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Psych Midterm

Terms in this set (60)

Students will be able to read a statement printed in the Comic Sans font faster than the same statement written in the Lucida Calligraphy font. This statement is a(n)
hypothesis
Students will be able to read a statement printed in the Comic Sans font faster than the same statement written in the Lucida Calligraphy font.

The dependent variable in an experiment based on the statement would be
the length of time it takes students to read the statements
When subjects in the experimental group put a puzzle piece in the wrong place, the experimenter unconsciously winced. The experimenter did not wince when subjects in the control group put a piece in the wrong place

The wincing of the experimenter must be eliminated because it is
a confounding variable
When subjects in the experimental group put a puzzle piece in the wrong place, the experimenter unconsciously winced. The experimenter did not wince when subjects in the control group put a piece in the wrong place

One method to eliminate the wincing of the experimenter is by instituting
the double-blind procedure
Of the following, which research method would be most appropriate for investigating the relationship between political party membership and attitude toward the death penalty?
survey
Of the following, the strongest positive correlation would most likely be shown between
close friendships and happiness
John want to study the effects of alcohol on the behavior of college students. For his study, he spends 5 hours every night for 2 weeks at a bar near a college watching how the patrons act before and after drinking alcoholic beverages. The research method John is employing is a
naturalistic observation
Of the following, which can establish a cause and effect relationship?
I. Controlled experiment
II. Quasi-experiment
III. Correlational research
I only
Ms. Costas owns a business with nine other employees. Ms. Costas's annual salary is $90,000. Her manager's salary is $60,000. Of her other employees, three earn $25,000 each and five earn $15,000 each.

The range of this distribution is
75,000
Ms. Costas owns a business with nine other employees. Ms. Costas's annual salary is $90,000. Her manager's salary is $60,000. Of her other employees, three each $25,000 each and five earn $15,000 each.
For this distribution, the mean is
higher than both the median and the mode
The term group polarization refers to the tendency for __________________.
the prevailing opinion within a group to become more extreme after discussion
The fundamental attribution error occurs when individuals do which of the following?
Overestimate the influence of personal qualities relative to situational factors when trying to explain the behavior of others
In Stanley Milgram's experiments, which of the following concepts is a possible explanation for participants' willingness to apply increasingly intense shocks to a confederate in the other room?
foot-in-the-door
Stanley Milgram's classic research on obedience showed that approximately what percentage of participants administered the highest voltage shock?
60%
Some difficult cuts needed to be made in the school board budget, and everyone on the board knew that there had to be consensus and cooperation. Even though many members disagreed with certain proposals, each one met with unanimous support to defeat. To preserve cooperation, no one offered conflicting viewpoints. Which of the following concepts is best described by this example?
groupthink
You read in the newspaper that survivors in a plane accident in the Andes were discovered to have eaten other survivors during their 32-day ordeal. You will have committed the fundamental attribution error if you
attribute the behavior to dispositional (personal) factors
Which of the following is an example of conformity?
Renee buys the same brand sweatshirt that most of the kids in her school are wearing.
When asked what they would do if they could be totally invisible and there would be no recrimination, most people answered that they would commit an antisocial act. Which of the following social phenomena might best be able to explain this response?
deindividuation
Donald believes himself to be a patriotic citizen, but he also does not believe in attacking countries that are technologically no match for the United States. If the United States was to go to war and Donald were to be drafted, cognitive dissonance theory predicts that
he might have to change one of his attitudes to feel less tension
In the Stanford prison simulation, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, guards or prisoners. After a few days, the prisoners staged a failed revolt and were consequently punished and humiliated by the guards. How did the researchers explain the abusive behavior of the guards?
The guards were influenced by their role and the situation
Mrs. Rogers overheard another teacher describe one of her students as lazy and unmotivated. Though Mrs. Rogers had not previously noted this tendency, she began to see exactly what the other teacher had noted. What might account for this phenomenon?
self-fulfilling prophecy
A young woman was gunned down at a gas station. A busload of onlookers saw the entire event, and no one did anything. The bus driver even stepped over the body to pay for his gas. What social psychological phenomenon best accounts for this behavior?
diffusion of responsibility
Ethnocentrism is the belief that
one's own culture is superior to others
Which of the following factors probably plays the least important role in explaining why children often share the same political and economic values as their parents?
exposure to mass media
Although Graham has not yet met his future college roommate, he learned that the roommate is a football player. He is anxious and unhappy about sharing his room with a football player because he expects that his roommate will be a "party animal" who makes studying in his room difficult. Graham's attitude can be classified as
prejudice
A charity sends you some greeting cards, and you feel that you should send them a small contribution. This feeling comes from the persuasion technique called
reciprocity
Andy and Noel have been happily married for 25 years. They have a warm and trusting affection for each other. Which social psychology concept applies to their relationship?
companionate love
Which of the following scenarios best represents the frustration-aggression principle?
Jeremy punches the steering wheel of his car because he is stuck in traffic.
Kristin sees a forty-year-old man fall to the ground. According to studies on prosocial behavior, which of the following situations would decrease the likelihood of her helping him?
the man fell at a crowded farmers market
When watching the Olympics, most people cheer for athletes from their own country. Often, fans believe that athletes from other countries cheat but athletes from their own country would never cheat. This is an example of what psychological concept?
in-group bias
A neuron without terminal buttons would be unable to
secrete neurotransmitters to postsynaptic neurons
Of the following, the effect of adrenaline on the body is most similar to the effect of the
sympathetic nervous system
Of the following, which are located exclusively in the central nervous system?
interneurons
Which of the following glands interact(s) most directly with all of the others to help regulate body processes?
pituitary
Which includes all of the others?
peripheral nervous system
Which stimulates a muscle to contract?
motor neurons
Loss of the ability of the brain to produce adequate levels of dopamine often leads to
Parkinson's disease
Ben was enjoying a walk in the woods on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. As he went around a curve, he noticed a bear walking toward him. Immediately his pupils dilated, he began to perspire, and his heart accelerated. These changes are most closely related to the function of the
sympathetic nervous system
Curare blocks action at acetylcholine synapses and causes paralysis. This drug is an example of an
antagonist
Which of the following occurs when a neuron is stimulated to its threshold?
the movements of sodium and potassium ions across the membrane creates an action potential
The area of the brain stem that is important in controlling breathing is the
medulla
Paul Broca found that the loss of the ability to speak intelligibly is associated with damage to a region of the brain in the
left frontal lobe
Which of the following scanning techniques measures glucose consumption as an indicator of brain activity?
Positron emission tomography (PET)
Which of the following is sometimes referred to as the brain's sensory switchboard, because it directs incoming sensory messages (with the exception of smell) to their proper places in the brain?
thalamus
Damage to which of the following brain structures may cause the inability to detect the emotional significance of facial expressions, especially those demonstrating fear?
amygdala
Mr. Jenkins suffered a "stroke" as a result of a brain injury. Althoguht he can still move the fingers on his right hand, he has lost sensation in these parts. Of the following, the site of damage to his brain is most likely in the
left parietal lobe
The part of the brain most closely associated with maintaining balance and the coordination of complex sequences of movements is the
cerebellum
Which task is primarily a right cerebral hemisphere function in most people?
recognizing faces
A split-brain patient has a picture of a dog flashed to his right hemisphere and a cat to his left hemisphere. Which of the following will he be able to verbalize?
that he saw a cat
In the figure below, a patient has been asked to draw a slash through each circle. The pattern of responses suggests that the patient has most likely experienced damage in which of the following areas?
right hemisphere
The self-reflective observation of one's own sensations and feelings is called
introspection
The early school of psychology known as functionalism was developed by
William James
In its early years, psychology focused on the study of ______________, but from the 1920s into the 1960s, American psychologists emphasized the study of _________________.
mental life; observation
In explaining human behavior, psychoanalysts are likely to focus on __________________, whereas humanistic psychologists concentrate on ________________.
childhood experiences and unconscious thought processes; current environmental influences on potential
In the early 1960s, the cognition revolution in psychology involved a renewal of interest in the scientific study of
mental processes
Contemporary psychology is best defined as the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes
Which professional specialty focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of people with psychological disorders?
clinical psychology
Which of the following kinds of psychologists would most likely explore how we process and remember information?
cognitive
According to the behavioral perspective, psychological science should be rooted in what?
observation
Which subfield or perspective is most interested in studying the link between mental activity and brain activity?
cognitive neuroscience
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