Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Question 1

Psychoanalysis

Answer 1

A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, developed by Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes the exploration of unconscious motives and conflicts.

Question 2

Structuralism

Answer 2

An early psychological approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements.

Question 3

Applied Psychology

Answer 3

The study and application of psychological issues that have direct practical significance.

Question 4

Phrenology

Answer 4

The now-discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific character and personality traits, which can be “read” from bumps on the skull.

Question 5

Basic Psychology

Answer 5

The study of psychological issues for the sake of knowledge rather than for its practical application.

Question 6

Critical Thinking

Answer 6

Assessing claims and making objective judgements on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote.

Question 7

Empirical

Answer 7

Relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or measurement.

Question 8

Sociocultural Perspective

Answer 8

A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behaviour

Question 9

Cognitive Perspective

Answer 9

A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem-solving and other areas of behaviour.

Question 10

Psychology

Answer 10

The discipline concerned with behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state and external environment.

Question 11

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 11

A psychological approach emphasizing evolutionary mechanisms that may help explain human commonalities in cognition, development, emotion, social practices and other areas of behaviour.

Question 12

Functionalism

Answer 12

An early psychological approach that emphasizes the function or purpose of behaviour and consciousness.

Question 13

Feminist Psychology

Answer 13

A psychological approach that analyzes the influence of social inequities on gender relations and on the behaviour of the two sexes.

Question 14

Learning Perspective

Answer 14

A psychological approach that includes behaviourism and social-cognitive learning theories and emphasizes how the environment and experience affect actions.

Question 15

Biological Perspective

Answer 15

A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings and thoughts.