Final Review

PSYC 1000
Fall 2023
 Exam Procedures
• Don’t forget your fully charged laptop with Lockdown Browser
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• When you arrive to Jones 102, please store your belongings at
the front of the room. Please leave a seat between you and the
next peer in your row.
• Tulane’s Code of Academic Conduct will be enforced and any
violations will reported. If a cell phone is found in your
possession during the exam, you will receive a grade of ZERO.

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 Final Details

• 12 PM-1:30 PM, Jones 102 (12/13 08; 12/14, 07)

• There are 50 multiple choice questions.
-approximately 30 from content covered on exams 1,2, & 3
-approximately 20 from content covered after exam 3
• You must take your final on the scheduled date and time in our
classroom (Jones 102)

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Exam Review

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 Ch. 1
What is
Psychology?

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Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking: The ability and

willingness to assess claims and
make judgments using well-
supported reasons and evidence
rather than emotion or anecdote.

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Guideline Example
Ask questions, be willing “Can I recall events from my childhood accurately?”
to wonder
“By ‘childhood,’ I mean ages 3 to 12; by ‘events,’ I mean things
that happened to me personally, like a trip to the zoo or a stay in
Define your terms
the hospital; by ‘accurately,’ I mean the event basically happened
the way I think it did.”
Analyze assumptions “I’ve always assumed that memory is like a video recorder—
and biases perfectly accurate for every moment of my life—but maybe this is
just a bias because it’s so reassuring.”
Examine the evidence “I feel like I recall my fifth birthday party perfectly, but studies
show that people often reconstruct past events inaccurately.”

Weigh conclusions I may never know for sure whether some of my childhood
memories are real or whether some of them are combinations of
accurate and inaccurate information; I’d like to see more research
studies that help identify the characteristics associated with
reliable versus unreliable memories.”
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 Perspective Major Topics of Study Sample Finding on Violence
Biological The nervous system, Brain damage caused by birth
hormones, brain chemistry, complications or child abuse might
heredity, evolutionary incline some people toward violence.
influences

Learning Environment and experience

Modern Behavioral Environmental determinants of

observable behavior
Violence increases when it pays off.

Perspectives Social-cognitive Environmental influences,

observation and imitation,
beliefs and values
Violent role models can influence some
children to behave aggressively.

Cognitive Thinking, memory, language, Violent people are often quick to

problem solving, perceptions perceive provocation and insult.

Sociocultural Social and cultural contexts

Social Social rules and roles, groups, People are often more aggressive in a
psychology relationships crowd than they would be on their own.

Cultural Cultural norms, values, and Cultures based on herding rather than
psychology expectations agriculture tend to train boys to be
aggressive.
 Ch. 2
Research
Methods in
Psychology

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 Theory-Empirical Data Cycle

Theories are systems of assumptions

Hypotheses are derived from a theory.
and principles that try to explain a
They are precise statements that
specified set of phenomena.
describe or explain a given
Many scientific theories are tentative,
behavior.
pending more research.
A hypothesis leads to predictions about
Others, such as the theory of evolution,
what will happen in a particular
are accepted by nearly all
situation.
scientists.
Precision and Reliance on Empirical Evidence

Operational definitions summarize the way terms will

be measured and studied in a particular research
project.

Examples:
“anxiety” might be defined operationally “threatening situation” as the threat of
as a score on an anxiety questionnaire an electric shock
 Other Psychological Tests are measures
of traits, states, abilities, and

Measurement values.
- Tests that are standardized,
reliable, and valid are prioritized
Tools in research.
 Ch. 3
Genes,
Evolution, &
Environment

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 The Human Genome
● Our genes, together with noncoding DNA, make up the human
genome.
○ Many genes contribute directly to a particular trait.
○ Others work indirectly by switching other genes on or off.
○ Many genes are inherited in the same form by everyone.
○ Others vary, contributing to our individuality.
○ Most human traits depend on more than one gene pair.
Heritability
Heritability refers to the extent to which
differences in a trait or ability within a
group of individuals are accounted for by
genetic differences.

Heritability estimates do not apply to

specific individuals or to differences
between groups.

They apply only to differences within a

particular group living in a particular
environment.
Example: Heritability is higher for
children in affluent families than in
impoverished ones.

Even highly heritable traits can often be

modified by the environment.
 Ch. 4
Brain and
Nervous
System

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 Nervous System,
Divided
● The CNS (brain and spinal The PNS (43 pairs of nerves): Somatic nervous system
cord): ○ transmit information to and ○ permits sensation and
from the central nervous voluntary actions
○ receives, processes, interprets,
and stores information system.
Autonomic nervous system
○ sends out messages destined for ○ Consists of the somatic
○ regulates blood vessels,
muscles, glands, and organs nervous system and
glands, and internal (visceral)
autonomic nervous system
● Spinal reflexes are automatic, organs

requiring no conscious effort. ○ functions without conscious

control.
 Neuronal Structure
• Each neuron consists of:
○ Dendrites, cell body, axon
• Many axons are insulated by a myelin sheath that:
○ speeds up the conduction of neural impulses
○ prevents signals in adjacent cells from interfering with one
another
• Incoming neural impulses are received by dendrites and
transmitted to the cell body.
• Outgoing signals pass along the axon to terminal branches.
Neuronal Communications

• Communication between two neurons occurs

at the synapse.
• When an action potential reaches the end of a
transmitting axon, neurotransmitter
molecules are released.
● These molecules bind to receptor sites on the
receiving neuron.
● When binding occurs, that neuron becomes
either more or less likely to fire.
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Plasticity • The brain’s circuits are not
fixed and immutable.
• They are continually
changing in response to:
-information
-challenges
-changes in the
environment
• This phenomenon is known
as plasticity.
brain “rewires” itself to
adapt
 Ch. 5
Sensation and
Perception

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 Separate Sensations,
Personal Perceptions
● Perception is the process by which sensory impulses are organized and
interpreted.
● Sensation is the detection of physical energy emitted or reflected by
physical objects.
● Sensation begins with the sense receptors, cells located in the sense organs.
○ Receptors for smell, pressure, pain, and temperature are extensions
(dendrites) of sensory neurons.
● The receptors convert the energy of a stimulus into electrical impulses that
travel along nerves to the brain.
 Sensing
● Although the individual senses
respond to different kinds of
stimulus energy, the overall
process of sensation is the same.
● Separate sensations in the nervous
system can be accounted for by:
○ anatomical codes (as set forth
by the doctrine of specific nerve
energies)
○ functional codes
 Ch. 6
Sleep and
Consciousness

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 • During sleep, periods of rapid eye
movement (REM) alternate with non-RE
M (NREM) sleep in approximately a 90-
minute rhythm.
• Non-REM sleep is divided into stages on
the basis of characteristic brain-wave
Sleep patterns. Alpha waves gradually slow
down across NREM stages
Stages
Day Dreaming/Night Dreaming

Dreams as Thinking
● The cognitive approach holds that dreams are simply a modification of
the cognitive activity that goes on when we are awake.
● Dreams may include thoughts, concepts, and scenarios that may or
may not be related to our daily problems
● Dreams reflect thinking without sensory input and cognitive effort to
focus thoughts.
● Nighttime dreaming might be a mechanism for simulating events that
we think (or fear) might occur in the future
 Ch. 7
Learning

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 Conditioning

Conditioning basic learning

founded on associations.

• US→ UR
• NS→ No response
 Operant Conditioning
• Operant behaviors are deliberate, intentional, not reflexive responses.

•Instead of responding to environment, individuals ‘operate’ on their

environment
• A→ B→ C; antecedent → behavior → consequence
• Can have chaining interactions

o In operant conditioning, behavior becomes more or less likely to

occur depending on its consequences.

o Behaviors are more complex than in classical conditioning.

-riding a bicycle, writing a letter, climbing a mountain
The Consequences of Behavior

ß REINFORCEMENT

PUNISHMENT à
 Ch. 8
Memory

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 Three- Box Model

In the traditional three-box model of memory, information that does not transfer out of the
sensory register or working memory is assumed to be forgotten forever. Once in long-term
memory, information can be retrieved for use in analyzing new sensory information or
performing mental operations in working memory.
Types of Information is Stored in
LTM
● Skills or habits (“knowing how”) and abstract
or representational knowledge (“knowing
that”).
● Procedural and declarative memories
○ semantic declarative memories
○ episodic declarative memories
 • Long-term memory involves lasting structural
changes in the brain.
• Long-term potentiation seems to be an

Long-Term
important mechanism of long-term memory
-Perhaps all forms of learning and memory.
Changes in -Increase in the strength of synaptic
responsiveness.
Neurons and
Synapses
 Retrieval
● A related strategy for prolonging retention is deep
processing, or the processing of meaning.
● Deep processing is usually a more effective retention
strategy than shallow processing.
● Retrieval practice is necessary if a memory is going to
be consolidated.
○ For students, short quizzes and repeated testing
can have large benefits.
 The Manufacture of Memory

● Human memory is highly selective and

reconstructive.
● People add, delete, and change elements to make
sense of information and events.
○ Often draw on many sources to build one
integrated account.
● Source misattribution can occur during
reconstruction.
○ inability to distinguish information stored
during an event from information added later.
 Ch. 9
Thinking and
Intelligence

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Figure 9.1
The Elements of Cognition

Concepts are mental categories that can be grouped into

propositions, which can be further linked into networks of
associations known as cognitive schemas. Mental images also
contribute to these schemas.
 Subconscious Thinking
• Not all mental processing is conscious.
• Subconscious processes lie outside of awareness, allowing two or more
actions to be performed at once when one action is highly automatic.
• But multitasking—toggling between tasks that are not automatic:
○ is usually inefficient
○ introduces errors, and
○ can even be dangerous
• Cognitive capacity is limited.
 Rational and Reflective
Thinkers
• Quasi-reflective thinkers • Prereflective thinkers do • Reflective thinkers
recognize that some things not distinguish between understand that some things
cannot be known with absolute knowledge and belief, or cannot be known with
certainty belief and evidence certainty.
• They tend to assume that: • Some judgments are more valid
‒ judgments should be
supported by reasons ‒ a correct answer than others, based on
• Attend only to evidence that fits always exists, and it coherence, fit with the
available evidence, usefulness
beliefs. can be obtained
• Any judgment about evidence is directly • Varied evidence considered
purely subjective.
 Cognitive Heuristics and
Biases
• People tend to exaggerate the likelihood of
improbable events in part because of the
affect and availability heuristics.
• Affect heuristic: The tendency to consult
one’s emotions instead of estimating
probabilities objectively.
• Availability heuristic: The tendency to judge
the probability of a type of event by how easy
it is to think of examples or instances.

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 Cognitive Abilities
• Cognitive approaches to intelligence emphasize:
‒ several kinds of intelligence, and
‒ the strategies people use to solve problems

• An important cognitive ingredient of intelligence is

metacognition, which involves the:
‒ knowledge or awareness of your own
cognitive processes, and the
‒ ability to monitor and control those processes
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 Ch. 10
Motivation

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Variations in Motivation
● Extrinsic motivation refers to the desire to do something for
external rewards, such as money and good grades.

● Intrinsic motivation refers to the desire to do something

for its own sake and the pleasure it brings.
○ Example: A researcher may be motivated to collaborate on another
researcher’s project because it satisfies intellectual curiosity.

● Whether your motives are intrinsic or extrinsic affects:

○ how readily you meet your goals
○ how satisfied meeting them can make you feel
 Goal Setting and Motivation

What you accomplish depends on the goals you set for yourself and the
reasons you pursue them.

A goal is most likely to improve your motivation and performance when three
conditions are met:
The goal is framed in terms of getting what
you want
The goal is specific. The goal is challenging but achievable.
• approach goals (desired outcomes or experiences)
• avoidance goals (avoiding unpleasant experiences)
 Ch. 11
Emotion,
Stress, and
Health
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 Emotions

• Emotions connect individuals, motivate, and inform decision-

making and planning.

• The experience of emotion is complex.

• Physiological changes, cognitive processes, and behaviors,

are linked to subjective feelings.
 Emotional Expressions

● Facial expressions help to reflect our emotional

status and likely have evolutionary value.
● Some facial expressions are widely recognized
across cultures.
‒ Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust, and
surprise
● Facial feedback can also influence our emotional
status.

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Amygdala and Fear
Various parts of the brain are involved in
emotional reactions to events. 1. The
amygdala scrutinizes information for its
emotional importance (“It could be a bear! Be
afraid! Run!”). 2. The cerebral cortex
generates a more complete picture; it can
override signals sent by the amygdala (“It’s
only Mike in a down coat.”)
When the Bear Comes Home Every Night:
The Chronic Stress Response
 Solving Stress
• If the stress you’re experiencing can be attributed to a problem, solving the
problem can resolve stress.
• The specific steps in problem-focused coping depend on the nature of
the problem.
• Some problems cannot be solved.

• Health psychologists have identified three effective cognitive coping methods:

‒ reappraisal of the situation
‒ learning from the experience, and
‒ making social comparisons
Factors That Increase Poor Responses
to Chronic Stress
Factors Examples

Environmental Poverty, lack of access to health care, exposure to toxins, crime

Experiential Childhood neglect, traumatic events, chronic job stress,
unemployment, discrimination

Biological Viral or bacterial infections, disease, genetic vulnerability, toxins

Psychological Hostility, chronic major depression, emotional inhibition, low levels
of conscientiousness, external locus of control (fatalism), feeling
powerless
Behavioral Smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, abuse of alcohol and other
drugs, lack of sleep
Social Lack of supportive friends, low involvement in meaningful groups,
being in a hostile relationship
 Ch. 12
Development
Throughout The
Lifespan

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 Understanding Attachment and
Variation Within Attachment Behavior

● By the age of 6 to 8 months, infants begin to feel

separation anxiety.

● Ainsworth Strange Situation research distinguished

secure from insecure attachment.

● Insecure attachment can take one of two forms:

○ avoidant attachment or
○ anxious-ambivalent attachment
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Stage Age Characteristics
Sensorimotor birth to learning through concrete actions such as
age 2 looking and touching (object permanence)

Preoperational ages 2 to increased use of symbols, but still failure to

7 understand abstract principles (egocentrism)

Concrete ages 7 to mental abilities tied to actual experiences

Operations 12 rather than abstract reasoning (conservation)

Formal Operations ages 12+ ability for abstract thought and drawing logical
conclusions
Attachment in Adolescent and Adult Romantic
Relationships

● Two strong predictors of whom people will love

are proximity and similarity.
● Proximity:
○ We tend to choose our friends and lovers
from the set of people who live, study, or
work near us.

● Similarity:
○ in looks, attitudes, beliefs, values, personality, and
interests
 Changing Transitions
to Adulthood
● Many young people 18–25 are in college and at least partly
dependent financially on their parents.
● This phenomenon has created a phase of life called emerging
adulthood.
● Emerging adulthood is typically a time without turmoil and
crisis, with additional supports to provide
○ psychological well-being, good health, productivity, and
community involvement
○ a time of reflection and reassessment.
 Lifespan Psychosocial Development
Developmental Stage Life Period Challenges

Trust vs. Mistrust First year If a baby's basic needs of food and comfort are not met, the child may never
develop the essential trust of others.

Autonomy vs. Shame Toddler The young child is learning to be autonomous but must do so without feeling
too uncertain about his or her actions and capabilities.

Initiative vs. Guilt Preschool The child acquires new skills and goals but must also learn to control
impulses without developing guilt over wishes and fantasies.

Competence vs. Inferiority School-age Children are learning to make things and acquire the skills for adult life.
Those who fail these lessons of competence may feel inadequate.

Identity vs. Role Confusion Adolescence Teenagers must decide what they hope to make of their lives. Those who do not
resolve their identity crisis will sink into confusion.

Intimacy vs. Isolation Young After you have decided who you are, you must share yourself with another
adulthood and learn to make commitments.

Generativity vs. Stagnation Middle When you know who you are and have an intimate relationship, will you experience
adulthood generativity–creativity and renewal?

Ego Integrity vs. Despair Old age As they age, people strive to reach the ultimate goals of wisdom, spiritual
tranquility, and acceptance of their lives.
 Ch. 13
Social
Psychology

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Conformity and Group Think

● Acceptance in a group is influential.

● Close-knit groups are vulnerable to groupthink
○ the tendency to think alike, suppress disagreement,
and feel decisions are invulnerable.
● Groupthink often produces faulty decisions of
failure to seek disconfirming evidence.
○ minimized if the leader rewards doubt and dissent,
protects minority views, encourages alternative
solutions to a problem, and considers risks and
disadvantages of the preferred decision.
Attribution Theory
According to attribution theory, people are
motivated to search for causes to which they
can attribute their own and other people’s
behavior.
• Situational attribution
• Dispositional attribution
Situational Dispositional
“She’s under pressure at “She’s self-involved and clueless.”
work.”
“Her kids have been sick
and she isn’t sleeping “She’s an unfriendly person.”
enough.”
“She has been having “She doesn’t care what other
financial problems.” people think.”
 Ch. 14
Personality

63
Psychodynamic Theories
of Personality
● Psychoanalysis was the first psychodynamic
theory.
○ Psychodynamic theories emphasize
unconscious processes.
○ Childhood experiences and early
unconscious conflicts explain many
phenomena.
Psychodynamic Structure of
Personality
○ Id: the reservoir of unconscious
psychological energies and the
motives to avoid pain and obtain
Three major
systems that must
pleasure.
be kept in balance
○ Ego: a referee between the
needs of instinct and the
Id Ego Superego
demands of society.
○ Superego: the voice of
conscience, representing
morality and parental authority.
• Today, studies around the world
provide strong evidence for the Big
Five dimensions of personality:
– openness
– conscientiousness
– extraversion
– agreeableness
– neuroticism
• The Big Five do not provide a
complete picture of personality.
– mental disorders are missing
– other significant traits are missing
Heredity and Temperament

● Individual differences in temperaments

emerge at birth or early in life.
○ Reactivity, soothability, and positive or
negative emotionality.
○ These differences influence subsequent
personality development.
 Humanist Approaches
The leaders of humanist psychology replaced emphases from
psychoanalysis and behaviorism with a “third force”: the self.

subjective sense of self

The humanist approach focuses
on a person’s: the free will to determine our own
actions and futures

human potential
They emphasize: the strengths of human nature
 Ch. 15
Psychological
Disorders

69
Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
● The standard reference manual used to diagnose
mental disorders is the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).
○ The DSM is designed to provide objective criteria
and categories for diagnosing mental disorders.
○ Includes the typical age of onset, predisposing
factors, course of the disorder, prevalence of the
disorder, sex ratio of those affected, and cultural
issues that might affect diagnosis
 Depression
● Major depression involves emotional, behavioral,
cognitive, and physical changes.
○ 5 or more depressive symptoms.

● Clinically significant distress or impairment.

● Not attributable to physiological effects of a substance

or another medical condition.

● Not better explained by another mental health disorder.

 Origins of Depression
● Vulnerability–stress models of
depression (or any other disorder)
highlight interactions between:
○ individual vulnerabilities
○ stressful experiences
● Depression is moderately heritable
○ Studies of serotonin have not
been conclusive; their findings
have not been successfully
replicated.
 Anxiety and Panic
● Generalized anxiety disorder involves continuous,
chronic anxiety and worry that interferes with daily
functioning.
○ It involves a sense of foreboding and dread that
occurs majority of days for 6-months.
● Panic disorder involves sudden, intense attacks of
profound fear.
○ Panic attacks are common in the aftermath of
stress, prolonged emotion, specific worries, and
frightening experiences
Thinking Critically About DID
● Some clinicians think DID originates in childhood
trauma.
● Some psychologists emphasize a sociocognitive
explanation:
○ DID is an extreme form of the ability to present different
aspects of our personalities to others.
○ Suggestibility x Social influence:
■ suggestion by clinicians who believe in its prevalence
and suggestible patients who find the diagnosis a
plausible explanation for their problems.
 Symptoms of Schizophrenia

● Schizophrenia is the cancer of mental illness: elusive, complex, and varying in form.
 Ch. 16
Psychological
Treatments

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Psychopharmacology

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Psychopharmacology

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 Psychodynamic Therapy

● Explore defenses and conflicts

○ Freudian psychoanalysis
○ Object-relations theory
■ the unconscious influence of people’s earliest mental representations
of their parents
■ how these affect reactions to separations and losses throughout life
● Emphasize transference to break through the patient’s
defenses.
○ the client’s displacement of emotional elements of their inner life
outward onto the analyst
Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy
● Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is now the
most common approach.
● A new wave of CBT practitioners propose a
form of CBT based on “mindfulness” and
“acceptance.”
○ nonjudgmental approach
○ focus on coping techniques
○ “attentional breathing”
 Therapeutic Alliance
● Successful therapy depends, in part, on
the bond between the therapist and client.
○ Therapeutic alliance.
● The client is more likely to improve when
both parties:
○ respect each other
○ understand each other
○ agree on the goals of treatment
Good Luck
Studying!

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