Unit 1: Scientific Foundations of Psychology

Question 1

Critical Thinking

Answer 1

Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions.
Examines and questions all information presented.

Question 2

Empiricism

Answer 2

The idea that knowledge comes from experience, and that observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge.

Question 3

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 3

Established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Question 4

Edward Bradford Titchener

Answer 4

Used introspection to search for the mind’s structural elements

Question 5

Structuralism

Answer 5

An early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.

Question 6

Introspection

Answer 6

The process of looking inward in an attempt to directly observe one’s own psychological processes.

Question 7

Functionalism

Answer 7

An early school thought promoted by William James and influenced by Charles Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function—how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.

Question 8

William James

Answer 8

A legendary teacher-writer who authored an important 1890 psychology text.

Question 9

Mary Whiton Calkins

Answer 9

Mentee of William James, Calkins became a pioneering memory researcher and was the first woman to be president of the American Psychological Association.

Question 10

Margaret Floy Washburn

Answer 10

The first woman to receive a psychology Ph.D., Washburn synthesized animal behavior research in The Animal Mind (1908)

Question 11

Behaviorism

Answer 11

The view that psychology
• should be an objective science that
• studies behavior without reference to mental processes

Question 12

John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner

Answer 12

Working with Rayner, Watson championed psychology as the scientific study of behavior. In a controversial study on a baby who became famous as “Little Albert,” he and Rayner showed that fear could be learned.

Question 13

B. F. Skinner

Answer 13

This leading behaviorist rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior.

Question 14

Sigmund Freud

Answer 14

The controversial ideas of this famed personality theorist and therapist have influenced humanity’s self-understanding

Question 15

Humanistic Psychology

Answer 15

A historically significant perspective that emphasized human growth potential.