Psychological, Social, and Biological
Foundations of Behaviors Questions
and Answers
An individual's drug related behavior may be further reinforced by the way others judge or
classify him/her. Is this an example of prejudice? - CORRECT ANSWERS -No this is an example of
labeling theory
When this part of the brain is damaged, the perception of fear is affected? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Amygdala
Sadness, Discuss, and Anger are universal emotions found in humans. Which area of the brain is
responsible for each of these emotions? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Sadness - Subcallosal Cingulate;
Disgust - insual and basal ganglia; Anger - left superior temporal sulcus
Define Validity and Reliability in a research design - CORRECT ANSWERS -Validity - A test is valid
if it measures what it is supposed to measure. If the results of the personality test claimed that
a very shy person was in-fact out-going, the test would be invalid. One way to determine if its
valid is the results it shows matches up with the results of another test known to be valid
Reliability and validity are independent of each other. A measurement maybe valid but not
reliable, or reliable but not valid. Realiability - A test has good reliability if the answers are
consistent. This can happen even if the test has low validity.If a test, consistently show the
same results after administering multiple times, then it is reliable.
Damage to this area of the brain causes changes in a person's personality. - CORRECT ANSWERS
-Frontal Lobe
What is the function of the fusiform Gyrus in the brain? - CORRECT ANSWERS -The fusiform
gyrus is a part of the visual system in the brain, and plays a role in high level visual processing
and recognition. Damage to this part of the brain could result in prosopagnosia - the ability to
recognize a person only with facial cues.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment; Fixed or variable - ratio or interval -
CORRECT ANSWERS -Reinforcement - increase a behavior; Punishment - decrease a behavior;
Positive - add a stimulus; Negative - decrease a stimulus; When dealing with Operant
conditioning ask yourself these two questions in sequence: are you trying to increase
(reinforcement) or decrease (punishment) a behavior? Are you accomplishing this by taking
away (negative) or adding (positive) something? Ratio is the number of responses and Interval
is the period of time
,When is a behavior considered generalized? - CORRECT ANSWERS -a behavior is considered
generalized when the conditioned behavior happens are at other circumstances.
Describe Continuous Reinforcement - CORRECT ANSWERS -Continuous reinforcement occurs on
a 1:1 ratio - this means that for each behavior, there is a reward.
Extinction Burst - CORRECT ANSWERS -When an animal no longer receives regular
reinforcement, its original behavior will sometimes spike (meaning increase dramatically) - this
is known as an extinction burst.2pwbx7
x7
Mark reached out to Charlene's hand to hold her hand as they walk. He then let go of her hand
when he saw something on the street. Which receptors are activated when mark, initially hand
her hand, while they were holding hand, and when Mark let go of her hand? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Meissner Corpuscle and the Pacinian Corpuscle fire when pressure is first applied
and when the pressure is released. Thus these two receptors fired when Mark initially held
Charlene's hand and when he let go of her hand. The Ruffini Cylinder and the Merkel receptor
both fires to constant pressure, thus they were firing while they were holding hand.
Psychological Refractory Period. What is the unit used? - CORRECT ANSWERS -refers to the
period of time during which the response to a second stimulus is significantly slowed because
the first stimulus is still being perceived. The refractory period unit is usually in seconds
Sensory Adaptation - CORRECT ANSWERS -sensory adaptation, which is reduced sensitivity to
stimulation that results from CONSTANT STRENGTH of stimulus
Kinesthesia vs. Proprioception - CORRECT ANSWERS -Kinesthesia is the sense of movement,
while proprioception is the sense of position and balance
The mean of an experiment is 4.73 with a confidence interval at 95% (4.02, 5.45). What does
this mean? - CORRECT ANSWERS -The confidence interval is the chance that the mean falls
between the given lower and upper bound. There is a 95% chance that the mean will fall
between 4.02 and 5.45
How to the p-value and the significance criterion relate in a statistical study - CORRECT
ANSWERS -a p-value that is less than the significance criterion denotes that the results were
significant.
Writing a grocery list by category is an example of what memorizing technique? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Chunking - categorize items into categories.
Link system, Peg System - CORRECT ANSWERS -LINK SYSTEM - utilizes order and connections
(links) to facilitate memory recovery, but is not a chunking technique. PEG MEMORY SYSTEM -
utilizes numbers, rhymes, shapes, and sounds to create a scene based on a mental 'hook', but is
not a chunking technique.
,Conditioned Response - CORRECT ANSWERS -The conditioned response would be the result of a
paired stimulus causing a response that it normally would not, i.e. the dog salivating because of
a bell ringing.
What is an Isochoric process? Adiabatic process? - CORRECT ANSWERS -An adiabatic process is
one that occurs so quickly that no energy is lost as heat, cardiac muscle cannot function that
quickly. isochoric process (also known as a constant-volume process, an isovolumetric process,
or an isometric process) - volume is constant
Homophily - CORRECT ANSWERS -Homophily is defined as the tendency for people to choose
relationships with other people who have similar attributes.
How does conflict theory arise? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Conflict happens when there is a power
difference between groups, often in the form of social or economic inequality resulting from
competition for limited resources.
The unjustified killing of a young African-American male after being stopped by a police caused
a huge riot in Missisippi. What is the thesis and Anti-thesis? - CORRECT ANSWERS -In conflict
theory, the thesis describes the initial environment, the status quo. The anti-thesis is the
reaction to the thesis, the push-back from those unhappy with the status quo. The police raid
was an attempt to maintain the status quo, to which the riots were the response, or anti-thesis.
what is the tell-tale of Exchange-Rational Choice Theory? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Exchange-
rational choice theory believes that decisions are made by rational beings who have weighed all
aspects of the problem, and who then proceed to make the rational choice. The tell tale is if a
DECISION needs to be made and that all aspects of the problem has been considered.
An individual just had a stroke. The doctors tried to figure out which area of the brain is
affected by showing the person a picture of a chair. The individual can draw the chair meaning
that she can see it, but cannot tell what the object is. Where is the damage in the brain? -
CORRECT ANSWERS -The temporal lobes are responsible for processing auditory signals,
interpreting visual stimuli(e.g. Object recognition), and language recognition. The individual has
damage to the temporal lobe as she cannot connect the visual stimuli (a chair) with the rest of
her knowledge about a chair.
Other than somatosensory information, what is another function of the parietal lobe? -
CORRECT ANSWERS -The parietal lobes are responsible for spatial reasoning and receiving
somatosensory information.
What is the floor effect? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Floor Effect - the inability to get a lower score
because the score is already low at baseline
Minimal Justification - CORRECT ANSWERS -When someone does something and there is
minimal justification for them doing it, this creates more dissonance than if they can explain it
, through a significant rationale. It often follows an impulsive action which was performed
without a real reason
Selective Exposure - CORRECT ANSWERS -when you only chose information that matches what
you want to hear.
Strategy for Cognitive Dissonance. - CORRECT ANSWERS -First find the main thought that
conflicts with the behavior. Example: Healthy foods are expensive. Behavior: Buy healthy foods
because it makes the person healthy.
Which of the following strategies is the most effective strategy to elicit Cognitive Dissonance
(Mental Tension). - CORRECT ANSWERS -Shock, scare tactics, Passive and Educational strategies
are usually not good tactics to elicit a behavioral change via cognitive dissonance. Dissonance is
best created when individuals have to directly and actively confront their beliefs.
Which of the following is a sympathetic Nervous System response and why? Constriction vs
Dilation of the blood vessels in skeletal muscles? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Dilation. This allows for
more blood flow to the skeletal muscles needed for a fight or flight response.
Describe the following types of stressors: Ambient, Micro, Major Event, and Catastrophic
Stressors. - CORRECT ANSWERS -Ambient - usually not noticed by an individual and affects a lot
of people (e.g. pollution), Micro - a small stressor, Major event stressor - life-changing event.
Catastrophic stressor - stressors that are out of the control of an individual (e.g. storm,
pandemic, floods, etc.)
Give examples of how you can increase the power of a study? - CORRECT ANSWERS -increase
the number of participants, add a control group, developing more further sophisticated ways to
evaluate or measure the dependent variable. etc.
Symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -Significant delusions of
persecution, delusions of grandiosity, and hallucinations that causes a person to become
suspcious or withdrawn.
Residual Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -characterized by a lack of delusions and
hallucinations. A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a previous diagnoses of
schizophrenia, but no longer having any of the prominent psychotic symptoms. There are some
remaining symptoms of the disorder however, such as eccentric behavior, emotional blunting,
illogical thinking, or social withdrawal.
Catatonic Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -criteria for catatonic schizophrenia - requires
dramatic withdrawal from the world and muteness (on the catatonic end) and complete
hyperactivity and mimic of sound/movement (on the hyperactive end). In addition, catatonic
schizophrenia is often characterized by a tendency to hold uncomfortable or bizarre body
positions for an extended period of time, or be completely still for long periods of time.
Foundations of Behaviors Questions
and Answers
An individual's drug related behavior may be further reinforced by the way others judge or
classify him/her. Is this an example of prejudice? - CORRECT ANSWERS -No this is an example of
labeling theory
When this part of the brain is damaged, the perception of fear is affected? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Amygdala
Sadness, Discuss, and Anger are universal emotions found in humans. Which area of the brain is
responsible for each of these emotions? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Sadness - Subcallosal Cingulate;
Disgust - insual and basal ganglia; Anger - left superior temporal sulcus
Define Validity and Reliability in a research design - CORRECT ANSWERS -Validity - A test is valid
if it measures what it is supposed to measure. If the results of the personality test claimed that
a very shy person was in-fact out-going, the test would be invalid. One way to determine if its
valid is the results it shows matches up with the results of another test known to be valid
Reliability and validity are independent of each other. A measurement maybe valid but not
reliable, or reliable but not valid. Realiability - A test has good reliability if the answers are
consistent. This can happen even if the test has low validity.If a test, consistently show the
same results after administering multiple times, then it is reliable.
Damage to this area of the brain causes changes in a person's personality. - CORRECT ANSWERS
-Frontal Lobe
What is the function of the fusiform Gyrus in the brain? - CORRECT ANSWERS -The fusiform
gyrus is a part of the visual system in the brain, and plays a role in high level visual processing
and recognition. Damage to this part of the brain could result in prosopagnosia - the ability to
recognize a person only with facial cues.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement and Punishment; Fixed or variable - ratio or interval -
CORRECT ANSWERS -Reinforcement - increase a behavior; Punishment - decrease a behavior;
Positive - add a stimulus; Negative - decrease a stimulus; When dealing with Operant
conditioning ask yourself these two questions in sequence: are you trying to increase
(reinforcement) or decrease (punishment) a behavior? Are you accomplishing this by taking
away (negative) or adding (positive) something? Ratio is the number of responses and Interval
is the period of time
,When is a behavior considered generalized? - CORRECT ANSWERS -a behavior is considered
generalized when the conditioned behavior happens are at other circumstances.
Describe Continuous Reinforcement - CORRECT ANSWERS -Continuous reinforcement occurs on
a 1:1 ratio - this means that for each behavior, there is a reward.
Extinction Burst - CORRECT ANSWERS -When an animal no longer receives regular
reinforcement, its original behavior will sometimes spike (meaning increase dramatically) - this
is known as an extinction burst.2pwbx7
x7
Mark reached out to Charlene's hand to hold her hand as they walk. He then let go of her hand
when he saw something on the street. Which receptors are activated when mark, initially hand
her hand, while they were holding hand, and when Mark let go of her hand? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Meissner Corpuscle and the Pacinian Corpuscle fire when pressure is first applied
and when the pressure is released. Thus these two receptors fired when Mark initially held
Charlene's hand and when he let go of her hand. The Ruffini Cylinder and the Merkel receptor
both fires to constant pressure, thus they were firing while they were holding hand.
Psychological Refractory Period. What is the unit used? - CORRECT ANSWERS -refers to the
period of time during which the response to a second stimulus is significantly slowed because
the first stimulus is still being perceived. The refractory period unit is usually in seconds
Sensory Adaptation - CORRECT ANSWERS -sensory adaptation, which is reduced sensitivity to
stimulation that results from CONSTANT STRENGTH of stimulus
Kinesthesia vs. Proprioception - CORRECT ANSWERS -Kinesthesia is the sense of movement,
while proprioception is the sense of position and balance
The mean of an experiment is 4.73 with a confidence interval at 95% (4.02, 5.45). What does
this mean? - CORRECT ANSWERS -The confidence interval is the chance that the mean falls
between the given lower and upper bound. There is a 95% chance that the mean will fall
between 4.02 and 5.45
How to the p-value and the significance criterion relate in a statistical study - CORRECT
ANSWERS -a p-value that is less than the significance criterion denotes that the results were
significant.
Writing a grocery list by category is an example of what memorizing technique? - CORRECT
ANSWERS -Chunking - categorize items into categories.
Link system, Peg System - CORRECT ANSWERS -LINK SYSTEM - utilizes order and connections
(links) to facilitate memory recovery, but is not a chunking technique. PEG MEMORY SYSTEM -
utilizes numbers, rhymes, shapes, and sounds to create a scene based on a mental 'hook', but is
not a chunking technique.
,Conditioned Response - CORRECT ANSWERS -The conditioned response would be the result of a
paired stimulus causing a response that it normally would not, i.e. the dog salivating because of
a bell ringing.
What is an Isochoric process? Adiabatic process? - CORRECT ANSWERS -An adiabatic process is
one that occurs so quickly that no energy is lost as heat, cardiac muscle cannot function that
quickly. isochoric process (also known as a constant-volume process, an isovolumetric process,
or an isometric process) - volume is constant
Homophily - CORRECT ANSWERS -Homophily is defined as the tendency for people to choose
relationships with other people who have similar attributes.
How does conflict theory arise? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Conflict happens when there is a power
difference between groups, often in the form of social or economic inequality resulting from
competition for limited resources.
The unjustified killing of a young African-American male after being stopped by a police caused
a huge riot in Missisippi. What is the thesis and Anti-thesis? - CORRECT ANSWERS -In conflict
theory, the thesis describes the initial environment, the status quo. The anti-thesis is the
reaction to the thesis, the push-back from those unhappy with the status quo. The police raid
was an attempt to maintain the status quo, to which the riots were the response, or anti-thesis.
what is the tell-tale of Exchange-Rational Choice Theory? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Exchange-
rational choice theory believes that decisions are made by rational beings who have weighed all
aspects of the problem, and who then proceed to make the rational choice. The tell tale is if a
DECISION needs to be made and that all aspects of the problem has been considered.
An individual just had a stroke. The doctors tried to figure out which area of the brain is
affected by showing the person a picture of a chair. The individual can draw the chair meaning
that she can see it, but cannot tell what the object is. Where is the damage in the brain? -
CORRECT ANSWERS -The temporal lobes are responsible for processing auditory signals,
interpreting visual stimuli(e.g. Object recognition), and language recognition. The individual has
damage to the temporal lobe as she cannot connect the visual stimuli (a chair) with the rest of
her knowledge about a chair.
Other than somatosensory information, what is another function of the parietal lobe? -
CORRECT ANSWERS -The parietal lobes are responsible for spatial reasoning and receiving
somatosensory information.
What is the floor effect? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Floor Effect - the inability to get a lower score
because the score is already low at baseline
Minimal Justification - CORRECT ANSWERS -When someone does something and there is
minimal justification for them doing it, this creates more dissonance than if they can explain it
, through a significant rationale. It often follows an impulsive action which was performed
without a real reason
Selective Exposure - CORRECT ANSWERS -when you only chose information that matches what
you want to hear.
Strategy for Cognitive Dissonance. - CORRECT ANSWERS -First find the main thought that
conflicts with the behavior. Example: Healthy foods are expensive. Behavior: Buy healthy foods
because it makes the person healthy.
Which of the following strategies is the most effective strategy to elicit Cognitive Dissonance
(Mental Tension). - CORRECT ANSWERS -Shock, scare tactics, Passive and Educational strategies
are usually not good tactics to elicit a behavioral change via cognitive dissonance. Dissonance is
best created when individuals have to directly and actively confront their beliefs.
Which of the following is a sympathetic Nervous System response and why? Constriction vs
Dilation of the blood vessels in skeletal muscles? - CORRECT ANSWERS -Dilation. This allows for
more blood flow to the skeletal muscles needed for a fight or flight response.
Describe the following types of stressors: Ambient, Micro, Major Event, and Catastrophic
Stressors. - CORRECT ANSWERS -Ambient - usually not noticed by an individual and affects a lot
of people (e.g. pollution), Micro - a small stressor, Major event stressor - life-changing event.
Catastrophic stressor - stressors that are out of the control of an individual (e.g. storm,
pandemic, floods, etc.)
Give examples of how you can increase the power of a study? - CORRECT ANSWERS -increase
the number of participants, add a control group, developing more further sophisticated ways to
evaluate or measure the dependent variable. etc.
Symptoms of Paranoid Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -Significant delusions of
persecution, delusions of grandiosity, and hallucinations that causes a person to become
suspcious or withdrawn.
Residual Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -characterized by a lack of delusions and
hallucinations. A form of schizophrenia that is characterized by a previous diagnoses of
schizophrenia, but no longer having any of the prominent psychotic symptoms. There are some
remaining symptoms of the disorder however, such as eccentric behavior, emotional blunting,
illogical thinking, or social withdrawal.
Catatonic Schizophrenia - CORRECT ANSWERS -criteria for catatonic schizophrenia - requires
dramatic withdrawal from the world and muteness (on the catatonic end) and complete
hyperactivity and mimic of sound/movement (on the hyperactive end). In addition, catatonic
schizophrenia is often characterized by a tendency to hold uncomfortable or bizarre body
positions for an extended period of time, or be completely still for long periods of time.
