1994 AP Psychology Exam

If a man who is a heavy smoker is given an electric shock every time he takes a puff on a cigarette, which of the following behavior-modification techniques is being used?

Aversive conditioning

According to Jean Piaget, what is the earliest stage at which a child is capable of using simple logic to think about objects and events?

Concrete operational

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

Stanley Milgram's study of obedience

When rehearsal of incoming information is prevented, which of the following will most likely occur?

There will be no transfer of the information to long-term memory

According to Carl Rogers, the role of the therapist in person-centered psychotherapy is to

accept the client unconditionally so that the client's own desire for mental health and positive growth will flourish

The change in the curvature of the lens that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances is called

accommodation

The tendency of most people to identify a three-sided figure as a triangle, even when one of its sides is incomplete, is the result of a perceptual process known as

closure

The goal of rational-emotive therapy is to help clients

correct self-defeating thoughts about their lives

According to Benjamin Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis, which of the following is true?

different languages predispose those individuals who speak them to think about the world in different ways

The failure of bystanders to give victims of automobile accidents needed assistance is sometimes explained as an instance of

diffusion of responsibility

Multiple personality is a type of

dissociative disorder

The teacher asks students to think of as many uses for a brick as possible. By listing 50 uses, most of which the class finds new and unusual, Susan is displaying

divergent thinking

The primary effect of the myelin sheath is to

increase the velocity of conduction of the action potential along the axon

A word or part of a word that is in itself meaningful, but that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units, is called a

morpheme

Distrust of others is symptomatic of

paranoia

According to Albert Bandura, people who believe that their efforts will be successful and that they are in control of events have a high level of

self-efficacy

All of the following infant behaviors are usually considered by developmental psychologists to be reflexes EXCEPT

smiling

According to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following statements is true?

Physiological needs must be met before an individual achieves self-actualization

The most common form of color blindness is related to deficiencies in the

red-green system

In normal distribution of test scores, the percentage of scores that fall at or below the mean is

50

Which of the following responses was most likely acquired through classical conditioning?

A child's fear of dogs after the child has been bitten by the dog

Which of the following accurately describes a major change in perspective in the field of developmental psychology over the past twenty-five years?

A shift from emphasis on childhood and adolescence to an interest in development over the life span

The defense mechanism of reaction formation is best exemplified in which of the following situations?

A woman who is unaware of her anger toward her friend expresses affection for that friend

Which of the following types of test is designed to measure an individual's knowledge of a subject?

Achievement

Which of the following are the stages in Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome?

Alarm, resistance, exhaustion

Which of the following correctly describes the firing of neurons?

An all-or-none response

Which of the following is a characteristic common to all individuals with a narcissistic personality disorder?

An unwarranted sense of self-importance

Which of the following is most useful in understanding an employer's interpretation of an employee's poor performance?

Attribution theory

The most well-adjusted and socially competent children tend to come from homes where parents employ which of the following parenting styles?

Authoritative

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

Behavioral

Which of the following concepts was advanced by social psychologists to help explain why people who are part of a crowd sometimes commit aggressive, antisocial acts that they would not commit if they were alone?

Catharsis

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

Computerized axial topography

Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning is best described by which of the following?

Children progress from a morality based on punishment and reward to one defined by convention, and ultimately to one defined by abstract ethical principles

Because studies of learning show that events occurring close together in time are easier to associate than those occurring at widely different times, parent should probably avoid which of the following?

Delay of punishment

When parents refuse to accept several psychologists' diagnosis of a child's mental illness, they are suing which of the following defense mechanisms?

Denial

In terms of the effect on the central nervous system, alcohol is most accurately classified as which of the following types of drug?

Depressant

Which of the following is most characteristic of individuals with chronic schizophrenia?

Disordered thinking

Which of the following has been most effective in the treatment of schizophrenia?

Drug therapy that blocks neurotransmitter sites

A teenager would most probably draw on which of the following to recall her tenth birthday?

Episodic memory

Which of the following was true of Solomon Asch's experiments on conformity?

If the confederates' judgments were not unanimous, the degree of conformity by experimental subjects decreased

Leadership, job satisfaction, and employee motivation are all are all studied in which of the following psychological disciplines?

Industrial-organizational psychology

Which of the following statements is true of behaviorism?

It holds that developmental is largely a product of learning

Which of the following is true of the reticular activating system?

It regulates levels of arousal

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

Which of the following is an example of metacognition?

Knowing the effectiveness of different strategies for learning statistical formulas

Bipolar disorders are most effectively treated with a combination of tricyclic antidepressants and

Lithium carbonate

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

Longitudinal

In their discussions of the process of development, the advocates of nature in the nature-nurture controversy emphasize which of the following?

Maturation

Which of the following is INCORRECTLY matched with the hormone that it secretes?

Ovary...testosterone

Which of the following is a genetic disorder that results in a deficiency of a liver enzyme which, if not treated soon after birth, may eventually lead to profound mental retardation?

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

Elena is presented with a list of 20 members. When asked to recall this list, she remembers more numbers from the beginning than from the end of the list. This phenomenon demonstrates which of the following types of effect?

Primacy

A person with sight in only one eye lacks which of the following visual cues for seeing in depth?

Retinal disparity

Which of the following is typically cited as a characteristic of autistic children?

Severely impairs interpersonal communication

The terms "modeling" and "imitation" are most closely associated with which of the following?

Social learning theory

Which of the following behavior-therapy techniques is typically used to reduce fear of heights?

Systematic desensitization

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

The hypothalamus

Which of the following best characterizes individuals diagnosed as having personality disorders?

They may function reasonably well in society

The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's

absolute threshold

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

an increase in respiratory rate

A complex pattern of organized, unlearned behavior that is species-specific is called

an instinct

The place in the retina where the optic nerve exists the brain is called the

blind spot

In Ivan Pavlov's experiments in classical conditioning, the dog's salivation was

both an unconditioned and a conditioned response

Behaviorally oriented therapists seek to modify a client's behavior by

changing the contingencies of reinforcement for the client

The intelligence quotient (IQ) has traditionally been based on the relationship between an individual's mental age and his or her

chronological age

Electroconvulsive therapy that has been most successful in the treatment of

clinical depression

The debate over whether development occurs gradually, without discernible shifts, or through a series of distinct stages is termed

continuity vs. discontinuity

Responses extinguish fastest when they are learned through which type of reinforcement schedule?

continuous

The release of those with mental disorders from mental hospitals for the purpose of treating them in their home communities is called

deinstitutionalization

Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues have used the visual cliff to measure in infant's ability to perceive

depth

A person is asked to listen to a series of tones presented in pairs, and asked to say whether the tones in each pair are the same or different pitch. In this situation the experimenter is most likely measuring the individual's

difference threshold

According to Sigmund Freud, a child's early experience in coping with external demands leads to the development of the

ego

Painkilling substances produced by the brain are known as

endorphins

The view that human emotions are universal has been supported by studies of

facial expressions

On a fishing trip, Ed realizes that he has mistakenly packed the sewing box instead of the tackle box. He want to fish but returns home because he does not have any line or hooks. Ed's failure to realize that sewing thread can be used as fishing line and that a bent needle can be used as a hook is an example of

functional fixedness

Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for

gaining insight into unconscious motives

If Carmelita stares at a red spot for one minute and then shifts her gaze to a white piece of paper, she is likely to experience an afterimage that is

green

According to attribution theory, Pablo is most likely to attribute his high score on a difficult exam to

his intelligence

Theories of motivation that assert the existence of biological motives to maintain the body in a steady state are called

homeostatic

The 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 incorrectly

inferred causation from correlation

Receptors that are especially important for helping a person maintain balance are located in the

inner ear

Carla tutors other students because she likes to be helpful, whereas Jane tutors classmates strictly for pay. Their behaviors demonstrate the difference between

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

One criticism of Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory of development is that it

is based on empirically unverifiable constructs

A somatoform disorder is best described as an illness that

is physical in nature and caused by psychological factors

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

is positively skewed

The cognitive theory of depression states that depression results from

maladaptive interpretation of life events

Dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine are all

neurotransmitters that excite or inhibit a neural signal across a synapse

Persistent repetitive thoughts that cannot be controlled are known as

obsessions

Hypnosis has been found useful in the treatment of

pain

The hypothesis that intelligence is in part inherited is best supported by the fact that the IQ correlation for

pairs of identical twins is greater than for pairs of fraternal twins

In a famous series of experiments conducted by Harry Harlow, infant monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth. The infants were then given two surrogate mothers (a terry-cloth "mother" and a wire "mother"), each of which alternately had a nursing bottle that provided food to the infants. The experimental results showed that in frightening situations the infant monkeys

preferred the terry-cloth mother, even when the wire mother had the nursing bottle

It is widely known in Jerry's social circle that he is the most stubborn and inflexible member of the group. Yet Jerry complains that all of his friends are opinionated and rigid. Jerry's complaints are most clearly a sign of

projection

The technique of strengthening behavior by reinforcing successive approximations is called

shaping

Research findings in the area of interpersonal attraction indicate that individuals are most likely to be attracted to others who are

similar to them in attitudes and values

For most people, which of the following is an activity based in the right hemisphere of the brain?

simple spatial reasoning

In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of subjects saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The dependent variable in the experiment is the

the amount of aggressive behavior exhibited by the children

A prototype is best defined as

the hypothetical "most typical" instance of a category

The occipital lobes contain

the primary visual cortex

After several trials during which a dog is given a certain kind of food at the same time that a specific tone is sounded, there is evidence of conditioning if the dog salivates when

the tone is presented

In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of subjects saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The control group in the experiment is the group that

watched the nonviolent cartoon

The painful experience associated with termination of the use of an addictive substance

withdrawal