AP Psych Units 1 & 2
A researcher randomly assigned boys and girls to each of two groups. One group watched a violent television program while the other group watched a nonviolent program. The children were then observed during a period of free play, and the incidence of aggressive behavior was recorded for each group. This research method is best characterized as
experimental
Which of the following procedures is intended to control for preexisting differences between the groups of participants in an experiment?
Random assignment
In developmental psychology, one advantage of cross-sectional over longitudinal studies is that cross-sectional research
requires comparatively little time
Which of the following best describes the response of members of the American Psychological Association to ethical issues in research?
They have developed codes of ethics for research with both human participants and animal subjects.
A group of psychologists wanted to develop an intelligence test that would be quicker to administer than the one they were using, which was a standardized test that required answering as many questions correctly as possible in a given time. The existing test was considered valid and reliable. In the psychologists' new test, participants had to find an image hidden in a visual display as quickly as possible. The psychologists collected data to determine the relation between the number of items the participants answered correctly on the original standardized test and the time it took them to spot the hidden image on the new test. The graph below displays the results.
correlation
Dorothea Dix was known for
documenting the poor conditions of mental asylums, which eventually led to their reform
In a research study, informed consent is a concern of
ethics
Jane Goodall lived among wild chimpanzees intermittently for decades, studying their social and family systems while keeping her interaction with the chimpanzees to a minimum. Her research method can most accurately be described as
naturalistic observation
A disadvantage of longitudinal studies is that
participants who drop out during the course of the study may be different in important ways from ones who do not drop out
Ivan Pavlov was most well known for which of the following?
Conditioning dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell
Which of the following is a term for a variable that researchers do not control and that can affect the results of a study?
Confounding variable
Which of the following would an industrial-organizational psychologist be LEAST likely to study?
Corporate profitability
Introspection, a research tool used by early psychologists, is a technique which involves
self-examination of mental processes
A research psychologist generalizes from a particular sample to an entire population. This is an example of
statistical inference
Researchers find that there is a significant, positive correlation between the number of hours students sleep and their grades. The researchers would be justified in concluding that
students who earn good grades tend to sleep more than those who do not
The claim that a whole is different from the sum of its parts is central to which of the following schools of thought?
Gestalt psychology
In order to yield information that is generalizable to the population from which it was drawn, a sample must be
representative of the population
It is important for researchers to use precise operational definitions when
they want to be able to replicate the experiment
12, 3, 3, 4, 8 What is the mean of the set of numbers above?
6
Exam Scores 8 6 5 10 5 7 1 5 10 Which of the following is the median score?
6
10, 3, 5, 7, 10, 3, 10, 5, 2 The numbers above represent the quiz results for a psychology class. What is the median score for the class?
5
−3, 3, 0, 3, −3 What is the standard deviation of the numbers above?
3
Exam Scores 8 6 5 10 5 7 1 5 10 A student who scored at the mode would have how many points?
5
Gestalt psychology is concerned primarily with understanding which of the following?
Perception
What is the independent variable in this study?
Type of television program viewed
The next questions refer to the situation described below. In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on television increases the frequency of aggressive behavior in children, one group of subjects saw a nonviolent cartoon and another group saw a violent cartoon. In the play period that followed the viewing of the cartoons, researchers observed the two groups of children together and counted instances of aggressive behavior. The control group in the experiment is the group that
watched the nonviolent cartoon
Which of the following is the strongest correlation?
-.90
Which of the following values best represents the value of the statistic associated with the graph?
0.00
On a test, the mean score for a class of 100 students is 80 and the standard deviation of the scores is 10. The professor who gave the test then realizes that she made a scoring error, which she corrects by adding 5 points to each student's score. The standard deviation of the students' new scores is
10
Rachel plays on the high school basketball team. Her scores for the season are presented in the table below. Which of the following is the range of Rachel's scores?
15
2, 11, 2, 3, 3, 4, 2, 5 What is the mode of the number set above?
2
A psychologist administered the most recent edition of the Stanford-Binet IQ test to 50 students and their scores are shown in the chart above. How many students earned scores higher than two standard deviations above the mean?
2
3 4 5 5 7 7 7 8 8 10 Ten participants in a treatment group were asked to rate their feelings of self worth on a scale of one to ten, with a value of ten indicating a very positive feeling of self-worth. The data for the participants are above. What is the mean for these data?
6.4
Ten participants in a treatment group were asked to rate their feelings of self worth on a scale of one to ten, with a value of ten indicating a very positive feeling of self-worth. The data for the participants are above.
7
A test has a mean of 80 with a standard deviation of 4. Which of the following scores is within one standard deviation of the mean?
77
Which of the following is the median of Rachel's scores?
9.5
Which of the following best depicts the relation between performance and arousal?
A (upside down parabola)
Research finds that, in general, the higher an incoming college student scores on a given test, the higher the student's college grade point average (GPA). Which of the following best describes this relationship?
A positive correlation
The next questions are based on the following. What type of graph would a researcher use to represent these data?
A scatterplot
Which of the following accurately describes a major change in perspective in the field of developmental psychology over the past twenty-five years?
A shift from an emphasis on childhood and adolescence to an interest in development over the life span
Which of the following characterizes a behavioral approach to psychology?
A study of how reinforcement affects learning
Dr. Lee is interested in the effect of lighting on people's ability to concentrate. Dr. Lee studies this by manipulating the amount of lighting while participants read and then measuring their scores on a reading comprehension test. Group 1 receives dim light, and group 2 receives bright light. Which of the following research methods is Dr. Lee using?
An experiment
Researchers have found a negative correlation between income and dental problems. What conclusion can correctly be drawn from this statement?
As income increases, the likelihood of dental problems decreases.
A double-blind control is essential for which of the following?
Assessment of a treatment designed to reduce schizophrenic symptoms
According to one theory of psychology, many people have mental illnesses because their maladaptive behaviors have proven rewarding for them in the past and thus have been continued. This belief is consistent with which of the following models?
Behavioral
Which of the following approaches to psychology emphasizes observable responses over inner experiences when accounting for behavior?
Behaviorist
What is the best way to ensure that results of a study are generalizable to a population?
By using a random selection of people in that population
Dr. Patel is conducting a study to test a hair-growth shampoo she is developing. She instructs fifty participants to use the hair-growth shampoo once daily for a month and another fifty to use a regular shampoo once a day for a month. Dr. Patel measures the participants' hair length at the beginning and the end of the thirty days. Which of the following is the dependent variable?
Change in hair length
Which of the following is an example of a strong negative correlation?
C
Synesthesia is a phenomenon that has been estimated to occur in only a few people in a million. Because of its rarity, researchers are likely to choose which research method to study it?
Case study
Which theoretical perspective in psychology attempts to characterize the way in which humans store and process sensory information?
Cognitive
hough Paul seems bright and capable to his parents and friends, he has been failing in school. Paul agrees to speak with a psychologist, who suggests that his problems stem from internal processes such as unrealistic expectations and negative thinking. The psychologist's view is typical of which of the following models of behavior?
Cognitive
Introspection as practiced by early structuralists is best illustrated by which of the following behaviors?
Describing one's immediate sensations while looking at a rose
Which procedure can reduce problems associated with the use of deception by a researcher?
Debriefing
In an experiment, which of the following variables refers to the outcome that is measured by the experimenter?
Dependent
Which of the following is true of the frequency distributions shown in the graphs above?
Distribution B has more variation than distributions A or C.
Which of the following scenarios is regulated by federal law?
Dr. Mast, a psychologist, has a client, Tim, who threatens to seriously harm his brother, Carl. Tim has a history of serious violence and the means to carry out the threat; therefore, Dr. Mast must inform Carl.
Which of the following scatterplots shows the strongest relation?
E
Research on human mating preferences suggests that men place greater value on physical attractiveness and youthfulness, whereas women place greater value on social status and financial resources. Which of the following psychological points of view best explains this behavior?
Evolutionary
Which of the following psychological approaches suggests that jealousy might serve an adaptive function in protecting a sexual relationship from threats?
Evolutionary
A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. Which type of research does the scenario describe?
Experimental
Which of the following research approaches would be best for testing the hypothesis that the presence of certain odors causes people to gamble more?
Experimental
There is a strong positive correlation between ice cream sales and instances of snakebites. Which of the following is the most likely explanation for this correlation?
Hot weather is related to both ice cream sales and snake activity.
Which of the following perspectives argues that every person has the potential to become self-actualized?
Humanistic
What is the correct chronological order of the following perspectives of psychology, from past to present?
III, II, I, IV
What is the dependent variable in this study?
Incidence of aggressive behavior
Martha is an undergraduate student who is interested in pursuing a career in psychology. She wants to use her knowledge of psychology to help employees become more productive in the workplace. Which field of psychology should Martha select in graduate school?
Industrial-organizational
Leadership, job satisfaction, and employee motivation are all studied in which of the following psychological disciplines?
Industrial-organizational psychology
What field of psychology is most appropriate to analyze the efficiency of businesses in their hiring, basic training, and management leadership skills training?
Industrial/organizational
Which of the following is a statistical approach concerned with forming conclusions about the effect of the independent variable on variations in the dependent variable?
Inferential
In the early years of psychology, a research participant might have been asked to observe carefully and systematically his conscious experiences. What method would the participant be using?
Introspection
Which of the following statements best describes the placebo effect?
It can be brought about by the individual's expectations.
In a normal distribution, which of the following statements is true about the area that falls between one standard deviation above and one standard deviation below the mean?
It contains the middle 68% of the distribution.
Which of the following statements is true of behaviorism?
It holds that development is largely a product of learning.
Which of the following is a strength of naturalistic observation?
It minimizes artificiality, which can be a problem in laboratory studies.
According to the ethical guidelines set by the American Psychological Association (APA), which of the following is true of psychological research in which animals are used as subjects?
It should conform to all APA ethical guidelines for animal research.
Which of the following psychologists would have been likely to say, "I do not care about the unconscious or hidden motives—I want to study behavior directly"?
John Watson
In which of the following types of research are the same children tested periodically at different points in their development?
Longitudinal
Which of the following research methods is being used if the same subjects are tested at two, four, and six years of age?
Longitudinal
In their discussions of the process of development, the advocates of nature in the nature-nurture controversy emphasize which of the following?
Maturation
Dr. Grayson is interested in studying the relationship between weight loss and mood. To conduct the study, Dr. Grayson analyzes the results of several previous studies on weight loss and emotional state. Which research strategy is Dr. Grayson using?
Meta-analysis
Professor González is interested in evaluating the ability of a new method of note-taking to improve student grades. Group A is trained in the new method and group B uses the traditional outline method of taking notes. What is Professor González' independent variable?
Method of note-taking
Which of the following measures can be precisely located on the graph of a skewed distribution without doing any calculations?
Mode
Which of the following best describes the graph above?
Negatively skewed distribution
Which of the following methods best limits the influence of unknown variables in an experiment?
Random assignment
The most important reason to use operational definitions in psychological research is it
Operational definitions are used for which of the following reasons?
Research in the field of positive psychology is most supportive of which of the following conclusions?
Perception of control is related to a sense of well-being.
Which of the following is required for a psychological experiment?
Precise operational definitions
Of the following topics, which would a cognitive psychologist be most likely to study?
Problem-solving strategies in chess
The belief that human behavior is the result of unconscious drives and conflicts represents which of the following theoretical perspectives?
Psychoanalytic
Which of the following perspectives suggests that depression is due to the unconscious conflicts and hostile feelings that originate in early childhood?
Psychoanalytic
The notion that human behavior is greatly influenced by unconscious thoughts and desires is most consistent with which of the following psychological approaches?
Psychodynamic
Which of the following is used to reduce the effects of confounding variables in experiments?
Random assignment
A psychologist gives the same test to a class of students at the beginning of the day and again at the end of the school day. The extent to which test scores are similar across the two administrations demonstrates which of the following test properties?
Reliability
All of the following are American Psychological Association ethical guidelines for researchers EXCEPT:
Research may not involve deception.
Psychodynamic therapy has its roots in the theories of
Sigmund Freud
A researcher surveyed social adjustment in the same group of 20 people from early childhood through adulthood. In this example, the group of 20 people surveyed was the study's
Sample
Which of the following is true of the two sets of scores above?
Set B has a larger standard deviation.
Which of the following most accurately describes a dependent variable?
Some aspect of a participant's response that is measured in an experiment
Which of the following studies has had the most profound impact on ethical issues in psychological research?
Stanley Milgram's study of obedience
Which of the following studies demonstrates a cross-sectional research design?
Testing first, third, and fifth graders at the beginning of the school year
While reviewing scores from a chapter test, a teacher discovered that the mean score was higher than the median. Which of the following statements is most likely correct?
The distribution of scores for the test is positively skewed.
A psychological researcher designs a study to determine whether positive feedback affects self-esteem. The researcher requires each participant to toss twenty coins into a coffee can that is three feet away. Half of the participants are told that their performance is superior, and the other half are told that their performance is well below average. Although some of the participants want to quit tossing coins after a few attempts, they are told that once they begin the study they have to complete it. After the coin toss, participants take a test measuring self-esteem. Following the test, all participants are debriefed and told that information about their performance was false. Results of the study indicate that participants who are told their performance is well below average report lower levels of self-esteem than do those who are told their performance is superior. Which of the following elements constitutes the independent variable in the study?
The feedback about relative performance in coin tossing
A researcher is trying to determine whether a new painkilling medicine is effective in reducing headaches. Twenty adult participants sit in a noisy environment for 30 minutes and then rate the severity of their headaches on a scale from 0 (none) to 5 (intense). Group M (the medicine group) receives a normal dose of the medicine. Group C (the control group) rests quietly. After 20 minutes, all participants again complete the headache rating scale. The statistically significant differences in headache severity on the posttest appear in the graph below.Which of the following is the independent variable in this experiment?
The medicine
Which of the following statements is supported by the results of this experiment?
The medicine was more effective in reducing the severity of the headaches than was quiet rest.
A test with normally distributed results was returned to a class of 100 students. Later, the teacher realized an error was made and added 10 points to each student's score. Which of the following must have changed as a result of the increase in scores?
The mode
Which of the following is a valid conclusion that the researchers could have drawn from the data?
The new test produces scores that are generally unrelated to those produced by the original test.
An instructor conducted an experiment to determine the effects of two different methods of study on the amount students learned in introductory physics. The results showed that the average amount learned by the group using one method was greater than the average amount learned by the group using the other. However, the difference was not statistically significant. Which of the following is the most appropriate conclusion to be drawn?
There is a possibility that the difference between the two groups occurred by chance.
Marjorie's little brother tends to bother her when he is bored. Marjorie wants to figure out which toy will keep her brother occupied the longest so he will not bother her. She conducts a study where each day at 6P.M. for a week she gives her brother a different toy and on one of the days she gives him no toys to play with. She measures the amount of time he spends playing with each toy before he comes to bother her. Which of the following is the independent variable in this example?
Type of toy
When is it permissible for a psychologist to share a client's test scores with another person?
When the client provides written permission to share results
A person displays a set of rare behaviors that psychologists had not known about previously, because nobody had ever shown them before. The best strategy to investigate the nature of those behaviors is
a case study
A research group conducted a study investigating the connection between self-reported number of hours slept in a given week and scores on a happiness measure. Based on the scatterplot above, the group can report that there is
a positive correlation
The dependent variable in the experiment is the
amount of aggressive behavior exhibited by the children
A research design involves two randomly assigned groups of participants. One group receives a one-time treatment, and the other does not. Later, the two groups are compared to see whether the treatment had an effect. Psychologists call this kind of research
an experiment
Dr. Larson was interested in whether classical music helps students perform better on a test. Dr. Larson randomly assigned half of the study's participants to a group that listened to classical music while taking a test. The other half of the participants did not listen to music while taking a test. The research design Dr. Larson used is
an experiment
To determine whether a cause-effect relationship exists between two variables, a researcher must use
an experimental approach
A psychologist designed a study to test the effects of cell phone use on driving safety. Participants were randomly assigned either to drive an automobile simulator while talking to a friend on a cell phone or to drive a simulator without talking on a phone. In the study, cell phone use can be described as
an independent variable
A basic assumption underlying the evolutionary approach to sexual attraction is that men seek potential mates who
appear fertile
Ethical principles developed by the American Psychological Association help ensure that human participants in psychological research
are protected from physical and psychological harm
John B. Watson is best known as the founder of
behaviorism
According to Wilhelm Wundt, the focus of scientific psychology should be the study of
conscious experience
The debate over whether development occurs gradually, without discernible shifts, or through a series of distinct stages is termed
continuity vs. discontinuity
In an experiment to test the effects of hunger on aggressive behavior, aggressive behavior would be the
dependent variable
One major objection to the early Skinnerian approach to psychology is that it
did not take into account internal thoughts and feelings
In experimental psychology, a significant difference refers to a
difference not likely due to chance
Drawing a random sample of people from a town for an interview study of social attitudes ensures that
each person in the town has the same probability of being chosen for the study
An industrial-organizational psychologist would be most likely to study the
effectiveness of management training
Of the following, a behavioral psychologist is most likely to study the
effects of token economies on establishing social skills among children with emotional disturbances
A researcher uses debriefing when he
explains the true purpose of a study immediately after the study is complete
A statistical technique that would allow a researcher to cluster such traits as being talkative, social, and adventurous with extroversion is called
factor analysis
The reversible figure above illustrates the Gestalt organizing principle of
figure-ground
Cognitive theorists emphasize the
formation and modification of schemas
An important difference between humanistic and psychoanalytic approaches is that humanistic psychologists believe in the importance of
free will
In the 1800s, the activist Dorothea Dix led a movement in support of
improving the treatment of patients with mental disorders who were housed in asylums
Research participants are randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group listens to a list of words, another group reads a list of words printed on paper, and the remaining group hears and reads the words. The researcher then tests the participants' memories to see how many words the members of each group can recall. The modality in which the words are presented (i.e., auditory, visual, or both) is which type of variable?
independent
A survey shows that children who have encyclopedias in their homes earn better grades in school than children whose homes lack encyclopedias. The researcher concludes that having encyclopedias at home improves grades. This conclusion is erroneous primarily because the researcher has incorrectly
inferred causation from correlation
The mean will be higher than the median in any distribution that
is positively skewed
A study can be regarded as scientific only if
its conclusions can be verified or refuted by subsequent studies
The cognitive theory of depression states that depression results from
maladaptive interpretations of life events
Experimental research differs from correlational research in that experimental research
may reveal a causal relation
In psychology, Gestalt principles are used to explain
perceptual organization
The first area of psychology to be studied as a science is known as
psychophysics
Which of the following statistics best approximates the relation between the variables?
r = -.90
Of the following, an evolutionary psychologist will most likely investigate the
reason why many people have an innate fear of the dark
Research shows that women who are referred by a physician to participate in a study of eating disorders have more severe problems than women who volunteer on their own to participate in the study. If research on eating disorders regularly involves only women referred by physicians, the results of the studies might be limited because of the presence of
sampling bias
Students from a journalism class ask only their friends to participate in a school newspaper survey and neglect to ask the rest of the student body. The journalism students' data may not be generalizable due to
sampling bias
The correlation between two measures obtained on a group of individuals is graphically represented as a
scatterplot
Standard deviation is a measure of how much
scores in a group differ from the mean of that group
The most distinctive characteristic of the experimental method is that it
seeks to establish cause-effect relationships
evolutionary psychologist would explain that humans desire social interaction, social acceptance, and social affiliation due to a need for
survival
Cognitive psychologists are most likely to study
the acquisition of knowledge, planning, and problem solving
A teacher finds the distribution of scores on a final exam to be positively skewed with low variability. On the basis of this information, the teacher would be most justified in concluding that
the exam was too difficult
The generalizability of a study increases when
the sample is more representative of the population
The results of a correlational study involving student volunteers in a psychology laboratory might not apply to the general population because
the sample is not randomly chosen and therefore may not be a representative sample
Professor Ahad has forty-three students in section one of the psychology classes she teaches and fifty-two students in section two. Section one meets at eight a.m. and, section two meets at one p.m. Professor Ahad gives all of her students the same final exam, and those in section two score significantly higher than those in section one. Professor Ahad concludes that her section one students are academically inferior to students in section two. The biggest problem with Professor Ahad's conclusion is that
time of day is a confounding variable in this scenario.
According to psychoanalytic theory, the bases for the development of mental disorders are
unconscious conflicts that produce anxiety
A research group involved with advertising is conducting a study to investigate whether shoppers are more likely to engage in impulse buying at the checkout than at any other place in the store. For the results of the study to be generalizable, the researchers should
use a representative sample
