Psychology People Test Version A
1.
“Explain how one theory or empirical study from the biological perspective
demonstrates a reductionist approach.” After explaining the reductionist
approach (as in anything, the reductionist approach says that human behavior
can be boiled down to __________ …) You could use which of the below to
solidify your argument?
a. Selye: Theory of Natural Selection
b. Greenough: number of neuron dendrites increase with stimulation
c. Newton: 2nd Law of Thermodynamics –entropy increases in a system
d. Rogers: Studied split-brain people and found that areas of the brain have
specialization
e. Doving and Pinching: General Adaptation Syndrome… studied physical
effects of stress, and (coined the term) found that perception of a situation
can lead to suffering the effects of stress.
2.
“Describe one cognitive explanation of human behavior, making reference to
one empirical study.”
a. Sandra Bem: Words become vocalized thoughts and show higher order
thinking skills.
b. Edward Thorndike: He put animals in cages and promoted the “law of
effect” (a response that leads to a satisfactory outcome will likely be
repeated.)
c. Lev Vygotsky: Gender Schema Theory. Children attribute characteristics
to one or the other gender.
d. Albert Bandura: “reciprocal determinism”,(also known as “social learning
theory”) used the bobo doll to show that personality is the result of
interactions between the environment, behavior and psychological
processes. (Kids imitated behavior that they witnessed.)
3.
“Outline one assumption from the learning perspective, and explain how one
empirical study from the learning perspective (behaviorist) illustrates the
assumption you have identified.”
a. Edward Thorndike: his ‘law of effect’ idea illustrates the idea that the
environmental reinforcement of a behavior can stimulate an animal to do
the behavior again. He put animals in cages and mazes and rewarded
‘good’ behavior.
b. Marian Breland: Her ‘bridging stimulus’ illustrated the idea that behavior
can be conditioned with an unconditioned stimulus.
c. BF Skinner: Used caged birds (pecking a lever) and rats for a reward to
illustrate operant conditioning.
d. All of the above
e. Marian Breland and BF Skinner only
4.
“Outline one explanation of learning from the traditional behaviorist
approach.”
a. Operant conditioning (explanation of learning) where the consequences of
a behavior affect the frequency of the behavior. Or where a behavior
operates on the environment and the environment works on the behavior:
BF Skinner… caged birds and rats, tried to get pigeons to guide missiles.
b. Law of effect: positive outcomes are repeated, and negative outcomes of
behavior are not as frequent. Edward Thorndike
c. Observational learning: an animal learns by watching another animal:
Sandra Bem, gender schema theory.
d. Behavior Modification… where the principles of operant conditioning are
used to change human behavior. Sigmund Freud.
e. A and B only.
5.
“To what extent have cognitive or biological factors extended traditional
explanations of behavior within the learning perspective?”
a. Charles Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection and Theory of Evolution
opened the door for animals to be tested and the results used to help
interpret human behavior.
b. David Kolb’s studies of brain plasticity showed that learning increases
with practice and experience (the brain changes, and dendrites increase).
Implies that with operant conditioning, desirable behaviors can become
permanent.
c. Observational learning affecting the cognitive processes, and the cognitive
processes affecting the behavior: Albert Bandura and the Bobo doll
experiments.
d. All of the above
e. None of the above.
6.
“Discus how ethical and methodological considerations affect the
interpretation of behavior from a biological perspective.”
a. According to Selye, there are two kinds of body responses. He called
“General Adaptive Syndrome” stress. He said that there are positive and
negative stresses…It is hard to test stress ethically, and therefore difficult
to prove. (Selye included, among other diseases, high blood pressure,
gastric and duodenal ulcers, and various types of mental disordersas
“diseases of adaptation.” Through his presentation of these and related
ideas, he stimulated much discussion and controversy)
b. Electrifying the feet of rats could be considered ‘unnatural’. Artificial
environment of the lab experiment does not necessarily mean that other
forms of stimulation will increase the dendrites of neurons. (Greenough)
c. Sigmund Freud’s assertion that most of our behavior can be explained by
unconscious drives is difficult to prove.
d. Carl Rogers’ assertion that Conformity studies aid in proving humanism
are difficult to prove.
e. A and B are true
7.
“Explain how cultural and gender considerations may affect the interpretation
of behavior.”
a. Matsumoto: Americans are too free with facial expression and their
expressions are not necessarily a true representation of their internal
beliefs
b. Strohschneider: Functionalist cultural psychology looks for cultural
differences in behavior that have a psychological mechanism. He further
explains that cultures that are individualistic behave differently than
cultures that are collectivistic. In one society, a person walking apart from
a group would be admired, in another, it might be seen as punishment.
c. Bem: Gender Schema Theory… People attribute characteristics to one or
the other gender… (+Society sees the male experience as the normal
experience and the female experience as the abnormal… )Children see a
loud Man as “strong” whereas a loud Woman would be “unladylike” or
“bad”.
d. All of the above
For 8-12, please use the following:
A. Paul Ekman
B. Philip Zimbardo
C. Stanley Milgram
D. Solomon Asche
E. Barry Schwartz
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Universals of facial expression
Conformity studies using line length
Conformity studies using prison atmosphere
Conformity study using actors and people asked to punish people using
electricity.
Said that too much choice can lead to depression
For 13-17, please use the following:
A. Sigmund Freud
B. Wilhelm Wundt
C. William James
D. Carl Rogers
E. John Watson
13.
Father of behaviorism: “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed and my
own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at
random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select…”
14.
Founded structuralism. Focused on what the mind knows
15.
Founded humanism
16.
Founded functionalism. Focused on how the mind works. Wrote the first
psychology book.
17.
Coined the terms Id, Super ego and Ego.
For 18-22, please use the following:
A. Jean Piaget
B. Gregor Mendel
C. Bryan Kolb
D. Jerome Bruner
E. Elizabeth Loftus
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
Made a psychologist’s model of human development: enactive skills, iconic
skills, symbolic skills, etc… helped turn focus away from behaviorism.
Studied brain plasticity, created a learning theory based on brain research
Studied his own children and came up with developmental stages of cognitive
development
Studied eyewitness testimony and reconstructive memory
Genetic Theory guy
For 23-27, please use the following:
A. Roger Sperry
B. Ivan Pavlov
C. Lev Vygotsky
D. Marion Breland
E. Albert Bandura
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Bobo doll
Words are vocalized thoughts
Split brain studies
Used a bridging stimulus to condition animals
Classical Conditioning.