Psychology Entrance Exam Practice Questions
- Which psychologist is most associated with the theory of cognitive dissonance?
a) B.F. Skinner
b) Leon Festinger
c) Abraham Maslow
d) Erik Erikson - The tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions is known as:
a) Confirmation bias
b) Availability heuristic
c) Representativeness heuristic
d) Anchoring bias - In Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiments, the sound of a metronome was a:
a) Unconditioned stimulus
b) Conditioned stimulus
c) Unconditioned response
d) Conditioned response - Which of the following is not one of the “Big Five” personality traits?
a) Openness
b) Conscientiousness
c) Extraversion
d) Intuition - The process by which we perceive and respond to certain events that challenge or threaten us is called:
a) Anxiety
b) Depression
c) Stress
d) Trauma - Which part of the brain is primarily responsible for regulating emotions?
a) Cerebellum
b) Amygdala
c) Hippocampus
d) Occipital lobe - The psychological perspective that focuses on how our thoughts and perceptions shape our behaviors is known as:
a) Psychoanalytic
b) Behaviorist
c) Cognitive
d) Humanistic - In Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, the conflict of “Identity vs. Role Confusion” occurs during:
a) Early childhood
b) Adolescence
c) Young adulthood
d) Middle adulthood - The phenomenon where people attribute their own actions to external factors while attributing others’ actions to internal factors is called:
a) Self-serving bias
b) Fundamental attribution error
c) Confirmation bias
d) Halo effect - Which of the following is not a defense mechanism according to Freudian theory?
a) Repression
b) Projection
c) Sublimation
d) Cognition - The process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information in the brain is known as:
a) Perception
b) Cognition
c) Memory
d) Attention - Which of the following is an example of positive reinforcement?
a) Removing a privilege for misbehavior
b) Giving a child a sticker for good behavior
c) Ignoring unwanted behavior
d) Punishing a student for cheating - The concept of “flow” in positive psychology was introduced by:
a) Martin Seligman
b) Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
c) Carol Dweck
d) Daniel Goleman - Which of the following is not a stage in Kübler-Ross’s model of grief?
a) Denial
b) Anger
c) Bargaining
d) Acceptance
e) Regression - The tendency to rely too heavily on one trait or piece of information when making decisions is called:
a) Framing effect
b) Anchoring bias
c) Availability heuristic
d) Representativeness heuristic - Which of the following is not one of Gardner’s multiple intelligences?
a) Musical-rhythmic
b) Verbal-linguistic
c) Logical-mathematical
d) Emotional-social - The phenomenon where people conform to a group’s behavior despite their own beliefs is known as:
a) Groupthink
b) Social loafing
c) Bystander effect
d) Deindividuation - In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which need comes immediately after physiological needs?
a) Safety
b) Love and belonging
c) Esteem
d) Self-actualization - The belief that one’s own group or culture is superior to others is called:
a) In-group favoritism
b) Out-group derogation
c) Ethnocentrism
d) Cultural relativism - Which of the following is not a type of long-term memory?
a) Episodic
b) Semantic
c) Procedural
d) Sensory - The psychological principle that states that people tend to remember the first and last items in a series best is called:
a) Recency effect
b) Primacy effect
c) Serial position effect
d) Von Restorff effect - Which of the following is not a stage in Piaget’s theory of cognitive development?
a) Sensorimotor
b) Preoperational
c) Concrete operational
d) Abstract operational - The phenomenon where people overestimate their ability to have predicted an outcome that could not have been predicted is called:
a) Hindsight bias
b) Overconfidence effect
c) Illusory correlation
d) Self-fulfilling prophecy - Which of the following is not one of the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?
a) Frontal
b) Parietal
c) Temporal
d) Medial - The tendency for people to exert less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone is known as:
a) Social facilitation
b) Social loafing
c) Groupthink
d) Conformity - Which of the following is not a type of psychological research method?
a) Experimental
b) Correlational
c) Case study
d) Hypothetical - The process by which we organize and interpret sensory information to give it meaning is called:
a) Sensation
b) Perception
c) Cognition
d) Attention - Which of the following is not one of Sternberg’s three types of intelligence?
a) Analytical
b) Creative
c) Practical
d) Emotional - The psychological perspective that focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in shaping behavior is:
a) Behaviorism
b) Cognitive psychology
c) Humanistic psychology
d) Psychoanalysis - The phenomenon where people tend to like things merely because they are familiar with them is called:
a) Mere exposure effect
b) Halo effect
c) Familiarity principle
d) Propinquity effect - Which of the following is not a stage in the General Adaptation Syndrome proposed by Hans Selye?
a) Alarm
b) Resistance
c) Exhaustion
d) Recovery - The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and those of others is known as:
a) Cognitive intelligence
b) Emotional intelligence
c) Social intelligence
d) Practical intelligence - Which of the following is not a type of learning according to behaviorism?
a) Classical conditioning
b) Operant conditioning
c) Observational learning
d) Insight learning - The psychological disorder characterized by extreme mood swings between mania and depression is:
a) Major depressive disorder
b) Bipolar disorder
c) Cyclothymic disorder
d) Dysthymic disorder - The concept that describes how people’s expectations influence how they interpret situations is called:
a) Self-fulfilling prophecy
b) Confirmation bias
c) Cognitive dissonance
d) Fundamental attribution error - Which of the following is not one of the stages in Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
a) Pre-conventional
b) Conventional
c) Post-conventional
d) Trans-conventional - The phenomenon where people conform to social roles and expectations is known as:
a) Social facilitation
b) Social loafing
c) Role theory
d) Social identity theory - Which of the following is not a type of attachment style according to attachment theory?
a) Secure
b) Anxious-ambivalent
c) Avoidant
d) Disorganized
e) Codependent - The psychological perspective that focuses on how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others is:
a) Cognitive psychology
b) Social psychology
c) Developmental psychology
d) Personality psychology - The tendency to perceive a relationship between variables when no such relationship exists is called:
a) Illusory correlation
b) Confirmation bias
c) Availability heuristic
d) Representativeness heuristic - Which of the following is not one of the stages in the transtheoretical model of behavior change?
a) Precontemplation
b) Contemplation
c) Preparation
d) Actualization - The psychological principle that states that the whole is different from the sum of its parts is associated with:
a) Behaviorism
b) Cognitivism
c) Gestalt psychology
d) Psychoanalysis - The phenomenon where people are more likely to help others when fewer people are present is known as:
a) Diffusion of responsibility
b) Bystander effect
c) Social facilitation
d) Altruism - Which of the following is not a type of cognitive bias?
a) Anchoring bias
b) Availability heuristic
c) Dunning-Kruger effect
d) Cognitive dissonance - The psychological perspective that focuses on the role of meaning, self-actualization, and personal growth is:
a) Psychoanalysis
b) Behaviorism
c) Humanistic psychology
d) Cognitive psychology - The tendency for people to attribute positive events to internal factors and negative events to external factors is called:
a) Fundamental attribution error
b) Self-serving bias
c) Actor-observer bias
d) Confirmation bias - Which of the following is not one of the “dark triad” personality traits?
a) Narcissism
b) Machiavellianism
c) Psychopathy
d) Neuroticism - The psychological phenomenon where people tend to overestimate the intensity and duration of their emotional reactions to future events is called:
a) Affective forecasting
b) Emotional intelligence
c) Mood congruence
d) Emotional regulation - Which of the following is not a type of problem-solving strategy?
a) Algorithm
b) Heuristic
c) Trial and error
d) Intuition - The psychological perspective that focuses on how behavior and mental processes can be explained through natural selection and adaptation is:
a) Cognitive psychology
b) Behavioral psychology
c) Evolutionary psychology
d) Social psychology
Please check the Answers to this Entrance Exam Model Question of MA Psychology Second Set here.
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