EPPP Prep - part 4 (reviewed once)

Data from a study in which there are three levels of the independent variable and one continuous dependent variable should be analyzed using which of the following statistical methods?

One-way ANOVA

When selecting the appropriate test of difference, the first step is to get clarification on the independent and dependent variables. In this scenario, there is only one independent variable (IV), which has three levels (e.g., treatment is the IV with three different types of treatment being compared). There is only one dependent variable (DV), or outcome variable, which is continuous. In other words, the DV is scored numerically (e.g., Beck Depression Scores).

The one-way ANOVA is used when there is one IV (regardless of the number of levels) and one DV (Response 1, correct answer).

By extension, the two-way ANOVA is used when there are two IVs (regardless of the number of levels) and one DV; the three-way ANOVA is used when there are three IVs and one DV.

A factorial ANOVA is any ANOVA that has more than one IV and one DV (ruling out Response 2). Factorial ANOVAs include two-way ANOVAs, three-way ANOVAs, etc.

MANOVA is used when there are multiple dependent variables.

Chi-square is used when the dependent variable is nominal or categorical.

According to Kohlberg's stages of gender development, a child who identifies a boy with long hair as a girl, even though she sees him as a boy when his hair is short, is in what stage?

Gender identity

Kohlberg outlined three stages of gender development in children.

In the first stage, gender identity (ages 2 - 3), children identify others as boys or girls based on physical appearances such as clothing or hair style and do not recognize that gender is stable over time. Thus, as physical characteristics change (e.g., hair length), gender changes.

In the second stage, gender stability (ages 4 - 5), children recognize that gender is stable over time (e.g., boys will grow up to be daddies); however, there is still some confusion as to whether superficial appearance serves as a way of identifying gender.

Finally, in the third stage, gender constancy (ages 6 - 7), children fully understand the nature of gender as permanent across time and situation.

Gender: Identity→ Stability → Constancy

A child refers to a neighbor's dog by the same name she refers to her family dog (e.g., "Scottie"). This behavior is an example of:

overextension.

Early speech (about 18 months of age) is characterized by both under-extension and overextension of word meanings. Overextension occurs when a word is used too broadly. In this example, the child calls the neighbor's dog by the same name as her own.

Under-extension occurs when a word is used too narrowly.. For example, only one's own dog is referred to as "doggie," even though it is the appropriate word for all dogs.

Holophrasic speech, which occurs between 12 and 18 months of age, makes use of a single word to express a complex idea. For example, "up" means "pick me up."

Telegraphic speech, which occurs between 18 and 24 months of age, is a form of two-word, noun-verb sentences. For example, "give candy" means "I'd like you to give me some candy.”

Extreme social neglect or deprivation might lead to:

disinhibited social engagement disorder.

According to DSM-5-TR, extreme social neglect or deprivation may lead to either disinhibited social engagement disorder or reactive attachment disorder.

The hallmark of disinhibited social engagement disorder is behavior in which a child actively approaches and interacts with adult strangers without an appropriate degree of hesitation.

In contrast, the hallmark of reactive attachment disorder is a consistent pattern of inhibited, emotionally withdrawn behavior toward the caregiver → child internalizes their stress, suppresses emotional expression, and deliberately disconnects from social bonds

Separation anxiety disorder is characterized by inappropriate and excessive anxiety concerning being away from home or away from the primary attachment figure; it's not most commonly the result of extreme neglect or deprivation.

Children diagnosed with Tourette's disorders have been found to have about a likelihood of being diagnosed with comorbid ADHD and/or OCD.

50+%

Tourette's disorder usually begins in childhood and is frequently associated with comorbid ADHD and OCD. Results across multiple studies have found that for persons with Tourette's disorder, the prevalence rate of comorbid ADHD and OCD is greater than 50%.

All three disorders seem to involve neuropathology of the basal ganglia. Keep in mind that for persons with ADHD or OCD, the prevalence of comorbid Tourette's is very low. This is because Tourette's disorder is relatively rare, with an overall prevalence rate of about 0.3%.

In most situations, due to limited time or cognitive limitations, a person cannot think through all possible options to arrive at the optimal solution; the person's thinking is thus not fully rational. This phenomenon, known as bounded rationality, has been described extensively by:

Herbert Simon.

Herbert Simon, a proponent of bounded rationality, has argued that when it comes to decision making, people frequently find satisfactory rather than optimal solutions due to time constraints, cognitive limitations, or the ambiguity of a problem.

Simon's approach is referred to as satisficing, behavioral, or administrative.

In contrast, the classical decision-making style, also known as the rational economic model, involves a clear definition of the problem, knowing all possible alternatives and the consequences of choices, and then choosing the optimum resolution.

Alfred Binet created the first intelligence test.

Kurt Lewin is well known for his field theory which proposes that behavior is a function of the person and environment.

Abraham Maslow is famous for the five-step hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, belonging (social), esteem, and self-actualization.

A psychiatrist requests patient records from a patient you saw seven years ago. The patient has signed the appropriate release. You should:

send the records with a note warning that the information may be obsolete.

Patients are entitled to have their records released to themselves or to someone they specify (e.g., a psychiatrist).

The issue here is that the information is seven years old and might therefore be obsolete. So, this possibility should be noted when you send the records.

An attractive 40-year-old man selects as his partner a fairly unattractive 20-year-old woman. What could explain this man's choice?

Reciprocity hypothesis

The most likely explanation here is the reciprocity hypothesis, which states that people tend to like others who like them.

The matching hypothesis proposes that people of approximately equal physical attractiveness are likely to select each other.

The similarity hypothesis posits that people similar to each other (e.g., similar in age, race, or religion) tend to form intimate relationships.

The main reason for treatment failure with addictive behaviors is that these behaviors:

are self-reinforcing.

The high failure rate in treating addictive behaviors stems from the fact that many addictions are very powerfully reinforcing. Generally, addictions are considered to be self-reinforcing in that the person does not necessarily depend on any external reinforcement.

Addictive behaviors are not necessarily both operantly and classically conditioned. For many addictive behaviors (e.g., addiction to sex, shopping, substances, etc.) the individual receives self-reinforcement every time the behavior is performed.

According to the tenets of Alcoholics Anonymous, addiction:

is a disease.

Alcoholics Anonymous adheres to a disease model of addiction.

By contrast, Marlatt's approach to managing addiction, which is cognitive behavioral (skills for relapse prevention are taught), views addiction primarily as an over-learned habit.

The concept of mislabeling is associated with Thomas Szasz, whose somewhat controversial book, "The Myth of Mental Illness," argues that psychiatric diagnoses are labels devoid of significance.

While many individuals with alcohol use disorder have low self-esteem, it is not believed that low self-esteem causes addiction.

Withdrawal from which substance is most likely to cause hallucinations?

Anxiolytics

Sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics (e.g., Valium and Xanax), as well as alcohol, are the only substances from which withdrawal can include hallucinations. Additionally, these are the only substances from which withdrawal can be fatal.

Withdrawal from amphetamines is characterized by dysphoria, fatigue, unpleasant dreams, increased appetite, and psychomotor agitation or retardation.

According to the DSM-5-TR, clinically recognized withdrawal syndromes can occur with all substances except hallucinogens and inhalants.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross described a sequence of stages people typically go through when confronted with a life-threatening illness. The first stage involves:

disbelief.

Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' five stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

These stages may be remembered by the acronym "DABDA." The first stage of denial involves disbelief.

According to Marcia, adolescents can be in one of four possible identity states. Which of the following best describes foreclosure?

Commitment and absence of crisis

According to James Marcia, there are four possible identity statuses for adolescents. The adolescent in foreclosure commits themselves to a goal without exploring alternatives; thus, there is commitment with an absence of crisis.

In identity achievement, the person has struggled and explored several options and developed goals and values. They have resolved the crisis and made a commitment.

In moratorium, the person is actively struggling with exploring options and making a decision, but has yet to make a commitment, so there are crisis and absence of commitment.

In identity diffusion, the adolescent lacks direction and is not seriously considering options or trying to develop goals; thus, there is an absence of both crisis and commitment.

• Diffusion (No Exploration / No Commitment)

  • Think of a home fragrance—diffusing into the air. It scatters thinly, spreads out, or drifts aimlessly.

  • The adolescent is completely scattered and floating like smoke. They have no anchor (no commitment) & are not looking for one (no exploration). They don’t care.

Moratorium (High Exploration / No Commitment)

• In finance or law, a moratorium is a temporary legal delay or freeze on payments (e.g., a "mortgage moratorium").

• They have put a temporary freeze on settling down (no commitment). Because they have paused the final decision, they are in the active zone of trying things out (high exploration / crisis). They are actively shopping but haven't bought anything.

Foreclosure (No Exploration / High Commitment)

• In real estate, a foreclosure happens when the bank steps in and abruptly takes over the property, stripping away the owner's choices.

• The choice is taken out of the adolescent's hands, usually handed down prematurely by parents (e.g., "You are going to take over the family medical practice"). They lock into the path (high commitment) without ever shopping around (no exploration).

Achievement (High Exploration / High Commitment)

• An achievement means you worked hard through a struggle to earn a successful outcome.

• You did the hard work of soul-searching and confronting the crisis (high exploration), and successfully crossed the finish line to claim your true self (high commitment).

Status	Exploration (Crisis)?	Commitment?	The Quick Mental Tag
Diffusion	❌ No crisis	❌ No commitment	Drifting / Scattered
Moratorium	Yes	❌ No	Active Window-Shopping
Foreclosure	❌ No	Yes	Premature / Handed-down
Achievement	Yes	Yes	Resolved & Settled

What is a type of design that is least likely to be threatened by history?

ABAB

History is defined as a coincidentally occurring event that is not part of treatment, which influences outcome. The threat of history is best taken care of by an ABAB design in which the person is first measured over time during a baseline phase (A), then treatment is implemented, and the person is once again measured repeatedly during the intervention (B). Treatment is then removed, and the person is measured at baseline again (A). Finally, treatment is implemented once again, and the person is measured repeatedly (B).

Since measurements of treatment effect are obtained at two different times, this design controls for the possibility that some of the treatment effect was confounded by a historical event.

In the other three designs (e.g., AB design ; time series; one group pre-post design), treatment is only implemented at one point in time and there is no control group. One would not be able to tease out whether changes were caused by treatment or some coincidentally occurring event.

For example, in an AB design, baseline (A) is followed by treatment (B).

Similarly, in a one group pre-posttest design, the same group of people is assessed once before and once after treatment.

A time series usually involves a group that is measured at several points before and after treatment, however, treatment only occurs once. It therefore remains unclear if the observed effects are due to treatment or history. Note that "time series" is often used to refer in a more general (and confusing) way to any single-subject design, including AB and ABAB.

Single subject designs involve an approach that can be described as:

idiographic.

• An idiographic approach involves the intensive study of a single person or case; thus single subject designs (e.g., AB, ABAB, multiple baseline, case study) can be described as idiographic.

  • The goal is to understand the exact, nuanced mechanism of change within a specific person's unique life context.

• A nomothetic approach involves studying groups of people to discern underlying commonalities; thus, group designs are considered nomothetic.

  • The goal is to find out if a treatment works for the general population.

Ipsative and normative are two types of assessments.

• An ipsative assessment typically uses a forced-choice format to look at multiple psychological attributes in order to determine the extent to which a person possesses one attribute or another.

  • It is commonly used in career assessment tests (e.g., Holland's Self-Directed Search).

  • It can only describe relative strengths or interests within a subject and cannot be used for comparisons across subjects.

• Normative data reflects group averages with regard to a particular variables or factors (e.g., IQ scores on the WAIS).

• Nomothetic: Derived from nomos, meaning "law." It seeks to discover objective, universal laws that apply to everyone.

• Idiographic: Derived from idios, meaning "own" or "private" (like idiosyncrasy). It seeks to deeply understand the unique, subjective experience of a single individua

Attribute	Nomothetic Approach	Idiographic Approach
Primary Goal	Generalize to a population (universal laws).	Understand the individual deeply (uniqueness).
Sample Size (N)	Large (N = 100+)	Small or Single (N = 1) to a few).
Core Methods	Quantitative, RCTs, Group Designs, Correlations.	Qualitative, Case Studies, Single-Subject Designs.
Statistical Analysis	Frequentist Stats (t-tests, ANOVA, Regression).	Visual analysis of trends, Content analysis.
EPPP Keyword Link	Actuarial prediction / Group Norms.	Clinical judgment / Case formulation.

What is a type of brain wave that predominates in a state of relaxed wakefulness?

Alpha waves

• Beta waves occur during active wakefulness (high frequency, low amplitude).

• Alpha waves occur during periods of relaxed wakefulness and are predominant just before falling asleep.

• Theta waves occur in early stage 1 sleep (N1; light NREM sleep)

  • Theta waves occur in stage N2 (deeper NREM sleep), includes sleep spindles (short, rapid bursts of high-frequency brain activity) & K-Complexes (single, very high-amplitude, sharp negative-and-positive wave spikes).

• Delta waves are slow waves that occur in stages 3 and 4, the deepest, non-dreaming part of sleep.

  • Sleepwalking (Somnambulism) and Night Terrors occur in N3 (slow-wave NREM)

• REM sleep is dreaming sleep, during which there is rapid eye movement, increased respiration and heart rate, and relaxed muscle tone, includes beta waves.

• Referred to as Paradoxial sleep (EEG shows high-frequency, low-amplitude beta waves like when person is awake).

Memory Anchor: The "Day-to-Night" Progression

Visualize a single person's chronological progression throughout a 24-hour day to lock in the descending frequency order (Beta → Alpha → Theta → Delta):

1. Beta: You are Busy working at your desk, eyes wide open, intensely studying.

2. Alpha: You finish studying, lie on the couch, and close your eyes to Alleviate stress.

3. Theta: You drift off into a Twilight zone of light sleep, halfway between awake and dreaming.

4. Delta: You plunge into a Deep, dead-to-the-world, restorative slumber.

Wave Type	Behavioral State	Keywords
Beta	Active processing	Alert, concentration, anxious arousal
Alpha	Relaxed wakefulness	Eyes closed, meditation, biofeedback target
Theta	Light sleep	Stage 1 & 2 NREM, hypnagogic imagery
Delta	Deep sleep	Stage 3 NREM, Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS)

The thalamus is best described as:

the relay station for all senses except olfaction.

The thalamus integrates and processes all sensory information except for olfaction (i.e., smell).

The pituitary is considered the master endocrine gland, as it releases hormones that activate other endocrine glands.

The parietal lobes house the somatosensory cortex.

On simple and familiar tasks, the presence of others tends to:

improve performance.

The presence of others on simple and familiar tasks (e.g., running a marathon) tends to enhance performance ( aka social facilitation).

When the task is novel or complex, social inhibition occurs, and task performance is worsened in the presence of others.

You are supervising an intern whose client is arrested. The client is referred to you by the court for evaluation. You should:

decline, to avoid a conflict of interest.

In general, psychologists must strive to avoid conflicts of interest. Since the intern is working with the client under your license, they are technically your client.

Thus, you should decline the referral as evaluating them for the court would create a conflict of interest.

A person earns "idiosyncrasy credits" by:

initially conforming to group norms.

Idiosyncrasy credits refer to a group's tolerance of an individual's disregard for group norms. They can be earned by initially conforming to the group norms.

“Voicing ones opinion in a consistent & logical manner” refers to the manner in which a group member with a minority opinion can behave in order to maximize the chances of their opinion being accepted by the majority.

A forest plot or blobbogram can be used to graphically depict:

results from clinical studies in a meta-analysis.

A forest plot, also called a blobbogram, is a graph often used when reporting meta-analyses. Typically, the authors or titles of the studies are listed on the left, and the corresponding effect size is on the right.

Forest plots provide a visual representation of variations between study results.

A correlation between two variables is depicted with a scatterplot.

Histograms, also called bar-graphs, typically show nominal or ordinal data.

Pie charts use a circular graph to depict the percentage or ratio of different categories as a portion of a whole (e.g., the proportions of different ethnic groups within the entire population of the U.S.).

A statement that best summarizes the "Self-in-Relation" theory of the Stone Center at Wellesley College:

Women develop a sense of self through relationships with others.

According to the "Self-in-Relation" theory, women develop their sense of self through relationships with others.

This theory is in opposition to male-oriented theories that emphasize autonomy and separation as pathways of development. This theory does not concern itself with men's development.

What sense is least developed at birth?

Sight

Newborns can only see in black and white, & infants have difficulty focusing their eyes for the first few months of life. 20/20 vision does not develop until 2-3 years old.

Hearing is fully developed at birth, with babies preferring higher pitched sounds to lower pitched sounds.

Newborns have a strong sense of smell & show a preference for the smell of their mothers.

The sense of touch is also well developed at birth, with infants responded to both pleasant & unpleasant stimuli. Babies are highly sensitive to pain, with a much lower pain tolerance than adults.

Which of the following scenarios will tend to increase the standard error of the mean?

Increasing the SD of the population and decreasing sample size

The standard error of the mean has a direct relationship with the SD of the population and an indirect relationship with sample size.

The standard error of the mean increases when the SD of the population is increased and sample size is reduced.

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Standard Error of the Mean (SEM) tells you how far the average (mean) of your sample is likely to be from the true average of the entire population

Think of it as a measure of accuracy or trustworthiness for your study's results.

The Two Rules That Change the SEM

The size of your Standard Error depends entirely on two factors:

1. Sample Size (How many you scoop): If you scoop 500 jellybeans instead of 50, your sample is much more representative of the whole jar. Larger samples = smaller error = higher accuracy.

2. Variability (The mix in the jar): If every single jellybean in the jar is almost identical in size, any random scoop will give you the exact same average. If the jar contains tiny pebbles and massive jawbreakers, your averages will bounce around wildly with every scoop. More natural messiness = larger error = lower accuracy

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EPPP Exam Tip: Standard Deviation (SD) vs. Standard Error (SEM)

• Standard Deviation (SD) describes the spread of individuals. It tells you how much individual people within a single sample differ from each other (e.g., "How much does individual patient anxiety vary in this room?").

• Standard Error (SEM) describes the accuracy of the group average. It tells you how much a group's average would change if you repeated the experiment with a new group of people (e.g., "How close is this group's average anxiety score to the real national average?").

Because averaging a group always smooths out individual extremes, the Standard Error (SEM) is always smaller than the Standard Deviation (SD).

A two-year-old is in the Eriksonian stage of:

autonomy versus shame.

• Trust:

  • A brand new baby opens their eyes and must decide if he can trust that their parents will feed them.

• Autonomy:

  • A toddler learns to use the toilet and proudly shares w/ parents

• Initiative:

  • A preschooler actively creates a game on the playground and leads their friends.

• Industry:

  • A grade-schooler works hard at their desk, trying to build skills and get straight A's.

• Identity:

  • A teenager tries on different outfits and social groups, trying to find themselves.

• Intimacy:

  • A 20-something looks for a life partner to settle down and share a home with.

• Generativity:

  • A 40-something focuses on raising children or mentoring younger coworkers to give back.

• Integrity:

  • An elderly person sits on a porch swing, looking back on their life with peace rather than regret

Stage	Age Range	Core Conflict / Crisis	The Real-World Question
1	Infancy (0–1)	Trust vs. Mistrust	Is the world safe and predictable?
2	Toddlerhood (1–3)	Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt	Can I do things by myself?
3	Preschool (3–6)	Initiative vs. Guilt	Am I good or bad at trying new things?
4	School Age (6–12)	Industry vs. Inferiority	How do I measure up to my peers?
5	Adolescence (12–19)	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Who am I and where do I fit in?
6	Young Adult (20–25)	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Can I love and be loved deeply?
7	Middle Adult (26–64)	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Am I making a lasting contribution?
8	Old Age (65+)	Integrity vs. Despair	Did my life have meaning?

Young children often lack the cognitive capacity to conserve. To cope with this inability, they often focus on the most salient aspect of a stimulus. This strategy is termed:

centration.

Stage	Age Range	Critical Milestones (High EPPP Yield)	Major Limitations
1. Sensorimotor	0–2 years	Object Permanence • Deferred imitation • Representational thought	Lacks mental symbols (early on)
2. Pre-operational	2–7 years	Symbolic Function (language, pretend play)	Egocentrism • Centration • Irreversibility • No conservation
3. Concrete Operational	7–11 years	Conservation • Decentration • Reversibility • Transitive inference	Cannot think abstractly or hypothetically
4. Formal Operational	11+ years	Hypothetico-deductive reasoning • Abstract thought • Adolescent egocentrism	None (highest cognitive tier)

• Sensorimotor (Physical Action): The infant understands the world strictly through physical senses (sensori-) and physical movement (motor). If they can't see or touch an object, it ceases to exist until they master object permanence.

  • Primary circular reactions occur from one to four months old; when a child's own action stimulates him to perform that action more (e.g., sucking the thumb feels good).

• Pre-operational (Before Logic): The toddler can now use words and symbols to represent things. However, they are "pre-operational," meaning they cannot perform logical mental operations yet. They assume everyone sees the world exactly as they do (egocentrism).

  • child centers on only one aspect of an object or situation at a time. For example, the child can't understand that a mommy can also be a sister.

  • Centration a component involved in the inability to conserve: the child fails to understand that a tall, thin glass may actually hold the same amount of liquid as a short but stout glass. Here, the child centers or focuses only on the height of the glass and reports that the tall glass holds more liquid.

• Concrete Operational (Hands-on Logic): The school-aged child can finally use logic, but only for things they can physically see, touch, or manipulate (concrete objects). They finally understand that pouring water into a taller glass doesn't change the amount (conservation).

  • Seriation involves putting things in order, an easy task for child in this stage

• Formal Operational (Scientific Logic): The adolescent can now perform logical operations on ideas that have no physical form (abstract concepts). They can form hypotheses, think about politics, philosophy, and approach problems like a scientist (hypothetico-deductive).

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Traps to Avoid

1. Centration vs. Decentration:

   • Centration (Pre-operational) means a child focuses on only one striking feature of an object (e.g., the height of the water in a glass) while completely ignoring others (the width of the glass).

   • Decentration (Concrete Operational) means they can look at multiple aspects of a situation at once.

2. Horizontal Décalage: This is a classic Piagetian EPPP term. It means that a child learns different types of conservation within the Concrete Operational stage at different times (e.g., they master conservation of mass/number first, but conservation of volume doesn't develop until much later).

3. Adolescent Egocentrism: Do not confuse this with Pre-operational egocentrism. In the Formal Operational stage, adolescents become hyper-aware of abstract thoughts, leading to the:

   1. imaginary audience (believing everyone is watching and judging them)

   2. Personal fable (believing they are completely unique, special, and invincible)

Whose theory would most likely explain "behavioral contrast?"

Skinner

The term behavioral contrast applies to the situation in which two behaviors are initially reinforced at equal levels and then one behavior stops being reinforced.

What typically occurs is that the behavior that is no longer being reinforced decreases in frequency, while the behavior that continues to be reinforced increases in frequency.

1. Pavlov (The Reflex): He started with involuntary, automatic biological reflexes. A dog naturally drools for meat; pair it with a sound, and the dog automatically drools for the sound.

   1. It is passive, involuntary, and purely stimulus-driven.

   2. He studied classical conditioning (pairing)

2. Watson (The Human Application): He took Pavlov's passive reflex and applied it aggressively to human emotion.

   1. He argued that humans are blank slates entirely shaped by environmental stimuli, proving that a baby can be conditioned to fear a harmless object through associative pairing.

   2. He studied classical conditioning (pairing)

3. Skinner (The Active Organism): He realized that animals and humans do not just sit around waiting to be triggered by stimuli—they actively operate on their environment.

   1. He shifted the focus from what happens before a behavior (stimuli) to what happens after a behavior (consequences).

   2. He studied operant conditioning (reinforcement).

Theorist	Type of Conditioning	Core Discovery / Mechanism	Famous Experiment	EPPP Exam Keywords
Ivan Pavlov	Classical(Respondent)	S-R association based on temporal pairing	Pavlov's Dogs (Salivation to metronome/bell)	Unconditioned Stimulus (US) • Higher-order conditioning • Extinction
John B. Watson	Classical(Respondent)	Methodological Behaviorism (Emotions can be conditioned)	Little Albert (Conditioned fear of white rat)	Environmental determinism • Stimulus generalization • Phobia acquisition
B.F. Skinner	Operant(Instrumental)	R-C mechanism (Behavior is shaped by its consequences)	Skinner Box (Rats pressing levers for pellets)	Schedules of reinforcement • Positive/Negative reinforcement • Shaping

Job satisfaction is negatively correlated with:

turnover.

Job satisfaction is negatively correlated with turnover. We would expect that as job satisfaction increases, turnover decreases.

Job satisfaction tends to be positively correlated with education and emotional intelligence.

While job satisfaction tends to be higher among White employees than employees from underrepresented groups, since race is a categorical variable, the correlation between race and job satisfaction cannot be described as either positive or negative.

A therapist advertises that they offer a free consultation. Such practice is:

ethical, provided there is no coercion or undue influence.

Psychologists are allowed to advertise and offer a free therapy consultation, provided that there is then no coercion or undue influence to get the client to continue.

A consultation is typically a 15 - 30 minute introductory meeting to see if the therapist is a good fit and to discuss administrative matters (e.g., scheduling).

Semantic memory involves:

the memory for the meaning of words.

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• Episodic (Your Life Story): You vividly remember waking up this morning, pouring your coffee into your travel mug, and feeling nervous during your drive to the testing center. (Personal experience tagged in time and place).

• Semantic (Your Fact Textbook): You sit down at the computer and instantly recall that Marcia's foreclosure state means high commitment and no exploration. (Pure facts independent of the moment you learned them).

• Procedural (Your Muscle Memory): Your fingers automatically grip the computer mouse, click through the exam interface, and navigate the screen without you having to consciously think about how to move your hand. (Motor skills).

• Priming (Your Brain's Subconscious Shortcut): A question mentions the word "Pavlov," and your brain instantly primes you to notice words like "dog," "salivation," or "classical" faster than other words on the screen. (Subconscious automatic association).

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Crucial EPPP Neuroanatomy Links to Memorize

• Explicit Memory (Semantic & Episodic):

  • Heavily dependent on the Hippocampus and the Medial Temporal Lobe for consolidation, and the Prefrontal Cortex for working memory retrieval.

  • Damage to the hippocampus permanently impairs the ability to form new explicit semantic or episodic memories (anterograde amnesia).

• Implicit Memory (Procedural):

  • Completely bypasses the hippocampus. It is heavily mediated by the Basal Ganglia (Striatum) and the Cerebellum.

  • This is why patients with severe hippocampal amnesia (like the famous patient H.M.) can still learn completely new motor skills (procedural memory) even if they have absolutely no conscious memory of ever practicing them

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Long-Term Memory Systems Quick-Reference Matrix

Memory Type	Primary Category	Definition / Mechanism	Real-World Example	EPPP Keywords
Semantic	Explicit (Declarative)	General knowledge, objective facts, and concepts about the world	Knowing that the hippocampus processes memory	Facts • Rules • Concepts • Mental dictionary
Episodic	Explicit (Declarative)	Autobiographical memories of personally experienced events	Remembering your exact reaction when you passed the EPPP	Time/place tags • Personal history • Vulnerable to forgetting
Procedural	Implicit (Non-Declarative)	Motor skills, physical habits, and behavioral actions	Riding a bicycle or typing on a keyboard without looking	Skills • Habits • "How-to" • Striatum/Cerebellum activation
Priming	Implicit (Non-Declarative)	Enhanced processing of a stimulus due to recent prior exposure	Seeing the word "yellow" makes you recognize "banana" faster	Implicit activation • Perceptual readiness • Subconscious

Neurotransmitters involved with sleep and mood:

serotonin, GABA, & dopamine.

Neurotransmitter	Primary Role in Sleep	Primary Role in Mood	EPPP Exam Keywords
GABA	Promotes Sleep: Principal inhibitory neurotransmitter; shuts down arousal centers to induce NREM sleep.	Reduces Anxiety: Calms neural hyperactivity to prevent anxious arousal.	Benzodiazepine agonist • Sleep induction • Anxiolytic
Serotonin	Regulates Timing: Serves as the direct chemical precursor to melatonin; drops during NREM and shuts off during REM.	Maintains Stability: Regulates emotional resilience, impulse control, and affective stability.	Melatonin precursor • SSRIs • Raphe nuclei • Affective regulation
Dopamine	Promotes Wakefulness: Drives alertness, motor initiation, and behavioral arousal.	Drives Motivation: Anticipates rewards, reinforces behavior, and regulates pleasure.	Reward pathway • Arousal • Parkinson's (flat affect) • Psychomotor agitation

Crucial EPPP Clinical Links to Lock In

• REM Sleep Switch:

  • During REM sleep, serotonin and norepinephrine levels drop to near zero.

  • This chemical drop allows acetylcholine (the primary driver of REM) to take over the brainstem.

• Reward Deficiency Syndrome:

  • Insufficient dopamine activation in the mesolimbic pathway does not just lower mood—it specifically destroys motivation and the ability to feel pleasure, which manifests clinically as the vegetative symptoms of major depression.

• GABA Receptor Modulation:

  • Medications like benzodiazepines (e.g., diazepam) and non-benzodiazepine hypnotics (e.g., zolpidem), target GABA receptors to enhance GABA's natural inhibitory effects, treating both insomnia and acute anxiety panic states.

.

• RAS (reticular activating system) is involved in sleep, it is not a neurotransmitter but rather a diffuse set of cells in the medulla, pons, hypothalamus, and thalamus.

You are offered a choice between two scrumptious desserts, pecan pie and chocolate cake, and you feel quite torn. When pressed to decide, you select the chocolate cake. You then tell your friend that you really aren't that fond of pecan pie. Your behavior can be explained by:

an approach-approach conflict.

• The approach-approach conflict is one in which the person must choose between two desirable alternatives, and, subsequent to choosing, slightly devalues the alternative not chosen.

• This is a bit like what one would expect as a result of cognitive dissonance.

• In an approach-avoidance conflict, the individual is both drawn to and repelled by the same alternative.

• Self-serving bias predicts the kinds of attributions we make for our successes (internal attributions) versus our failures (external attributions).

The belief that the nature of thought is influenced by the thinker's native language is basic to:

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the language people use actually shapes how they think (e.g., English-speakers think about snow differently from Alaska natives since they have fewer words for it).

1. The Two Versions of the Hypothesis

• Strong Version: Linguistic Determinism

  • The Rule: Language determines and limits thought. If your language does not have a word for a concept, your brain is structurally incapable of thinking it.

  • EPPP Status: Largely Rejected by modern research.

• Weak Version: Linguistic Relativity

  • The Rule: Language influences or biases thought. The specific words and grammar your culture uses simply make it easier or faster for you to categorize things.

  • EPPP Status: Generally Supported by modern research (e.g., cross-cultural color perception stud

A Structural Family Therapist would be most likely to:

work on boundary issues.

.

• Structural is like Renovating a House:

• The internal architecture is broken.

  • The walls (boundaries) between parents and children are either too flimsy (enmeshed) or a concrete barrier (disengaged).

  • The therapist walks in (joining), forces them to fight right in front of them (enactment), and moves the furniture to restore command (hierarchy).

• Bowenian is like Untangling a Knot:

  • The family is an anxious, sticky web of yarn where individual identities are fused.

  • When tension rises, two people pull a third into a knot (triangulation).

  • The therapist acts like an objective scientist drawing a map (genogram) to help each person untangle themselves (differentiation).

• Strategic is like Hacking a Software Glitch:

  • The family is stuck in a repetitive behavioral loop that spits out the same symptom.

  • The therapist doesn't care about history or insight; they just want to break the loop.

  • They issue a counter-intuitive command, like telling a chronic worrier to schedule 30 minutes of intense worrying every morning (paradoxical directive)

    • prescribing the symptom is a classic paradoxical intervention where the therapist instructs the family members to intentionally perform, increase, or exaggerate the exact problematic behavior they came to therapy to fix.

• Milan Systemic is like Declassifying a Secret Game:

  • The family is operating under a set of rigid, unwritten, toxic rules ("dirty games") that everyone plays but no one talks about.

  • The therapist acts like an outside investigative team. Instead of giving orders, they ask questions that force everyone to map out who does what, when, and why (circular questioning), uncovering the hidden rules of the system.

• Double Bind

  • It is a toxic, multi-layered communication failure. For a situation to be a true double bind, it must contain three strict criteria:

1. Primary Negative Injunction: A verbal command backed by a threat of punishment (e.g., "If you don't hug me, I will punish you").

2. Secondary Conflicting Injunction: A non-verbal or abstract message that completely contradicts the verbal command, also backed by a threat (e.g., The parent stiffens their body in physical disgust and pulls away when the child approaches for the hug).

3. Tertiary Injunction (The Trap): The victim is completely banned from leaving the arena or commenting on the contradiction (metacommunication)

Therapy Model	Key Founder	Primary Theoretical Goal	Role of Therapist	Signature Interventions (High EPPP Yield)
Structural	Salvador Minuchin	Alter structural patterns and fix malfunctioning boundaries.	Active, directive, and manages the hierarchyfrom within.	Joining • Enactment • Reframing • Boundary making • Unbalancing
Bowenian	Murray Bowen	Decrease anxiety and increase differentiation of self from family of origin.	Objective, neutral, educator, and coach (avoids triangulation).	Genograms • Detriangulation • "I-statements" • Relationship experiments
Strategic	Jay Haley	Solve the presenting problem rapidly by altering vicious feedback loops.	Active, manipulative, directive, and expert change agent.	Paradoxical interventions(Prescribing symptom) • Directives • Ordeals
Milan Systemic	Mara Selvini Palazzoli	Disrupt the unstated "dirty games" and rigid premises rules family members play by.	Neutral, distant, team-oriented observer (uses a one-way mirror).	Circular questioning • Hypothesizing • Positive connotation • Rituals

The therapist ingredient that contributes the most to successful therapy outcome is:

empathy.

Of all the therapist ingredients that contribute to success, empathy has been found to be among the most powerfu.

Experience does not seem to have too much bearing on outcome, and when you think about it, doing therapy for 10 or 20 years doesn't necessarily make one "good at it.”

A Kappa coefficient of .95 suggests:

a high degree of interrater reliability.

The Kappa coefficient is a measure of inter-rater reliability. It is the degree of agreement between two or more raters when performance is subjectively scored.

Reliability coefficients range from 0.0 to 1.0, and .95 suggests a very high degree of interrater reliability.

The test-retest reliability coefficient reflects the degree of relationship between pairs of scores from the same group of people who are administered an identical test at two points in time.

The criterion validity coefficient indicates the strength of the relationship between a predictor test and criterion outcome (e.g., how well SAT scores predict college GPA).

Construct validity is the degree to which a test is actually measuring the construct or trait it is attempting to measure (e.g., aggression). Both convergent and discriminant validity are necessary to establish construct validity.

Which of the following statements best summarizes the attitude of the ethics codes published by the American and Canadian Psychological Associations toward multiple relationships?

Multiple relationships that do not impair the psychologist's functioning or risk harm or exploitation are not unethical.

The ethics codes published by the American and Canadian Psychological Associations note that multiple relationships that would not reasonably be expected to cause impairment or risk exploitation or harm are not unethical.

There is no stipulation that multiple relationships should generally be avoided. The ethical standard on multiple relationships specifies the conditions for acceptable multiple relationships and does not refer to other standards.

Studies of children identified as aggressive support the following conclusion:

There is a moderate tendency for the children to remain aggressive.

If you were not familiar with this research, the best approach would be to combine conservatism with common sense. There is a moderate tendency for children who are aggressive to remain aggressive.

It is unlikely that childhood aggression would be totally unrelated to later aggression or rarely persist into adolescence. It is not only with children who are abused that childhood aggression persists.

An example of Kohlberg's sixth stage of moral development:

An individual develops their own moral code that is adhered to regardless of the laws of society.

.

The absolute rule of thumb for the exam is: Kohlberg evaluated the underlying reasoning behind a moral choice (why someone does it), not the choice itself.

Level	Stage	Core Focus / Name	The Underlying Reasoning	EPPP Exam Keywords
Level 1: Pre-Conventional (Self-Centered)	Stage 1	Punishment & Obedience	I must obey rules strictly to avoid getting physically punished or hurt.	Consequences dictate rightness • Egocentric
	Stage 2	Instrumental Hedonism	Right actions are those that satisfy my personal needs or involve a fair trade ("You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours").	Self-interest • Marketplace exchange • Reciprocity
Level 2: Conventional (Society-Centered)	Stage 3	Good Boy / Good Girl	I want to do what pleases, helps, or is approved of by the people close to me.	Social approval • Conformity • Good intentions
	Stage 4	Law & Order	I must do my duty, respect authority, and uphold social order for society to function.	Rules are absolute • Duty to society • Fixed laws
Level 3: Post-Conventional (Principle-Centered)	Stage 5	Social Contract	Rules are necessary, but laws are flexible tools that can be changed if they no longer serve the common good.	Democratic consensus • Utilitarianism • Relativism
	Stage 6	Universal Ethical Principles	I follow my internal, self-chosen ethical principles (like justice, equality, or human dignity), even if they break the law.	Internalized conscience • Transcendental justice

Kohlberg's theory of moral development proposes there are three levels of moral development—pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional—with two stages at each level, totaling six stages.

.

Kohlberg famously tested this using the Heinz Dilemma (a man must decide whether to steal an unaffordable drug to save his dying wife). Track the progression of reasoning through a single person's evolving rationale to lock in the levels:

.

1. Pre-Conventional (External Controls): You are a child. Your world is small, and rules are forced upon you by powerful adults.

   • Stage 1: Punishment & Obedience

     • "Don't steal it, because the police will catch you and lock you in jail."

   • Stage 2: Instrumental Hedonism

     • "Steal it, because your wife will survive and you won't be lonely anymore."

2. Conventional (Internalizing Social Standards): You are a teenager/adult. You realize you are part of a larger community, and you want to protect social harmony.

   • Stage 3: Good Boy / Good Girl

     • "Steal it, because a good, loving husband protects his family; everyone will think you are a hero."

   • Stage 4: Law & Order

     • "Don't steal it. If everyone broke the law when they were desperate, society would collapse into complete chaos."

     • an individual follows rules to maintain social order.

3. Post-Conventional (Abstract Morality): You look past society's written rules to evaluate the universal ethical truths beneath them.

   • Stage 5: Social Contract

     • "Steal it, because the law against stealing wasn't designed to value property over a human life; the law needs to be updated."

   • Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles

     • "Steal it, because preserving a human life is an absolute universal truth that overrides any man-made legal system."

     • "Morality of Individual Principles of Conscience,” the individual develops their own moral code and follows it regardless of the law.

     • Very few individuals reach the sixth stage, but examples include Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks.

.

Crucial EPPP Exam Traps to Avoid

• Carol Gilligan Critique:

  • This is heavily tested alongside Kohlberg.

  • Gilligan argued Kohlberg’s model was structurally biased against women.

    • She claimed men operate on a Justice Orientation (Kohlberg's focus), while women operate on a Care Orientation (prioritizing relationships, compassion, and connectedness), making women score lower (typically Stage 3) on Kohlberg's scale despite being equally morally mature.

• Piaget's Precursor Theory: Remember that Kohlberg built his work directly on Piaget's two-stage moral theory:

  • Heteronomous Morality → rules are unchangeable laws handed down by authority

    • matches Level 1/Stage 4 concepts

  • Autonomous Morality → rules are social agreements that can be negotiated

    • matches Level 3 concepts

As compared to clinical predictions, actuarial predictions tend to be:

equally or more accurate.

.

• Actuarial prediction is a prediction based solely on statistical calculations derived from data, without any subjective judgment.

• Clinical prediction is a prediction based on analyses of symptoms and case histories, in which the clinician uses personal judgment they have accrued through experience to come to a decision.

In comparing actuarial and clinical prediction across a variety of areas (e.g., predicting parole violation, predicting psychosis from the MMPI, selecting appropriate psychiatric medication) actuarial methods have consistently equaled or outperformed clinical methods.

The EPPP Quick-Reference Matrix

Attribute	Actuarial Prediction	Clinical Prediction
The Mechanism	Relies strictly on a formula, statistical equation, or algorithm (e.g., a regression equation or regression weights).	Relies on the human clinician’s judgment, intuition, experience, and subjective integration of data.
The Input	Standardized, objective data points (e.g., test scores, age, demographics, criminal history).	Interviews, behavioral observations, case notes, and unstructured clinical impressions.
Accuracy Level	Higher and highly consistent across multiple domains.	Lower, prone to systematic human cognitive biases.
EPPP Keyword Link	Paul Meehl • Mechanical • Non-discretionary • Objective weight	Subjective • Experiential • Impressionistic

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Why Does Clinical Prediction Underperform?

The exam will expect you to know why human clinical prediction falls short. Humans are highly vulnerable to predictable cognitive biases, including:

• Availability Heuristic:

  • Overestimating the likelihood of an event based on a memorable case the clinician recently saw.

• Confirmation Bias:

  • Actively looking for data during an interview that confirms the clinician's initial gut instinct while ignoring data that contradicts it.

• Failure to Over-Weight Baseline Rates:

  • Humans routinely ignore the base rate (the actual statistical frequency of a behavior in the general population) and over-weight rare, dramatic symptoms.

To optimize healing following a school shooting, a psychologist should focus on:

connection to the community.

resources and information.

psychological first aid.

Psychological first aid is an evidence-based approach to helping victims after a traumatic experience. It includes providing information and resources and also helps victims initiate contact and garner social support from family members, friends, and other community members.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), trauma debriefing, or psychological debriefing, has NO research support and is potentially harmful.

The brain damage that leads to cerebral palsy happens:

before birth, at the time of birth, or after birth

Cerebral palsy (CP) is caused by abnormal brain development or brain damage that affects a child's ability to control their muscles. Until recently it was widely believed that CP was most commonly caused by lack of oxygen to the brain (asphyxia) related to difficult labor or delivery. In fact, this is rarely the cause.

Common causes of CP include random genetic mutations, maternal infections that affect the fetus, fetal stroke, infections in infancy, and traumatic head injury after birth.

Partial complex seizures typically originate in:

the temporal lobes.

The temporal lobes are most commonly the originating site of complex partial seizures. It is important to note, however, that such seizures can originate in any cortical region.

Complex partial seizures are frequently preceded by an aura and usually include purposeless behavior, lip smacking, unintelligible speech, and impaired consciousness.

Focal Onset Seizures (Formerly called Partial Seizures): These start in a localized network of cells in one hemisphere of the brain.

• Focal Aware Seizure (Formerly Simple Partial):

  • The person's consciousness and awareness remain completely intact during the event.

• Focal Impaired Awareness Seizure (Formerly Complex Partial / Psychomotor):

  • Consciousness, responsiveness, or memory is altered or lost at some point during the event.

.

• Generalized Onset Seizures:

  • These instantly involve both hemispheres of the brain from the very beginning.

  • Consciousness is almost always impaired.

• Focal-to-Bilateral Seizure (Formerly Secondary Generalized):

  • Starts as a focal seizure in one spot, but rapidly spreads across the corpus callosum to involve the entire brain. [

.

Brain Lobe	Associated Seizure Symptoms (High EPPP Yield)	Diagnostic Features & Unique Quirks
Temporal Lobe (Most Common)	• Automatisms (Lip-smacking, picking at clothes) • Psychological Auras (Déjà vu, Jamais vu) • Sudden intense emotion (Fear, sense of doom) • Olfactory/Gustatory hallucinations (e.g., burning rubber)	• Postictal confusion and amnesia of the event are very prominent.
Frontal Lobe (2nd Most Common)	• Hypermotor behavior (Bicycling legs, pelvic thrusting) • Jacksonian March (Jerking starting in a finger, spreading up the arm) • Tonic/Clonic posturing (e.g., Fencing posture) • Speech arrest or vocalizations (yelling)	• Often occur during sleep. • Tend to be very short (under 30 seconds) but highly explosive.
Parietal Lobe (Rare)	• Somatosensory disturbances • Paresthesias (Numbness, tingling, crawling sensations) • Distorted body image or spatial disorientation • Sensation of pain or heat on the contralateral side	• Symptoms occur on the side of the body opposite the seizure focus.
Occipital Lobe (Rarest)	• Simple elementary visual hallucinations • Flashing lights, sparks, or bright colored spots • Temporary ictal blindness or hemianopia	• Visual phenomena are unformed (lines/dots), unlike complex temporal hallucinations (seeing a full person).

The relationship between education and income among doctoral-level clinical psychologists is most likely:

0.0

To answer this question correctly, you need to know that when correlating two variables [e.g., income (x) and education (y)] an unrestricted range of scores on both x and y is necessary to derive an accurate correlation.

The term "unrestricted range" means that all possible values of the variable are included. When the range is restricted, the correlation is always underestimated. In this question, while income is unrestricted (e.g., some clinical psychologists are unemployed and make $0 each year while others make $300,000+), the range of education level is severely restricted.

In this scenario, rather than looking at the entire range of education levels (e.g., first grade education to doctoral degree), we are only looking at people with doctoral degrees. As a result, the correlation becomes 0.0.

Note that had we been looking at the correlation between education and income using the entire population, we would find a moderate to strong positive correlation (e.g.,. 3 to.5). For example, college graduates typically earn more money than individuals with an 8th grade education.

Raven's Progressive Matrices is thought to be one of the best tests of:

Spearman's "g" factor.

Raven's Progressive Matrices consists of a series of abstract patterns with one piece missing. The test requires the person to pick out the missing piece using a multiple choice format. Raven's Progressive Matrices is thought to be one of the best nonverbal tests of intelligence.

Spearman argued that intelligence is based on one factor, general intelligence, or "g," and proposed that intelligence tests should measure intelligence without becoming clouded by specific abilities.

Raven's Progressive Matrices accomplishes this task.

Crystallized intelligence refers to knowledge gained through experience (e.g., fund of knowledge), and as Raven's Progressive Matrices is a novel task, it does not measure crystallized intelligence.

While Raven's Progressive Matrices does require some visuospatial skills, this is not what it is designed to measure.

A student acts in a disruptive manner and only stops when the teacher yells at her. The teacher's behavior is influenced by ___ influenced by ___ while the student's behavior is

negative reinforcement; positive punishment

To answer this question correctly, you must first identify each person's behavior. Keep in mind a behavior is something that someone does. The teacher's behavior is yelling; the student's behavior is being disruptive. Then ask yourself: What happens after the person does the behavior?

Do they experience a reward (positive reinforcement), relief (negative reinforcement), pain (positive punishment) or loss (negative punishment)?

• After the teacher yells, the student stops being disruptive

  • The teacher experiences relief

  • Their behavior is influenced by negative reinforcement

• After the student acts in a disruptive manner, the teacher yells at them

  • The student experiences pain

  • Their behavior is influenced by positive punishment

Contingency	Your Memory Key	What Is Happening Mechanically	EPPP Clinical Example
Positive Reinforcement	🎁 Reward	You ADD a stimulus to INCREASE a behavior.	Giving a child a sticker for finishing homework.
Negative Reinforcement	😮‍💨 Relief	You REMOVE an aversive stimulus to INCREASE a behavior.	Taking an aspirin to escape a severe headache.
Negative Punishment	💸 Loss	You REMOVE a good stimulus to DECREASE a behavior.	A Response Cost (taking away tokens) or getting grounded.
Positive Punishment	💥 Pain	You ADD an aversive stimulus to DECREASE a behavior.	Spanking, yelling, or an electric shock.

The right hemisphere plays an important role in:

visuospatial organization.

The right hemisphere is involved with perceptual, visuospatial, artistic, and intuitive activities.

The left hemisphere is involved with language, as well as with being rational, analytical, logical, and abstract.

The universal rule of thumb for the exam is: The left hemisphere acts like a logical computer processing sequential details, while the right hemisphere acts like an artist processing global, spatial context.

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Attribute	Left Hemisphere (The "Digital" Brain)	Right Hemisphere (The "Analog" Brain)
Primary Cognitive Style	Analytical, logical, sequential, and step-by-step processing.	Holistic, intuitive, simultaneous, and big-picture processing.
Language & Speech	Production & Comprehension: Syntax, grammar, word definitions, literal meaning.	Prosody & Context: Emotional intonation, irony, sarcasm, metaphor, humor.
Visual-Spatial Processing	Processing fine details or local features of a visual scene.	Spatial rotation, facial recognition (fusiform face area), global shapes.
Motor & Sensory Control	Directs the right side of the body (contralateral control).	Directs the left side of the body (contralateral control).
Dominant Emotional Tone	Positive Emotions: Left-frontal activation is tied to approach behavior and joy.	Negative Emotions: Right-frontal activation is tied to avoidance and anxiety.

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Neurological Syndromes

1. Left Hemisphere Lesion Syndromes

• The Aphasias:

  • Damage to Broca's area (expressive/non-fluent)

  • Wernicke's area (receptive/fluent),

  • They are located in the left hemisphere for over 95% of right-handed individuals and roughly 70% of left-handed individuals.

• Gerstmann’s Syndrome:

  • It is caused by damage to the left parietal lobe (specifically the angular gyrus).

  • It presents with a cluster of 4 symptoms:

    • Agraphia → inability to write

    • Acalculia → inability to do math

    • Finger agnosia → inability to distinguish fingers

    • Right-left disorientation.

• Ideomotor Apraxia:

  • Inability to carry out a motor command upon request

    • e.g., "pretend to brush your teeth"), despite physically having the motor strength to do it.

• Catastrophic Reaction:

  • Because the left hemisphere regulates positive affect, a massive left-side stroke unmasks the right hemisphere's negative tone, causing intense depression, despair, and anxiety.

2. Right Hemisphere Lesion Syndromes

• Contralateral Neglect (Spatial Neglect):

  • Severe damage to the right parietal lobe causes the patient to completely ignore the left side of space

    • e.g., they only eat food on the right side of their plate or only shave the right side of their face).

• Anosognosia & Anosodiaphoria:

  • A profound neurological lack of insight into one's own disability

  • accompanied by a flat, unbothered emotional indifference to paralysis.

• Prosopagnosia:

  • Inability to recognize familiar faces, often localized to the right occipitotemporal region (fusiform gyrus).

• Aprosoundia / Dysprosody:

  • The loss of natural emotional melody and tone in speech, making the survivor speak in a flat, mechanical monotone.

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Memory Anchor: The "Forest and the Trees"

• The Left Hemisphere looks at the Trees:

  • It looks at the individual leaves, analyzes the bark texture, counts the branches sequentially, and labels it using a specific vocabulary word ("That is a Quercus alba").

• The Right Hemisphere looks at the Forest:

  • It ignores the individual branches to instantly grasp the spatial layout of the entire landscape, senses the emotional mood of the woods, hears the sarcastic tone of a companion's voice, and navigates the path back to the car without getting lost.

You are a psychologist who has been licensed for 10 years and are employed in a hospital setting. The hospital's associate director has just received his doctoral degree in psychology, and requests that you provide him with supervision for some of his post-doctoral hours required for licensure. You should:

refuse to supervise him because of the inherent conflict and potential problems that could arise.

According to the ethics codes published by the American and Canadian Psychological Associations, a psychologist should refrain from entering into a professional relationship (e.g., providing supervision) if the relationship might impair the psychologist's objectivity or harm or exploit the other party.

Additionally, a psychologist should not take on professional obligations when the pre-existing relationship would create a risk of harm. Based on these provisions, it is clear that the psychologist should refuse the associate director's request, regardless of whether the associate director evaluates the psychologist's performance or interacts with the psychologist in any other capacity.

Potential conflict with the organization's structure and hierarchy should not be the guiding factor in this decision.

The presence of bizarre delusions may suggest:

schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or delusional disorder.

Delusions are fixed, false beliefs that are unchangeable. While non-bizarre delusions involve situations that are plausible (e.g., the belief that one's spouse is unfaithful), bizarre delusions are clearly implausible (e.g., the person believes that aliens have removed their internal organs).

Diagnosis	Required Duration	Core Diagnostic Criteria / Features	High-Yield EPPP Exam Keywords
Brief Psychotic Disorder	1 day to 1 month	At least one positive symptom (delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech). Complete return to baseline.	Sudden onset • Triggered by severe stress • Full recovery
Schizophreniform Disorder	1 month to 6 months	Exactly the same symptom criteria as Schizophrenia, but has not crossed the 6-month threshold yet.	Provisional diagnosis • "Holding pattern"
Schizophrenia	At least 6 months	Continuous signs of disturbance for 6+ months, including at least 1 month of active-phase symptoms.	Occupational/social dysfunction required • Chronic
Schizoaffective Disorder	Continuous	An uninterrupted period of illness where there is a Major Mood Episode (Depression or Mania) concurrent with active Schizophrenia symptoms.	2-week delusion/hallucination window without mood symptoms
Delusional Disorder	1 month or longer	One or more delusions present. Hallucinations are absent or prominent only if linked to the delusion.	Functioning is not markedly impaired • Non-bizarre

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Radiation treatment for children with brain tumors most commonly results in:

learning problems.

When children are treated with radiation therapy for brain tumors, the most common neurocognitive effect is learning problems (e.g., executive functioning, memory, processing speed, attention).

Radiation treatment is much less likely to cause impairment in visuospatial abilities, aphasias (i.e., loss of ability to express or understand speech), or apraxias (i.e., inability to perform purposive actions).

Since the standard error of the measurement is significantly influenced by the reliability coefficient, the range of the standard error of the measurement is:

O to SDx.

The range of the standard error of measurement is always from 0 to the standard deviation of the test (SDx).

The range of the validity coefficient is from -1 to +1.

The range of the reliability coefficient is from 0 to +1.

The range of the standard error of estimate is from 0 to the standard deviation of the criterion (SDy).

A man is undergoing a test of his blood cortisol levels. One reason for this may be:

his stress level is being monitored.

Cortisol testing measures the level of corticosteroids in the blood, saliva, or urine. Blood cortisol tests are used to monitor stress level, as well as to test adrenal function in suspected cases of Cushing's or Addison's diseases.

When working with a client diagnosed HIV+, one should consider:

the individual's health status and common sequelae of the disorder.

Important issues related to individuals diagnosed HIV+ include the individual's current health status as well as an understanding of common sequelae of the disorder.

In most jurisdictions, psychologists are not allowed to inform partners of the infected individual.

Also, group treatment, such as support groups, can be very beneficial to HIV+ individuals.

When correlating x and y, it was found that for each x score, the variability of y scores is equal to the total variability of y scores. One can conclude that:

there is no correlation between x and y.

A challenging question! Using an example may help to clarify. If we are correlating shoe size (x) and scores on the EPPP (y), for any x value (e.g., whether the person's shoe size is 6, 10, or 14) you end up with all possible y scores (e.g., some people score close to 200, others close to 500, and still others close to 800 on the EPPP).

The graph would look like one giant scatterplot, with dots all over the place. Knowing someone's shoe size (x) would tell you nothing about what their score on the EPPP (y) would be, since their score could be anything.

In other words, there would be no ability to use x to predict y. Thus, the correlation would be 0.0.

NOTE: "Variability" is simply another word for spread.

In Brown vs. Board of Education (1954) the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation of children in public schools was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Testimony was presented based on innovative psychological tests using dolls to identify harm inflicted on the plaintiff children due to segregation. Who created these tests?

Mamie Phipps Clark

It was psychologist Mamie Phipps Clark, along with her husband Kenneth Clark, who created and performed innovative psychological tests using dolls.

In Brown vs. Board of Education, the NAACP took up the case on behalf of Linda Brown, a Black girl attending fifth grade in the public schools in Topeka, Kansas, who was denied admission into a White elementary school.

Thurgood Marshall was the NAACP counsel and John Davis argued on behalf of the defendant school officials.

Alternative work schedules (e.g. flextime, 4-day workweek):

positively affect satisfaction more than productivity.

Alternative work schedules have been found to positively impact satisfaction, with limited impact on increasing productivity (i.e., work output).

In comparing People of Color and White people in terms of therapy:

no differences have been found in terms of outcome; however, People of Color are more likely to prematurely terminate.

Research has found that People of Color prematurely terminate more often than White people; however, when People of Color stay in treatment, they seem to do as well as White people.

There is no clear research support for matching the ethnicity of therapists with that of their clients.

Different historically marginalized groups demonstrate different preferences for degree of directiveness.

The highest rate of responding during acquisition of a new behavior is associated with which of the following schedules of reinforcement?

Continuous

During acquisition of a new behavior, the highest rate of responding is associated with a continuous schedule of reinforcement because the behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs.

However, problems associated with a continuous schedule of reinforcement include:

• Satiation → too much reinforcement)

• It is very susceptible to extinction (i.e., it has a low resistance to extinction).

Therefore, while people are trained on a continuous schedule of reinforcement, this schedule is typically 'thinned,' or gradually changed to an intermittent schedule of reinforcement.

Variable interval and variable ratio schedules are both intermittent schedules of reinforcement.

Once a behavior is acquired, variable ratio schedules have the highest rate of responding.

In attempting to reduce the incidence of HIV, it should be kept in mind that:

informal norms can play a critical role in behavior.

Individual behavior is highly influenced by the informal norms of the group.

For example, a teenager is profoundly influenced by the norms of their circle of friends.

Research has shown that, unfortunately, increasing a person's factual knowledge is not a sufficient motivator for change. For example, the majority of people who continue to smoke do so even though they know that smoking can lead to lung cancer. It is actually easier to change the behavior of a small group than a large group.

The Taylor-Russell tables are used to evaluate incremental validity, the benefit of using a test for improving selection decisions. The key variables that the tables take into account include:

base rate, selection ratio, and criterion validity.

1. Validity Coefficient (r): The criterion-related validity of the selection test (the correlation between the test score and actual job performance).

2. Base Rate (BR): The proportion of current employees who are performing successfully without using the new test (e.g., if 60% of people hired randomly succeed, the base rate is 0.60).

   1. a moderate base rate optimizes incremental validity.

3. Selection Ratio (SR): The proportion of applicants hired out of the total qualified applicant pool (e.g., hiring 10 people out of 100 applicants results in a low selection ratio of 0.10).

   1. a low selection ratio optimizes incremental validity.

• Success Ratio: is yielded from the tables yield —the estimated percentage of new hires who will turn out to be successful if the organization adopts the test.

• Criterion validity of the test is the correlation between scores on the test and scores on some outcome measure of performance or productivity.

  • The higher the criterion validity, the better the incremental validity.

.

• Rule 1→ Low Selection Ratios are Best:

  • A selection test provides the highest organizational utility when the selection ratio is low (close to 0.10).

  • If an employer has hundreds of applicants but only needs to hire a few, they can pick the absolute top-tier scorers off the test.

  • If the selection ratio is high (e.g., 0.95), the test is useless because you have to hire almost everyone who applies anyway.

• Rule 2 → Moderate Base Rates Maximize Utility:

  • A test provides the maximum incremental validity when the base rate is moderate (around 0.50).

    • Why? If the base rate is 0.95, almost everyone succeeds naturally, making a new test a waste of money.

    • If the base rate is 0.05, the job is virtually impossible for anyone, so a test won't help.

    • A 0.50 base rate leaves the maximum room for improvement.

• Rule 3 → Low Validity Can Still Be Useful:

  • This is a classic EPPP trick question. A test with low validity (e.g., r = 0.20) can still significantly improve hiring accuracy IF the selection ratio is very low.

  • Do not automatically rule out a test just because its validity coefficient is smal

Quick-Reference Contrast: Taylor-Russell vs. Other Utility Models

The EPPP likes to bundle utility tools together in multiple-choice options. Use this mini-matrix to distinguish them cleanly:

Utility Tool	Primary Target Evaluated
Taylor-Russell Tables	Evaluates organizational success (the percentage of total future successful hires).
Naylor-Shine Tables	Evaluates the increase in mean job performance of the new group of hires.
Brogden-Cronbach-Gleser Formula	Calculates the monetary/dollar utility (financial savings) generated by using the test.
Expectancy Charts / Lawshe Tables	Predicts the probability of success for an individual applicant based on their specific score.

You and a colleague both applied for a position and were turned down. You attribute your colleague's failure to his lack of enthusiasm. This can best be explained by:

the fundamental attribution error.

In this question, an attribution is made about a colleague's failure. According to the fundamental attribution error, people explain the failures of others by attributing the failure to internal causes (e.g., he lacks enthusiasm).

.

Bias→who’s evaluated→ failure explained→success exp

Attribution Bias	Who Is Being Evaluated?	How We Explain a Failure / Mistake	How We Explain a Success / Win
Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)	Others Only	Internal: They failed because of their character, personality, or laziness.	Not the primary focus of FAE, but usually brushed off as luck or situational.
Actor-Observer Effect	Both (Self vs. Other Comparison)	Self: External (The situation caused my mistake). Other: Internal (Their character caused their mistake).	Focuses strictly on contrasting explanations for negative or neutral behaviors.
Self-Serving Bias	Self Only	External: I failed because the exam was unfair or the environment was noisy.	Internal: I succeeded because I am highly intelligent and worked hard.

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1. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)

This bias focuses entirely on how we judge other people. When we observe someone else make a mistake, we systematically overestimate the role of internal dispositional factors and underestimate the role of external situational factors.

• Dispositional over-attribution / Perceptual salience

  • the person is moving and visible, so we focus on them rather than the static background situation).

  • Example:

    • You watch a coworker miss a deadline. You instantly assume they are lazy or disorganized (internal), ignoring the fact that their computer crashed and their child is sick (external).

2. Actor-Observer Effect

This is a direct expansion of the FAE, explicitly comparing the Actor (Self) to the Observer (Other).

• When a negative event happens, the actor points to the environment, but the observer points to the actor's traits.

• Example:

  • You and a classmate both fail an practice quiz. You explain your own failure by saying, "The questions were poorly written" (external). You explain your classmate's failure by saying, "They didn't study hard enough" (internal).

3. Self-Serving Bias

This bias focuses strictly on protecting the self-esteem of the individual. It changes directions completely depending on whether the outcome was positive or negative.

• Credit internal traits for wins; blame external factors for losses.

• Example:

  • If you pass the EPPP:

    • "I passed because I am brilliant and mastered the concepts." (Internal Attribution).

  • If you fail the EPPP:

    • "I failed because the testing center was freezing and the question vignettes were intentionally deceptive." (External Attribution).

Diseases that are X-linked and recessive are:

more common in males than females.

X-linked recessive diseases, like color blindness and hemophilia, are more common in males than females.

Males have one X and one Y chromosome (XY), so if they inherit the X gene for a disorder (e.g., colorblindness), they will express it (i.e., be colorblind).

Females have two X chromosomes (XX; if they inherit one gene for the disorder, the other normal X gene usually dominates, preventing the disorder (i.e., they will not be colorblind).

.

disorder→inheritance type→core features→keywords

Disorder	Inheritance Type	Core Cognitive/Psychological Phenotype	High-Yield EPPP Association Keywords
Fragile X Syndrome	X-Linked Dominant (Males more severely affected)	Intellectual disability • ADHD features • Autism-like social deficits • Severe anxiety	CGG repeat amplification • Long face • Large ears • Macroorchidism (enlarged testes)
Rett Syndrome	X-Linked Dominant (Fatal in males; seen almost exclusively in females)	Severe cognitive regression • Loss of purposeful hand skills • Social withdrawal • Intellectual disability	MECP2 gene mutation • Stereotypic hand-wringing • Normal early development followed by rapid decline
Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome	X-Linked Recessive (Affects males)	Severe motor destruction • Compulsive self-mutilation (biting lips/fingers) • Cognitive impairment	HGPRT enzyme deficiency • High uric acid levels • Gout/kidney stones
Color Blindness (Red-Green)	X-Linked Recessive(Significantly more common in males)	Normal IQ and visual acuity; inability to distinguish red and green hues.	Perceptual deficit • Sex-linked inheritance hallmark

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The "Carrier Mother" Dynamics

• The Father's Pass:

  • A father gives his Y chromosome to his sons and his X chromosome to his daughters.

  • Therefore, an affected father cannot pass an X-linked condition to his sons. He passes it to his daughters, who simply become unaffected carriers because their mother gave them a healthy backup X.

• The Mother's Toss:

  • A carrier mother has a 50% chance of passing her defective X chromosome down to her children.

  • If a daughter gets it, she becomes a carrier.

  • If a son gets it, he has no backup X to protect him, so he fully manifests the condition.

In order to adhere to the highest possible standards, when sending patient information electronically to an insurance company for billing, you should:

ensure appropriate security measures are in place.

When sending confidential patient information electronically to an insurance company you must ensure that appropriate security measures are in place (e.g., information should be encrypted or sent using an encode function).

Coding the client's name alone would not offer adequate protection.

Sending patient information electronically is allowed.

To optimize the teaching of low-achieving children of lower SES you should:

focus on increasing teachers' expectancies of students' performance.

When teachers have a high expectation of students' performance, student performance is maximized.

Note that you might have guessed this question correctly by applying your knowledge of self-fulfilling prophecies.

A psychological intern leaves a case conference confused because the clinical director, the intern's supervisor, and another staff psychologist all disagree about how she should handle a case. The intern decides to follow the suggestion of the staff psychologist because they share the same theoretical orientation and she respects and admires her. Her decision is based on what type of power?

Referent

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type of power → source → internal reaction →example → keywords

Type of Power	Source of Influence	Employee's Internal Reaction	EPPP Workplace Example	High-Yield EPPP Exam Keywords
Referent	The leader is liked, respected, admired, or viewed as a role model.	Commitment: The employee genuinely wants to identify with and please the leader.	An employee works overtime because they deeply respect the manager’s character and vision.	Identification • Role model • Interpersonal attraction
Expert	The leader possesses specialized knowledge, skills, or technical expertise.	Commitment / Compliance: The employee trusts the leader's superior competence.	Staff members follow a supervisor's directive because she is a renowned expert in statistics.	Specialized knowledge • Credibility • Technical competence
Legitimate	The leader holds an official position, title, or formal organizational authority.	Compliance: The employee obeys because they believe the leader has a right to command.	A private soldier obeys a captain's order purely because of the captain's rank.	Formal authority • Hierarchy • Title / Position
Reward	The leader controls the ability to distribute positive, valued benefits.	Compliance: The employee performs the task to obtain the incentive.	A salesperson works harder after a manager promises a financial bonus for hitting targets.	Incentives • Bonuses • Praise • Extrinsic motivation
Coercive	The leader controls the ability to distribute punishments or negative consequences.	Resistance / Compliance: The employee complies out of fear, but feels resentment.	An employee arrives on time strictly because the boss threatened to fire anyone who is late.	Punishment • Threats • Fear-driven • High turnover

• The Power-to-Outcome Links: French and Raven's model heavily predicts employee behavior based on the power base used:

  • Personal Power Bases (Referent and Expert) are strongly linked to:

    • employee commitment, high job satisfaction, and superior task performance.

    • Referent power is considered the most resilient and effective base for long-term loyalty.

  • Position Power Bases (Legitimate and Reward) typically result in surface-level compliance.

    • Employees do the minimum work required to get the reward or keep their job.

  • Coercive Power frequently breeds:

    • active resistance, alienation, sabotage, and high employee turnover

• Referent power is based on identification with, attraction to, or respect for an individual.

  • In this example, the intern appears to like and identify with the staff psychologist whom she considers a role model.

• Legitimate power comes from a person's position in the organization.

  • For example, if she decided to follow the clinic director because the director is at the top of the clinic's hierarchy, her decision would be based on legitimate power.

• Coercive power is based on a person's ability to punish a subordinate.

  • For example, if the intern's decision was based on her fear of a bad evaluation, that would be coercive power.

• Expert power comes from having a high level of knowledge in a given area.

  • If the intern's decision was based on who had the greatest knowledge and expertise, that would be expert power.

• Reward power involves offering people desirable rewards or incentives to gain compliance or cooperation.

When should management reward group performance rather than individual performance?

On a task that is high in interdependence

In an interdependent task, group members need to work together in order to succeed; therefore, rewarding group performance is most sensible.

In a task that is low in interdependence, individual performance is more important; therefore, individual rewards would be more useful.

The universal rule of thumb for the exam is: Group productivity depends entirely on how the structure of the task mathematically links individual performance to the final outcome.

Additive → Add/Sum

Conjunctive → Junction/Chain Link/Weakest Link

Disjunctive → Dissect/Choose 1/Strongest Link

Compensatory → Compensate/Balance/Average

Discretionary → Discretion/Freedom to Choose Strategy

1. Additive → The Sum

• Additive simply means you ADD things together.

• The group outcome is the Sum of all individual parts

  • e.g., 1 shoveler + 1 shoveler = the combined sum of snow moved

2. Conjunctive → The Weakest Link

• A conjunction in grammar is a word that hooks sentences together (like "and" or "but").

  • Think of a Conjunction as a physical junction / chain link.

• A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, the outcome is determined entirely by the least capable member

  • e.g., the slowest climber holding back the team

3. Disjunctive → The Strongest Link (The Choice)

• The prefix Dis- means to separate or split apart (like disconnect or dissect).

  • A disjunction means you are at a fork in the road where you must choose one single path.

• The group must look at all individual answers, split them apart, and choose the single best option.

  • Therefore, the outcome is determined by the most capable member who provides that winning answer.

4. Compensatory → The Average

• To compensate means to balance things out or make up for a loss (like an insurance company compensating you for an accident).

• If one person guesses way too high and another guesses way too low, their individual errors compensate for each other when you take the statistical average

  • e.g., averaging everyone's independent stock predictions

5. Discretionary → The Custom Strategy

• If something is left to your discretion, it means you have the absolute freedom to decide exactly how you want to handle it.

• The group has the discretion to choose any custom combination method they want

  • e.g., deciding to vote, flip a coin, or let the youngest member choose

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Steiner's Group Task Typology Quick-Reference Matrix

Task Type	Definition / Mathematical Link	Group Outcome Determined By...	EPPP Real-World Example	High-Yield EPPP Exam Keywords
Additive	Individual inputs are physically summed or added together to create the final product.	The cumulative efforts of all group members combined.	A team of workers shoveling a snow-covered parking lot together.	Summed inputs • Ringelmann effect • Social loafing target
Conjunctive	The task requires everyone to finish together; the group cannot move faster than its slowest member.	The performance of the weakest / least capable member.	A team of mountain climbers roped together ascending a peak.	"Weakest link" • Interdependence • Vulnerable to bottlenecks
Disjunctive	The group must select one single solution or choice from the pool of individual inputs.	The performance of the strongest / most capablemember.	A corporate team trying to solve a complex math puzzle or riddle.	"Strongest link" • Best option wins • Requires text recognition
Discretionary	Group members are free to choose how to combine their unique individual inputs.	The specific combination strategy selected by the group.	A committee deciding to average out everyone’s independent budget estimates.	Unstructured combination • Group vote • Custom weight
Compensatory	Individual contributions are mathematically averaged to arrive at the final group score.	The statistical average of all independent individual inputs.	A jury or crowd guessing the total number of jellybeans in a jar.	Averaged estimates • "Wisdom of crowds" • Error cancellation

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Group Dynamics Phenomena

1. Additive Tasks and the Ringelmann Effect (Social Loafing)

The EPPP loves to test Social Loafing (the tendency for individuals to exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone) using Additive Tasks.

• The Ringelmann Effect proved that as more people are added to an additive task (like a game of tug-of-war), individual productivity systematically decreases because people assume their personal lack of effort will be hidden by the crowd.

• The EPPP Solution:

  • To eliminate social loafing on an additive task, the vignette must explicitly state that individual contributions are made identifiable, measurable, or publicly evaluated.

2. Conjunctive Tasks and Koher Motivation Gains

Because a conjunctive task is strictly bottlenecked by the least capable member, the "weakest link" is highly visible to the group.

• The Phenomenon: The Köhler Effect occurs when the least capable member of a group actually increases their individual effort during a conjunctive task because they realize their personal performance is completely vital to preventing group failure.

A high percentage of children with ADHD are responsive to psychostimulants. When a clinician is uncertain as to whether a child's diagnosis is ADHD, the reason the child should not be given a trial of psychostimulants for purposes of differential diagnosis is because:

the child who does not have ADHD would likely have an increased attention span and improved task performance.

Even children without ADHD, when given psychostimulants, have improved attention span and concentration. Therefore, response to such medications would not be useful for differentiating children with ADHD from children without ADHD.

According to Sue and Sue's racial/cultural identity development (R/CID) model, a person of color is most likely to be critical of dominant culture during the stage of:

resistance and immersion.

According to Sue & Sue's model of racial/cultural identity development (R/CID),

• First stage, conformity, a person of color unequivocally prefers the dominant culture's values over their own.

• Second stage, dissonance, a person of color becomes increasingly aware that not all values of dominant culture are beneficial, and certain aspects of minority culture begin to have appeal.

• Third stage, resistance & immersion, the tides turn, and a person of color tends to endorse views held by their group and reject the dominant values of society and culture.

• Fourth stage of introspection involves a deeper analysis of attitudes and feelings

• Fifth stage of integrative awareness, the person can appreciate unique aspects of their own culture as well as those of the dominant culture.

.

attitude toward: self→ same minority→ diff minority→ dominant gap

Stage	Attitude Toward Self	Attitude Toward Same Minority	Attitude Toward Different Minority	Attitude Toward Dominant Group
1. Conformity	❌ Depreciating (Self-hate / Shame)	❌ Depreciating (Viewed as inferior)	❌ Discriminatory (Shared stereotypes)	Appreciating (White culture is superior)
2. Dissonance	🔄 Conflict (Between self-depreciation & appreciation)	🔄 Conflict (Between group-depreciation & appreciation)	🔄 Conflict (Between dominant views & empathy)	🔄 Conflict (Between blind admiration & suspicion)
3. Resistance & Immersion	Appreciating (High pride / Culturally alert)	Appreciating (Strong sense of group solidarity)	🔄 Conflict (Feelings of empathy vs. cultocentrism)	❌ Depreciating (Anger, rejection, and trust issues)
4. Introspection	🤔 Concern (Devaluing autonomy / Tired of group-think rigidity)	🤔 Concern (Unease with unequivocal group loyalty)	🤔 Concern (Seeking a way to connect across cultures)	🤔 Concern (Uncomfortable with total, blind anger)
5. Integrative Awareness	Appreciating (Secure, stable multicultural identity)	Appreciating (Accepts and values own heritage)	Appreciating (Respects and supports other minority groups)	⚖ Selective (Appreciates positive aspects; rejects systemic racism)

The concordance rate for identical twins for bipolar I disorder is about:

55%.

According to the DSM-5-TR, the concordance rate for identical twins with bipolar I disorder ranges from about 40% - 70%.

The concordance rate for fraternal twins and siblings is up to 25%.

Keep in mind that bipolar l disorder is among the most heavily genetically loaded disorders.

Which of the following is described by Piaget as typical of the preoperational child?

Use of symbolic activity

Egocentrism

Intuitive thinking

The ability to conserve does not appear until the stage of concrete operations (ages 7 to 11). Conservation is the ability to recognize that even though shape and form might change, the objects still conserve other characteristics (e.g., water that was in a tall glass is still the same amount when it is poured into a shorter, wider glass).

The pre-operational child (ages 2 to 7) is egocentric, which means they are unable to take the perspective of another person.

In the pre-operational stage, the child relies on intuitive thought rather than logical or deductive reasoning.

The pre-operational child increasingly uses symbolic activity, which involves using objects or words to represent something else (e.g., pretending a remote control is a phone).

For a six-year-old diagnosed with ADHD, the first line of treatment should emphasize:

Parent training in behavior management.

For a six-year old diagnosed with ADHD, the first line of treatment should prioritize behavioral interventions (i.e., parent training in behavior management and/or behavioral classroom interventions).

If used, medications are most effective when combined with behavior modification.

Cognitive behavioral therapy shows strong empirical support for older children, adolescents, and adults.

Multi-systemic therapy is an intensive treatment focused on both the family and community. It is an evidence-based approach for high-risk youth with significant behavioral issues (e.g., juvenile offenders).

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is most commonly used in treating:

major depressive disorder, severe, with psychotic features

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is one of the most studied and most effective treatments for selected severe mental illness such as major depression with psychotic features.

While it has also been shown to be an effective form of treatment for schizophrenia accompanied by catatonia, extreme depression, mania, or other affective components, it is used much less frequently in the treatment of schizophrenia.

You are most likely to remember the answer to these questions if immediately after you take them and review the rationales you:

sleep.

The interference theory of memory proposes that we remember best when we minimize interference immediately after we learn something, or in this case, if we sleep.

The hardest behaviors to extinguish are those that are:

reinforced on a variable basis.

The hardest behaviors to extinguish are those that are reinforced on an intermittent rather than continuous schedule of reinforcement.

Of the intermittent schedules, the variable ratio is the most resistant to extinction, or hardest to extinguish.

Assuming reinforcement occurred with every behavior, consistent reinforcement would be the easiest to extinguish.

Time-contingent reinforcement typically implies a fixed interval schedule.

Which circumstances would it be appropriate to use a chi-square?

• When looking for differences between groups

• When the data are ordinal

• When there is more than one independent variable

Chi-square is a non-parametric test of difference, used when the data is nominal/categorical.

One of the main assumptions of the chi-square is independence of observations; thus, a chi-square can NOT be run when repeated observations are made (e.g., data are collected pre and post).

It is used to look at differences between groups. Although there are specific non-parametric tests for ordinal data (e.g., Mann-Whitney), the chi-square can accommodate ordinal data.

When there is more than one independent variable, the multiple sample chi-square is run.

1. The Core Purpose

• Primary Function: A non-parametric test used to evaluate differences between groups.

• The Metric: Analyzes counts or frequencies within groups, never group means.

• Data Scale: Strictly used for nominal/categorical data (though it can technically accommodate ordinal data if necessary).

2. Multi-Variable Flexibility

• Can handle more than one independent variable using a multiple-sample (or two-way) Chi-Square test.

3. The Absolute EPPP Dealbreaker Assumption

• Independence of Observations: Each participant can only belong to a single data cell.

• The Trap: You cannot run a Chi-Square on repeated observations (e.g., tracking the same group's data pre-test vs. post-test).

A physician refers a patient to a psychologist who specializes in the treatment of pain. The patient has back pain secondary to a serious accident at work six months ago, in which he ruptured several disks. The psychologist should:

use cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based treatment for chronic pain.

Key components of CBT for chronic pain include cognitive restructuring, stress management, activity pacing, and behavioral activation.

Progressive muscle relaxation may be contraindicated for chronic pain, as it involves first tensing and then relaxing each muscle group, which can trigger muscle spasms.

Psychodynamic interventions would not be appropriate, since the man's back pain is related to a physical injury caused by an accident.

A culturally encapsulated therapist:

lacks awareness that their viewpoint and practice are affected by their own cultural perspective.

A culturally encapsulated therapist is someone who ignores and/or is unaware of the fact that their actions, beliefs, values, training, education, and practice are affected by their own cultural perspective.

As a result, the therapist may have beliefs about other cultures that are incorrect or outdated and may view their patients through the lens of what they deem to be "appropriate" or "normal."

For example, a Western-trained therapist may believe that individualism is healthier than collectivism and encourage the patient to make decisions from an individualistic perspective. In contrast, a culturally responsive therapist actively works to learn more about their patients' cultural background and incorporates that knowledge into their work with the patient.

White privilege describes the social advantages, frequently unacknowledged, that white people have over other racial groups.

While cultural encapsulation may result from lack of exposure to various cultural groups, a therapist can still be culturally responsive even if they typically treat patients who share their cultural background.

Which of the following would probably be appropriate for a psychologist acting as a fact witness in a murder trial?

Testifying as to the defendant's background and family history, their mental status in the weeks before the alleged murder, & where the defendant told the psychologist he was at the time of the murder

Testifying as to whether the defendant fits the psychological profiles established for murderers would NOT be appropriate.

A fact witness testifies about what they have heard, been told, or observed.

An expert witness is deemed to be an expert in a particular domain and provides information about this area in court. For example, an expert witness might testify whether or not an individual fits the established psychological profiles of murderers

An individual presents to a hospital emergency room with a flushed face, rambling speech, tachycardia, restlessness, and diuresis. The most likely diagnosis is:

Caffeine intoxication.

The symptoms described are classic symptoms of caffeine intoxication, which can result from consuming as little as three cups of coffee.

Patients with diabetes often complain of diuresis (excessive urination) but not the other symptoms.

Individuals with panic disorder may experience tachycardia but not the other symptoms.

Opioid intoxication is characterized by pupillary constriction, drowsiness, and slurred speech -- none of the symptoms presented.

According to the DSM-5-TR, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood and is overall slightly more common in females than males. Which of the following statements best describes the incidence of OCD in children?

OCD occurs more commonly in males.

Males have an earlier age of onset of OCD than females, with nearly 25% of males having an onset before age 10. As a result, males are more commonly affected in childhood.

The most accurate statement regarding the relationship between mental illness and socioeconomic status (SES) is:

SES and mental illness are negatively correlated.

Higher SES is associated with less mental illness, and lower SES is associated higher levels of mental illness. It has not been proven that low SES causes poor mental health, though some do contend this. Others contend the reverse: poor mental health causes "downward drift.”

Slope bias is associated with:

differential validity.

.

regression line appearance→psycho link→ its meaning

Type of Predictive Bias	Regression Line Appearance	EPPP Psychometric Link	What It Means in Real Life
Slope Bias	The lines have different angles(they are not parallel and may cross).	Differential Validity	The test is a good predictor of performance for Group A, but a completely useless predictor for Group B.
Intercept Bias	The lines are parallel (same angle) but cross the Y-axis at different heights.	Unfairness	Both groups have the same test accuracy, but the test consistently overpredicts or underpredicts actual performance for one group.

• Slope bias is associated with differential validity, which is defined as a test having more validity for one group than another (i.e., a validity coefficient of .15 for People of Color and .35 for White people).

  • This bias occurs when regression lines, which represent the relationship between a predictor and criterion for a particular group, have the same y-intercept (i.e., the regression line crosses the y-axis at the same point) but different slopes (i.e., the relationship of the predictor to the criterion differs for the two groups).

  • Slope Bias = Different slopes = Differential Validity.

• Unfairness occurs when two groups score differently on the predictor but similarly on the outcome. It is associated with intercept bias.

  • When there is unfairness, the regression lines are parallel (i.e., they have the same slope), yet they intersect the y-axis at two different points.

  • Intercept Bias = Different intercepts = Unfairness / Differential Prediction.

• Adverse impact occurs when the selection ratio for members of a protected class is less than 80% of the selection ratio for the comparison group; it is not associated with slope bias.

.

• Differential validity is associated with slope bias

• Unfairness is associated with intercept bias.

The term "vicarious learning" is most closely associated with whom?

Bandura

Vicarious learning means that we can learn by watching and imitating others, and by anticipating future reinforcement. This notion is associated with Bandura's model of observational learning.

Bandura’s theory is usually called Social Learning Theory or Social Cognitive Behaviorism.

Skinner is associated with operant or instrumental learning.

Watson with classical conditioning.

Ellis with Rational-Emotive Therapy (RET).

Dopamine is implicated in what disorder?

Schizophrenia

The 'dopamine hypothesis' posits that an excess of dopamine results in schizophrenia.

The neurotransmitters implicated in depression are norepinephrine and serotonin.

Low levels of GABA are linked with anxiety and epilepsy.

Some drugs, such as cocaine or methamphetamine, cause the release of abnormally large amounts of natural neurotransmitters (mainly dopamine). Thus, excess dopamine can result from substance use disorders, but dopamine does not cause substance use disorders.

The correlation between IQ scores and academic performance is:

greater in elementary and high school, and smaller in college and graduate school.

If you did not know the answer to this question, you may have guessed it by applying the concept of restriction of range.

Correlation, along with reliability and validity, is always lower when the range is restricted for one or both variables.

In this question, elementary and high schools include just about everyone, but college and graduate school restrict the range to include only the brighter students; thus, we would expect higher correlations between elementary and high school students on any variable than we would between college and graduate students on the same variable.

Damage to the temporal lobe is most likely to affect which type of memory function?

Long-term explicit memory

It is always difficult to make generalizations about complex functions like memory, but temporal lobe damage (and brain damage in general) does not typically result in damage to implicit memory.

Implicit memory refers to memories that don't require conscious recollection, like driving a car or playing the piano.

Explicit memory involves the conscious recollection of facts and autobiographical events.

Temporal lobe damage generally results in problems forming long-term memories.

The individual with damage can remember things for a short period of time but cannot hold onto the information or consolidate it into long-term memory.

Left temporal lobe lesions result in impaired memory for verbal material, while right temporal lobe lesions result in impaired recall of non-verbal material such as music and drawings.

After conducting a two-way ANOVA, you determine significant differences have been found. You are most likely to conclude:

there can be any combination of main effects and interactions.

When you conduct a two-way ANOVA, you calculate three F ratios; therefore, there are three possibilities for significance. There are two possible main effects (for Variable A and Variable B) and a possible interaction effect. The important point is that when you get significance in a two-way ANOVA, it can be any combination of main effects and interactions.

For example, it's possible that there would be only one main effect. It's equally possible that there would be a significant interaction effect and no main effects, or even that there would be two significant main effects and a significant interaction.

Note that one of the advantages of a two-way ANOVA over two separate one-way ANOVAs is the possibility of detecting the interaction effect.

When a mother remarries, and children live with their mother and stepfather:

girls tend to have greater adjustment problems than boys.

How children adapt in stepfamilies depends on a variety of factors. In general, girls have more difficulty adjusting than boys.

Girls tend to have better adjustment when their mother remains single, because girls and mothers of single-parent divorced families tend to have very close relationships and a stepfather may threaten this relationship.

Boys' adjustment to divorce tends to improve once the mother remarries, as they begin to view their stepfather as an additional source of support.

Overall, young children tend to adapt most easily. Early adolescents, who are already dealing with physical changes and new sexual feelings, have a more difficult time.

General mental ability tests for hiring and promotion:

are linked to higher performance and productivity, and decreased turnover within companies.

General mental ability tests (or cognitive abilities tests), such as the Wonderlic, assess the mental abilities of job candidates (e.g., reasoning skills, problem-solving skills, organizational ability, and abstract thinking).

These tests are generally excellent predictors of job success. When companies use them in making decisions about hiring and promotion, companies see higher rates of performance and productivity, as well as decreased rates of turnover.

However, one significant problem with such tests is that they can cause unintentional discrimination against people of color. Despite this concern, it was determined in the court case of Griggs vs. the Duke Power company that general mental ability tests could still be used as long as the tests were valid, measured job-related variables, and were a business necessity.

Vygotsky's theory of intelligence can be considered:

sociocultural.

Vygotsky's theory of intelligence is often termed sociocultural (or social constructivist) because he emphasized the role of culture and community in the development of intellect.

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High-Yield Vygotsky Keywords

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD):

  • The psychological gap between what a learner can achieve completely independently and what they can achieve with optimal assistance.

• Scaffolding:

  • The temporary instructional framework, cues, or guidance provided by an expert that is gradually withdrawn as the learner achieves independent competence.

• More Knowledgeable Other (MKO):

  • Anyone who has a higher ability level or clearer understanding of a task than the learner (can be a parent, teacher, or even a peer).

• Private Speech:

  • Children talking aloud to themselves to self-regulate, plan, and guide their own behavior. Vygotsky viewed this as a critical transition phase where external social speech transforms into internal thought.

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Dynamic Testing (The ZPD Assessment Trap)

The EPPP may ask how Vygotsky's theory applies to psychological testing.

• Vygotsky strictly disapproved of traditional static IQ tests because they only measure a child's current, independent performance (what they already know).

• Instead, his theory supports dynamic assessment, where a test administrator provides subtle hints or prompts when a child gets stuck. This evaluates the child's potential for learning within their ZPD, rather than a fixed quantitative score

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The 4-Option EPPP Breakdown

• 1. Sociocultural

  • Vygotsky argued that intelligence and cognitive growth are collaborative, interpersonal processes.

  • A child does not discover the world alone; they internalize knowledge, language, and problem-solving tools through interactions with their culture and community.

• 2. Epigenetic (Tracks to Piaget):

  • An epigenetic framework states that development occurs in a strict, universal, biological sequence of stages where each stage builds upon the successful mastery of the previous one.

  • Piaget's cognitive stages are epigenetic; Vygotsky rejected rigid stage models.

• 3. Quantitative (Tracks to Information Processing):

  • Quantitative theories look at incremental, measurable increases in continuous mental capacities (like how working memory storage capacity or processing speed increases linearly with age).

  • Vygotsky focused on qualitative cultural shifts.

• 4. Cognitive Constructivist (Tracks to Piaget):

  • While Vygotsky is a social constructivist, Piaget is the classic cognitive constructivist.

  • Piaget argued that children are solitary scientists who actively construct knowledge individually by interacting with their physical environment

• Piaget’s theory is both epigenetic and cognitive constructivist.

  • It is epigenetic because growth and development occur in a series of stages, each of which is built on the successful mastery of the previous stage.

  • It is cognitive constructivist because Piaget argues that new knowledge is constructed on the basis of previous knowledge. People can't simply be given knowledge (i.e., imparting of facts) that they can immediately make use of.

• Both Vygotsky's and Piaget's theories are qualitative

  • They are NOT quantitative.

• quantitative theory (e.g., information processing theory) posits that cognitive development occurs smoothly, continuously, and gradually throughout the lifespan.

Beck emphasizes:

automatic thinking and logical errors.

Although there are similarities in terminology, you need to know which terms apply to which cognitive theory. Beck is the founder of Cognitive Therapy. He is known for "automatic thinking" and "logical errors.”

His contemporary, Ellis, the founder of Rational-Emotive Therapy, coined the term "irrational beliefs.”

Positive self-statements are a focus of the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy of Meichenbaum.

Positive and negative reinforcement are most commonly associated with Skinner and sometimes with Thorndike.

A child looks up in the sky, sees a bird, and then says "plane." This behavior represents:

assimilation.

Piaget coined the term adaptation, which is the process by which a person adjusts to the environment using two complementary processes, assimilation and accommodation.

• Assimilation involves incorporating a new experience into an already established mental structure.

  • In this situation, when the child calls a bird a plane, she is assimilating the bird into an already existing schema for things that fly (planes).

• Accommodation involves modifying or expanding a cognitive structure or schema to

• Equilibration is the need for balance between the person and the outside environment as well as among the person's schemata.

  • This need will determine the extent to which a child uses assimilation or accommodation.

Since you put in a tremendous amount of work, you decide to publish your dissertation as a journal article. Your chairperson was a significant source of moral support and also helped you with the data analysis, the literature review, and the summary of results. According to the Ethics Code, your chairperson should receive:

second authorship.

Keep in mind that when a dissertation is later published as a research article, the graduate student should always get first authorship. The question asks how the chairperson should be recognized. Given the significance of their contribution, the chairperson should receive second authorship.

Minor contributions to research should be acknowledged in a footnote or introductory statement.

Research has found that when it comes to the disruptive effects of noise in the workplace:

it is not the noise itself, but whether people think they can turn off the source of the noise.

The research on noise in the workplace has found that it is not the noise itself, but rather the perception of control that is important. People who perceive that they have control are not bothered by noise.

It has also been found that continuous noise in the workplace is less disruptive than intermittent noise and that noise is generally less disruptive with simple, repetitive tasks.

Preadolescent sibling relationships are characterized by:

conflict/friendship.

Research into sibling relationships in preadolescence indicates that these relationships are characterized by periods of both conflict and friendship.

Conflict is theorized to be the result of less emotional inhibition with one's sibling, which leads to more overt presentations of hostility.

However, sibling preadolescent relationships also include periods of calm and friendship, which tend to occur in the presence of other family members while engaging in shared activities.

A child with a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading is most likely to:

continue to have impairment in reading as an adult.

The most likely outcome for a child with a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading is to have continued problems in this area as an adult, although for some individuals the problem seems to resolve by adulthood. There are many individuals with a specific learning disorder with impairment in reading that have strong vocabularies.

In order to increase studying behavior, you set up a deal with yourself in which you allow yourself to engage in one hour of your favorite activity following a good study session. Underlying your thinking is an understanding of:

the Premack Principle.

The Premack Principle involves using a high frequency behavior (in this case, a favorite activity) to reinforce a low frequency behavior (in this case, studying).

Generalized conditioned reinforcers are a special case of secondary reinforcers that acquire their reinforcing value because they can be exchanged for other reinforcers, such as money or tokens.

Chaining is thought to underlie the acquisition of complex behaviors (e.g., driving a car), in which each response serves both as reinforcement for the previous response and as a discriminative stimulus for the next response.

A dog has learned to jump when he hears a clap because the experimenter had repeatedly clapped right before giving the dog an electric shock. The experimenter now says "bad dog" right before clapping. Eventually, the dog will jump whenever he hears the experimenter yell "bad dog." This experiment is a paradigm of:

higher-order conditioning.

Higher-order conditioning involves pairing the conditioned stimulus (CS) with another neutral stimulus that is typically unrelated (e.g., pairing the clap with saying "bad dog”). At this level, it is also referred to as second-order conditioning.

Stimulus generalization involves generalizing from the conditioned stimulus (CS) to other similar neutral stimuli (e.g., generalizing from a clap to other loud noises). In stimulus generalization, the response to the similar stimulus is not intentionally trained, as it was in this scenario.

Pseudoconditioning occurs when a response is elicited to a neutral stimulus that has not been paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US). It may be the result of inadvertent pairings (e.g., the dog jumping when the experimenter walks into the room).

Which of the following has been implicated in both obsessive-compulsive disorder and tic disorders?

Basal ganglia

The basal ganglia play a vital role in the regulation and coordination of movement and in establishing posture. Abnormalities in the basal ganglia have been linked to both OCD and tic disorders, as well as the movement disorders of Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

The hypothalamus plays a key role in maintaining homeostasis in the body, including temperature regulation, the sleep-wake cycle, and aggression.

The thalamus is the relay station for all senses, except olfaction. This means that all sensory information, with the exception of smell, first stops in the thalamus before being sent to its destination in the cortex.

The medulla controls processes that are vital to life including heartbeat, breathing, and blood pressure.

A five-year-old girl who was assigned male at birth exhibits a strong preference for dressing in girls' clothing, playing with girls, and playing with stereotypically female toys (e.g., dolls). She experiences significant distress when her parents refer to her as a boy. Her presentation is most consistent with:

gender dysphoria.

The five-year-old's presentation is consistent with the DSM-5-TR diagnosis of gender dysphoria. While it is common for young children to take on opposite sex roles in play and even dress up in clothing of the opposite sex, her distress, along with her desire to be a girl and her strong preferences for female clothing, playmates, and stereotypically female toys are characteristic of gender dysphoria.

A paraphilic disorder (e.g., pedophilic disorder, exhibitionistic disorder) involves intense and persistent sexual interests involving objects, activities, or situations that are atypical, causing distress, impairment, or harm.

Beginning with the DSM-5, the diagnosis of gender identity disorder was replaced by gender dysphoria.