BAPSY Exploring Theories and Concepts 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which concept from systems theory describes a family's tendency to maintain a stable pattern of interaction, even when change is needed?
- Differentiation
- Homeostasis (Correct answer)
- Enmeshment
- Triangulation
Correct answer: Homeostasis
Homeostasis in family systems theory refers to the family's natural drive to maintain familiar, stable patterns of interaction.
Question 2: The 'just-world hypothesis,' a cognitive bias identified by Melvin Lerner, is the belief that:
- People deserve what happens to them because the world is fair (Correct answer)
- The world is fundamentally unfair and random
- Victims should be helped because injustice will be corrected
- Social inequalities are always temporary
Correct answer: People deserve what happens to them because the world is fair
The just-world hypothesis is the tendency to believe people get what they deserve, which can lead to blaming victims for their misfortune.
Question 3: In the context of personality theory, the 'Big Five' trait 'openness to experience' is most closely associated with:
- Emotional stability and low anxiety
- Sociability and assertiveness
- Curiosity, imagination, and aesthetic sensitivity (Correct answer)
- Conscientiousness and goal-directed behavior
Correct answer: Curiosity, imagination, and aesthetic sensitivity
Openness to experience reflects intellectual curiosity, creativity, and a preference for novelty and variety.
Question 4: Seligman's concept of 'learned helplessness' suggests that depression may develop when individuals:
- Experience too many rewarding events
- Believe their actions have no effect on outcomes (Correct answer)
- Have overly inflated self-esteem
- Rely excessively on external locus of control initially
Correct answer: Believe their actions have no effect on outcomes
Learned helplessness occurs when repeated exposure to uncontrollable events leads to the belief that one's actions are futile.
Question 5: According to the gate control theory of pain, psychological factors such as anxiety can:
- Have no effect on pain perception
- Close the 'gate' and reduce pain signals to the brain
- Open the 'gate' and amplify pain signals to the brain (Correct answer)
- Only affect pain after the signal reaches the brain
Correct answer: Open the 'gate' and amplify pain signals to the brain
Gate control theory proposes that psychological states like anxiety can open the neural 'gate,' increasing the transmission of pain signals.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes 'schema' as used in cognitive psychology?
- A physiological stress response pattern
- A mental framework that organizes and interprets information (Correct answer)
- An unconscious wish rooted in early experience
- A type of long-term memory for procedural skills
Correct answer: A mental framework that organizes and interprets information
A schema is a cognitive structure that helps organize and interpret information based on prior knowledge and experience.
Question 7: The 'actor-observer bias' in social psychology refers to the tendency to:
- Attribute our own failures to bad luck but others' failures to their character
- Explain our own behavior situationally while explaining others' behavior dispositionally (Correct answer)
- Overestimate how much others notice our behavior
- Copy the behavior of people we observe
Correct answer: Explain our own behavior situationally while explaining others' behavior dispositionally
The actor-observer bias describes how we tend to explain our own actions using situational factors while attributing others' actions to their personality.
BAPSY Exploring Theories and Concepts 5
Which concept from systems theory describes a family's tendency to maintain a stable pattern of interaction, even when change is needed?