©BRAINBARTER EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ENR 5400 Midterm Exam Study Guide.
Lewin's equation - answer✔B = f(P,E)
Behavior is a function of person and environment
Define carrying capacity and be able to apply it to real world situations - answer✔- carrying
capacity is the maximum number of any species that a habitat can support
- if population grows too quickly, it depletes resources very suddenly, which will result in a
population crash
- Easter Island example: unsustainable population growth for several centuries; to support
rapidly growing population more and more of the surrounding forests were cut down, and
eventually soil, water, and food supplies were depleted; then their population crashed
What is exponential growth and why is it problematic for sustainability? - answer✔- it is growth
that starts off slowly and accelerates quickly
- it doubles every time instead of an incremental increase
- exponential growth depends on an infinite number of resources, but natural resources are
limited in reality; thus, in the real world, exponential growth will eventually lead to a depletion
of resources faster than the Earth can reproduce them; ergo, it is bad for sustainability
1|Page
, ©BRAINBARTER EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
How is affluenza related to ecological footprints? - answer✔- affluenza is characterized by an
addiction to materialism and consumption and tends to be unsustainable
- increased consumption and materialism is correlated with rising ecological footprints
Experimental design - answer✔- participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control
conditions and complete outcome measures after or during treatment period
- ex: undergrads sugn up for a study; half are randomly assigned to environmental identity
salience condition and are told to write about a time they behaved sustainably, the other half
are told to write about their weekend; their beliefs on anthropogenic climate change are then
measured
Independent variable - answer✔- variable that is manipulated
- ex: the type of liquid fed to a plant
Dependent variable - answer✔- the variable that is affected by the manipulation of the
independent variable
- ex: amount of plant growth
External validity - answer✔extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings
External validity threats - answer✔- non-random selection
- non-random assignment of experimental group
2|Page
, ©BRAINBARTER EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Internal validity - answer✔the degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are due
to the independent variable and not confounds; demonstration of causality
Internal validity threats - answer✔- Hawthorne effect: people modify their behavior when they
know they are being observed
- attrition: losing subjects
- sequencing effects: variation in the order in which subject receive treatment
- diffusion of treatment: when experiment groups communicate with each other, they may be
giving each other information about the study, which may affect the results
What are mental maps and how do they relate to associative neural networks? - answer✔-
people simplify reality by creating mental maps of situations or experiences
- they can impact experiences and judgment, result in biases and inaccuracies, and are made
possible by associative networks
- associative networks are interconnected units of information through which learning occurs
- neural networks are physical connections of neurons that are changed by experience in ways
that then alter behavior
Identify problems associated with taking in limited information - answer✔- to comprehend a
complex a world, we depend on biases and heuristics, which are shortcuts that can lead to snap
judgments
3|Page
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ENR 5400 Midterm Exam Study Guide.
Lewin's equation - answer✔B = f(P,E)
Behavior is a function of person and environment
Define carrying capacity and be able to apply it to real world situations - answer✔- carrying
capacity is the maximum number of any species that a habitat can support
- if population grows too quickly, it depletes resources very suddenly, which will result in a
population crash
- Easter Island example: unsustainable population growth for several centuries; to support
rapidly growing population more and more of the surrounding forests were cut down, and
eventually soil, water, and food supplies were depleted; then their population crashed
What is exponential growth and why is it problematic for sustainability? - answer✔- it is growth
that starts off slowly and accelerates quickly
- it doubles every time instead of an incremental increase
- exponential growth depends on an infinite number of resources, but natural resources are
limited in reality; thus, in the real world, exponential growth will eventually lead to a depletion
of resources faster than the Earth can reproduce them; ergo, it is bad for sustainability
1|Page
, ©BRAINBARTER EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
How is affluenza related to ecological footprints? - answer✔- affluenza is characterized by an
addiction to materialism and consumption and tends to be unsustainable
- increased consumption and materialism is correlated with rising ecological footprints
Experimental design - answer✔- participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control
conditions and complete outcome measures after or during treatment period
- ex: undergrads sugn up for a study; half are randomly assigned to environmental identity
salience condition and are told to write about a time they behaved sustainably, the other half
are told to write about their weekend; their beliefs on anthropogenic climate change are then
measured
Independent variable - answer✔- variable that is manipulated
- ex: the type of liquid fed to a plant
Dependent variable - answer✔- the variable that is affected by the manipulation of the
independent variable
- ex: amount of plant growth
External validity - answer✔extent to which we can generalize findings to real-world settings
External validity threats - answer✔- non-random selection
- non-random assignment of experimental group
2|Page
, ©BRAINBARTER EXAM SOLUTIONS 2024/2025
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Internal validity - answer✔the degree to which the effects observed in an experiment are due
to the independent variable and not confounds; demonstration of causality
Internal validity threats - answer✔- Hawthorne effect: people modify their behavior when they
know they are being observed
- attrition: losing subjects
- sequencing effects: variation in the order in which subject receive treatment
- diffusion of treatment: when experiment groups communicate with each other, they may be
giving each other information about the study, which may affect the results
What are mental maps and how do they relate to associative neural networks? - answer✔-
people simplify reality by creating mental maps of situations or experiences
- they can impact experiences and judgment, result in biases and inaccuracies, and are made
possible by associative networks
- associative networks are interconnected units of information through which learning occurs
- neural networks are physical connections of neurons that are changed by experience in ways
that then alter behavior
Identify problems associated with taking in limited information - answer✔- to comprehend a
complex a world, we depend on biases and heuristics, which are shortcuts that can lead to snap
judgments
3|Page
