Key Concepts in Psychology: Quizzes and Insights

Posted on Feb 1, 2025 in Psychology

Quiz #1: History of Psychology

The English translation for the Greek word psyche is the soul. The practice of introspection involves someone examining their own conscious experience as objectively as possible. School of psyche description: Structuralism was the first school to focus on breaking down mental processes into the most basic components. The basic elements of consciousness using methods known as introspection and internal perception. Functionalism was an early school of thought that focused on the purpose of consciousness. Humanistic psychology is a school of thought that focuses on the potential in everyone to be the best version of themselves. Cognitive psychology is a subfield of psychology that focuses on mental processes such as attention, language, and memory.

  • Psychoanalytic theory: Sigmund Freud
  • Behaviorism: John Watson
  • Gestalt psychology: Wolfgang Kohler
  • Humanistic psychology: Carl Rogers
  • Functionalism: William James

Abraham Maslow proposed a hierarchy of human needs as motivation for behavior. B.F. Skinner was a behaviorist. Evolutionary psychology seeks to study the ultimate biological cause of behavior. A developmental psychologist is most interested in physical changes associated with aging, as well as changes in cognitive skills, moral reasoning, social behavior, and other psychological attributes. An industrial-organizational psychologist is often involved in issues related to personnel management, organizational structure, and workplace environment. Clinical psychology is the area of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior.

Quiz #2: Emotion and Motivation

The two types of motivation are intrinsic and extrinsic. The drive theory of motivation states that organisms engage in behaviors in order to restore an internal balance within our bodies, known as homeostasis. The Yerkes-Dodson law states that the level of arousal that leads to the best performance is moderate. It is hard to lose weight because we have a genetically determined ideal weight. At the top of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is self-actualization. Obesity factors include socioeconomic status, physical environment, genes, and environment (nurture).

The four phases of human sexual response are:

  1. Excitement
  2. Plateau
  3. Orgasm
  4. Resolution

The amygdala and nucleus accumbens are important for sexual motivation. Physiological arousal, psychological appraisal, and subjective experiences are the components of emotion (the parts that make up our experience of emotion). The James-Lange theory states that emotions arise from physiological arousal. Different arousal patterns are associated with different emotions. The Cannon-Bard theory states that physiological arousal and emotional experience occur at the same time but independently of each other. The Schachter-Singer two-factor theory states that emotions are composed of physiological and cognitive components, which take context into consideration.

FALSE: A polygraph, or lie detector, is not a valid or accurate way to determine whether someone is lying. The amygdala is a brain structure that plays a role in processing emotional information and attaching emotional value to our memories. A cultural display rule provides guidelines for individuals within that culture of what emotions are acceptable to express. TRUE: There are several basic emotions that are universally recognized. The facial feedback hypothesis claims that smiling makes you feel happy.

Quiz #3: Stress and Health

TRUE: A moderate amount of stress can be beneficial and may be linked to optimal health. Walter Cannon is credited with naming and describing the fight-or-flight response. Hans Selye’s stages of the general adaptation syndrome are:

  1. Alarm reaction
  2. Resistance
  3. Exhaustion

TRUE: The Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) contains stressful life events, including those that are pleasant (e.g., birth of a child). Job burnout is a general sense of emotional exhaustion and cynicism in relation to one’s job. Psychoneuroimmunology is the field that studies how psychological factors such as stress influence the immune system and immune functioning. Immunosuppression is the decreased effectiveness of the immune system. Psychophysiological disorders include hypertension, irritable bowel syndrome, and eczema. Type A behavior is characterized by an excessive competitive drive, chronic sense of time urgency, impatience, and hostility toward others. Negative affectivity is a tendency to experience distressed emotional states involving anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness.

FALSE: You are concerned about your grade in your PSY 1500 class and decide to meet with your instructor to discuss the possibility of extra credit. You also set aside more time to study your notes from class. These are problem-focused coping strategies, not emotion-focused.

Biofeedback is a technique that uses electronic equipment to accurately measure a person’s neuromuscular and autonomic activity. Happiness is an enduring state of mind consisting of joy, contentment, and other positive emotions, plus the sense that one’s life has meaning and value. Positive psychology is an area of study that seeks to identify and promote those qualities that lead to greater fulfillment in our lives. Positive affect is pleasurable engagement with the environment, such as happiness, joy, enthusiasm, alertness, and excitement. Optimism is the general tendency to look on the bright side of things. Flow is described as a particular experience that is so engaging and engrossing that it becomes worth doing for its own sake.

  • Stressors: Conceptualization of stress as a demanding or threatening event or situation
  • Response-based: Conceptualization of stress as a response to environmental conditions
  • Stressors: Demanding or threatening events
  • Primary appraisal: Judgment about the degree of potential harm or threat to well-being that a stressor might entail
  • Secondary appraisal: Judgment of the options available to cope with a stressor, as well as perceptions of how effective such options will be

Quiz #4: Consciousness

This is NOT an example of awareness of internal stimuli: Hearing the voice of Instructor Pope. A circadian rhythm is a biological rhythm that takes place over a period of about 24 hours. TRUE: Having rotating work shifts (a work schedule that fluctuates from day to day) can lead to signs of depression and anxiety.

Stages of sleep and the brain waves that dominate brain activity at each stage:

  • Stage 1: Alpha waves
  • Stage 2: Alpha and theta waves
  • Stage 3 & 4: Delta waves

REM is also known as paradoxical sleep due to the lack of muscle tone and high brain activity. According to Freud, the latent content of a dream refers to the hidden meaning of a dream.

Sleep disorders:

  • Somnambulism: The sleeper engages in complex behaviors, from wandering about to driving.
  • Restless leg syndrome: Uncomfortable sensations in the legs during periods of sleep or inactivity.
  • REM sleep behavior disorder: Occurs when muscle paralysis associated with REM does not occur.
  • Insomnia: Difficulty going to or staying asleep.
  • Sleep apnea: Episodes during the night where a sleeper’s breathing stops.
  • Night terrors: Result in a sense of panic, often accompanied by screams and attempts to escape from the immediate environment.

Opioids are drugs that have analgesic properties; that is, they decrease pain. This category of drugs includes heroin, morphine, methadone, and codeine. FALSE: Alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant.

Quiz #5: Psychological Research

A hypothesis is a testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct. A theory is a well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena. Falsifiable means capable of being shown to be incorrect. Sigmund Freud is a historical figure who has been criticized for proposing theories that are not falsifiable and is considered the father of psychoanalysis. A correlation coefficient is a number from -1 to +1 that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between variables. FALSE: Correlations reveal relationships, but not cause-and-effect relationships among variables.

  • Experimental group: The group that receives the treatment or variable being tested.
  • Control group: The group that does not receive the treatment or variable being tested.

An operational definition is a description of how we will measure our variables, and it is important in allowing others to understand exactly how and what a researcher measures in a particular experiment.

Quiz #6: Biopsychology

Chromosomes are long strings of genetic material. DNA is a helix-shaped molecule made up of nucleotide base pairs. An allele is a specific version of a gene. Genotype is the genetic makeup of an individual. Phenotype is an individual’s inherited physical characteristics. The field of epigenetics looks beyond the genotype itself and studies how the same genotype can be expressed in different ways.

The nervous system is made up of two types of cells: glial cells and neurons.

  • Soma: Cell body
  • Dendrite: Branch-like extension of the cell body
  • Axon: Extension from the cell body that contains terminal buttons
  • Myelin sheath: Fatty substance that increases the speed of signal transmission
  • Synapse: Very small space between two neurons, where communication between neurons occurs

Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers of the nervous system.