One day your mother says that an aunt of yours is "abnormal," but your father insists that she is not. Your parents ask your opinion, because they know that you are taking a psychology course
Describe for them the seven criteria that might be used to label behavior as abnormal, mentioning some of the problems associated with making a decision concerning abnormality.
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Criteria include: distress or disability; maladaptiveness; irrationality; unpredictability; unconventionality and statistical rarity; observer discomfort; and violation of moral and ideal standards. Problems include the difficulty of being objective; not being able to define abnormal with just one of the indicators; the judgment involved in calling someone abnormal; disagreement on the definition; and the tendency for professionals to see everything a person does as abnormal when he/she has been labeled that way.
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Positive punishment ____ the likelihood that the preceding behavior will be repeated. Negative punishment ____ the likelihood that the preceding behavior will be repeated.
A. increases; increases B. increases; decreases C. decreases; increases D. decreases; decreases
Jenna, who is recovering from drug addiction, attends counseling sessions so that she will no longer associate the sight of a needle and syringe with an expected drug effect. During the counseling sessions, Jenna handles a syringe without receiving any drugs as her counselor pairs a new signal with the sight of the syringe: a favorite song of Jenna’s. The method used here illustrates the use of
____. a. ?extinction b. ?an inhibitory conditioned stimulus c. an excitatory unconditioned stimulus d. ?cognitive mapping
Patrick is a 65-year-old who feels that since he has not conceived a child, his life has had little meaning. According to Erikson, Patrick has unsuccessfully resolved which of the following stages of psychosocial development?
A. Identity versus role confusion B. Intimacy versus isolation C. Generativity versus stagnation D. Ego integrity versus despair
The estimated standard error of the mean becomes a better predictor whenever the distribution of sample means
a. is skewed b. is bimodal c. is platykurtic d. none of these