AP Psych
Diane is very disciplined and usually completes the goals she sets for herself. How would a trait theory of personality and a social cognitive theory of personality differ in their explanations of Diane's behavior?
A trait theory might say that Diane is highly conscientious, whereas a social cognitive theory might say that Diane's belief about her own self-efficacy drives her behavior.
Which scenario is most closely related to the results of the 1973 Rosenhan study?
After Andy received a diagnosis of bulimia nervosa, his family interpreted all of his behaviors as symptoms of his diagnosis.
The best example of a biological predisposition to learning is which of the following?
After Ted got sick from eating sushi from the deli, he became nauseous whenever he thought of eating sushi.
An example of a failure of source monitoring is
Amir telling Jorge the same story Jorge told him earlier in the week, because Amir forgot Jorge already told him the story
Since her father's death, Nina has become dangerously thin because she exercises compulsively and strictly limits her eating. Based on these symptoms, Nina would most likely be diagnosed with what disorder?
Anorexia nervosa
After surveying 100 parents, researchers concluded that 90 percent of babies can walk by the age of 10 months. Why is this an inappropriate conclusion?
At 10 months, ninety percent of toddlers have not reached the developmental milestones to walk.
Geraldine goes through a few weeks of feeling so sad that she can barely summon the energy to leave her bed. Then she will have an extended period of energy and productivity, during which she barely sleeps. Geraldine would most likely be diagnosed with what disorder?
Bipolar disorder
Who is most clearly demonstrating the false-consensus effect?
Blanche, who is open about her political views because she assumes everyone agrees with her
A biochemical influence on aggression is represented by
Brian becoming less aggressive as his testosterone levels decrease with age
Which of the following most likely emphasized listening intently and feeling positively about a client no matter what the client did in therapy?
Carl Rogers
Bree, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, remains motionless for hours despite her family's attempts to interact with her. What symptom is Bree demonstrating?
Catatonia
Which of the following is an example of a key element of Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development?
Catherine finally realized her grandfather is her father's father.
Audra is working on a puzzle book and comes across the following figure. The Gestalt law that would affect Audra's perception of the picture above is influenced by the law of
Closure
Studies have shown that identical twins raised together are more similar in relation to when they meet normative physical milestones than identical twins raised apart. Studies have also shown that identical twins are more similar in relation to when they meet normative physical milestones than ordinary siblings. What research method and explanation best fit the studies and their results?
Correlational research, because both heredity and environment are important in development.
Dr. Ramen recruited 100 adults to participate in her study. The taste buds of each participant were measured, and the participants tasted a number of foods. She found there was a relationship between the size of a participant's taste buds and the number of foods that a participant could taste. What research method did Dr. Ramen use, and what was she most likely studying?
Correlational; the sensitivity of supertasters
Which hormone is released when a person is under stress?
Cortisol
Arthur is helping his friend set up her new phone. Arthur has never used this type of phone, but he uses his knowledge of setting up his own phone to help figure out how to use the new phone. According to Robert Sternberg's triarchic theory of intelligence, Arthur is using which type of intelligence?
Creative intelligence
Crystal has three children she loves and cares for very much. Denise has two children that she neglects. Crystal's children are very friendly and talk to people more often than Denise's children. Which of the following is the likely result of the children's attachment to their mothers?
Crystal's children will have better socialization skills.
Kimmie stood on the sidewalk rather than crossing the street because she saw that the approaching car was quite close to her. Which of the following concepts is best illustrated in this example?
Depth perception
When Jordan was one year old, he and his father were in a car accident. Neither he nor anyone else in the car was seriously injured, and as an adult he has no memory of the event, though his father developed anxiety around cars as a result. Jordan is now 26 years old. Despite not having been in any car accidents since he was one year old, Jordan has recently begun experiencing anxiety every time he gets in a car. According to psychoanalytic theories of personality, why is Jordan experiencing anxiety?
Despite not having any conscious memory of the accident, he remembers it in his subconscious, and that has begun to cause his anxiety.
Dr. Keeler believes that a strong therapeutic alliance causes positive therapeutic outcomes. He tests this hypothesis by randomly assigning individuals seeking therapy to either work with a therapist or work through a therapy workbook and then measuring the reduction in symptoms after eight weeks. Dr. Keeler concludes that therapy is beneficial to anyone experiencing psychological problems. Why is Dr. Keeler's conclusion invalid?
Dr. Keeler conducted his study from individuals seeking out therapy; therefore, his results are not applicable to the general population.
What most accurately describes Leon Festinger's results in his classic experiment on cognitive dissonance?
Festinger asked participants to complete a boring task and rewarded them with either a large amount or a small amount of money for completing it. Those who received a small amount of money were more likely than those who received a large amount to rate the task as enjoyable.
Scott is undergoing psychoanalysis to try to deal with his severe anxiety. What technique is his therapist likely to use?
Free association
Which of the following examples is most consistent with the theory that executive functioning provides the basis for general intelligence?
Geoff is able to easily remember a long list of instructions after hearing them only once and also scores higher than average on intelligence tests.
Giraldo is unhappy at work. One explanation that is consistent with psychoanalytic theories of personality is that
Giraldo feels critical of his choice not to go to college, and his defense mechanism is to blame his job for his unhappiness
Dr. Dameron wants to test whether the Yerkes-Dodson law holds true for the players on a college basketball team. Dr. Dameron will manipulate arousal in the players by giving them different doses of caffeine. Which method would best allow Dr. Dameron to test the causal effects of arousal on performance in the players, and what results should he expect to find?
Give three different groups of players low, medium, and high doses of caffeine during a practice game. The performance of the medium-dose group is predicted to be best.
Which of the following best illustrates the most predictable effect of schemas on perception?
Grant has more difficulty recognizing a penguin as a bird than he does a blue jay.
Which of the following correctly explains the evidence (as well as the person responsible for the discovery) that stress leads to three distinct stages of physiological change: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion?
Hans Selye conducted a study measuring cortisol and blood sugar levels in rats during different amounts of time living under stressful conditions.
Michael is a kindergartner who is habitually very kind to his classmates and always wants to play with others, even if it means sharing his toys. However, every morning when his mother leaves him at school, he becomes very upset and cries for a half hour. How would a trait theorist most likely characterize his relative levels of extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness?
High on extraversion; high on neuroticism; high on agreeableness
Dr. Freddy believes that the development of schizophrenia is solely caused by biological factors. Which of the following is NOT accounted for by this belief?
If one member of a set of identical twins develops schizophrenia, the other twin has an almost 50 percent chance of also developing schizophrenia.
Which of the following is true of the American Psychological Association?
It addresses a number of ethical guidelines for the practice of psychology.
Which of the following best describes a major role of the thalamus?
It relays most sensory signals to the cortex.
Which of the following best illustrates the research on how certain characteristics of physical attractiveness influence interpersonal attraction regardless of culture?
Joseph is attracted to Kent because his face possesses a high degree of symmetry.
Madeline has previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. She has an identical twin sister, Josephine, and a nonidentical sister, Abigail. Neither of Madeline's sisters have previously been diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Which of the following statements is true of Madeline's sisters?
Josephine is more likely to be diagnosed with major depressive disorder than Abigail in response to a stressful or traumatic event.
Carl Wernicke discovered the region of the brain that is responsible for
Language Comprehension
Lawrence Kohlberg sampled 72 boys ages 10-16 years, the majority of whom he followed up with every 3 years for 20 years. He conducted interviews with the participants in which he presented them with a series of moral dilemmas. The participants judged the actions as right or wrong and provided their reasons for their decision. What type of research was Kohlberg conducting, and what were his findings?
Longitudinal; adolescents are typically in the conventional stage of moral reasoning
In which scenario does sunblock serve as a conditioned stimulus?
Lowell feels relaxed when he smells sunblock because it reminds him of his vacations at the beach.
Which of the following describes the concept of schema?
Marsha thinks the waiter asked her whether she wanted water even though he did not, because she thinks waiters ask patrons whether they want water.
Alison is completing a practicum in a psychiatric clinic, and her supervisor has asked her to select an appropriate test for a patient she suspects has a personality disorder but who is otherwise within the normal range for IQ and does not appear to have other cognitive issues. Of the following measures, which would be the most appropriate choice?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form® (MMPI-2-RF®)
To develop his theory about personality, Freud interviewed his patients during therapy sessions, typically multiple sessions per week. The patients laid on a couch while Freud asked questions and listened to the patients' responses. What was one of Freud's main contributions to personality theory, and which method did he use?
Personality is related to balance among the id, the ego, and the superego; case studies
In a study on taste, what would researchers need to do to test participants' ability to distinguish umami(savory) from similar sensations?
Place disks soaked in MSG (meat) on the participants' tongues. Then replace those disks with disks that have been soaked in water. Compare the participants' reactions.
Human tactile sense is actually a mix of which of the following distinct skin senses?
Pressure, warmth, cold, pain
Which of the following scenarios is consistent with the behavioral therapeutic approach?
Ralph is misbehaving in school so Dr. Evans creates a token economy to increase Ralph's good behavior.
Dr. Vazquez is interested in comparing the effectiveness of electroconvulsive therapy with that of antidepressant drugs in treating depression. Which research design is he most likely to use?
Randomly assigning participants to either take an SSRI (antidepressant) or receive a brief electrical current through their brain
Rolf is beginning to learn to ski, but he is nervous about going down some of the steeper slopes. Which of the following potential explanatory factors would theorist Alfred Adler be most interested in exploring to understand Rolf's concerns?
Rolf's feelings about his older sister, who qualified for the Olympics in skiing
Which of the following individuals would most likely experience the lowest level of stigma because of their psychological disorder diagnosis?
Ronaldo, a man, who was diagnosed with anorexia nervosa
Russ went for a run, and Nelly took a nap. They then watched a horror movie together. Usually, Russ and Nelly are about equally scared when they watch horror movies. In this situation, Schachter's two-factor theory of emotion predicts that
Russ will be more scared of the movie because he is aroused from the run
An example of using elaborative encoding to improve memory is
Sam remembering which tree is the ginkgo by using the phrase "stinko ginkgo" because the fruit of the ginkgo tree smells bad
Which of the following scenarios best describes the relationship between temperament and child-parent relationships?
Sammy has a difficult temperament, but his parents love and care for him anyway.
David was studying some important historical dates for a test. He noticed that the day and month of one of the dates was the same as his own birthday, and he tried to use that fact to help him remember the date for his test. What is David using to enhance his memory?
Self-reference
Which of the following anatomical structures is involved in the vestibular sense?
Semicircular canals
What is the primary advantage of conducting a survey rather than using other types of research methods?
Surveys can gather information from a diverse representation of and a large number of people.
Monica is kicking a soccer ball with her brother in her front yard. When the ball rolls into the street, Monica runs into the street to retrieve it, and her father yells at her from the window. Monica becomes upset when her father raises his voice. How do the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion and the James-Lange theory of emotion differ in explaining Monica's response to her father's raised voice?
The Cannon-Bard theory proposes that Monica's emotional state and physiological arousal occur simultaneously, whereas the James-Lange theory proposes that Monica's physiological arousal precedes her emotional state.
Dr. Howard wants to evaluate a patient's personality with respect to motivation. The patient does not read very well and does not have a very long attention span. Which of the following tests will provide reliable results in the most practical manner?
The Thematic Apperception Test
Tracey was in pain from an ear infection, which her doctor said was in her inner ear. Which of the following is the most likely location of the infection?
The cochlea
Which of the following scenarios is best explained by long-term potentiation?
The first time Colleen tries to remember Leo's name it takes her a long time, but over time she remembers it more quickly.
Tanya is trying to remember a phone number, so she repeats it until she remembers it. Which of the following best explains why Tanya has chosen this way to remember?
The information processing theory, because this theory addresses encoding and storing information.
Which of the following is the best definition for absolute threshold?
The lowest strength of a stimulus that a person can detect 50% of the time
Which of the following describes what happens when a neuron sends a signal?
The neuron goes from being negatively charged to briefly being positively charged, and finally returns to being negatively charged again. The magnitude of the negative charge is fixed regardless of the strength of the input signal it receives.
A therapist who is an adherent of the humanistic personality theory would most likely focus on which of the following?
The pursuit of self-actualization
A researcher wants to study the human sense of taste over a life span. Which study would best allow the researcher to test the sensation of taste as people age?
The researcher follows the same group of people over 40 years.
Philip Zimbardo designed his Stanford Prison Study in order to test the validity of two hypotheses. The first was the dispositional hypothesis; the second was the situational hypothesis. The dispositional hypothesis stated that some people have certain character traits which lead them to naturally be more aggressive and distrustful of authority. These people can be thought of as having a prisoner personality. Other people have character traits in which they enjoy having control or authority over others. These people can be thought of as having a prison guard personality. The situational hypothesis stated that the situation the people were in determined their behavior. Which of Zimbardo's hypotheses was supported by his study and why?
The situational hypothesis, because because randomly assigned participants took on the characteristics of prisoner or guard depending on how they were assigned
According to the gate control theory of pain, which of the following contains a neurological gate that controls the transmission of pain messages to the brain?
The spinal cord
Paul is seeing a cognitive therapist to treat his depression. What piece of advice is Paul's therapist likely to give him?
Try to replace your catastrophic thinking with more realistic, positive thoughts.
Anna, who is an introvert and has an introverted friend with a cat, is often unkind to cat owners. She also believes that all people who like cats are introverts. Her belief can best be described as
a stereotype, because Anna is assuming all people who like cats have to be introverts
An adult with a healthy sleep cycle is most likely to enter REM sleep
after cycling through the NREM sleep stages
A researcher could say with certainty that someone was affected by the peripheral route to persuasion by conducting
an experiment where participants are presented with an attractive spokesmodel
To test the effectiveness of an SSRI, Dr. Morris randomly assigns one group of participants to receive the drug and assigns the other group a placebo. Dr. Morris is most likely using
an experimental design, and the dependent variable is depression
When seeking approval to conduct an experiment using participants from her college psychology course, a student researcher should
apply to the institutional review board at the university
A researcher would test the foot-in-the-door phenomenon by randomly
assigning 60 people to 2 groups. The researcher would then ask one group to place a small "Drive Carefully" sign in their windows, and would later ask the participants to place a large sign in their yards. The researcher would ask the second group to place a large sign in their yard without asking them to place the smaller sign in their windows first.
Vandana, a 12-month-old infant, is listening to her father talk to her and suddenly repeats a word that he just said. Her father praises her and gives her a cookie. After she gets the cookie, she repeats the word again. Vandana's behavior can be best explained by using the theory of
behaviorism
According to Kurt Lewin's motivational conflict theory, approach-avoidance conflict occurs when a situation has
both positive and negative aspects
Stress can most likely contribute to heart disease because
cortisol released during stress reduces the flexibility of blood vessels, so the heart has to work harder
Explicit memories are
created in the hippocampus
Chronic stress is most likely to lead to
decreased functioning of the immune system
The psychodynamic theory of dreaming would postulate that
dreams fulfill unconscious wishes
The hormone most associated with the fight or flight response is
epinephrine
Claire is conducting research on attribution theory in the United States, which is considered an individualistic country, and in Indonesia, a more collectivistic country. The observation Claire will most likely see in her research is more
evidence of the fundamental attribution error in the United States than in Indonesia
Johnny often hits his brother even though his brother does not do anything to antagonize him. Johnny's aggression is most likely due to a combination of
his genetic makeup, the environment he grew up in, and the fact that aggression can be evolutionarily adaptive
According to the drive-reduction theory of motivation, drives arise because of physiological imbalances in
homeostasis
The advantage of an experiment is that it allows a researcher to
infer cause and effect
Ruth and Debbie are identical twins who were raised by the same family. Vince and Frankie are identical twins who were separated at birth and raised by different families. According to research on the heritability of personality traits, Ruth's and Debbie's personalities are statistically
likely to be as similar and dissimilar to one another as are Vince's and Frankie's personalities
Consolidation can be described as the process of
long-term memories being formed from short-term memories
Personality tests that use forced-choice questions are beneficial in identifying personality traits because they
minimize desirability bias because test takers are choosing between two unrelated statements
The lesions were most likely performed in the
parietal lobe for Group 1 and the temporal lobe for Group 2
Cynthia has a strong dislike for everyone in a neighboring town. This can be explained as
prejudice, because she has a generalized negative feeling toward them
Dr. Sampson follows the structuralist school of thought. Her techniques would most likely include
presenting a participant with an object, such as a can of soda, and having the subject report hid or her perceptions or experience of the can.
The neurotransmitter dopamine is most closely associated with
reward-seeking behavior
Cheryl has difficulty making friends. She frequently argues with her peers and is mean to them. Her poor peer relationships can be explained by the fact that
she has a tense relationship with her parents
A researcher wanted to test the psychometric properties of a new intelligence test for children. She administered the test twice, two months apart, to children in a fourth-grade classroom. On the second administration, she noticed that the children who performed well were not the same children who performed well on the first administration and that there appeared to be no relationship between student performance on the first and second administration of the test. Based on this scenario, the psychological construct missing from this intelligence test is
test-retest reliability, because the researcher is administering the same test twice
John went to the beach for vacation shortly after having watched a documentary film about shark attacks. Overestimating the possibility of encountering a shark in the water, he decided to spend the day sunbathing and reading instead of going for a swim. John's reasoning can be explained through
the availability heuristic
To remember a list of words, Jerry tries walking through his bedroom and making associations between words on the list and various areas he visits in his bedroom. Jerry is trying to improve his memory encoding by using
the method of loci
Gender typing is best defined as
the process by which children become aware of their gender and thus behave accordingly by adopting attributes of members of the gender that they identify with
Sometimes people who speak different languages are in a community together and must develop a way of communicating. Similarly, their offspring must also find a way to communicate. The main difference between the speech of the first generation and the speech of the second generation is
the speech of the second generation tends to have more complex grammar rules
Several researchers from an introductory psychology course observed infants, toddlers, and young children at a day care for one week. Over the course of the week, the researchers observed the gross and fine motor skills of all the children. After reviewing the data, the researchers were able to conclude that
young children master gross motor skills more quickly than fine motor skills
