Deck 10: A Psychology of Social Action and Social Change

Question 1

The 1930s led David Krech and Ross Stagner to form SPSSI, a new psychological organization whose purpose was to

A)promote the advancement of clinical psychology
B)increase contacts between psychologists in universities and psychologists working in industry
C)apply psychology to the social problems of the world
D)engineer a major reform in American education based on the new psychological work in learning and human development

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to Stephanie Shields, what factor made the study of the female important, and thus led to the study of sex differences as part of functional psychology?

A)the incorporation of evolutionary theory into psychology
B)the fact that women were given the right to vote in the United States in 1920
C)the failure of introspectionist accounts of psychology
D)the fact that psychology embraced the experimental method

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Helen Thompson's pioneering research was on what subject?

A)child development
B)sex differences
C)moral behavior
D)alcoholism

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Helen Thompson's research comparing males and females on a variety of motor, sensory, and cognitive tasks, found that

A)males were superior on all motor tasks
B)women showed greater creativity
C)men had more acute senses
D)differences between the sexes, when they were found, were small

Question 5

Helen Thompson argued that the psychological differences that exist between the sexes are likely the result of differences in the

A)physical abilities of the two sexes
B)mental abilities of the two sexes
C)social influences on the two sexes
D)sensory-motor capabilities of the two sexes

Question 6

What was the impact of Thompson's research on sex differences?

A)Standard views of male superiority were changed to conform to her findings.
B)Some schools changed their curricula for males and females as a result of her studies.
C)Most psychology textbooks altered their content to reflect her research findings.
D)Her work was largely ignored within psychology.

Question 7

Leta Hollingworth's dissertation research showed that

A)women were not psychological or physically impaired during any part of their menstrual cycle
B)women were superior to men on all tests of judgment and decision making
C)women were more emotional than men, and that this greater emotionality impaired cognitive performance at times
D)variability, on virtually any psychological or physical measure, was greater in men

Question 8

During Leta Hollingworth's time, the variability hypothesis asserted that

A)men are more variable than women
B)women are more variable than men
C)there are no differences between women and men with respect to variability
D)men have greater variability on some traits, women on others

Question 9

Much of Leta Hollingworth's research on the psychology of sex differences cast doubt on the validity of

A)the variability hypothesis
B)personality tests
C)intellectual assessment
D)birth order effects

Question 10

Kurt Lewin's concern that psychological research be used to make individuals, groups, and societies better was labeled

A)altruistic research
B)situational research
C)social action research
D)humanistic research

Question 11

In looking for behavioral causes in social psychology, Lewin placed great emphasis on

A)personal characteristics of the individual
B)characteristics and demands of the situation
C)past history variables of the individuals involved
D)genetics and other sociobiological determinants

Question 12

Which of the following was NOT an area of research for Lewin?

A)leadership
B)frustration and aggression
C)group dynamics
D)bystander apathy

Question 13

The word "race" did not appear in the scientific literature until

A)1750
B)1800
C)1850
D)1900

Question 14

Bache's research on racial differences in performance on reaction time tasks found that whites had the slowest reaction times when compared to African Americans or Native Americans. He explained that result by claiming that

A)Native Americans had cheated by anticipating the signals
B)the jobs of African Americans were more akin to the reaction time tasks used
C)whites were not very motivated in the tasks
D)the mind of a white person was more contemplative and less reflexive

Question 15

When science is used to introduce or maintain beliefs about the superiority of a particular race, this phenomenon is called

A)scientific racism
B)eugenics
C)reverse racism
D)scientific monism

Question 16

Writing in the 1930s, social psychologist Otto Klineberg, was one of the earliest psychologists to suggest that

A)there were no differences in reaction time across races
B)cultural bias was not sufficient to account for the obtained differences in intelligence across the races
C)there was no scientific evidence of racial differences in intelligence
D)racial differences on psychological tests were likely due to genetic differences

Question 17

Franz Samelson argues that American psychology's transition from racism in the 1920s to arguments of cultural bias in the 1940s was due to

A)an influx of more diverse psychologists, especially Jewish psychologists, whose interpretations of the data were different
B)new data in the 1950s that were incontrovertible in demonstrating no differences in intelligence across the races when environmental
circumstances were considered
C)a vast change in American society in the 1940s that reduced racial prejudice
D)a backlash in psychology against the prevalence of hate groups in America

Question 18

The first African American to earn a PhD in psychology also chaired the department of psychology at Howard University, a department that produced many early African American psychologists. Who was he?

A)Kenneth B.Clark
B)Francis C.Sumner
C)Henry Garrett
D)Thurgood Marshall

Question 19

The first African American woman to earn a PhD in psychology was

A)Mamie Phipps Clark
B)Carolyn Payton
C)Inez Beverly Prosser
D)Alberta Banner Turner

Question 20

In the Clarks's research on African American children in the 1930s from segregated and integrated schools, they found that children from the segregated schools

A)had higher IQ scores
B)were more violent
C)had lower self esteem
D)formed closer friendships

Question 21

The research of Kenneth and Mamie Clark has a singular distinction in the history of psychology:

A)it was featured on the cover of Time magazine
B)it was cited in a Supreme Court decision
C)it was honored by special citation from the U.S.Congress
D)it was nominated for a Nobel Prize

Question 22

What factors led to the decision to form the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI)?

Question 23

Discuss the work on the psychology of sex differences of Helen Thompson (Woolley) and Leta Hollingworth.

Question 24

What was the variability hypothesis? How was it investigated by Helen Thompson and Leta Hollingworth? What impact did their work have on the hypothesis?

Question 25

What did Kurt Lewin mean by "action research," and how did his work embody that concept?

Question 26

Franz Samelson has written that psychologists changed their views on race and intelligence from believing in white superiority to interpreting the disparate intelligence scores in terms of cultural bias. Discuss the history of American psychology's views of race and intelligence from the 1890s through the 1940s, commenting on the reasons for this change.

Question 27

Discuss the role that psychologists played in the 1954 Supreme Court decision (Brown v. Board of Education) that made mandatory school segregation illegal.

Question 28

Discuss the role that prejudice and discrimination likely played in shaping the research careers of Helen Thompson (Woolley), Leta Hollingworth, Kurt Lewin, and Kenneth and Mamie Clark