A Level Psychology (Specialist options) chapter 1: Clinical Psychology MCQs with answers

By Team Megalecture · Updated 4 Nov 2026

203 exam-style questions on Clinical Psychology, each with the answer and a short explanation. Ten of them are below to try. The chapter test draws ten fresh questions each time and is marked the moment you finish, with your score by topic.

203 questions · 15 topics · 10 per test

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What chapter 1 covers

Ten Clinical Psychology questions with answers

Try each one, then open the answer. These ten stay the same; the test draws new ones every time.

1. The Blood Injection Phobia Inventory (BIPI) is best described as

  1. A
    a machine that measures the blood pressure of a patient during exposure to needles
  2. B
    a clinician's diagnostic interview that is used to assess all anxiety disorders
  3. C
    a projective test in which the person interprets a series of pictures
  4. D
    a self-report questionnaire on fear and avoidance of blood and injections
Show answer

Answer: D. The BIPI is a self-report measure of the severity of blood-injection phobia, so it is subjective and quantitative.

2. Most trials of cognitive therapy have been carried out in Western countries with adults who volunteer for therapy. What is the main issue this raises?

  1. A
    the therapy must be equally effective in all cultures because it is scientific
  2. B
    the findings may not generalise to other cultures, ages or non-volunteers
  3. C
    volunteers are not able to give informed consent to the treatment
  4. D
    the therapy cannot be used in the everyday life of ordinary people
Show answer

Answer: B. Generalisation depends on how representative the sample is. Cultural differences in beliefs about mental health may affect how well a therapy works.

3. A critic points out that identical twins are often treated much more alike than non-identical twins. How does this affect the interpretation of twin studies?

  1. A
    it shows that identical twins do not share all of their genes with each other
  2. B
    it proves that the genetic explanation is completely correct and needs no more evidence
  3. C
    the higher identical-twin concordance may partly reflect similar environments
  4. D
    it means the concordance rates found for non-identical twins are not valid
Show answer

Answer: C. The equal environments assumption is questioned: if identical twins share more similar experiences, environment may inflate the apparent genetic effect.

4. Ali and Zain both fail the same exam. Ali thinks, 'I am just stupid.' Zain thinks, 'This paper was unusually hard.' According to the attributional style explanation, who is at greater risk of depression, and why?

  1. A
    Zain, because he blames an external cause rather than his own efforts
  2. B
    Zain, because he has not learned anything from the experience of failure
  3. C
    both are at equal risk, because they experienced exactly the same event
  4. D
    Ali, because he uses an internal, stable and global explanation
Show answer

Answer: D. Risk depends on how the event is explained, not on the event alone. Ali's explanation is internal and stable, which fits a pessimistic explanatory style.

5. Which is a limitation of SSRIs as a treatment for OCD?

  1. A
    they cure OCD completely in every patient who takes the drug for a month
  2. B
    they are not associated with any side effects in the patients who take them
  3. C
    they teach the patient new coping skills to deal with the intrusive thoughts
  4. D
    they treat symptoms, not causes, and symptoms often return on stopping
Show answer

Answer: D. SSRIs help many patients, but relapse after stopping is common, and side effects such as nausea can occur.

6. A slot machine pays out unpredictably after a varying number of plays. Which schedule of reinforcement does this describe, and what is its effect?

  1. A
    fixed ratio, which gives behaviour that is quickly extinguished when rewards stop
  2. B
    variable ratio, which gives behaviour that is very resistant to extinction
  3. C
    fixed interval, which gives a burst of behaviour just before each reward is due
  4. D
    continuous reinforcement, which gives the most persistent behaviour of all schedules
Show answer

Answer: B. Unpredictable rewards keep people playing even through long losing runs, which is why variable-ratio reinforcement is linked to gambling.

7. A researcher wants the most objective measure of how much a person gambles. Which is best?

  1. A
    bank and betting-account records of the amounts wagered
  2. B
    the person's own estimate of how much they lose in a typical week
  3. C
    the person's own rating of how strong their urges to gamble have been
  4. D
    the estimate of a relative about the time that the person spends gambling
Show answer

Answer: A. Records are objective data, not affected by memory or opinion. Self-ratings and estimates are subjective.

8. A researcher spends ten years interviewing one woman with schizophrenia and her family and reading her medical records. What is the main strength of this case study?

  1. A
    it allows the results to be generalised to everyone who has schizophrenia
  2. B
    it produces numerical data that can be tested statistically against a control group
  3. C
    it removes all researcher bias because only a single person is involved in the study
  4. D
    it gives rich, detailed information about the experience of this person
Show answer

Answer: D. A case study gives in-depth, detailed data about one person over time. Its weakness is that one individual may not represent others, and the researcher's interpretation can introduce bias.

9. According to Freud's case of Little Hans, the real source of the boy's phobia of horses was

  1. A
    an inherited vulnerability to anxiety that was found in his family
  2. B
    a learned association between horses and a loud noise
  3. C
    faulty thinking about the size and strength of horses
  4. D
    an unconscious fear of his father, displaced onto horses
Show answer

Answer: D. Freud proposed that Hans's Oedipus complex led to unconscious fear of his father, which was displaced onto a safer substitute, horses.

10. Treating depression only with antidepressants assumes that it is mainly a chemical problem in the brain. This is criticised as

  1. A
    holistic, as it takes account of every aspect of the whole person
  2. B
    idiographic, as it studies one individual in great depth over time
  3. C
    situational, as it ignores the brain of the person and blames the environment
  4. D
    reductionist, as it ignores thoughts, relationships and circumstances
Show answer

Answer: D. Reductionism explains complex behaviour by one biological factor. A holistic approach also includes thinking and social factors.

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Clinical Psychology: questions students ask

How many Clinical Psychology MCQs are there?

203, each with the answer and a short explanation, across 15 topics: Schizophrenia: diagnostic criteria, Schizophrenia: explanations, Schizophrenia: treatment and management, Mood disorders: diagnostic criteria, Mood disorders: explanations of depressive disorder, Mood disorders: treatment and management, Impulse control disorders: diagnostic criteria, Impulse control disorders: explanations, Impulse control disorders: treatment and management, Anxiety and fear-related disorders: diagnostic criteria, Anxiety and fear-related disorders: explanations, Anxiety and fear-related disorders: treatment and management, Obsessive-compulsive disorder: diagnostic criteria, Obsessive-compulsive disorder: explanations, Obsessive-compulsive disorder: treatment and management. Every chapter test draws ten of them, so you can take it many times.

Is the A Level Psychology (Specialist options) chapter 1 test free?

Yes. The test, the answers and the explanations are free and need no sign-up. Sign in only if you want your scores kept across devices.

How is the chapter test marked?

The moment you press Finish: your score, the right answer and an explanation for every question, and the ones you got wrong saved in My mistakes to retry.

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