PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. You are at a lecture about the history of psychology and the speaker states that Wilhelm Wundt’s theory of structuralism was the first scientific psychological theory. On what historical fact might the speaker be basing her or his argument?

(A) Wundt was internationally known at the time, and this lent credence to his theory in the scientific community.

(B) Wundt studied under Ivan Pavlov for his graduate training, and Pavlov required scientific methods to be used.

(C) Structuralism was based on the results of his introspection experiments, so it is, at least in part, empirical.

(D) Structuralism was based on careful anecdotes gathered from Wundt’s extensive clinical career.

(E) Wundt was the first person to study psychology in an academic setting.

2. Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind

(A) was revolutionary because it was the first comprehensive explanation of human thought and behavior.

(B) resulted from discoveries about the human brain obtained by cadaver dissection.

(C) is outdated and has no relevance for modern psychology.

(D) focused entirely on human males’ sex drive.

(E) depends on the idea that humans can remember events but not be consciously aware of the memory.

3. In what way might a behaviorist disagree with a cognitive psychologist about the cause of aggression?

(A) A behaviorist might state that aggression is caused by memories or ways we think about aggressive behavior, while a cognitive psychologist might say aggression is caused by a past repressed experience.

(B) A behaviorist might state that aggression is a behavior encouraged by our genetic code, while a cognitive psychologist might state that aggression is caused by memories or ways we think about aggressive behavior.

(C) A behaviorist might state that aggression is caused by past rewards for aggressive behavior, while a cognitive psychologist might believe aggression is caused by an expressed desire to fulfill certain life needs.

(D) A behaviorist might state that aggression is caused by past rewards for aggressive behavior, while a cognitive psychologist might believe aggression is caused by memories or ways we think about aggressive behavior.

(E) A behaviorist would not disagree with a cognitive psychologist about aggression because they both believe that aggressive behavior is caused by the way we cognitively process certain behaviors.

4. Dr. Marco explains to a client that his feelings of hostility toward a coworker are most likely caused by the way the client interprets the coworker’s actions and the way he thinks that people should behave at work. Dr. Marco is most likely working from what perspective?

(A) behavioral

(B) cognitive

(C) psychoanalytic

(D) humanist

(E) social-cultural

5. The research methodology Wilhelm Wundt used is called

(A) introspection.

(B) structuralism.

(C) naturalistic observation.

(D) inferential.

(E) scientific.

6. Which of the following psychologists wrote the first psychology textbook?

(A) William James

(B) Wilhelm Wundt

(C) B. F. Skinner

(D) John Watson

(E) Albert Bandura

7.Which of the following psychologists was part of the Gestalt group of psychologists?

(A) Carl Rogers

(B) Wilhelm Wundt

(C) B. F. Skinner

(D) John B. Watson

(E) Max Wertheimer

8. Which of the following concepts is most integral to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

(A) trephining

(B) structuralism

(C) the unconscious mind

(D) the concept of Gestalt

(E) behaviorism

9. Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has been criticized for being

(A) appropriate for female patients, but not male patients.

(B) only applicable to research settings, not therapy settings.

(C) based on large groups, not individual cases.

(D) unscientific and unverifiable.

(E) too closely tied to behavioristic thought.

10. John B. Watson relied on the pioneering work of ___________ in establishing behaviorism as a paradigm of psychology.

(A) B. F. Skinner

(B) Wilhelm Wundt

(C) William James

(D) Ivan Pavlov

(E) Sigmund Freud

11. B. F. Skinner introduced the idea of ___________ to the paradigm of behaviorism.

(A) unconscious thinking

(B) reinforcement

(C) conditioning

(D) defense mechanisms

(E) introspection

12. Which of the following psychologists might have described himself as a humanist?

(A) B. F. Skinner

(B) William James

(C) Abraham Maslow

(D) John Watson

(E) Ivan Pavlov

13. Symbolic dream analysis might be an important research technique to a psychologist from which of the following perspectives?

(A) behaviorist

(B) biopsychologist

(C) psychoanalytic

(D) evolutionary

(E) structuralist

14. Behaviorists explain human thought and behavior as a result of

(A) past conditioning.

(B) unconscious behavioral impulses.

(C) natural selection.

(D) biological processes.

(E) individual choice.

15. A therapist who says that she uses whatever psychological perspective “works best” for each patient might be best described as

(A) social-cultural.

(B) humanist.

(C) eclectic.

(D) psychoanalytic.

(E) functionalist.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS

1. Psychologists generally prefer the experimental method to other research methods because

(A) experiments are more likely to support psychologists’ hypotheses.

(B) experiments can show cause-effect relationships.

(C) it is easier to obtain a random sample for an experiment.

(D) double-blind designs are unnecessary in an experiment.

(E) experiments are more likely to result in statistically significant findings.

2. Theoretically, random assignment should eliminate

(A) sampling error.

(B) the need to use statistics.

(C) concerns over validity.

(D) many confounding variables.

(E) the need for a representative sample.

3. Charlotte and Tamar are lab partners assigned to research who is friendlier, girls or boys. After conversing with their first 10 participants, they find that their friendliness ratings often differ. With which of the following should they be most concerned?

(A) reliability

(B) confounding variables

(C) ethics

(D) validity

(E) assignment

4. Which of the following hypotheses would be most difficult to test experimentally?

(A) People exposed to the color red will be more aggressive than those exposed to the color blue.

(B) Exercise improves mood.

(C) Exposure to violent television increases aggression.

(D) Studying leads to better grades.

(E) Divorce makes children more independent.

5. Professor Ma wants to design a project studying emotional response to date rape. He advertises for participants in the school newspaper, informs them about the nature of the study, gets their consent, conducts an interview, and debriefs them about the results when the experiment is over. If you were on the IRB, which ethical consideration would you most likely have the most concern about in Professor Ma’s study?

(A) coercion

(B) deception

(C) confounding variables

(D) confidentiality

(E) clear scientific purpose

6. Some psychologists consider Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies to be unethical because of which ethical consideration?

(A) improper sampling procedure

(B) risk of long-term harm

(C) clear scientific purpose

(D) debriefing

(E) anonymity

7. One of the principal differences between the ethical guidelines for human and animal research is:

(A) Human participants can be deceived for experimental purposes and animals cannot.

(B) Animals can be placed at much greater physical risk than human participants can.

(C) Human participants must be chosen much more carefully than animal subjects.

(D) If humans might physically suffer because of the study, the suffering must be minimal, in contrast to animal studies where any amount of suffering is ethical if it helps to further a clear scientific purpose.

(E) Environmental conditions for human studies must be monitored much more closely than they are in an animal study.

8. Lily scored 145 on an IQ test with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. What is her z score?

(A) –3

(B) –1.5

(C) +0.67

(D) 1.5

(E) +3

9. What is the median of the following distribution: 6, 2, 9, 4, 7, 3?

(A) 4

(B) 5

(C) 5.5

(D) 6

(E) 6.5

10. Emma scores a perfect 100 on a test that everyone else fails. If we were to graph this distribution, it would be
(A) symmetrical.

(B) normal.

(C) positively skewed.

(D) negatively skewed.

(E) a straight line.

11. José hypothesizes that a new drug he has just invented will enhance mice’s memories. He feeds the drug to the experimental group and gives the control group a placebo. He then times the mice as they learn to run through a maze. In order to know whether his hypothesis has been supported, José would need to use

(A) scatter plots.

(B) descriptive statistics.

(C) histograms.

(D) inferential statistics.

(E) means-end analysis.

12. Which of the following is an example of random sampling?

I. Picking out of a hat to assign each of three classes to an experimental condition.

II. Having a computer generate a random list of 100 high school students.

III. Approaching any 50 students during sixth-period lunch.

(A) I only

(B) II only

(C) III only

(D) I and II

(E) I, II, and III

13. Vincenzo conducts an experiment to see whether fear makes mice run through mazes faster. He first selected a sample of 60 mice and then divided them into a control group and an experimental group. Which cannot be a confounding variable?

(A) how fast the mice are at the start

(B) when the mice run the maze

(C) the population from which he selected his subjects

(D) how frightened the mice are before the experiment

(E) where the mice run the maze

14. Olivia, a nursery school student, hypothesizes that boys have fights with the finger paints more than girls do. She tests her hypothesis by casually watching the finger-painting table for three days of nursery school. What method is she using?

(A) field experiment

(B) informal survey

(C) case study

(D) naturalistic observation

(E) ethnography

15. Talia collects survey data that indicate that students who spend more time preparing for the AP test tend to score better than other students. Jen can now conclude that

(A) studying improves exam grades.

(B) a relationship exists between studying and exam grades.

(C) a significant correlation exists between studying and exam grades.

(D) anyone who does not study will do poorly on the exam.

(E) better students tend to study more.