PSY2012 Final Practice Questions

Hilary wants to know whether women are getting paid the same amount of money as men for equal work. She asks men and women in several business firms for information about their salaries. What research method is Hilary using?

Survey

If you were to study consciousness by having your friends use introspection and report the results to you, your research method would be most similar to that used by

structuralists

While relaxing in the park, Dilbert decides to read his new book on the study of positive psychology. This book will primarily focus on

what makes life worth living

Jack believes that his success in math is based on hard work, but he believes his difficulties in history are based on an unfair professor. Jack is likely from a(n) \__________ culture.

individualist

The whole of conscious experience is not the same as the sum of its parts" is a belief proposed by which view of psychology?

Gestalt

Jami says to her therapist, Len, "I really want to understand myself better. That is why I am in therapy." Len replies, "Then we will have to start digging in your past and understanding all of the unconscious motives that cause you to be who you are." Len probably takes a(n) \__________ approach to psychology.

psychodynamic

Randy, a community psychologist, is working with a community AIDS organization on a project to help reduce HIV transmission. He decides to gather as much information from as many people as possible about their sexual behavior patterns. Which of the following research methods would be the best choice for him to use?

Survey

Dr. Kurtz believes that students who use calculators learn the basics of math better. He designs an experiment in which Group A is taught a math concept and allowed to use calculators. Group B is taught the same math concept but is not allowed to use calculators. Then he gives both groups a standardized math test to assess their knowledge of the concept and compares their scores. In Dr. Kurtz's experiment, the standardized math test score is the

dependent variable.

As part of a study, Derek is asked to examine his own mental activity as he describes a dull, orange object. Derek is

engaging in introspection

Which of the following would be spoken by a member of a collectivist culture?

I must make my family proud.

Suzie is a graduate student who is conducting research on the topic of relative happiness. Suzie also teaches an introductory psychology course. Because her students are readily available, she uses them as participants in her research. This is an example of

a convenience sample.

Dr. Wisgoski asked fifty drug addicts a series of questions about their childhoods and then collected blood samples from them. He found a high correlation between levels of the stress hormone cortisol and amount of reported childhood trauma. Dr. Wisgoski concluded that childhood trauma causes high levels of stress during adulthood, which, in turn, causes drug addiction. Dr. Wisgoski's operational definition of adult stress level is

blood cortisol.

James read a magazine ad about a drug that doctors say may help college students perform better on multiple-choice type tests. Being the inquisitive person that he is, James decided to do an experiment to see if the magazine's claims were true. He administered the drug to one of his classes, and gave the other class a placebo. James then tested the students in both groups on material they had recently discussed in class. In this example, what is the experimental group?

The students who received the drug

Selwyn is developing a neuromuscular problem because of a shortage of certain neurotransmitters in his cells. This shortage means that

information can't get transmitted across his synapses.

Dr. Zomboss plans to overtake all of humankind by shutting down the fiber tracts of their brains. To do this, Dr. Zomboss will set his brain zappers to target

collections of axons that travel together in bundles.

When a balloon pops near Tyler's head, the circuits in his \__________ cause him to reflexively turn his head toward the source of the startling noise

midbrain

In the brain's motor cortex, the region of cells responsible for moving the index finger of the right hand is near the region that moves the

right ring finger

Dr. Wiancek was on duty in the emergency room when a brain trauma patient arrived. To try to prevent permanent brain damage, Dr. Wiancek injected the patient with the neurotransmitter called

glutamate

Neurotransmitters are \__________ that travel across the \__________ to another cell.

chemicals; synapse

Suppose that the left hemisphere of Jamal's brain is damaged, but the right hemisphere is left intact. Jamal would be most likely to experience a deficit in his ability to

converse with friends.

Tyra has a brain tumor that affects her language capabilities. When Tyra's doctor asks her about a picture of a bird, Tyra responds, "Wings in the sky fly high. Soar through air with a suitcase." Tyra's fluent but confused response indicates that she most likely suffers from

Wernicke's aphasia

Yao is participating in a study investigating sleep patterns. As part of the study, researchers paste electrodes to Yao's scalp. The electrodes are then hooked up to an electroencephalograph (EEG), which will provide information about the

general electrical activity of the brain during sleep

Jerod was in an automobile accident and can no longer control his own heart rate or breathing. Jerod most likely has damage to his

medulla oblongata

Harry the hormone and Nadia the neurotransmitter can both exert physiological effects on their target organs. Which of the following is true about Harry and Nadia?

Harry acts at a site away from where he was released, while Nadia acts locally.

Which of the following developmental changes in the brain occurs after birth?

The number of dendrites and synapses increases until adolescence, when they are reduced

Psychology is best defined as

science of behavior and mental processes

A psychologist blindfolds a subject and then places the subject's hand into a dish of water. The psychologist asks the subject to report whether his hand feels colder or warmer than before being placed in the water. Which of the following psychologists was most likely to have conducted this study

Wilhelm Wundt

Quisley's hypothesis is that listening to classical music improves intellectual performance. He randomly divided a mathematics class into two rooms. In room A, music by Mozart played softly in the background during a lecture. In room B, the students listened to a lecture without background music. The independent variable is

whether music played during a lecture.

Dr. Vance is attempting to discover where emotional experience is localized in the brain by using brain imaging technology. Dr. Vance works in the subfield of \__________ psychology

biology

Jorie thinks that the attention her little brother gets when he has tantrums actually encourages him to have more tantrums. Jorie's explanation is based on a \__________ approach.

behavioral

Veronica's research focuses on optimism and the factors that lead to living a balanced and happy lifestyle. Veronica has dedicated her research to the study of \___________ psychology

positive

The chapter in your textbook on consciousness would be of least interest to someone advocating

behaviorism

During a thesis meeting, Dr. Voldemort suggests that Anwen consider using inferential statistics in her upcoming research project. After the meeting, Anwen meets her friend Jack and confesses she doesn't know what Dr. Voldemort was talking about. Jack explains that inferential statistics

are mathematical procedures used to draw conclusions from data.

A researcher at the university has students in the introductory psychology participant pool fill out a survey about life satisfaction. This use of the introductory psychology participant pool represents \__________ sampling of the human population

biased

To attempt to discover why some adolescents begin using drugs and alcohol, a social psychologist would most likely study the

effects of peer pressure and the influence of role models, such as rock or movie stars, on adolescents' decision-making processes.

Megan believes she has found a medication that will greatly reduce the symptoms of depression, so she decides to conduct an experiment to test her \__________. She randomly assigns depressed people to one of two groups. One group of participants takes the medication, while the other group gets only sugar pills. The latter group is receiving a \__________.

hypothesis, placebo

Cognitive psychologists are primarily interested in

studying memory, thinking, learning, and other mental processes.

Identifying certain types of brain functions (language skills, for instance) as lateralized means that

they are performed most efficiently by one or the other of the two cerebral hemispheres

The main divisions of the peripheral nervous system are the \__________ and the \__________.

somatic; autonomic

The right hemisphere gets information from the \__________ side of the body and has better \__________ abilities than the left hemisphere.

left; spatial

After an accident, Stella was left with brain damage. Now Stella has trouble judging the emotions of others, even when she can see their facial expressions. Stella has most likely damaged her

amygdala

Mimi is sitting in her biology lab, trying to figure out what kind of a cell she has on the slide under her microscope. "Aha," she cries. "It's a neuron!" One thing that might have tipped Mimi off is the fact that the cell has

an axon

You are looking at a neuron under a microscope. You find many structures coming off the cell body. Some of these are relatively thick and branch many times. One of the structures, however, is very thin and very long. This latter structure is most likely the neuron's \__________ , which carries the \__________.

axon; axon potential

Blesdo keeps falling asleep at odd times. He is having trouble with arousal and attention. His doctors have ruled out sleep disorders and are now concentrating on certain brain structures. The one that is most likely malfunctioning is the

reticular formation

Belinda has been depressed lately and is having suicidal thoughts. We assume that her brain has low levels of

serotonin

Travis's hypothalamus was injured in an accident. Travis will have trouble regulating all of the following except his

breathing

Nathan Neuron just fired his axon causing a release of chemicals into the synapse. "More! More!" shout the neurons that received Nathan's chemicals. Nathan replies, "I can't right now, I have to take a break known as a(n)

refractory period

When a man grabbed Opal's purse, she ran after him, tackled him, and retrieved her purse. Then she realized that her heart was racing, her breathing was irregular, and she was trembling. Opal's \__________ nervous system was responsible for this reaction.

sympathetic

Claudia has just come home from a long, difficult day of writing questions for this test. As she sits down on the sofa, her heart rate and breathing slow down, her muscles relax, and her digestive system starts getting ready for food. It appears as though Claudia's \__________ has been activated.

parasympathetic nervous system

A team of Hungarian hypnotists called the Hungary Hungary Hypnos claim that they are successful because their participants are complying with social demands and following the suggestions given to them. The Hungary Hungary Hypnos must believe in the \__________ theory of hypnosis

Role

Jacob is dreaming. If this is all the information that you have, you can state that Jacob

Is probably in REM sleep

You call up a potential date and get an answering machine message. In leaving your message, you mean to say "I'd like to see you," but instead say "I'd like to feel you." This Freudian slip is caused by impulses originating in the

unconscious

When people are deprived of \__________ sleep, they compensate for the loss directly and show a rebound effect to recover from the loss.

REM

Svengali puts his subject, Trilby, under a hypnotic spell. We can expect that while hypnotized, Trilby will ignore everything but Svengali's voice. In other words, Trilby is experiencing

Redistributed attention

Which of the following benefits is least likely to result from your regular practice of meditation?

Increased need for sleep

A group on the quad is advocating marijuana use to increase academic achievement. You remember reading about this in your psychology textbook and report to your friends that studies have found

a negative correlation between marijuana usage and academic achievement

Long-term users of barbiturates, such as sleeping pills, may experience all of the following symptoms except

extreme weight gain

Medea is experiencing a high level of stress and tries to create an altered state of consciousness where she will experience inner peace and tranquility. She does this by slowly repeating a soothing phrase to herself. Medea is using \__________to reach a state of \__________

Mantra; meditation

Judy is an avid cyclist. She often likes to ride her bicycle after work to unwind. One evening, while reflecting on her day, she realizes that she has broken her normal leg rhythm. This perception of her leg movements is now being processed by Judy at the \__________ level.

Conscious

Ginnie ingests a particular drug and experiences a loss of contact with reality and distorted sensory input- This drug is most likely

a hallucinogenic drug

Since May-Ling switched to decaffeinated coffee, she has been feeling sluggish in the mornings and has a headache in the afternoons. May-Ling's symptoms seem to reflect

Drug withdrawal effect

In REM sleep, the EEG resembles that of a person who is awake and mentally active, but

the person's muscle tone decreases to the point of virtual paralysis.

Nic is terrified of going to the dentist office because of the discomfort and pain he has experienced before. The last time Nic had a tooth pulled, his eyes were locked onto his dentist's white coat. Now when Nic sees someone in a white coat, he becomes afraid because the white coat predicts the experience of pain. This example demonstrates

higher order conditioning

Stephanie has learned that if she cries after being put to bed, her parents will often return and pick her up. Crying is a(n)

operant response by stephanie

Children are often aware of which conditions are most favorable when asking a parent for an advance on their allowance. Psychologists call such conditions

discriminative conditioned stimuli

Gabe is trying to get his dog, Trixie, to "sit up." He starts rewarding her first when she lies down. Then he rewards her when she is sitting on her backside. And finally he rewards her only when she sits up with her paws off the ground. Gabe got Trixie to "sit up" by using

Shaping

What kind of reinforcer is money?

secondary

Every time the papergirl says to her customers, "I want my two dollars," her customers give her money. In this example, receiving the customer's money is a(n)

reinforcer

When she was young, Nadia's father would always travel in a straight line through a forest if they became lost. Since she was always with her father when hiking, she never had to think much about this tactic. Many years later, while hiking alone, she did become lost but was able to escape the forest using her father's technique. This demonstrates

latent learning

According to Solomon's opponent-process theory, extended heroin use creates a conditioned bodily response that \__________ the "high" that the user experiences.

neutralizes

One day while Ted was cleaning his aquarium, he noticed the heater was still plugged in. He reached down with a wet hand and tried to unplug the cord. As a result, Ted received quite a shock. After that experience, Ted has never attempted to unplug an electrical cord with a wet hand. The effect the shock had on Ted's behavior is known as

punishment

While she was growing up, Lindsay was repeatedly told by others that she can't understand math concepts and she will never be any good at math. By the time Lindsay reached high school math classes, she didn't put any effort into the classes because she didn't think any amount of effort would help her to do well at math. This is an example of

learned helplessness

Jane has just begun teaching Psychology 100 and wants her students to participate during class. She hopes that discussing the material, doing writing tasks, and working in small groups will help her students understand the material better. Jane is attempting to use \__________ in her class

active learning

Grasping how to perform a complex action sequence, such as driving a car, pitching a baseball, or playing the harmonica, is referred to as

Skill learning

When Fenesha broke her ankle, the doctor gave her a drug that eased her pain by binding with endorphin receptors. The drug that she took is an endorphin

agonist

Edna was hypnotized by the Amazing Orlando. As a result, Edna shows marked changes in her behavior. We could expect to see Edna show

enhanced ability to fantasize

While at a party, Ted uses a drug that is supposed to induce relaxation and elation and increase his sex drive. About an hour later, Ted feels dizzy and nauseous and has trouble breathing. Later he finds out that this drug worked similarly to the neurotransmitter GABA and is sometimes used as a date rape drug. Ted must have used

GHB

About three hours into her night's sleep, Suzanne awakens with leg cramps. This happens periodically throughout the night, causing her to become sleep deprived. Suzanne will most likely

experience more REM sleep the following night

Which of the following statements about sleep deprivation is false?

A person who goes without sleep for one week risks permanent brain damage

Cognitive neuroscientists are interested in using neuroimaging techniques to differentiate between thoughts that take place both above and below a person's awareness. In other words, cognitive neuroscientists are studying

consciousness

After Merton has been sleeping for about ninety minutes, his heart begins to beat faster, his breathing grows fast and irregular, and his closed eyes begin to move back and forth. Merton is most likely experiencing

REM sleep

According to the concept of priming, which of the following is most likely to be the result of flashing the picture of a Coke bottle on a computer monitor too briefly for a viewer to notice?

The viewer will recognize related words (e.g., diet, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper) more quickly than unrelated words (e.g., computer, pencil) on a test a few seconds later.

A group of people were hypnotized and a second group simulated being hypnotized. Both groups were told to retie their shoes when they heard the phrase "be careful." The group simulating hypnosis retied their shoes only when the hypnotist said "be careful," but the hypnotized group retied their shoes no matter who said "be careful." In this example, which theory of hypnosis was supported

state

Roy tells his friends Helen and Joe about the dream he had. He dreamed that trains were zooming into tunnels and rockets were firing! Helen tells Roy that his dream is only a meaningless, random byproduct of REM sleep, while Joe tells Roy that his dream is a way of satisfying his unconscious urges. Helen is taking the \__________ perspective, while Joe is taking the \__________ perspective on dreaming.

activation-synthesis theory; wish fulfillment

Fred, Barney, George, and Bart are ten years old, and each suffers from a different sleep disorder. Fred occasionally shifts suddenly during the day from a normal waking state into several minutes of sleep, during which time he has very little muscle tone and is effectively immobile. Barney walks in his sleep (but does nothing else), while George sometimes moves to act out his dreams. Bart has nightmares (not sleep terror disorder). Who is least likely to be in the REM stage of sleep when he exhibits his symptoms?

Barney

Jules just invented a new drug that acts as an acetylcholine antagonist. This means that Jules's new drug will

block the acetylcholine receptors so acetylcholine will have no effect

While dreaming that she is riding a bicycle, Millie actually moves around in bed making arm and leg motions similar to those of a cyclist. Apparently, Millie suffers from

rem behavior disorder

Fed up with his son not cleaning around the house, Jack buys a book called Shape Up, which instructs the reader to implement the operant conditioning technique of shaping. According to the book, Jack will want to

reinforce successive approximations of the desired response

Andre is participating in a psychology study. He is sitting alone in a room and every few seconds a bright light flashes in front of him. When the light flashes, he blinks. After a while, a phone rings right before the flash of light. Soon, Andre blinks when the phone rings. In this example, the conditioned stimulus is the

Phone ringing

As the months passed, Kurt began taking more and more heroin because the initial dose didn't seem to give him the same high. Eventually Kurt was addicted to heroin. According to opponent-process theory, \__________ may have been the basis of Kurt's dangerous addiction.

Habituation

In her kindergarten class, Tanesha gives the children star stickers for good behavior in class (e.g., raising their hands before speaking, being polite to other children, walking in line through the hallways). Tanesha gives a star sticker every time a good behavior occurs. Tanesha is using a(n) \__________ reinforcement schedule.

continuous

Hai-ri is trying to decide whether to allow her children to watch violent television programs. They enjoy seeing detective shows, but Hai-ri worries that seeing people hurt will make her children more likely to use violence themselves. According to the textbook, which of the following should you tell Hai-ri?

Television violence may be one cause of violent behavior

Jelena is studying in her apartment when suddenly the power goes out. She has to walk to the kitchen to get a flashlight and is surprised by how well she "navigates" without bumping into anything in the dark. She is able to do this because she has formed a(n)

cognitive map

Gabby is a six-year-old girl who has an allergy and becomes nauseated when she eats peanut butter. One day her mother gives her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a new red plate. Gabby gets sick after eating it. Later her mom gives her a turkey sandwich, which Gabby loves, on the same plate, and Gabby gets sick. Soon, all Gabby has to do is look at the red plate and she is nauseated. In this situation, \__________ is the unconditioned response.

becoming nauseated by peanut butter

Herbert, the rat, is put in a cage that is chilly. He operates in the environment by moving around the cage and bar-pressing. He discovers that moving around and bar-pressing have no impact on the temperature of the cage or anything else. Soon, Herbert stops moving around the cage at all, and when the temperature could be controlled through bar-pressing, he doesn't figure it out. Herbert is experiencing

learned helplessness

Teaching assistants are paid a meager sum of money once a month, whether they work hard or not. This type of payment plan demonstrates a \__________ reinforcement schedule

Fixed interval

Which of the following is true about the relationship between violence and watching violent TV?

Watching violent TV and violence are positively correlated

Talon drank one too many cans of "Jooky" last night. Talon spent the morning vomiting, and now even the smell of Jooky makes Talon nauseous. Talon is experiencing a \__________, which can best be explained by \__________ conditioning.

Taste aversion, classical

Every time Bert slices onions, the onions burn his eyes and tears run down his face. One day he opened the silverware drawer and pulled out the knife that he uses only to peel onions and immediately started to shed tears from the sight of the knife. In this situation, the onion is the \__________, and the knife is the \__________.

Unconditioned stimulus; conditioned stimulus

Isabella was injured when her automatic pencil sharpener malfunctioned and a pencil pierced her skull and destroyed her thalamus. Now Isabella can no longer experience emotion. This situation supports \__________ theory of emotion.

Cannon's central