Psychology Questions

At the beginning of the school year, groups of college students were asked to predict a variety of their own social behaviors such as calling their parents or voting in an election. The students reported being 84 percent confident in their self-predictions. However, they correctly predicted their own behavior only 71 percent of the time. This human tendency is known as:

Overconfidence

This term is Latin for "I shall please."

Placebo

This may occur when subjects receive more benefit from the human contact of a research study than from the actual treatment under clinical investigation.

Placebo Effect

Professor Schroeder argues that children's innate concept of justice enables them to make distinctions between fair and unfair rules. This argument is MOST consistent with the views of:

Plato

One important point to remember is that just because a difference between two treatment groups is found to be statistically significant, it does not mean that the difference has:

Practical Significance

The problem with common sense is that it is "after the fact." In other words, common sense does not help us:

Predict the Future

Jim is a 43-year-old male presenting with auditory hallucinations, paranoid thoughts of persecution, and claims of "special powers." Jim suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has not been taking his medication as prescribed. Dr. Verde is evaluating Jim and may admit him to the hospital so that she can restart his medications and monitor his response. Dr. Verde is MOST likely a:

Psychiatrist

If hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead one to overestimate one's intuition, what can help sift reality from illusions?

Scientific Inquiry

After the attacks on the United States in September 2001, a friend suggested that the CIA and FBI should have foreseen the likelihood of this form of terrorism. According to her, all the clues were there. This perception may illustrate:

The Hindsight Bias

Compared with the structuralists, early behaviorists were much LESS likely to focus on the study of:

Thinking

Who was the functionalist who authored the textbook Principles of Psychology for the emerging discipline of psychology?

William James

A unified understanding of explanations provided by the neuroscience, cognitive, social-cultural, and other psychological perspectives is MOST clearly provided by:

a biopsychosocial approach.

In a national survey, which would give the MOST reliable results?

a random sample of 3000 people from all areas of the country

A focus on how humans encode, process, store, and retrieve information is MOST relevant to the _____ perspective.

cognitive

A negative correlation between people's physical health and their marital happiness would indicate that:

higher levels of marital happiness are associated with lower levels of physical health.

Edward Titchener is to _____, as Sigmund Freud is to personality theory.

humanistic psychology

Structuralists introduced which research method to identify basic elements of the human mind?

introspection

Psychology is the scientific study of:

Behavior and Mental Processes

A focus on how humans learn observable responses is MOST relevant to the _____ perspective.

Behavioral

Jane and Sarah were watching the evening news when viewers were asked to call in about the city's proposal to raise taxes. Later in the broadcast, the results were posted. Both Jane and Sarah were skeptical of the 68 percent of the viewers who supported the tax increase. They wondered about the typicality of the people who called the television station. Jane and Sarah are demonstrating:

Critical Thinking

People who engage in _____ do not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Instead, they analyze assumptions, look into hidden values, and try to determine if conclusions are warranted.

Critical Thinking

Professor Bernstein conducts basic research on the progressive changes in infants' perceptual skills during the first year of life. Professor Bernstein is MOST likely a _____ psychologist.

Developmental

Both subjects and study sites participating in the Drug R Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) study are blinded as to whether the subject is receiving Drug R or the placebo. This is known as the:

Double-Blind Procedure

Understanding why a fear of darkness may have contributed to the survival of our human ancestors is MOST relevant to the _____ perspective.

Evolutionary

In science, the clearest way to isolate cause and effect is to conduct a(n):

Experiment

Albert decided that it was time to invest his money. He was quite excited and told his friends about his new financial venture. His wife was even supportive. Albert liked a number of riskier companies, but he decided to invest in the companies which had good financial standing. A year later, when five of the six companies went bankrupt, Albert's wife was furious and told him "Anyone could have seen these companies were going to fail." This is called:

Hindsight Bias

Martin's family suffered through two weeks of pain and suffering after a horrific car accident left him in a coma. Martin struggled for his life, and physicians predicted he would never wake up. On the 13th day, Martin did wake up. Martin's Aunt Marie proudly exclaimed, "I knew Marty would make it." This is called:

Hindsight Bias

Studies examining certain traits are helping to clarify the nature-nurture debate. For example, because _____ have the same genes, researchers often include them in studies that examine the relative influence of environment and heredity on these traits.

Identical Twins

_____ rejected the notion of inborn ideas, offering his notion that the mind is a blank sheet written on by experience.

John Locke

Who was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology?

Margaret Floy Washburn

A researcher is interested in determining if infant crying and caretaker responses are different in economically developed and developing nations. She trains her research assistants to watch and record babies' behaviors in 3-minute increments, including variations in crying (e.g., whimpering, pain cries), as well as caregiver responses (e.g., holding, speaking). The researcher then chooses 50 participants in four different countries to be included in the study. What type of research design is she using?

Naturalistic Observation

The instructor has asked students to create a study to examine the behavior of coyotes in a nearby preserve. If they are only interested in observing and recording behavior and do not care about detecting naturally occurring relationships or exploring cause and effect, which method would they choose?

Naturalistic Observation