Free Abnormal Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. dissociative disorders.
• B. generalized anxiety disorders.
• C. bipolar disorders.
• D. schizoprenia

Explanation: Prenatal viral infections may disrupt fetal brain development and increase vulnerability to schizophrenia later in life.

• A. sleep
• B. perception
• C. memory
• D. appetite

Explanation: Dissociative disorders involve a disruption in normally integrated memory, identity, consciousness, or perception, with memory disturbance…

• A. dissociative identity disorder
• B. bipolar disorder
• C. obsessive-compulsive disorder
• D. antisocial personality disorder

Explanation: Antisocial personality disorder is diagnosed much more often in men than in women, unlike the other listed disorders, which do not show…

• A. an earlier onset, but lower relapse rates
• B. a later onset, but higher relapse rates
• C. an earlier onset and higher relapse rates
• D. a later onset and lower relapse rates

Explanation: Schizophrenia generally begins earlier in males, and males often show a less favourable course, including greater relapse risk, than…

• A. obsessive-compulsive disorder
• B. schizophrenia
• C. dissociation
• D. depression

Explanation: Depression is sometimes called the “common cold” of psychological disorders because it is highly prevalent and affects people across many…

• A. personality
• B. mood.
• C. distymic
• D. anxiety

Explanation: Post-traumatic stress disorder is classified as a trauma- and stressor-related disorder in current diagnostic systems, but older…

• A. bipolar disorder
• B. catatonia
• C. antisocial personality disorder
• D. agoraphobia

Explanation: Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder because it involves clinically significant episodes of mania or hypomania and depression.

• A. psychoanalytic theory.
• B. the medical model.
• C. learning theory.
• D. the social-cognitive perspective.

Explanation: A chemical imbalance in the central nervous system is a biological explanation, so evidence for it would support the medical model.

• A. was spawned by a cultural milieu that viewed the self as an independent, rational being.
• B. embrances universal cultural values.
• C. has been successfully exported to many non-Western cultures.
• D. involves both b and c.

Explanation: Modern psychotherapy developed within a Western cultural setting that emphasized the self as an independent, rational individual.

• A. depressive
• B. schizophrenic
• C. obsessive-compulsive
• D. both a and c

Explanation: SSRIs increase serotonin availability and are commonly used for depressive disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

• A. systematic desensitization.
• B. biofeedback.
• C. a token economy procedure.
• D. social skills training.

Explanation: Practising listening in role-plays and then applying it with increasingly challenging people is social skills training.

• A. generalized anxiety
• B. panic
• C. obsessive-compulsive
• D. phobic

Explanation: Systematic desensitization combines relaxation with gradual exposure to feared objects or situations, making it especially suitable for…

• A. insight therapy is superior to no treatment or placebo treatment.
• B. individual insight therapy is effective but group therapy is not.
• C. group therapy is effective, but individual insight therapy is not.
• D. insight therapy is only effective if patients are in therapy for at least two years.

Explanation: Outcome research generally finds that insight-oriented therapy performs better than receiving no treatment or a placebo condition.

• A. Psychodynamic therapy
• B. client-centered therapy
• C. aversion therapy
• D. cognitive therapy

Explanation: Challenging the belief that being left proves she is a failure and asking for evidence targets distorted thinking, a central method of…

• A. identify the early childhood unconscious conflicts that are the source of the client's symptoms.
• B. achieve major personality reconstruction.
• C. alter the frequently of specific problematic responses by using conditioning techniques.
• D. alter the client's brain chemistry by prescribing specific drugs.

Explanation: Behavior therapy focuses on observable problem responses and changes their frequency through learning principles such as conditioning and…

• A. interpretation of the client's thoughts, feelings,memories,and behaviors.
• B. clarification of the client's feelings.
• C. confrontation of the client's irrational thoughts.
• D. modification of the client's problematic behaviors.

Explanation: A client-centered therapist uses empathy and reflective listening to help the client clarify personal feelings and experience.

• A. Modeling
• B. Classical conditioning
• C. Anxiety reduction
• D. Social learning

Explanation: In behavioral terms, avoiding a feared object reduces anxiety, so avoidance is negatively reinforced and the phobia persists.

• A. fear
• B. optimism
• C. guilt
• D. ambivalence

Explanation: Mania involves an abnormally elevated or expansive mood, often expressed as optimism, excessive confidence, and unrealistic plans.

• A. antisocial personality disorder.
• B. schizophrenia
• C. panic disorder.
• D. agoraphobia.

Explanation: Difficulty sustaining attention can appear among the early or prodromal signs of schizophrenia, often alongside social withdrawal and…

• A. behavioral model
• B. humanistic model
• C. medical model
• D. psychological model

Explanation: The medical model treats abnormal behavior as a disease or illness resulting from biological or physiological causes, and therefore…