Psychology Chapter 1

Question 1

Sid believes his dreams forecast the future. He describes all the dreams that came true in the last month. His friend Joey asks him about all the times his dreams did not come true. Sid’s tendency to remember the times his dreams came true and forget the times they did not is known as

Answer 1

the confirmation bias.

Question 2

Which specialty area in psychology would be most likely to study how people interact in group settings, including such areas as prejudice, conformity, and peer influences?

Answer 2

social

Question 3

Personal observation and careful description of one’s own thoughts, feelings, sensations, or behavior is called

Answer 3

introspection

Question 4

When we see the image below, you probably see a dog rather than a group of black shapes. This phenomenon illustrates which school of thought in psychology?

Answer 4

Gestalt psychology

Question 5

Which of the following is FALSE concerning functionalism?

Answer 5

Functionalism promoted a narrower view of psychology than did structuralism and Gestalt psychology.

Question 6

John B. Watson believed that introspection was unscientific. To explain most behavior, he adopted the concept of conditioning developed by

Answer 6

Ivan Pavlov.

Question 7

Which of the following statements concerning psychodynamic psychology is TRUE?

Answer 7

Almost immediately, many of Freud’s students broke away from his theories in order to modify and change them.

Question 8

Which of the following best describes Maslow’s concept of self-actualization? t

Answer 8

he need to fully develop one’s potential

Question 9

Which of the following is FALSE concerning the biopsychosocial model?

Answer 9

It allows us to know which biological, psychological, and social factors determine behavior.

Question 10

In Lawrence Kohlberg’s research regarding how we develop moral values, his participants were primarily male. Later studies on the moral development of women were conducted by Carol Gilligan. Which of the following statements regarding these two studies is TRUE?

Answer 10

Carol Gilligan found that women’s moral development was based on caring, while Kohlberg found that women’s moral development was based on justice.

Question 11

An environmental psychologist helps redesign a college dorm to reduce feelings of crowding. The psychologist’s work reflects which of psychology’s goals?

Answer 11

control

Question 12

Two research studies are conducted on the effects of body piercing on self-esteem. One study found that body piercing increased self-esteem, while the other one found a decrease in self-esteem. If you are a critical thinker, you would

Answer 12

compare and evaluate the quality of the studies.

Question 13

Kelly is writing a paper on conformity for her psychology class. In order to find the research articles she needs for the paper, the first step for her would be to get an overview of each of the articles that come up in her computer search. She should first read which part of each article?

Answer 13

abstract

Question 14

A local television station conducts what they refer to as “surveys,” in which they ask viewers to call in their opinions to various topics. These “surveys” are not considered a scientific poll because the television station

Answer 14

is using a biased sample.

Question 15

Researchers using naturalistic observations to study a chimpanzee troop in the wild must avoid making friends and interacting with the animals to minimize the

Answer 15

observer effect.

Question 16

A researcher wants to find out if taking a new antianxiety will decrease the symptoms of subjects suffering from social anxiety. The number of symptoms exhibited by the subjects would be the __________ variable.

Answer 16

dependent

Question 17

An experimenter conducts an experiment on the effects of a drug to control hallucinations. The experimenter declares the results to be “statistically significant,” which usually means that

Answer 17

differences of this size between the experimental and control groups would occur by chance in fewer than 5 out of 100 experiments.

Question 18

Which of the following coefficients of correlation indicates the STRONGEST relationship between two sets of variables?

Answer 18

+.90 Remember that the bigger the number, the stronger the relationship, regardless of the sign (positive or negative). The sign indicates the direction of the relationship. The strongest correlation is +/- 1.00, which rarely occurs. The weakest correlation is 0.

Question 19

An advantage of the case study or clinical method is that it

Answer 19

allows investigation of rare or unusual problems or events.

Question 20

You caution a friend about eating so many foods that are high in fat content. Your friend replies that his grandfather ate all the bacon and cheese he wanted and he lived to be 93. Which of the following is the BEST explanation for your friend’s error in reasoning?

Answer 20

the use of individual cases

Question 21

Many television viewers are impressed by “psychic mediums” who pretend to communicate with the deceased friends and relatives of audience members. Typically, the viewers will remember the apparent “hits,” or correct statements made by the “mediums,” while ignoring the “misses,” or incorrect statements. This tendency is referred to as

Answer 21

the confirmation bias.

Question 22

Requiring a master’s degree and one to two years of supervised experience, this mental health professional does not treat serious mental disorders but uses practical helping skills with clients who have problems in their marriage, family, or career. This mental health professional described is a

Answer 22

licensed counselor.

Question 23

When early psychologists attempted to break down sensations and personal experiences into basic elements, much like chemists break down chemical compounds into basic elements, this was called

Answer 23

structuralism.

Question 24

If you heard only the individual notes of your favorite song played one per hour, you would not recognize it. However, when these notes are played together in the correct order and close in time as a melody, your favorite song is easily recognizable. The importance of being able to hear a melody rather than individual notes illustrates which school of thought in psychology?

Answer 24

Gestalt psychology

Question 25

The functionalists were interested in how thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and habits help people and animals

Answer 25

adapt to their environment.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about B. F. Skinner is FALSE?

Answer 26

Skinner believed that it is important to consider mental events, such as thinking, in explaining why a certain behavior occurs.

Question 27

According to Freud, unconscious thoughts are often revealed by

Answer 27

dreams, emotions, and slips of the tongue.

Question 28

Humanistic psychologists rejected psychoanalytic theory and behaviorism because they deemed both of these viewpoints to be

Answer 28

too deterministic.

Question 29

A biopsychologist studying the forgetting of names is also considering the cognitive processes involved in memory failure as well as the social context in which forgetting occurs. This is an example of the

Answer 29

biopsychosocial model

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT a reason that early psychological theories were prone to gender bias in research?

Answer 30

In the early years, female psychologists dominated clinical psychology but were rarely researchers.

Question 31

In a survey conducted on October 26, researchers find that 55% of the registered voters favor the passage of the school bond issue. These survey results illustrate which goal of psychology?

Answer 31

description

Question 32

Critical thinking does NOT involve which of the following questions?

Answer 32

How are the findings related to commonsense beliefs?

Question 33

Your best friend passes you in the school hallway and glares at you without speaking. You think, “Now, why did she do that?” One possible explanation could be that she saw you flirting with her boyfriend. Within the framework of the scientific method, this possible explanation for your friend’s behavior will remain tentative until it is tested by your asking your friend why she did not speak. Thus, this tentative, possible explanation would be considered a(n)

Answer 33

hypothesis

Question 34

Researchers conducting web-based research have trouble controlling who actually answers their on-line questionnaires, which places limits on their research due to

Answer 34

biased samples

Question 35

A college student has volunteered to tutor students in a first-grade classroom. She hopes to gain a realistic picture of the everyday behavior of these students. However, every time she enters the classroom, the students all stop what they are doing and run up to her begging her to tutor them next. This student will probably never get a realistic picture of a typical first grader’s school day because of the

Answer 35

observer effect.

Question 36

Antoine is conducting an experiment on the effects of room color on people’s ability to concentrate. The independent variable would be the

Answer 36

room color.

Question 37

Giving placebos in drug experiments is necessary to

Answer 37

control for the effects of suggestion and expectation.

Question 38

The clinical method would most likely be used to study

Answer 38

the behavior of amnesia patients.

Question 39

You go to a website that offers secrets to immediate success in whatever you are doing. You gain these secrets by purchasing a course offered only on their website. What is an important factor in evaluating the validity of their claims?

Answer 39

The offer provides monetary gain to the seller of the course.