Introduction To Psychology Practice Quiz

[Judd Eisenhauer]

Congratulations on choosing Psychology for your CLEP exam! It is a beautiful science which aims to improve the lives of humans through understanding of behavior and mental processes that goes beyond speculations, anecdotal evidence, and common sense.

Here you get to learn about what defines the usual states our minds are in (the two most common being sleep and wakefulness) but also what and how our normal wakeful state is altered through several methods or substances, and how these altered states can be used to solve certain problems, but also the myths and misconceptions regarding the use of such states. The most frequent and studied methods of altering our states of consciousness are hypnosis, meditation, and psychoactive drugs.

The superior and most complex functions of the mind are reunited under the umbrella-term cognition (from Latin cognosco = to know), referring to how we think and decide, our intelligence, creativity, language, memory, and problem solving. Even though in common language when we refer to someone as smart or intelligent, most people understand what is meant, defining intelligence has proven quite tricky and many differing approaches are supported. The above processes have clear interdependencies, meaning that one influences the other (e.g. a good memory will result in an increased level of measured intelligence) so these processes should be understood together, whereas they are separated in theory only in order to more efficiently study and analyze them.

No matter how much some of us would wish so, humans are not strictly logical organisms which process information from the environment. Our emotions have evolved as a consequence of adapting to a changing and often ambiguous environment and they are intrinsically tied with motivation. As such, emotions reflect the extent to which are needs and desires are met. When our efforts are rewarded, we feel positive emotions and when they are not we feel negative emotions. This serves also to drive us further into achieving that which motivates us and to better adapt to our environment. Therefore, the best thing is to understand our emotions and accept them in order to be in touch with our authentic selves.

By studying how humans evolve mentally from the moment they are born much knowledge was acquired about the manner in which we think and feel, as well as about what are some of the key factors in ensuring a child grows up into a well-rounded individual. Human development has multiple dimensions (physical, cognitive, as well as social) and longitudinal studies (which follow participants throughout a given period of time) are very informative in terms of how these dimensions vary consistently with certain ages.

Generally speaking, personality in psychology refers to the patterns of behavior, attitudes, and mentality which are stable in time. These patterns have been conceptualized in many ways with each major paradigm having its own take on human personality. One major categorization of approaches in personality is that of type versus trait. Some theories, especially earlier ones, talk of personality types, with each individual being part of one or the other of several mutually exclusive types. Other theories talk about major traits which can be understood as dimensions of personality with people being placed somewhere between one end or the other of each dimension in terms of their preferences or tendencies.

Psychological disorders (also called mental disorders or psychopathology) refers to a wide spectrum of disruptions in the normal functioning of human behavior and mental processes. Abnormal is mainly defined as that which impairs human functioning and causes personal distress, while also partially considering the statistical criterion (what is normal according to the majority) and the cultural criterion (what is normal according to cultural norms). There are many forms of disorders and most of them are considered to be determined by more than one factor.

Similarly to personality theories, most major paradigms have their own approach to the psychological treatment of mental disorders (named psychotherapy). The original form of psychotherapy was psychoanalysis. Some of the conceptual limitations of psychoanalysis and the results of different studies have determined other psychotherapists to develop their own take on how to treat mental disorders. To date, there are over 200 schools of psychotherapies, but most fall under the following typology: psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic-existential.

As a science, statistical techniques are very important for psychology. This is true for both researchers and practitioners in order to become critical consumers of research. Since there are many studies performed yearly, often with contradicting results, it is important to assess which studies are more valuable in terms of the techniques used. Additionally, the instruments used are often self-report measures and the validity (how good it measures what it sets out to measure) and reliability (how consistently it measures what it sets out to measure) of these standardized instruments is also critical. Thankfully, we have statistical techniques for assessing these two important criteria.

Explanation: For disorders like major depression, the most increased reduction in depression is usually registered when both drugs and psychotherapy is administered. The same holds for most mental disorders for which there are drug options.

Explanation: The biopsychosocial model for the etiology of mental disorders is the most accepted model and it states that all three classes of factors and their interactions are relevant in the formation of mental disorders, with certain types of disorders being impacted more by one or the other.

Explanation: Conscientiousness is defined as the tendency to be well-organized, punctual, and disciplined. Increased levels of this trait have been associated with increased performance across multiple workplace environments and jobs, making it the most reliable personality related predictor of performance.

• In order to achieve maximum performance on a complex task, one should be highly motivated to complete it.
• True. The more motivation one feels, the more his performance will increase.
• False. There is no relationship between performance and motivation.
• True unless one is motivated mainly by avoiding failure, in which case performance anxiety sets in and the relationship is completely inversed, with the most performance coming out of the least motivation

Explanation: According to the Gestalt principle of proximity, subjects tend to group stimuli based on their closeness. Therefore, most subjects would describe the above set as four pairs of red and blue circles, even if all the above options are correct objectively speaking. Notice that even though the first couple of pairs are closer to each other and the last couple of pairs as well, option two is less considered because the principle of similarity also influences perception. As such, there are multiple Gestalt principles and sometimes these compete with each other. The law of Prgnanz clarifies this by mentioning that people interpret stimuli so that the simplest configuration will result.

Explanation: According to cognitive dissonance theory, discrepancies between incompatible attitudes or between attitudes and behavior cause a tension which results in the modification of one or the other until consonance is achieved. As such, experiments have observed that the attitudes of participants on an object were more favorable after asking them to talk about the qualities of that object to someone else, recommending it. Moreover, the less money participants received for their participation in this experiment, the more their attitudes changed favorably because they couldn't justify their behavior as being caused by their interest in receiving money.

Explanation: Monozygotic twins that were raised in different families; Identical twins share almost 100% of their DNA (they are genetically nearly identical) which means that when the environmental influence of the family is different but a trait still appears in both, it can be concluded that the main determinant of that trait is genetic in nature. However, the environment is rarely if never completely different, so the nature versus nurture debate can never be exactly ed.

• No, the children were selected to be more aggressive than usual and this sampling error is responsible for the results
• Yes, playing violent video games obviously causes aggressive tendencies
• No, correlation does not mean causation
• No, the researchers were biased to believe that children are more aggressive as they play more video games and this contaminated the results

Explanation: Children that are more aggressive might tend to play more violent video games, therefore the cause of one variable might be the other or the other way around in correlational studies. Furthermore, there can exist moderating or mediating variables which influence the relationship between two correlated variables. Experimental studies are always needed to determine causation.

Explanation: Even though hypnosis was used extensively to make subjects retrieve repressed memories in order to alleviate suffering, this practice is now considered obsolete and risky especially because research has shown that it may induce false memories through suggestion. The question of whether or not repressed memories even exist is still debated by scientists, but there is consensus that suggestive methods should not be used to retrieve such memories.

Explanation: In the preoperational stage, children have not yet acquired the ability to understand that the properties (e.g. volume, number, weight) of an object or substance remain constant even if their shape, position, or length is modified. This ability is called conservation.

Explanation: Since a psychological instrument cannot have validity without reliability, it can be considered that reliability is more important. Reliability refers to how much a measure will provide the same results if it is applied multiple times and to how much that measure is stable at all its levels (e.g. across the items of a questionnaire). This is not to say that validity isn't important since a tool is truly useful only if both criteria are met, just that reliability is primordial in the value of an instrument.

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