Free Response Questions

Question one:

Two-year-old Eli dislikes green vegetables and often refuses to eat them.

(a) How could each of the following theories help explain Eli’s behavior?
                                     • Evolutionary psychology
                                     • Erickson’s psychosocial stage theory

(b) How could Eli’s parents use each of the following psychological phenomena to increase Eli’s consumption of green vegetables?
                                     • Mere exposure effect
                                     • Eli’s lack of Piagetian conservation
                                     • Conformity
                                     • Modeling
                                     • Positive reinforcement

(c) If you were advising Eli’s parents, which one of the approaches listed above would you recommend and why?


Question two:

Oscar recently had an important exam in his American history class. He had not been doing as well in this class as he would have liked. He studied for hours, but he felt ill on the day of the test and did not perform as well as he had hoped.

(a) Explain how each of the following factors could have contributed to Oscar’s disappointing performance.

                                     • General adaptation syndrome
                                     • Depth/levels of processing theory
                                     • Self-fulfilling prophecy

(b) Describe how Oscar could use each of the following psychological principles to improve his future performance.

                                     • Yerkes-Dodson law
                                     • A mnemonic device
                                     • Spacing effect/distributed practice
                                     • Internal locus of control
                                     • Negative reinforcement


Answers and reasons:

1) This question is worth eight marks in total.

Part (a): Evolutionary psychology—Evolutionary psychologists believe that human behavior is motivated by the desire to ensure the survival and proliferation of our genes. By age two, children are able to move about on their own and will therefore encounter new plants, some of which may look like vegetables but, in fact, be dangerous to eat. Therefore, an evolutionary psychologist might say that Eli’s refusal to eat green vegetables is due to a natural avoidance that arises about the time children become independent enough to eat things without supervision

Erickson’s psychosocial stage theory—According to Erikson, from ages one to three children are in a stage that revolves around a conflict between autonomy or shame and doubt. As such, children of this age often try to assert their will, and the word no becomes a common part of their vocabularies. Eli’s refusal to eat the green vegetables his parents so desperately want him to eat may therefore just be a way of asserting his independence.

Part (b): Mere exposure effect—The mere exposure effect says that the more one is exposed to something, the more one comes to like it. Therefore, Eli’s parents could simply serve him green vegetables frequently hoping that with repeated contact, he will come to like them more.

Eli’s lack of Piagetian conservation—According to Piaget, children learn to conserve upon entering the concrete operations stage around age six. Until then, children are typically unable to solve problems that ask them to compare quantities. Eli’s parents may be able to take advantage of this cognitive limitation in how they present his vegetables. For instance, instead of serving Eli many small pieces of celery, they could ask Eli to eat just one (large) celery stalk.

Conformity—People have a natural desire to fit in with others. If Eli’s siblings or cousins or friends eat green vegetables, Eli’s parents may be able to increase his consumption of vegetables by serving them to Eli among a group of people all of whom will eat their green vegetables.

Modeling—Modeling is when someone observes someone else’s behavior and then copies it. While conformity involves fitting into a group, modeling can be done by an individual. Eli’s parents can model eating green vegetables themselves hoping that Eli will notice and copy them.

Positive reinforcement—A reinforcer is a consequence that increases the likelihood of a behavior. Eli’s parents can use positive reinforcement by giving Eli something he wants when he eats his green vegetables. For instance, each day that Eli finishes his vegetables he could be rewarded with a half hour of watching television

Part (c): For this answer, you need to select one of the terms from part (b) and explain why you think that it would help in modifying Eli's behavior. There isn't necessarily a "right" answer for this one, and as long as you make arguments that are factual, concise, and are based on real psychological principles, you should receive some sort of mark for this type of question.


2) This question is worth eight marks total

Part (a): General adaptation syndrome—According to Selye’s general adaptation syndrome, Oscar pushed himself to exhaustion and, as a result, he became ill and his performance suffered.

 Depth/levels of processing theory—Oscar may not have studied the material at a deep enough level; levels of processing theory holds that the deeper the level at which one processes information, the more likely one will be to remember it.

Self-fulfilling prophecy—Because Oscar has not been doing well in the class, his teacher may have formed low expectations for him. The teacher may have communicated these expectations to Oscar before or during the exam, thereby increasing the likelihood that Oscar fulfilled those low expectations.

Part (b): Yerkes-Dodson law—The Yerkes-Dodson law states that moderate arousal leads to the best task performance. Oscar should try to make sure that he is at a moderate level of arousal for his future tests.

A mnemonic device—Oscar might use a mnemonic device, such as an acronym, to improve his ability to memorize information for future exams.

Spacing effect/distributed practice—Instead of studying for a long time all at once, Oscar would do well to divide his studying over a greater span of time.

Internal locus of control—If Oscar develops an internal locus of control, he will believe his actions impact his performance and will therefore study, thereby increasing the likelihood that he will succeed in school.

Negative reinforcement—Oscar could negatively reinforce himself for good scores on future tests by allowing himself to skip chores he dislikes on days that he earns those scores.


**Free Response Questions taken from Barron's AP Psychology, 5th Edition**