Psychology questions - Capparelli, Mezo

Because none of us wants to believe we are wrong, we are usually reluctant to give up cherished notions. This phenomenon is known as _______

belief perseverance

The phrase "don't confuse me with the facts" would best describe which self-deception trap

belief perseverance : (accepting what you believe even though facts prove it wrong)

An astute observer of human nature should state research questions in a manner that leads either to their being supported or refuted by the available evidence. This is the critical thinking principle of _________

falsifiability

A ______ psychologist works in prisons, jails, and other settings to assess inmates and assist in rehabilitation

forensic

Which school of thought is most like evolutionary psychology, concerned with the adaptive functions of psychological characteristics

Functionalism

With its concern on the adaptive functions provided by the various psychological characteristics, evolutionary psychology is most like what early psychological school of thought?

Functionalism

What is the term used to explain why different people may respond to the same situation in different ways?

Individual differences

What famous American psychologist also heavily influenced the field of advertising

John Watson

An important principle of scientific thinking states that is two explanations account equally well for a phenomenon, we should generally select the simpler one. This principle is known as _______

Occam's Razor

The tendency to perceive meaningful connections among unrelated data is called

Patternicity

Which of the following ideas is the most compelling evidence against the idea of free will

People often lack direct access to the causes of their behavior

What term refers to claims that appear to be scientific but are not?

Pseudoscience

Imagine you are one of the early graduate students in new field of psychology. Your mentor is interested in answering a question like "what parts of the brain are associated with emotional experiences?" Additionally, your mentor is interested in the role of introspection, concerned with the makeup of consciousness. Your mentor's approach is most consistent with which perspective?

Psychoanalysis

Mary constantly tells her partner, Nick, that his playing video games bothers her. She tends to constantly tell him to be more present when they spend time together. Her comments cause Nick to tune her out, which causes her to tell him even more. This bidirectional pattern of influence is called

Reciprocal determinism

An approach to psychology that relied heavily on dream interpretation, symbolism, unconscious motives, and the suppression of sexual and aggressive urges was developed by _______

Sigmund Freud

Freud is to psychoanalysis as is ____ to behaviorism

Watson

The idea that we can dismiss scientific scientific theories (such as Darwinism evolution) from serious consideration because a theory "is just an educated guess" is ______

a misconception

A psychologist is often skeptical of claims suggesting that ________

a particular behavior is the result of a single casual variable

Of the 3,500 or so self-help books published every year, what percentage are scientifically tested?

about 5 percent

According to astronomer Carl Sagan, scientific skepticism includes (1) a willingness to keep an open mind to all claims, and (2) a willingness to _______

accept claims only after researchers have been subjected them to careful scientific tests

If you were conducting a study designed to determine which type of psychotherapy is most effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, what type of research would you employ

applied

The idea of placing a third brake light at the base of a car's back windshield and changing the color of fire engines from red to yellow are examples of _____

applied psychological research

Georgio does not want to take the SAT or ACT exams because he thinks they will not accurately reflect his ability to succeed in college and are no more useful than flipping a coin. His guidance counselor explains that psychologists have determined that, although not perfect, these tests are significantly better than chance at predicting college success. These psychologists are sharing some ________ with Georgio

applied research

What type of psychologist is most likely to work with patients who have serious mental disorders such as depression?

clinical psychologist

One reason that intuition and common sense are not a good basis for scientific psychology is that we often do not notice ________

contradictions between our views

In an experiment, the group of subjects to which the experimental group is compared is called the

control group

A friend says he will not have his new baby inoculated against any childhood diseases because he is afraid the shots will cause autism. You point out that there is no scientific evidence to support that idea. He says he know that, but he just feels that it is true. What logical fallacy is at work?

emotional reasoning fallacy

Science begins with the premise that knowledge should first be acquired through observation. This premise is called ______

empiricism

Dr. Frohardt is a psychology professor who has been asked to explain what all people look at first when they view photographs of dangerous animals. Dr. Frohardt will find this task difficult because

eye-tracking studies show differences between cultures when inspecting visual materials

When we perceive a reliable association between two events (although none exists), such as the presence of rainy weather and arthritis flare-ups, we are experiencing the phenomenon called ______

illusory correlation

Time, expertise, and resources are all obstacles that ______

increase reliance on authorities

To determine if sugar-rich diets affect hyperactivity in kids, a researcher prepared two daily menus that children would receive for a 30-day period. A high-sugar diet was given to the boys, while the girls had a menu that seemed identical but was not a high sugar diet. At thee end of 30 days, the boys and girls were evaluated to determine their levels of hyperactivity. In the study, the high-sugar diet is the _______

independent variable

Wilhelm Wundt developed the first full-fledged psychological laboratory in 1879 in Leizig, Germany. He pioneered the technique of ________, in which trained observers reflected on and reported on their own mental experiences

introspection

Evolutionary psychology has been criticized because

its predictions are difficult to falsify

Ways of thinking that appear to make intuitive sense but are actually traps that lead to mistaken conclusions are called ________

logical fallacies

A group of animal behaviorists has discovered several new species of insects in the Amazon jungle. They collect the new species for later study back at the camp. Due to advances in computer technology, they are able to transfer their findings immediately to other researchers studying insects. Their willingness to share these findings with other scientists shows their commitments to _____

peer review

According to David Hume, an eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, the more a claim contradicts what we already know, the more ____ must be the evidence for the claim

persuasive

Just as behaviorism was gaining popularity in the US, Sigmund Freud was founding a new field of psychology, one that focused on internal psychological processes such as unconscious impulses, thoughts, and memories. This approach is called _______

psychoanalysis

In the natural world, there often are many different factors associated with the occurence of a particular outcome. Therefore it is important that we as critical thinkers ________ whenever possible

rule out rival hypotheses

Dr. Wolpe designs an experiment test of his theory of aggression against a competing theory. After conducting the appropriate statistical tests, he finds that the data are better explained by the competing theory. His willingness to accept the evidence that another theory is superior is a characteristic of _______

scientific skepticism

As part of an assignment, Bill's class was asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire on sexual discrimination. Which research method was Bill's professor using

survey

Research in which a carefully selected group of people is asked a set of predetermined questions in interviews or through questionnaires is known as

survey research

A researcher tests the hypothesis that students who study in the room where they take their tests will perform better on the tests than students who study in other rooms. She requires one group to study in the classroom where the exam is given and another group to study in the library. All students take the test in the classroom, and their test performance is compared. In this example, test performance is

the dependent variable

What term is best described as being generated as a result of past research, and is used to guide future expectations?

theory