Psychology Degree FREE Psychology Questions and Answers 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which neurotransmitter is most directly associated with the regulation of mood and is the primary target of SSRI medications?
- Dopamine
- Serotonin (Correct answer)
- Norepinephrine
- GABA
Correct answer: Serotonin
Serotonin regulates mood, appetite, and sleep, and SSRIs work by blocking its reuptake to increase availability in the synapse.
Question 2: In Piaget's theory of cognitive development, during which stage do children first develop the ability to think abstractly and reason hypothetically?
- Sensorimotor stage
- Preoperational stage
- Concrete operational stage
- Formal operational stage (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Formal operational stage
The formal operational stage, beginning around age 12, is characterized by abstract thinking, hypothetical reasoning, and systematic problem-solving.
Question 3: What term describes the phenomenon where individuals perform better on simple tasks and worse on complex tasks when others are watching?
- Groupthink
- Social facilitation (Correct answer)
- Deindividuation
- Bystander effect
Correct answer: Social facilitation
Social facilitation, studied extensively by Robert Zajonc, shows that the presence of others enhances dominant responses, improving simple task performance while impairing complex task performance.
Question 4: A researcher finds a correlation of -0.85 between hours of sleep and number of errors on a cognitive task. What does this indicate?
- More sleep causes fewer errors
- There is a strong negative relationship between sleep and errors (Correct answer)
- The relationship is weak and insignificant
- Sleep and errors are unrelated
Correct answer: There is a strong negative relationship between sleep and errors
A correlation of -0.85 indicates a strong negative relationship, meaning as sleep increases, errors tend to decrease, though causation cannot be established from correlation alone.
Question 5: Which perspective in psychology emphasizes the role of unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences in shaping behavior?
- Behavioral perspective
- Humanistic perspective
- Psychodynamic perspective (Correct answer)
- Cognitive perspective
Correct answer: Psychodynamic perspective
The psychodynamic perspective, rooted in Freud's work, focuses on how unconscious desires, early childhood experiences, and internal conflicts influence behavior and mental processes.
Question 6: What is the primary difference between retrograde amnesia and anterograde amnesia?
- Retrograde affects short-term memory while anterograde affects long-term memory
- Retrograde involves loss of old memories while anterograde involves inability to form new ones (Correct answer)
- Retrograde is caused by trauma while anterograde is caused by disease
- Retrograde is temporary while anterograde is permanent
Correct answer: Retrograde involves loss of old memories while anterograde involves inability to form new ones
Retrograde amnesia involves the inability to recall previously formed memories, while anterograde amnesia involves the inability to create new memories after the onset of the condition.
Psychology Degree FREE Psychology Questions and Answers 2
Which neurotransmitter is most directly associated with the regulation of mood and is the primary target of SSRI medications?