Psychology Tests

Which of the following statements about sleep deprivation is false?

Sleep deprivation often results in ADHD.

Psychoanalytic theory focuses on ________ and early childhood experiences.

a person's unconscious

The ________ is involved in our experience of emotion and tying emotional meaning to our memories.

amygdala

The ________ receives messages from muscles, tendons, joints, and structures in our ear to control balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills.

cerebellum

Which kind of psychologist would be consulted in jury selection and witness preparation?

forensic

The hidden meaning of a dream is called the ________ content.

latent

Behaviorists study ________.

learned behavior

Samek was driving to work when he suddenly felt paralyzed and couldn't resist falling asleep. Samek may have ________.

narcolepsy

After Omar falls asleep he feels a sense of panic, screams, and attempts to escape from his room. Which parasomnia does Omar have?

night terrors

________ is one of a group of sleep disorders in which unwanted, disruptive motor activity and/or experiences during sleep play a role.

parasomnia

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was ethically problematic because ________.

participants were not allowed to seek available treatment

According to Sigmund Freud, all of the following represent ways to access the unconscious mind except through ________.

the use of reinforcement and punishment

A(n) ________ is a well-developed set of ideas that proposes an explanation for observed phenomena

theory

Tayla smokes marijuana. At first, just a few inhalations were enough to cloud her mind. Over time, she needs to smoke more and more to achieve the same affect. This is an example of ________.

tolerance

Scientific knowledge is advanced through a process known as ________.

the scientific method

People often report that they have not been asleep if they are awoken during stage ________ sleep.

1

When was psychology accepted as an academic discipline?

1800s

Why is psychology considered a social science?

Behavior is biological, and our behavior is influenced by our interactions with others

Mohammed is sleeping. His eyelids are quivering because his eyes are darting around. Mohammed is probably experiencing ________ sleep.

REM

What do industrial and organizational psychology, health psychology, sport and exercise psychology, forensic psychology, and clinical psychology all have in common?

They are all examples of applied psychology

Why can amphetamines be used to treat ADHD in children?

They increase neurotransmitter activity within certain areas of the brain associated with impulse control

Rosemary had a stroke about a year ago and now she cannot understand what people are saying to her. This is embarrassing for her, so she responds using vague language and tries to make it appear as though she understands. Which area of Rosemary's brain was likely damaged by the stroke?

Wernicke's area

Critical thinking is ________.

applying a set of skills to understand and evaluate information

________ research uses past records or data sets to investigate research questions or to look for patterns or relationships.

archival

Devine et al. are interested in assessing whether active versus passive play causes a preference for sweet or salty foods in toddlers. They assign groups of children to either an active play, passive play, or no play group and record their food choices when presented with a variety of sweet and salty foods. In this study, ________ is the independent variable and ________ is the control group.

type of play; no play

________ refers to the ability of an instrument or tool to accurately measure what it is supposed to measure.

validity

Psychological researchers study genetics in order to better understand the ________ that contributes to certain behaviors.

biology

Penelope studies how the structure and function of the nervous system is related to behavior. She is a ________.

biopsychologist

Most people are awake during the day and asleep at night because their ________ cycles are aligned with the outside world.

circadian

Ashya wants to focus on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior. What area of psychology should she work in?

clinical psychology

Sandra strongly believes that attending daycare is detrimental to children's development so she decides to write her psychology term paper on this topic. She does a literature search and finds several sources supporting her opinion, but she finds that the majority of research indicates that children attending daycare experience healthy development. She writes a paper using the sources that find negative associations with daycare attendance. This is an example of ________.

confirmation bias

A(n) ________ is a variable that affects both variables of interest and may falsely give the impression of a cause-and-effect relationship.

confounding variable

Ali is aware of his feelings, emotions, and thoughts. He is also aware of his surroundings, the warmth of the sun, and the sound of nearby traffic. Ali is in a state of ________.

consciousness

Melatonin release is stimulated by ________ and inhibited by ________.

darkness; light

An upper-level psychology class is conducting an experiment on racial prejudice that involves having participants rate the likeability of faces in a set of photos. However, they tell participants that the study is about the effects of aging on likeability. When participants are finished, they are thanked for their time and leave the experiment. In this example, the class forgot to ________ in order to resolve the ________ in the study.

debrief participants; deception

Harrison et al. are conducting a study assessing the ability of depressed versus non-depressed participants to remember negative emotions in a short story about a family whose car breaks down. They plan to ask participants to read the story and then make a list of the emotions expressed in the story. Before beginning the study, they make a list of negative emotions (e.g., sadness and anger) that they will record from the participants' responses. In this example, negative emotions are the ________.

dependent variable

Alcohol is considered a ________ because it tends to suppress central nervous system activity.

depressant

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are drugs commonly prescribed for ________.

depression

A major advantage of case studies is ________.

detailed information

Lucy wants to study changes in cognitive skills, moral reasoning, and social behavior across the lifespan. Lucy should specialize in ________ psychology.

developmental

________ is a neurotransmitter involved in mood, reward, addiction, and motor behavior.

dopamine

In a ________ study, both the researchers and the participants are unaware of the group assignments.

double-blind

Diabetes is a(n) ________ disorder because insulin is a ________.

endocrine; hormone

Sleep apnea is defined by ________.

episodes during which a sleeper's breathing stops

The theory of ________ states that organisms that are better suited for their environment will survive and reproduce, while those that are poorly suited for their environment will die off.

evolution by natural selection

The only way to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables is to conduct a(n) ________.

experiment

Which of the following is not part of obtaining informed consent?

explaining the hypothesis to the participants

A difference in ________ can explain why one person dies from a disease and another person survives.

genetics

Mescaline is considered a ________ drug because it results in profound alterations in sensory and perceptual experiences.

hallucinogenic

When Brady is hot he sweats. When Brady is cold, he gets goose bumps on his skin so he will warm up more quickly. This is an example of how the body tries to achieve ________.

homeostasis

________ is a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans.

humanism

Elaina has been diagnosed with a small brain tumor. She first went to see her doctor after experiencing symptoms such as feeling very cold, almost fainting, a reduced appetite, and reduced sexual desire. Which of the following structures is her tumor most likely affecting?

hypothalamus

Oona wants to conduct research on personnel management, workplace environment, and what type of environment results in high levels of employee productivity and efficiency. Oona should conduct research in the area of ________ psychology.

industrial-organizational

Randolf is walking down the street of his hometown, after being away for several years, when he smells the scent of freshly baked pie coming from a local baker. He suddenly has vivid memories of walking down this street as a child, holding both of his parents' hands, and swinging between them, feeling relaxed and happy. This is because the sense of smell projects directly to the ________, which is responsible for ________ memories.

limbic system; emotional

Patwardhan et al. report data from a study where they hired experimental confederates to attend speed dating events, posing as daters, and carefully take notes on the behaviors of the daters. What type of research design did they use?

naturalistic observation

Psychotropic medications are drugs that treat psychiatric symptoms by restoring ________ balance.

neurotransmitter

Morphine is considered a(n) ________ drug because it decreases pain.

opioid

________ refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result

reliability

Psychology refers to the ________.

scientific study of the mind

Which of the following refers to a broad explanation or group of explanations for some aspect of the natural world that is consistently supported by evidence over time?

scientific theory

What is a limitation that affects the generalizability of research results?

small sample size

Which of the following senses is not routed through the thalamus?

smell

Susan wants to study prejudice, attraction, how we explain our own behavior versus how we explain the behavior of others, and how we resolve interpersonal conflicts. Susan should conduct research in the area of ________.

social psychology

Sensory and motor neurons of the ________ nervous system are associated with activities traditionally thought of as conscious or voluntary.

somatic

________ is/are often conducted with large numbers of participants and can even be conducted by phone, email, or mail.

surveys

The space between two neurons is called the ________.

synapse

The somatosensory cortex is responsible for processing ________.

temperature, touch, and pain

Which of the following defines hypothesis?

tentative explanation

Considerable debate occurs regarding the use of anabolic steroid drugs like ________ in professional athletes and bodybuilders.

testosterone

Psychology is a social science discipline. Psychologists scientifically study ________.

the mind and behavior

The cognitive revolution created an impetus for psychologists to focus their attention on better understanding ________.

the mind and mental processes that underlie behavior

Of adoptees whose biological mothers had schizophrenia and who were raised in disturbed family environments, 36.8% were likely to develop schizophrenia; of adoptees whose mothers did not have schizophrenia and who were raised in disturbed family environments, 5.3% were likely to develop schizophrenia. What is the most appropriate conclusion of these results?

Environmental factors and genetic factors interact to determine whether a person is likely to develop schizophrenia.

What can you do to realign your biological clock with the external world when you work a rotating shift?

Expose yourself to bright light while working

Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the case study of Phineas Gage's accident, which led to brain injury?

Injury to the brain causes changes in behavior, and specific brain areas are linked to particular behaviors.

Which of the following is a criticism of evolutionary psychology?

It ignores non-genetic factors in determining human behavior

Dr. Mattar is interested in knowing more about brain injury to the occipital cortex, and he studies patients individually in order to gain in-depth knowledge about their behaviors. These studies would best be described as ________.

case studies

The two major divisions of the nervous system are the ________ and ________.

central; peripheral nervous systems

A group of preschool-age children are enrolled in a study that plans to follow them over time in order to assess behaviors and other characteristics that may predict later development of schizophrenia. This is an example of a(n) ________ design.

longitudinal

In a ________ dream, people become aware that they are dreaming and can control the dream's content.

lucid

Isla is describing her dream to a friend. She explains that in her dream she being chased by zombies and she escaped them by hiding in a refrigerator. Her description of her dream is focused on ________ content.

manifest