pracice exam AP psych
According to the drive-reduction theory, the aim of drive-reduction is
homeostasis
As a result of injury to her brain, Scarlett can no longer understand what people say to her, although she hears them. The region of the cerebral cortex most likely injured in Scarlett is
left temporal lobe
Bipolar disorder is most effectively treated with which type of psychotropic drug?
lithium carbonate
An individual with sight in only one eye lacks which of the following visual cues for seeing depth?
retinal disparity
Visual negative afterimages are one result of
sensory adaptation
The technique of strengthening behavior by reinforcing successive approximations is called
shaping
While sitting in English class, alarms on timers started going off in the back of the classroom and students were distracted, but the teacher kept teaching. As more alarms went off, one student got up and the teacher nodded to him. The student walked toward the back of the classroom and the teacher nodded. The student turned the alarm off, and the teacher thanked him. What operant conditioning process does this best illustrate?
shaping
As part of a research study, Sam and several of his peers are asked to fill out a 30-question form about study habits. Which of the following research methods is being used?
survey
Which of the following is most characteristic of individuals with schizophrenia?
Disordered thinking
According to Carl Rogers, the role of the therapist in person-centered therapy is to
unconditionally accept the client, so that the client's own desire for positive growth will flourish
The painful experience associated with termination of the use of an addictive substance is known as
withdrawal
Which of the following scenarios illustrates a variable ratio schedule of reinforcement?
Winning the lottery after playing many times
Which of the following techniques allows for the visual examination of living brain tissue without performing surgery?
computerized axial tomography
Which of the following is an example of metacognition? a Knowing the effectiveness of different strategies for learning formulas in calculus b Solving a complex problem in a slow, step-by-step way c Understanding the role of various parts of the brain involved in memory d Memorizing over one hundred words in a foreign language e Recognizing the faces of people after meeting them once
a. knowing the effectiveness of different strategies for learning formulas in calculus
The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's
absolute threshold
Activation of the sympathetic nervous system results in
an increase in respiratory rate
A complex pattern of organized, unlearned behavior that is species-specific is called
an instinct
Henry must unplug every electrical item in his house every time he leaves, including all televisions, lamps, clocks, and telephones. His behavior is considered
atypical
A college student would most likely draw on which of the following to recall her Sweet 16?
episodic memory
During REM sleep, which of the following is most likely to occur?
Suppressed muscle tone
The reliability of a test is best indicated by which of the following?
The consistency of the scores on repeated administrations of the test
Kirk conducts an experiment designed to answer the question, "Do boys have higher self-confidence than girls?" What experimental flaw did Kirk make?
There is no way for random assignment to occur.
Bailey remembers the colors in the light spectrum by recalling ROYGBIV. ROYGBIV is an example of
a mnemonic device
The change in the curvature of the lens that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances is called
accommodation
Which of the following tests is designed to measure an individual's knowledge of a subject?
achievement
Which of the following are the stages of Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome?
alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Rather than taking time to check the dictionary, Daniel used "i before e except after c" to decide the spelling of "receive." To solve his spelling problem, Daniel applied
an algorithm
The most well-adjusted and socially competent children tend to come from homes in which parents use which type of parenting style?
authoritative
If a woman who is a heavy smoker is given electric shocks every time she takes a puff from her cigarette, which of the following behavior modification techniques is being used?
aversive conditioning
According to Jean Piaget, the earliest stage at which a child is capable of using simple logic to think about events and objects is
concrete operational
Herman thinks teenagers are the ones who back up traffic on the expressway ramps because they are hesitant drivers and get into accidents more. Every time Herman sees lots of cars waiting to enter the expressway, he looks to see who is driving. If a teenager is the driver of the front car, he points it out to his wife and friends in his car. Herman is demonstrating
confirmation bias
The debate over whether development gradually occurs through the life span 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
After hearing this list of words, "night, snore, tired, bed, pillow, yawn, dark, toss, turn, blanket," subjects were asked to write down the words they heard. They frequently included the word sleep. This illustrates
contrsutive memory
The goal of rational-emotive therapy is to help clients
correct self-defeating thoughts about themselves and their lives
Barry is taking a psychology course and wants to know which type of research method is most appropriate for identifying cause and effect.
experiment
The view that human emotions are universal has been supported by the studies of
facial expressions
Abstract reasoning is most likely to be used in which of the following stages of cognitive development, proposed by Jean Piaget?
formal operational
Laney was baking cookies and could not find a rolling pin to flatten the cookie dough. The fact that Laney never thought to use a cup demonstrates
functional fixedness
On a fishing excursion, Hugo realizes he has mistakenly packed his mother's sewing box instead of his tackle box. He wants to fish, but returns home, instead, because he does not have any line or hooks. Hugo'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
Emily is a happily married woman with children, who works full-time outside the home while her husband cares for their children full-time. According to traditionalists, he has adopted the wrong
gender role
Although a chimpanzee was trained to kick a yellow ball, it now kicks at a red, green, and orange ball, too. This behavior indicates the kicking behavior has been
generalized
Elizabeth stares at a red spot for one minute and then shifts her gaze to a white piece of paper. Elizabeth is most likely to experience an afterimage that is
green
Sam told his psychologist he heard his cat telling him to kill his mother. Hearing the cat talking is an example of
hallucination
Which of the following brain structures plays a key role in transferring information from short-term memory to long-term memory?
hippocampus
Theories of motivation that assert the existence of a biological motive to maintain the body in a steady state are explaining
homeostasis
Freud's personality structure that contains psychic energy to power all personality systems and is guided by the pleasure principle is the
id
The primary role of the myelin sheath is to
increase the velocity of conduction of the action potential across the axon
Which depth cue best explains that we are able to perceive a tall building to be in front of mountains a few miles away?
interposition
Emily babysits because she likes to be helpful, whereas Helene babysits strictly for money. Their behaviors demonstrate the difference between
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
One criticism of Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stages of development is that it
is based on empirically unverifiable data
Which of the following is true of the reticular activating system?
it regulates levels of arousal
The region of the brain most involved with emotions is the
limbic system
The gradual unfolding of development, which naturally occurs with little or no environmental influences, such as reinforcement, is known as
maturation
A word or part of a word that is meaningful, yet cannot be broken into a smaller meaningful unit is called a
morpheme
Jackie has an unwarranted sense of self-worth, brags about everything she does and has, and has a need to be admired and center of attention. Jackie's personality is characteristic of
narcissistic personality disorder
Acetylcholine, dopamine, and epinephrine are all
neurotransmitters that excite or inhibit a neural signal across a synapse
Josie watched her mother cook dinner, then went to her playhouse, made believed she was cooking the same dinner, and served it to her dolls. Josie learned to cook and serve like her mother through
observational learning
Persistent repetitive thoughts that cannot be controlled are known as
obsessions
Chemical energy is transduced to the electrochemical energy of neural impulses at the
olfactory mucosa
After several trials, during which a dog is given a certain kind of food at the same time a specific bell is sounded, there is evidence of conditioning if the dog salivates when
only the specific bell is presented
The part of the cerebral cortex that receives information about pressure, temperature, touch, and pain is the
parietal lobe
Ben is filled with unconscious anger and hostility and frequently describes his supervisor and colleagues at work as being hostile. Ben is exhibiting
projection
Which of the following perspectives attributes abnormal behavior to failure to resolve unconscious conflicts?
psychoanalytic
After Sandra's boyfriend broke up with her, Sandra made herself a hot fudge brownie sundae with five scoops of ice cream and tons of whipped cream. Which defense mechanism is Sandra demonstrating?
regression
Light therapy, consisting of exposure to bright light in the morning, has been successful in relieving symptoms of
seasonal affective disorder
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
Positive airway pressure has been found to be a useful treatment of
sleep apnea
In her class, Mrs. Canon requires her students to read their written responses aloud. She has found that the writing is better when students have to read it in front of their classmates. This is best explained by
social facilitation
Madison is asked to listen to a series of tones presented in pairs and to say whether the tones in each pair are the same or different in pitch. In this situation, the experimenter is most likely measuring Madison'
sound localization ability
A person with agoraphobia is best described as an individual who
suffers from an irrational fear and avoidance of public places
Which of the following is a behavioral therapy that has proven successful in treating phobias?
systematic desensitization
The occipital lobes contain
the visual cortex
According to attribution theory, which of the following best reflects Carlos' explanation if he justifies his ticket for speeding by explaining he had an emergency at home?
Situational attribution
The place in the retina where the optic nerve exits the brain is called the
blind spot
After Amy got home from the softball buffet, at which she stuffed herself, she went straight to the bathroom and made herself throw up. She does this every time she binges on food. Amy thinks about food a lot, craves sweets, and is considered of average weight. Amy is most likely suffering from
bulimia nervosa
Social learning experiments that have focused on the modeling of aggressive behavior have demonstrated that
children can develop aggressive behavior by watching others perform aggressive behavior
Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development is best describe as an explanation that
children progress from a morality based on reward and punishment to ultimately one based on abstract ethical ideals and principles
Electroconvulsive therapy has been most successful in the treatment of
clinical depression
The tendency of most people to identify a three-sided figure as a triangle, even when one of the sides is not completely connected, is the result of the perceptual process known as
closure
The DSM-5
defines categories of mental disorders in terms of the disorder symptoms
Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues have used the visual cliff to measure an infant's ability to perceive
depth
A modern perspective that attempts to explain the roots of psychological disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia, emphasizes the interaction between genetic predispositions and environmental triggers is called the
diathesis-stress model
The failure of witnesses to offer help to victims of roadside breakdowns is sometimes explained by
diffusion of responsibility
A teacher asks students to think of as many uses for a rock as possible. By listing 75 uses, most of which the class finds new and unusual, Jenny is displaying
divergent thinking
Which of the following has been most effective in the treatment of schizophrenia?
drug therapy that blocks dopamine receptor sites
Which of the following technologies enables psychologists to visualize brain activity?
fMRI and PET
According to the cognitive theory, depression results from
maladaptive interpretations of life events
This school year, Ethan, a sophomore, was promoted to the varsity football team and assigned a new locker with a new combination. Ethan has found that he has trouble remembering his new combination because it is similar to his old one. Ethan is most likely experiencing
proactive interference
Which of the following is an activity based in the right hemisphere of the brain for most people?
simple spatial reasoning
Hunger and eating are primarily regulated by which of the following?
the hypothalamus
In a normal distribution,
the mean is equal to the mode
Which of the following situations best exemplifies the defense mechanism of reaction formation?
A woman who is unaware of her anger toward her friend expresses affection for that friend.
Which of the following helps to explain how a parent interprets his or her child's misbehavior—as a result of the situation or disposition?
Attribution theory
The students walked out of the school in a large crowd. A younger student fell and dropped her books in the middle of the crowd, but no one stopped to help her. Which concept best reflects this phenomenon?
Bystander effect
Which of the following concepts helps explain why people sometimes behave more aggressively in crowds than they would if they were by themselves?
Deindividuation
An elementary teacher asked her students to put away the items on their desks. They happily complied. She then asked them to organize the bookcase in the room. Again, they happily complied. Then she asked them to vacuum the carpet and wipe down all the surfaces. What strategy did this teacher use to get her students to comply?
Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Knowing how to tie your shoe is stored in which type of memory?
Implicit
According to Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis, which of the following is true?
Individuals who speak different languages are predisposed to think about the world in different ways due to their different languages.
The concept of emotional intelligence is most similar to which of Howard Gardner's intelligences?
Interpersonal and intrapersonal
