Critical Thinking in Psychology Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Critical Thinking in Psychology explores the principles and applications of analytical reasoning within the context of psychological science. Students will learn to evaluate evidence, identify cognitive biases, distinguish between correlation and causation, and assess the validity of psychological claims. The course emphasizes skepticism, open-minded inquiry, and scientific skepticism when interpreting research findings and popular psychology topics. Through case studies, empirical research, and practical exercises, students develop the skills necessary to critically analyze issues, solve problems, and make informed decisions about behavior and mental processes.
Recommended Textbook
Psychological Science Modeling Scientific Literacy 1st Edition by Mark Krause
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17 Chapters
4332 Verified Questions
4332 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introducing Psychological Science
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248 Verified Questions
248 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) You attend a lecture by a psychologist who uses terms such as free will and life's meaning.Which psychological perspective is most consistent with the points the psychologist presented?
A)behaviorism
B)humanism
C)functionalism
D)psychodynamics
Answer: B
Q2) "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is a statement that can be associated with the perspective of
A)introspection.
B)functionalism.
C)psychoanalysis.
D)gestalt psychology.
Answer: D
Q3) While popular with audiences,television shows about criminal profilers and crime-scene investigation generally misrepresent the job of a typical _______________ psychologist.
Answer: forensic
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Page 3
Chapter 2: Reading and Evaluating Scientific Research
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270 Verified Questions
270 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The variable that an experimenter assesses or measures is called the _______________.
A)causal variable
B)confounding variable
C)dependent variable
D)independent variable
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following statements is true about naturalistic observation?
A)It recreates natural conditions in the laboratory as closely as possible to make an experiment more valid.
B)It involves observing behavior in its natural context.
C)It is basically the same process as objective introspection.
D)It involves observing behavior in the lab without taking formal notes or using technological equipment to measure the experimental findings.
Answer: B
Q3) The __________________ is a commonly occurring distribution that is characterized by its symmetrical shape with values clustered around a mean value.
Answer: normal distribution (or bell curve)
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4
Chapter 3: Biological Psychology
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339 Verified Questions
339 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is a synapse?
A)The site where a "message" is transmitted from one nerve cell to another
B)A chemical substance that is released by a transmitting neuron
C)A fatty coating that increases the rate at which messages travel through neurons
D)The part of the neuron that keeps it alive
Answer: A
Q2) Approximately how many genes do humans have?
A)500
B)30,000
C)900,000
D)10,000,000,000
Answer: B
Q3) The tiny space between the axon terminal of one cell and the dendrites of the next cell is called the
A)receptor site.
B)synapse.
C)dendrite knob.
D)axon terminal.
Answer: B
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Sensation and Perception
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320 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The colored part of the eye which contains muscles to contract or expand the pupil is the ____________.
A)lens
B)fovea
C)iris
D)cornea
Q2) Which gestalt principle refers to the perceptual rule that lines and other objects tend to be continuous,rather than abruptly changing direction?
A)Figure-ground
B)Continuity
C)Proximity and similarity
D)Psychophysics
Q3) Jan can see objects well up close,but they appear blurry from afar.She is probably ____________.
A)color blind
B)nearsighted
C)farsighted
D)developing a cataract
Q4) Another name for the condition known as face blindness is _________________.
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Chapter 5: Consciousness
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Sample Questions
Q1) Vanya's legs bother him while he tries to sleep,and he feels the need to constantly move them into different positions.Sometimes it even causes him to wake up in the middle of the night.Vanya would be most likely to be diagnosed with A)restless legs syndrome.
B)terminal insomnia.
C)REM behavior disorder.
D)somnambulism.
Q2) Almost everyone has experienced __________________,the feeling that a situation has happened before,at least once.
Q3) Chemical substances that change moods and perceptions are called __________ drugs.
A)psychosomatic
B)analgesic
C)psychoactive
D)prescription
Q4) Relatively few people use prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are some of the therapeutic uses for hypnosis? Is it generally effective?
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Chapter 6: Learning
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Sample Questions
Q1) In general,studying is more effective when:
A)desirable difficulties are present.
B)the information is organized in outlines that can quickly be reviewed several times.
C)the total amount of studying time is short.
D)all of the studying occurs in one long session.
Q2) When the removal of an event increases the likelihood of a prior response,_______ has occurred.
A)positive reinforcement
B)negative reinforcement
C)positive punishment
D)negative punishment
Q3) A dental drill can become an unpleasant stimulus,especially for people who may have experienced pain while one was used on their teeth.In this case,the pain elicited by the drill is a(n)_____.
A)conditioned response
B)unconditioned stimulus
C)conditioned stimulus
D)unconditioned response
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8
Chapter 7: Memory
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about flashbulb memories is true?
A)Flashbulb memories tend to be about as accurate as other types of memories.
B)People feel unconfident about their recall of flashbulb memories.
C)A major news event automatically causes a person to store a flashbulb memory.
D)Your memory of how you felt at the onset of a flashbulb memory rarely changes over time.
Q2) Proactive interference as used in the study of memory refers to when
A)older information already in memory interferes with the retrieval of newer information.
B)newer information interferes with the retrieval of older information.
C)information is not attended to and fails to be encoded.
D)information that is not accessed decays from the storage system over time.
Q3) Long-term potentiation may represent the first stages of memory.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Encoding is:
A)recalling information.
B)recognizing information.
C)representing information.
D)remembering information
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Chapter 8: Thought and Language
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Sample Questions
Q1) One way to understand the relationship between various categories and concepts is to draw a diagram of a(n)___________.
A)algorithm
B)mental set
C)semantic network
D)prototype
Q2) What term do psychologists use to describe our tendency to search for evidence that supports our belief and to ignore evidence that might disprove it?
A)confirmation bias
B)convergent thinking
C)availability heuristic
D)representativeness heuristic
Q3) Describe the concepts of phonemes,morphemes,syntax,and pragmatics.Then use the sentence "The concert was so great that it blew my mind!" to provide examples of each type of language unit.
Q4) Is heuristic thinking,good,bad,or somewhere in between? What advantages-if any-are associated with heuristic thinking? Are there disadvantages to using heuristics,and if so,what are they? Use the availability heuristic to provide examples to support your claims.
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Chapter 9: Intelligence, aptitude, and Cognitive Abilities
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209 Verified Questions
209 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is evidence that intelligence can change with experience?
A)People who inherit the right genes can become more intelligent.
B)Children who have been adopted into a life that includes an enriched environment show increases in IQ scores.
C)Giving individuals testosterone injections improves intelligence test scores.
D)The IQ scores of identical twins reared apart are very similar.
Q2) According to your textbook,how should teachers tailor their instruction styles to maximize learning?
A)Teachers should tailor their teaching to fit the material.
B)Teachers should tailor their teaching to match each individual student's learning style.
C)Teachers should tailor their teaching to match the modal (i.e.,most frequent)learning style found in their classroom.
D)Teachers should tailor their teaching primarily towards reading/writing learners.
Q3) Children who hold a(n)_____________ theory of intelligence are more likely to give up in the face of highly challenging problems,than other children.
Q4) Charles Spearman used the letter g as an abbreviation for
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11
Chapter 10: Life Span Development
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Sample Questions
Q1) Babies become attached to their mothers because their mothers provide them with food and warmth.
A)True
B)False
Q2) At about ___ months of age,children demonstrate that their attachment to their primary caregiver(s)has peaked.
A)2
B)5
C)9
D)13
Q3) Which of the following is the correct order for the phases of prenatal development?
A)germinal \(\to\) embryonic \(\to\) fetal
B)germinal \(\to\) fetal \(\to\) embryonic
C)fetal \(\to\) germinal \(\to\) embryonic
D)fetal \(\to\) embryonic \(\to\) germinal
Q4) There is no scientific evidence that vaccines can cause autism.
A)True
B)False
Q5) A(n)________________ is first created when a sperm and an ovum fuse together.
12
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Chapter 11: Motivation and Emotion
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207 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which sequence of events in emotional responses is characteristic of the James-Lange theory of emotion?
A)stimulus --> emotion --> physiological changes
B)stimulus --> physiological changes --> emotion
C)physiological changes --> stimulus --> emotion
D)stimulus --> emotion AND physiological changes (simultaneous)
Q2) Joseph's mother tells him to smile more if he wants to feel better.She is applying the _____ theory of emotion.
A)Cannon-Bard
B)two-factor
C)James-Lange
D)slow/fast path
Q3) In general,motivated behavior occurs in response to which two factors?
A)drives and incentives
B)hunger and satiation
C)reward and punishment
D)food and sex
Q4) ____________motives reflect a desire to understand or overcome a challenge for its own sake.
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Chapter 12: Personality
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Sample Questions
Q1) The superego is that part of the personality which represents the _______.
A)pleasure principle
B)reality principle
C)thanatos
D)conscience
Q2) Freud believed that the influence of the superego is present at birth,whereas the id must develop with experience.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The aspect of consciousness proposed by Carl Jung that is a store of archetypes representing symbols and experiences common to all cultures is called the _____.
A)preconscious
B)subconscious
C)analytical conscious
D)collective unconscious
Q4) What are the four general aspects of situations that are most likely to influence our behavior? Provide an example for each.
Q5) Freud believed the id was fueled by an energy called _____________.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Psychological Disorders
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273 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Cindy craves the attention of everyone around her.The few friends that she has admit that Cindy is "full of herself," and acts like she is better than everyone else.When Cindy had sex with her best friend's boyfriend,she felt no remorse.Which personality disorder would Cindy be most likely to be diagnosed with?
A)borderline
B)avoidant
C)narcissistic
D)dependent
Q2) _____ refers to a condition marked by a habitual pattern of willingly violating others' personal rights,with very little sign of empathy or remorse.
A)Borderline personality disorder
B)Narcissistic personality disorder
C)Histrionic personality disorder
D)Antisocial personality disorder
Q3) Insanity is a legal term that is used neither by psychologists nor by psychiatrists in research or diagnosis.
A)True
B)False
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15
Chapter 14: Therapies
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236 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which treatment is LEAST likely to be used today?
A)drug therapy
B)prefrontal lobotomy
C)ECT
D)behavior therapy
Q2) Imani is trying a relatively new treatment for her major depression.When she visits the doctor,he puts a machine against her head which stimulates specific regions in her brain.Happily for Imani,the treatment is painless and does not cause seizures.Imani's treatment is called _____________.
A)psychosurgery
B)deep brain stimulation
C)electroconvulsive therapy
D)transcranial magnetic stimulation
Q3) Which of the following statements is true about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)?
A)ECT can be an effective treatment for severe cases of depression.
B)ECT is no longer considered a valid or ethical form of treatment.
C)ECT is still performed in the same way it was delivered in the 1930s and 1940s.
D)ECT triggers a controlled stroke.
Q4) Describe four key differences between humanistic therapies and psychoanalysis.
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Chapter 15: Social Psychology
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249 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When an individual,who is part of a larger group,puts forth less effort than other group members,________ occurs.
A)cognitive dissonance
B)social loafing
C)conformity
D)the bystander effect
Q2) The tendency to give too much emphasis to personal factors when accounting for other people's actions is called
A)the primacy effect.
B)defensive attribution.
C)the fundamental attribution error.
D)the just world hypothesis.
Q3) Which of the following is a critique of the Implicit Associations Test (IAT)discussed in your textbook?
A)The IAT measures explicit prejudice,not implicit prejudice.
B)The IAT measures implicit discrimination,not implicit prejudice.
C)The IAT may measure knowledge about stereotypes,rather than real attitudes or beliefs.
D)The IAT does not produce reliable or consistent results.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Krause and Corts
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Sample Questions
Q1) Joanna has a Type A personality.Which of the following traits are descriptive of her personality?
A)Competitive and impatient
B)Negative and distressed
C)Relaxed and easygoing
D)Obsessive and neat
Q2) High _____ levels and low _____ levels are associated with reduced stress.
A)cortisol; oxytocin
B)epinephrine; oxytocin
C)oxytocin; cortisol
D)cortisol; vasopressin
Q3) Which aspect of Type A personality is most closely correlated with increased risk for heart disease?
A)Competitiveness
B)Anger and hostility
C)Patience
D)Worrying about time
Q4) Most ulcers are caused by stress.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Krause and Corts
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Sample Questions
Q1) Recently psychologists have begun using the __________________ test to detect aggressive tendencies.
A)situational judgment
B)conditional reasoning
C)aggressive proclivities
D)EEOC
Q2) According to your textbook,I/O psychologists are primarily interested in trait affectivity because of its potential to affect
A)hiring and assessment.
B)performance and job satisfaction.
C)salary and self-efficacy.
D)absenteeism and leadership style.
Q3) Generally speaking,which of the following is the most desirable style of leadership?
A)transactional
B)assertive
C)laissez-faire
D)transformational
Q4) In job analysis,KSAO stands for ____________________________.
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