AB ? Pre-Board Exam-1
AB ? Pre-Board Exam-1
AB ? Pre-Board Exam-1
23)
1. The scientific study of psychological disorders is called
a) Psychoanalysis
b) Psychotherapy
c) Psychopathology
d) Parapsychology
2. A ____ is what first brought the individual to therapy; the ____ represents the unique
combination of behaviors, thoughts and feelings that make up a specific disorder.
a) Diagnosis;symptoms
b) Presenting problem;clinical description
c) Clinical description;presenting problem
d) Incidence;prevalence
3. Prevalence refers to
a) How many people have recovered from a disorder in a given period of time
b) How many new cases of a disorder occur during a given period of time
c) The percentage of males and females who have a disorder.
d) How many people in the population as a whole have a disorder
4. Incidence refers to
a) How many new cases of a disorder occur during a given period of time
b) How many people have recovered from a disorder in a given period of time
c) The percentage of males and females who have a disorder.
d) How many people in the population as a whole have a disorder
5. A psychological disorder is said to have an acute onset if the symptoms develop ____,
while it has an insidious onset if the symptoms develop ____.
a) suddenly;atypically
b) suddenly;gradually
c) gradually;atypically
d) atypically;suddenly
6. Which of the following would be the most appropriate way of describing someone with a
mental illness?
a) Schizophrenic man
b) An individual with schizophrenia
c) Bipolar woman
d) Depressed boy
7. When Miguel was diagnosed with PTSD, his family wanted to know how the disorder would
affect him and its progression. In medical terms, they wanted to know Miguel’s _____
a) Prognosis
b) Diagnosis
c) Pathology
d) Psychological Profile
8. John’s parents were both diagnosed with specific phobia. This will make it more likely for
John to be diagnosed with the same disorder in the future. This can be considered as a _.
a) Precipitating factor
b) Protective factor
c) Perpetuating factor
d) Predisposing factor
a) Biological causes
b) Psychological causes
c) Biological & Psychological causes
d) The physical structure and chemical processes of the brain
a) Operates independently
b) Is sufficient to cause pathology’
c) Builds on the dimension that precedes it
d) Is influenced by other dimensions
11. The fact that a disorder can be caused by a variety of factors illustrates the principle of
____
a) Equilibration
b) Equifinality
c) Equilibrium
d) Equality
13. The process of determining whether an individual’s symptoms meet the criteria for a specific
psychological disorder is called ______
a) Prognosis
b) Diagnosis
c) Pathology
d) Analysis
a) Family history
b) Past life
c) Current life
d) All of the above
15. In order for one to be diagnosed with panic disorder, the panic attacks must _.
16. Unlike other types of anxiety disorder, this one is not triggered by anything specific,
hence the name free-floating anxiety.
a) Agoraphobia
b) Panic Disorder
c) Specific Phobia
d) Generalized Anxiety Disorder
17. A man becomes elated by taking certain drugs. This drug is being taken by the person
through a syringe. The sight of the syringe itself makes the person elated as well. The
UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS in this example is the _.
a) Drug
b) Syringe
c) Person
d) Elation
18. The traditional cutoff in diagnosing intellectual disability
a) IQ score below 80
b) IQ score below 70
c) IQ score below 60
d) IQ score below 50
20. While out for a walk, you come across a ferocious dog. You feel your heart beat faster and
your palms begin to sweat. Which part of the peripheral nervous system is activated in this
situation?
a) Autonomic
b) Sympathetic
c) Parasympathetic
d) Somatic
21. A male college student begins feeling sad and lonely. Although still able to go to classes
and work at his job, he finds himself feeling down much of the time and worrying about what is
happening to him. Which part of the definition of abnormality applies to his situation?
a) personal distress
b) cultural factors
c) impaired functioning
d) violation of societal norms
22. Which of the following characteristics best describes differences between bulimia nervosa
and anorexia nervosa?
a) Individuals with anorexia do not have as severe health risks as individuals with bulimia have.
b) Individuals with bulimia may have a normal body weight, whereas those with anorexia tend to
be severely under their expected body weight.
c) Individuals with anorexia have been known to binge like those with bulimia on occasion.
d) Anorexia tends to occur in early adulthood, while bulimia often starts in early adolescence.
23. Elliot became widowed after nearly 40 years of marriage. He has convinced himself that
no one will ever love him again. His irrational thinking has caused him to suffer from depression,
and he rarely leaves his house. What perspective might best explain his behavior?
a) psychodynamic
b) cognitive
c) behavioral
d) biological
24. Sandy took part in the April 2013 Boston Marathon, where two bombs were detonated near
the finish line, killing three spectators. For approximately 2 weeks after the marathon, Sandy
was unable to sleep or concentrate and often found herself reliving the moment she heard the
bombs explode. What disorder might Sandy be diagnosed with?
25. Franklin wakes up in a homeless shelter in another town. He doesn’t know where he is or
how he got there, and he’s confused when people say he has been calling himself Anthony. This
is most likely an episode of dissociative
a) amnesia.
b) amnesia with fugue.
c) wandering.
d) multiple personality
26. David believes that characters in a popular science fiction show are secretly sending
him messages. This would be an example of a delusion of
a) persecution
b) influence
c) reference
d) grandeur
a) Psychodynamic
b) Adlerian
c) Jungian
d) Behavioral
28. Charles has suffered from schizophrenia for many years and now resides in a group
treatment facility. One day a nurse approaches him and quietly tells him that his sister, who has
been fighting cancer for many months, died that morning. Charles has no appreciable facial
reaction, and in a very monotone voice says, “okay.” The nurse is not surprised by Charles’s
lack of response to the awful news, because she knows that _________ is one symptom often
seen in those suffering from schizophrenia.
a) clang associations
b) echolalia
c) blunted affect
d) perseveration
29. Roger has suffered a major brain injury. As a result, he is unable to speak fluently, tends to
mispronounce words, and speaks haltingly. For instance, he says “wat” instead of “watch” and
“tot” instead of “talk.” What is the diagnosis?
a) Agnosia
b) Spatial neglect
c) Broca’s aphasia
d) Prosopagnosia
30. Latresha is not hungry, is extremely tired, and doesn’t feel like doing much of anything.
She often feels that life is just hopeless. These symptoms have been going on for 2 months
now. She probably is suffering from which mood disorder?
31. Which neurotransmitter is reduced in both the manic and the depressive phases of
bipolar disorder?
a) acetylcholine
b) dopamine
c) norepinephrine
d) serotonin
32. Gabriel is depressed. He has been looking for a job for the past year without success.
Today, his best friend tried to give him two books on job interviews, but he turned down the offer.
What concept best explains his reaction?
a) observational learning
b) insight learning
c) learned helplessness
d) modeling
33. Dr. Haldol has several patients with schizophrenia who appear to exhibit excessive or
distorted characteristics in relation to what one might consider normal functioning. Specific
symptoms include varied hallucinations and multiple delusions. According to the DSM-5, these
are referred to as
a) flat affect.
b) positive symptoms.
c) negative symptoms.
d) catatonia.
34. Behavioral theorists link depression to ___, whereas social cognitive theorists point to ___.
35. When you take your final exam in your psychology class, what type of memory will you
most certainly need to access to answer each question?
a) Nondeclarative
b) Episodic
c) semantic
d) working
36. _______ memory stores information about facts, whereas _______ memory stores
information about our personal experiences.
a) Declarative, episodic
b) Episodic, sematic
c) Semantic, nondeclarative
d) Semantic, episodic
37. Binge-eating disorder is different from bulimia in that individuals with binge-eating disorder
38. Colleen found herself attracted to her psychology instructor. She would frequently go by
his office just to be near him. When he didn’t respond to her advances, Colleen eventually told
him that she had thoughts of killing herself so that he would spend time trying to counsel her.
What personality disorder best describes Colleen’s thinking and behavior?
a) borderline personality disorder
b) schizoid personality disorder
c) schizotypal personality disorder
d) antisocial personality disorder
39. Dr. Kali works with clients to help them learn deep relaxation. Next, he has them list
their fears from least to most anxiety provoking. Finally, Dr. Kali slowly exposes his clients to
each of their fears and assists them in gaining control of their anxiety. His approach is best
known as
a) aversion therapy.
b) systematic desensitization.
c) flooding.
d) fear therapy
40. Nicole’s therapist tells her that she is applying arbitrary inference to her thinking, which
ultimately is causing her to be depressed. Which of the following is an example of Nicole’s
arbitrary inference?
a) Nicole maximizes the bad things she experiences while minimizing the good aspects of life.
b) Nicole focuses strictly on a single negative event while ignoring less negative aspects.
c) Nicole tends to overgeneralize a single bad event and assume all things about her life are
failing.
d) Nicole tends to jump to conclusions with little or no evidence to support her beliefs.
41. Jolo is a 5-year-old boy who does not speak, waves his arms around a lot, does not make
eye contact, and does not seem to connect with other kids or adults. Jolo may have which
disorder?
42. Maya is so preoccupied with fears of embarrassing or humiliating herself in public that
she avoids going shopping or out for walks in town. What disorder best describes this set of
symptoms?
a) humanistic
b) cognitive–behavioral
c) cognitive
d) psychodynamic
44. Jennifer studied for a week for her psychology exam. She took careful notes, made note
cards, reviewed them many times, and even had her roommate test her. She even developed
visual images and mnemonics for help her learn the four steps in forming memories. But when
she read a question on the exam about this material, she got confused and got it wrong. Which
memory process is probably where Jennifer’s memory failure occurred?
a) Encoding
b) Consolidation
c) Storage
d) Retrieval
45. What kind of memory do we use to keep someone’s phone number in mind long enough to
put it in our contacts?
a) working memory
b) iconic memory
c) long-term memory
d) sensory memory
46. Stephan gets a text message from his girlfriend saying that she will have to work overtime
tonight. Stephan immediately assumes his girlfriend is seeing someone else at work. Beck
would say that Stephan has engaged in what type of distorted thinking?
a) arbitrary inference
b) selective thinking
c) overgeneralization
d) personalization
47. An individual with a certain personality disorder likes to work on his painting again and
again. He repeatedly says “I am the greatest artist in the world” while he is engaged in his
hobby. He is most likely to be diagnosed with _.
a) Histrionic PD
b) Antisocial PD
c) Obsessive Compulsive PD
d) Narcissistic PD
a) Schizotypal PD
b) Schizoid PD
c) Paranoid PD
d) Avoidant PD
50. Which perspective focuses on the influence of the unconscious mind over conscious
behavior?
a) psychodynamic
b) behaviourist
c) humanistic
d) cognitive
51. Regine is afraid of riding of both riding the train and going to the mall because she might
experience panic attack. She thinks that it will be embarrassing and difficult to escape these
situations and that one will help her. We can say that Regine has _.
a) Panic Disorder
b) Situational Phobia
c) Agoraphobia
d) Social Anxiety Disorder
52. One suggested physiological cause of antisocial personality disorder is that people with
this condition have:
a) lack of appropriate short-term memory related to ethical and moral rules, caused by deficient
function in the hippocampus.
b) lower-than-normal levels of stress hormones.
c) increased activity in the prefrontal cortex.
d) heightened sensitivity to external stimuli in the amygdala
53. Calvin is terribly worried that his college education was wasted when he doesn’t get his
dream job. Furthermore, Calvin believes he ruined his future when he did poorly in his job
interview. Calvin explains, “I had to ace the interview. It had to be perfect, and it wasn’t!” How
might a cognitive-behavioral psychologist classify this distorted thought process?
a) magnification
b) overgeneralization
c) all-or-nothing thinking
d) minimization
55. Rolando, a man with bulimia has eaten one small piece of chocolate. He said that
because of this, his diet is now “ruined” and therefore, they might as well go ahead and eat
excessively. Such irrational thinking is an example of the cognitive distortion known as
a) overgeneralization.
b) all-or-nothing thinking.
c) magnification.
d) minimization.
56. On your first call as a paramedic, you enter the house of a man who has covered his
walls and ceiling in aluminum foil to protect his brain from the thought-controlling rays of the
government. This is an example of a __________ delusion.
a) Persecution
b) Reference
c) influence
d) grandeur
57. Which of the following cases would a humanistic approach probably be LEAST effective in
treating?
58. Dr. Williams uses exposure-based therapies to treat many of her patients. Client A is
actually confronted with the situation that causes her anxiety, while Client B is asked to think
about and visualize the frightening situation. Client A’s treatment method would be described as
____________, while client B’s treatment method is ____________.
a) virtual; in vivo
b) imaginal; virtual
c) in vivo; imaginal
d) virtual; in vivo
59. Which therapy style requires the therapist to actively confront a client’s irrational beliefs?
a) person-centered
b) frontal lobotomy
c) behavior therapy
d) cognitive-behavioral therapy
60. As consequences to stopping drug use, headaches, nausea, shaking, and elevated
blood pressure are all signs of
a) withdrawal.
b) overdose.
c) psychological dependency.
d) amphetamine toxicity.
61. Stan is addicted to drugs and needs to take larger and larger doses to achieve the same
initial effect. This is an example of
a) psychological dependence.
b) withdrawal symptoms.
c) drug tolerance.
d) learned behavior.
62. Sara dreams of becoming a celebrity. In her dream, she sees an old lady guiding her
towards a path that will help her become a star. In reality, her mother wants her to become a
successful artist. According to Sigmund Freud, the inner meaning of her dream—that her
mother wants Sara to become successful—is an example of ___________, while the part where
she becomes a celebrity is an example of _______.
63. Joe owned a small repair shop. Each day, he would check the mail to see if any of his
customers mailed in a payment for the work he had done for them. Some days, he would
receive a check or two. At other times, he would have to wait days before getting another
payment. What schedule of reinforcement is evident here?
a) fixed interval
b) fixed ratio
c) variable interval
d) variable ratio
64. Gary has been depressed because one of his students failed the final exam. But he does
not pay attention to the fact that the other 149 passed. This is an illustration of _.
a) Arbitrary Inference
b) Learned Helplessness
c) Dichotomous Thinking
d) Selective Abstraction
65. To be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, one must fulfill 5 out of the 9 criteria in the
DSM – 5. Among those 5 one of them must be (1) depressed mood and/or (2) _.
a) Alogia
b) Psychomotor Retardation
c) Anergia
d) Anhedonia
66. Yancy has been suffering for mild depression for more days than not during the last 2
years. There is no history of either hypomanic or manic episodes. This chronic form of
depression is known as _.
67. Freud would say that depression is caused by death of a loved one. Unable to accept
the loss, mourners at first regress to the oral stage of development, the period of total
dependency when infants cannot distinguish themselves from their parents. This theory is
known as
a) Learned Helplessness
b) Symbolic Loss
c) Introjected Loss
d) Negative Triad
68. Theresa is hospitalized following a suicide attempt after breaking up with her boyfriend.
Freudian psychoanalytic theory would explain Theresa’s suicide attempt in which of the
following ways?
a) Physical Neglect
b) Emotional Neglect
c) Physical Abuse
d) Emotional Abuse
71. Emil is currently exhibiting the symptoms of a hypomanic episode. Which would MOST
LIKELY happen to him?
75. People with Schizotypal PD may become unduly suspicious of others or paranoid in
their thinking. They may develop _, the believing that others are talking about them behind their
backs.
a) Magical Thinking
b) Savant Syndrome
c) Delusion of reference
d) Ideas of reference
76. People with _ personality disorder tends to be self-dramatizing, attention seeking, overly
gregarious, and seductive. Beneath is an all-consuming need for approval and a desperate
striving to be conspicuous and to evoke affection or attract attention at all costs.
a) Borderline
b) Antisocial
c) Narcissistic
d) Histrionic
a) Dichotomous thinking
b) Overgeneralization
c) Minimization
d) Personalization
79. Barbara burned the toast. She thinks, “I’m a totally incompetent person.” What automatic
thought does this statement represent?
a) Selective abstraction
b) Magnification
c) Minimization
d) Personalization
80. Dr. Carol, is working with John, a client who abuses alcohol. John has experienced a
successful detoxification process and is beginning a program of rehabilitation. He says to Carol,
“I’m not going to go to those stupid AA meetings. They don’t help anything.” Carol, whose father
died of complications from alcoholism, responds with anger: “Don’t you even care what happens
to your children?” Carol’s response is an example of which of the following?
a) Transference
b) Countertransference
c) Self-disclosure
d) Congruence
81. Lorraine has been diagnosed with somatic symptom disorder. Which of the following
symptom profiles would you expect when assessing Lorraine?
82. Cristina is deceptively fabricating physical symptoms such as headache, fever, cough
and others. She does this to assume the sick role and she has no other desired benefits other
than this. We can say that Cristina has/is
a) Pain Disorder
b) Malingering
c) Somatic Symptom Disorder
d) Factitious Disorder
83. Conversion of psychological conflicts to physical symptoms is to _ while getting attention
from others and avoidance of responsibility is to _.
84. A mother deceptively reports signs and symptoms of illness in her child, resulting to the
child’s hospitalization. What would be the diagnosis for the child?
85. Jude usually eats longer than a normal person would until he feels uncomfortably full. This
would be followed by compensatory behaviors such as induced vomiting and starvation. He had
been doing this for once a week for the past three months. Which of the following factors will
rule out the diagnosis of Bulimia Nervosa?
a) If he is overweight
b) If he is 15% below normal body weight
c) His compensatory behaviors
d) The presence of binge-eating
86. A person eats tissue papers before his scheduled meal time so that he will feel full and stay
underweight by not eating nutritious food. This person is exhibiting a symptom of
a) Pica Disorder
b) Anorexia Nervosa
c) Bulimia Nervosa
d) Binge-eating Disorder
87. Tony, diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, is currently exhibiting atypical features by
means of overeating and increased appetite. In contrast to someone with Bulimia Nervosa, Tony
does not have _
a) Compensatory behaviors
b) Normal or above normal weight
c) Problems with self-esteem
d) Both A and C
88. All types of abuse include _.
a) Physical Neglect
b) Emotional Neglect
c) Physical Abuse
d) Emotional Abuse
89. If someone with Dependent PD has been abandoned by the person he/she was dependent
to, the most probable reaction is to _.
90. Which of the following is an early behavioral clue that a person is going to commit
suicide?
91. One surprising finding about brain activity during hallucination is that __ is more active
than __.
92. Angel, an overweight adult, is binge-eating for once a week for the last three months. She
has concerns with her body weight and feels disgusted about herself. She often feels guilty
because she does not have any compensatory behaviors after eating. What is the appropriate
diagnosis?
93. Maymay is very conscious of her facial appearance. She plucks her eyebrows frequently,
saying “they make me look ugly.” She experiences subjective distress even though her
appearance is reasonably normal. We can say that Maymay has _.
a) Body Dysmorphic Disorder
b) Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
c) Trichotillomania
d) Excoriation
94. A psychological report was faked by a psychologist who was paid by the client so that the
he can go back to his job even though he is not yet cleared. The ethical principle violated was
95. Jamal, 8 years old, is currently being assessed by Dr. Monica for verbal and physical
aggression inside and outside the school. She is considering Intermittent Explosive Disorder
and Conduct Disorder as the two possible diagnoses. Dr. Monica can confidently say that the
diagnosis is IED rather than CD if _.
97. How can you say that a person has a specific learning disorder?
a) Avolition
b) Alogia
c) Apathy
d) Both A and C
100. A person who experienced blindness without any physical cause can be diagnosed with
_.
a) Conversion Disorder
b) Hypochondriasis
c) Illness Anxiety Disorder
d) Somatic Symptom Disorder