AP psychology unit 1 exam

Of the following, an evolutionary psychologist will most likely investigate the

reason why many people have an innate fear of the dark

Introspection, a research tool used by early psychologists, is a technique which involves

self-examination of mental processes

Which of the following is the strongest correlation?

-.90

10, 3, 5, 7, 10, 3, 10, 5, 2 The numbers above represent the quiz results for a psychology class. What is the median score for the class?

10

A test has a mean of 80 with a standard deviation of 4. Which of the following scores is within one standard deviation of the mean?

77

Research finds that, in general, the higher an incoming college student scores on a given test, the higher the student's college grade point average (GPA). Which of the following best describes this relationship?

A positive correlation

Researchers have found a negative correlation between income and dental problems. What conclusion can correctly be drawn from this statement?

As income increases, the likelihood of dental problems decreases.

A double-blind control is essential for which of the following?

Assessment of a treatment designed to reduce schizophrenic symptom

Which of the following approaches to psychology emphasizes observable responses over inner experiences when accounting for behavior?

Behaviorist

Synesthesia is a phenomenon that has been estimated to occur in only a few people in a million. Because of its rarity, researchers are likely to choose which research method to study it?

Case study

Which theoretical perspective in psychology attempts to characterize the way in which humans store and process sensory information?

Cognitive

Which of the following scattergrams represents the data above?

D

Which procedure can reduce problems associated with the use of deception by a researcher?

Debriefing

Research on human mating preferences suggests that men place greater value on physical attractiveness and youthfulness, whereas women place greater value on social status and financial resources. Which of the following psychological points of view best explains this behavior?

Evolutionary

Which of the following research approaches would be best for testing the hypothesis that the presence of certain odors causes people to gamble more?

Experimental

A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. What is the dependent variable in this study?

Incidence of aggressive behavior

In the early years of psychology, a research participant might have been asked to observe carefully and systematically his conscious experiences. What method would the participant be using?

Introspection

Which of the following statements best describes the placebo effect?

It can be brought about by the individual's expectations.

In which of the following types of research are the same children tested periodically at different points in their development?

Longitudinal

Which of the following research methods is being used if the same subjects are tested at two, four, and six years of age?

Longitudinal

Professor González is interested in evaluating the ability of a new method of note-taking to improve student grades. Group A is trained in the new method and group B uses the traditional outline method of taking notes. What is Professor González' independent variable?

Method of note-taking

Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?

Precise operational definitions

The belief that human behavior is the result of unconscious drives and conflicts represents which of the following theoretical perspectives?

Psychoanalytic

A psychologist gives the same test to a class of students at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the school day. The extent to which test scores are similar across the two administrations demonstrates which of the following test properties?

Reliability

All of the following are American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for researchers EXCEPT:

Research may not involve deception.

Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable?

Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment

Which of the following studies has had the most profound impact on ethical issues in psychological research?

Stanley Milgram's study of obedience

A test with normally distributed results was returned to a class of 100 students. Later, the teacher realized an error was made and added 10 points to each student's score. Which of the following must have changed as a result of the increase in scores?

The mode

An instructor conducted an experiment to determine the effects of two different methods of study on the amount students learned in introductory physics. The results showed that the average amount learned by the group using one method was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Which of the following is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn?

There is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occurred by chance.

Operational definitions are used for which of the following reasons?

They enable researchers to replicate studies by precisely describing the variables and how they are used.

A psychological researcher designs a study to determine whether positive feedback affects self-esteem. The researcher requires each participant to toss twenty coins into a coffee can that is three feet away. Half of the participants are told that their performance is superior, and the other half are told that their performance is well below average. Although some of the participants want to quit tossing coins after a few attempts, they are told that once they begin the study they have to complete it. After the coin toss, participants take a test measuring self-esteem. Following the test, all participants are debriefed and told that information about their performance was false. Results of the study indicate that participants who are told their performance is well below average report lower levels of self-esteem than do those who are told their performance is superior. Which of the following violations of ethical guidelines occurs in the study?

Violation of the right to withdraw

When is it permissible for a psychologist to share a client's test scores with another person?

When the client provides written permission to share results

A person displays a set of rare behaviors that psychologists had not known about previously, because nobody had ever shown them before. The best strategy to investigate the nature of those behaviors is

a case study

A research group conducted a study investigating the connection between self-reported number of hours slept in a given week and scores on a happiness measure. Based on the scatterplot above, the group can report that there is

a positive correlation

To determine whether a cause-effect relationship exists between two variables, a researcher must use

an experimental approach

According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of

conscious experience

Drawing a random sample of people from a town for an interview study of social attitudes ensures that

each person in the town has the same probability of being chosen for the study

A survey shows that children who have encyclopedias in their homes earn better grades in school than children whose homes lack encyclopedias. The researcher concludes that having encyclopedias at home improves grades. This conclusion is erroneous primarily because the researcher has incorre

inferred causation from correlation

A study can be regarded as scientific only if

its conclusions can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies

Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research

may reveal a causal relation

In order to yield information that is generalizable to the population from which it was drawn, a sample must be

representative of the population

Research shows that women who are referred by a physician to participate in a study of eating disorders have more severe problems than women who volunteer on their own to participate in the study. If research on eating disorders regularly involves only women referred by physicians, the results of the studies might be limited because of the presence of

sampling bias

Students from a journalism class ask only their friends to participate in a school newspaper survey and neglect to ask the rest of the student body. The journalism students' data may not be generalizable due to

sampling bias

Researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. The researchers would be justified in concluding that

students who earn good grades tend to sleep more than those who do not

An evolutionary psychologist would explainthat humans desire social interaction, social acceptance, and social affiliation due to a need for

survival

Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study

the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving

A teacher finds the distribution of scores on a final exam to be positively skewed with low variability. On the basis of this information, the teacher would be most justified in concluding that

the exam was too difficult

The results of a correlational study involving student volunteers in a psychology laboratory might not apply to the general population because

the sample is not randomly chosen and therefore may not be a representative sample

The first area of psychology to be studied as a science is known as

psychophysics

Which of the following studies demonstrates a cross-sectional research design?

Testing first, third, and fifth graders at the beginning of the school year

In an experiment, which of the following variables refers to the outcome that is measured by the experimenter?

Dependent

In a normal distribution, which of the following statements is true about the area that falls between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean?

It contains the middle 68% of the distribution.

According to the ethical guidelines set by the American Psychological Association (APA), which of the following is true of psychological research in which animals are used as subjects?

It should conform to all APA ethical guidelines for animal research.

A psychological researcher designs a study to determine whether positive feedback affects self-esteem. The researcher requires each participant to toss twenty coins into a coffee can that is three feet away. Half of the participants are told that their performance is superior, and the other half are told that their performance is well below average. Although some of the participants want to quit tossing coins after a few attempts, they are told that once they begin the study they have to complete it. After the coin toss, participants take a test measuring self-esteem. Following the test, all participants are debriefed and told that information about their performance was false. Results of the study indicate that participants who are told their performance is well below average report lower levels of self-esteem than do those who are told their performance is superior. Which of the following elements constitutes the independent variable in the study?

The feedback about relative performance in coin tossing

Which of the following best describes the response of members of the American Psychological Association to ethical issues in research?

They have developed codes of ethics for research with both human participants and animal subjects.

A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. What is the independent variable in this study?

Type of television program viewed

Ethical principles developed by the American Psychological Association help ensure that human participants in psychological research

are protected from physical and psychological harm

In studying the behavior of five year olds in freeplay situations, a cognitive psychologist would be most interested in the children's

problem-solving strategies

In an experiment to test the effects of hunger on aggressive behavior, aggressive behavior would be the

dependent variable

In experimental psychology, a significant difference refers to a

difference not likely due to chance

Of the following, a behavioral psychologist is most likely to study the

effects of token economies on establishing social skills among children with emotional disturbances

In a research study, informed consent is a concern of

ethics

A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. This research method is best characterized as

experimental

In developmental psychology, one advantage of cross-sectional over longitudinal studies is that cross-sectional research

requires comparatively little time

The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a

scatterplot

Standard deviation is a measure of how much

scores in a group differ from the mean of that group

The most distinctive characteristic of the experimental method is that it

seeks to establish cause-effect relationships