Section 3-1: Evolution, Genetics, & the Brain

1. Why would it not be sufficient to describe Sigmund Freud as a psychodynamic theorist or B. F. Skinner as a behavioristic theorist?
2. How are the various primary theoretical approaches similar to one another?
3. How do the primary theoretical approaches differ from one another?
4. How are the secondary theoretical approaches within a primary theoretical approach similar to one another?
5. How do the secondary theoretical approaches within a primary theoretical approach differ from one another?
6. What is the evolutionary approach in psychology?
7. How would you define "evolution" in your own words?
8. What is an example of the rapid evolution of a characteristic not mentioned in the textbook?
9. When did the species, Homo sapiens, first emerge in the hominid lineage?
10. When did the first group of Homo sapiens migrate from Africa to Europe?
11. What are some physical characteristics not mentioned in the textbook?
12. What are some variants of the characteristics you listed in the previous question?
13. How would you define "natural selection" in your own words?
14. What is natural selection such an important concept in evolutionary biology?
15. How is natural selection related to the notion of adaptation?
16. What are the three main requirements of evolution by natural selection?
17. What is a example, not mentioned in the textbook, of a characteristic that probably has evolved through natural selection of variants of this characteristic?
18. How is the genetic situation associated with the development of eye color a good example of multifactorial causation?
19. Given the theory of eye color described above, are you able to explain how two blue-eyed parents can have a brown-eyed child? Why or why not?
20. When individuals from two different species mate, what typically is true regarding the physical and behavioral characteristics of the offspring?
21. Why do humans have two copies of every gene?
22. How does natural selection of particular expressions of a characteristic (such as greater height in men) cause changes in the gene frequencies of a population over generations ?
23. Would it be correct to say that, since evolution by natural selection has produced a species, Homo sapiens, with a high degree of intelligence, humans will continue to evolve towards even greater heights of intellect? Why or why not?
24. How would you define "adaptation" in your own words?
25. What is an example of a probable human adaptation not mentioned in the textbook?
26. About how long ago did the first hominids evolve?
27. About how long ago did the first species of "Homo" (a Latin term meaning "man") evolve?
28. To which primate are we most closely related to: orangutans, chimpanzees, or gorillas?
29. Why is it incorrect to state that some extant species are "higher" and other extant species are "lower" on the "evolutionary scale"?
30. Read the article by Dobzhansky (1973). Why did he claim that "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution"?
31. How can mental abilities and functions, which are not physical things, evolve through natural selection?
32. How would you define "biological preparedness" in your own words?
33. How is evolution by natural selection thought to be related to biological preparedness?
34. According to evolutionary psychologists, why do humans learn associations so easily and so generally?
35. How would you define the concept of "mental continuity" in your own words?
36. How does mental continuity help us to understand the evolutionary origins of human mental abilities and behaviors?

Section 3-2: Behaviorism & Verifiability

1. What is a paraphilia? Other than fetishism, what is an example of a paraphilia?
2. How might Sigmund Freud have explained the development of a hair fetish?
3. How might learning theorists explain the development of a hair fetish?
4. How is evolution thought to be related to what is most easily learned by the members of a species?
5. What is some evidence supporting the evolutionary theory of the learning of fetishism?
6. What were the main influences on the emergence of experimental psychology during the late-nineteenth century?
7. Which kind of science did the first experimental psychologists want their discipline[∂] to be a part of?
8. Who typically is considered to have founded the first psychology laboratory? Why is this claim thought to be questionable?
9. How did Wilhelm Wundt conceive of the human mind?
10. What goals did Wilhelm Wundt have for experimental psychology?
11. How would you describe in your own words the concept of associationism as defined by E. B. Titchener?
12. What did Titchener mean when he likened the human mind to a machine?
13. What determined behavior and mental events, according to Titchener?
14. Did Titchener think that people were responsible for their actions? Why or why not?
15. What did structuralists assume about the human mind?
16. What was the major goal of research for structuralists?
17. How did structuralists use introspection in their research?
18. In what ways did the structuralist approach influence American psychology during the twentieth century?
19. What did functionalists assume about the human mind?
20. What was the major goal of research for functionalists?
21. How did functionalists use introspection in their research?
22. In what ways did the functionalist approach influence American psychology during the twentieth century?
23. What was the most important criticism of the use of introspection by structuralists and functionalists?
24. What is verifiability?
25. What is required for observations to be verifiable?
26. What is the ultimate goal of research within the behaviorist approach?
27. According to behaviorism, what causes behavior?
28. What led behaviorists to claim that all behavior involves automatic responses to environmental events?
29. According to the behaviorist approach, how is experimental psychology defined and how does this definition differ from the one used by structuralists and functionalists?
30. What are the goals of applied experimental psychology, according to behaviorism?
31. What is the behaviorist version of associationism and how does it differ from the structuralist version?
32. In what way are the behaviorist and structuralist versions of associationism similar?
33. According to behaviorism, what is the biological nature of associations between stimuli?
34. Why did behaviorists reject the importance of genetic and evolutionary factors when explaining human behaviors?
35. How did behaviorists explain the development of most human behaviors?
36. What was meant by the statement made above that behaviorists assumed that "humans essentially are nothing but automatons"?
37. Why can behaviorism be thought of as an optimistic and egalitarian approach to explaining behavior?
38. Why did behaviorists reject free will? (In your answer, please discuss the philosophical doctrines of determinism and materialism.)
39. Why do scientific psychologists typically assume that mental events and behavior are determined by material causes when performing their research and interpreting their results?

Section 3-3: Classical Conditioning

1. How would you define learning in your own words?
2. What are some examples of learning not mentioned in the textbook?
3. What is the major distinction between associative and nonassociative learning?
4. What is habituation?
5. What is classical conditioning?
6. How does habituation differ from classical conditioning?
7. What is being associated in classical  conditioning?
8. How do you know when an association has been formed in classical conditioning?
9. According to the early associationists, what is the physical basis of the association formed in classical conditioning?
10. According to the early associationists, what role does the human conscious mind have in what is learned through classical conditioning?
11. What are two examples of classical conditioning from your everyday life?
12. In each of your examples, what is the CS, the UCS, the CR, and the UCR?
13. How can the development of Little Hans' horse phobia be explained by classical conditioning?
14. What advantage does the classical-conditioning theory of the development of Little Hans' horse phobia have over the psychoanalytic theory?
15. How would you define the rule of simplicity in your own words?
16. What is an example of your use of the rule of simplicity in your everyday life?
17. How might the rule of simplicity mislead us when trying to explain a phenomenon?
18. What was the theory that Watson and Rayner (1920) were testing in their study of Little Albert?
19. Did Little Albert fear rats at the beginning of the study?
20. Why did Little Albert fear rats at the end of the study? (In your answer, please give details of the procedure used with him)
21. How did behaviorists explain the development of mental disorders involving severe disturbances in emotion?
22. What did Watson think was wrong with the psychoanalytic approach to explaining neurotic disorders such as phobias?
23. What is acquisition? Please give an example from your own life of the acquisition of a CR.
24. What is extinction? Please give an example from your own life of the extinction of a CR.
25. What is spontaneous recovery? Please give an example from your own life of the spontaneous recovery of a CR.
26. When would extinction lead to the elimination of the association between a CS and a UCS?
27. What type of phobia therapy for phobias makes use of the process of extinction?
28. How successful is this type of therapy?
29. What is a major limitation of this type of therapy?
30. How would you define stimulus generalization in your own words?
31. What is an example of stimulus generalization that you have experienced?
32. How might stimulus generalization be an adaptive characteristic?
33. How would you define stimulus discrimination in your own words?
34. What is an example of stimulus discrimination that you have experienced?
35. How might stimulus discrimination be an adaptive characteristic?
36. How would you define "biological preparedness" in your own words?
37. How is biological preparedness thought to be related to evolution and natural selection?
38. What are some reasons in support of the idea that humans (and other primates) may be biologically prepared to develop certain types of phobias through classical conditioning?
39. How would you define "taste aversion" in your own words?
40. What is an example of the learning of a taste aversion in your own life?
41. In the development of taste aversion, an individual is learning an association between what two events?
42. In what way is the learning of taste aversions adaptive for animals?
43. Is the fact that the learning of taste aversions can be shown to be adaptive proof that this ability must have evolved through natural selection? Why or why not?

Section 3-4: Operant Conditioning

1. What was the first type of learning studied scientifically?
2. How did E. L. Thorndike study learning in cats?
3. How is classical conditioning similar to instrumental learning?
4. How is classical conditioning different from instrumental learning?
5. What is associated in classical conditioning?
6. What is associated in instrumental learning?
7. In what way(s) did Thorndike foreshadow the behavioristic approach?
8. How would you define "concept" in your own words?
9. What are two examples of physical concepts not mentioned above?
10. What are two examples of psychological concepts not mentioned above?
11. Why is it more difficult to measure instances of psychological concepts than it is to measure instances of physical concepts?
12. How would you define an "objective measurement" in your own words? (In your answer, please give an example of an objective measurement that is not mentioned in the readings.)
13. How would you define a "reliable measurement" in your own words?
14. How would you define a "valid measurement" in your own words?
15. How would you define a verifiable measurement in your own words?
16. What is required for a measurement to be verifiable?
17. What does it mean to have generalizable results?
18. What is the relation between control of the research situation and the generalizability of its results?
19. How are instrumental learning and operant conditioning related?
20. Why did B. F. Skinner call the type of learning he studied "operant conditioning"?
21. What is a "Skinner Box" and what is it used for?
22. What is being associated in operant conditioning?
23. How do you know when an association has formed in operant conditioning?
24. How does operant conditioning differ from classical conditioning?
25. How would you define "discriminative stimulus" in your own words?
26. How would you define "operant response" in your own words?
27. How would you define "reinforcement" in your own words?
28. How would you define punishment" in your own words?
29. What are two examples of operant conditioning that you've experienced recently? (Note: In your examples, label the discriminative stimulus, the operant response, and the reinforcement/punishment.)
30. How do individual differences in what is learned through operant conditioning arise?
31. How would you define extinction in operant conditioning?
32. In what way is punishment similar to extinction in operant conditioning? (Note: Please think of examples from your life that illustrate the similarity.)
33. In what way does punishment differ from extinction in operant conditioning? (Note: Please think of examples from your life that illustrate the difference.)
34. In what way is positive reinforcement similar to negative reinforcement? (Note: Please think of examples from your life that illustrate the similarity.)
35. In what way does positive reinforcement differ from negative reinforcement? (Note: Please think of examples from your life that illustrate the difference.)
36. How could the development of addictive behaviors be explained with operant conditioning?
37. What is an example from your own experience of the operant conditioning of abnormal behavior?
38. What are the two factors in the two-factor theory of phobic disorders?
39. How might a phobia of enclosed spaces (such as a closet) develop according to the two-factor theory of phobic disorder?