Questions 1
According to the textbook authors, the discipline of psychology is best thought of as
A. a field of self-help principles to eliminate mental problems
B. A mixture of anecdotes and personal intuition about human behavior and mental processes
C. A process encouraging people to reach their ultimate potential
D. The scientific study of the mind and behavior
D. The scientific study of the mind and behavior
From broader _____ we can generate testable _____
A. Hypotheses... theories
B. Hypotheses... anecdotes
C. Theories... anecdotes
D. Theories... hypotheses
D. Theories... hypotheses
The state of Oklahoma notices that their drivers have one of the lowest rates of seatbelt wearing in the nation. Oklahoma calls in some psychologists to try to boost seatbelt wearing. This type of research would be an example of:
A. Basic research
B. Applied research
C. Correlational research
D. Naturalistic observation
B. Applied research
Common sense can be useful for:
A. Answering psychological questions
B. Generating hypotheses
C. Thin slicing
D. Nothing, scientifically speaking
What is an independent variable?
A. The independent variable is the outcome
B. The independent variable is manipulated during the experiment
C. The independent variable is not manipulated during the experiment
D. The independent variable what happens regardless of the experiment
B. The independent variable is manipulated during the experiment
After the election, many political pundits said they knew that Donald Trump would prevail. What is this an example of?
A. Hindsight bias
B. Confirmation bias
C. Availability heuristic
D. Representativeness heuristic
A. Hindsight bias
Elaine is planning on breaking up with her boyfriend. While thinking back through her relationship, she finds ample evidence of why she should break up with him. However, she overlooks contradictory evidence, Elaine is guilty of?
A. Belief perseverance
B. The availability heuristic
C. The conjunction fallacy
D. Confirmation bias
D. Confirmation bias
Which of the following approaches involves a therapist unlocking a person's unconscious conflicts by talking with the individual about his or her childhood memories, interpreting dreams, and analyzing misstatements?
A. Structuralism
B. Psychoanalytic theory
C. Neuroscience
D. Behaviorism
B. Psychoanalytic theory
A heuristic is
A. Pseudoscience
B. A mental shortcut
C. The result of decades and decades of research and support
D. A way to guarantee a solution
George has a hypothesis that happiness increases people's tendency to help others. To test this, he creates an experiment where he has some people watch a sad movie and other people watch a happy movie. After the movie, he asks them to donate money to a charity and measures the amount of money they give. What is his dependent variable?
A. What movie they watched
B. How much they donated to charity
C. The lab room they are in
D. None of the above
B. How much they donated to charity
The first Psychology lab was founded by
A. Edward Titchner
B. Larry Jacoby
C. Wilhelm Wundt
D. William James
C. Willhelm Wundt
Allie is studying hyperactivity in preschool age children. She is concerned that differences in child rearing, diet, and so forth may affect his results. To minimize these potential preexisting variables, she should be sure to do which of the following?
A. use random assignment when forming her groups
B. Assign boys to the experimental group and girls to the control group
C. Include an independent variable
D. Include a dependent variable
A. Use random assignment when forming her groups
_____ refers to a claim or statement that superficially appears to be scientific but is not
A. Pseudoscience
B. Misinformation
C. Anecdotal evidence
D. Common sense
A. Pseudoscience
William James was a functionalist, meaning he cared mostly about
A. The adaptive value of psychological traits
B. Unlocking a person's unconscious conflicts
C. Discovering "the atoms of the mind"
D. The role of behavior rather than the thought behind the behavior
A. The adaptive value of psychological traits
The only research design that allows one to make cause-and-effect inferences is the _____ design
A. Experimental
B. Correlational
C. Naturalistic observation
D. All of the above
A. Experimental
If a research study finds that caffeine consumption predicts the amount of weight someone can lift,
A. We can determine caffeine consumption causes an increase in weightlifting ability
B. We can determine that lifting weights makes people crave caffeine
C. We can conclude that a third variable must influence both caffeine consumption and weightlifting
D. All we can say is that there is a correlation between caffeine consumption and weightlifting
D. All we can say is that there is a correlation between caffeine consumption and weightlifting
The perception of a correlation between two variables where none exists is known as:
A. Existence proof
B. An algorithm
C. Spurious correlation
D. Illusory correlation
D. Illusory correlation
As the amount of time students spend going to parties goes up, their grades tend to go down. This is an example of a
A. Positive correlation
B. Negative correlation
C. No correlation
D. An illusory correlation
B. Negative correlation
The number of Nicholas Cage movies released in a year is correlated with the number of deaths by drowning. However, this correlation is not a causal relationship. A scientist would describe it as
A. A type II error
B. A bias
C. An illusory correlation
D. A spurious correlation
D. A spurious correlation
Regarding levels of analysis, psychology
A. Focuses primarily on the mental level, leaving the behavioral level to other social scientists
B. Focuses primarily on social/behavioral/mental, but does not tackle any of the biological levels
C. Examines all of the levels of analysis
D. Is currently engaged in a heated debate between all methods
C. Examines all of the levels of analysis