Chapter 1

Question 1

what is psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior

Question 2

levels of analysis

Answer 2

rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences

Question 3

scientific theory

Answer 3

explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world

Question 4

hypothesis

Answer 4

testable prediction derived from a scientific theory

Question 5

confirmation bias

Answer 5

tendency to seek out evidence
that supports our beliefs and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them

Question 6

belief perseverance

Answer 6

tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them

Question 7

metaphysical claim

Answer 7

assertion about the world that’s not testable

Question 8

pseudoscience

Answer 8

set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t

Question 9

ad hoc immunizing hypothesis

Answer 9

escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification

Question 10

patternicity

Answer 10

the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in their absence

Question 11

terror management theory

Answer 11

theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural worldviews

Question 12

critical thinking

Answer 12

set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion

Question 13

correlation–causation fallacy

Answer 13

error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other

Question 14

variable

Answer 14

anything that can vary

Question 15

falsifiable

Answer 15

capable of being disproved

Question 16

replicability

Answer 16

when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators

Question 17

decline effect

Answer 17

fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time

Question 18

functionalism

Answer 18

school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics

Question 19

natural selection

Answer 19

principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other organisms

Question 20

behaviorism

Answer 20

school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking largely at observable behavior

Question 21

cognitive psychology

Answer 21

school of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior

Question 22

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 22

relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking

Question 23

psychoanalysis

Answer 23

school of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we’re unaware

Question 24

evolutionary psychology

Answer 24

discipline that applies Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior

Question 25

basic research

Answer 25

research examining how the mind works

Question 26

applied research

Answer 26

research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems