Question 1

Imagine that you see the textbook authors on television talking with Larry King about popular psychology.What point are you most likely to hear them make?

Accepted Answer

A) Psychology and medicine often marginalize those with ideas that differ from conventional wisdom. 
B) Self-help therapies are rigorously tested before people can write books about them. 
C) All information from popular psychology and/or self-help is useless. 
D) Beware of claims of miracle cures without supporting evidence.

Question 2

Because people are open to exploring and understanding the mysteries of the world,people are likely to

Accepted Answer

A) believe unusual claims. 
B) use experiential thinking. 
C) use rational thinking. 
D) be drawn to the pseudosciences.

Question 3

What logical fallacy involves confusing the correctness of a belief with its origins?

Accepted Answer

A) Appeal to ignorance fallacy 
B) Naturalistic fallacy 
C) Genetic fallacy 
D) Hasty generalisation fallacy

Question 4

Canadian researcher Dr.Turnkey wants to examine personality traits associated with helping behaviour across different cultures outside of North America.He designs a survey and then has it translated into different languages and administers it to persons from other cultures.Dr.Turnkey is using a(n)__________ approach to cross-cultural psychology.

Accepted Answer

A) etic 
B) emic 
C) apophenic 
D) pareidolic

Question 5

Scientific skepticism encourages us to accept claims on the basis of __________ and not on __________.

Accepted Answer

A) the evidence;an authority figure's endorsement. 
B) unfalsifiable evidence;rival hypotheses. 
C) the disconfirmation bias;the confirmation bias. 
D) Occam's razor;Oberg's dictum.

Question 6

When attempting to differentiate between useful and useless information from popular psychology,what is a good rule of thumb to follow?

Accepted Answer

A) Trust nothing that you read or hear in the media about psychology. 
B) Insist on evidence to accurately evaluate all claims. 
C) All popular psychology claims are misinformation. 
D) Common sense is often correct;go with your gut.

Question 7

Suppose Dr.Fish has a theory that says you cannot live without two working eyes.To demonstrate this is true,Dr.Fish brings to you hundreds of living people,each of whom has two working eyes.This demonstrates

Accepted Answer

A) the availability heuristic. 
B) the hindsight bias. 
C) the confirmation bias. 
D) belief perseverance.

Question 8

In the natural world,there often are many different factors associated with the occurrence of a particular outcome.Therefore it is important that we,as critical thinkers,__________ whenever possible.

Accepted Answer

A) create unfalsifiable theories 
B) propose complex statements of causation 
C) rule out competing explanations 
D) remember that correlation equals causation

Question 9

The belief that much of our everyday psychological life is filled with symbols is associated with what theoretical framework?

Accepted Answer

A) Cognitivism 
B) Behaviourism 
C) Functionalism 
D) Psychoanalysis

Question 10

Research shows that milk consumption is related to the incidence of cancer,so more milk means a greater risk.Based on these findings,you might not wish to drink milk,but what is the more reasonable conclusion?

Accepted Answer

A) Simple theories are preferred to complex ones. 
B) Research questions or theories must be falsifiable. 
C) Good theories make safe,not risky,predictions. 
D) Correlation is not causation.

Question 11

Assuming that something is so simply because a teacher or religious figure said it is so,is an example of

Accepted Answer

A) naturalistic fallacy. 
B) hasty generalisation fallacy. 
C) appeal to authority fallacy. 
D) circular reasoning fallacy.

Question 12

The phenomenon of __________ was one criticism of structuralism because it demonstrated that some important aspects of human psychology lie outside conscious awareness.

Accepted Answer

A) introspection 
B) insight 
C) imageless thought 
D) natural selection

Question 13

According to the authors,__________ is the "mother of all biases."

Accepted Answer

A) the confirmation bias 
B) the availability heuristic 
C) belief perseverance 
D) the hindsight bias

Question 14

Which of the following statements would the authors find the most worrisome?

Accepted Answer

A) Pseudoscience seems to be so much more interesting and engaging than science. 
B) The majority of North Americans do not believe in the existence of ghosts or witches. 
C) Being open-minded about topics associated with pseudoscience is no big deal. 
D) Science cannot answer all of the questions I am interested in,such as "Why am I here?" or "What is my life's purpose?"

Question 15

Trying to explain complex human behaviours,like violence,in terms of one causal factor,such as genes or video games,fails to acknowledge that

Accepted Answer

A) biological roots to behaviour are more important than other causes. 
B) actions are multiply determined. 
C) individual differences prevent us from making any conclusions. 
D) behaviour is always reciprocally determined.

Question 16

You could tell one friend that "haste makes waste" and tell another friend that they should "strike while the iron is hot." That both claims sound reasonable would appear to violate the critical thinking principle of

Accepted Answer

A) replicability. 
B) extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. 
C) parsimony/Occam's razor. 
D) falsifiability.

Question 17

Psychological research applied to police settings has demonstrated that what type of lineup promotes eyewitness identification accuracy?

Accepted Answer

A) Simultaneous 
B) Show-up 
C) Mugshot 
D) Sequential

Question 18

What influence did psychology need to break away from in order to establish itself as a discipline and be free of associations with studying the spirit or soul?

Accepted Answer

A) Spiritualism 
B) Philosophy 
C) Psychicism 
D) Introspection

Question 19

A psychologist is often skeptical of claims suggesting

Accepted Answer

A) that a person's future behaviour is often difficult to predict accurately. 
B) a particular behaviour is the result of a single causal factor. 
C) a person's culture is a strong influence on his or her everyday thoughts and behaviours. 
D) people are influenced by others' thoughts and behaviours.

Question 20

Brandon is an industrial organizational psychologist who has been hired by a large hotel chain to determine why their turnover rate is so high for their maids.This is an example of __________ research.

Accepted Answer

A) experiential 
B) laboratory 
C) applied 
D) basic

Exam 1: D: Psychology and Scientific Thinking