Which of these is the most accurate definition of the discipline of psychology?
Answer: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
The goals of psychology are to _______.
Answer: describe, explain, predict, and control behavior
In addition to describing and explaining mental processes and behavior, psychology also attempts to _____ these phenomena.
Answer: predict and control
A teacher tells the school psychologist that kate is late to class, does not turn in her homework, squirms around a lot in her seat, and swings her feet constantly. This is an example of which goal of psychology?
Answer: describing behavior
In 1879, in Leipzig, Germany, the first psychologist laboratory was overseen by _______.
Answer: Wilhelm Wundt
Objective introspection requires:
Answer: Reflection on the self.
The school of psychology called structuralism used a technique called _______, which involved reporting the contents of consciousness to study a person’s experiences.
Answer: Introspection
Who was an early proponent of functionalism?
Answer: William James
Which type of early psychologist believed the “the whole is mare than the sum of its parts”?
Answer: Gestaltist
The early perspective called Gestalt psychology has evolved into the current perspective called _______.
Answer: cognitive psychology
The belief that the unconscious mind has an influence on one’s behavior is part of what early field of psychology?
Answer: Psychoanalysis
Frued stressed the importance of _______.
Answer: Early childhood experiences
The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov discovered that _______.
Answer: Dogs would salivate to sounds of a ticking metronome due to a learned reflexive response called conditioning
Which pair of scientists shared the most similar views of behavior?
Answer: Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson
You attend a lecture by a psychologist who uses terms such as free will and self-actualization. Which psychological perspective is most consistent with the points the psychologist presented?
Answer: Humanism
Humanist Abraham Maslow suggests that when people reach self-actualization, they:
Answer: Develop to their fullest potential
The emerging field of brain imagery in cognitive neuroscience has developed methods, such as MRI, to examine ___.
Answer: Images of the living brain
If you are interested in how patterns, beliefs, and customs influence behavior, you are interested in the ______ perspective.
Answer: Sociocultural
Evolutionary psychology might suggest that certain cognitive strategies and goals are built into the brain because:
Answer: They help humans adapt to their natural environment.
Which of the following statements is correct?
Answer: A psychologist has no medical training.
According to the present research on psychologists, the three most popular work settings are _____, ______, and _____.
Answer: Universities and four-year colleges; self-employed; private for-profit
________ is a system used for reducing bias and error in the measurement of data.
Answer: The scientific method
The first step in the scientific investigation is ______.
Answer: perceiving the question
Sally proposes the idea that one’s sexual history prior to marriage may be linked to whether on ends up getting divorced. This best represents which step of the scientific method?
Answer: Forming a hypothesis
The tendency to look for information that supports one’s own belief is called ______.
Answer: confirmation bias
What is one of the major reasons that psychologists report results publicly?
Answer: to allow researchers to replicate experiments
Roger went to McDonald’s to observe people eating in fast-food restaurants. He brought a camera crew and bright lights, and they all wore yellow jump suits. Roger said he wanted to do a naturalistic observation but may have had some problems because of ________.
Answer: Observer effects
A detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated is called a ________.
Answer: Case-study
A group of randomly selected subjects for a study that matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex is called ______.
Answer: A representative sample
A(n) ________ is a measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another.
Answer: Correlation
A correlation coefficient is a numerical measure of the ______.
Answer: Strength of the relationship between two variables
A negative correlation means that ___________.
Answer: high values of one variable are associated with low values of the other
Drinking orange juice is negatively correlated with the risk of cancer. Based on this information, which of the following statements is true?
Answer: The more orange juice you drink, the lower your risk of cancer.
A researcher is investigating the effects of exercise on weight. What are the independent and dependent variables in this experiment?
Answer: The dependent variable is weight; the independent variable is exercise.
A variable that the experimenter manipulates is called a(n) _________.
Answer: independent variable
The placebo effect means ____________.
Answer: The expectations of the participants influence their behavior.
__________ is an experiment in which participants do not know if they are in the experimental or the control group, but the experimenters do know which participants are part of which group.
Answer: The single-blind study
__________is an experiment in which neither the participants not the individuals running the experiments know if the participants are in the experimental or control group.
Answer: The double-blind study
The field of __________ statistics provides a way to organize and summarize numbers to better understand them.
Answer: Descriptive
A polygon that resembles two mountains is called a _____.
Answer: Bimodal distribution
In statistics, a mean is ___________.
Answer: a measure of central tendency
In statistics, what is defined by the median?
Answer: The 50th percentile.
What term describes a frequency distribution that includes two very different yet very frequent values?
Answer: Bimodal
Which measure of variability is related to the normal curve?
Answer: standard deviation
________ enable psychologist to determine the difference between meaningful results of a study and results that are due to chance variations
Answer: inferential statistics
Psychologists first use __________ to organize and summarize their research, followed by __________ so they can make conclusions about their research.
Answer: descriptive statistics; inferential statistics
Each of the following is a common ethical guideline suggested by the American Psychologist Association EXCEPT _____________.
Answer: Participants cannot be deceived or have any information concealed from them at any time during an experiement
Which of the following statements concerning using animals in research is correct?
Answer: Pain and suffering of animals are allowed, but only when necessary, and must be minimizes as much as possible.
In the statement “Critical thinking requires reasoned judgements,” the word reasoned means __________.
Answer: Logical and well thought out
Which of the following statements concerning critical thinking is incorrect?
Answer: Some authorities should not be questioned
