AP Psychology Exam

Which of the following is an example of Albert Ellis' rational emotive behavior therapy?

A therapist refutes irrational beliefs

Which scenario is most closely related to the results of the 1973 Rosenhan study?

After Andy received a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, his family interpreted all of his behaviors as symptoms of his diagnosis.

The best example of a biological predisposition to learning is which of the following?

After Ted got sick from eating sushi from the deli, he became nauseous whenever he thought of eating sushi.

Professor Gustafson is developing a new intelligence test and wants to ensure the test has good inter-rater reliability. Which of the following strategies will most directly help him achieve this goal?

Allowing only trained researchers to grade the test, as they will have a good understanding of the proper way to score certain things and will be more likely to agree

After surveying 100 parents, researchers concluded that 90 percent of babies can walk by the age of 10 months. Why is this an inappropriate conclusion?

At 10 months, ninety percent of toddlers have not reached the developmental milestones to walk.

Shelly fully expected to win her debate tournament, but she lost. She then spent many hours reviewing the debate to figure out why the outcome occurred. Shelly is engaged in

Attribution

automatic vs effortful processing

Automatic: implicit memories; effortful: explicit memories

Why can't split-brain patients name objects presented in the left visual field?

Because the connection between the right visual cortex and language center has been severed

bottom up vs top down processing

Bottom-Up: Sensory receptors → Brain Top-Down: Brain → experience/expectations to interpret sensory info

Which of the following most likely emphasized listening intently and feeling positively about a client no matter what the client did in therapy?

Carl Rogers

Which of the following is an example of a key element of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

Catherine finally realized her grandfather is her father's father.

adjustment heuristic

Contends that individuals make estimates or choices based on a certain starting point

Studies have shown that identical twins raised together are more similar in relation to when they meet normative physical milestones than identical twins raised apart. Studies have also shown that identical twins are more similar in relation to when they meet normative physical milestones than ordinary siblings. What research method and explanation best fit the studies and their results?

Correlational research, because both heredity and environment are important in development.

Dr. Ramen recruited 100 adults to participate in her study. The taste buds of each participant were measured, and the participants tasted a number of foods. She found there was a relationship between the size of a participant's taste buds and the number of foods that a participant could taste. What research method did Dr. Ramen use, and what was she most likely studying?

Correlational; the sensitivity of supertasters

Arthur is helping his friend set up her new phone. Arthur has never used this type of phone, but he uses his knowledge of setting up his own phone to help figure out how to use the new phone. According to Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, Arthur is using which type of intelligence?

Creative intelligence

What term associated with psychological disorders best describes a thought, feeling, or behavior that is atypical or rare?

Deviant

Which research design, using twenty participants, would most effectively determine how well a drug treats depression?

Evaluate how much negative thinking the participants are experiencing. Then assign ten participants to a group that receives the drug and ten participants to a placebo group. After ten weeks of treatment, evaluate how many negative thoughts they are experiencing again.

Which of the following examples is most consistent with the theory that executive functioning provides the basis for general intelligence?

Geoff is able to easily remember a long list of instructions after hearing them only once and also scores higher than average on intelligence tests.

Dr. Dameron wants to test whether the Yerkes-Dodson law holds true for the players on a college basketball team. Dr. Dameron will manipulate arousal in the players by giving them different doses of caffeine. Which method would best allow Dr. Dameron to test the causal effects of arousal on performance in the players, and what results should he expect to find?

Give three different groups of players low, medium, and high doses of caffeine during a practice game. The performance of the medium-dose group is predicted to be best.

Which of the following best describes a major role of the thalamus?

It relays most sensory signals to the cortex

Preconventional

Kohlberg's stage of moral development in which rewards and punishments dominate moral thinking

Lawrence Kohlberg sampled 72 boys ages 10-16 years, the majority of whom he followed up with every 3 years for 20 years. He conducted interviews with the participants in which he presented them with a series of moral dilemmas. The participants judged the actions as right or wrong and provided their reasons for their decision. What type of research was Kohlberg conducting, and what were his findings?

Longitudinal; adolescents are typically in the conventional stage of moral reasoning

Lynda stayed out past her curfew. As a result, her parents revoked her driving privileges. Which of the following statements is true of Lynda's parents?

Lynda's parents are using negative punishment to decrease her behavior of staying out past curfew.

Which of the following describes the concept of schema?

Marsha thinks the waiter asked her whether she wanted water even though he did not, because she thinks waiters ask patrons whether they want water.

Alison is completing a practicum in a psychiatric clinic, and her supervisor has asked her to select an appropriate test for a patient she suspects has a personality disorder but who is otherwise within the normal range for IQ and does not appear to have other cognitive issues. Of the following measures, which would be the most appropriate choice?

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form® (MMPI-2-RF®)

Dr. Brenner works with people to help them decide what jobs would be most suitable for them. She wants her clients to take a personality inventory and believes that the five-factor model of personality is the best model to use to determine job fit. The test that will give her reliable results and best fit her view of personality is the

NEO™ Personality Inventory-3 (NEO™-PI-3)

The temporal lobe plays a role in

Object recognition

Helena did not recognize her English teacher when she unexpectedly saw him while traveling in Paris, even though she knew him well back in the classroom. The fact that Helena can recognize her teacher back home more easily than in Paris best demonstrates what concept?

Perceptual set

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo's study of the effect of roles on behavior. Participants were randomly assigned to play either prisoners or guards in a mock prison. The study was ended early because of the "guards'" role-induced cruelty.

auditory pathway to brain

Pinna-canal-drum-ossicles (hammer-anvil-stirrup) -> cochlea (basilar membrane/oval window)-> auditory nerve-> thalamus-> temporal lobe

In a study on taste, what would researchers need to do to test participants' ability to distinguish umami from similar sensations?

Place disks soaked in MSG on the participants' tongues. Then replace those disks with disks that have been soaked in water. Compare the participants' reactions.

The parietal lobe is most involved in

Processing sensory information

Rolf is beginning to learn to ski, but he is nervous about going down some of the steeper slopes. Which of the following potential explanatory factors would theorist Alfred Adler be most interested in exploring to understand Rolf's concerns?

Rolf's feelings about his older sister, who qualified for the Olympics in skiing

Which of the following individuals would most likely experience the lowest level of stigma because of their psychological disorder diagnosis?

Ronaldo, a man, who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa

Which of the following scenarios best describes the relationship between temperament and child-parent relationships?

Sammy has a difficult temperament, but his parents love and care for him anyway.

Cheryl has difficulty making friends. She frequently argues with her peers and is mean to them. Her poor peer relationships can be explained by the fact that

She has a tense relationship with her parents

Denise has damaged her auditory nerve and now has difficulty understanding what people are saying. Which of the following descriptions explains how that damage impairs her hearing?

Sound messages fail to be transmitted directly to the brain.

Adler's theory

Strives for superiority, individual psychology

Dr. Wilson, who teaches engineering classes, is interested in learning about how lack of sleep affects performance. What would be the best way to ensure that her findings are generalizable to all the students at her university?

Surveying every tenth student listed in the university directory about their sleep habits

Dr. Howard wants to evaluate a patient's personality with respect to motivation. The patient does not read very well and does not have a very long attention span. Which of the following tests will provide reliable results in the most practical manner?

The Thematic Apperception Test

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?

The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly.

Which of the following describes what happens when a neuron sends a signal?

The neuron goes from being negatively charged to briefly being positively charged, and finally returns to being negatively charged again. The magnitude of the negative charge is fixed regardless of the strength of the input signal it receives.

If a body does not have enough potassium, how might that affect neuronal firing?

The neurons will struggle to fire because there will not be enough positively charged ions to trigger the firing of the neuron.

1973 rosenhan study

The participants feigned hallucinations to enter psychiatric hospitals but acted normally afterwards. They were diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and were given antipsychotic medication

A researcher wants to study the human sense of taste over a life span. The researcher has a group of participants taste foods that are salty, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami. Which study would best allow the researcher to test the sensation of taste as people age, and what is the likely outcome?

The researcher follows the same group of people over the course of 40 years. The researcher also measures the number of the people's taste buds throughout the 40 years. The researcher finds that as people grow older, their sense of taste diminishes and their number of taste buds decreases.

According to the gate control theory of pain, which of the following contains a neurological gate that controls the transmission of pain messages to the brain?

The spinal cord

Bryan perceived a duck instead of other animals when viewing an ambiguous image because he watched a documentary about ducks the previous night. Which of the following best explains why Bryan perceived a duck?

Top-down processing, because his perception of the duck was influenced by past experience

conventional stage

a stage of moral development in which the morality of an action is primarily determined by the extent to which it conforms to social rules

factor analysis

a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items (called factors) on a test; used to identify different dimensions of performance that underlie a person's total score.

The fact that Lori finds herself thinking about dogs and other pets after seeing a cat is evidence that human memory is organized into

an association network

A researcher could say with certainty that someone was affected by the peripheral route to persuasion by conducting

an experiment where participants are presented with an attractive spokesmodel

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

When seeking approval to conduct an experiment using participants from her college psychology course, a student researcher should

apply to the institutional review board at the university

Lewin's Motivational Conflicts

approach-approach, avoidance-avoidance, approach-avoidance

Vandana, a 12-month-old infant, is listening to her father talk to her and suddenly repeats a word that he just said. Her father praises her and gives her a cookie. After she gets the cookie, she repeats the word again. Vandana's behavior can be best explained by using the theory of

behaviorism

For a person planning to hold a party outside, an example of the predictable-world bias would be

believing that nice weather is due this year because it rained a lot the last three years

neurotransmitters released by the sending neuron do which of the following?

bind to receptors at the receiving neuron, which opens ion channels.

According to Kurt Lewin's motivational conflict theory, approach-avoidance conflict occurs when a situation has

both positive and negative aspects

The best method to understand the causal effect of a reward on an intrinsically motivated behavior is to

conduct an experiment in which intrinsic motivation for a behavior is tested prior to administering a reward for that same behavior in a random sample of the participants and then measure the motivation after the reward is taken away

availability heuristic

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; if instances come readily to mind (perhaps because of their vividness), we presume such events are common

Spearman's theory of intelligence

g factor, single measure of general mental capacity can be measured by a single IQ test

temporal lobe

hearing and language

Johnny often hits his brother even though his brother does not do anything to antagonize him. Johnny's aggression is most likely due to a combination of

his genetic makeup, the environment he grew up in, and the fact that aggression can be evolutionarily adaptive

As a teenager, Amy often changed her wardrobe, her hair color, and the decorations in her bedroom. These actions are most strongly connected with Erik Erikson's theory of

identity development

preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from about 2 to 6 or 7 years of age) during which a child learns to use language but does not yet comprehend the mental operations of concrete logic

sensorimotor stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 6 or 7 to 11 years of age) during which children gain the mental operations that enable them to think logically about concrete events

formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Postconventional

in this Kohlberg level right and wrong determined by society's rules which are viewed as fallible rather than absolute or by abstract ethical principles that emphasize equality and justice

The advantage of an experiment is that it allows a researcher to

infer cause and affect

frontal lobe function

involved in motor function: problem solving, memory, judgment, impulse control

Deception can be used in research when

it is appropriate for what is being studied

representativeness heuristic

judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Emotions are controlled primarily by the

limbic system

Consolidation can be described as the process of

long-term memories being formed from short-term memories

The benefit of using inferential statistics is that it allows a researcher to

make generalizations about a population

Gardner's Theory

multiple intelligences

A person experiencing deindividuation would

paints her face with her favorite soccer team's colors and gets into a fight with some fans of a rival team at the game, even though she is normally shy and meek

Schema

pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them.

Kohlberg's stages of moral development

preconventional, conventional, postconventional

Cynthia has a strong dislike for everyone in a neighboring town. This can be explained as

prejudice, because she has a generalized negative feeling toward them

negative reinforcement vs. punishment

reinforce- increasing a behavior, punish- decreasing

Visual pathway

retina -> optic nerve -> optic chiasm -> thalamus -> visual cortex

Piaget's stages

sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational

parietal lobe function

sensory

The parietal lobe plays a role in

spatial processing

limits of short term memory

susceptible to interference, 7 items, similar items in environment can interfere with short term memory

Sensation

the process of detecting environmental stimuli and converting them into signals that can be detected by the nervous system

Sometimes people who speak different languages are in a community together and must develop a way of communicating. Similarly, their offspring must also find a way to communicate. The main difference between the speech of the first generation and the speech of the second generation is

the speech of the second generation tends to have more complex grammar rules

gate-control theory

the spinal cord contains a neurological "gate" that blocks pain signals or allows them to pass on to the brain

Sternberg's Theory of Intelligence

triarchic theory of successful intelligence (analytical, creative, and practical)

occipital lobe function

visual processing