Chapter 1

Question 1

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

Multiply determined

Answer 3

Caused by many factors

Question 4

Anorexia nervosa

Answer 4

Psychiatric condition marked by extreme weight loss and the perception that one is overweight even when one is massively underweight

Question 5

Individual differences

Answer 5

Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior

Question 6

Naive realism

Answer 6

Belief that we see the world precisely as it is

Question 7

Scientific theory

Answer 7

Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world

Question 8

Hypothesis

Answer 8

Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory

Question 9

Confirmation bias

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Belief perseverance

Answer 10

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

Question 11

Metaphysical claim

Answer 11

Assertion about the world that’s not testable

Question 12

Pseudoscience

Answer 12

Set of claims that seems scientific but isn’t

Question 13

Ad hoc immunizing hypothesis

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Patternicity

Answer 14

The tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in their absence

Question 15

Terror management theory

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Scientific skepticism

Answer 16

Approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them

Question 17

Critical thinking

Answer 17

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

Question 18

Correlation-causation fallacy

Answer 18

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

Question 19

Variable

Answer 19

Anything that can vary

Question 20

Falsifiable

Answer 20

Capable of being disproved

Question 21

Replicability

Answer 21

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

Question 22

Decline effect

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Introspection

Answer 23

Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences

Question 24

Functionalism

Answer 24

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

Question 25

Natural selection

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Natural selection

Answer 26

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

Question 27

Behaviorism

Answer 27

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

Question 28

Cognitive psychology

Answer 28

School of psychology that proposes that thinking is Central to understanding behavior

Question 29

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 29

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

Question 30

Psychoanalysis

Answer 30

School of psychology, founded by Sigmund freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we are unaware

Question 31

Basic research

Answer 31

Research examining how the mind works

Question 32

Applied research

Answer 32

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