Psychology Revel Questions

Which early movement of psychology investigated how our minds help us adapt to the world around us?

Functionalism

What advice might John B. Watson have offered to psychologists of his time?

"Focus on observable behavior."

Evolutionary psychology might suggest that certain cognitive strategies and goals are built into the brain because ____________________.

they help humans adapt to their natural environment

You attend a lecture by a psychologist who uses terms such as free will and self-actualization. Which psychological perspective is most consistent with the points the psychologist presented?

Humanism

If you are interested in how patterns, beliefs, and customs influence behavior, you are interested in the ________ perspective.

sociocultural

Which of the following is NOT an example of applied psychology?

A clinical psychologist teaches a patient to use breathing exercises to calm his anxiety.

A health psychologist researches a potential link between depression and brain tumors.

A personality psychologist assists a prosecutor with the jury selection process for a trial.

An I/O psychologist performs individual assessments to determine whether candidates are suitable for a position.

A health psychologist researches a potential link between depression and brain tumors.

___________ psychologists interview patients, give diagnostic tests, provide psychotherapy, and design and implement behavioral modification programs

Clinical

A psychology student had to use the steps of the scientific method for a class project. He first decided to study the effect of age on clothing choices. He then formulated a hypothesis that older people would prefer more conservative clothing than younger people. Where did he go wrong?

He did not conduct background research before developing his hypothesis.

Ashley is using the scientific method to test whether male children are more violent than female children. What will she most likely do first?

Research previous scientific studies about children, gender roles, and violence.

Testing a hypothesis is the ______ step in a scientific investigation.

fourth

Which of the following is an example of critical thinking?

Considering alternative explanations for a study's results

A large automobile company says the cars the company makes are the safest in the world. You have driven one of these vehicles for a week and have not had any accidents or problems. Therefore, you believe the company's claim about safety. This error in critical thinking is related to which of the following steps?

Avoid using emotions or personal experiences when evaluating the claim

____________ occurs in situations where a research participant's behavior is different than normal because the participant is being observed.

Reactivity

Dr. Littman-Smith is conducting research in Kenya into the ways that mothers and their toddlers interact throughout the day. Given the purpose of her study, she most likely is engaged in ________.

naturalistic observation

Sam conducted a naturalistic observation as a project for a psychology class. He observed the interactions of parents and children at a restaurant. He believes many parents spoil their children in today's society. He observed many parents allowing children to get away with bad behavior such as being rude to the wait staff. When Sam described his work to his teacher, she suggested he find out more about the ________.

restaurant effect

observer effect

Dr. Sardonicus wants to know whether or not the first three years of life are critical for acquiring language. She decides to study a child who was tragically deprived of human language by her parents. This type of research is called a(n):

case study.

Which of the following is a limitation of a case study?

Case studies provide information that would otherwise be difficult to obtain.

It is difficult to obtain detailed information using a case study.

It is difficult to generalize to other people or situations based on a case study.

Case studies focus on too many people at one time.

It is difficult to generalize to other people or situations based on a case study.

Jana conducts a study in which she calls participants and asks them questions about their opinions. She is conducting a:

survey.

Dr. Wiseman wants to know about the alcohol consumption patterns among college juniors in the United States. He should ________.

draw a representative sample among college juniors

Julie finds that the more she sleeps on the eve of an exam, the higher the score she gets on the exam. There is _______________ correlation between the amount Julie sleeps and her exam scores.

a positive

Which of the following correlation coefficients represents the strongest relationship between two variables?

–.75

All of the following variables would likely be negatively correlated EXCEPT _______.

calories consumed and weight gain

Correlations do not show ________.

causal relationships.

You read online that people who make more money are also healthier. Your friends says, "I guess money can even buy good health now." You respond with:

"Just because those variables are correlated doesn't mean that one caused the other."

Independent variable is to dependent variable as ________.

manipulate is to measure

A researcher wants to know whether eating chocolate makes people nervous. Some participants are given two bars of chocolate to eat, and some are given no chocolate at all, and then all of the participants are tested for nervousness an hour later. In this experiment, the participants who eat the chocolate are in the __________ group, while the people who did not eat any chocolate are in the __________ group.

experimental; control

A research hypothesis proposes that consuming a low carbohydrate diet results in increased weight loss. One group of participants follows a low-carb diet for 3 weeks, whereas a second group follows a high-carb diet containing the same number of calories for 3 weeks. The average number of pounds lost for each group is then is compared. What is the dependent variable?

Number of pounds lost

________ is an experiment in which neither the participants nor the individuals running the experiment know if participants are in the experimental or the control group until after the results are tallied.

The double-blind study

Which of the following is NOT an ethical principle for psychological research?

Avoid any deception

Voluntary withdrawal from research

Minimize harm to participants

Obtain informed consent

Avoid any deception

Researchers designed an experiment that tested the impact of drinking alcohol on test taking abilities. They gave one group a drink with vodka and the other group a drink with tonic water. Neither group knew which drink they received. One interesting result of the experiment was that several members of the group who received the drink with the tonic water acted as if they were impaired. This result is called the _______________.

placebo effect

The cell body that contains the nucleus, which includes DNA and other structures that support the neuron, is called the ___________.

soma

The structures that extend out from the axon and release chemicals into the space between neurons are called ___________.

terminal buttons

The neuron that secretes neurotransmitters into the synapse is called the _________, and the neuron that receives the signal is called the ________.

presynaptic neuron; postsynaptic neuron

At its resting state, the inside of a neuron is more ______________ than the outside.

negatively charged

An action potential occurs when: the inside of the cell becomes ____________ and reaches its threshold, which causes a(n) ______________ reaction.

depolarized; electrical

An action potential becomes a(n) ______________ event once the _______________ is/are released into the synapse.

chemical; neurotransmitter

Muhammad Ali had trouble controlling his motor movements in the last decades of his life. He had tremors in his muscles, which made it difficult for him to walk and talk. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which means he had low levels of which neurotransmitter?

Dopamine

An antagonist can be described as a:

chemical that blocks the effects of a substance or neurotransmitter.

A study with London taxi cab drivers found that the hippocampus of their brains had greater volume, which was presumed to mean more neural connections, as a result of learning and driving new routes around the city. This finding demonstrates the concept of _________________.

synaptic plasticity

Chen has felt depressed for the last six months and is on an antidepressant. He still struggles with depressed mood and difficulty with his memory. His psychologist suggested getting more ______ because that may increase the volume of the _______ in his brain.

exercise; hippocampus

Sensory neurons carry information ________________ the central nervous system, and motor neurons carry information ______________ the central nervous system.

toward; away from

As Makelah does squats and lunges to warm her body up to play basketball, she realizes she is using which part of her peripheral nervous system?

Somatic nervous system

Brad is a 45-year-old man who was in a car accident and injured his lower spine area. As a result of the damage, he has lost feeling and movement in what parts of his body?

Hips and legs

Which structure is considered part of the endocrine system and the nervous system?

Hypothalamus

Sayla has had to monitor her blood sugar levels since she was a child to make sure she doesn't get sick. Although she would like to be able to eat sweets, she understands she can't because her ______ does not produce enough _________.

pancreas; insulin

Epinephrine and norepinephrine are secreted by the adrenal glands and are both _____________ when used in the nervous system and _________ when used in the endocrine system.

neurotransmitters; hormones

Keisha was brought to the ER with a bump on her head. The doctor ordered a test that consists of a series of x-rays from many different perspectives that will display a two-dimensional image of her brain. This test is called ___________.

computed tomography (CT)

This type of brain scan provides a functional assessment of the brain.

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Brett was up to bat and the pitcher threw a wild pitch hitting Brett in the back of the head. Luckily, Brett's batting helmet covered his neck protecting his ______________, which controls breathing and heartbeat.

medulla

The only lobes of the brain that touch all other lobes are the __________ lobes.

parietal

We hear with our ears, but which lobe of our brain is used to understand language?

Temporal lobe

Which structure of the limbic system is considered the center of our emotions?

Amygdala

Manny is a 15-year-old boy who has been begging his parents to let him try out for his high school football team. Manny's parents are concerned about the risk of a ________ if he plays football.

concussion

Phineas Gage became a famous case study demonstrating how damage to the ________________ can lead to significant personality changes.

prefrontal cortex

Rayna considers herself to be a creative person. She creates sculptures out of recycled materials and loves to paint. She also seems to be skilled at reading people's emotional expressions. Which hemisphere of Rayna's brain would be the most active in these situations?

Right hemisphere

Ava has had her corpus callosum severed and is referred to as a "split brain patient." When her doctor presents an apple in her left visual field she claims she doesn't see anything. Why is this?

The left visual field is processed by the right side of the brain, which is not associated with language.

Ricky has blue eyes. Both of his parents have brown eyes. How is this possible?

His parents both had recessive genes for blue eyes.

The results of the Human Genome Project concluded that the human genome has approximately _________________ genes.

20,000

The study of how the external environment can influence and change gene functions is called ____________.

epigenetics

Behavioral geneticists use twin and adoption studies to examine the role of genetics. In general, adopted individuals have traits that _______________________.

resemble their biological parents

Which of the following is a good example of a physiological illusion?

Afterimages

Strong bright lights will cause sensory neurons to ______ fire while dim low lights will cause sensory neurons to ___________ fire.

rapidly; slowly

Which part of the ear carries the message to the brain?

Auditory nerve

What is the function of the outer ear?

To funnel sound waves to the ear drum

The interpretation of raw stimuli from our senses into meaningful information is called ____________.

perception

Leander was really hungry before being interviewed about his study habits. Researchers whispered "taco truck" several times during his interview although he didn't hear the words. He was then given the opportunity to eat food from a taco truck or from the cafeteria. Leander would most likely choose the taco truck. He was subjected to what researchers call ____________.

subliminal priming

Weber's law states that detectable differences between stimuli involve the ______ difference between them.

percentage

According to the visual cliff experiment, when can most humans judge depth?

By the time they can crawl

List the three layers of cells in the correct order that transmit neural signals from the retina to the optic nerve.

Rods and cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells

Helmut is at a crowded park walking his dog. He is looking for a friend and finally sees his friend's face among the crowd. He is using his ______________ neurons to detect faces.

feature detector

Mixing objects (such as paint) is referred to as _____________ color mixing; whereas, mixing colors of light is called ___________ color mixing.

subtractive; additive

You are attending a lecture with your friend but can't quite hear what the presenter is saying. Once your friend tells you the title of the lecture is "Psychology in Oscar-Winning Movies," you are able to understand much more of what was being said. This is an example of ____________.

top-down processing

The ______ is the colored muscle of the eye that dilates and constricts according to the amount of light.

iris

Kendra likes to listen to soft music while studying. Each time her roommate Layla comes in, Layla turns the music up by one. Kendra doesn't always notice the change, but she does notice it more than 50 percent of the time. This is an example of __________.

just noticeable difference

The place theory of hearing explains _________; the frequency theory explains ____________; and the volley principle explains _____________.

high frequencies; low frequencies; low and moderate frequencies

Marcus loves to listen to music, podcasts, and radio talk shows. He usually falls asleep while listening to something on the Internet and has his earphones in almost 5–6 hours a day. He has noticed lately that he seems to be asking his wife to repeat what she said several times before he can hear it. What type of hearing loss may Marcus be experiencing?

Sensorineural hearing loss

Where are the olfactory receptor sites located?

At the top of the nasal cavity

Anita has a severe reaction to chili peppers—they actually cause her pain—and she finds kale and broccoli too bitter to eat, while oranges are too sweet. Anita may have many more taste buds than the average person, which would make her a ____________.

supertaster

Preterm infants have been found to thrive when their sense of _________ is stimulated by their mother.

touch

Which sense originates in the inner ear and can cause you to lose your balance when you have an ear infection?

Vestibular sense

Which theory of color vision states that we have three special receptor cells to process color that work in an opposing manner?

Opponent process theory

The __________ is comprised of multilayered tissue at the back of the eye and is responsible for visual transduction.

retina

Stephan convinced his friend Derek that if he played a Beatles song backward, he would hear it whispering, "Worship Satan." Derek tried it and did hear the words "Worship Satan." Derek's perception of these words was probably influenced by __________.

perceptual set

What concept explains how a person can perceive lines in a diagram, even though distinct lines are not actually part of the diagram?

Illusory contour

What does the term Gestalt mean for psychological purposes?

It refers to how we naturally group objects together and perceive whole shapes instead of individual parts.

When a person is shown a series of disconnected curved lines in a circular pattern, the brain will interpret it as a circle. Which Gestalt principle is this example illustrating?

Closure

Most perception involves which type of processing?

Both bottom-up and top-down processing

Humans receive images on their retinas from two slightly different angles. This binocular cue is referred to as ___________.

retinal disparity

Research has determined that our brain is capable of sensing stimuli without conscious awareness of that stimuli. This is called ____________.

subliminal perception

Why has the Müller-Lyer Illusion intrigued psychological researchers for years?

There are reliable cultural differences in perception of the illusion, but no consensus regarding why the differences exist.

Sal’s dog loves to go on a walk and starts spinning in circles and wagging his tail in excitement when his lead is clipped onto his collar. Eventually Sal begins to notice that his dog starts to act excited when he puts on his tennis shoes before a walk. His dog’s behavior of spinning in circles and wagging his tail when Sal puts on his tennis shoes is a ___________________.

conditioned response

In a conditioning experiment, a sound is paired with a brief puff of air to the eye of a rabbit. After several pairings, the rabbit ultimately blinks its eye when it hears the sound. Which of the following is true?

The puff of air serves as the unconditioned stimulus.

John Watson offered a live, white rat to Little Albert and then made a loud noise behind Albert's head by striking a steel bar with a hammer. Eventually, the white rat alone made Albert cry. The white rat served as the ________ stimulus in this study.

conditioned

Watson's experiment with Little Albert demonstrated that fears might be __________.

based on classical conditioning

In Pavlov's studies, he was able to condition dogs to salivate in response to specific tones while not salivating to other similar tones. This is called ______________.

stimulus discrimination

After Little Albert acquired a conditioned fear of rats, Watson wanted to see how he would react to a white rabbit, cotton wool, and a Santa Claus mask. He was studying whether or not ________ had occurred.

stimulus generalization

You decide to condition your dog to salivate to the sound of a metronome. You give the dog a biscuit, and then a second later you sound the metronome. You do this several times, but no conditioning seems to occur. This is probably because ________.

the metronome should have been sounded before the dog ate the biscuit

________ classical conditioning, operant conditioning requires the organism to voluntarily produce the ________.

Unlike; response

Reflexive learning is related to _____________, while learning related to voluntary behaviors is known as __________.

classical conditioning; operant conditioning

Of the following, ________ would serve as a primary reinforcer for most people.

food