Deck 17: S 1-16--Final Examination

Question 1

Which of the following is an example of an operational definition of intelligence?

A)the ability to perform skills that are valued by one's culture
B)the ability to comprehend relationships
C)one's score on an IQ test
D)the product of the activities of the cerebral cortex of the brain

Answer 1

one's score on an IQ test

Question 2

Which of the following is an operational definition of anxiety?

A)the opposite of relaxation
B)a feeling of worry or nervousness
C)the result of a conflict or incongruity between the person's current state and the person's desires
D)a measurement of how much the person's hands tremble

Answer 2

a measurement of how much the person's hands tremble

Question 3

Which of the following is one least likely to meet?

A)a 20-year-old schizophrenic patient
B)a 40-year-old manic-depressive patient
C)an 18-year-old with anorexia nervosa
D)a 23-year-old psychoanalyst

Answer 3

a 23-year-old psychoanalyst

Question 4

Which of the following questions below is NOT a question of nature vs.nurture?

A)Are boys more aggressive than girls because of higher testosterone levels,or because of the way they are raised?
B)Is alcoholism entirely due to social customs,or is it influenced by certain genes?
C)Do high-IQ parents have high-IQ children because of the stimulating environment they provide,or because of the genes they pass on to their children?
D)Do phobias develop through classical conditioning,or through observing models react to the feared stimulus?

Question 5

The first psychology laboratory was set up by

A)Jung.
B)Wundt.
C)Piaget.
D)Erikson.

Question 6

The philosophical belief that every behavior has a cause is known as

A)structuralism.
B)determinism.
C)functionalism.
D)solipsism.

Question 7

A person with bipolar disorder wants to get a prescription for lithium.That person should make an appointment to see a

A)clinical psychologist.
B)biopsychologist.
C)psychiatrist.
D)behaviorist.

Question 8

Ricardo takes a test on which he scores an 89.A week later he takes the same test and scores an 88.We can probably conclude that the test he was administered is

A)reliable.
B)valid.
C)projective.
D)falsifiable.

Question 9

Research conducted in the field of __________ is based on the premise that the frequency with which we engage in a particular behavior depends on the results of that behavior in the past.

A)applied learning and cognition
B)motivation and pharmacology
C)ergonomics and motivation
D)learning and motivation

Question 10

Unlike a psychologist,a psychiatrist is able to

A)help patients via dream analysis.
B)prescribe medication.
C)get to the root of the problem.
D)really listen to the patient rather than just treat the symptoms.

Question 11

Ergonomics is a field that is concerned with

A)the effect of drugs on synaptic transmission.
B)how we persuade other people to change their attitudes.
C)the most efficient ways to remember and store information.
D)the interaction of people and machines.

Question 12

Which of the following could be an operational definition of a dream?

A)any sensory experience during sleep
B)a measurable period of rapid eye movements and a particular EEG pattern
C)a visual experience during sleep
D)the manifestation of an unconscious thought,revealed during sleep

Question 13

Psychoanalysis is most closely associated with

A)Skinner.
B)Piaget.
C)Freud.
D)Ebbinghaus.

Question 14

Which of the following qualifies as an operational definition?

A)Depression is a condition of unhappiness with a feeling of helplessness and worthlessness.
B)Conscientiousness is the percentage of assignments one finishes before the time they are due.
C)Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories for events that happened prior to some trauma.
D)Self-actualization is the achievement of one's full potential as a human being.

Question 15

The assumption that everything that happens has a cause is called

A)determinism.
B)egocentrism.
C)the representativeness heuristic.
D)humanism.

Question 16

One of the first women to make a career in psychology was

A)Thorndike.
B)Calkins.
C)Milgram.
D)Erikson.

Question 17

According to Freud,if parents are either too strict or too lenient in the way they toilet train their child,the child will become either stingy and stubborn or messy and wasteful.Critics say this is not a good scientific theory because it is NOT

A)heuristic.
B)falsifiable.
C)correlational.
D)psychoanalytic.

Question 18

Industrial psychologists and ergonomists usually provide their services to

A)children and adolescents.
B)adults.
C)other psychologists.
D)companies.

Question 19

To say that a test is reliable is to say that its results are

A)replicable.
B)parsimonious.
C)falsifiable.
D)valid.

Question 20

Which of the following is one possible OPERATIONAL definition of happiness?

A)the emotional state achieved when the perceived self is congruent with the ideal self
B)the number of minutes in an hour during which a person smiled at least once
C)the opposite of sadness
D)a feeling of pleasantness or contentment

Question 21

The drugs that are generally prescribed to help relieve disorders such as depression operate mainly by altering

A)the velocity of action potentials.
B)activity at synapses.
C)basal metabolism.
D)blood pressure in the brain.

Question 22

On the average,married men are physically and psychologically healthier than unmarried men are.Why is that fact NOT sufficient evidence to conclude that marriage is good for men's health?

A)The studies are longitudinal instead of cross-sectional.
B)No one has asked the men themselves how they feel about marriage.
C)Married women are not known to be healthier than unmarried women.
D)It is a statement of a correlation.

Question 23

Children of divorced parents are more likely to experience emotional distress than are children of parents who remain together.This conclusion is probably based on which method of investigation?

A)double-blind experiment
B)phrenological study
C)correlational study
D)single-blind experiment

Question 24

Surveys find that married people report being happier,on the average,than unmarried people.What conclusion,if any,do these results justify?

A)Marriage generally helps people to become happy or stay happy.
B)Happy people are more likely than unhappy people to get married.
C)People of certain ages and backgrounds are more likely than other people to get married and to be happy.
D)These results do not support any cause-and-effect conclusion.

Question 25

Several studies find that among college students,use of illegal drugs is negatively correlated with grade-point average.Which conclusion,if any,do these results justify?

A)The use of illegal drugs impairs either learning,memory,or concentration.
B)Highly conscientious students,who are likely to do well in school,avoid illegal drugs.
C)Students who spend their time and effort on risky activities do not spend much time studying.
D)The results do not justify any of these conclusions.

Question 26

Under what conditions is it probably better to use the median as a measure of central tendency than the mean?

A)when the scores are normally distributed
B)when the standard deviation is very small
C)when the range of scores is not very great
D)when there are some very extreme scores

Question 27

In an experiment on classical conditioning,something that is referred to as a conditioned response could also be referred to as

A)an independent variable.
B)an extraneous variable.
C)a random variable.
D)a dependent variable.

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT a neurotransmitter?

A)serotonin
B)glutamate
C)dopamine
D)glucose

Question 29

Which of the following is NOT associated with branches of a neuron?

A)dendrite
B)cochlea
C)axon
D)myelin

Question 30

Which of the following is an example of an operational definition of anger?

A)the number of times a person speaks at a certain loud decibel level in 10 minutes
B)a response to frustration or irritation by another person
C)a desire to harm another person in some way
D)a subjective feeling of rage

Question 31

It has been reported that people who use marijuana are more likely than other people are to commit crimes.Why is this NOT evidence that marijuana use leads to crime?

A)It is probably a reflection of the Clever Hans effect.
B)It states a negative correlation.
C)It confuses correlation with causation.
D)The results probably depend on demand characteristics.

Question 32

In cognitive psychology experiments on mental imagery,what is the usual dependent variable?

A)recordings on an EEG
B)changes in heart rate
C)reaction time
D)eye movements

Question 33

The two approaches to psychology that put the least emphasis on use of experiments are

A)psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology.
B)behaviorism and cognitive psychology.
C)developmental psychology and behaviorism.
D)cognitive psychology and physiological psychology.

Question 34

A placebo would be most likely to be used in an experiment examining

A)the role of social pressure in obedience to authority.
B)schedules of reinforcement.
C)the various theories of color vision.
D)the effectiveness of a new drug treatment for schizophrenia.

Question 35

The drugs commonly used to combat disorders such as depression exert their effects mainly by altering

A)the threshold for producing an action potential.
B)the activity at synapses.
C)blood flow to the brain.
D)heart rate and digestive activity.

Question 36

The survey technique was used by __________ to study __________.

A)Skinner...schedules of reinforcement
B)Kinsey...sexual behavior
C)Piaget...cognitive development
D)Schachter...emotions

Question 37

A researcher compares 80 people who join Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)with 80 people who decide not to join.On the average,those in the AA group and those in the non-AA group have equal alcohol problems at the start.One year later,on the average,those in the AA group are healthier and are drinking less than those in the non-AA group.What is wrong with this study that prevents us from evaluating the effectiveness of the AA procedure?

A)lack of an independent variable
B)lack of a dependent variable
C)lack of random assignment to groups
D)lack of demand characteristics

Question 38

Which of the following is an example of an illusory correlation?

A)Bystanders are less likely to help someone in need if there are other bystanders present.
B)Crimes and mental disturbances seem more common during a full moon than at other times.
C)Women are more likely than men to attempt suicide,but men are more likely to succeed.
D)The average capacity of short-term memory is around seven items.

Question 39

In IQ testing a score of 100 is the

A)mean.
B)standard deviation.
C)range.
D)correlation.

Question 40

In a typical experiment on operant conditioning,the rate of pressing a lever or pecking a disk would be the

A)reinforcement.
B)conditioned stimulus.
C)independent variable.
D)dependent variable.

Question 41

Two psychologists are debating about the volley principle versus the place principle.What topic are they discussing?

A)emotions
B)hearing
C)attitude formation
D)long-term memory

Question 42

When the corpus callosum is cut during a surgical procedure to help some severe epileptic patients,the result is

A)the hippocampus can no longer emit useful hormones.
B)the two hemispheres of the brain can no longer communicate directly with each other.
C)usually schizophrenia.
D)an inability to remember events which occurred recently.

Question 43

A surgical procedure in which the corpus callosum (the set of axons connecting the two hemispheres)is cut is occasionally used in the treatment of

A)sleep apnea.
B)bulimia.
C)epilepsy.
D)schizophrenia.

Question 44

Which of the following is a theory about the perception of pain?

A)gate theory
B)depth-of-processing theory
C)opponent-process theory
D)retinex theory

Question 45

Someone with damage to the semicircular canals would be most likely to have problems with

A)sleep apnea.
B)depression.
C)controlling aggression.
D)posture and balance.

Question 46

Pheromones play an important role in which type of animal behavior?

A)sexual behavior
B)conditioned taste aversion
C)critical thinking
D)sleep cycles

Question 47

Heroin and morphine stimulate synapses that normally respond to neurotransmitters that inhibit the sensation of pain.Those neurotransmitters are called

A)phenylalanines.
B)testosterone.
C)endorphins.
D)glucagons.

Question 48

Psychological research has FAILED to support which of the following claims?

A)Subliminal messages can exert long-lasting effects on people's attitudes and behaviors.
B)Post-hypnotic suggestions can influence people's behaviors.
C)Alcoholism,schizophrenia,and sexual orientation are all influenced by genetic differences among people.
D)An infant less than two days old can recognize the sound of his/her own mother's voice.

Question 49

An experimenter flashes a picture in someone's left visual field and asks what it was.The person answers "I don't know," while pointing to the correct answer with the left hand.What part of the brain is probably damaged in this person?

A)corpus callosum
B)visual cortex in the left hemisphere
C)visual cortex in the right hemisphere
D)Broca's area

Question 50

Rods are important for __________ vision,while cones are most important for __________ vision.

A)color...black/white
B)black/white...color
C)bright...dim
D)depth...close-up

Question 51

It appears that those suffering from Parkinson's disease have relatively low levels of

A)serotonin.
B)glucose.
C)dopamine.
D)intelligence.

Question 52

Damage to the hippocampus is most likely to produce impairments in

A)memory.
B)hunger and thirst.
C)sexual motivation.
D)sleep.

Question 53

The retinex theory of color vision emphasizes the influence of

A)genetically determined differences among human observers.
B)culturally determined differences among human observers.
C)comparisons between what you see in different parts of the visual field.
D)the ratio between the wavelengths of light and the intensity of the light.

Question 54

Which of the following conditions is most frequently treated with the drug L-DOPA?

A)Parkinson's disease
B)Dissociative identity disorder
C)Huntington's disease
D)Korsakoff's syndrome

Question 55

Scott has been asked what he just saw in his left visual field.He points to the correct answer with his left hand while insisting,"I didn't see anything!" What is probably wrong with him?

A)damage to the hippocampus
B)narcolepsy
C)damage to the corpus callosum
D)schizophrenia

Question 56

The two hemispheres of the brain show the greatest asymmetry of function in

A)control of hunger and thirst.
B)the control of memory.
C)understanding language.
D)responding to odors.

Question 57

A behavioral disorder that is related to a decrease in the neurotransmitter dopamine is

A)fugue.
B)anorexia.
C)hypochondriasis.
D)Parkinson's disease.

Question 58

Substance P has been shown to be related to

A)schizophrenia.
B)memory.
C)pain.
D)vision.

Question 59

Compared to others,we now know that someone who suffers from damage to the left hemisphere is better able to

A)process language information which comes from both ears.
B)identify when someone is telling the truth and when they are lying.
C)recite a recently memorized poem.
D)create solutions to difficult problems.

Question 60

Norepinephrine,dopamine,serotonin,and glutamate are all examples of

A)fuels used by the brain.
B)tranquilizers.
C)toxic substances that damage the brain.
D)neurotransmitters.

Question 61

Which of the following can be demonstrated in the youngest,least experienced infants?

A)ability to recognize their mother's voice
B)the concept of conservation
C)verbal memory
D)the concept of object permanence

Question 62

A child is shown two rows of eight checkers.The child is asked which row has more checkers,when one row is spread out more than the other.The psychologist administering this test is attempting to determine

A)if the child has suffered brain damage in the cerebellum.
B)whether the child has an internal or external locus of control.
C)whether or not the child is androgynous.
D)the child's stage of cognitive development.

Question 63

A child who has started to speak in two-word phrases is probably in

A)Freud's oral stage.
B)Piaget's formal-operations stage.
C)Piaget's preoperational stage.
D)Freud's genital stage.

Question 64

Retinal disparity is important when trying to determine

A)which emotion another person is currently experiencing.
B)how far away something is from you.
C)the current stage of sleep a person is in.
D)which of two reinforcers will be most effective in controlling a response.

Question 65

Evidence suggests that egocentrism is

A)found only in children.
B)found in both adults and children.
C)commonly seen in autistic children,but not in normally developing children.
D)the tendency to see others' behavior as being caused by dispositional factors.

Question 66

Someone claims that a subliminal message "buy popcorn" in the middle of a movie increases people's likelihood of buying popcorn.Which of the following would be the best way to test that claim?

A)Display such a message in the middle of the movie and determine whether popcorn sales are higher before the message or after it.
B)Display such a message every day for one month,and not at all the next month.Determine whether popcorn sales are higher during the month with the message.
C)Display such a message on some days,randomly chosen,and not others.Determine whether popcorn sales are higher on days with the message.
D)When people buy popcorn,ask them why they are buying it and whether or not they remember any messages on the screen.

Question 67

The theory that we perceive visual and auditory stimuli in terms of overall patterns,instead of individual components,is characteristic of

A)Gestalt psychology.
B)transactional analysis.
C)behaviorism.
D)psychoanalysis.

Question 68

Various behaviors emerge at different ages.Of the following,which one is demonstrably present in infants less than one week old?

A)ability to recognize their mother's voice
B)ability to use mnemonic devices
C)the concept of object permanence
D)the concept of conservation

Question 69

Object permanence is an important concept in the study of

A)cognitive development in children.
B)visual illusions of motion.
C)hypnosis.
D)adjustment to death.

Question 70

Which of the following effects has NOT been demonstrated by psychologists?

A)People undergoing hypnosis can lower their perception of pain.
B)People who comply with a small request are much more likely to later comply with a large request.
C)One portion of the hypothalamus,important for sexual motivation,is more similar in some homosexual men to heterosexual women than it is to that of heterosexual men.
D)Subliminal messages,such as backward speech in music recordings,can strongly influence people's behavior.

Question 71

Psychological research supports which of the following claims?

A)Subliminal messages can influence what products people buy.
B)Newborn infants can recognize the sound of their own mother's voice.
C)Most of us use only 10% of our brain.
D)A psychologist can accurately diagnose someone's psychological disorder from responses to the Rorschach Inkblots.

Question 72

A psychologist shows a child two glasses of water,equally full and of the same shape and size.Then she pours the water from one of the glasses into a taller,thinner glass and asks "Now which glass has more water?" The psychologist is apparently testing the child's concept of

A)object permanence.
B)conservation.
C)episodic memory.
D)paired-associates learning.

Question 73

Which of the following is an inherited condition that,if untreated,leads to mental retardation?

A)egocentrism
B)narcolepsy
C)anorexia
D)phenylketonuria

Question 74

A child who is in Piaget's sensorimotor stage would probably be in which of Erikson's eight ages of development?

A)identity vs.identity diffusion
B)industry vs.inferiority
C)generativity vs.stagnation
D)basic trust vs.mistrust

Question 75

Each of the following is a cue used in depth perception except

A)color constancy.
B)motion parallax.
C)retinal disparity.
D)linear perspective.

Question 76

Many optical illusions can be explained in terms of an observer's

A)ability to move the eyes more easily one direction than another.
B)tendency to answer quickly without carefully examining the objects.
C)over- or under-estimating the distance to some objects.
D)difference in shape between the left and right eyes.

Question 77

To some extent,we perceive simple visual patterns by means of feature detectors.A feature detector is a kind of

A)word.
B)developmental stage.
C)conditioned response.
D)neuron.

Question 78

On which of the following questions would a Gestalt psychologist probably disagree with a behaviorist?

A)Is it useful to analyze behavior and perception into component elements?
B)Is there a biological basis for endogenous depression?
C)Is operant conditioning different from classical conditioning?
D)Is it possible to conduct replicable studies in psychology?

Question 79

Which psychologists are most likely to believe that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts"?

A)behaviorists
B)psychoanalysts
C)Gestalt psychologists
D)transactional analysts

Question 80

Which of the following is related to sex-linked genes?

A)short-term memory capacity
B)susceptibility to hypnosis
C)schizophrenia
D)color blindness