Prepare for your Psychology final exam with these practice questions and answers. This covers behavior, cognition, development, disorders, and research methods.
Q: Personality
Answer: A person’s internally based characteristic ways of acting and thinking.Unique psychological qualities that influence a variety of characteristic patterns of behaviour and ways of thinking that determines a person’s adjustment to the environment.
Q: Conscious mind
Answer: Freud’s term for what you are presently aware of
Q: Preconscious mind
Answer: Freud’s term for what is stored in your memory that you are not presently aware of but can access
Q: Unconscious mind
Answer: Freud’s term for the part of our mind that we cannot become aware of.
Q: Id
Answer: The part of the personality that a person is born with, where the biological instinctual drives reside, and that is located totally in the unconscious mind.
Q: Pleasure principle
Answer: The principle of seeking immediate gratification for instinctual drives without concern for the consequences
Q: Ego
Answer: The part of the personality that starts developing in the first year or so of life to find realistic outlets for the id’s instinctual drives.
Q: Reality principle
Answer: The principle of finding gratification for instinctual drives within the constraints of reality (norms of society).
Q: Superego
Answer: The part of the personality that represents one’s conscience and idealized standards of behaviour.
Q: Defense mechanism
Answer: A process used by the ego to distort reality and protect a person from anxiety.
Q: Erogenous zone
Answer: The area of the body where the id’s pleasure-seeking energies are focused during a particular stage of psychosexual development.
Q: Fixation
Answer: Some of the id’s pleasure-seeking energies remaining in a psychosexual stage due to excessive or insufficient gratification of instinctual needs.
Q: Oral stage of psychosexual development
Answer: First stage in Freud’s theoryBirth to 18 monthsErogenous zones are mouth, lips, tongueChild derives pleasure from oral activities such as biting, sucking, chewing
Q: Anal stage of psychosexual devlopment
Answer: Second stage in Freud’s theory18 months to 3 yearsErogenous zone is anusChild derives pleasure from stimulation of anal area through having and withholding anal movements
Q: Phallic stage of psychosexual development
Answer: Third stage in Freud’s theory3 to 6 yearsErogenous zone is located at genitalsChild derives pleasure from genital stimulation
Q: Oedipus Conflict
Answer: FreudPhallic stage conflict in which boy becomes sexually attracted to mother and fears his father will find out and castrate him.
Q: Identification
Answer: Process by which children adopt characteristics of same-sex parent and learn their gender role and sense of morality
Q: Latency stage of psychosexual development
Answer: Fourth stage in Freud’s theory6 years to pubertyNo erogenous zoneSexual feelings are repressed and the focus is on cognitive and social development
Q: Genital stage of psychosexual development
Answer: Fifth stage in Freud’s theoryPuberty to adulthoodErogenous zone is genitalsChild develops sexual relationships, moving towards intimate adult relationships
Q: Hierarchy of Needs
Answer: MotivationSuggests that the innate needs which motivate our behaviour are arranged in a pyramid shape.From bottom to top:Physiological (hunger, thirst)Safety (feel safe, secure, stable)Belonging and love (to love and be love, belong, be accepted)Esteem (self-esteem, achievement, competence, independence)Self-actualization (live up to potential)
Q: Self-actualization
Answer: The fullest realization of a person’s potential
Q: Conditions of worth
Answer: The behaviours and attitudes for which other people (starting with parents) will give us positive regard
Q: Unconditional positive regard
Answer: Unconditional acceptance and approval of a person by others
Q: Self-system
Answer: The set of cognitive processes by which a person observes, evaluates, and regulates their behaviour
Q: Self-efficacy
Answer: A judgement of one’s effectiveness in dealing with particular situations
Q: External locus of control
Answer: The perception that chance or external forces beyond your personal control determine your fate
Q: Internal locus of control
Answer: The perception that you control your own fate.
Q: Learned helplessness
Answer: A sense of hopelessness in which a person thinks that he is unable to prevent aversive events.
Q: Attribution
Answer: The process by which we explain our own behaviour and that of others
Q: Self-serving bias
Answer: The tendency to make attributions so that one can perceive oneself favourably
Q: Traits
Answer: The relatively stable internally based characteristics that describe a person
Q: Personal inventory
Answer: An objective personality test that uses a series of questions or statements for which the test taker must indicate whether they apply to him/her or not.
Q: Projective test
Answer: A personality test that uses a series of ambiguous stimuli to which the test taker must respond about her perception of the stimuli
Q: Personality Theories
Answer: Type TheoriesTrait Theories
Q: Type Theories
Answer: Distinct (no overlap) pattern of personality characteristics- Sheldon Somatotypes- Eysenck- Type A vs. Type B
Q: Sheldon Somatotypes
Answer: Type theory of personalityBased on body typesEndomorph – short, plump – sociable, relaxed, even temperedEctomorph – tall, thin – restrained, self-conscious, fond of solitudeMesomorph – heavy-set, muscular – noisy, callous, fond of physical activity
Q: Endomorph
Answer: Sheldon somatotypeShort, plumpSociable, relaxed, even-tempered
Q: Ectomorph
Answer: Sheldon somatotypeTall, thinRestrained, self-conscious, fond of solitude
Q: Mesomorph
Answer: Sheldon somatotypeHeavy-set, muscularNoisy, callous, fond of physical activity
Q: Eysenck
Answer: Type theory of personalityIntrovert vs. extrovert
Q: Type A vs. Type B
Answer: Type theory of personalityAggressive when frustrated, impatient, controlling.
Q: Trait Theories of Personality
Answer: Characteristic patterns of behaviour or conscious motives.Assumed that most traits exist in all people to a certain degree and that we can measure the degree to which a trait exists in a personThousands of words to describe traits.
Q: Beauty and the Beast
Answer: In-class example of traitBelle – innocent, intellectual, happy, niceGaston – arrogant, jerk, narcissistic
Q: Factors
Answer: Research has shown that various traits tend to cluster (or appear together) in various dimensions (or factors)
Q: 5-Factor Model of Personality
Answer: OpennessConscientiousnessExtraversionAgreeablenessNeuroticism – tendency to experience negative effects
Q: Neuroticism
Answer: 5-Factor model of personalityTendency to experience negative effects
Q: Abnormal psychology
Answer: The scientific study of mental disorders and their treatment.
Q: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV)
Answer: The current version of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic and classification guidelines for mental disorders.
Q: Personality Disorder
Answer: A disorder characterized by inflexible, long-standing personality traits that lead to behaviour that impairs social functioning and deviates from cultural norms.
Q: Biopsychosocial Approach
Answer: Explaining abnormality as the result of the interaction among biological, psychological (behavioural and cognitive), and sociocultural factors.
Q: Anxiety Disorders
Answer: Disorders in which excessive anxiety leads to personal distress and atypical, maladaptive, and irrational behaviour.
Q: Specific Phobia
Answer: An anxiety disorder indicated by a marked and persistent fear of specific objects or situations that is excessive and unreasonable.
Q: Social Phobia
Answer: An anxiety disorder indicated by a marked and persistent fear of one or more social performance situations in which there is exposure to unfamiliar people or scrutiny by others.
Q: Agoraphobia
Answer: An anxiety disorder indicated by a marked and persistent fear of being in places or situations from which escape may be difficult or embarrassing.
Q: Panic Disorder
Answer: An anxiety disorder in which a person experiences recurrent panic attacks.
Q: Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Answer: An anxiety disorder in which a person has excessive, global anxiety that he or she cannot control, for a period of at least 6 months.
Q: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Answer: An anxiety disorder in which the person experiences recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are perceived by the person as excessive or unreasonable, but cause significant distress and disruption in the person’s daily life.
Q: Obsession
Answer: A persistent, intrusive thought, idea, impulse, or image that causes anxiety.
Q: Compulsion
Answer: A repetitive and rigid behaviour that a person feels compelled to perform in order to reduce anxiety.
Q: Mood Disorders
Answer: Disorders that involve dramatic changes in a person’s emotional mood that are excessive and unwarranted.
Q: Major Depressive Disorder
Answer: A mood disorder in which the person has experienced one or more depressive episodes.
Q: Major Depressive Episode
Answer: An episode characterized by symptoms such as feelings of intense hopelessness, low self-esteem and worthlessness, extreme fatigue, dramatic changes in eating and sleeping behaviour, inability to concentrate, and greatly diminished interest in family, friend, and activities for a period of 2 weeks or more.
Q: Manic Episode
Answer: An episode characterized by abnormally elevated mood in which the person experiences symptoms such as inflated self-esteem with grandiose delusions, a decreased need for sleep, constant talking, distractability, restlessness, and poor judgment for a period of at least a week.
Q: Bipolar Disorder
Answer: A mood disorder in which recurrent cycles of depressive and manic episodes occur.
Q: Psychotic Disorder
Answer: A disorder characterized by a loss of contact with reality.
Q: Hallucination
Answer: A false sensory perception.
Q: Delusion
Answer: A false belief.
Q: Schizophrenia
Answer: A psychotic disorder in which at least two of the following symptoms are present most of the time during a 1-month period: hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behaviour, or negative symptoms such as loss of emotion.
Q: Vulnerability-Stress Model
Answer: A biopsychosocial explanation of schizophrenia which proposes that genetic, prenatal, and postnatal biological factors render a person vulnerable to schizophrenia, but environmental stress determines whether it develops or not.
Q: Biomedical Therapy
Answer: The use of biological interventions, such as drugs, to treat mental disorders.
Q: Psychotherapy
Answer: The use of psychological interventions to treat mental disorders.
Q: Lithium
Answer: A naturally occurring element (a mineral salt) that is used to treat bipolar disorder.
Q: Antidepressant Drugs
Answer: Drugs used to treat depressive disorders.
Q: Neurogenesis Theory of Depression
Answer: An explanation of depression that proposes that neurogenesis, the growth of new neurons, in the hippocampus stops during depression, and when it resumes the depression lifts.
Q: Antianxiety Drugs
Answer: Drugs used to treat anxiety problems and disorders.
Q: Antipsychotic Drugs
Answer: Drugs used to treat psychotic disorders.
Q: Tardive Dyskinesia
Answer: A side effect of long-term use of traditional anti-psychotic drugs causing the person to have uncontrollable facial tics, grimaces, and other involuntary movements of the lips, jaw, and tongue.
Q: Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Answer: A biomedical treatment for severe depression that involves electrically inducing a brief brain seizure.
Q: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Answer: A neurostimulation therapy in which the left frontal lobe is stimulated with magnetic pulses via an electromagnetic coil placed on the patient’s scalp. It is only cleared for use in cases of severe depression for which traditional treatment has not helped.
Q: Psychosurgery
Answer: A biomedical treatment in which specific areas of the brain are destroyed.
Q: Lobotomy
Answer: A type of psychosurgery in which the neuronal connections of the frontal lobe to lower brain areas are severed.
Q: Psychoanalysis
Answer: A style of psychotherapy originally developed by Sigmund Freud in which the therapist helps the person gain insight into the unconscious sources of his or her problems.
Q: Free Association
Answer: A person spontaneously describes, without editing, all thoughts, feelings, or images that come to mind.
Q: Resistance
Answer: A person’s unwillingness to discuss a particular topic during therapy.
Q: Manifest Content
Answer: Freud’s term for the literal surface meaning of a dream.
Q: Latent Content
Answer: Freud’s term for the underlying true meaning of a dream.
Q: Transference
Answer: A person undergoing therapy acts towards the therapist as he or she did toward important figures in his or her life, such as his or her parents.
Q: Client-Centered Therapy
Answer: A style of psychotherapy developed by Carl Rogers in which the therapist uses unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy to help the person gain insight into his or her true self-concept.
Q: Behavioural Therapy
Answer: A style of psychotherapy in which the therapist uses the principles of classical and operant conditioning to change the person’s behaviour from maladaptive to adaptive.
Q: Counterconditioning
Answer: A type of behavioural therapy in which a maladaptive response is replaced by an incompatible adaptive response.
Q: Systematic Desensitization
Answer: A counterconditioning exposure therapy in which a fear response to an object or situation is replaced with a relaxation response in a series of progressively increasing fear-arousing steps.
Q: Virtual Reality Therapy
Answer: A counterconditioning exposure therapy in which the patient is exposed in graduated steps to computer simulations of a feared object or situation.
Q: Flooding
Answer: A counterconditioning exposure therapy in which the patient is immediately exposed to a feared object or situation.
Q: Cognitive Therapy
Answer: A style of psychotherapy in which the therapist attempts to change the person’s thinking from maladaptive to adaptive.
Q: Rational-Emotive Therapy
Answer: A type of cognitive therapy developed by Albert Ellis in which the therapist directly challenges the person’s unrealistic thoughts and beliefs to show that they are irrational.
Q: Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
Answer: A type of cognitive therapy developed by Aaron Beck in whcih the therapist works to develop a warm relationship with the person and has the person carefully consider the evidence for his or her beliefs in order to see the errors in his or her thinking.
Q: Spontaneous Remission
Answer: Getting better with the passage of time without receiving any therapy.
Q: Criticisms of both Type and Trait theories
Answer: Identify but don’t explain how behaviour is causedPeople are not always consistent in different situationsTraits may emerge in more familiar situationsNo conception of development
Q: Identify but don’t explain how behaviour is caused
Answer: Criticism of type/trait theoryDescriptive not explanatory
Q: People not always consistent in different situations
Answer: Criticism of type/trait theoryPunctuality on exam days vs. regular lecture days