• 48 questions

OSAT Psychology Sociology Practice Test

Unofficial questions for Oklahoma's OSAT Psychology/Sociology test, field 132, weighted like its five selected-response subareas.

A sleep laboratory records a phase in which the sleeper's core body and brain temperatures rise while muscle tone throughout the body is low. Which phase of sleep is it?

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with Oklahoma's Office of Educational Quality and Accountability or Pearson. Bank checked October 15, 2026.

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All 48 questions

Subarea I: Perspectives, methods and concepts of psychology 10

  • A manufacturer hires a psychologist to redesign how it recruits and selects shift supervisors and how it trains them. Which subfield of psychology is this? Wikipedia, Industrial and organizational psychology, lead and Personnel recruitment and selection. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0001
  • A person can just tell a 100 g weight from a 102 g weight by lifting them. By Weber's law, what is the smallest weight that must be added to 500 g for the person to notice a difference? Wikipedia, Weber–Fechner law, Weber's law. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0004
  • A researcher seats eight first-year teachers together and guides an open discussion of why new teachers quit, recording what they say to one another. Which research strategy is this? Wikipedia, Focus group, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0002
  • A sleep laboratory records a phase in which the sleeper's core body and brain temperatures rise while muscle tone throughout the body is low. Which phase of sleep is it? Wikipedia, Rapid eye movement sleep, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0003
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Subarea I: Perspectives, methods and concepts of psychology, continued

  • A social psychology experiment misleads its participants about what is being measured. Right after the session the researcher meets each one for a short interview about the study. What is this step called? Wikipedia, Debriefing, Psychological research. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0002
  • After a near miss in traffic, a driver's pounding heart gradually slows and digestion resumes. Which division of the nervous system is chiefly responsible for the calming? Wikipedia, Parasympathetic nervous system, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0003
  • During a halftime show, spectators see the band members marching left as one block and those marching right as another, though all wear one uniform. Which Gestalt principle of grouping is at work? Wikipedia, Principles of grouping, Common fate. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0004
  • During a tense exam week a student's adrenal glands release more of a steroid hormone that raises blood sugar. Which hormone is it? Wikipedia, Cortisol, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0003
  • Which psychoanalyst rejected Freud's claim that women's psychology grows out of envy of men, and traced the differences to society and culture instead? Wikipedia, Karen Horney, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0001
  • Who became, in 1920, the first African American to earn a PhD in psychology, and is often called the father of Black psychology? Wikipedia, Francis Cecil Sumner, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0001

Subarea II: Development, learning and cognition 10

  • A nine-year-old sorts her rock collection by size and then by color with ease, but is at a loss when asked to reason about a world in which rocks float. Which of Piaget's stages does this fit? Wikipedia, Piaget's theory of cognitive development, Concrete operational stage. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0005
  • An email program stops flashing a red banner as soon as the inbox is cleared, and an office worker takes to clearing her inbox first thing each morning. Which operant principle strengthened the habit? Wikipedia, Reinforcement, Terminology. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0006
  • Asked why stealing is wrong, a twelve-year-old answers, "It's against the law, and if everybody broke the law, society would fall apart." Which of Kohlberg's stages does this reasoning fit? Wikipedia, Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development, Conventional. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0005
  • Carol Gilligan, once Lawrence Kohlberg's research assistant, criticized his stages of moral development. What was her objection? Wikipedia, Carol Gilligan, lead and Psychology. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0005
  • Charles Spearman saw that children's ratings in seemingly unrelated school subjects rose and fell together. What did he propose to explain it? Wikipedia, g factor (psychometrics), lead and Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0008
  • For weeks a teacher flicked the classroom lights just before announcing a pop quiz. Now students' stomachs tighten whenever the lights flicker, quiz or no quiz. In classical conditioning, what has the flicker become? Wikipedia, Classical conditioning, lead and Definitions. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0006
  • In Bandura's Bobo doll studies, some children watched an adult hit and shout at an inflatable doll. How did those children behave when left with the doll? Wikipedia, Bobo doll experiment, lead and Results. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0006
  • Shoppers rate a yogurt labeled "95% fat free" as healthier than the same yogurt labeled "contains 5% fat." Which bias in decision making does this show? Wikipedia, Framing effect (psychology), lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0007
  • Students hear a list of twenty unrelated words once and then write down all they can. Which words are they most likely to recall? Wikipedia, Serial-position effect, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0007
  • Suppose a researcher "measured" intelligence with a tape around the head. The tape gives each person the same number at every sitting, yet the numbers say nothing about how people think. How would the measure be described? Wikipedia, Reliability (statistics), Difference from validity. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0008

Subarea III: Motivation, personality, mental health and social behavior 10

  • A client is asked to say whatever comes to mind, without censoring it, while the therapist listens for signs of unconscious processes. From which perspective on treatment does this technique come? Wikipedia, Free association (psychology), lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0011
  • A teenager who rebuilt old bicycles for the fun of it is hired to do the same work for an hourly wage. When the job ends, he leaves his own bicycles untouched. What is this loss of interest called? Wikipedia, Overjustification effect, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0009
  • A viewer watches a quiz-show contestant miss three easy questions and decides the contestant is simply dim, giving no weight to the studio lights, the clock and the cameras. Which bias is this? Wikipedia, Fundamental attribution error, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0012
  • Across Solomon Asch's reports of his line experiments, on about what share of the critical trials did participants go along with the majority's wrong answer? Wikipedia, Asch conformity experiments, Results. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0012
  • The elaboration likelihood model describes two routes by which a message can change an attitude. Which route is a listener using when little thought goes into the message itself? Wikipedia, Elaboration likelihood model, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0012
  • In Carl Rogers's humanistic account of how the self-concept develops, which kind of upbringing gives a child the opportunity to fully actualize? Wikipedia, Carl Rogers, Theory, Development of the personality. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0010
  • In Hans Selye's general adaptation syndrome, which phase comes when an organism fails to overcome a threat and uses up its physiological resources? Wikipedia, Stress (biology), General adaptation syndrome. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0011
  • On a Big Five inventory a student scores high on the trait described as a tendency to be self-disciplined, act dutifully and strive for achievement. Which trait is it? Wikipedia, Big Five personality traits, Conscientiousness. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0010
  • On a swaying footbridge a hiker's heart pounds. Meeting a stranger there, the hiker reads the arousal as attraction. Which theory holds that people search their surroundings for cues to label their arousal? Wikipedia, Two-factor theory of emotion, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0009
  • Which of these ways of assessing personality is an objective test, not a projective one? Wikipedia, Projective test, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0010

Subarea IV: Methods and concepts of sociology 10

  • A dinner guest uses the salad fork for the main course. Others notice, but nobody thinks it wicked. Which kind of norm was broken? Wikipedia, Mores, lead and Terminology. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0016
  • A group's values and norms of behavior are opposed to those of the mainstream society around it. What do sociologists call such a culture? Wikipedia, Counterculture, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0014
  • A new teacher comes to see herself as capable because she imagines that her students judge her that way, and she feels pride. Whose concept describes a self built in these steps? Wikipedia, Looking-glass self, lead and Cooley's three steps. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0015
  • A police officer answers a call and finds that the person she must arrest is her brother. The clash between what the two statuses she holds demand of her is an example of what? Wikipedia, Role conflict, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0016
  • A sociologist codes 300 evening news broadcasts, counting how often women appear as expert sources. Which research method is this? Wikipedia, Content analysis, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0013
  • A sociology teacher has students trace one laid-off worker's situation to changes in the whole economy. In The Sociological Imagination, what did C. Wright Mills say social scientists must relate? Wikipedia, The Sociological Imagination, On reason and freedom. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0013
  • Caught shoplifting once and branded a thief at school, a teenager comes to see himself as a criminal and begins stealing regularly. What does labeling theory call this later pattern? Wikipedia, Secondary deviance, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0015
  • Émile Durkheim contrasted two kinds of social bond. Which one holds together a modern industrial society whose members do specialized work and depend on one another? Wikipedia, Mechanical and organic solidarity, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0014
  • In Robert Merton's strain theory, a person accepts society's goal of wealth but, shut out of legitimate means, turns to selling stolen goods. Which adaptation is this? Wikipedia, Strain theory (sociology), Robert K. Merton. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0015
  • Which reformer co-founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889, a settlement house that gave social services to poor, largely immigrant families? Wikipedia, Jane Addams, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0013

Subarea V: Institutions, stratification and social change 8

  • A critic observes that star athletes earn many times what teachers earn, though teachers are at least as necessary to society. Which explanation of social stratification is this criticism aimed at? Wikipedia, Davis–Moore hypothesis, Argument and Criticism. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0018
  • A new medical technology can keep patients alive long before laws and shared norms settle how it should be used. What did William Ogburn call such a gap? Wikipedia, Cultural lag, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0019
  • A president holds power under a written constitution, and the power belongs to the office and its laws, not to her person or to custom. Which of Weber's three types of authority is this? Wikipedia, Tripartite classification of authority, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0017
  • The daughter of two farm laborers becomes a surgeon. Which term describes her change of position compared with her parents? Wikipedia, Social mobility, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0018
  • Émile Durkheim held that one distinction is central to the social reality of human religion, whatever a people believes. Which distinction? Wikipedia, Sacred–profane dichotomy, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0017
  • Ferdinand Tönnies sorted social ties into two kinds. Which of his terms names ties that rest on indirect interactions, impersonal roles and formal values, as in a modern state or a company? Wikipedia, Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0019
  • Schools are set up to teach knowledge and skills. They also keep children supervised while parents work, which nobody wrote into the mission. In Merton's terms, what is the supervision? Wikipedia, Manifest and latent functions and dysfunctions, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0017
  • W. E. B. Du Bois wrote of "double consciousness" in The Souls of Black Folk. What does the term describe? Wikipedia, Double consciousness, lead. Written to the OSAT Psychology/Sociology (132) framework, competency 0018

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the test design and framework of Oklahoma Subject Area Tests field 132, Psychology/Sociology, in the study guide on the Certification Examinations for Oklahoma Educators website (https://www.ceoe.nesinc.com/Content/StudyGuide/OK_SG_OBJ_132.htm, copyright 2018 Office of Educational Quality and Accountability and Pearson Education, Inc.; test page https://www.ceoe.nesinc.com/TestView.aspx?f=HTML_FRAG/OK132_TestPage.html, read 2026-10-15): 80 selected-response questions and 1 constructed-response assignment in 4 hours, passing score 240; selected response weighs Core Perspectives, Methods, and Concepts of Psychology (competencies 0001 to 0004) 18%, Development, Learning, and Cognition (0005 to 0008) 18%, Motivation, Emotion, Personality, Mental Health, and Social Behavior (0009 to 0012) 18%, Core Methods and Concepts of Sociology (0013 to 0016) 18% and Social Institutions, Stratification, and Problems (0017 to 0019) 13%, and the constructed response (0020) 15%. The bank holds 48: 10, 10, 10, 10 and 8, with two or three for each of the 19 selected-response competencies. Every fact was read in the Wikipedia article named under its question. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

Forty-eight questions of our own for Psychology/Sociology, field 132 of the Oklahoma Subject Area Tests: thirty on psychology and eighteen on sociology. An unofficial page: Oklahoma's Office of Educational Quality and Accountability and Pearson run the test and are not connected with this site.

Read the full guide

What field 132 weighs

Five subareas are scored by multiple choice. Three of psychology and one of sociology carry 18% of the test apiece, and a second sociology subarea, on institutions, stratification and social problems, carries 13%. This bank splits its 48 questions 10, 10, 10, 10 and 8 to match (framework read October 15, 2026).

People the framework names

For psychology the framework lists Wundt, Sumner, Freud, Horney, Piaget, Bandura, Rogers and Ainsworth; for sociology Comte, Durkheim, Spencer, Weber, Mills, Dix, Addams, Marx and Du Bois. Ten of them are the subject of a question here.

The written assignment

The last 15% is one constructed-response assignment on teaching: plan instruction toward a standards-based learning goal in psychology, working from student work or assessment results. This bank leaves that assignment alone.

  • Competency 0002 covers research ethics and descriptive statistics beside research methods; competency 0013 names surveys, experiments, observations and content analysis for sociology.

Questions and answers

How long is the OSAT Psychology/Sociology test?

Field 132 has 80 selected-response questions and 1 constructed-response assignment, its test page says. Candidates get a 15-minute tutorial and nondisclosure agreement, then 4 hours to test.

What score do you need to pass OSAT Psychology/Sociology?

The test page gives 240. Since the written assignment is part of that figure, the result here is a plain count of right answers, with no pass or fail.

What does the OSAT Psychology/Sociology test cover?

Perspectives, research methods, the biology of behavior and perception; development, learning, memory and intelligence; motivation, personality, mental health and social psychology; then sociology's methods, culture, socialization, deviance, groups, institutions, inequality and social change.

When is the OSAT Psychology/Sociology test given?

The test page says by appointment during specific testing windows, at test sites in Oklahoma and nationwide. Field 132 is taken on a computer, and its page lists no reference materials.

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