Free General Psychology MCQs with Answers

• A. a symptom of a histrionic personality disorder
• B. unclear thinking
• C. a skin rash due to the lack of calcium
• D. feeling cold

Explanation: Hypothermia is an abnormally low core body temperature caused by excessive heat loss, commonly accompanied by intense cold and shivering.

• A. personnel psychology
• B. social psychology
• C. organizational psychology
• D. clinical psychology

Explanation: Personnel psychology applies psychological assessment to recruitment, selection, placement, and employee suitability.

• A. flow
• B. experiencing flow
• C. 360-degree feedback
• D. structured interviews

Explanation: 360-degree feedback gathers performance information from a manager's supervisors, peers, subordinates, and customers.

• A. Men think about sex more than women
• B. Men initiate sex more than women
• C. Women are more interested in having many partners than men are
• D. Women are less interested in uncommitted sex

Explanation: Research generally finds greater average male interest in casual sex and multiple partners, while women tend to report less interest in…

• A. depends on early classical conditioning experiences
• B. should be viewed as a continuum
• C. depends on normalities and abnormalities in the amygdala
• D. should be viewed as an either-or distinction

Explanation: Kinsey described sexual orientation on a continuum, ranging from exclusively heterosexual to exclusively homosexual, with intermediate…

• A. dopamine
• B. serotonin
• C. acetylcholine
• D. norepinephrine

Explanation: Research has linked differences between smokers and nonsmokers to genes affecting dopamine responses, since nicotine strongly activates…

• A. social psychology
• B. development psychology
• C. industrial-organizational psychology
• D. personality psychology

Explanation: Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychological principles to employee selection, training, performance, leadership, and…

• A. Alfred Kinsey
• B. Masters and Johnson
• C. David Buss
• D. Sigmund Freud

Explanation: Alfred Kinsey conducted large-scale survey research on human sexual behavior in the 1940s and 1950s.

• A. Emotions
• B. Availability
• C. Hormones
• D. Thinking

Explanation: In most nonhuman species, sexual behavior is primarily governed by hormonal changes that activate reproductive motivation and behavior.

• A. Arousal
• B. Plateau
• C. Excitement
• D. Orgasm

Explanation: The standard human sexual response cycle consists of excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution.

• A. the plateau phase immediately precedes orgasm
• B. orgasm immediately precedes the excitement phase
• C. the excitement phase immediately precedes orgasm
• D. the excitement phase immediately precedes the resolution phase

Explanation: The usual sequence is excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution, so the plateau phase directly precedes orgasm.

• A. Hypothalamus
• B. Hippocampus
• C. Frontal lobe
• D. Carpus Callosum

Explanation: The hypothalamus helps regulate hunger, satiety, and other homeostatic functions involved in eating.

• A. Adult neurons can sometimes from new connections
• B. If one input to a target area is lost, the remaining inputs sometimes send out new branches from their axons to colonize the vacant space
• C. Although transplanted neurons taken from a brain at the right stage of development will grow in an adult host brain, they will not restore normal function
• D. Transplants of dopamine cell bodies alleviate some of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in human patients

Explanation: Dopamine-cell transplants have been investigated mainly for Parkinson's disease, not as an established treatment that alleviates…

• A. We cannot repair damaged brains
• B. We can repair some damaged brains
• C. We can prevent brain damage
• D. We can prevent Parkinson's disease

Explanation: Neural grafting research does not show that all brain damage can be repaired, but it has shown that some damaged neural systems may be…

• A. Antagonists
• B. Agonists
• C. A and B
• D. Synapses

Explanation: Antagonists block or reduce neurotransmitter effects, whereas agonists mimic or enhance them; either can disrupt normal neural…

• A. Inhibitory neurotransmitters increase the excitability of a cell
• B. The classic inhibitory neurotransmitter is glutamate
• C. Increasing chloride ion flow into the interior of the cell decreases the cell's negativity
• D. Increasing the cell's negativity is called hyperpolarization

Explanation: An increase in a cell's negativity is called hyperpolarization and makes firing less likely.

• A. Resting potentials, neurotransmitters
• B. Neurotransmitters, axon potentials
• C. Neurotransmitters, depolarization
• D. Axon potentials; neurotransmitters

Explanation: Electrical signals travel along axons as action potentials, while chemical communication across synapses is mediated by neurotransmitters.

• A. Seizure were caused by chemical discharges in the brain
• B. The cortex can be surgically removed to reduce seizures
• C. Brain regions have highly specialized functions
• D. (b) and (c)

Explanation: Epilepsy research helped establish that different cortical regions have specialized functions and that removing an epileptic focus can…

• A. 1 & 2
• B. 2 & 3
• C. 1 & 3
• D. None

Explanation: Neocortical regions can contain specialized functional modules, and functional imaging can show which regions are active.

• A. Autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic and parasympathetic system
• B. Somatic system, which includes the sympathetic system and parasympathetic system
• C. Autonomic system, which includes the central and somatic system
• D. Somatic system, which includes the central and autonomic system

Explanation: The autonomic nervous system regulates involuntary organs and glands, including the heart and endocrine glands.