Psychology Unit 1

As one of the three main components of the scientific attitude, this term means doubting claims and subjecting them to empirical testing.

intuition

skepticism

common sense

overconfidence

Skepticism

Which of these individuals was MOST influenced by Charles Darwin?

Sigmund Freud

William James

Wilhelm Wundt

John Watson

William James

Which perspective in contemporary psychology examines the degree to which genes and environment determine individual differences such as personality traits, intelligence, and sexual orientation?

behavior genetics

evolutionary

social-cultural

cognitive

Behavior Genetics

Which perspective in contemporary psychology examines the degree to which genes and environment determine individual differences such as personality traits, intelligence, and sexual orientation?

behavior genetics

evolutionary

social-cultural

cognitive

Behavior Genetics

Psychology's early motto, "The rat is always right" encourages researchers to accept that empirical data may prove them wrong. Which component of the scientific attitude does the motto BEST advocate for?

curiosity

humility

skepticism

overconfidence

humility

The first two-thirds of the twentieth century was dominated by the _____ and _____ perspectives in psychology.

behaviorist; Freudian

behaviorist; cognitive

humanistic; evolutionary

behaviorist; Freudian

The objective of _____ research is to build knowledge, whereas _____ research is to solve problems.

applied; basic

basic; applied

correlational; experimental

experimental; correlational

basic; applied

he objective of _____ research is to build knowledge, whereas _____ research is to solve problems.

applied; basic

basic; applied

correlational; experimental

experimental; correlational

basic; applied

Two friends are discussing fossil fuel usage. One says that carbon emissions are up 15 percent. The other asks where that number came from because they:

want to anger their friend.

are engaging in hindsight bias.

are engaging in critical thinking.

are engaging in overconfident thinking.

are engaging in critical thinking.

The leader of a self-help group has asked Kai to recommend an approach to psychology that emphasizes personal growth and people's need for love and acceptance. Which approach would Kai MOST likely recommend for this group?

behaviorism

Freudian psychology

cognitive psychology

humanistic psychology

humanistic psychology

Talia has just finished reading an article discussing the traits—such as courage—that allow firefighters to remain strikingly calm even when faced with overwhelming stress. This article was MOST likely published in which journal?

Research in Cognitive Psychology

Positive Psychology

The Neuroscience Perspective

The Journal of Developmental Psychology

Positive Psychology

Skylar often challenges themselves to be aware of preconceptions and assumptions and to engage in reflective thinking. Their friends sometimes accurately refer to them as a(n) _____ thinker.

biased

critical

intuitive

reasoned

critical

Phanat plans to visit family in Laos this coming summer. Based on research by Ariel and Karpicke (2018), which strategy should Phanat use to learn a lengthy list of Laotian vocabulary words?

rereading each word

writing each word once

repeated self-testing

self-testing one time

repeated self-testing

When testing those claiming to be able to see auras around people's heads, magician James Randi issued this challenge: "Then if I were to step behind a wall barely taller than I am, you could determine my location from the aura visible above my head, right?" This type of challenge shows Randi's:

gullibility.

empirical approach.

overconfidence.

humility.

empirical approach

A website claims that it can improve concentration, problem solving, and creativity through simple gamelike experiences "based on neuroscience." Before Haruto subscribes to the site, they seek empirical evidence that the experiences have lasting cognitive benefits. Haruto also examines the credentials of the neuroscientists appearing to endorse the site. In this example, Haruto is using _____ thinking.

abstract

cynical

logical

critical

critical

Regarding human traits, which individual would MOST likely agree with Aristotle?

Locke

Plato

Darwin

Descartes

Locke

According to the textbook, people _____ their likelihood of being victimized by crime, terror, and plane crashes.

accurately estimate

underestimate

slightly overestimate

greatly overestimate

greatly overestimate

This variable is the experimental factor that is manipulated.

dependent

double-blind

independent

control

independent

Which professional society is mentioned in the text as calling for research animals to be housed in reasonably natural conditions, with companions for social animals?

Association for Psychological Science (APS)

British Psychological Society

American Psychological Association (APA)

Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)v

British Psychological Society

Extremely liberal and extremely conservative people are MOST likely to differ in the:

rigidity of their thinking.

amount of negative or angry language they use.

likelihood they will discriminate against people with opposing views.

issues they support.

the issues they support

In the social media echo chamber, people tend to friend and follow others who believe as they do. One might imagine, then, that the chamber would amplify people's tendency to overestimate the accuracy of their beliefs. This hypothesis proposes a link between the echo chamber and an error in thinking known as:

perceiving order in random events.

overconfidence.

critical thinking.

hindsight bias.

overconfidence.

Fritz et al. (2019) randomly assigned high school students to either write weekly gratitude letters or list their daily activities each week. The researchers then assessed all students' eating behaviors. In this study, whether the students wrote letters or listed activities is a(n) _____ variable.

dependent

independent

control

confounding

independent

Is it ever acceptable to stress or deceive research participants?

No, neither stress nor deception is ethically permitted.

Yes, according to the American Psychological Association, but no, according to the British Psychological Society.

Deception is acceptable but not any form of stress.

Yes, according to the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society.

Yes, according to the American Psychological Association and the British Psychological Society.

A researcher is attempting to associate two variables; their colleague is aiming to describe behavior. The researcher is MOST likely performing _____ research, whereas their colleague is MOST likely conducting _____.

correlational; an experiment

naturalistic observation; correlational research

naturalistic observation; a case study

correlational; a case study

correlational; a case study

Dr. O'Connor is ensuring that his participants understand what taking part in the study will entail. Dr. O'Connor is:

performing SQ3R.

performing random assignment.

obtaining informed consent.

debriefing the participants.

obtaining informed consent

Several groups of American stockbrokers have been asked to predict the future of stock markets in Japan. Which scenario is MOST likely with respect to their predictions?

They will be accurate in their predictions, which will equal their confidence in their predictions.

They will be more confident than they will be correct in their predictions.

They will underestimate their confidence.

They will be more correct than they will be confident in their predictions.

They will be more confident than they will be correct in their predictions.

Dr. Gigliotti is conducting a detailed examination of a patient with dissociative identity disorder. Dr. Gigliotti is undertaking:

a case study.

naturalistic observation.

an experiment.

a survey.

a case study

At the beginning of an experiment, the research team tells participants that they have been invited to participate in research examining social media use. The team continues by stating that participants may discontinue the experiment at any time without loss of compensation. The research team is MOST likely:

debriefing the participants.

obtaining informed consent.

performing SQ3R.

performing random assignment.

obtaining informed consent

The mode is the:

difference between the highest and lowest scores.

most frequently occurring score in a distribution.

score that divides a set of scores exactly in half.

standard deviation.

most frequently occurring score in a distribution.

The BEST basis for generalizing is not from the exceptional and memorable cases one finds at the extremes but from a _____ sample.

more variable

representative

biased

smaller

representative

A research assistant is preparing a bar graph. The research assistant's goal is MOST likely to present _____ statistics.

nonempirical

inferential

correlational

descriptive

descriptive

To show that the results they obtained in an experiment are not "flukes" but are instead likely to generalize to the larger population, a team of researchers computes _____statistics.

operational

inferential

experimental

descriptive

inferential

A large sample of consumers is asked which of the three largest fast-food hamburger chains they like the best. More than half name McDonald's; smaller proportions choose the two competitors. With respect to measures of central tendency, "McDonald's" is the _____ in this data set.

the mode

the mean

correlation coefficient

the median

the mode

An experimenter is comparing the scores of young and old adults on a memory test. The _____ hypothesis refers to the assumption that there is no difference in memory scores between the age groups in an experiment, whereas the _____ hypothesis states that a difference in memory scores exists between the age groups.

null; alternative

alternative; null

inferential; correlational

correlational; inferential

null; alternative

Using these scores, identify the range: 5, 7, 7, 10, 11, 15.

10

5

20

15

10

Robyn is considering leaving college to pursue a career in software development. They are impressed by an article that shows that some of the most successful entrepreneurs in this field did not complete college. Robyn is:

making an inference based on statistics.

generalizing from a biased sample.

making a reliable inference.

generalizing from a representative sample

generalizing from a bias sample

Tyrell is creating a bar graph to summarize the results of an experiment. The graph will display _____ statistics.

inferential

descriptive

critical

empirical

descriptive

Cindy selects a sample of college students. She finds a relationship between the students' scores on an impulsivity scale and their scores on a measure of problem drinking. Cindy wishes to predict the likelihood that a new sample will show the same relationship. She therefore computes _____ statistics.

inferential

experimental

operational

descriptive

inferential

Differences between two samples are more likely to be statistically significant if the samples are _____ and the standard deviations of the samples are _____.

small; small

small; large

large; large

large; small

large; small

Dmitri is trying to decide between two schools for his 9-year-old child. Two schools state that the average intelligence test score of their students is 125, which is higher than the norm of 100. If Dmitri is most interested in finding a school that has children with diverse abilities, which statistic about the intelligence test scores would he want to know from both these schools?

the range

the mode

the median

the standard deviation

the standard deviation

A study that compares people of different ages at the same point in time is a(n) _____study.

longitudinal

cross-sectional

observational

correlational

Cross-sectional

Yasser is a 3-month-old baby who is no longer as interested in a puppet head as he once was. In this example, Yasser is BEST seen as demonstrating:

extinction.

conditioning.

habituation.

adaptation.

Habituation

The end of history illusion suggests that people:

recognize that they have changed over the years but assume that they will change little in the future.

both recognize that they have changed over the years and understand that they will continue to change.

do not recognize that they have changed over the years and do not understand that they will change in the years to come.

do not recognize that they have changed over the years but do understand that they will change in the years to come.

recognize that they have changed over the years but assume that they will change little in the future.

A 2019 study by the West Virginia University School of Medicine found that 8.1 percent of 1729 newborns were exposed to alcohol 2 to 4 weeks before birth. This finding is _____ with research reported in the text in which 1 in _____ pregnant women worldwide admitted drinking alcohol while pregnant.

inconsistent; 4

inconsistent; 20

generally consistent; 13

generally consistent; 10

generally consistent; 10

Sasha is investigating early language acquisition. They select a group of 6-month-old babies, and then assess them every 3 months until they are 2 years old. Sasha is using a(n) _____ research design.

sequential

longitudinal

cross-sectional

observational

longitudinal

Anvita is pregnant. Her baby's intestinal system is beginning to develop. The baby is in the _____ stage of prenatal development.

fetus

embryo

teratogen

zygote

embryo

Jeong has just given birth to a 6-pound baby. Their infant's head is small and slightly disproportioned. Jeong did drink alcohol while they were pregnant, although it is not clear how much or how often they drank. It is possible that the infant has:

creatine poisoning.

fetal alcohol syndrome.

increased central nervous system activity.

autism spectrum disorder.

fetal alcohol syndrome.

Dr. Baghat studies a group of schoolchildren and follows their progress through college. Dr. Baghat is MOST likely a _____ psychologist.

cognitive

clinical

behavioral

developmental

developmental

It is now 6 weeks since Rajni conceived. At this point, the human organism they are carrying is called a(n) _____; at the third month it will be called a(n) _____.

fetus; embryo

zygote; fetus

embryo; fetus

embryo; zygote

embryo; fetus

Years sometimes pass before old friends reconnect. When they reunite, they often remark that "it's like no time has passed!" With respect to the three major issues reviewed in the text, this scenario BEST supports the notion that the development of close friendships is characterized by:

continuity.

stages.

changes.

stability.

stability

Between the ages of 3 and 6 years, the number of neural connections increases MOST dramatically in the _____ lobe.

occipital

parietal

frontal

temporal

Frontal

____ includes all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communication.

Cognition

Assimilation

Maturation

Accommodation

cognition

An infant can tell the difference between familiar and unfamiliar languages as early as _____ months of age.

7.5

3

4.5

6

4.5

Like infants all over the world, Jonah could sit before he could stand, and stand before he could walk. This orderly sequence of motor milestones reflects:

development.

temperament.

maturation.

learning.

maturation

Western legal systems that suggest that children who are 7 or 8 years old have attained the ability to reason are consistent with Piaget's theory because basic reasoning skills appear during the _____ period.

concrete operational

sensorimotor

preoperational

formal operational

concrete operational

Leanne is 5 months old. Hamida is 8 months old. Dominique is 25 months old. Which infant should show the MOST evidence of stranger anxiety?

Hamida

Leanne

The degree of separation anxiety should be approximately equal among all three infants.

Dominique

Hamida

Lee is an 8-month-old infant who is already walking and even running around the house. What would a pediatrician likely say to Lee's parents?

This is actually rare, as most babies do not start walking until they are 15 months of age.

This is typical as most babies are walking by 9 months of age.

This is typical, as most babies are walking by 11 months of age.

This is actually rare, as most babies do not start walking until around their first birthday.

This is actually rare, as most babies do not start walking until around their first birthday.

At 12 months of age, Chau is classified as securely attached. Which behaviors in the strange situation would be consistent with this classification?

Chau is unconcerned when their parent leaves and uninterested when they return.

Chau is very upset when their parent leaves and seems both relieved and angry when they return.

Chau is very upset when their parent leaves and ignores them when they return.

Chau is moderately distressed when their parent leaves them alone and pleased when they return.

Chau is moderately distressed when their parent leaves them alone and pleased when they return.

Three-year-old Kai is talking to their grandparent on the phone. They say, "Look what I got today." Kai's parent explains that their grandparent cannot see them. Is Kai's parent wasting her time explaining?

Yes, Kai has not developed a theory of mind yet.

No, Kai is ready to see things from others' points of view.

No, Kai should be able to learn from their mother.

Yes, Kai is still in the sensorimotor stage.

Yes, Kai has not developed a theory of mind yet.

Boris was raised in an orphanage where he was given minimal care. At age 6, he was adopted by a loving family. As he matures, it is MOST likely that Boris will:

become driven to succeed.

trust adults.

become a bully.

display anxiety.

display anxiety

_____ lobe development during adolescence also includes the growth of myelin, the fatty tissue around axons that speeds transmission.

frontal

Teenagers work at refining and integrating a sense of self. In Erikson's terms, adolescence is defined by a search for:

identity.

autonomy.

competence.

generativity.

identity

According to Lawrence Kohlberg, people attain the _____ level of moral development when they develop an abstract level of reasoning wherein they perceive basic ethical principles and the moral good as more important than their own selves.

postconventional

unconventional

conventional

preconventional

post conventional

Ngozi walks into the gas station to prepay for their gas. It seems like everyone pauses and looks at them. Ngozi is now aware that they are the only Black person in the store. Ngozi is aware of their:

social identity.

identity.

self-consciousness.

distinctiveness.

social identity

Teens are less guilty by reason of adolescence because their:

frontal lobes are not fully developed.

growth spurts have been completed.

neurons are still not pruned.

myelin sheaths have finished growing.

frontal lobes are not fully developed.

Shashi is 68 years old and is sitting in their recliner reflecting on the mistakes they made in their life as well as the dreams that went unfulfilled. According to Erik Erikson, Shashi is in the stage of development called integrity versus _____

despair

Vanja is 55. They have just celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary at their company. They felt that the gold watch gifted by their company was a meaningless trinket and were glad that they balanced their work with family life for the last 25 years. According to Erik Erikson, Vanja is in the stage of development called _____ versus _____.

identity; role confusion

generativity; stagnation

intimacy; isolation

initiative; guilt

generativity; stagnation

Gabriela is a 22-year-old recent college graduate. She is preparing to move to the largest city in her region to complete a prestigious internship. She has dated several people but does not envision settling into a serious relationship for at least a few years yet. Gabriela is in a life stage many developmental psychologists call _____adulthood.

nascent

emerging

beginning

developing

emerging

eremy is 16 years old and is trying different clothes and hairstyles. His one parent is confused and sometimes shocked by the pairing of shirts and pants, earrings, chains, and hair colors Jeremy wears. On the other hand, his other parent just laughs. According to Erik Erikson, Jeremy is in the stage of development called _____ versus _____.

identity; role confusion

initiative; guilt

intimacy; isolation

generativity; stagnation

identity; role confusion

Amar believes that choosing to violate government laws is morally justifiable if it is done to protect the lives of innocent people. Lawrence Kohlberg would suggest that this illustrates _____ morality.

postconventional

preconventional

unconventional

conforming

postconventional

By _____ years of age, women outnumber men 5 to 1.

80

90

100

70

100

After midlife, positive feelings _____, and negative feelings _____.

increase; decrease

increase; increase

decrease; increase

decrease; decrease

increase; decrease

Devonte is 39. Eden is 49. Fern is 62. They all claim to be middle-aged. Based on the text's definition of middle adulthood, which of these individuals is correct?

Eden and Fern are middle-aged, whereas Devonte is not.

None of these people are middle-aged.

All of these people are correct.

Only Eden is middle-aged

Eden and Fern are middle-aged, whereas Devonte is not.

According to Erik Erikson, older adults can MOST effectively cope with the prospect of their own death if they have achieved a sense of:

conventional morality.

object permanence.

integrity.

conservation.

integrity

Mandeep is 25 years old and has just graduated from college. Mandeep is in a stage of development known as:

adolescence.

middle adulthood.

early adulthood.

late adulthood.

early adulthood

Remembering to refill a prescription later in the day is one example of _____ memory.

long-term

implicit

working

prospective

prospective

Allan is 35. Yaniel is 50. Callie is 63. Which of these individuals is middle-aged?

None of these people are middle-aged.

Yaniel and Callie are middle-aged, whereas Allan is not.

All of these people are middle-aged.

Only Yaniel is middle-aged.

Yaniel and Callie are middle-aged, whereas Allan is not.

When he opens his wallet to pay his neighbor's son for cutting the grass, Walid realizes that he forgot to stop by an ATM earlier as he had intended. Walid has experienced a failure of _____ memory.

short-term

longitudinal

prospective

long-term

prospective

Marcia has the intense desire to create a mentoring program at their company. According to Erik Erikson, Marcia is likely experiencing the _____ versus stagnation state.

integrity

intimacy

trust

generativity

generatively