Foundation Quiz 2

The reading for this quiz is Habits of a Happy Brain Chapters 4-6 and the Slide Show Guided Neuroplasticity

When you pass this quiz and the next one, 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 Quiz #2

20 multiple-choice questions.When you complete all 3 Foundation Quizzes, you'll earn a free copy of I, Mammal and qualify for the Advanced Training and Certification.

1. Why don’t we enjoy happy chemicals all the time?

their job is to respond to new information and then return to neutral

new experiences are often less intense than the original experience that built the circuit

natural selection designed the brain to motivate survival efforts, not to produce happiness

all of the above

2. “Habituation” is the brain’s capacity to:

stop responding to a reward when it becomes familiar.

turn off a happy chemical when there’s no new information about the reward.

ignore information about old rewards so your attention is available for new rewards.

all of the above

3. Which of the following thoughts is an example of habituation?

“I couldn’t wait to move to a better home, but now I hardly notice it anymore.”

“I couldn’t wait to move to a better home, but now I just notice the broken appliances.”

“I couldn’t wait to move to a better home, but now I miss the gang at my old place.”

“I couldn’t wait to move to a better home, but now my furniture looks shabby there.”

all of the above

4. Which of the following is an example of dopamine disappointment?

Thinking about chocolate excites you but the good feeling stops once you get the chocolate.

You’re sure you would be happy forever if only they still made chocolate the way it used to be.

Vanilla is your only option because they messed up on the chocolate.

all of the above

5. Endorphin doesn’t last because:

some people don’t make enough

good things always come to an end

we need to feel pain in order to protect ourselves from harm

our society disapproves of euphoria

6. Seeking endorphin is dangerous, whether you do it internally by creating pain or externally by taking opiates, because:

it undermines your natural happy-chemical responses

it masks pain, which leads to dangerous neglect of personal care

you habituate, so it takes more and more to create the feeling

all of the above

7. Oxytocin droop benefits you for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

It warns you that isolation is dangerous.

It motivates you to invest more in social bonds.

It motivates you to stay attached to people who hurt you.

It helps you make good decisions about who you can trust.

8. Serotonin droops after it spurts, which is why people:

feel important all the time.

keep looking for ways to feel important.

don’t worry about feeling important.

are honest about their urge to be important.

all of the above

9. How can you protect yourself from the bad feeling of serotonin droop?

By insisting you don’t care about status.

By refusing to seek social advancement.

By knowing it’s a mammalian inheritance rather than a true emergency.

By securing a permanent position of importance.

all of the above

10. When you feel bad, anything that makes you feel better:

saved your life, in the view of your mammal brain, which equates bad feelings with urgent threat.

connects neurons that trigger positive expectations.

is what you will seek the next time you feel bad.

all of the above

11. Distraction feels good because:

it meets real needs.

we distract with healthy behaviors.

interrupting a threat circuit makes you feel safer.

we are proud of our chosen distractions.

all of the above

12. You can stop a vicious circle if you:

do nothing instead of doing the “happy habit” that comes naturally to you.

live with the threatened feeling for a minute, to teach your brain that it will not kill you.

choose a healthy behavior to focus on when you feel threatened, and repeat it for 45 days without fail whether it feels good or not.

all of the above

13. Old circuits are powerful because:

they conduct electricity effortlessly.

they are built in childhood when you have more access to authentic truth.

old knowledge is more reliable.

they remind you of the good times.

14. Myelin coats neurons, which make them super-efficient conductors of electricity. Why does this matter?

The myelin coating wears out over time.

Your myelinated circuits feel right even when they’re wrong because the effortless flow of electricity is how we “know” what feels “right.”

Good judgment doesn’t come until your twenties because that’s when your myelin comes.

Some people have more myelin than others.

all of the above

15. Which of the following is NOT true about early experience shaping the brain?

Neurons that are not activated in youth get pruned, which increases your reliance on the neural pathways activated by your individual past experience.

Mammals with more neurons have a longer childhood because neurons gain value from the connections built by experience.

The human brain is good at deleting circuits built from past rewards and pain when necessary.

Early experience builds new synapses and strengthens the connections between synapses.

16. You can build a new serotonin circuit if you spend 45 days repeating a behavior that:

builds trust, even in a small way

approaches a goal, even in a small way

makes you feel important, even in a small way

rejects status, even in a small way

17. New steps are easier to take when you know that:

neurons find it hard to activate neighboring neurons if they haven’t done it before.

repetition builds synapses, so they fire more easily over time.

new neural pathways feel unsafe because they aren’t yet connected to your lifetime knowledge of rewards and pain.

all of the above

18. Current theories about happiness are built on all of these beliefs EXCEPT:

nature is good, so our society must be the cause of all bad.

happy chemicals flow effortlessly so unhappiness is evidence that something went wrong.

the animal origin of our brain chemistry explains much of the frustration of modern life.

your happy chemicals should flow whether or not you are meeting survival needs.

19. A droop in happy chemicals is nature’s reset button. That means:

we must never let our happy chemicals droop because we wouldn’t survive it.

frustration is unnatural but we can reset to our natural happiness.

a droop is a neutral position that prepares you to respond to the potential rewards and pain in your surroundings.

unhappiness is caused by the people who push your buttons.

all of the above

20. Happy chemicals lead to frustration in all of the following ways EXCEPT:

Dopamine habituates to old rewards, so you have to keep finding new rewards to enjoy it.

Oxytocin makes you feel good when you’re with the herd, but that makes it hard to distance from the herd when you long for greener pastures.

Serotonin gives you a great feeling when you gain a social advantage, but when you lack a social advantage, the droop gives you the sense that our survival is threatened.

Endorphin masks pain with euphoria for a few minutes, but you feel the pain when the spurt is over.

Your happy chemicals must be perfectly balanced at all times or else you feel frustrated.

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