Evolutionary Psychology Test Bank
Course Introduction
Evolutionary Psychology explores the ways in which human behavior, cognition, and emotions have been shaped by evolutionary pressures over time. The course examines foundational theories drawn from biology, anthropology, and psychology, focusing on how natural selection and adaptation influence mental processes such as perception, learning, social interaction, and mating strategies. Students will critically analyze how evolutionary perspectives inform our understanding of issues like aggression, cooperation, parenting, and gender differences, and will learn to evaluate both the strengths and limitations of evolutionary explanations for contemporary human behavior.
Recommended Textbook
Evolutionary Psychology Neuroscience Perspectives concerning Human Behavior and Experience
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811 Verified Questions
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to an Evolutionary Perspective
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Sample Questions
Q1) Contrast the Standard Social Science Model with the Evolutionary Psychology approach. These two approaches reflect a much larger debate within psychology. What is it?
Answer: -SSSM: human mind as blank slate; human behavior mostly learned; no such thing as human nature; wide variability in some behaviors due to culture.
-EP: there is a human nature; behaviors and experiences as adaptive products of evolution; many behaviors are universal across cultures.
-SSSM v. EP reflects nature v. nurture debate.
Q2) Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the evolutionary psychology perspective?
A) Psychological mechanisms are adaptations.
B) The environment strongly determines human behavior.
C) The human mind is not necessarily adapted to the current era.
D) There is a universal human nature.
Answer: B
Q3) The question of why individuals would engage in behaviors that benefited others at their own expense is known as _____.
Answer: altruism
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3
Chapter 2: What Is Evolution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Through the process of adaptation, organisms will
A) appear to fit closely with their environment.
B) become more and more similar to each other.
C) seek new environments to exploit.
D) take on the characteristics of their parents.
Answer: A
Q2) Jung referred to the universal patterns of thought that are available to all humans as _____.
Answer: archetypes
Q3) Which of the following was NOT something Darwin discovered on the Galápagos Islands?
A) Birds on one of the islands were different from those on the other islands.
B) Different species occupied identical habitats on the east and west sides of an island.
C) Some 100 new species of flowering plants existed only on these islands.
D) The people on these islands were well adapted to their environment.
Answer: D
Q4) In Freud's theory, _____ refers to the ability of higher cognitive functions to inhibit the experience of lower ones.
Answer: repression
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Chapter 3: Evolution and Genetics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Females carry two copies of the X chromosome, whereas males carry A) one X and one Y.
B) only an X.
C) only a Y.
D) two Y chromosomes.
Answer: A
Q2) The phenotype represents the
A) complete set of human genes.
B) environment in which genes are expressed.
C) observed traits of the individual.
D) traits inherited through the sperm and the egg.
Answer: C
Q3) Lactose intolerance is one example of how
A) culture can produce a shift in the genetics of a population.
B) diet can have a direct impact on a person's genes.
C) environment is much more important than genetics.
D) mutations generally lead to negative consequences.
Answer: A
Q4) A sequence of three bases along a single RNA strand is called a _____.
Answer: codon
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Chapter 4: Evolution of Brain and Function
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Q1) Researchers have found that absolute brain size is not a good predictor of mental abilities; rather, we need to consider brain weight in relation to body weight, a measure known as the _____.
Q2) _____ is the preferred term in referring to the ancestral species related to humans because it is more precise.
A) Hominid
B) Hominin
C) Human
D) Humanoid
Q3) Compare and contrast the mental module model with the alternative to the mental module model. In what sense do they make similar predictions?
Q4) When we are watching someone perform a task, there are neurons in specific areas of our brain that fire as if we were performing the task ourselves; these are called _____ and may be involved in observational learning as well as the development of an understanding of others.
Q5) Hughling Jackson proposed that over evolutionary time human brains have developed more general-purpose processing systems without replacing the earlier special-purpose processing mechanisms. This principle is known as _____.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Developmental Processes
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Q1) One possible mechanism to account for the stability of personality traits across generations is the mechanism of _____, whereby humans do not randomly choose partners but rather choose partners who are like themselves on some selected traits.
Q2) To research attachment patterns experimentally, Mary Ainsworth developed the _____, which involves having the mother momentarily leave the infant with an unknown person and then returning.
Q3) Based on cross-cultural tests of their model, McCrae and Costa suggest that the five factors of personality be considered as A) biologically based tendencies.
B) culturally conditioned.
C) evolutionary adaptations.
D) stable across the lifespan.
Q4) _____ refers to the emergence of new structures and functions during the course of development; its rules relate to the manner in which environmental influences can impact the expression of the genome without directly changing the DNA, even though these patterns of gene expression can be passed on to future generations.
Q5) Discuss Bjorklund and Blasi's (2005) six tenets of evolutionary psychology.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Emotionality
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Q1) Darwin's principle of _____ acknowledges that emotional expression can result from the structure of the nervous system; in other words, there are specific physiological reactions for different emotions.
Q2) At the level of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, it is difficult to distinguish emotional responses from those used in _____.
A) empathy
B) homeostasis
C) metabolism
D) motivation
Q3) A variety of reports from around the world suggest that making music with others leads not only to positive emotional feelings but also a sense of connectedness with others; one possible physiological mechanism associated with these experiences may be the release of _____ in the brain during music making.
A) dopamine
B) epinephrine
C) oxytocin
D) serotonin
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Chapter 7: Language
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Q1) It has been suggested by a variety of authors that the _____ of humans set the stage for language learning, creating both an ideal setting and an immediate need for learning it.
A) advanced technology
B) complex social structure
C) courtship rituals
D) expanded childhood
Q2) The actual spoken sentence is called the _____, whereas the meaning of the sentence is called the _____.
A) external process, internal process
B) free morpheme, bound morpheme
C) overarching meaning, underlying meaning
D) surface structure, deep structure
Q3) One hypothesis suggests that a common origin for vocalization evolved more than 400 million years ago in _____.
A) birds
B) fish
C) frogs
D) reptiles
Q4) The smallest meaningful unit in a language is referred as a _____.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Sex and Gender
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Sample Questions
Q1) The brightly colored male satin bowerbird builds a structure called a bower for the female to stand in while she watches him strut and sing. How does the female decide which male to mate with?
A) She decides based on how extensively decorated the bower is.
B) She decides based on how intensely the male struts and sings.
C) Younger females decide by the bower, older ones by the performance.
D) Younger females decide by the performance, older ones by the bower.
Q2) The World Health Organization estimates that there are _____ million acts of human sexual intercourse each day but fewer than _____ million conceptions.
A) 100, 1
B) 100, 10
C) 500, 1
D) 500, 10
Q3) It has been found in a variety of species that genes related to _____ production evolve faster than other genes.
A) egg
B) hormone
C) pheromone
D) sperm
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Sexual Selection
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Q1) In monogamous mating species of birds, a large proportion of males of reproductive age will find a mate. Thus, some females will be mating with males who are lower in genetic fitness. If these females have extra mating with more genetically fit males, then the
A) female will have two males to help her raise her offspring.
B) first male is likely to leave her.
C) offspring will have to be raised without their father.
D) overall level of fitness will increase.
Q2) Infanticide is common among primates, and males will frequently kill the unweaned infants of mothers. They do this because A) males are naturally aggressive.
B) the infants were fussing too much.
C) the offspring are not their own.
D) there is nothing else to eat.
Q3) One form of sexual selection is known as _____, which is most obvious in male-to-male competition; from this process would evolve characteristics, such as antlers on deer, that would enable one male to dominate another, and thus have the advantage.
Q4) Discuss the features that characterize attractiveness in males and females.
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Chapter 10: Kin and Family Relationships
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Q1) Mothers typically wean their children before the children want to be weaned. This is an example of
A) cooperative breeding
B) kin selection
C) parental investment
D) parent-offspring conflict
Q2) Although kinship systems vary somewhat from culture to culture, they all make certain key distinctions. Which of the following is NOT one of them?
A) age
B) closeness
C) generation
D) sex
Q3) The _____model suggests that during the Pleistocene period, the era before the development of farming 10,000 years ago, a human infant needed the attention of a number of individuals in order to survive.
Q4) _____ kindred terminologies are universal; around the world, family relationships are described in relation to a particular individual. If you say "my mother," you are describing only one person in the world.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Social Relations
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Q1) A firefighter sacrifices his own life to save a family he does not even know. This is an example of _____ altruism.
A) indirect
B) reciprocal
C) strong
D) weak
Q2) Someone stops you on campus and asks for directions, and you help out. This is an example of _____ altruism.
A) indirect
B) reciprocal
C) strong
D) weak
Q3) Many things we do as humans are done in the service of social _____; text messaging is one clear example of using technology to keep connected socially.
A) cognition
B) construction
C) integration
D) interaction
Q4) Discuss the brain processes involved in social relations.
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Chapter 12: Making Social Decisions
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Q1) Among the moral emotions, one distinction that has been made is that _____ is associated with the desire to undo aspects of the self, whereas guilt involves the desire to undo aspects of behavior.
Q2) Discuss the evolution of interpersonal and intragroup violence.
Q3) There is research to suggest that creating a feeling of ____ in a person will increase his or her sense of moral outrage or immorality.
Q4) If cheaters could be immediately detected, cooperators would only deal with other cooperators, and cheaters would die out. But if cheaters were to die out, so would the ability to detect cheaters. Thus, cheater and cooperator aspects of individual behaviors have remained in a form of dynamic tension, which can be called forth depending on
A) environmental conditions
B) genetic predispositions
C) personal aspirations
D) societal norms
Q5) Describe the Wason card selection task. How is it used to study social exchange? What are the findings?
Q6) Discuss the evolution and function of social and moral emotions.
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Chapter 13: Health and Disease
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Q1) According to Gluckman and Hanson (2005), _____ in humans is one example of a health condition that results from PARs, in that humans evolved in a nutritional and energy environment that was different from the one we live in today.
Q2) During times of stress, the _____ nervous system releases norepinephrine and epinephrine into the blood stream, increasing heart and breathing rate, dilating the pupils and redirecting blood flow to the muscles.
A) parasympathetic
B) peripheral
C) somatic
D) sympathetic
Q3) Data from hospitals during the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 have shown that a brief period of intense deprivation in an otherwise well-nourished population can result in a mismatch that leaves these individuals susceptible to future A) immune disorders.
B) infectious diseases.
C) obesity and diabetes.
D) psychological disorders.
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Chapter 14: Psychopathology
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Q1) Discuss the historical perspective on psychopathology, including the thinking of Hughlings Jackson, MacLean, Freud, Jung, Bowlby and Panksepp.
Q2) Although there is no single definition of abnormal processes, five ideas have been critical in the conceptualization of psychopathology. Discuss each of these.
Q3) Disorders that have very similar end states--depression, for example--may have developed from distinctly different beginning conditions. Which of the following is NOT a typical beginning condition for depression?
A) Death of a significant person in one's life.
B) Decline in social status.
C) Extreme stress that elicits self-preservation instincts.
D) Loss of sense of agency.
Q4) The transition from reptiles to mammals included three important processes associated with the development of the limbic system. Which of the following was NOT one of them?
A) Dominance hierarchies and competition for mates.
B) Nursing of the infant in the context of maternal care.
C) Oral communication for maintaining mother-child contact.
D) Play and its role in social development.
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Page 16
Chapter 15: Culture
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Q1) The debate is not about whether a process is learned or evolved but how each process plays a role. The evolutionary perspective seeks an approach that describes the _____ of cultural experience and psychological predispositions. Thus, the critical question is what mechanisms direct, focus, and allow for cultural learning to take place.
Q2) Using fear faces of Japanese and Caucasian individuals, Chiao and his colleagues (2008) found participants showed greater amygdala activation when viewing members of
A) their own cultural group.
B) their own gender.
C) the other cultural group.
D) the other gender.
Q3) Because of the nature of the Chinese writing system compared with Western alphabets, imaging studies show more activation in the _____ areas of both hemispheres when reading Chinese as compared with reading a Western language.
A) auditory
B) spatial
C) tactile
D) visual
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