Psychological/Social

Question 1

What is false consciousness?

Answer 1

Proposed by Karl Marx, false consciousness describes a condition in which an individual does not realize the social class or economic reality that they belong to

Question 2

What is urban decay?

Answer 2

Driving the residents out of cities due to excessive density and crowding

Question 3

What is intergenerational poverty?

Answer 3

When poverty is transmitted from one generation to another

Question 4

What is relative poverty?

Answer 4

Condition in which people have an income that is beneath the median income for the society in which they live

Question 5

What is absolute poverty?

Answer 5

Condition in which people lack the means to meet basic needs (i.e., food, water, shelter, etc.)

Question 6

What is social reproduction?

Answer 6

The reproduction of structures creating inequality between generations

Question 7

Researchers conduct an experiment to test the Cannon-Bard theory of emotional arousal. A stimulated car crash is used in which the subjects were shown a video of an oncoming vehicle. Which of the following results best supports the Cannon-Bard theory?

a. Subject spots oncoming vehicle -> Subject feels fear -> Subject heart rate rises
b. Subject spots oncoming vehicle -> Subject feels fear and subject heart rate rises
c. Subject spots oncoming vehicle -> Subject heart rate rises -> Subject feels fear
d. Subject feels fear -> Subject heart rate rises -> Subject thinks “I am afraid”

Answer 7

b. Subject spots oncoming vehicle -> Subject feels fear and subject heart rate rises

Cannon-Bard theory states that emotion-arousing stimuli simultaneously trigger physiological responses and the subjective experience of emotion

Question 8

A physician accepts a new job and finds that for the first several months of work most of her effort is spent learning the mechanisms by which doctors, patients, insurance companies, and the government (at federal and local levels) interact to deliver and pay for care. She particularly notes that the influence by the hospital’s legal department often supercedes that of other important administrators who hold MDs. Her experiences and observations most closely reflect what theory of sociology?

a. Functionalism
b. Conflict theory
c. Feminist theory
d. Symbolic Interactionsim

Answer 8

a. Functionalism

Views society and social institutions as interdependent

Question 9

One study participant described overeating in response to a sense of anxiety about the state of the world, especially in relation to global climate change and the poor economy. This anxiety most closely reflects the effect of which kind of stressor?

a. Acute
b. Microstressor
c. Crisis
d. Ambient

Answer 9

d. Ambient

Ambient stressors are chronic environmental stressors that cannot be changed by the efforts of the individual subject to them

Question 10

An experience of discrimination as a result of one’s body type could likely impact which of the following?
I. Self-esteem
II. Self-image
III. Self-perception

a. I and II only
b. I and III only
c. II and III only
d. I, II, and III

Answer 10

a. I and II only

Self-perception is the notion that a person develops an attitude by watching their own behaviour and then concluding that they must hold whatever attitude would have led to that behaviour

Question 11

A woman walking to work sees a group of people on the street staring at an open manhole. She stops to join them in staring down at the open manhole. Her behaviour is an example of:

a. the bystander effect.
b. deindividuation.
c. conformity.
d. groupthink.

Answer 11

c. conformity

Conformity is adjusting one’s behaviour or thoughts to coincide with the group standard

Question 12

Retinal disparity is:

a. a monocular cue in which an object is perceived differently by each eye.
b. a monocular cue in which each eye is turned at a different angle when focusing on an object.
c. a binocular cue in which an object is perceived differently by each eye.
d. a binocular cue in which each eye is turned at a different angle when focusing on an object.

Answer 12

c. a binocular cue in which an object is perceived differently by each eye.

Question 13

The cornea functions to:

a. detect light and transduce a nervous impulse to the brain.
b. collects and focuses incoming light toward the posterior of the eye.
c. cover and protect the majority of the exterior of the eye.
d. regulate the amount of light entering the eye.

Answer 13

b. collects and focuses incoming light toward the posterior of the eye.

Question 14

When measuring the growth of a population which of the following would NOT be a useful statistic to measure?

a. Female fertility rate
b. Female fecundity rate
c. Male immigration rate
d. Female emigration rate

Answer 14

b. Female fecundity rate

Question 15

Which of the following most likely explains why individuals working at a factory assembly line spent more time working when they believed their supervisor was watching them?

a. Social interference
b. Social facilitation
c. Social desirability bias
d. The Hawthorne effect

Answer 15

d. The Hawthorne effect

Question 16

In an interview, criminals incarcerated for hate crimes explained that they carried out those crimes because of an implicit hatred toward the groups they targeted. Their motivations are best explained by which of the following?

a. Stereotypes
b. Prejudices
c. Discrimination
d. Stigmas

Answer 16

b. Prejudices

Question 17

“The labels we learn affect the ways we perceive people”. Such a statement is stressed by the following sociological approach:

a. Functionalism
b. Conflict theory
c. Symbolic interactionism
d. Attribution theory

Answer 17

c. Symbolic interactionism

Question 18

Smokers who failed to adopt healthy behaviours were questioned in a study. They said that they weren’t able to adopt the behaviours because of stress during that period. This is an example of:

a. cognitive dissonance
b. self-serving bias
c. functional fixedness
d. self-fulfilling prophecy

Answer 18

b. self-serving bias

Question 19

At a work function, coworkers attributed their boss’s drunkenness to his personality rather than his recent divorce. This is an example of which of the following?

a. Self-serving bias
b. Implicit bias
c. Actor-observer bias
d. Correspondence bias

Answer 19

d. Correspondence bias

Question 20

Which of the following terms describes the minimum stimulation needed for a sound to be heard 50% of the time?

a. Just noticeable difference
b. Weber’s law
c. Absolute threshold
d. Sensory adaptation

Answer 20

c. Absolute threshold

Question 21

According to social interference, which of the following would be inversely correlated with success rate for the completion of a difficult task in front of a crowd?

a. The gender composition of the crowd
b. The size of the group
c. Autonomic arousal
d. The supportiveness of the crowd

Answer 21

b. The size of the group

Question 22

A functionalist theorist is most likely to hypothesize a relationship between perceived stress and which of the following?

a. Levels of inequality
b. Social networks
c. Gender equality
d. Societal solidarity

Answer 22

d. Societal solidarity

Question 23

Gary and Sandy are friends. Sandy is attracted to Gary but Gary sees Sandy as a friend. This will affect how they act towards each other. So when Gary buys movie tickets, Sandy misinterprets this as a sign that Gary likes her since she thinks of him as a potential boyfriend. Which sociological concept can best explain this scenario?

a. Functionalism
b. Symbolic interactionism
c. Social constructionism
d. Conflict theory

Answer 23

b. Symbolic interactionism

Question 24

Shelby is a pre-med student at the local university. A well-known medical practice allows her to shadow them a few days a week. Shelby notices many characteristics while shadowing the group of physicians including the way they dress and interact with others. Shelby now knows how a professional physician should act after spending a few weeks visiting the medical practice. The medical practice is an example of:

a. Primary group
b. Out-group
c. Secondary group
d. Reference group

Answer 24

d. Reference group

Question 25

Patients with dementia often have difficulty using adverbs that are related to an action. Disruption of neural communication between which two following regions would be most likely to cause this?

a. Cerebellum and left hemisphere
b. Visual cortex and right hemisphere
c. Frontal lobe and right hemisphere
d. Amygdala and left hemisphere

Answer 25

a. Cerebellum and left hemisphere

Question 26

McDonald’s is a fast food chain that originated in America. It has continued to spread all over the world through which sociological process?

a. Dissemination
b. Dispersal
c. Cultural Universal
d. Diffusion

Answer 26

d. Diffusion

Question 27

James reports the sensation of feeling as though he’s moving backwards and forwards despite standing still. This is most likely caused by a dysfunction of the:

a. semicircular canals
b. otoliths
c. papillae
d. cochlea

Answer 27

b. otoliths

Question 28

In a particular patient, although the understanding of speech and speech production are relatively unaffected, the patient primarily suffers from the repetition of heard speech. Which of the following most likely explains this?

a. Motor aphasia
b. Wernicke’s aphasia
c. Conduction aphasia
d. Broca’s aphasia

Answer 28

c. Conduction aphasia

Question 29

Which of the following scenarios illustrates an understanding of pragmatics?

a. A tourist asks the concierge at her hotel in assistance in pronouncing some useful phrases in the local language
b. A 5th grade teacher defines the terms “intensive” and “extensive” for his science class and then gives examples of each type of property
c. A passenger begins talking to the man next to him on a long flight. Although the man barely responds, the passenger keeps talking
d. A teenager listens to her younger brother play his trumpet quite badly. “Nice” says the sister, rolling her eyes sarcastically

Answer 29

d. A teenager listens to her younger brother play his trumpet quite badly. “Nice” says the sister, rolling her eyes sarcastically

Question 30

Which of the following best characterizes the critical period for language acquisition?

a. A period of time when young children are especially interested in learning language and receptive to feedback from adults
b. An environmentally-determined window of time when young children are most receptive to language and good at learning a language
c. A brief period of time when children must practice a particular linguistic skill in order to ensure that this skill is not lost
d. A genetically-determined window of time when young children are especially receptive to language and good at learning a language

Answer 30

d. A genetically-determined window of time when young children are especially receptive to language and good at learning a language

Question 31

Lorren has begun to say things like “wah”, “doo”, and “muh”, but she does not consistently use any of these sounds in reference to specific objects. Assuming that Lorren’s verbal skills are developing normally, how old is Lorren likely to be?

a. About 2 weeks old
b. About 2 months old
c. About 6 months old
d. About 16 months old

Answer 31

c. About 6 months old

Question 32

A particular language contains no verbal distinction between what we call guilt and regret. In other words, speakers of this language only use one word for each of these concepts. Which theorist(s) would predict that native speakers of this language experience difficulties in making a conceptual distinction between guilt and regret?

a. Skinner
b. Piaget
c. Chomsky
d. Sapir-Whorf

Answer 32

d. Sapir-Whorf