Chapter 1

Science
 Define “psychology”
o The “scientific” study of “mental events” and “behavior”
 Explain the difference between empiricism and rationalism as it relates to the
definition of psychology.
o Empiricism: an evidence-based method of psychology that draws on
observation and experimentation
o Rationalism: beliefs (feelings) not based in fact or not properly researched;
lack of scientific study makes this unreliable in psychology
 Explain the difference between psychology and common sense, including
phrases such as hindsight bias (or the “I knew it all along” phenomenon).
o Hindsight bias is the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that
one would have foreseen it --- this is common sense coming into play
 Explain why the scientific attitude of “skepticism” important.
o Sifting reality from fantasy requires skepticism (not cynical, but not gullible
either)
 Describe the difference between a correlational study and an experiment.
o Answer:

Experiment Correlational Study

Manipulate an independent Observe the relationship between

variable two variables (e.g., study time and
grades)

Randomly assign participants to There are no Experimental or

Experimental or Control groups Control groups

Can determine “cause-effect” Can only determine relationships

relationships (e.g., taking Prozac (e.g., the more students study, the
reduces depressive symptoms) higher their grades tend to be)

 Explain the major flaw of the case study.

o Atypical individual cases may be misleading
 Provide examples of illusory correlations.
o Countries with high number of Nobel laureates eat more chocolate than
other countries
 Explain why research psychologists study animals.
o Humans are animals, and therefore have very similar complexities and are
just as effective to study
The Profession of Psychology
 Explain the difference between a clinical psychologist and a psychiatrist.
o Clinical psychologist: assesses and treats people with mental, emotional,
and behavior disorders
 o Psychiatrist: medical doctors licensed to prescribe drugs and otherwise
treat physical causes of psychological disorders
 Explain to someone a potential problem in referring a friend to a psychiatrist
instead of a clinical psychologist.
o A psychiatrist may try to prescribe medication before assessing what is
really happening to your friend
 Know other titles of mental health providers who are licenses at the state or
national level.
o Psychiatric and Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialists
o Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
o Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs)
o Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFTs)
o Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs).
 Describe the occupation of an Industrial-Organizational psychologist.
o An industrial-organizational psychologist is someone trained at the
master’s level or higher (in Industrial-Organizational Psychology) that
employs psychological principles within a business setting.
The Science of Test-Taking
 Describe a sound strategy for answering multiple-choice questions.
o Survey, Question, Read, Retrieve, Review
 Explain why spaced practice promotes retention better than massed practice
(“cramming”).
o A person will remember material better because it promotes better
retention
 Explain how “overconfidence” might influence test results and other behaviors
o People are more often confident than they are correct. This causes people
to overestimate intuition. It is important to remember that intuition is not
always right

Chapter 2

Nervous System

 Describe the nervous system including the following terms:

o Central nervous system
 Brain
 Spinal cord
o Peripheral nervous system
 Autonomic nervous system
 Parasympathetic nervous system
 Sympathetic nervous system
 Somatic nervous system
 Acetylcholine is the neurotransmitter that causes our skeletal
muscles to contract
 Acetylcholine is released by the motor neuron.
 What is the sequence of brain regions from oldest to newest?
o Answer: brainstem, limbic system, cerebral cortex.
Neuropsychology

Relate the anatomical areas of the brain (below) to their major function.  Be sure to
specify, when necessary, whether the brain area is in the left or right hemisphere of the
brain. Include the name of the clinical disorder that might result if the brain area is
damaged (add any symptoms of the disorder if they are not obvious).

 Motivation
o Hypothalamus
 Affect
o Limbic System
 Cognition (more below)
o Cerebral Cortex
 Behavior (more below)
o Motor strip
o Extrapyramidal system
o Cerebellum

 Cognition
o Sensation
 Auditory
 Auditory cortex in temporal lobe
 Severe deafness
 Somatosensory
 Somatosensory cortex in parietal lobe
 Loss of touch in opposite side of body
 Visual
 Visual cortex in occipital lobe
 Left hemisphere detects right visual field (vice versa)
 Blindness
o Perception
 Auditory
 Wernicke’s area- left temporal lobe
 Wernicke’s aphasia- comprehension deficit
o Secondary result- meaningless rambling speech
 Somatosensory
 Areas adjacent to somatosensory cortex
 Tactile agnosia- inability to perceive objects by touch
 Visual
 Areas adjacent to visual cortex
 Visual agnosia- inability to perceive objects by sight
o Memory
 Verbal
 Left hippocampus
 Verbal amnesia
 Non-verbal
 Right hippocampus
 Non-verbal amnesia
o Problem Solving
  Prefrontal lobes
 Problem Solving Disorder
o Reading, writing, and arithmetic
 Angular Gyrus in the parietal lobe
 Alexia, agraphia, and acalculia (respectively)

 Motor
o Movement
 Motor cortex
 Paralysis in the opposite of the body
o Motor programs
 Speech output
 Broca’s area- left frontal lobe
 Broca’s aphasia- speech expression deficit
o Speech is effortful, agrammatic, but meaningful

Brain essentials

 Medulla
o Controls heart rate, respiration rate, and so on
o Death results if major damage
 Reticular formation
o Activates cerebral cortex
o If damaged cognitive deficits result
o Major damage results in coma
 Prefrontal area
o Inhibits impulses
o If damaged impulse control problems
o Parenting develops this area in childhood
 Corpus callosum
o Allows for inter-hemispheric communication
o Thicker in women than men
 Thalamus
o Sensory relay station
 For example, the optic nerve terminates in the thalamus
 The thalamus sends axons to visual cortex
Neurobiology
 Describe the neuron- a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system
o Dendrite- a neuron’s often bushy, branching extensions that receive and
integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the cell body
 Receptors
 Dendrites Listen…
o Cell body- the part of a neuron that contains the nucleus; the cell’s life-
support center
o Axon- the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches
to other neurons or to muscles or glands
 …Axons Speak
o Myelin sheath- a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of
some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural
impulses hop from one node to the next
  speed of the neural impulse (2-200 miles per hour)- both
electrical and chemical
 multiple sclerosis- happens when immune system attacks
myelin sheath (severe motor problems)
 Describe the electrical-chemical nature of the neuron as it relates to
interneuronal communication and neural-muscular communication.
o Electrical impulse is sent, neurotransmitter binds chemically to activate
the post-synaptic neuron
 Describe relationship between the electrical nature of neuronal communication
and the EEG?

Mental Health Disorders and Neurotransmitters

Many mental disorders are associated with imbalances of a neurotransmitter (or

receptors for the neurotransmitter). Next to each mental disorder, list the
neurotransmitter and whether high or low activity of the neurotransmitter is associated
with it. In parentheses, specify one of the more widely known drugs used to treat the
disorder (do this for all disorders but Alzheimer’s disease).

 Acetylcholine
o Alzheimer’s disease
 Dopamine
o Schizophrenia (higher)
 Drug: Dopamine blockers like Thorazine
o Parkinson’s disease (lowered)
 Drug: L-Dopa
 GABA
o Anxiety disorder (lowered)
 Drug: Valium, Xanax
 Serotonin
o Depression (lowered)
 Drug: Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SRIs) like Prozac
o Bipolar disorder (earlier called manic depression) (higher)
 Imbalanced levels of norepinephrine and serotonin
 Drug: Lithium

Psychoactive Drugs

 Describe the five classes of psychoactive (or psychotropic drugs) and specify the
pharmacological mechanisms of the more widely known drugs in each category
o Stimulants (↑ behavior)
 Cocaine- blocks reuptake of Da (agonist)
 Methamphetamine- facilitate release of Da (agonist)
o Depressants (↓ behavior)
 SRIs- GABA agonists
 Xanax- GABA agonists
o Hallucinogens (↑ abnormal behavior)
 LSD- mimics the effects of serotonin (serotonin agonist)
o Antipsychotics (↓ abnormal behavior)
 Thorazine- DA antagonists
  Lithium- balances levels of serotonin and norepinephrine
o Analgesics
 Morphine- endorphin agonist
 Describe why it is problematic to view “drug addiction” as a disease?