Final Exam Essays
Below you will find your Final Exam Essays. Please do not use any sources otherthan your textbook.Please cut and paste your answers in your Final Exam Essays file under Quizzes and Exams.Your completed exam is due on Sunday, October 11 by 11:59 pm. EST.
Please limit direct quotes or copying parts of your textbook verbatim. If you do copya sentence or phrase (more than a few words), please put the copied information inquotation marks and cite the chapter and the page number, then explain the materialin your own words. Copying material from your textbook or from anyplace, withoutproper citation will result in no points for that question.Please address all parts of the question, and provide examples to illustrate your pointif applicable. The essays are worth 15 points or 50% of your score on the final examso be sure to sufficiently answer these questions based on your readings from thetextbook.When you have composed your answers, submit your work in the Final Exam Essays so that itcan be graded.
Note that some of the essays are worth more points than others.
1. Choose one person from the following list whom you feel played an important rolein the history of psychology: Freud, Pavlov, Skinner, Maslow, or Piaget. Describewhat that person did, the approximate time that this person lived, what makes theircontribution important, and criticisms of their work or theoretical position. (3 points)
2. You are an experimental psychologist interested in finding out how effective a newmedication might work for treating depression. Describe a study you might conduct toreach some conclusions on this matter. Be sure to define and provide examples of thefollowing terms and concepts, demonstrating your understanding of each: hypothesis,independent variable, dependent variable, random assignment of participants, ethicalguidelines. (4 points)
3. When your best friend hears that you are taking a psychology course, she assertsthat psychology is simply common sense. Explain why your awareness of both the limits of everyday reasoning and the methods of psychological research would leadyou to disagree with your friend's assertion. (2 points)
4. Imagine that you were involved in a legal case in which an eyewitness claimed thehe has seen a person commit a crime. Based on your knowledge about memory andcognition, discuss some of the problems of eye-witness accounts. (2 points)
5. David's history teacher asked him why so many German people complied withHitler's orders to systematically slaughter millions of innocent Jews. David suggestedthat the atrocities were committed because the Germans had become unusually cruel,sadistic people with abnormal and twisted personalities. Use your knowledge of thefundamental attribution error and Milgram's research on obedience to highlight theweaknesses of David's explanation. (2 points)
6. Choose a behavior that you would like to modify or change using the principles ofoperant conditioning. Be sure to use and explain the following terms: operantconditioning, positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, schedulesof reinforcement, shaping and extinction.