PSY234

Exam preparation

Dr Trevor Case
email: Trevor.Case@mq.edu.au

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Final Exam

Multiple-choice exam (40%)

• Held during the exam period (check exam timetable)
• Covers:
̶ tutes 3, 4, 5, & 6
AND
̶ lectures and reading from Wk8 (this includes Simon’s Wk8
lectures)
• 70 multiple-choice items
• 5 response options
• no past exam (only a practice exam)

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General tips for multiple choice

Here are some tips about completing

multiple choice exams that might be
helpful:
• Calculate the time to spend on each question
• Complete questions you are confident of first
• Unless instructed otherwise, pick the most correct
option
• Look for clues to the correct answer:
– limiting words e.g. all, none, never, always – these are often
incorrect …

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General tips for multiple choice..

• Milgram’s obedience experiments and the classic helping

behaviour research revealed that:
a. people are always poor at predicting their
behaviour.
b. people are never poor at predicting their
behaviour.
c. people are evil.
d. people are often poor at predicting their
behaviour.*
e. None of the above are correct.

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General tips for multiple choice..

• Free recall the answer first, then look at the options

• Read all options, and cross out those you know are wrong
-But don’t dismiss any option at first glance
• If you don’t understand one of the options given, don’t
panic! It may be wrong
• Just because an answer is long and complicated it doesn’t
mean it will be correct
• Answer every question, even if you are guessing

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Fill in circles clearly

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Study tips: Lectures

• You won’t do really well if you only study the lecture

content
• The questions will be organised by lecture topic
-Tutorial questions will be last (ie., Culture, Aggression, SPE,
Decision making & ethics).

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Study tips: The textbook

• There will be questions

derived from material in
the textbook
• Many of these will test
knowledge of material that
expands on lecture content
• But there will also be some
questions on material that
was not covered in the
lecture

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Study tips: Tutorials

• There will be some questions assessing your knowledge

of each of the tutorials
• Culture
• Aggression
• Zimbardo’s prison study
• Decision making & ethics

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 Some practice questions

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Natasha just received a “Distinction” on her test. Her
friends, Gina and Sam, received a “High Distinction” and a
“Pass,” respectively. Later that night, Natasha tells her
flatmate that she did “really well” relative to other people
in the class. According to social comparison theory,
Natasha appears to have engaged in ____________.

a. upward comparison
b. downward comparison*
c. promotional comparison
d. prevention comparison
e. self-deception

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Which of the following best accounts for the finding that,
after riding an exercise bike, men rated cartoons as funnier
and erotica as more arousing than those who had not first
engaged in exercise?

a. The common sense view of emotion

b. Schacter and Singer’s two factor theory of emotion*
c. The James-Lange theory of emotion
d. Cannon’s theory of emotion
e. The facial feedback theory of emotional expression

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Which of the following constitutes evidence of the
evaluation apprehension account of social facilitation?

a. Joggers slowed down past a woman who was facing them, but sped up
when she had her back turned.
b. Cockroaches scuttle down a straight runway faster when they have an
audience of cockroaches than when alone.
c. Students were less anxious performing in front of a high status
audience than a low status audience.
d. Participants put on their shoes faster when they were being watched
attentively than when an inattentive repairman was present.*
e. All of the above are evidence for the evaluation apprehension account
of social facilitation.

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One of the exam questions

Our tendency to believe that our concealed emotions leak out

and can be easily read by others is referred to as:

a. the spotlight effect.

b. the actor-observer effect.
c. social paranoia.
d. the illusion of transparency.*
e. the Barry Manilow effect.

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All the best for your exams and your
future study

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