1. What percent of the adult cranial capacity has a human newborn achieved at birth?

A. 60 percent

B. 10 percent

C. 75 percent

D. 23 percent *

28% correct, item-to-total r_pb = .05. A BAD ITEM, right at the start. We don't care about the precise percentage, but the point is that the human brain is not nearly fully developed at birth. Most brain development is postnatal -- not as much as 90%, that figure is pretty high, but still a lot.

2. The phenotype of an individual:

A. is his or her overt behavior or visible appearance. *

B. is the individual's genetic blueprint.

C. is completely determined by the individual's genotype.

D. both a and c

78%, .43.

3. According to Piaget, the infant gradually develops the notion that things exist independently of his own senses. This understanding is known as:

A. reversibility.

B. conservation.

C. transposition.

D. object permanence. *

89%, .38.

4. Studies of infants' reactions to physically possible and physically impossible events indicated that infants:

A. were equally surprised by both sorts of events, indicating that they had no idea that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

B. were more surprised by impossible events, indicating that they understood that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. *

C. were equally uninterested in both possible and impossible events, indicating that they saw the world as a place in which the basic relationships between objects could change from moment to

moment.

D. showed more of an interest in the possible event, presumably because it was familiar.

68%, .53.

5. The adult "theory of mind" includes the idea that:

A. all people have beliefs and desires.

B. the beliefs and desires of others are not necessarily the same as our own.

C. that beliefs can be true or false.

D. all of the above *

88%, .08.

6. Harlow's studies of infant monkeys raised with surrogate mothers indicated that infants became attached to the surrogate mother:

A. from which food was most often delivered.

B. that provided the most contact comfort. *

C. that was present when danger threatened.

D. that was present for the greatest amount of time.

84%, .42.

7. According to Ainsworth, the reaction of securely attached infants to the departure and return of their mother in the Strange Situation is to show:

A. some distress when she leaves, and enthusiasm when she returns. *

B. little distress when she leaves, and mild pleasure when she returns.

C. little distress when she leaves, and little interest when she returns.

D. considerable distress when she leaves, and enthusiasm when she returns.

61%, .39.

8. Little Lisa used to always tease and poke her baby brother. Now she treats him much more gently. Which of the following possible explanations offers a cognitive developmental account of the change?

A. Lisa's parents yelled at her whenever she bothered the baby.

B. Lisa's parents encouraged her whenever she played nicely with the baby.

C. As she got used to the baby, Lisa outgrew her jealousy of him.

D. Lisa began to understand her parents' explanations that the baby was a little person who probably didn't like to be poked and teased. *

67%, .49.

9. In moral development, the principle of minimal sufficiency states that a child:

A. will exhibit only as much moral responsibility in a given situation as is necessary to satisfy his or her internal standards of conduct.

B. will internalize moral principles if he or she is given little explanation of why moral behavior is appropriate.

C. will internalize moral behavior if there is just enough pressure on him to induce the moral behavior, but not so much that the behavior seems forced. *

D. who is given very few rules will learn that better than will a child given many rules.

68%, .45.

10. If we look at sex differences in aggression we find that:

A. male infants are more irritable and active than females.

B. at age two, boys engage in more and rougher play-fighting, across a variety of cultures.

C. aggressiveness is enhanced by the administration of male sex hormone.

D. all of the above *

83%, .19.

11. According to the DSM-IV, mental disorders:

A. are clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndromes.

B. may be associated with distressing symptoms or functional impairments.

C. may be associated with significantly increased risks of suffering, disability, or loss of freedom.

D. all of the above *

76%, .31.

12. In making psychiatric diagnoses, the distinction between symptoms and signs is that:

A. symptoms are complaints by the patient, while signs are behaviors or physiological measures that accompany the symptoms. *

B. signs are complaints by the patient, and symptoms are behaviors or physiological measures that accompany the signs.

C. signs are complaints by the patient, while a symptom is a recurring pattern of signs.

D. none of the above

61%, .23.

13. The emotional reactions of schizophrenic patients are often found to be:

A. exaggerated.

B. blunted.

C. inappropriate to the situation.

D. all of the above *

63%, .23.

14. The evidence that unipolar and bipolar disorders may actually be genetically separate disorders comes from the observation that:

A. in bipolar, more than unipolar mood disorders, the concordance rate for identical twins is higher than that for fraternal twins.

B. bipolar, but not unipolar, mood disorders have been linked to a particular enzyme deficiency and to a form of color blindness.

C. mood disorders tend to "breed true," people with unipolar or bipolar depression tend to have relatives with the same type of disorder.

D. all of the above. *

30%, .26.

15. Whereas __________ is related to a specific object, __________ is not.

A. anxiety; fear

B. anxiety; a phobia

C. fear; a phobia

D. a phobia; generalized anxiety *

94%, .29.

16. Prior to the development of drugs to treat schizophrenia, most people suffering from this disorder:

A. could not be treated in hospitals.

B. spent most of their lives either in a catatonic state or in a highly agitated state.

C. were abandoned by their family and friends.

D. spent most of their lives in mental hospitals. *

76%, .37.

17. Antidepressants are not merely stimulants because they:

A. do not produce any signs of euphoria in nondepressed individuals.

B. do not elevate mood in individuals who are not depressed.

C. are useful in treating panic disorder, eating disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

D. all of the above *

71%, .30.

18. Classical psychoanalysis is based on the idea that neurotic symptoms will disappear when:

A. long-buried conflicts are uncovered and resolved. *

B. new adaptive behaviors are learned.

C. childhood events prior to ages three to four are remembered.

D. the patient learns to view his impulses as unacceptable.

79%, .42.

19. Cognitive therapy deals primarily with:

A. teaching the client to recall traumatic events from childhood.

B. teaching the mind to react positively to stressful situations.

C. teaching mind and body relaxation techniques.

D. teaching the client to identify and change maladaptive patterns of thinking. *

90%, .28.

20. Genuine psychotherapy typically leads to __________ improvement compared to placebo treatments.

A. more *

B. less

C. the same

D. an undetermined amount of

86%, .34.

21. Assume that identical twins' political attitudes are correlated at the level of r = .65, while the political attitudes of fraternal twins are correlated at the level of r = .60 and the political attitudes of genetically unrelated individuals selected at random is r = .05. Based on this evidence alone, we may conclude that:

A. genetic factors are the most important determinants of political attitudes.

B. the shared environment is the most important determinant of political attitudes. *

C. the nonshared environment is the most important determinant of political attitudes.

D. children tend to adopt the political attitudes of their parent of the same sex.

64%, .09. You could do this item without knowing the equations, if you understood the concepts. The difference between MZ and DZ correlations isn't enough to suggest high heritability (in fact, it calculates out to 10%). And the MZ correlation too high to leave much room for the nonshared environment (in fact, its contribution calculates out to 35%). The fact that the DZ correlation is so high, much higher than the 25% we'd expect for a purely genetic trait, suggests that the shared environment is really important (its contribution calculates out to 55%).

22. The family microenvironment refers to:

A. the rooms in a household that are favored by each member of a family.

B. the fact that the intrauterine environment during gestation is different for each child.

C. each child's unique pattern of relationships with each other member of his or her family. *

D. the assumption that each child relates more closely to one parent than the other.

90%, .30.

23. In current practice, as represented by DSM-IV, mental illnesses are diagnosed primarily in terms of:

A. the particular defense adopted by the patient against infantile sexual and aggressive desires.

B. whether the illness is "organic" or "functional" in nature.

C. the particular pattern of symptoms displayed by the patient.*

D. whether the syndrome is ego-syntonic or ego-dystonic.

88%, .33. The initial scoring key had a typographical error for this item. Psychoanalysis might diagnose patients in terms of the predominant defense (in fact, it does), but that's not how the DSM does it.

24. Recent studies of the etiology of mental illness, performed in New Zealand by Avshalom Caspi and his associates, tend to support the view that:

A. a history of maltreatment is the primary determinant of adolescent conduct disorder.

B. a history of psychosocial stress is the primary determinant of depressive disorder.

C. adolescent conduct disorder and depressive disorder are associated with the different genetic diatheses. *

D. all of the above.

24%, .05. A BAD ITEM, maybe because people missed the day in class when I discussed this study. Anyway, Caspi et al. found that the MAOA gene was a diathesis for adolescent conduct disorder, but the 5-HTT gene was a diathesis for major depressive disorder. MAOA diathesis interacted with severe maltreatment, while 5-HTT interacted with stressful life events. Neither factor alone was sufficient to cause the disorder in question.

25. A recent comparative study of the treatment of depression found that:

A. medication, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are more effective than cognitive-behavioral therapy.

B. psychotherapy, especially cognitive-behavioral therapy, is more effective than medication.

C. the combination of SSRI medication with cognitive-behavioral therapy is more likely to produce remission of the illness than either treatment alone. *

D. cognitive-behavioral therapy produces more satisfactory improvement than SSRI medication, but SSRI medication is more likely than cognitive-behavioral therapy to lead to complete remission of an illness episode.

82%, .29.

26. In some sense, psychology is a physical science because:

A. mental states and processes can always be reduced to physical states and processes.

B. there is only one science, and it is physics.

C. the characteristic behavior of a species, like its physical characteristics, is subject to laws of natural selection.

D. the brain is an electrochemical system. *

52%, .30.

27. Afferent is to efferent as:

A. up is to down.

B. sensory is to motor. *

C. reflex is to decision.

D. integration is to reaction.

60%, .19.

28. The region of the brain closest to Broca's area is the:

A. motor representation for the hand.

B. somatosensory representation for the hand.

C. motor representation for the tongue. *

D. somatosensory representation for the tongue.

73%, .33.

29. A woman with a split-brain operation fixates the exact center of the screen as the word eaten is very briefly flashed. What is she most likely to report seeing?

A. eaten

B. eat

C. ten *

D. a hodgepodge of lines, but no meaningful word

51%, .42.

30. In positive feedback systems:

A. the feedback weakens or stops the response that produces it.

B. the feedback strengthens the response that produces it. *

C. the feedback may either stop or strengthen the response that produces it depending upon the level of the setpoint.

D. the feedback will stop the response that produces it if the stimulus is below the setpoint and will strengthen it if the stimulus is above the setpoint.

86%, .30.

31. Anton's body temperature averages 98.2. That temperature is his

A. trigger for positive feedback.

B. setpoint. *

C. thermoregulatory maximum.

D. thermoregulatory minimum.

87%, .25.

32. The __________ of the autonomic nervous system is responsible for preparing the body to spend energy for an emergency.

A. homeostatic branch

B. activating branch

C. sympathetic branch *

D. parasympathetic branch

79%, .31.

33. In contrast to the cranial nerves, the spinal nerves:

A. all combine afferent and efferent functions. *

B. can mediate reflexive behaviors.

C. are associated with the sympathetic rather than the parasympathetic nervous system.

D. transmit information from the brain to the skeletal musculature.

25%, .11 A BAD ITEM. Some cranial nerves are exclusively afferent, others are exclusively efferent, others are mixed. But all spinal nerves mix afferent and efferent branches, connecting to the afferent and efferent tracts of the spinal cord.

34. A patient who has difficulty speaking, but little difficulty writing, probably has damage in:

A. Broca's Area. *

B. Wernicke's Area.

C. Brodmann's Area.

D. Lashley's Area.

81%, .30.

35. Little Jimmy has met his grandmother only once, but that experience was a very positive one. It was so great that every time he sees an older-looking woman, he runs over to her with a big smile and his arms outstretched. Jimmy demonstrates which conditioning phenomenon?

A. shaping

B. stimulus generalization *

C. second-order conditioning

D. reconditioning

94%, .14.

36. In instrumental conditioning, which of the following will serve as a reinforcer if it is contingent on behavior?

A. presentation of an appetitive stimulus

B. termination of an aversive stimulus

C. both a and b above *

D. neither a nor b above

67%, .39.

37. In determining whether two events are contingent, one must consider:

A. the number of times the two events have co-occurred.

B. the number of times the two events have not co-occurred.

C. both a and b above *

D. neither a nor b above

63%, .08. Co-occurrence is about contiguity, not contingency. Conditioning occurs not just because CS and US have occurred close together in space and time. It occurs when the CS predicts the US. Therefore, you must also consider how many times the CS occurs alone (not predicting the US) and how many times the US occurs alone (not predicted by the CS).

38. In contrast to instinctive behaviors, conditioned responses:

A. are unrelated to the evolutionary history of the organism.

B. permit the individual to respond to changes in its environment. *

C. permit adaptation to a species' usual environmental niche.

D. do not support the acquisition of novel responses to familiar stimuli.

55%, .25.

39. The phenomenon of learned helplessness illustrates:

A. the role of controllability in instrumental conditioning. *

B. the role of predictability in classical conditioning.

C. the importance of contingency as opposed to contiguity in classical conditioning.

D. violates the arbitrariness assumption of classical stimulus-response theories of learning.

49%, .34.

40. In a detection experiment, there are two payoff matrices. In I, it is: +5 for a hit, -15 for a false alarm, +5 for correct negative, and -5 for a miss. In II it is: +5 for a hit, -5 for a false alarm, +5 for a correct negative, and -15 for a miss. We would expect the subjects to establish a response criterion:

A. biased toward yes judgments for both I and II.

B. biased toward no judgments for both I and II.

C. biased toward yes judgments for I; biased toward no judgments for II.

D. biased toward no judgments for I; biased toward yes judgments for II. *

63%, .51.

41. At low frequencies (e. g., below 50 hertz), the entire basilar membrane deforms almost equally, posing a problem for the place theory of pitch. To account for our ability to sense low frequency sounds, another mechanism involves:

A. the frequency of neural impulse firing. *

B. the dilation of the inner ear.

C. the activation of the semicircular canals.

D. all of the above

31%, .39. There are two principles of pitch sensation, the place theory and the frequency theory. A lot of people went for D, but the semicircular canals don't have anything to do with hearing.

42. The energy that we perceive as light can be described as a waveform with intensity corresponding to our perception of __________ and wavelength corresponding to our perception of __________.

A. color; saturation

B. brightness; color *

C. saturation; color

D. color; brightness

81%, .19.

43. Which depth cue is most helpful in determining which of the Mona Lisa's hands is meant to be closest to the viewer?

A. linear perspective

B. interposition *

C. texture gradients

D. disparity

71%, .38.

44. A ball is moving on a table. The table is:

A. a frame of reference. *

B. the enclosed figure.

C. a depth cue.

D. a reversible figure.

88%, .32.

45. A train car 500 meters away looks substantially larger than a Honda at 25 meters despite the fact that the retinal image of the Honda is greater than that of the train car. This phenomenon is analogous to:

A. a single tea leaf standing out as a figure in the bottom of an otherwise empty cup.

B. the vase and the face reversing when drawn just right.

C. a book that looks rectangular even when seen at a 45-degree angle. *

D. interposition of people's bodies in a group photograph.

47%, .35. This question is about constancies -- size constancy and shape constancy.

46. Accommodation is a(n) _____ cue to depth or distance.

A. ocular, monocular. *

B. ocular, binocular.

C. binocular, optical (or pictorial).

D. monocular, optical (or pictorial)

28%, .32.

47. _____ contradict the theory of direct (ecological) perception by showing that the percept can change without corresponding changes in the stimulus.

A. Reversible figures *

B. Perceptual constancies

C. Visual illusions

D. Gestalt figures.

72%, .45.

48. A drug that prevents processing of information into long-term memory is administered to a subject prior to a memory task. Under these conditions one expects to see the elimination of:

A. the primacy effect. *

B. the recency effect.

C. any recall of items.

D. a and b.

79%, .42.

49. On a test of recall, subjects who learn a list of words in one room do better if tested in that same room than if tested in a different room. This finding is best explained by:

A. habituation.

B. method of loci.

C. positive transfer.

D. encoding specificity. *

84%, .34.

50. When you try to give your friends your new phone number you always seem to give them the old number. You are experiencing:

A. proactive interference. *

B. retroactive interference.

C. negative feedback.

D. unconscious inhibition.

36%, .39.

51. Everybody in the family thinks that Jerry's father is a great handyman, very skilled with tools. But every Thanksgiving dinner, the story they tell about him around the dinner table is the day he installed a new sink, and connected the hot and cold water pipes to the wrong outlets. This observation illustrates of the _____ principle of memory processing.

A. elaboration *

B. organization

C. time-dependency

D. interference

53%, .20. A thought-provoking question. The scenario obviously has to do with the schematic-processing principle, but schematic processing isn't one of the options. But the advantage of schema-incongruent information is due to elaboration at the time of encoding, as the person attempts to explain the incongruency, while the advantage of schema-congruent information is due to extra retrieval cues provided by the schema.

52. Recall tests typically yield fewer memories than recognition tests. This observation illustrates the _____ principle of memory processing.

A. reconstruction.

B. schematic processing

C. encoding specificity

D. cue-dependency *

92%, .33.

53. A subject is asked to picture a map of the U.S. and judge relations between pairs of cities. He wrongly indicates that San Diego, California is west of Reno, Nevada. This mistake indicates his use of:

A. eidetic imagery.

B. symbolic representations. *

C. analogical representations.

D. image scanning.

32%, .13. A BAD ITEM. The words west, California, and Nevada are symbols. We know that California is generally west of Nevada, and so we think that San Diego is west of Reno. But it's not, as any map of the area -- maps are analogical representations) would show.

54. A major point demonstrated by the Stroop color naming task is:

A. once certain procedures are learned really well they can be very

hard not to use. *

B. sharpness of perception is important in how people associate what they view and how they think.

C. that what is easy to learn when young can be hard to learn when adult.

D. the importance of the ability to associate color with objects and patterns common in society.

49%, .44.

55. "Lucky" Lou considers himself quite lucky while his friend "Loser" Larry considers himself quite unlucky. They each take $100 to a casino and play blackjack for 3 hours. When they leave, they have each lost $20. Research on confirmation bias suggests that:

A. Because of their losses, "Loser" will maintain his view of himself and "Lucky" will begin to change his view of himself.

B. Both men will reason that they were willing to lose $100 but only lost $20, so it's like they won $80. So "Lucky" will maintain his view of himself and "Loser" will begin to change his.

C. "Loser" will begin to change his view of himself, reasoning that he was willing to lose $100 but he only lost $20, so it's like he won $80. Because of his loss, "Lucky" will also begin to change his view of himself.

D. "Loser" will maintain his view of himself because of his loss. "Lucky" will also maintain his view of himself, reasoning that he was willing to lose $100 but he only lost $20, so it's like he won $80. *

85%, .34.

56. Morphemes are to phonemes as meanings are to:

A. sounds. *

B. words.

C. structural principles.

D. syntax.

57%, .37. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language, phonemes are the smallest units of sound.

57. Two-word sentences, such as "Mommy throw," are characteristic of most children at what age?

A. 1 year

B. 2 years *

C. 3 years

D. 4 years

75%, .15. Two years, two words (three years, lots of words).

58. A person utters the following sentence: "And then they went and did it and got the what-do-you-call-it and that all over there." This person most likely:

A. suffers from Wernicke's aphasia. *

B. suffers from Broca's aphasia.

C. has an expressive aphasia.

D. was exposed to spoken language after the critical period.

43%, .12. A BAD ITEM. Broca's aphasia is expressive aphasia, which should have been a clue. Maybe D would have been correct, but there are very few people who have delayed language exposure, so this isn't the most likely possibility. The sentence doesn't have any meaning -- what was it that they did, what did they get, and where? We don't know very much more after the sentence than before it. This problem with expressing meaning is characteristic of Wernicke's aphasia.

59. A major problem with the classical view of categories is:

A. categories are proper sets.

B. there are not sharp boundaries between many categories. *

C. categories are organized into hierarchies consisting of supersets and subsets.

D. we categorize objects by examining their features.

66%, .36.

60. A current public-service television advertisement makes the claim that children who attend preschool are more likely to attend college. While this is true, it might be because some third variable increases both preschool attendance and college attendance. The ad's implication that preschool attendance makes it more likely that children will go on to college illustrates the _____ heuristic in judgment.

A. representativeness *

B. availability

C. simulation

D. anchoring and adjustment

52%, .19. Representativeness is about resemblance, and when it comes to causal attribution (explanation), we generally think that causes resemble their effects -- in this case, that preschooling would cause post-secondary schooling.

61. Cognitive dissonance is an internal state that is the result of:

A. disorientation due to strong emotion.

B. perceived inconsistencies among one's own behavior, beliefs, and feelings. *

C. lack of unanimity in group judgments.

D. conflict between conscious and unconscious motives.

83%, .34.

62. A defense attorney must defend a client in whose innocence she doesn't believe. According to dissonance theory, under what conditions might she be more likely to come to believe in her client's innocence?

A. She gets a higher fee than usual.

B. She gets a lower fee than usual. *

C. The client is quite friendly to her.

D. The client is in fact guilty.

64%, .49.

63. A dispositional cause for behavior is one which:

A. is beyond the control of the individual.

B. refers to an underlying characteristic of the individual. *

C. is due to the pressures of the situation in which the individual finds him or herself.

D. is due to the presence of others.

71%, .57.

64. Research on bystander intervention suggests that if you are attacked on the street:

A. you are more likely to get help if there are several people nearby than just one (besides your attacker).

B. you should yell "Fire!", rather than "Help!", to attract attention and increase the odds that someone will help you.

C. and there are several bystanders, your chances of getting help are better if you look directly at one while you yell for help, rather than looking all around. *

D. in a city, the only way you'll be helped is if there happens to be a police officer nearby.

76%, .32.

65. Consider two people, one a quality-control supervisor in a pickle factory and the other a person off the street. Which one of the two will be more influenced by group opinion about the level of brine to use in pickling?

A. the quality-control supervisor

B. the person off the street *

C. They will be equally influenced.

D. Expertise has no effect on susceptibility to group influence.

69%, .27.

66. In one study, trick-or-treaters were more likely to steal Halloween candy if they:

A. were wearing dark costumes.

B. had come alone.

C. were anonymous. *

D. none of the above.

76%, .38.

67. The self-perception theory of attitudes illustrates the effect of:

A. the person on the situation.

B. the situation on the person.

C. behavior on the situation.

D. behavior on the person. *

53%, .38.

68. Jill believes that people are fundamentally mean. She went out on a blind date with Jack, and when she got back to the dorm and told her roommate about the evening she interpreted every event in the worst possible light. This illustrates the _____ mode of person-by-situation interaction.

A. evocation

B. selection

C. manipulation

D. transformation *

39%, .42. This was about interpretation, a cognitive action, not a behavioral manipulation.

69. Jim is seventeen and has a deviation IQ of 100 points. Meng is eleven and has the same deviation IQ as Jim. Which of the following statements is true?

A. Meng has a higher IQ than an average 11-year-old.

B. Meng has a higher mental age than Jim.

C. Both Jim and Meng have the same mental age.

D. Jim has the same mental age as the average seventeen-year-old. *

37%, .37. A person with a deviation IQ of 100 scores the same on the IQ test of the average person of his chronological age -- which is the definition of mental age.

70. Which of the following activities is likely to involve more fluid than crystallized intelligence?

A. driving a car

B. completing a crossword puzzle with a familiar theme

C. repairing a toilet with a bobby pin *

D. balancing a checkbook

51%, .35.

71. Which of the following pairs of correlation coefficients below most closely corresponds to the observed correlations between the intelligence scores of adopted children, and those of their adoptive or biological parents?

A. child-adoptive: 0.15; child-biological: 0.28 *

B. child-adoptive: 0.28; child-biological: 0.15

C. child-adoptive: 0.90; child-biological: 0.10

D. child-adoptive: 0.10; child-biological: 0.90

61%, .24. You didn't have to remember specific correlations here. Only that there is enough heritability to IQ to make the child's correlation with his or her biological parents higher than the correlation with the adoptive parents. Option D is just too high -- IQ isn't that heritable!

72. Studies of the validity of the Rorschach test and the Thematic Apperception Test indicate that these tests:

A. are very good predictors of clinical psychiatric diagnoses.

B. provide considerable information about normal individuals.

C. may be useful in conjunction with clinical interviews.

D. none of the above. *

52%, .24. These tests are pretty much useless.

73. Based on what you know about the published research, what would be the best predictor for whether a given person will commit theft?

A. how often she or he has stolen things in the past *

B. the psychopathic deviance score on the MMPI-2

C. ratings and predictions about the individual's behavior from peers

D. self-predictions derived from a confidential questionnaire

77%, .37.

74. Walter Mischel criticized trait theory on the grounds that:

A. people seem to behave much less consistently across situations than trait theory predicts. *

B. people seem to behave much more consistently across situations than trait theory would predict.

C. people's behavior is no more consistent in similar situations than it is in very different situations.

D. none of the above

75%, .42.

75. Studies of how between-family differences and personality development suggest that:

A. the average correlation between adopted children and their adoptive siblings is very low.*

B. the similarity of identical twins reared apart is greater than the similarity for identical twins reared together.

C. neuroticism, but not extroversion, seems more affected by between-family than by within-family variables.

D. all of the above

58%, .33.

76. Which of the following would be an example of assimilation?

A. A child deforms a ball somewhat in order to grasp it the same way he grasps a block. *

B. The child changes his grip so that he can grasp a ball in the same way that he grasps a block.

C. A child develops a new schema of bouncing, and now deals with a ball differently than with a block.

D. A child reorganizes his thinking in order to integrate his experiences with blocks, ball, and other solid objects.

28%, .27. In assimilation, the object is transformed to fit the schema. In accommodation, the schema is transformed to fit the object. In this case, the child is treating the ball as if it were a block -- assimilating the ball to his or her "block" schema.

77. Piaget's notions of assimilation and accommodation:

A. emphasize the importance of genetic programming for cognitive

development.

B. are part of his nativist approach to cognitive development.

C. emphasize the role of conditioning and reinforcement in cognitive development.

D. emphasize the interaction between the organism and the environment. *

72%, .31.

78. Many cross-cultural differences in cognitive performance are related to

schooling. This fact suggests that:

A. schooled people are more likely to understand what the

experimenter wants. *

B. Non-Western schools teach that concepts and rules can be applied to a variety of situations and problems.

C. it is the structure of schooling (obedience, order, and discipline) rather than its specific content, that is most important in producing formal operational thought.

D. all of the above

46%, .46.

79. Harlow raised some monkeys with no contact with either monkeys or humans. The main effect on adult reproductive behavior was that these deprived monkeys:

A. were hypersexual.

B. were extra attentive to their own infants as a compensation for their deprivation.

C. were only attentive to the infants of other monkeys, not to other adult monkeys.

D. had trouble in both breeding and caring for their own infants. *

91%, .39.

80. Parents who are inflexible in their thinking and control their children's behavior largely through punishment are likely to produce children who are:

A. independent and self-reliant.

B. immature but cheerful.

C. withdrawn and hostile. *

D. impulsive but otherwise socially responsible.

91%, .13.

81. Erikson and other authors devoted considerable attention to the "midlife transition." This transition involves:

A. a reappraisal of one's life and career. *

B. a redefinition of life purpose from personal to more social and altruistic goals.

C. a turning away from more material interests to more philosophical and spiritual ones.

D. a renewed interest in the ideas and pursuits of one's adolescence and young adulthood.

50%, .39.

82. The phylogenetic view of development:

traces the evolution of mind across species. *

traces the development of mind in individual species members.

C. traces the relationship between mental processes and literacy.

D. traces the relationship between psychological development and economic development.

75%, .31.

83. For the Big Five personality traits, such as Neuroticism and Extraversion, individual differences:

A. seem to reflect culture-specific socialization processes.

B. are more strongly determined by genetic than by environmental factors.

C. are more strongly determined by the shared environment than by the nonshared environment.

D. are more strongly determined by the shared environment than by the nonshared environment. *

72%, .34.

84. The fact that children of different temperament may elicit different treatment from their parents illustrates the role of _____ effects.

A. child-driven *

B. relationship-driven

C. parent-driven

D. family context

68%, .46.

85. The concordance rate for schizophrenia among identical twins is 55 percent, while the comparable figure for fraternal twins is 9 percent.

These results suggest that:

A. genetic factors predominate in the etiology of schizophrenia.

B. there is a very weak genetic component in the development of schizophrenia.

C. schizophrenia is essentially caused by environmental factors.

D. both genetic and environmental factors play important roles in the development of schizophrenia. *

50%, .25. Big difference between MZ and DZ, strongly suggesting genes. But the MZ isn't anywhere close to 1.0, suggesting the environment -- the nonshared environment, in fact.

86. What all somatoform disorders have in common is the fact that they involve:

A. changes in mood, or in the expression of emotion.

B. the experience of sensations or perceptions in the absence of any corresponding external stimuli.

C. complaints about bodily functions in the absence of any known organic causes. *

D. loss of access to some or all of one's previous memories.

51%, .37. Somato = body. All the somatoform illnesses resemble physical illnesses.

87. People suffering from psychophysiological disorders tend to:

A. complain of physical symptoms that have no underlying physiological bases.

B. suffer actual physiological malfunctions caused or aggravated by emotional factors. *

C. react to physiological problems with neurotic or psychotic behavior.

D. none of the above

51%, .26. A is hysteria. C would be some form of adjustment disorder.

88. Tricyclic antidepressants:

A. seem to work by decreasing the amount of norepinephrine and serotonin available for synaptic transmission.

B. block the reuptake of neurotransmitters from the synapse. *

C. increase the number or capacity of receptor sites.

D. reduce levels of dopamine in certain locations in the brain.

32%, .22. A hard item, but the tricyclics increase the amount of norepinephrine and serotonin available at the synapse. The antipsychotic drugs act on dopamine.

89. In systematic desensitization, fear-producing stimuli are associated with:

A. learned helplessness.

B. increased motor activity.

C. muscular relaxation. *

D. aggressive responses.

67%, .58.

90. A major critique of psychotherapy was published by the British psychologist Hans Eysenck in 1961. Eysenck's main argument against the effectiveness of psychoanalysis and related psychotherapies was that:

A. these therapies are not based on scientific theories of human

behavior.

B. the rate of improvement after therapy is no greater than the spontaneous recovery rate. *

C. the client's symptoms are only the overt signs of an underlying psychopathology.

D. improvement must be evaluated by an independent observer, rather than by a psychiatrist.

52%, .36.

91. In the past, phobic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder were all grouped together under the superordinate label "neuroses" because:

A. they had primarily psychogenic rather than somatogenic origins.

B. they all had pathological anxiety in common. *

C. they were less severe than the psychoses.

D. they were too heterogeneous to have any defining diagnostic features in common.

54%, .07. All of these conditions involve fear and anxiety.

92. Diathesis-stress theories of mental illness:

A. hold that diatheses are more important in schizophrenia and the mood disorders, while stress is more important in the behavioral and personality disorders.

B. diathesis factors can be either biological or psychosocial in nature. *

C. diathesis factors are usually environmental in nature, while stress factors reflect malfunctions of the autonomic nervous system.

D. catastrophic levels of stress can precipitate an acute episode of mental illness, but only in "high risk" individuals.

53%, .34.

93. Comparative studies of psychotherapy generally find that:

A. psychodynamic, insight-oriented therapies are more efficient than cognitive-behavioral therapies.

B. psychodynamic, insight-oriented therapies are less effective than cognitive-behavioral therapies. *

C. contrary to the "Dodo Bird verdict", all therapies are about equally effective.

D. most forms of psychotherapy depend heavily on the placebo effect and other nonspecific factors to achieve their results.

64%, .38.

94. Psychology and literature:

A. are unrelated.

B. address many of the same issues, but with different methods. *

C. use the same methods, but apply them to different issues.

D. typically make contradictory claims.

73%, .30.

95. Clarissa is conducting research to determine if physical punishment affects moral competency in three-year-old male children. In this study, __________________ is the dependent variable.

A. moral competency *

B. physical punishment

C. the age of the children

D. the gender of the children

78%, .32.

96. If a psychological researcher concludes that an experiment was conducted properly and her results were not affected by confounds, then the experiment can be said to be:

A. externally reliable.

B. internally reliable.

C. externally valid.

D. internally valid. *

44%, .31.

97. Using case studies to investigate a psychological phenomenon can be problematic because:

A. it is difficult to collect the large amount of data required to fully understand a single individual.

B. an individual subject may be unique and the findings of the case study may not be applicable to other people. *

C. acceptable interrater reliability measures are difficult to achieve when only a single individual is studied.

D. all of the above

24%, .16. A BAD ITEM. A lot of people went for D, but it's not all that difficult to understand a single individual -- biographers do it all the time. The problem with the case study is that the case may not generalize to the population at large.

98. A teacher gives a test to 50 students and the mean of the resulting distribution is 80. She discovers that she made a mistake in grading, and that she has to give an additional 5 points to every student in the class. When she calculates the new mean, the result is:

A. 80.0.

B. 80.1.

C. 85.0. *

D. 90.0.

85%, .21.

99. A teacher gives her students a test in arithmetic and another test in vocabulary. She computes the correlation between the tests and finds that it is +0.50. Afterward, she finds she has made a mistake in grading. To correct it, she adds 5 points to every arithmetic score, and 2 points to every vocabulary score. She then recomputes the correlation coefficient. What can we say about the recomputed correlation coefficient?

A. It will be less than +0.50.

B. It will be more than +0.50.

C. It will be +0.50. *

D. There is no way of telling what it will be without knowing the means and standard deviations of the two tests.

38%, .26. Adding constants to both variables has no effect on the relation between them.

100. An experimenter devises a test which she feels will predict hitting ability in baseball. The experimenter administers the test to a random sample of major league baseball players at the beginning of the season and then correlates their scores with their batting average at the end of the season. The correlation coefficient is +0.50. One can say that:

A. taking the test has improved the players' batting ability by an average of 50 percent.

B. the score on the test explains 50 percent of the variance in batting ability.

C. approximately half of the players improve their batting skills as a result of taking the test.

D. less than half of the variance in batting ability can be explained by the batting test scores.*

21%, .01. A BAD ITEM, bringing us full circle. Sorry for ending the test the way it began! Anyway, most of you went for B, but to get "variance explained" you have to square the correlation coefficient. This was a little too technical for our course level, but I thought that people might remember that "variance explained" is less than the correlation coefficient. Sorry.