PSYC EXAM 1 – Flashcards

1. Functionalism has been criticized because it: a. did not include elements of the nature/nurture debate. b. sometimes lacked scientific rigor. c. focused on narrow parts of problems rather than on the whole. d. did not take into account the way children process information.

2. Which of the following statements best captures the view of contemporary psychological science with respect to the origin of behavioral and mental disorders? a. Psychological disorders are best understood from an environmental-nurture perspective. b. Psychological disorders are best understood from a biological-nature perspective. c. Psychological disorders are best understood as resulting from the inseparable interaction of nature and nurture. d. Psychological disorders were originally thought to be caused entirely by biological factors, but are now known to largely reflect environmental factors.

3. With respect to the historical development of the field of social psychology, which of the following statements is most accurate? a. Social psychology clearly reflects the continuing influence of the psychodynamic approach. b. Social psychology initially reflected the influence of the cognitive perspective; today, though, the field is heavily behavioristic. c. Social psychology initially reflected the influence of the behaviorist perspective; today, though, the field is more cognitive in orientation. d. Social psychology always has reflected the impact of the Gestalt psychologists.

4. During which decade did cognitive neuroscience become an influential field in cognitive psychology? a. 1960s b. 1970s c. 1990s d. 2000s

5. Which of the following psychologists is most closely associated with the cognitive revolution? a. George Miller b. B.F. Skinner c. Sigmund Freud d. William James

6. Four early psychologists suddenly appear in the psychology department of an American university. Which psychologist would be most dismayed by the emphasis on mental processes in today's psychology? a. B.F. Skinner b. Wilhelm Wundt c. Edward Titchener d. John Watson

7. The theories of Sigmund Freud and his followers: a. are based on the idea that much of human behavior is determined by mental processes operating below the level of conscious behavior. b. emphasize the functions served by the mind. c. emphasize the concept that the whole is different than the sum of its parts. d. state that behavior can be altered by the application of reinforcement and punishment.

8. Stimulus is to response as is to______________. a. environment; behavior. b. behavior; environment. c. behavior; mind. d. unconscious; conscious.

9. Taj wants to create a robot that has sensation but not perception. The robot should: a. react to light but not to the stimuli for taste, smell, or touch. b. detect external energy sources but not interpret them. c. understand what things are but be unable to respond to them. d. construct useful information but be unable to remember it.

10. Research in this area has shown that earlier research in psychophysics ignored the key variable of human judgment. a. Weber's law b. Psychoacoustics c. Psychophysiology d. Signal detection theory

11. In classical psychophysics, the concept of an absolute threshold rests on the assumption that a subject's response is: a. an accurate reflection of the subject's perception. b. influenced by both perception and judgment. c. not a good index of actual perception. d. a good index of perception but not of sensation

12. Layla wants to teach a mouse to put half its food in a small box. Its reward will be to get twice as much food later. Why will this be difficult? a. Mice are not responsive to positive reinforcement. b. It will not be difficult; any animal can be trained to do this. c. Layla would need to select a special breed of mouse. d. Evolutionary adaptations make the mouse want to keep all its food.

13. John wants to teach his pet to do a trick. Based on the partial-reinforcement extinction effect, what types of reinforcement should he use if he wants to ensure enduring, stable behavior? a. Continuous b. Partial c. First continuous, then partial d. First partial, then continuous

14. Hummingbirds feed on a(n) schedule because they revisit each flower at specific times of day to get the sweetest nectar. a. timed b. operant c. ratio d. interval

15. Of the following, which schedule of reinforcement leads to fastest acquisition? a. Ratio b. Interval c. Fixed d. Continuous

16. What type of reward schedule extinguishes the fastest? a. Partial reinforcement b. Variable ratio c. Continuous reinforcement d. Fixed interval

17. If you want to exercise more often, what would be a good strategy for making this change? a. Punishing yourself for not doing the desired behaviors. b. Monitoring yourself and using reinforcers. c. Punishing yourself swiftly for being so lazy. d. Rewarding yourself for every moment you are not being lazy.

18. Positive punishment and negative punishment are similar in that both: a. produce an increase in the probability of a behavior. b. involve the administration of a stimulus. c. produce a decrease in the probability of a behavior. d. involve the removal of a stimulus.

19. Food is considered a primary reinforcer, whereas is a secondary reinforcer. a. water b. sex c. money d. none of the above

20. Something that can be measured or manipulated by an experimenter is considered: a. a descriptive statistic. b. data. c. a confound. d. a variable.

21. If a researcher defined happiness based on the number of times a person smiled in a 15-minute period, the number of smiles would be: a. an open-ended measurement. b. the operational definition of happiness. c. a meta-analysis of the variable. d. a measure of reaction time.

22. When two variables are correlated, it is not clear which one is a causal variable and which is an effect. This ambiguity reflects: a. the third variable problem. b. random error. c. selection bias. d. the directionality problem.

23. A research team told one group of people they would hear a set of jokes that were very funny and a second group that they would hear jokes that were not very funny. A third group was not told anything about the jokes. The jokes in all conditions were the same. Research with this design is: a. observational. b. correlational. c. experimental. d. psychophysiological.

24. When an experiment lacks the proper control, which of the following unintended variables can affect the outcome of a study? a. Confound b. Independent variable c. Dependent variable d. All of the above

25. An extensive study of a single person or just a few people is characteristic of: a. self-report research. b. case studies. c. an observational study. d. an electrophysiological study.

26. Investigators who are interested in gaining a lot of information about group attitudes quickly are likely to use what kind of research approach? a. Case study b. Performance response assessment c. Participant observation d. Self report

27. When Petra jumps into a cold lake, she feels as though she is freezing. After a few minutes, she no longer notices the cold temperature and feels comfortable in the water. This change is an example of: a. coarse coding. b. just noticeable difference. c. sensory adaptation. d. sensory threshold.

28. What is the primary purpose of cells in the olfactory bulb? a. To receive nerve impulses and pass them through the thalamus b. To receive nerve impulses and relay the signal to other brain areas c. To receive odorants and pass them through the thalamus d. To receive odorants and relay the signal to other brain areas

29. The process by which sound is transformed into a neural signal involves which of the following sequences of transformations? a. Sound wave à eardrum vibration à pressure wave in fluid b. Eardrum vibration à pressure wave in fluid à sound wave c. Sound wave à pressure wave in fluid à eardrum vibration d. Eardrum vibration à sound wave à pressure wave in fluid

30. How do the light waves reflected by a blue object differ from those reflected by a red object? a. The blue object reflects longer wavelength light. b. The blue object reflects shorter wavelength light. c. The blue object reflects higher amplitude light. d. The blue object reflects lower amplitude light.