PSYCH 111 Exam 1 Questions & Answers
CHAPTER 1
Q: Which leading behaviorist proposed the law of effect?
A: Edward Thorndike
Q: The authors of
... [Show More] this text believe that the future of psychology will .
A: combine and integrate new and existing perspectives
Q: As part of their effort to measure behavior carefully, many behaviorists restricted their research to studies using .
A: animals
Q: Beth has always enjoyed solving theoretical problems, is very good at math and statistics, and is excited to learn more about experimental design. She may be most interested in the track of psychology.
A: experimental
Q: The relationship between behavior and biology is .
A: reciprocal: biology affects behavior and vice versa
Q: In what way did ancient physicians contribute to contemporary psychology?
A: By studying the nervous system and developing the scientific method
Q: Which of the following is an application of Skinner’s behaviorism?
A: Doug needs to lose a few pounds, and has a rule that if he eats a dessert, he must go for a five-mile run.
Q: Who was a vocal proponent of dualism?
A: René Descartes
Q: Which of the following best describes the British empiricists’ view of the mind?
A: Infants learn to process language entirely based on their sensory experiences.
Q: Valerie recently lost her sister to suicide. She is having difficulty sleeping, feels hopeless about the future, and is easily startled or frightened. Her doctor recommends that she participate in a discussion group led by a social worker to connect with others who are going through a similar experience. Which approach to psychological disorders does this exemplify?
A: The psychological model
Q: The ancient Greek philosopher Plato was one of the earliest thinkers to address the question, “What is the mind?” He viewed the mind as three parts that must be in balance: .
A: reason, spirit, and appetite
Q: If we restrict our thinking about an aspect of mind to the information provided by one perspective, at worst, the result may .
A: lead us in the wrong direction
Q: Which of the following statements about Freud’s work is true?
A: His theories do not lend themselves to experimentation.
Q: Which of the following refers to the very private and internal mental processes that the behaviorists avoided studying—information processing, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving?
A: cognition
Q: Any science that studies nonliving matter, including physics, chemistry, astronomy, and geology, is called
a(n) science.
A: physical
Q: A doctor notices that many soldiers returning from fighting in the trenches in World War I were highly anxious, fearful of loud noises, and having difficulty reconnecting with their families. He asks them to record personal observations of their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a journal. This process is called . A: introspection
Q: Our judicial system relies heavily on eyewitness testimony; however, as informs us, eyewitness testimony can be shaped by a community’s perceptions of race.
A: social psychology
Q: When psychologists examine psychological phenomena from different perspectives, it .
A: indicates different points of view about behavior
Q: Which of the following statements is an example of humanistic influence?
A: “I hear what you’re saying.”
Q: The psychological perspective that examines the effects of the social environment on the behavior of individuals is called psychology.
A: social
Q: Contemporary scientists studying the brain are .
A: monists
Q: Rosa, a doctoral student in psychology, observes that one of her young study participants grimaces after taking a bite of broccoli. His facial expression is an example of .
A: a behavior
Q: Which of the following best represents a cognitive approach to childhood language learning?
A: Children are born with innate mechanisms for learning language.
Q: Which of the following research questions is most likely to be asked by a cognitive psychologist?
A: Do students learn material better when the learning takes place over time or when they “cram” for an exam?
Q: Which of the following most closely paraphrases Watson’s views regarding human behavior?
A: I can raise any child to be an artist, regardless of her tendencies.
Q: Alejandro is developing a preliminary research study to address the question of whether four-year-olds who are asked to delay gratification (e.g., to delay eating candy) perform differently in solitude than with other four- year-olds. Which combination of research perspectives would be best for this preliminary study?
A: developmental psychology and social psychology
Q: Who contributed ideas about the unconscious mind, the development of sexuality, dream analysis, psychological roots of abnormal behavior, personality, and therapy?
A: Sigmund Freud
Q: William James’ impact on contemporary psychology is evidenced by the fact that functionalism .
A: was absorbed into mainstream psychology
Q: It is difficult for others to confirm an individual’s subjective introspections; therefore, this approach does not lend itself well to .
A: the scientific method
Q: Which of the following is least likely to be an example of classical conditioning?
A: A child hears a police siren for the first time and cries.
Q: In the 1970s, what initiated an explosion of knowledge about the connections between brain and behavior?
A: New methods for observing brain activity
Q: By the 1950s, the behaviorists’ disinterest in mental states and activity was challenged by scientists from diverse fields, including linguistics and computer science, leading to .
A: a cognitive revolution
Q: Edward has a fear of being contaminated when shaking hands with others, touching doorknobs, and being in crowded public spaces such as subway cars. He washes his hands roughly 100 times a day. His doctor has recently prescribed an antidepressant to increase his level of serotonin. Which approach to psychological disorders does this exemplify?
A: The medical model
Q: Empiricism profoundly influenced the foundations of .
A: science
Q: Josh has a doctoral degree in psychology and is a therapist in New York. His sister Sarah has a medical degree and is in a residency program for psychiatry. Currently, the biggest difference between the two professions is that, in contrast to Josh, Sarah can .
A: prescribe medication
Q: While attending the opening of her friend’s art exhibit, Lisbeth weighs the pros and cons of having a third glass of wine. In Plato’s version of the mind, this is the role of the .
A: driver
Q: Psychology as a hub science tells us that .
A: many disciplines require an in-depth understanding of people
Q: More recently, clinical and counseling psychologists have expanded their perspective to include .
A: the promotion of general well-being
Q: Between the 17th and 19th centuries, supernatural explanations for psychological disorders began to give way to two scientific approaches: .
A: a medical model and a psychological model
Q: The psychological perspective that seeks to explain, define, and treat abnormal behaviors is called .
A: clinical psychology
Q: Skinner generalized his findings to complex human behaviors even though his subject pool was limited to
.
A: rats and pigeons
Q: Contrary to popular belief during his time, Hermann von Helmholtz’s work on nerve conduction showed that .
A: behavior is not instantaneous
Q: John B. Watson was .
A: a leading behaviorist
Q: Amber is fascinated by forensic psychology, the application of psychology to the study of crime and the legal system. This is an example of a(n) track of psychology.
A: applied
Q: The discipline that systematically examines basic concepts, including the source of knowledge, is called
.
A: philosophy
Q: As a discipline, psychology dates back to .
A: the Roman Empire
Q: Who is a leading cognitive psychologist?
A: Ulric Neisser
Q: With the exception of occasional bursts of insight from the Egyptians and Greeks, the most common view of psychological disorders over the course of history has been that they .
A: resulted from the actions of evil spirits or other external, magical forces
Q: Although the bulk of psychology focuses on human behavior, studying animal behavior has been an essential part of the discipline that allows for .
A: making essential comparisons with humans
Q: Humanistic psychologists believed that .
A: people only behave badly when corrupted by society
Q: Which of the following is one of the greatest contributions of empiricism?
A: The idea that the brain is the essence of the mind.
Q: Which of the following describes Wundt’s use of introspection as an experimental technique?
A: The participants in his study pressed a telegraph key as soon as they heard a ball drop onto a platform, indicating their internal state.
Q: When psychologists examine psychological phenomena from different perspectives, it .
A: indicates different points of view about behavior
Q: An approach to psychology that sees people as inherently good and motivated to learn and improve is called
.
A: humanistic psychology
Q: The word psychology is a combination of two Greek words: psyche (or psuche), meaning the soul, and logos, meaning the .
A: study of
Q: Recognizing individual differences is especially important to psychologists interested in variations in an individual’s characteristic way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. This is referred to as .
A: personality
Q: A biological psychologist studies the effects of amphetamine on aggression in rhesus monkeys. However, to the researcher’s surprise, the experimental results differ for isolated monkeys versus monkeys in a colony. What is missing from this experiment?
A: The social psychology perspective
Q: Which of the following is most likely to be the topic of research of a biological psychologist?
A: Do stress hormones due to abuse in early childhood affect the ability to form memories?
Q: Throughout his discussions of mental processes and behavior, James emphasized the role of .
A: evolution
Q: The psychological perspective that investigates how physical structure and behavior have been shaped by their contributions to survival and reproduction is called psychology.
A: evolutionary
Q: Walter is applying to graduate programs in psychology and is curious about current trends in the field. What trend is occurring in many psychology graduate school programs?
A: Students are trained in combined specialties.
Q: In Thorndike’s experiment on trial and error learning, the cat would escape a puzzle box faster and faster on progressive trials. In other words, the cat .
A: repeated effective behaviors and abandoned ineffective ones
Q: A leading humanist thinker who introduced a major theory of motivation with a goal of self-actualization is
.
A: Abraham Maslow
Q: The psychological perspective that seeks to explain, define, and treat abnormal behaviors is called .
A: clinical psychology
Q: The Gestalt movement traces its origin to a single experiment conducted by Max Wertheimer in 1912 that demonstrated the .
A: apparent movement of stationary objects
Q: A leading behaviorist who first explored classical conditioning is .
A: Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
Q: Which of the following titles suggests monism?
A: We All Are One, by Jimmy Cliff
CHAPTER 2:
Q: A research method that tests hypotheses and allows researchers to make conclusions about causality is called a(n) .
A: experiment
Q: Surveys results can be influenced by people’s natural tendency to want to appear socially appropriate because surveys rely on .
A: self-report
Q: One important difference between science and everyday observations is that science relies on .
A: objectivity
Q: Dr. Crane is studying patients who are in the residual phase of schizophrenia. His colleague, Dr. Mellus, takes detailed notes during a series of interviews and interactions that Dr. Crane has with one such patient for
later analysis. What research method are these doctors employing?
A: case study
Q: A group of participants that is exposed to the independent variable is called a(n) .
A: experimental group
Q: The news headline, “Recession Spurs Young in U.S. to Forgo or Delay Marriage,” described .
A: data that could have been explained by the trend for Americans to marry at later ages
Q: A subset of a population being studied is called a .
A: sample
Q: Participants in an experiment on stress management are given stress reduction techniques and then measured for the effect. What is the role of the control group in this experiment?
A: They receive no techniques at all, but they are measured.
Q: The process of having other experts examine research prior to its publication is called .
A: peer review
Q: Neil has gathered data regarding self-report of successful smoking cessation. He finds that one of the eight methods used by study participants accounts for a high proportion of the successes. The most useful measure of central tendency to report would be the .
A: mode
Q: Which of the following questions demonstrates critical thinking?
A: What evidence supports this position?
Q: Tomoko is developing a survey regarding anger management. Respondents rate their level of agreement with each item on a scale of one to five. Item 4 states: “Given enough provocation, I may swear at a friend or family member.” Item 12 states: “I can think of no good reason for ever swearing at a friend or family member.” These questions seek to determine .
A: internal consistency
Q: Defining variables in practical terms is called .
A: operationalization
Q: An inactive substance or treatment that cannot be distinguished from a real, active substance or treatment is called a .
A: placebo
Q: Participants in the following surveys are guaranteed that their answers will remain confidential and anonymous. In which case are survey respondents least likely to shade the truth?
A: A survey regarding preferences as to online news sources [Show Less]