Unit 1 Test
Which of the following is an evidence-based method that draws on observation and experimentation?
empirical approach
Which perspective would suggest that the facial expressions associated with the emotions of lust and rage are inherited?
evolutionary
Exploring how we humans are alike because of our common biology and evolutionary history is the focus of
evolutionary psychology
Matthias Mehl and colleagues equipped 79 students with electronic recorders and then eavesdropped on more than 23,000 half-minute life slices of the students' waking hours. They found that students who were the happiest avoided small talk and engaged in more meaningful conversations. Mehl and colleagues used which research method?
experience sampling method
British researchers randomly assigned 424 hospitalized premature infants either to formula feeding or to breast-milk feeding. They found that on intelligence tests taken at the age of 8, those who were breast fed significantly scored higher than those who were formula fed. These researchers conducted a(n):
experiment
The research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process is called a(n)
experiment
The group exposed to a newly created drug that is being tested in an experiment is called the ________ group.
experimental
In which type of research would an investigator manipulate at least one factor and observe its effect on some behavior or mental process?
experimentation
New technologies such as smart-phone apps and body-worn sensors have enabled the collection of "big data" by means of
naturalistic observation
Professor Shalet contends that parents and children have similar levels of intelligence largely because they share common genes. His idea is best described as a(n)
naturalistic observation
The unreliability of ________ led to the waning popularity of structuralism.
introspection
The biggest danger of relying on case-study evidence is that it
may be unrepresentative of what is generally true
When Mr. Adams calculated his students' algebra test scores, he noticed that two students had extremely low scores. Which measure of central tendency is affected most by the scores of these two students?
mean
Early psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt and William James focused on the study of
mental processes
The most frequently occurring score in a distribution of scores is the
mode
The survival of organisms best suited to a particular environment is known as
natural selection
The psychology textbook that William James took 12 years to author was titled
principals of psychology
Dr. Stauffer has a medical license and so is licensed to prescribe drugs. She is most likely a
psychiatrist
Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a(n) ________ perspective.
psychodynamic
To help control for possible confounding variables, researchers use
random assignment
Which of the following is most useful for helping survey researchers avoid false generalizations?
random sampling
The difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution is the
range
Colette received an unusually high grade of A on her first biology test and a B+ on the second, even though she studied equally for both tests. Which of the following best explains Colette's deteriorating pattern of performance?
regression toward the mean
The illusion that uncontrollable events are correlated with our actions is facilitated by a phenomenon known as
regression toward the mean.
Professor X is studying the effect of exposure to sexual content on sexual thoughts. She assigns students to one of two conditions. In the first condition, participants are exposed to explicit sexual content and then given a word-completion task, which involves filling in the letter missing from each word. Based on the letter added, the word could be of a sexual nature or not. For instance, b_d could be completed as "bed," indicating sexual thought, or as "bad," which has no sexual connotation. In the second condition, participants are not exposed to explicit sexual content but are assigned the same word-completion task. To ensure ethical treatment of participants, Professor X will NOT need to
report the results of individual participants.
SQ3R is a study method incorporating five steps: survey, question, read, ________, and review.
retrieve
The SQ3R study method emphasizes the importance of
retrieving information
The birth of psychology is often attributed to Wilhelm Wundt because he pioneered the investigation of mental processes using
scientific methods
Which of the following is NOT a suggestion provided in the text for how to live a happier life?
set short term goals
The fact that people diagnosed with specific learning disorder exhibit the same brain malfunctions whether they are Italian, French, or British demonstrates that
the same underlying processes guide people everywhere
Being randomly assigned to the experimental group in a research project involves being assigned
to that group by chance
Regression toward the mean refers to the tendency for
unusual events to be followed by more ordinary events.
People often fail to make accurate generalizations because they are unduly influenced by ________ cases.
vivid
For which of the following distributions of scores would the median most clearly be a more appropriate measure of central tendency than the mean?
10, 22, 8, 9, 6
In a group of five individuals, two report annual incomes of $10,000, and the other three report incomes of $14,000, $15,000, and $31,000, respectively. The mode of this group's distribution of annual incomes is
10,000
The first university psychology department in China was established in
1978
If a set of standardized test scores is normally distributed, having a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, approximately 68 percent of the group members receive scores somewhere between
40 and 60
Approximately what percentage of the cases represented by the normal curve fall between -1 and +1 standard deviations from the mean?
68
Mr. and Mrs. Klostreich have six children ages 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, and 16. The mean age of the Klostreich children is
8
If IQ scores are normally distributed, having a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, approximately what percentage of people have IQ scores somewhere between 70 and 130?
95
Which early psychologist aimed to discover the mind's structure?
Edward Bradford Titchener
Who suggested that the mind at birth is a blank sheet upon which experience writes?
John Locke
Innate ability is to learned skill as ________ is to ________.
Nature; Nurture
Which of the following is NOT included in the ethics code of the APA for utilizing human participants in research?
Researchers must report the results of individual participants
Which perspective in psychology would focus on the extent to which different parenting styles are encouraged among various ethnic groups?
Social-cultural
Dr. Branch would like to study the relationship between room lighting and college students' test performance. He randomly assigns students to one of two groups. The first group takes an exam in a dimly lit room; the second group takes the same exam in a regularly lit room. Which is the experimental group?
There is no experimental group because this is a naturalistic observation research design.
Which of the following is a statistical measure of both the direction and the strength of a relationship between two variables?
a correlation coefficient
If the correlation between children's intelligence and their creativity is +1.00, this would indicate that
among children, increased creativity is associated with higher intelligence
Using scientific procedures to test whether watching violent movies increases the frequency of emotionally upsetting dreams best illustrates
an empirical approach
Gamblers often throw dice gently for low numbers and hard for high numbers. This most directly illustrates
an illusion of control
Studies conducted for the sake of building psychology's base of knowledge are most clearly examples of
basic research
Contemporary psychology is best defined as the science of
behavior and mental processes
The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies observable human activity without reference to mental processes is known as
behaviorism
The neuroscience perspective in psychology would be most likely to emphasize that behavior is influenced by
blood chemistry
Experiments enable researchers to isolate the effects of one or more factors by
both manipulating the factors of interest and controlling for factors that are not of interest.
Psychologists' personal values
can bias their observations and interpretations
Little Hans' extreme fear of horses was observed as part of a(n)
case study
Researchers use experiments rather than other research methods in order to isolate
causes from effects
Dr. Caleigh conducts research on the relationship between adults' language skills and their capacity to solve mathematical problems. Dr. Caleigh is most likely a ________ psychologist.
cognitive
Beginning in the 1960s, psychological science returned to its earlier interest in mental processes. This movement was inspired by the
cognitive revolution
Depression and suicide are more common in today's North American culture than they were in the very different North American culture of nearly a century ago. But in both the past and the more recent cultural settings, pessimistic thinking and feelings of loneliness corresponded to a heightened risk of depression and suicide. This best illustrates that ________ often underlie cultural differences in behavior.
common psychological processes
Rather than seeking to change people to fit their environment, ________ work to create social and physical environments that are healthy for all.
community psychologists
If participants in the experimental group of a drug treatment study are much younger than participants in the control group, the age of the research participants is a
confounding variable
When an arithmetic average is reported in the news, it is most important for readers to
consider whether it is distorted by a few extreme cases
Which research method assesses how well one variable predicts another without demonstrating a cause-effect relationship between the variables?
correlation research
Discerning the unstated assumptions and values that underlie conclusions best illustrates ________, which is an important learning tool.
critical thinking
The transmission of customs for showing respect to those in positions of authority best illustrates the importance of
culture
Sherry is often overly generous in sacrificing her time to help others. Her friend suggests that by keeping busy in this way Sherry avoids confronting her own unconscious conflicts. Her friend's suggestion illustrates the type of explanation that is most typical of
freudian psychology
Edward Titchener is to structuralism as William James is to
functionalism
Today's psychology is best described as increasingly
globalized in its influence
Dr. Tate is an excellent researcher. She is curious, humble, and skeptical. These are all characteristics of
having a scientific attitude
Seven members of a boys' club reported the following individual earnings from their sale of cookies: $2, $9, $8, $10, $4, $9, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings
he median is greater than the mean and less than the mode.
Aristotle suggested that the source of our personality is the
heart
Formulating testable predictions before conducting research is most directly useful for restraining a thinking error known as
hindsight bias
The scientific attitude of humility is most likely to be undermined by
hindsight bias
An experiment enables researchers to isolate the effects of one or more factors by manipulating the factors of interest and also by
holding other factors constant across experimental and control groups
In a single day, 45 babies were born in hospital X, 65 babies in hospital Y, and 25 babies in hospital Z. At which hospital is there the greatest probability that more than 60 percent of the babies are of the same sex?
hospital Z
The symmetrical bell‑shaped figure used to represent the distribution of many physical and psychological characteristics is called a
normal curve
Beginning in the 1920s, American psychologists such as John B. Watson emphasized the study of
observable behavior
A statement describing the exact procedures for measuring an anticipated experimental outcome is known as a(n)
operational definition
Dr. Jones is studying the effect of room lighting on college students' test performance and has defined room lighting as either dimly lit or brightly lit. This definition is an example of a(n)
operational definition
Our tendency to believe we know more than we do best illustrates
overconfidence
Which of the following is most likely to inhibit critical thinking?
overconfidence
The cognitive perspective in psychology focuses on how
people encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
A negative correlation between degree of wealth and likelihood of suffering from a psychological disorder would indicate that
people who are poor are more likely than wealthy people to have a psychological disorder.
Statisticians Persi Diaconis and Frederick Mosteller commented, "But with a large enough sample, any outrageous thing is likely to happen." What were they referring to?
perceiving patterns in random events
The personality theorist Sigmund Freud was an Austrian
physician
Research on human flourishing is the major focus of
positive psychology
The explanatory power of a scientific theory is most closely linked to its capacity to generate testable
predictions
Professor X is studying the effect of exposure to sexual content on sexual thoughts. She assigns students to one of two conditions. In the first condition, participants are exposed to explicit sexual content and then given a word-completion task, which involves filling in the letter missing from each word. Based on the letter added, the word could be of a sexual nature or not. For instance, b_d could be completed as "bed," indicating sexual thought, or as "bad," which has no sexual connotation. In the second condition, participants are not exposed to explicit sexual content but are assigned the same word-completion task. The dependent variable is
sexual thoughts
Dr. Renk is studying how people interact and react in the presence of others. She is examining the ________ influence on behavior and mental processes, according to the biopsychosocial perspective.
social-cultural
Dr. Wilson attributes the delinquent behaviors of many teens to the pressures associated with being a member of a street gang. Her account best illustrates a(n) ________ perspective.
social-cultural
Charles Darwin attempted to explain the ________ that he encountered.
species variation
Which of the following is a measure of the degree of variation among a set of scores?
standard deviation
To decide whether observed differences between samples reflect actual differences between populations, you should determine the ________ of the observed differences.
statistical significance
Suppose you want to find out which candidate college students will vote for in an upcoming national election. To be sure the sample of college students you survey is representative of the college student population, you should
survey a large representative sample of the college student population
Seven members of a Girl Scout troop report the following individual earnings from their sale of candy: $4, $1, $7, $6, $8, $2, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings
the mean is less than the mode and less than the median.
In a survey, psychologists select a random sample of research participants in order to ensure that
the participants are representative of the population they are interested in studying
Illusory correlation refers to
the perception of a relationship between two variables that does not exist.