Prologue:
1. Who developed theories of human behaviour prior to the development of psychology as a science? What concepts did these philosophers use to explain human behaviour?
2. Who developed psychology of science?
3. What was William James’ contribution to psychology?
4. Who were some of the founders of psychology and what was the basis of their theories?
5. Who was Charles Darwin and what is Darwinism?
6. What is the nature-nuture debate? Who is involved in this debate and what evidence is used?
7. What are the three levels of analysis? Give examples and explanations of each.
8. If you went to college and got a graduate degree in psychology, what types of jobs could you get and what would you be doing?
9. How can you improve your study of psychology?
Chapter One: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science
1. What is the hindsight bias?
2. How do common sense and intuition differ from the hindsight bias? What does this become important to psychologists?
3. Do humans view their behaviours and thoughts accurately?
4. What is the Scientific Method? Explain each of the steps and why psychologists use them?
5. Why do psychologists use the scientific method and how can it be used to explained behaviours?
6. What is a case study? How is done and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
7. What is a survey? What done and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
8. What are wording effects? Why does “she screeched” sound different than “she yelled?”
9. What is the false consensus effect? How does this explain why most people will state that their way is the norm?
10. What is random sampling and how does it apply to scientific surveys? What could happen to a scientific study is a psychologist did not have proper sampling in her/his survey?
11. What is naturalistic observations and how does it differ from a survey and case study? Why and when might a psychologists want to use a naturalistic observation as opposed to other courses of scientific study?
12. What is correlation? What are scientific methods of not only determining correlation but if it is statistically significant?
13. Does correlation always equal causation? Why or why not?
14. What is an illusory correlation? Why must psychologists watch out for them and how can they be avoided?
15. Statistically and rationally, explain why people try to put random events into some type of order.
16. How do psychologists break down behaviours enough to get true cause and effect of a single factor?
17. What is a double-blind procedure and how does it influence the study?
18. What is the placebo effect and could you be fooled by it?
19. What are the experimental condition and control condition? How do those work together along with random assignment to create a valid study?
20. What are independent and dependent variables? Give examples of each and explain why they factor into an experiment.
21. Why do psychologists use statistics to back their studies?
22. What are the three types of central tendency and how do they differ?
23. What are range and standard deviation? Why are they significant to scientific studies?
24. How can scientists determine that observation is better than an experiment? Which is typically more reliable?
25. What does it mean when something has statistical significance? How is this determined?
26. What is culture? When does it and does it not impact behaviour? Can a psychological study be applicable across all cultures?
27. Do men and women behave the same way? Can a study done only on men be applicable to women as well?
28. Why do psychologists use animals in experiments? Should PETA be concerned? What ethical issues come into play?
29. As a psychologist, what is your ethical duty towards human subjects in your experiments?
Chapter Two: Neuroscience and Behaviour
1. What is phrenology and what should be kept in mind when thinking about today’s science?
2. What is a neuron? What are all of its parts and what do they do?
3. How do neurons work?
4. How do neurons communicate and what happens if there is a breakdown in this communication?
5. What are neurotransmitters and what happens if they breakdown?
6. What are acetylcholine and why is it especially important to psychologists?
7. What are endorphins and how do they influence human behaviour?
8. On a chemical and biological level, what happens when drugs are introduced to the brain?
9. What are the various types of nervous systems and what do they do?
10. What happens physically if there is damage to the spinal cord? Be sure to look at varying degrees of damage.
11. Why is the brain qualified as part of the central nervous system?
12. What is a neural network and how does it work?
13. What is the endocrine system ? What are all of its parts and what do they do? What happens to a person whose endocrine system is not functioning properly?
14. What are the various methodologies for assessing how the brain functions? Describe, in detail, each. Which method do you feel is most effective?
15. What is the brainstem? What are its parts and what do they do?
16. What is the thalamus and what does it do?
17. What is the cerebellum and what does it do?
18. What is the limbic system and what does it do?
19. What is the amygdala and what happens to a person who has damage there? What does that tell us about the impact of the physical aspects of the brain on behaviour?
20. Why is the hypothalamus and what different aspects of personality and biology are controlled by the hypothalamus?
21. What is the cortex? What are the parts of the cortex and what do they do?
22. What are the functions of cortex? How does it work?
23. What is the sensory cortex and how does it influence physical aspects?
24. What experiments were done on Gage and what was learned about the brain from this experiment?
25. What is aphasia?
26. What have researchers learned about the brain and language?
27. What is plasticity and how does it show the body’s determination to survive?
28. How is the brain split? What side of the brain does what and how did scientists determine this?
29. How it is determined which hand you write with? Why are there fewer left handed people in the world now than previously?
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