Lesson 8.3.1

8.3.1 Olds and Milner, Mundt, Dixit, and Pengpid studies Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 8

20 questions

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Lesson 8.3.1, Olds and Milner, Mundt, Dixit, and Pengpid studies: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 8: Health psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. In Olds and Milner (1954), what did rats learn to do to receive electrical stimulation of the septal area of the brain?

    • Groom themselves after each stimulation
    • Press a lever to deliver the stimulation to themselves
    • Avoid a chamber paired with a sound
    • Run through a maze to find food

  2. What did Olds and Milner (1954) conclude about the septal area and related regions of the rat brain?

    • Stimulation of these regions was rewarding, suggesting reward systems in the brain
    • Stimulation of these regions only produced sleep
    • Stimulation of these regions had no effect on behaviour
    • Stimulation of these regions caused rats to lose all appetite permanently

  3. Olds and Milner (1954) is a classic study in health psychology. Which feature makes it relevant to the biological explanation of addiction?

    • It proves that drugs have no effect on the brain
    • It shows that humans cannot be studied with electrodes
    • It shows a biological reward system that can be activated and reinforce behaviour
    • It shows that addiction is caused entirely by learned associations

  4. Which ethical concern is most important when evaluating Olds and Milner (1954)?

    • The sample size of rats being too large
    • The lack of a double-blind procedure in a rat study
    • The use of a questionnaire with the rats
    • Animal welfare, because the rats underwent invasive surgery and electrical stimulation

  5. Mundt et al. (2012) studied peer selection and influence effects on adolescent alcohol use using a stochastic actor-based model. What does 'peer selection' mean in this study?

    • Adolescents select a drink from a menu of alcohol products
    • Adolescents choose friends who already drink similar amounts of alcohol
    • Adolescents are assigned to peers at random by researchers
    • Adolescents are chosen by teachers for drinking groups

  6. Mundt et al. (2012) distinguish peer influence from peer selection. What does peer influence refer to?

    • Adolescents choose friends who are older than themselves
    • Adolescents never change their behaviour once they have friends
    • Adolescents change their own drinking to become more like their friends over time
    • Adolescents are forced to drink by their teachers

  7. Why is a stochastic actor-based model useful for studying peer effects on alcohol use?

    • It removes the need for any data about friendships
    • It uses longitudinal network data to separate selection of friends from influence on behaviour
    • It assigns adolescents to peer groups at random
    • It uses only a single snapshot of behaviour with no network

  8. Dixit et al. (2012) studied biosocial determinants of alcohol risk behaviour in urban and rural communities of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. What does 'biosocial' imply in this study?

    • Only social factors are considered in the study
    • Both biological and social factors are considered as causes of alcohol risk behaviour
    • Neither biological nor social factors are considered
    • Only biological factors are considered in the study

  9. Why is comparing urban and rural communities in the Dixit et al. (2012) design useful?

    • It ensures the study is a randomised controlled trial
    • It proves that all communities have the same level of risk
    • It removes the need to measure alcohol use
    • It allows researchers to examine whether environment and lifestyle relate to differences in alcohol risk

  10. Dixit et al. (2012) is described as an epidemiological study. What does this type of study typically aim to do?

    • Describe the patterns and distribution of a health behaviour across a population
    • Assign participants randomly to treatment groups
    • Test the effect of a drug on individual participants in a laboratory
    • Record the behaviour of a single family over time

  11. Pengpid et al. (2012) is a randomised controlled trial of screening and brief intervention for alcohol use among hospital out-patients. What is the purpose of random allocation in this study?

    • To ensure that the intervention and control groups are comparable, so differences can be attributed to the intervention
    • To make the study cheaper to run
    • To ensure that all patients receive the same level of alcohol use
    • To remove the need for a control group

  12. A brief intervention in Pengpid et al. (2012) is described as a short conversation with advice about alcohol use. Which psychological approach does this most closely reflect?

    • Biological treatment using receptor blockers
    • Aversion therapy using electric shocks
    • Motivational and behavioural support aimed at changing drinking through discussion and advice
    • Monotropic attachment to a counsellor

  13. Which evaluation point is most appropriate for a randomised controlled trial of a brief alcohol intervention in a hospital setting?

    • It cannot be replicated because it uses a control group
    • It proves that all alcohol use can be cured
    • It has no validity because it is a hospital study
    • It has high internal validity because of random allocation, but results may not generalise to all settings or cultures

  14. Olds and Milner (1954) and Dixit et al. (2012) differ in their methods. Which statement correctly contrasts them?

    • Both used animal laboratory experiments
    • Olds and Milner used an animal laboratory experiment, while Dixit et al. used an epidemiological survey of human communities
    • Olds and Milner used a human survey, while Dixit et al. used animal experiments
    • Both used randomised controlled trials with rats

  15. Mundt et al. (2012) and Pengpid et al. (2012) both study alcohol use in adolescents or adults. Which pair of findings would best suggest that social influence can be targeted in intervention?

    • Evidence that interventions cause more drinking
    • Evidence that peer influence affects drinking, together with evidence that brief interventions reduce hazardous drinking
    • Evidence that only biology explains drinking and that peers are irrelevant
    • Evidence that peers never affect drinking and that interventions are never effective

  16. A researcher says the Olds and Milner (1954) findings show that drugs and electrical stimulation work through the same reward pathway. Which evaluation point best challenges this claim?

    • Electrical stimulation has been proven to be identical to drugs
    • The rats in the study did not have brains
    • Electrical stimulation can only be given to humans
    • Electrical stimulation is a direct artificial input, so it may not map precisely onto how drugs act in the brain

  17. Which statement best describes the value of the Dixit et al. (2012) study for health psychology?

    • It provides population-level evidence on how biological and social factors relate to alcohol risk in a specific setting
    • It shows that alcohol risk is the same in all regions of the world
    • It shows that social factors do not influence alcohol use
    • It provides a laboratory test of a single drug on rats

  18. A researcher argues that the Mundt et al. (2012) model is limited because it uses data from a single school. Which limitation is being identified?

    • Use of a control group
    • Internal validity of the statistical model
    • Generalisability to other schools and populations
    • Ethical risk to participants

  19. Olds and Milner (1954) is described as a classic study. Which quality is most often cited to explain why classic studies remain in textbooks?

    • They used the largest sample ever recorded
    • They were conducted with the most modern technology
    • They included the most ethical procedures of their time
    • They established a foundational finding that later research built on

  20. Which evaluation point about using rats in the Olds and Milner (1954) study is most appropriate?

    • Rats cannot describe their subjective experience, so the reward interpretation relies on behaviour such as lever pressing
    • Rats are able to give informed consent, so the study is ethically unproblematic
    • Rats are the same as humans in brain structure, so findings transfer directly
    • Rats were not included in any experimental condition

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