Describe the characteristics of a creative individual.

Demography characteristics

Family background and age are the two demographic characteristics of creatively behaving individuals that have been studied most frequently.

Family background

Despite all the contradictions in the findings of scientists regarding family backgrounds of creative individuals, there has been some consensus in certain aspects. Creative people often have described home and school life as experiences in which parents and teachers trusted them to act reasonably and responsibly. There is common evidence among creative people of feelings of either personal of family superiority on a social or an intellectual basis.

Explain the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion.

            The Cannon-Bard theory, also known as Thalamic theory, is a theory of emotion developed by physiologists Walter Cannon and Philip Bard, suggesting that individuals experience emotions first and then physiologically react to them. These actions include changes in muscular tension, perspiration, etc. This theory challenge the James-Lange theory of emotion, which suggests that emotion results from one's 'bodily change' rather than the other way round.

Describe the causes of forgetting.

            The explanation for the forgetting includes Decay hypothesis, Interference, repression, amnesia and others.

Decay hypothesis

            This is the first and the oldest explanation of forgetting. The theory assumes that learning results in the formation of memory trace or engram. It is the neurochemical and anatomical changes in the brain that encode memories. According to this hypothesis, reason for forgetting was considered to be disuse if information over a period of time. But this could not explain the questions like 'why elderly people have vivid memory of the past events and forget recent information?'

What is learned helplessness? What are the factors that lead to learned helplessness?

            Learned helplessness means a condition of a human being or an animal in which it has learned to act helplessly, even when the opportunity is restored for it to help itself by avoiding an unpleasant or harmful circumstance to which it has been subjected.

            In his research, Martin Seligman exposed dogs restrained in harness to electric shocks. One group of dogs could turn off the shock by operating a lever while the other group could not. For the dogs in the second group, the ending of the shock was random and beyond their control. Later the dogs were tested in a shuttle box, in which dogs could escape electric shocks by jumping over a low partition. For the most part, the dogs in the second group, who had previously learned that nothing they did had an effect on the shocks, simply lay down and whined. Even though they could have easily escaped the shocks, they did not try because they had developed learned helplessness.

Explain different stages of sleep.

            Research on thousands of volunteers indicates that sleep can be divided into four stages. The transition from wakefulness to sleep occurs with the onset of stage 1 sleep. During this stage, a mixed but relatively slow, low-voltage EEG pattern emerges. Breathing slows, muscle tone decreases and the body generally relaxes. At this point, individuals can still be readily awakened by external stimuli. If they are not awakened they move to stage 2. During this stage the brain emits occasional short bursts of rapid, high-voltage waves known as sleep spindles. During this stage, sleepers are much more difficult to awaken than they were during stage 1. Stage 2 is followed by stage 3 and 4 which are marked by the increasing appearance of slow, high voltage delta waves and by a further slowing of all major bodily functions.

What is extra sensory perception? Explain.

            Normally, Perception depends on the stimulation of sensory receptors by various kinds of energy. Perceptions independent of sensory stimulations are called extrasensory perceptions (ESP). The field that studies ESP is called parapsychology (Para means ‘besides’). The name itself indicates its failure to gain widespread acceptance within mainstream of psychology. Surveys reveal that a considerable percentage of population believe in ESPs. Moreover, leading Journals in psychology, philosophy and medicine periodically publish articles on paranormal abilities.         

Mention the parts and functions of a neuron.

NEURONS are the building blocks of the nervous system. They consists of three basic parts: a Cell body, an Axon and one or more Dendrites. Dendrites carry information toward the cell body while axons carry information away from it. Thus neurons are one way channels of communication.

Define psychology and what are the goals of psychology?

Psychology can be defined as the “Scientific study of behavior and mental and cognitive processes”.

Psychology as a science has four goals:

            a.         Describing and measuring behaviour

            b.         predicting behavior

            c.         controlling and modifying behavior, and ultimately

            d.         explaining behavior