5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition (76 page)

99. B—
(
Chapter 8
) Sand and platinum are not soluble in water and, thus, cannot be tasted or smelled.

100. B—
(
Chapter 18
) By accepting the gift of the greeting cards, many recipients felt obligated to send a donation when it was requested later. This is known as the foot-in-the-door technique of compliance often used by organizations.

This is a 10-point essay; 5 points are given for proper definitions of the terms and 5 points are given for applying each to the scenario correctly: 1 point for definition of each term and 1 point for application to scenario.

Sigmund Freud proposed a three-part theory of personality including the id, the ego, and the superego. The superego, or third part, develops last and operates on the morality principle. Most school-age children know the difference between right and wrong and their conscience, what Freud called the superego, makes them feel guilty when they disobey authority figures. If the superego has overpowered the id, the adolescents will probably not destroy the property because of their guilt.

These adolescents are probably operating at the conventional level of morality according to Kohlberg’s moral development theory. His theory says that at different stages, individuals judge right and wrong based on their intellectual reasoning ability. In stage 3, they would base their decision on seeking approval from other members of the group, and in stage 4 they would base their decision on the laws of society. Young adolescents might very well reason that it is okay to damage the person’s property since they didn’t get the treats they asked for. Seeking approval of their peers, the majority rules. However, if the
adolescents were in the law and order stage, they might decide that damaging others’ property was unlawful and, thus, would resist the temptation to break the law.

Conformity is very similar to the principle of Kohlberg’s stage 3 reasoning. It is adopting the attitudes and behaviors of groups that you belong to. Not wanting to be excluded from the group, members tend to go along. In this situation, one might jump to the conclusion that teens would be likely to damage property of those who did not give them treats. Conforming behavior operates on group norms, and whatever the majority decided to do in this situation, the others would be likely to follow.

Deindividuation is a state of high arousal in a large group situation. Antisocial acts are more likely to occur because of the anonymity of the individual group members. On this Halloween night, groups of adolescents who are already in costumes and masks, thus shielding their identity, would be more likely to damage property because of the emotional arousal felt in this situation. They are out seeking “treats” and, angered by the refusal to comply with their request, they might turn to destructive measures. Individually, most of the adolescents would probably not do this, but collectively and because of the anonymity of the situation, they would be more likely to be carried away by the emotions of the situation.

Finally, modeling is defined as a learning method in which someone observes someone else doing a specific behavior and then imitates that behavior. Bandura says that others tend to model those they consider of equal or greater status. If there were one or more leaders in this group, whatever behavior they initiated would likely be imitated by others who were watching. With adolescents who may tend to take risks, Halloween night might be an opportunity to vandalize by those who had already “learned” this behavior and for others to imitate what they had seen, thus damaging the property of those who did not treat them.

This is a 10-point essay: 2 points assigned for the design of the experiment and 8 points for the individual components asked for in the question.

Design an experiment:

2 points for identification of two of the following: research question, hypothesis, ethics.

Question:
Will a new drug stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people who are in the initial stages of the disease?

Hypothesis:
If the new drug is given to a sample of people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, then it will stop the progression.

Ethics:
Because this drug is experimental, patients who volunteer and show a baseline memory loss will be told that they may or may not be given the drug. Should it be found to be effective, with possible side effects noted, those receiving the placebo will be allowed to take the drug as well. The potential harm would be discussed with patients and informed consent must be given for participation. Patients may withdraw at any point during the experiment.

1 point for
Sample
—a subgroup of the population of Alzheimer’s patients that participates in the study; could be obtained by volunteers from a newspaper solicitation in major cities or from lists of patients with Alzheimer’s from gerontologists in the area. You want it to be representative of all early-stage patients.

1 point for
Assignment
—division of the sample into groups such that every individual has an equal chance of being put in either the drug or placebo group. Group matching would be important.

1 point for identifying the
independent variable
—drug/no drug or placebo

1 point for identifying the
dependent variable
—effects of the drug on Alzheimer’s symptoms; degree of progression of symptoms.

1 point for identifying the
experimental group
—participants who receive the drug

1 point for identifying the
control group
—participants who receive a placebo or no drug group.

1 point for mentioning possible
confounding variables
—sex of patients and varying ages; misdiagnosis; other medical conditions during the trial period; not taking the dosage as prescribed.

1 point for describing how you would determine
effectiveness
—comparison of two group baseline scores and final results after the experimental period. Inferential statistics such as
t
test or ANOVA to determine significance of results. A
p
value of .05 or less will be considered significant.

For the purpose of this essay, my neuroscientist will be Dr. Hylton and her new drug will be called Lacetyl. Her research question is whether her new drug is effective and her hypothesis is that if she administers the drug for a period of 6 weeks or more, then patients with early symptoms of Alzheimer’s will not get worse. Collecting a representative sample is her first problem.

Since Alzheimer’s is usually definitively diagnosed with an autopsy to determine whether or not neural tangles and plaques are present, she must solicit elderly patients (age 75 or older) who are showing early symptoms and then carefully screen them to rule out other conditions. Tests might include not only blood and urine tests, but also cognitive functioning tasks, especially dealing with memory loss. She might solicit volunteers through newspaper ads, but because of the problem with diagnosis, she may wish to contact gerontologists or specialists dealing with patients with Alzheimer’s and solicit volunteers from them. Since impairment should be limited in the early stages, potential risks should be discussed with the volunteers, their written consent forms should be signed, and their identities should be kept anonymous. To prevent bias on her part, Dr. Hylton would create a double-blind condition in which neither she nor the patients will know whether or not they are taking the drug or the placebo. To prevent confounds, group matching will be used to assign the patients, with both groups representing a similar range of initial functioning.

The independent variable in this experiment is the drug and the dependent variable is its effectiveness in improving patients’ symptoms. The experimental group receives the drug and the control group the placebo. It might also be beneficial to have a second control group that receives no drug at all. The drug would be administered daily and weekly tests of urine, blood, and cognitive tasks would be repeated for a period of 6 weeks. Any potential negative side effects would be noted and the experiment would be halted immediately if these proved dangerous to any subjects receiving the drug.

Potential confounds are many. If a prescription is given, the patients may forget to take the medication. Sex, age, race, and other demographic variables not controlled in the sample could also prove a problem. Other medical conditions during testing and improper diagnosis in the first place could throw off our results. Obviously, when this study is concluded, replication would be necessary.

To determine whether Lacetyl is effective or not, baseline results would be compared in subjects and the differences between the results in the placebo and drug groups compared. Using inferential statistics, we would try to determine whether or not there was a significant
difference between the two groups by using
t
tests or ANOVA. If her
p
value is .05 or less, then she will conclude that the drug is effective and await further studies and replication.

Now that you’ve finished Practice Exam 1 and scored your answers, you can examine your results. Did you get all of the questions correct for a particular chapter? That’s excellent. You don’t need to spend much time going over that topic. Did you answer several questions incorrectly for a particular chapter? Go over that material carefully.

You can
roughly
equate your results to an AP test score. To put an approximate AP score on the results of your practice test, follow these steps: