MCAT Test 5 Psychology Section

All of the following are facets of gender differentiation EXCEPT:

biological differences Facets of Gender Differentiation: social differences value/attitude differences cultural differences

A clinician suspects a patient of substance abuse, noting that the individual appears sleepy, is slurring his speech, and seems to be breathing very slowly. He looks into the patient's eyes and observes that the pupils are extremely constricted. These signs suggest the use of:

Heroin Sleepiness, slurred speech, decreased respiration, and constriction of the pupils (miosis) are observable effects of opiates such as heroin.

Unlike most people who are not lonely, a lonely individual, while viewing which of the following images, would likely exhibit a response similar to the one that an individual who has a phobia of spiders would exhibit while looking at a picture of a spider?

A picture of four people pointing and laughing at a fifth person, who is excluded from the group. According to the passage, lonely individuals are hypervigilant about social threats in the same way that an individual with a spider phobia is hypervigilant about threatening images of spiders. A threatening social situation would be one in which the individual was excluded; therefore, a lonely individual would have a response to this image similar to the one that an individual with a phobia of spiders would have while looking at a picture of a spider

This occurs when a prediction comes true because it is believed to be true and thus inspires behavior, attitudes, etc. that bring about its own realization.

A self-fulfilling prophecy

This person is most famous for his work on social learning theory:

Albert Bandura

This occurs when an organism acts in a manner that benefits others at a cost to itself, and, in particular, at a cost to its ability to produce offspring:

Altruism

This stems from conflicting belief systems of individualism and sympathy for the disadvantaged. This can occur when a white individual expresses overwhelmingly favorable views towards a black person in a positive environment, but then expresses overwhelmingly unfavorable views towards a black person in a negative environment. When the team captain was black, he was evaluated less positively when the game's status was a loss compared to when the team captain was white. Additionally, the team captain who was black was evaluated more positively when the game's status was a win compared to when the team captain was white.

Ambivalent racism

Contemporary theories of racial prejudice apply in the same way to gender prejudice. Men make up the majority of most societal institutions, including governmental, economic, and religious institutions. Recently women have started to acquire roles that were historically predominantly occupied by males. When men strongly value the patriarchal society but also acknowledge that women serve many valuable societal functions, albeit different ones than men do, they are most likely exhibiting which of the following types of gender prejudice?

Ambivalent sexism Ambivalent sexism occurs when men strongly value the patriarchal society and their important roles in it, while at the same time acknowledging that women do serve many valuable "feminine" functions in that society

Individuals with this disorder have a deceitful attitude and show no remorse when abusing others:

Antisocial personality Disorder

This occurs when a genotype or phenotype emerges that had not been seen for many generations:

Atavism

Individuals with this disorder, like those with schizoid personality disorder, are socially withdrawn. However, people with this disorder are withdrawn due to hypersensitivity to rejection rather than to indifference:

Avoidant personality Disorder

Problems initiating speech indicate that this area of the brain has been affected:

Broca's area

Which of the following does NOT support Noam Chomsky's hypothesis that children are born with a universal grammar?

Children tend to imitate their caregivers' speech patterns. Chomsky's hypothesis: Children do not mix up the order of subjects and verbs in their native language. Children tend to make mistakes conjugating irregular verbs (e.g., saying "I runned" instead of "I ran") when learning a language. Children in less stimulating environments develop language skills at approximately the same time as do children in more stimulating environments.

This occurs when individuals actively seek out information that confirms their hypotheses or beliefs:

Confirmation bias

Solomon Asch is famous for his study on:

Conformity Solomon Asch conducted the famous line study and others like it in order to study the effects of conformity. Asch presented subjects with pictures of three lines of different lengths and asked them to match one of the lines to a line that he had on a separate card. Although one choice was obviously correct, when confederates in the room selected the incorrect choice, subjects often selected the clearly incorrect choice as well. Asch argued that this was due to the pressure to conform.

Individuals under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD may appear:

Highly confused or disoriented, they DO NOT appear lethargic or sedated.

Sleepwalking and night terrors typically occur during the stages of sleep characterized by:

Delta Waves

This describes the differences that occur over generations when groups of a species are geographically isolated:

Divergent evolution

According to the self-fulfilling prophecy theory, if an individual is labeled mentally ill the individual will most likely:

Engage in behavior that reinforces his or her "mentally ill" label. The self-fulfilling prophecy is the phenomenon in which a person unconsciously behaves in such a way as to fulfill people's beliefs about him or her. Knowing that others see him or her as mentally ill would make an individual more likely to behave in ways that are considered mentally ill

This person is most famous for his theory of identity crisis and developmental psychology:

Erik Erikson

If a person is assumed to be mentally ill solely because his or her behavior differs from how people behave in the dominant culture, even though this person's behavior is considered normal in his or her own culture, this is an example of:

Ethnocentrism, because there is evidence of prejudice against the out-group. Ethnocentrism involves using the values of one's own culture as the standard by which to judge others.

This is a social movement that advocates women's rights and their political, social, and economic equality with men:

Feminism

A child who is able to think in terms of abstract concepts and is able to systematically solve a problem in a logical and methodical way, rather than through trial and error, is at what stage of Piagetian cognitive development?

Formal operational stage The use of abstract reasoning and logic emerges during the formal operational stage, which begins around the age of 11. Adolescents who reach this fourth stage of intellectual development are able to logically use symbols related to abstract concepts, as in algebra and science. They can think about multiple variables in systematic ways, formulate hypotheses, and consider possibilities. They can also ponder abstract relationships, as well as abstract concepts such as justice

Which of the following does NOT accurately describe Emile Durkheim's functionalism?

Functionalism encourages people to actively change the status quo of society for their own benefit. Emile Durkheim's Functionalism: Functionalism is less concerned with the interactions of small groups than with other interactions. Functionalism involves the idea that society is similar to an organism. Functionalism asserts that once one part of an institution changes, it will always affect the other parts of the institution.

This person conducted deprivation experiments on monkeys and is associated with socialization theory:

Harry Harlow

A patient with head trauma is presenting with symptoms that include loss of retention of short-term memory and an inability to recall recent events. The patient can recognize family and friends, but is having difficulty retrieving recent memories. Which of the following is most likely the part of the brain that sustained damage in this patient?

Hippocampus The hippocampus is part of the limbic system, which helps with memory storage and retrieval. In particular, the hippocampus is associated with the conversion of short-term memory into long-term memory

Individuals with this disorder tend to be overly dramatic and expressive with a heightened need to be the center of attention:

Histrionic personality Disorder

This refers to blatantly negative attitudes and feelings about women:

Hostile sexism, like hostile racism

Social identity theory predicts attitudes most consistent with what stage of Black racial identity?

Immersion-emersion Social identity theory maintains that individuals desire to see members of their own group in a positive light. In Helms's immersion- emersion stage, Black individuals hold anti-White, pro-Black beliefs, which is thus consistent with social identity theory

By supporting its siblings' attempts to produce offspring, an animal increases its own:

Inclusive fitness An animal that supports the reproductive efforts of its siblings is working to maximize its own genetic material in the population, thereby increasing its "inclusive fitness"

Many people criticize hypnosis research for eliciting demand characteristics (i.e., subjects respond in a way that they think a hypnotized person would respond). However, research has demonstrated that individuals under hypnosis who are told to see color show activation in color-processing brain regions on PET scans, even when presented with black and white photographs. How does this evidence strengthen the finding that hypnotized individuals made to feel lonely are more likely to exhibit certain characteristics?

It increases the internal validity of studies using hypnotism to induce loneliness. A study's internal validity is a measure of how likely it is that its results can be attributed to the experimental manipulation, rather than to other causes. The finding that hypnosis changes brain processing demonstrates that individuals hypnotized to feel lonely probably experience a change in neural processing and psychological state, and do not merely respond in a way that they think a lonely person would respond

In Alzheimer's disease, the hippocampus is one of the first regions of the brain to suffer degeneration. Which of the following functions can be attributed to the hippocampus?

Memory

This does not acknowledge any roles for women apart from the domestic role and views women as inherently inferior to men

Old-fashioned sexism

Perhaps an individual participating in this study struggled with insomnia one night and now believes the condition will persist into the future. This is an example of:

Overgeneralization Overgeneralization occurs when an individual comes to a conclusion based on one episode or bit of evidence. In this scenario, the subject has recently experienced a single episode of insomnia and consequently believes he or she is prone to suffering from it in the future .

After a subarachnoid hemorrhage, the mechanism of action for ischemic damage in the brain is that the region downstream from the hemorrhage is no longer perfused with blood. Which of the following describes the most likely primary biochemical change that would result in cell death immediately after hemorrhage?

Oxygen uptake by the cell ceases, stopping ATP production.

Based on the information in the passage, between which layers of tissue in Figure 1 would we expect to find the Circle of Willis?

Pia mater and arachnoid membrane Blood vessels are located in between the pia mater and arachnoid membrane. In the passage, it is mentioned that the Circle of Willis is a network of arteries at the base of the cerebrum that is commonly the site of arterial rupture leading to SAH. Its anatomic location with respect to layers of tissue is not mentioned explicitly, but the fact that blood would accumulate in the subarachnoid space implies that the vessels reside here as well.

Suppose that an SAH patient presents with the following sequelae: problems initiating speech, mild depressive symptoms, and subtle personality changes, such as increased anger and impulsivity. Based on these symptoms, which of the following brain regions have most likely been affected by the SAH?

Portions of the frontal lobe, Broca's area, and the hypothalamic-pituitary axis The second paragraph of the passage indicates that damage to the pituitary gland and/or hypothalamus could disrupt proper endocrine function, thus leading to symptoms of depression. Finally, the prefrontal cortex (which is a portion of the frontal lobe) is responsible for personality; therefore, damage to a portion of the frontal lobe could generate personality changes such as increased impulsively and anger

Which type of bias is demonstrated by what the researchers paid their subjects?

Procedural bias Procedural bias refers to how information is obtained and may occur when researchers put some sort of pressure on subjects to provide responses. By offering monetary compensation of any amount to subjects, researchers used incentive to obtain results

Which of the following qualities would both a symbolic and a modern racist most likely value?

Protestant work ethic Both a symbolic and a modern racist would most likely value the Protestant work ethic. The ethic represents traditional American values of independence, self-reliance, and hard work

Which of the following is NOT a primary function of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)?

Providing oxygen to the brain Functions of Cerebrospinal Fluid: Reduction of brain ischemia Protection of the brain Electrolyte balance in the CNS

A researcher designed an experiment to test the interaction between bodily response and emotion. Subjects in Group 1 were asked to take a math exam without studying. Subjects in Group 2 were told to draw straws, and the person who drew the shortest straw would win a car. Subjects in both groups reported their physical and emotional experiences before and after the tasks. Both groups reported physiological anxiety before their tasks, but Group 1 experienced it negatively, while Group 2 felt positive anxiety. Which theory of emotion is being tested?

Schachter-Singer theory The Schachter-Singer theory of emotion states that similar bodily responses may be interpreted as different emotions depending on the particular scenario in which the response is stimulated. Both situations elicited anxiety, but the particular quality of the emotion and the interpretation of the emotion were dependent on the specific situation

With no interest in social relationships, a patient spends most of his time daydreaming alone in his room. According to the patient's parent, this individual seems detached and is indifferent to social norms and conventions. This patient most likely has which of the following personality disorders?

Schizoid personality disorder Individuals with schizoid personality disorder are indifferent, aloof, withdrawn, and often preoccupied with fantasy and/or excessive daydreaming

This arises when the sample is not representative of the population. As the passage indicated, the sample was unbiased and chosen at random:

Selection bias

This involves the maintaining of a positive worldview that enables the individual to reach his or her fullest potential:

Self-actualization

This occurs when a person behaves in a way that fulfills people's expectations about him or her

Self-fulfilling prophecy

This occurs when subjects skew their responses, often to impress or appease researchers. This type of bias may have occurred when subjects recorded journal entries, but it is not directly related to monetary compensation

Self-reporting bias

A woman walks into a kitchen where bread is baking and notices how good it smells. She stays in the room, but after a minute she does not notice the smell at all. What is the phenomenon that likely caused this?

Sensory Adaptation

Suppose that you are teaching your dog proper leash-walking etiquette using treats as positive reinforcement. You store your dog's treats in a plastic bag in the kitchen in a specific drawer, and begin to notice that your dog reacts by getting excited and wagging her tail every time she hears you open any plastic bag or sees you open any drawer in your kitchen. Further, she only gets excited in anticipation of a walk when you put on your boots, not when you put on any other pair of shoes. What might you suspect about your dog?

She has generalized the sound of the plastic bag She has discriminated the sight of your boots

The theory of "defense mechanisms" as a way for an individual to unconsciously deal with or avoid stressors was developed by which famous psychologist?

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud is traditionally credited with the idea of defense mechanisms as a way for an individual to either deal with or avoid a stressor or stressful situation; these include strategies such as repression, projection, regression, and sublimation.

Which of the following is the most plausible explanation for the high incidence of sleepwalking among first-degree relatives of sleepwalkers?

Sleepwalking is caused at least in part by a genetic abnormality. The strong tendency for sleepwalking to run in families, coupled with the substantially higher rate of concordance in identical twins than in fraternal twins, indicates a strong genetic component.

Which of the following could have been another process by which researchers in the 1980s thought that social relationships influenced health?

Social Learning The passage states that researchers in the 1980s thought that social relationships influenced health by influencing health behaviors. Individuals with friends would learn that, in order to stay healthy, one must eat properly, exercise, and maintain regular check-ups with a doctor. According to Bandura's social cognitive theory, individuals acquire knowledge by observing others. Thus, they learn adequate health behaviors through social learning

This involves deprivation of rights and opportunities that are normally given to members of a society

Social exclusion

Which idea best explains why children believe in gender differences that are similar to those their parents perceive?

Socialization Socialization is the process by which individuals learn the norms, roles, customs and values of the social group to which they belong; as children grow up, their parents influence them and teach them the social norms of their society, which causes children to acquire mindsets similar to those of their parents

These typically have effects opposite from those of opiates, including rapid speech, increased respiration, and pupil dilation

Stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine

Affirmative action attempts to address issues of societal injustice by providing educational and job opportunities and equal access for minority groups that have experienced discrimination (both currently and in the past). A modern racist would most likely assert all of the following EXCEPT:

Successful black individuals deserve more acknowledgement for their accomplishments than do successful white individuals. According to the third paragraph, "modern racists deny that discrimination against blacks still exists and resent blacks for gaining preferential treatment over whites"; Modern Racist would assert the following: Preferential treatment of black individuals is not fair to white individuals. Black individuals who are economically disadvantaged are lazy and don't work hard enough. Affirmative action for black individuals is not just.

In a focus group discussion, a young professional African American stated "and I think that, over time, the legend of Tuskegee is more palpable than what people know about what went down. I think I've always known. But I've always thought that the government gave people syphilis, and this is not true. The legend of Tuskegee serves as a representation of the historical mistreatment of African Americans in medical research, which individuals can refer to when addressing requests for research participation." The sociological theory that best represents the idea that this person is trying to convey is:

Symbolic interaction theory

This would play a role if the team members blamed the loss of the game on the black team captain because he wasn't working hard enough:

Symbolic racism

Research shows that 65% of parents habitually try to find the potential causes of their children's behavior. This is an example of:

The attribution theory Attribution theory describes what occurs when an individual tries to identify the causes underlying the behaviors and performances of others, which is what the parents in the passage attempted to do regarding their children's performances

The dependent variable in Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments was:

The behavior of the "teacher." In his obedience experiments Milgram wanted to see the extent of subjects' willingness to do what appeared to be harmful to another person. The subject was inevitably assigned the role of "teacher," and the confederate the role of "learner." The effect one wants to observe in an experiment is always considered the dependent variable, and, in this case, the behavior of the teacher-subject was what Milgram sought to observe

This is primarily associated with the smoothing and coordination of movement

The cerebellum

Joe was just fired from his job and then got into a car accident on the way home. When Max asks Joe for more information about the accident, Joe snaps at Max and makes an unkind remark. Max assumes that Joe is a mean person. Max is likely falling prey to:

The fundamental attribution error. In this situation, Max discounts the situational influences on Joe's behavior (i.e., losing his job and being in a car accident) and concludes that Joe's unkind remark is indicative of a dispositional trait, namely that he is a mean person. The tendency to discount situational attributions in favor of dispositional attributions when considering others' behavior is called the fundamental attribution error

This is responsible for controlling homeostatic endpoints (heart rate, body temperature, etc.) and many aspects of the endocrine system

The hypothalamus

This is involved with somatosensory processing

The parietal lobe

Which of the following is one of the primary issues impacting this study's internal validity?

There was no random group assignment. One of the primary rules of research is that, in a true experiment, random assignment is required in order to rule out any confounding variables present within the predetermined groups. Without random assignment, internal validity (which refers to how well the study is conducted, especially in terms of avoiding confounding variables) is compromised.

According to the principles of Gestalt psychology, which of the following is true about our perception of the image in Figure 1?

We are likely to perceive a three-dimensional object rather than a flat series of lines and shapes We are likely to perceive two alternate interpretations, one wherein the bottom square is the front of the cube and one wherein the bottom square is the back of the cube

Individuals with damage to this area of the brain have NO problem generating speech, but the speech is incoherent.

Wernicke's area

Which of the following correctly characterizes the responses and stimuli in this classical conditioning experiment? During the experiment, participants were shown a series of photos. These photos contained "neutral" stimuli, such as pictures of books, shoes, furniture, or plants. However, the background color of the photos was manipulated to be either yellow or green. Photos with yellow backgrounds were paired with an electric shock, whereas photos with green backgrounds were not.

Yellow backgrounds (CS), electric shocks (UCS), fear of yellow backgrounds (CR), fear of electric shocks (UCR). In general, human beings and animals would fear an electric shock. Consequently, the shock is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and the fear response to the shock is an unconditioned response (UCR). When the shock is paired with a seemingly neutral stimulus (a photo with a yellow background), the brain associates the fear of the shock with the yellow background. Consequently, the yellow background becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS), and the fear response becomes a conditioned response.

When an individual is uncomfortable due to a contradiction between two attitudes that he or she holds, or a contradiction between an attitude and a behavior, he or she is experiencing:

cognitive dissonance cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable mental state that an individual experiences when he or she has conflicting attitudes or a conflict between an attitude and a behavior

A psychiatrist might diagnose a patient with disorganized schizophrenia because the patient shows signs of:

social isolation, inept movement, and hallucinations