AP Psychology Final Exam Study Guide

AP Psychology Final Exam Study Guide

Which philosopher is most well known for theorizing that the mind at birth is tabula rasa or a “blank slate”?

a. / Plato
b. / John Locke
c. / Immanuel Kant
d. / René Descartes
e. / Aristotle

In Wilhelm Wundt's experiments, participants were asked to press a key as soon as they were consciously aware of perceiving a sound. By asking participants to examine and report their conscious experiences, Wundt was making use of which of the following?

a. / structuralism
b. / empiricism
c. / tabula rasa
d. / introspection
e. / functionalism

Introspection was the basic research tool used by ______in order to study people's inner sensations and mental images.

a. / John Watson
b. / Charles Darwin
c. / Edward Titchener
d. / B. F. Skinner
e. / Mary Calkins

Arguments as to whether psychological differences between men and women result from biological or social influences most clearly involve a debate over the issue of

a. / evolution versus natural selection.
b. / stage development versus continuous development.
c. / structuralism versus functionalism.
d. / behavior versus mental processes.
e. / nature versus nurture.

Lissette wonders whether personality differences between her African-American and Asian-American friends result from biological or cultural influences. In this instance, Lissette is primarily concerned with the relative contributions of

a. / biology and cognition.
b. / nature and nurture.
c. / behavior and mental processes.
d. / conscious and unconscious thoughts.
e. / introspection versus structuralism.

Professor Reed attempts to assess the relative contributions of heredity and home environment on children's susceptibility to depression. Her research best illustrates the concerns of the ______approach.

a. / psychodynamic
b. / biopsychosocial
c. / cognitive
d. / humanistic
e. / behavioral

Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a(n) ______perspective.

a. / evolutionary
b. / behavioral
c. / psychodynamic
d. / biological
e. / social-cultural

Which perspective is most directly concerned with how the physical properties of the brain influence behaviors and mental states?

a. / cognitive
b. / social-cultural
c. / psychodynamic
d. / behavioral
e. / biological

In a class lecture, Professor Hampton emphasized the extent to which abnormal blood chemistry can contribute to psychological disorders. The professor's lecture highlighted a ______perspective on psychological disorders.

a. / psychodynamic
b. / humanistic
c. / biological
d. / social-cultural
e. / cognitive

The behavioral perspective is most likely to emphasize the importance of

a. / cognition.
b. / observable responses.
c. / introspection.
d. / natural selection.
e. / self-esteem.

Dr. MacPherson believes that the way students organize and think about the information in their textbooks will strongly influence their ability to later remember and use what they have studied. Dr. MacPherson's ideas most directly exemplify the ______perspective.

a. / social-cultural
b. / cognitive
c. / psychodynamic
d. / humanistic
e. / biological

Dr. Kozak has concluded that the unusually low incidence of alcohol dependence among citizens of a small African country can be attributed to strong fundamentalist religious influences in that region. This belief best illustrates a(n) ______perspective.

a. / humanistic
b. / evolutionary
c. / psychodynamic
d. / biological
e. / social-cultural

A theoretical perspective in psychology can be like a two-dimensional view of a three-dimensional object because each perspective is

a. / limited in its scope.
b. / likely to contradict other perspectives.
c. / based on assumptions shared by other perspectives.
d. / of little value for applied research.
e. / impossible to test scientifically.

Dr. Tiao conducts basic research on the effects of head injuries on people's problem-solving and abstract-reasoning skills. Which psychological specialty does her research best represent?

a. / developmental psychology
b. / biological psychology
c. / industrial-organizational psychology
d. / clinical psychology
e. / personality psychology

Dr. Mills conducts research on why individuals conform to the behaviors and opinions of others. Which specialty area does his research best represent?

a. / cognitive psychology
b. / social psychology
c. / developmental psychology
d. / clinical psychology
e. / industrial-organizational psychology

Alexandra is told that research supports the value of cosmetic surgery for boosting self-esteem. Belinda is told that the esteem-enhancing value of cosmetic surgery has been refuted by research. Both women would consider the findings to be common sense. This best illustrates the power of

a. / random sampling.
b. / overconfidence.
c. / the hindsight bias.
d. / illusory correlation.
e. / the double-blind procedure.

Our tendency to believe we know more than we do illustrates

a. / naturalistic observation.
b. / illusory correlation.
c. / overconfidence.
d. / the standard deviation.
e. / placebo.

When you question whether anecdotal evidence can be generalized to all people, you are applying

a. / overconfidence.
b. / the placebo effect.
c. / the hindsight bias.
d. / random assignment.
e. / critical thinking.

Dr. Roberts hypothesized that students in a classroom seating 30 would get higher course grades than students seated in an auditorium seating 300. In this example,

a. / Dr. Roberts has found a cause-effect relationship.
b. / Dr. Roberts has found a positive correlation between classroom size and course grades.
c. / the independent variable is the measurement of course grades.
d. / classroom size has been operationally defined.
e. / Dr. Roberts has demonstrated the importance of random sampling.

Which research method is typically used to examine one participant in depth, usually because the individual's situation/behavior is rare or unusual?

a. / survey
b. / correlation
c. / experiment
d. / case study
e. / scientific method

Which of the following researchers used the case study method, carefully observing one exceptional individual in depth to reach conclusions that might be true of all of us?

a. / Jean Piaget
b. / James Randi
c. / Jane Goodall
d. / William James
e. / John b. Watson

In 1953, H.M. underwent surgery to control his seizures. Doctors removed tissue from the hippocampus. As a result H.M.'s memory was severely impaired. Psychologists studied H.M.'s memory function until his death in 2008. Which research method did the psychologists utilize in this situation?

a. / naturalistic observation
b. / correlation
c. / survey
d. / experimentation
e. / case study

The biggest danger of relying on case-study evidence is that it

a. / is based on naturalistic observation.
b. / may be unrepresentative of what is generally true.
c. / overestimates the importance of operational definitions.
d. / leads us to underestimate the causal relationships between events.
e. / relies mostly on correlational rather than causational evidence.

Which research method would be most appropriate for investigating the relationship between the religious beliefs of Americans and their attitudes toward abortion?

a. / the survey
b. / naturalistic observation
c. / the case study
d. / experimentation
e. / random assignment

Which procedure helps to ensure that the participants in a survey are representative of a larger population?

a. / random assignment
b. / replication
c. / correlation
d. / naturalistic observation
e. / random sampling

After noting that a majority of professional basketball players are African-American, Ervin concluded that African-Americans are better athletes than members of other racial groups. Ervin's conclusion best illustrates the danger of

a. / replication.
b. / hindsight bias.
c. / the placebo effect.
d. / generalizing from vivid cases.
e. / randomly assigning variables.

To study the development of relationships, Dr. Rajiv carefully observed and recorded patterns of verbal and nonverbal behaviors among boys and girls in the school yard. Which research method did Dr. Rajiv employ?

a. / naturalistic observation
b. / replication
c. / the survey
d. / the case study
e. / experimentation

Correlational research is most useful for purposes of

a. / explanation.
b. / prediction.
c. / control.
d. / replication.
e. / experimentation.

Which of the following statistical measures is most helpful for indicating the extent to which high school grades predict college grades?

a. / standard deviation
b. / mean
c. / median
d. / correlation coefficient
e. / range

If psychologists discovered that wealthy people are less satisfied with their marriages than poor people are, this would indicate that wealth and marital satisfaction are

a. / causally related.
b. / negatively correlated.
c. / independent variables.
d. / dependent variables.
e. / positively correlated.

If college graduates typically earn more money than high school graduates, this would indicate that level of education and income are

a. / causally related.
b. / positively correlated.
c. / independent variables.
d. / dependent variables.
e. / negatively correlated.

If the correlation between the physical weight and reading ability of children is +0.85, this would indicate that

a. / there is very little statistical relationship between weight and reading ability among children.
b. / low body weight has a negative effect on the reading abilities of children.
c. / better reading ability is associated with greater physical weight among children.
d. / body weight has no causal influence on the reading abilities of children.
e. / weight is a causal variable dependent on reading ability.

Which of the following correlation coefficients expresses the weakest degree of relationship between two variables?

a. / –0.12
b. / +1.00
c. / –0.99
d. / +0.25
e. / –0.50

Which of the following correlations between annual income and education level would best enable you to predict annual income on the basis of level of education?

a. / +0.05
b. / –0.01
c. / +0.10
d. / +0.50
e. / –0.001

Following the scientific discovery that a specific brain structure is significantly larger in violent individuals than in those who are nonviolent, a news headline announced: “Enlarged Brain Structure Triggers Violent Acts.” The headline writer should most clearly be warned about the dangers of

a. / perceiving illusory correlations.
b. / explaining events in hindsight.
c. / confusing correlation with causation.
d. / generalizing from unrepresentative samples.
e. / discerning order in random events.

Which of the following is the best definition of illusory correlation?

a. / a statistical relationship between two variables
b. / a perceived but nonexistent correlation
c. / any independent variable that does not truly cause a dependent variable
d. / a scatterplot indicating the likelihood that a variable will or will not change
e. / a predication about the relationship between two variables

Because she had a serious traffic accident on Friday the 13th of last month, Felicia is convinced that all Friday the 13ths will bring bad luck. Felicia's belief best illustrates

a. / the illusion of control.
b. / illusory correlation.
c. / the hindsight bias.
d. / overconfidence.
e. / random sampling.

To minimize the extent to which outcome differences between experimental and control conditions can be attributed to placebo effects, researchers make use of

a. / random sampling.
b. / the double-blind procedure.
c. / random assignment.
d. / operational definitions.
e. / replication.

In a study of the effects of alcohol consumption, some participants drank a nonalcoholic beverage that actually smelled and tasted like alcohol. This nonalcoholic drink was a

a. / dependent variable.
b. / replication.
c. / placebo.
d. / random sample.
e. / double blind.

Which of the following is true for those assigned to a control group?

a. / The experimenter exerts the greatest influence on participants' behavior.
b. / The research participants are exposed to all the different experimental treatments.
c. / The research participants are exposed to the most favorable levels of experimental treatment.
d. / The experimental treatment is absent.
e. / The operational definition is not applied to their variables.

When you read a bar graph, it is most important for you to

a. / understand the concept of the overconfidence effect.
b. / mentally transform the data into a scatterplot.
c. / identify the value of the standard deviation.
d. / note the range and size of the scale values.
e. / remember that correlation facilitates prediction.

During the past month, Henri and Sylvia each ate 10 candy bars, while Jerry ate 8, Tricia ate 6, and Tahli ate only 1. The mean number of candy bars eaten by these individuals was

a. / 3.
b. / 5.
c. / 7.
d. / 8.
e. / 10.

Seven members of a boys' club reported the following individual earnings from their sale of cookies: $2, $9, $8, $10, $4, $9, and $7. In this distribution of individual earnings

a. / the median is greater than the mean and greater than the mode.
b. / the median is less than the mean and less than the mode.
c. / the median is greater than the mean and less than the mode.
d. / the median is less than the mean and greater than the mode.
e. / the median is equal to the mean and equal to the mode.

During the last Central High School basketball game, the starting five players scored 11, 7, 21, 14, and 7 points, respectively. For this distribution of scores, the range is

a. / 7.
b. / 11.
c. / 12.
d. / 14.
e. / 21.

Professor Woo noticed that the distribution of students' scores on her last biology test had an extremely small standard deviation. This indicates that the

a. / test was given to a very small class of students.
b. / students' scores tended to be very similar to one another.
c. / mean test score was lower than the median score.
d. / students generally performed very well on the test.
e. / test was a poor measure of the students' knowledge.

Coach Vroman attended a clinic to improve his basketball coaching skills. Afterward, he randomly assigned his seventh-grade players to two groups: Group 1 will be coached by the new method and Group 2 will be coached by his old method. He then measured their performance at one team practice to judge the effectiveness of the new coaching method. Which of the following might affect the statistical significance of his study?

a. / Approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRb. was not obtained before beginning his study.
b. / To determine the effectiveness of the new method, Coach Vroman must first find the median score of each group.
c. / By testing only two groups, Coach Vroman's sample size may be too small and unrepresentative.
d. / Coach Vroman should wait until next year to test the incoming freshman because his sample was biased.
e. / A third variable, such as height, might affect the relationship between the two variables.

Your friend is taking her first psychology class. She comes to you saying, “I don't understand why we are studying the brain; I thought this was a psychology class.” Because of your background in psychology, your best response should be