CONCEPTS AND EXERCISES

Research in a High School

Completing these exercises should help you to achieve Learning Objective 6.

Imagine you are a psychologist conducting research on violence at a local high school.

Questions

Identify which approach would be most likely to focus on each of the following to understand the students’ behavior.

1. Do negative consequences such as detentions and expulsions deter a person from acting in a violent way? ______________

2. Are certain types of decision-making styles more common among the violent students than the nonviolent students? ______________

3. Is violent behavior related to a student’s inability to deny other impulses? ______________

4. Are the hormones associated with stress reactions at higher levels among students involved in violence? ______________

Approaches

· Biological

· Psychodynamic

· Behavioral

· Cognitive

· Humanistic

The Problem of Obesity

Completing this exercise should help you to achieve Learning Objective 2.

Questions

Match the subfields below with each of the following questions.

1. What is the effect of peer pressure on the eating patterns of obese people? ______________

2. Is there a common pattern of weight gain throughout the life span of an obese person? ______________

3. Are most obese people outgoing or withdrawn? ______________

4. Is obesity seen in connection with any other disorder, such as depression? ______________

5. Do fat cells in obese people differ in number or size from those in normal-weight people? ______________

Subfields

· Biological

· Personality

· Developmental

· Clinical

· Social