Quiz problems

1. Columbus debated the scholars of his day before he was able to get his expedition financed. What was the subject of the debate? Who was right?
2. What is psychology? How is “real” psychology different from “media” or “pop” psychology?
3. Who is this [der kluge Hans (Klugerhans or “Clever Hans”)], and what does his story have to do with psychology?
4. Who was Sigmund Freud? What does his story have to do with psychology?
5. Who was Ignaz Semmelweiss, and what was his contribution?
6. People who lived near the chemical plant in Danville, IL were more likely to die of cancer than people who lived in the rest of the state. What do you infer from this?
7. What type of statement is this: “A bachelor is a male human who has never been married?”
8. What type of statement is this: “Some bachelors are married.”?
9. What type of statement is this: “Some bachelors are happy?”
10. What type of statement is this: “I can fly to the sun and back in .01 sec.”?
11. What type of statement is this: “Penicillin decreases the probability of dying from strep throat.”
12. What type of statement is this: “There is a logically unverifiable Brownie in your ear?”
13. What type of statement is this: “There are two logically unverifiable Brownies in your ear, and they are ugly.”?
14. What type of statement is this: “There is a conflict in your subconscious mind?”
15. “All abusers were victims of abuse themselves.” Which cases do we need to interview to test this assertion? A. abuser, B. non-abuser, C. victim, D. Non-victim. Identify the smallest set that fully tests the assertion.
16. How would you test the assertion, “All boys have an Oedipal Complex.”
17. How would you disprove Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis?
18. What type of statement is the following: “Freud’s psychoanalysis is a beneficial psychotherapy.”
19. How would you evaluate a new type of psychotherapy?
20. In the Cambridge-Somerville Youth Study:
    1. What was (were) the Independent Variable(s)?
    2. What was (were) the Dependent Variable(s)?
    3. What were the results?
    4. What was McCord’s conclusion of her 30-year follow-up?
21. Define:
    1. paranoia
    2. schizophrenia
    3. phobia
    4. multiple personality disorder
    5. manic-depression
    6. chronic depression
    7. anxiety disorder
22. How would you evaluate a new psychotherapy, designed to help overweight people lose weight?
23. Compare the germ theory of illness to “mental illness.”
24. Define: clinical prediction, statistical prediction; which is more accurate?
25. What is the Barnum effect?
26. Define reliability, validity, and bias.
27. Pavlov conditioned his dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell.
    1. How did he do this?
    2. Identify the CS, UCS, UCR, and CR in this case.
28. What are the differences between classical and instrumental conditioning?
29. What are the differences between negative reinforcement and punishment?
30. Define Mean, Median, Mode, Midpoint.
31. What should your guess be when trying to minimize sum of squared deviations?
32. Draw a frequency distribution of these 7 numbers: 10, 10, 10, 9, 6, 4, 0. Find the mean, median, mode, midpoint, and range of the numbers.
33. In the video on learning, why did little Albert cry when shown a woman’s fur coat?
34. In the same video, why did the rats die when drinking saccharin flavored water?
35. Define (equations): variance, standard deviation, standard score of Xi.
36. Write out: (formula for z-score, areas under the normal distribution).
37. If mean = 100 and standard deviation = 15, find the standard scores of X_i = 160, 130, 100, 70.
38. Suppose X-bar = 100 and s_X = 15, and X is normally distributed. Find the percentage of cases that exceed: 160, 130, 100, 120.
39. Write formulae for mean, variance, standard deviation, standard score, areas under normal distribution.
40. Suppose X is normally distributed, X-bar = 100 and s_X = 15. What score is at the 16th percentile?
41. What is the shape of the distribution of income in the USA? What is the shape of the distribution of number of traffic tickets in the USA? In these cases, what is the relationship between median and mean?
42. From the Video on Psychotherapy, (a) what are three types of biological treatments (not counting genetic counseling)? (b) what are four types of “psychological” treatments? (c) Did you see any evidence of benefit in the video? What did Jones of UC Berkeley say about this?

What to study for the first exam

Discovering Psychology