PSYCHOLOGY 300: HUMAN DIVERSITY

Quiz 2: February 22, 2000

1.  Briefly describe the following:

a. Parasympathetic nervous system processes

Cholinergic process that maintains homeostasis.
Decrease heart rate and increase of digestive activity during "non emergency" / normal function.

b. Sympathetic nervous system processes

Adrenergic process. Emergency reactions that include increase heart rate and sweat gland activity.

c. rGxGy

Genetic correlation of trait x and trait y. The extent to which the same genes influence both traits.

d. Intelligence quotient (IQ)

Mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100.

 

2.    Several researchers have attempted to evaluate the "equal environments" assumption in studies of twins reared together. Describe one such study and its results.
 

Study of mz and dz twins whose zygosity was either correctly or incorrectly identified. Results indicated that the true zygosity was more influential in twin similarity than what the parents believed the zygosity to be.
 

3.  Briefly identify the psychoanalytic approach to personality, and identify one criticism of this approach.

Personality is dynamically fashioned from the interactions the basic instinct of sex and aggression and societal controls over their expression during development.

The theory is untestable.

or

Identify the major criticism of self rating methods for personality assessment, and name one partial remedy for this problem.

The major criticism is that people tend to present themselves in a favorable light; there is a tendency towards socially desirable answers.

One partial remedy is a lie scale.