Question 1

Dr. Kahlo is a psychologist who is studying parenting techniques in the United States, Nigeria, Cuba, and Poland. She is interested in determining if fathers play a different role in child rearing in these countries. Dr. Kahlo is most likely a ____ psychologist.

Accepted Answer

A)  social 
B)  personality 
C)  developmental 
D)  cognitive

Question 2

Dr. Ford wants to test the hypothesis that room color can affect memory. To that end, he randomly assigns 10 students to a condition where they study a written passage while seated in a room that is painted a lilac color. The other 10 students study the passage while seated in an identical room that is painted bright orange. After both groups studied the passage for one hour, they are given a multiple-choice test over the material. Dr. Ford then calculates how many questions the students in both groups answer correctly. In Dr. Ford's study, a potential confounding variable is the ____.

Accepted Answer

A)  students' access to social media 
B)  color of the room in which the students studied the passage 
C)  students' reading comprehension abilities 
D)  random assignment to groups

Question 3

Correlation can be used only for making predictions, not for making ______________.

Accepted Answer

A)  a third variable 
B)  cause-and-effect statements 
C)  two variables correlate 
D)  observations

Question 4

Who is a leader in the field of positive psychology?

Accepted Answer

A)  Ed Diener 
B)  Carl Rogers 
C)  Abraham Maslow 
D)  Max Wertheimer

Question 5

Dr. Green is a psychologist working for a major steel manufacturing company. Dr. Green advises the company on how best to motivate its employees to be productive and follow safety regulations. Dr. Green is a(n) ____ psychologist.

Accepted Answer

A)  industrial/organizational 
B)  forensic 
C)  health 
D)  counseling

Question 6

Which progression best represents the historical order in which these psychological perspectives were developed?

Accepted Answer

A)  Psychoanalytic theory, humanism, and structuralism 
B)  Structuralism, behaviorism, and humanism 
C)  Humanism, psychoanalytic theory, and cognitive psychology 
D)  Behaviorism, structuralism, and psychoanalytic theory

Question 7

Whose research focused on environmental and cultural factors that influence personality development?

Accepted Answer

A)  Karen Horney 
B)  Christine Ladd-Franklin 
C)  Francis Sumner 
D)  Mary Calkins

Question 8

A psychologist who studies individual differences in shyness is probably from which specialty area?

Accepted Answer

A)  Cognitive 
B)  Social 
C)  Developmental 
D)  Personality

Question 9

The diversity between groups of individuals is clearly defined by the ____ perspective.

Accepted Answer

A)  psychodynamic 
B)  cognitive 
C)  biological 
D)  sociocultural

Question 10

Dr. Ford wants to test the hypothesis that room color can affect memory. To that end, he randomly assigns 10 students to a condition where they study a written passage while seated in a room that is painted a lilac color. The other 10 students study the passage while seated in an identical room that is painted bright orange. After both groups studied the passage for one hour, they are given a multiple-choice test over the material. Dr. Ford then calculates how many questions the students answer correctly. He finds that students in the lilac-room condition score much better than the students in the orange-room condition. Based on this study, what can Dr. Ford conclude?

Accepted Answer

A)  Room color predicts, but does not cause a change in, memory performance. 
B)  Different room colors have differential effects on memory performance. 
C)  Students like cool colors better than warm ones. 
D)  Warm colors make students angry.

Question 11

The phrase, "Psychology has a long past, but a short history" clearly depicts the statement that

Accepted Answer

A)  although many negative events have characterized psychology's past, many positive events have occurred in recent years. 
B)  people have always been interested in explaining behavior, but psychology did not become a science until relatively recently. 
C)  psychology has been a science for hundreds of years, but only recently has the general public become interested in it. 
D)  although psychology has existed as a science for a very long time, it is being overshadowed by more exact sciences and will not likely survive beyond the current century.

Question 12

Who is engaging in critical thinking?

Accepted Answer

A)  Thomas, who typically develops a list of pros and cons for any important decision 
B)  Celeste, who relies on online ads for information about which product to purchase 
C)  Dalton, who determines what the group consensus is when making important decisions 
D)  Maria, who goes with her gut when deciding which new car to buy

Question 13

Dr. Haupt has discovered that abusive parents themselves often had parents who used harsh physical punishment on them. Such a discovery relates most closely to which goal of psychology?

Accepted Answer

A)  Predicting behavior 
B)  Describing behavior 
C)  Controlling behavior 
D)  Changing behavior

Question 14

Suppose that immediately after participating in a psychological study, you are dismissed without any interaction with the experimenter or a representative. What element of ethical psychology research has probably been excluded?

Accepted Answer

A)  Debriefing 
B)  Informed consent 
C)  Presentation of results 
D)  Socialization period

Question 15

Potentially problematic variables that can lead to alternative explanations for the results of a study are called ____ variables.

Accepted Answer

A)  independent 
B)  confounding 
C)  dependent 
D)  experimental

Question 16

Psychology became a distinct field of scientific study in ____.

Accepted Answer

A)  1653 
B)  1776 
C)  1879 
D)  1928

Question 17

Dr. Ford wants to test the hypothesis that room color can affect memory. To that end, he randomly assigns 10 students to a condition where they study a written passage while seated in a room that is painted a lilac color. The other 10 students study the passage while seated in an identical room that is painted bright orange. After both groups studied the passage for one hour, they are given a multiple-choice test over the material. Dr. Ford then calculates how many questions the students in both groups answer correctly. In Dr. Ford's study, the independent variable is ____.

Accepted Answer

A)  the people who studied the passage while seated in the lilac room 
B)  the color of the room in which the students studied the passage 
C)  the test scores of the students 
D)  whether or not the students were able to recall information about the passage

Question 18

Describe the procedures that psychological researchers use to ensure the ethical treatment of human participants.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Describe the procedures that psychological researchers use...

Question 19

Cognitive psychologists acknowledge that mental processes are not directly observable to the eye, but assert that they ____.

Accepted Answer

A)  are at least as important as unconscious processes 
B)  can be inferred from performance data 
C)  are still primarily the result of biological influences 
D)  cannot be indirectly observed either

Question 20

The ancient Indian texts of knowledge, The Vedas, describe ____ as energy processing centers within the body that govern physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Accepted Answer

A)  tantrics 
B)  ashtangas 
C)  chakras 
D)  ayurvedas

Exam 1: The Science of Psychology