Society, Human Behaviour and Communities Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The school used a Token economy.

In a token economy, people earn tokens or points for the target behaviour and later exchange them for backup reinforcers of their choice. Here a point is earned for each week of full attendance and the points are traded for things at the end of the year, which is exactly that arrangement.

It is a form of positive reinforcement, but option A is too general to describe the points-for-rewards system. Shaping reinforces successive approximations to a behaviour, and fading gradually withdraws prompts, neither of which happens here.

Answer: B

The correct order is 1-(a), 2-(c), 3-(b), 4-(e), 5-(d).

Maslow's hierarchy, from base to apex, runs: physiological needs, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation.

1. Lack of daily food (a) is a physiological need.
2. Lack of shelter (c) is a safety need.
3. Rejection by friends (b) is a belonging need.
4. Low self-esteem (e) is an esteem need.
5. Aspiring to be an excellent folk artist (d) is self-actualisation.

Option C puts belonging below shelter, and options A and D put food or friendship in the wrong place.

Answer: C

Our Emotional responses are generally classically conditioned.

Classical conditioning works on involuntary, reflex-like responses, and emotional reactions such as fear, anxiety and pleasure are the main examples. Watson and Rayner's 'Little Albert' study showed a fear response being conditioned to a white rat, and many phobias are explained the same way.

Motor and intellectual responses are voluntary and are shaped mainly by operant conditioning and learning, and sensory responses are not what conditioning typically changes.

Answer: B

The psychoanalytic theory of personality was propounded by Sigmund Freud.

Freud's theory explains personality through the id, ego and superego, the unconscious, the psychosexual stages and the defence mechanisms. It shaped early social case work, especially the diagnostic school.

Helen Perlman developed the problem-solving model of case work, Eric Berne founded transactional analysis, and Carl Rogers developed client-centred therapy, so each is linked with a different approach.

Answer: D

All four are ways roles are learned, so the answer is (i), (ii), (iii) and (iv).

Social learning theory holds that people learn roles by observing and imitating models (i), through the rewards and punishments that follow role behaviour (ii), by rehearsing roles in play and role-playing (iii), and through the approval or disapproval of others, which acts as a social reward (iv).

Each of the narrower options leaves out mechanisms that the theory recognises, so none of them is complete.

Answer: C

The motivation-hygiene theory was proposed by Herzberg.

Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory (1959) separates motivators, such as achievement, recognition and the work itself, which create job satisfaction, from hygiene factors, such as pay, supervision and working conditions, which only prevent dissatisfaction.

McClelland proposed the theory of needs for achievement, affiliation and power, McGregor proposed Theory X and Theory Y, and Maslow the hierarchy of needs.

Answer: B

The correct matching is (a)-(iii), (b)-(i), (c)-(ii).

In Freud's structural model, the id is ruled by the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of drives (a-iii). The ego is ruled by the reality principle, finding realistic ways to satisfy the id (b-i). The superego is the internalised conscience, ruled by moral standards (c-ii).

Options A and C attach the moral principle to the id, and option D gives the id the reality principle, so each mismatches at least the id.

Answer: D

The key's answer is Conditioned stimulus.

In Pavlov's experiments the bell is at first a neutral stimulus: it produces no salivation. After it has been paired repeatedly with food, the unconditioned stimulus, the same bell produces salivation on its own and is then called the conditioned stimulus. The question asks what the neutral stimulus is called in the conditioning, which is its name once conditioning has taken place.

The unconditioned stimulus is the food, which produces the response without learning. Higher order and secondary stimuli refer to later pairings built on an already conditioned stimulus.

Answer: C

Champa's behaviour is an example of Regression.

Regression is the defence mechanism of returning to an earlier stage of development under stress. Faced with the arrival of a sibling who now receives the parents' attention, a ten-year-old who goes back to thumb-sucking and baby talk is behaving like a much younger child.

Identification is taking on the qualities of another person, repression pushes painful thoughts out of awareness, and sublimation redirects impulses into socially acceptable activity; none of them describes this behaviour.

Answer: A

Socialisation is the process of transmission of cultural and behavioural norms.

Through socialisation, family, school, peers, religion and the media pass on to each new member of society its values, norms, language and ways of behaving, so that the person can take part in that society. It continues throughout life, not only in childhood.

Grooming children into effective adults and identity formation are outcomes of socialisation in childhood, and option D restates transmission between generations in a narrower and awkward way; the general definition is the transmission of cultural and behavioural norms.