PrepJet Practice Exam 1 Flashcards
The test manual for an academic achievement test indicates that it has an alternate forms reliability coefficient of .80. This means that ____ of variability in test scores is true score variability:
A. 80%
B. 64%
C. 36%
D. 20%
A. 80%
Reliability coefficients are interpreted directly as the percent of variability in test scores that is due to true score variability. When the reliability coefficient is .80, this means that 80% of variability in scores is due to true score variability and 20% is due to measurement error.
In the context of test construction, “shrinkage” is associated with:
A. inter-rater reliability.
B. factor analysis.
C. incremental validity.
D. cross-validation.
D. cross-validation.
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.
When conducting a one-way ANOVA, an F-ratio is calculated by dividing the mean square between (MSB) by the mean square within (MSW). The mean square between provides an estimate of variability in dependent variable scores due to:
A. treatment effects only.
B. error only.
C. treatment effects plus error.
D. treatment effects minus error.
C. treatment effects plus error.
MSB is a measure of variability due to a combination of treatment effects plus error, while MSW is a measure of variability due to error only. When MSB is divided by MSW, this produces the F-ratio which provides an estimate of treatment effects.
Inferential Statistical Tests
According to Fiedler’s (1967) contingency theory, a low LPC leader is most effective in:
A. moderately favorable situations.
B. very unfavorable situations.
C. very favorable situations.
D. very unfavorable and very favorable situations.
D. very unfavorable and very favorable situations.
According to Fiedler, low LPC leaders are most effective in very unfavorable and very favorable situations, while high LPC leaders are most effective in moderately favorable situations.
Organizational Leadership
____________ syndrome affects males, is due to the presence of an extra X chromosome, and causes a number of physical abnormalities.
A. Prader-Willi
B. Angelman
C. Klinefelter
D. Turner
C. Klinefelter
The symptoms of Klinefelter syndrome vary, but most males with an extra X chromosome have undeveloped testes, breast enlargement, long limbs with a short trunk, less facial and body hair, and a low testosterone level.
Early Influences on Development
An employer is concerned about the low motivation of many of her employees and decides to interview them to obtain information on how to alleviate this problem. Being familiar with Vroom’s (1964) expectancy theory, the employer will ask employees about all of the following except:
A. expectancy.
B. instrumentality.
C. commitment.
D. valence.
C. commitment.
Knowing that expectancy theory is also known as VIE theory would have helped you identify the correct answer to this question: “V” refers to valence, “I” to instrumentality, and “E” to expectancy.
Theories of Motivation
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
C. the credibility of the source of the message
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).
Persuasion
The tendency to attribute all problems experienced by students with learning disabilities to their learning disabilities and overlook other possible explanations is an example of the:
A. fundamental attribution error.
B. halo bias.
C. diagnostic overshadowing bias.
D. base rate fallacy.
C. diagnostic overshadowing bias.
The diagnostic overshadowing bias is the tendency to attribute all of a person’s symptoms to one diagnosis (e.g., to a learning disability) and overlook the possibility that they may be due to a comorbid condition.
Prevention, Consultation, and Psychotherapy Research
For practitioners of Gestalt therapy, a key contributor to neurotic behavior is which of the following?
A. cognitive entanglement
B. exposure to conditions of worth
C. a contact boundary disturbance
D. psychological rigidity
C. a contact boundary disturbance
An assumption underlying Gestalt therapy is that contact boundary disturbances underlie neurosis, and it distinguishes between four main types of boundary disturbance: introjection, retroflection, projection, and confluence.
Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies
An advertising agency has been hired by a dog food company to re-design the labels for its products. The agency prepares seven different labels for canned dog food and, to determine which label customers prefer, has a sample of 300 dog owners choose the label they like the most. Which of the following is the appropriate statistical test to use to determine if there’s a significant difference in the number of dog owners who chose each label?
A. single-sample chi-square test
B. multiple-sample chi-square test
C. one-way ANOVA
D. factorial ANOVA
A. single-sample chi-square test
The first and second steps in identifying the appropriate statistical test are identifying the study’s independent and dependent variables and the scale of measurement of the dependent variable. However, this study has only one variable and, in this situation, it’s just necessary to identify that variable’s scale of measurement: The variable is type of label and it’s measured on a nominal scale. The chi-square test is used to analyze nominal data and, when there’s only one variable, the single-sample chi-square test is the appropriate test. Note that the single-sample chi-square test is also known as the one-sample chi-square test and the chi-square goodness-of-fit test.
Inferential Statistical Tests
Which of the following describes the relationship between a test’s reliability coefficient and its criterion-related validity coefficient?
A. A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than its reliability coefficient.
B. A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square root of its reliability coefficient.
C. A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square root of one minus its reliability coefficient.
D. A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square of its reliability coefficient.
B. A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square root of its reliability coefficient.
A test’s criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square root of its reliability coefficient. For example, if a test has a reliability coefficient of .81, its criterion-related validity coefficient can be no greater than the square root of .81, which is .90.
Criterion-Related Validity
At the beginning of her third therapy session, your new client says she’s “already feeling much better.” According to Howard et al.’s (1996) phase model, the client’s improvement is most likely due to which of the following?
A. the formation of a therapeutic alliance
B. an initial decrease in symptoms
C. the experience of catharsis
D. an increased sense of hope
D. an increased sense of hope
According to Howard et al.’s phase model, the effects of therapy change over time and occur in three phases – remoralization, remediation, and rehabilitation. Remoralization occurs during the first few sessions and involves an increased sense of hope that a positive outcome is possible.
Prevention, Consultation, and Psychotherapy Research
Which of the following is a type of counterbalanced design?
A. Solomon four-group
B. Latin square
C. factorial
D. multiple-baseline
B. Latin square
Counterbalancing is used to control order effects that may occur when a within-subjects design is used – i.e., when subjects in each group will receive or participate in all levels of the independent variable. The Latin square is a type of counterbalanced design that ensures that the different levels of the independent variable are assigned to the groups of subjects so that each level appears an equal number of times in each ordinal position.
Internal/External Validity
The questions included in ____________ ask experienced job applicants to describe how they handled specific job-related situations in the past.
A. a situational interview
B. a behavioral interview
C. a case interview
D. an informational interview
B. a behavioral interview
Behavioral interviews are based on the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. When conducting a behavioral interview, the interviewer asks job applicants with previous job experience how they responded to specific job-related situations in the past.
Employee Selection
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.
B. prohibited schools from using IQ tests to place African American children in special education classes.
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.
Other Measures of Cognitive Ability
In the context of factor analysis, “oblique” means:
A. statistically significant.
B. statistically insignificant.
C. uncorrelated.
D. correlated.
D. correlated.
The factors extracted (identified) in a factor analysis can be either orthogonal or oblique. Orthogonal factors are uncorrelated, while oblique factors are correlated.
Content and Construct Validity
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
A. availability heuristic
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.
Social Cognition: Errors, Biases, and Heuristics
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
B. proactive interference
Proactive interference occurs when prior learning (e.g., Spanish) interferes with the ability to learn or recall new information (e.g., French).
Memory and Forgetting
An organizational psychologist is hired by the owner of Best Plumbing Supply to determine why so many of her employees seem to have low levels of job motivation and satisfaction. The owner says she recently gave employees salary increases and bonuses for outstanding performance, but this did not have a noticeable effect. Being familiar with ____________, the psychologist will most likely tell the owner that, to increase motivation and satisfaction, she should redesign the employees’ jobs so they provide opportunities for autonomy, responsibility, and advancement.
A. two-factor theory
B. equity theory
C. goal-setting theory
D. situational leadership theory
A. two-factor theory
The psychologist’s recommendation is most consistent with Herzberg’s (1966) two-factor theory which predicts (a) that hygiene factors (e.g., pay, benefits, and work conditions) cause dissatisfaction when they’re inadequate but do not contribute to satisfaction or motivation when they’re adequate and (b) that motivator factors (e.g., opportunities for autonomy, responsibility, and advancement) do not cause dissatisfaction when they’re inadequate but contribute to satisfaction and motivation when they’re adequate.
Theories of Motivation
Which of the following is most consistent with ethical guidelines for contingent fees?
A. Accepting contingent fees is prohibited under any circumstances.
B. Accepting contingent fees should usually be avoided.
C. Accepting contingent fees is acceptable when all parties voluntarily agree to this arrangement.
D. Accepting contingent fees is acceptable as long as it is not prohibited by law.
B. Accepting contingent fees should usually be avoided.
The APA Ethics Code does not refer to contingent fees, but they are addressed in Paragraph 5.02 of the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology. It states that, “because of the threat to impartiality presented by the acceptance of contingent fees and associated legal prohibitions, forensic practitioners strive to avoid providing professional services on the basis of contingent fees.” This answer is also consistent with the requirements of the Canadian Code of Ethics regarding fees for professional services and conflicts of interest (e.g., Standard III.28).
Ethics Code Standards 5 & 6
____________ 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
B. Secondary
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.
Prevention, Consultation, and Psychotherapy Research
A young man taking a conventional antipsychotic as a treatment for schizophrenia develops tardive dyskinesia. Of the following, which would be the best course of action in this situation?
A. increase the dose of the conventional antipsychotic
B. replace the conventional antipsychotic with an atypical antipsychotic
C. immediately discontinue the conventional antipsychotic
D. have the patient take a low dose of a dopamine antagonist
B. replace the conventional antipsychotic with an atypical antipsychotic
The atypical antipsychotics are less likely to cause tardive dyskinesia and, if a patient’s symptoms require continued treatment with an antipsychotic drug, switching to an atypical drug is an option. The actions described in the other answers would increase the symptoms of tardive dyskinesia. (Withdrawing the conventional antipsychotic is also an option but gradual withdrawal is preferred because symptoms may worsen if the drug is abruptly withdrawn.)
Psychopharmacology – Antipsychotics and Antidepressants
Sherif (1935) used the autokinetic phenomenon to study:
A. psychological reactance.
B. conformity to group norms.
C. compliance with direct requests.
D. counterfactual thinking.
B. conformity to group norms.
Sherif used the autokinetic phenomenon (an optical illusion in which a stationary point of light appears to move in a dark room) to study conformity to group norms.
Social Influence – Types of Influence
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
C. life stages and major life roles
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.
Career Choice and Development
You receive a letter from a former client’s current therapist asking you to fax confidential information about the client’s treatment. The request is accompanied by a signed authorization for release of information from the client. You should:
A. ask the therapist to confirm that he received the documents after you send them.
B. mark each page “confidential” before faxing the requested information to the therapist.
C. fax the requested information to the therapist after ensuring that all information that identifies the client has been removed.
D. refuse to fax the information and send a copy of the file by courier instead.
C. fax the requested information to the therapist after ensuring that all information that identifies the client has been removed.
This answer is most consistent with the requirements of Standard 6.02(b) of the APA Ethics Code and Standard I.42 of the Canadian Code of Ethics. Standard 6.02(b) states that, “if confidential information concerning recipients of psychological services is entered into databases or systems of records available to persons whose access has not been consented to by the recipient, psychologists use coding or other techniques to avoid the inclusion of personal identifiers.” When information is faxed or otherwise transferred electronically, it is not possible to guarantee it will not be accessed by unauthorized individuals. Therefore, removing identifying information is the best course of action.
Ethics Code Standards 5 & 6
As described by Margaret Mahler (1971), _____________ involves four substages: differentiation, practicing, rapprochement, and consolidation.
A. the stage of mature attachment
B. the stage of autonomy
C. deindividuation
D. separation-individuation
D. separation-individuation
As described by Mahler, early development involves a predictable sequence of stages: autistic, symbiotic, and separation-individuation. The separation-individuation stage consists of the four substages listed in the question. By the end of this stage, children have developed the capacity for object constancy which allows them to feel both separate from and connected to significant others.
Psychodynamic and Humanistic Therapies
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.
A. SSRIs have a better tolerability profile than the TCAs and greater safety in overdose.
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.
Psychopharmacology – Antipsychotics and Antidepressants
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
C. 60; 1.0
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.
Test Score Interpretation
Research on medical cost offset has found that:
A. providing appropriate medical care to patients reduces expenditures on psychotherapy.
B. providing appropriate medical care to patients reduces expenditures on psychotherapy only for patients with a chronic psychiatric disorder.
C. providing psychotherapy to patients reduces expenditures on medical care.
D. providing psychotherapy to patients reduces expenditures on medical care only for patients who do not have a chronic medical condition.
C. providing psychotherapy to patients reduces expenditures on medical care.
The studies have consistently found that participating in a psychological treatment reduces other health care costs – i.e., that there is a medical cost offset. The size of the offset varies for different medical conditions, type of psychological treatment, and certain characteristics of the patient, but it’s not true that it applies only to patients who do not have a chronic medical condition.
Prevention, Consultation, and Psychotherapy Research
Therapy based on Boyd-Franklin’s (1989) multisystems model:
A. combines components of the treatment process with levels at which the therapist can provide treatment.
B. includes interventions that target the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.
C. combines individual interventions for each family member with group therapy and family therapy.
D. involves progressively intervening at the individual, family, and community levels.
A. combines components of the treatment process with levels at which the therapist can provide treatment.
Boyd-Franklin developed the multisystems model specifically for African American families. The model consists of two main axes: Axis I consists of the components of the treatment process (e.g., joining, assessing, restructuring), while Axis II consists of the various levels at which treatment can be applied (e.g., individual, family, nonblood kin, friends, community).
Cross-Cultural Issues – Terms and Concepts
Research comparing mental health care service utilization rates and premature therapy dropout rates of heterosexual and LGBTQ men and women has found that:
A. heterosexual men and women have higher utilization and dropout rates.
B. LBGTQ men and women have higher utilization and dropout rates.
C. heterosexual men and women have a higher utilization rate, but LGBTQ men and women have a higher dropout rate.
D. LGBTQ men and women have a higher utilization rate, but heterosexual men and women have a higher dropout rate.
B. LBGTQ men and women have higher utilization and dropout rates
The studies have consistently found that the rates of mental health service utilization are higher for LGBTQ men and women than for heterosexual men and women. There’s also evidence that LGBTQ men and women have higher rates of premature dropout rates from therapy.
Prevention, Consultation, and Psychotherapy Research
Erik Erikson (1978) identified a positive outcome (“virtue”) for each of his eight stages of psychosocial development. Which of the following does not accurately match a stage with its positive outcome?
A. generativity vs. stagnation: care
B. autonomy vs. shame and doubt: purpose
C. industry vs. inferiority: competence
D. basic trust vs. mistrust: hope
B. autonomy vs. shame and doubt: purpose
Erikson identified will (initiative and self-determination) as the positive outcome of the autonomy vs. shame stage of psychosocial development.
Socioemotional Development – Temperament and Personality
