PL1101E – 60 Sample (practice) questions for the final exam Nov 2017
1. Jeremy is typing a term paper on his computer and saves it every 15 minutes, just to be safe.
How does the computer’s memory store this file differently from Jeremy’s memory?
a) The computer translates the information into smaller chunks. false
b) 
The computer stores an identical copy of the information.
c) The computer receives and translates the information into a composite image. false
d) The computer receives the information and stores it semantically. false
e) A computer is actually a good model for human memory. No its not.
A computer is not a good model (e) because it operates on completely different principles from the human brain. In particular, it normally preserves exactly what is saved in exactly the same format (b). It lacks the distortions and errors of human memory. See animated video #11 (5:58 on ff).
2. The first stage of the Atkinson-Shiffrin model involved the retention of large amounts of incoming data for very brief amounts of time. This is called …
a) declarative memory.
b) short-term memory.
c) 
sensory memory. Text page 320, under “sensory memory’; this is a factual question.
d) explicit memory.
e) implicit memory.
3. Chunking is the …
a) recovery of stored information from long-term memory storage.
b) 
process of grouping several items together to be remembered as a single item.
c) repetition of information to prevent decay from short-term memory.
d) transformation of information from one form to another.
e) none of the above.
See p323, bottom margin. Left implicit is that the effect of chunking is to increase recall, since the grouped items are remembered and recalled as a single chunk, but can be ungrouped.
4. Carl asks Laura to write down her e-mail address. He promptly loses the slip of paper. However, he finds that he stills remembers it. This could happen if …
a) he attended to or rehearsed what she wrote sufficiently for it to become part of his long-term memory.
b) he noticed meaningful or familiar aspects of the address.
c) he likes her.
d) 
A and B.
e) A, B and C.
If he likes her (c) this might motivate (a) and/or (b) but is not itself a reason to expect any improvement in long term memory. The point is that there must be some mechanism that explains the finding, and either (a) or (b) will do the trick, so (d) is the best answer.
PL1101E – Sample MCQ questions for the mid-term test Oct 2017
5. For which of the following is there evidence it improves long term memory for visual images?
a) Practicing recall of images in a darkened room.
b) 
Caffeine.
c) Aspirin.
d) Rehearsal.
e) None of the above.
See the ‘Connecting to research’box on pp350-351, which I also mentioned in the lecture. The distractor items (except (e)) are without evidence that I know of.
6. Long-term memory is characterized by ______________ and ____________.
a) 
unlimited duration; unlimited capacity
b) unlimited duration; limited capacity
c) limited duration; limited capacity
d) autobiographical focus; limited capacity e) accuracy; autobiographical focus
Text p 325 “…long term memory seems to have few limitations in capacity or duration”, and I stated this also in the lecture. We do not have unlimited retrieval – we often fail to retrieve
material that is in fact in LTM, but if a memory exists long-term, it exists indefinitely; and we know of no limit to the number of things we can store in LTM.
7. A parent is teaching his 3-year-old son the alphabet song. The child sings “A B C D H K G.”
This provides an example of …
a) a mnemonic. (the alphabet song itself is a mnemonic, but this example of a mistake)
b) elaborative rehearsal. (implies the items are elaborated as rehearsed, not applicable here)
c) the recency effect. (the last few items in a series are better recalled)
d) 
the primacy effect.
e) the von Restorff effect. (salient items are better remembered)
8. Martin has a very stunning memory of virtually everything that has happened to him since he
was 4 years of age. For example, he remembers the weather on his 6th birthday, the baseball
card he got when he was 11 years old, and the colour of the eyes of the girl who sat next to him in his sixth grade classroom. Martin is 53 years of age. He has …
a) a major neurocognitive disorder.
b) flashbulb memories.
c) pseudomnemonism.
d) 
hyperthymesia.
e) a hyperactive hypothalamus.
See text p330. (d) is the only thing that fits. Although hyperthymesic individuals may have
enriched connections between amygdala and hippocampus, and enhanced amygdala activity, it would not be correct to say their hippocampus is hyperactive (e). Consideration of the criteria for disorders (ch 14) should eliminate any inclination to choose (a) – there is no evidence of any of the 4 Ds. Flashbulb memories are vivid memories of impactful events, and things like the
daily weather do not come into this category, so (b) is not a good choice; (c) is a non-existent meaningless term which I invented.
9. Which of the following is a nondeclarative memory?
a) Andy remembers learning how to ice skate as a teenager.
b) In a spelling contest, Brenda remembers the wrong spelling of the word “mnemonic” .
c) 
Cindy feels happy when she smells the scent of the perfume that her grandmother used.
d) Dave remembers the rules of chess the way that his grandfather taught him.
e) Ernest, now retired, recalls exactly where he was and what he was doing when he heard the dramatic news that Singapore and Malaysia were to separate.
Non-declarative implies not being able to state the memory. In all but (b) and (c) there is a clear implication or statement that the person remembers an event. (b) is an example of a failure of semantic memory, assuming that Brenda originally did learn the correct spelling. If she never remembered the correct spelling, than her semantic memory is Ok, but incorrect. In (c) there is nothing to indicate that Cindy is remembering anything episodic, and what she remembers is
not semantic. It’s much more likely that this is an example of classical conditioning and an instance of an implicit memory. She associates the scent with the pleasure she had in her grandmother’s company, probably by second order conditioning.
10. When Frederic Bartlett’s study participants recalled the story he had read to them a month previously, they …
a) sometimes invented details that fitted the meaning of the story.
b) usually shortened the story to the more salient elements.
c) A and B.
d) recalled it nearly perfectly.
e) often could not remember it at all.
Bartlett’s work first established how memories are distorted and abbreviated, see text p336 under Inferences: using Schemas.
11. Noor comes into her Introduction to Psychology class on the first day of the semester and sees a long-haired man in jeans and a T-shirt sitting at the front of class. She does not say anything to him, and assumes that he is just someone sitting in the room. When more students show up and the man doesn’t leave, Noor starts to wonder if he is going to cause a problem. When he stands up and says, “Hello everyone, I’m Dr. Lim and I will be teaching your psychology class this
semester,” Noor starts to wonder if she made a mistake choosing Psychology. Noor’s perception of Dr. Lim is probably affected by the fact that he is not like her ideal “image,” meaning
her_______, of a university professor.
a) exemplar
b) schema c) 
prototype
d) list of attributes e) expectation
The idea of a prototype (c) is the idea of an ideal, not actually realised in any specific exemplar. An ideal image is thus not an exemplar (a) and is not a schema (b), which is a set of
expectations and would generally include a basis for action; nor is it a list of attributes (d).
expectations (e) do not mean an ideal, they simply refer to what one expects, whatever it may be, and can include low expectations. Unlike the other terms, expectation is not a term in
cognitive science but just ordinary English.
12. Pei Ling learned to make love letters with her grandmother. In fact, she still makes love letters
using the exact same steps as her grandmother. A psychologists would say she is using …
a) a codification.
b) a heuristic.
c) a step by step solution.
d) her working memory.
e) 
an algorithm.
An algorithm is a precise step by step set of rules (text p 366) so (e) is a better answer than (c) given that you are asked what a psychologist would say; implying a technical term is expected. We
cannot assume she is particularly using working memory, she probably has the steps written
down, or she may have memorised them, and working memory would at most be involved in keeping track of which step she was at, so (d) is also not as good an answer as (e). “exact same steps” (b) eliminates a heuristic, and “a codification” (a) is more or less meaningless.
13. A Singapore family is visiting New York for the first time. They are excited by the opportunity to explore the city, but also anxious about what they read recently about deaths from apparently unpredictable shooting in American cities. In reality, they are more at risk of harm from rash or careless drivers when crossing the road or on the sidewalk. What heuristic is most likely
affecting their judgment?
a) The representativeness heuristic.
b) 
The availability heuristic. The clue is “what they read recently”
c) The affect heuristic.
d) The recognition heuristic.
e) The self-serving heuristic.
14. Damage to the frontal lobes, of the sort suffered by Phineas Gage, usually produces …
a) dementia.
b) insensitivity to the potential for loss.
c) poor anger management.
d) obsessive compulsive disorder.
e) impulsivity and poor judgment.
Deterioration of the frontal lobes may underlie dementia (a), but not specifically traumatic
orbitofrontal damage. To a limited extent (b) is true, in that orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) damage can render us insensitive to the emotional consequences of our actions, but it’s not nearly as good an answer as (e). Difficulties in anger management (c) (not on the syllabus) may have
many causes and even if the frontal lobes are involved, the OFC is not the key location, and damage to it does not typically produce uncontrolled anger. OCD does typically involve the OFC (e) (text p 566), but this implies that damage to it will produce less OCD symptoms, not more. See text pp 121-122 for a discussion of OFC damage.
15. According to Whorf’s hypothesis of linguistic relativity, what affects a person’s ability to think about a topic?
a) 
Having a rich vocabulary related to the topic. This more or less defines Whorf’s hypothesis.
b) Two-way conversations when an infant.
c) The number of phonemes in the language.
d) A critical gene mutation in the FOXP-2 gene.
e) Their mother tongue.
16. An analysis of over 500 contemporary languages has demonstrated that the number of speech sounds in a language decreases systematically …
a) with the level of education of the population.
b) with fewer speakers of the language.
c) according to the cultural values embedded in the language.
d) with the level of assimilation into larger cultures.
e) with the culture’s distance from Africa along migration routes.
The number of speech sounds in any language is a property of the language, not of any
particular group of speakers (a), or the number of speakers (b), or any cultural variable (c & d). Hence (e) (see text p 377 fig 10.10).
17. A morpheme is …
a) any phrase in a given language.
b) an individual speech sound unique to a specific language.
c) an arbitrary signal in a language system.
d) 
the smallest component of speech that carries meaning. Definition p 377
e) None of the above.
18. In Wernicke’s aphasia, the affected area of the brain is in …
a) the left frontal lobe, near Broca’s area.
b) 
the left temporal lobe, near the primary auditory cortex. p 378 fig 10.11
c) the left temporal lobe, adjacent to the motor cortex.
d) the left occipital lobe, near the cerebellum.
e) the planum temporale of the right hemisphere. It is in the planum temporale but not in the RH
19. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents that children under the age of 2 should
have zero screen time (television, tablets, phones, or computers). What is the current trend with regard to children, parenting, and the media?
a) 
The market for electronic media designed to make babies smarter is booming.
b) Most parents have started removing televisions and computers from their home.
c) The market for electronic media for young children has shifted to books and toys.
d) Most parents seem to be diligent in complying with this guideline up to age 2.
e) Most parents try to follow this advice, but fail.
The situation is explained in the ‘thinking scientifically’ box on pp394-395
20. The ability to think logically without the need to use learned knowledge was called _______ intelligence by Charles Spearman.
a) crystallized
b) general
c) 
fluid
d) complex
e) factorial
This was a bad question. The distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence as an aspect of Spearman’s general intelligence, is due to R Cattell – see slide 52 of the full slide set for
lecture (or slide 37 of the NOTES file). On the other hand, had I left out the names entirely, the correct answer would still be (c).
21. The “Supernanny” series of videos illustrated the need for parents to …
a) be consistent.
b) structure the home environment.
c) exercise physical discipline.
d) A and B.
e) A, B and C.
Consistency and structure were key requirements. Physical discipline was never used or advocated.
22. Limitations in the idea of parenting styles include the following:
a) Having only four styles means many variations in parenting are not distinguished.
b) Effective parenting styles may differ from culture to culture.
c) Parents might react to different situations in different ways.
d) A and B.
e) A, B and C.
These were discussed in lecture and to some extent in tutorials also.
23. Piaget thought that babies in the sensory motor stage lacked …
a) development of pre-frontal cortex.
b) a zone of proximal development.
c) the ability to recognise their caretakers.
d) egocentrism.
e) object permanence.
(a) is true of babies, but not part of Piaget’s theory. (b) is Vygotsky’s idea. (c) is false, the
sensory motor stage covers about the first 2 years of life, in which time infants have certainly learned to recognise caretakers, as attachment has developed. In the case of egocentrism (d) Piaget actually thought that babies were profoundly egocentric, although the text does not
mention it, but as the text specifically singles out object permanence (e) (p 416) this is clearly the better answer.
24. If children do not understand that quantity stays the same even when appearance changes we say they lack …
a) attentional skills.
b) measurement skills.
c) logical thinking.
d) the ability to conserve.
e) a realisation that the physical world is inanimate and consistent.
Piaget thought inability to conserve arose from a failure of logical thinking (c) and others
thought it reflected a difficulty in understanding how to gauge quantity (b), but the phenomenon being described is called a lack of conservation, so (d) is preferred over (b) or (c). Children
attend closely to these situations (so not (a)) and if anything a lack of conservation shows a lack of a realisation of consistency in an inanimate world, so not (e) either.
25. A newborn or very young infant routinely has its reflexes tested …
a) to check the infant’s nervous system is normal. This was stated in lectures
b) to assess its developmental milestones. Developmental milestones are not measured in a newborn c) to investigate the function of the reflexes. Not in routine testing, this is not research
d) as a measure of infant intelligence. All normal newborn infants have these reflexes, so no.
e) All of the above.
26. _____________ refers to the fact that for decades the onset of puberty has been occurring at an
ever earlier age in many societies, including Singapore.
a) The crisis of consent (a), (b) and (d) are inventions
b) The adolescent delay
c) Menarche menarche is how you measure puberty in girls, and hence the secular trend in girls d) The juvenile trend
e) The secular trend slide 32 in the full slides for lecture 10 (development)
27. Which of the following, if any, are not teratogens?
a) Aspirin.
b) Alcohol.
c) Rubella (German measles) virus.
d) Tobacco.
e) All of them are teratogens.
All except Rubella, which I mentioned in lectures, are in the text pp406-408.
28. Myelination in the CNS starts …
a) about 6 months after conception. See p 412, penultimate paragraph
b) at birth.
c) in the first year of life.
d) when language first emerges.
e) in adolescence.
29. Which of the following statements is true?
a) We possess all the neurons we will ever have at birth. No, see (c)
b) We can replace neurons throughout life, as with other cells of the body. We cannot
c) Gray matter develops rapidly for 18 months after birth, after which cells and connections are
‘pruned’ if not used. See p412 ‘Nervous System Development’
d) Growth of gray matter is at its highest in adolescence. There is actually loss after puberty (p551)
e) None of these statements is true.
30. The ____ is a procedure devised by Mary Ainsworth for assessing the quality of attachment of the infant to its mother.
a) Ames room
b) Harlow room
c) laboratory playroom procedure
d) strange situation
e) stranger test
Since the point is to assess attachment be seeing how the infant reacts to being left with a
stranger and then being reunited with the mother, (d) or (e) make sense, but in fact the answer is (d) – the whole situation is strange to the infant (including the presence of the stranger)
31. In Freud’s personality theory, __________________ is a protective behaviour that reduces anxiety caused by threats to the ego.
a) a trait
b) smoking
c) 
a defence mechanism the question gives the definition of a defence mechanism (p451)
d) deflection
e) the superego
32. Which of the following is a contribution of Carl Jung to psychodynamic thought?
a) The individual unconscious mind. Freud
b) 
The collective unconscious mind.
c) The importance of birth order. Adler
d) pregnancy envy. Horney
e) penis envy. Freud
33. Freud’s theory of personality is not regarded as mainstream in modern psychology because …
a) his ideas have proved difficult to test.
b) neo-freudian theorists are better known and more influential.
c) Freud is only explaining abnormal behaviour.
d) A and B.
e) A, B and C.
This also came up early in the semester and was reiterated in lectures. Freud’s ideas are very difficult to test and hence not considered scientific; modern psychology seeks to be scientific, and hence is not inclined to accept Freudian theory, even though it recognises his practical
contributions in personality and some aspects of therapy.
34. Modern personality assessment relies mainly on …
a) projective tests. Not considered valid
b) self-report questionnaires. You did a short form big five
c) field observations. no
d) interviews with the person being assessed. no
e) None of the above.
35. Intelligence tests and personality tests both need to be …
a) valid. Invalid tests don’t measure what they should
b) brief. Not necessarily – e.g. full version big five.
c) non-verbal. Can be useful but not essential
d) in English. Obviously not if the people being tested don’t speak it
e) transparent. Usually the opposite, to limit socially desirable responses
36. Which of the following describes a humanistic approach to the study of personality?
a) An emphasis on the significance of abnormal behaviours. No – I invented this
b) A reliance on animal research. No, and they reacted against behaviourism, which did c) Humanistic psychologists viewed human nature as essentially dark. The opposite
d) 
Humanistic psychologists thought unconditional acceptance was a requirement for optimum personality development.
e) Humanistic approaches put the id at the base of a pyramid of personality attributes, with the ego at the peak. The pyramid was applied to motivations, not to personality
37. What is a trait?
a) A variable in shaping personality based on learning
b) A dimension of temperament
c) 
A stable personality characteristic defined thus in the text p455, middle d) A personality gene
e) A component of Adler’s theory of personality
38. Which statistical method was used to derive the big five personality traits from large numbers of items?
a) 
Factor analysis.
b) Analysis of variance.
c) Cluster analysis.
d) Method of loci.
e) Standard deviation.
While I don’t expect you to know statistical techniques (chap 2 being out of the syllabus), the use of Factor analysis was mentioned in lecture and is also in the text p455 fig 12.6). So really this question amounts to recognising the one technique mentioned in connection with the big five.
39. The Big Five theory is a trait theory that identifies five main characteristics that account for …
a) the distinctions between individualistic and collectivistic societies
b) 
the majority of individual differences in personality
c) the primary mental health problems in society
d) a general ability to function and succeed
e) our conditional (if-then) reactions in different social situations
The big five is the leading personality theory in the tradition that treats personality as a matter of stable personality traits and specifically not as something contingent on the situation (e) – the conditional approach is challenging the utility of the big five, as per the Mendoza video in class. It is also claimed to be a general theory that would not differ much across cultures, p457 last
sentence, so not (a). The five OCEAN traits do not in themselves define a mental health
problem (they don’t automatically lead to the 4 Ds), so not (c). Nor are they indicative of
mental functioning and success, since almost any combination of trait values might be useful in some path in life, so not (d).
40. A psychology student receives a C in the exam. He told his roommate that he had actually studied for the exam, and that it was just bad luck that the professor had asked so many questions that he did not understand. This student appears to have …
a) 
an external locus of control.
b) an internal locus of control.
d) high self-efficacy.
c) reciprocal determinism.
e) projection as an ego defence mechanism.
See the text p460 for the definition of locus of control. Attributing an outcome to luck fits external locus closely.
41. What is the uncomfortable state that occurs when a person’s behaviour and attitudes do not match?
a) Group polarization.
b) Social dissatisfaction.
c) Deindividuation.
d) Emotional stress.
e) 
Cognitive dissonance. The question repeats the definition of cognitive dissonance at p500.
42. In a research study on cognitive dissonance (van Veen, Krug, Schooler, & Carter, 2009), one group of participants under an fMRI scan was asked to describe the somewhat unpleasant
scanner experience as pleasant. The other group was asked to describe it as neutral. Which part(s) of the brain showed higher levels of activity in the participants who made dissonant statements, as compared to those who made neutral statements?
a) The amygdala.
b) Prefrontal cortex.
c) 
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). See the study reported & illustrated on p501.
d) The cerebellum.
e) Primary auditory cortex.
43. Why was the Stanford Prison Study (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973) stopped well ahead of schedule?
a) Early completion of the study.
b) Lack of study design.
c) Inappropriate behaviours by the principal investigator.
d) There were no ethical guidelines provided by the principal investigator.
e) 
Inappropriate behaviours by study participants.
This study is famous. It complements the Milgram studies of obedience. Milgram showed that ordinary people can behave in inappropriate ways (delivering high voltage shocks) when an accepted authority insisted. The Stanford Prison study showed how the social dynamics of a situation can also lead to inappropriate behaviour (bullying) when apparently sanctioned by a social role and implicitly sanctioned or encouraged by the experimenter (p511 last para.).
44. The immersion of an individual within a group, leading to anonymity, is called …
a) social loafing.
b) groupthink.
c) 
deindividuation. The question defines deindividuation (text p 517)
d) group polarity.
e) group polarization.
45. The study of bystander intervention is the study of situational variables that affect helping a stranger, of which the most important seems to be …
a) the fear of getting involved.
b) 
the number of bystanders.
c) the reputation of the neighbourhood.
d) the desire to help but with concerns about potential liability.
e) the desire to help but lacking the skill to do so.
All the options have some truth to them, but by far the best predictor of whether a bystander will actually intervenes is (b). See p527, definition in the margin, and last paragraph of text.
46. What does the term “mere exposure effect” mean?
a) Repeated exposure decreases liking.
b) 
Repeated exposure increases liking. See fig 13.16 p 520
c) Exposure is necessary but insufficient.
d) Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
e) None of the above.
47. Which of the following reflects a problem that results from the self-serving bias?
a) 
Failure to learn from one’s mistakes.
b) Judging oneself too harshly.
c) Judge oneself too leniently.
d) An increase in anxiety.
e) Low self-esteem.
The text p496 text explains why this (a) is so, and its logically obvious too. If you attribute your success to dispositional factors but your failure to situational factors, you will not learn from
failure because you will not recognise your part in that failure.
48. When a team of ten-year-old boys lost a football match to their arch rivals by a score of 7-2, the boys complained that the referee was not fair and that they would have won if they had played on their home field. This is an example of …
a) correspondence bias.
b) 
group-serving bias.
c) just-world belief.
d) self-serving bias.
e) social exclusion.
Also p496. Had the boys won they would probably not have attributed it to the referee being
biased in their favour (situation) but to their skill at football (disposition); and being a team, this counts as group-serving bias, which is just an extension of self-serving bias to groups or
organisations.
49. Which of the following is a defensive attribution?
a) correspondence bias.
b) 
just-world belief.
c) situational attribution.
d) dispositional attribution.
e) external locus of control.
See p497 for a discussion of just why (b) is defensive; (e) looks like a defensive attribution but it applies to oneself and in non-social situations, and does not appear to have a defensive
function (reducing anxiety) in the same way.
50. Bob received a C on his Calculus II exam and an A on his Macroeconomics exam. Which of the following would best reflect Bob’s reasoning if he exhibited a self-serving bias?
a) His Calculus II grade was because he was coming down with the flu and his Macroeconomics grade was because the professor was an easy grader.
b) His Calculus II grade was because he is not good with numbers and his Macroeconomics grade was because the professor was an easy grader.
c) His Calculus II grade was because he was coming down with the flu and his
Macroeconomics grade was because he has a gift for understanding how the world works.
d) His Calculus II grade was because he does not study and his Macroeconomics grade was because the professor happened to ask the questions he studied the most. 
e) Neither results is a fair reflection of his ability, as he knows he is actually better at Calculus than Macroeconomics.
See qu 47 and apply the analysis there to this situation.
51. Drugs prescribed in patients with clinical depression boost…
a) 
serotonin activity.
b) acetylcholine activity.
c) dopamine activity.
d) neuronal activity in general.
e) The drugs inhibit neurotransmitter action.
Drugs for depression are often serotonin reuptake inhibitors (a), which have the effect of
prolonging and this boosting the activity of serotonin at the synapses, mentioned in chapter 4 and lectures as well as in the text p557 para 2. All other options are factually wrong.
52. A generalized anxiety disorder is a condition in which individuals …
a) 
worry excessively with no particular focus or identifiable cause.
b) had a fear conditioning experience that subsequently generalized to a wider array of stimuli.
c) suffer from panic attacks with only slight provocation.
d) A and B.
e) A, B, and C.
GAD is not the same as panic disorder (c) (see qu 53) and there is no evidence that it is the result of specific conditioning experiences (b), so (a) alone is correct (pp 564-565).
53. A person says that she experiences frequent periods during which her heart races, her hands
tremble, her breath becomes short and she feels nauseous or dizzy. What diagnosis may apply?
a) Generalized anxiety disorder.
b) Phobia.
c) 
Panic disorder. It is more than just excessive worry, which occupies the person much of the time
d) Somatic disorder.
e) Female stress syndrome.
54. A Psychiatrist believes that depression is purely the result of chemical imbalances of the brain
and that a prescription should address his patient’s needs. This approach usually leads to …
a) more effective treatments.
b) better understanding of causal factors.
c) better treatment outcomes.
d) more treatment options.
e) less work for clinical psychologists.
While chemotherapy is a major treatment for severe depression, the text is very clear that a range of therapeutic approaches are available and might be used, so (a) to (d) are not very plausible. On the other hand an exclusive reliance on prescribing drugs leaves no place for psychologists, who cannot prescribe drugs at all.
55. Li Ai is 5 years old and cannot sit still. She is almost always active and noisy and has difficulty maintaining sustained attention and following instructions in her kindergarten class. What
condition might she have?
a) Autism spectrum disorder.
b) Somatic symptom disorder.
c) Generalized anxiety disorder.
d) 
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The question describes the condition
e) Early onset bipolar disorder.
56. Schizophrenia is a disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought and speech, disorders of movement, avolition/asociality, and …
a) excessive emotionality and tears. Emotion is often inappropriate but not excessive
b) 
restricted affect. See the summary table p560, and the lecture
c) weight fluctuation. not particularly
d) hypersexuality. No, if anything the opposite
e) high levels of anxiety. not particularly, rather the reverse
57. Which of these statements is true of bipolar disorder?
a) There seems to be a greater risk of it among artists, musicians and actors.
b) There is some evidence that incidence is lower in countries with high seafood consumption.
c) It is a disorder of twins.
d) A and B.
e) A, B and C.
The first two options are supported in the text (pp552-553), and also in the lecture, especially (b). The fact that twin studies can be used as a gauge of heritability does not mean that this is a disorder ‘of twins’, which would imply that it is somehow more prevalent in, or typical of,
twins; so not (c).
58. Phobias are …
a) best treated by some form of behaviour therapy.
b) generally more prevalent in women.
c) usually show spontaneous waning and eventual habituation.
d) A and B.
e) A, B and C.
Option (a) is true, as stressed in lectures for ch 8 (where treatment was illustrated) as well as ch
12. Option (b) is also true – see slide 31 of the full slides for lecture 12. Option (c) is false. Phobias tend to be self-perpetuating, because the relief from anxiety created by avoiding the source of the phobia tends to reinforce the avoidant behaviour.
59. Anders Breivik killed a total of 77 people in Norway. When first put on trial he was diagnosed as schizophrenic, but his lack of any empathy for his victims or remorse for his actions is more characteristic of …
a) borderline personality disorder.
b) paranoia.
c) antisocial personality disorder. By definition, lack of empathy or remorse points to (c).
d) bipolar disorder.
e) post-traumatic stress disorder.
60. An epidemic of ‘Koro’in Singapore was an example of mass hysteria (somatic symptom disorder) in which …
a) an outbreak of swine fever led to irrational phobia of pork by Chinese Singaporeans.
b) snake charmers were believed to be possessed by evil spirits, and were eventually banned.
c) many women fainted at public events.
d) multiple suicide attempts by adolescents were reported.
e) panicking men believed their sexual organs were disappearing into their bodies.
Well you either followed the link in the lecture notes; or attended the lecture and heard me describe it – or you didn’t.
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