Psychology Basics Exam Questions and
Answers 100% Pass
What is Psychology? - ✔✔:the scientific study of behavior & mental process
-a science aimed to observe, describe, & explain how we think, feel, & act
-developed from philosophy & biology
Behaviorism - ✔✔the view that psychology should be objective science that studies
behavior without reference to mental process
Humanistic Psychology - ✔✔-historically significant perspective that emphasized the
growth potential of healthy people
-used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth
Nature-Nurture Issue - ✔✔:the controversy over the relative contributions of biology &
experience
-the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes & experience
make to development of psychological traits & behaviors
-today's science see's traits & behaviors arising from the interaction of nature & nurture
100% Pass Guarantee Sophia Bennett, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,-psychological traits are to behaviors
Levels of Psychological Analysis - ✔✔:the differing complementary views for analyzing
any given phenomenon
Biopsychosocial Approach - ✔✔:an integrated approach that incorporates biological,
psychological, & social-cultural levels of analysis
-gives a more complete picture of process
Basic Research - ✔✔:pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
-biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, & social psychologists
Applied Research - ✔✔:scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
-organizational/industrial psychologists
Counseling Psychology - ✔✔:branch of psychology that assists people with problems in
living & achieving greater well-being
Intuition & Common Bias - ✔✔:scientific approach is more reliable than common sense
& tuition
Hindsight Bias - ✔✔:the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would
have foreseen it--20/20 hindsight bias
-the "I-knew-it-all-along" Phenomenon
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, -perceive events as obvious or inevitable after the fact
-Paul Slovic & Baruch Fischhoff, 1977
The Scientific Attitude - ✔✔:being skeptical but not cynical, open but not gullible
Critical Thinking - ✔✔:thinking that does not blindly accept arguments & conclusions
-it EXAMINES assumptions, DISCERNS hidden values, EVALUATES evidence &
ASSESSES conclusions
Scientific Method - ✔✔:a self-correcting process for asking questions & observing
nature's answer
-good theories explained by: 1. organizing & linking observed facts, 2. implying
hypotheses that offer testable predictions &, sometimes practical applications
Theory - ✔✔:explaining using an integrated set of principles that organizes
observations & predicts behaviors or events
Hypothesis - ✔✔:a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Operational Definition - ✔✔:a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define
research variables
Replication - ✔✔:repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic
findings extends to other participants & circumstances
100% Pass Guarantee Sophia Bennett, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
Answers 100% Pass
What is Psychology? - ✔✔:the scientific study of behavior & mental process
-a science aimed to observe, describe, & explain how we think, feel, & act
-developed from philosophy & biology
Behaviorism - ✔✔the view that psychology should be objective science that studies
behavior without reference to mental process
Humanistic Psychology - ✔✔-historically significant perspective that emphasized the
growth potential of healthy people
-used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth
Nature-Nurture Issue - ✔✔:the controversy over the relative contributions of biology &
experience
-the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes & experience
make to development of psychological traits & behaviors
-today's science see's traits & behaviors arising from the interaction of nature & nurture
100% Pass Guarantee Sophia Bennett, All Rights Reserved © 2025 1
,-psychological traits are to behaviors
Levels of Psychological Analysis - ✔✔:the differing complementary views for analyzing
any given phenomenon
Biopsychosocial Approach - ✔✔:an integrated approach that incorporates biological,
psychological, & social-cultural levels of analysis
-gives a more complete picture of process
Basic Research - ✔✔:pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
-biological, developmental, cognitive, personality, & social psychologists
Applied Research - ✔✔:scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
-organizational/industrial psychologists
Counseling Psychology - ✔✔:branch of psychology that assists people with problems in
living & achieving greater well-being
Intuition & Common Bias - ✔✔:scientific approach is more reliable than common sense
& tuition
Hindsight Bias - ✔✔:the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that one would
have foreseen it--20/20 hindsight bias
-the "I-knew-it-all-along" Phenomenon
100% Pass Guarantee Sophia Bennett, All Rights Reserved © 2025 2
, -perceive events as obvious or inevitable after the fact
-Paul Slovic & Baruch Fischhoff, 1977
The Scientific Attitude - ✔✔:being skeptical but not cynical, open but not gullible
Critical Thinking - ✔✔:thinking that does not blindly accept arguments & conclusions
-it EXAMINES assumptions, DISCERNS hidden values, EVALUATES evidence &
ASSESSES conclusions
Scientific Method - ✔✔:a self-correcting process for asking questions & observing
nature's answer
-good theories explained by: 1. organizing & linking observed facts, 2. implying
hypotheses that offer testable predictions &, sometimes practical applications
Theory - ✔✔:explaining using an integrated set of principles that organizes
observations & predicts behaviors or events
Hypothesis - ✔✔:a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Operational Definition - ✔✔:a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define
research variables
Replication - ✔✔:repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic
findings extends to other participants & circumstances
100% Pass Guarantee Sophia Bennett, All Rights Reserved © 2025 3
