COMMON SENSE PSYCHOLOGY QUIZ
T = True
F = False
T F 1. The titles “psychologist” and “psychiatrist” refer to the same profession.
T F 2. Psychologists study behaviour and the mind, but not biology.
T F 3. Some people never dream.
T F 4. When we sleep, the brain sleeps as well.
T F 5. Negative reinforcement is the same as punishment.
T F 6. We can’t do much to improve our memory.
T F 7. Eyewitness testimony is some of the best evidence used by police and in court trials.
T F 8. In order to be creative, a person must be very intelligent.
T F 9. A person’s intelligence is partially determined by brain size.
T F 10. Instinct determines many of our behaviours.
ANSWERS
ALL OF THE ABOVE STATEMENTS ARE FALSE AND ARE MYTHS BASED ON “COMMON SENSE” NOTIONS
1. FALSE: A “psychologist” attends “graduate school” and is trained primarily in research, statistics and talk therapy for those pursuing a “clinical” route. A “psychiatrist” attends “medical school” and is primarily trained in biology, medicine and prescribed medication.
2. FALSE: Psychologists study many things including both social (environmental) influence and biological and physiological influences on human behaviour and are also interested in examining the “interaction” between biology and environment.
3. FALSE: Dreams are quite common and although many people will not remember their dreams it is impossible that someone or a particular individual has never dreamed during their sleep over the course of their life. In fact, since everyone dreams to a certain extent during their sleep, dream analysis or dream interpretation was a famous form of psychoanalysis during the early 1900’s.
4. FALSE: Sleep is categorized into REM and NREM sleep. During NREM sleep brain “delta” waves are active and brain activity is recorded during this division of sleep.
5. FALSE: Negative reinforcement is the “removal” of a negative stimulus, which in turn rewards (reinforces) and “increases” the likelihood of a behaviour to reoccur. Punishment is the “application” of a negative stimulus, which in turn “decreases” the likelihood of a behaviour to reoccur.
6. FALSE: Research shows that many mental and cognitive tasks such as rehearsal, repetition, word puzzles, etc., not only help improve memory but also keep it from degrading or getting worse.
7. FALSE: Research shows that many eyewitness memories can be false, implanted, distorted or made-up. Many after the fact events and experiences can lead individuals to form new memories inconsistent with the real events or distorted ones that are not truly representative of the true events which occurred.
8. FALSE: According to psychological researchers like Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg, Daniel Goleman and others, there are multiple forms of intelligence and many different to your traditional “IQ” measures of intelligence. Being “creative” is a form of intelligence considered to be “separate” from your traditional “IQ.”
9. FALSE: Brain size and intelligence are not related.
10. FALSE: Many factors determine our behaviours beyond “instincts.”
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REFERENCE