CLEP Introductory Psychology Study Guide

Answer: A. Cognitive. The explanation points to how the client thinks about and interprets events. Explaining emotion and behavior through thought patterns is the cognitive approach.

The trap: Psychodynamic is tempting because depression can seem deep-rooted, but that approach looks for unconscious conflicts from childhood. Here the cause is a conscious habit of thinking.

Answer: D. the fundamental attribution error. The student explains another person's behavior by a trait (clumsiness) and overlooks an obvious situational cause (the wet floor). That is the fundamental attribution error.

The trap: The self-serving bias concerns how we explain our own successes and failures. Here the student is judging someone else.

Answer: E. Dopamine. Tremors and trouble starting movements are signs of Parkinson's disease, which results from the loss of dopamine-producing neurons.

The trap: Acetylcholine also works at the junction between nerves and muscles, but the loss of ACh-producing neurons is linked to the memory loss of Alzheimer's disease, not to Parkinson's tremors.

Answer: B. Negative reinforcement. The nagging, which is unpleasant, stops when she cleans, and cleaning increases. Taking away something unpleasant to increase a behavior is negative reinforcement.

The trap: Positive punishment is tempting because nagging is unpleasant, but punishment makes a behavior less likely. Here the cleaning increases.

Answer: C. the availability heuristic. Vivid news stories make shark attacks easy to bring to mind, so Marcus judges them as more common than they are. Judging likelihood by ease of recall is the availability heuristic.

The trap: The representativeness heuristic judges by resemblance to a typical case, not by how easily examples come to mind.

Answer: E. a lack of conservation. Kara thinks the amount of clay changed because its shape changed. Understanding that quantity stays the same despite a change in shape is conservation, which Piaget said children master in the concrete operational stage.

The trap: Egocentrism is also typical of preoperational children, but it means trouble taking another person's point of view. Nothing here involves anyone else's perspective.

Answer: A. Panic disorder. Recurrent, unexpected panic attacks followed by persistent worry about having more is the definition of panic disorder.

The trap: Generalized anxiety disorder also involves worry, but it is ongoing worry about many everyday things, not sudden attacks of intense fear.

Answer: D. Signal detection theory. Signal detection theory says that detecting a faint signal depends on expectations and motivation, not just on stimulus strength. Expecting an attack, she says yes more often, catching more planes but also making more false alarms.

The trap: Absolute threshold is tempting, but it only describes the weakest stimulus detectable half the time. It doesn't explain why her reports shift with what she expects.

Answer: B. projection. Ben can't accept his own urge to be unfaithful, so he sees it in his girlfriend instead. Attributing your own unacceptable impulses to someone else is projection.

The trap: Reaction formation would mean acting the opposite of his urge, such as loudly praising loyalty. Ben isn't reversing the urge; he is assigning it to her.

Answer: C. transference. He is directing feelings from an important past relationship, with his father, onto the therapist. That is transference.

The trap: Resistance means blocking painful material, such as changing the subject or skipping sessions. He isn't avoiding anything; he is redirecting old feelings onto the therapist.