AP Psychology AP classroom questions

According to the drive-reduction theory of motivation, drives arise because of physiological imbalances in

Homeostasis Explanation: The brain area associated with motivating a person to seek a reward when dopamine is released is the nucleus accumbens

Which of the following illustrates the primacy effect?

Susam left his grocery list at home and can remember only the first two items on the list.

After surveying 100 parents, researchers concluded that 90 percent of babies can walk by the age of 10 months. Why is this an inappropriate conclusion?

At 10 months, ninety percent of toddlers have not reached the developmental milestones to walk.

Which of the following is an example of a key element of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

Catherine finally realized her grandfather is her father's father.

Arthur is helping his friend set up her new phone. Arthur has never used this type of phone, but he uses his knowledge of setting up his own phone to help figure out how to use the new phone. According to Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, Arthur is using which type of intelligence?

Creative intelligence

What term associated with psychological disorders best describes a thought, feeling, or behavior that is atypical or rare?

Deviant

Which of the following examples is most consistent with the theory that executive functioning provides the basis for general intelligence

Geoff is able to easily remember a long list of instructions after hearing them only once and also scores higher than average on intelligence tests.

Which of the following psychologists is best associated with studying the function of memory?

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Dr. Anderson is a psychologist who currently has a patient who is having difficulty forming relationships with others. To help her patient work through his issues, Dr. Anderson focuses on developing with him a strong relationship that is characterized by unconditional positive regard. Dr. Anderson's approach is most consistent with which type of theory of personality?

Humanist E: Humanist theories of personality focus on the self, and in clinical settings, unconditional positive regard is a way to promote self-understanding.

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development?

Jimmy, an infant, is learning about the world by exploring with his hands and his mouth.

It is not possible to randomly assign the participants in Lawrence Kohlberg's studies on moral development into groups because

Kohlberg compared people of different ages

Emotions are controlled primarily by the

Limbic System

Which of the following describes the concept of schema?

Marsha thinks the waiter asked her whether she wanted water even though he did not, because she thinks waiters ask patrons whether they want water.

Carol Gilligan was critical of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development. What is the basis of her critique?

She thought his findings about men are not generalizable to women.

If Jess has a type of amnesia that affects the formation of explicit memories but not implicit ones, which of the following will she be most likely to remember?

The arm position to throw the ball

Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?

The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly.

Vandana, a 12-month-old infant, is listening to her father talk to her and suddenly repeats a word that he just said. Her father praises her and gives her a cookie. After she gets the cookie, she repeats the word again. Vandana's behavior can be best explained by using the theory of

behaviorism

According to Kurt Lewin's motivational conflict theory, approach-avoidance conflict occurs when a situation has

both positive and negative aspects E: Lewin postulated that a goal or event with characteristics that make it simultaneously appealing and unappealing leads to approach-avoidance conflicts.

Stress can most likely contribute to heart disease because

cortisol released during stress reduces the flexibility of blood vessels, so the heart has to work harder E: Stress leads to the release of cortisol. Excess cortisol can prevent blood vessels from dilating, which makes the heart work harder. Over time, this can lead to heart disease.

Explicit memories are

created in the hippocampus

Consolidation can be described as the process of

long-term memories being formed from short-term memories

A teacher asks Yvonne to go to another classroom to get a student whom Yvonne has never met. As she walks, she repeats the student's name to herself over and over to help her remember. Yvonne is boosting her memory by using

maintenance rehearsal

Before starting her day working at a day-care center, Meredith takes a few moments to smile at herself in the mirror. No matter how she is feeling before she comes in, she finds that smiling helps her feel happier before beginning her day. Meredith's experience is evidence for

the facial feedback hypothesis Explanation: The facial feedback hypothesis suggests that Meredith moving her facial muscles the way she does smiles is triggering a feeling of happiness.

To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using

the method of loci

Sometimes people who speak different languages are in a community together and must develop a way of communicating. Similarly, their offspring must also find a way to communicate. The main difference between the speech of the first generation and the speech of the second generation is

the speech of the second generation tends to have more complex grammar rules

Mary has an IQ score within one standard deviation above the mean score. This indicates her score was

within the middle 68% of people who took the test