Deck 1: Science and Pseudoscience in Psychology

Question 1

Modern psychology is best considered to be a

A)collection of pieces of folk wisdom.
B)series of contradictions to be sorted out.
C)science.
D)therapeutic process.

Answer 1

science.

Question 2

Rona believes that women make better primary school teachers than men because women are more nurturing and less legalistic. When you present her with data that indicate male teachers perform very well at the primary level, she tries to discredit the information. Rona is a victim of

A)confirmation bias.
B)naive realism.
C)belief perseverance.
D)critical thinking.

Answer 2

belief perseverance.

Question 3

Talk-show hosts often take extreme positions and use language that is designed to anger and upset persons who AGREE with the host's position. These strong, negative feelings are likely to encourage the

A)bandwagon fallacy.
B)either-or fallacy.
C)emotional reasoning fallacy.
D)not me fallacy.

Answer 3

emotional reasoning fallacy.

Question 4

Police interrogators often assume that persons brought in for questioning have important knowledge about the crime in question. If this leads an interrogator to ask questions that assume the guilt of a particular individual rather than asking questions that would exonerate him or her, ________ may occur.

A)the anchoring and adjustment heuristic
B)the availability heuristic
C)belief perseverance
D)confirmation bias

Question 5

Traps in thinking that can lead to mistaken conclusions are called

A)confirmation biases.
B)experiential thought patterns.
C)logical fallacies.
D)systematic information biases.

Question 6

Gwen has posted a questionnaire on MySpace asking her friends to support her idea of mobile phones in the classroom. She ignores anyone opposing her beliefs, which is an example of

A)naive realism.
B)conjunctive fallacy.
C)confirmation bias.
D)attribution bias.

Question 7

The tendency to look for supportive evidence rather than actively seeking out contradictory evidence is known as

A)the availability heuristic.
B)belief perseverance.
C)the confirmation bias.
D)the hindsight bias.

Question 8

According to the authors, psychology is a method for

A)determining simple answers to complex questions.
B)acquiring more insight into the hows and whys of human behaviour.
C)knowing how to turn people from maladaptive to adaptive actions, feelings, and thoughts.
D)restating commonsense findings in a more convoluted manner.

Question 9

Dr Garonski is testing his hypothesis that people use hand gestures more in communication when emotionally aroused than when calm. When his results were reviewed, it was noted that Dr Garonski sometimes missed seeing small gestures in the calm condition. This is an example of

A)conjunctive fallacy.
B)confirmation bias.
C)attribution error.
D)a single-variable explanation.

Question 10

When students begin to read through their introductory psychology textbook, they are often surprised to learn that

A)commonsense explanations abound in the field of psychology.
B)many of their beliefs about the causes of thoughts and behaviours are incorrect.
C)psychologists do not study people's everyday behaviours.
D)psychology is a unique field of study separate from philosophy and biology.

Question 11

________ refers to the belief that we see the world precisely as it is.

A)Commonsense
B)Confirmation bias
C)Single-variable explanation
D)Naive realism

Question 12

Despite the fact that scientific research has found no support or basis for the belief of "the hot hand" in baseball, basketball, or golf, the idea still persists among athletes, sports commentators, and fans. This is a classic example of

A)belief perseverance.
B)gullibility.
C)the hindsight bias.
D)scientific illiteracy.

Question 13

Because none of us wants to believe we are wrong, we are usually reluctant to give up cherished notions. This phenomenon is known as

A)belief perseverance.
B)the confirmation bias.
C)the availability heuristic.
D)the fundamental attribution.

Question 14

Tatiana is a manager of a large grocery store, and she believes that, if left to their own devices, her high school and university-age workers would do nothing but text and talk on their mobile phones. She constantly watches and warns these employees about being written up or fired for repeated violations of the no mobile-phone-use policy. However, she often ignores the same behaviour by her older adult employees. It would be wise to warn her of the dangers of ________.

Question 15

Sandi is an arts major who believes that colour affects everything, from how people communicate to their moods. At a recent art show, Sandi discussed this issue with fellow artists who told her that no scientific evidence supported her statements. Sandi still holds to her belief that colour affects everything, especially personality, thus demonstrating

A)belief perseverance.
B)confirmation bias.
C)analytical thinking.
D)naive realism.

Question 16

Recall from your text that researchers gave students false feedback about their abilities to distinguish between false and real suicide notes. At the conclusion of the study, the researchers informed the students that their feedback was in no way related to their actual performance. However, on a subsequent task where the students had to estimate their performance on a similar task, they used this false feedback to guide their estimates. This is an example of

A)belief perseverance.
B)confirmation bias.
C)hindsight bias.
D)overconfidence.

Question 17

Kari Ann is listening to the political debate on the television. She has strong feelings for one of the candidates and strong feelings against the other. If these feelings influence her evaluation of their performance because she is seeking supportive evidence for her beliefs, ________ is likely to occur.

Question 18

According to the authors, the discipline of psychology is best thought of as

A)a field of self-help principles to eliminate mental problems.
B)a mixture of anecdotes and personal intuition about human behaviour and mental processes.
C)a process for encouraging people to reach their ultimate potential.
D)the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour.

Question 19

Luis' tendency to believe that he sees the world correctly is called

A)popular psychology.
B)naive realism.
C)commonsense.
D)a single-variable explanation.

Question 20

"Seek and ye shall find" is a short and simple way to sum up

A)naive realism.
B)belief perseverance.
C)empiricism.
D)confirmation bias.

Question 21

A group of animal behaviourists has discovered several new species of insects in the Amazon rainforest. They collect the new species for later study back at the camp. Due to advances in computer technology, they are able to transfer their findings immediately to other researchers who are studying insects. Their willingness to share these findings with other scientists shows their commitment to

A)critical thinking.
B)testability.
C)peer review.
D)pseudoscience.

Question 22

________ refers to claims or statements that superficially appear to be scientific but are not.

Question 23

According to the authors, ________ of the claims made by self-help proponents have been scientifically examined.

A)few
B)many
C)none
D)roughly half

Question 24

Recently, advertisements have been broadcast on the radio for some natural herbs that will calm you, increase your sense of well-being, and make you happier in a month's time. You are sure this is a pseudoscientific claim because it is

A)psychobabble.
B)exaggerated.
C)anecdotal.
D)hypothetical.

Question 25

Jan decides to read a self-help book that is designed to help her get control over her eating habits and experience rapid "perfectly healthy" weight loss. Though the advice is very useful, Jan should be cautious in believing the results of this inventory because the results

A)are factual.
B)are based on scientific methods.
C)may be part of the misinformation explosion.
D)may lead to better decision making.

Question 26

The major difference between pseudoscience and science is that

A)pseudoscience addresses different questions than science.
B)pseudoscience is less similar to popular psychology than science is.
C)pseudoscience lacks the safeguards against confirmation biases that characterise science.
D)pseudoscience lacks the general level of public support that characterises science.

Question 27

Which of the following logical fallacies is like a self-serving bias because we assume they apply to other people's information processing more often than our own?

A)Bandwagon fallacy
B)Either-or fallacy
C)Emotional reasoning fallacy
D)Not me fallacy

Question 28

Steve and Julie have purchased a programme that promises to drastically improve marital relationships in just two weeks. Although the programme has not been tested scientifically, they were impressed by the use of scientific phrasing such as "co-dependency", "holistic healing", and "subjective well-being". This example illustrates which warning sign of pseudoscience?

A)Psychobabble
B)Absence of connectivity
C)Exaggerated claims.
D)Lack of self-correction

Question 29

Before one's research is published in a scientific journal, it must be evaluated in terms of its accuracy and contribution to the field. This evaluation is referred to as ________.

Question 30

Which of the following is found in science but NOT in pseudoscience?

A)Amazing, counterintuitive claims
B)The presence of difficult-to-understand jargon or technical information
C)Reliance on anecdotal evidence to support one's theory of human behaviour
D)Self-correction of incorrect hypotheses and theories

Question 31

Curtis is considering buying a new workout machine that promises weight loss at twice the rate of other machines. When Curtis questioned such a claim with the manufacturer, the customer service representative stated this was a new system and previous research on weight loss was not applicable. This example illustrates which warning sign of pseudoscience?

A)Evasion of peer review
B)Absence of connectivity
C)Overreliance on anecdotes
D)Lack of self-correction

Question 32

According to the authors, one reason to be wary of programmes that promise to teach you speed-reading techniques in return for money is that such claims do not fit with the available data on information processing and memory. This is consistent with the pseudoscience error known as

A)absence of connectivity.
B)evasion of peer review.
C)exaggerated claims.
D)psychobabble.

Question 33

Assuming that something is so simply because a teacher or religious authority said it is so is an example of

A)appeal to authority fallacy.
B)circular reasoning fallacy.
C)hasty generalisation fallacy.
D)naturalistic fallacy.

Question 34

Mistakenly assuming that popularity of a theory is in some way indicative of a theory's correctness or accuracy is the definition of ________.

Question 35

A key characteristic of a pseudoscience is that incorrect theories are

A)discarded.
B)formulated and revised as needed.
C)never corrected or changed.
D)seldom believed by the general public.

Question 36

Dr Shaver is conducting an experimental research study to determine the effect of a specific medication on stomach pain. Despite the fact that he should use a "double blind" approach to avoid the influence of any bias, he tells himself, "I won't fall for any experimenter bias. I am more objective than most researchers." Which fallacy is Dr Shaver committing?

A)The not me fallacy
B)The bandwagon fallacy
C)The circular reasoning fallacy
D)The quasi-experiment fallacy

Question 37

Which of the following is one of the classic warning signs of a pseudoscience?

A)Evasion of peer review.
B)Under-reliance on anecdotal evidence.
C)An abundance of self-correction.
D)The use of meaningless psychobabble.

Question 38

The use of the emotions one experiences as a guide for evaluating the validity of scientific claims is called ________ by psychologists.

Question 39

________ refers to a claim or statement that superficially appears to be scientific but is not.

A)Misinformation
B)Anecdotal evidence
C)Pseudoscience
D)Common sense

Question 40

________ refers to a person's belief that he or she accurately and objectively sees the world as it is.

Question 41

According to the tenets of terror management theory, why do we often adopt beliefs in the paranormal?

A)Mortality salience encourages experiential and other forms of illogical reasoning.
B)Mortality salience encourages higher levels of belief in the unknowable.
C)Mortality salience encourages reassuring cultural perspectives, like the existence of heaven or the afterlife.
D)Mortality salience encourages religious faith or spirituality.

Question 42

An important point from the authors' discussion on why people need to care about the dangers of pseudoscience is that

A)harm rarely results from pseudoscientific beliefs or treatments.
B)a lack of critical thinking may lead to poor decisions that affect your personal life, community, and/or your child's schooling.
C)people are often quite accurate and unbiased in their day-to-day decision making.
D)quackery and pseudoscience are especially easy to detect without exposure to critical thinking or scepticism.

Question 43

Curtis is considering buying a new workout machine that promises weight loss at twice the rate of other machines. When Curtis questioned such a claim with the manufacturer, the customer service representative stated this was a new system and previous research on weight loss was not applicable. This example illustrates which warning sign of pseudoscience?

A)Evasion of peer review
B)Absence of connectivity
C)Overreliance on anecdotes
D)Lack of self-correction

Question 44

Dr Wolpe designs an experimental test of his theory of aggression against a competing theory. After conducting the appropriate statistical tests, he finds that the data are better explained by the competing theory. His willingness to accept the evidence that another theory is superior is a characteristic of

A)dogmatism.
B)gullibility.
C)pathological scepticism.
D)scientific scepticism.

Question 45

According to your textbook chapter, the primary reason why pseudoscience is so attractive to so many people is because of our brains' tendency to

A)seek order out of disorder and find sense in nonsense.
B)disregard things that are inconsistent with how we want them to be.
C)rely on anecdotal evidence.
D)look for complexity rather than simplicity in the world around us.

Question 46

According to terror management theory, what is a mechanism used by many people around the world to deal with the fear caused by our awareness of our own mortality?

A)Adopting a broad worldview that associates our lives with a broader purpose or meaning
B)Focusing on the "here and now" rather than waiting for what might not ever occur
C)Reconciling our past with our future so that we are always "ready" for death, should it occur
D)Remembering that the greatest accomplishment that we can possibly have is to raise children as well as we can

Question 47

Which of the following is found in science but NOT in pseudoscience?

A)Amazing, counterintuitive claims
B)The presence of difficult-to-understand jargon or technical information
C)Reliance on anecdotal evidence to support one's theory of human behaviour
D)Self-correction of incorrect hypotheses and theories

Question 48

One evening, when he couldn't sleep, Mr Bradley turned on the television and saw an infomercial for a new sleep aid. As a critical thinker, Mr Bradley should be most cautious about this new product if

A)the product had been subjected to an experimental study and the scrutiny of a peer-review process.
B)its makers claim it has been "proven" to induce sleep in 80 per cent of test participants.
C)its makers discuss the scientific investigations that have compared it to other effective sleep aids rather than relying on testimonials of those with insomnia.
D)the results of research connect the efficacy of the sleep-aid to other widely accepted scientific findings.

Question 49

According to ________ management theory, an awareness of the inevitability of our own death leaves many people with an underlying sense of fear.

A)discontinuity
B)thanatos
C)mortality
D)terror

Question 50

A key issue in science is providing methods to help people distinguish between accurate, helpful claims and those that are inaccurate and unhelpful. This problem is exacerbated by which of the following sins of pseudoscience?

A)Lack of review by other (peer)scholars
B)Exaggerating claims beyond the available evidence
C)Mistaking correlation for causation
D)The use of highly technical terms and information

Question 51

Transcendental temptation, the desire to alleviate our anxiety by embracing the lofty promises of the supernatural, is an example of a(n)________ factor leading to erroneous beliefs.

Question 52

Dr McDonald uses only the testimonies of parents and teachers as support for his treatment of ADHD. This illustrates which warning sign of pseudoscience?

A)Exaggerated claims
B)Lack of self-correction
C)Overreliance on anecdotes
D)Evasion of peer review

Question 53

Tiffany spends a great deal of time reading self-help books on relationships. She has had several failed relationships and is bewildered by the events related to them. Even though she knows most of these books are pseudoscience, Tiffany is attracted to them because

A)she is comforted by the realisation she is not alone.
B)she is trying to make order out of disorder.
C)she suffers from apophenia.
D)she is experiencing pareidolia.

Question 54

What is an important limitation of anecdotal evidence in developing scientifically sound treatments or procedures?

A)Anecdotes cannot help to establish cause-effect relationships.
B)Anecdotes effectively address the issue of representativeness of the cases.
C)Anecdotes are extremely easy for others to falsify.
D)Anecdotes are generalisable to the population from which the individual giving the anecdote came.

Question 55

A sceptic is one who

A)accepts claims on the basis of persuasive scientific evidence.
B)accepts claims only from trusted authority figures.
C)accepts claims only on the basis of logical reasoning.
D)accepts claims only on the basis of their popularity with the public.

Question 56

Pinker (1997)and others have demonstrated that humans display an adaptive predisposition to make order out of disorder and sense out of nonsense. This tendency can account for

A)reliance on confirmation bias.
B)scepticism.
C)the popularity of pseudoscience.
D)belief perseverance.

Question 57

According to the authors, much of the knowledge from popular psychology sources

A)is consistent with the results of psychological research.
B)is contradicted by what psychological research has demonstrated.
C)is not able to be studied empirically.
D)is of no or very little interest to psychologists.

Question 58

Analyse how the sins of pseudoscience are often examples of violations of the principles of critical thinking.

Question 59

________ is the approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them.

A)Metaphysics
B)Pseudoscience
C)Scientific scepticism
D)Empiricism

Question 60

Which of the following statements would the authors probably find the most worrisome?

A)Being open-minded about topics associated with pseudoscience is no big deal.
B)The majority of Americans do not believe in the existence of ghosts or witches.
C)Pseudoscience seems to be so much more interesting and engaging than science.
D)Science cannot answer all of the questions I am interested in, such as "Why am I here?" or "What is my life's purpose?"

Question 61

A claim must be testable in order to be useful. However, we also need this claim to

A)contradict the available body of evidence.
B)be detailed and, when necessary, complex in its explanation of the evidence.
C)be replicated by others.
D)be unique to a specific sample without overgeneralising to a larger population.

Question 62

Apply the critical-thinking principles discussed in Chapter 1 to a discussion of how science is an approach to evidence.

Question 63

Suppose Dr Honeydew is proposing a theory of attraction that posits that "opposites attract". Most of the available evidence suggests that "birds of a feather flock together" (i.e., similarities attract)rather than opposites attract. For his theory to be accepted by the scientific community, Dr Honeydew will need to

A)adhere to the principle of parsimony in his theoretical explanation.
B)construct a falsifiable theory of attraction.
C)demonstrate the replicability of his initial findings.
D)supply extraordinary evidence to support his extraordinary claim.

Question 64

Professor Clark gives her students an assignment to develop hypotheses on global warming. To be consistent with a scientific method, students should develop their hypotheses based on

A)their own existing beliefs about the issue.
B)reports discussed on television.
C)untestable predictions.
D)a well-supported scientific theory.

Question 65

Astrologers, before attempting to demonstrate their abilities, often try to explain away inaccurate predictions. Such excuses violate the critical-thinking principle of

A)testability.
B)scepticism.
C)Occam's Razor.
D)replicability.

Question 66

Dr Richburg's botany class gathers specimens outside of the classroom for further study. Dr Richburg instructs his students to develop a scientific theory that helps explain the biodiversity of the plants. The resulting theory should

A)provide an educated guess about the biodiversity of the plants.
B)explain observations about the plants and predict new findings about plant biodiversity.
C)explain a few findings about the biodiversity of the plants.
D)interpret what has already been discovered about the biodiversity of the plants.

Question 67

According to the authors, one of the bottom lines of scientific thinking is

A)if a claim is extraordinary, we should trust what the authorities say.
B)if a claim runs counter to what we already know, we can accept it if it appears in a peer-reviewed journal.
C)if a claim runs counter to what we already know, it should be supported by extraordinary evidence.
D)if a claim contradicts what we already know, we should disregard it even if it appears in a scientific journal.

Question 68

During a class discussion on the effects of daycare on later social adjustment, Dr Barnes frequently reminded her students to focus on the scientific evidence rather than on their feelings about daycare. Dr Barnes is promoting ________ in his students.

Question 69

If a psychologist were to develop a theory of cognitive development, he or she would want the theory to explain ________ observations.

A)a moderate number of
B)a small number of
C)a substantial number of
D)very few

Question 70

Dr Rashad offers the class an explanation for an extensive group of research findings connecting emotionality and nonverbal communication. Her explanation for this group of findings is a(n)

A)hypothesis.
B)empirical conclusion.
C)operational definition.
D)scientific theory.

Question 71

An explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world is what a scientist would call a(n)________.

Question 72

A key aspect of scientific scepticism is

A)critical thinking.
B)dogmatic belief.
C)narrow-mindedness.
D)reliance on authority.

Question 73

A science is defined by

A)knowledge.
B)its concern with solving real-life practical problems.
C)its popularity among the general public.
D)its processes for gathering evidence.

Question 74

Scientific scepticism requires that any claim is met with a(n)________.

Question 75

An astute observer of human nature should state research questions in a manner that leads either to their being supported or refuted by the available evidence. This is the critical-thinking principle of

A)testability.
B)Occam's Razor.
C)replicability.
D)ruling out rival hypotheses.

Question 76

In the natural world, there often are many different factors associated with the occurrence of a particular outcome. Therefore, it is important that we as critical thinkers ________ whenever possible.

A)create untestable theories
B)propose complex statements of causation
C)remember that correlation equals causation
D)rule out rival hypotheses

Question 77

Which of the following would be best described as an "educated guess"?

A)Method
B)Theory
C)Hypothesis
D)Design

Question 78

Using the principle of Occam's Razor, a good theory is one that is the ________ explanation for the available data.

A)most complex
B)most popular
C)most conventional
D)most simple

Question 79

In science, a scientific theory is defined as a(n)

A)educated opinion about the natural world.
B)explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world.
C)personal understanding of natural laws.
D)testable prediction about the natural world.

Question 80

When a psychologist mentions the term scientific theory, he or she is referring to something that

A)explains a single event.
B)explains a wide range of observations.
C)is no better an explanation than another person's opinion.
D)refers to an educated guess.