Sample Multiple Choice PsychologyQuestions
1.Jenny was playing with her favouriteskipping rope when her older brother frightened her by dropping his barbell behind her, making a tremendous noise. Now Jenny cries and shows signs of fear whenever she is around her skipping rope. This is an example of
a. habituation.
b. classical conditioning.
c. operant conditioning.
d. discrimination.
2.Karen ate five meat pies at a football match. Unfortunately, the meat pies were contaminated by "Staphylococcus aureus," a bacterium which produced nausea and a rather dramatic type of food poisoning with projectile vomiting. Later, after the illness passed, the taste of meat pies made Karen feel nauseous. The conditioned stimulus (CS) in this example was the
a. taste of the meat pies.
b. "Staphylococcus aureus."
c. feeling of nausea.
d. football match.
3.A researcher has classically conditioned a dog to bark loudly at the sound of a chime by giving a painful electric shock. He then decides to extinguish the barking behaviour by presenting the bell with no accompanying shock. On the first extinction trial, what would you expect the dog to do?
a. Bark, but not as loudly as before
b. Not bark at all
c. Roll over and play dead
d. Bark as loudly as before extinction began
4.Puppies are friendly to all people. But as they grow, dogs will start to bark and threaten strangers. This is an example of
a. stimulus discrimination.
b. stimulus generalization.
c. extinction.
d. forward conditioning.
5.Mike has a cold. He takes an antihistamine medication, after which his runny nose, aches, and pains go away. Mike is now more likely to take an antihistamine when he gets a cold, illustrating
a. punishment.
b. partial reinforcement.
c. positive reinforcement.
d. negative reinforcement.
6.Jacqui is trying to train her dog, Barney, to come when she calls. She starts by waiting until Barney looks up when his name is called, and then rewarding him. Next, she waits until Barney gets up when his name is called to give him the reward. Finally, poor Barney has to come all the way over and get his reward any time his name is called. Jacqui is using
a. an imitative reinforcement schedule.
b. shaping.
c. the law of effect.
d. a secondary reinforcer.
7.Which of the following is a primary reinforcer?
a. Praise
b. Money
c. Water
d. A smile
8.A pigeon is being trained to peck at a light when it is lit. After every twelfth peck, the pigeon receives a tasty morsel of food. What schedule of reinforcement is being used here?
a. Variable-interval
b. Fixed-interval
c. Variable-ratio
d. Fixed-ratio
9.The main difference between punishment and negative reinforcement is that punishment
a. decreases the likelihood that a behaviour will occur, whereas negative reinforcement increases the likelihood.
b. is harmful in any form, but negative reinforcement aids in learning.
c. has a more permanent effect on learning than negative reinforcement.
d. increases the likelihood that a behaviour will occur because it angers and provokes the recipient, whereas negative reinforcement decreases the likelihood of a behaviour occurring.
10.You wake up after a wild party. You groggily head for your bathroom. As you turn toward where you expect a doorway, you slam into a wall. You then realize you are in your neighbour’s house. The collision occurred as a result of
a. latent learning.
b. vicarious learning.
c. extinction.
d. using the wrong cognitive map.
11.Nick watches his older brother play ludo, and the following week teaches a playmate how to play. Nick learned to play ludo through the process of
a. social learning.
b. operant conditioning.
c. classical conditioning.
d. vicarious conditioning.
12.The rationale behind Freud's technique of free association is that
a. the superego will be dominant in each association.
b. people will be honest about their sexuality if provided with a caring environment.
c. people will reveal the desires of the ego if they feel they can speak freely.
d. the pattern of associations can reveal thoughts and feelings normally kept in the unconscious.
13.Which of the following statements about Freud's concept of the id is not true? The id
a. operates on the pleasure principle.
b. thinks, remembers, reasons, and plans.
c. is present at birth.
d. seeks immediate gratification.
14.While you are in class, part of you says, "Leave early and get some ice cream." Another part says, "Stay in class so you don't miss important material and go get the ice cream later." According to Freudian theory, the ______has you stay in class because it operates on the ______principle.
a. id; morality
b. ego; satiation
c. superego; pleasure
d. ego; reality
15.According to Freud, one of the chief functions of the ego is to
a. handle the demands of the id, the superego, and the environment.
b. guide a person's actions according to a set of moral rules.
c. drive a person to satisfy impulses that are pleasurable to the self.
d. None of these
16.Rude Mary, an outrageous comedienne, is a chain smoker who loves to toss out sarcastic remarks about people in her audience. She is also known for her non-stop talking and her tendency to drink too much. Freud would probably say she is fixated at the ______stage of psychosexual development.
a. ana
b. oral l
c. concrete
d. latency
17.Karen could feel comfortable only when everything was in its proper place and spotlessly clean. A psychoanalyst would most likely state that she had
a. fixated at the anal stage of psychosexual development.
b. become self-actualized.
c. not sufficiently identified with her mother.
d. a high degree of the trait of cleanliness.
18.Which of the following is a factor that Freud emphasized more than the neo-Freudians?
a. Social interaction
b. The ego
c. Instinctual urges
d. The self
19.Carl Jung believed that everyone has a kind of memory bank containing all the images and ideas the human race has accumulated over millions of years. He called this
a. the collective unconscious.
b. the guiding fiction.
c. the archetype.
d. his object relations theory.
20.Which of the following trait dimensions is not a part of Hans Eysenck's theory of personality?
a. Psychoticism
b. Warm-seclusive
c. Introversion-extraversion
d. Emotionality-stability
21.Cynthia likes to race cars and to go mountain climbing and skydiving. According to Eysenck, her nervous system tends to be
a. underaroused.
b. overaroused.
c. insensitive to environmental cues.
d. None of these
22.The personality theories of Rogers and Maslow are alike in that they both emphasize the importance of
a. congruence.
b. expectancies.
c. self-actualization.
d. need hierarchies.
23.Mr. Blackfoot was asked to describe when his first child was born ten years ago. He said, "It was a snowy night and the roads were icy. There were coloured lights everywhere. My wife grinned all the way to the hospital. I'll never forget it. It was right before Christmas." Mr. Blackfoot is using ______memory.
a. episodic
b. semantic
c. procedural
d. sensory
24.Which of the following is an example of acoustic encoding?
a. You can't remember a song, but you do recall where you were when you heard it.
b. You can recall the tune, but not the words of the song.
c. You recall the band's name.
d. You can't remember a song but you know it was about a boy and a girl.
25.Which of the following is true of the process of encoding?
a. It has no effect on storage or recall.
b. It can affect recall.
c. Both b and d
d. It is exclusively acoustic.
26.You finally ask that special person for their phone number and realize you don't have anything to write it down on. Whilstrunninghome in order to put the number in your phone book, you repeat it over and over. You are remembering the number through
a. maintenance rehearsal.
b. elaborative rehearsal.
c. chunking.
d. semantic coding.
27.Information is retained in sensory memory for ______seconds.
a. thirty
b. sixty
c. less than two
d. twenty
28.You "see" a person standing behind a bush. You "see" the person even though much of the person's body is blocked from your vision by branches. You can identify the person because of the perceptual principle of
a. proximity.
b. closure.
c. similarity.
d. simplicity.
29.Although a closing door actually appears trapezoidal at one point, it is still perceived as rectangular. This phenomenon is known as
a. autokinesis.
b. figure-ground perception.
c. shape constancy.
d. pattern recognition.
30.Cynthia could not answer a question on her exam even after thinking about it for a long time. Later, while watching ‘Coronation St’, the answer to the exam question suddenly "popped" into her mind. Cynthia’s delayed and sudden answer to the question is most likely the result of
a. decomposition.
b. delayed reinforcement.
c. latent learning.
d. incubation.
31.One important difference between expert and novice problem solvers is that
a. experts are more intelligent than novices.
b. experts are more proficient at decomposing a problem into smaller, simpler steps that can be tackled one at a time.
c. experts can process new information more rapidly.
d. experts can integrate new information and existing knowledge into meaningful units.
32.The emotional expressions that are universal are
a. Happiness, Anger and Sadness
b. Happiness, Anger and Sadness, Disgust, Fear, Guilt and Surprise.
c. Happiness, Anger, Sadness and Fear
d. Happiness, Anger and Sadness, Disgust, Fear and Surprise.
33.According to Darwin
a. emotions have adaptive functions – they are innate.
b. Emotions are bodily responses
c. Emotions are based on appraisals
d. Emotions are social constructions and serve social purposes.
34.The theory of emotion that suggests that Emotion (and stress) are direct expression of central brain systems is : -
a. The Cannon-Bard theory
b. James-Lange theory
c. Schachter and Singer
d. Singer-Bard theory
35.Jacqui was out partying when she tripped on the kerb while carrying a gin and tonic in one hand and a kebab in the other hand. She suffered significant damage to her right hemisphere. Jacqui now sometimes shows: -
a. lack of concern about the physical and psychological consequences of the brain damage.
b. inappropriate affect, bursting into tears for no reason as so happy when told of a sad event.
c. Euphoria
d. All of the above
36.After a head injury Karen has been making inappropriate sexual advances to people in unsuitable situations. This is due to: -
a. damage to the orbitofrontal cortex
b. damage to the amygdalla
c. damage to the hyppocampus
d. her having a face lift.
37. Freddie who is only a few months old, is watching the family cat intently. When the cat walks behind the couch so that Freddie cannot see the cat, he looks at something else in the room. Moments later, when the cat emerges from behind the couch, Freddie acts surprised to see the cat and starts watching it again. Freddie is demonstrating a lack of
a. sensory transduction
b. conservation
c. egocentrism
d. object permanence
38.Ben no longer needs to see or touch an object to understand that it exists and he is beginning to form images and symbols in his mind. Piaget would place Ben in the ______period
a. sensorimotor
b. pre-operational
c. concrete operational
d. formal operational
39.Which of the following statements about moral reasoning and moral action is true?
a. Having high moral reasoning ability guarantees that a person will act morally
b. Interviews about moral judgements before a test decrease levels of moral action
c. The development of moral behaviour requires abstract knowledge alone
d. People out drinking with friends tend to have lower moral reasoning and lower moral behaviour
40.Middle adulthood is best characterised by
a. a general cognitive decline
b. Erikson’s Intimacy vs Isolation stage
c. Honing of critical reasoning skills
d. Kohlberg’s sixth stage of moral development
41.Cynthia is beginning to experience a decline in her memory and intellectual ability. Her doctor assures her that it is a common experience. Cynthia is most likely experiencing
a. a decrease in dopamine
b. an increase in GABA
c. middle adulthood
d. late adulthood
42.While in a punk rock bar in the wild city of Edinburgh Cynthia found herself to be a part of a large group of people slam dancing. She did not know any of these people and felt "consumed by the group." Accordingly, when members of the group started grabbing bottles of beer and smashing them in time to the music, Cynthia joined in. This is an example of: -
a. Unconsciousness
b. Confusions
c. Psychosis
d. Deindividuation
43. Laissez-faire leaders
a. play a passive role, do not attempt to direct or co-ordinate the group and make neither a positive or negative evaluation of the group.
b. make all the decisions for the group, do not participate in group activities, assign group members to tasks without saying why and make changes without consultation.
c. consult with the group, are friendly and participate in group activities, give reasons for praise and criticism and offer help when required.
d. are lazy but fair.
44.Human aggression is most difficult to control according to which theory?
a. Ethological approach
b. Aggression as a learned social behaviour
c. Social inequity
d. Frustration-aggression hypothesis
45.Which of the following is not an example of direct attitude measurement?
a. A Semantic Differential Scale
b. Projective techniques
c. Thurstone Scale
d. Self report
46.Jimbob believes that stopping smoking contributes to better health, but he continues to smoke and enjoys it immensely. The ______component of Jimbob's attitude toward smoking is inconsistent with the ______component.
a. affective; cognitive
b. cognitive; affective
c. cognitive; behavioural
d. behavioural; affective
47.If IQ testing is used in a nation where 20 percent of the population is African-American, then African-Americans should make up 20 percent of the sample from which the norms were established. This procedure is to insure that the IQ test is
a. valid.
b. standardized.
c. Both b and d
d. reliable.
48.Doreen took an intelligence test and received an IQ score of 104. A year later, she took the same test, and again scored 104. The test that Doreen took appears to have good
a. alternate form reliability.
b. test-retest reliability.
c. predictive validity.
d. Both b and c
49.The formula for the intelligence quotient (IQ) developed by Terman is
a. IQ = chronological age/mental age.
b. IQ = (mental age/chronological age)/100.
c. IQ = (mental age/chronological age) x 100.
d. IQ = (chronological age/mental age) x 100.
50.As you complete a psychology exam, your ______intelligence provides your knowledge base, whereas your ______intelligence determines how well you reason and problem-solve.
a. crystallized; fluid
b. fluid; crystallized
c. field dependent; field independent
d. field independent; field dependent