VCE Psychology Question Thread!

[Butterflygirl]

According to the modifications to the study design, we don't need to know sleep apnoea or narcolepsy right??

[sweetiepi]

Is dopamine excitatory or inhibitory?
I keep hearing such mixed answers about it, some saying it is excitatory and others saying it's inhibitory!
How would a lack of either its excitatory/inhibitory effects result in Parkinson's disease?
Please help!! Thanks

Hey there! I'm not so sure about the effects of dopamine on Parkinson's disease, but from my own studies, dopamine is classified as a 'special' neurotransmitter- with both excitatory and inhibitory properties.
(Someone feel free to correct me on this, as I'm no psych expert )

[halo]

According to the modifications to the study design, we don't need to know sleep apnoea or narcolepsy right??

Yep, we don't! Just need to know about sleep-onset insomnia and sleep walking

[psychologie]

is cortisol released during the fight flight freeze response? i thought it was just adrenaline and noradrenaline, and cortisol comes later via the HPA axis, but im now being told that its released during FFF! So that means its released during the countershock stage (alarm reaction) of GAS. Please tell me if thats correct

Also, are people's immune systems lowered and therefore vulnerable to illness during resistance or exhaustion? ive been told resistance but it doesnt make sense to me, i thought it was exhaustion cause body has cortisol present for long periods of time. can someone clarify this for me and explain why! thank you so much

[psychologie]

hi all, we know the autonomic nervous system is self regulating (ie independently of the brain) but we also know that the ANS enables communication between the CNS and visceral muscles, organs and glands. Why would this be so if it does not require the brain?

[halo]

is cortisol released during the fight flight freeze response? i thought it was just adrenaline and noradrenaline, and cortisol comes later via the HPA axis, but im now being told that its released during FFF! So that means its released during the countershock stage (alarm reaction) of GAS. Please tell me if thats correct

Also, are people's immune systems lowered and therefore vulnerable to illness during resistance or exhaustion? ive been told resistance but it doesnt make sense to me, i thought it was exhaustion cause body has cortisol present for long periods of time. can someone clarify this for me and explain why! thank you so much

As far as I know, FFF activates the HPA axis which releases adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol.  This is what I understand from the Cambridge textbook anyway (pg88). My teacher has emphasised that we don't need to talk about the HPA axis when talking about FFF since it's not in the study design. I also doubt you need to know about the pathways for how certain stress hormones are released, so that might be something to keep in mind.
Also, yes cortisol is released in countershock when FFF is activated.

I've been told that in the resistance phase cortisol circulates the body and suppresses the immune system, making your body more vulnerable to illnesses. Cortisol doesn't necessarily need to be in your bloodstream for a really long time for it to suppress the immune system, hence people's vulnerability to illnesses can increase in the resistance phase. Also, for some people, the resistance phase may actually go on for a long time, so their immunity would definitely be compromised.
 I would imagine that the longer the cortisol circulates your body, the more vulnerable you become to illness, so it would make sense that in exhaustion phase your susceptibility is higher to illnesses than in resistance, but that doesn't mean that immunity isn't compromised in the resistance phase.

[halo]

hi all, we know the autonomic nervous system is self regulating (ie independently of the brain) but we also know that the ANS enables communication between the CNS and visceral muscles, organs and glands. Why would this be so if it does not require the brain?

The autonomic nervous system is self regulating not because it works independently of the brain, but because it  doesn't require voluntary/conscious control from the individual. There is still a lot of communication between the ANS and the brain - both too and from. You don't need to know this, but take for example your heart rate. When it is too high or too low, a "cardiac centre" in the medulla oblongata of the brain either initiates the parasympathetic NS to lower heart rate or sympathetic NS to increase it (which are the branches of the ANS).

[Bri MT]

is cortisol released during the fight flight freeze response? i thought it was just adrenaline and noradrenaline, and cortisol comes later via the HPA axis, but im now being told that its released during FFF! So that means its released during the countershock stage (alarm reaction) of GAS. Please tell me if thats correct

Also, are people's immune systems lowered and therefore vulnerable to illness during resistance or exhaustion? ive been told resistance but it doesnt make sense to me, i thought it was exhaustion cause body has cortisol present for long periods of time. can someone clarify this for me and explain why! thank you so much

in the resistance stage, you have high resistance to the stressor, but start to become vulnerable to other things eg. Illness
In the exhaustion stage , you are very vulnerable to both the stressor and other stimuli (such as illness, and at this stage you probably will be ill)

[boooom]

Is dopamine excitatory or inhibitory?
I keep hearing such mixed answers about it, some saying it is excitatory and others saying it's inhibitory!
How would a lack of either its excitatory/inhibitory effects result in Parkinson's disease?
Please help!! Thanks

Second insanpi's answer - dopamine produces both excitatory and inhibitory effects. You don't have to acknowledge this in your discussion of its role in dopamine though. Just know that it's responsible for stimulation (i.e excitation) of the motor cortex, and consequently, control of all motor commands and movements.

Questions of my own (and bump for my previous ones ?):
- How is acquisition defined in classical conditioning?
- How does the stress response precipitate a specific phobia?
- How does adrenaline improve consolidation of emotionally arousing events?
- How does elaborative rehearsal improve storage and recall of LTM?
- Do GABA agonists imitate GABA's inhibitory function or increase it?

[halo]

How is acquisition defined in classical conditioning?

Acquisition is when the UCR and NS are successfully paired through repeated associations, leading to the UCR becoming the CR, and the NS the CS.
(It's a bit sloppy but its the best I can think of)

How does the stress response precipitate a specific phobia?

I think you could offer more than one explanation, but the one I'm going to go with is classical conditioning. In this situation, the potentially phobic stimulus is initially the NS, the UCS is anything that produces a fear response and UCR is the fear response. Through repeated (idk if it has to be repeated as some people get phobias from one exposure) associations, the fear response becomes the CR and the phobic stimulus becomes CS.

How does adrenaline improve consolidation of emotionally arousing events?

When you experience an emotionally arousing event, your body releases adrenaline, which then causes the amygdala to release noradrenaline, which then signals to the nearby hippocampus that the memory is important and should be remembered. This then enhances its storage into LTM.

How does elaborative rehearsal improve storage and recall of LTM? 

Ok I'm not sure exactly how to answer this question, so you can disregard my attempt if you want.
I think, basically, in elaborative rehearsal you're just giving new info meaning through associating it to stuff you already know. This makes it easier to store the new info because you already have a basis of neural connections which you can add the new info to. So then when you recall LTM, you have stronger synaptic connections (because the neural pathway representing the LTM is connected to other pathways you associated it to) for it than if you hadn't used elaborative rehearsal.
I also think elaborative rehearsal gets you to think more deeply about the info, and that in itself means you're paying more attention to it.  According to Atkinson-Shiffrin model, it's then more likely to move from sensory memory to STM to LTM.

[halo]

Do GABA agonists imitate GABA's inhibitory function or increase it?

I'm not sure about other GABA agonists, but benzodiazepines work by increasing how 'receptive' GABA receptors are to GABA on postsynaptic neurons, increasing GABA activity. The amount of GABA remains the same when you use these.

[syubi]

Is it possible for secondary appraisal to occur at the same time as primary appraisal?

No, you have to perceive something as stressful (so primary appraisal) before you can secondly appraise it.

According one of the VCAA responses actually, "primary and secondary appraisals can interact with one another and are often undertaken simultaneously". I believe this is because as you make a primary appraisal (doesn't always have to be a conscious decision though), you can also think about what approach/coping strategies at the same time that you can take to deal with the stressor. It is considered to be a limitation of the transactional model. This is from question 4 in the 2015 VCAA paper.

[boooom]

According one of the VCAA responses actually, "primary and secondary appraisals can interact with one another and are often undertaken simultaneously". I believe this is because as you make a primary appraisal (doesn't always have to be a conscious decision though), you can also think about what approach/coping strategies at the same time that you can take to deal with the stressor. It is considered to be a limitation of the transactional model. This is from question 4 in the 2015 VCAA paper.

Oh whoopsie - nevermind me then

[jrose006]

Can someone please explain the definitions of context-specific effectiveness and coping flexibility with examples? I keep getting confused between the two! Thanks 

[halo]

Can someone please explain the definitions of context-specific effectiveness and coping flexibility with examples? I keep getting confused between the two! Thanks 

So context-specific effectiveness is when your coping strategy is suitable for dealing with a stressful situation. For example, if you have exams coming up and you're stressed, a coping strategy where you plan your time, take breaks for relaxation and study to achieve your goals would be considered to have context-specific effectiveness (because this is what will help you be prepared for your exams). If instead, you decided to just exercise or meditate everyday and not study to relieve the stress, this is considered to be not a suitable way to deal with the stressful situation. Exercise and meditation definitely helps relieve stress, but it won't deal with the stressful situation itself - the context (exams).

Coping flexibility is the ability to change your coping strategies according to the demands of different stressful situations. So for example, a stressful situation right now might be exams, and my coping strategy would be to plan my time and study. Once exams are over, I want to get a job and that kind of situation requires a different coping strategy - I  might need to practice giving interviews so I can get over my nerves, learn breathing techniques so I can stay calm in the interview etc. And then maybe when exam results come out, I'll face a different kind of stressful situation (might not be happy with ATAR etc), and my coping strategy may be positive self-talk, getting encouragement from family and considering different options for my education in uni. If I'm able to change from each coping strategy to the other depending on the circumstances, then I'd have coping flexibility.