’s aphasia. 5. What is Wernicke’s area? 6. Describe Wernicke’s aphasia. 7. What roles do association areas play in language processes?

Learning Objective 12: The Divided Brain in a Unified Self, Split-Brain Studies, Lateralization of

Normal Brains 1. What is lateralization and how was it discovered? 2. What are split-brain patients, and why was their surgery performed? 3. What does the corpus callosum do? 4. What part of the body does the left hemisphere control (and sense), and what part of the body

does the right hemisphere control (and sense)? 5. Which hemisphere of the brain primarily controls language functions? 6. Describe tasks done with split-brain patients, and what the results have been. 7. What are the strengths of the left hemisphere? And the right? 8. How does left- or right-handedness relate to language lateralization? 9. Describe sex differences in tasks that tend to be lateralized. How large are these differences? 10. How do the two hemispheres of the brain work together?

Learning Objective 13: Plasticity in the Central Nervous System, Repairing Brain Damage, Human Development and the Changing Brain

1. What is neural plasticity? 2. Be able to give, and recognize, examples of neural plasticity. 3. What role does neural plasticity play in repairing brain damage, and what are the limits of this kind

of plasticity? 4. Can the brain make new neurons? Where are they found? What is this process called? 5. What are stem cells, and why are they important? 6. Which areas of the brain tend to develop earlier, and which develop later, and how does this affect

thoughts and actions? 7. Describe the growth of synaptic connections over development. 8. What role does environmental stimulation play in brain development and neural plasticity?

Learning Objective 14: The Chemistry of Psychology 1. What are neurotransmitter systems? 2. What does acetylcholine affect? 3. What does norepinephrine affect? What similar compounds is it related to? 4. What does serotonin affect? 5. What does dopamine affect? How is it related to Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and

addiction? 6. What effect does GABA have on postsynaptic neurons, and how does this differ from the

neurotransmitters discussed so far? 7. What do endorphins affect?

Learning Objective 15: The Endocrine System: Coordinating the Internal World 1. What are the endocrine organs called? 2. What are the endocrine chemicals called? 3. How are hormones both similar to and different from neurotransmitters? 4. What are target organs? 5. What is estrogen, where is it released, and how does it affect the female body? 6. What are androgens, where are they released, and how do they affect the male body? 7. What does it mean to say that the presence of androgens and estrogens in males and females is

relative rather than absolute? 8. What are the four “elements” involved in the endocrine system? How are they involved in

hormonal regulation? 9. What are stress hormone systems, including cortisol and the fight-or-flight reaction? 10. How do feedback systems regulate hormone secretion?

Learning Objective 16: Sleeping and Dreaming, Stages of Sleep, Non-REM Sleep, REM Sleep, A Night’s Sleep

1. How do brain waves recorded by EEG reflect changes in states of consciousness? 2. What is slow wave sleep? What is non-REM sleep? 3. What is REM sleep, and why is it called “paradoxical sleep”? 4. What are sleep cycles and how do they change over the course of a night’s sleep? 5. How do sleep patterns change over the lifespan?

Learning Objective 17: Why Do People Sleep?, Sleep as a Circadian Rhythm 1. What are circadian rhythms and what are examples of bodily functions that follow them? 2. What causes jet lag, and what are the symptoms of it? Why is it easier to fly west than east? 3. What other situations cause sleep disturbances similar to jet lag, and why? 4. What are some differences in circadian rhythms among people? 5. Where in the brain are circadian rhythms regulated, and how does this regulation take place? 6. What is melatonin? 7. What are some ways of reducing jet lag?

Learning Objective 18: The Value of Sleep 1. What are the cognitive consequences of sleep deprivation? 2. How are hospital workers, drivers, children, and adolescents affected by sleep deprivation? 3. What function is associated with non-REM sleep? What are the functions of REM sleep? 4. What happens when people are deprived of only REM sleep? 5. How might REM sleep be related to learning?

Learning Objective 19: Sleep Disorders 1. What is insomnia, and how prevalent is it? 2. What problems can be associated with prescription sleeping pills as a treatment for insomnia? 3. What are some helpful treatments for insomnia besides medication? 4. What is narcolepsy? 5. What is sleep apnea, and how is it treated? 6. What are nightmares? 7. What is sleep terror disorder or night terrors, and how is it different from nightmares? 8. What is sleepwalking? 9. What is REM behavior disorder?

Learning Objective 20: Dreams and Dreaming, Why Do We Dream? 1. How long are dreams? When does most dreaming occur? 2. What is lucid dreaming? 3. Does everyone dream? 4. What is one possible explanation of why people and animals dream, which is related to personal

significance and survival? 5. What is Freud’s wish-fulfillment theory of dreaming? 6. What is the activation-synthesis theory of dreaming? 7. What is the problem-solving view of dreaming?

Unit 3

Learning Objectives and Study Guide Learning Objective 1: Motivation; Sources of Motivation

1. What is motivation? 2. What are motives? What does it mean to think of motivation, or a motive, as an intervening

variable? 3. List and define the four basic categories of motivations. Can you describe an example of each?

Learning Objective 2: The Instinct Doctrine and its Descendants; The Instinct Doctrine and Mate Selection

1. What is the instinct doctrine of motivation? Does it focus on internal or external factors? 2. What are instinctive behaviors? 3. Do humans tend to display instinctive behaviors? Do we display inborn tendencies? 4. How is the instinct doctrine related to the evolutionary perspective on psychology? 5. How might evolution account for similarities and differences between the sexes in mate selection? 6. What is the scientific support for the evolutionary explanation of the motivation to mate? 7. How can culture explain sex-related preferences in mate selection?

Learning Objective 3: Drive Reduction Theory 1. What is drive reduction theory? 2. What is homeostasis, and how does it relate to the idea of drive-reduction? Does it focus on

internal or external factors? 3. What is the difference between a need and a drive? Give an example of each. 4. What is the difference between primary and secondary drives? Give an example of each.

Learning Objective 4: Arousal Theory; Incentive Theory 1. What is physiological arousal? Describe two behaviors that increase physiological arousal. 2. What is arousal theory? Does it focus on internal or external factors? 3. According to arousal theory, how do our behaviors relate to our level of physiological arousal? 4. What is an optimal level of arousal, and what might people do when their optimal level of arousal

hasn’t been met? 5. What is the most likely cause of differences in optimal levels of arousal between individuals? 6. What is incentive theory? Does it focus on internal or external factors? 7. What is an incentive? How do physiological, cognitive, and social factors influence incentives? 8. What is the difference between wanting and liking? Which is usually a more powerful motivator?

Learning Objective 5: Learning; Learning About Stimuli 1. What is learning? What are the primary ways humans and other animals learn? 2. What is habituation? What situations lead to habituation? 3. What is dishabituation? What situations lead to dishabituation?

Learning Objective 6: Classical Conditioning: Learning Signals and Associations; Pavlov’s Discovery

1. What is a reflex? 2. What were the three phases of Pavlov’s original research? How did they demonstrate learning? 3. In Pavlov’s initial studies on associations in learning, what were the stimuli that were paired to

create an association in the dog? Why were some stimuli called “neutral”? 4. What is classical conditioning? 5. What is an unconditioned stimulus? Why is it called “unconditioned”? 6. What is a conditioned stimulus? Why is it called “conditioned”? 7. How does the conditioned stimulus come to be associated with an unconditioned stimulus in

classical conditioning? 8. What is the difference between a conditioned response and an unconditioned response?

Learning Objective 7: Conditioned Responses over Time: Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery; Stimulus Generalization and Discrimination

1. In classical conditioning, what causes the CR to strengthen? 2. What is extinction? In classical conditioning, what leads to extinction? 3. What is reconditioning? How does it show that an extinguished response is not really gone? 4. What is spontaneous recovery? What conditions lead to spontaneous recovery? How does it show

that an extinguished response is not really gone? 5. What is stimulus generalization? What influences the strength of a generalized response? 6. What is stimulus discrimination? Give an example.

Learning Objective 8: The Signaling of Significant Events; Timing; Predictability; Signal Strength; Attention; Biopreparedness

1. Why is “signaling” an appropriate description of the learned relationship between the CS and the UCS? What is being signaled?

2. What are the five factors that contribute to the strength of learning in classical conditioning? 3. How does the timing of stimuli affect learning in classical conditioning? 4. How does the predictability of stimuli affect learning in classical conditioning? 5. How does the strength of a UCS influence conditioning? How does the strength of the CS

influence conditioning? What do we mean by “strength of the CS”? 6. How does attention affect learning in classical conditioning? 7. How does biopreparedness affect learning in classical conditioning? 8. What is conditioned taste aversion? How does it demonstrate biopreparedness?

Learning Objective 9: Some Applications of Classical Conditioning; Phobias; Predator Control; Detecting Explosives

1. What is a phobia? 2. How might a phobia have been produced through classical conditioning? What would have been

the CS? What would have been the UCS? 3. How can classical conditioning be used to treat phobias? What would typically serve as a UCS

during treatment of a phobia? 4. How can classical conditioning be used to protect sheep from predators? What is the UCS? 5. How can classical conditioning be used to detect explosives? What is the CS?

Learning Objective 10: Operant Conditioning: Learning the Consequences of Behavior; From the Puzzle Box to the Skinner Box; Basic Components of Operant Conditioning; Operants and Reinforcers

1. What role do the consequences of an action play in operant conditioning? How does this differ from classical conditioning?

2. What is the law of effect? What does it say about satisfying consequences? 3. What is operant conditioning? 4. What is an operant behavior? How is it different from a conditioned response? 5. What is meant by “operating” on the environment in operant conditioning? What is an operant? 6. What kind of a consequence is a reinforcer? What does a reinforcer do to the likelihood of the

behavior in the future? 7. What is a positive reinforcer? Give an example. 8. What is a negative reinforcer? Give an example. 9. How would a negative reinforcer be applied following a behavior? (Careful: What has to be going

on in order to apply a negative reinforcer after a behavior occurs?) What happens to the likelihood of the behavior after this experience?

Learning Objective 11: Forming and Strengthening Operant Behavior; Secondary Reinforcement; Delay and Size of Reinforcement 1. What is a primary reinforcer? Give an example.

2. What is a secondary reinforcer? Give an example. 3. How can something become a secondary reinforcer? Why is money a secondary reinforcer? 4. How does timing of reinforcement influence its effectiveness? 5. How does the size of reinforcement influence its effectiveness?

Learning Objective 12: Negative Reinforcement: Escape & Avoidance 1. What is escape conditioning? Give an example. 2. Why is the behavior of escaping from something a case of negative reinforcement? 3. What is avoidance conditioning? Give an example. 4. What distinguishes avoidance learning from escape learning? 5. How does avoidance conditioning blend classical and operant conditioning? 6. How does the idea of signaling from classical conditioning apply to avoidance learning? What are

some signals that lead to avoidance in your activities? Do they always signal an unpleasant event?

Learning Objective 13: Punishment 1. What is punishment? What are the two main kinds of punishment? 2. How is punishment different from negative reinforcement? 3. Does punishment actually get rid of behaviors? 4. What are the six negative side effects of using punishment listed in the text? 5. How can punishment be used effectively on children? What are some of the guidelines that help

increase the effectiveness of punishment on children?

Learning Objective 14: Discriminative Stimuli and Stimulus Control; Shaping 1. What is a discriminative stimulus? What does the discriminative stimulus signal? 2. What effect does stimulus discrimination have on behavior? 3. What broadenings of behavior come from the natural tendency of stimulus generalization? 4. What is shaping? What are successive approximations? How is shaping used to train complex

behaviors?

Learning Objective 15: Schedules of Reinforcement; Schedules and Extinction 1. What is continuous reinforcement? 2. What is partial reinforcement? 3. What is the difference between a continuous reinforcement schedule and a partial reinforcement

schedule? 4. What are the two dimensions of partial reinforcement schedules? To what does each refer? 5. What is a fixed ratio schedule of reinforcement? Give an example. 6. What is a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement? Give an example. 7. How does a variable-ratio reinforcement schedule differ from a fixed-ratio schedule? 8. What is a fixed interval schedule of reinforcement? Give an example. 9. What is a variable interval schedule of reinforcement? Give an example. 10. How does a variable-interval reinforcement schedule differ from a fixed-ratio schedule? 11. Which reinforcement schedules produce the highest response rates? Why? 12. What is extinction in operant conditioning? What causes extinction to gradually occur? 13. What is the partial reinforcement effect? Why does it occur?

Learning Objective 16: Cognitive Processes in Learning; Learned Helplessness 1. What does it mean to be able to detect causality? 2. How do expectations of the consequences of our actions affect learning? 3. How might our interpretations – the meaning we attach to events – influence the effectiveness of

consequences? 4. What is learned helplessness? What is an example of learned helplessness?

Learning Objective 17: Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps; Insight and Learning 1. What is latent learning? 2. How did the original research show that latent learning occurred in rats? 3. What is mentally represented in a cognitive map? 4. Do we need to be reinforced to learn a cognitive map of a place we explore? 5. What is insight? What factors indicate that insight might have happened? 6. How does sudden insight relate to mental trial and error?

Learning Objective 18: Observational Learning: Learning by Imitation

1. What is observational learning? 2. What role do mirror neurons play in observational learning? 3. What is a vicarious experience of a behavior’s consequence? Can you think of examples? 4. How might observational learning be used to raise children to have desirable habits?

Learning Objective 19: Thinking Critically: Does Watching Violence on Television Make People More Violent?

1. Why is television violence of interest to psychologists? What are their concerns? 2. What are three mechanisms whereby watching violent TV might make people more aggressive? 3. What does desensitization do to a viewer of violence? 4. What research evidence supports the view that watching violent TV makes people more

aggressive? 5. What are the arguments against an effect of TV violence on aggression? 6. What is the overall conclusion about the relationship between TV violence and aggression? 7. Which children are especially thought to be influenced by televised violence?

Learning Objective 20: Using Research on Learning to Help People Learn; Classrooms Across Cultures; Skill Learning

1. What are some factors that may lead to stronger mathematics skills in Asian children, compared with American children?

2. What are some ways that principles of operant conditioning can be applied to classroom settings to improve student performance?

3. What are some techniques based on cognitive learning that may improve learning in school? 4. How is practice related to skill learning? 5. What kinds of practice lead to skill learning, and how much practice is needed? 6. How are feedback and independent efforts related in skill learning?

Unit 4 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: Personality, The Trait Approach

1. How do psychologists generally view personality? 2. What is the focus of personality research? 3. What information needs to be considered to gain a full understanding of an individual’s

personality? 4. What are personality traits? 5. Describe the three basic assumptions made by the trait approach to personality.

Learning Objective 2: The Five-Factor Personality Model, Evaluating the Trait Approach 1. What do trait approaches focus on? 2. What does factor analysis reveal about personality factors or dimensions? 3. What are the five components of the five-factor personality model? Provide an example of

behavior representing each factor. 4. What is the importance of the five factor personality model? 5. What are the problems or weakness associated with the trait approach?

Learning Objective 3: Psychological Disorders, Defining Psychological Disorders, What Is Abnormal?, Deviance, Distress, Dysfunction, Behavior in Context: A Practical Approach

1. What is the definition of psychopathology? 2. Roughly what percentage of adults in the U.S. display some form of mental disorder? 3. What are some of the costs associated with psychological disorders? 4. List the criteria for judging whether people’s thoughts, emotions, or behaviors are abnormal. 5. What criteria do psychologists consider when describing deviance? 6. What are social norms and norm violations? 7. What is distress? What role does distress play in identifying abnormality? 8. What is dysfunction? What are some examples of dysfunction? 9. Describe the practical approach that mental health practitioners and researchers use when

identifying abnormality.

Learning Objective 4: Explaining Psychological Disorders, The Biopsychosocial Approach, Biological Factors, Psychological Processes, Sociocultural Context

1. What were some early explanations for abnormal behavior? 2. What is the biopsychosocial approach to mental disorders? 3. What are examples of biological factors that may be considered in the biopsychosocial approach? 4. How does the medical model, or neurobiological model, explain the nature of abnormality? 5. What are some psychological factors considered in the biopsychosocial approach? 6. What is the name of the approach that Freud used to explain mental disorders? What does this

approach suggest causes psychological disorders? 7. How do social-cognitive theorists explain psychological disorders?

8. How does the humanistic approach explain behavior disorders? 9. What does the sociocultural perspective add to the biopsychosocial model? 10. What specific sociocultural factors need to be considered to understand the sociocultural context?

Give examples of how they may be important to understanding psychological disorders.

Learning Objective 5: Classifying Psychological Disorders, A Classification System: DSM-IV-TR, Evaluating the Diagnostic System

1. Why is diagnosing psychological disorders important? 2. What is the DSM? 3. How is the DSM used to diagnose mental disorders? 4. What are the five axes of the diagnostic classification system? Provide an example of information

that could be included on each axis. 5. What are some of the difficulties involved in applying diagnostic labels from the DSM?

Learning Objective 6: Psychological Diagnoses, Anxiety Disorders, Types of Anxiety Disorders, Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder

1. How are anxiety disorders defined? 2. What is a phobia? What are the phobia subtypes? 3. What is a specific phobia? Give some examples of specific phobias. 4. What is a social phobia? Give some examples of social phobias. What makes generalized social

phobia a more severe form? 5. How can sociocultural factors alter the nature of social phobias? 6. What is agoraphobia? What is its relationship to panic attacks? 7. What is generalized anxiety disorder? What are the typical symptoms of generalized anxiety

disorder?

Learning Objective 7: Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

1. What is panic disorder? 2. What are the symptoms of panic attacks? 3. Within obsessive-compulsive disorder, what are obsessions? Identify some examples. 4. Within obsessive-compulsive disorder, what are compulsions? Identify some examples. 5. What is posttraumatic stress disorder? What are symptoms associated with posttraumatic stress

disorder?

Learning Objective 8: Causes of Anxiety Disorders, Biological Factors, Psychological and Environmental Factors

1. Which biological factor influences the development of anxiety disorders? 2. What are some examples of environmental stressors that may impact the development of anxiety

disorders? 3. How may expectations impact the development of anxiety disorders? 4. How may learning impact the development of anxiety disorders?

Learning Objective 9: Affective Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder 1. What are affective disorders? What is another term for this category of disorders? 2. What are symptoms of major depressive disorder? How long does a typical major depressive

episode last? 3. What is the connection between depression and suicide? 4. How do ethnicity and gender relate to the prevalence of major depression? 5. What is bipolar disorder? 6. What is mania?

Learning Objective 10: Causes of Affective Disorders, Biological Factors, Psychological and Social Factors

1. What evidence supports the role of genetics in affective disorders? 2. What other biological factors may contribute to affective disorders? 3. What is seasonal affective disorder? 4. How do psychological and social factors influence the development of affective disorders? 5. What is learned helplessness and how does it help explain depression? 6. What are other social-cognitive explanations of depression?

Learning Objective 11: Schizophrenia, Symptoms of Schizophrenia, Positive and Negative Symptoms

1. What is schizophrenia? 2. How prevalent is schizophrenia? When does it most commonly develop? 3. Describe schizophrenic thought and language, including loose associations, clang associations, and

word salad. 4. What are delusions? Provide examples of different types of self-significant delusions. 5. What are hallucinations? 6. How are difficulties in attention and perception related to schizophrenia? 7. What are positive symptoms of schizophrenia? What are some examples of positive symptoms? 8. What are negative symptoms of schizophrenia? What are some examples of negative symptoms?

Learning Objective 12: Causes of Schizophrenia, Biological Factors, Psychological and Sociocultural Factors, Vulnerability Theory

1. How are genetic factors related to schizophrenia? 2. Abnormalities in which brain areas are associated with schizophrenia? 3. How is dopamine related to schizophrenia? 4. What are neurodevelopmental abnormalities, and how might they influence the development of

schizophrenia? 5. Which psychological and sociocultural factors may contribute to schizophrenia? 6. What is vulnerability theory, and how does it account for schizophrenia?

Learning Objective 13: Personality Disorders

1. What are personality disorders? 2. Why are personality disorders among the most controversial diagnoses? 3. What is antisocial personality disorder? What are characteristics of people with antisocial

personality disorder? 4. How might genes influence the development of antisocial personality disorder? 5. How might information-processing defects influence the development of antisocial personality

disorder? 6. What are the environmental factors associated with the cause of antisocial personality disorder?

Learning Objective 14: A Sampling of Other Psychological Disorders, Psychological Disorders of Childhood

1. What makes children vulnerable to specific types of disorders? 2. What are symptoms and the three subtypes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? 3. What factors may play causal roles in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? 4. What are symptoms of pervasive developmental disorders? What is another name for pervasive

developmental disorders? 5. What are symptoms of autistic disorder? 6. What are symptoms of Asperger’s disorder? 7. What are biological and neurodevelopmental roots of autistic disorder?

Learning Objective 15: Substance-Related Disorders, Somatoform Disorders 1. What are substance-related disorders? 2. What substances are most involved in the problems created by these disorders? 3. What is the definition of addiction? 4. What are drug tolerance and psychological dependence? 5. How is substance abuse defined in the DSM? 6. What are somatoform disorders? 7. What is conversion disorder? 8. How is a conversion disorder different from true physical disability? 9. What is malingering? How is a conversion disorder different from malingering? 10. What is hypochondriasis?

Learning Objective 16: Treatment of Psychological Disorders, Basic Features of Treatment 1. For which psychological problems do adults most commonly seek treatment? 2. What are the basic features of treatment? 3. Describe settings for treatment. What is the difference between inpatient treatment and outpatient

treatment? 4. What are the different types of professionals who provide treatment? 5. What is the general goal of treatment? 6. How do different therapists work to reach this goal? What is an eclectic approach?

Learning Objective 17: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis 1. What assumption is central to the psychodynamic approach to treatment? 2. What are the aims of psychoanalysis? 3. What is free association? 4. What did Freud believe about the role of wishes and fantasies in the development of psychological

disorder? 5. What are the aims of psychoanalytic treatment? 6. What is the difference between manifest content and latent content of dreams? What are

“Freudian slips”? 7. What is transference? 8. Why has the use of classical psychoanalysis declined?

Learning Objective 18: Humanistic Psychotherapy, Client-Centered Therapy, Unconditional Positive Regard, Empathy, Congruence

1. How do humanistic psychologists see people? 2. What four assumptions do humanistic psychologists make about treatment? 3. What are the three key features of Rogers’s client-centered therapy? 4. What is unconditional positive regard and what is its role in treatment? 5. What is empathy? How does a therapist convey empathy? 6. How is active listening, or reflection, used by a therapist? What are examples? 7. What is congruence? And why is it important in client-centered therapy? 8. What is Rogers’s most significant contribution to psychotherapy?

Learning Objective 19: Behavior Therapy, Techniques for Modifying Behavior, Systematic Desensitization Therapy, Modeling, Positive Reinforcement, Cognitive Behavior Therapy

1. What do behavior therapists believe causes psychological problems? 2. How do behavior therapists believe psychological problems can be eliminated? 3. What are the most notable features of behavior treatment? 4. What is systematic desensitization therapy? With which disorder is it most often used? 5. How are progressive relaxation techniques used in systematic desensitization? 6. What is a desensitization hierarchy? 7. What is in vivo desensitization? 8. How is modeling used in treatment? 9. How is social skills training used? How is assertiveness training taught? 10. How is positive reinforcement used in treatment? 11. What are contingencies? How are they used? 12. What is a cognitive behavior therapist’s approach to treatment? 13. What are examples of cognitive restructuring techniques, as they relate to cognitive distortions

(catastrophizing, all-or-none thinking, and personalization)?

Learning Objective 20: Biological Treatments, Psychosurgery, Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy, Psychoactive Drugs, Antipsychotic Drugs, Antidepressant Drugs, Lithium, Antianxiety Drugs, Evaluating Psychoactive Drug Treatments

1. What is psychosurgery? Identify examples. 2. Why is electroconvulsive shock therapy used? 3. What symptoms do antipsychotic drugs treat? 4. What are the most popular antidepressant medications? What neurotransmitter is targeted? 5. How effective are antidepressant medications and what are the doubts associated with these

medications? 6. What is lithium? Why is it called a mood stabilizer? 7. What are the challenges with the use of lithium? 8. What symptoms do antianxiety drugs treat? 9. What are the concerns about using psychoactive drug treatments for psychological disorders?

Unit 5 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: Sensation & Perception, Sensation

1. What is cognitive psychology? 2. Why might the result of human sensation and perception differ from reality? 3. What are senses? 4. What are sensations? 5. What is perception? 6. What is the difference between sensation and perception?

Learning Objective 2: Sensory Systems, The Problem of Sensory Encoding 1. What is the function of a sensory system? 2. What is the purpose of an accessory structure? Identify two examples of accessory structures. 3. What is transduction? Where in a sensory system does it take place? 4. What role do neural receptors play in the process of sensation? 5. Describe the process of sensory adaptation. What does it demonstrate about neural receptors? Can

you think of advantages and disadvantages of this process? 6. Which brain structure receives information from most sensory systems? 7. What is sensory encoding? What makes the encoding process difficult?

Learning Objective 3: Perception, The Perception Paradox, Absolute Thresholds: Is Something Out There?, THINKING CRITICALLY: Can Subliminal Stimuli Influence Your Behavior?

1. What is perception? That is, what does the perception process do to the codes generated from the sensory process?

2. Why are perceptual failures useful to psychologists studying perception? 3. What is psychophysics? 4. What is subliminal stimulation? If it’s visual, are you aware of seeing it? If it’s auditory, are you

aware of hearing it? 5. What is an absolute threshold? How might you discover your absolute threshold for sound? 6. How is a “subliminal priming” study conducted? Does it show evidence of subliminal influence? 7. Can subliminal stimuli influence your behavior? What is the general consensus of psychologists on

this question?

Learning Objective 4: Organizing the Perceptual World, Figure-Ground Discrimination, Grouping

1. Define perceptual organization. Why is it essential? 2. What is figure/ground discrimination? What are the differences between figures and grounds?

Why is figure-ground discrimination a basic part of perceptual organization? 3. What can reversible figure-ground images show us about perceptual organization? 4. What did Gestalt psychologists emphasize in their approach to perception? 5. Describe three different Gestalt principles of organization, and think of examples of each. 6. What is the likelihood principle? How does it help explain Gestalt grouping principles?

Learning Objective 5: Recognizing the Perceptual World, Bottom-Up Processing, Top-Down Processing

1. Do objects look the same after we recognize them and place them into a perceptual category? 2. What is bottom-up processing? What information does this process use? 3. What are feature detectors and what makes their work part of a bottom-up processing system? 4. What is top-down processing? What information does this process use? 5. What is pareidolia? How is it related to top-down processing? 6. What are schemas? What are perceptual sets? 7. How are schemas and perceptual sets related to top-down processing? Can you think of

advantages and disadvantages of their influence? 8. How do both context and motivation affect top-down processing?

Learning Objective 6: Network Processing, Culture, Experience, and Perception 1. Describe a neural network. How do psychologists use neural networks to understand perception? 2. What is a parallel distributed processing (PDP) model of perception? 3. What do we mean by parallel processing? In what way is perceptual recognition parallel? 4. In a parallel distributed processing model, what is an excitatory connection? 5. As a PDP network learns, what happens to the strengths of the connections inside the network? 6. How does culture affect perceptual recognition? 7. How does experience affect perceptual recognition? 8. How do the effects of culture and experience on perception reflect top-down processing?

Learning Objective 7: Attention, Directing Attention, Ignoring Information, Divided Attention 1. Define attention. What are the five main uses of attention? 2. What are the three important characteristics of attention? 3. What is an example of the impact of limited attentional resources? 4. How much control do you have over what you pay attention to at any one moment? What top-

down processing factors affect your voluntary control of attention? 5. What are some things going on in your environment right now that might involuntarily cause your

attention system to select something other than this study guide? What kinds of stimuli usually attract our attention involuntarily?

6. What is inattentional blindness? What does it tell us about how perceptive we are? 7. Define divided attention. Can you attend to more than one thing at a time? 8. What does it mean to say that a task is automatic? When a task has become automatic, how does it

affect your attentional resources? 9. Are there different types of attentional resources? How do they help us perform tasks?

Learning Objective 8: Memory, The Nature of Memory, Basic Memory Processes 1. What are the three basic processes in memory? 2. What is the encoding of a memory? (Why is the root word “code” in it?) 3. What are the three different types of encoding? How do they differ? 4. What is memory storage?

5. What is memory retrieval? 6. What two techniques are used to measure retrieval? How do they differ?

Learning Objective 9: Types of Memory, Explicit and Implicit Memory 1. What are the three types of memory? 2. What kinds of things are stored in episodic memory? Can you think of examples not listed in the

textbook? 3. What kinds of things are stored in semantic memory? Can you think of examples not listed in the

textbook? 4. What kinds of things are stored in procedural memory? Can you think of examples not listed in

the textbook? 5. When is memory explicit? Describe a situation in which you used memory explicitly. 6. When is memory implicit? When might you use memory implicitly? 7. Why is procedural memory usually implicit?

Learning Objective 10: Models of Memory, Levels of Processing, Transfer-Appropriate Processing, Multiple Memory Systems

1. What is the levels of processing model of memory? What does the encoding of memory have to do with levels of processing?

2. How do different types of rehearsal influence the level of processing of a memory? 3. What does it mean when one memory has been encoded more deeply than another? 4. What is the transfer appropriate processing model of memory? What is it important to match in

“transfer-appropriate processing”? 5. What is the multiple memory systems model of memory? What does it say about how memory

works? 6. If we have multiple memory systems, how should damage to one system affect a different system?

Learning Objective 11: Parallel Distributed Processing, Information Processing 1. What is the parallel distributed processing (PDP) model of memory? How is it related to the PDP

model of perceptual recognition discussed in Learning Objective 6 (in this unit)? 2. How does PDP describe the location and interconnection of memories? 3. In the PDP model of memory, what is it that makes a memory stronger? 4. What is parallel in the PDP model of memory? What is an advantage of having memory items

activated simultaneously when other items are active? 5. In the information processing model of memory, what are the three stages of mental processing? 6. How does information flow among the three stages of memory?

Learning Objective 12: Storing New Memories, Sensory Memory, Short-Term Memory and Working Memory, Storage Capacity of Short-Term Memory, The Power of Chunking, Duration of Short-Term Memory

1. What is the major function of sensory memory? What are sensory registers? 2. Approximately how long is information held in sensory memory? 3. How does sensory memory help us experience a stable, consistent flow of sensory perceptions? 4. What is the function of short-term memory?

5. What is working memory? How does short-term memory relate to working memory? 6. What are the two components of working memory? 7. What is the capacity of short-term memory? What is another name of this capacity? 8. In short-term memory, what is a chunk? 9. What is the process of chunking? How can chunking be used to increase the immediate memory

span? 10. Approximately how long is information held in short-term memory without rehearsal? What is the

difference between maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal?

Learning Objective 13: Long-Term Memory, Encoding in Long-Term Memory, Storage Capacity of Long-Term Memory

1. Why is remembering what you were doing 40 minutes ago dependent on long-term memory? 2. What kind of encoding is most often used in long-term memory? What kind of information is held

and lost in this kind of encoding? 3. What is dual-coding theory? What is the advantage of encoding a memory in more than one type

of code? What does this say about memory for pictures? 4. What do we know about the capacity of long-term memory? 5. How accurate are our memories? 6. What are flashbulb memories? How accurate are they?

Learning Objective 14: Retrieving Memories, Retrieval Cues and Encoding Specificity, Context and State Dependence

1. What is retrieval? 2. What are retrieval cues? For what are they used? 3. What is the encoding specificity principle? How does the idea of encoding specificity help explain

how well a particular retrieval cue works? 4. What is context-dependent memory? Give an example. 5. What is state-dependent memory? Give an example. 6. How do context and state dependence relate to encoding specificity?

Learning Objective 15: Retrieval From Semantic Memory, Semantic Networks, Retrieving Incomplete Knowledge

1. What is a semantic network? 2. What is spreading activation? How is it related to memory? 3. In a semantic network, how do associations differ from each other, and how is this related to the

speed of memory retrieval? 4. How can semantic networks explain making inferences? 5. What does it mean to retrieve incomplete information? 6. What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon? Why is it a type of incomplete knowledge? 7. What is the feeling-of-knowing experience? Why is it a type of incomplete knowledge?

Learning Objective 16: Constructing Memories, Schemas, Memory, Perception, and Eyewitness Testimony

1. Why do psychologists often say memory is constructive? How does this relate to the accuracy of memories?

2. What is a schema? How can schemas influence memory construction?

3. Why is “eyewitness testimony” an important topic for psychologists? 4. Why doesn’t long-term memory work well for accurate eyewitness identification? 5. What is the misinformation effect? How is it related to constructive memory? 6. What two factors increase jurors’ tendency to believe eyewitness testimony? 7. How is the accuracy of eyewitnesses’ memories related to their confidence? 8. What police procedures are likely to induce false feelings of confidence in eyewitness testimony?

Learning Objective 17: Forgetting, How Do We Forget?, Why Do We Forget? The Roles of Decay and Interference, THINKING CRITICALLY: Can Traumatic Memories Be Repressed and Then Recovered?

1. What is a “forgetting curve,” and what is the typical shape of a forgetting curve? 2. What has the relearning method revealed about how long memories can last? 3. What is the difference between decay and interference in forgetting? 4. How does decay explain forgetting from short-term memory? How does interference explain

forgetting from short-term memory? 5. What primarily explains forgetting from long-term memory? 6. Can traumatic memories be repressed and then recovered? Why is this question so controversial? 7. What is motivated forgetting? 8. What does research show about vividness and confidence related to false memories?

Learning Objective 18: Biological Bases of Memory, Biochemistry of Memory, Brain Structures and Memory, The Impact of Brain Damage, Multiple Storage Areas

1. Review synapses described in Unit 2. What are two kinds of changes in synapses in the brain that are related to forming new memories?

2. Which areas of the brain are most strongly associated with forming new memories? 3. What is anterograde amnesia? What causes this form of amnesia? 4. What is retrograde amnesia? 5. Where might long-term memories be stored in the brain?

Learning Objective 19: Intelligence, Testing for Intelligence, Understanding Intelligence 1. What are the three main characteristics of intelligence, according to most psychologists? 2. What is psychometrics? What is the focus of the psychometric approach to intelligence? 3. What is the g factor? What are s factors? How is each related to intelligence? 4. What does a score of 100 on an IQ test represent?

Learning Objective 20: Unusual Cognitive Ability, Giftedness, Intellectual Disability, Learning Disabilitties

1. What does it mean to say that someone is gifted? 2. How is high IQ related to academic achievement, and to mental and physical health? 3. What does it mean to say that someone is intellectually disabled? 4. What does it mean to say that someone has a learning disability? Is this different from being

intellectually disabled? 5. What are dyslexia, dysphasia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia? 6. How do most researchers today describe learning disabilities?

Unit 6 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: Exploring Human Development

1. What is developmental psychology? What kinds of research questions do developmental psychologists study?

2. What is a tabula rasa? How is this concept related to human development? 3. What is maturation? How is this concept related to human development in general, and what are

some examples of maturational processes? 4. How are the maturation and behavioral views of human development related? 5. In the view of most developmental psychologists today, how are nature and nurture related? 6. Why is it difficult to separate the influences of nature and nurture on development?

Learning Objective 2: Beginnings, Prenatal Development, Stages of Prenatal Development, Prenatal Risks

1. What is a zygote? What event creates a zygote? 2. What is the first stage of prenatal development? What happens to the zygote during this stage? 3. What developmental changes take place during the embryonic stage? 4. What developmental changes take place during the fetal stage? 5. What are the roles of the placenta and umbilical cord in prenatal development? 6. What are teratogens? When are they especially damaging? 7. What are some effects of illness or drugs on prenatal development? 8. What is fetal alcohol syndrome? 9. What effects can a mother’s smoking have on development?

Learning Objective 3: The Newborn, Vision and Other Senses, Perception, Reflexes and Motor Skills

1. How do researchers determine what infants know, see and feel? 2. How is a newborn’s vision different from that of an adult? 3. What visual stimuli do newborns prefer looking at? 4. How is a newborn’s hearing different from that of an adult? 5. What auditory stimuli do newborns prefer listening to? 6. What smells and tastes do newborns prefer? 7. What are habituation and dishabituation, and how are they used to learn about infants’ perception? 8. What are reflexes, and what are three reflexes that are present in newborn infants? 9. How have the “back to sleep” and “prone to play” campaigns affected infants’ development, and

what have they taught us about the course of motor development?

Learning Objective 4: Infancy and Childhood: Cognitive Development, Changes in the Brain, The Development of Knowledge: Piaget’s Theory, Building Blocks of Development

1. What topics do cognitive developmental psychologists study? 2. Are all of the brain’s neurons present at birth? How does the brain continue to develop after

birth? 3. Why is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development considered a stage theory? 4. In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is a schema? 5. In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is assimilation? What are some examples? 6. In Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, what is accommodation? What are some examples?

Learning Objective 5: Sensorimotor Development, Preoperational Development, Concrete and Formal Operational Thought

1. What are the stages in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, and approximately when does each begin?

2. Why was Piaget’s first stage named sensorimotor? What kind of “thinking” does Piaget claim babies do in the sensorimotor stage?

3. What key type of schema are sensorimotor infants not yet capable of forming, according to Piaget? 4. What is object permanence? How is it related to the sensorimotor stage? 5. According to Piaget, how do infants behave on object search tasks before they have object

permanence, and how do they behave afterwards? 6. What are symbols? In which of Piaget’s stages do children begin to use symbols? 7. What are some limitations in children’s mental abilities in the preoperational stage? 8. What is conservation? What is a classic test of conservation? 9. In which of Piaget’s stages do children begin to solve conservation problems? 10. What key mental abilities does Piaget claim children have at the concrete operational stage, and

what key mental abilities are they lacking? 11. In which stage of Piaget’s theory do adolescents begin to engage in hypothetical thinking? What

are some examples of hypothetical thinking? 12. Does everyone reach the final stage of thinking in Piaget’s theory?

Learning Objective 6: Modifying Piaget’s Theory, New Views of Infants’ Cognitive Development, New Views of Developmental Stages, Information Processing During Childhood

1. In what ways is Piaget’s theory of cognitive development correct? 2. In what ways are infants’ cognitive abilities different from what Piaget claimed? 3. What evidence is there that very young infants can think and remember? 4. What evidence is there that infants have object permanence before Piaget claimed? Why didn’t

Piaget’s tests show this? 5. What are some examples of young children’s thinking that are not “stage-like”? 6. If cognition doesn’t develop in stages, how does it develop? 7. How does the information processing approach to cognitive development differ from Piaget’s

approach? 8. How do children’s information processing skills change as they grow older? 9. How do children’s memories change as they grow older?

Learning Objective 7: Culture and Cognitive Development, Improving or Endangering Cognitive Development

1. How does Vygotsky’s view of cognitive development differ from Piaget’s? 2. According to Vygotsky, how does a child’s culture and language influence cognitive development?

How does the story of the “Wild Boy of Aveyron” support Vygotsky’s ideas? 3. What are some examples of culture or language shaping thought? 4. How can the conditions that occur in many deprived households affect cognitive development? 5. What can parents do to stimulate their young children’s cognitive development?

Learning Objective 8: The Development of Language, The First Year, The Second Year, The Third Year and Beyond

1. How does the perception of language sounds change during a baby’s first year? 2. What is babbling, and what are some examples? 3. When do children typically say their first words? What kinds of words are the first that babies

understand and say? 4. What are some examples of how children overextend words? 5. What is the one-word stage, and when does it occur? 6. What is telegraphic speech, and why is it called this? 7. What are some of the first grammatical rules that appear in young children’s speech? 8. By what age is grammatical acquisition mostly complete?

Learning Objective 9: How Is Language Acquired?, Conditioning, Imitation, and Rules, Biological Bases for Language Acquisition, Bilingualism

1. Which aspect of language learning is still mysterious and debated? 2. How are reinforcement, modeling, and imitation related to a child’s acquisition of language? 3. What evidence is there that imitation cannot be the whole story in language acquisition? 4. What is a universal grammar? How might it enable language acquisition? 5. What is a critical period for language learning, and what is the evidence for it? 6. How does being raised bilingually affect children’s language acquisition? How does bilingualism

affect other cognitive abilities?

Learning Objective 10: Infancy and Childhood: Social and Emotional Development, Individual Temperament

1. If early mother-infant bonding is not possible, what effect might this have on their later relationship?

2. What is social referencing, and what are some examples? 3. What is temperament? What factors help determine an infant’s temperament? 4. What are the characteristics of easy babies? 5. What are the characteristics of difficult babies? 6. What are the characteristics of slow-to-warm-up babies? 7. How does an infant’s temperament relate to later behavior patterns?

Learning Objective 11: Attachment, Motherless Monkeys—and Children, Forming an Attachment Variations in Attachment, Consequences of Attachment Patterns, THINKING CRITICALLY: Does Day Care Harm the Emotional Development of Infants?

1. What is attachment? 2. Based on the experiment with newborn monkeys, how do reinforcement (by feeding) and physical

comfort relate to attachment? 3. What happens when children are deprived of any social contact early in life? 4. What is the Strange Situation and what is it used for? 5. Describe the secure and insecure attachment patterns infants typically display in the Strange

Situation. 6. How are parental and cultural factors related to an infant’s attachment pattern? 7. What are the consequences of secure versus insecure attachment later in life? 8. What is the relationship between daycare, infants’ attachment patterns, and emotional

development? 9. What aspects of daycare affect this relationship?

Learning Objective 12: Parenting Styles, Parenting Styles and Culture 1. What is socialization? 2. What are the four different parenting styles? 3. How do authoritarian parents interact with their children? 4. What are the characteristics of permissive parents? 5. How do authoritative parents interact with their children? 6. What are the characteristics of uninvolved parents? 7. How are parenting styles linked to children’s social and emotional development? 8. How do the consequences of the authoritarian parenting style differ among cultures?

Learning Objective 13: Peer Friendships and Popularity, Social Skills and Understanding, Risk and Resilience

1. In what ways are friendships important for development? 2. What are some of the social skills that children need to develop in order to be socially competent? 3. How can parents and others help children develop these social skills? 4. What is self-regulation? Why is it important? 5. How do divorce and marital conflict affect a child’s development and later outcomes? 6. What is resilience? What factors are associated with resilience?

Learning Objective 14: Gender Roles, Biological Factors in Gender Roles, Socialization of Gender Roles, Cognitive Factors in Gender Roles

1. What are gender roles? 2. How are gender roles related to culture? 3. What are some common physical and behavioral differences between young boys and girls? 4. What evidence supports biological influences on gender roles? 5. What evidence supports social and environmental influences on gender roles? 6. What evidence supports cognitive influences on gender roles? 7. How large are gender differences?

Learning Objective 15: Moral Development, Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Reasoning, Limitations of Kohlberg’s Theory, Moral Reasoning and Moral Action

1. What are the three levels of moral development in Kohlberg’s theory? 2. Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the preconventional level, and give an example. 3. Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the conventional level, and give an example. 4. Describe the moral reasoning of someone at the postconventional level, and give an example. 5. Which aspects of Kohlberg’s theory have held up to later research? Which aspects of his theory

have not held up to later research? 6. What factors influence moral behavior, as contrasted with moral reasoning?

Learning Objective 16: Adolescence, Changes in Body, Brain, and Thinking, Adolescent Feelings and Behavior, Love and Sex in Adolescence

1. What is puberty? What physical changes lead up to puberty? 2. Which part of the brain is undergoing significant change during adolescence? What are the

consequences of this neural maturation for adolescent thinking? 3. How is brain development related to risk-taking behavior in adolescence? 4. What impact does an adolescent’s relationships with his or her parents have on his or her

experiences during this time? 5. How much “storm and stress” do most adolescents experience? 6. How do romantic relationships influence adolescents? 7. What are some of the results of sexual activity during adolescence?

Learning Objective 17: Identity and Development of the Self, Emerging Adulthood, Facing the Identity Crisis

1. How do children’s descriptions of themselves change as they grow older? 2. What is ethnic identity? How does a positive ethnic identity relate to development? 3. What is emerging adulthood? 4. What is an identity crisis? 5. How and when does the identity crisis tend to get resolved?

Learning Objective 18: Adulthood, Physical Changes, Cognitive Changes, Cognitive Advances in Early, Middle, and Late Adulthood, Declining Cognitive Abilities in Late Adulthood

1. What physical changes do adults typically go through in early, middle, and late adulthood? 2. In what ways do cognitive abilities typically improve in early and middle adulthood? 3. What cognitive declines typically occur in late adulthood? 4. What factors influence cognitive declines in late adulthood? What can aging adults do to preserve

their cognitive functioning? 5. What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Learning Objective 19: Social Changes, Early Adulthood: Work, Marriage, Parenthood, Middle Adulthood: Reappraising Priorities, Late Adulthood: Retirement and Restriction

1. What changes to personality tend to occur during young adulthood? 2. How do early attachment patterns affect relationships in young adulthood? 3. How does working motherhood affect women, men, and children? 4. What does research on gay and lesbian parents reveal? 5. What are the effects of divorce on adults? 6. What is the midlife transition? 7. How does retirement affect older adults? How do the effects of voluntary retirement differ from

the effects of involuntary retirement? 8. What coping strategies do older adults tend to employ? 9. How do interpersonal interactions tend to change with old age?

Learning Objective 20: Death and Dying, Developmental Trajectories, Longevity: The Length of Life

1. What is terminal drop? 2. What reflections tend to occur as the elderly confront the reality of death? 3. What aspects of a person tend to remain relatively stable throughout the lifespan? 4. What factors are related to longevity? 5. What can older adults do to improve their quality of life both physically and psychologically?

Unit 7 Learning Objectives and Study Guide

Learning Objective 1: Social Influences on the Self, Self-Esteem and Culture, Social Comparison, Social Identity Theory

1. What do social psychologists study? 2. What is self-esteem, and how is it viewed in Western, independent cultures, and in interdependent

cultures? 3. In contrast to independent cultures, what contributes to a sense of well-being in interdependent,

or collectivist cultures? 4. What is self-concept? 5. What are social comparisons and why do we use them? 6. What are social comparison reference groups? 7. What is downward social comparison? What is upward social comparison? 8. What influence can social comparisons have on self-esteem? 9. How might social comparison lead to feelings of dissatisfaction? 10. What is social identity? What are some examples of groups that can contribute to a person’s social

identity? 11. What are positive and negative consequences of a person’s social identity?

Learning Objective 2: Social Perception, The Role of Schemas, First Impressions, Forming Impressions, Lasting Impressions, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

1. What is social perception? 2. What is a schema? What might a schema about a type of person contain? 3. How might schemas influence our perceptions and memories of people? 4. How might schemas influence first impressions? How might they influence lasting impressions? 5. What is a self-fulfilling prophecy? How do self-fulfilling prophecies contribute to the maintenance

of impressions?

Learning Objective 3: Heuristics in Social Perception, The Anchoring Heuristic, The Representativeness Heuristic, The Availability Heuristic

1. What are heuristics? What are some disadvantages and advantages of using heuristics? 2. What is the anchoring heuristic? Give an example of a situation where the anchoring heuristic

influenced your judgment. 3. What is the representativeness heuristic? Give an example of a situation where your thoughts have

been influenced by representativeness. 4. What is the availability heuristic? Give an example of a situation where your thoughts have been

influenced by availability.

Learning Objective 4: Explaining Behavior: Attribution, Errors in Attribution, The Fundamental Attribution Error

1. What are you doing when you make an attribution? 2. What is the difference between internal and external attributions? Give examples for each.

3. What is the fundamental attribution error? Give an example. 4. What are some of the cultural differences in the use of internal and external attributions?

Learning Objective 5: Other Attributional Errors, The Self-Protective Functions of Social Cognition

1. What is the actor-observer effect? What is meant by “actor” and “observer”? 2. Why do actors and observers often make different types of attributions of behavior? 3. What is the self-serving bias? Give an example. 4. What is unrealistic optimism? What are positive and negative consequences of unrealistic

optimism?

Learning Objective 6: Attitudes, The Structure of Attitudes, Forming Attitudes 1. What is an attitude? 2. What are the three components of attitudes? Give an example of each. 3. Under what conditions is the behavioral component more likely to be consistent with the

cognitive and affective components of an attitude? 4. How does social learning contribute to the formation of an attitude? 5. How do classical and operant conditioning influence the formation of an attitude? 6. What is the mere exposure effect, and how does it contribute to the formation of an attitude?

Learning Objective 7: Changing Attitudes, Two Routes to Attitude Change, Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Self-Perception Theory

1. What are the two routes to persuasion described by the elaboration likelihood model of attitude change? How do they differ?

2. What influences whether the central or peripheral route will be followed? 3. What does cognitive dissonance theory predict? 4. What experimental evidence supports cognitive dissonance theory? 5. What is self-perception theory, and how might it apply to attitude-behavior consistency?

Learning Objective 8: Prejudice and Stereotypes, Theories of Prejudice and Stereotyping, Motivational Theories, Cognitive Theories, Learning Theories

1. What are stereotypes? What are their effects on behavior? 2. What is prejudice? What are the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components to prejudice? 3. How do motivational theories explain prejudice? 4. What is authoritarianism? What are the three elements of authoritarianism? 5. How do social identity, ingroups, and outgroups influence prejudice? 6. What are social categories? How might social categories influence prejudice? 7. How does a motivational theory of prejudice differ from a cognitive theory of prejudice? 8. How do learning theories explain prejudice? What roles do observation and biopreparedness play

in learning theories of prejudice?

Learning Objective 9: Reducing Prejudice, Thinking Critically: Is Ethnic Prejudice Too Ingrained Ever to Be Eliminated?

1. What is the contact hypothesis? Is it always confirmed? 2. What social conditions influence the reduction of prejudice? 3. Is ethnic prejudice too ingrained to be eliminated? What is the evidence related to this claim?

Learning Objective 10: Interpersonal Attraction, Keys to Attraction, The Environment, Similarity, Physical Attractiveness

1. What is the role of physical proximity in attraction? How does it relate to the mere-exposure effect?

2. How do conditioning principles (classical and operant conditioning) influence attraction when people first meet?

3. Which type of similarity is especially important when predicting liking for another person? Why? 4. In accordance with the matching hypothesis, why are we attracted to people who are about as

attractive as ourselves?

Learning Objective 11: Intimate Relationships and Love, Intimate Relationships, Analyzing Love, Strong and Weak Marriages

1. What are interdependence and commitment? How do they contribute to intimate relationships? 2. What is the difference between passionate (romantic) love and companionate love? 3. What are the three components of the triangular theory of love? Which components combine to

create which types of love? 4. How do people in different cultures differ with respect to the value of love? 5. What factors predict marital success?

Learning Objective 12: Social Influence 1. What is social influence? 2. What are social norms? What do they do for us? 3. What is deindividuation? How does deindividuation relate to conformity to group norms? 4. What are the potential negative consequences of deindividuation?

Learning Objective 13: Motivation and the Presence of Others 1. What is social facilitation? What conditions produce social facilitation? 2. What is social interference? What conditions produce social interference? 3. What is social loafing? What are the reasons for social loafing? 4. How can social loafing be reduced? 5. How does social loafing differ across cultures? What is social striving?

Learning Objective 14: Conformity, The Role of Social Norms, Why Do People Conform?, When Do People Conform?, Ambiguity of the situation, Unanimity, Size of the Majority, Minority Influence, Gender

1. What is conformity? 2. Describe Asch’s experiment on conformity. 3. What are some explanations for conformity? 4. What is the role of ambiguity in conformity? 5. What is the role of unanimity in conformity? 6. How does the size of the majority influence conformity? 7. What is minority influence? How does it contribute to conformity? 8. Are women more likely to conform than men?

Learning Objective 15: Obedience, Factors Affecting Obedience, Experimenter Status and Prestige, The Behavior of Other People, The Behavior of the Learner, Personality Characteristics

1. What is obedience? 2. How did Milgram study obedience in a laboratory setting? 3. What were the results of Milgram’s original study? 4. How did experimenter status influence obedience? 5. How did observing disobedient others influence obedience? 6. What aspect of the learner’s behavior contributed to disobedience? 7. What personality characteristics are thought to be influential in determining whether someone will

obey a command?

Learning Objective 16: Evaluating Milgram’s Studies, Questions About the Ethics of Milgram’s Research, Questions About the Meaning of Milgram’s Research

1. What are some real-life examples of disastrous effects of obedience? 2. What are the ethical concerns surrounding Milgram’s research? 3. What is the debate about the applicability of Milgram’s research to real life? 4. What do most psychologists believe was learned by Milgram’s experiment?

Learning Objective 17: Aggression, Why Are People Aggressive?, Genetic and Biological Mechanisms, Learning and Cultural Mechanisms, Thinking Critically: Do Violent Video Games Make People More Aggressive?

1. What is aggression? 2. How does evolution help explain aggression? 3. How do the biological factors of genetics, testosterone, and alcohol relate to aggression? 4. How do cultural differences and learning contribute to aggression? 5. What is the debate about the influence of violent video games on aggressive behavior? What

evidence supports a causal relationship between them? What are the critiques concerning the causal relationship?

Learning Objective 18: When Are People Aggressive?, Aversive Stimuli and Aggression, Generalized Arousal, Environmental Influences on Aggression

1. In general, when are people more likely to be aggressive? 2. What does the aversively stimulated aggression theory suggest? What is negative affect and how

does it relate to aggression? 3. How is generalized arousal related to aggression? In which situations is generalized arousal most

likely to lead to aggression? 4. What is environmental psychology? What environmental factors influence aggression?

Learning Objective 19: Altruism and Helping Behavior, Why Do People Help?, Arousal: Cost-Reward Theory

1. What is helping, or prosocial behavior? What is altruism? 2. What shapes children’s helping behaviors? 3. What is the “arousal: cost-reward” theory of helping? 4. According to the arousal: cost-reward theory, what impact does the clarity of the need for help

have on helping behavior? 5. According to the arousal: cost-reward theory, how does the presence of others influence the

tendency to help? 6. What is the bystander effect? What is diffusion of responsibility? 7. What is the role of personality of the helper in helping behavior?

Learning Objective 20: Empathy-Altruism Theory, Evolutionary Theory 1. What is the empathy-altruism theory of helping? 2. Why might someone help, other than true altruism? 3. How does evolutionary theory explain helping behavior? 4. What is inclusive fitness? What is kin selection?