PSYCH TEST 1-4 – Flashcards
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At a certain prestigious college, the policy is to grade with a curve. Most students expect to do well because they did well in high school. What is bias?
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self-serving bias
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What are beliefs, values, and norms shared by people in a certain environment?
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culture
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Charles Darwin and William James both understood the importance of...
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the adaptive purpose of specific traits and characteristics
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Chris believes that although the mind and body are linked that they have separate, distinct functions. What is this considered?
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dualism
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Dr. Tucker might use her knowledge of behaviorism to help people with which of the psychological problems?
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She helps teach behavior modification techniques to patients with anxiety so that they can avoid faulty ways of thinking
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Ila is almost 80 years old, but she is mentally and physically active. Although she sometimes forgets where she put her keys, she is still better at crossword puzzles than anyone else in her family. What kind of psychologist researches how older adults like Ila maintain their mental abilities as they age?
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developmental psychologist
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Professor Tanenhaus studies attention and memory. Which level of analysis does his research target?
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individual
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Sandy is pregnant, and every evening she plays classical music loud enough for the unborn baby to hear. She hopes that putting her baby in a stimulating environment will help it develop strong cognitive skills. Her husband thinks that playing the music is a waste of time, since the baby's intelligence will probably just be based on how smart he and Sandy are. What age-old issue are Sandy and her husband rehashing?
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the nature/nurture debate
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Social psychologists focus their studies on
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how social structures, such as organizational structure, presence or absence of authority, and group dynamics influence behavior.
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What does it mean to say, "Culture provides adaptive solutions"?
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Behaviors considered "normal" in a culture today became "norms" because they solved problems in the past.
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What is evolutionary theory's primary contribution to psychology?
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the idea that the brain's functions (e.g., memory, attention, and language) result from adaptation
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What is the importance of the Human Connectome Project of 2010? How did it further neuropsychological research?
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It began mapping out how different regions in the brain work together.
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Which phenomenon is difficult for behaviorism to explain?
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Chimps learn to use twigs to fish for insects by watching other chimps
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Which psychological school of thought sought to understand how the operations of the mind help people adapt to environmental demands?
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functionalism
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Doug believes that the "mind" is really just a result of the workings of our brain. Renee believes that each person has a mind that is separate from the body. Their different opinions reflect
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mind/body problem
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Jacob's father thinks he was born to be a skilled ice-skater just like his mother and older sister, but Jacob's mother thinks that his skills and interests come from growing up in a household full of skaters. What long-standing debate is at the heart of the disagreement between Jacob's parents?
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the nature/nurture debate
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Kerrie is an undergraduate who is thinking about majoring in psychology. She also works part-time, and she is very interested in how her company builds morale and helps motivate her coworkers. What subfield of psychology might Kerrie want to examine more closely?
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organizational psychology
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Magdalena grew up in a region of California often stricken by drought. When she moved to rainy Seattle, her roommate was surprised that Magdalena took 5-minute showers, brushed her teeth while in the shower, and complained when her roommate dumped out unused water from her teakettle or water glass. Magdalena's water-saving behaviors were
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a cultural adaptation.
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Psychologists from which school of thought are concerned with functions that behaviorism cannot explain, such as intelligence and problem solving?
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cognitive psychology
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Researchers working on the Human Genome Project are trying to map the basic human genetic code. How is this advancing the field of psychology?
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It is helping psychologists understand the extent of the "nature" side of our behavior, thoughts, and feelings and how to treat conditions such as mental illness and dementia
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The fMRI has enabled neuropsychological researchers to conclude which of the following?
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While many tasks require multiple parts of the brain, some tasks and thought processes use only specific areas of the brain.
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Which of the following is not one of the three key questions to ask when thinking critically?
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What are the social repercussions of holding this belief?
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Which psychological school of thought arose from Freud's attempts to understand connections between psychology and physical problems?
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psychoanalytic theory
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Which scenario would be most relevant to interpersonal behavior researchers, who work at the social level of analysis?
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Tawny's boyfriend does not treat her very well, but every time she comes close to breaking up with him, he persuades her to give him another chance
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According to this school of thought, the whole of personal experience is different from the sum of its parts.
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Gestalt Theory
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Dr. Tucker is a developmental psychologist. Which of the following research questions is she LEAST likely to pursue?
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How do brain chemicals influence sexual behavior in young adults?
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How does Gestalt theory differ from functionalism?
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Gestalt theorists believe that human cognition and experiences are more than a collection of individual thoughts and experiences but still recognize individual thoughts and experiences as analyzable units.
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John strongly opposes vaccinating children because he believes that it increases the risk of autism. John has read the published apology written by the scientist who falsified the data that originally showed a link but dismisses it. Instead, he focuses on the fact that during the same period vaccinations increased, autism diagnoses increased. Which of the following is guiding John's decision making?
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confirmation bias
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Jordan studies consciousness by training himself to objectively report on his own sensations, which is similar to how the __________ school investigated psychology.
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structuralist
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Marwan has been shy his whole life, and he is not sure what underlies this trait. Which subfield of psychology might hold some answers for Marwan?
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personality psychologist
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Natural selection is
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the mechanism of evolution that passes along adaptive changes
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Psychological science is based on critical thinking. This means that psychological scientists
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evaluate information before they accept it.
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Psychologists such as William James believed that the mind is too complex to be broken down into smaller parts, largely because it is changing constantly. William James's beliefs became known as which school of psychology?
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functionalist
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Raj is interested in how religious beliefs influence political engagement. Which level of analysis best fits Raj's research questions?
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cultural
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Ralph loves his birthday, but he tends to eat too much throughout the day. At the _________ level, there may be hormonal reasons for why Ralph is prone to overeating. At the _________ level, it is hard for Ralph to turn down second helpings when his friends keep buying him meals.
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biological; social
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The systematic, objective study of our mental activity and behavior is called
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psychology
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When attempting to understand the connection between psychological and physical problems, Freud concluded that
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to a large extent, behavior is directed by mental processes that operate at an unconscious level.
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Your family recently adopted a dog from an animal shelter. Initially, the dog seemed nervous and territorial, but after a few weeks she became affectionate and calm. Which of the following must play some role in the dog's behavior?
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nurture
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"Good" theories
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produce a variety of testable hypotheses
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Antony conducts a correlational study and finds that students who work more hours in part-time jobs have higher grades. What Antony doesn't know is that both of these phenomena are caused by students' motivation levels. This is an example of
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the third variable problem
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For her honors thesis, Kim wants to investigate whether font color affects how readers remember written descriptions of objects and places. Because the participants' behavior could be influenced if they know the study's goals, Kim decides to mislead them about the study. How can she deceive participants and still conduct her research in an ethical manner?
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Kim must inform the participants of the study's true goals after the study is completed. She must also explain why deception was necessary
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For his thesis, Alex surveyed college students and found a correlation between self-confidence and grade point average. Why did his adviser correct Alex when he attempted to conclude that good grades raise confidence levels?
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Alex's data show an association, but they do not determine a causal relationship between confidence and grade point average
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In order to test whether caffeine intake affects the number of hours a person sleeps, Sophie recruited 120 subjects and randomly assigned them into one of three groups: (1) no caffeine intake, (2) 30 mg of caffeine, and (3) 50 mg of caffeine. She then asked the subjects to report on how many hours they slept that night. Sophie's independent variable is __________, and her dependent variable is __________.
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the amount of caffeine intake; hours of sleep
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Ting has formed a theory that playing video games improves visual attention. If Ting wants to test this theory, what does he need to do next?
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Ting needs to develop a hypothesis
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What are the four goals of science?
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description, prediction, control, explanation
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Which of the following is a source a scientist would use when researching a possible link between cell phone use and driving?
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peer-reviewed articles by scientists printed in publications recognized by the scientific community
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Your mother dislikes the fact that you spend your free time playing video games. She points to a newspaper article that says violence is correlated with video game use. Which of these is a scientifically effective counterargument for your mother?
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Correlations do not imply causation, so the article does not provide evidence that playing video games will make you more violent.
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Dr. Binet thinks that children from France are more intelligent than children from England. He gives children from each country the same test and finds that the children from France get higher scores. He repeats the experiment several times and finds the same result; therefore his experiment is __________. However, since the test was in French and the English children only speak English, his experiment did not have __________.
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an example of internal validity; external validity
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If a researcher wants to test hypotheses about differences between populations by using a smaller sample, she would use
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infernal statistics
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Juan is a teacher who wants to see how similar his students' test scores are to one another. In analyzing his students' grades, Juan discovers that 50 percent of his students' grades lie over 1 standard deviation from the mean. Assuming that a C is average, in plain English, Juan's finding indicates that
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half of Juan's students scored either really well or really poorly
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Judith is conducting an experiment on mood and problem solving. She plans to have study participants read either a funny story or a sad story before taking a math test. What is the dependent variable in Judith's study?
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the number of math problems participants correctly solve
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Peter is conducting a survey asking how often students use the Internet and the average number of hours they sleep. He finds a negative correlation between the two. According to your text, Peter can conclude that when students go online frequently, it
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is related to students sleeping less
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Professor Miller is computing the statistics of his students' exam grades. He has 11 students, and they earned the following grades: 48, 65, 65, 66, 72, 79, 83, 83, 83, 91, 94. Professor Miller finds that the mode of the exam is __________ and the median of the exam is __________.
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83; 79
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Psychologists are scientists who study behavior and mental processes through observation and measurement. What is this approach to understanding psychology called?
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empiricism
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Which of the following is a good scientific theory?
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The earth was created approximately 4.5 billion years ago.
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Which of the following statements about ethical research is false?
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It is unethical to observe people in public without their knowledge
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You see a newspaper headline that claims eating pizza is deadly. However, when you read the original scientific article cited in the news, you notice that investigators only found a correlation between pizza consumption and death over a 10-year period. Given what you know about correlation, how would you explain this relationship?
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Pizza consumption and death are related somehow, but a correlational study cannot reveal any kind of causal relationship.
