Psychology Around Us, 2nd Edition

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Fun Facts:

• Facial expressions of sadness and happiness are universal across all cultures, which is related to our evolutionary history.
• On average, Kipsigis in Kenya walk a month before babies in the United States, and Ache babies in Paraguay being walking a year later than U.S. Children – variations due to cultural differences in parenting.
• Some theorists believe that women are more likely than men to use both sides of the brain.
• Adolescents are especially likely to suffer from sleep deprivation. In fact, teenagers today get about 2 hours less sleep per night than teens 80 years ago.
• Although changes in the functioning of our memories unfold gradually throughout adulthood, specific declines in memory may actually begin in our twenties.
• Rewards can lead our brains to release natural painkilling neurochemicals called opiates, the same ones responsible for the so-called runner’s high.
• The leading stressors for college students include having to take multiple tests, enduring finals week, applying to graduate school, being a crime victim, having multiple assignments due the same day, and breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend.
• Research suggests that you are just as likely to win a Nobel Prize if you have an IQ of 130 as if you have an IQ of 180.

How much do you know about Psychology?

1. What area of research focuses on young children’s beliefs about how their minds and the minds of others work?
1. Theory of mind
2. Metacognition
3. Egocentrism
4. Scaffolding
2. As our brains develop across the lifespan, they:
1. Can be shaped by our experiences after birth
2. Stop producing new brain neurons as we enter adulthood
3. Experience very little programmed cell death in infancy and childhood
4. Complete myelination in childhood
3. Freud suggested that most of one’s personal knowledge is contained in the ___________.
1. Conscious mind
2. Preconscious
3. Subconscious
4. Unconscious
4. Which statement best describes the role of the hippocampus in memory?
1. The hippocampus helps encode procedural memories, but not semantic ones
2. The hippocampus is a “staging area” for the encoding of material into long-term memory
3. The hippocampus is the final repository for long-term memories
4. The hippocampus serves to transfer material from sensory to working memory
5. What brain structure sends “hunger” signals that cause animals to eat?
1. Lateral hypothalamus
2. Pons
3. Thalamus
4. Ventromedial hypothalamus
6. Which of the following is an example of a negative symptom of schizophrenia?
1. Being unable to show any emotion
2. Believing that others can read one’s thoughts
3. Hearing voices that are not real
4. Using rapid, incoherent speech

Answers:

1. d
2. a
3. d
4. b
5. a
6. a