Chapter 1: History / Methods

Question 1

Why is psychology a science?

Answer 1

Because, like other sciences it relies on the Scientific Method when seeking to answer questions.

Question 2

Scientific Method

Answer 2

An approach to knowledge that relies on collecting data, generating a theory to explain the data, producing testable hypothesis based on the theory, and testing those hypotheses empirically.

Question 3

Experimental Research Design

Answer 3

Technique in which an investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or circumstances and then measures the effects of those manipulations on subsequent behavior.

Question 4

Correlational Research

Answer 4

Technique based on the naturally occurring relationship between two or more variables.

Question 5

Case Study

Answer 5

Intensive description and analysis of a single individual or just a few individuals

Question 6

Observer Bias

Answer 6

Expectations or biases of the observer that might distort or influence his or her interpretation of what was actually observed.

Question 7

APA Code of Ethics

Answer 7

• Participants must be informed of the nature of research in clearly understandable language
• Informed consent must be documented
• Risks, limitations on confidentiality, and adverse side-effects must be spelled out in advance
• If a participant is a condition of course credit, equitable alternative activities must be offered
• Participants may not be deceived about aspects of the research that would affect their willingness to participate
• Deception about the goals of the research can be used only when absolutely necessary for the integrity of the research.

Question 8

Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchener

Answer 8

Voluntarism and structuralism.

-Psychology born in 1879, Wundt finds first psych lab at University of Leipzig, Germany.

Question 9

William James

Answer 9

Developed Functionalist Theory

Question 10

Structuralism

Answer 10

School of psychology that stresses the basic units of experience and the combinations in which they occur.

Question 11

Functionalist Theory

Answer 11

Theory of mental life and behavior that is concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to function in its environment.

Question 12

Sigmund Freud

Answer 12

Psychodynamic Psychology

Question 13

Psychodynamic Theories

Answer 13

Personality theories contending that behavior results from psychological factors that interact within the individual, often outside conscious awareness.

Question 14

John B. Watson

Answer 14

Behaviorism

Question 15

Behaviorism

Answer 15

School of psychology that studies only observable and measurable behavior.,

Question 16

B.F. Skinner

Answer 16

Built on top of Watson’s Behaviorism theories.

Question 17

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 17

School of psychology that studies how people perceive and experience objects as whole patterns.

Question 18

Humanistic Psychology

Answer 18

School of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential.

Question 19

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 19

School of Psychology devoted to the study of mental processes in the broadest sense.

Question 20

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 20

An approach to, and subfield of, psychology that is concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviors and mental processes, their adoptive value, and the purposes they continue to serve.

Question 21

Positive Psychology

Answer 21

An emerging field of psychology that focuses on positive experiences, including subjective well-being, self-determination, the relationship between positive emotions and physical health and the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.