EPPP sample Qs Flashcards
Practitioners of Milan systemic family therapy would be least likely to use which of the following techniques?
A. circular questions
B. hypothesizing
C. fixed-role therapy
D. positive connotation
Answer C is correct. Of the techniques listed in the answers, only fixed-role therapy is not associated with Milan systemic therapy. It’s used by practitioners of Kelly’s personal construct therapy and involves having clients adopt roles that will let them “try out” personal constructs that differ from their own.
Antisocial and histrionic personality disorders share several characteristics. In contrast to antisocial personality disorder, however, histrionic personality disorder is characterized by which of the following?
A. superficiality
B. manipulativeness
C. exaggerated expression of emotions
D. feelings of deep emptiness
Answer C is correct. The DSM-5 notes that antisocial and histrionic personality disorders share several characteristics including impulsivity, superficiality, and manipulativeness; however, people with histrionic personality disorder “tend to be more exaggerated in their emotions and do not characteristically engage in antisocial behaviors” (p. 669). In addition, people with histrionic personality disorder are manipulative in order to gain nurturance, while those with antisocial personality disorder are manipulative in order to gain power or material rewards.
According to Moffitt (2003), the life-course persistent type of antisocial behavior is due to which of the following?
A. a maturity gap
B. behavioral disinhibition
C. a lack of conscience and empathy
D. neurological deficits
nswer D is correct. Moffitt distinguishes between two types of antisocial behavior. The life-course persistent type is more serious and is the result of a combination of inherited or acquired neurological deficits and environmental risks, while the adolescence-limited type is due to a maturity gap, which is a gap between an adolescent’s biological and social maturity. See, e.g., T. E. Moffitt, Life-course persistent and adolescence-limited antisocial behavior: A 10-year research review and research agenda, in B. B. Lahey, T. E. Moffitt, and A. Caspi (Eds.), Causes of conduct disorder and juvenile delinquency (pp. 49-75), New York, Guilford Press, 2003.
All other things being equal, which of the following tests is likely to have the lowest reliability coefficient?
A. a three-alternative multiple-choice test
B. a four-alternative multiple-choice test
C. a true/false test
D. a fill-in-the-blanks test
Answer C is correct. A test’s reliability is affected by a number of factors including the chance that test questions can be answered correctly by guessing: As the probability of choosing the correct answer by guessing increases, the reliability of the test decreases. For this reason, true/false tests are less reliable than three-item and four-item multiple-choice tests which, in turn are less reliable than a fill-in-the-blanks test.
Which of the following is used to determine a test’s internal consistency reliability?
A. kappa statistic
B. coefficient alpha
C. coefficient of concordance
D. eta
Answer B is correct. A test’s internal consistency reliability can be evaluated in several ways including with the use of coefficient alpha, which is also known as Cronbach’s alpha and indicates the average of the correlations between responses to all possible pairs of test items. The kappa statistic and coefficient of concordance are used to assess interrater reliability, and eta is a correlation coefficient that’s used to measure the degree of association between two continuous variables that have a nonlinear relationship.
Driver and Brousseau’s career concept model distinguishes between four career concepts. These include all of the following except:
A. linear.
B. transitory.
C. circular.
D. expert.
Answer C is correct. The four career concepts identified by Driver and Brousseau’s (Brousseau, Driver, Eneroth, & Larsson, 1996) career concept model are linear, expert, spiral, and transitory.
Implosive therapy uses which of the following to eliminate a fear response to an object or situation?
A. classical extinction
B. counterconditioning
C. stimulus control
D. higher-order conditioning
Answer A is correct. Implosive therapy is based on the assumption that the object or situation that elicits a fear response is a conditioned stimulus and presenting the object or event without the unconditioned stimulus results in extinction of the conditioned (fear) response.
A rat is reinforced with a food pellet whenever it presses Bar A or presses Bar B. If reinforcement is stopped for pressing Bar B, the rat will:
A. continue to press Bar A and Bar B with the same frequency.
B. press both Bar A and Bar B with less frequency.
C. press Bar A with the same frequency and Bar B with less frequency.
D. press Bar A with greater frequency and Bar B with less frequency.
Answer D is correct. This question is asking about behavioral contrast, which occurs when two behaviors are reinforced and reinforcement for one behavior is stopped. In this situation, the behavior that’s still being reinforced increases in frequency, while the behavior that’s no longer being reinforced decreases.
When designing a research study, you would use the double-blind technique to reduce which of the following?
A. experimenter expectancy
B. carryover effects
C. pretest sensitization
D. false consensus effect
Answer A is correct. When using the single-blind technique, subjects do not know which groups they are in (e.g., drug or placebo); when using the double-blind technique, subjects and experimenters do not know what groups subjects are in. An advantage of the double-blind technique is that it reduces experimenter expectancy, which is also known as experimenter bias and refers to the effects of the experimenter’s knowledge about the purpose of the study on the study’s outcomes. Neither the single-blind nor the double-blind technique are useful for controlling carryover effects or pretest sensitization which are threats to a study’s external and internal validity, respectively. The false consensus effect is not relevant to internal or external validity and is the tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our opinions, values, and beliefs
Most babies exhibit a “vocabulary spurt” at about ___ months of age when they use about 50 words and thereafter acquire additional words very quickly.
A. 7
B. 12
C. 18
D. 26
Answer C is correct. The vocabulary spurt is also known as the vocabulary explosion and, for most babies, begins when they’ve mastered about 50 words which is usually around 18 months of age. See, e.g., D. W. Carroll, Psychology of language (5th ed.), Belmont, CA, Wadsworth, 2008.
Which of the following produces the most rapidly progressing neurocognitive disorder?
A. Alzheimer’s disease
B. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
C. Lewy body disease
D. frontotemporal lobar degeneration
Answer B is correct. Neurocognitive disorder due to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is categorized in DSM-5 as neurocognitive disorder due to prion disease and, like other prion diseases, typically progresses very rapidly. Most other types of neurocognitive disorders (including the three listed in the wrong answers to this question) have a gradual worsening of symptoms.
The human brain is about 25% of its adult size and weight at birth, but it grows quickly and is at least 75% of its adult size and weight by _____ of age.
A. six months
B. 12 months
C. 24 months
D. 36 months
Answer C is correct. The brain increases in size quickly following birth due primarily to an increase in nerve fibers (dendrites and axons) and glial cells, which are responsible for the myelination of nerve fibers. It reaches at least 75% its adult size and weight by about 24 months of age.
A person experiencing tobacco withdrawal is likely to have all of the following symptoms except:
A. increased appetite.
B. anger or anxiety.
C. hypersomnia.
D. impaired concentration.
Answer C is correct. Symptoms associated with tobacco withdrawal include irritability, anger or anxiety, impaired concentration, increased appetite, restlessness, depressed mood, and insomnia.
Crick and Dodge’s (1994) social information-processing model attributes high levels of aggression in children to which of the following?
A. observational learning
B. peer pressure
C. a self-control failure
D. a hostile attribution bias
Answer D is correct. Crick and Dodge’s social information-processing model proposes that highly aggressive children are more likely than their nonaggressive peers to interpret the behaviors of others (including vague and benign behaviors) as intentionally hostile, and they refer to this tendency as a “hostile attribution bias.”
Search
Search
Home
Video Library
Strategies
Study & Quiz
Exams
Custom Exams
Coaching
Schedule
Account
History
Lectures
Practice Exam 3
Study mode
Question 103 of 225
Which of the following individuals is at greatest risk for developing tardive dyskinesia?
A. a younger adult taking a conventional antipsychotic
B. a younger adult taking an atypical antipsychotic
C. an older adult taking a conventional antipsychotic
D. an older adult taking an atypical antipsychotic
Answer C is correct. Tardive dyskinesia is caused by long-term use of an antipsychotic drug and involves repetitive involuntary movements of the tongue, face, neck, trunk, and extremities. The risk for tardive dyskinesia increases with increasing age; and, while conventional and atypical antipsychotics can both cause tardive dyskinesia, the risk is greater for conventional drugs.
Kohlberg’s model of gender-role development distinguishes between three stages, the first of which is:
A. gender stability.
B. gender socialization.
C. gender identity.
D. gender constancy.
Answer C is correct. In order, Kohlberg’s three stages of gender-role development are gender identity, gender stability, and gender constancy.
To teach young nonspeaking children with autism spectrum disorder to communicate verbally, Lovaas (1987) used which of the following?
A. stimulus control and chaining
B. differential reinforcement and overcorrection
C. self-instructional training and positive reinforcement
D. discrimination training and shaping
Answer D is correct. Lovaas (1987) developed an intensive program for young children with autism that incorporated a variety of behavioral techniques. Discrimination training and shaping were two of the techniques he used to teach the children to communicate verbally.
Research by Sadker and Sadker has found that teachers:
A. pay more attention to boys than girls and give boys more praise and helpful feedback.
B. pay more attention to girls than boys and give girls more praise and helpful feedback.
C. pay more attention to boys than girls but give girls more praise and helpful feedback.
D. pay more attention to girls than boys but give boys more praise and helpful feedback.
Answer A is correct. Research by Sadker and Sadker and others has consistently confirmed that gender stereotypes bias how teachers respond to boys and girls in the classroom – e.g., they tend to pay more attention to boys and give boys more praise and precise and helpful feedback. See, e.g., D. Sadker, M. Sadker, and K. Zittleman, Still failing at fairness: How gender bias cheats girls and boys in school and what we can do about it, New York, Scribner, 2009.
The five categories of symptoms identified in the DSM-5 for acute stress disorder include all of the following except:
A. avoidance.
B. negative mood.
C. stereotypy.
D. dissociative.
Answer C is correct. For the diagnosis of acute stress disorder, the DSM-5 requires that the person have at least nine symptoms from any of five categories (intrusion, negative mood, dissociative symptoms, avoidance, and arousal) for three days to one month after exposure to a trauma.
A test’s __________ is the proportion of people who have a disorder and are correctly identified by the test as having the disorder.
A. sensitivity
B. specificity
C. positive predictive value
D. negative predictive value
Answer A is correct. Determining a test’s sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value are one way of evaluating its validity. A test’s sensitivity refers to the test’s ability to accurately identify people who have the disease or other attribute the test was designed to identify. It’s calculated by dividing the number of true positives by the number of true positives plus false negatives.
The research has found that, when people estimate the frequency of a particular event, they tend to give more weight to anecdotal information about that event than to statistical data. This is referred to as:
A. the gambler’s fallacy.
B. counterfactual thinking.
C. the illusory correlation.
D. the base rate fallacy.
Answer D is correct: The base rate fallacy is the tendency to be influenced more by information about an individual case (e.g., anecdotal information about a single event) than by base rate data.
With regard to leadership style, which of the following is the best conclusion that can be drawn about the effects of consideration and initiating structure on job outcomes?
A. A high level of consideration is more important than a high level of initiating structure for both satisfaction and performance.
B. A high level of initiating structure is more important than a high level of consideration for both satisfaction and performance.
C. A high level of consideration is more important for satisfaction, while a high level of initiating structure is more important for performance.
D. A high level of consideration is more important for performance, while a high level of initiating structure is more important for satisfaction.
Answer C is correct. Judge, Piccolo, and Ilies’s (2004) meta-analysis of the research on leadership style found that a high level of consideration was more strongly related to subordinate satisfaction and motivation, while a high level of initiating structure was more strongly related to leader and group performance
Based on the results of his research, Meyer (2003) concluded that members of LGB populations have higher rates of mental disorders than members of the heterosexual population as a result of which of the following?
A. minority stress
B. cultural encapsulation
C. diathesis-stress
D. diagnostic overshadowing
Answer A is correct. I. H. Meyer concluded that the higher prevalence rates of mental disorders among members of LGB populations are due to minority stress – i.e., from exposure to “stigma, prejudice, and discrimination … [which creates] a hostile and stressful social environment that causes mental health problems” [Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence, Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674-697, 2003, p. 674].
You would use which of the following statistical tests to compare the number of adults living in a rural, urban, or suburban community who have received a diagnosis of a bipolar disorder, depressive disorder, or anxiety disorder?
A. single-sample chi-square test
B. multiple-sample chi-square test
C. one-way ANOVA
D. factorial ANOVA
You would use which of the following statistical tests to compare the number of adults living in a rural, urban, or suburban community who have received a diagnosis of a bipolar disorder, depressive disorder, or anxiety disorder?
A. single-sample chi-square test
B. multiple-sample chi-square test
C. one-way ANOVA
D. factorial ANOVA
The gap between biological and social maturity that has been described by Moffitt (1993) is useful for explaining which of the following?
A. intermittent explosive disorder
B. mild to moderate oppositional defiant disorder
C. childhood-onset conduct disorder
D. adolescent-onset conduct disorder
Answer D is correct. T. Moffitt distinguished between two types of antisocial behavior in youth: Her life-course persistent type corresponds to the childhood-onset type of conduct disorder, while her adolescence-limited type corresponds to the adolescent-onset type. According to Moffitt, the life-course persistent type is the more serious disorder and is due to inherited or acquired neurobiological and neuropsychological factors, while the adolescence-limited type is due to a “maturity gap,” which is the gap between an adolescent’s biological and social maturity (Adolescence-limited and life-course persistent antisocial behavior: A taxonomy, Psychological Review, 100, 674-701, 1993).
The “gold standard” treatment for preschool-aged children with ADHD is:
A. parent training in behavior management.
B. behavioral skills training.
C. family therapy plus pharmacotherapy.
D. pharmacotherapy.
Answer A is correct. Evidence-based parent-training in behavior management (PTBM) is considered the first-line treatment for preschool children 4 and 5 years of age. It involves teaching parents to reward children’s positive behaviors and ignore or redirect their negative behaviors. Included in this category are positive parenting program (triple P), parent-child interaction therapy, and incredible years. Pharmacotherapy (answer D) is not recommended for preschool children unless PTBM has not produced a significant change in behavior.
In terms of age, Freud’s latency stage corresponds to Erikson’s ________ stage.
A. initiative versus guilt
B. industry versus inferiority
C. identity versus role confusion
D. autonomy versus shame and doubt
Answer B is correct. Freud’s latency stage and Erikson’s industry versus inferiority stage both occur when children are between the ages of six and 11.
Memory impairment associated with Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome has been linked to damage to which of the following areas of the brain?
A. hypothalamus and suprachiasmatic nucleus
B. hypothalamus and cingulate gyrus
C. thalamus and suprachiasmatic nucleus
D. thalamus and mammillary bodies
Answer D is correct. Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome has been linked to a thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency that’s usually caused by the long-term abuse of alcohol. The amnesia associated with this disorder is due to damage to the thalamus and mammillary bodies.
Research has shown that drugs that block protein synthesis while acquiring new information interfere with the formation of:
A. short-term and long-term memories.
B. long-term memories but not short-term memories.
C. remote long-term memories but not recent long-term memories.
D. long-term procedural memories but not long-term declarative memories.
Answer B is correct. The studies have confirmed that the formation of long-term memories (but not short-term memories) depends on structural changes that strengthen synapses and that these structural changes depend on protein synthesis. Consequently, administration of a drug that blocks protein synthesis during learning affects long-term memory but not short-term memory. See, e.g., M. K. Campbell, S. O. Farrell, and O. M. McDougal, Biochemistry (9th ed.), Boston, Cengage Learning, 2016.
Stress-induced increases in cortisol levels in the hippocampus have been linked to impairments in the:
A. retrieval of procedural memories.
B. retrieval of declarative memories.
C. consolidation of procedural memories.
D. consolidation of declarative memories.
Answer B is correct.
Research has found that increases in cortisol levels in the hippocampus as the result of stress enhances the encoding and consolidation of declarative memories when stress occurs prior to learning but impairs the retrieval of declarative memories when stress occurs prior to retrieval, with these effects being strongest for emotionally arousing material (Wolf, 2010).
A practitioner of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) would most likely identify eliminating or decreasing all of the following as the primary goals of individual therapy except:
A. quality-of-life interfering behaviors.
B. therapy-interfering behaviors.
C. self-triggering behaviors.
D. life-threatening behaviors.
Answer C is correct. For practitioners of DBT, the primary goals of individual therapy are reducing quality-of-life interfering behaviors and therapy-interfering behaviors and eliminating life-threatening behaviors: Quality-of-life interfering behaviors interfere with the ability to maintain a life worth living and include relationship problems and financial and housing crises. Therapy-interfering behaviors (TIBs) interfere with the progress of therapy and include frequently being late for therapy sessions, not completing homework, and threatening to quit therapy. Life-threatening behaviors are behaviors that could lead to the client’s death and include suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and intentional self-harm.
To determine the degree of association between age in years and reaction time in seconds, you would use which of the following correlation coefficients?
A. Spearman rho
B. Pearson r
C. contingency coefficient
D. biserial coefficient
Answer B is correct. Because age in years and reaction time in seconds both represent a ratio scale of measurement, the Pearson r would be the appropriate correlation coefficient.
Which of the following attributes the tendency to overestimate the extent to which members of certain minority groups engage in criminal behavior to the fact that minority group status and criminal behavior are distinctive and relatively rare phenomena?
A. base rate fallacy
B. false consensus effect
C. illusory correlation
D. confirmation bias
Answer C is correct. An illusory correlation occurs when people overestimate the correlation between two variables that are unrelated or only slightly related. One explanation for the illusory correlation is that people tend to pay more attention to rare or distinctive information (Hamilton & Gifford, 1976).
A supervisor’s knowledge of how well employees did on the selection measures that were used to hire them affects how the supervisor subsequently rates each employee on measures of job performance. This is an example of which of the following?
A. the halo error
B. the contrast error
C. criterion deficiency
D. criterion contamination
Answer D is correct. Criterion contamination occurs when a performance (criterion) measure is affected by factors unrelated to job performance – for example, when a supervisor’s performance ratings of employees are biased by the supervisor’s knowledge of how well employees did on the predictors that were used to hire them.
At birth, infants emit three different cries that indicate:
A. hunger, anger, or pain.
B. hunger, discomfort, or boredom.
C. hunger, anger, or frustration.
D. hunger, overstimulation, or fear.
Answer A is correct. Newborns emit three different cries that have different meanings: a low-pitched rhythmic cry that signals hunger or discomfort; a shrill, less regular cry that signals anger or frustration; and a loud high-pitched cry followed by silence that signals pain.
Your new client, 8-year-old Bobbie Beardon, engages in behaviors that meet the diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder. You’re most likely to consider a co-diagnosis of conduct disorder if he also exhibits which of the following?
A. emotional dysregulation
B. vindictiveness
C. repeated acts of aggression
D. refusal to comply with rules at home and at school.
Answer C is correct. Repeated acts of aggression are more characteristic of conduct disorder than oppositional defiant disorder and, of the behaviors listed in the answers, is the only behavior that would suggest the possibility of comorbid conduct disorder. In contrast, emotional dysregulation (which takes the form of an angry and irritable mood), vindictiveness, and refusing to comply with rules are characteristic of oppositional defiant disorder.
Gorchoff, John, and Helson (2008) studied the marital satisfaction of women over an 18-year period and found that women reported:
A. a decrease in marital satisfaction after their last children left home and that this was due to a decrease in the quality of the time they spent with their husbands.
B. a decrease in marital satisfaction after their last children left home and that this was due to a combination of the increased amount of time that they spent with their husbands and the decreased quality of that time.
C. an increase in marital satisfaction after their last children left home and that this was due to the improved quality of the time that they spent with their husbands.
D. an increase in marital satisfaction after their last children left home and that this was due to the increased amount of time that they spent with their husbands.
Previous Question
Answer C is correct. S. M. Gorchoff, O. P. John, and R. Helson found that the “empty nest” was associated with an increase in marital satisfaction for the women in their study and that the increase was due primarily to an increase in the quality (but not the quantity) of the time they spent with their husbands [Contextualizing change in marital satisfaction during middle age: An 18-year longitudinal study, Psychological Science, 19(11), 1194-1200, 2008].
An adult with traumatic brain injury is most likely to obtain the highest score on the _______ Index of the WAIS-IV.
A. Verbal Comprehension
B. Working Memory
C. Perceptual Reasoning
D. Processing Speed
Answer A is correct.
The WAIS-IV Technical Manual reports the following mean Index scores for examinees with traumatic brain injury: Verbal Comprehension = 92.1, Perceptual Reasoning = 86.1, Working Memory = 85.3, and
Lowest score would be
Processing Speed = 80.5.
Howard and his colleagues (1986) have developed a phase model that predicts that client improvement during the first few sessions of therapy is usually due to:
A. a placebo effect.
B. initial insight into the cause of his/her problems.
C. the development of the therapeutic relationship.
D. increased feelings of hopefulness.
Answer D is correct. According to K. I. Howard and his colleagues, improvement in therapy occurs in three phases –
1. remoralization - morale boost,
2. remediation, and
3. rehabilitation.
Remoralization occurs during the first few sessions and is characterized by an increase in hopefulness and sense of well-being [Evaluation of psychotherapy: Efficacy, effectiveness, and patient progress. American Psychologist, 51(10), 1059-106, 1986].
Age is one of the factors that affect a child’s risk for maltreatment, with the risk being greatest for children:
A. below 1 year of age.
B. 2 to 5 years of age.
C. 7 to 10 years of age.
D. 11 to 13 years of age.
Answer A is correct.
Data collected by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) has consistently found that the youngest children are at the greatest risk for maltreatment, with the risk being greatest for children under 1 year of age.
The 2020 National Health Interview survey found that:
A. more adult male than female respondents had taken medication and/or received therapy or counseling for mental health conditions in the previous 12 months.
B. more adult female than male respondents had taken medication and/or received therapy or counseling for mental health conditions in the previous 12 months.
C. more adult male than female respondents had taken medication for mental health conditions, but more female than male respondents had received therapy or counseling in the previous 12 months.
D. more adult female than male respondents had taken medication for mental health conditions, but more male than female respondents had received therapy or counseling in the previous 12 months.
Answer B is correct. The results of the 2020 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS; Terlizzi & Norris, 2021) indicated that, for all adult respondents, women were more likely than men to report having taken medication for mental health conditions and/or to have received counseling or therapy from a mental health professional in the previous 12 months.
Mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is based on the assumption that people with a history of depression can avoid having another depressive episode by:
A. challenging core beliefs related to depression.
B. avoiding situations that trigger depression.
C. adopting a decentered position at the first sign of depression.
D. engaging in distracting and pleasurable activities.
Answer C is correct. MBCT teaches clients with a history of depression to avoid depressive episodes by decentering at the first sign of depressive symptoms. This involves disengaging from and accepting negative thoughts and feelings associated with depression rather than avoiding or fighting them and recognizing that they’re just thoughts and feelings, not reality.
The WPPSI-IV is appropriate for examinees ages:
A. 2:6 to 3:11.
B. 2:6 to 7:7.
C. 3:0 to 7:7.
D. 4:0 to 8:6.
Answer B is correct. The WPPSI-IV (Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, 4th Edition) is appropriate for examinees ages 2:6 to 7:7.
When administering the Rorschach, the purpose of the inquiry phase is to:
A. encourage the client to free associate to the inkblots.
B. encourage the client to provide more detail when responding to the inkblots.
C. obtain the information needed to accurately code the examinee’s responses.
D. develop hypotheses about the examinee’s responses.
Answer C is correct. Administration of the Rorschach ordinarily involves two phases: the** free association (response) phase** and the inquiry phase. During the inquiry phase, the examiner questions the examinee about what parts of the inkblot determined the examinee’s responses to obtain the information needed to code his/her responses.
Which of the following includes variations in tone, rhythm, volume, and stress that are used to express emotions and modify or clarify the meaning of a verbal communication?
A. syntax
B. paralanguage
C. semantics
D. pragmatics
Answer B is correct. Paralanguage refers to how something is said rather than to what is said. It is often used to modify the meaning of what is said or to express emotion and includes variations in tone, rhythm, volume, and stress.
The research suggests that combining motivational interviewing with CBT when treating generalized anxiety disorder:
A. is no more effective for reducing worry than is providing CBT alone.
B. is no more effective for reducing worry than is providing CBT alone but does increase readiness for treatment.
C. is more effective for reducing worry than is providing CBT alone but only for individuals whose initial worry is low to moderate in severity.
D. is more effective for reducing worry than is providing CBT alone, especially for individuals who initially have high worry severity.
Answer D is correct. The research has consistently found that, for generalized anxiety disorder, the combination of motivational interviewing and CBT is more effective than CBT alone for reducing worry, especially when initial worry is severe. The combination is also more effective for reducing premature dropout rates and increasing the likelihood that patients no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for this disorder (e.g., Westra, Constantino, & Antony, 2016).
Consensual observer drift __________ a measure’s inter-rater reliability.
A. tends to artificially increase
B. tends to artificially decrease
C. either artificially increases or decreases
D. neither artificially increases nor decreases
Answer A is correct. Consensual observer drift occurs when two or more raters communicate with each other while they’re assigning ratings. It causes increased consistency (but often decreased accuracy) of their ratings and overestimates a measure’s actual inter-rater reliability.
The time-series group design is most similar to which of the following single-subject designs?
A. AB
B. ABAB
C. multiple-baseline across behaviors
D. multiple-baseline across subjects
Answer A is correct. The time-series design is a type of within-subjects design that’s essentially a group version of the single-subject AB design. It involves measuring the dependent variable at regular intervals multiple times before and after the independent variable is administered.
Which of the following best describes implied consent?
A. It refers to a person’s informed consent when it is not written or documented.
B. It applies only when a person is believed to be a danger to self or others.
C. It is inferred from the behaviors or circumstances of a person.
D. It applies only when a person lacks the capacity to give informed consent.
Answer C is correct. Implied consent is inferred from the circumstances or actions of a person. For example, a patient’s implied consent for treatment is assumed in emergency situations when the patient is incapacitated and unable to provide informed consent, and a student’s implied consent to participate in a class is assumed when the student registers for and attends the class. Answer D is not the best answer because implied consent does not refer only to consent in the circumstance described in that answer.
Drugs that increase which of the following are often used to treat premature ejaculation?
A. GABA
B. serotonin
C. dopamine
D. epinephrine
Answer B is correct. SSRIs (e.g., paroxetine, dapoxetine, sertraline) and antidepressants that have similar effects as SSRIs have been found to be safe and effective treatments for premature ejaculation.
Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that, in 2020, the suicide rate was highest for:
A. men 45 to 64 years of age.
B. women 45 to 64 years of age.
C. men 75 years of age and older.
D. women 75 years of age and older.
Answer C is correct. CDC data for 2000 through 2020 (Garnett, Curtin, & Stone, 2022) indicate that suicide rates have been consistently higher for males than for females. With regard to age, in 2020, the highest rate for males was for those 75 years of age and older (40.5 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people), while the highest rate for females was for those ages 45 to 64 years of age (7.9 suicide deaths for every 100,000 people).
According to the encoding specificity hypothesis, forgetting is caused by inadequate:
A. retrieval cues.
B. elaborative rehearsal.
C. attention to details while encoding new information.
D. organization of new information.
Answer A is correct. According to the encoding specificity hypothesis, retrieval from long-term memory is maximized when the conditions at the time of encoding new information are the same as the conditions at the time of information retrieval – e.g., when the person learns and retrieves information in the same environment or while in the same mood. When this occurs, conditions at the time of recall act as retrieval cues.
Research investigating the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) has generally found that it is:
A. more effective for treating psychological disorders than physical/medical conditions.
B. more effective for treating physical/medical conditions than psychological disorders.
C. equally effective for treating psychological disorders and physical/medical conditions.
D. not as effective as a placebo for treating psychological disorders or physical/medical conditions.
Answer A is correct. MBT includes mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Based on their meta-analysis of research on MBT, B. Khoury and his colleagues conclude that
MBT is effective for treating both psychological disorders and physical/medical conditions but is more effective for psychological disorders, especially depression, anxiety, and stress (Mindfulness-based therapy: A comprehensive meta-analysis, Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 763-771, 2013).
According to the DSM-5-TR, just under _____ of women experience a major depressive episode between birth of their offspring and 12 months postpartum.
A. 10%
B. 7%
C. 5%
D. 2%
Answer B is correct. Estimates of postpartum depression (major depressive disorder with peripartum onset in the DSM-5) vary somewhat. However, this question is asking specifically about the estimate provided in the DSM-5-TR, which states that the “prevalence of a major depressive episode between birth and 12 months postpartum is just below 7%” (American Psychiatric Association, 2022, p. 213).
Which of the following neuroimaging techniques is used to study abnormalities in the brain’s white matter?
A. electroencephalography
B. computerized axial tomography
C. positron emission tomography
D. diffusion tensor imaging
Answer D is correct. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a special application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that is used to detect abnormalities in the brain’s white matter, which consists of myelinated axons that connect different areas of the brain. It does this by identifying the rate and direction of the movement of water molecules along the axons.
For most children, stranger anxiety begins at about _______ months of age.
A. 4
B. 8
C. 12
D. 15
Answer B is correct. The onset of stranger anxiety differs for different children and, as a result, the reported age of onset varies somewhat in the literature. However, most authors report the onset as being between 7 and 9 months or 8 and 10 months.
According to Piaget, children begin to be able to observe another child perform a complex action and then imitate that action for the first time on the following day when they’re between ________ months of age.
A. 8 and 12
B. 12 and 18
C. 18 and 24
D. 24 and 30
Answer C is correct. The ability to imitate a complex action after a period of time when the model is no longer present is referred to as deferred imitation. According to Piaget, deferred imitation doesn’t occur until the infant can form enduring mental representations, which happens during the final substage (substage six) of the sensorimotor stage when children are between 18 and 24 months of age.
Without rehearsal, information remains in short-term memory for about:
A. one-half to one second.
B. 20 to 30 seconds.
C. 30 to 60 seconds.
D. two or three minutes.
Answer B is correct. Estimates for the maintenance of information in short-term memory vary somewhat, but most experts report a maximum duration of 20 to 30 seconds without rehearsal of the information.
Which of the following is based on the results of research that used the method of magnitude estimation to study the relationship between the magnitude of a physical stimulus and its perceived magnitude?
A. Weber’s law
B. Stevens’s law
C. Fechner’s law
D. Eysenck’s law
Answer B is correct. Stevens’s method of magnitude estimation involved providing subjects with a specific value for the magnitude of one stimulus and asking them to use that value as a reference point when estimating the magnitude of other stimuli. The results of his research led to the development of Stevens’s power law which predicts that there’s an exponential relationship between the magnitude of a physical stimulus and its perceived magnitude, with the exponent varying for different types of stimuli.
Which of the following is least likely to be exhibited by a patient with neurocognitive disorder due to HIV infection or other subcortical neurocognitive disorder?
A. forgetfulness
B. apathy
C. aphasia
D. psychomotor retardation
Answer C is correct. Aphasia is a common symptom of neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease and other cortical neurocognitive disorders. The symptoms listed in the other answers are characteristic of subcortical neurocognitive disorders.
Delta waves are characteristic of:
A. alert wakefulness.
B. relaxed wakefulness.
C. light sleep.
D. deep sleep.
Answer D is correct. Different states of wakefulness and sleep are associated with different EEG patterns. A state of deep sleep occurs during stages 3 and 4 sleep and is characterized by large, slow delta waves.
John Watson used classical conditioning to establish a fear reaction to a white rat in Little Albert. Subsequently, Little Albert also responded to a white rabbit and other white furry stimuli with fear. Albert’s response to other white furry stimuli was due to:
A. higher-order conditioning.
B. response generalization.
C. trace conditioning.
D. stimulus generalization.
Answer D is correct. Watson established a fear reaction to a white rat in Little Albert by pairing presentation of the white rat (the CS) with an unexpected loud noise (the US) that naturally produced a startle response. Albert’s subsequent fear reaction to other white furry objects was the result of stimulus generalization – i.e., elicitation of the conditioned response by stimuli similar to the CS.
The left hemisphere is the dominant hemisphere for language for about _____% of right-handed people and _____% of left-handed people.
A. 99%; 90%
B. 99%; 35%
C. 95%; 70%
D. 95%; 25%
Answer C is correct. Reported estimates for left-hemisphere dominance for language for right- and left-handed people vary, but most authorities cite percentages in the 90’s for right-handed people and between 50 and 70% for left-handed people. See, e.g., J. E. Mendoza and A. L. Foundas, Clinical neuroanatomy: A neurobehavioral approach, New York, Springer Science+Business Media, Inc., 2008.
Research has found that, for some immigrant groups, recent immigrants often have better health and educational outcomes than more established immigrants and nonimmigrants do. This is referred to as the:
A. immigrant paradox.
B. integration paradox.
C. alienation paradox.
D. acculturation paradox.
Answer A is correct. This question accurately describes the immigrant paradox. The integration paradox (answer B) is the observation that higher-status immigrants (i.e., those with higher levels of education and economic success) are more likely than lower-status immigrants to report experiencing discrimination. Alienation paradox and acculturation paradox (answers C and D) are made-up terms and are not used to describe differences in health and educational outcomes for recent immigrants, established immigrants, and nonimmigrants.
The studies have not provided entirely consistent results, but they have generally found that which of the following Big Five personality traits increase with increasing age during adulthood?
A. conscientiousness and neuroticism
B. neuroticism and extraversion
C. agreeableness and conscientiousness
D. agreeableness and openness to experience
EPPP-P4-LIF-Socioemotional Development – Temperament and Personality-17 Answer C is correct. McCrae and his colleagues conclude that, “from age 18 to age 30 there are declines in Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness to Experience, and increases in Agreeableness and Conscientiousness; after age 30 the same trends are found, although the rate of change seems to decrease” [R. R. McCrae, P. T. Costa, F. Ostendorf, A. Angleitner, M. Hrebickova, M. D. Avia, et al., Nature over nurture: Temperament, personality, and life span development, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 173–186, 2000].
The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5) provides scores on five cognitive factors. Which of the following is not one of those factors?
A. Fluid Reasoning
B. Knowledge
C. Working Memory
D. Abstract Reasoning
Answer D is correct. The SB5 provides scores on the following five factors: Fluid Reasoning, Knowledge, Quantitative Reasoning, Visual-Spatial Processing, and Working Memory.
Subjects in Schachter and Singer’s (1962) “epinephrine studies” were injected with epinephrine, which produces mild physiological arousal. Some subjects were told what effect the drug would have, while others were either given false information or no information about the drug’s effects. Each subject was then placed in a waiting room with a confederate who acted in an angry manner. As predicted by __________, only subjects given false or no information reported feeling angry.
A. cognitive dissonance theory
B. self-perception theory
C. the elaboration likelihood model
D. social judgment theory
Answer B is correct. Subjects in the false and no information groups had no explanation for their physiological arousal and, as predicted by self-perception theory, they looked to their circumstances to find an explanation.
Following a closed head injury, a young man is unable to recognize familiar objects by touch. This condition is caused by lesions in the ________ lobe.
A. occipital
B. frontal
C. parietal
D. temporal
Answer C is correct. The condition described in this question is referred to as tactile agnosia, which is caused by damage to the somatosensory area of the parietal lobe.
Differential reinforcement combines which of the following?
A. negative reinforcement and classical extinction
B. negative reinforcement and stimulus control
C. positive reinforcement and negative punishment
D. positive reinforcement and operant extinction
Answer D is correct. Differential reinforcement involves extinguishing (removing all positive reinforcement from) the target behavior while providing positive reinforcement for alternative behaviors.
The multidimensional model of racial identity (MMRI) developed by Sellers and colleagues (1998) distinguishes between four dimensions of African American identity that include all of the following except:
A. racial regard.
B. racial disparity.
C. racial salience.
D. racial centrality.
Previous Question
nswer B is correct. Sellers and colleagues distinguish between four dimensions of racial identity: racial salience, racial centrality, racial regard, and racial ideology. Racial disparity (answer B) is not one of the dimensions of the MMRI.
The concordance rate for schizophrenia for monozygotic (identical) twins is:
A. 90%.
B. 78%.
C. 48%.
D. 26%.
Answer C is correct. In his frequently cited review of the research, I. Gottesman reports a concordance rate for schizophrenia of 48% for monozygotic twins (Schizophrenia genesis, New York, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1991).
Research has found that the majority of individuals who undergo gender confirmation surgery:
A. experience an increase in symptoms of gender dysphoria following surgery.
B. continue to experience significant symptoms of gender dysphoria following surgery.
C. experience a significant decrease in symptoms of gender dysphoria with transgender male patients experiencing somewhat better outcomes.
D. experience a significant decrease in symptoms of gender dysphoria with transgender female patients experiencing somewhat better outcomes.
Answer C is correct. The research has generally found that gender confirmation surgery is associated with a decrease in gender dysphoria, high levels of satisfaction, and a low incidence of regret. In addition, there’s some evidence that transgender male patients have somewhat more positive outcomes than transgender female patients do. See, e.g., A. Lawrence, Sex reassignment surgery, in A. Wenzel (Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of abnormal and clinical psychology, New York, SAGE, 2017.
Children usually pass the mirror self-recognition test by _____ months of age, but an exception is children with Down syndrome who usually do not pass the test until they are _____ months of age.
A. 9 to 12; 18 to 24
B. 12 to 18; 24 to 36
C. 18 to 24; 36 to 48
D. 24 to 36; 42 to 48
Answer C is correct. By 18 to 24 months of age, most children pass the mirror self-recognition test. However, children with Down syndrome usually do not pass the test until they are 36 to 48 months of age when their cognitive developmental age is equivalent to the level of younger children who do not have cognitive developmental delays.
The limits of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development are defined by:
A. the child’s independent performance and the child’s performance with assistance.
B. the child’s comprehension of language and the child’s production of language.
C. the influence of genetic factors on a child’s cognitive development and the influence of environmental factors.
D. what a child knows about how to perform a task and how the child actually performs when working on the task.
Answer A is correct. As defined by L. S. Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development is “the distance between the [child’s] actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1978, p. 86)
Piaget’s stage theory of cognitive development views development as being:
A. continuous and active.
B. discontinuous and active.
C. continuous and passive.
D. discontinuous and passive.
Answer B is correct.
Piaget’s theory proposes discontinuous stages of cognitive development that are characterized by qualitatively different cognitive processes. His theory also proposes that development is an active process in which children interact with the world to construct their own knowledge.
Research by Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924) found that people who slept after learning new information recalled the information better than did people who stayed awake for the same length of time after learning the information and engaged in an unrelated activity. They concluded that the results of their study contradict the predictions of which of the following?
A. retrieval cue theory
B. interference theory
C. trace decay theory
D. retrieval failure theory
Answer C is correct. According to trace decay theory, memories create physical changes in the brain that deteriorate over time when the memories are not rehearsed or recalled. Research comparing subjects who slept or stayed awake after learning new information seems to contradict this prediction since it found that people who sleep recall more information than those who stay awake even though the interval of time between learning and recall was the same for all subjects. Note, however, that the Jenkins and Dallenbach study has been criticized on methodological grounds because there is evidence that newly learned information is consolidated during sleep and, therefore, is not decaying. Because their research did not adequately test the predictions of trace decay theory, it neither contradicts nor supports it. (J. G. Jenkins and K. M. Dallenbach, Obliviscence during sleep and waking. The American Journal of Psychology, 35, 605-612, 1924)
A psychologist developed a program for first-time parents that addresses methods of dealing with parenting stress and lifestyle changes and is open to all expectant parents in the community. This is an example of which of the following?
A. primary prevention
B. secondary prevention
C. tertiary prevention
D. quaternary prevention
Answer A is correct. Primary preventions target groups of people who have not yet developed an undesirable behavior or condition (e.g., stress related to having a first child) by intervening before the behavior or condition occurs.
Research on the synchrony effect has found that:
A. younger and older adults do better on certain cognitive tasks in the morning than they do in the afternoon.
B. younger and older adults do better on certain cognitive tasks in the afternoon than they do in the morning.
C. older adults do better on certain cognitive tasks in the morning than they do in the afternoon, while the reverse is true for younger adults.
D. older adults do better on certain cognitive tasks in the afternoon than they do in the morning, while the reverse is true for younger adults.
Previous Question
Answer C is correct. The synchrony effect refers to the benefits of matching task demands and the preferred (optimal) time of day, and research has found that the preferred time differs for older and younger adults: Older adults do better on certain cognitive tasks (especially those that involve ignoring distractions or irrelevant information) in the morning, while younger adults often do better on the same tasks in the late afternoon or evening. Apparently, the synchrony effect is due to age-related differences in circadian rhythms and peak times of arousal. See, e.g., C. P. May and L. Hasher, Synchrony effects in inhibitory control over thought and action, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 24(2), 363-379, 1998.
The use of participant observation to study a cultural group is most associated with which of the following approaches to qualitative research?
A. grounded theory
B. thematic analysis
C. ethnography
D. phenomenology
Previous Question
Answer C is correct. Participant observation is the primary method of data collection for ethnographic research and involves joining a cultural group and participating in its usual activities.
According to the DSM-5, the median age of onset of specific phobia is between _____ years of age.
A. 7 and 11
B. 13 and 16
C. 18 and 22
D. 40 and 45
Answer A is correct. The DSM-5 states that specific phobia usually begins in childhood, with the median age of onset being between 7 and 11 years of age and the mean being about 10 years of age.
Research investigating hemispheric specialization for language has found that right hemisphere damage is:
A. associated with impairments in both emotional prosody and pragmatics.
B. associated with impairments in emotional prosody but not with impairments in pragmatics.
C. associated with impairments in pragmatics but not with impairments in emotional prosody.
D. not associated with impairments in pragmatics or emotional prosody.
Answer A is correct. There is evidence that the right hemisphere is essential for some aspects of language including emotional prosody (expression of emotion through variations in pitch, loudness, rate, and other aspects of speech) and pragmatics (the use and meaning of language in different social contexts). For example, a number of studies have found that patients with right hemisphere lesions often have impairments in the production and comprehension of emotional prosody and pragmatic deficits.
Generalized onset seizures always:
A. include a loss of consciousness.
B. include motor symptoms.
C. include a loss of consciousness and motor symptoms.
D. begin with an aura.
Answer A is correct. There are two types of generalized onset seizures – generalized onset motor seizures (also known as tonic-clonic seizures) and generalized onset non-motor seizures (also known as absence seizures). Both include a loss of consciousness but, as their names suggest, only generalized onset motor seizures include motor symptoms. Although auras are most associated with focal onset seizures, there is evidence that they occur for some people with generalized onset seizures. See, e.g., P. Dugan et al., Auras in generalized epilepsy, Neurology, 83(16), 1444-1449, 2014.
__________ interventions are designed to change the individual so he or she can better adapt to the demands of the environment.
A. Autoplastic
B. Alloplastic
C. Emic
D. Etic
Answer A is correct. Autoplastic interventions involve making changes in the individual so he/she can successfully adapt to the environment, while alloplastic interventions involve altering the environment to fit the needs, desires, or other attributes of the individual. Note that interventions that reflect an emic or etic perspective can be either autoplastic or alloplastic – i.e., an intervention that reflects either perspective could involve encouraging the individual to change him/herself or to change his/her situation or environment.
Which of the following includes subtests that evaluate attention, memory, visualization, and reasoning?
A. PPVT
B. KABC-2
C. Leiter-3
D. Raven’s SPM
Answer C is correct. The Leiter-3 is a nonverbal measure of fluid intelligence and includes subtests that measure attention, memory, visualization, and reasoning.
Dr. Sholen finds that she and her intern do not have time to administer tests to all of the clients who are being referred to Dr. Sholen for psychological assessment. As a result, she decides to hire a graduate student who is working on her master’s degree in clinical psychology to administer the MMPI-2 and several similar tests. With regard to ethical requirements, this:
A. is clearly unacceptable since the student has not completed the coursework required for a master’s degree.
B. is acceptable as long as the student has completed coursework in psychological assessment.
C. may be acceptable as long as the student administers but does not score or interpret the tests.
D. may be acceptable as long as the student has had adequate training and will be supervised by Dr. Sholen.
Answer D is correct. This situation is addressed in Standard 9.07 of the APA’s Ethics Code and Standards II.7 and II.56 of the Canadian Code of Ethics. Standard 9.07 states that “psychologists do not promote the use of psychological assessment techniques by unqualified persons, except when such use is conducted for training purposes with appropriate supervision.”
Of the following, which is least likely to be the optimal intervention when a child’s target behavior is harmful to him/herself or others?
A. response cost
B. operant extinction
C. overcorrection
D. differential reinforcement
Answer B is correct. Of the interventions listed in the answers, operant extinction would be the least desirable when the target behavior is harmful to the individual or others because extinction often causes an increase in the behavior (an extinction burst) before the behavior begins to decrease.
Naltrexone is prescribed for a middle-aged patient who has just received a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder. This drug will have which of the following effects?
A. It will reduce the patient’s craving for alcohol.
B. It will reduce the patient’s tolerance to alcohol.
C. It will make the patient nauseous when he drinks alcohol.
D. It will reduce the severity of the patient’s withdrawal symptoms.
nswer A is correct.
Naltrexone reduces the rewarding effects of alcohol (e.g., feelings of euphoria) and cravings for alcohol.
Your new client is Amy Anderson, age 24, who says she always experiences severe anxiety when meeting new people. For a DSM-5 diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, Amy must also exhibit which of the following?
A. a fear of being embarrassed or humiliated
B. a fear of being unable to get help if needed
C. anxiety in at least one other social situation
D. anxiety that meets the criteria for a panic attack
Answer A is correct. The DSM diagnosis of social anxiety disorder requires fear or anxiety about one or more social situations in which the person is exposed to the scrutiny of others and will be negatively evaluated by them – e.g., will be humiliated, embarrassed, or rejected.
Which of the following is not a criticism of Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
A. His theory is biased in terms of culture and gender.
B. His theory places too much emphasis on moral judgment and not enough on moral behavior.
C. Moral development does not end in late childhood as his theory claims.
D. Young children are more advanced in terms of morality than his theory claims
Answer C is correct. Piaget, not Kohlberg, concluded that moral development ends with the onset of the autonomous stage in late childhood, and this claim has been criticized and challenged by the results of research on moral development during adolescence and adulthood. Answers A, B, and D accurately describe criticisms of Kohlberg’s theory.
One-month-old babies respond with which of the following reflexes when they are startled by a loud noise or sudden movement?
A. Babinski
B. Moro
C. rooting
D. plantar
Answer B is correct. The Moro reflex is also known as the startle reflex and occurs when babies are startled by a loud noise or movement and, in response, throw their heads back, extend their arms and legs, and then curl their arms and legs inward. The Babinski reflex (answer A) occurs when the sole of a baby’s foot is firmly touched and, in response, the baby’s big toe moves backward toward the top of the foot and the other toes fan out. The rooting reflex (answer C) occurs when, in response to having the corner of their mouths touched, babies turn their heads in the direction of the touch. Plantar reflex (answer D) is another name for the Babinski reflex.
A practitioner of Beck’s cognitive behavior therapy uses the Socratic method to help clients:
A. refocus their attention on the current task.
B. accept their internal experiences without negative evaluation.
C. establish alternative emotional and behavioral patterns.
D. identify and modify automatic thoughts.
Answer D is correct. The Socratic method is also known as Socratic questioning and Socratic dialogue and is an essential technique of Beck’s cognitive behavior therapy. It’s used to help clients identify and test the accuracy of automatic thoughts and core beliefs that are contributing to their presenting problems and consider alternative ways of thinking.
When prison inmates and their counselors were asked to explain why the prisoners committed their offenses, most inmates cited situational factors while the counselors cited dispositional factors. This provides support for which of the following?
A. self-serving bias
B. confirmation bias
C. fundamental attribution error
D. actor-observer effect
Answer D is correct. This question describes a study conducted by K. Saulnier and D. Perlman (The actor-observer bias is alive and well in prison: A sequel to Wells, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 7, 559-564, 1981). The results of their study provided support for the actor-observer effect, which predicts that actors tend to attribute their own behaviors to situational factors while observers tend to attribute them to dispositional factors.
Of the antipsychotic drugs, __________ is most likely to be a side effect of clozapine.
A. parkinsonian-like symptoms
B. tardive dyskinesia
C. neuroleptic malignant syndrome
D. agranulocytosis
Answer D is correct. Of the antipsychotics, the atypical drug clozapine is most likely to produce agranulocytosis, which is a rare but potentially fatal blood disorder that’s characterized by an abnormally low level of white blood cells. Consequently, regular blood monitoring is required for people taking this drug. An advantage of clozapine is that it is less likely than many other antipsychotics to produce the side effects listed in answers A, B, and C. See, e.g., L.A. Labbate, J. F. Rosenbaum, M. Fava, and G. W. Arana, Handbook of psychiatric drug therapy, Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2010.
The items selected for inclusion in the __________ assess 15 manifest needs that were identified by Henry Murray.
A. 16 PF
B. MBTI
C. NEO-PI-3
D. EPPS
Answer D is correct. The items included in the EPPS (Edwards Personal Preference Schedule) assess the 15 needs identified in Murray’s theory of needs (e.g., achievement, autonomy, affiliation, dominance).
As described by Helms (1993), a person in the __________ stage of White identity development is oblivious to racial/cultural issues and has a race- or culture-neutral perspective.
A. disintegration
B. pre-encounter
C. pseudo-independence
D. contact
Answer D is correct. Helms’s White racial identity development model distinguishes between six stages (statuses). In order, these are contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-independence, immersion-emersion, and autonomy. According to this model, people in the initial contact stage have little awareness of racial or cultural issues.
Research on the “pratfall effect” suggests that, when a(n) __________ person commits a blunder, that person’s attractiveness to others tends to increase.
A. incompetent
B. average
C. competent
D. competent or average
Answer C is correct. Research on the pratfall effect has found that the attractiveness of a person who is perceived to be competent increases when that person commits a blunder (Aronson, Willerman, & Floyd, 1966).
Your new patient says he was referred to you by his physician who could find no medical explanation for his severe headaches and chronic abdominal pain. If the results of your assessment of the patient suggest that he’s intentionally producing his symptoms to qualify for Social Security benefits, the most likely diagnosis for this patient is:
A. factitious disorder.
B. somatic symptom disorder.
C. malingering.
D. conversion disorder.
Answer C is correct. As described in the DSM-5, malingering involves “the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms [that is] motivated by external incentives” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, p. 726).
As described by Fiedler (1967):
A. low LPC leaders are task-oriented, while high LPC leaders are person-oriented.
B. low LPC leaders are person-oriented, while high LPC leaders are task-oriented.
C. low LPC leaders are high in growth need strength, while high LPC leaders are low in growth need strength.
D. low LPC leaders are low in growth need strength, while high LPC leaders are high in growth need strength.
Answer A is correct. Low LPC leaders are task-oriented and describe their least preferred coworker in negative terms because they focus on the coworker’s task performance. In contrast, high LPC leaders are person-oriented and describe their least preferred coworker in positive terms because they separate interpersonal characteristics from task performance.
Mildred Parten (1932) categorized children’s play as being:
A. physical or social.
B. nonsocial or social.
C. physical, emotional, or cognitive.
D. constructive, expressive, or dramatic.
Answer B is correct. M. B. Parten distinguished between nonsocial and social play, with each type including three subtypes: Nonsocial play includes unoccupied play, solitary play, and onlooker play, while social play includes parallel play, associative play, and cooperative play [Social participation among pre-school children, The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 27(3), 243-269, 1932].
Which of the following is least susceptible to satiation?
A. primary reinforcers
B. secondary reinforcers
C. generalized reinforcers
D. positive reinforcers
Answer C is correct. Generalized reinforcers (e.g., money, tokens) are also known as generalized secondary reinforcers and generalized conditioned reinforcers. They’re less susceptible than primary and secondary reinforcers to satiation because they can be exchanged for a variety of back-up (primary) reinforcers.
The transdiagnostic adaptation of emotion-focused therapy (Timulak & Keogh, 2020) targets which of the following?
A. emotion dysregulation
B. emotional insulation
C. chronic painful emotions
D. chronically low distress tolerance
Answer C is correct. The transdiagnostic adaptation of emotion-focused therapy (EFT-T) was developed as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and related disorders. It targets chronic emotional vulnerability which is due primarily to the chronic painful emotions of loneliness/sadness, shame, and fear/terror.
To reduce the likelihood that a work group’s decisions will be affected by groupthink, you would:
A. provide group members with frame-of-reference training.
B. provide group members with response-contingent reinforcement.
C. appoint a group member to act as a “mindguard.”
D. appoint a group member to act as “devil’s advocate.”
Answer D is correct. According to Janis (1982), group leaders can reduce the risk for groupthink by remaining neutral in the beginning of a discussion, encouraging group members to express their opinions, bringing in outside opinions, and appointing a member to play devil’s advocate.
Kevin Keene, age 18, is brought to therapy by his mother who says Kevin seemed like “a regular kid” until two months ago, when he started complaining about hearing voices and seeing the ghosts of his dead grandparents. She says he has also been unable to carry on a conversation because he jumps from one topic to another and sometimes makes up words. Assuming that Kevin has never had these symptoms before and they’re not due to drug use or a medical condition, the most likely diagnosis is:
A. brief psychotic disorder.
B. schizophreniform disorder.
C. schizophrenia.
D. schizoaffective disorder.
Answer B is correct. The DSM diagnosis of schizophreniform disorder requires the presence of at least two characteristic symptoms for one to six months, with at least one symptom being delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech. Kevin has experienced hallucinations and disorganized speech for two months.
The stages of Selye’s (1976) general adaptation syndrome are:
A. alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.
B. arousal, reaction, and resistance.
C. alarm reaction, response, and enervation.
D. exposure, reaction, and exhaustion.
Answer A is correct. Selye’s general adaptation syndrome (GAS) consists of three stages: alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion.
To assess the problem-solving and planning abilities of a 10-year-old child who has symptoms of autism spectrum disorder, you would use which of the following?
A. Tower of London
B. Stroop Test
C. Fagan Test
D. Bender-Gestalt
Answer A is correct. Of the tests listed, only the Tower of London is a measure of problem-solving and planning abilities. In addition, poor performance on this test has been linked to autism and several other disorders.
You would use which of the following tests to evaluate the receptive vocabulary of a 10-year-old child who has received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder?
A. PPVT-5
B. Vineland-II
C. Leiter-3
D. KABC-II
Answer A is correct. The PPVT-5 (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fifth Edition) is used to assess the receptive vocabulary of individuals ages 2 years, 6 months to 90+ years. It can be used with individuals who have autism spectrum disorder, symptoms of psychosis, or cerebral palsy or other physical disability.
Research investigating the effects of age on susceptibility to persuasion suggests that ___________ are most resistant to persuasion.
A. young and older adults
B. young adults
C. middle-aged adults
D. older adults
Answer C is correct. Studies investigating the impact of age on susceptibility to persuasion have not produced entirely consistent results, but there’s some support for a U-shaped relationship between age and attitude change for adolescents and adults, with adolescents/young adults and older adults being most easily persuaded. See, e.g., P. S. Visser and J. A. Krosnick, Development of attitude strength over the life cycle: Surge and decline, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1389-1410, 1998.
The technique known as orgasmic reconditioning has been identified as an effective treatment for which of the following?
A. delayed ejaculation
B. female orgasmic disorder
C. premature ejaculation
D. paraphilic disorder
Answer D is correct.
1. Orgasmic reconditioning,
2. covert sensitization, and
3. aversion treatment
are behavioral interventions that are used to treat paraphilic disorders. Orgasmic reconditioning involves teaching the individual to become sexually aroused to more acceptable mental images and fantasies.
Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder is characterized by recurrent temper outbursts with:
A. a persistently irritable or angry mood between outbursts.
B. a persistently manic or hypomanic mood between outbursts.
C. extreme mood lability between outbursts.
D. moderate or severe depression between outbursts.
Answer A is correct.
As described in DSM-5, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder involves severe and recurrent temper outbursts that are out of proportion to the situation with a persistently irritable or angry mood most of the day and nearly every day between outbursts.
In a normal distribution of scores, a T-score of _____ is equivalent to a z-score of _____ and a percentile rank of 84.
A. 50; 0
B. 50; 1.0
C. 60; 1.0
D. 70; 2.0
Answer C is correct. In a normal distribution, a percentile rank of 84 is one standard deviation above the mean. The T-score distribution has a mean of 50 and standard deviation of 10, so a T-score of 60 is one standard deviation above the mean. And the z-score distribution has a mean of 0 and standard deviation of 1.0, so a z-score of 1.0 is one standard deviation above the mean.
Moscovici’s (1980) research on minority influence found that a group member with a minority opinion must rely on which of the following to persuade members with the opposing (majority) opinion to adopt his or her opinion?
A. informational influence
B. normative influence
C. behavioral style
D. psychological reactance
Answer C is correct. According to Moscovici, a group member with a minority opinion must rely on behavioral style to persuade the majority – i.e., the member must be consistent in expressing his/her opinion without seeming too rigid or dogmatic.
Carstensen’s (1992) socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that, as we get older:
A. emotionally meaningful and knowledge-related goals both become more important.
B. emotionally meaningful goals become more important and knowledge-related goals become less important.
C. emotionally meaningful goals become less important and knowledge-related goals become more important.
D. emotionally meaningful and knowledge-related goals both become less important.
Answer B is correct. Carstensen’s socioemotional selectivity theory proposes that our goals change as our future time becomes more limited. It distinguishes between two types of goals – knowledge-related and emotionally meaningful – and proposes that, as we get older, we place less importance on knowledge-related goals and more importance on emotionally meaningful goals. In terms of social relationships, this means that younger people prefer relationships that fulfill their knowledge-related goals, while older people prefer relationships that fulfill their emotionally meaningful goals.
In the context of test construction, “shrinkage” is associated with:
A. inter-rater reliability.
B. factor analysis.
C. incremental validity.
D. cross-validation.
Answer D is correct.
Shrinkage is associated with cross-validation and refers to the fact that a validity coefficient is likely to be smaller than the original coefficient when the predictor(s) and criterion are administered to another (cross-validation) sample.
Shrinkage occurs because the chance factors that contributed to the relationship between the predictor(s) and criterion in the original sample are not present in the cross-validation sample.
A middle-aged woman believes that aliens are controlling everything she does and are making her do things she doesn’t want to do. Her adult daughter says that, no matter what anyone says to her mother about her belief, she refuses to change her mind. The woman’s belief is an example of which of the following?
A. magical thinking
B. delusion
C. illusion
D. idea of reference
Answer B is correct. A delusion is a false belief that’s firmly held despite what others believe and despite contradictory evidence. This woman’s delusion is referred to as a delusion of control.
A supervisor notices that an employee seems to be putting more time and effort into his work but this increase has not been accompanied by an increase in productivity. The employee’s behavior is most likely:
A. the result of a lack of control over the pace of her work.
B. an early sign of job burnout.
C. a consequence of chronic work-family conflict.
D. a symptom of “survivor syndrome.”
Answer B is correct.
An early sign of burnout is an
1. increase in the time and effort put into work without an increase in productivity. Other early signs include
2.reduced motivation,
3. increased irritability and negativity,
4. social withdrawal, and
5. somatic symptoms.
When distinguishing between normal (nonpathological) anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder, the presence of which of the following would help confirm the diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder?
A. The person worries about being evaluated by other people.
B. The person’s worries are not accompanied by physical symptoms.
C. The person’s worries take the form of intrusive thoughts and images.
D. The person finds it difficult to control his/her worries.
Answer D is correct. According to DSM-5, in contrast to people with nonpathological anxiety, those with generalized anxiety disorder are more likely to experience physical symptoms in conjunction with worrying and to experience worrying as uncontrollable. Worrying about being evaluated by others is characteristic of social anxiety disorder, and worries that take the form of intrusive thoughts and images is characteristic of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
____________ preventions are aimed at lowering the prevalence of a disorder by identifying individuals who have early signs or symptoms of the disorder and providing them with an intervention to limit its intensity or duration.
A. Primary
B. Secondary
C. Tertiary
D. Quaternary
Answer B is correct. The goal of secondary prevention is to stop the progression of a disorder by using a screening test or other procedure to identify individuals with early signs or symptoms of the disorder and providing them with an appropriate intervention.
A division of labor and a hierarchy of authority are defining characteristics of which of the following organizational theories?
A. Weber’s bureaucracy
B. McGregor’s Theory Y
C. Fiedler’s contingency theory
D. Katz and Kahn’s open-system theory
Answer A is correct. As described by Weber (1947), an ideal bureaucracy is characterized by a division of labor, a hierarchy of authority, clearly defined rules and procedures, impersonal relationships based on position, and selection and promotion decisions based on an applicant’s or employee’s technical competence.
Sam, age 16, is brought to therapy by his mother who says he started complaining about hearing voices two weeks ago shortly after his father was diagnosed with lung cancer and that Sam also seems more nervous and tense than usual. When you ask Sam about the voices, he says they keep telling him he’s “bad and dirty” and he can’t make them go away. Sam has no history of a psychotic disorder or drug use. Based on these symptoms, the most likely diagnosis is:
A. schizophrenia.
B. schizoaffective disorder.
C. brief psychotic disorder.
D. unspecified schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
Answer C is correct. The DSM-5 diagnosis of brief psychotic disorder requires the presence of one or more characteristic symptoms with at least one symptom being delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech for at least one day but less than one month. Sam has had an auditory hallucination for two weeks.
Which of the following is considered to be a research-supported treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder?
A. EMDR
B. behavioral activation therapy
C. exposure with response prevention
D. habit reversal training
Answer C is correct. Exposure with response prevention and cognitive therapy have both been identified as research-supported treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder. See, e.g., J. Abramowitz, Effectiveness of psychological and pharmacological treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A quantitative review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 65(1), 44-52, 1997.
The analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) is used to:
A. statistically remove the effects of an extraneous variable on the dependent variable.
B. measure the effects of an extraneous variable on the dependent variable by treating it as an independent variable.
C. simultaneously assess the effects of the independent variable on two or more dependent variables.
D. simultaneously assess the effects of two or more independent variables on a single dependent variable.
Answer A is correct. The ANCOVA is used to statistically remove the effects of an extraneous variable from scores on the dependent variable so that it’s easier to detect the effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. When using the ANCOVA, the extraneous variable is the “covariate.”
Eight months ago, on the one-year anniversary of the death of her mother due to a brain tumor, 47-year-old Gale began experiencing frequent headaches and dizziness nearly every day. Gale has worried constantly about her health since then and has been spending hours each day searching for information on brain tumors on the Internet. Gale’s worrying and time on the Internet has kept her from spending time with her husband, two teen-age daughters, and friends. Gale has had two MRIs that showed no sign of a tumor, and her doctor has been unable to find an explanation for her headaches and dizziness. Based on these symptoms, the most likely diagnosis for Gale is:
A. conversion disorder.
B. body dysmorphic disorder.
C. somatic symptom disorder.
D. illness anxiety disorder.
Answer C is correct. Gale’s symptoms meet the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for somatic symptom disorder. This diagnosis requires the presence of one or more somatic symptoms that cause distress or substantial disruption of daily activities accompanied by excessive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors related to the symptoms.
According to Carl Rogers (1951), incongruence between self and experience produces anxiety, which a person may respond to defensively by:
A. denying or distorting the experience.
B. adopting an exaggerated sense of self-worth.
C. becoming fixated at the previous stage of development.
D. developing a mistaken style of life.
Answer A is correct. Rogers proposed that people often respond defensively to incongruence between self and experience with denial or distortion. Denial involves denying the existence of the experience or its significance, while distortion involves altering the meaning of the experience to make it more consistent with one’s perceived self. Although denial and distortion can provide temporary relief, they fail to resolve incongruence and can lead to psychological disturbance.
Donald Super’s life-career rainbow depicts the relationship between which of the following?
A. personality characteristics and characteristics of the work environment
B. career anticipation and implementation
C. life stages and major life roles
D. career maturity and career decisions
Answer C is correct. Super (Super, Savickas, & Super, 1996) created several illustrations to depict the relationships between elements of his life-space, life-span career theory. His life-career rainbow depicts the relationship between life stages and major life roles.
Privilege refers to:
A. the ethical requirement to protect a client’s confidentiality.
B. the legal requirement to protect a client’s right to privacy.
C. the legal and ethical requirement to disclose confidential client information only with appropriate authorization to do so.
D. the legal requirement to protect client confidentiality in court testimony, depositions, and other legal proceedings.
Answer D is correct. Privilege is a legal concept that protects a client’s confidential information from being disclosed in legal proceedings.
The keyword method is most useful for:
A. remembering a list of 10 nonsense syllables.
B. recalling how to solve a mathematical equation.
C. learning the vocabulary of a second language.
D. remembering an important event you must attend next week.
Answer C is correct. The keyword method involves creating an image that links two words or links a word and its definition and is particularly useful for foreign (second) language learning.
Following a stroke, a man shaves only the right side of his face, eats food only on the right side of his plate, and frequently bumps into door frames with the left side of his body. Which of the following areas of the brain was affected by the stroke?
A. frontal lobe
B. temporal lobe
C. occipital lobe
D. parietal lobe
Previous Questio
Answer D is correct. This man’s symptoms are characteristic of contralateral neglect, which is also known as hemispatial neglect and is caused by damage to the parietal lobe (most often the right parietal lobe). A person with this disorder is unaware of areas and objects on the side of his/her body opposite to the location of the damage.
As described by Wallerstein and Blakeslee (1989), the “sleeper effect” occurs when:
A. girls who seem relatively unaffected by the divorce of their parents during childhood exhibit problems in late adolescence or early adulthood.
B. boys who exhibit severe problems after their parents’ divorce become indistinguishable from boys who exhibit mild problems by the time they reach early adulthood.
C. over time, custodial and noncustodial parents become increasingly less consistent in disciplining their children and less responsive to their children’s needs.
D. the noncustodial parent gradually becomes increasingly less involved in raising his or her children during the second and subsequent years following the divorce.
Answer A is correct. Wallerstein and Blakeslee reported that many of the girls in their studies seemed to adjust well to the divorce of their parents during childhood but then developed emotional and behavioral problems in late adolescence and adulthood – e.g., they engaged in risky and self-destructive behaviors, became sexually promiscuous and involved in unsatisfactory relationships, and were excessively worried about betrayal and abandonment.
A patient with severe hemiplegia caused by a lesion in the right side of her brain denies she has any problems moving her left arm and leg. This woman’s lack of awareness of her physical impairment is referred to as:
A. anomia.
B. paresthesia.
C. anosognosia.
D. prosopagnosia.
Answer C is correct. Anosognosia is most commonly caused by damage to the right parietal lobe and is characterized by a lack of awareness of one’s own physical disability.
Which of the following has been found to modify the nature of the relationship between message discrepancy and attitude change?
A. the recipient’s sense of self-efficacy
B. the processing channel used by the recipient of the message
C. the credibility of the source of the message
D. the level of fear aroused by the message
Answer C is correct. In general, the relationship between amount of attitude change and message discrepancy has an inverted-U shape, with the greatest amount of change being produced by a moderate level of discrepancy between the recipient’s attitude and the attitude expressed in the persuasive message.
However, when communicator credibility is considered, the relationship for high-credible communicators is linear, with the amount of attitude change increasing as the level of discrepancy increases (Aronson, Turner, & Carlsmith. 1963).
The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (SAMHSA, 2016) found that the largest percentage of respondents ages 12 to 17 used which the following in the previous month?
A. tobacco
B. cocaine
C. alcohol
D. marijuana
Answer C is correct. Consistent with prior surveys, the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that the largest percentage of adolescents said they used alcohol during the previous month. However, the percentage was somewhat lower than in previous years: In 2015, 9.6 percent of adolescents said they used alcohol in the past month, while 11.5 and 11.6 percent said they did so in 2014 and 2013, respectively.
Miller’s (1956) “magical number seven, plus or minus two” refers to:
A. the capacity of sensory memory.
B. the capacity of short-term memory.
C. the duration (in milliseconds) of information in sensory memory.
D. the duration (in seconds) of information in working memory.
Answer B is correct. Miller found that the capacity of short-term memory is limited to between five and nine (seven plus and minus two) chunks of information.
According to Prochaska and DiClemente’s (1983) transtheoretical model, people in the ____________ stage of change are aware of their problem behavior, are weighing the pros and cons of changing, and feel they’ll be ready to take the steps necessary to change the behavior within the next six months.
A. precontemplation
B. preparation
C. contemplation
D. determination
Answer C is correct. Prochaska and DiClemente’s transtheoretical model distinguishes between six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. During the contemplation stage, people are aware of the costs and benefits of changing an undesirable behavior and may be somewhat ambivalent about doing so, but they’re seriously considering taking action to change within the next six months.
When using positive reinforcement to establish or increase a behavior, use of which of the following intermittent schedules of reinforcement will maximize the behavior’s resistance to extinction?
A. fixed interval
B. variable interval
C. fixed ratio
D. variable ratio
Answer D is correct. When using a variable ratio schedule, reinforcement is delivered after a variable number of responses – for example, after four responses, then after two responses, then after six responses, and so on. Of the intermittent schedules, the variable ratio schedule produces the fastest rate of acquisition and the greatest resistance to extinction. Slot machines provide reinforcement on this schedule.
The two main types of integrity tests that are used to assist with selection decisions are:
A. general and specific trait tests.
B. covert and behavior-based tests.
C. objective and subjective tests.
D. overt and personality-based tests.
Answer D is correct. There are two main types of integrity tests: Overt integrity tests ask directly about attitudes toward and previous history of dishonesty and theft, while personality-based integrity tests assess aspects of personality that have been linked to dishonesty, disciplinary problems, sabotage, and other counterproductive behaviors.
The Oregon model of parent management training developed by Gerald Patterson and his colleagues (1982) was based on their research that found a link between high levels of aggressiveness in children and:
A. early attachment insecurity.
B. rejecting/neglecting parents.
C. coercive family interactions.
D. a disorganized home environment.
Answer C is correct. Patterson et al. found that aggression and other antisocial behaviors in children were related to coercive family interactions that become progressively more coercive over time, with parents using increasingly harsh punishments and children becoming more disruptive and aggressive.
Your new client is Maureen, a 21-year-old college junior, who says she’s ordinarily a shy, calm person who doesn’t have trouble getting things done. However, for the last three weeks, she’s been jumping from one project to another without finishing anything, gets irritated by just about everything, is more talkative than usual, and has a lot of energy even though she’s not getting enough sleep. Maureen says that, because of her symptoms, she hasn’t been able to concentrate while studying and she failed an exam last week for the first time in her life. Maureen’s symptoms are most suggestive of which of the following?
A. bipolar I disorder
B. bipolar II disorder
C. cyclothymic disorder
D. ADHD
Answer A is correct. The nature and duration of Maureen’s symptoms are most suggestive of bipolar I disorder, which is diagnosed when a person has had at least one manic episode that lasted for at least one week. Maureen’s increased energy and talkativeness, distractibility, increased goal activity (jumping from one project to another), decreased need for sleep, and impaired functioning at school because of her symptoms are characteristic of a manic episode. Bipolar II disorder isn’t correct because it requires at least one major depressive disorder, which must include a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure plus other symptoms, and the question doesn’t indicate that Maureen has these symptoms.
Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory supports use of which of the following as a method of training?
A. simulation training
B. behavior modeling
C. action learning
D. vestibule training
Answer B is correct. Behavior modeling is based on Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory of learning. It involves having trainees observe a model perform the desired behaviors and giving trainees feedback and reinforcement while they practice modeled behaviors.
At the beginning of the school year, a researcher tells a first-grade teacher that a test had been administered to all students in kindergarten and the results indicated that five of her 22 students – Bob G., Liang C., Ellen A., Isadore R., and Lucia V. – will show significant gains in academic achievement this year. Even though the five children were actually randomly selected, all showed significant gains in academic skills by the end of the school year. Which of the following best explains these results?
A. the Hawthorne effect
B. the Rosenthal effect
C. the positive halo effect
D. the confirmation bias
Answer B is correct. This question describes a study that’s similar to the study conducted by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) who found that teachers’ expectations for students identified as academic “spurters” (but who were actually randomly chosen) had a positive effect on the students’ IQ scores and grades. This effect is known by several names including the Rosenthal effect, the Pygmalion effect, and the self-fulfilling prophecy effect.
Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
Copyright © 202
At the beginning of the school year, a researcher tells a first-grade teacher that a test had been administered to all students in kindergarten and the results indicated that five of her 22 students – Bob G., Liang C., Ellen A., Isadore R., and Lucia V. – will show significant gains in academic achievement this year. Even though the five children were actually randomly selected, all showed significant gains in academic skills by the end of the school year. Which of the following best explains these results?
A. the Hawthorne effect
B. the Rosenthal effect
C. the positive halo effect
D. the confirmation bias
Answer B is correct. This question describes a study that’s similar to the study conducted by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) who found that teachers’ expectations for students identified as academic “spurters” (but who were actually randomly chosen) had a positive effect on the students’ IQ scores and grades. This effect is known by several names including the Rosenthal effect, the Pygmalion effect, and the self-fulfilling prophecy effect.
Alma A., a 68-year-old retired real estate agent, is brought to therapy by her daughter who says that Alma has become forgetful, has difficulty concentrating, and seems depressed. The presence of which of the following would suggest that Alma’s symptoms are more likely due to a neurocognitive disorder than to pseudodementia (major depressive disorder)?
A. Alma’s daughter says her mother’s symptoms began soon after the family dog died.
B. Alma’s daughter says her mother’s symptoms are worse in the evening.
C. Alma often answers “I don’t know” in response to assessment questions.
D. Alma exaggerates her cognitive problems.
Answer B is correct. Major depressive disorder and neurocognitive disorder share some symptoms, but they also differ in important ways. The behaviors described in answers A, C, and D are more characteristic of pseudodementia than of a neurocognitive disorder.
In contrast, worsening of symptoms in the evening (“sundowning”) is more characteristic of a neurocognitive disorder.
Restitution and positive practice are components of which of the following?
A. response cost
B. Premack principle
C. overcorrection
D. differential reinforcement
Answer C is correct. Overcorrection is used to reduce or eliminate an undesirable behavior and is classified as a type of positive punishment. It consists of two components: Restitution requires the individual to fix any negative consequences of the behavior (e.g., having a child clean up the food he threw on the floor while the family ate dinner). Positive practice involves practicing more appropriate behaviors (e.g., having the child scrape the uneaten food off the plates of other family members into the garbage can).
An advanced sleep phase is most characteristic of:
A. adults deprived of REM sleep.
B. individuals who are blind.
C. older adults.
D. infants.
Answer C is correct. Advanced sleep phase is also known as circadian phase advance and refers to a shift in the sleep-wake cycle that involves falling asleep and waking up earlier than at the conventional times. Many older adults experience an advanced sleep phase.
Damage to Broca’s area produces:
A. nonfluent speech with intact comprehension.
B. fluent but nonsensical speech with intact comprehension.
C. nonfluent speech with severely impaired comprehension.
D. fluent but nonsensical speech with impaired comprehension.
Answer A is correct. Damage to Broca’s area causes Broca’s aphasia, which is also known as expressive aphasia. It’s characterized by nonfluent, labored speech with intact comprehension.
Tolman and Honzik (1930) concluded that the rats in their studies formed cognitive maps of a maze as the result of which of the following?
A. trial-and-error
B. sudden insight
C. reinforcement
D. latent learning
Answer D is correct. Tolman and Honzik found that rats allowed to explore a maze without being given a reward found their way to the goal box once a reward was provided more quickly than did rats that did not explore the maze before being given a reward. Based on these results, they concluded that rats allowed to explore the maze formed cognitive maps of the maze and that this confirmed that latent learning occurs without reinforcement.
Factor Index scores on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5) have a mean of _____ and standard deviation of _____.
A. 10; 3
B. 15; 5
C. 100; 12
D. 100; 15
Answer D is correct. The SB5 provides four types of composite scores that have a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15:
1. Full Scale IQ score,
2. Factor Index scores,
3. Verbal and Nonverbal Domain scores, and
4. Abbreviated Battery IQ score.
John Jr. just turned 14 and has started demanding to be allowed to make his own decisions and to have more privileges and independence from the family. In response, John’s parents continue to treat him like a child and have become more punitive in an attempt to keep things the way they were. The parents’ response to John’s demands illustrates which of the following?
A. positive feedback
B. negative feedback
C. reframing
D. restraining
Answer B is correct. Negative feedback serves to maintain the status quo (i.e., to keep things the way they were), while positive feedback promotes change. Reframing and restraining are paradoxical techniques used by therapists to alter behavior.
Autonomic hyperactivity, hand tremor, insomnia, transient hallucinations, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures are most suggestive of which of the following?
A. alcohol withdrawal
B. opioid withdrawal
C. stimulant intoxication
D. inhalant intoxication
Answer A is correct. The DSM-5 diagnosis of alcohol withdrawal requires the presence of two or more of the following symptoms after cessation or reduction of heavy and prolonged alcohol use: autonomic hyperactivity, hand tremor, insomnia, nausea or vomiting, transient hallucinations or illusions, psychomotor agitation, anxiety, and generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
In Ainsworth’s (Ainsworth et al., 1978) “strange situation,” an infant with an ____________ attachment pattern is indifferent to his/her mother and may act as though she’s not present, shows little or no distress when she leaves, and ignores her when she returns. Mothers of children with this attachment pattern are often ____________.
A. avoidant; rejecting/unresponsive or intrusive/overstimulating
B. avoidant; moody/depressed and inconsistent
C. ambivalent; rejecting/unresponsive or intrusive/overstimulating
D. ambivalent; moody/depressed and inconsistent
Answer A is correct. Ainsworth and her colleagues distinguished between two types of insecure attachment patterns: avoidant and ambivalent (which is also referred to as resistant). The infant behaviors described in this question are characteristic of children with the avoidant pattern, and parents of children with this pattern are often either rejecting and unresponsive or intrusive and overstimulating.
When an examinee’s scores on the L, F, and K scales of the MMPI-2 assume a V-shape with a low score on the F scale and high scores on the L and K scales, this suggests which of the following?
A. The examinee attempted to make a favorable impression.
B. The examinee attempted to fake a mental illness.
C. The examinee answered half of the items “true” and the other half “false.”
D. The examinee answered all of the items “true.”
Answer A is correct. The L, F, and K scales are three of the MMPI-2’s validity scales and the L-F-K profile indicates an attempt to “fake good” when it is V-shaped (low F scale score and high L and K scale scores) and an attempt to “fake bad” when it has an inverted-V shape (high F scale score and low L and K scale scores).
Neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease and neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies (NCDLB) can be difficult to distinguish, especially in their early stages, but there are differences. Which of the following does NOT accurately describe a difference between the two disorders?
A. Motor disturbances are more prominent in early Alzheimer’s disease than in early NCDLB.
B. Memory loss is usually a more prominent early symptom of early Alzheimer’s disease than of early NCDLB.
C. Nonvisual hallucinations and systematized delusions are more common in early NCDLB than in early Alzheimer’s disease.
D. Orthostatic hypotension and other autonomic disturbances are more common in early NCDLB than in early Alzheimer’s disease.
Answer A is correct. Motor disturbances are a more important cause of disability in the early stages of NCDLB than in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and include muscle rigidity, tremors, and other motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease. Although motor problems are also associated with Alzheimer’s disease, they usually do not occur until the disease progresses to the middle or late stage. The other three answers accurately describe differences between the two disorders. See, e.g., Alzheimer’s Association website, http://www.alz.org/dementia/dementia-with-lewy-bodies-symptoms.asp
In their discussion of the use of culture-specific techniques in psychotherapy, Sue and Zane (1987) emphasize the importance of “gift giving” during the initial therapy sessions when working with Asian American and other non-Western clients. As described by these investigators, gift giving includes:
A. establishing credibility by demonstrating expertise.
B. ensuring confidentiality.
C. instilling hope and providing reassurance.
D. introducing the topic of race or ethnicity.
Answer C is correct. As described by S. Sue and N. Zane, gift giving involves ensuring that clients feel they have received immediate benefits from therapy and includes
1. normalizing the client’s feelings and experiences,
2. providing reassurance,
3. instilling hope,
4. teaching coping skills, and
5. helping the client set goals for therapy (The role of culture and cultural techniques in psychotherapy: A critique and reformulation, American Psychologist, 42(1), 37-45, 1987). Note that Sue and Zane identify credibility as an important treatment issue when working with non-Western clients, but they describe it as a separate issue and not a factor that contributes to gift giving.
There is evidence that, for patients with schizophrenia, involvement of family members in the patient’s care:
A. has little or no effect on the patient’s medication adherence or risk for relapse.
B. increases the patient’s medication adherence and reduces the patient’s risk for relapse.
C. increases the patient’s medication adherence but has little or no effect on the patient’s risk for relapse.
D. has little or no effect on the patient’s medication adherence but reduces the patient’s risk for relapse.
Answer B is correct. There is evidence that involvement of the family or other support system in the care of a patient with schizophrenia increases the patient’s medication adherence and reduces the risk for relapse (e.g., Miller & Buckley, 2018).
Piaget attributed children’s ability to engage in deferred imitation and make-believe play to:
A. the process of accommodation.
B. the process of equilibration.
C. the use of mental operations.
D. the ability to create mental representations.
Answer D is correct. Piaget attributed deferred imitation and make-believe play to the ability to create mental representations, which emerges during the final substage of the sensorimotor period at about 18 months of age. Note, however, that subsequent research found that children engage in deferred imitation and other behaviors that depend on mental representations prior to this age.
Social facilitation is more likely than social inhibition to occur when:
A. the crowd is large.
B. the crowd is small.
C. the task is easy.
D. the task is difficult.
Answer C is correct. Social facilitation is an improvement in performance that’s caused by the mere presence of other people and affects easy and well-learned tasks.
Cataplexy, hypocretin deficiency, and short rapid eye movement sleep latency are symptoms of:
A. narcolepsy.
B. sleep apnea.
C. temporal lobe seizures.
D. Tourette’s syndrome.
Previous Question
Answer A is correct. The DSM-5 diagnosis of narcolepsy requires irrepressible episodes of sleep (daytime naps) with at least one of the following: cataplexy, hypocretin deficiency, or REM sleep latency less than or equal to 15 minutes.
Minuchin, Rosman, and Baker (1978) found that the parents of children with anorexia were often overprotective of and emotionally overinvolved with the child and discouraged the child’s independence. They referred to this family pattern as:
A. enmeshed.
B. triangulated.
C. skewed.
D. closed.
Answer A is correct. One of the structural elements of interest to structural family therapists are the boundaries between family members, and they distinguish between overly rigid and overly permeable boundaries:
Overly rigid boundaries lead to disengagement (a lack of connection and excessive independence between family members), while
overly permeable boundaries lead to enmeshment (excessive closeness and dependence between family members).
Strength, accessibility, and specificity have been identified as factors that affect:
A. the extent to which a person can resist persuasion.
B. the likelihood that a person’s behaviors will alter his/her attitudes.
C. the amount of influence a person’s attitudes have on his/her behaviors.
D. the persuasiveness of an advertisement or other message.
Answer C is correct. Research has found that the strength of the relationship between a person’s attitudes and his/her behaviors is affected by several factors, including the strength, accessibility, and specificity of the attitudes. See e.g., C. A. Sanderson, Social psychology, Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons, 2010.
Mowrer’s (1960) two-factor theory of learning is most useful for understanding which of the following?
A. avoidance conditioning
B. escape conditioning
C. spontaneous recovery
D. operant extinction
Answer A is correct. Mowrer’s two-factor theory of learning proposes that some behaviors are the result of a combination of classical and operant conditioning. Avoidance conditioning is an example of two-factor learning because it combines classical conditioning and negative reinforcement (operant conditioning). For example, a rat may learn that it can escape (stop) an electric shock by pressing a bar, which is the negative reinforcement component. Then, if a flashing light signals that the shock is about to occur, the light becomes paired with the shock so that the light elicits anticipatory fear, which is the classical conditioning component. The rat then avoids the shock by pressing the bar as soon as the light starts flashing.
According to the DSM-5, a better prognosis for individuals who have received a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder is most associated with:
A. the initiation of social interactions by 6 years of age.
B. an onset of symptoms during the early developmental period.
C. the development of functional language skills by 5 years of age.
D. the absence of physical abnormalities.
Answer C is correct. A better prognosis for autism spectrum disorder is associated with an absence of intellectual disability, language impairments, and other mental health problems.
With regard to language, the DSM-5 notes that a good prognostic sign is the development of functional language by age five.
Which of the following best describes the premise underlying the James-Lange theory of emotion?
A. A stimulus is perceived, the stimulus is interpreted, and bodily arousal, behavior, and emotion then occur simultaneously.
B. A stimulus is perceived, bodily arousal and a label for that arousal occur, and behavior and emotion then occur simultaneously.
C. A stimulus is perceived, bodily arousal and behavior occur, and emotion is then experienced.
D. A stimulus is perceived, the stimulus is interpreted, emotion is experienced, and behavior then occurs.
Answer C is correct.
The James-Lange theory replaces the idea that “we run because we’re afraid” with the idea that “we’re afraid because we run.” In other words, according to this theory, we perceive a stimulus, we respond to the stimulus with arousal and behavior, and we then experience an emotion as we become aware of our bodily reactions.
Angie, age 35, is brought to therapy by her sister who says that Angie “hasn’t been herself” for the last month. In response to your questions, you learn from Angie and her sister that Angie has lost her appetite, spends most of the day sleeping, doesn’t seem to have any energy, and is more forgetful than usual. To confirm a DSM-5 diagnosis of major depressive disorder for Angie, you will want to determine if her symptoms include:
A. a depressed mood or feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
B. a depressed mood or loss of interest in usual activities.
C. suicidal ideation or a suicide attempt.
D. feelings of worthlessness or guilt or mood instability.
Answer B is correct. The DSM-5 diagnosis of major depressive disorder requires the presence of at least five characteristics symptoms with at least one symptom being a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. Feelings of worthlessness or guilt and suicidal ideation, a suicide attempt, and a specific plan for committing suicide are symptoms of this disorder, but their presence is not required for the diagnosis.
The development of depth perception in infancy involves becoming sensitive to three types of information in a predictable order, with __________ information being the first type that infants are sensitive to.
A. interposition
B. kinetic
C. binocular
D. pictorial
Answer B is correct. In their study on the development of depth perception, A. Yonas and C. E. Granrud found that infants respond to kinetic cues at one to three months of age, binocular cues at three to five months, and pictorial cues at five to seven months (The development of sensitivity to kinetic, binocular, and pictorial depth information in human infants, in D. Ingle, D. Lee, and R. M. Jeannerod (Eds.), Brain mechanisms and spatial vision, pp. 113-145, Amsterdam, Martinus Nijhoff Press, 1985).
Older adults with mild neurocognitive disorder due to Alzheimer’s disease would most likely obtain the highest score on the WAIS-IV __________ Index and lowest score on the __________ Index.
A. Verbal Comprehension; Working Memory
B. Working Memory; Perceptual Reasoning
C. Perceptual Reasoning; Processing Speed
D. Verbal Comprehension; Processing Speed
Answer D is correct. The WAIS-IV Technical and Interpretive Manual (Psychological Corporation, 2008) reports the following mean Index scores for individuals with mild Alzheimer’s disease:
Verbal Comprehension 86.2, Perceptual Reasoning 85.8,
Working Memory 84.3, and Processing Speed 76.6.
On average, full siblings and other first-degree relatives share _____ of their genetic material.
A. 90%
B. 75%
C. 50%
D. 25%
Answer C is correct. Full siblings, fraternal twins, and other first degree relatives share about 50% of their genetic material, while half siblings share about 25%.
Ella took Spanish classes in her last two years of high school but decided to learn French in college instead of continuing with Spanish. She found that, even after studying French for two semesters, whenever she tried to recall the French equivalent for an English word, she’d recall the Spanish word instead. Ella’s experience illustrates which of the following?
A. retroactive interference
B. proactive interference
C. the serial position effect
D. the recency effect
Answer B is correct.
Proactive interference occurs when prior learning (e.g., Spanish) interferes with the ability to learn or recall new information (e.g., French).
Atkinson, Morten, and Sue’s (2003) racial/cultural identity development model predicts that an African American client in the ____________ stage will most likely prefer having a White therapist.
A. disintegration
B. resistance
C. dissonance
D. conformity
Answer D is correct. Atkinson, Morten, and Sue’s racial/cultural identity development model distinguishes between five stages: conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspection, and integrative awareness. Minority group members in the conformity stage have negative attitudes toward their own minority group and other minority groups and positive attitudes toward Whites (the dominant group). They view White culture as superior and, with regard to therapy, prefer a White therapist.
Following a presidential election, a person who voted for the winning candidate pays attention to news commentaries that support the new president’s actions but ignores commentaries that criticize him. This best illustrates which of the following?
A. self-serving bias
B. confirmation bias
C. illusory correlation
D. halo effect
Answer B is correct. The confirmation bias is the tendency to seek and pay attention to information that confirms our attitudes and beliefs and to ignore information that refutes them.
Which of the following is an example of negative reinforcement?
A. A child continues to “act out” in class because of the attention he gets from the other children when he does so.
B. A teenager stops biting his nails at school because, whenever he does, his peers make fun of him.
C. A woman who knows sweets aren’t good for her continues to eat chocolate because chocolate reduces her anxiety.
D. A man stopped smoking after his therapist required him to donate $5.00 to a disliked political candidate every time he lit up a cigarette.
Answer C is correct. Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior continues or increases because performing the behavior results in the termination or withdrawal of a stimulus. In the situation described in this answer, the woman eats chocolate because doing so stops her anxiety.
____________ viewed schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders as the result of a multigenerational transmission process.
A. Salvador Minuchin
B. Jay Haley
C. Murray Bowen
D. William Glasser
Answer C is correct.
Bowen considered severe mental disorders to be the result of a multigenerational transmission process in which progressively lower levels of differentiation are transmitted over several generations.
Dr. Connor is a solution-focused family therapist, and his new clients are Mr. and Mrs. Bingham and their two sons, 7-year-old Bob and 9-year-old Brett. During the first session, Mrs. Bingham says that their main concern is that Brett’s misbehavior causes a lot of problems at home and constantly gets him into trouble at school. After asking Mr. and Mrs. Bingham for some examples of what they mean, Dr. Connor will most likely ask which of the following questions?
A. What was happening right before the last time Brett got into trouble?
B. Which of Brett’s behaviors cause the most problems at home and at school?
C. What kind of things does Brett do when he’s not causing problems at home?
D. What usually happens when Brett gets into trouble at school?
Answer C is correct. Asking Brett’s parents what kind of things Brett does when he’s not causing problems is an example of an exception question. Exception questions are used by solution-focused therapists to help clients see that the presenting problem doesn’t always occur and to help them identify solutions to the problem.
The tendency for people to overestimate the frequency of deaths due to plane crashes and shark attacks and underestimate deaths due to heart disease can be attributed to reliance on which of the following?
A. availability heuristic
B. anchoring and adjustment heuristic
C. counterfactual thinking
D. false consensus effect
Answer A is correct.
When using the availability heuristic, people base their judgments about the frequency or likelihood of an event on how easy it is to recall relevant examples of the event. Events that are uncommon but memorable (e.g., deaths due to plane crashes or shark attacks) are more easily remembered than events that are more common but less memorable.
Moffitt’s (1993) “maturity gap” is most useful for understanding the etiology of which of the following disorders?
A. oppositional defiant disorder
B. late-onset attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
C. intermittent explosive disorder
D. adolescent-onset conduct disorder
Answer D is correct. T. Moffitt distinguished between two types of antisocial behavior in youth: Her life-course persistent type corresponds to the childhood-onset type of conduct disorder, while her adolescence-limited type corresponds to the adolescent-onset type. According to Moffitt, the life-course persistent type is the more serious disorder and is due to inherited or acquired neurobiological and neuropsychological factors, while the adolescence-limited type is due to a “maturity gap,” which is the gap between an adolescent’s biological and social maturity (Adolescence-limited and life-course persistent antisocial behavior: A taxonomy, Psychological Review, 100, 674-701, 1993).
Which of the following is true about the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs)?
A. SSRIs have a better tolerability profile than the TCAs and greater safety in overdose.
B. TCAs have a better tolerability profile than the SSRIs and greater safety in overdose.
C. SSRIs have a better tolerability profile than the TCAs, but TCAs have greater safety in overdose.
D. TCAs have a better tolerability profile than the SSRI, but SSRIs have greater safety in overdose.
Answer A is correct. The research has found that the SSRIs and TCAs are similar in terms of effectiveness, especially for moderate depression. However, the SSRIs are generally considered the first-line treatment for depression because of their better tolerability profile (they cause fewer adverse side effects) and greater safety in overdose. See, e.g., T. L. Schwartz, L. Stormon, and M. E. Thase, Treatment outcomes with acute pharmacotherapy/psychotherapy, in T. L. Schwartz and T. J. Petersen, Eds., Depression: Treatment strategies and management, pp. 85-122, New York, Taylor & Francis Group, 2006.
Rates of comorbidity are high for individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. For example, according to the DSM-5, over half of individuals with schizophrenia have which of the following?
A. social anxiety disorder
B. tobacco use disorder
C. obsessive-compulsive disorder
D. acute stress disorder
Answer B is correct. The studies have found that about 70 to 85% of individuals with schizophrenia are tobacco users and, according to the DSM-5, over half of individuals with this diagnosis meet the diagnostic criteria for tobacco use disorder. Of the disorders listed in the answers, tobacco use disorder is the most common co-occurring disorder for individuals with schizophrenia.
Following a traumatic brain injury, a middle-aged woman experiences considerable anterograde and retrograde amnesia. When she begins to recall events that occurred in the past, she’ll most likely remember which of the following first?
A. where she and her family went on vacation three years ago.
B. what she gave her sister for her birthday last year.
C. the argument she had with her oldest daughter three weeks ago.
D. the events that happened on the morning of her injury.
Answer A is correct. Many patients who experience retrograde amnesia as the result of a traumatic brain injury exhibit “shrinking retrograde amnesia” over time. This means that the period of retrograde amnesia gradually shortens with the most distant memories returning first.
The brain continues to develop into late adolescence or early to mid-adulthood, with the __________ being the last area to fully develop.
A. basal ganglia
B. amygdala
C. somatosensory cortex
D. prefrontal cortex
Answer D is correct. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for impulse control, planning, decision-making, and other higher-order cognitive functions. It’s the last area of the brain to become fully functional and continues to develop into the early or mid-20s. See, e.g., B. M. Newman and P. R. Newman, Development through life: A psychosocial approach (13th ed.), Boston, MA, Cengage Learning, 2017.
You don’t consider the possibility that the rudeness and irritability of a new checkout clerk are due to situational factors but, instead, conclude that he’s a very unpleasant person who shouldn’t have a job that puts him in contact with the public. Your conclusion illustrates which of the following?
A. fundamental attribution error
B. ultimate attribution error
C. actor-observer effect
D. illusory correlation
Answer A is correct. The fundamental attribution error is the tendency to overestimate the role of dispositional factors and underestimate the role of situational factors when making attributions about the behaviors of other people.
The court’s ruling in the 1979 case of Larry P. v. Wilson Riles:
A. prohibited businesses from using IQ tests to make hiring decisions about African American job applicants.
B. prohibited schools from using IQ tests to place African American children in special education classes.
C. granted all children with disabilities the right to be provided with public education in the least restrictive environment.
D. granted businesses the right to use cognitive ability tests to make employment decisions as long as the tests have adequate validity.
Answer B is correct. In the Larry P. case, the court concluded that use of standardized IQ tests to place children in special education classes resulted in a disproportionate number of African American students being placed in those classes and ruled that the tests could no longer be used for that purpose for African American students.
To teach a young child with autism spectrum disorder to wave good-bye, his mother first reinforces him with a small cookie when he moves his arm when a family member is leaving. Then, when he does that consistently, she reinforces him with a cookie only when he raises his arm when a family member is leaving. Then, she reinforces him with a cookie only when he raises his arm and moves his hand in any way when a family member is leaving. And, finally, the boy’s mother reinforces him only when he raises his arm and moves his hand in the correct way when a family member is leaving. The technique used by the mother is known as:
A. shaping.
B. chaining.
C. higher-order conditioning.
D. prompting.
Answer A is correct. Shaping is also known as successive approximation conditioning and involves reinforcing successive approximations to the desired behavior until the desired behavior is established.
The Bender-Gestalt II is a measure of visual-motor integration that’s also used as a:
A. screening test for brain damage.
B. screening test for mental maturity.
C. measure of behavioral inhibition.
D. measure of executive functioning.
Answer A is correct. Although the Bender-Gestalt II does not provide detailed information about the location or effects of brain damage, it’s considered useful as a screening test for brain damage, especially right parietal lobe damage.
Brain scans of people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have shown that brain activity in the __________ is elevated and that cognitive behavior therapy reduces that activity.
A. cerebellum
B. caudate nucleus
C. hippocampus
D. locus coeruleus
Answer B is correct. Knowing that OCD has been linked to elevated activity in the caudate nucleus, orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate gyrus, and thalamus would have helped you identify the correct answer to this question even if you are unfamiliar with research showing that CBT reduces activity in the caudate nucleus of individuals with OCD (e.g., A. Poli et al., Neurobiological outcomes of cognitive behavioral therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A systematic review, Psychiatry, 13, 2022).
Your new client is Adam, a 19-year-old college sophomore, who says his restlessness, inability to concentrate, and impulsiveness are interfering with his ability to do well in his classes. He tells you that, when he was a child, his pediatrician thought he had attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. However, his symptoms – especially his hyperactivity – started “getting better” when he was in high school. To assign a diagnosis of ADHD to Adam, he must have at least:
A. five symptoms of inattention and/or five symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity.
B. six symptoms of inattention and/or six symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity.
C. a total of five symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity.
D. a total of six symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity.
Answer A is correct. The DSM-5 diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires at least ** six symptoms** of inattention and/or six symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity for children, or at least five symptoms of inattention and/or five symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity for individuals 17 years of age and older.
A child’s school refusal began shortly after the death of her grandmother, is due to fear of being separated from her home and family, and is accompanied by nightmares about her parents dying and stomach aches and other physical symptoms. The most likely DSM-5 diagnosis is:
A. adjustment disorder.
B. separation anxiety disorder.
C. social anxiety disorder.
D. specific phobia.
Answer B is correct. School refusal can be a manifestation of several psychiatric disorders including separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or social anxiety disorder. When it’s due to separation anxiety disorder, the primary symptom is excessive fear or anxiety about being separated from an attachment figure, and other symptoms may include repeated nightmares related to separation and physical symptoms when separation occurs or is anticipated.
Huntington’s disease is a progressive autosomal dominant disorder that has been linked to GABA and glutamate abnormalities in the:
A. suprachiasmatic nucleus.
B. basal ganglia.
C. hypothalamus.
D. brainstem.
Answer B is correct. The basal ganglia are responsible for voluntary motor control, and the motor symptoms of Huntington’s disease have been linked to GABA and glutamate abnormalities in the basal ganglia, especially the caudate nucleus and putamen.
In a research study, children were told not to play with an attractive toy during a free play period. Some of the children were told that the consequence for playing with the toy would be mild punishment, while others were told the consequence would be more severe punishment. All of the children refrained from playing with the toy but, when subsequently asked about the toy, only those who faced the threat of mild punishment said they disliked it. These results are consistent with the predictions of which of the following?
A. cognitive dissonance theory
B. elaboration likelihood model
C. theory of planned behavior
D. balance theory
Answer A is correct. This question describes a study conducted by E. Aronson and J. M. Carlson (Effect of severity of threat on the devaluation of forbidden behavior, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 584-588, 1963). In that study, children in the mild punishment group changed their attitude toward the toy because they did not have adequate justification for not playing with it. In other words, there was insufficient deterrence which, like insufficient justification, caused cognitive dissonance that the children reduced by deciding they didn’t like the toy.
Bem’s (1981) gender schema theory incorporates elements of which of the following to explain how children learn about gender roles and acquire a gender identity?
A. cognitive developmental theory and social learning theory
B. cognitive developmental theory and psychodynamic theory
C. behavioral learning theory and biological theory
D. behavioral learning theory and psychodynamic theory
Answer A is correct. Bem’s gender schema theory combines elements of cognitive developmental theory and social learning theory to explain how children learn about gender roles and acquire a gender identity. According to this theory, children acquire information about gender from the social environment, which they encode and process to derive cognitive schemas that they use to understand and evaluate themselves and others.
Which of the following is most responsible for depth perception of objects that are at a close distance?
A. motion parallax
B. interposition of objects
C. retinal disparity
D. linear perspective
Answer C is correct. Retinal disparity refers to differences in retinal images in the left and right eyes and is responsible for depth perception of objects that are at a close distance. In contrast, motion parallax (the quicker movement of closer objects across the visual field), interposition (overlap) of objects, and linear perspective are responsible for depth perception of objects that are at a greater distance.
Which of the following best describes the characteristics of neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies and neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease?
A. Neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease involves both motor and cognitive symptoms, but neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies always involves cognitive symptoms only.
B. Neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease and neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies both begin with motor symptoms that are followed by cognitive symptoms.
C. Neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease and neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies both begin with a combination of prominent motor and cognitive symptoms that worsen over time.
D. Neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease begins after a history of motor symptoms, while neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies begins with cognitive symptoms or a combination of cognitive and motor symptoms.
Answer D is correct. Neurocognitive disorders with Lewy bodies and neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease are distinguished by the onset and sequencing of motor and cognitive symptoms.
For the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorder with Parkinson’s disease, the individual must have a history of motor symptoms that are characteristic of Parkinson’s disease. In contrast, for the diagnosis of neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies, cognitive symptoms can be present before, with, or in the absence of motor symptoms.
(Note that motor symptoms associated with neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies are similar to those characteristic of Parkinson’s disease.)
