Image: shutterstock
About This Quiz
From debunked popular psychology myths to the DSM-V and mental disorders, this quiz covers a wide range of relevant topics. How well do you know the human mind? Play on to find out!
Who founded psychoanalysis?
Carl Jung
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud, a scholar and neurologist, lived from 1856 to 1939. He came up with the idea of psychoanalysis, which is a form of therapy commonly referred to as "talk therapy."
Albert Einstein
Dr. Frankenstein
Advertisement
What does DBT stand for?
Delirious Boy Trouble
Demons Behave Terribly
Diabolical Bad Teenagers
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
DBT is a form of psychotherapy closely related to CBT, but it was developed mainly out of a specific need to treat clients presenting with borderline personality disorder who also experience chronic suicidal ideation and tendencies. The therapy is a tool that helps therapists guide their clients in accepting and changing negative aspects of their lives.
Advertisement
Anorexia nervosa is what type of disorder?
Mood
Personality
Eating
Common eating disorder diagnoses include: Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS). This type of mental disorder is characterized by abnormal, disturbed eating patterns. Eating disorders are serious and potentially fatal.
Anxiety
Advertisement
What does EMDR stand for?
Every Monday Desserts and Refreshments
Extra Money Demanded and Repaid
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
EMDR is a nontraditional branch of psychotherapy commonly used to treat PTSD, trauma, and other anxiety disorders. It was developed in the 80s and has since gained in popularity, with more than 20,000 practitioners receiving EMDR-specific training.
Early Mastering of Dietary Regimen
Advertisement
Someone who believes they are chronically ill when they are actually physically healthy would most likely be diagnosed with what?
Cries wolf syndrome
Somatic symptom disorder
In the same way the DSM-V redefined Asperger syndrome and autism, it also redefined hypochondriasis disorders. The new edition breaks it down into somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder.
Nothing, they're just confused.
Unspecified pain disorder
Advertisement
What is the most commonly abused substance in the US?
Alcohol
Alcoholism is the addiction to alcohol, a mental illness more than 7% of the U.S. population deals with. Because of alcohol's legal and social acceptance, it can be tricky to spot chronic alcohol abuse.
PCP
Shrooms
LSD
Advertisement
What does CBT stand for?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT is a form of psychotherapy that assists clients with problem solving and negative emotions/behaviors. The main goal is to identify, address, and refocus negative thoughts so that feelings and behaviors improve.
Cats Bats Tigers
Creating Bee Tea
Creative Beings Think
Advertisement
The inkblot test is formally known as what?
The psychopath exam
Inkblot test
Rorschach test
Modern day psychologists no longer use the Rorschach test as a diagnosis tool. Beginning in the 1970s, researchers began conducting various studies and determined that the variations in interpretations of inkblots do not implicate personality traits and cannot be used to make any reliable medical diagnoses.
Blob Interpretation Exam
Advertisement
What does does DSM stand for?
Dill Sage Milk
Dudes Smell Macho
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has 5 published editions. The first edition of the DSM was published in 1952 and its most recent, 5th, edition came out in 2013. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) authors the DSM. Changes are made to each edition, with disorders being added and retracted, modified and revised.
Demons Spells Magicians
Advertisement
Bipolar disorder is characterized by what?
Periods of extreme highs and lows
Bipolar disorder causes extreme mood swings between mania and depression. It was formerly known as manic depression, and about 2.6% of the US adult population, or approximately 5.7 million people, have this disorder.
Traveling to the north and then south pole, compulsively.
Chronic attraction to the ends of batteries.
Being really sad all of the time.
Advertisement
What is ECT?
Eating Cake Terribly
Every Child Teaches
Electronic Communications Telephone
Electroconvulsive Therapy
ECT, which is commonly referred to as "electric shock therapy," has a long and controversial history, yet many modern practitioners agree - when done properly, ECT is an effective treatment method. However, due to negative, barbaric portrayals of ECT sessions in the media, the general public has misguided ideas about the procedure.
Advertisement
What part of the brain is responsible for the interpretation of eyesight?
Occipital lobe
The occipital lobe is the smallest of the human brain's lobes, and it's located in the way back of the brain just underneath the parietal lobe and above the temporal lobe. The occipital lobe functions as the brain's visual processing center.
Temporal lobe
Parietal lobe
Brain Stem
Advertisement
What does BPD stand for?
Better pies decide
Borderline personality disorder
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is characterized by a chronic instability in most parts of daily life, including mood, relationships, and self-image. Individuals with BDP struggle with regulating their emotions, which results in severe mood swings, among other negative consequences.
Best prepared dinner
Better Program Diagnosis
Advertisement
How many classifications of schizophrenia are there?
1
12
5
The main disorder, schizophrenia, used to be classified into 5 subtypes, but that method wasn't very effective, so now doctors use a spectrum when assessing patients. They still use the subtypes, though, which are: catatonic, disorganized, paranoid, residual, and undifferentiated.
20
Advertisement
Narcissism is what type of disorder?
Mood
Personality
Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a lack of empathy, an inflated sense of self, and an intense need to be adored and admired. It is believed to be the result of childhood relationships with parents and caregivers, where the child either received too much praise or too much criticism.
Anxiety
Sexual
Advertisement
Which of the following is an example of a mood disorder:
Schizophrenia
Bipolar disorder
Mood disorders are characterized by an emotional state and mood that does not align with what would be expected considering one's circumstances. Types of mood disorders include: bipolar disorder, depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), dysthymic disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and cyclothymic disorder.
Narcissistic personality disorder
Borderline personality disorder
Advertisement
What does CPTSD stand for?
Crabby People are Terrible Student Drivers
Copy Paste Trade Swipe Delete
Children Playing Teacher Student Dictionary
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
CPTSD is a form of PTSD, but it differs in that it develops as the result of sustained trauma and stress, rather than singular or isolated traumatic events. Childhood abuse is one of the most common causes of CPTSD.
Advertisement
High functioning autism used to be known as what?
Agoraphobia
It's always been referred to that way.
Asperger syndrome
The DSM-IV uses the Asperger diagnosis, but the DSM-V switched to use an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis. The disorder entails behavioral, social, and communication difficulties.
Attention deficit disorder
Advertisement
Is there any psychological benefit to teaching according to students' preferred learning styles?
No.
The person doing the learning doesn't matter as much as the teaching material does when it comes to optimizing knowledge retention. The teaching/learning style should be adopted according to whatever is being taught. When teaching dance, a kinesthetic (hands-on) teaching style is more appropriate, since it's a physical exercise. When learning advanced math, a combination of visual (writing on board) and auditory (lecturing) teaching styles might be employed to optimize students' knowledge retention.
There are some benefits, yes.
It helps with social intelligence.
Yes, but the benefits are minimal.
Advertisement
What impact does listening to Mozart have on IQ test scores?
A positive impact if listened to over a sustained period of time.
A negative impact.
A positive impact, even if only listened to once immediately before the test.
No impact.
Many people believe that listening to Mozart or classical music can improve IQ test scores, but this is not exactly the case. In actuality, partaking in an activity you enjoy doing - like listening to music or reading your favorite book - immediately before taking an IQ test can have a temporary positive impact on your score, but it's not a long-term effect.
Advertisement
How many levels are in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs?
20
12
1
5
The needs can be visually represented in a pyramid containing 5 levels. The tip of the pyramid is the self-actualization level, which few people achieve because they must first satisfy the previous 4 physiological levels.
Advertisement
What connects the two sides of the brain?
The corpus callosum
The corpus callosum connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain, allowing the sides to communicate with one another. Individuals with chronic and severe epilepsy might opt to sever their corpus callosum, which would prevent signals from bouncing around between the sides, often leading to a reduction in symptoms.
The brain stem and spine
A bridge
The eyes
Advertisement
Which part of the brain regulates emotion?
The limbic system
The limbic system is made up of the hypothalamus, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. Together, these regions are responsible for basic and complex emotions as well as higher mental functions, like learning and forming memories.
Occipital lobe
Parietal lobe
Cerebellum
Advertisement
When angry, what's the best course of action?
Express the anger.
Bottle up the anger for a later time.
Let it go and seek out a distraction.
It's better to let anger go and seek out a distraction than it is to express it in the moment. Expressing anger causes us to feel worse in both the short and long terms, even if it feels satisfying to get it out. You'll feel better in the long run if you try this approach and just let it go.
Take the anger out on oneself.
Advertisement
What causes mental illness?
A variety of factors. There is no single cause.
Researchers believe mental illness happens as the result of a combination of psychological, biological, genetic, and environmental factors - there is no single root cause to point to. It all depends on the person.
Chemical imbalances in the brain.
Drinking healthy amounts of water.
Eating a healthy diet.
Advertisement
Serotonin is most prevalent in what part of the human body?
The lungs
The gastrointestinal tract
80-90% of Serotonin is produced and found within the gastrointestinal tract. Serotonin, also known as the "calming chemical," is also produced in the brain, and the brain can only use serotonin made within it. The chemical is thought to cause increased relaxation and focus and decreased stress.
The legs
The arms
Advertisement
How many cells are in the average human brain?
86 billion
There are about 86 billion nerve cells, called neurons, in the average human brain. About 25% of the body's energy goes to fueling the brain.
A few million
A few billion
10 billion
Advertisement
What is the most common mental illness among U.S. adults?
Depression
Anxiety disorders
Anxiety disorders affect 40 million U.S. adults, which is about 18% of the population. Anxiety disorders include diagnoses like generalized anxiety and PTSD. Women are twice as likely to develop an anxiety disorder.
Personality disorders
Schizophrenia
Advertisement
Is the polygraph an accurate method for detecting falsehoods?
No.
The original polygraph machine measured changes in systolic blood pressure in hopes of detecting lies. Modern day polygraph machines measure blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductance, yet they're still just as unreliable as earlier versions. False positives are common, as guilty interpretations can often be attributed to a number of factors, such as the subject being a naturally sweaty or anxious individual. Long story short: there's no fool-proof way to detect when a person is lying.
It's right more often than it's wrong.
It depends on whether the person being tested has had any training in deceptive measures.
Yes, it's fairly consistent and reliable.
Advertisement
What is the "third person effect?"
It's when someone thinks they are exempt from a phenomenon nearly everyone is vulnerable to/effected by.
People experiencing the "third person effect" might believe that other people are susceptible to and influenced by advertising and marketing campaigns, but that they, personally, are not. While in reality they are impacted just as much as anyone else. This is so common that researchers have given it a name and studied it.
It's a point-of-view.
It's a narrative technique.
It's when someone feels like their life is actually a hit movie.
Advertisement
What percent of the time does the average human mind wander?
87%
8%
30%
Most people guess that their minds wander about 10% of the time, but the average minds spends three times that amount wandering around. Mind wandering is not the same thing as day dreaming. Day dreaming is time spent in an imagined space, whereas mind wandering is when you start thinking about something unrelated to the task at hand. It's believed that individuals whose minds tend to wander more often than not are more creative and better problem solvers because of it.
95%
Advertisement
What happens in the premotor cortex of the human brain?
It's where plans to move are made.
The premotor cortex is where plans to move are made, and then those plans are executed by way of the motor cortex. Interestingly enough, just observing someone else move is enough to stimulate neurons in the brain that signal movement. These neurons are called "mirror" neurons, since they imitate external stimuli.
It's how the actual moving happens.
It regulates emotions.
It regulates sweat.
Advertisement
What role does dopamine play in the human brain?
It controls pleasure.
It stimulates motivating feelings and behaviors.
Until recently, dopamine was believed to be responsible for pleasure, happiness, and euphoria, but it turns out that the Opioid system is actually responsible for this. Dopamine is responsible for keeping us motivated to survive and wanting more. It drives our interest in searching out information on the internet, and it also fuels goal-oriented behaviors and aspirations.
It's the fear center of the brain.
It regulates reproductive hormones.
Advertisement
How many items can the average person hold in their short-term memory?
7-9
3-4
It was once commonly held belief that the short-term memory could hold up to 9 items at once for 20 seconds, but this drastically overestimated what the average human can do. A range of 1-3 items can be stored for a max of 20 seconds at a time, but this is extended if repeated multiple times.
12-15
9-11
Advertisement
Which group of individuals is believed to be more creative?
Right-handed persons
Left-handed persons
Ambidextrous persons
It's commonly believed that left-handed people are more creative, but this is an untrue myth. While left-handed people are more commonly able to learn to use their right hands just as well as their left, it is ambidextrous individuals who are the creative thinkers. This is because using both hands allows for the sides of the brain to communicate.
Each group is equally as creative.
Advertisement
You Got:
/35
shutterstock