Study for Psychology Exam.

Which of the following characterizes a behavioral approach to psychology?

A study of how reinforcement affects learning

Which of the following is classified as an antagonist?

A tricyclic antidepressant, because they block serotonin and norepinephrine transporters.

A psychologist administered the most recent edition of the Stanford-Binet IQ test to 50 students and their scores are shown in the chart above. How many students earned scores higher than two standard deviations above the mean?

2

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?

5

Activation of the parasympathetic nervous system results in which of the following?

A decrease in heart rate

Dr. Lee is interested in the effect of lighting on people's ability to concentrate. Dr. Lee studies this by manipulating the amount of lighting while participants read and then measuring their scores on a reading comprehension test. Group 1 receives dim light, and group 2 receives bright light. Which of the following research methods is Dr. Lee using?

An experimentAn experiment

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.

What does the central nervous system consist of?

Brain and spinal cord

Brain damage that leaves a person capable of understanding speech but with an impaired ability to produce speech most likely indicates injury to which of the following?

Broca's area

Clinical researchers are interested in gaining insight into the causes of abnormal behavior. One way that they do this is to delve deeply into the histories of patients with a common diagnosis, interviewing family, friends, teachers, therapists, physicians, babysitters, and others who can provide rich details about the patients' lives. Then, researchers try to see if there are any common themes in the information gathered. What research method does this strategy represent?

Case study

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

What are the four imaging technologies used to study the brain?

Cat/ scan/ pet scan, EEG scan, and fMRI scan.

During the high-wire act, Grace walks along a rope suspended 30 feet above the circus floor. Which of the following is most involved in helping Grace coordinate her movements and maintain her balance during the performance?

Cerebellum

Which of the following parts of the brain is most active in decision-making?

Cerebral cortex

Caffeine and nicotine are in the same class as which of the following drugs?

Cocaine

Which of the following allows the examination of living brain tissue visually without performing surgery?

Computerized axial tomography

Researchers examined injury reports for 480 professional football games and determined there was an association between outdoor temperature and number of concussions reported. Which of the following best describes the type of research method used in this study?

Correlational

The sociocultural perspective is best reflected in which of the following research findings?

In the United States individuals diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder switch identities upon suggestion, while in India individuals diagnosed with the same disorder switch personalities only upon awakening.

Introspection as practiced by early structuralists is best illustrated by which of the following behaviors?

Describing one's immediate sensations while looking at a rose

Which of the following neurotransmitters has been most associated with major depressive disorder?

Serotonin

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 person with a severe head injury subsequently acts irresponsibly, does not seem to be able to plan effectively, and is easy to anger. Which of the following brain areas is most likely injured?

Frontal lobe

A researcher finds a .50 correlation between college grades and income at age 30. Which of the following interpretations of these data is correct?

Good grades in college and high incomes are related.

After a stroke, Jeff has noticed his memory for past events remains good, but it is very difficult for him to remember new events like what movie he just watched. It is most likely that Jeff suffered damage to which part of the brain?

Hippocampus

Which of the following is true of these two sets of scores?

Set B has a larger standard deviation.

What are the two subdivisions of the peripheral nervous system?

Somatic and Autonomic nervous system

Juana accidentally touched a hot iron. She immediately drew back her hand. Which of the following is true about the withdrawal of her hand?

It was initiated in the spinal cord.

Which of the following measures can be precisely located on the graph of a skewed distribution without doing any calculations?

Mode

A researcher interested in cooperative play in young children unobtrusively places several video cameras at a public playground and counts how many children engage in cooperative play behaviors. Which type of research method is the researcher using?

Naturalistic observation

Margaret is beginning to plan a research project for her psychology class. She wants to examine whether there is a difference between boys and girls in terms of the frequency with which they throw away their trash in the school cafeteria after they have finished eating lunch. Which of the following methodologies would most accurately measure the behavior of interest in Margaret's study?

Naturalistic observation

Which of the following provides information regarding brain function by monitoring the brain at work through metabolism of glucose?

Positron emission tomography (PET)

A psychology professor wants to investigate the study habits of students at her university. She cannot collect data from every student but hopes to use a subset of the students to draw accurate conclusions about the behavior of the student body. Which of the following features of research design will best address her goal?

Random sampling

If an individual has lost the ability to feel pain in the left arm, there is most likely damage to what area of the brain?

Right parietal lobe

Hunger and eating are primarily regulated by which of the following?

The hypothalamus

Which of the following statements is true of these graphs?

The mean is identical for both distributions; the standard deviation is larger for distribution A.

Which of the following statements describes the mean, median, and mode of a test whose scores are normally distributed?

The mean, the median, and the mode will be the same value.

Which of the following is an explanation of why travelers suffer from jet lag?

There is a disruption in their circadian rhythm.

People who have sustained damage to the amygdala are most likely to demonstrate

a diminished capacity for fear

To minimize experimenter bias, researchers should use

a double-blind design

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

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

reason why many people have an innate fear of the dark

Information is relayed to the spinal cord or the brain by

afferent neurons

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

an experimental approach

Activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system results in

an increase in respiratory rate

The autonomic nervous system is most directly involved in

digesting food

Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for

gaining insight into unconscious motives

Lucid dreaming occurs when people

have dreams in which they are aware that they are dreaming

The mean will be higher than the median in any distribution that

is positively skewed

In a distribution of a class's test scores, a large number of students received high scores while fewer students received low scores. The distribution of the test scores is best described as being

negatively skewed

The brain's ability to adapt after it is damaged is known as

plasticity

Ben was enjoying a walk in the woods on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. As he went around a curve, he noticed a bear walking toward him. Immediately his pupils dilated, he began to perspire, and his heart accelerated. These changes are most closely related to the function of the

sympathetic nervous system

Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study

the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving

The generalizability of a study increases when

the sample is more representative of the population

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

What is a lesion?

tissue destruction

Damage to the occipital lobe would most likely affect a person's

vision

Getting a headache from not having a morning coffee after substantial daily coffee consumption for several months is most likely due to

withdrawal