Psych Ch1
The cognitive theory of depression states that depression results from
maladaptive interpretations of life events
According to Jean Piaget, what is the earliest stage at which a child is capable of using simple logic to think about objects and events?
Concrete operational
For most people, which of the following is an activity based in the right hemisphere of the brain?
Simple spatial reasoning
Which of the following studies has had the most profound impact on ethical issues in psychological research?
Stanley Milgram's study of obedience
When rehearsal of incoming information is prevented, which of the following will most likely occur?
There will be no transfer of information to long-term memory
The intensity at which a sound becomes audible for a given individual is known as the individual's
absolute threshold
The change in the curvature of the lens that enables the eye to focus on objects at various distances is called
accommodation
The tendency of most to identify a three-sided figure as a triangle, even when one of its sides is incomplete, is the result of a perceptual process known as
closure
The goal of rational-emotive therapy is to help cilents
correct self-defeating thoughts about their lives
The failure of bystanders to give victims of automobile accidents needed assistance is sometimes explained as an instance of
diffusion of responsiblity
Which of the following is most characteristic of individuals which chronic schizophrenia?
disordered thinking
Multiple personality is a type of
dissociative disorder
A teacher asks students to think of as many uses for a brick as possible. By listing 50 uses, most of which the class finds new and unusual. Susan is displaying
divergent thinking
The primary effect of the myelin sheath is to
increase the velocity of conduction of the action potential along the axon
A word or part of a word that is in itself meaningful, but that cannot be broken into smaller meaningful units, is called a
morpheme
The hypothesis that intelligence is in part inherited is best supported by the fact that the IQ correlation for
pairs of identical twins is greater than for pairs of fraternal twins
Distrust of others is symptomatic of
paranoia
Responses extinguish fastest when they are learned through which type of reinforcement schedule?
Continuous
According to Benjamin Whorf's linguistic relativity hypothesis, which of the following is true?
Different languages predispose those individuals who speak them to think about the world in different ways.
If Carmelita stares as a red spot for one minute and then shifts her gaze to a white piece of paper, she is likely to experience an afterimage that is
Green
Which of the following is true of the reticular activating system?
It regulates levels of arousal
According to 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
According to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which of the following statements is true?
Physiological needs must be met before an individual achieves self-actualization
The most common form of color blindness is related to deficiencies in the
red-green system
Read the information below and answer the question: In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on TV 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 nonviolent TV
In a normal distribution of test scores, the percentage of scores that fall at or below the mean score is
50
The painful experience associated with the termination of the use of an addictive substance is known as
withdrawal
Which of the following responses was most likely acquired through classical conditioning?
A childs fear of dogs after the child has been bitten by a dog
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.
The defense mechanism of reaction formation is best exemplified in which of the following situations?
A woman who is unaware of her anger toward her friend expresses affection for that friend
Which of the following types of test is designed to measure an individual's knowledge of a subject?
Achievement
Which of the following are the stages in Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome?
Alarm, resistance, exhaustion
Which of the following correctly describes the firing of neurons?
An all or none response
Which of the following is a characteristic common to all individuals with a narcissistic personality disorder?
An unwarranted sense of self-importance
Which of the following is most useful in understanding an employer's interpretation of an employee's poor performance
Attribution Theory
The most well-adjusted and socially competent children tend to come from homes where parents employ which of the following parental styles?
Authoritative
If a man who is a heavy smoker is given an electric shock every time he takes a puff on a cigarette, which of the following behavior-modification techniques is being used?
Aversive Conditioning
Which of the following approaches to psychology emphasize observable response over inner experience when accounting for behavior?
Behaviorist
Lawerence Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning is best described by which of the following?
Children progress from a morality based on punishment and reward to one defined by convention, and ultimately to one defined by abstract ethical principles
Which of the following allows the examination of living brain tissue visually without performing surgery?
Computerized axial tomography
Which of the following concepts was advanced by social psychologists to help explain why people who are part of a crowd sometimes commit aggressive, antisocial acts that they would not commit if they were alone?
Deindividuation
Because studies of learning show that events occurring close together in time are easier to associate than those occurring at widely different times, parents should probably avoid which of the following?
Delay of punishment
In terms of the effect on the central nervous system, alcohol is most accurately classified as which of the following types of drugs?
Depressant
Which of the following has been most effective in the treatment of schizophrenia?
Drug therapy that blocks neurotransmitter sites.
A teen-ager would most probably draw on which of the following to recall her tenth birthday party?
Episodic memory
Which of the following was true of Solomon Asch's experiments on conformity?
If the confederates judgements were not unanimous, the degree of conformity by experimental subjects decreased.
Leadership, job satifactio, and employee motivation are all studied in which of the following psychological disciplines?
Industrial-organizational psychology
Which of the following statements is true of behaviorism?
It holds that development is largely a product of learning
Which of the following is an example of metacognition?
Knowing the effectiveness of different strategies for learning statistical formulas
In which of the following types of research are the same children tested periodically at different points in their development?
Longitudinal
In their discussions of the process of development, the advocates of nature in the nature-nurture controversy emphasize which of the following?
Maturation
Which of the following is a genetic disorder that results in a deficiency of a liver enzyme which, if not treated soon after birth, may eventually lead to profound mental retardation?
Phenylketonuria (PKU)
Hypnosis has been found useful in the treatment of
Pain
Anti-diuretic hormones (vasopressin) is produced by which of the following endocrine glands?
Posterior Pituitary Gland
Elena is presented with a list of 20 numbers. When asked to recall this list, she remembers more numbers from the beginning than from the end of the list. This phenomenon demonstrates which of the following types of effect?
Primacy
A person with sight in only one eye lacks which of the following visual cues in seeing depth?
Retinal disparity
Which of the following is typically cited as a characteristic of autistic children?
Severely impaired interpersonal communication
The terms "modeling" and "imitation" are most closely associated with which of the following?
Social learning theory
Which of the following behavior-therapy techniques is typically used to reduce the fear of heights?
Systematic desensitization
Hunger and eating are primarliy regulated by which of the following?
The hypothlamus
After several trails during which a dog is given a certain kind of food at the same time that a specific tone is sounded, there is evidence of conditioning if the dog salivates when
The tone is only presented
Which of the following best characterizes individuals diagnosed as having personality disorders?
They may function reasonably well in society
Read the information below and answer the question: In an experiment designed to determine whether watching violent scenes on TV 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 dependent variable in the experiment is the
amount of aggresive behavior exhibited by the children
Activation of the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system results in
an increase in respiratory rate
A complex pattern of organized, unlearned behavior that is species-specific is called
an instinct
The place in the retina where the optic nerve exits to the brain is called the
blind spot
In Ivan Pavlov's experiments in classical conditioning, the dog's salivation was
both an unconditioned and a conditioned response
Behaviorally oriented therapists seek to modify a client's behavior by
changing the contingencies of reinforcement for the client
The intelligence quotient (IQ) has traditionally been based on the relationship between an individuals mental age and his or her
chronological age
Electroconvulsive therapy has been most successful in the treatment of
clinical depression
The debate over whether development occurs gradually, without discernible shifts, or through a series of distinct stages is termed
continuity vs discontinuity
The release of those with mental disorders from mental hospitals for the purpose of treating them in their home communities is called
deinstitutionalization
When parents refuse to accept several psychologists diagnosis of a child's mental illness, they are using which of the following defense mechanisms?
denial
Eleanor Gibson and her colleagues have used the visual cliff to measure an infants ability to perceive
depth
The purpose of a placebo is to
determine if the expectation of receiving a treatment has an effect apart from the treatment itself
A person is asked to listen to a series of tones presented in pairs and asked to say whether the tones in each pair are the same or different in pitch. In this situation, the experimenter most likely measures the individuals
difference in threshold
According to Sigmund Freud, a child's early experience in coping with external demands leads to the development of the
ego
Painkilling substances produced by the brain are known as
endorphins
The view that human emotions are universal has been supported by studies of
facial expressions
On a fishing trip, Ed realizes that he has mistakenly packed the sewing box instead of the tackle box. He wants to fish but returns home because he does not have any line or hooks. Ed's failure to realize that sewing thread can be used as fishing line and that a bent needle can be used as a hook is an example of
functional fixedness
Sigmund Freud believed that dream analysis was a useful device for
gaining insight into unconscious motives
According to attribution theory, Pablo is most likely to attribute his high score on a difficult exam to
his intelligence
Theories of motivation that assert the existence of biological motives to maintain the body in a steady state are called
homeostatic
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
Receptors that are especially important for helping a person maintain balance are located in the
inner ear
Carla tutors other students because she likes to be helpful, whereas Jane tutors classmates strictly for pay. Their behaviors demonstrate the difference between
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
One criticism of Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory of development is that it
is based on empirically unverifiable constructs
A somatoform disorder is best described as an illness that
is physical in nature and caused by psychological factors
The mean will be higher than the median in any distribution that
is positively skewed
Bipolar disorders are most effectively treated with a combination of tricyclic antidepressants and
lithium carbonate
Dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine are all
neurotransmitters that excite or inhibit a neural signal across a synapse
Persistent repetitive thoughts that cannot be controlled are known as
obsessions
Behaviorists explain human thought and behavior as a result of
past conditioning
In a famous series of experiments conducted by Harry Harlow, infant monkeys were separated from their mothers at birth. The infants were then given two surrogate mothers (a terry cloth "mother" and a wire "mother"), each of which alternately had a nursing bottle that provided food to the infants. the experimental results showed that in frightening situations the infant monkeys
preferred the terry cloth mother even when the wire mother had the bottle
It is widely known in Jerry's social circle that he is the most stubborn and inflexible member of the group. Yet Jerry complains that all his friends are opinionated and rigid. Jerry's complaints are most clearly a sign of
projection
According the Albert Bandura, people who believe their efforts will be successful and that they are in control of events have a high level of
self-efficacy
The technique of strengthening behavior by reinforcing successive approximations is called:
shaping
Research finding in the area of interpersonal attraction indicates that individuals are most likely to be attracted to others who are
similar to them in attitudes and values
A protopye is best defined as
the hypothetical "most typical" instance of a category
The occipital lobe contain
the primary visual cortex
