Common mistakes Psych 114 Multiple choice
At a particular high school, there is a negative correlation between popularity and academic success. Which statement can be inferred from this fact? 1. Students who do well academically probably will be viewed as less popular. 2. Devoting a great deal of time to study causes students to not seek out personal relationships with others. 3. Having lots of friends results in less time for study and causes students to do worse in school. 4. Students who do well in class tend to be popular.
1. students who do well academically probably will be viewed as less popular (not casual)
Humans develop the ability to recognize themselves in mirrors starting at around age _____ months.
18
Which statement about the spinal cord is TRUE? 1. All areas are responsible for the same functions. 2. The spinal cord quickly grows back after damage. 3. Damage lower in the spinal cord leads to greater loss of function. 4. Different areas have different functions.
4. different areas have different functions
Where did the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and justice first appear, as applied to research?
Belmont Report
Although William James and Sigmund Freud employed two very different theoretical approaches to psychology, what was the common thread in their views?
By studying the errors in mental processes, we gain a better understanding of the normal functioning mind.
Dr. Billings studies brain wave patterns that occur when people are dreaming. He attaches a device to the outside of people's skulls to measure electrical activity in their brains. What type of device is he using?
EGG - measures patterns of electrical activity in large brain areas that can be examined from outside the skull
The health department is testing the effectiveness of a recent campaign promoting a healthy lifestyle. Which statement is the BEST operational definition of a "healthy lifestyle"?
Eat five servings of fruit/vegetables and be physically active for 30 minutes or more each day
Although cognitive processes depend on the brain, humans (and their behaviors) are also a product of the environment. How does cultural psychology include this aspect?
It examines how behavior is influenced by the cultural values, traditions, and beliefs shared by a group.
What is the major drawback to the psychosexual stage theory?
It offers after-the-fact interpretations, rather than testable predictions.
Alice thinks she's having a stroke. What would be the BEST way to diagnose a stroke?
MRI - looks at areas of brain and sees which is damaged by a stroke
In a study about viewing violence in movies and rates of violent crimes, what was found?
On evenings when people watched violent movies, there were fewer violent crimes.
_____ are the differences in the way situations are interpreted by different people.
Personal constructs
Which statement is NOT a point that distinguishes the psychoanalytic and humanistic schools of psychological thought?
Psychoanalytic theory is based on sound scientific research, while the humanistic theory is generally untestable.
Why was the advent of the computer so important for the development of cognitive psychology?
Psychologists surmised that the brain is roughly analogous to a computer and could be studied in a similar manner.
What characteristic do the Thematic Apperception Test and the Rorschach Inkblot Test have in common?
They are neither reliable nor valid in predicting behavior.
The classic "Little Albert" experiment by _____ demonstrated that the environment can control the behavior of human beings at very young ages.
Watson and Rayner
Judgments of facial attractiveness are similar across many cultures whereas the age at which a person can recall his or her earliest memories vary widely from culture to culture. Judgments of attractiveness could be labeled as _____, while earliest memories are _____.
absolute; relativistic
L-Dopa is a drug given to individuals with Parkinson's disease. This drug helps with the symptoms of the disease because it is a(n) _____ for dopamine.
agonist
Drugs that increase the action of a neurotransmitter are called:
agonists
By studying people with brain damage in certain regions of the brain, we gain a better understanding that:
all cognitive processes rely on the brain
The _____ areas of the brain allow information to be connected to meaning, with neurons in the region being more adaptable to change.
association
the _____ areas of the brain allow information to be connected to meaning, with neurons in the region being more adaptable to change.
association
Two things people can do to help themselves think critically are:
be willing to accept things they don't believe and take experimental results as truth
Maximizing benefits and reducing research risks is associated with the principle of:
benefice
Psychological states and experiences that occur most commonly across the world are usually _____ based, whereas those that are the least universal are rooted in _____.
biologically; culture
According to Aristotle, being completely shaped by experience, with no innate structures, would make your mind like a(n):
blank slate
_____ direct(s) and produce(s) human behaviors, personality traits, and even psychological disorders.
both genes and the enviroment
Compared with vertebrates, invertebrates lack a hierarchical organization of their:
central nervous system
How does existentialism propose that an individual cope with life's anxieties?
confronts and accepts that anxiety and fear of dying are part of life
Social psychology examines issues such as conformity, racism, and stereotyping by:
considering the effects of other people on a person's cognitive processes
According to social role theory, where do sex differences in personality come from?
cultural standards
If you sprain your ankle and your doctor asks you to develop a theory about how your ankle works, she is probably a(n):
dogmatist
When naturalistic observation is NOT an option, which technique is best to use to avoid demand characteristics?
double-blind design
Dr. Sterling, a leading researcher in Alzheimer's disease, is studying the effects of a new drug on 10 Alzheimer's patients in the hospital where he works. What is the population of this study?
everyone with Alzheimers disease
According to the _____ approach, the human brain is more like a computer specialized to do a few tasks very well and less like an all-purpose computer that can learn to do anything.
evolutionary psychology
Chad explains his irresponsible spending by speculating that he shares genes with ancestors who had no need to save for the future because their lives were brutish and short. Which field of psychology is MOST consistent with his view?
evolutionary psychology
The Smith family has very little money and no health insurance. A researcher approaches them and promises free healthcare for their three children for 2 years if he can subject the children to a series of experimental vaccines that may have serious side effects. The Smith family feels compelled to participate to get the free health care. According to the APA code of ethics, this researcher is in violation of the principle of:
freedom from coercion.
Random sampling is MOST closely associated with:
generalizability
What guides the development of the brain for both an individual and a species?
genes
Consistent with the existential and the psychodynamic approaches, _____ helps to relieve our anxiety about death.
high self-esteem
Which part of the brain forms FIRST in prenatal development?
hindbrain
which major area of the brain deals with info coming in from and going out through the spinal cord
hindbrain
What structure sends signals to the pituitary gland?
hypothalamus
the purpose of Freud's psychoanalytic approach to therapy (called psychoanalysis) is to:
identify unconscious thoughts and bring them into awareness.
Celeste wants to understand why her identical twin sisters are more alike than are she and their older sister. Celeste is interested in which goal of scientific research?
identifying the cause-and-effect relationships that explain differences between groups
What two developments led psychologists away from behaviorism?
interest in mental events and evolution
If an experiment has a high degree of _____, a causal relation can be demonstrated between two variables.
internal validity
Unlike the behavioral approach, social cognitive personality researchers believe that the _____ of the environment influences personality.
interpretation
By asking people to pay attention to and record their feelings and perceptions of an event, Wilhelm Wundt used the method of _____ to analyze the basic elements of the mind.
introspection
Which statement describes a critical component of a good hypothesis?
it is falsifiable
Noam Chomsky's rebuttal of B. F. Skinner's ideas on _____ helped to bring cognitive psychology to the forefront.
language
As a reaction to Freud's psychosexual theory and its dark view of human nature, humanistic psychologists focused on how humans _____, leading to personality development.
make healthy choices
In drug testing, some groups of people are given specific doses of the drug in order to examine the effects. In this case, the researchers are _____ the amount of drug given.
manipulating
Damage to this area of the brain can be deadly, as this structure controls heart rate, respiration, and circulation.
medulla
The pineal gland secretes _____, which plays a role in the _____.
melatonin; sleep/wake cycle
---- affects dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, influencing the systems that help humans to perceive visual images.
methamphetamine
Vijay has problems orienting to sounds. For example, he cannot tell from which direction music is coming, either the television or the stereo. What area of his central nervous system is likely malfunctioning?
midbrain which relates to orientation and movement
_____ are activated when watching another animal's behavior and are involved in social behavior.
mirror neurons
Research has demonstrated that introverts typically respond _____ to stimuli as compared to extraverts.
more strongly
A trait that reflects a grandiose view of one's self combined with a tendency to seek admiration from and exploit others, is known as:
narcissism
On a job interview, when Mary Eileen is asked to describe herself, she goes into detail about her earliest memories and favorite places she visited as a child. Although this is a description of herself, this type of self-_____ is probably not what the interviewers were looking for.
narrative
The more time children spend playing video games at home, the lower their grades are at school. This represents a:
negative correlation
The _____ forms the basis of the spinal cord during prenatal development.
neural tube
Robin tells you that he is a completely different person than he used to be. According to what you know about the five-factor theory of personality, is this the case?
no, because personality remains relatively constant throughout the life span
beta blocker drugs prevent the action of -- in the heart, resulting in a slower heart rate
norepinephrine
Psychologists studying infant memory want to determine at what age babies can remember specific events. An experimenter uses several puppets to demonstrate a series of actions while the infant watches. After a delay, the experimenter records how many of the actions the child imitates when playing with the puppets. What is the dependent variable?
number of imitated actions
Which factor serves as a source for one's self-esteem?
ones comparison group
What is a drawback of personality inventories?
people may not know themselves well enough to accurately report certain factors
According to research on what people believe is the likelihood of coincidences:
people routinely underestimate the likelihood of coincidences happening by chance
Anthony is nice to you in class but rude to you in the dining hall. This situation provides an example of the _____ controversy.
person situation
Which group of psychologists developed their ideas in isolation from academic and laboratory settings?
psychoanalysts
When Meredith is with her friends, she is very talkative and outgoing, but when she meets new people, she is often shy and quiet. Meredith's behavior is a good example of how _____ makes people difficult to study.
reactivity
Which factor is NOT a challenge to scientifically studying human behavior?
reliability
You decide to use a person's eye color as a measure of intelligence. Which statement is probably TRUE?
reliable but lacks validity
According to humanists such as Maslow, in order to try and find meaning in life and strive toward self-actualization, one must first:
satisfy basic physiological and safety needs.
The _____ is a set of principles used to describe the relationships between ideas and empirical evidence.
scientific method
According to the humanistic approach, the last need humans pursue is that of:
self actualization
What does your agreement or disagreement with the statement, "On the whole, I am satisfied with myself," indicate?
self esteem
____ explains why we feel uncomfortable when someone views us differently from how we view ourselves.
self verification
According to evolutionary theory, _____ may have allowed humans who could get along well with others to determine how accepted they were by others.
self-esteem
is the human tendency to take credit for one's successes and downplay one's role in losses.
self-serving bias
Which action is NOT done by the mind?
sensing
In order to process information from the external world, _____ receive input from the body and transfer the information to the brain through the spinal cord.
sensory neurons
The three major types of neurons include:
sensory neurons, motor neurons and interneurons
The homunculus shown in the book illustrates how much of the _____ cortex is devoted to each area of the body.
somastosensory
---- of neurons occurs because the brain must process a wide variety of types of information.
specialization
The _____ branches down from the brain and allows messages to be sent to different parts of the body
spinal cord
After making a New Year's resolution to eat healthy foods, you decide to have a bite of ice cream and end up eating most of a carton instead. You feel guilty about not maintaining your resolution. According to the psychodynamic approach, what part of the mind is responsible for your reaction of guilt to your own behavior?
superego
Aristotle argued that a child's mind is:
tabula rasa
damage to this area of the brain could leave a person unable to navigate his or her way through a room
tectum
A stroke or other damage in the _____ lobes can lead to deficits in hearing and language.
temporal
spinal reflexes require input from
the spinal cord
According to the work of Mischel, what is the relationship between traits and behavior?
they are somewhat correlated
The endocrine system works closely with the limbic system to regulate:
thoughts, emotions, behavior
Sylvia begins to run a temperature and her heart races. Which endocrine gland may be creating these problems for her?
thyroid
What are defense mechanisms?
unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety
When working with laboratory animals, when can painful stimuli be used?
when alternatives are not available
In a groundbreaking study, Dr. DuBois reported that monkeys could acquire both English and French. When asked for the data by a colleague, Dr. DuBois did not share them. Should Dr. DuBois share the data?
yes, because the APA code requires data sharing for re-analysis