Deck 5: Psychological Process Theories

Question 1

Which of the following was not a major influence on the psychological process theories?

A) Le Bon's work on crowd behaviors
B) Freud's psychoanalytic approach
C) Tarde's laws of imitation
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to the psychological process theorists, humans are essentially blank slates. What is their underlying justification for this belief?

A) Behavior is shaped by one's attachments to the people around him or her.
B) To thrive socially, humans adjust their behavior to their key reference groups.
C) The human brain exhibits a great deal of plasticity and is geared to adjust to one's environment to allow him or her to adapt and survive.
D) People have free will and are capable of making choices based on their inherent rationality.
E) None of the above.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Reciprocal determinism suggests that:

A) behavior is determined by the interaction of external factors.
B) behavior is determined by the interaction of internal factors.
C) behavior is determined by choices that rational actors make.
D) free will and determinism are incompatible with each other.
E) free will and determinism are compatible with each other.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Psychological process theories are least useful for addressing which problem?

A) White-collar crime
B) Soccer hooliganism
C) Genocides
D) Serial murder
E) Riots

Question 5

Which of the following is false according to the frustration-aggression hypothesis?

A) People learn to suppress their aggressive impulses through socialization and social interaction.
B) Aggression results from lacking an outlet to release pent-up anxiety.
C) The hypothesis combines ideas from Freudian psychoanalysis with elements of early learning theories.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.

Question 6

Vicarious reinforcement refers to:

A) a process by which a person receives reinforcement from another individual who empathizes with him or her.
B) a process by which a person is reinforced through direct rewards.
C) a process by which a person experiences reinforcement by observing another person being reinforced.
D) a process by which a person's behavior is affected by seeing someone else being punished.
E) all of the above.

Question 7

Which type of modeling was not identified in Bandura's social cognitive theory?

A) Live modeling
B) Verbal modeling
C) Symbolic modeling
D) All of the above
E) None of the above

Question 8

Which of the following is not a key variable in deindividuation theory?

A) Anonymity
B) Displacement of responsibility
C) Physiological arousal
D) Attachment to peers
E) Intoxication

Question 9

Deindividuation theories refer to long-term processes that focus on a person's learning history, whereas social cognitive theories identify short-term processes that are very sensitive to group dynamics.

Question 10

Social cognitive theories are often referred to as social learning theories.

Question 11

Psychological process theorists view the law as an unchanging entity that is perfectly capable of distinguishing between criminals and noncriminals.

Question 12

Modeling, observational learning, and imitation all refer to the same process.

Question 13

Psychological process theorists believe that explaining desistance from antisocial behavior is easier to explain than persistence of antisocial behavior.

Question 14

Deindividuation refers to the process in which an individual loses his or her sense of self while in a crowd, causing the behavior to be more susceptible to various types of social control.

Question 15

Self-differentiated individuals are less likely to be subject to the effects of deindividuation.

Question 16

According to psychological process theorists, stop-and-frisk policies may undermine police legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Question 17

What assumptions are made by psychological process theories?

Question 18

What are the problem focus, scope, and level of explanation of these theories?

Question 19

Explain the historical and social contexts that gave rise to these process theories.

Question 20

Compare and contrast research on psychological process theories. What are some examples of important research on these theories?

Question 21

How have psychological process theories been applied to the criminal justice system?