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Intro Psychology — Practice Questions flashcards

6 of 40 questions free to study here · 8 topics · the whole deck is built into Willys

Multiple-choice practice questions, one best answer each, on perspectives, research design, statistics, ethics, classic studies, development, stress and therapy.

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Practice deck · part of Introductory Psychology · written against: Standard Psych 101; complements the AP Psychology decks. Updated 2026-10-10.

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  1. In an early 1900s lab, trained observers listen to a ticking metronome and report the most basic sensations and feelings that make up each moment of the experience. Which school of thought does this method represent?

    A) Behaviorism
    B) Structuralism
    C) Functionalism
    D) Psychoanalysis
    B) Structuralism

    Structuralism (Titchener) used trained introspection to break conscious experience into its elements. It faded because introspective reports were subjective and labs could not agree on the results.
    History & Perspectives
  2. Participants proofread a passage either in a quiet room or in a room playing recorded traffic noise, and the researcher counts the errors each person misses. What is the dependent variable?

    A) The number of errors each participant misses
    B) The recorded traffic noise played during the task
    C) Whether the room is quiet or plays traffic noise
    D) The group of participants who work in the quiet room
    A) The number of errors each participant misses

    The dependent variable is the outcome that is measured, here missed errors. Quiet vs noise is the independent variable, the condition the researcher manipulates.
    Research Design
  3. An online survey about cheating in college collects no names, email addresses, IP addresses or other identifiers, so no one, including the researchers, can tell which person gave which answers. Which protection does this provide?

    A) Informed consent
    B) Anonymity
    C) Debriefing
    D) Confidentiality
    B) Anonymity

    Under anonymity, no one can link data to a person. Under confidentiality, the researchers do know who said what but promise not to reveal it.
    Research Ethics
  4. In Watson and Rayner's Little Albert study, a loud noise was repeatedly paired with a white rat until the rat alone made the infant cry. In this procedure, what was the white rat?

    A) The conditioned response
    B) The unconditioned stimulus
    C) The unconditioned response
    D) The conditioned stimulus
    D) The conditioned stimulus

    The rat was neutral at first and came to trigger fear only through pairing, so it became the conditioned stimulus. The loud noise, which caused fear without any learning, was the unconditioned stimulus.
    Classic Studies
  5. Hearing about a surprise exam, a student first thinks, "This could really hurt my grade." A moment later she thinks, "But I've kept up with the reading, so I can handle it." In Lazarus's theory, what is the second thought?

    A) Secondary appraisal
    B) The tend-and-befriend response
    C) Primary appraisal
    D) The alarm stage
    A) Secondary appraisal

    Primary appraisal (the first thought) judges whether an event is irrelevant, harmless or stressful (a harm, threat or challenge). Secondary appraisal judges whether you have the resources to cope, which lowers stress here.
    Health Psychology
  6. A man feels intense anxiety unless he checks that the stove is off dozens of times, and the checking takes hours each day. His therapist has him look at the stove once, leave the kitchen and stay with the anxiety without going back to check. What is this technique?

    A) Exposure and response prevention
    B) Dialectical behavior therapy
    C) Rational emotive behavior therapy
    D) Family systems therapy
    A) Exposure and response prevention

    Exposure and response prevention exposes the person to the trigger while he refrains from the ritual, so anxiety falls without it. It is best known as a first-line approach for obsessive-compulsive patterns like this one.
    Therapy & Evidence

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About these cards

Review status: Second-reader reviewed, with corrections applied.

Checked against:

  • Facts follow this folder's study deck, which was checked against the references below.
  • Study details checked against the original published reports and the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2002, amended 2010 and 2016) (reference only; all wording is original).
  • APA Dictionary of Psychology (dictionary.apa.org), NIH and MedlinePlus pages and the original studies, consulted as references; no text copied.
  • Original questions written for this deck in the style of an introductory college psychology final exam; no textbook, test-bank or question-bank items were copied. Scenarios are hypothetical and describe no real person; nothing here is diagnosis or treatment advice.

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