Can You Pass Psychology 101?

Quiz: Can You Pass Psychology 101?

Twelve questions on famous experiments, theories and terms from introductory psychology. See how much you remember from the classroom, or from curious reading.

1. Which scientist is famous for conditioning dogs to salivate at a signal that predicted food?

   • Ivan Pavlov
   • Sigmund Freud
   • Carl Jung

   Ivan Pavlov's work on dogs became the classic example of classical conditioning.

2. Who proposed the 'hierarchy of needs', often drawn as a pyramid?

   • Abraham Maslow
   • Jean Piaget
   • B. F. Skinner

   Abraham Maslow described needs ranging from basic physical ones up to self-actualisation.

3. The 'Skinner box' was used to study which kind of learning?

   • Operant conditioning
   • Classical conditioning
   • Observational learning

   B. F. Skinner used it to show how rewards and consequences shape behaviour, known as operant conditioning.

4. Stanley Milgram's famous experiments in the 1960s studied…

   • Obedience to authority
   • Memory for faces
   • Sleep and dreaming

   Milgram tested how far people would follow an authority figure's instructions to give what they believed were electric shocks.

5. Who led the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment?

   • Philip Zimbardo
   • Solomon Asch
   • Albert Bandura

   Philip Zimbardo ran the study at Stanford University; it is now widely criticised for its methods.

6. In Freud's model of the mind, which part is driven by the 'pleasure principle'?

   • The id
   • The ego
   • The superego

   Freud described the id as seeking immediate gratification, while the ego and superego balance and restrain it.

7. The discomfort of holding two conflicting beliefs is known as…

   • Cognitive dissonance
   • Confirmation bias
   • Learned helplessness

   Leon Festinger introduced the theory of cognitive dissonance in the 1950s.

8. George Miller's famous 1956 paper described short-term memory capacity as 'the magical number'…

   • Three, plus or minus one
   • Seven, plus or minus two
   • Twelve, plus or minus three

   Miller suggested people can hold roughly seven, plus or minus two, items in short-term memory.

9. Jean Piaget is best known for his theory of…

   • Cognitive development in children
   • Personality types
   • Group behaviour

   Piaget described stages through which children's thinking develops.

10. When a person improves after taking a treatment with no active ingredient, this is called…

    • The placebo effect
    • The halo effect
    • The bystander effect

    The placebo effect shows how expectations alone can change how we feel.

11. Which of these is NOT one of the 'Big Five' personality traits?

    • Openness
    • Conscientiousness
    • Intuition
    • Agreeableness

    The Big Five are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

12. The 'bystander effect' describes how…

    • People are less likely to help when many others are present
    • People copy the person standing next to them
    • Witnesses remember events better in groups

    Responsibility feels spread out in a crowd, so each individual becomes less likely to step in.