Dr. Don S. ChristensenShorelineCommunity College

Psych 100Psychology

Exam 3

Potential Short Answer Questions

Thinking, Language, and Intelligence (Modules 22, 24, & Lecture)

  1. Describe the five stages of problem solving. (discussed in lecture)
  2. Describe the five stages of problem solving. (discussed in lecture)
  3. What is an algorithm? Discuss its strengths and weaknesses as a problem-solving tool.
  4. What is a heuristic? Discuss its strengths and weaknesses as a problem-solving tool.
  5. What is confirmation bias and how can it interfere with problem solving?
  6. What is fixation and how does it interfere with problem solving? How do a mental set and functional fixedness demonstrate specific examples of this general problem solving challenge?
  7. Describe the representativeness heuristic.
  8. How does the availability heuristic influence judgments of likelihood or probability?
  9. What is “framing?” Give an example of how framing can impact decisions or judgments.
  10. What is a belief bias? (discussed in lecture)
  11. What is belief perseverance?
  12. How is intelligence typically defined?
  13. Contrast the theories for intelligence offered by Spearman (text) and Thurstone (lecture).
  14. Charles Spearman helped to develop the technique known as ______, which is a statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items.
  15. Name Gardner’s eight intelligences.
  16. List and briefly describe the three different kinds of intelligence in Sternberg’s triarchic theory.
  17. According to the text, what are Sternberg’s five components of creativity?
  18. How is emotional intelligence different from the traditional view of intelligence? Give two examples of skills thought to reflect emotional intelligence.
  19. Discuss the significance of the following individuals with regard to the history of intelligence testing: Galton, Binet, Stern, Terman, & Wechsler.
  20. What is meant by the term “mental age?”
  21. What was originally meant by the term “Intelligence Quotient” or IQ (explain how the ratio was calculated)? In comparison, how is modern day IQ score on a test such as the WAIS interpreted?
  22. What is the distinction between achievement and aptitude tests?
  23. Differentiate between the terms validity and reliability.
  24. To what does the term “standardization” refer?
  25. Define what is meant by the term heritability? What type of differences (between group or within group) can be explained by this concept? (presented in lecture)
  26. What is stereotype threat? How has it been shown to affect performance on intelligence and academic tests? (presented in lecture)

Emotion (Modules 27, 28, & Lecture)

  1. Define the term emotion.
  2. Describe the James-Lange theory of emotion.
  3. What is the facial feedback hypothesis (presented in lecture) and which theory of emotion does it support?
  4. Describe the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion. What is one criticism they had of the James-Lange theory?
  5. Describe Schachter & Singer’s two-factor theory of emotion and Lazarus’s cognitive appraisal theory of emotion (the second theory was presented in lecture).
  6. What are three brain structures involved in emotion (presented in lecture)?
  7. What exactly is a lie detector test and what are the major assumptions behind its use (in other words, how can experts tell when people are lying)?
  8. What considerations and research evidence challenge the validity of the lie detector? What kinds of errors by experts are most likely?
  9. What does emotion researcher Joseph LeDoux mean by the terms “low road” and “high road?” Which one of these “roads” is most relevant when trying to explain non-conscious emotional experiences?
  10. Discuss how the emotion theories of Schachter & Singert, Lazarus, Zajonc, and LeDoux relate to the two-track brain concept presented in the text (see Figure 27.6).
  11. Are facial expressions of emotion learned or biologically determined? Cite one piece of research evidence that supports your answer.
  12. What is catharsis? What does research evidence indicate about the validity of the catharsis hypothesis?
  13. Briefly describe the feel-good, do good phenomenon.
  14. Describe what research has revealed about the relationship between wealth and well-being. Does additional wealth always produce greater well-being and happiness?
  15. A principle called ______argues that we make to make judgments relative to previous experiences we have had. In other words, satisfaction and dissatisfaction are relative and both are strongly determined by our recent experience.
  16. A person watching a television show feels worse after noticing that she doesn’t have the nice apartment and the high paying job that several of characters in the show she is watching have. What concept related to happiness is most relevant to this example?
  17. Describe how well the following variables predict happiness: self-esteem, age, optimism, gender, friendship, parenthood, sleep, physical attractiveness, exercise.

Development over the Lifespan (Modules 10, 11, 12, & Lecture)

  1. What are the three different names given to the developing human being prior to birth and when are these names applied?
  2. Harmful agents or substances that can cause malformations or defects in an embryo or fetus are called ______.
  3. Describe three reflexes that newborn infants show.
  4. According to evidence discussed in the text and presented in lecture, what is the favorite visual stimulus of newborns?
  5. What is object permanence? What kind of task might a developmental psychologist use to assess whether or not a child has leaned it?
  6. What is conservation and during which of Piaget’s stages is it acquired?
  7. What did Piaget mean by the term egocentrism and what are some examples of this type of behavior?
  8. List Piaget’s four stages in his model of cognitive development.
  9. What is a major criticism of Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?
  10. What is the “strange situation”? Describe the three styles of attachment identified by this procedure. (in lecture, we discussed two types of “insecure attachment”)
  11. What are the four different parenting styles and which ones are associated with the most and least positive child outcomes (two types of “permissive” parenting were discussed in lecture)? What is the relevance of the “third variable problem” to these findings?
  12. To what does the term temperament refer (see page 160)? What are three different types of temperaments with which babies can be born (presented in lecture)?
  13. How do preconventional, conventional, and postconventional moral reasoning differ?

Revised: 10/26/2018