Exam 2 Study guide
PSY 383, Spring 2014
40 multiple choice, 3 essay = 50 points
Chapter 5
What are the features of drugs that are of interest to psychologists?
What are the defining features of addiction? Tolerance? Overdose?
What are the behaviors and neurotransmitters involved in: opiates, depressants, stimulants,
hallucinogens? There may be multiple ones depending on which specific drug. Pay attention to what we
spent time on in class.
What are the brain regions involved in the dopamine reward system?
Ignore “The role of genes in addiction” p.146-149
Chapter 6
Be able to distinguish between the various theories in motivation such as drive theory, arousal theory.
Know what homeostasis is.
Be able to identify the behavioral changes associated with eating behaviors (satiety, aversions,
preferences)
Know what neurotransmitters and hormones are associated with drinking/eating behaviors, and what
brain regions are using them, and whether a hormone is activating or inhibiting eating/drinking. It would
be especially helpful if you were able to re-create the pathways (including hormones/neurotranmitters)
associated with drinking and eating that were drawn on the board.
What are the eating disorders, and most common brain changes associated with them.
Ignore 164-66 “Digestion and phases of metabolism”- except Figure 6.8 is helpful. We also skipped
“contribution of heredity” in the Obesity section.
Chapter 7
Know the brain regions associated with sexual behaviors in males, females, and both males and females.
What does oxytocin do?
What hormones and neurotransmitters increase and decrease sexual behavior?
What are the events that happen to males, that do not happen to females, during prenatal sexual
differentiation? If genetic males are unable to use the testosterone they generate, what is this disorder
called?
What is the difference between organizational and activational effects of hormones? How is this
demonstrated in females?
What sorts of cognitive differences exist between the sexes? Are they important? Can they be changed
if females take testosterone or males take estrogen?
Skip 190-192 “Sex as a form of motivation”; 196-7 “Odors, pheromones and sexual attraction”, and 207end of chapter beginning with “Ablatio penis: A natural experiment”
Chapter 8
What is the sympathetic nervous system? When it is activated, what are some of the bodily changes that
take place?
What is the facial feedback hypothesis, and how is it demonstrated ? Which theory of emotion does it
support?
What do mirror neurons do?
What behaviors do each of the limbic system structures control in emotional expression?
What is the HPA axis, what does it do and what hormones are used in each step?
Cats demonstrate two types of aggression that are controlled by two different pathways. Draw each of
these pathways.
Skip “Hemispheric specialization”, Immune system responses to stress, Personality variables in stress,
“Heredity and Environment”