Appendix A: Practice AP®-Style Exam in Myers’ Psychology for AP®

Appendix A: Practice AP®-Style Exam

The Big Five model suggests that people can be rated along the dimensions of conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion. This theory is best associated with which of the following?
1. Trait theory
2. Psychodynamic theory
3. The cognitive approach
4. The humanistic approach
5. The biological approach
Warren has a bacterial infection that has affected the ability of the rods in his eyes to function correctly. This should have the greatest impact on which of the following?
1. Visual clarity
2. Peripheral vision
3. Color vision
4. Hearing high-frequency sounds
5. Hearing low-frequency sounds
Seeking out information that supports our previously held beliefs, while discounting information that questions those beliefs, is an obstacle to problem solving known as
1. functional fixedness.
2. a logical fallacy.
3. overconfidence.
4. mental set.
5. confirmation bias.
Joe is taking a new job on the night shift next week. His supervisors have informed him that initially he may have some problems with his level of alertness and his memory as he adjusts to his new schedule. Joe’s supervisors are sharing with Joe their knowledge of
1. circadian rhythms.
2. REM sleep.
3. sleep spindles.
4. the social clock.
5. NREM sleep.
A researcher who is trying to determine how social-cultural changes might be correlated with the incidence of bipolar disorder would be most interested in which of the following?
1. The brain changes in a person with bipolar disorder as measured by a PET scan
2. Scientific measures of the heritability of the disorder
3. The correlation between rates of poverty and cases of the disorder
4. Neurotransmitter levels in patients diagnosed with the disorder
5. The number of close biological relatives who also suffer from bipolar disorder
Zeina cocked her head to the side immediately when she heard the fire truck’s siren. Turning her head enabled each ear to detect a slightly different intensity of sound, thus enabling her to determine the siren’s
1. timbre.
2. pitch.
3. frequency.
4. location.
5. tone.
A police officer questions a child who was an eyewitness to a crime. The officer is most likely to get accurate information if she:
1. first tells the child all about the crime the way she thinks it unfolded.
2. uses neutral, age-appropriate words and is the first to interview the child.
3. uses neutral, age-appropriate words and is the last to interview the child.
4. uses suggestive techniques to get the story from the child.
5. tells the child a story about a similar crime to get the child thinking about possibly similar details.
People diagnosed with OCD experience compulsions. Which of the following is a compulsion?
1. Renee persistently thinks about the possible death of her loved ones.
2. Eric frequently worries that there may be germs on his hands.
3. Brianna has an ongoing worry that she might have left the oven on at home.
4. Stefan often feels great anxiety if things are not in exact order in his room.
5. Tyrik flips the light switch on and off seven times every evening when he walks in the front door.
When a person performs a heroic act solely for public praise, she is on which developmental level according to Lawrence Kohlberg?
1. Preconventional
2. Postconventional
3. Conventional
4. Concrete operational
5. Formal operational
The bus driver was surprised when her first passenger asked her to turn the music down, because she thought the volume was fine. When the passenger said something, and the driver could barely hear the person, the driver realized the music was too loud. Which of the following statements best explains the driver’s initial indifference to the music volume?
1. The initial music volume was below her absolute threshold.
2. The driver had a decreased ability to determine the music’s pitch.
3. The just noticeable difference of the music was too great.
4. The driver had adapted to the initial volume of the music.
5. The driver was using bottom-up processing instead of top-down processing.
A rat jumps each time it sees a green light flash, because the green light has always appeared just before an electric shock. In classical conditioning, the initial learning of the connection between the light and the shock is referred to as
1. spontaneous recovery.
2. extinction.
3. generalization.
4. accommodation.
5. acquisition.
Which of the following examples is the best illustration of cognitive dissonance?
1. The cult member who admires the leader of his group and follows the leader without doubt
2. The teacher who reprimands a student who she feels could do much better academically
3. The soldier who receives orders from a superior to do something that violates his personal moral beliefs
4. The librarian who dreams of returning to graduate school to become a professor
5. The student who gives up trying to master calculus because it seems too hard
At their high school reunion, many attendees recalled exactly where they were 20 years before when they realized the school was on fire. Strong memories of an emotionally significant moment are referred to as
1. flashbulb memories.
2. state-dependent memories.
3. short-term memories.
4. sensory memories.
5. critical period memories.
Of the following, for which pair are both used to reveal activity in a person’s brain?
1. CT scan and PET scan
2. X-ray and fMRI
3. fMRI and MRI
4. PET scan and fMRI
5. CT scan and MRI
A therapist who believes in giving patients positive reinforcement when they behave appropriately is most likely to use which of the following techniques?
1. Systematic desensitization
2. Token economy
3. Aversive conditioning
4. Transference
5. Exposure therapy
Phil complained to his doctor that the sleeping pill the doctor previously prescribed no longer was effective at the original dosage. To his doctor’s dismay, Phil confided that he had been taking more than the recommended amount of the drug to get the same effect. Phil’s increasing intake of the drug reflects the condition known as
1. withdrawal.
2. sensory overload.
3. tolerance.
4. catharsis.
5. REM rebound.
Students who have recently learned “correlation does not equal causation” should be most cautious of the findings in which news headline below?
1. “Coffee drinkers live longer, surveys say.”
2. “101-year-old man still healthy and happy.”
3. “Flu shots lower the risk of infection by 87 percent in lab studies.”
4. “Skim milk consumption tied to decreased neuron growth in studies of mice.”
5. “Observers note men less likely than women to wash their hands in public restrooms.”
The symptoms of schizophrenia can be categorized as positive or negative. Which of the following symptoms can be considered positive?
1. Hallucinations
2. Flat affect
3. Social withdrawal
4. Catatonia
5. Toneless vocal patterns
Mary Ainsworth designed the “strange situation” experiment in order to determine
1. how creative young children could be in novel environments.
2. whether children had developed a secure attachment to their mother.
3. if children were more motivated by social anxiety than by peer pressure.
4. if the parenting style of mothers affected their children’s temperament.
5. if early signs of imprinting in young children could be reversed.
A principal wants to avoid the vandalism and inappropriate behavior that occurred at last year’s Halloween dance. So, this year she decides to increase the lighting in the parking lots, ban students from wearing masks over their faces, and increase the number of video cameras near the gym. These ideas are most closely linked to the principle of
1. group polarization.
2. social facilitation.
3. superordinate goals.
4. deindividuation.
5. minority influence.
Longitudinal studies suggest that certain characteristics, such as reactivity and intensity, appear early in life and remain stable from childhood into adulthood. Psychologists use what term to refer to these aspects of personality?
1. Schema
2. Reflex
3. Temperament
4. Fixation
5. Sensory adaptation
One way to determine if infants can perceive a certain stimulus is to measure how long they gaze at the item before looking away. Psychologists use what term to refer to the concept that infants tend to decrease their rate of responding when a stimulus is repeated and no longer novel?
1. Sensory adaptation
2. Infantile amnesia
3. Perceptual set
4. Perceptual constancy
5. Habituation
An injury that leads to the loss of binocular vision would have the greatest impact on
1. visual acuity.
2. color perception.
3. peripheral vision.
4. depth perception.
5. selective attention.
The stage of sleep in which an EEG would detect the bursts of rhythmic activity known as sleep spindles is called
1. REM sleep.
2. NREM-1.
3. NREM-2.
4. NREM-3.
5. hypnagogic sleep.
Ulric’s doctor suggested that he consider moving to an area where there is greater sunlight or purchasing a light box that emits a bright light. Given these treatment options, Ulric’s doctor must have diagnosed Ulric with
1. attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
2. a seasonal pattern for depressive disorders.
3. posttraumatic stress disorder.
4. antisocial personality disorder.
5. agoraphobia.
Damage to which of the following brain areas would create the most difficulty in interpreting feelings of heat and cold?
1. Motor cortex
2. Sensory cortex
3. Frontal lobe
4. Temporal lobe
5. Occipital lobe
A substance that interrupts neural transmission by fitting into a receptor site but not activating it, or by preventing another neurotransmitter from accessing the receptor site, is known as
1. an agonist.
2. an antagonist.
3. an endorphin.
4. a hormone.
5. the synaptic cleft.
Which of the following coefficients reflects the strongest correlation between two variables?
1. 0.42
2. –0.31
3. 0.74
4. –0.88
5. 0.86
After Donnie realized the “intruder” in his home was just his mother returning unexpectedly, his breathing began to slow down, his heart rate decreased, and his digestion began again. These changes were coordinated by the
1. limbic system.
2. parasympathetic nervous system.
3. sympathetic nervous system.
4. afferent neurons.
5. efferent neurons.
The oldest theory about human motivation, which focuses on unlearned, complex patterns of behavior present throughout a species, is known as
1. arousal theory.
2. drive-reduction theory.
3. instinct theory.
4. extrinsic motivation.
5. the hierarchy of needs.
Prefixes and suffixes are small groups of letters that when added to the beginning or ending of words alter the definition of those words. Prefixes and suffixes, then, are examples of
1. phonemes.
2. morphemes.
3. algorithms.
4. accommodation.
5. assimilation.
Which of the following most accurately describes a projective test?
1. A test designed to reveal a person’s inner ability to do a task he or she has not tried before.
2. A test that shows a person’s true preferences, based on responses to multiple-choice questions.
3. A test that indicates the level of indifference to pain that a person experiences.
4. A test created to see if one has an anxiety-inducing problem, but is instead claiming that others have that problem.
5. A test that prompts a person to reveal hidden conflicts by responding to ambiguous stimuli.
Mr. Winters is a trainer who encourages his clients to lose weight. Instead of simply rewarding them when their weight declines, he is rewarding them each time they behave in ways that would reduce weight—each time they exercise, decline high-calorie foods, or even take the stairs at work. Reinforcing each time one gets closer to a desired behavior is known as
1. conforming.
2. extinguishing.
3. social loafing.
4. shaping.
5. classical conditioning.
Often restaurants will require groups of eight or more to pay a tip of 18 percent. This is based on the belief that in larger parties, individuals will often leave a smaller tip because “someone else will pay more.” These restaurant owners, then, are aware of the impact of
1. the fundamental attribution error.
2. the power of the situation.
3. hindsight bias.
4. confirmation bias.
5. diffusion of responsibility.
In a research study, Dr. Regalis has participants listen to different kinds of music while she uses a brain scan to examine their brain functioning. Dr. Regalis is most likely studying which part of the brain?
1. Temporal lobe
2. Occipital lobe
3. Broca’s area
4. Motor cortex
5. Corpus callosum
As a patient experiences an anxiety attack, he may experience a series of changes that are coordinated by the sympathetic nervous system. Which one of the following would the patient experience?
1. Decreased heart rate
2. Slower breathing
3. Decreased salivation
4. Constricted pupils
5. Increased rate of digestion
Joanna’s grandmother told her, “When we were little, we couldn’t afford new clothes, so our mother made us dresses out of potato sacks.” Joanna’s great-grandmother’s ability to envision how a potato sack could be used as material for a dress suggests that she was able to overcome
1. confirmation bias.
2. functional fixedness.
3. algorithms.
4. divergent thinking.
5. belief bias.
Research has found that individuals suffering from schizophrenia have an excess number of receptors for the neurotransmitter
1. acetylcholine.
2. norepinephrine.
3. GABA.
4. dopamine.
5. serotonin.
Modern psychodynamic counselors are likely to emphasize
1. the role of the id, ego, and superego.
2. the importance of early childhood experiences.
3. long, intensive therapy sessions over a period of many years.
4. fixations that may have stemmed from repressed sexual urges.
5. a patient’s responses to Rorschach inkblots.
Which of the following is an example of variable-ratio reinforcement?
1. College acceptance letters arrive around the date of April 1.
2. Percy gives his dog a cookie whenever his dog walks by strangers without barking.
3. Esmeralda disliked the substitute teacher, so she scowled every time she looked at him.
4. Judy discovered a shark’s tooth after several hours of searching for one on the beach.
5. When Stu had been working on his homework for one hour, his mother allowed him to go outside and play.
What perspective is sometimes referred to as the “third force,” since it offered a more optimistic alternative to Freud’s psychoanalysis and Skinner’s behaviorism?
1. Biological psychology
2. Humanistic psychology
3. Cognitive psychology
4. Evolutionary psychology
5. Social-cultural psychology
The type of therapy that is most likely to emphasize a social-cultural approach by focusing on the patient’s environment is
1. family therapy.
2. rational-emotive behavioral therapy.
3. cognitive therapy for depression.
4. psychopharmacological treatments.
5. aversive therapy.
Which part of the brain would be most involved in maintaining homeostasis in body temperature?
1. Prefrontal cortex
2. Temporal lobe
3. Thalamus
4. Hypothalamus
5. Amygdala
Unexplained physical symptoms, including headaches, pain, and digestive problems, which cannot be explained by physical or mental causes, may be diagnosed as
1. depressive disorders.
2. personality disorders.
3. somatoform disorders.
4. dissociative disorders.
5. eating disorders.
A psychologist who uses aversive conditioning to treat a child’s bed-wetting problem is using which of the following approaches?
1. Cognitive
2. Biological
3. Behavioral
4. Evolutionary
5. Social-cultural
Psychologist David Wechsler has created tests for adults and children that are designed to reveal their
1. intelligence.
2. aptitude.
3. achievement.
4. personality characteristics.
5. symptoms of psychological disorders.
In order to follow the ethical principles for research as established by the APA, psychologists should
1. recruit participants for experiments by placing ads in college newspapers.
2. publish the full results, including participant information, of their research online.
3. keep their operational definitions secret so that they cannot be copied by other researchers.
4. debrief the participants after the conclusion of the research.
5. allow minors to choose to be participants if they wish to.
Which of the following statements is most typical of the approach of a cognitive therapist?
1. “Let’s go back to your statement about your happiness as a child.”
2. “When you say ‘No one likes me’ that’s illogical, because you do have close friends.”
3. “What I hear you saying is you are angry, and I can hear the frustration in your voice.”
4. “I’m going to start teaching you to relax, and then we’ll slowly deal with your phobia.”
5. “I think that prescribing you an SSRI will increase your positive mood over the next few weeks.”
Dr. Alscott has examined two sets of data from his research. In the first set, the standard deviation was very small, while in the second set there was a much larger standard deviation. Based on this information, what conclusion can be drawn from these two sets?
1. The median was greater than the mean in the second set.
2. The mean was greater than the median in the second set.
3. The standard deviation in both sets revealed a positive correlation between the data.
4. Most data points were closer to the mean in the first set than in the second.
5. Most data points were closer to the mean in the second set than in the first.
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” This core idea in humanistic psychology is a quotation from
1. Sigmund Freud.
2. Carl Rogers.
3. Aaron Beck.
4. Carl Jung.
5. B. F. Skinner.
Hans Selye argued that our bodies produce a similar reaction to all kinds of stress, and the longer this response continues, the more exhausted we become. He named this process
1. the opponent-process theory.
2. systematic desensitization.
3. the general adaptation syndrome.
4. the global assessment of functioning.
5. triarchic intelligence.
“Both the left and the right hemisphere may be conscious simultaneously in different, even in mutually conflicting, mental experiences that run along in parallel.” This quotation by neuropsychologist Roger Sperry refers to his Nobel Prize–winning research on the effects of severing which part of the brain?
1. Amygdala
2. Brainstem
3. Corpus callosum
4. Thalamus
5. Pituitary gland
Martin Seligman developed the concept of learned helplessness, the tendency of organisms to give up in situations in which they feel their efforts make no difference. This concept is closely linked to which of the following psychological disorders?
1. Agoraphobia
2. Schizophrenia
3. Major depressive disorder
4. Generalized anxiety disorder
5. Narcissistic personality disorder
John Watson’s development of the concept of behaviorism was influenced most strongly by the work of
1. Wilhelm Wundt.
2. the Gestalt psychologists.
3. John Locke.
4. B. F. Skinner.
5. Ivan Pavlov.
Psychologists Walk and Gibson attempted to determine whether infants had developed the ability to perceive depth by
1. having them crawl over what appeared to be a sharp ledge.
2. measuring how long they looked at novel stimuli.
3. throwing soft foam balls to them and seeing how they would react.
4. showing them a simulation of birds flying at their faces.
5. seeing if they reached for a toy when it was held slightly beyond the reach of their arms.
Systematic desensitization would most likely be used as a treatment for which of the following disorders?
1. Arachnophobia
2. Schizophrenia
3. Bipolar disorder
4. Hypochondriasis
5. Tardive dyskinesia
A manager at an ice cream store wants to increase sales, so he creates a program to rank his employees’ sales. His goal is to give a cash prize each week to the employee who has sold the highest number of ice cream cones. His strategy is based on the idea of
1. the life story approach.
2. intrinsic motivation.
3. extrinsic motivation.
4. the collective unconscious.
5. self-efficacy.
The fire alarm has gone off so many times in their new school that Susannah and Tia don’t even flinch anymore when they hear it. They even remained in the school library during a fire drill because they assumed it was another malfunction. Their failure to respond like they once did to the fire alarm shows the process of
1. acquisition.
2. discrimination.
3. accommodation.
4. extinction.
5. assimilation.
Dr. Anders wants to investigate how people of different ages communicate via the Internet, so she does an experiment with three groups of three different ages: 18- to 21-year-olds, 47- to 50-year-olds, and 75- to 78-year-olds. Concurrently comparing how people of different ages behave is an example of which of the following kinds of research?
1. Case study
2. Longitudinal
3. Cross-sectional
4. Factor analysis
5. Qualitative
In studies, reminding female test-takers that women historically have done poorly on a similar test can lead to lower test performance—particularly when compared with the scores of women who weren’t given such information. This decline in performance is an example of
1. stereotype threat.
2. hindsight bias.
3. the mere exposure effect.
4. social facilitation.
5. negative transference.
Research suggests that there is a connection between parenting style and social skills. Children with lower scores on measures of social skills and self-esteem tend to have parents who are
1. authoritative.
2. permissive.
3. authoritarian.
4. neglecting.
5. demonstrative.
Dr. Pilai worked with the government to create new standards for people seeking jobs as airport security screeners. She included assessments in the interview process, designs for the flow of the security process itself, and measures for evaluating the job performance of these screeners. Which psychology career category best fits Dr. Pilai’s work?
1. Developmental
2. Clinical
3. Forensic
4. Industrial-organizational
5. Community
Which emotion theory places the greatest emphasis on physiological changes happening first, which are then followed by an experience of an emotion?
1. Schachter-Singer theory
2. James-Lange theory
3. Cannon-Bard theory
4. Arousal theory
5. Incentive theory
Although the group of senior citizens beat the teenagers in a trivia contest based on history, they were not nearly as successful in a competition that required them to quickly learn the rules of a new video game. This is most likely due to the decline of which of the following as humans age?
1. Learned helplessness
2. Cognitive dissonance
3. Fluid intelligence
4. Crystallized intelligence
5. Elaborative rehearsal
Which of these statements is most accurate about REM sleep?
1. These periods are the longest at the beginning of the sleep period, then get shorter through the night.
2. These periods are the shortest at the beginning of the sleep period, then get longer through the night.
3. During these periods, brain activity is as reduced as muscle activity.
4. The brainstem continues to pass on motor activity signals to the rest of the body during REM sleep.
5. The dreams during this stage are frequently interrupted by sleep spindles.
Random-dot stereograms are pictures that have an image hidden among the dots. Humans can often see these hidden images because each eye has a slightly different image projected on its retina, allowing us to see depth. Which term best describes this process?
1. Motion parallax
2. Convergence
3. Retinal disparity
4. Relative height
5. Linear perspective
A therapist tells a CEO that the reason he yells and screams at his staff is due to behavior he learned as a child. When he was a child, he threw temper tantrums in order to get his way. What is the term for this defense mechanism?
1. Regression
2. Reaction formation
3. Projection
4. Rationalization
5. Sublimation
During a dental procedure, Xavier is injected with a drug that is designed to greatly reduce his pain by interfering with the sending of pain signals. At the neural level, the drug is preventing
1. action potentials from being transmitted.
2. neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed by neurons.
3. potassium ions from being released at the terminal buttons.
4. pain signals from being clearly interpreted in the sensory cortex.
5. the myelin sheath from protecting the axon.
A babysitter cuts a sandwich into three equal pieces, then keeps two and gives one to the child she is caring for. The child is upset that this is unfair, so the babysitter divides the child’s piece into two. Since each of them now has two pieces, the child is content. According to Jean Piaget, this is because the child lacks
1. accommodation.
2. assimilation.
3. formal operational knowledge.
4. sensorimotor ability.
5. conservation.
A young gymnast works out many hours each day to prepare for a national competition. This schedule means that she has to forgo opportunities to socialize with her peers, and makes it hard to have a romantic relationship. The gymnast’s willingness to give up some things that would make her feel less lonely and separated in order to pursue athletic achievements is at odds with whose theory of human motivation?
1. Abraham Maslow
2. Henry Murray
3. Philip Zimbardo
4. David McClelland
5. Solomon Asch
Seven-year-old Daniel was able to see that the dot-to-dot puzzle was going to form a picture of a tiger even before he started drawing on the puzzle. Which Gestalt principle helped Daniel perceive the tiger from all the unconnected dots?
1. Proximity
2. Continuity
3. Bipolar cues
4. Retinal disparity
5. Closure
In an experiment by Stanley Schachter and Jerome Singer, participants labeled their arousal as joyous or irritable, depending on the people they were with. This experiment established that emotions are not only physiological but are also
1. psychodynamic.
2. humanistic.
3. biological.
4. cognitive.
5. behavioral.
A tumor cut off bloodflow to a small section of Gia’s brain, and as a result she struggled to understand the words that were being spoken to her. The damage to Gia’s brain was probably localized in her
1. Wernicke’s area.
2. Broca’s area.
3. hippocampus.
4. hypothalamus.
5. brainstem.
According to the behavioral perspective, the purpose of punishment is to
1. make a person sorry for the behavior he has committed.
2. associate a positive consequence with a negative consequence.
3. make a behavior less likely to happen again.
4. allow the behavior to only occur again during a spontaneous recovery.
5. extinguish the response permanently.
When Eli initially joined an online group that was working against increased government spending, he only had mild views on the topic. If he continues in the group and rarely gets information from alternate sources with opposing views, what might be the outcome?
1. He might become deindividuated and express views against the group’s beliefs.
2. He might use social facilitation to spread the group’s views more widely online.
3. He might use confirmation bias to seek out sources that challenge his beliefs.
4. His views and the group members’ views might become more similar and more intensely felt over time.
5. His views and the group members’ views might become more varied and less intensely felt over time.
When seeking to hire a new creative director for an advertising agency, Amina decided that she wanted to find a person who could devise numerous ways to solve problems. A person talented in this area would most likely be good at
1. divergent thinking.
2. convergent thinking.
3. belief perseverance.
4. solving crossword puzzles.
5. doing arithmetic.
The personality test that is based on the writings of Carl Jung is the
1. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
2. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale.
3. Rorschach inkblot test.
4. Thematic Apperception Test.
5. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Jason was watching the TV news, which showed footage of a young man running away from the police. “He’s running away, so he must be a bad man,” said Jason to his father. Jason’s statement is an example of
1. the availability heuristic.
2. the representativeness heuristic.
3. stereotype threat.
4. the fundamental attribution error.
5. cognitive dissonance.
The sound of a sizzling steak or the smell of a warm apple pie might make people want to eat those items. In the study of motivation, the sound and smell are considered to be
1. incentives.
2. arousal-inducing.
3. drives.
4. self-actualization needs.
5. fixed action patterns.
In the early twentieth century, French psychologists led by Alfred Binet developed the first test for intelligence to be given to French school children for the purpose of
1. selecting the most capable to be trained as future leaders.
2. identifying those who might be wasting their talents and not taking school seriously.
3. testing whether French teachers merited higher pay.
4. evaluating the quality of French schools.
5. finding children who were struggling academically.
“We were not surprised to discover that contact comfort was an important basic affectional or love variable, but we did not expect it to overshadow so completely the variable of nursing . . .” This quotation was written by which of the following psychologists?
1. Harry Harlow
2. Konrad Lorenz
3. B. F. Skinner
4. John B. Watson
5. Mary Ainsworth
A researcher finds a difference between an experimental group and a control group that is less likely due to chance and more likely due to the manipulation of the independent variable. This finding then is most likely to be
1. a replication.
2. statistically significant.
3. below the margin of error.
4. reliable, but not valid.
5. valid, but not reliable.
The mere exposure effect helps explain why the most important predictor of whether two people become friends is
1. similarity of religious and political views.
2. similar interests in the arts and culture.
3. their physical attractiveness.
4. their social status and level of income.
5. their proximity to each other.
Albert Bandura believed that children could learn not only by doing behaviors themselves, but also by watching models perform those behaviors. Bandura’s work expanded the idea of learning to include
1. observational learning.
2. classical conditioning.
3. operant conditioning.
4. latent learning.
5. rote learning.
Which of the following is an example of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
1. David has had trouble in math in the past, so in his new math class he gives up on the first day.
2. Ivy does not think her teacher has treated her fairly, so she complains to her principal.
3. Samuel’s teacher puts him in a group with struggling students, and Samuel, normally a good student, responds by doing very poor work. The next week he is placed in the same group.
4. Rachel writes a letter to the editor about her concerns with the city council, and as a result her social studies teacher praises her in class.
5. Nyah’s father takes her out of an advanced class because she is struggling at first, but she responds by working even harder and making better grades in all of her classes.
Noam Chomsky’s beliefs about language are based on the idea that
1. language is only possible during a critical period, and not afterward.
2. simple mastery of phonemes and morphemes does not represent a true language.
3. the rules of syntax are more important than semantics in understanding language.
4. language is innate and we all share a universal grammar.
5. language is just as possible in animals as in humans, given enough time and training.
Paul was unable to correctly identify the right shade of blue his wife wanted at the paint store, so he purchased various hues and brought them home. The distinctions among the similar shades of blue apparently fell below Paul’s
1. signal detection.
2. absolute threshold.
3. difference threshold.
4. excitatory level.
5. inhibitory level.
Teachers at York High School were dismayed at a new test they would be required to take to demonstrate their ability as educators. Rather than a test of content knowledge or of teaching techniques, the new test would measure their reaction time to a series of rapidly flashed abstract images—not a skill they normally need in the classroom. Despite the assurances of the test’s creator, the teachers argued that a test like this would have low
1. content validity.
2. predictive reliability.
3. split-half reliability.
4. test-retest reliability.
5. psychometric ratings.
In Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience, he discovered that participants were less obedient when
1. the person giving the orders was close at hand and was perceived to be a legitimate authority figure.
2. the authority figure was supported by a prestigious institution.
3. the victim was depersonalized or at a distance.
4. Milgram dissociated his experiments from Yale University.
5. there were no role models for defiance.
The work of Elizabeth Loftus and other researchers has led to significant changes in the way courts and police officers think about
1. the traumatic effects of solitary confinement.
2. whether people with schizophrenia can be forced to take medication against their will.
3. whether the insanity defense is legitimate for legally insane individuals.
4. whether people should be forced to testify against their spouse on the witness stand.
5. the accuracy of eyewitness testimony.
The developmental theories of Lev Vygotsky differed from those of Jean Piaget in that Vygotsky
1. emphasized the role of the social environment.
2. thought that Piaget ignored the psychosexual development of children.
3. questioned Piaget’s focus on adult development.
4. focused more on moral development.
5. thought that the spiritual component of children’s growth was essential.
Dorothea Dix was a passionate advocate for
1. reform in the treatment of the mentally ill.
2. the elimination of culturally-biased IQ tests.
3. identifying and reducing the self-fulfilling prophecy in schools.
4. changing the way disorders are classified in the DSM-5.
5. creating an alternative to the use of psychopharmacological medication.
For those who focus on the biological approach, important evidence for whether someone who has been diagnosed with depression is improving is
1. the quality of their statements about their own abilities and attitudes.
2. whether the number of contacts with their friends and families has increased.
3. whether they have begun to establish and work toward long-term goals.
4. whether the serotonin levels in their blood have increased.
5. if they have no suicidal thoughts or intentions.
Instead of methodically poring through the atlas to find the correct map, Ivan just flipped to the section of the book where he thought it might be. Using a strategy based on a hunch rather than examining each page carefully involves the use of
1. an algorithm.
2. a heuristic.
3. an “Aha!” moment.
4. insight.
5. framing.
On the very first day of class, Mr. Boyarsky gave his students a test. When some complained, he responded that he wanted to know what their talents were, so he was giving them a test to predict what kind of skills they might learn best, and what kinds of jobs they might like to do one day. Mr. Boyarsky’s test was
1. an aptitude test.
2. an intelligence test.
3. an achievement test.
4. a personality test.
5. a projective test.
When basketball star Michael Jordan graduated from college as one of a small number of geography majors, the average starting salary for a geography major soared by several hundred thousand dollars. In a situation like this, where one unusual bit of data greatly inflates the average, it is important to use which measure of variation?
1. Mean
2. Median
3. Range
4. Standard deviation
5. Mode
Damage to what part of a neuron might result in slowed or incomplete neural transmission along the axon?
1. Cell body
2. Mitochondria
3. Dendrite
4. Myelin sheath
5. Synapse
Dr. Warren is testing to see if there is a relationship between the consumption of caffeine and memory. She randomly divides 300 participants into three groups and gives each participant an energy drink to consume. Some of the drinks have high levels of caffeine, some have medium levels, and some have none at all—but they all taste the same. About 30 minutes later, she has the participants play a memory game on the computer where they have to match faces and names together. At the end of the game, the computer thanks them for playing, and their scores are sent to Dr. Warren’s lab. The dependent variable in the experiment is
1. how quickly the participants matched the names and faces.
2. the participants’ scores from the memory game.
3. the amount of caffeine they consumed.
4. their explanations about how they played the game.
5. the amount of caffeine they consume in a typical week.
The independent variable in the experiment described in question 98 is
1. how quickly the participants matched the names and faces.
2. the participants’ scores from the memory game.
3. the amount of caffeine they consumed.
4. their explanations about how they played the game.
5. the amount of caffeine they consume in a typical week.
A person who has an external locus of control is most likely to explain success or failure on a math test as due to
1. how difficult the questions were.
2. whether he had effectively studied enough.
3. whether he had been able to understand the course material.
4. how well prepared he had been prior to taking the course.
5. the amount of time he had set aside to study.

Free-Response Questions

Psychology professors Elliott and Elizabeth are co-writing a book about what kinds of behaviors lead to feelings of happiness.
1. Explain the type of research studies Elliott and Elizabeth should look for as they investigate behaviors that cause feelings of happiness. Use the following terms in your explanation. Note: Definitions alone will not score.
  - Experimental method
  - Correlational method
  - Operational definition
2. Discuss what Elliott and Elizabeth are likely to learn as they read about studies of the relationship between the following psychological factors and happiness.
  - REM sleep
  - Serotonin
  - Facial feedback effect
Charlie has been teaching for 25 years and was just assigned a student teacher, Randy. Charlie wants to advise Randy about effective teaching methods.
1. What advice should Charlie give Randy about the effectiveness of the following kinds of techniques and whether they might help motivate students in their classroom?
  - Classical conditioning
  - Positive reinforcement
  - Positive punishment
2. Randy is interested in teaching students study skills that will help them learn and retain information. Discuss how the following concepts might help or get in the way of effective studying.
  - Semantic encoding
  - State-dependent memory
  - Serial position effect
3. Finally, Charlie wants to advise Randy about how to develop a healthy classroom atmosphere. How could Charlie use the following concepts in his advice about building a supportive classroom culture?
  - Ingroup bias
  - Superordinate goals