Practice Test 2, Princeton Review AP Psychology Premium Prep, 2021

Section I of this exam contains 100 multiple-choice questions. Fill in only the ovals for numbers 1 through 100 on your answer sheet.

Indicate all of your answers to the multiple-choice questions on the answer sheet. No credit will be given for anything written in this exam booklet, but you may use the booklet for notes or scratch work. After you have decided which of the suggested answers is best, completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet. Give only one answer to each question. If you change an answer, be sure that the previous mark is erased completely. Here is a sample question and answer.

Use your time effectively, working as quickly as you can without losing accuracy. Do not spend too much time on any one question. Go on to other questions and come back to the ones you have not answered if you have time. It is not expected that everyone will know the answers to all of the multiple-choice questions.

Many candidates wonder whether or not to guess the answers to questions about which they are not certain. Multiple-choice scores are based on the number of questions answered correctly. Points are not deducted for incorrect answers and no points are awarded for unanswered questions. Because points are not deducted for incorrect answers, you are encouraged to answer all multiple-choice questions. On any questions you do not know the answer to, you should eliminate as many choices as you can and then select the best answer among the remaining choices.

Section I

PSYCHOLOGY

Section I

Time—1 hour and 10 minutes

100 Questions

Directions: Each of the questions or incomplete statements below is followed by five answer choices. Select the one that is best in each case and then completely fill in the corresponding oval on the answer sheet.

1. Solomon Asch conducted a study in which individuals tried to match lines of the same length being displayed on cards. They performed this activity either by themselves or in a room with confederates who sometimes gave deliberately incorrect responses. Asch was studying

(A) social loafing

(B) conformity

(D) social facilitation

(E) deindividuation

2. Scientists found a young woman who had memorized a dictionary and displayed other attributes of a “super memory.” They were interested in what factors may have contributed to her amazing abilities. So, they obtained permission to follow her around for a week; during that time, they looked at her daily activities: her diet, her exercise, her sleep habits, her reading habits, her hobbies, and her social and family relationships. These scientists were engaged in what form of research?

(A) Single-blind experiment

(B) Correlational study

(D) Case study

(E) Longitudinal study

3. Neurotransmitters pass from neuron to neuron across a gap known as the

(A) axon terminal

(B) dendrite

(D) myelin sheath

(E) synapse

4. Suddenly and involuntarily falling asleep during daytime hours is referred to as

(A) non-REM sleep

(B) sircadian dysfunction

(D) sleep apnea

(E) somnambulism

5. Which psychological approach provides many of the organizing principles of visual perception?

(A) Gestalt

(B) Psychoanalytic

(D) Humanistic

(E) Evolutionary

6. Learned helplessness is a result of what combination of factors?

(A) Internal locus of control and high degree of self-efficacy

(B) Internal locus of control and low degree of self-efficacy

(D) External locus of control and high degree of self-efficacy

(E) Differentiated sense of self and unconditional positive regard

7. In drive reduction theory, an individual’s behavior is supposed to bring about

(A) maximum relaxation

(B) self-actualization

(D) positive relationships with others

(E) homeostasis

8. Method of loci, peg-word system, and chunking are all examples of

(A) artificial intelligence

(B) syntax errors

(D) mnemonic devices

(E) problem-solving strategies

9. It has been many years since Cassie first rode on a roller coaster, yet she continues to have vivid memories of that experience. This might be explained by the proximity of which two parts of the brain.

(A) frontal lobes; occipital lobes

(B) amygdala; hippocampus

(D) brain stem; cerebellum

(E) thalamus; hypothalamus

10. Marty referees high school basketball games. He knows that it is a difficult job and that players, coaches, and spectators are often unfairly critical of the referees. Nevertheless, when he attends his daughter’s games, he often yells at the referees. When someone brings up this behavior, Marty looks uncomfortable and then says: “If people pay their money for a ticket, they have a right to say whatever they want.” Marty’s response exemplifies

(A) projection

(B) denial

(D) cognitive dissonance

(E) social facilitation

11. Assume that researchers have found that there is a strong inverse relationship between the amount of alcohol that college freshmen consume and their grade point averages. Which of the following is the likeliest correlation coefficient produced by this research?

(A) +1.0

(B) +0.2

(D) –0.75

(E) –10

12. Someone who is lacking empathy and, as a result, finds it easy to exploit others would be diagnosed with which personality disorder?

(A) Borderline

(B) Dependent

(D) Histrionic

(E) Schizotypal

13. Martin is cleaning out a closet. There was something he wanted to reach on a top shelf, but he could not reach it and he finally gave up. It never occurred to him to use the hook end of the umbrella in the closet to reach this item. He only considered the umbrella useful for keeping rain off one’s head. Martin’s problem was

(A) functional fixedness

(B) confirmation bias

(D) algorithmic thinking

(E) availability heuristic

14. The center of emotion in the brain is the

(A) autonomic nervous system

(B) limbic system

(D) dopamine reward system

(E) parasympathetic nervous system

15. Events that are very important and that create intense emotions, such as the Kennedy assassination in the 1960’s, or the space shuttle Challenger explosion in the 1980’s, or 9/11 in 2001, often produce

(A) reconstructive memories

(B) retroactive interference

(D) proactive interference

(E) eidetic memories

16. For the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly abbreviated as “DSM-5,” the “5” refers to

(A) Five classifications of mental disorders: Anxiety disorders, Mood disorders, Psychotic disorders, Eating disorders, and Sleep disorders

(B) Consideration of the five major psychological approaches: Psychoanalytic, Behavioral, Humanistic, Cognitive, and Neurobiological

(D) Bringing disorders into focus with the five stages of Freud’s developmental theory: Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, Genital

(E) The five domains in which the manual may be used: psychiatric hospital, general hospital, psychiatric clinic, sole practitioner, professional education

17. Mason has sustained a stroke affecting the left side of his brain. While he can understand what is being said to him, he is unable to produce intelligible speech. Mason probably sustained damage to his

(A) Wernicke’s area

(B) Broca’s area

(D) optic chiasm

(E) parietal lobe

18. Wanda is in line at the post office. She observes another customer become angry with the postal worker at the window, yelling at him and accusing him of poor service. Wanda assumes that this is because the customer is a jerk. Wanda’s thinking is characteristic of

(A) self-serving bias

(B) just world belief

(D) optimism bias

(E) stereotype boost

19. Some individuals come to believe that they have a physical characteristic that is grotesque or offensive to others, even when they are reassured by family and friends that this is not the case. Some of them have repeated plastic surgeries to address this perceived deformity and have been described as having an “addiction” to plastic surgery. There is no such “addiction” listed in DSM-5. In DSM-5, these individuals would probably be diagnosed with

(A) panic disorder

(B) histrionic personality disorder

(D) narcissistic personality disorder

(E) body dysmorphic disorder

20. Hans Selye studied animals’ responses to short-term and long-term stressors and he developed the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). The three phases of GAS are

(A) denial, anger, acceptance

(B) alarm, resistance, exhaustion

(D) agitation, acceptance, relaxation

(E) procrastination, response, resolution

21. Both the Big Five and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2-RF) rely on

(A) trait theory

(B) Freudian theory

(D) social learning theory

(E) behaviorism

22. Which of the following is NOT a symptom of a major depressive disorder?

(A) Not getting enjoyment from activities that used to bring enjoyment

(B) Feelings of worthlessness

(D) An inability to concentrate on tasks

(E) Alterations in eating habits

23. The rules for how words are ordered in order to create meaningful sentences are called

(A) syntax

(B) morphemes

(D) holographic speech

(E) semantics

24. According to Erik Erikson, the primary developmental task for young adults is to

(A) develop integrity about their life experiences

(B) develop competence in basic skills

(D) develop trust in having their needs met by others

(E) develop intimate relationships with others

25. In DSM-5, the term for what used to be called “Multiple Personality Disorder,” wherein individuals have two or more distinct personalities, often accompanied by amnesia regarding these transformations, is

(A) schizophrenia

(B) borderline personality disorder

(D) dissociative identity disorder

(E) depersonalization

Questions 26–28 refer to the situation described below.

Subjects previously diagnosed with age-related cognitive impairment are being brought into the lab for a one-month drug study during which they will be given either an experimental medication or a placebo. Subjects will be tested at the outset and then at the end of the trial to see whether or not the medication reduced the severity of their symptoms.

26. Which of the following is NOT an ethical consideration for the experimenters at the outset?

(A) The need to obtain an informed consent

(B) The need to minimize possible harm to the subjects

(D) The need to control potentially confounding variables

(E) The need to arrange debriefing for the subjects at the conclusion of the trial

27. Which piece of data compiled on the subjects is NOT a categorical variable?

(A) Ethnicity

(B) IQ score

(D) Gender

(E) Immigration status

28. If the subjects do not know whether they are part of the experimental group (receiving the medication) or the control group (receiving the placebo), we can say that this study is

(A) double-blind

(B) single-blind

(D) valid

(E) statistically significant

29. Sheila is a track coach, working with an athlete who has a personal best time of 5:20 in the mile. Sheila wants to get this time down to 5:00. She knows that this runner really enjoys massages provided by the training staff, but these can only occur with the coach’s consent. She thought about offering this runner a week’s worth of massages when the time got down to the goal. Instead, she has decided to authorize a massage each time the runner reduces her personal best by at least four seconds. What strategy is Sheila employing?

(A) Fixed-interval reinforcement

(B) Variable-interval reinforcement

(D) Fixed-ratio reinforcement

(E) Generalization

30. A student is very good at knowing which studying techniques work well for him and which do not. This is a result of his

(A) meta-cognition

(B) interpersonal intelligence

(D) crystallized intelligence

(E) insight learning

31. A method of operant conditioning that encourages positive behaviors and that has proven successful, particularly in institutional settings, is known as a

(A) fixed-interval schedule of reinforcement

(B) shaping experience

(D) signaling stimulus

(E) token economy

32. When a neuron is excited by a chemical messenger, the change in electrical charge that must be reached in order to trigger an action potential is referred to as the

(A) dendrite

(B) axon terminal

(D) inhibitory effect

(E) threshold

33. Francois needed to get a dozen items from the supermarket. However, when he got there, he discovered that he had left his list at home. In trying to shop from memory, he found that he remembered the items at the beginning of his list and those at the end of the list, but he had made errors on several of the items in the middle. What is the phenomenon that expresses the likelihood of this outcome?

(A) Motivated forgetting

(B) Repression

(D) Serial position effect

(E) Flashbulb memory

34. Shoshanna has scored 115 on an IQ test with a normal distribution, a mean score of 100, and a standard deviation of 15 points. At approximately what percentile of test takers does she fall?

(A) 98

(B) 84

(D) 50

(E) 34

35. Harry and Margaret Harlow’s work with orphaned baby monkeys suggested that

(A) monkeys always use insight as opposed to problem solving processes

(B) mother-infant bonding during breastfeeding is largely based on contact comfort

(D) mother-infant bonding during breastfeeding was based almost exclusively on the nutrient value of the activity

(E) intelligence was compromised due to the lack of parent-led enrichment activities

36. Which of the following is NOT a recognized taste bud?

(A) Spicy

(B) Salty

(D) Bitter

(E) Sour

37. After our “fight-or-flight” system arouses our physiology to meet an external threat, which system returns us to homeostasis?

(A) Sympathetic

(B) Parasympathetic

(D) Dopamine reward

(E) Limbic

38. What accounts for the fact that most people will eat dessert at the end of an enormous Thanksgiving meal?

(A) Drive reduction theory

(B) Sociocultural factors

(D) The ventromedial hypothalamus

(E) Liver enzymes

39. An accepted explanation of the Bystander Effect is that

(A) people are generally motivated to be Good Samaritans when someone else is in trouble

(B) people feel empathy for others in difficult circumstances

(D) people are generally insensitive to the needs of their fellow human beings

(E) people are frightened when they see that others are vulnerable, and this causes them to withdraw

40. When Marco seems sad and unmotivated, his parents take him to see a therapist. The therapist concludes that Marco is depressed because he has set unrealistically high expectations for himself. This therapist probably subscribes to the

(A) psychoanalytical approach

(B) behaviorist approach

(D) evolutionary approach

(E) biological approach

41. Margery, Olu, and Fred are each seeking a college scholarship based on foreign language proficiency. They must pass an oral exam in order to qualify. Fred did not take this opportunity very seriously and showed up groggy for the exam after a late-night movie. Margery thought that this scholarship was crucial to her college plans, had been nervous about it for days, and drank an energy drink just before going in. Olu took the exam seriously, but did not feel stressed about the outcome; he believed that he had other available routes to college. When Olu had the best performance on the exam, this would most likely be explained by which of the following?

(A) Yerkes-Dodson Law

(B) Availability heuristic

(D) Schachter-Singer theory of emotion

(E) Whorf’s linguistic relativity

42. REM sleep is often referred to as paradoxical because

(A) it is a light sleep phenomenon, but the restorative properties of sleep are restricted to deep sleep

(B) it is a deep sleep phenomenon, but most dreaming takes place during light sleep

(D) dreaming is paradoxical in that it is a fictional recap of our daily lives

(E) our eyes must be still in order for us to dream

43. The semicircular canals in the inner ear are essential for

(A) accurate processing of loudness

(B) accurate processing of pitch

(D) proper functioning of the vestibular sense

(E) lubricating the tympanic membrane (eardrum)

44. The most durable human behaviors are produced by which schedule of reinforcement?

(A) Continuous

(B) Fixed-interval

(D) Fixed-ratio

(E) Variable-ratio

45. A mouse in a Skinner box is receiving periodic electric shocks. If the mouse learns to press a lever to stop the shocks whenever they begin, what process is responsible for the increased lever pressing?

(A) Positive punishment

(B) Negative punishment

(D) Positive reinforcement

(E) Shaping

46. Hypnosis has proven most effective for what purpose?

(A) Treatment of drug addiction

(B) Reduction of chronic pain

(D) Restoring memories of those suffering from retrograde amnesia

(E) Helping individuals accurately recall their dreams

47. In his stage theory of moral development, Kohlberg proposes three levels that correspond to which sorts of considerations as the individual matures?

(A) From amorality to immorality to religious morality

(B) From individual morality to government morality to the morality of a divine being

(D) From unwritten law to written law to universally understood law

(E) From seeking guidance from authority figures, to seeking guidance from peers, to seeking guidance from laws

48. When entering a crowded room with many conversations going on at roughly the same loudness level, individuals are often able to focus in on one conversation that interests them, to the exclusion of the others. What is the name of this phenomenon?

(A) Motivated multitasking

(B) Dichotic listening

(D) Spatial reasoning

(E) The cocktail party effect

49. Which of the following was NOT a finding of Stanley Milgram’s Yale electric shock experiment?

(A) Obedience to an authority figure was a powerful motivator of behavior.

(B) Nearly two-thirds of participants would go to the top of the shock board even if they believed that they might be causing pain.

(C) Putting confederates who took issue with the morality of administering shock in the room with the experimental subject would reduce compliance.

(D) Subjects would frequently question the authority figure about the advisability of going forward with the shocks.

(E) Women were more likely than men to refuse to go on with the shocks.

50. Piaget theorized that children develop schemas, concepts about objects and ideas in the world around them. They then evaluate those schemas based on information from their daily experiences. When children found that this new information could fit into the schemas they had already developed, Piaget referred to this process as

(A) assimilation

(B) accommodation

(D) cognitive congruence

(E) conservation

51. Suchi is playing a video game in which visual and auditory inputs from space aliens flash onto the screen very quickly; the player must absorb this information and make immediate strategic decisions. This game primarily tests her

(A) sensory adaptation

(B) habituation

(D) fluid intelligence

(E) episodic memory

52. Researchers located at the campus of a major technology company in Silicon Valley wanted to assess employees’ attitudes toward the idea of increasing diversity among the company’s work force. So, one day they stationed themselves at the entrance of the building that houses the web design department and they selected every fifth person entering the building. That person was led down the hall to a private room where he or she could complete a survey. These subjects were assigned code numbers so that their responses would not be personally identifiable. The researchers are now using their findings to make recommendations to the company’s board of directors. What is a possible flaw in this research methodology?

(A) Non-random sampling

(B) Non-representative sampling

(D) Observer bias

(E) Observer effect

53. Ron was the track coach at a very diverse high school. Early on in the team’s practices, Ron mentioned that, in his experience, students of Scandinavian heritage did much better in sprints than in distance events. He had students run a variety of races for time. He found that the Scandinavian students were the only group that had worse times for distance events now than they had achieved during tryouts. Ron may have contributed to this outcome by way of

(A) institutional discrimination

(B) stereotype threat

(D) representativeness heuristic

(E) availability heuristic

54. When Penelope is sitting on the bench watching her softball team play and one of her teammates hits a long fly ball into the outfield, it often seems as if the ball is the size of a pea as it heads to the fence. However, Penelope never loses her understanding of the true size of the softball. This is due to

(A) size constancy

(B) feature detectors

(D) bipolar cells

(E) the optic chiasm

55. Students were working in their AP Psychology textbooks. They were looking at a picture of a green, yellow, and black flag that looked oddly familiar. They were instructed to stare intently at a black dot in the middle of the flag and then immediately transfer their gaze to a white surface. When they did this, they were shocked to see a red, white, and blue American flag. This exercise was conducted to demonstrate the phenomenon of

(A) afterimages

(B) color blindness

(D) visual acuity for color

(E) the trichromatic theory of color vision

56. Jackson has been traveling a great deal for business and suffering the effects of jet lag. He goes to the pharmacy and asks if there is an over-the-counter medication that can help re-set his body clock and get his sleep schedule back on track. When the pharmacist recommends such a product, it will probably contain which chemical?

(A) Acetylcholine

(B) Melatonin

(D) Human growth hormone

(E) Cortisol

57. Scientists wish to determine which part of the brain becomes most active when people are confronted with a moral dilemma. After exposing a person to such a dilemma, which type of scanning technology should be used to investigate brain activity?

(A) EEG

(B) MRI

(D) EKG

(E) PET

58. Braxton has great difficulty leaving his house. He can make it to his car in the driveway, but then he feels he needs to return to the house to check whether or not he locked the door, set the burglar alarm, closed all the windows, etc. Sometimes he will make as many as a dozen return trips and delay his departure by up to a half hour. What would Braxton’s disorder probably be classified as, and what would his “checking behaviors” be defined as?

(A) OCD; compulsion

(B) PTSD; flashback

(D) Tourette’s Syndrome; tic

(E) PTSD; stress reaction

59. Jamie was headed to the mall to do some last-minute holiday shopping. When she got to the parking lot, she saw a large group of motorcyclists assembled and she decided to immediately return home to avoid any possible trouble. When she got home, she turned on the TV news and saw a story about these very same motorcyclists raising money for the “Toys for Tots” campaign. The fact that her less-than-positive image of motorcyclists caused her to make a bad decision was an example of

(A) negative priming

(B) stereotype threat

(D) representativeness heuristic

(E) availability heuristic

60. Schachter and Singer’s Two Factor Theory states that the emotions we experience

(A) are directly caused by our physiological arousal in response to a stimulus

(B) occur simultaneously with our physiological arousal, and neither one causes the other

(D) produce similar facial expression in all cultures

(E) are the result of cognitive labels that we attach to the physiological arousal that we experience

61. Erin has always been told that she is a right brain dominant person and she accepts that assessment. As a result, she is actively exploring careers that emphasize

(A) mathematics

(B) public speaking

(D) laboratory science

(E) data analysis

62. An automobile company buys advertising during football games on television. Its research indicates that most viewers are uninterested and even, sometimes, annoyed because their game is being interrupted. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, what is the company’s best course of action if it wants to persuade these viewers to buy its cars?

(A) It should provide a wealth of statistics about gas mileage, crash test ratings, and reliability.

(B) It should emphasize comparative prices with its competitors’ models.

(D) It should explain that viewers must pay close attention because a car purchase may be an individual’s most expensive purchase next to his/her home.

(E) It should use an attractive spokesperson, have the vehicle in an exotic location, like a beach, and play popular music in the background.

63. Psychology students have a hypothesis that female performers are more sensitive to comments made on social media than are male performers. They decide to study performers in the college’s drama department. After performances, they plant comments, favorable or unfavorable, about the individual performances on social media sites that they know the performers follow. They periodically administer a reliable, well-regarded mood inventory to the performers and they track to see how the performers’ moods track with the comments. In this study, gender is

(A) an extraneous variable

(B) a dependent variable

(D) an operational definition

(E) a p-value

64. College students have started a chapter of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, on their campus. At the first meeting, they gave out a questionnaire, which indicated, not surprisingly, that the students in attendance strongly favored animal rights. After the group had been meeting for several months, the questionnaire was re-administered to the same students. The results indicated that the membership had become even more strongly in favor of animal rights. This illustrates which phenomenon?

(A) Social facilitation

(B) Groupthink

(D) Deindividuation

(E) Peer pressure

65. “Miller’s Magic Number” (seven items, plus or minus two) refers to

(A) how many items can be stored in short-term, or working, memory

(B) how many items on a given topic can be stored in long-term memory in one study session

(D) how many details can be attended to in sensory memory

(E) how many items can be recalled by setting them to music

66. Which of the following would be most important to the way that Carl Rogers would approach talk therapy?

(A) Unconditional positive regard

(B) Free association

(D) Providing reinforcement opportunities for individuals who are making positive strides

(E) Transference

67. Based on her research, Diana Baumrind identified which three types of parenting styles?

(A) Absolutist, Negotiating, and Laissez-faire

(B) Stable, Sporadic, and Unstable

(D) Authoritarian, Authoritative, and Permissive

(E) Married, Divorced, and Single

68. The Rorschach inkblots are an example of which type of personality test?

(A) projective

(B) objective

(D) right brain-based

(E) left brain-based

69. The most likely effect of chronic, long-term stress, like job-related stress, is to cause a person to

(A) experience flashbacks and nightmares

(B) develop phobias related to the stressor

(D) develop multiple personalities

(E) experience greater risk of physical illness

70. Which of the following is NOT a symptom of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

(A) Difficulty communicating with others

(B) Difficulty staying on task

(D) Fidgeting

(E) Difficulty with planning, organization, and executive function

71. Astronauts are using weighted vests to simulate the different levels of gravity that they will experience during their space flight. If they are trying to distinguish small differences in weight, Weber’s Law would dictate that they would perform this task better if

(A) their eyes are closed during this assessment

(B) the vests they are using are very heavy

(D) the vests they are using are relatively light weight

(E) they are making this assessment in a sound-proof room

72. There is a scuba diving class being taught at the local YMCA. Students are taught about the equipment they will be using while they are in the swimming pool. They are taught about water pressure and medical issues while in a classroom. When they are tested at the end of the course, it is more likely that students will remember information about the scuba diving equipment if

(A) they are eagerly anticipating a class trip and dive at a nearby lake the next day

(B) they are played “island music” that reminds them of a trip they plan to take to a tropical location

(D) they are tested on this information while in the swimming pool

(E) they know that they will have more chances to pass the test

73. At age 7, Kai had two passions: skateboarding and origami. He is now 15. He has continued to pursue skateboarding and his skills are now quite good. He gave up origami around age 9. When he recently tried to make a folded paper animal for his niece, he found that he could remember the necessary steps, but his skills had deteriorated badly. This discovery reveals

(A) proactive interference

(B) retroactive interference

(D) negative cues

(E) pruning of neural networks

74. Chemicals that produce similar effects to those produced by opiates are called

(A) antagonists

(B) barbiturates

(D) beta blockers

(E) endorphins

75. A study was done concerning emotional expression among individuals who had been paralyzed from the neck down due to serious accidents, comparing them to individuals whose neuromuscular systems were intact. Which finding would most cast doubt on the James-Lange Theory of emotion?

(A) The individuals who were paralyzed displayed less intense emotions than individuals whose neuromuscular systems were fully intact.

(B) The individuals who were paralyzed displayed the same intensity of emotions as did individuals whose neuromuscular systems were intact.

(C) The individuals who were paralyzed had less inclination to cognitively assess the arousal brought on by emotional events, as compared to individuals whose neuromuscular systems were intact.

(D) The individuals who were paralyzed had greater inclination to cognitively assess the arousal brought on by emotional events, as compared to individuals whose neuromuscular systems were intact.

(E) The facial expressions accompanying various emotions were common to all of the participants in the study.

76. Felipe intends to study the behavior of apes in their native African highlands. Rather than be near the apes himself, Felipe plans to use drones, which will be undetectable by the apes, to track the apes’ movements and living arrangements. Based on prior research, Felipe expects to find that the apes will organize themselves according to kinship roles rather than territorial disputes, food sources, terrain, or other factors. Which of the following poses the greatest threat to the validity of Felipe’s research?

(A) Observer bias

(B) Observer effect

(D) Lack of informed consent

(E) Non-representative sample

77. Teresa has been diagnosed with nerve deafness. Which of the following medical procedures is most likely to restore Teresa’s functional hearing?

(A) Ablation of the temporal lobes

(B) Repair of her perforated eardrum (tympanic membrane)

(D) Prescription hearing aids for amplification

(E) Removal of ear wax

78. Which of the following is NOT a significant factor in one’s progression through the stages of psychosexual development, according to Sigmund Freud?

(A) Breastfeeding

(B) Toilet training

(D) Relationships with one’s parents

(E) Puberty

79. When a young child is asked what he did the previous day and his response is “I goed to the store with mommy,” this displays

(A) overgeneralization of grammar

(B) intellectual disability

(D) insight learning

(E) linguistic relativity

80. Aaron Beck, the father of cognitive therapy, did his research on patients with depression. He found commonalities in that these individuals focused on

(A) difficult events from their childhoods, usually related to sex and/or aggression

(B) medications that could affect imbalances of neurotransmitters that they were experiencing

(D) obstacles that they had encountered to reaching their potentials

(E) getting increased attention from family and friends when they had mood swings

81. Many members of Benjamin’s family have had sleeping problems over the years and he has heard many discussions about these issues. He has watched these family members try a number of different remedies. When he was studying psychological disorders in his AP Psychology class, Benjamin found he did particularly well remembering information about sleep disorders. This was probably due to

(A) procedural memory

(B) state-dependent memory

(D) self-reference effect

(E) sensory memory

82. Schizophrenia has both positive and negative symptoms. Which is an example of a positive symptom, and which is an example of a negative symptom, respectively?

(A) amnesia; multiple personalities

(B) hallucinations; flat affect

(D) no speech; phobias

(E) focused attention; social isolation

83. Marta is enrolled in her first martial arts class. She would like to learn black belt skills immediately, but her instructor tells her that she needs to work her way up gradually. As a beginning white belt, she needs to work on the skills necessary to achieve a yellow belt. The instructor’s guidance would most likely be based on

(A) Piaget’s concrete operations stage

(B) Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development

(D) Kohlberg’s conventional morality

(E) Freud’s latency stage

84. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of, or an anticipated result of, Freudian psychoanalysis?

(A) Transference

(B) Exploration of childhood conflicts

(D) Resistance

(E) Unconditional positive regard

85. In order to address the obesity epidemic, a law was passed requiring restaurants to post the calorie counts of their menu offerings. Public health researchers wanted to know whether implementation of this law was changing the way that consumers made their dining decisions. So, every weekend they set up tables at the community hiking/biking trail and randomly stopped people going by to have them answer questionnaires about their dining practices. After several months, they compiled the results and reported that over eighty percent of respondents were making food ordering decisions in restaurants based on the posted calorie counts. They concluded that the law was having the desired effect. Which of the following is the most significant flaw in this research methodology?

(A) They did not take into account the meals that people ate in their homes.

(B) They did not make sure that the respondents were gender-balanced.

(D) They did not account for the cost of the food being ordered.

(E) People who go to restaurants are wealthier than the overall average of the population.

86. Robert has a great fear of snakes, so much so that he was unwilling to accompany his daughter’s scouting group on a camping excursion to the state park. (The state park has no poisonous snakes within its boundaries.) Robert is embarrassed by this and wants to get past his fear in time for this year’s camping trip. So, he has begun weekly sessions with Dr. Park, a psychologist. Initially, Dr. Park had Robert read some articles about snakes and look at some pictures of snakes. The next week, Robert watched videos of snakes common in their part of the state. The following week, they visited the reptile house at the local zoo. On each of these occasions, Dr. Park made sure that Robert was completely relaxed. This week, they will go to a pet store, where Robert can touch snakes in their cages. Dr. Park is employing what therapeutic method?

(A) Systematic desensitization

(B) Flooding

(D) Client-centered therapy

(E) Aversive stimulation

87. Philip Zimbardo explained the results of his Stanford Prison Experiment by attributing the bad behavior exhibited by some individuals toward other participants in the study to

(A) the roles that they were called on to play in the simulation

(B) the prejudiced views they had toward the other participants before the simulation began

(D) the physical characteristics of the mock prison that they had constructed

(E) deindividuation

88. Mary Ainsworth, in her strange situation experiments, differentiated between children who are securely attached and those who are insecurely attached. She attributed the level and type of attachment each child had to the

(A) number and gender of siblings he/she has

(B) birth experiences he/she had

(D) quality of parenting he/she has experienced

(E) score on an IQ test he/she had taken

89. Psychologists at State University conducted a study of children who had been given up for adoption at birth and did not meet their biological parents. They restricted the subjects to those who remained with the same adoptive family from that point until age 18. When they looked at personality traits, they found, to their surprise, that their subjects displayed more in common with their biological parents than with their adoptive parents. This provided powerful evidence for

(A) trait theory over behaviorism

(B) empiricism over genetics

(D) maturation over temperament

(E) nature over nurture

90. Rodrigo watches as his friend Phil goes through the cafeteria line every day at lunch. Phil is very nice to the workers on the lunch line and they often reward him with extra servings of food. Rodrigo is planning to emulate Phil’s behavior in the future. Rodrigo is experiencing

(A) indirect reward

(B) latent learning

(D) fixed-ratio reinforcement

(E) vicarious learning

91. When Congress considers movie ratings or warning labels on music lyrics, reference is often made to Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiments. That is because these experiments stand for the proposition that

(A) children often prefer watching movies or listening to music to doing their homework

(B) children often follow the examples of their peers rather than those of their parents

(D) children often imitate what they see or hear adults doing

(E) children usually respond to audio and visual stimuli more forcefully when they are presented together as opposed to just one modality on its own

92. Many psychological disorders display co-morbidity; that is, they are often linked with other disorders. People who suffer from panic disorder are often unaware of what brought about their attacks; therefore, they do not know what “triggers” to avoid. This may result in co-morbidity with what disorder that causes people to stay at home for fear that they will create a scene in public?

(A) Schizotypal disorder

(B) Dependent personality disorder

(D) Agoraphobia

(E) Histrionic personality disorder

93. Assume that Pavlov had many bells, each with a different pitch, available to use in his Classical Conditioning experiments. However, he only brought food to his dogs after a certain pitch bell was rung and, as a result, he trained the dogs to only salivate after that particular bell was rung. He would have been most clearly demonstrating what principle?

(A) Shaping

(B) Generalization

(D) Fixed-ratio reinforcement

(E) Acquisition

94. Which of the following is NOT one of the levels of Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

(A) Love and belonging needs

(B) Physiological needs

(D) Safety needs

(E) Self-acceptance needs

95. Often, in fictional works, when a main character is faced with a difficult decision, the following occurs: a devil pops up on one shoulder and encourages this individual to engage in a risky, if pleasurable, activity. An angel pops up on the other shoulder and tells him all of the ethical reasons that he should not engage in this behavior. Then, the character needs to decide on a course of action based on the real risks and benefits. Freud referred to these three components of the psyche (the “devil,” the “angel,” and the “decider,” respectively) as the

(A) ego, id, and superego

(B) oral, anal, and phallic expressions

(D) Thanatos, Eros, and libido

(E) id, superego, and ego

96. Sigmund Freud identified several of his patients as suffering from anxiety or other problems that had led to physical symptoms, such as loss of use of a limb (in his terms, “hysterical paralysis”) or loss of use of a sense (in his terms, “hysterical blindness”). Today, under the DSM-5, we would likely refer to the condition of such patients as

(A) dissociative disorder

(B) panic disorder

(D) conversion disorder

(E) fugue

97. Anthropologists discover that inhabitants of a remote Pacific island have relatively few words in their language describing color. If they also find that these islanders do not spend very much time thinking about or assessing color in their environment, this would support which idea?

(A) Chomsky’s innate language acquisition device

(B) The Sapir-Whorf theory of linguistic relativity

(D) Piaget’s theory of cognitive development

(E) The self-reference effect

98. Descriptive statistics, like mean, median, and mode, summarize data and tell us how it is distributed. Inferential statistics

(A) provide only the raw data, without any analysis

(B) provide estimates of how data might change if researchers changed certain experimental conditions

(D) are the basis for a meta-analysis that compares results of different studies

(E) provide a level of confidence that researchers can reject the null hypothesis

99. A factory called in efficiency experts to assess how the assembly line could work better. The efficiency experts spent time at the factory, observed workers on the job, and then made recommendations. Sure enough, productivity increased. Once the efficiency experts left, however, productivity declined. The experts returned and made more recommendations. Productivity again increased, but also decreased again once the experts left. This process kept repeating itself. Ultimately, it was concluded that what caused the productivity increases was not the experts’ recommendations, but rather their presence on-site observing the workers. This is referred to as

(A) the Hawthorne effect

(B) a self-fulfilling prophecy

(D) shaping

(E) social facilitation

100. A good example of negative punishment would be

(A) providing a youngster with more video game time in order to get him to do his homework

(B) grounding a teenager because he has been persistently violating his curfew

(D) giving a teenager additional chores to do when he has refused to the ones originally assigned

(E) putting a foul-tasting chemical on a child’s fingers to get him to stop chewing his fingernails

END OF SECTION I

IF YOU FINISH BEFORE TIME IS CALLED, YOU MAY CHECK YOUR WORK ON THIS SECTION. DO NOT GO ON TO SECTION II UNTIL YOU ARE TOLD TO DO SO.

Section II

PSYCHOLOGY

Section II Time—50 minutes

Percent of total grade—33

Directions: You have 50 minutes to answer BOTH of the following questions. It is not enough to answer a question by merely listing facts. You should present a cogent argument based on your critical analysis of the question posed using appropriate psychological terminology.

1. From the beginning, Mercedes found the college admissions process quite daunting: so many schools, so many choices! It helped that she knew, unlike many of her friends, that she wanted a small, liberal arts college. However, there were still many choices. Then, she discovered materials in her high school’s guidance office about Provincial College. She also found out that she had a cousin who had attended Provincial, so she got information from him. He told her many good things about the school that mirrored what she had read in the brochures. She did not ask him many questions. She knew relatively little about the other small colleges to which she thought she could apply successfully. She convened the “family council”: her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who lived nearby and would meet to help solve family problems. Initially, they had many different points of view about the right school for Mercedes. However, they quickly decided to reach consensus about her preliminary selection of Provincial, they stopped looking at the other possibilities, and Mercedes accepted their decision.

Mercedes had assumed that a small, private school like Provincial would have a close-knit, though geographically diverse, student body and many opportunities for student-faculty contact. When she arrived, however, she discovered that neither of these was true: the students were primarily from the area where the school was located and were not very welcoming; faculty members were hard to find outside class. Far from her family and friends, Mercedes became depressed.

Define the following terms and explain how each might have affected Mercedes’ situation. (Just a definition will not suffice to earn full credit for the question.)

Availability heuristic
Representativeness heuristic
Individualism
Groupthink
Social support
Confirmation bias
Mental set

2. Sharlene runs a company that markets nutritional supplements. She has read articles about the importance of a nutritional lunch for high school students’ performance in their classes after lunch. She also knows about criticisms of the nutritional value of the school lunches available in local high schools. She wants to market her products to the local school system. To that end, she sets up, with the School Board’s permission, the following experiment:

Half of the students on each lunch shift will be provided the nutritional supplements; the other half will not. After lunch, evaluators hired by Sharlene’s company will sit in classrooms and rate students’ on-task behavior on a one-to-ten scale. These ratings will then be matched with the records of which students received the supplements.

Answer the following questions about Sharlene’s study:

Why is this an experiment and not a correlational study?
What is the independent variable?
What is the operational definition of the dependent variable?

Explain how the following concepts could affect the validity of Sharlene’s study:

Random assignment
Double-blind procedure

What is a possible ethical concern with Sharlene’s study?

What is a possible confounding variable for this study?

STOP

END OF EXAM

Practice Test 2

AP® Psychology Exam

AP^® Psychology Exam