Praxis Social Studies: Behavioral Sciences
Psychology, sociology, and anthropology concepts for middle and high school social studies.
Teacher certification exams are administered by testing organizations. FreeExam is not affiliated with those organizations, and these questions are original practice, not an official test.
Praxis is a trademark of Educational Testing Service. FreeExam is not affiliated with Educational Testing Service, and these questions are original practice, not an official test.
1.A kennel sounds a click just before each meal. After many meals, the dog drools at the click even when no bowl appears. Which process is this?
2.A warehouse pays a small bonus each day a worker finishes the safety checklist. Checklist completion rises during the month. Which statement fits?
3.A commuter buckles a seat belt and the warning chime stops. On later drives, the commuter buckles sooner. What does this change show?
4.A recreation club adds a fee when a member arrives late. Late arrivals become less common over the next month. Which description fits?
5.After a player shoves an opponent, the coach benches the player for the rest of the game. Shoving becomes less common at later practices. Which process is this?
6.A swim teacher praises a beginner for stepping in, then for lifting both feet, then for a brief float. The float appears after those steps. Which statement fits?
7.A cafe stamp is given on some visits, and the free drink comes after an unpredictable number of stamps. Customers keep buying at a steady pace. Which schedule is this?
8.A tutor gives a quiz every Friday. Students review little on Monday and much more on Thursday night. Which schedule matches that pattern?
9.A child who learned the word dog for the family pet says dog when a fox appears in a picture book. Which process is this?
10.A cashier treats a blue light as a drill and stays calm, but treats a red light as a real alert and follows the safety steps. Which statement fits?
11.Students remember a grocery list better when they invent a short story that ties the items together. Which memory process does the story support?
12.A student remembers a nine-digit door code more easily as three groups of three than as nine separate digits. Which memory aid is this?
13.A worker memorizes a new door code but keeps entering last year's code. The older code is blocking the newer one. Which memory effect is this?
14.A speaker cannot recall a colleague's name at the office, then recalls it at once in the kitchen where they were introduced. Which statement fits?
15.A student silently repeats a locker combination while walking down the hall, then dials it correctly. What is the repeating doing?
16.After reading a short account of a restaurant meal, people later recall a menu that the account never mentioned. Which idea explains the added menu?
Notes from the Saturday Market
For eight Saturday mornings, a researcher helped unpack crates at a spice stall and kept a notebook. She watched how vendors greeted regular customers, how they set prices, and how they spoke to people they did not know. She did not change any price and did not tell shoppers what to buy.
Regular customers often received a small extra, such as a free herb sprig, after they had paid. Newcomers were charged the posted price and were rarely offered that extra. When a new vendor tried to shout prices across the aisle, older vendors asked him to keep his voice low. He did so the next week.
After the eighth Saturday, the researcher asked ten vendors for interviews. She explained the study, said they could decline, and recorded only those who agreed. She later compared her notes with a town survey from the previous year that asked residents how often they shopped at the market.
In her write-up she described the greeting custom and the herb sprig in the vendors' own terms before comparing markets in other towns. She noted that the sprig marked an ongoing relationship. She did not claim the custom was right for every town.
17.In the Saturday market notes, the researcher unpacked crates and recorded greetings, prices, and talk. Which method is that?
18.In the Saturday market notes, why does it matter that she explained the study and recorded only vendors who agreed?
19.In the Saturday market notes, why compare the Saturday notes with the town survey from the previous year?
20.In the Saturday market notes, regulars receive a free herb sprig after paying, and newcomers usually do not. What is that sprig in social terms?
21.In the Saturday market notes, the researcher did not change prices or tell shoppers what to buy. Why is this study not an experiment?
22.In the Saturday market notes, older vendors ask a new vendor to lower his voice, and he speaks more quietly the next week. Which statement fits?
23.In the Saturday market notes, she explains the herb sprig in the vendors' own terms and does not call the custom right for every town. Which stance is this?
24.In the Saturday market notes, regulars receive favors that newcomers usually do not. Which idea best names that boundary?
25.A toddler watches a parent hide a rattle under a scarf, then lifts the scarf and finds the rattle. Which development does that search show?
26.A four-year-old watches juice poured from a short glass into a taller glass and says there is more juice now. Which statement fits?
27.A nine-year-old sees the same juice pour and says the amount is unchanged because only the glass changed. Which achievement is this?
28.Across a school year, a fifteen-year-old tries theater, a robotics club, and a weekend job, then keeps the job. Which development fits?
29.An infant cries when a familiar caregiver leaves and settles soon after that caregiver returns. Which pattern does this suggest?
30.On a night walk, a kindergartner says the moon is coming along to the family's house. Which description fits this comment?
31.A child says that taking a classmate's snack is wrong because the teacher will send the child to the office. Which moral focus is this?
32.A teen says a hall-pass rule is unjust if it punishes a student who was helping an injured classmate. Which moral focus is this?
33.Parents set a bedtime, explain why sleep matters, and listen when a child asks for a later time on concert nights. Which parenting style is this?
34.Parents require a silent dinner, give no reason for the rule, and ground a child for asking why. Which statement fits this style?
35.Parents are affectionate and rarely enforce a limit. Their child stays up as late as the child wishes on school nights. Which parenting style is this?
36.A child inherits a quick temper and also learns at home to pause before shouting. Which conclusion about development fits?
37.Eighth graders adopt a new slang greeting after friends use it, while grandparents never do. Which agent of socialization is strongest here?
38.New fire recruits turn in their usual clothes, follow a minute-by-minute schedule, and answer to new titles. Which statement fits?
39.A senior spends Saturdays shadowing a paramedic and practices the radio phrases she expects to use next year. Which socialization is this?
40.A new neighbor waves only after imagining that people on the porch will see her as rude if she does not. Which idea fits, in ordinary words?
41.In class, students learn to take turns, raise a hand, and accept a grade for their work. Which socialization is this?
42.A junior player copies the varsity squad's warm-up because she wants to meet that squad's standard, though she is not on it. Which statement fits?
43.Three cousins eat together every Sunday, share private jokes, and help one another during illness. Which kind of group is this?
44.Two hundred employees interact mainly to finish a bridge contract. Most do not know one another's families. Which kind of group is this?
45.Families raise children, schools teach shared skills, and courts settle disputes under public rules. What are these examples of?
46.A nurse is scheduled for a night shift at the same hour as her child's recital. She cannot be in both places. Which statement fits?
47.A shift lead must enforce a safety rule and, in the same hour, keep morale up among friends on that crew. Both demands come from the one job. Which pattern is this?
48.A child receives extra respect in town because of a family name given at birth. The child did not earn that name. Which status is the family name?
49.After two years of classes and a licensing exam, a graduate may legally inspect elevators. Which status is the license?
50.After a gold-medal race, interviewers ask about the medal and ignore the athlete's work as a librarian. Which statement fits?
51.A renowned cellist drives a taxi at night, with low pay, while musicians hold her in high regard. Which pattern is this?
52.A clerk finishes a management course and is promoted to department manager, with higher pay and more authority. Which mobility is this?
53.In one society, people must marry inside the group they were born into and cannot leave that group through school or work. Which system is this?
54.In another society, people can change class through schooling and work, but children from wealthy families still have better odds. Which statement fits?
55.Two reports list a household's wages for this year and, separately, the value of its savings and house after debts. Which contrast is this?
56.Two households earn the same annual pay. One owns a house outright, and the other rents and has little savings. Which statement is accurate?
57.A researcher counts a family as poor only when it lacks reliable food, shelter, or clean water. Which poverty standard is that?
58.A household has food and shelter but falls far below the typical income in its country, so it cannot join ordinary social life. Which statement fits?
59.A factory owner's children attend an exclusive school and later inherit the firm. Which pattern does this illustrate?
60.In a community, women are expected to cook for public festivals and men are expected to speak at them. The tasks are learned, not a law of biology. Which idea fits?
The Six-Week Speech Workshop
A community center ran a six-week workshop for teens who would give short speeches at a neighborhood fair. In week one, half the teens said each speech aloud three times. The other half only reread the same page silently. The center did not pay anyone for attending.
In week three, a coach demonstrated how to open a speech, then asked the teens to try the same opening. Several teens copied her pause and her hand motion even though she had not told them to copy those details.
In week five, each teen practiced once in an empty room and once in front of the other teens. Most spoke more clearly with the group watching than in the empty room. They had already practiced the speeches for several weeks. When the center said the whole workshop would receive one shared score, a few teens stopped rehearsing and let others carry the work.
On fair day, teens who had practiced aloud recalled more of their lines than teens who had only reread the page. One teen forgot a middle section after a loud announcement interrupted her, then recovered the ending she had practiced most often.
61.In the speech workshop account, teens who said their lines aloud later recalled more than teens who only reread the page. Which practice fits the stronger recall?
62.In the speech workshop account, several teens copy the coach's pause and hand motion without being told to copy them. Which statement fits?
63.In the speech workshop account, most teens spoke more clearly with the group watching than in an empty room, after weeks of practice. Which effect fits?
64.In the speech workshop account, a shared score leads a few teens to stop rehearsing and let others do the work. Which pattern is this?
65.In the speech workshop account, the center did not pay anyone for attending. Which claim is supported?
66.In the speech workshop account, a loud announcement leads one teen to lose a middle section, and she then recovers the ending she practiced most. Which statement fits?
67.In the speech workshop account, what condition is being compared between the two halves of the group?
68.In the speech workshop account, what outcome is compared on fair day?
69.In a study, each person hears four others give the same wrong answer about a line length. Many people then give that wrong answer too. The lines are easy. Which process is this?
70.In a lab, a person in a lab coat tells a volunteer to continue a dull task the volunteer finds upsetting. Many volunteers continue. Which statement fits?
71.On a crowded platform, a traveler drops a bag. Many people see it, and each assumes someone else will help. Help is slow. Which idea fits?
72.A committee wants harmony, so members who doubt a weak plan stay silent. The plan fails. Which group pattern is this?
73.At a festival, people wearing full masks take risks they avoid when neighbors can recognize them. Which process fits the riskier conduct?
74.A clerk snaps at a customer. The customer calls the clerk a rude person and does not know the clerk just received painful family news. Which statement fits?
75.After a win, players say their own skill caused it. After a loss, the same players blame the referee. Which bias is this?
76.A tutor expects a new student to be careless, assigns little practice, and the student's scores stay low. Which pattern is this?
77.Before meeting an applicant, a hiring officer believes that people from one town are always late. Which belief is this?
78.A resident feels distrust toward people from that town even when no decision about a job or a service is being made. Which statement fits?
79.The hiring officer rejects the applicant because of the town, even though the work record is strong. Which term fits that rejection?
80.Players praise their own team for a rough tackle and scold the other team for the same tackle. Which pattern is this?
81.A community shares a language, ancestry stories, and festival foods, and people treat that heritage as theirs. Which term fits?
82.A large group has less say over laws and hiring than other groups in the same society. It is not the smallest population. Which statement fits sociology's usage?
83.A chapter says that racial categories used to rank people are social labels for appearance and ancestry, not neat biological teams. Which reading fits?
84.A visitor calls another region's lunch customs childish because they are not the foods he eats at home. He never asks what the foods mean there. Which tendency is this?
85.A fieldworker explains a community's harvest fast through that community's religious calendar. She adds that understanding the fast is not the same as calling it right in every case. Which stance is this?
86.A city takes up phone payments months before it has shared rules for refunds, mistakes, or privacy. Which statement fits?
87.A bread recipe and a style of work boots spread from one region to another through travel and trade. Which process is this?
88.A youth circle rejects the dominant dress, work hours, and family pattern and tries to build another way of living. Which label fits?
89.In a large city, one neighborhood keeps its home language and festival calendar while also using the city schools and buses. Which concept fits?
90.Across many societies, people form family groups and mark deaths with rites, though the details differ. Which statement fits?
91.A town handbook says every neighbor helps in a crisis, yet many residents do not help. Which contrast is this?
92.Newcomers learn the local bus routes and workplace greetings while still cooking their home holiday foods. Which pattern fits?
93.A policy tells newcomers to drop their home language and holidays and to use only the dominant ones in public and at home. Which pressure is this?
94.A weaving shuttle can be held in the hand. The story of why it must be blessed before use cannot. Which statement fits?
95.A community teaches that keeping a promise matters more than winning an argument. Which cultural element is that teaching?
96.A community treats marriage between a parent and a child as unthinkable, beyond an ordinary complaint about manners. Which norm is this?
97.In one town, selling baked goods on Sunday draws a public scolding. In another town the same sale is ordinary. Which idea fits the scolding town?
98.After a factory town loses its main employer, old work rules no longer fit, and residents say they do not know what is expected of them. Which statement fits?
99.After a student is publicly called a troublemaker, teachers watch him more closely and cut him from activities. He then skips more classes. Which idea fits?
100.A researcher lives in a fishing village for a year, learns daily routines, and writes a full account of that way of life. Which method is this?
101.Ice-cream sales and swimming both rise in hot months. A researcher reports that pattern and does not claim that ice cream causes swimming. Which limit is she respecting?
102.A study defines generosity as the number of times a person shares supplies during one observed hour. Which statement fits that definition?
103.The same questionnaire, given to the same adults one week apart, produces very similar scores. Which property does that similarity support?
104.A survey claims to measure community trust, but every item asks only about favorite snack foods. Which problem is this?
105.Interview notes are stored under code numbers, and the list that links codes to names is locked apart from the notes. Which protection is this?
106.Workers raise output while a researcher times the shift, then slow down when the timing ends. The tools never change. Which statement fits?
107.A researcher follows the same students from grade 6 through grade 12 and records club membership each year. Which design is this?
108.In one month, a researcher compares club membership among separate groups of 12-year-olds, 15-year-olds, and 18-year-olds. No student is followed into a later year. Which design is this?