Unit 4 Practice Questions

Psychiatrists and psychologists would be likely to identify agoraphobia as a psychological disorder because it is

personally dysfunctional.

The discovery that psychologically disordered behavior could result from syphilis infections facilitated the credibility and acceptance of

the medical model.

A biopsychosocial approach to substance abuse would be most likely to emphasize

the interactive influences of nature and nurture on substance abuse.

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has indicated that the development of ADHD is a consequence of

genetic influences.

DSM-5 focuses on clinicians' reports of observable behavior in order to

facilitate the reliability of diagnoses.

The symptoms of \________ are likely to appear at an earlier age than the symptoms of

antisocial personality; schizophrenia.

Indira, a third-grade teacher, frequently suffers from dizziness, heart palpitations, muscular tension, and fatigue. She is also continually agitated and unable to relax outside the classroom, but she cannot pinpoint a reason for her problems. Her behavior is most indicative of a(n)

generalized anxiety disorder.

Which of the following disorders is characterized by the most sudden and unpredictable episodes of distress?

panic disorder

Sadie is so fearful of being overwhelmed by anxiety that she rarely steps outside her apartment. The thought of going shopping and getting lost in a crowd terrifies her, so she has her groceries delivered. Because of her fear, she earns her living as a freelance writer, working at home. Sadie's behavior is most characteristic of

agoraphobia.

Repeatedly thinking about your own death is to \________ as repeatedly washing your hands is to \________.

obsession; compulsion

Some people are more vulnerable to PTSD because they have a sensitive \________, which floods the body with stress hormones.

limbic system

As Jordan watches, his brother receives an electric shock from touching the frayed toaster cord. Jordan is now intensely afraid of toasters. This best illustrates that fear can be learned through

observational learning.

Major depressive disorder is said to occur when signs of depression last at least

two weeks.

Elmer, the owner of an auto service station, suddenly began smashing the front fenders and hoods of two customers' cars. When asked why, he excitedly explained that he was transforming the cars into real racing machines. When an employee tried to restrain him, he shouted that everybody was fired and quickly began breaking the car windows. Elmer is exhibiting symptoms of

mania.

Research regarding depression indicates that

with each new generation, depression is increasing in its prevalence.

Severely depressed individuals are especially likely to show reduced brain activity in the

left frontal lobe.

By boosting serotonin, antidepressant drugs stimulate the growth of neurons in the

hippocampus.

A therapist believes that Chet is chronically depressed because he takes too little credit for his many achievements and assumes too much responsibility for his few failures. The therapist's interpretation reflects a \________ perspective.

Social-cognitive

To break the vicious cycle of depression, the social-cognitive perspective suggests that people should be encouraged to explain their failures in terms that are both

external and temporary.

Compared with those who suffer no disorder, those who abuse alcohol have \________ risk of committing suicide. Compared with the general population, those who have been depressed have \________ risk of committing suicide.

a higher; a higher

One of the positive symptoms of schizophrenia includes

hallucinations.

People are more likely to recover from \________ schizophrenia than from \________ schizophrenia.

acute; chronic

Among schizophrenia patients, the fluid-filled areas of the brain are

abnormally large and the thalamus is abnormally small.

People born in \________ during the month of \________ are at increased risk for schizophrenia.

Australia; September

If an identical twin has schizophrenia, the co-twin's chances of being similarly affected are only 1 in 10 if they had different

placentas.

Psychologists are LEAST likely to suggest that \________ contribute(s) to the development of schizophrenia.

neglectful child-rearing practices

During a stressful military battle, Maizani suddenly went blind. When hypnotized by an army psychiatrist, his blindness vanished. Maizani apparently suffered from a

conversion disorder.

William, an airplane pilot, is unable to remember anything of a bombing raid in which his plane was severely damaged and two crew members were killed. Because he himself suffered no physical injuries, psychologists suspect that William probably suffers from a

dissociative disorder.

Connie exhibits multiple personalities. Evidence that information learned by her secondary personality influences the moods and behaviors of her primary personality would most clearly rule out the contribution of \________ to her symptoms.

dissociation

A biological perspective would be LEAST helpful for explaining the

dramatic increase in reported cases of dissociative identity disorder during the past 40 or so years.

Personality disorders are best described as

inflexible and enduring behavior patterns that impair social functioning.

Anthony is 32 years old, well above average in intelligence, and quite charming. He has swindled several older people out of their life savings, and he seems to have little feeling for his victims, nor does he fear the consequences of getting caught. His behavior is evidence of

a personality disorder.

About eight months ago, 14-year-old Shelley went on a drastic weight-loss diet that caused her to drop from 110 to 80 pounds. Although she is now dangerously underweight and undernourished, she continues to think she looks fat. Her frustrated father recently forced her to eat a peanut butter sandwich, but Shelley immediately went to the bathroom and threw it all up. Shelley most clearly suffers from

anorexia nervosa.

Twenty-two-year-old Daria is slightly overweight and loves to eat, particularly snack foods and rich desserts. Fearful of becoming overweight, she frequently takes a laxative following episodes of binge eating. Daria most clearly suffers from

bulimia nervosa.

Professor Engstrom emphasizes that eating disorders involve the interactive influence of mood, basal metabolic rates, and cultural standards of beauty. The professor's emphasis best illustrates

a biopsychosocial approach.

When Molly told her therapist about her frightening car accident, the therapist instructed her to close her eyes and verbalize any further thoughts stimulated by this experience, even if they were scary or embarrassing. The therapist was making use of a technique known as

free association.

Mr. Phillips has recently begun to express feelings of hostility and resentment toward his therapist, who is consistently friendly, caring, and helpful. A psychoanalyst would most likely consider Mr. Phillips's hostility to be an example of

transference.

Psychodynamic therapies try to understand patients' current symptoms by focusing on recurring patterns in their

interpersonal relationships.

Humanistic therapists are most likely to

emphasize the importance of self-awareness for psychological adjustment.

As a psychotherapist, Dr. Benoit does not analyze people's motives or diagnose the nature of their difficulties because he believes that they are in the best position to diagnose and solve their own problems. Dr. Benoit's position is most characteristic of \________ therapy.

client-centered

Just as Austin began telling his therapist about a painful childhood experience, he complained of a headache and abruptly ended the session. A psychoanalyst would most likely suggest that Austin's behavior is an example of

resistance.

Melea suggested that her nail biting might be a symptom of unconscious resentment toward her parents. Her therapist chuckled and said, "No, Melea, your problem isn't unconscious hostility; your problem is nail biting". Melea's therapist sounds most like a \________ therapist.

Behavior

In an effort to reduce his daughter's fear of the dark, Mr. Chew would hug and gently rock her immediately after turning off the lights at bedtime. Mr. Chew's strategy best illustrates the technique of

counterconditioning.

Systematic desensitization involves

associating a pleasant relaxed state with anxiety-arousing stimuli.

Alice is so fearful of taking tests for her AP courses that she experiences mild anxiety when registering for an AP course, intense anxiety when studying for a test, and extreme anxiety when answering actual test questions. Her greatest fear, however, is experienced while waiting for a teacher to hand out tests. During the process of systematically desensitizing her test anxiety, the therapist is likely to ask Alice first to imagine

registering for an AP course.

Replacing a negative response with a positive response is to systematic desensitization as replacing a positive response with a negative response is to

aversive conditioning.

Several years after his wife's death, Mr. Waldorf remains incapacitated by feelings of guilt and sadness. To reduce Mr. Waldorf's depression, a therapist is actively encouraging him to stop blaming himself for not being able to prevent his wife's death. The therapist's approach is most representative of

cognitive therapy.

Pam is afraid of speaking to a large audience. Her therapist suggests that prior to a speaking engagement she should reassure herself with comments like, "Cheer up, Pam. You know what you're talking about and your topic is really interesting!" This approach to reducing Pam's fear most clearly illustrates

stress inoculation training.

A useful feature of group therapy is that it

encourages clients to improve their communication skills.

In one massive experiment, potentially delinquent boys were assigned to a 5-year treatment program that included professional counseling and family assistance. Many years later, Joan McCord's investigation of this program's effectiveness revealed that

clients' accounts of the program's effectiveness were often misleading and overly positive.

Meta-analysis refers to

a procedure for statistically combining the results of many different studies

Psychotherapy is MOST likely to be effective in freeing

Jim from an excessive fear of giving speeches in public.

EMDR is most similar to a technique known as

systematic desensitization.

A common ingredient underlying the success of diverse psychotherapies is the

client's expectation that psychotherapy will make things better.

Although Albert Ellis and Allen Bergin disagree about the value of self-sacrifice and marital fidelity, as professional therapists they both agree that

psychotherapists' personal values influence their practice of therapy.

Antidepressant drugs, a fresh perspective on his problems, and a strong therapeutic alliance all contributed to helping David recover from a major depressive disorder. An integrated understanding of David's recovery process is best provided by

a biopsychosocial approach

Dr. Volga is a researcher who wants to distinguish between the direct effects of a new antianxiety medication and effects arising from expectations of the drug's effectiveness. Dr. Volga is most likely to use

the double-blind procedure.

Which drug dampens responsiveness to irrelevant stimuli in schizophrenia patients with positive symptoms?

Chlorpromazine

Of the following individuals, who is most likely to benefit from therapeutic drugs that block receptor sites for dopamine?

Betsy, who hears imaginary voices telling her she will soon be killed

To help an adult client overcome fears of venturing out of his own home, Dr. Ricci plans to use behavior therapy in combination with drug therapy. Which of the following drugs would Dr. Ricci be most likely to prescribe?

Ativan

Which of the following individuals is most likely to benefit from Prozac?

Shannon, who feels helpless and apathetic and thinks her life is meaningless and worthless

Mr. McCardle's excessive feelings of helplessness and despondency are periodically interrupted by episodes in which he experiences extreme feelings of personal power and a grandiose optimism about his future. Which drug would most likely be prescribed to alleviate his symptoms?

Lithium

Adelle's feelings of unhappiness, low self-esteem, and hopelessness have become so extreme that she has attempted suicide. Which of the following treatments is likely to provide her with the quickest relief from her misery?

electroconvulsive therapy

Compared with ECT, rTMS is \________ likely to produce seizures and \________ likely to produce memory loss.

less; less

MRI-guided precision surgery is occasionally done to cut the brain circuits involved in severe cases of

obsessive-compulsive disorder.

A dispositional attribution is to \________ as a situational attribution is to

personality traits; assigned roles

You would probably be LEAST likely to commit the fundamental attribution error in explaining why

you failed a college test.

Which of the following individuals is LEAST likely to cheat on his income tax returns?

Mikhail, who positively values paying his full income tax

When a salesperson visits your home and asks you to try a free sample of a cleaning fluid, you agree. When he returns the following week and asks you to purchase an assortment of expensive cleaning products, you make the purchase. The salesperson appears to have made effective use of

the foot-in-the-door phenomenon.

During a test, Abe impulsively copied several answers from a nearby student's paper. He felt very uncomfortable about having done this until he convinced himself that copying answers is not wrong if classmates are careless enough to expose their test sheets. Which theory best explains why Abe adopted this new attitude?

cognitive dissonance theory

Simone disagrees with her classmates on an issue. During a class discussion of the issue, Simone is MOST likely to conform to her classmates' opinion if she

believes the rest of the class is unanimous in their position.

Accepting others' opinions about reality is to \________ as the desire to gain approval is to \________.

informational social influence; normative social influence

In Milgram's obedience experiments, teachers were MOST likely to deliver high levels of shock when

the learner was placed in a different room from the teacher.

The value of social conformity is most likely to be emphasized in

Japan.

On which of the following tasks would the presence of others be MOST likely to lead to improved performance?

counting backward from 10 to 1

Social loafing is MOST likely to occur among

audience members who are asked to applaud after a speaker is introduced.

After an exciting football game in which the home team loses by one point, a crowd of fans throws bottles and begins to tear up the field. This behavior is best understood in terms of

deindividuation.

Individuals who believe that the death penalty should be abolished meet to discuss the issue. Research on group interaction suggests that after discussion the individuals will be

even more convinced that the death penalty should be abolished.

Anton is the only juror to favor acquittal on a murder trial. To influence the majority, he should

be self-confident and consistent in expressing his viewpoint.

The practice of covering your mouth when you cough best illustrates the impact of

norms.

Which of the following describes a stereotype?

Robin is convinced that university professors are usually impractical and forgetful.

If researchers found that people take longer to identify words such as assertive and bold as strong when the words are associated with female faces rather than with male faces, this would be considered to illustrate

implicit prejudice.

Priming people with a flashed Black face rather than a flashed White face makes them more likely to misperceive a flashed tool as a gun. This best illustrates the subtle character of

implicit racial associations.

A sense of social identity is most likely to promote

ingroup bias.

The tendency to categorize people on the basis of their gender is most likely to lead Jack to believe that

women all have pretty much the same attitudes about sex.

Joie, age 19, is a Black female high school junior. Research on how we categorize social information suggests that Joie is most likely to believe that most

Chinese people tend to look pretty much alike.

Mr. Ignachenko thinks that most unemployed people are to blame for their own misfortune. His belief best illustrates a potential consequence of

the just-world phenomenon.

After Manny's father refused to let him use the family car on Friday night, Manny let all the air out of the tires. His action is best explained in terms of the

frustration-aggression principle.

Youths who are shunned and mocked by peers are especially likely to respond with aggression if they have earlier experienced

social rejection.

Which of the following would be the best advice to give parents who are concerned about the frequent aggressive outbursts of their 6-year-old son?

Make a point of rewarding and praising your son whenever he is socially cooperative and altruistic.

Although the effect dissipates within an hour or so, one violent TV program is most likely to \________ in its viewer.

prime aggressive thoughts

Joel's violent behavior is influenced by his unrealistic social scripts, his repeated experience of ostracism, and his persistent abuse of alcohol. An integrated understanding of Joel's behavior within the framework of multiple levels of analysis is most clearly provided by

a biopsychosocial approach.

People's preference for mirror-image photographs of themselves illustrates the impact of

the mere exposure effect.

Svetlana, a 17-year-old high school senior, is beautiful. Research suggests that she is likely to \________ than less attractive high school girls.

be perceived as more socially skilled

Research on physical attractiveness indicates that men are more likely than women to

judge members of the opposite sex as more attractive if they have a youthful appearance.

Which of the following is most clearly supported by research on social attraction?

Birds of a feather flock together.

In investigating the impact of physical arousal on passionate love, Donald Dutton and Arthur Aron arranged for an attractive woman to briefly interact with men who had recently

crossed a swaying footbridge.

Which of the following is true of non-Western cultures, as compared with Western cultures? They have

lower divorce rates and consider passionate love as less important for marriage.

The best explanation for the inaction of bystanders during the Kitty Genovese murder is that they failed to

assume personal responsibility for helping the victim.

As Bonnie walks through a shopping mall, she happens to pass an older woman who is sitting on a bench, clutching her arm, and moaning in pain. The presence of many other shoppers in the mall will most likely increase the probability that Bonnie will

fail to notice the older woman's problem.