CLEP Introductory Psychology Questions
And Answers Latest Update 2024/2025
absolute refractory period Answer: A brief period toward the end of neural stimulation during
which the nerve cannot be restimulated.
Absolute threshold Answer: The lowest level of intensity of a stimulus at which its presence or
absence can be correctly detected 50 percent of the time.
Accommodation Answer: In Piaget's system, the adaptive modification of the child's cognitive
structures in order to deal with new objects or experiences.
ACTH (adrenocorticotrophic hormone) Answer: A hormone secreted by the pituitary gland in
response to stress, causing the adrenal cortex to secrete corticosterone.
Adrenaline Answer: Also called epinephrine; a substance produced by the adrenal gland which is
related to increases in general arousal.
Afferent nerves Answer: Nerves carried by the dorsal root which relay sensory impulses to the
central nervous system; sometimes used synonymously with sensory nerves.
Amygdala Answer: A part of the limbic system, the system where emotion is organized, it is located
between the hypothalamus and pituitary gland and becomes active whenever we encounter anything
new or unexpected.
Androgens Answer: Substances associated with male sex hormone activity in vertebrates, produced
mainly by the testes and to a small extent by ovaries and the adrenal cortex.
,Aphasia Answer: Loss or impairment of the ability to express or receive linguistic communications,
resulting from cerebral damage to the parietotemporal cortex.
Assimilation Answer: In Piaget's theory, the taking in of new information. Assimilation ultimately
results in the accommodation of a schema to the new information.
Associationism Answer: In psychophysics and cognition the theoretical approach that complex ideas
are the result of associations between simple elements. In learning theories synonymous with the
Stimulus-Response connection.
Behavior modification Answer: The application of scientifically derived principles to the control of
human behavior. Both classical and operant conditioning may be employed.
Behaviorism Answer: A system of psychology, founded by John B. Watson, which studied
observable, measurable stimuli and responses only, without reference to consciousness or mental
constructs, which the system argues have no real utility. The objective is to predict the response evoked
by certain stimuli.
Cannon-Bard theory Answer: A theory of emotion that holds that bodily reaction and emotional
experience occur simultaneously because they are both controlled from the same place in the midbrain.
Catatonia Answer: Generally, any reaction in which there is a complete withdrawal characterized by
an inhibition of movement, speech, and responsiveness to the environment.
Classical conditioning Answer: A form of learning in which an originally neutral stimulus repeatedly
paired with a reinforcer elicits a response. The neutral stimulus is the conditioning stimulus, the
reinforcer is the unconditioned stimulus, the unlearned response is the unconditioned response, and the
learned response is the conditioned response.
Cognitive dissonance Answer: An uncomfortable psychological conflict between beliefs and
behavior. Also the motivational position that the individual will take to reduce the dissonance.
, Comparative psychology Answer: The branch of psychology which compares behavioral differences
among the species on the phylogenetic scale to discover developmental trends.
Compulsion Answer: An irrational and unwanted repetition of an activity which arises when one can
no longer control an anxiety or attempts to satisfy an obsession.
Concordance rate Answer: Probability that one of a pair of twins will show a given characteristic,
given that the other twin has the characteristic.
Concurrent validity Answer: A measure of how well a test measures what it was designed to
measure by comparing the test results of the experimental group with test results of those people who
are already in the field for which the test was designed.
Confounding Answer: Simultaneous variation of a second variable with a independent variable of
interest so that any effect on the dependent variable cannot be attributed with certainty to the
independent variable; inherent in correlational research.
Congruence Answer: What is experienced inside and what is expressed outwardly are consistent.
Conservation Answer: Piaget's term implying that certain quantitative attributes of objects remain
unchanged unless something is added to or taken away from them. Such characteristics of objects as
mass, number, area, volume, and so forth are capable of being conserved. For example, at a certain level
of development one realizes that the amount of water is not changed by pouring it into glasses of
different shapes.
Construct validity Answer: The extent to which a particular item in a test is a true measure of some
abstract trait or concept that can only be verified indirectly.
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