psychology quizzes

The embryo is connected to the placenta by the __________.

a. umbilical cord

Holly would spank her daughter when she would chew food with her mouth open. After several instances of poor table manners, her daughter starts avoiding the kitchen table. In this example, the table is a(n) ________.

b. conditioned stimulus

The brain and the spinal cord make up the _______, which controls and commands bodily functions.

c. central nervous system

Altruism is a form of discrimination.

False

Another term for white blood cells is antigens.

False

During 500-1517 BC, the Catholic Church reigned supreme, but the priests allowed common, 'everyday' people to study the human mind/experience.

False

Ivan Pavlov is famous for his studies of behavior in rats and children.

False

The Rorschach inkblot test is an example of an objective test.

False

When examining the scans, Dr. James Fallon found that in psychopathic individuals, there were big, brightly colored spots in the brain.

False

During his experiments, Dan Ariely discovered that most people cheated _______.

a. A little bit

When he unknowingly studied his own scan, Dr. James Fallon discovered that he has ___________.

a. A psychopathic brain

Which of the following substances is classified as a barbiturate?

b. Nembutal

According to the podcast, Dr. James Fallon studies the brains of _________.

a. Psychopaths

Alan works in a research laboratory. He owns a house, and he earns enough to sustain himself. He has a large social circle and makes time to meet his friends at least once a week. However, Alan feels that he is capable of much more and can achieve a lot more in life. He is striving to bring out the best within himself. In the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Alan is trying to fulfill his __________.

a. self-actualization needs

According to behaviorists, personality is formed by __________.

a. situational or environmental influences

A sleep disorder in which the person repeatedly stops breathing during sleep is called_______.

a. sleep apnea

Excessive fear of public speaking is a common __________.

a. social anxiety disorder

In classical conditioning, the term extinction can be misleading because:

a. spontaneous recovery of extinguished conditioned responses can occur.

Vibrations in the fluids within the chambers of the inner ear press against the__________.

b. basilar membrane

Levels of ___________, a stress hormone, in the saliva are elevated during a severe panic attack.

b. cortisol

Which of the following is a principle of critical thinking?

d. Insist on evidence.

The__________adjusts or accommodates to an image by changing its thickness.

d. lens

According to Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, the children who watched the video were significantly less violent in their play with other children.

False

In the approach-avoidance conflict, each of two goals is desirable, and both are within reach.

False

Researchers historically agreed on four primary taste qualities: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter.

True

When first-time voter Becky made her choices, she thought about her family's party affiliation and her similar beliefs which had formed over the years. Those beliefs were her anchor; however, she departed from her parents' viewpoints as she'd gotten older. Becky modeled the anchoring and adjustment heuristic in her judgment and decision making.

True

Daniella thinks that she is extremely overweight despite having a normal body weight. She avoids eating food and has recently lost a lot of weight. Despite this, she continues to think that she is overweight. Which eating disorder is Daniella most likely suffers from?

a. Anorexia nervosa

To inspire people to feel competent, Scott Geller says you must give them _________.

a. Both feedback and recognition

Which of the following illustrates continuous reinforcement?

a. Clara getting a chocolate bar from her father every time she completes a household chore.

According to the podcast, a characteristic of an individual with psychopathy is that they lack ______.

a. Empathy

Kevin is in the exhaustion stage of Selye's general adaptation syndrome. Which of the following is most likely to occur?

a. His heart and respiration rates slow down and his muscles become fatigued.

According to Freud, the ____ is the largest part of the mind in a healthy person.

a. Id

Every time you replay a memory, it changes due to _________ and ___________.

a. Proactive Interference, Retroactive Interference

Which of the following is true of drives?

a. Psychological needs for approval, achievement, and belonging give rise to drives.

According to Erik Erikson's ___________, the relationship we have with other people influence the development of our personalities.

a. Psychosocial Development Theory

At the start of the exam Bobbi did not notice any distracting sounds. As time passed she became more and more aware of the ticking clock on the wall. What is this an example of?

a. Sensory adaptation

According to Kelly McGonigal, the most under-appreciated aspects of the stress response is that stress makes you more ______.

a. Social

Harry Harlow discovered that monkeys, and possibly humans, have a need for _______.

a. contact comfort

The __________ is a pea-sized structure in the brain that is involved in many aspects of motivation, including sex, aggression, and hunger.

a. hypothalamus

A(n) _____ primarily focuses on the relationships between people and work.

a. industrial psychologist

In the context of operant conditioning, an example of __________ is when you keep posting comments in social media to receive more "likes."

a. reinforcement

The humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers defined the __________ as the center of experience.

a. self

_________ is the process by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

b. Memory

In the context of processes of memory, the first stage of information processing:

b. encodes stimuli so that one can place them in memory.

Johnny has always feared going to the dentist as he associated these visits with pain. After repeated visits to the dentist, Johnny also developed the fear of bright lights as he had started associating it with the dentist's cabin. In the given scenario, the development of Johnny's fear of bright lights is due to ________.

b. higher-order conditioning

In Gestalt psychology, __________ is a sudden perception of relationships among elements of the mentally represented elements of a problem that permits its solution.

b. insight

The use of catchy phrases, celebrities, jingles, etc. by advertising companies to sell products is an example of _______ Learning.

c. Associative

When you are training a pet, you are most likely relying on which of the following psychological perspectives?

c. Behaviorist

The _____ is the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings.

c. Figure-Ground Relationship

A young man is having trouble getting along with his roommate. Sometimes, his roommate does not speak for days. On other days, he speaks rapidly without stopping. He is often abrasive and aggressive. The roommate is showing symptoms of ___________.

c. bipolar disorder

Eysenck focused on the relationships between two personality traits: __________ and emotional stability-instability.

c. introversion-extraversion

A neuron sends _______ to relay its message to another neuron.

c. neurotransmitters

According to Freud, during the __________ of psychosexual development children may develop strong sexual attachments to the parent of the other gender and begin to view the parent of the same gender as a rival for the other parent's affections.

c. phallic stage

During Brian's infancy, his mother suffered from alcoholism and abused drugs. She was never emotionally available to him. As a result, he now has difficulty in his relationships with others and cannot trust people easily. This situation supports the views of the __________.

c. psychosocial development theory

On a bright, sunny day, Manny leaves a dimly-lit movie theater and goes out into the street. The _____ in his eyes adjust to the sudden increase in light.

c. pupils

Labib has been having severe epileptic seizures since a very young age. His seizures have become less frequent since he underwent an operation. However, he has problems expressing what he feels. When he feels happy, his facial expressions often show anger. Labib has most likely undergone a(n) _______ operation.

c. split-brain

The hearing or auditory area of the cortex lies in the _______ lobe along the lateral fissure of the cerebral cortex.

c. temporal

A person with normal color vision is labeled a _____.

c. trichromat

Identify a true statement about heuristics:

d. Unlike algorithms, they permit rapid decisions.

In the context of cognitive development, __________ is the creation of new ways of responding to objects or looking at the world.

d. accommodation

Every time a neuron fires, it transmits an impulse of the same strength. This occurrence is known as the __________.

d. all-or-none principle

Mescaline is considered a(n)_______.

d. hallucinogenic

In order to form new memories, you must have a fully functioning _________.

d. hippocampus

In __________, mental processes such as thoughts, emotions, memory, consciousness, even knowledge of one's own identity—the processes that make a person feel whole—may seem to be split off from one another.

d. the dissociative disorders

Research shows that children of authoritarian parents have greater self-reliance, self-esteem, social competence, and achievement motivation than other children.

False

In his Ted Talk, Dan Ariely argues that we must start testing our intuitions in order to improve.

True

In the brain's limbic system, the 'fight-or-flight' response begins in the_____

b. Amygdala

Which of the following is true about anterograde amnesia?

c. It is the failure to remember the events that occurred after a physical trauma.

Compared to the rest of our bodies, which of the following is a feature of gray matter?

d. It consists of non-myelinated neurons.

According to the video, a nickname for oxytocin is the ________.

a. Cuddle Hormone

Pain results when neurons called__________in the skin are stimulated.

c. nociceptors

In the context of problem solving, ________ involves dealing simultaneously with two or more elements of the problems.

c. parallel processing

The _________ is the second phase of the sexual response cycle.

c. plateau phase

When we see something for the first time, we must ______ construct our understanding of what it is.

a. Actively

__________ are rapid, low-amplitude brain waves that have been linked to feelings of relaxation.

a. Alpha waves

Emily is on a diet. For lunch, she has the choice of a salad with fat-free dressing or a fruit plate. However, she does not like either of them. This situation is an example of a(n) __________.

a. avoidance-avoidance conflict

Before discovering the principles of Classical Conditioning, Ivan Pavlov wanted to understand the ______ system.

a. digestive

According to Robert Sternberg's triangular model of love, _________ is most crucial in short-term relationships.

a. passion

Erikson labeled the first stage of psychosocial development in his theory of personality development as the stage of __________.

a. trust versus mistrust

Steve has just completed a personality assessment in which he was shown a series of cards one at a time and asked to make up stories about them. Which of the following tests is he most likely to have taken?

b. The Thematic Apperception Test.

When Kendall picked up her puppy, she did not realize that he'd gained a pound since the last time she picked him up. This small increase in weight is not big enough to be a

b. just noticeable difference.

People deprived of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep:

b. learn more slowly.

B. F. Skinner used ______ in his experiments to study Operant Conditioning.

b. mice or rats

A reason people tend to have partners from the same background is _________.

b. propinquity

Stephen was recently involved in a car accident in which he was critically injured. He is unable to recall the events that led to the accident. Stephen is suffering from ________.

b. retrograde amnesia

B. F. Skinner proposed

b. that organisms learn to behave in certain ways because their behavior has a positive outcome.

How many rods does each eye contain?

c. 125 million

What is the name of the concept that infants are born with the innate ability to learn language?

c. Language Acquisition Device

When Claire was baking an apple pie, the odor of the pie triggered some memories of her childhood. She remembered playing with her brother in the living room while her mother baked apple pies. Her memory is an example of a(n) __________.

c. context-dependent memory

Dana has the ability to easily cope with unexpected and challenging situations. She generates solutions to problems by relating unexpected situations to familiar situations. In this scenario, Dana is exhibiting ________.

c. creative intelligence

Mindfulness meditation (MM) provides clients with techniques they can use to:

c. focus on the present.

To compare the human brain to computers, John Searle created a thought experiment called the ________.

d. Chinese Room

__________ are nonsense syllables presented in pairs in experiments that measure recall.

d. Paired associates

Freud theorized that the human mind is composed of three parts, namely __________.

d. conscious, preconscious, and unconscious

Scott Geller and psychologists do not believe social support or community is critical in self-motivation.

False

According to some scholars, the human brain is incapable of understanding/solving the mystery of consciousness.

True

According to the Law of Proximity, our brains tend to group nearby figures or objects together.

True

According to the video, a person who achieves self-actualization no longer has biological needs, safety needs, love needs, or self-esteem needs.

True

According to the video, every major stressful life experience increases the risk of dying by 30%.

True

According to the video, priming is also known as "Memoryless" Memory.

True

All prejudices involve stereotyping but not all stereotypes lead to prejudices.

True

As opposed to a dependent variable, an independent variable is manipulated by the experimenters so that its effects may be determined.

True

According to Arnett, which of the following is most likely a part of the emerging adulthood stage?

a. experiments with career possibilities

_____ is the top-down way our brains organize and interpret information and put it into context.

a. Perception

In generalized dissociative amnesia, people forget particular traumatic instances of their lives but not their entire lives.

False

In humans, the fight-or-flight response is an unnatural response to external stimuli or danger.

False

According to Dr. Janet Metcalfe, the only species that has theory of mind is humans.

True

Our perceptions can be influenced by our emotions and motivations.

True

Psychology is a Greek word that essentially means "the study of the mind."

True

Psychology seeks to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes.

True

How the brain integrates the different bits of information it receives into our conscious experience refers to the ______ Problem.

a. Binding

According to Louis Thurstone, __________ are the eight specific factors that make up intelligence.

a. primary mental abilities

According to Freud, which of the following statements is true of dreams?

b. Dreams express impulses we would censor during the day.

The amygdala controls the adrenal gland which releases ____ into the body.

c. Adrenaline

The phrase, "Law of Effect" was coined by ______.

d. E. L. Thorndike

Which of the following is true of Maslow's theory?

d. It suggests that human behavior is not just mechanical and aimed toward survival and the reduction of tension.

People with somatoform disorders experience episodes of feeling detached from themselves or feeling that the world around them is unreal.

False

According to the video, our memories are like books in a library as we can easily pluck out any information.

False

According to the video, a schema is like a blueprint in the mind.

True

Compared to the unconscious, Freud believed that the conscious is a smaller part of our mind.

True

Episodic memory is also referred to as autobiographical memory because they are memories of the things that happen to us or take place in our presence.

True

The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure located in the limbic system.

True

The beginning of menstruation, or menarche, usually occurs between 11 and 14.

True

The left hemisphere of the brain is relatively more involved in tasks that require logic and problem solving than the right hemisphere.

True

______ is a hostile behavior directed against groups toward whom one is prejudiced and _________ is an attitude toward a group that leads people to evaluate members of that group negatively.

a. Discrimination; prejudice

Scott Geller says that ________ is another word for self-motivation.

a. Empowerment

If you experience Source Misattribution, you will______ the source of a memory.

a. Forget

In the Chinese Room experiment, the two men are instructed to ________

a. Have a conversation.

According to the podcast, Dr. James Fallon examines __________ which includes killers who were psychopaths.

a. PET scans

In the context of women, which of the following is true of androgens?

b. Ovaries produce androgens in women.

__________ is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

b. Psychology

Which of the following is a goal of psychology?

b. To explain behavior and mental processes.

Enduring behavioral and cognitive tendencies that are learned and expressed by evaluating particular people, places, or things with favor or disfavor are known as __________.

c. attitudes

Functionalism was influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution which:

c. believed adaptive behavior patterns are learned and maintained.

An incentive ________.

c. can satisfy a need

Which of the following substances is a stimulant?

d. Cocaine

Cancer is characterized by the development of abnormal, or mutant, cells that may take root anywhere in the body: in the blood, bones, digestive tract, lungs, and sex organs. If their spread is not controlled early, the cancerous cells may _________, that is, establish colonies elsewhere in the body.

d. metastasize

Messages from the brain or spinal cord are transmitted to muscles or glands through _______.

d. motor neurons

A mother is playing with her eight-month-old son. She places a toy in front of her son and then takes it away. She notices that her son starts searching for the toy. Which aspect of Piaget's sensorimotor stage of development is depicted in the scenario?

d. object permanence

According to her Ted Talk, psychologist Kelly McGonigal believes that stress and its side effects should always be viewed negatively.

False

According to the video, Anna Freud is a memory expert who studies how eyewitnesses reconstruct their memories after accidents or crimes.

False

As computers become more powerful, they will eventually rival the human brain.

False

By its nature, consciousness is objective as we can directly understand each other's point of view.

False

In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, many people have reached the level of self-actualization.

False

According to Empiricism, knowledge is only gained through 1) observation and 2) experimentation.

True

According to Scott Geller's Ted Talk, the words training and education have different meanings and applications.

True

According to the Ted Talk, Dan Ariely's research showed that burn victims would experience less pain if the intensity of removing their bandages was lower.

True

In her Ted Talk, Kelly McGonigal says that caring builds resilience against the harmful effects of stress.

True

Phoebe recently suffered a major fall in which she sustained brain injuries. Since then, she has had immense difficulty in communicating with others. She appears to understand what others tell her, but her responses are slow and laborious. Her sentences are always incomplete, with important grammatical words missing. Which of the following conditions best reflects Phoebe's case?

a. Broca's aphasia

Based on John Searle's experiment, computers ______.

a. Can only follow its given rules

According to the video, a case study is the in-depth study of a single individual and it ________ be replicated.

a. Cannot

According to psychology, _______ are groups of individuals who share similar tastes and interests.

a. Cliques

The Law of _____ states that we perceive smooth, continuous patterns while ignoring broken ones.

a. Continuity

Which of the following statements is true of William James's contribution to psychology?

a. He argued that the stream of consciousness was fluid and continuous.

Abraham Maslow was a ________ who wanted to understand the issue of the self.

a. Humanist

Computers and the human brain are similar because they are _____.

a. Information processing tools

The psychologist responsible for our understanding of cognitive psychology is _________.

a. Jean Piaget

Dan Ariely's research shows that when we see cheating around us, people will cheat ______.

a. More

According to the Ted Talk, Scott Geller discovered self-motivation as a child when he was learning how to _________.

a. Play the drums

Which of Sternberg's types of intelligence could be referred to as "street smarts"?

a. Practical intelligence.

According to the Ted Talk, Dan Ariely's interest in irrational behavior began during his_________.

a. Stay in the hospital

Although academically gifted, Chloe never had the desire to be the best in her classes. She would most likely be considered to exhibit __________.

a. a Type B behavior pattern

As it relates to attitude formation, the _________ perspective proposed that we are motivated to understand the environment so that they can make predictions and exercise some control over it.

a. cognitive appraisal

Max is a waiter at a coffee shop. He gets paid $100 every day at 9 p.m. regardless of the number of customers he serves during the day. In this scenario, Max's payment is based on the ________.

a. fixed-ratio schedule

Yarema is a cyclist. He notices that whenever he trains with someone else, his time improves markedly. In the context of group behavior, this phenomenon occurs due to a process known as _________.

a. social facilitation

As we enter__________, our brain waves slowdown from the alpha rhythm and enter a pattern of theta waves.

a. stage 1 sleep

During puberty, __________ stokes the growth of muscle and bone and the development of primary and secondary sex characteristics in a male body.

a. testosterone

Darryl has been a cocaine addict for over three years. He is a regular user of the drug. His body is now habituated to the drug, and hence he requires twice as much cocaine as he did initially to achieve similar effects. In this scenario, Darryl is displaying __________.

a. tolerance

_____ is an altered state of consciousness in which people are highly suggestible and behave as though they are in a trance.

b. Hypnosis

Which of the following statements is true about a schema?

b. It is a way of mentally representing the world, which can influence perceptions.

According to the general adaptation syndrome, the __________ is first triggered by perception of a stressor.

b. alarm reaction

A similarity between acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder is that both:

b. are characterized by feelings of anxiety and helplessness that are caused by a traumatic event.

The immune system combats diseases ________.

b. by generating antibodies, which attach themselves to antigens, deactivating them and marking them for destruction

Suppose a person is fired and he harbors beliefs such as: "This job was the most important thing in my life," "What a no-good failure I am," "My family will starve," "I'll never find a job as good," "There's nothing I can do about it." According to Albert Ellis, such irrational beliefs contribute to anxiety and depression by:

b. catastrophizing the extent of loss.

A __________ takes several X-rays to reveal deformities in shape and structure that are connected with blood clots, tumors, and other health problems.

b. computerized axial tomography scan

Kyra, a history major, likes to talk with her grandfather often. She calls him her human dictionary because he knows the meaning of almost every word she asks him about. She is also surprised at how well versed he is in domestic and international current affairs and how easily he can talk about historical events. In this scenario, Kyra's grandfather is best displaying _________.

b. crystallized intelligence

In psycholinguistic theory, the __________ is a neural "prewiring" that facilitates a child's learning of grammar.

b. language acquisition device

Which of the following statements is true about retroactive interference?

c. It is the interference of new learning with the ability to retrieve material learned previously.

Which of Jeffrey Arnett's five features of emerging adulthood is characterized by people having an optimistic belief that the world lies open before them?

c. The age of possibilities.

Amy accidentally hit her elbow against the edge of a wall. Amy's mother rushed to her and rubbed the affected elbow. Amy's pain subsided. Which theory would best explain this incident?

c. The gate theory.

Jenny was beginning to panic as the store began to become crowed with shoppers. Jenny most likely suffers from ________.

c. agoraphobia

Brandon had a fear of dogs. To extinguish this fear, his mother baked him his favorite cake and gradually brought a dog closer to him while he ate the cake. In this scenario, Brandon's mother used __________ to cure his fear.

c. counterconditioning

Schizophrenia is characterized by ___________.

c. disturbances in thought and language, perception and attention, motor activity, and mood

In a __________, a specific amount of time must elapse between the previous and subsequent times that reinforcement is available.

c. fixed-interval schedule

Albert was once awoken from his sleep by a white rat that fell on him. Following this incident, he began fearing all furry white objects including white fur coats and white stuffed animals. In this scenario, Albert's fear of all furry white objects is due to _____.

c. generalization

Clark Hull's drive-reduction theory states that:

c. humans learn to engage in behaviors that reduce a state of arousal.

Positive reinforcement _______ the probability of a behavior occurring, and negative reinforcement _______ the probability of a behavior occurring.

c. increases; increases

Ava, a four-year-old girl, combines words to form her own sentences. In this scenario, Ava is demonstrating __________.

c. infinite creativity

Peter and Kirsten share a warm relationship and count on each other for emotional support without sexual feelings for each other. According to Robert Sternberg's triangular model of love, this demonstrates ___________.

c. intimacy

Keli could never forget the first time she met Kaitlyn. She was wearing an outlandishly bright outfit and was very loud and obnoxious. Ever since then, she always expects Kaitlyn to be the life of the party. Keli is demonstrating the ___________.

c. primacy effect

Which of the following is not one of Ekman's (1980) universal emotions?

d. confusion

According to Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, children begin to assert control over the environment and strive to master adult skills when they are in the stage of __________.

d. initiative versus guilt

A woman has difficulty concentrating on her job because she keeps worrying about things like leaving the door unlocked or the tap turned on. She feels that her house might be robbed or damaged any day because of her carelessness. According to this scenario, she is most likely suffering from __________.

d. obsessive-compulsive disorder

According to the general adaptation syndrome, the levels of endocrine and sympathetic activity in the __________ are lower than the levels in the alarm reaction but still higher than normal.

d. resistance stage

According to Freud's psychoanalytic theory, the __________ functions according to the moral principle.

d. superego