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• Study Guide
  • Section I: Core Modules & Themes
    • Foundations of Psychology
    • Evolutionary Psychology
    • Neuroscience
    • Developmental Psychology
    • Sensation & Perception
    • Memory
    • Social Psychology
    • Human Sexuality
    • Intelligence
    • Learning (Conditioning)
    • Personality
  • Section II: Study Hacks & Tips
  • Section III: High-Yield Quiz Answers (Flashcard Style)

Study Guide

Section I: Core Modules & Themes

Foundations of Psychology

• Key Concepts: Purpose of psychology, scientific method, research ethics

• Notable Quiz Questions:

  • Random sampling is most effective for generalizability.
  • Risk/benefit ratio must be evaluated in studies with participant discomfort.

Evolutionary Psychology

• Key Concepts: Evolutionary fitness, parental investment, altruism, adaptation

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Traits like peacock feathers or antlers indicate health.
  • Adaptations take many generations to be observable.
  • Indirect fitness and Hamilton’s Rule explain kin altruism.

Neuroscience

• Key Concepts: Brain structure (forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain), neurotransmission, brain lobes

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Frontal lobe impacts mood/balance (e.g., post-injury behavior changes).
  • Dopamine is key for treating Parkinson’s symptoms.
  • Action potentials travel along axons.

Developmental Psychology

• Key Concepts: Attachment styles, parenting styles, teratogens, Piaget’s stages, sensitive periods

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Ambivalent attachment involves inconsistent comfort-seeking.
  • Overregularization reflects children applying grammar rules.
  • Sensitive periods help explain why kids learn languages better.

Sensation & Perception

• Key Concepts: Sensory thresholds, auditory perception, basilar membrane, transduction

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Timbre allows voice differentiation.
  • Pitch relates to frequency; loudness to amplitude.
  • Basilar membrane: apex = low frequencies, base = high.

Memory

• Key Concepts: STM/LTM, elaborative rehearsal, encoding specificity, memory stages

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Recall vs. recognition: recall requires generating info without cues.
  • Encoding specificity: performance can suffer if internal state differs.
  • Working memory holds information temporarily during task performance.

Social Psychology

• Key Concepts: Attribution theory, social influence, persuasion

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Fundamental Attribution Error: assuming behavior reflects personality.
  • Social facilitation: improved performance in presence of others.
  • Foot-in-the-door vs. Door-in-the-face techniques.

Human Sexuality

• Key Concepts: Gender identity, sexual orientation, hormones, sexual dysfunctions

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Hypothalamus governs sexual behavior.
  • Gender schemas shape perceptions and behaviors.
  • Asexual individuals may still form romantic relationships.

Intelligence

• Key Concepts: Gardner’s theory, Deviation IQ, Flynn Effect, reliability vs. validity

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Flynn Effect: average IQ increases over time.
  • Reliable but not valid: consistent test results but poor predictive power.

Learning (Conditioning)

• Key Concepts: Classical and operant conditioning, reinforcement types, observational learning

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Escape conditioning: reducing unpleasant stimuli (e.g., phone off to reduce stress).
  • Overjustification effect: external rewards reduce intrinsic motivation.
  • Spontaneous recovery: reappearance of a CR after extinction.

Personality

• Key Concepts: Trait theories (Allport, Eysenck), self-schema, defense mechanisms

• Quiz Highlights:

  • Secondary traits: only appear in specific circumstances.
  • Conditions of worth inhibit self-actualization.
  • Projection: attributing your feelings to others.

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Section II: Study Hacks & Tips

• Elaborative Rehearsal: Connect new info to real-life examples.
• Generation Effect: Create your own test questions.
• Self-Testing: Delay feedback to improve retention.
• Context-Dependent Memory: Study in environments similar to the test.
• Pomodoro Technique: 25-minute focus + 5-minute break cycles.

• Debunked Myths:

  • Learning styles are not real.
  • Highlighting ≠ deep learning.
  • Sleep is critical for memory.

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Section III: High-Yield Quiz Answers (Flashcard Style)

Question	Answer
Peacock feathers indicate?	Health (sexual selection)
Turning off phone to reduce stress?	Escape conditioning
Traits only seen when drinking?	Secondary traits
Post-accident, mood and balance issues?	Frontal lobe damage
Michelle distinguishes voices by?	Timbre
Deion Sanders memory type?	Semantic memory
Working out to regulate mood?	Distraction (emotion regulation)
Getting paid reduced intrinsic motivation?	Overjustification effect
Attraction to all gender identities?	Pansexual
Brain part for sexual behavior?	Hypothalamus
Fluid vs. Crystallized intelligence?	Fluid = reason, Crystallized = facts
Defense mechanisms protect what?	Ego (from Superego guilt)
IQ increasing yearly?	Flynn Effect
Reliable but not valid test?	Consistent but doesn’t predict real performance
Identity without exploration?	Identity Foreclosure
Rude cashier assumption?	Fundamental Attribution Error
Running faster in a group?	Social Facilitation
Ignoring traffic noise over time?	Habituation
Bipolar II symptoms?	Hypomania + depression