PSYCHOLOGY MCQs

1. The word “psychology’ comes from:

a. Latin
b. Spanish
c. Greek
d. Italian
2. Psychology is defined as the scientific study of:
a. people and things
b. emotions and beliefs
c. perception and religion
d. mind and behaviour
3. The scientific approach is more useful at answering
questions about ______ than questions about ______.
a. facts, values
b. ideas, emotions
c. values, facts
d. emotions, facts
4. According to the text, the lower level of explanation corresponds to
______ processes.
a. social
b. cultural
c. biological
d. interpersonal
5. A psychologist exploring the impact of a new drug on activity in the brain is
working on the ______ level of
explanation.
a. lower
b. middle
c. upper
d. all of the above
6. A psychologist studying what makes people laugh in different countries
around the world is working on the ______ level of explanation.
a. lower
b. middle
c. higher
d. none of the above
7. Different people react differently to the same situation. This is referred to as:
a. multiple determinants
b. nativism
c. the Simpson effect
d. individual differences
8. ______ is to nature as ______ is to nurture.
a. environment, genes
b. conscious, unconscious
c. inaccuracy, accuracy
d. biology, experience
9. The term “tabula rasa” highlights the importance of ______ in shaping
behaviour.
a. genes
b. experience
c. nature
d. predestination
10. The Greek philosopher ______ believed that knowledge is acquired through
experience and learning.
a. Archimedes
b. Rousseau
c. Plato
d. Aristotle
11. ______ is to nature as ______ is to nurture.
a. Plato, Aristotle
b. Aristotle, Plato
c. Pliny, Archimedes
d. Stavros, Pliny
12. ______ is the belief that the mind is fundamentally different from the body.
a. mindism
b. dualism
c. centralism
d. specialism
13. The school of psychology whose goal was to identify the basic elements of
experience was called:
a. experientialism
b. dualism
c. functionalism
d. structuralism
14. Which of the following was most closely associated with the structuralist
school of psychology?
a. Titchener
b. James
c. Descartes
d. Watson
15. Darwin’s theory of ______ argued that physiological characteristics evolve
because they are useful to the
organism.
a. extreme usefulness
b. natural endowment
 c. natural selection
d. natural wellbeing
16. ______ was to structuralism as ______ was to functionalism.
a. Wundt, Titchener
b. Wundt, James
c. James, Titchener
d. Milner, Thompson
17. Freud championed ______ psychology.
a. psychodynamic
b. cultural
c. conscious
d. biodynamic
18. Which school of psychology believes that it is impossible to objectively
study the mind?
a. functionalism
b. behaviorism
c. humanism
d. socialism
19. Receiving an electric shock would be an example of a ______ whereas
being frightened would be an example of a ______.
a. stimulus, response
b. punishment, reward
c. reaction, emotion
d. reinforcement, stimulus
20. Dr Pula wants to explore differences in child-rearing practices between
British and Chinese parents. She is most likely a:
a. cognitive psychologist
b. physiological psychologist
c. cognitive-ergonomic psychologist
d. social-cultural psychologist
21. Nature is to ________ as nurture is to ________.
a. environment/genes
b. conscious/unconscious
c. genes/environment
d. unconscious/conscious
22. Freud emphasized the role of ________ in shaping people’s personality.
a. free will
b. unconscious desires
c. hormones
d. group influence
23. Evolutionary psychology has its roots in:
a. behaviourism
b. collectivism
 c. functionalism
d. structuralism
24. Most human behaviour:
a. can be easily explained
b. has multiple causes
c. stems from unconscious desires
d. depends on social influence
25. A forensic psychologist would be most likely to study:
a. the accuracy of eyewitness memory
b. the impact of advertising on shopping behaviour
c. the effect of hormones on decision making
d. gender differences in learning styles
26. The behaviourists rejected introspection because:
a. it was too slow
b. it invaded people’s privacy
c. it yielded too much data
d. it was too subjective
27. Another term for reinforcement is:
a. stimulus
b. reward
c. response
d. condition
28. East Asian cultures tend to be more oriented toward ________ while
Western cultures
tend to be more oriented toward ________.
a. individualism/collectivism
b. collectivism/individualism
c. cultural norms/social norms
d. social norms/cultural norms
29. Watson and Skinner both contributed to which school of psychology?
a. functionalism
b. cognitive
c. social-cultural
d. behaviourism
30. Which field of psychology would be most likely to study the influence of
over-crowding on conformity?
a. personality
b. cognitive
c. clinical
d. social
Answers

1. c
2. d
3. a
4. c
5. a
6. c
7. d
8. d
9. b
10. d
11. a
12. b
13. d
14. a
15. c
16. b
17. a
18. b
19. a
20. d
21. c
22. b
23. c
24. b
25. a
26. d
27. b
28. b
29. d
30. d
PERSONALITY

1. Phrenologists tried to find out about personality by:

a. reading a person’s horoscope
b. feeling a person’s skull
c. looking at a person’s hands
d. asking people questions
2. A limitation of selective breeding studies is that they cannot:
a. tells us anything about the role of genes
b. be used to study human beings
c. provides information relevant to the nature/nurture debate
d. tells us anything about the role of the environment
3. Which Neo-Freudian challenged his ideas about penis envy?
a. Adler
b. Fromm
c. Jung
d. Horney
4. Someone who feels as though they are not living up to expectations would
be
described by Adler as having:
a. low self-realization
b. an Adlerian complex
c. an inferiority complex
d. low actualization
5. According to Freud, the mind’s three components are:
a. ego, id, superego
b. unconscious, moral, immoral
c. oral, anal, phallic
d. primary, secondary, tertiary
6. The idea that you can assess someone’s personality by studying their face is
called:
a. phrenology
b. physiology
c. somatology
d. physiognomy
7. The ________ complex is to girls as the ________ complex is to boys.
a. Electra, Oedipus
b. Oedipus, Electra
c. oral, phallic
d. phallic, oral
8. The discovery that the heritability of the Big Five personality traits is
around 40% – 50% suggests that:
a. the environment plays no role in personality
b. genes play no role in personality
c. the environment plays an important role in personality
d. the Big Five traits account for about half of our personality
9. Humanistic psychologists embraced the idea of:
a. repression
b. free will
c. unconscious drives
d. the id
10. According to Eysenck, extraverts seek to ________ their arousal while
introverts seek to ________ their arousal.
a. decrease, increase
b. hide, reveal
c. increase, decrease
d. reveal, hide
11. Allport believed that traits could be organized into three levels:
a. primary, secondary, tertiary
b. cognitive, emotional, physiological
c. id, ego, superego
d. cardinal, central, secondary
12. The MMPI is used to measure:
a. unconscious drives
b. the Big Five traits
c. personality and psychological disorders
d. leadership potential
13. Which of the following is NOT one of the Big Five traits?
a. sense of humour
b. openness to experience
c. conscientiousness
d. extraversion
14. Freud founded the ________ approach to understanding human behaviour.
a. palliative
b. psychodynamic
c. patronymic
d. psychedelic
15. The influence of parents on the personality of their children is:
a. non-existent
b. weakest in early childhood
c. strongest in early childhood
d. consistent across the lifespan
16. What is special about “knockout” mice?
a. they are very attractive
b. their DNA has been modified
c. they are easy to knock out
d. they are unusually aggressive
17. The aim of behavioural genetics is to learn about:
a. the extent to which geneticists can modify people’s behaviour
b. the possibility of eradicating behavioural problems in children
c. the genetic and environmental influences on human behaviour
d. the ability of animals to learn language
18. Monozygotic is to ________ twins as dizygotic is to ________ twins.
a. male, female,
b. female, male
c. fraternal, identical
d. identical, fraternal
19. Which of the following characteristics describe someone who, according to
Maslow, is self-actualized?
a. creativity
b. confidence
c. spontaneity
d. all the above
20. According to Freud, children pass through 4 stages of psychosexual
development.
Which of the following shows the stages in the correct developmental
order?
a. oral, anal, phallic, latency
b. latency, oral, anal, phallic
c. phallic, anal, oral, latency
d. oral, phallic, latency, anal
21. Projective tests claim to reveal information about:
a. career aptitude
b. intellectual attainment
c. unconscious processes
d. parenting style
22. Traits are defined as:
a. physical characteristics that distinguish us from other people
b. relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behaviour across
many situations
c. unconscious tendencies to act in different ways according to the
situation
d. permanent personality tendencies that determine our behaviour in any
situation
23. Sheldon’s theory that people with different body types have different
personalities has been:
a. supported by research
b. discredited
c. shown to be accurate for thin people but not overweight people
d. shown to be accurate for women but not for men
24. Which of the following is not a defence mechanism?
a. projection
b. regression
c. ingratiation
d. sublimation
25. Rohan is self-disciplined, focused on achievement and keen to do his duty.
He would be
expected to score highly on:
a. neuroticism
b. agreeableness
c. extraversion
d. conscientiousness
26. The Barnum effect helps to explain people’s belief in:
a. fortune-telling
b. astrology
c. horoscopes
d. all the above
27. ________ are the basic biological units that transmit characteristics from
one generation to the next:
a. genes
b. neurons
c. glia
d. instincts
28. Which of the following would NOT be useful to a behavioural geneticist?
a. family studies
b. case studies
c. adoption studies
d. twin studies
29. According to Freud, the id is to the ________ principle as the ego is to the
________ principle.
a. aggressive, sexual
b. sexual, aggressive
c. pleasure, reality
d. reality, pleasure
30. Lana is friendly, always willing to help others and compassionate. We
would expect Lana to score highly on:
 a. extraversion
b. agreeableness
c. neuroticism
d. openness to experience

1. b
2. b
3. d
4. c
5. a
6. d
7. a
8. c
9. b
10. c
11. d
12. c
13. a
14. b
15. c
16. b
17. c
18. d
19. d
20. a
21. c
22. b
23. b
24. c
25. d
26. d
27. a
28. b
29. c
30. b
 MEMORY

1. In a typical memory experiment, participants are asked to recall stimuli in which phase?

a. presentation
b. test
c. material
d. distinction

Answer: B

2. Participants are NOT told that they will be tested on a list of words presented in an experiment.
This provides evidence of

a. intentional learning
b. a practice effects
c. incidental learning
d. masked learning

Answer: C

3. A test where participants are asked to retrieve in any order stimuli previously presented is

a. cued recall
b. implicit memory
c. explicit memory
d. free recall

Answer: D

4. Participants take part in an experiment where they learn a number of words and are told that
they will be tested later on what they have learned. This is a test of

a. explicit memory
b. recognition
c. implicit memory
d. interference

Answer: A

5. Storage is

a. the stage of memory where information is interpreted and transferred

b. the stage of memory where information is committed
c. the stage of memory most affected by direct manipulation in experiments
d. the stage of memory between presentation of stimuli and before test

Answer: D

6. Investigating what factors can affect memory storage can be done by

 a. manipulating what happens before the test phase
b. informing people that they will be tested
c. providing recall cues
d. manipulating what happens at the presentation phase

Answer: A

7. Which is NOT typically used to test memory retrieval?

a. dot probe task

b. word stem completion
c. cued recall
d. serial position effects

Answer: A

8. With immediate testing, recall accuracy is poorest for items that occur in which position of a
list?

a. beginning
b. middle
c. end
d. no difference

Answer: B

9. Immediately testing recall can lead to greater recall for words at the end of a list. This is

a. recency effect
b. primacy effect
c. serial position effect
d. superiority effect

Answer: A

10. The recency effect in memory retrieval can be reduced when

a. rehearsal is prevented
b. short- to long-term memory interference is introduced
c. a backwards masking task is used
d. retention interval is increased

Answer: D

11. Which authors proposed the modal model of memory?

a. Lansdale and Baguley (2008)

b. Tulving and Thompson (1975)
c. Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968)
d. Craik and Lockhart (1972)

Answer: C

12. The modal model of memory was challenged on the grounds that
 a. impaired short-term memory does not disrupt long-term memory
b. Short-term memory has a limited capacity
c. longer time in short-term memory predicts likelihood of long-term memory
d. long-term memory has a limited capacity

Answer: A

13. According to levels of processing, which of the following leads to the deepest level of
memory?

a. perceptual
b. semantic
c. associative
d. cue dependent

Answer: B

14. A critical issue with the ‘levels of processing’ account of memory is

a. the distinction between perceptual and semantic processing

b. it is not compatible with the modal model
c. determining the level of processing
d. it does not explain how information is retrieved

Answer: C

15. Retrieval cues can improve recall because of

a. overlap between memories at encoding

b. interference or decay
c. traces still in short-term memory
d. greater storage capacity

Answer: A

16. ‘Specific operations […] determine what is stored, and what is stored determines what
retrieval cues are effective’ refers to what term?

a. context-dependent memory
b. encoding specificity principle
c. levels of processing
d. forgetting function

Answer: B

17. Retroactive inhibition is a term of memory

a. decay
b. delay
c. retrieval
d. interference

Answer: D
18. Having prior memory associations that make it difficult to form new memory associations is
termed

a. proactive inhibition
b. transfer appropriate processing
c. time-dependent decay
d. encoding specificity

Answer: A

19. Which of the following was proposed by Keppel (1968) to be most likely?

a. prior learning may interfere with new learning only when items are similar, but new
learning interferes with all old learning
b. old learning can interfere with new learning, but new learning interferes with all old
learning
c. all forgetting is caused by non-specific proactive inhibition
d. old learning only interferes with new learning when encoded in the same modality

Answer: A

20. What explains the mathematical forgetting curve?

a. retroactive inhibition
b. serial position
c. Jost’s law
d. consolidation theory

Answer: C

21. Lansdale and Baguley (2008) predict that the probability of correct recall depends on

a. proportion of correct memory traces

b. encoding specificity
c. context-dependent recall
d. retroactive inhibition

Answer: A

22. Lansdale and Baguley (2008) argue that memory dilution occurs because

a. long-term memory capacity is limited

b. the number of null traces decreases
c. memories become indistinct from similar memories
d. the memory becomes less temporally distinctive

Answer: D

23. Which element was NOT found to alter accounts of the ‘War of the Ghosts’ story?

a. rationalizations
b. distortions
c. omissions
d. intrusions
Answer: C

24. The study of how the ‘War of the Ghosts’ story accounts became altered at recall was carried
out by

a. Bartlett (1932)
b. Godden and Baddeley (1975)
c. Postman and Phillips (1965)
d. Eysenck (1979)

Answer: A

25. Eyewitness testimonies are an example of what kind of memory experiment?

a. intentional learning
b. context-dependent learning
c. incidental learning
d. cue-dependent learning

Answer: C

26. Which key academic is involved in the study of memory as a reconstructive process?

a. A. Baddeley
b. H. Eysenck
c. G. Hitch
d. E. Loftus

Answer: D

27. The accuracy of eyewitness testimonies can be improved with

a. recovered memories
b. cognitive interviews
c. noise reduction
d. neurofeedback

Answer: B

28. What can help improve the accuracy of eye witness testimonies?

a. serial position
b. context reinstatement
c. mnemonics
d. distributed practice

Answer: B

29. Memory can be improved when information to be learnt is

a. organized
b. written
c. spoken
d. elaborated
Answer: A

30. Which is a good method of revision:

a. intense sessions
b. spaced learning
c. 1 hour on/1 hour off
d. late night sessions

Answer: B

LEARNING

1. Ivan Pavlov is thought to have predominantly used which of the following stimuli to condition
dogs?

a. electric shocks
b. a bell
c. lights and tapping sounds
d. a recording of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major

Answer: C

2. The ‘Law of Effect’ refers to which of the following?

a. every action has an equal and opposite reaction

b. the legal prohibition of ineffective psychological treatments
c. the concept that unsuccessful behaviour often leads to fruitless repetition to produce a
different outcome
d. the concept that the consequence of a successful behaviour is that it is more likely to
occur in similar circumstances in future

Answer: D

3. The term ‘behaviourism’ was first coined by

a. Francis Crick
b. Edward Lee Thorndike
c. John Watson
d. Sherlock Holmes

Answer: C

4. Which of the following is a central theme of behaviourism?

a. human behaviour can be manipulated using food

b. most of the behaviour is learnt and not innate
c. most of the behaviour is innate and not learnt
d. genetics has the strongest influence on human behaviour

Answer: B
5. Which of the following did B. F. Skinner use as one experimental application of operant
conditioning?

a. he trained pigeons to operate missile guidance systems

b. he trained mice to perform simple calculus operations
c. he trained dogs to play short tunes on a series of eight bells
d. he trained chimpanzees to make moderately palatable cups of tea

Answer: A

6. Which of the following is NOT given as a criticism of behaviourism?

a. it ignores the fact that humans can learn from others in a social capacity
b. it reduces humans to stimulus–response machines
c. it ignores the influence of astrological factors
d. it ignores the fact that humans can think and reflect on their behaviours

Answer: C

7. Which of the following could be the result of indirect learning?

a. avoiding shellfish because last time you ate some, you vomited
b. turning off the television when you see Piers Morgan because you know he makes you
angry
c. solving a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute after months of practice
d. walking around a patch of ice you just saw someone slip over on

Answer: D

8. ‘Self-efficacy’ refers to

a. the ability to modify one’s own behaviour

b. a belief in one’s own ability to succeed
c. the level of general skill a person has
d. a belief in one’s own self-worth

Answer: B

9. Sailer et al. (2005) described the stages of learning a complex visuomotor skill. Which of the
following is NOT one of those stages?

a. the skill refinement stage

b. the incremental improvement stages
c. the exploratory stage
d. the skill acquisition stage

Answer: B

10. Gamification refers to

a. incorporating game-like elements to otherwise non-game activities to increase learning

b. the increasing tendency for dumbing-down of learning
c. the increasing proliferation of gaming apps on mobile devices
 d. the treatment of otherwise-bland meat (such as intensively reared chicken) to improve its
flavour

Answer: A

THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

1. The Tower of London problem-solving task was developed by

a. Shackleton (1982)
b. Shallice (1982)
c. Sheriff (1982)
d. Sherrington (1982)

Answer: B

2. The process of breaking down goals into subgoals is termed

a. means–ends analysis
b. initial-desired state analysis
c. subgoal appropriation
d. subgoal potentiation

Answer: A

3. According to Newell and Simon, a problem-solver

a. analyzes all possible solutions before beginning

b. attempts to resolve differences between problem states
c. works backwards from the goal state
d. prioritizes subgoals

Answer: B

4. What computer programme did Newell and Simon create to validate their theory?

a. general purpose solution

b. general problem solver
c. deep blue
d. enigma machine

Answer: B

5. A challenge to Newell and Simon’s problem-solving theory is that

a. experts mostly use means–ends analysis

b. novices mostly use means–ends analysis
c. experts do not always use means–ends analysis
d. novices do not always use means–ends analysis

Answer: C
6. Answers that appear out of the blue to solve problems are

a. flashbulbs
b. impasses
c. impressive
d. insights

Answer: D

7. Difficulty seeing the solution to a problem is

a. an insight
b. an impasse
c. blindsight
d. means analysis

Answer: B

8. Which is NOT a type of reasoning?

a. probabilistic
b. inductive
c. ordinate
d. deductive

Answer: C

9. Bayes’ theorem can be used to calculate

a. possibility
b. probability
c. information criterion
d. means–ends differences

Answer: B

10. A heuristic is

a. a rule of thumb
b. a protocol
c. a strategy
d. an error

Answer: A

LANGUAGE AND LITERACY

1. Which of the following is used to describe objective reflection on the nature of language?

a. psycholinguistics
b. metalinguistic reasoning
c. morphological pragmatics
d. linguistic relativity
2. Psycholinguists generally consider that there are three stages in language production. Which
of the following best describes them in the correct order?

a. grammatical encoding, conceptualization, phonological/orthographic encoding

b. conceptualization, morphological encoding, grammatical encoding
c. conceptualization, grammatical encoding, phonological/orthographic encoding
d. phonological bootstrapping, grammatical encoding, orthographic encoding

Answer: C

3. A language that has a consistent relationship between graphemes and sounds can be said to

a. be logosyllabic
b. have a shallow or transparent orthography
c. have a deep orthography
d. be phonologically regular

Answer: B

4. A ‘garden-path’ sentence can be described as

a. a sentence with a structure that leads to initial misinterpretation and subsequent

reanalysis
b. a sentence that is ambiguously worded so as to elicit an understanding of the reader’s
psychological characteristics
c. a sentence that is structured so that the reader, having only read the beginning, is able to
correctly predict the later phrasing
d. a sentence that appears initially to have meaning but that is in fact grammatically
nonsensical

Answer: A

5. Garden-path sentences can be used to demonstrate that

a. we consciously parse sentences only once we have complete information

b. we comprehend sentences with strategies of which we are not consciously aware once
we have read the whole sentence
c. we process verbs before the nouns to which they relate
d. we parse continuously while reading, using unconscious strategies without waiting for the
end of a sentence

Answer: D

6. Noam Chomsky suggested which of the following?

a. there is no fundamental ability for language when a child is born, and it is acquired
through subsequent exposure to speech
b. children acquire language in different ways and at different rates depending on the
culture into which they are born
c. there is an innate human ability to acquire language
d. children learn language as the product of positive reinforcement

Answer: C
7. The ‘linguistic relativity hypothesis’ proposes that

a. some or all of the differences in the way we think and perceive the world arise from
differences in the structure of the language we speak
b. some languages are more efficient than others in the representation of the nature of
reality
c. understanding and perception of the world are fundamental and not related to the nature
of the language we speak
d. it is not possible to translate directly from one language into another and some
reinterpretation is always necessary

Answer: A

8. According to the Simple View of Reading (Hoover & Gough, 1990), what are the two
dissociable components that must be mastered to acquire literacy?

a. phonological awareness and fluency

b. sight vocabulary and pattern recognition
c. decoding and language comprehension
d. prosody and phonological comprehension

Answer: C

9. In which phase of reading and spelling acquisition are children likely to decode only the first
few letters of a word and guess the remainder?

a. the pre-alphabetic phase

b. the consolidated alphabetic phase
c. the full alphabetic phase
d. the partial alphabetic phase

Answer: D

10. ‘Developmental dyslexia’ is best described as

a. a difficulty with reading and writing, which is the result of a lack of access to education
b. a syndrome with a complex neurological basis, which affects a range of different areas of
cognition
c. a problem that mainly affects a person’s ability to spell words correctly
d. a symptom of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Answer: D

THE HUMAN NERVOUS SYSTEM

1. The human nervous system comprises

a. the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system

b. the central nervous system and the somatic nervous system
c. the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems
d. the autonomic and the somatic nervous systems
Answer: A

2. The autonomic nervous system

a. enables us to act on the external environment

b. transmits motor information to the brain
c. regulates the internal environment
d. is located within the brain

Answer: C

3. The three main anatomical neural planes are

a. cerebral, horizontal and coronal

b. cerebral, ventral and dorsal
c. horizontal, anterior and posterior
d. sagittal, coronal and horizontal

Answer: D

4. The corpus callosum is a

a. source of hypothalamic hormones

b. neural pathway that connects the right and left hemispheres
c. part of the neocortex
d. structure in the cerebellum

Answer: B

5. In the 4th week after conception, the neural tube develops three swellings. These are

a. telencephalon, diencephalon and myelencephalon

b. telencephalon, diencephalon and metencephalon
c. cerebral cortex, limbic system and basal ganglia
d. forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain

Answer: D

6. The nose of a rat is

a. ventral
b. anterior
c. caudal
d. posterior

Answer: B

7. The autonomic nervous system is part of the

a. somatic nervous system

b. peripheral nervous system
c. parasympathetic nervous system
d. sympathetic nervous system
Answer: B

8. Which structure is part of the tectum?

a. superior colliculus
b. periaqueductal grey
c. substantia nigra
d. red nucleus

Answer: A

9. In general, afferent nerves carry sensory information

a. to the central nervous system

b. to the peripheral nervous system
c. from the central nervous system
d. from the cortex

Answer: A

10. The basal ganglia comprise

a. the caudate, putamen and globus pallidus

b. the amygdala, hippocampus and cingulated gyrus
c. the inferior and superior colliculi
d. the thalamus and hypothalamus

Answer: A

11. The cerebral cortex covers the

a. brain
b. cerebellum
c. great cerebral commissure
d. cerebral hemispheres

Answer: D

12. Telencephalon refers to

a. brain stem
b. cerebellum
c. cortex
d. cerebral hemispheres

Answer: D

13. The somatic nervous system is part of the

a. autonomic nervous system

b. peripheral nervous system
c. central nervous system
d. parasympathetic nervous system
Answer: B

14. The inferior and superior colliculi compose the

a. thalamus
b. myelencephalon
c. tectum
d. tegmentum

Answer: C

15. Most sensory nuclei of the thalamus project to the

a. cortex
b. reticular formation
c. cerebellum
d. substantia nigra

Answer: A

16. Which of the following is NOT a function of cerebrospinal fluid:

a. to exchange nutrients and metabolic waste

b. to improve conduction of nerve signals between different brain regions
c. to provide mechanical protection to the brain
d. to carry neuroactive hormones in the nervous system

Answer: B

17. Which of the following generally acts to conserve energy?

a. somatic nervous system

b. peripheral nervous system
c. sympathetic nervous system
d. parasympathetic nervous system

Answer: D

18. Broca’s area is in

a. the frontal lobe

b. the parietal lobe
c. the temporal lobe
d. the occipital lobe

Answer: A

19. The primary auditory cortex is in:

a. the frontal lobe

b. the parietal lobe
c. the temporal lobe
d. the occipital lobe
Answer: C

20. Which of the following is a method for measuring neuroanatomy?

a. electroencephalography (EEG)
b. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
c. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
d. positron emission tomography (PET)

Answer: C

COMMUNICATION WITHINN THE BRAIN

1. What part of a neuron is sometimes myelinated?

a. dendrite
b. axon
c. soma
d. axon hillock

Answer: B

2. Neurons are specialized to receive, conduct and transmit

a. electrochemical signals
b. action potentials
c. electrical signals
d. chemical signals

Answer: A

3. Most of a neuron’s DNA is contained within its

a. cytoplasm
b. axon
c. nucleus
d. endoplasmic reticulum

Answer: C

4. An adult brain contains roughly how many neurons?

a. 10 million
b. 10 billion
c. 100 million
d. 100 billion

Answer: D

5. A membrane potential is the difference in electrical charge between

a. potassium and sodium ions

b. the inside and outside of the cell
 c. phosphoric acid and glycolipid layers
d. resting and action potentials

Answer: B

6. A neuron fires when

a. there is an excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP)

b. hyperpolarization occurs at the axon hillock
c. neurotransmitters dock onto receptor proteins
d. depolarization at the axon hillock exceeds the threshold for excitation

Answer: D

7. The end of the rising phase of an action potential occurs when the

a. potassium channels close

b. sodium channels close
c. potassium channels open
d. chloride channels open

Answer: B

8. Neurotransmitters are often stored in

a. synaptic buttons
b. microtubules
c. vesicles
d. endoplasmic reticulum

Answer: C

9. What effect does myelination have on axons?

a. it protects them from damage

b. it slows the propagation of signals along them
c. it prevents cross talk between adjacent axons
d. it allows them to conduct signals significantly faster

Answer: D

10. Interactions between neurons commonly occur across junctions called

a. synapses
b. juxtapositions
c. presynaptic membranes
d. postsynaptic membranes

Answer: A

11. Neurotransmitter release occurs through the process of

a. excitation
 b. exocytosis
c. pinocytosis
d. synthesis

Answer: B

12. Once released, neurotransmitter molecules typically produce signals in postsynaptic neurons
by

a. entering the postsynaptic neuron

b. attaching to vesicles
c. binding to presynaptic receptors
d. binding to postsynaptic receptors

Answer: D

13. After release, most neurotransmitters are deactivated by

a. reuptake
b. postsynaptic receptors
c. enzymes
d. buffered diffusion

Answer: A

14. The abbreviation 5-HT stands for

a. serotonin
b. dopamine
c. acetylcholine
d. tryptophan

Answer: A

15. Drugs that facilitate the activity of a synapse of a neurotransmitter are said to be ______ of
that neurotransmitter.

a. agonists
b. antagonists
c. autoreceptors
d. endorphins

Answer: A

16. A substance that binds to a receptor is known as

a. a Carlsson mediator
b. a ligand
c. an anti-telharsic inhibitor
d. a gluon

Answer: B

17. Exogenous substances

 a. originate within the body
b. are released via exocytosis
c. are natural neurotransmitters
d. originate outside the body

Answer: D

18. Microdialysis is a technique used to measure

a. action potentials
b. inhibitory postsynaptic potentials
c. neurotransmitters
d. brain waves

Answer: C

19. Antipsychotic drugs given for schizophrenia and psychosis are

a. selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors

b. acetylcholine agonists
c. postsynaptic dopamine antagonists
d. testosterone antagonists

20. A typical synaptic cleft is

a. 40 nm wide
b. 60 nm wide
c. 80 nm wide
d. 20 nm wide

Answer: D

MOTIVATION AND EMOTION

1. Mood is defined as

a. a short-lived feeling
b. being depressed for more than 1 month
c. a prevailing state of feeling
d. a temporary depression

Answer: C

2. Which of these supports the James-Lange theory of emotion?

a. emotion is a visceral response producing a behavioural response

b. artificial induction of visceral changes does not necessarily produce emotion
c. the viscera are ‘insensitive structures’
d. visceral changes are the same in many emotions

Answer: A

3. The direct emotional circuit controlling fear comprises

 a. eye, thalamus, sensory cortex, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex
b. eye, thalamus, amygdala, hypothalamus
c. eye, hypothalamus, visual cortex, striatum
d. eye, geniculate nucleus, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex

Answer: B

4. Which neurotransmitter is most commonly associated with depression?

a. serotonin
b. dopamine
c. septomin
d. glutamate

Answer: A

5. Which of the following is NOT an example of an intrinsically motivated activity?

a. eating a pie because you like pie

b. playing with a toy for the fun of it
c. revising for an exam to get a good grade
d. reading a book because you enjoy the story

Answer: C

6. According to Gray (1972), there are two types of personalities, specifically

a. those that are repelled by positive stimuli and those that are attracted to negative stimuli
b. those that are attracted to rewarding stimuli and those that tend to avoid aversive stimuli
c. those that are motivated by greed and those that are motivated by altruism
d. those that believe in simple binary divisions of personality and those that don’t

Answer: B

7. Which of the following are NOT TRUE of motivation?

a. it is the drive, incentive or interest to initiate, perform or maintain a behaviour

b. it is independent of emotion or cognition
c. it is a preparatory phase prior to action
d. it may be influenced by rewards and punishments

Answer: B

8. According to the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (Gray and McNaughton, 2000), the
behavioural inhibition system (BIS)

a. detects goal conflict between reward and punishment

b. gives one a sensitivity to punishment
c. gives one a sensitivity to reward
d. encourages inhibition of reward seeking

Answer: A

9. Why do those with orbitofrontal cortex damage perform poorly on the Iowa gambling task?
 a. choices made are random
b. inability to respond flexibly
c. motivated by reward only (not losses)
d. sensitive to punishment of loss

Answer: C

10. According to the incentive sensitization theory of addiction (Robinson and Berridge, 1993),
increased dopamine because of repeated drug use leads to

a. sensitivity to the rewarding aspect of the drug

b. neural adaptations in the mesolimbic dopamine system
c. increased sensitivity seen as facial reactivity to pleasure in the rat
d. tolerance of the rewarding effect of a drug

Answer: B

11. Self-actualization is the process whereby individuals

a. establish their concept of self

b. become selfless
c. reach their full potential
d. realize their ideal self

Answer: C

12. Matsuda et al. (2008) found that there appeared to be a cultural difference between Western
and Japanese people’s visual interpretations of emotion, specifically that

a. Westerners seem less sensitive to the visual perception of emotion than Japanese
people
b. Japanese people tend to focus on the mouth, while Westerners seem to look at the eyes
c. Westerners incorporate social context into emotional perception, while Japanese people
tend to see emotions as individual feelings
d. Japanese people tend to interpret emotions in a group context, while Westerners tend to
view emotions in relation to only the individual

Answer: D

13. Psychometric scales are

a. tests used to measure a person’s level of psychopathy

b. an instrument to estimate the mass of a person’s brain
c. survey-type questions that can be used to establish a quantitative measure of a trait,
emotion, mood, etc.
d. questions that assess a person’s level of latent psychic ability

Answer: C

14. Which region of the brain appears to be responsible for the freeze response to a fear
stimulus?

a. the hypothalamus
b. the periaqueductal grey matter
 c. the orbitofrontal cortex
d. the anterior cingulate cortex

Answer: B

15. Which of the following brain regions has NOT been identified by researchers as being
activated in response to pleasurable emotions

a. the anterior cingulate cortex

b. the orbitofrontal cortex
c. the insular cortex
d. the medulla oblongata

Answer: D

16. A cognitive process that starts with simple processes and builds to the more-complex higher
levels is known as

a. bottom–up processing
b. lateral processing
c. internal processing
d. top–down processing

Answer: A

17. Deliberately reinterpreting an event with the intention of modifying the emotional response to
it is known as

a. cognitive distortion
b. cognitive suppression
c. cognitive reappraisal
d. cognitive control

Answer: C

18. The emotional processing explanation of post-traumatic stress disorder suggests that the
patient

a. has a cognitive bias that the world is dangerous?

b. tends to avoid situations that remind him/her of the trauma
c. has repressed emotional responses
d. has an inability to recognize fear in others

Answer: A

19. Which of the following best describes the concept of an emotion?

a. a response to an external or internal stimulus with the purpose of motivating an action or

behaviour
b. an enduring or recurrent state with no specific causes
c. the mental representation of general feelings within an individual
d. a highly illogical concept, captain

Answer: A
20. TMS is a technique to manipulate activity in a particular brain regions. TMS stands for

a. Transcranial melatonin simulation

b. Transatlantic motivation system
c. Transorbital motor sensitization
d. Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Answer: D

BEHAVIOUR WITHINN GROUPS

1. According to Tuckman (1965), which of the following is NOT a stage of the life cycle of a
group:

a. performing
b. norming
c. reforming
d. storming

Answer: C

2. The phenomenon whereby an individual in a group will tend to end up agreeing with a strong
majority opinion in spite of their own judgement is known as

a. normative influence
b. informative influence
c. critical mass influence
d. bullying influence

Answer: A

3. The idea that the degree to which you will be influenced by the opinion of another group
member will depend on how much you identify with that person is known as

a. reactive intransigence influence

b. referent informational influence
c. reconciliation of internal influence
d. reorganizational interest influence

Answer: B

4. Which of the following is NOT suggested as an explanation for poor group motivation?

a. lack of individual feedback

b. lack of clear performance standards
c. seeing that others aren’t pulling their weight
d. latent misanthropic enjoyment of group failure

Answer: B
5. The tendency whereby a group reaches a decision by trying to minimize conflict, neglecting to
critically test and evaluate ideas, is termed

a. group compromise
b. group consensus
c. groupthink
d. group cohesion

Answer: C

6. The process whereby the presence of others is suggested to lead to individuals losing their
sense of personal identity is termed

a. deindividuation
b. deindividualization
c. individualization
d. individuation

Answer: A

7. The tendency whereby groups make decisions that are more extreme than the individuals’
opinions within the group is termed

a. group polarization
b. group cohesion
c. group deindividuation
d. group extremism

Answer: A

8. Steiner (1972) called losses in group productivity due to poor coordination

a. disorganization losses
b. momentum losses
c. process losses
d. laziness losses

Answer: C

9. Which of the following did Wilfred Bion (1961) NOT observe as a quality that was likely to be
present in a group with ‘good group spirit’?

a. flexibility of group membership

b. the presence of distinct subgroups
c. common purpose
d. valuing of all group members

Answer: B

10. The so-called ‘Hawthorne effect’ refers to which group-related phenomenon?

a. one person in a group usually does most of the work

b. people in groups tend to try to get away with doing as little as possible
c. people always perform better when they’re being watched
 d. there is usually one person in a group who will try to argue against the majority

Answer: C

11. Which of the following terms is used to refer to the potential negative effects of group
identification that stem from processes like stigma and rejection?

a. the Social Curse

b. the Exclusion Hypothesis
c. the Norm-Violation Problem
d. the Discrimination Dilemma

Answer: A

12. The term ‘groupthink’ was coined by

a. Janis (1972)
b. Jarvis (1972)
c. Jager (1972)
d. Jarratt (1972)

Answer: A

13. Groupthink refers to the process by which, when making decisions, the group places more
importance on

a. reaching a cohesive agreement

b. making a quality decision
c. reaching a speedy decision
d. reaching a well-evaluated decision

Answer: A

14. Diener’s (1980) explanation of deindividuation posited that deindividuation is the result of

a. decreased self-awareness
b. decreased responsibility
c. increased anonymity
d. increased group size

Answer: A

15. Group polarization refers to the tendency whereby

a. groups make decisions that are more extreme than the individuals’ opinions
b. conflict of individuals’ extreme opinions causes the group to side with the majority
c. the opinions of the minority shift to the majority
d. groups make decisions that are less extreme than the individuals’ opinions

Answer: A

16. Which of the following is NOT a type of theory seeking to explain group polarization?
 a. persuasive argument
b. social categorization processes
c. social comparison processes
d. social conformity processes

Answer: D

17. Identification with social groups has been shown to lead to various psychological
outcomes. Which of the following is NOT one of them?

a. self-esteem
b. distinctiveness
c. belonging
d. narcissism

Answer: D

18. According to Tajfel and Turner (1979), which of the following is a primary reason for choosing
to identify with a group?

a. to avoid loneliness
b. a fear of missing out
c. a desire to prove loyalty to a stereotype
d. to maintain a positive sense of self

Answer: D

19. The Social Cure (Jetten et al. 2009 & 2012) refers to

a. improvements in group cohesion as a result of socializing together

b. improvements in health and well-being as a result of identification with a group
c. improvements in social mobility resulting from free social care provision
d. improvements in health and well-being as a result of socialism

Answer: B

20. According to Moscovici (1980), the best way for a minority to exert influence on the majority’s
opinion is to

a. maintain a consistent position over time

b. express extreme opinions
c. stress the importance of their opinion
d. express creative opinions

Answer: A

BEHAVIOUR BETWEEN GROUPS

1. Tajfel (1978) proposed that a group is

a. a set of people who feel that they are a group

b. a set of people who outsiders see as a group
c. a set of people with a common goal
d. a set of people with shared beliefs
Answer: A

2. An unreasonable or unfair dislike of something, or more usually, someone, typically because

they belong to a specific race, religion or group, is referred to as

a. stereotyping
b. prejudice
c. scapegoating
d. discrimination

Answer: B

3. An oversimplified, generalized impression of someone or something is referred to as

a. a stereotype
b. prejudice
c. a scapegoat
d. discrimination

Answer: A

4. The consideration or treatment of others based on general factors (e.g. their race, religion or
some other grouping), rather than on individual merit, is termed

a. a stereotype
b. prejudice
c. scapegoating
d. discrimination

Answer: D

5. Someone who is (often unfairly) made to take the blame for something is referred to as

a. a scapegoat
b. prejudiced
c. discriminated
d. stereotyped

Answer: A

6. A stance in which an individual believes that their own race/ethnic group (or aspects of it, e.g.
its culture) is superior to those of other groups is termed

a. ethnocentrism
b. egocentrism
c. ethnicentrism
d. existentialism

Answer: A

7. The ‘FAH’ refers to a tendency whereby individuals frustrated in pursuit of their goals become
aggressive. ‘FAH’ stands for

a. frustration–aggression hypothesis
 b. frustration-aggravating hypothesis
c. frustration–anger hypothesis
d. frustration–antagonism hypothesis

Answer: A

8. The social learning theory was put forward by

a. Bandura (1977)
b. Freud (1939)
c. Tajfel (1978)
d. Allport (1954)

Answer: A

9. Goals that different groups share but that can only be achieved by those groups working
together are called

a. superordinate goals
b. subdominant goals
c. subsidiary goals
d. subliminal goals

Answer: A

10. According to the social identity theory, which one of our many social identities we adopt
depends on:

a. an individual’s mood
b. social influences
c. the context
d. situational factors

Answer: C

11. The early theorist who saw prejudice as resulting from inflexible and faulty cognitive
processing was

a. Duckitt (1954)
b. Allport (1954)
c. Bandura (1954)
d. Sherif (1954)

Answer: B

12. Which authors investigated the accuracy of eye-witness testimony accounts?

a. Steele and Aronson (1995)

b. Boon and Davies (1987)
c. Blake and Mouton (1961)
d. Ferguson and Kelley (1964)

Answer: B
13. The concept of ethnocentrism was introduced by

a. Sumner (1906)
b. Sommers (1906)
c. Summer (1906)
d. Sollman (1906)

Answer: A

14. The restraint required to limit the expression of aggression, in line with the norms of society,
is the basis of theories from which school of thought?

a. Freudian
b. gestaltism
c. humanistic
d. social learning theory

Answer: A

15. The frustration–aggression hypothesis (FAH) was developed by

a. Dollard et al. (1939)

b. Deschamps and Doise (1978)
c. Boon and Davies (1987)
d. Hovland and Sears (1940)

Answer: A

16. A healthy and restorative outpouring of built-up emotional energy is termed

a. catharsis
b. cataclysm
c. catabolism
d. catachresis

Answer: A

17. The main finding of Hovland and Sears’ (1940) study was

a. a positive correlation between the number of lynchings of black people and the price of
cotton
b. a small, but not significant, relationship between the number of lynchings of black people
and the price of cotton
c. no relationship between the number of lynchings of black people and the price of cotton
d. a negative correlation between the number of lynchings of black people and the price of
cotton

Answer: D

18. Bandura (1977) saw the expression of aggression as

a. a healthy outpouring of energy

b. a calming outpouring of energy
c. encouraging of future aggressive acts
 d. likely to increase frustration

Answer: C

19. Adorno et al.’s (1950) post-World War II publication, which sought to understand the
psychological dynamics involved in anti-Semitism and wider ethnocentrism, was entitled

a. The Authoritarian Personality

b. The Potential for Fascism
c. Authoritarianism
d. The Widening Circle of Covariation

Answer: A

20. In Adorno et al.’s (1950) study of ethnocentrism, ethnocentrism was found to be related to the
extent to which the person ‘liked things as they are’, which was termed

a. political and economic conservatism

b. ethnocentric traditionalism
c. traditionalist conservatism
d. social conservatism

Answer: A

21. Altemeyer (1998) devised an instrument, termed the

a. Right Wing Authoritarianism Scale

b. The Authoritarian Personality Scale
c. The Traditionalist Personality Scale
d. The Ethnocentrism Scale

Answer: A

22. Perrin (2005) found that authoritarian values and behaviour may increase in response to

a. changes in social context, such as unemployment

b. external threats, such as terrorism
c. childhood experiences
d. between-group conflict

23. Sherif (1966) saw the psychological processes behind discrimination and prejudice of out-
groups as following on from

a. inter-group relations
b. material relations
c. conflict of beliefs
d. conformity

Answer: B

24. Which of the following was NOT an experimental stage under the first two studies of Sherif et
al. (1966) on inter-group relations?

a. friendship development
 b. group formation
c. introduction of superordinate goals
d. inter-group competition

Answer: C

25. In his theory of inter-group conflict, Sherif (1966) saw discrimination and prejudice of out-
groups as mainly due to

a. competition for scarce resources

b. differing group values
c. extreme ideologies
d. group idealization

Answer: A

26. Blake and Mouton (1961) replicated Sherif et al.’s (1966) findings in which group of people?

a. school children
b. lecturers
c. business executives
d. medical professionals

Answer: C

27. Which of the following is NOT one of the four conditions suggested under Allport’s (1954)
initial contact hypothesis for contact between groups to be encouraged?

a. equal social conditions

b. support of authorities within the group of contact
c. common goals between the groups
d. similar group size

Answer: D

28. Amir contributed to Allport’s contact hypothesis, adding the condition for contact between
groups to be

a. rewarding
b. close
c. for a sustained period
d. equal

Answer: A

29. The concept of superordinate goals derives from

a. group conflict theory

b. behavioural conflict theory
c. realistic conflict theory
d. social conflict theory

Answer: C
30. Which of the following is NOT listed as a predictor of collective action in van Zomeren,
Postmes and Spears’ social identity model of collective action (SIMCA)?

a. perceived injustice
b. perceived efficacy
c. a sense of social identity
d. a sense of superiority

Answer: D

SOCIAL JUDGEMENTS AND BEHAVIOUR

1. An attribution refers to the behaviour of

a. a conclusion made about someone’s disposition

b. attributing someone’s behaviour to situational factors
c. attributing a cause to an event
d. attributing someone’s behaviour to their disposition

Answer: C

2. An evaluation of a target where we decide what we think and feel towards an object is

a. a belief
b. an attitude
c. a prejudice
d. an opinion

Answer: B

3. The tendency to attribute the actions of a person we are observing to their disposition, rather
than to situational variables, is termed

a. attribution bias
b. dispositional attribution error
c. fundamental attribution error
d. dispositional bias

Answer: C

4. The actor–observer effect refers to the tendency of explaining other people’s behaviour in
terms of

a. dispositional factors
b. situational factors
c. both dispositional and situational factors
d. neither dispositional nor situational factors

Answer: A

5. The phrase ‘ultimate attribution error’ refers to

a. attributing positive behaviour of people in a liked group to their inherent goodness

 b. subconsciously attributing positive characteristics to a member of a disliked group
c. the last social misjudgement a person will ever make
d. maintaining prejudice and finding ways to explain away positive behaviour by a member
of a disliked group

Answer: D

6. Correspondent inference theory (CIT) proposes a number of factors that determine the extent
to which we attribute observed actions to a disposition or the situation. Which of the following is
NOT one of those factors?

a. desirability
b. attractiveness
c. hedonic relevance
d. personalism

Answer: B

7. In his covariation model, Harold Kelley suggests there are three dimensions that we use to
make our judgements of cause. Which of the following is NOT one of those dimensions?

a. distinctiveness
b. consistency
c. desirability
d. consensus

Answer: C

8. One of the main criticisms of the correspondent inference theory is that it

a. underestimates the extent of our analyses of others’ behaviour

b. does not explain unintentional behaviour
c. does not consider internal factors
d. ignores intentional actions

Answer: B

9. The term ‘motivated tactician’ refers to the idea that

a. people make decisions based on different resource-intense and cost-saving strategies

depending on the intended outcomes
b. people make decisions based on flawed and simplistic knee-jerk reactions
c. people make decisions after careful analysis of all the available data
d. people make decisions by ignoring much of the available data and using only heuristics
that save time and mental effort

Answer: A

10. Persons who attribute much of the cause of what happens to them to control from within
themselves are said to have

a. an internal locus of control

b. an external locus of control
c. an internal locum of control
 d. an external locum of control

Answer: A

11. The cognitive miser model proposes that

a. we seek rational answers

b. we use heuristics to make quick judgements
c. we are influenced by others in making our judgements
d. we are naïve scientists

Answer: B

12. The fundamental attribution error refers to

a. the tendency to attribute the actions of others we are observing to their disposition
b. the tendency to attribute our successes to our internal dispositions and our failures to
external situational factors
c. the tendency to explain others’ behaviour in terms of dispositional factors and our own
behaviour in terms of situational factors
d. the tendency to attribute the actions of others to situational factors

Answer: A

13. Fundamental attribution errors were initially identified by

a. Ross (1977) and Jones (1979)

b. Jones and Harris (1967)
c. Jones and Davis (1965)
d. Harris (1977) and Jones (1979)

Answer: B

14. The group attribution error refers to

a. the tendency to assign an individual to a particular group based on their behaviour

b. the tendency to make general inferences about a group from a single group member, or
to assume that group behaviour reflects individual attitudes
c. the tendency to attribute negative behaviour by an individual to the perceived
characteristics of a group to which the individual belongs
d. the tendency to assume that an individual only identifies with a single group rather than a
set of overlapping or unrelated groups

Answer: B

15. The actor–observer effect was first observed by

a. Jones and Nelson (1972)

b. Jones and Norman (1972)
c. Jones and Nisbett (1972)
d. Jones and Nesbitt (1972)

Answer: C
16. According to the social learning theory, attitudes can be formed through

a. observing our own behaviour

b. our own experiences
c. observing others
d. innate drives

Answer: C

17. Social learning theories are based on the work of

a. Bandura (1972)
b. Heider (1958)
c. Tajfel (1959)
d. Kelley (1967)

Answer: A

18. The theory of planned behaviour was designed by

a. Zajonc (1968)
b. Azjen (1991)
c. Fishbein (1975)
d. Strack (1988)

Answer: B

19. Which of the following is NOT one of the three factors in the theory of planned behaviour?

a. attitudes
b. attributions
c. subjective norms
d. perceived control

Answer: B

20. The just-world hypothesis refers to

a. a belief that people are basically honest and law abiding

b. a belief that people generally get what they deserve and deserve what they get
c. a belief that people should be socially responsible
d. a belief that people should unite to create a just world

Answer: B

21. Which one of the following is NOT a step put forward by Latané and Darley (1969) under
their bystander intervention model?

a. noticing
b. approaching
c. interpreting
d. provision of help

Answer: B
22. When examining the relationship between real-world and online altruistic behaviour, it was
found that

a. people commonly show a different level of altruism online compared to real-world

situations
b. people commonly show the same level of altruism online as they do in real-world
situations
c. people are commonly more aggressive and less altruistic online
d. people are commonly less aggressive and more altruistic online

Answer: B

23. Which of the following is NOT one of the four different types of behaviour that Stevens,
Cushman and Hauser (2005) suggest can be used to explain evolutionary prosociality?

a. kin selection
b. reciprocity
c. mutualism
d. empathy

Answer: D

24. Benson, Karabenick and Lerner (1976) found that their participants were more likely to help a
person they considered

a. to be an in-group member
b. to be similar to them
c. to have an attractive personality
d. to be in a situation outside of their control

Answer: B

25. The act of helping another person is referred to as

a. social aiding
b. prosocial behaviour
c. social assistance
d. social behaviour

Answer: B

26. In an evolutionary context, the term mutualism can be defined as

a. the closer the relationship, the more the individual is willing to sacrifice
b. one helps somebody else in the hope of future cooperation and repayment
c. by punishing an individual for past behaviour, the punisher hopes to gain a future reward
d. helping each other out is beneficial to everyone involved, and anybody who fails to
cooperate will be worse off

Answer: D

27. In an evolutionary context, the term reciprocity can be defined as

a. the closer the relationship, the more the individual is willing to sacrifice
 b. one helps somebody else in the hope of future cooperation and repayment
c. by punishing an individual for past behaviour, the punisher hopes to gain a future reward
d. helping each other out is beneficial to everyone involved, and anybody who fails to
cooperate will be worse off

Answer: D

28. According to Wansik and Sobal, on average how many food-related decisions do people take
each day?

a. 20
b. 50
c. 100
d. 200

Answer: D

29. The Lapierre study on the relationship between prejudiced attitudes and behaviour found that

a. restaurants and hotels expressed few prejudiced attitudes but behaved with a lot of
discrimination
b. restaurants and hotels expressed a lot of prejudiced attitudes but behaved with little
discrimination
c. restaurants and hotels expressed a lot of prejudiced attitudes and behaved with a lot of
discrimination
d. restaurants and hotels expressed few prejudiced attitudes and behaved with little
discrimination
e. 30. The norm of social responsibility refers to

a. the idea that we are all responsible for the creation of the society in which we live
b. the idea that we should help people who are in need because they will likely help us in
turn
c. the idea that we should help people who are in need without expecting anything in return
d. the idea that everyone has an obligation to engage in social activity.

Answer: C

PERSONALITY

1. What is the difference between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to personality?

a. nomothetic approaches seek to find generalized laws of behaviour that help us classify
people in terms of their similarities, while idiographic approaches seek to find what
makes people unique
b. nomothetic approaches view only the differences between people, while ideographic
approaches seek to find similarities
c. ideographic approaches try to categorize people, while nomothetic approaches don’t

Answer: A

2. What is one of the main assumptions of the trait approach to personality?

 a. traits are not very stable across the lifespan and are therefore weak predictors of
personality
b. traits stay relatively stable across the lifespan
c. traits change drastically around the age of 6 years, which has to be taken into account
when predicting personality

Answer: B

3. Sophie is a 22-year-old psychology student. She loves reading books and is a great drawer.
She does go to parties every now and then, but she prefers to meet her friends for a coffee,
movies or cooking together. She does not like to be the centre of attention. How would Eysenck
make use of biological explanations to describe Sophie’s personality trait?

a. he would argue that Sophie has very low arousal levels in her ascending reticular
activating system (ARAS)
b. he would argue that Sophie’s autonomic nervous system is generally less aroused and
therefore does not invoke a ‘fight-or-flight’ response in her
c. he would argue that Sophie has high arousal levels in her ascending reticular activating
system (ARAS)

Answer: C

4. What are the five personality traits identified by the five-factor model (McCrae & Costa, 1997)?

a. extraversion, neuroticism, introversion, liveliness and agreeableness

b. agreeableness, openness to experience, introversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness
c. extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience and
conscientiousness

Answer: C

5. Peter studies Psychology in his first year. His friends know him as a very keen and eager
student. He always carries a book with him and, every free minute, he works on some kind of
thinking task. He loves to borrow books from the library that are meant for third year students.
What is the best way to describe Peter?

a. he has a high need for cognition

b. he has a high need for stimulation
c. he has a high need for attention

Answer: A

6. Harold works for a big law firm in London. He is often confronted with challenging cases but
manages to stay calm and does not stress out about it. He and his colleagues love to go bowling
after work, and Harold is very good at it. Often, he wins, which makes him very happy, but he is
just as happy when one of his colleagues takes the lead. Which type of personality best
describes Harold?

a. personality Type A
b. personality Type B
c. personality Type C

Answer: B
7. Which of the following is NOT given as a criticism of the Type A/B personality theory?

a. most of the research on Type A personality is purely correlational

b. there is a lack of cross-cultural research
c. the questionnaires that claim to measure Type A personality have poor internal reliability
scores

Answer: C

8. Allison is a very self-critical, restless and impatient person. She believes her personality can
explain her stomach problems. What approach is she taking?

a. specificity approach
b. generality approach
c. specificity approach and generality approach

Answer: A

9. Renee has just recently quit smoking, and she was surprised how easy it was for her
compared to the experiences of her friends. What is most likely to be TRUE for her?

a. she has a high sense of self-efficacy

b. she has an internal locus of control
c. she has a high sense of self-efficacy and an internal locus of control

Answer: C

10. What is meant by ‘interactionism’ in personality psychology?

a. the view that the interaction between people shapes their personalities
b. the view that there is reciprocal interaction between personality, situations and the
environment
c. the view that children should interact with other children as much as possible to shape a
personality that will benefit them in their later lives

Answer: B

INTELLIGENCE: MEASURING THE MIND

1. What did Galton argue was the indicator of intelligence?

a. intelligence tests
b. percept–reality distinction
c. sensory discrimination
d. the size of the brain

Answer: C

2. What spurred the development of Binet’s intelligence test?

a. the French Revolution

b. the French government’s aim to develop the first intelligence test
c. the French government’s aim to develop a eugenic society
 d. the French government’s aim to identify children who are less able

Answer: D

3. The reporting of which uncomfortable ‘fact’ resulted from Yerkes’ mass measurement of IQ
during the First World War?

a. IQ measures are unreliable and can result in incorrect labelling of individuals

b. the average citizen of the USA had an IQ score equivalent to someone with learning
difficulties
c. the average citizen of the USA had an IQ score higher than the average score of people
in Europe
d. the average citizen of the USA had an IQ score lower than the average score of people in
Europe

Answer: B

4. What does IQ, the numerical measure of intelligence given by the performance in an
intelligence test, stand for?

a. intelligence quota
b. irrelevant questions
c. intelligence quotient
d. intelligence questions

Answer: C

5. The idea of selective breeding to diminish undesirable genetics from gene pools to prevent
them from being inherited through generations is referred to as what?

a. natural selection
b. ethnic cleansing
c. survival of the fittest
d. eugenics

Answer: D

6. Spearman’s finding that one person’s results on a variety of different cognitive tests tend to be
consistent with each other is referred to as

a. positive manifold
b. positive interrelation
c. positive correlation
d. positive intelligence

Answer: C

7. What statistical test did Spearman develop and use to assess whether intelligence is
underpinned by one or many factors?

a. multivariate analysis
b. analysis of variance
c. factor analysis
d. parametrics
Answer: C

8. What was Binet’s criticism of Spearman’s perspective on intelligence?

Different individuals could obtain ______ scores, which may be reflected in ______ types of
abilities.

a. identical, different
b. different, identical
c. average, higher-order
d. higher-order, average

Answer: A

9. How many mental abilities did Thurstone suggest constituted intelligence?

a. 5
b. 6
c. 7
d. 8

Answer: C

10. Those supporting the existence of a uniting ‘g factor’ underpinning intelligence, by

implication, also believe

a. intelligence is predominantly hereditary and can be measured psychometrically

b. intelligence is predominantly environmentally determined and is mutable
c. intelligence is changeable and not related to environment or heredity
d. intelligence is multifaceted and not measurable by a single indicator

Answer: A

11. What term is given to a group of instruments that have been developed for measuring mental
characteristics?

a. psychoanalytic tests
b. psychosomatic tests
c. psychometric tests
d. psychopathological tests

Answer: C

12. What is a key criticism of instruments that may be used to measure intelligence?

a. these instruments cannot be standardized

b. these instruments have no discriminatory power
c. these instruments are not subjected to rigorous testing
d. these instruments cannot capture all types of intelligence

Answer: D

13. What is the Flynn effect?

 a. the average IQ score of people is slowly but steadily going down over time
b. the average IQ score of people is slowly but steadily going up over time
c. an individual’s IQ score can be used to predict his/her future income
d. people with high IQ scores have been shown to be happier than people with low IQ
scores

14. The systematic bias of early military tests identified White Americans as having what mental
age?

a. 10
b. 11
c. 12
d. 13

Answer: D

15. The average IQ score for a population will be

a. usually around 100

b. slightly higher each time it is tested
c. slightly lower each time it is tested
d. 100 by definition

Answer: D

16. Which of the following is NOT one of Gardner’s intelligences?

a. emotional intelligence
b. linguistic intelligence
c. musical intelligence
d. spatial intelligence

Answer: A

17. Shakeshaft et al.’s (2015) study noted that there was a ‘clear familial effect’ for high
intelligence. This was put down to

a. environmental factors
b. genetic factors
c. a combination of environmental and genetic factors
d. experimental confounding factors

Answer: C

18. Salthouse (2009) noted that IQ peaks during what period of life?

a. between the ages of 10 and 13

b. between the end of adolescence and the early twenties
c. in the mid-thirties
d. between the ages of 40 and 50

Answer: B

19. Which of the following can negatively affect measures of intelligence?

 a. depression
b. substance use
c. sleep disorders
d. all of these

Answer: D

20. Higher intelligence appears to correlate with which of the following?

a. living longer
b. having a diagnosis of ADHD
c. having a diagnosis of anxiety or other mood disorders
d. all of these

Answer: D

MENTAL HEALTH

1. The study of mental distress is known as

a. psychosomatics
b. psychoanalytics
c. psychopathology
d. psychodynamics

Answer: C

2. The term ‘abnormal psychology’ refers to which of the following?

a. the psychological study of people who are fundamentally odd

b. psychological research carried out using highly unconventional methods
c. psychology relating to atypical patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours
d. the more obscure areas of psychology that relate to topics such as what sheep think
about

Answer: C

3. Which of the statements regarding the difference between structured and unstructured
interviews is wrong?

a. structured interviews guarantee consistency throughout interviewing different individuals

b. unstructured interviews require more preparation time than structured interviews
c. unstructured interviews are more open to interpretations compared to structured ones
d. structured interviews can limit the client’s answers

Answer: B

4. What is NOT a form of clinical observation?

a. interviewing
b. self-monitoring
 c. assessing clients in their homes
d. assessing clients outside of their home

Answer: A

5. The diagnosis of mental illness is generally carried out by which of the following?

a. a clinical psychologist
b. a counsellor
c. a psychiatric nurse
d. a psychiatrist

Answer: D

6. Which of the following is NOT a part of the mind, according to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

a. the superego
b. the subego
c. the id
d. the ego

Answer: B

7. A new client comes into the office and tells you about experiencing excessive anxiety,
restlessness, muscle tension and having headaches almost every day. She also tells you she
has trouble sleeping and can’t concentrate at work. From the disorders described in the chapter,
which one sounds the most logical?

a. major depressive disorder

b. social phobia
c. schizophrenia
d. generalized anxiety disorder

Answer: D

8. What is NOT a positive symptom of schizophrenia?

a. delusions
b. avolition
c. disorganized thinking and speech
d. hallucinations

Answer: B

9. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) often focusses on which of the following?

a. repressed memories
b. genetic predisposition to mental illness
c. traumatic incidents in childhood
d. problematic ways of thinking

Answer: D

10. According to Kirkbride et al. (2012), the prevalence of schizophrenia in the UK is

 a. 15 in 1,000
b. 15 in 10,000
c. 15 in 100,000
d. 15 in 1,000,000

Answer: C

PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS

. Which one of these is NOT an approach to psychological interventions?

a. motivational interviewing
b. humanistic therapy
c. cognitive behavioural therapy
d. group therapy

Answer: D

2. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, what is the role of the superego?

a. establishes the rules and prohibitions, telling us the right thing to do using guilt to
override our id impulses
b. mediates between the unrealistic id and the external real world
c. it works out realistic ways to satisfy the id’s demands
d. it demands immediate satisfaction

Answer: A

3. Who is psychodynamic therapy most beneficial for?

a. clients whose sense of self is stable

b. clients whose interpersonal emotional issues are most prominent
c. clients whose sense of self is stable and clients whose interpersonal emotional issues
are most prominent
d. clients who do not display intrapsychic conflict

Answer: B

4. Which of the following is NOT an aim of cognitive behavioural therapy?

a. learning not to have intrusive thoughts

b. to develop rational thinking and ways of behaving to reduce psychological distress
c. aiding clients in solving real-life problems
d. to use cognitive, behavioural and emotional regulation to modify distressing affect

Answer: A

5. What is Socratic questioning?

a. a form of dialogue that helps a person to discover and attend to previously overlooked
information and to guide discovery of the therapist rather than interpretation from the
individual
 b. a form of dialogue that helps a person to discover and attend to previously attended
information and to guide discovery of the individual rather than interpretation from the
therapist
c. a form of dialogue that helps a person to discover and attend to previously overlooked
information and to guide discovery of the individual rather than interpretation from the
therapist
d. a form of dialogue that helps a person to discover and attend to previously attended
information and to guide discovery of the therapist rather than interpretation from the
individual

Answer: C

6. What are the four conditions relating to person-centred therapy?

a. organismic valuing processes, the effects of others and the environment, conditions of
worth, the locus of evaluation
b. the locus of evaluation, unconditional positive regard, conditions of worth, organismic
valuing processes
c. the locus of evaluation, unconditional positive regard, conditions of worth, the effects of
others and the environment
d. organismic valuing processes, the effects of others and the environment, conditions of
worth, unconditional positive regard

Answer: A

7. Which of the following is NOT listed by Burke, Arkowitz and Mechola (2003) as being treatable
with motivational interviewing:

a. substance-related disorders
b. smoking cessation
c. diabetes
d. obsessive-compulsive disorder

Answer: D

8. What is the function of tricyclic medications?

a. they improve mood and depression

b. they block the reuptake of certain chemicals like dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin
c. they improve mood and depression, and they block the reuptake of certain chemicals like
dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin
d. they selectively block the reuptake of serotonin

Answer: C

9. What voltage is typically passed across the brain during electroconvulsive therapy?

a. 200 volts
b. 120 volts
c. 175 volts
d. 225 volts

Answer: D
10. How are the side effects of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) reduced?

a. ECT is administered on one side of the brain

b. the procedure is repeated less times a week during a number of sessions
c. the number of sessions is reduced
d. ECT is administered on both sides of the brain

Answer: A

HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

1. What does the biopsychosocial model NOT postulate?

a. that there is a single cause to a disease

b. health and illness have many causes
c. that there are connections between mental events and biological changes
d. that infectious diseases have been replaced by chronic diseases

Answer: A

2. The HBM is short for which of the following?

a. the Health Behaviour Model

b. the Harfatum Bilateral Mechanism
c. the Health Belief Model
d. the Higher Behavioural Mechanism

Answer: C

3. In 1946, the World Health Organization defined health as

a. a physical state of heightened activity and nourishment and a social state of

gregariousness
b. a mental state of fulfilment and wholesomeness derived from physical exercise and
social engagement
c. a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of
disease or infirmity
d. a mindfulness of one’s physical and mental existence through thoughtful reflection.

Answer: C

4. When the body is in a state of internal stability, it is said to be in a state of

a. resistance
b. allostasis
c. homeostasis
d. alarm

Answer: C

5. Hans Selye identified a general set of changes that the body goes through in response to a
stressor. This is known as the
 a. general adaptation syndrome
b. transtheoretical model
c. allostatic load
d. homeostatic response

Answer: A

6. The body's main stress hormone is

a. ACTH
b. cortisol
c. epinephrine
d. norepinephrine

Answer: B

7. Lazarus and Folkman (1984) describe coping as consisting of two types, namely

a. problem-avoidance coping and emotion-avoidance coping

b. emotional-resilience coping and social support seeking
c. positive reappraisal and negative reappraisal
d. problem-focussed and emotion-focussed coping

Answer: D

8. What are the heritability rates of the body mass index?

a. 20%–30%
b. 50%–70%
c. 40%–70%
d. 10%–20%

Answer: C

9. What is neuralgia?

a. a pain with no obvious physical injury

b. a sharp pain along a nerve pathway
c. a pain with no obvious physical injury and a sharp pain along a nerve pathway
d. a burning pain

Answer: B

10. What were McGowan et al.’s (1998) findings when they explored the personal and
psychological factors influencing the experience of pain?

a. in women with pelvic pain, there is a correlation between their anxiety and the strength of
their pain
b. in men with pelvic pain, there is a correlation between their anxiety and the strength of
pain
c. women are more disturbed by low-level pain that lasts several days
d. women found postsurgical pain more intense than men

Answer: A
 ADULTHOOD AND AGEING

1. Achievement of which milestones mark the transition to adulthood?

a. buying a car
b. having a family
c. buying a house
d. none of these; the transition to adulthood is gradual and not marked by a single factor

Answer: D

2. What are the first two stages of Levinson’s (1978) stage model for adult development?

a. transition phase, entering adult world phase

b. transition phase, settling down period
c. transition phase, age 30 transition phase
d. settling down period, age 30 transition phase

Answer: A

3. What are the final two phases of Levinson’s (1978) stage model for adult development?

a. transition phase, settling down period

b. age 30 transition phase, settling down period
c. transition phase, entering adult world phase
d. settling down period, age 30 transition phase

Answer: B

4. Social and emotional well-being in young adulthood can be affected by what?

a. establishing a career
b. establishing first serious relationships
c. increasing responsibility and independence
d. all of these

Answer: D

5. During early adulthood, which of the following begin to decline?

a. metabolism
b. dexterity
c. physical fitness
d. cognitive functioning

Answer: A

6. During early adulthood, which of the following are thought to be at their peak?
 a. hearing high-pitched noises
b. metabolism
c. flexibility
d. reaction times

Answer: D

7. Schaie’s (1996) longitudinal study exploring the intelligence throughout the lifespan looked at
five primary abilities. What did their results show?

a. modest decreases across most of the five areas of ability

b. modest gains across most of the five areas of ability
c. significant gains across most of the five areas of ability
d. significant decreases across most of the five areas of ability

Answer: B

8. What are some of the ‘crises’ affecting social and emotional well-being in middle adulthood?

a. physical signs of ageing

b. children growing up and leaving home
c. boredom with a chosen career
d. all of these

Answer: D

9. Leuner, Gould and Shors (2006) found that

a. new neurons can develop in certain parts of the brain throughout the lifespan
b. no new neurons develop after adolescence; the brain is static
c. neurons begin to die and are not replaced after adolescence
d. none of these

Answer: A

10. Fluid abilities such as short-term memory are

a. more susceptible than crystallized abilities to cognitive decline

b. less susceptible than crystallized abilities to cognitive decline
c. equally susceptible to cognitive decline as crystallized abilities
d. none of these

Answer: A

11. Fluid abilities include

a. information-processing ability
b. short-term memory ability
c. long-term memory ability
d. all of these

Answer: D
12. Crystallized abilities include the ability to use skills, knowledge and experience. These
abilities tend to

a. improve with age as individuals expand their knowledge through experience

b. decline with age along with general cognitive function
c. stay static over time
d. none of these

Answer: A

13. The frontal lobe hypothesis is the theory that decline in frontal lobe functioning underlies
general age-related cognitive ______?

a. improvements
b. stereotypes
c. decline
d. perceptual skills

Answer: C

14. When a participant is effectively inhibiting attention towards a distracting item, if that item is
then deemed relevant in the next trial of the task, his/her response will typically be slowed. This
is an example of what?

a. learning difficulties
b. negative priming
c. cognitive decline
d. fluid intelligence

Answer: B

15. Research on changes in the way cognitive skills develop or decline across the entire lifespan
would need to use what type of research design?

a. cross sectional
b. longitudinal
c. observational
d. natural

Answer: B

16. Carstensen, Turan, Schiebe, Ram, Ersner-Hershfield et al. (2011) found that

a. positive emotional experiences decrease with age

b. positive emotional experiences increase with age
c. positive and negative experiences increase with age
d. positive experiences are higher in early adulthood than in late adulthood

Answer: B

17. Which of the following lifestyle factors are known to affect well-being positively in late
adulthood?

a. mental and physical activity, nutrition

 b. alcohol consumption and retiring early
c. drug consumption, mental and physical activity
d. none of these

Answer: A

18. What does the term ‘population ageing’ mean?

a. the trend for the youngest age groups in society to grow faster than the oldest age
groups
b. the trend for the middle-aged groups in society to grow faster than the oldest age groups
c. the trend for the oldest age groups in society to grow faster than the younger age groups
d. the trend for the youngest age groups in society to grow faster than the middle-aged
groups

Answer: C

19. Carson et al. (2013) found that giving up smoking in later life

a. is pointless as the damage has already been done

b. tends to lead to a decrease in life expectancy
c. makes no significant difference to health outcomes
d. can add years to life expectancy

Answer: D

20. The concept of ‘grand-generativity’ refers to

a. the creation of large and significant projects that contribute to wider society
b. having grandchildren
c. people developing their abilities and transmitting knowledge and values to younger
generations in later life
d. younger generations teaching those in older generations to understand new concepts
relating to changes in the modern world

Answer: C

21. What are the five dimensions of Martin Seligman’s PERMA model?

a. Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment

b. Patience, Energy, Reasoning, Management, Acceptance
c. Polecat, Echidna, Rat, Mouse, Anteater
d. Placidity, Equitability, Resilience, Measurement, Adaptation

Answer: A