Download PC 60 sample questions for exam 1 Spring 06

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PC 60 sample questions for exam 1 Spring 08
Only multiple choice questions will be on the exam. However, I gave some short answer questions to help test you on
the material. These questions will help prepare students for the exam, but students must make sure that they read all of the
assigned reading and questions on the exam will include topics and areas not necessarily covered here. Notice that some
numbers on these sheets have been skipped.
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1. A defined age group in a society is called an age
a. norm.
b. plateau.
c. grade.
d. clock.
2. When 60 year-old Madonna wore a miniskirt to a wedding one of her friends comments that, "I sure wish
Madonna would act her age." This comment BEST illustrates the concept of
a. age norms.
b. age grade.
c. cohort effects.
d. maturation.
3. Learning is defined as the process through which ____ brings about relatively permanent changes in actions,
thoughts, or feelings.
a. maturation
b. genetics
c. instincts
d. experience
4. Nature is to nurture as
a. maturation is to learning.
b. experience is to genetics.
c. psychology is to biology.
d. positive is to negative.
5. Jack believes that as the result of their knowledge of statistics, psychologists will be better gamblers than
philosophers. This prediction is BEST classified as a(n)
a. hypothesis.
b. sample.
c. experiment.
d. theory.
6. Dr. Vandepolder is conducting a study on mid-west American college-students' radio- listening habits. He
doesn't have the resources to survey all college students in the mid-west, so he uses census data to randomly
select a group of several thousand students from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota to participate in
the study. In this study, the group of all mid-west American college students is called the ____, while the
group randomly selected from Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota is called the ____.
a. sample; control group
b. sample; population
c. control group; population
d. population; sample
7. Developmental psychologist, Mr. Rogers, is interested in preschool children's helping behavior. He spends
hours watching children at the campus preschool, taking great care not to interfere with the children or to
influence their behavior in any way. What data collection technique is Mr. Rogers using?
a. case study
b. naturalistic observation
c. meta-analysis
d. structured observation
8. Wendy is interested in the effects of different types of advertisements on college students fast-food eating
habits. In Wendy's study, the different types of advertisements represent the ____ variable.
a. control
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b. dependent
c. population
d. independent
A true experiment involves the ____ of the independent variable.
a. manipulation
b. measurement
c. elimination
d. correlation
Dr. Rambo wants to determine whether there are sex differences in reaction to televised violence. He asks
male and female participants to watch a 15-minute video clip of a violent program and then complete a rating
scale. Dr. Rambo's research project is BEST classified as a(n)
a. true experiment.
b. quasi-experiment.
c. naturalist observation.
d. interview.
Dr. Phil wants to study the relationship between drug addiction and being the victim of child abuse. As Dr.
Phil is an ethical researcher he would have to conduct a(n) ____ study.
a. experimental
b. correlational
c. laboratory
d. cross-sectional
Mara finds that the correlation between variables A and B is +.43, while the correlation between variables A
and C is -.78. These results indicate that
a. the correlation between A and C is stronger than the correlation between A and B.
b. the correlation between A and B is stronger than the correlation between A and C.
c. variable A causes variable B but not variable C.
d. variable A causes both variables B and C.
The fact that individuals who were born in 1980 will develop differently than individuals born is 1880 is
BEST explained using the concept of ____ effects.
a. age
b. microsystem
c. cohort
d. social clock
For her senior project, Shantae wants to study children's moral reasoning. During the Fall semester, she
interviews twenty individuals in each of the following grades: first, fourth, seventh, tenth, and college
sophomores. She asks each participant to solve a practical moral dilemma. What sort of research design is
Shantae using?
a. cross-sectional
b. experimental
c. longitudinal
d. sequential
Dr. Cavorkian is interested in the development of children's beliefs about death and dying. He decides to
interview a group of children when they enter kindergarten, and to repeat these interviews with the same
children when they are in the second, fourth, and sixth grades. Which type of research design does Dr.
Cavorkian 's study represent?
a. cross-sectional
b. experimental
c. longitudinal
d. sequential
What advantage does the cross-sectional design have over the longitudinal design?
a. It can tell us more about the development of individuals over time.
b. It can untangle the effects of age and the effects of cohort.
c. It is less costly and less time-consuming.
d. It is not affected by the time of measurement.
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____ 17. A single study that combines the cross-sectional and longitudinal approaches is called a ____ design.
a. cohort
b. sequential
c. meta-analysis
d. naturalistic
____ 18. In a study in which participants are tricked into believing that they caused harm to someone else, a researcher
is obligated to make sure that the participants are told about the true nature of the study before they leave and
also must make sure that the participants do not feel bad about their behavior. These two researcher
obligations are referred to as
a. informed consent and debriefing.
b. debriefing and protection from harm.
c. protection from harm and confidentiality.
d. confidentiality and informed consent.
____ 19. Ignore this
____ 20. Ignore this
____ 21. Ignore this
____ 22. With regard to the nature-nurture debate, a strong believer in nature would suggest that
a. environmental influences are less important than genetic makeup in determining human
behavior.
b. maturation is more influential than environmental experiences in determining human
behavior.
c. teaching and enrichment of the environment are often more influential than genetics in
determining human behavior.
d. humans are basically good.
____ 23. John Locke believed that human nature was
a. inherently selfish and aggressive.
b. innately good.
c. determined by a person's experiences.
d. determined equally by both genetic and environmental factors.
____ 24. Jerome believes that development proceeds through a series of developmental stages, each of which
represents distinct changes. He might BEST be called a(n) ____ theorist.
a. discontinuity
b. learning
c. activity
d. context-specificity
____ 25. The belief that the same type of change occurs in all humans BEST fits with the ____ approach to
development.
a. activity
b. universality
c. continuity
d. passivity
____ 26. According to Freud, the personality component underlying the crying of a hungry newborn is called the
a. ego.
b. formal operation.
c. id.
d. superego.
____ 27. When Felix and Oscar go out to dinner with friends, Felix brings a calculator so he can figure out his exact
share of the bill. Oscar thinks Felix is a tight-wad and finds his behavior embarrassing. Freud would be
MOST LIKELY to attribute Felix's stingy behavior to
a. an unresolved Electra complex.
b. stressful toilet-training.
c. the collective unconscious.
d. a big ego.
____ 28. Erikson's theory is DIFFERENT from Freud's because it
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a. places greater emphasis on biological influences.
b. describes development in terms of stages.
c. focuses on possibilities for growth beyond adolescence.
d. involves the resolution of crises.
Bob is currently questioning himself. Which question would indicate that Bob is currently in Erikson's
integrity versus despair stage of life?
a. Can I raise happy children?
b. Should I marry Hope?
c. Has my life been worthwhile?
d. Will my job as a comedian help the younger generation?
In Watson and Raynor's classical conditioning study with Albert, crying was a(n)
a. neutral stimulus.
b. conditioned response.
c. unconditioned stimulus.
d. conditioned stimulus.
Polly is attending her first birthday party and at the party she sees her first balloon. While playing with the
balloon, she accidentally pops the balloon with a pin. When the balloon pops, she screams, drops her pop and
start to cry when she sees the pop stain on the carpet. In this situation, the noise produced by the popping
balloon would represent a(n)
a. unconditioned stimulus.
b. conditioned stimulus.
c. unconditioned response.
d. conditioned response.
Joy comes home from work exhausted and is surprised to find that her daughter, Michelle has set the table
and started dinner. Joy is thrilled. She praises Michelle and spends an extra half-hour reading with her before
bed (something that Michelle likes). The same thing happens the next day, and soon this has become a daily
event. This is an example of
a. classical conditioning.
b. observational learning.
c. operant conditioning.
d. modeling.
In operant conditioning terms, a negative consequence
a. reinforces an action.
b. punishes an action.
c. occurs when something is removed.
d. occurs when something is added.
Elizabeth tells her daughter Taylor, "I will stop this nagging, which you find unpleasant, as soon as you clean
your room today and continue to clean the room in the future." This description indicates that Elizabeth is
trying to use
a. positive reinforcement.
b. negative reinforcement.
c. positive punishment.
d. negative punishment.
Nick, age 3, has always been cooperative about going to bed at night. Then the family takes a trip and stays
with relatives where Nick's cousin, Becky (also age 3), has a royal fit at bed time. Nick watches while Becky's
parents read her extra stories and bring her a glass of juice to calm her down. After Nick and his family return
home, Nick begins to throw tantrums at bed time. Nick's change in behavior is BEST explained by
a. observational learning.
b. classical conditioning.
c. sensorimotor stage thinking.
d. latency.
66. Define "development." Then discuss and give examples of the three broad domains of interest to students of
human development.
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67. What are age effects, cohort effects, and time of measurement effects?
68. You have been asked to conduct an experiment on whether a pill affects memory development. Please
describe your experiment by identifying the independent and dependent variable(s) you would select. Discuss
how the variable(s) would be manipulated.
69. Currently development is characterized as multidirectional, multiple influenced, and by lifelong plasticity.
What does this mean?
70. What is the relationship between theories, hypotheses, data collection, and scientific method?
71. A researcher is interested in what children of different ages understand about their parent's jobs. Describe the
advantages and disadvantages of self-report, naturalistic observations, and structured observations in
conducting a study on this issue.
72. Discuss the ethical concerns a researcher must consider before they conduct a study using humans.
73. What are the concepts of age grade, age norms, and a social clock and how could they be applied to you and
your life?
74. Dr. Newmonic is interested in memory skill development between age 5 and age 25. Please tell Dr.
Newmonic about the advantages and disadvantages of using cross-sectional, longitudinal research, and
sequential designs in conducting his study.
75. Compare and contrast the developmental assumptions of nature versus nurture, activity versus passivity,
continuity versus discontinuity, and universality versus context-specificity.
76. Use Freud's stages of psychosexual development to discuss the development of a child from birth through age
25.
77. On which elements of learning would Watson, Skinner, and Bandura agree? Where would their differences
lie?
78. Explain and provide examples of the concepts of negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and extinction.
____ 11. Professor Jones calculated the correlation between students' scores on the first test in psychology and their
scores on the final exam. He reported a correlation coefficient of 1.50. What conclusion can we draw?
a. Jones calculated the correlation coefficient incorrectly.
b. The average score was higher on the final exam than on the first test.
c. Students who did well on the first test generally did poorly on the final exam.
d. Students who did well on the first test generally did well on the final exam as well.
____ 12. If the correlation between variable A and variable B is -.5, then
a. the relationship between A and B is random.
b. increases in A are associated with decreases in B.
c. we can use measurements of A to predict measurements of B perfectly.
d. measured values of A are lower than measured values of B.
____ 13. Which of the following correlation coefficients indicates that you could use measurements of one variable to
predict measurements of a second variable with perfect accuracy?
a. .9
b. 0
c. -1
d. .5
____ 14. According to one report, people with higher levels of stress have a greater probability of suffering a heart
attack. Therefore the correlation between stress and probability of a heart attack is
a. uncertain.
b. negative.
c. positive.
d. zero.
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____ 16. If the correlation between variable A and variable B is negative, then
a. the strength of the relationship is growing weaker over time.
b. A causes B.
c. B causes A.
d. increases in A are associated with decreases in B.
____ 17. If the correlation between variables A and B is +0.7, then
a. we can use measurements of A to make moderately accurate predictions of the value of B.
b. the mean value of B is greater than the mean value of A.
c. the mean value of A is greater than the mean value of B.
d. as variable A increases, variable B tends to decrease.
____ 18. If the correlation between variable A and variable B is -0.75, then
a. we can use measurements of variable A to make moderately accurate predictions of
variable B.
b. there is no consistent relationship between variables A and B.
c. there is a relationship between variables A and B, but it has been growing weaker over
time.
d. the mean value of B is less than the mean value of A.
____ 19. Suppose someone demonstrates a +0.5 correlation between students' reported interest in psychology and their
grades on a psychology test. The best conclusion we can draw from those results is that
a. becoming interested in psychology causes students to perform better on their psychology
tests.
b. doing well on psychology tests causes students to become more interested in the material.
c. most of these students had a relatively high interest in psychology but a relatively low test
score.
d. someone who knew the students' interest levels in psychology could fairly accurately
predict their test scores.
____ 20. If the correlation between variable A and variable B is 0, then
a. we can use measurements of A to predict measurements of B with high accuracy.
b. increases in A are associated with decreases in B.
c. the relationship between A and B is random.
d. the mean value of A is equal to the mean value of B.
____ 22. Which of the following correlation coefficients indicates the weakest relationship between two variables?
That is, which one permits the least accurate predictions of one variable from the other?
a. -.5
b. +.1
c. +.5
d. 0
____ 23. Which of the following correlation coefficients indicates the strongest relationship between two variables?
That is, which one would enable us to make the most accurate predictions of one variable from the other?
a. 0
b. +.5
c. -.9
d. -.5
____ 24. Researchers have found that people who report having trouble sleeping are more likely than others to become
depressed. Which of the following conclusions, if any, follows from these data?
a. Sleeplessness increases the probability of becoming depressed.
b. People who are starting to become depressed have trouble sleeping.
c. Certain genes increase depression and also, independently, lead to sleep troubles.
d. None of these conclusions follow from the data.
____ 25. The main difference between a correlational study and an experiment is that in an experiment,
a. the participants are aware of the hypothesis being tested.
b. all individuals receive the same treatment.
c. the participants are observed without interference in their normal life.