GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE 1. In its early years, psychology focused on the study of , but from the 1920s into the 1960s, American psychologists emphasized the study of.

• Psychology Final Exam Review Quizlet

Environmental influences; hereditary influences B. Maladaptive behavior; adaptive behavior C. Unconscious motives; conscious thoughts and feelings D. Mental life; observable behavior 2.

The young science of psychology developed from the more established fields of philosophy and A. Janna has low self-esteem because she is often teased for being overweight. Appreciating the complexity of Janna’s difficulties requires A.

Introspection B. Psychoanalysis C. Massed practice D. A biopsychosocial approach 4. Professor Crisman believes that most women prefer tall and physically strong partners because this preference promoted the survival of our ancestors’ genes. This viewpoint best illustrates the perspective. Social-cultural B.

Evolutionary D. Psychodynamic 5. Professor Lopez believes that severe depression results primarily from an imbalanced diet and abnormal brain chemistry.

Professor Lopez favors a perspective on depression. Neuroscience B. Psychodynamic C. Behavior genetics D. Efforts to discover whether the intelligence of children is more heavily influenced by their biology or by their home environments are most directly relevant to the debate regarding A. Structuralism vs. Functionalism B.

Evolution vs. Natural selection C. Observation vs. Introspection D.

Contemporary psychology is best defined as the science of A. Conscious and unconscious mental activity B. Observable responses to the environment C. Behavior and mental processes D. Maladaptive and adaptive behaviors 8.

Humanistic psychologists focused attention on the importance of people’s A. Childhood memories B. Genetic predispositions C. Unconscious thought processes D. Potential for healthy growth 9. The first psychology laboratory was established by in the year. Wundt; 1879 B.

James; 1890 C. Freud; 1900 D. Watson; 1913 10. Lissette wonders whether personality differences between her African-American and Asian-American friends result from biological or cultural influences.

Psychology Final Exam Review Quizlet

In this instance, Lissette is primarily concerned with the relative contributions of A. Neuroscience and cognition B. Nature and nurture C. Behavior and mental processes D. Conscious and unconscious thoughts 11.

The distinctive feature of the psychodynamic perspective is its emphasis on A. Natural selection B. Brain chemistry C. Unconscious conflicts D. Learned behaviors 12. The perception that psychological research findings merely verify our commonsense understanding is most clearly facilitated by A.

Critical thinking B. Hindsight bias C. The scientific attitude D. Curious skepticism 13. Psychologists study animals because A. Animal behavior is just as complex as human behavior B.

Experiments on people are generally considered to be unethical C. The ethical treatment of animals is not mandated by professional guidelines D. Similar processes often underlie animal and human behavior 14.

The enduring traditions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a large group of people constitutes their A. Normal curve C.

Wording effects D. Three key attitudes of scientific inquiry are A.

Pride, enthusiasm, and ingenuity B. Ingenuity, practicality, and certainty C. Certainty, creativity, and curiosity D. Curiosity, skepticism, and humility 16. Psychological differences between the genders are A.

Of little interest to contemporary psychologists B. Simply reflections of biological differences between the sexes C. No longer evident in contemporary Western societies D.

Far outweighed by gender similarities 17. A questioning attitude regarding psychologists’ assumptions and hidden values best illustrates A.

Experimentation B. Critical thinking C. Hindsight bias D. Overconfidence 18. The first major issue that emerges in debates over experimenting on animals centers around the A.

Usefulness of studying biological processes in animals B. Ethics of placing the well-being of humans above that of animals C. Obligation to treat information about individual animals with confidentiality D. Needs to obtain the informed consent of animals used in research 19. To understand the unusual behavior of an adult client, a clinical psychologist carefully investigates the client’s current life situation and his physical, social-cultural, and educational history. Which research method has the psychologist used? The survey B.

The case study C. Experimentation D. Naturalistic observation 20.

Surveys indicate that people are much less likely to support “welfare” than “aid to the needy.” These somewhat paradoxical survey results best illustrate the importance of A. Random sampling B. Wording effects C.

The placebo effect D. Naturalistic observation 21. Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the weakest degree of relationship between two variables? Correlation is a measure of the extent to which two variables A. Vary together B.

Are random samples C. Influence each other D. Show statistically significant differences 23. If psychologists discovered that wealthy people are less satisfied with their marriages than poor people are, this would indicate that wealth and marital satisfaction are A. Causally related B. Negatively correlated C.

Independent variables D. Positively correlated 24. A negative correlation between degree of wealth and likelihood of suffering from a psychological disorder would indicate that A. Poverty makes people more vulnerable to psychological disorders B. People who are poor are more likely to have a psychological disorder than are wealthy people C.

Psychological disorders usually prevent people from accumulating wealth D. All of these statements are true 25. Suppose that people who watch a lot of violence on TV are also particularly likely to behave aggressively. This relationship would NOT necessarily indicate that watching violence influences aggressive behavior because A. Random sequences often don’t look random B.

Correlation does not prove causation C. Sampling extreme cases leads to false generalizations D. Events often seem more probable in hindsight 26. Which of the following methods is most helpful for revealing cause-effect relationships? The survey B.

The experiment C. Correlational research D. Naturalistic observation 27. Both the researchers and the participants in a memory study are ignorant about which participants have actually received a potentially memory-enhancing drug and which have received a placebo.

This investigation involves the use of A. Naturalistic observation B.

Random sampling C. The double-blind procedure D. Replication 28.

To assess the impact of test difficulty on persistence of effort, researchers plan to give one group of children relatively easy tests and another group more difficult tests. To reduce the chance that the children in one group are more intelligent than those in the other group, the researchers should make use of A. Random assignment B. The double-blind procedure C. Naturalistic observation D.

Operational definitions 29. To assess the influence of self-esteem on interpersonal attraction, researchers either insulted or complimented students about their physical appearance just before they went on a blind date. In this research the dependent variable was A. Insults or compliments B. Physical appearance C. Interpersonal attraction D. Feelings of self-esteem 30.

In an experimental study of the effects of anxiety on self-esteem, anxiety would be the variable. Experimental B. Correlational D. Independent 31.

Lacking any exposure to language before adolescence, a person will never master any language due to the of unemployed neural connections. Temperament 32.

Norms are best described as A. The expression of group identity B. A person’s characteristic emotional reactivity C. Rules for socially acceptable behavior D. Buffer zones we like to maintain between ourselves and others 33. Professor Shankar believes that her students’ most important personal characteristics are those that distinguish them as uniquely different from most other people. Her attitude best illustrates one of the consequences of A.

Individualism B. Gender typing C. Collectivism D.

Temperament 34. Thompson lived overseas for a year, he was very surprised at how much respect he received from people simply because he was an older person. His sense of surprise suggests that he had NOT previously lived in a culture characterized by A. Social diversity B. Collectivism C. Extraversion D. Individualism 35.

Men and women are most likely to differ in their A. Intelligence C. Self-esteem D.

Aggressiveness 36. When teased by his older sister, 9-year-old Waldo does not cry because he has learned that boys are not supposed to cry. Waldo’s behavior best illustrates the importance of A. Temperament B.

Gender roles C. Testosterone D. Collectivism 37. Gender roles refers to A. One’s biological sex B. A sense of being male or female C.

A set of expected behaviors for males and females D. A sense of being homosexual or heterosexual 38. Depending on environmental conditions, specific genes can be either A. Proteins or chemicals B. Active or inactive C.

Identical or fraternal D. Structured or unstructured 39.

Compared with fraternal twins, identical twins are much more similar in A. Extraversion B. Neuroticism C. Temperament D.

All of these characteristics 40. Compared with identical twins, fraternal twins are similar in neuroticism and similar in risk of divorcing. More; less B. Less; more C. More; more D.

Less; less 41. Environmental influences on personality traits are most clearly.