Psych Exam #1

Jeremy is studying for his final exam. Lauren has taken psychology and gives him a good tip about the best way to study. She correctly says

"As you study, connect the information to something personal."

Evan is in preschool and uses over regularization when speaking. Which of the following is he most likely to say?

"He hitted me with a stick."

Four psychologists, each from a different psychological perspective, are eating dinner. They notice their waitress is crying. When the waitress leaves, they each provide an explanation for why she is crying. What did the humanistic psychologist most likely say?

"She thinks her job is harming her personal growth and preventing her from realizing her full potential."

Brian has three children with very different personality traits. Even with such different personality traits, Brian sees strong maturation effects. Which of the following has Brian most likely observed?

All three children learned to walk at about 12 months of age.

Which statement best captures historical trends in cognitive psychology?

Before the 1980s, cognitive psychology emphasized the mind; today, it focuses on both the mind and the brain.

Regarding the factors potentially influencing behavior, which of the following statements is true?

Behavior reflects an interaction between genetics and the environment.

Which of the following best summarizes the main function(s) of your nervous system?

It allows you to receive sensory information, process that information, and then respond to it.

Rick and Stacy want to get a stimulating mobile for their newborn daughter's crib. If they want the baby to pay attention to the mobile, which of the following sounds should they record to play in the mobile?

Stacy's voice

What might happen to a person born with a dysfunction of the endocrine system?

The person would experience problems with sexual development.

Why do monozygotic twins have different phenotypes?

They have nonshared environments.

The person who established the first psychology laboratory, which marked the beginning of experimental psychology, was

Wilhelm Wundt.

An extensive study of a single person or a few people is characteristic of

a case study.

Akina is conducting a study on learning. When she manipulates a variable, it is possible that some other factor, such as noise in the hall, can affect learning in one of the groups but not in the other. This possibility reflects the presence of

a confound.

Which of the following is a specific, testable prediction?

a hypothesis

If a researcher wants to be able to generalize about a population using data pulled from a sample, it is best to use

a random sample.

When Kate's grandma leans over the crib with a toy in her hand, eight-month-old Kate grasps it and pulls on it. When Kate's mom hangs a set of animals across the crib, Kate reaches up, grabs them, and pulls them down. Kate seems to be working on ________ for grasping and pulling.

a schema

Nora took her young son Alfred to the zoo, where he pointed to a zebra and said, "Look, Mommy, a horse!" Nora replied, "That is not a horse; that is a zebra. See, it has black and white stripes." ... In this situation, Henry's development of a zebra schema required

accommodation.

Baby George's mother leaves him sitting in the grocery cart as she goes around the corner searching for cake mix. George screams as she leaves, reaches for her when she returns, but then pushes her away. George's behavior is most consistent with a(n) ________ attachment style.

ambivalent

Which of the following brain structures plays an important role in how we respond to fearful things?

amygdala

Liz wants to show that watering her flower more in the morning causes the flowers to last longer. Which type of study should Liz use?

an experiment

Simon is learning about the alphabet. He learns the letter O because it is round. If Simon sees the letter C and thinks it is the letter O because it is round, ________ has occurred. If he sees the letter C and thinks it must be a different letter because it is NOT completely round, ________ has occurred.

assimilation; accommodation

The psychological approach that emphasizes the role of the environment in influencing behavior is

behaviorism.

Dr. Alvarez studies how the degeneration of nerve cells in the brain might contribute to the development of multiple sclerosis. Dr. Alvarez's work best exemplifies the ________ subfield of psychology.

biological

Your little brother has blue eyes. His eye color is the result of

both his genotype and his environment

With respect to the nature/nurture debate, psychologists now believe that ________ is/are important in understanding the mind, brain, and behavior.

both nature and nurture

Damage to the ________ might cause problems with coordination and balance.

cerebellum

The type of psychologists who study, assess, and treat individuals with psychological disorders are called ________ psychologists.

clinical

Your nephew is fascinated with human memory and the strategies that help people remember large amounts of information. If he were to become a psychologist, you suspect that he would be best suited for a career in

cognitive psychology or neuroscience.

Kara explains to her roommate why Harry Harlow's experiments were so important to explaining an infant's socio-emotional development. Kara correctly says that his results demonstrate that

comforting touch is more important than food, particularly when an infant is stressed.

"Should people have access to data collected in an experiment?" This question is associated with the ethical issue of

confidentiality.

The more time Joanna dedicated to preparing her exams, the better her scores on exams. This fact illustrates a(n)

correlation

The variable that a researcher measures in an experiment is called the

dependent variable.

Eugene is 88 years old. With which of the following tasks is he most likely to have difficulty?

driving while talking on a cell phone

The belief that the mind and body are separate but intertwined describes

dualism

Lisa has problems sleeping, so she goes to a sleep clinic. At the clinic the researchers measure her brain's electrical activity as she sleeps by using the technique of

electroencephalographs (EEGs).

Trevor observes the world around him and measures various aspects of it to gain new knowledge. Trevor is learning about the world by using

empiricism.

When a researcher manipulates a variable to see what effect the manipulation has on another variable, the research design is a(n)

experiment.

Wilhelm randomly assigns participants to two groups and compares the group that receives a treatment with the group that receives no treatment. The group that gets the treatment is the ________ group.

experimental

While he is in the waiting room at the doctor's office, Arthur tries to classify infants' attachment based on their behavior. He is certain that the baby girl is securely attached because she

explores the unfamiliar room and the objects in it while staying in view of her mother.

Taylor was in a car accident when she was six months pregnant. Her doctors are worried that the accident may have caused problems with prenatal development because she is in the ________ period.

fetal

Brad has experienced a relatively severe left hemisphere stroke. As a result, he is unable to move his right arm and has a great deal of difficulty with planning and attention. The stroke most likely caused damage to the ________ lobes.

frontal

According to Maguire and colleagues' study on the brain structures of London taxi drivers, which part of a taxi driver's brain is more likely to be larger than normal?

hippocampus

If Mike wants to use the scientific method, he would use all of the following elements EXCEPT

his personal experiences.

Sean is studying psychology. He decides to use the biological level of analysis to interpret his findings. Sean is most likely examining

how depression results in chemical changes in the brain.

Nicholas is an infant researcher and wants to use the strange-situation test in his work. Nicholas is most likely interested in seeing

how infants respond to separation and reunion with their caregivers.

A researcher believes that presenting possible suspects in a lineup one at a time instead of in a group would lead to more accurate identification of the true suspect. This belief represents a(n)

hypothesis.

Andre is writing an introductory psychology essay on Piaget's theory of cognitive development. He should criticize the original theory for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that

infants do not learn about the world through their senses.

Before psychologists can begin a research project, they must receive approval from the

institutional review board

If you are asked to list all the thoughts and experiences you have while answering a test question, you would be engaging in

introspection.

If a new drug interferes with how the neurotransmitter acetylcholine functions, then the drug

is an antagonist.

Sampson is a physician who sees many elderly patients. He is likely to notice decreases in their cognitive functioning in all of the following ways EXCEPT

knowledge of basic facts.

Bill and his sister Ann are twins; however, they cannot be

monozygotic twins

Neurons are able to communicate when

neurotransmitters cross the synapse and bind with receptors on the postsynaptic dendrite.

In psychology, the cultural level of analysis emphasizes the study of

norms and values

A child gets a severe blow to the head from an accident. Although her eyes are still fully functional, she can no longer see. Based on this information, her doctor determines that the brain area most likely damaged in the accident is the ________ lobes.

occipital

The precise way a researcher measures and defines a variable is known as the

operational definition.

After cautiously walking home and arriving safely from her late-night class, Selma notices that both her heart rate and breathing slow down. This automatic return to a normal state is due to the activity of her ________ nervous system.

parasympathetic

An instructor looking at the faces of the students in his or her class is also looking at

phenotypes.

The idea that the brain is extremely malleable and is continuously changing as a result of injury, experiences, or substances is known as

plasticity

Andy decides to help his friend with his homework because he thinks the friend will then "owe" him and will do something for Andy later on. According to Kohlberg, Andy is exhibiting ________ moral reasoning.

pre-conventional

Kane and MJ are sitting across from each other drawing pictures of their family room. When asked to draw the family room from MJ's perspective, Kane draws a picture of what he can see himself. Kane is likely in the ________ stage of cognitive development.

pre-operational

A child is playing at the beach. She pours an equal amount of sand into both a short, fat container and a tall, thin container. When asked which container holds more sand, the child points to the tall, thin container. This response suggests that she is most likely in the ________ stage of cognitive development.

preoperational

The unconscious mind influences human behavior, according to

psychoanalytic theory.

Because psychologists generally use college students as research participants, the research does NOT involve

random sampling.

Because Elle becomes aware that all of the adults are watching her as she plays, she starts to act silly and make funny noises. Her behavior is called

reactivity

In reuptake, neurotransmitters are reabsorbed into the presynaptic neuron, which

removes the neurotransmitter from the synapse, and stops stimulation of receptors.

Research shows that marriage has psychosocial benefits for the couple. Research has found support for all of the following findings EXCEPT that

same-sex married couples show fewer of the benefits of marriage.

Investigators who are interested in studying attitudes and would like to gain a lot of information very quickly are likely to use

self-reports.

Darryl thinks that playing peek-a-boo is hilarious! He does not know where his mom goes during the game, but it excites him when he sees her face again. Darryl is most likely in Piaget's ________ stage of development.

sensorimotor

The thalamus receives nearly all sensory information before relaying it to the cortex. What is the one sensation that is the exception to this rule?

smell

Psychological science occurs at which level(s) of analysis?

social individual biological

When you paint with a paintbrush, your brain sends messages to your finger muscles so that your fingers move in specific ways. This example illustrates the functions of the ________ system.

somatic nervous

Dr. Leleux asserts that psychologists should attempt to identify the basic elements of mental experience. Dr. Leleux's beliefs are most closely matched with the school of thought called

structuralism

Dr. Bomo would like to test whether her study guide helps students have better performance on exams. She randomly assigns participants.. performance of each student is measured on an exam. What is the dependent variable in this study?

students' performance on the exam

Critical thinking is best defined as thinking that

systematically evaluates information.

Functionalism is the school of thought concerned with

the adaptive purposes of the mind and behavior.

In correlational studies, there is ambiguity as to which variable is the cause and which is the effect. This phenomenon is known as

the directionality problem.

Which of the following is the best definition of psychology?

the study of mental activity and behavior based on brain processes

Gestalt theory is based on the idea that

the whole is different from the sum of its parts.

Sally is playing ball with her friend Anne. When Anne leaves the ball on the couch and goes to the bathroom, Sally hides the ball behind the TV. she understands Anne has her own thoughts and intentions that are different from Sally's. Sally has developed

theory of mind