Deck 1: Introduction to Psychology

Question 1

Paxton has difficulty with dating. Whenever his friends point out a woman they think he should approach, Paxton thinks about how she will probably reject him. As a result, he rarely asks anyone out, and he complains to his friends that women don't like 'nice guys'. A humanistic therapist would probably say that Paxton should

A) examine his childhood experiences for the source of his lack of confidence.
B) pay attention to which men women seem to like so he can adapt his behaviour accordingly.
C) work toward what is most important to him rather than focusing on his friends' ideas of what is attractive or on their insistence that he find someone to date.
D) examine his thoughts and actions to see what keeps him stuck in this pattern.

Answer 1

work toward what is most important to him rather than focusing on his friends' ideas of what is attractive or on their insistence that he find someone to date.

Question 2

Two early humans go hunting for food. They have comparable intelligence. Brawn is strong and fast; Timorous is scrawny and easily tired by vigorous exercise. The men are attacked by a panther. They both run, but Timorous lags behind and is killed by the panther. The panther then chases and overcomes Brawn, who manages to fight off the panther and escape. Brawn passes his strength and speed on to many children; Timorous had only one child before he died. What process is responsible for Brawn's having more offspring than Timorous?

A) Natural selection
B) Behavioural neuroscience
C) Humanism
D) Social constructivism

Answer 2

Natural selection

Question 3

Chloe is interested in better understanding how her mental processes work. To do so, she often reflects on her day-to-day experiences of the world in journals about her internal processes. Chloe is ______, the same approach the ______ used.

A) using introspection; Structuralists
B) exploring biological processes; Functionalists
C) exploring unconscious processes; Psychoanalysts
D) emphasizing her own tendencies toward growth; Humanists

Answer 3

using introspection; Structuralists

Question 4

Today, stress-related diseases like stroke, heart attack, and cancer are more likely to kill people than are communicable diseases like influenza, tuberculosis, and syphilis. Researchers argue that this is because our bodies are not prepared to deal with the constant demands of modern life: noise, pollution, endless daily decisions, and pressures to look more attractive, make more money, and buy more things. What is the best evolutionary explanation for why we are not prepared to handle modern stressors?

A) Our ancestors did not have any stressors at all in their lives.
B) All evolutionary research emphasizes the body and not the brain, and stress is mostly mental and emotional.
C) Evolution prepared our bodies to deal with short-term stressors like fighting off an enemy or running away but not constant, long-term pressures.
D) Our ancestors had fewer sex differences, which made relationships much easier to handle.

Question 5

Dr. Mateo believes that every child is born a blank slate. Children's early environments shape their personalities, though the children may be continually affected by their environments as they grow. Everything comes down to a simple principle in Dr. Mateo's mind: If our behaviours are followed by satisfying consequences, we will repeat them, and if the consequences are unsatisfying, we won't repeat them. Dr. Mateo is probably a ___________________ therapist.

A) psychodynamic
B) behavioural
C) cognitive
D) humanistic

Question 6

Dewayne is taking a psychology class. He isn't really interested in discussions about the unconscious, childhood influences, or the way different structures in the brain work. Instead, he is interested in the purpose of certain psychological mechanisms. For example, he wonders why we feel disgusted by a food that made us sick or why some emotions are the same all over the world but others aren't. Dewayne is thinking most like a

A) Shaman.
B) British empiricist.
C) structuralist.
D) functionalist.

Question 7

After encountering a number of patients who had physical problems without any apparent physical cause, Sigmund Freud reasoned that the causes must be psychological and beyond his patients' conscious awareness. For example, one of his patients, a woman named Anna O., sometimes developed paralysis in her limbs, even though there was nothing physically wrong with her. Based on his observations, Freud eventually developed a theory he called psychoanalysis. What was Freud actually analyzing?

A) Internal, mostly unconscious psychological forces
B) Physical causes of psychological problems
C) How the environment is constantly affecting our behaviour
D) How people find ultimate meaning in their lives

Question 8

Gary is depressed and unenthusiastic about his classes and worries that he has chosen the wrong major. At the suggestion of a friend, he goes to see a therapist. To his surprise, Dr. Takeri is not interested in Gary's relationship with his mother, his family history, or anything else about Gary's past. Instead, Dr. Takeri focuses on what Gary is currently thinking and how he interprets those thoughts. Dr. Takeri conducts therapy from a _________________ perspective.

A) psychoanalytic
B) behaviourist
C) humanistic
D) cognitive

Question 9

Astrid's friend Evan is taking a psychology course. He tells her all about Sigmund Freud's psychodynamic perspective, John Watson's behavioural perspective, and Abraham Maslow's humanistic perspective. Astrid becomes frustrated, because some of the perspectives seem to say the same thing, just in different ways. "What's the point of all the different perspectives?" she asks Evan. "Why not use just one?" Evan should tell her that

A) psychology has diverse historical roots, and different groups of psychological professionals emphasize different aspects of human behaviour.
B) the problem is primarily a political one, and since psychology is a relatively new science, the politics haven't been worked out yet.
C) there's really no reason that anyone can point to; the different perspectives are just tradition, and psychology strongly values its own traditions.
D) all the different perspectives are actually subsets of mind-body dualism.

Question 10

Seiji refers to himself as a Japanese American. Seiji's Japanese parents want him to become a medical doctor. They say that this profession would bring honour to their family and allow him to choose a wife from a good family. Seiji, however, would like to be an actor. He doesn't enjoy his biology classes and is more interested in loving his job than in making a lot of money. If Seiji chooses to do what feels best to him; that is, to pursue an acting career, we can say that he

A) is relying on the values of his individualistic culture.
B) is relying on the values of his collectivist culture.
C) is being influenced by behavioural genetics.
D) unconsciously wishes to be a medical doctor.

Question 11

Skye has been having problems with depression. She doesn't have health insurance to see a doctor, but she sees an advertisement for a study being done at the local university. When she meets with one of the scientists, he tells her that the study will require her to have several PET scans. The first one will be done before she takes any medication for her depression, and the rest will be done at regular intervals both while she is taking an antidepressant and after she no longer needs to take an antidepressant. The researchers doing this study are probably

A) evolutionary psychologists.
B) cognitive psychologists.
C) geneticists.
D) behavioural neuroscientists.

Question 12

Temira tells her roommate, Carmella, that she recently read that people who paint their rooms blue get better grades. Carmella knows that painting their room will be a lot of work. Carmella is thinking like a Psychologist when she asks Temira

A) how soon they can get the paint because Carmella wants better grades now?
B) when she was going to start painting because they both want to do better in school?
C) where she got her information and what evidence her sources had for their conclusion?
D) does it matter what shade of blue they will use?

Question 13

Kalinda has been having trouble with her college classes. Each time a professor announces an assignment, she worries that she won't do it right. Every time she takes a test, she worries that she hasn't studied the right things. When her friends notice that she's been acting depressed and ask if she's all right, she tells them she can't do anything right. To help her, a cognitive therapist would probably suggest that Kalinda

A) change the things she is thinking to herself, because they are affecting her ability to function successfully in school.
B) figure out what her meaning in life is to get her back on track with her schoolwork.
C) examine all the parts of her life so she can see her problems at school in the context of her whole life.
D) use free association to explore long-forgotten childhood experiences and traumas.

Question 14

Identical twins share the same genotype, (i.e. their genomes are identical); but they never have the same phenotype. This is apparent in the fact that their mothers and close friends can always tell them apart, even though others might not be able to see the subtle differences. Which way of thinking about Psychology best describes the issue with twins' different phenotypes?

A) Cognitivism
B) The Evolution of Behaviour
C) The Nature-Nurture Debate
D) Mind-Body Dualism

Question 15

Sally believes that her children's environment interacts with their genetics shaping them into who they are and what they will do. Sally clearly agrees with the

A) the nuture only view.
B) the Positive Psychology movement.
C) the nature only view.
D) interactionist perspective.

Question 16

Alex helps individuals who are in early stages of dementia build coping strategies and reduce distress through psychotherapy and psychoeducational support groups. He uses memory training strategies help to optimize remaining cognitive abilities. Which subdiscipline of Psychology does Alex work in?

A) Behavioural Neuroscience
B) Forensic Psychology
C) Personality Psychology
D) Social Psychology

Question 17

Rafael recently saw a movie in which a man killed his entire family because the ghosts that supposedly haunted his house told him to. The moviemakers claim that the story is based on real events and that the house in which the man lived is haunted. Rafael's psychology professor, however, says that people who hear voices usually have schizophrenia. To decide which "facts" to believe, the best question Rafael could ask himself is:

A) How much money did the movie make at the box office?
B) Where is the man who killed his family now?
C) Was the movie any good?
D) What is the evidence for and against each explanation?

Question 18

It has been said that no two people have the same parents, since parents respond to and treat each child differently. Watson and Skinner would probably ___________ with this statement because __________________.

A) disagree; siblings exhibit similarities learned from their parents
B) disagree; one's environment changes based on one's responses to it
C) agree; one's environment changes based on one's responses to it
D) agree; siblings exhibit similarities learned from their parents

Question 19

Ramesh has come to Canada from India to seek his college degree. When he is a senior, his parents tell him that they have arranged his marriage to a young woman named Nalini. They provide him with a detailed description of her personality and goals in life, and she seems to have all the qualities Ramesh would like in a wife. Ramesh tells his parents he will marry her. Ramesh's Canadian friends tell him he is crazy to consider marrying someone he has never met, but Ramesh says that he is from a/an _____________ culture and that ___________________

A) collectivistic; meaning that one always tells his parents the exact opposite of what he really means.
B) individualistic; arranged marriages are common in his culture.
C) collectivistic; not all cultures see love as an essential prerequisite for marriage.
D) individualistic: his family's goals are his goals.

Question 20

Current findings on parental influences provide less deterministic explanations than did earlier theory and research on parenting. Contemporary research approaches include (a) behaviour-genetic designs, augmented with direct measures of potential environmental influences; (b) studies distinguishing among children with different genetically influenced predispositions in terms of their responses to different environmental conditions; and (c) experimental and quasi-experimental studies of change in children's behaviour as a result of their exposure to parents' behaviour, after controlling for children's initial characteristics. Indicate that parental influences on child development are neither as unambiguous as earlier researchers suggested nor as insubstantial as current critics claim. This supports the

A) Nature-only view
B) Nuture-only view
C) Interactionist perspecitive
D) Cultural psychology approach

Question 21

David has studied cell-phone impact using driving high-fidelity simulators while controlling for driving difficulty and time on task. He obtained unambiguous scientific evidence that cell-phone conversations disrupt driving performance. Human attention has a limited capacity, and studies suggest that talking on the phone causes a kind of "inattention blindness" to the driving scene. David is most likely a

A) Cognitive Psychologist
B) Health Psychologist
C) Sports Psychologist
D) Clinical Psychologist

Question 22

Every year, the dubious posthumous honour of the Darwin Award is bestowed on people who "[improve] the human genome by . . . accidentally kill[ing] themselves in really stupid ways." In Kenya, on 24 April 2014, two men taking selfies with a wild elephant were trampled to death by the irate pachyderm. To which of Darwin's principles are the Darwin Awards in homage?

A) natural selection
B) adaptation
C) evolutionary noise
D) mutation

Question 23

If you can measure something in space, as having a length, breadth, width etc., then it must be a material substance. If you can't measure it, then it must be a thought-like substance. A human being is both matter (flesh and bones) and thought-things (mind, emotions etc.). This explains

A) The nature-nurture debate
B) Evolution
C) Mind-body dualism
D) Psychoanalysis

Question 24

The human visual system is adept at nearly instantaneously interpreting a rich 3D environment filled with varied surfaces and textures. This feat of perceptual inference is astonishing in light of the massive amount of information entering the eye at any one instant and its inherent ambiguity. The Bethe Lab studies the human visual system's solution to this problem. The Bethe Lab is using _________.

A) Psychophysics
B) Behavioursim
C) Evolutionary Psychology
D) Behavioural Neuroscience

Question 25

David loves reading about what motivates employees, how companies choose job applicants, and how machines are designed around human capabilities. If David chooses to pursue an advanced degree in psychology, the best fit is probably

A) clinical psychology.
B) quantitative psychology.
C) industrial/organizational psychology.
D) developmental psychology.

Question 26

Carol's parents live in southern Florida, where anoles (small lizards) are common. Every time she visits, Carol removes more anoles from inside her parents' pool cage. There is no way for new anoles to get into the cage, so all the anoles there now are either the original interlopers or their offspring that have inherited the qualities that allowed the original anoles to escape capture. As a result, the anoles that are still inside the cage, including the babies, are very difficult to catch and remove. On a microcosmic level, the increasingly clever anoles in the pool cage are the result of

A) natural selection.
B) polygenetic transmission.
C) evolutionary noise.
D) mutation.

Question 27

Psychologist David Buss studies the dating and mating behaviours of human beings. The facial features we associate with female beauty-big eyes, clear skin, full lips-are strongly correlated with health and fertility. Therefore, Buss says, early men who chose beautiful women who met these criteria were more likely to have healthy children and pass on this appreciation of beauty. Based on this information, we can say that Buss is a/an ____________________ psychologist.

A) monistic
B) behavioural
C) evolutionary
D) social

Question 28

A mother alligator lays a clutch, or group, of eggs. When the babies hatch, one has a white hide, rather than the normal green. The white alligator grows normally and is as healthy as its siblings, but it's definitely easier to see against the green lake area in which the alligators live. What caused the white alligator's hide to be different from those of its siblings and parents?

A) Its genotype
B) Chance mutation
C) Adaptation
D) Natural selection

Question 29

A number of people in Toshi's family struggle with anxiety attacks. He has been fortunate in that he has never had a problem with anxiety. However, when his parents suddenly announce that they are going to be divorced, Toshi is shocked and upset. A week later, sitting in class, he has his first anxiety attack. If we use the three levels of analysis, we can say that Toshi's anxiety is

A) primarily a biological problem.
B) primarily a psychological problem.
C) primarily an environmental problem.
D) due to an interaction among all three levels.