Psychology Quizzes

Using scientific procedures to test whether watching violent movies increases the frequency of emotionally upsetting dreams best illustrates

an empirical approach.

Determining a cause-effect relationship is the main purpose of conducting

an experiment.

An experiment was designed to study the potential impact of alcohol consumption on emotional stability. A specification of the procedures used to measure emotional stability illustrates

an operational definition.

Stacey and her boyfriend had a fight earlier in the day. Although they made up after the fight, Stacey still feels angry hours later. Why is this?

Endocrine system messages last an extended period.

Who proposed that phrenology could reveal mental abilities and character traits?

Franz Gall

To identify which of Lucy's brain areas was most active when she talked, neuroscientists gave her a temporarily radioactive form of glucose and a(n)

PET scan

Which of the following is included in the ethics code of the APA for using human participants in research?

Researchers must fully debrief participants following participation in a research study, Researchers must keep personal information of participants confidential, Researchers must obtain potential participants' informed consent to participate, and Researchers must obtain potential participants' informed consent to participate.

Which of the following is NOT included in the ethics code of the APA for using human participants in research?

Researchers must report the results of individual participants.

Any drug molecule that occupies a neurotransmitter receptor site and blocks the neurotransmitter's effect is a(n)

antagonist.

The testing effect is sometimes called

both the retrieval practice effect and test-enhanced learning.

Human brain complexity arises from new systems built on top of older ones. The remnants of humanity's most distant past involve components of the

brainstem

Little Hans' extreme fear of horses was observed as part of a(n)

case study.

When an action potential reaches the end of an axon, an electrical impulse is then converted into a

chemical message.

For no apparent reason, Adam has recently begun to feel so tense and anxious that he frequently stays home from work. It would be best for Adam to contact a ________ psychologist.

clinical

The branch of psychology that can be considered a marriage between the science of the mind and the science of the brain is called

cognitive neuroscience.

Assessing how well one variable predicts another variable is to ________ as detecting cause-effect relationships between different variables is to _________.

correlational research; experimental research

Dr. Vazquez conducts a grief group for people who have lost a spouse within the past year. Dr. Vazquez is most likely a

counseling psychologist.

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.

Random assignment minimizes ________ between experimental and control groups. Random sampling minimizes ________ between a sample and a population.

differences; differences

The amygdala is responsible for the regulation of

emotion

Opiate drugs occupy the same receptor sites as

endorphins.

The first major issue that emerges in debates over experimenting on animals centers on the

ethics of placing the well-being of humans above that of animals.

The resting potential of an axon results from the fact that the axon's surface is

selectively permeable.

The knee-jerk reflex is controlled by interneurons in the

spinal cord.

The part of the central nervous system that carries information from your senses to your brain and motor-control information to your body parts is the

spinal cord.

Both the researchers and the participants in a memory study are ignorant about which participants have actually received a potentially memory-enhancing drug and which have received a placebo. This investigation involves the use of

the double-blind procedure.

To minimize the extent to which outcome differences between experimental and control groups can be attributed to placebo effects, researchers make use of

the double-blind procedure.

An axon is

the extension of a neuron that carries messages away from the cell body.

Research participants drank either caffeinated or decaffeinated beverages in a study of the effects of caffeine on anxiety levels. Those who received the caffeinated drinks were assigned to the ________ group.

experimental

Participants who are exposed to the treatment being tested in an experiment are said to be assigned to the

experimental group.

To identify which specific brain areas are most active during a particular mental task, researchers would be most likely to make use of a(n)

fMRI

William James was a prominent American

functionalist

Aristotle suggested the source of our personality is the

heart.

The biggest danger of relying on case-study evidence is that it

may be unrepresentative of what is generally true.

In the 1960s, the cognitive revolution in psychology involved a renewal of interest in the scientific study of

mental processes.

Blind echolocation experts who can use the brain's visual centers to process auditory signals best illustrate the value of

plasticity.

With assistance from the _________, the cerebellum ___________.

pons; coordinates voluntary movement

A negative correlation between degree of wealth and likelihood of suffering from a psychological disorder would indicate that

poor people are more likely to have a psychological disorder than are wealthy people.

Jessica is cooking dinner while studying for her upcoming class exam. Which brain area is involved in this multitasking?

reticular formation

The birth of psychology is often attributed to Wilhelm Wundt because he pioneered the investigation of mental processes using

scientific methods.

Any drug molecule that blocks the reuptake of a neurotransmitter is a(n)

agonist.

Our pleasurable "chills" response to a favorite piece of music is facilitated by the release of the neurotransmitter

Dopamine

Severing a cat's reticular formation from higher brain regions causes the cat to

Lapse into a coma

By measuring magnetic fields from the brain's natural electrical activity, researchers are able to understand how certain tasks are related to brain activity in certain areas. This technique is called a(n)

MEG

Which woman psychologist was the first to officially earn a doctorate degree?

Margaret Floy Washburn

Who was the American philosopher-psychologist who authored a textbook in 1890 for the emerging discipline of psychology?

William James

The case study is a research method in which

a single individual or group is studied in great depth.

An extensive survey revealed that children with relatively high self-esteem tend to picture God as kind and loving, whereas those with lower self-esteem tend to perceive God as angry. The researchers concluded that the children's self-esteem had apparently influenced their views of God. This conclusion best illustrates the danger of

assuming that association proves causation.

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

Observing and recording people's behavior as they are conditioned was of most central interest to

behaviorism.

Which perspective would suggest that the facial expressions associated with the emotions of lust and rage are inherited? The scientific study of mental activities associated with perceiving, processing, and remembering information is most central to

cognitive psychology.

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.

Factors other than those of interest that can potentially influence the results of a study are called

confounding variables.

Citing a recent report stating that "Eighty percent of prisoners in the United States were spanked as children" to support the idea that corporal punishment during childhood leads to criminal behavior in adulthood is problematic because

correlation does not prove causation.

Questioning whether conclusions are warranted by the existing evidence best illustrates

critical thinking.

After an experiment, research participants are told its purpose and about any deception they may have experienced. This is called

debriefing

The body's natural production of endorphins is likely to be

decreased by heroin use and increased by vigorous exercise.

An undersupply of serotonin is most closely linked to

depression.

Observing and recording behavior is the main purpose behind ________ research.

descriptive

The neural center in the limbic system that processes explicit memories for storage is called the

hippocampus

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow promoted a historically significant approach known as

humanistic psychology.

One of psychology's early mottos was "the rat is always right." Which aspect of the scientific attitude did this represent?

humility

James Olds and Peter Milner located reward centers in the brain structure known as the

hypothalamus

Dr. Lipka focuses on ways to improve employee job satisfaction and productivity. Dr. Lipka is most likely a(n) ________ psychologist.

industrial-organizational

Central nervous system neurons that process information between sensory inputs and motor outputs are called

interneurons.

Neural networks refer to

interrelated clusters of neurons in the central nervous system.

Research participants are asked to monitor and report their own immediate sensory reactions to differently colored objects. This research involves a technique known as

introspection.

Brad's doctor has discovered some defective cells in Brad's brain and his doctor has destroyed some of them. Which technique did the doctor use?

lesion

Surgical destruction of brain tissue is called a(n)

lesion

Professor Ober carefully observes and records the behaviors of children in their classrooms in order to track the development of their social and intellectual skills. Professor Ober is most clearly engaged in

naturalistic observation.

Innate ability is to learned skill as ________ is to ________.

nature; nurture

Which perspective would help us to understand the impact of strokes and brain diseases on memory?

neuroscience

Neuron-produced chemicals that carry messages to other neurons or to muscles and glands are called

neurotransmitters.

The chemical messengers released into the spatial junctions between neurons are called

neurotransmitters.

John B. Watson is to Edward Titchener as ________ is to ________.

observable behavior; inner sensations

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.

A theory is an explanation using an integrated set of principles that ________ observations and ________ behaviors or events.

organizes; predicts

The two major divisions of the nervous system are the central and the ________ nervous systems.

peripheral

A growth hormone that stimulates physical development is released by the

pituitary gland.

At the age of 22, Mrs. LaBlanc was less than 4 feet tall. Her short stature was probably influenced by the lack of a growth hormone produced by the

pituitary gland.

The master gland of the endocrine system is the

pituitary gland.

The hypothalamus influences the ________ to send messages to the ________.

pituitary; endocrine glands

In a study of the effects of drinking alcohol, some participants drank a nonalcoholic beverage that actually smelled and tasted like alcohol. This nonalcoholic drink was a

placebo

Professor Kurtines is researching the psychological benefit of friendships during adolescence. His research is best aligned with which approach to psychology?

positive psychology

Humanistic psychologists focused attention on the importance of people's

potential for growth.

The specialist most likely to have a medical degree is a

psychiatrist.

To help control for possible confounding variables, researchers use

random assignment.

Governor Donovan was greeted by large, enthusiastic crowds at all of his political rallies. As a result, he became overconfident about his chances of reelection. In this instance, the governor needs to be alerted to the value of

random sampling.

Those who survive a hippocampal brain tumor in childhood are likely to have difficulty ________ in adulthood.

remembering new information

Why might so many people believe the commonly accepted idea that roaches could survive a nuclear bomb?

repetition

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.

People from around the world are able to communicate through facial expressions, such as a smile or a frown. This demonstrates that

the same underlying processes guide people everywhere.

Testing hypotheses and refining theories in light of those tests is central to

the scientific method.

The self-correcting process for asking questions and observing nature's answers is known as

the scientific method.

Professor Shalet contends that parents and their children have similar levels of intelligence largely because they share common genes. His idea is best described as a(n)

theory

The distinctive feature of the psychodynamic perspective is its emphasis on

unconscious conflicts.

Participants in an experiment are said to be blind if they are uninformed about

which experimental treatment, if any, they are receiving.

Surveys indicate that people are less likely to support "welfare" than "aid to the needy." These somewhat paradoxical survey results best illustrate the importance of

wording effects