Foundation Quiz 1
The reading for this quiz is Habits of a Happy Brain Chapters 1-3 and the Slide Show The Science of Happiness
When you pass this quiz and the next two, you get a free copy of I, Mammal and qualify for the Advanced Inner Mammal Training and for 3 CEUs. You are on your way to becoming a Certified Inner Mammal Trainer!
Foundation Level #1
Results for Foundation Quiz 1
Hooray! Continue on Quiz 2B and 2C to become a Certified Inner Mammal Trainer.Question 1 |
Your brain responds to the world with life-or-death feelings because:
things are bad and getting worse | |
you are sensitive | |
you are knowledgable | |
our brains are inherited from a world where survival rates were low and these responses were valuable |
Question 2 |
The mammal brain defines survival in quirky ways, including all of the following EXCEPT:
Your brain cares about the survival of your genes, even if you are not focused on that. | |
Your responses depend on circuits built in youth, when your survival knowledge was quite limited. | |
Your brain is self-destructive and doesn’t really care about your survival.
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Your brain assumes things that feel good are good for your survival. |
Question 3 |
Each happy chemical motivates a specific survival behavior. For example:
oxytocin motivates you to invest effort in steps toward rewards | |
endorphin motivates you to seek social importance | |
dopamine motivates you to find safety in numbers | |
serotonin motivates you to ignore pain | |
none of the above |
Question 4 |
How does the big human cortex work together with the mammal brain?
They take turns cooperatively unless a person has a disorder. | |
The cortex has extra neurons to store experience that fine-tunes the mammalian impulse to “go toward” or “avoid.”
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The reptile brain mediates between them, turning one on and the other off when that choice is best for your survival prospects. | |
They don’t work together - they are always competing with each other for the electricity in your brain. |
Question 5 |
It useful to do nothing in a moment of cortisol for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
Doing nothing is the highest step in a long path of personal development. | |
When cortisol gives you the feeling that you will die if you don’t make it stop, doing nothing teaches your brain that you will not actually die. | |
When cortisol gives you a “do something” feeling, you're tempted to do something that comes easily even though it has bad consequences. | |
Doing nothing gives your brain time to send electricity down an alternate path that is less well developed. |
Question 6 |
Love makes you happy for all the following reasons EXCEPT:
Dopamine turns on when you expect to meet a need.
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An association that raises your status stimulates serotonin. | |
Touch and trust stimulate oxytocin. | |
Laughing stimulates endorphin. | |
Love rewires your brain so you will always be happy. |
Question 7 |
Dopamine can cause excitement about preparing vegetables or preparing a mind-altering substance. All of the following explain why EXCEPT:
some vegetables are high in dopamine and some drugs are too | |
steps toward things you expect to meet your needs trigger dopamine | |
anything that met your needs in the past built a pathway to your dopamine, which turns it on when you see something similar today | |
electricity flows easily down pathways carved by things that excited you before |
Question 8 |
Your natural endorphin turns on when:
someone hurts your feelings | |
you’re physically injured | |
you feel pride in your exercise regimen | |
you take heroin |
Question 9 |
Oxytocin causes the good feeling of
touch by someone you trust | |
building social alliances | |
safety in numbers | |
being surrounded by your herd | |
all of the above |
Question 10 |
Serotonin makes you feel good when you:
initiate conflict | |
avoid conflict | |
gain a social advantage | |
compare yourself unfavorably |
Question 11 |
Cortisol promotes survival in all of the following ways EXCEPT:
It helps you anticipate pain so you can avoid it.
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The bad feeling motivates you to do something fast to make it stop.
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It prevents you from stressing over minor threats such as social disappointments.
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It connects neurons that help the bad feeling turn on quickly when you see things that hurt you before. |
Question 12 |
Mirror neurons activate when:
you realize you are more empathetic than others
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you see another person get a reward or face a threat
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you decide to be authentic instead of imitating others
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you look at yourself
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Question 13 |
We humans have social pain because:
social isolation was a survival threat in the world of our ancestors
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we are born fragile and unable to meet our own needs, so a lack of social support is a real survival threat during the formative years of our brain
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our big brain anticipates threats, so a potential future threat to your social bonds feels urgent now
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all of the above
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Question 14 |
Your brain has ten times more neurons going into your eyes than it has coming from your eyes. That shows we are designed to:
tell our senses what information to look for
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open our minds to new information | |
scan the world for information with our sensory receptors
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process a huge quantity of information
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Question 15 |
Expectations are powerful because:
of the effort and analysis you put into creating them
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they are real physical pathways, so a mismatch between expectations and reality prompts us to question reality and reconcile it with expectations | |
they free you from the preconceptions of past experience and help you interpret new inputs in new ways
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all of the above |
Question 16 |
Mammals cannot produce a huge number of offspring the way reptiles can, so in order to keep their genes alive they have to:
invest effort in each individual offspring
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form attachments with their young to keep them safe
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form attachments with peers to protect their young from threats
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all of the above
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Question 17 |
Living in groups brings potential for conflict, but natural selection built a brain that resolves conflict by:
comparing itself to others
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restraining itself in the presence of more powerful individuals
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going for it when it seems safe | |
all of the above
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none of the above |
Question 18 |
Reproductive success is relevant to modern life for all of these reasons EXCEPT:
We've inherited our brains from individuals who did what it took to keep their genes alive.
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As we strive to feel good, it helps to know that natural selection built a brain that saves the good feelings for things that promote reproductive success.
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People who reproduce the most are considered the most successful.
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We react strongly to things that affect reproductive success, such as appearance and status.
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Question 19 |
The cortex can restrain neurochemical impulses in order to:
adjust for new information that better promotes survival
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substitute goals unrelated to survival | |
feel good now without regard for long-term consequences | |
all of the above |
Question 20 |
The brain learns from its neurochemical experience. Which example is NOT true?
Oxytocin experience wires a mammal to know who to trust.
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Serotonin experience wires a mammal to know when to seek social dominance.
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Dopamine experience wires a mammal to know where to invest effort.
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Cortisol experience wires a mammal to know what to avoid. | |
Endorphin experience wires a mammal to feel pain. |