Chapter 1

Question 1

What is psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Question 2

What is science?

Answer 2

The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world and to draw conclusions

Question 3

What is behavior?

Answer 3

Everything we do that can be directly observed.

Question 4

What is mental processes?

Answer 4

The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.

Question 5

What are the three goals of psychology?

Answer 5

Describe, predict, and explain

Question 6

What does it mean to describe?

Answer 6

Observe and measure behavior.

Question 7

What does it mean to predict?

Answer 7

Think about when a behavior will occur, who is mostly to behave a particular way.

Question 8

What does it mean to explain?

Answer 8

Determine why a behavior occurred when it did.

Question 9

What are the four attitudes of scientific approach (especially for psychologists)?

Answer 9

Critical thinking, skepticism, objectivity, and curiosity.

Question 10

What is critical thinking?

Answer 10

The process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating evidence.

Question 11

What does it mean to be skeptical?

Answer 11

Questioning “common sense” or things that “everyone knows”

Question 12

What is pseudoscience?

Answer 12

Information that is couched in scientific terminology but is not supported by sound scientific research.

Question 13

What does it mean to think objectively?

Answer 13

Being open to evidence, seeing the world as it is not as we want it to be.

Question 14

What is empirical methods?

Answer 14

Gaining knowledge through the observations of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning.

Question 15

What is positive psychology?

Answer 15

A branch of psychology that emphasizes human strengths.

Question 16

At first, important events were attributed to the gods and myths but then philosophy slowly emerged. What is philosophy?

Answer 16

The rational investigation of the underlying principles of being and knowledge (best way to explain events in terms of natural causes).

Question 17

Who were the influential philosophers who paved the way for the birth of psychology?

Answer 17

Descartes, John Locke, and Aristotle

Question 18

How old is psychology?

Answer 18

Psychology is 142 years old. Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology lab in 1879.

Question 19

What is structuralism?

Answer 19

William Wundt’s approach to discovering the basic elements or structures of mental processes, identifying the basic elements (structures) of mental processes which relies heavily on introspection.

Question 20

What is introspection?

Answer 20

Looking inside our own minds, by focusing on our own thoughts.

Question 21

What is functionalism?

Answer 21

William James approach to mental processing, emphasizes functions/purposes of mind and behavior in the individuals adaptions to the environment.

Question 22

What is natural selection?

Answer 22

Charles Darwin’s principle of evolutionary process in which organisms that are better adapted to their environment will survive and produce more offspring. He placed humans on the same level as other species and supported his theory with lots of evidence.

Question 23

What is the biological approach?

Answer 23

An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.

Question 24

What is neuroscience?

Answer 24

The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior and emotion.

Question 25

What is the behavioral approach?

Answer 25

An approach to psychology focusing on the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.

Question 26

What is the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 26

An approach to psychology focusing on unconscious thought the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society’s demands, and early childhood experiences.

Question 27

What does psychodynamic approach involve?

Answer 27

Psychoanalysis which involves an analyst unlocking a person’s unconscious conflicts by talking to them about their childhood memories, dreams, thoughts/feelings.

Question 28

What is the humanistic approach?

Answer 28

An approach to psychology focusing on a person’s positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose one’s destiny.

Question 29

What is the cognitive approach?

Answer 29

An approach to the psychology focusing on the mental processes involved in knowing how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.

Question 30

What is the evolutionary approach?

Answer 30

An approach to psychology focusing on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.

Question 31

What is the sociocultural approach?

Answer 31

An approach to psychology focusing on the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.

Question 32

What is psychopathology?

Answer 32

The scientific study of psychological disorders and the development of diagnostic categories and treatments for those disorders.