Deck 17: Psychology: Language Acquisition, Intelligence, Development, and Emotions

Question 1

The hormone ______________ is involved in triggering feelings of sleepiness and tends to increase after dark.

A)serotonin
B)testosterone
C)estrogen
D)melatonin

Answer 1

melatonin

Question 2

In the process known as_____________,sensory receptors become less sensitive to repeated presentations of the same stimulus.

A)sensory fatigue
B)subliminal perception
C)sensory adaptation
D)perceptual defence

Answer 2

sensory adaptation

Question 3

You do not like your new neighbour in your dormitory.Not only is he untidy and loud,you find yourself thinking negative things about him,such as "he is probably sexist" and "he is such a narcissist," and that he lacks intelligence.This is an example of

A)negative impression management.
B)the horns effect.
C)a response set.
D)the halo effect.

Answer 3

the horns effect.

Question 4

Suppose a researcher wants to determine if the size of the observing crowd to some emergency situation is relevant to whether the victim will receive help.The researcher randomly assigns participants to one of three groups: no other bystanders,one other bystander,or four other bystanders.When an emergency is then staged,the researcher measures how long it takes the participant to help the victim.In this study,what is the independent variable?

A)Number of bystanders
B)The group with four other bystanders
C)The group with one other bystander
D)The group with no other bystanders

Question 5

Savannah is sitting in the cafeteria at school talking to a group of her friends.She is paying attention to their conversation,but,all of the sudden,she hears her name in a conversation at a nearby table.Which of the following best describes Savannah's experience?

A)Dichotic listening
B)Selective attention
C)Cocktail party effect
D)Shadowing

Question 6

According to your text,many people believe that there are strong correlations between the full moon and strange behaviour,such as violent crime,suicides,psychiatric admissions,and births (otherwise known as the lunar lunacy effect).This is an example of

A)a positive correlation.
B)a negative correlation.
C)a zero correlation.
D)an illusory correlation.

Question 7

The main difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning is that

A)operant conditioning describes behaviour as resulting from personality traits.
B)operant conditioning describes behaviour as resulting from reasoning about actions and consequences.
C)operant conditioning describes behaviour as resulting from moral development.
D)operant conditioning describes behaviour as resulting from biological drives.

Question 8

Malcolm is studying alone in his room late at night when he hears a loud noise downstairs.His heartbeat increases significantly and his breathing becomes shallow.He wonders if a burglar has entered the house and decides to investigate.When he gets downstairs,he discovers his cat has knocked over a plant stand.His body begins to relax and return to normal.Which part of his nervous system is responsible for returning Malcolm to a normal state?

A)Parasympathetic nervous system
B)Sympathetic nervous system
C)Somatic nervous system
D)Spinal cord

Question 9

What is the threshold level needed to trigger an action potential in many neurons?

A)-70 mV
B)-55 mV
C)0 mV
D)+40 mV

Question 10

Sandra is staring at a painting where the blades of grass in the front appear close and are very detailed,and the mountains on the horizon appear hazy and farther away.What monocular cue is being used in this painting to create the illusion of depth?

A)Relative size
B)Linear perspective
C)Texture gradient
D)Height in plane

Question 11

Every time Maricella goes to work in the morning,she notices that her dog sulks in the corner of the room and looks very sad.Over several weeks,she notices that the dog gets unhappy when she picks up her car keys,immediately before leaving the house.Which phenomenon of learning best describes the dog's behaviour?

A)Classical conditioning
B)Innate learning
C)Punishment by removal
D)Instinctive drift

Question 12

Which of the following statements reflects one of the misconceptions about hypnosis?

A)Amazing experiences in hypnotized subjects are likely due to suggestibility and stage whispers.
B)Brain waves of hypnotized subjects are not similar to those that are asleep.
C)Hypnotized people are fully aware of their surroundings.
D)Hypnosis improves memory and can help people recover memories of experiences they have forgotten.

Question 13

Penelope refuses to give her children cough syrup when they are sick because she knows a mother who did this and it resulted in brain damage in her child.Which warning sign of pseudoscience relates to Penelope's opinion?

A)Exaggerated claims
B)Ad hoc immunizing
C)Use of psychobabble
D)Anecdotal evidence

Question 14

A key theme that has emerged from the memory research literature is that

A)all explicit and implicit memories are stored in the hippocampus.
B)memory illusions are evidence of serious memory problems such as Alzheimer's disease or amnesia.
C)active reconstruction of events alters our memory of the important and unimportant events of our lives.
D)the passage of time has little or no effect on the accuracy of our memories.

Question 15

Wearing shorts on a hot summer day is a behaviour that is established by way of

A)punishment.
B)positive reinforcement.
C)classical conditioning.
D)negative reinforcement.

Question 16

Leslie is working as a dispatcher for the police and is trying to learn the codes used to indicate various crimes in progress (e.g. ,10-71 indicates shooting in progress).However,Leslie used to be a member of the RCMP and previously learned a different set of ten-codes for the same crimes (e.g. ,10-53 indicates shooting in progress).Leslie finds that he is having trouble remembering the new codes for dispatching and sometimes mixes them up with his RCMP codes.Which one of the following sources of interference is most likely in this example?

A)Retroactive interference
B)Proactive interference
C)Associative interference
D)Decay interference

Question 17

The main excitatory neurotransmitter in the nervous system that plays a role in the relay of sensory information and learning is

A)gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
B)acetylcholine.
C)serotonin.
D)glutamate.

Question 18

What psychological school of thought was most concerned with the influence of external factors on an organism's or a person's actions?

A)Behaviourism
B)Structuralism
C)Cognitivism
D)Psychoanalysis

Question 19

Dr.Asocate has found a relationship between foot size and criminal behaviour,and concludes that larger feet causes criminal behaviour.Which of the following principles of critical thinking is most applicable to his claim?

A)Occam's razor
B)Correlation versus causation
C)Ruling out rival hypotheses
D)Falsifiability

Question 20

What types of behaviours have been found to be more influenced by the effects of alcohol itself rather than expectancies concerning alcohol?

A)aggression in social contexts.
B)reaction time and motor coordination.
C)sexual riskiness and promiscuity.
D)perception of feeling "up"

Question 21

Bill is standing in his living room and remembers that he needs to add an item to his grocery list (e.g. ,flour),but by the time he gets to the kitchen,he cannot remember what he needed to do.He walks back into his living room,hoping this will jog his memory.Bill is making use of which of the following processes?

A)Encoding specificity
B)Distributed practice
C)Iconic memory
D)State-dependent memory

Question 22

Which of the following describes the embryonic period?

A)The period during which the zygote moves down to the uterus and begins to implant in the lining
B)The period during which the major organs and structures of the organism first develop
C)The period during which the umbilical cord develops
D)The period during which tremendous growth occurs and the organs continue to develop and become functional

Question 23

The tendency for our moods to adapt to external circumstances is known as

A)locus of control.
B)treadmill exercise.
C)hedonic treadmill.
D)display rules.

Question 24

Brain imaging during reasoning tasks that are highly related to general intelligence indicate that the ______________ shows consistent activation across different "g-loaded" tasks.

A)parietal lobe
B)association cortex
C)prefrontal cortex
D)somatosensory cortex

Question 25

The two-factor theory of emotion suggests that

A)emotions and bodily reactions are simultaneously produced by stimuli.
B)emotions are from our interpretations of bodily reactions to stimuli.
C)emotions are produced by both autonomic arousal and cognition.
D)emotions are based upon our gut feelings.

Question 26

The expressed purpose of the eugenics movement was to

A)improve a population's genetic stock by implementing sterilization plans for those of low IQ to prevent them from breeding.
B)improve a population's genetic stock by way of delivering increased educational training for those with high IQs.
C)improve a population's genetic stock by way of delivering increased educational training for those with low IQs.
D)improve a population's genetic stock by way of providing those with low IQ increased access to higher education.

Question 27

Howard Gardner and Robert Sternberg agree to be interviewed together on the topic of intelligence.At the end of the interview,what do you conclude is their major point of agreement?

A)Heredity is the major factor determining intelligence.
B)Standardized tests do not assess the many facets of intelligence.
C)There is no correlation between intelligence quotients and academic success in grade school.
D)The concept of intelligence serves no purpose in a society in which computers are so frequently used.

Question 28

Ginnie is having a conversation with Dustin,and they are standing about 1.5 to 4 feet apart.Based on their proximity to each other,which of the following reflects the most likely relationship between the two individuals?

A)They are romantic partners and are whispering to each other.
B)They are strangers having a conversation about the weather.
C)They are close friends talking about an upcoming group event.
D)They are casual acquaintances discussing course material.

Question 29

A ______________ occurs when an innocent person is incorrectly labelled as guilty or deceptive on the polygraph test.

A)false positive
B)false negative
C)true positive
D)true negative

Question 30

IQ tests for children tend to measure ________ while adult IQ tests tend to measure ________.

A)logical reasoning;abstract reasoning
B)sensory skills;abstract reasoning
C)memory skills;abstract reasoning
D)comprehension;abstract reasoning

Question 31

Which of the following is a myth concerning development?

A)Children often experience irreversible damage when subject to physical or mental trauma at early ages.
B)Separating an infant from its mother during the first few hours after birth does not have long lasting consequences for emotional adjustment.
C)Children who are survivors of sexual abuse often emerge without severe psychological problems.
D)The brains of children change in response to experience well into early adulthood.

Question 32

At 5 years old,Sammy is better able to understand his friends' feelings as compared to when he was 3 years old.Sammy is acquiring a

A)theory of mind.
B)self-concept.
C)sense of self-reflection.
D)sense of identity.

Question 33

Which of the following statements about heredity and intelligence is true?

A)Similarities in intelligence between identical twins who were separated at birth and raised in different houses must be due to heredity.
B)Differences in intelligence between identical twins must be due to differences in their environments.
C)If identical twins are separated at birth and raised in different homes,yet still have similar intelligence scores,the similarity in their scores must be due to hereditary influences.
D)Prenatal influences have little,if any,influence on intelligence and need not be taken into account when studying environmental influences.

Question 34

Research on intelligence testing across different cultures has indicated that if tasks (i.e. ,reproducing visual patterns)are conducted using a medium that is familiar within background culture of the test-taker,then

A)children from privileged countries continue to outperform disadvantaged children.
B)children from minority groups will outperform non-minority group children.
C)scores tend to be similar when tests are administered in a culture-specific manner.
D)overall IQ scores are still lower for non-native language children as they do not assess abstract reasoning.

Question 35

Brad is 17 and is looking into career options.He is currently deciding whether he wants to become a gourmet chef or a race car driver.Brad is at what stage of Erik Erikson's psychosocial development?

A)Integrity versus despair
B)Intimacy versus isolation
C)Generativity versus stagnation
D)Identity versus role confusion

Question 36

Which of the following is true regarding the release of sex hormones during adolescence?

A)Testosterone is the male sex hormone and estrogen is the female sex hormone.
B)Androgens are present in both males and females but estrogen is only present in females.
C)Androgens,such as testosterone,and estrogens are present in both males and females in varying proportions.
D)Testosterone is present in males only,whereas both sexes have varying levels of estrogens.

Question 37

Basic units of sound are called __________;basic units of meaning are called __________.

A)phonemes,syntax
B)phonemes,morphemes
C)morphemes,phonemes
D)morphemes,syntax

Question 38

An inability to perform conservation tasks is associated with the _____________ stage,whereas children lacking in object permanence would be in the _____________ stage.

A)concrete operational;preoperational
B)preoperational;sensorimotor
C)sensorimotor;concrete operational
D)formal operational;preoperational

Question 39

The key to understanding language acquisition is to

A)consider the structure of the language.
B)study the context in which language is learned and used.
C)concentrate on the biological basis of language.
D)analyze the way a child learns language.

Question 40

June is in a business meeting and she is listening to a proposed change to the company's operations that she does not agree with,but is trying to be diplomatic and will discuss the issue with her boss directly.However,she also does not realize that she is displaying a slight frown on her face throughout the meeting.June's behaviour provides an example of

A)gestures.
B)an emblem.
C)nonverbal leakage.
D)proxemics.

Question 41

Which statement best describes an important finding of Milgram's classic research?

A)Individuals easily conform to group norms.
B)The presence of other people makes aggression more likely.
C)People will easily obey an authority figure and do harm to others.
D)Agreeing to a small request makes it more likely you will agree to a big request.

Question 42

Marlena loves to paint canvases and creates art for her own enjoyment.A colleague mentions her art to a gallery,who begin to sell her work.Initially,getting paid for her paintings is nice,but over time she finds her creative desires decrease and she doesn't enjoy painting as much anymore.Which of the following concepts best explains Marlena's situation?

A)Drive reduction theory
B)The contrast effect
C)The durability bias
D)Need for achievement

Question 43

A common criticism of Adler,Freud,and Jung's theories of personality development is that

A)they are filled with unfalsifiable claims.
B)they overestimate the importance of the conscious mind in personality development.
C)they underestimate the human capacity for engaging in selfish and destructive actions.
D)they place too much importance on adolescence and not enough on early childhood experiences.

Question 44

Social psychology is best defined as the scientific study of

A)how deviant behaviour emerges within a society.
B)sociological factors in behaviour.
C)how we use and engage in social influence.
D)how people influence others' behaviour,beliefs,and attitudes.

Question 45

Which of the following persons is displaying the fundamental attribution error?

A)Dorothy thinks that a co-worker must be in a bad mood because their boss was overworking them.
B)Craig thinks that his classmate must have gotten a poor grade on an exam because he is stupid.
C)Blanche knows that her boss is going through some marital problems but is frustrated as she thinks he is taking that out on his employees.
D)Taylor laughs at a guy who trips in the hallway even though he knows the carpet is bunched up in that spot and he has tripped on it himself.

Question 46

At a crowded park Kayla sees an old man clutching his heart and stumbling.If Kayla assumes that someone else will help the old man,she is experiencing the phenomenon known as

A)evaluation apprehension.
B)diffusion of responsibility.
C)pluralistic ignorance.
D)social loafing.

Question 47

According to a behavioural view of the causes of personality,both _____________ and _____________ together explain why our personalities differ.

A)biological factors;reciprocal determinism
B)the personal unconscious;the collective unconscious
C)genetic factors;environmental contingencies
D)the pleasure principle;the reality principle

Question 48

George is at a pub watching the Stanley Cup final game.When his local team loses,everyone in the bar starts booing and running around outside of the bar.People begin to smash windows of cars and business and some people begin to loot stores.George gets "caught up" in this and joins in the rioting behaviour.What concept is depicted in this example?

A)Groupthink
B)Conformity
C)Deindividuation
D)Obedience

Question 49

________ is the tension,discomfort,or physical symptoms that arise when a situation strains the ability to cope effectively.

A)Anxiety
B)Fear
C)Stimulator
D)Stress

Question 50

Corticosteroids are stress hormones that

A)calm the body when facing a stressful situation.
B)stimulate nervous breakdowns.
C)interfere with the body's ability to function during stressful events.
D)activate the body and prepare it to respond to stressful circumstances.

Question 51

What is the moral or take-home message of Solomon Asch's series of experiments in which participants were asked to judge the lengths of lines? People will go to great lengths

A)to please people on whom they depend.
B)to fit in with others.
C)to convince others of their points of view.
D)to assert their independence.

Question 52

What part of the brain is primarily involved in hunger,eating,and satiety?

A)Hippocampus
B)Hypothalamus
C)Thalamus
D)Cerebellum

Question 53

Eric was recently fired from his job.His response to this stressful event was to take charge of the situation and research available jobs in his field.Then,he applied to each of the open positions for which he was qualified,in order to reduce the impact of the situation.This active type of coping is known as

A)decisional control.
B)emotional control.
C)cognitive control.
D)behavioural control.

Question 54

Allison finds that when she is stressed out,she is most comfortable curled up in her bed with laying with her favourite soft blanket that she had as a child.This is an example of what Freudian defence mechanism?

A)Repression
B)Displacement
C)Sublimation
D)Regression

Question 55

A coping strategy that helps people tolerate a stressor without doing anything to change it,is a(n)________ strategy;one that identifies specific steps to take and implement strategies to deal with the stressor is a(n)________ strategy.

A)cognitive;behavioural
B)behavioural;cognitive
C)emotion-focused;problem-focused
D)task-oriented;defence-oriented

Question 56

Increases in adrenalin,blood pressure,and anxiety are associated with the

A)fight-or-flight response.
B)tend-and-befriend response.
C)stress-collapse response.
D)arousal-anxiety response.

Question 57

Stereotype is to _____________ as prejudice is to _____________ as discrimination is to _____________.

A)attitude;belief;behaviour
B)belief;behaviour;attitude
C)attitude;behaviour;belief
D)belief;attitude;behaviour

Question 58

Gordon is concerned that his parenting will lead his son and two daughters to feel that they are only loved and accepted when they do things that he approves of and values.This is most similar to

A)Freud's notion of the id,ego,and superego.
B)Bandura's notion of reciprocal determinism.
C)Skinner's notion of reinforcers and punishers.
D)Rogers's notion of conditions of worth.

Question 59

Ursula tends to be moody,where she seems happy and excited one day,and very sad and anxious the next.Ursula is likely to obtain an elevated score on which of the following Big Five traits?

A)Agreeableness
B)Neuroticism
C)Extraversion
D)Conscientiousness

Question 60

Amanda signed up with the army right after she graduated from high school.She was soon sent to Afghanistan.During her two years in Afghanistan,she witnessed many gruesome catastrophes.Upon returning home,she felt detached and estranged from her old friends,was easily startled,and had difficulties sleeping due to the vivid memories of the horrific events.Amanda displays the symptoms of

A)flashbacks.
B)depression.
C)anxiety.
D)posttraumatic stress disorder.

Question 61

Carl Rogers asserts that an effective psychotherapist will

A)provide unconditional positive regard and display empathy toward his or her client.
B)interpret important transference and resistance behaviours for his or her client.
C)actively confront and challenge his or her client's erroneous beliefs.
D)seek to identify how negative reinforcement is promoting maladaptive behaviours,feelings,and/or thoughts for an individual.

Question 62

The research data suggest that schizophrenia results from

A)difficulties in learning.
B)poor mother-child relationships.
C)troubles in filtering information from one's social world.
D)biological/genetic causes.

Question 63

Many pharmacological drugs claim to restore the chemical balance in the brain by altering the levels of various neurotransmitters.However,many medications may exert their effects largely by affecting the __________ of receptors rather than neurotransmitter levels.

A)blockage
B)sensitivity
C)number
D)structure

Question 64

Research on the effectiveness of the different methods of psychotherapy suggests

A)person-centred therapy is always a better treatment option than any other form of psychotherapy.
B)psychodynamic therapy is always a better treatment option than any other form of psychotherapy.
C)behavioural and cognitive therapies are always better treatment options than any other form of psychotherapy.
D)behavioural,psychodynamic,and person-centred approaches are more helpful for patients than receiving no treatment.

Question 65

Trevor has schizophrenia and often hears a voice that tells him "Meat eaters are the devil.They will force you to eat the beef and implant you with brain tumors.Go and stop the meat eaters." Trevor's experience reflects what symptom of schizophrenia?

A)Delusions of grandeur
B)Disorganized speech
C)Command hallucinations
D)Persecutory delusions

Question 66

Dikeshia is giving a presentation in her abnormal psychology class on the prevalence of psychological disorders.If you were a student in that class,what general category of disorders would you expect her to mention as one of the most prevalent psychological disorders?

A)Dissociative disorders
B)Personality disorders
C)Schizophrenia
D)Anxiety disorders

Question 67

One reason that nearly any type of credible treatment may produce strong beneficial effects is that people hope it will and want it to work.This idea is referred to as

A)the self-serving bias.
B)regression to the mean.
C)spontaneous remission.
D)the placebo effect.

Question 68

According to the sociobiological model,individuals with borderline personality disorder

A)are likely to have experienced childhood sexual abuse and have poor coping skills.
B)inherit a tendency to overreact to stress and experience difficulty with emotional regulation.
C)have low levels of serotonin that increase responsivity to emotional stimuli resulting in oversensitivity.
D)were lacking in key childhood experiences involved in developing a sense of self and emotionally bonding to others.

Question 69

_____________ is associated with moods that alternate between numerous periods of hypomanic symptoms and numerous periods of depressive symptoms.

A)Bipolar disorder
B)Dysthymic disorder
C)Seasonal affective disorder
D)Cyclothymic disorder

Question 70

Learned helplessness is to a(n)__________ model of depression,whereas depressive realism is to a(n)_________ model.

A)interpersonal;behavioural
B)animal;cognitive
C)biological;behavioural
D)cognitive;behavioural

Question 71

During the day,Barb suffers from frequent,unwanted thoughts that she has left her front door unlocked and recurrent images that all her belongings have been taken.These thoughts and images are what psychologists refer to as a(n)

A)obsession.
B)compulsion.
C)delusion.
D)hallucination.

Question 72

According to the authors,the key criteria for evaluating personality assessments are

A)objectivity and validity.
B)reliability and objectivity.
C)objectivity and reliability.
D)reliability and validity.

Question 73

Trina attempts to overcome her fear of clowns by learning how to shift from a feeling of tension to one of calm and relaxation.Next she is asked to imagine different situations,each more anxiety-provoking than the previous.She only proceeds to the next situation if she can maintain her feeling of relaxation.Trina's therapist is using ________ to remove her fear.

A)exposure therapy
B)systematic desensitization
C)person-centred therapy
D)modelling

Question 74

According to Ellis,our vulnerability to psychological disturbance is a product of

A)the frequency and strength of our irrational beliefs.
B)our ability to prepare for and cope with stressful life events.
C)avoiding and suppressing disturbing life experiences.
D)failing to accept ourselves as rational and irrational beings.

Question 75

Electroconvulsive therapy is often

A)used as a last resort for persons who suffer from severe depression or schizophrenia.
B)used to treat people who are phobic,suffer from anxiety disorders,or experience sleep disorders.
C)used to control people's behaviour rather than serving as any form of useful treatment for psychological disorders.
D)the first step in a longer biomedical treatment management of mood and schizophrenic disorders.