1 | Page
Athabasca University
Psychology EPPP Practice Exam Questions
and Answers Latest 2026
J. Berry acculturation, integration Ans: J. Barry conceptualizes
acculturation as many models existing on a continuum, with the
minority culture and the majority or mainstream culture at
opposite poles. Integration would be displayed by an individual
who has high retention of the minority culture and high
maintenance of the mainstream culture.
Lenore Walker cycle of violence, battered women Ans: Lenore
Walker describes a cycle of violence that involves three stags:
tension building, acute battering incident, and loving contrition.
According to Walker, most of the benefits of the relationship occur
in the third stage, when the batterer offers apologies, assurances
that the attacks will never happen again, and declarations of love.
The relationship tends to remain stable when the balance between
the costs of the abuse and the benefits of the relationship are
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fairly similar. As violence escalates, the relationship becomes more
unstable, and the man escalates his charming behavior in an
attempt to restore stability.
behavioral contrast effect Ans: If we are reinforced for performing
two different operants, and reinforcement for one of these
behaviors stops, we tend to increase the rate of the remaining
reinforced behavior. That is probably because the reinforcement
that remains seems to become more valuable.
doctrine of comparable worth Ans: States that workers (in
particular, men and women) should get equal pay for performing
jobs that have equivalent worth (use job evaluation)
M. Seligman theory of learned optimism Ans: In Seligman's theory
of learned optimism, attributions of optimistic people are believed
to be the opposite of attributions of depressed people. Since
depressed people make internal, stable, and global attributions to
negative events, optimistic people would tend to make external,
unstable, and specific attributions in response to negative events.
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 3 | Page
Therefore, we can readily eliminate "B" ("I didn't study enough")
since that's an internal attribution. Choice "C" ("the teacher is
always a tough grader") is a stable attribution. That leaves Choices
"A" ("I was unlucky") and Choice "D" ("the test was hard this time")
- which are both external and unstable attributions. Of the two,
however, Choice "D" is better since being unlucky would imply that
success is a matter of luck.
Course of Antisocial Personality Disorder Ans: The symptoms of
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), particularly criminal
behaviors, often become less evident as an individual grows older
(DSM-TR-IV, p. 704). APD has a chronic course and while some
symptoms like criminal behaviors may decrease, other symptoms
such as difficulties with interpersonal relationships may persist.
(See: Paris, J. (2004). Personality disorders over time: Implications
for therapy, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 58(4), 420-429.)
Group polarization Ans: A group's decisions tend to be more
extreme (in one direction or the other) than those that would be
made by individuals in the group acting alone. This phenomenon
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 4 | Page
is referred to as group polarization. One explanation for group
polarization is that group members are more willing to support
extreme decisions because, as group members, they won't have to
take as much personal responsibility for their decisions as they
would if they were acting alone.
Solomon's four group design Ans: a true experimental design used
to evaluate the effects of pretesting, since some groups are
pretested and others are not.
MANOVA Ans: A MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) is
used to analyze the effects of one or more independent variables
on two or more dependent variables that are each measured on an
interval or ratio scale.
factorial ANOVA Ans: A factorial ANOVA (a.) is used to analyze
data when a factorial design, which includes two or more
independent variables, is used and the dependent variable is
measured on an interval or ratio scale.
© 2025 All rights reserved
Athabasca University
Psychology EPPP Practice Exam Questions
and Answers Latest 2026
J. Berry acculturation, integration Ans: J. Barry conceptualizes
acculturation as many models existing on a continuum, with the
minority culture and the majority or mainstream culture at
opposite poles. Integration would be displayed by an individual
who has high retention of the minority culture and high
maintenance of the mainstream culture.
Lenore Walker cycle of violence, battered women Ans: Lenore
Walker describes a cycle of violence that involves three stags:
tension building, acute battering incident, and loving contrition.
According to Walker, most of the benefits of the relationship occur
in the third stage, when the batterer offers apologies, assurances
that the attacks will never happen again, and declarations of love.
The relationship tends to remain stable when the balance between
the costs of the abuse and the benefits of the relationship are
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 2 | Page
fairly similar. As violence escalates, the relationship becomes more
unstable, and the man escalates his charming behavior in an
attempt to restore stability.
behavioral contrast effect Ans: If we are reinforced for performing
two different operants, and reinforcement for one of these
behaviors stops, we tend to increase the rate of the remaining
reinforced behavior. That is probably because the reinforcement
that remains seems to become more valuable.
doctrine of comparable worth Ans: States that workers (in
particular, men and women) should get equal pay for performing
jobs that have equivalent worth (use job evaluation)
M. Seligman theory of learned optimism Ans: In Seligman's theory
of learned optimism, attributions of optimistic people are believed
to be the opposite of attributions of depressed people. Since
depressed people make internal, stable, and global attributions to
negative events, optimistic people would tend to make external,
unstable, and specific attributions in response to negative events.
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 3 | Page
Therefore, we can readily eliminate "B" ("I didn't study enough")
since that's an internal attribution. Choice "C" ("the teacher is
always a tough grader") is a stable attribution. That leaves Choices
"A" ("I was unlucky") and Choice "D" ("the test was hard this time")
- which are both external and unstable attributions. Of the two,
however, Choice "D" is better since being unlucky would imply that
success is a matter of luck.
Course of Antisocial Personality Disorder Ans: The symptoms of
Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD), particularly criminal
behaviors, often become less evident as an individual grows older
(DSM-TR-IV, p. 704). APD has a chronic course and while some
symptoms like criminal behaviors may decrease, other symptoms
such as difficulties with interpersonal relationships may persist.
(See: Paris, J. (2004). Personality disorders over time: Implications
for therapy, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 58(4), 420-429.)
Group polarization Ans: A group's decisions tend to be more
extreme (in one direction or the other) than those that would be
made by individuals in the group acting alone. This phenomenon
© 2025 All rights reserved
, 4 | Page
is referred to as group polarization. One explanation for group
polarization is that group members are more willing to support
extreme decisions because, as group members, they won't have to
take as much personal responsibility for their decisions as they
would if they were acting alone.
Solomon's four group design Ans: a true experimental design used
to evaluate the effects of pretesting, since some groups are
pretested and others are not.
MANOVA Ans: A MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance) is
used to analyze the effects of one or more independent variables
on two or more dependent variables that are each measured on an
interval or ratio scale.
factorial ANOVA Ans: A factorial ANOVA (a.) is used to analyze
data when a factorial design, which includes two or more
independent variables, is used and the dependent variable is
measured on an interval or ratio scale.
© 2025 All rights reserved
